By Mandakranta Bose

This booklet deals quite a few scholarly experiences within the notion, scenario, and definition-including the self-definition-of girls in India, from the earliest historic interval as much as the current day. either in its variety of issues and intensity of study, this quantity creates a sustained concentration that isn't shortly on hand within the literature of girls in India.Faces of the female in old, Medieval, and sleek India contains 25 essays contributed through a various mixture of Indian, Canadian, American, and British girls students, such a lot of whom have lived in South Asia both for all in their lives or for prolonged sessions. prepared chronologically, those groundbreaking essays put aside the myths and prejudices that regularly litter discussions approximately ladies in India. half I, that is devoted to the traditional interval, defines women's positions as depicted within the sacred legislation, considers subordinated ladies in significant Hindu epics, describes women's roles in ritual and their figuring out of faith, and examines the patriarchal association of women's lives in Buddhism. half II starts with an essay on Tantra, an immense strength in medieval India that prompted either Hinduism and Buddhism and positioned girls on the heart of its sacred rites. different essays partly II examine the lifestyles and legends of a medieval lady saint poet, the portrayal of a Hindu goddess in medieval Bengal, and the position of ladies from Mughal harems in determination making. half III describes the colonial conception of Indian girls within the past due 19th century and indicates how women's self-perceptions were expressed via their paintings and writing in addition to via their political motion within the 20th century.Providing educated and balanced research of intensive fundamental resource fabric, this booklet can be a vital source for college kids of women's lives in India.

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Extra resources for Faces of the Feminine in Ancient, Medieval, and Modern India

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Vidhiyatel etacca vagdattavisayam/ Viramitrodaya Samskara, p. 738 20. 11) tasmad ekasya vahavo j a y a bhavanti naikasyai vahavas sahapatayah/ sahasabdasamarthayat kramena patyantaram bhavafiti gamyate/ ata eva naste mrte . . vidhiyate hi mamma strinam api patyantaram smaryate. Viramitrodaya Samskara, p. 871 Concerning plurality of marriage: Thus it is stated in the Aitareya Brahmana, a man can have many wives but a woman cannot have many husbands at a time. On the basis of the word saha (= at a time) acceptance of another husband is possible in succession (but not more than one husband at a time).

Second: bhuyas tv asamskrtdpi parapurva Visnusmrti xv. 9. [A woman] previously enjoyed by another [man] [is called punarbhu] even though she has not gone through the rites again [= more than once]. 46-48) defines three different types of punarbhus, but for our purposes such intricacies are of less moment than the fact that Narada does approve of the remarriage of women, for he makes categorical statements on the five enabling conditions. Thus, different dharmasastras and smrti texts directly or indirectly approve the remarriage of married women.

176-77), Yajnavalkya (Yaj. 67), Visnu (Vi's. xv), and Narada (Nar. 97) that define punarbhu or paunarbhava (meaning remarried women and sons born of such women, respectively) directly or indirectly attest to the remarriage of married women as a social reality that they had to record as a rule because the practice was embedded in tradition. At the same time, the lawmakers seem to find such a social reality unpalatable and attempt to alter it by eulogizing constancy to one husband and one alone as the ideal for married women.

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