Women's Roles In Hinduism

In Hinduism, the main Hindu Trinity all have female counterparts who are as important as the male deities are. It is said that they would not be complete without the goddesses. Many Hindus worship goddesses actually, and there are even main sects that are devoted to goddess worship exclusively. However, hinduism is still a predominantly male religion. In society, women have only specific roles and very limited freedom compared to men. The roles of women in Hinduism are directly related to how they are treated. Specific roles give these women specific treatment from men, whether it's either respect or complete control. Although goddess worship and the feminine is the main principle of Hinduism, in reality they have very limited roles in almost

Instead, in the ancient times, women actually had quite a bit more freedom and discrimination was based on castes, not by gender. Based on the scriptures, the Rigvedas is an ancient piece of scripture and it does say that historically, there were women philosophers who debated with men and were respected (Gale, 2005). The Manusmçti said that women were denied access to learning, and this was written after the Vedas. This shows that in the ancient times, women were able to get an education and have the same roles as men. In the Vedic age, which was about 3000 years ago, women had roles that were considered prestigious and held a high place in society, and were equal to men (Das, S.). This was also the time when the divine feminine, shanti, came to be (Das, S). Women also got the education that they needed for their caste. For example, people in the Kshatriya caste were typically warriors. The women that were in that caste received martial arts and arms training (Ibid). This would be very typical for that caste and would put them equal to men, both having some sort of martial arts and arms training. At home, women in the Vedic age were considered “samrajni”, a queen or mistress, and had equal religious rites and roles as the men (Ibid). The women could even pursue a path of Vedic studies or they could choose the path of marriage (Ibid). This goes to show that women had almost an equal amount of roles as men. It is quite extraordinary because in a culture, one would usually find that people were barbaric to women in the ancient times and they did not have many roles or choices but that would change in the modern society. However, based on some historical findings it seems to be a bit opposite in