Women and Hinduism in Mythology - Coursework Example

Women and Hinduism in Mythology The Hindu mythology recognizes that there are gods and goddesses. Ardhanarishvara is the divine god and the artwork that represents the divine displays the god as half man and half woman. This drawing aims at symbolising that the divine represents both male and female gender and hence advocates for equality. On the right side of the divine is Shiva whereas Pavarati is on the left side. As much as the divine represents equality, the Indian society reflects the contrary because boys are more treasured and given better treatment and privileges compared to the girls. Out of many conducted research activities, 10 statistics show under-estimation of women in India. The divine dual male-female form has been tagged various names such as Shiva and Shakti, Ishwara and Devi besides Purusha and Prakriti. Shiva and Shakti however stand out as the most popular terms used (Goel 3). Shakti represents the divine mother a variety of names such as Devi, Uma, Parvati, Lakshmi, Saraswati, Chandi, Durga among other names refer to her (Goel 3). Divine mother exists in three popular forms in India. In one form, the divine mother has power and endorses grace and prosperity to all. In another form, the divine mother is quite knowledgeable and can self-express herself. Finally, the divine mother is full of weary strength as well as bravery. The divine mother has different powers that are evident in different goddesses (Goel 3). Lakshmi is the first of the powers and is the goddess of wealth and prosperity, both in terms of material or spiritual needs. She is the most beautiful of the goddesses and anyone who seeks her help receives in abundance. The drawings depict Lakshmi as bearing four arms hence symbolizing the omnipotence in the four directions. She is in a green sari hence symbolizing the richness of nature. She stands on a lotus flower symbolizing spiritual knowledge (Goel, 4). Sawarati is another goddess symbolizing the mother’s power of perfection and harmony. She is involved with science and craft and bestows humanity on artistic talents in music, drama, dance as well as literature. She also has four arms, is the youngest and wears a white sari hence symbolizing purity (Goel 4). In addition, she rides a swan as a symbol of spiritual discrimination. Finally, Durga is the goddess with force and strength. She has a short temper, a divide force and her strength destroys and conquers evil. She is fierce and has a mighty passion as well. Unlike the rest, she has eight arms rather than four. Durga carries many weapons and even puts on a red sari, which is a symbol of vitality and passion. This goddess rides a tiger, a symbol of strength (Goel 4). Kali is a manifestation of goddess Durga in a much destructive form. Her long tongue hangs out of her mouth and she holds a sword stained with blood. In Hindu theology, God is both benevolent Lakshmi and Kali. The Devil is set up to explain the existence of evil (Goel 5). All that is base, low and ugly belongs to the Devil. Women in the Hinduism mythology have a variety of roles and they symbolize different institutions. Some of their names, abilities and characters relate to the stories of the goddesses (Goel 5). In Hinduism mythology, one common duality is the mind against the body. As much as beings are made of both, they have to disregard the bodily needs and endorse the mind thoughts. Emotional needs however tend to overcome the women in Hinduism mythology. Like in the case of Sita, she becomes love struck after meeting eyes with Rama. Sita finds difficulty in eating, sleeping or even concentrating (Narayan 24). She cannot go about her daily activities because she is thinking of the handsome man she saw. An anril bird singing outside her window disrupt her from her thoughts on Rama, she regards it as karma repaying her for a sin in her previous life. She does not know that she will marry Rama and so she believes karma is repaying her in form of a bird, which is singing a beautiful song, yet she is in distress. This shows that the women believe in Karma and vengeance, they believe karma punishes people for mistakes done. It does not matter how long it will take Karma to punish a sin, but one will face punishment eventually. For a woman to be married in Hinduism mythology, a man has to perform a task to show his strength hence his worthiness in the eyes of the father of the girl. In sita’s case, her father, Janaka, asks Rama to string Shiva’s bow. The bow is very big and is a part of the things that remained after the creation of the universe. No mortal being could string the bow because it was big and strong. Earlier suitors for Sita had all failed to string the bow. Rama however manages to string the bow and he even breaks it in the process (Nayaran 28). It is unfortunate that many spectators missed the great achievement because they averted their eyes assuming that Rama would fail like those who performed the act before him. People praise Rama and refer to him as the hero and many more suspect that he is a god (Nayaran 30). Rama then takes the beautiful Sita as his wife. Once the father of Rama learns of Rama’s success, he rejoices and gives consent of the marriage. A grand wedding takes place and in the process, the three brothers of Rama get married to the sister and cousins of Sita. This shows another practice of Hinduism mythology which was to marry off girls of the same family to men of the same family. After the wedding practices, the newly wedded men take their brides to their homes. Rama’s father then decides to endorse Rama as the next king. There is celebration all over and even Kaikeyi, Rama’s stepmother, rejoices in the palace with other queens as they share the happy news of Rama’s coronation. She loved Rama and to her, he was just like another son. This shows that rejoicing in pomp and glory was the place of women in Hinduism mythology. Kaikeyi’s help is evil and is unhappy that Rama will be king instead of Kaikeyi’s son, Bharata. She then rushes to convince kaikeyi to convince her husband to make Bharata king. The help, Kooni, is evil because of her gossip nature as well as the fact that she is envious of the joy of others. This is evident from the fact that she runs to Kaikeyi’s bedroom to break the sad news immediately after she overhears her husband talking. Kaikeyi