Baladeva on Gargi: talk by David Buchta, Aug. 28

[Allen W Thrasher]

Asian Division of The Library of Congress
Asian Division Friends Society
Present:

Portraying an Upanisadic Female Sage at the Cusp of Colonialism:
Baladeva Upadhaya on Gargi Vacaknavi

by David Buchta
University of Pennsylvania
2008 Florence Tan Moeson Fellow

The role in religious life allotted to women throughout the history of what is now called Hinduism has been, to various degrees, restricted. This has been especially true for the philosophical school of Vedanta. The premium placed on study of scriptural literature and on asceticism, coupled with the fact that access to both was often prohibited for women and those of lower castes, has precluded the possibility for them to attain liberation. However, Gargi Vacaknavi, a paradigmatic female ascetic, appears as an important interlocutor in a debate narrated in the Brhadaranyaka-Upanisad.  To be sure, traditional exegetes have sometimes downplayed Gargi’s importance. Yet, Baladeva Vidyabhusana,  writing at the cusp of colonialism and its attendant effects on women’s issues, identifies her as having the highest qualification for inquiry into Brahman. Baladeva explicitly mentions her superiority to her male interlocutor, Yajnavalkya. For it is she who controls the discourse, she by whose judgment Yajnavalkya is declared the victor of the debate.

Thursday, August 28, 2008
12:00 – 1:00 P.M.
Asian Division Conference Room 
Jefferson Building- LJ 149 
1st & Independence Ave., SE
Washington, DC 20540

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Contact: Dr. Allen Thrasher (202) 707-3732 or athr at loc.gov

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