Vol. 17, Part II · pages 141–145

118 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES man. Whatsoever families... do last long, all of them do so because of these four reasons or one or other of them.” In describing to the Bhikkhus what happens when a Monarch “who rolls the wheel, i.e., who is destined to be a Chakravarti (world monarch) appears in the world, the Buddha is reported to have told the monks that 1— “Whenever such a monarch appears there is the appearance of the seven treasures: the treasure of the Wheel, the Elephant, the Horse, the Jewel, the Woman, the House-father, and the treasure of the Heir Apparent.” On another occasion the Buddha, speaking of the value of a woman to the world, said, 2 “Woman is the commodity Supreme because (as the commentator adds) she is of indispensable utility, or because through her Bodhisattvas and world rulers take birth.” How can a person in whose view the birth of a daughter was not an occasion for sorrow and might well be an occasion of joy, who held the view that those families are saved from a downfall which place a woman in authority over their affairs, who had no hesitation in describing woman as one of the seven Treasures and a thing of supreme value, be described as a hater or despiser of woman ? These statements are typical of the general sentiments entertained by the Buddha towards womankind. Can anybody say that they are calculated to bring the woman into ridicule and contempt ? III Those who see a social wrong in the Buddha placing the Bhikklumis under the authority of the Bhikkhus do not realize what a revolutionary act it was on the part of the Buddha to have allowed women to take Sannyas or Parivraja (Monkhood). Under the Brahamanic theory women had already been denied the right to acquire knowledge. When the question of Sannyas 1 : Anguttara Nikaya : Vol. V. P. 83. 2 : Samyutta Nikaya : Vol. I. P. 62.

119THE RISE . . . . . . . . . FOR IT ? came they did to the Indian woman another wrong. As a matter of history Sannyas was not an ideal of the Brahmins who worshipped the Vedas and who, for a long time, refused to recognise the Upanishadas as sacred literature. Sannyas was the ideal of the Upanishadas and the end of Sannyasa was to realize the Upanishadic doctrine that the Atman is Brahma. The Brahmins were dead opposed to the life of Sannyas. Ultimately they yielded but subject to certain conditions. One of the conditions was that women (and Shudras) were not to be eligible for Sannyas. It is important to understand the reason why the Brahmins debarred woman from taking Sannyas because it helps to understand the attitude of the Brahmins towards woman which was in sharp contrast with that of the Buddha. The reason is stated by Manu. It reads as follows : — IX. 18. Women have no right to study the Vedas. That is why their Sanskars (rites) are performed without Veda Mantras. Women have no knowledge of religion because they have no right to know the Vedas. The uttering of the Veda Mantras is useful for removing sin. As women cannot utter the Veda Mantras they are as untruth is. Although Manu was later than the Buddha, he has enunciated the old view propounded in the older Dhanna Sutras. This view of the women was both an insult and an injury to the women of India. It was an injury because without any justification she was denied the right to acquire knowlege which is the birthright of every human being. It was an insult because after denying her opportunity to acquire knowldege she was declared to be as unclean as untruth for want of knowledge and therefore not to be allowed to take Sannyas which was regarded as a path to reach Brahma. Not only was she denied the right to realize her spiritual potentiality she was declared to be barren of any spiritual potentiality by the Brahmins. This is a cruel deal with women. It has no parallel. As Prof. Max Muller 1 has said, “However far the human may be from the Divine, nothing on the earth is nearer to God than man, nothing on earth more Godlike than man”. If this is true of man why is this not true of woman ? The Brahmins had no answer. 1 : Hibbert lectures on Religion, Page 379.

