Women in the Atharva-veda Samhita

by Pranab Jyoti Kalita | 2017 | 62,142 words

This page relates ‘Glorification of Women through the Eulogy of the Female Deities’ of the study on women in the Vedic society reflecting the Atharva-veda Samhita in English. These pages discusses the social aspects of women, education, customs of marriage, practices of polyandry and polygamy, descriptions of female deities and various rites and rituals. It is shown how women earned much praise in ancient Indian society. Included are Sanskrit text and references of the Atharvaveda and commentary by Sayana-Acharya.

32. Glorification of Women through the Eulogy of the Female Deities

After having a discussion on the female deities of the Atharvaveda through the foregoing passages, it is observed that some of the female deities are benevolent, some are malevolent while some others are abstract. Deities like Aditi, Pṛthivī, Āpaḥ, Vasupatnī, Sinīvālī, Asuniti, Iḍā, Rātri, Oṣadhayaḥ, etc., are of benevolent nature. Āsurī, Grāhi, Nirṛti, Kṛtyā, etc., are the malevolent deities and Medhā, Śraddhā, Ākuti, etc., are the abstract deities. However, almost all the deities, whether benevolent or malevolent or abstract, are prayed for the well-being of mankind, directly or indirectly.

In comparison to these female deities though the male deities are large in number, yet, all of them are found to have originated from a female deity, as it is observed in case of Aditi, the mother of the deities. Behind the personification of the generating force of nature as Aditi, whose character is endowed with motherhood, the attention of the seers must have been drawn toward the procreative nature of the earthly woman. While glorifying the Earth as the mother goddess, the seer calls Parjanya as the father. But, calls himself as the son of the Earth, but, not of Parjanya. This implies the recognition of the seers that the contribution of a mother to procreation is more than that of a father. Besides these, some other female deities are also presented as the almighty one. Vāk is one of such type. In the character of Āmbhṛṇī Vāk, one may well observe the brilliance of an earthly woman, acquiring the knowledge of Brahman and realising herself as identical to the same. This shows that women were also involved to the acquition of spiritual knowledge.

But, it is also noteworthy that as certain female divinities like Aśvinī, Varuṇānī, Rodasī, Indrāṇī, etc., owe their identity to the male counterpart, no single male deity is there in the whole Vedic pantheon, who is stated to have originated from the identity of his wife. Except the Ādityas, who are known after the name of Aditi, a female deity, the divine mother the seers have not recorded any other male deity who is known by the name of his wife. This shows the secondary importance of a woman in a human couple also.

Nevertheless, the seers observe the presence of femininity almost in all aspects of nature; in the herbs, in the waters, in the Earth, in the Heaven, in the moon, in the Sun, in the morning, in the night, in the speech, in the kine, in the mind. On the higher sphere even, the intention of the creator god to create is personified as a female deity in the form of Ākuti. From the delineations of the nature and functions of all these female deities, it may be summed up that the seers paid more importance to a woman as a child-bearing potent power and as an associate in the day to day life in general.

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