Part 5: Women Education

The development of each and every person is essential for the development of the society. Therefore, education for man as well as for woman is fairly essential as both women and men contribute in building a society. Education had one of the major contributions towards the emancipation of women in ancient times. The women held a position of equality with men during the Vedic period. In the Vedic society the girl as well as the boy required to undergo upanayana ceremonies in order to be initiated to the Vedic studies. It is found that Devī Sarasvatī’s body was rendered pure by the brāhmanical thread hanging down from her shoulder.^[1]

In the 7^th century A.D. people wished their daughters getting educated and special courses were prescribed for female. Although, the description of giving formal education to the girls is not known, it is found that girls received some sort of education at that time. Girls presumably were taught singing, dancing and fine arts. King Prabhākarvardhana arranged everything necessary for his daughter Rājyaśrī so that she could acquire the knowledge about dancing, singing and all the arts and expertise them. Yet Rājyaśrī probably had formal education at home itself. So, she was called learned (vidagdhā).^[2] Manu also prescribes that knowledge of the arts was considered necessary for all women.^[3] There were certain classes of the society among which the spread of such form of education was prevalent. In the 7^th century A.D., the women from royal and wealthy families were imparted a high standard of education. Moreover, a woman is said to be mainly a companion of the husband in kāma and dharma.

Bāṇa informs that Queen Yaśomatī was expert in the science of palmistry.^[4] Again, at that time, the women also knew horse-riding. From the description of messenger Mālatī, it is found that she knew horse riding.^[5] Among all the qualities, Bāṇa notes that the best quality of a woman was politeness (i.e., śālīnatā).^[6]