Education for women |
Education for women
Education for women was the norm in the later Vedic period, on par with men. It was seen as very important. This only really began to decline around 200 B.C.E. and continued throughout the following centuries, well after the later Vedic period, which is generally considered to have ended around 600 B.C.E.
During the later Vedic period, girls, as well as boys, were sent to educational institutes and Gurukulas, and they all practiced the Brahmacharya Ashrama of student life before marriage, studying various subjects. Women were encouraged to be proficient in philosophy, logic, and Vedic knowledge were eligible for Upanayana, and sang the shlokas of the Rig Veda, in addition to being proficient in fine arts. Women tended to especially study the Atharva Veda.
Education for women |
There were many famous Pandita (priestess) women and sages in the later Vedic period, such as Gargi Vachaknavi, Maitreyi, and others. Women were Acharyas (teachers) as well as students. Many women traveled the country challenging people to debate philosophy, and attending educational seminars. Panini (technically usually dated to have lived shortly after the later Vedic period) mentions an all-women’s school operating in his time.
There was also a system of home education for women, much more common among the poorer masses who could not afford to travel and live far from home for years. Thus girls often supported their fathers in agricultural work, learned to milk cows, cut yarn, knit and sew, became proficient in fine arts like dancing, painting, and/or sketching, and also practiced the recitation of the Vedas, much like their brothers. Texts like the Taittiriya Sanhita and Shatapatha Brahmana emphasized the practical education of women.
Many texts passed down from the later Vedic period or even after recommended that the education of all women include subjects like literacy, lexicography, carpentry, engineering, mechanics, metallurgy, mineralogy, and testing the quality/validity of silver and jewels (so that they could not be dishonestly cheated), herbal medicine, proficiency in provincial dialects, making weapons, and the basics of military strategy, along with the more expected “feminine” arts.