120 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES By admitting women to the life of Parivrajika, the Buddha, by one stroke, removed both these wrongs. He gave them the right to knowledge and the right to realize their spiritual potentialities alongwith man. It was both a revolution and liberation of women in India. To quote the words of Prof. Max Muller : — “The history of India teaches us that the galling fetters of the old Brahmanic law were broken at last, for there can be little doubt that we have to recognise in Buddhism an assertion of the rights of individual liberty, and more particularly, of the right of rising above the trammels of society, of going, as it were into the forest, and of living a life of perfect spiritual freedom, whenever a desire for such freedom arose.” This freedom which the Buddha gave to the women of India is a fact of far greater importance and out-weighs whatever stigma which is said to be involved in the subordination of the Bhikkhunis to the Bhikkhu Sangha. This was not an empty freedom. It was freedom which they keenly enjoyed and sang about “O free indeed! O gloriously free am I.....” sang Mutta1 - a Bhikkuni, who was a Brahmin girl. Mettika, another Bikkhuni, also a Brahmin girl, sang -“.... so sit I here upon a rock. And over my spirit sweeps the breath of liberty2.” As Mrs. Rhys Davids Says- 3 “To gain his freedom mobility .......... they, like their later Christian sisters, had laid down all social position, all domestic success, they had lost their world. But in exchange they had won the status of an individual in place of being adjuncts, however much admired, fostered, and sheltered they might, as such, have been. ‘With shaven head, wrapt in their robe’-a dress indistinguishable, it would seem, from the swathing toga and swathed undergarments of the male religieuxs - the Sister was free to come and go, to dive alone into the depths of the wood, or climb aloft.” 1 : Psalms of Sisters No. XI. 2 : ibid No. XXIV. 3 : Preface to Therigatha.

121THE RISE . . . . . . . . . FOR IT ? In allowing women to become Bhikkhunis the Buddha not only opened for them the way to liberty, he also allowed them to acquire dignity, independent of sex. To her freedom she could, in the words of Mrs. Rhys Davids : “Wed the other austere joy of being recognized, at least by her brother Arahants, ‘as a rational being, without reference to sex. As such she breathed the spiritual atmosphere, she shared the intellectual communion of that religious aristocracy called in the Pitakas, Ariyas, with whom she claimed that power of seeing all things as they really are’ which the Buddhist called being awake. ‘How should the woman’s nature hinder Us-us Ariyas says Soma, a Bhikkhuni 1 : “What can that signify to one in whom Insight doth truly comprehend the Norm ? To one for whom the question doth arise : Am I a woman in such matters, or Am I a man ? or what not am I, then ? To such an one is Mara fit to talk !” This is not all. The Buddha in allowing women to become Bhikkhunis he opened them the way to equality with man. As observed by Mrs. Rhys Davids 2 “It is true that the Bhikkunis were technically appointed juniors in perpetuity to the Bhikkhus. It is equally clear that, by intellectual and more eminence, a Theri might claim equality with the highest of the fraternity. In the Psalms an instance occurs, in xxx, vii, where Bhadda associates herself in spiritual attainment with the great Kassapa, successor, as head of the Order, to the Founder himself. In this connection it should be noted that the Buddha did not place any premium on virginity as such. He kept his way open to all classes of women— married, unmarried, widows and even to prostitutes. All could acquire merit, freedom, dignity, an equality along with man.” 1 Psalms No. XVI. 2 Preface to Therigatha P. P. XVI-XXVII.

122 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES IV There can be no doubt that there has been an utter downfall in position of women in India from what it once was. One cannot say much about the part they played in ancient time in state-craft. But there is no doubt that they did occupy a very high position in the intellectual and social life of the country. That at one time a woman was entitled to upanayan is clear from the Atharva Veda where a girl is spoken of as being eligible for marriage having finished her Brahmacharya. From the Shrauta Sutras it is clear that women could repeat the Mantras of the Vedas and the women were taught to read the Vedas. Panini’s Ashtadhyay bears testimony to the fact that women attended Gurukul (College) and studied the various Shakhas (Sections) of the Veda and became expert in Mimansa. Patanjali’s Maha Bhashya shows that women were teachers and taught Vedas to girl students. The stories of women entering into public discussions with men on most abstruse subjects of religion, philosophy and metaphysics are by no means few. The story of public disputation between Janaka and Sulabha, between Yajnavalkya and Gargi, between Yajnavalkya and Maitrei and between Sankaracharya and Vidyadhari shows that Indian women in pre-Manu’s time could rise to the highest pinnacle of learning and education. That at one time women were highly respected cannot be disputed. Among the Ratnis who played so prominent a part in the coronation of the King in Ancient India was queen and the King made her an offering’ as he did to the others. Not only the King elect did homage to the Queen he worshipped his other wives of lower castes 2. In the same way the King offers salutation after the coronation ceremony to the ladies of the chiefs of the Srenies ( guilds ) 3. This is a very high position for women in any part of the World. Who was responsible for their fall ? It was Manu, the Law Giver of the Hindus. There can be no other answer. To leave no room for doubt, let me quote some of the laws made by Manu regarding women and are to be found in the Manu-Smriti. 1 Jaiswal—Indian Polity, Part ii P. 16. 2 ibid P. 17. 3 ibid P. 82.