Women and Sati of the Vedic Period

Women of the Vedic period

Women of the Vedic period were epitomes of intellectual and spiritual attainments.

Myriad hymns of the Vedic era bear testimony to the wisdom of contemporary women and names of 27 women-seers emerge from them. But most of them are mere abstractions except for a few, such as Ghosha, Lopamudra, Sulabha Maitreyi, and Gargi, who are some of the most significant female figures of the Vedic period.

Ghosha: Daughter of Kakshivat, composer of hymns of ancient Hindu scriptures, Ghosha has a few hymns and verses, assigned to her name.

Lopamudra: She was 'created' by sage Agasthya and given as a daughter to the King of Vidarbha. The Rig Veda testifies to her great intelligence.

Maitreyi: The Rig Veda contains about one thousand hymns, of which about 10 are accredited to Maitreyi, the woman seer and philosopher.

Gargi: She was a Vedic prophetess and daughter of sage Vachaknu. She composed several hymns that questioned the origin of all existence

Sati of the Ancient period

Sita: She was beautiful, generous and saintly. Unfortunately, Sita’s chastity during her period of capture by Ravana comes under scrutiny, and she has to go through trial by fire to prove her purity. But queen, who emerged from the earth at her birth, invokes Mother Earth to take her back into the earth, and the saintly Sita returns to her Mother, never to reappear again.

Sabitri: She escaped her husband from Yamraj by her purity, determination, devotion and love towards her husband- Satyaban.