Dear Shyam: 

 The following may be of interest to your friend. Ouseparambil discusses biological and grammatical gender as considered in the Mahābhāṣya, Vākyapadīya and other grammatical treatises in Sanskrit.  I don’t have a copy at hand to give more details (publisher etc.), but I remember that it was published privately by the author.  A useful synopsis of the discussion over grammatical gender (śāstrīya liṅga) can also be found in the introduction of Madhav Deshpande’s ‘The meaning of nouns’.

 

Padmanabh Jaini’s important compilation of material related to the debates over possibility of salvation for ‘female’? souls is a useful source for some jaina discussions.  

 

Tryambaka-yajvan’s  (Sanskrit) Strīdharma-paddhati is a 18^th century instruction manual for good wives; it is available in translation as ‘The Perfect Wife’; and Sañci Honnamma’s (Kannada ) Hadibadeya Dharma (17^th cent.) is a similar text, with rare subversive moments. Blake Michael’s essay is helpful to get a picture of the Virasaiva doctrinal attitude towards women , and Mullatti’s discussion of the same topic is informative (if at all), rather than insightful.

I giver fuller citations below.

 

Best,

Naresh Keerthi

 Assistant Professor,

Literature and Linguistics,

Chinmaya Vishvavidyapeeth, Kochi

 

Doctoral Scholar

National Institute of Advanced Studies,

IISc Campus, Bangalore

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Deshpande, Madhav M. The meaning of nouns: Semantic theory in classical and medieval India. Vol. 13. Springer Science & Business Media, 2012.

 

Jaini, Padmanabh S. Gender and salvation: Jaina debates on the spiritual liberation of women. Univ of California Press, 1991.

 

Leslie.J. (trans.) The perfect wife (Stridharmapaddhati) of Tryambakayajvan. Penguin Books India, 1995.

 

Michael, R. Blake. "Women of the Śūnyasaṃpādane: Housewives and Saints in Vīraśaivism." Journal of the American Oriental Society (1983): 361-368.

 

Mullatti, Leela. The Bhakti movement and the status of women: A case study of Virasaivism. New Delhi: Abhinav Publications, 1989.

 

Ouseparambil, Philosophy of Gender in Sanskrit and Indo-European. (Based on a 1980 thesis submitted to SVU Tirupati)

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Message: 1

Date: Tue, 15 Aug 2017 22:44:14 -0400

From: Shyam Ranganathan <shyamr@yorku.ca>

To: indology@list.indology.info

Subject: [INDOLOGY] sex and gender

Message-ID: <c6582249-8903-6b47-4808-0484e7d66221@yorku.ca>

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Dear all,

This is a question from a colleague who is not on the list. This

colleague teaches a course on Sex and Gender theory and is interested in

articles that addresses the topic from differing cultural vantages. I

was asked about what was available on the topic that discusses the issue

from the perspective of the Indian tradition.  I didn't know what to

say. I'd be grateful for any suggestions.


Thanks,

Shyam

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