MEN AND WOMEN IN HINDUISM

Shiva

The dominant religion of ancient India, prior to the rise of classical Hinduism around the beginning of the Common Era, was a sacrificial religion geared towards creating ‘twiceborn’ men. Jay (1992) suggests that, in patrilineal societies, the ritual of sacrifice serves to ensure the continuity and purity of patrilineal succession. Presiding over the ‘birth’ of new men, priests chanted Sanskrit mantras while placing liquid offerings in the womb of the fire altar. The liturgically inseminated altar gave birth to the new self of the sacrificer. No one could doubt the paternity of this ritually engendered new man, a pure offspring of his father’s line, whereas a child born of a woman might always be another man’s son. After living a long life and fathering many sons of his own, a twice-born man who had sponsored sacrifices would at death join his male ancestors in post-mortem felicity in ‘the world of the fathers’, there to be maintained by rituals performed by his/their male descendants on earth. This religion required a married man as sacrificer and could not be performed without the sacrificer’s wife or ritual stand-in (Jamison 1996). Her spiritual duty was to give birth to sons and facilitate the priestly process whereby new men emerged from the fire through the midwifery of priests, thus vouchsafing an eternal paternal line.

Three millennia later, the rituals that many Hindus perform use vegetarian rather than animal offerings, are directed to different deities, and take place in temples rather than in the open air. Some women learn the liturgical language of Sanskrit; a few even serve as priests. But maintaining the social order through controlling the purity of the male line still ranks as a cardinal objective for many Hindus today, especially in rural India. This concern with descent accounts for much of the pressure put on young women to select a spouse of the proper caste, to marry as soon as they have acquired the education necessary to secure a professional spouse, and to have sons who will carry on the ancestral rites to ensure the well-being of the paternal line.

The requirement of deference to patriarchal order weighs equally heavily on men. To know and to show your place in relation to the male head of the house constitutes the essence of moral probity (Carstairs 1970; Kakar 1978). Carefully arranged matrimony contributes to the purity of the male line and transmission of wealth from patriarch to his patri-lineage. Both purity of pedigree (caste identity) and purity of conduct must be guarded. But after giving birth to a healthy son and nurturing him to adulthood, a woman’s duty is more or less done. A man’s responsibility to the patrilineage never ends, even in death. He should show deference to his father and elder brothers at all times, and in their presence he must not show physical affection for his wife.

In many Western cultures, marriage makes a boy a man. For Hindus, marriage makes a boy a potential father. But proper conduct of men towards one another, as mediated through women, makes a boy a man. Fidelity to one’s elder brothers is a crucial virtue, especially in north India. Fraternal treachery is one of the greatest taboos. The two classic epics of Indian literature narrate crises over the ownership of women that threaten the bonds between brothers. When the epic hero Rama must protect his father’s honour by going into exile, his younger brother accompanies him. Likewise Bharata, the brother appointed to rule, places Rama’s sandals on the throne and rules reluctantly in his stead, indicating the legitimacy of his elder brother’s right to the throne.

Rama’s story illustrates how a model eldest son should behave in a world of chaos and disorder. Poor urban Hindus especially find comfort in visions of the fair-minded king Rama riding in his war-chariot, vanquishing evildoers. Hindu kings began to build Rama temples and style themselves as his incarnations when Muslim invasions began to threaten Hindu hegemony (Pollock 1993). With the rise of political Hinduism in the 1990s, Rama now enjoys immense popularity. Visions of a theocracy where righteous men like Rama hold sway bring voters to the polls, especially in areas blighted by poverty and urbanisation. Politicians on the Hindu right (belonging to political parties collectively known as 'Hindutva', or ‘Hinduness’) fulminate against the decline of Hindu values, particularly the confusion of gender roles, the loss of respect for elders, and the breakdown of authority in the family. They claim that past values can be restored and that India’s problems are attributable to the new ways brought by Muslim and Christian outsiders.

Images of hyper-masculine warrior gods such as Rama appeal to those who seek a righteous protector of the poor, the elderly and the disenfranchised. Rhetoricians soothe the fearful with images of Rama winning his wife through bravery, while whipping up indignation for political purposes by positioning Hindus as victims from whom manhood has been stolen by outsiders (Sinha 1995; Nandy 1983; Alter 1994).

In a country where the accomplishments of many male deities and human statesmen have been attributed to the shakti or divine energy of the great goddess flowing through them, perhaps the justice that Rama represents to many Hindus will be achieved through a more balanced repertoire of religio-political icons in the future.

By Liz Wilson in "International Encyclopedia of Men and Masculinities", edited by Michael Flood, Judith Kegan Gardiner, Bob Pease and Keith Pringe, Routledge, London/New York, 2007, excerpts p. 660-661. Adapted and illustrated to be posted by Leopoldo Costa.

See also:

 Men and Women in Christianity - http://stravaganzastravaganza.blogspot.com.br/2014/01/men-and-women-in-christianity.html

Men and Women in Judaism - http://stravaganzastravaganza.blogspot.com.br/2014/01/men-and-women-in-judaism.html

Men and Women in Islam - http://stravaganzastravaganza.blogspot.com.br/2014/01/men-and-women-in-islam.html