Professor Aloka Parasher Sen delivered an inaugural lecture of the series on ‘Women in History’ on “Crossing Conceptual Boundaries of Feminine Identity” under the theme “Gender and Cultural History”. Here are some of the points highlighted by her:
• When we talk about Women’s History in Ancient Indian context, we should have an understanding that this domain of women history has two aspects.
The first comes out of didactic traditions
containing those literary texts which are rule bounded due to rules boundedness
of contemporary society, for e.g., Dharmashastras in which rules of
women as wife, daughters etc. are prescribed. Didactic traditions usually
portray negative images of women; it shows that women had no independent agency in those
times. People like A.S Altekar who wrote ‘The Position of Women in
Hindu Civilization’ relied more on this. And we cannot ignore them as it
reflects the contemporary ideology of the social structures or society at
large.
In opposition to these prescriptions, we have narrative
traditions which we can call 'story telling'. These are more horizontal in
nature as it reflects fluid images of social relations in the context of Gender. Puranas, rituals, cultural traditions etc. come under this
category.
• India’s past had Goddess cults that reflects
matriarchal practices of times. Over the course of time, some of these
transformed into patriarchal practices. The images of feminine identity had
impact on society. But who are the recipients of these practices and identities? This is what we need to know and explore more.
• Gender studies became important in 1990s and the lens
of the same should be used in order to understand social and cultural
construction of femininity & masculinity and not male & female in
entirety. If you look at images carefully, you get to know that in this regard image
representation help us to understand these ideas more. You can take help from works
of Uma Chakravarti, Kumkum Roy, Snigdha Singh, Saswati Sengupta, Seema Bawa.
• Society creates an idea based on a myth. Myth become a
kind of source for some ideas but we shouldn’t take them literally. While
understanding and reading about myths, you see that there are fluctuating
images of men and women. We need to have a nuanced understanding while studying
mythical traditions or mythic world.
• Regional variations also need to be looked at in order
to get the full picture of Indian society which is so diversified and we'll see
how the patriarchal forms & its nature become different in different areas.
• The study of iconography (especially of the folk
goddesses) tells us about variations of feminine identity imbibed in them. One of the images of folk goddesses is Lajja
Gauri depicted as an independent category; another goddess is shown as a spouse
of a male God signifying as a dependent category; in the case of Durga and
Kali, their iconography is independent. Here’s what is important to note is
that the narrative with regarding to Durga is that she’s known in relation to
Mahakaal which is contrary to its depictions in iconography. Even in regional
traditions or variations, we have many goddesses that represent feminine
identity where they’re not seen in relation to male God as such. One of the
aspects of women in transition in relation to tribals in India which need to be
considered is that they’re shown in relation to male but in iconography, they’re
independent.
Professor shared some images based on iconography during her lecture. Look at these images in order to understand the varied feminine identities depicted in them. (You can click on the images in order to see them more clearly and read the content mentioned in them).
• Have you ever wonder about the concept of Ardhanarishavara in our society? What is its meaning? Modern psychology says that humans have male and female propensities. We need to consider the understanding of the contemporary society of those, who depicted these gods and goddesses in such manner and also of those, who looked at them. What was their understanding behind such ideas?
• Feminine identities are integral to define us and impact all societies and communities in a plural country like India.
• In Tantric traditions, yoginis are very important and
there also, notions of patriarchy vary.
• There are multi-layered cultural issues which we
ignore and impose classical traditions over them.
• Mythical and oral traditions have ideas and concepts
imbibed in them upon which we should focus rather than take them literally. For
e.g., in stories associated with Samudra Manthan, Amrit is not just a pot but
the assets of life. We understand that mythic world under narrative traditions is not history but what we should remember is that it contains collective historical consciousness which one cannot ignore.
• We should look for Dramas, Kavyas, Jatakas & other stories,
Budddhist & Jaina Traditions, Folk & Local Traditions, Regional
Variations and a collective look of folk, mythic & prescriptive; and you
will get to know that the mosaic of India is very complex. By not looking at
them collectively, we are the new Brahmanical elite and we are holding aloof ourselves
by keeping us away from these sources.
• Sometimes understanding of material cultures through
visual representation is more than that of textual representation.
• For the understanding of history of events, you need to stick to the sources but for the understanding of history of processes, there is a more space for literature.
This lecture was conducted online and organized by
Herodotus Society, Department of History & Culture, University of
Rajasthan, Jaipur on 06-03-2024.
Aloka Parasher Sen is Professor Emerita, Department of Sanskrit Studies, University of Hyderabad, where she had earlier served as Professor in the Department of History, School of Social Sciences (1979-2018).
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