Free to criticize and discourage any part of smriti

barney · March 10, 2004

Smriti (such as the Manu dharma shastra) is not a part of the original Sanatana Dharma of the Vedas, and Hindus are free to criticize and discourage any part of smriti, which is in conflict with shruti. Therefore, these claims that Hinduism promotes the inequality of women are completely null and void.

Rigveda (RV) is the only scripture among those of all religions in which the divine TRUTHS are revealed to women sages and some of these hymns describing the revelation find a prominent place in the Rig Veda Samhita like the hymn 10.125 (tenth mandala, 125 sukta or hymn) attributed to the women sage Vak Ambrini. There are more than thirty women sages in Rig Veda with specific hymns associated with them. In all the Semitic religions like Christianity, Islam etc there is no mention of any revelation to women and no woman is listed among the prominent disciples of the founders or prophets of those religions. For instance the hymn 10.85, the so-called marriage hymn, explicitly states that the daughter in- law should be treated in the family as a queen, Samrajni [queen of Kingdom], by all members especially the mother in-law, husband, father in-law etc. Thus the statement that ' women were oppressed in Hindu society even from the Vedic times' made orally and in popular writings by some analyst is nothing but only propaganda. Some of the quotations given by these critics are from the period of the sutra books, which are dated more than two thousand years later than the Rig Veda. Naturally these critics suppress quotations, which speak of the high status of women in the society of Rig-Vedic period and the period of Upanishads.

"Where women are honoured there the gods are pleased; but where they are not honoured no sacred rite yields rewards," declares Manu Smriti (III.56) a text on social conduct.

"Women must be honoured and adorned by their fathers, brothers, husbands and brothers-in-law, who desire their own welfare." (Manu Smriti III, 55)

"Where the female relations live in grief, the family soon wholly perishes; but that family where they are not unhappy ever prospers." (Manu Smriti III, 57).

"The houses on which female relations, not being duly honoured, pronounce a curse, perish completely as if destroyed by magic." (Manu Smriti III, 58)

"Hence men who seek their own welfare, should always honour women on holidays and festivals with gifts of ornaments, clothes, and dainty food." (Manu Smriti III, 59)

In ancient India, Hindu women did not veil their faces and they enjoyed considerable amount of freedom in society. But repeated attacks on Hindu India by foreigners through centuries changed the situation.

"The killing of men and enslaving of women and children was standard practice in Islamic conquests. Thus when Mohammed bin Qasim conquered the lower Indus basin in AD 721, he entered Multan and, according to the Chach-Nama, "6,000 warriors were put to death, and all their relations and dependents were taken as slaves." This is why Rajput women took to immolating themselves en masse to save their honour in the face of the imminent entry of victorious Muslim armies, eg. 8,000 women immolated themselves during Akbar's capture of Chittorgarh in 1568 (whereas this most enlightend among Muslim rulers also killed 30,000 non-combattants).