Saturday, 23 April 2016

Women - Mythology and Today.

Brahma created the world and simultaneously created the two powers - Masculine and Feminine. Masculine being male and Feminine being female. The combination of these two powers make the world balanced and organised.

Indian Mythology has great influence of women in its stories and sources. She is shown as an all-rounder ,  who can do anything parallel to men. Mythologically, in Hindu culture women is always shown stronger then men and has equal importance to run this world. She is shown as mother , sister , daughter , warrior , ruler and many more forms. In many stories, women is often compared with nature and men with Human being. 
Manu and Shatrupa
This fact is exactly opposite to the present status of women in India or Indian society. A country where women is worshipped in many forms has great influence of rapes and other evil practices against females.
In this post we will discuss the importance and status of women in Indian Mythology and compare it with the present status of females in India or Hindu Society.
Females - Worshiped in India

Mythological Importance

The world was given birth with both male and female powers i.e Manu and Shatrupa. The both powers further mated with each other to grow this world further. In Mythological period the status of women was much updated than it is today. Females were given freedom to choose there husbands and were given freedom to do whatever they want to do in life.

Many of these things are proved when you read the texts of Ramayana and Mahabharata were women like Sita and Draupadi are shown and powerful to choose whatever they desire in life. A women had responsibilities and duties towards family and society as they have now but not by keeping there personal life on stake. They were taught to be polite and less competitive than men but not by just keeping quite against the cruelty of a man but keeping up their right point. 

Draupadi's Swayamvar 

Sita choosing her husband
Women are also shown as a source of enlightenment and knowledge. They are many times proved to be a symbol of self - realisation. The greatest example of this can be Anasuya wife of great Indian sage Atri. She is often referred as Sati - A perfect Female. She was mother of Dattatreya , the sage incarnation of trimurti - Brahma , Vishnu and Mahesh , Durvasa and Chandraatri inccarnation of Brahma. She is seen in texts of Shiv Puran and Ramayana. 
Ram meets Anasuya in his forest travel of 14 years and gets gyan or knowledge. Sita - Ram's wife is blessed by Anasuya by a miracle of being beautiful and flawless forever.
      
Anasuya blessing Sita

Women in mythology is alsoreferred and related to nature or prakriti and is often shown as Goddess Durga who is symbol of Nature.

In mythology texts , women is also shown as supreme power or symbolised as source of anger. It shows whenever female will be be exploited she will take the form which is full of anger and misery.

Symbol of Anger

Humiliation in Mythology

Disrobing Draupadi
Along with a golden status of Women in Mythology. The hindu stories also have some trace of humiliation and exploitation of women. Texts of Ramayana and Mahabharata which covers all the aspects of human life show this darker side of female life. The snatching and disrobing sequence of Sita and Draupadi respectively shows the Humiliation of women in Indian mythology which led to great wars like Mahabharat.





Current Status of Women

The status of women in today's Indian society is exactly opposite to status of women in mythological period. The women in India today is not given freedom to choose her husband , she is forced to get married with someone whom her parents is chosen for her. She is polite , inferior of society. Though things are changing and women in India is empowering themselves by education but still the status of women in India today is much lower then what it was in the mythological period.
                                                                                                                                                           
         

Women in India cannot move freely as they have fear to step out of there houses because of growing rape cases. The country with so much of spirituality and ethic-ism is suppressed by various humiliating acts against women. 

Stop Crimes against women!!!
She is bounded to the four walls of home and always symbolised as supreme house-keeper. She is always seen as less compatible the men. She is dominated by the men in every field.



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