[INDOLOGY] References on women scholars in ancient and medieval India

[Dipak Bhattacharya]

19 08 14

Dear friends,

The following information may be relevant.

There was, perhaps still is, one Prācya Vāṇī Pariṣad founded and promoted
by the late Dr. J. B. Choudhry, formerly Principal, Government Sanskrit
College, Calcutta and subsequently Secretary, Sanskrit Education Council
(Sanskrit Shiksha Parishad, Govt. of WB) and his wife late Dr. Rama
Choudhri, Vice-Chancellor, Rabindra Bharati University. The couple
regularly staged dramas some of which had been written by pre-modern women
Sanskrit poets. The said Pariṣad also brought out quite a few pre-modern
Sanskrit works by women.

The amount of literary production was sizeable. Copies should be still
available but I do not know how to contact the organization. The R.B.
University or Asiatic Society might be of help.

The knowledge of their production came to me like mother's milk and orally.
Many manuscripts with their writings perished in the male dominated ancient
families of traditional scholars.   It goes to the credit of the Choudhury
couple that they tried to bring some of these into light.

I cannot desist myself from citing a stanza which I still remember though I
learnt it in my early youth. It is by a woman poet whose husband had long
remained away on business. It was out of despair that she sent it through a
messenger (and secretly) and got what she desired from a newly charmed
husband taken unawares.

*Jitadhūmasamūhāya jitavyajanavāyave*/ *maśakāya mayā kāyaḥ sāyam ārabhya
dīyate*//

I do not claim it to be by any of my direct ancestors.

Best

DB


On Tue, Aug 19, 2014 at 7:14 PM, Michael Slouber <Michael.Slouber at wwu.edu>
wrote:

> Dear Agathe,
>
> Tharu, S. and Lalita, K. 1991. Women writing in India : 600 B.C. to the
> present.  New York : Feminist Press at the City University of New York.
>
> Unfortunately, the sections on the ancient and medieval periods are rather
> limited and could be expanded with more recent research.
>
> ––
> Michael Slouber
> Assistant Professor of South Asia
> Department of Liberal Studies
> Western Washington University
>
>
>
> On Aug 19, 2014, at 4:44 AM, Agathe Keller wrote:
>
> > Dear colleagues,
> >
> > I have been asked by a non indologist colleague for references on women
> scholars in ancient and medieval India. Do you know of an article or a book
> which would deal directly with this subject?
> >
> > I have noted so far for him:
> >
> > Witzel, Michael. 2009. Female Rishis and philosophers in the
> > Veda? Journal of South Asia Women Studies 11(1).
> > http://asiatica.org/jsaws/11-1/female-rishis-and-philosophers-veda/
> >
> > And
> >
> > Mary McGee, Ritual Rights The Gender Implications of Adhikdra in L.
> Patton ed Jewels of Authority, OUP 2002. 32-50 (esp. p.42)
> >
> > but this is very meager and vedic...
> >
> > I can't help but feel that there is a very obvious reference that I must
> be lacking
> >
> > thanking you in advance for your help,
> >
> >
> > Agathe
> >
> > --
> > Agathe Keller
> >
> > tel : +33 1 57 27 68 87
> >
> >
> > Université Paris 7 Laboratoire SPHERE UMR 7219
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> >
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> >
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