tells her that she will accept the turn of events because she cannot stop the passage of rights and time. The help however reminds Kaikeyi that her husband has betrayed her since he had promised her father to make his son king. Her father had then given them his blessings after the promise. The help tells her further that although she has been the king’s favorite, once Rama is king; his mother will make her a slave. Kaikeyi then listens to her help and decides to demand two boons from her husband. She asks her husband to make her son king and send Rama into exile in the wilderness for fourteen years (Narayan 54). This shows that women had the power to ask for promised boons from their husbands and they could get their wishes. Sita then chooses to follow her husband to the wilderness, as much as her husband refused, she insisted hence making him let her accompany him. This explains how marriage tied two people together and subjected the wife to her husband. Women are responsible for carrying out household chores, the family of her husband becomes her own after marriage, and she takes care of her husband in addition to her in-laws. After Savitri got married, she honored her parents- in-law and made her husband happy. She was very skilful in her work; she had sweet words to say to her husband, lived a life of the ascetics, and practiced every ritual. She showed loved to her husband even though she knew that he was bound to die (Mackenzie 47). This was as per the prophecy of Narada and she counted days with bitterness and sorrow in her heart. Savitri took the Tritatra vow of three nights four days before the due death date of her husband. The vow entailed sleepless penance and fast for three nights. As much as it made her pale and weak, she was determined and on the fourth day, she asked her husband if she could accompany him to fetch food. On the third night, she spent constantly cried bitterly through all the dark and lonely hours because she knew her husband would die the following day. Despite what she had put herself through in the past three days, she insisted of going with her husband to fetch food since it was the day he was to vast off his mortal body to the gods (Mackenzie 48). These shows the selflessness and love women in Hinduism mythology gave to their husbands. Women are expressed as courageous and the symbolize wisdom. They are also more convincing besides vulnerable when it comes to getting favors. When the god of death comes to take the soul of her husband, Savitra confronts him and engages him in a conversation. She then follows the god, Yama, as he takes the soul of her husband (Mackenzie 50). Yama asks her to go back because she has walked for a long distance and looks weary. Savitra defends herself saying she cannot get weary when she is with her husband and she swears to continue following him up to where he takes her husband. She tells Yama that she will follow his husband everywhere he goes whether it is on his own will or not. In addition, she tells him that she underwent the penance and observed her vow, which made them companions (Mackenzie 51). Yama admires her wisdom and gives her an opportunity to claim a boon. She asks that his father in law regain his eyesight (Mackenzie 52). Yama grants her the wish and her father in law not only regains his sight but also the throne as king. Yama asks her to go back but she still insists on following her husband, she talks of the saints who protect all creatures and shows mercy to their weak in the society. Yama is pleased with her wisdom and grants her another boon. He proclaims that hundred sons will be born to his father who had not been fortunate to sire a son. Savitra refuses to go back and the more they move, the more Yama admires her level of wisdom. When she praises Yama for dealing with equality with all human creatures, Yama is pleased and grants her another boon that a century of sons to be born to her and her husband so that their lineage may endure (Mackenzie 53). When asked for another boon, she asks Yama for her husband. She tells him that without her husband she is close to nothing. She will have no happiness without him and will not prosper without her husband. She reminds Yama that he had granted her a boon to have many sons. She informs him that it cannot be possible if he does not give her husband life. Yama grants her wish and un-blinds her husband who also regains his life. He assures them that they will have long lives and will have a century of sons who will become kings too (Mackenzie 54). This shows that the vows that attached women to their husbands were binding and the felt useless without their companions. Women have the role of ensuring their families stay together as one. When the visitors that had appeared to king Indri vanished, he realizes they were gods and they had come to give him wisdom. He therefore prepares to retire to a hermit life in the wilderness. He feels that he had acquired wisdom and he desires redemption (Zimmer & Campbell 10). He plans to enthrone his son before leaving for the wilderness. Shaclii, his wife grieves in desperation and is in pain because of the decisions of her husband. She therefore decides to visit Indri’s house priest and spiritual adviser, the lord of Magic Wisdom, Brihaspati. She bows and weeps in desperation at his feet (Zimmer & Campbell 10). She asks the lord of magic wisdom to advise her husband not to go to the wilderness. The counsellor takes her by the hand with a smile and leads her to the presence of her husband. He then talks to the couple about both spiritual and secular virtues. His successfully manages to develop a strategy, which makes the king to relent his decision. This makes his wife very happy and shows that women can go far lengths just to ensure that their families stay put (Zimmer & Campbell 10). . Work Cited Zimmer, Heinrich R, and Joseph Campbell. Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization. New York: Harper & Row, 1962. Print. Mackenzie, Donald. Indian myth and legend. Longwood press bonston.1978. Print. Narayan, R. The Ramayana: a shortened modern prose version of the Indian epic (suggested by the Tamil version of kamban). London [u.a.: penguin, 2006. print. Pages from; http://ksuweb.kennesaw.edu/~shagin/418RGramayana. Goel, Madan. The sacred feminine in Hinduism. University of west Florida. 2000. Print. Read More