Baladeva on Gargi: talk by David Buchta, Aug. 28

[Guest guest]

Asian Division of The Library of Congress

Asian Division Friends Society

Present:

 

Portraying an Upanisadic Female Sage at the Cusp of Colonialism:

Baladeva Upadhaya on Gargi Vacaknavi

 

by David Buchta

University of Pennsylvania

2008 Florence Tan Moeson Fellow

 

The role in religious life allotted to women throughout the history of what is

now called Hinduism has been, to various degrees, restricted. This has been

especially true for the philosophical school of Vedanta. The premium placed on

study of scriptural literature and on asceticism, coupled with the fact that

access to both was often prohibited for women and those of lower castes, has

precluded the possibility for them to attain liberation. However, Gargi

Vacaknavi, a paradigmatic female ascetic, appears as an important interlocutor

in a debate narrated in the Brhadaranyaka-Upanisad. To be sure, traditional

exegetes have sometimes downplayed Gargi’s importance. Yet, Baladeva

Vidyabhusana, writing at the cusp of colonialism and its attendant effects on

women’s issues, identifies her as having the highest qualification for inquiry

into Brahman. Baladeva explicitly mentions her superiority to her male

interlocutor, Yajnavalkya. For it is she who controls the discourse, she by

whose judgment Yajnavalkya is declared the victor of the debate.

 

Thursday, August 28, 2008

12:00 – 1:00 P.M.

Asian Division Conference Room

Jefferson Building- LJ 149

1st & Independence Ave., SE

Washington, DC 20540

 

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Contact: Dr. Allen Thrasher (202) 707-3732 or athr

 

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