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Exploring Gender Roles in Ritual:Sacrificer, Sacrificer’s Wife and Priests in Vedic Sacrifices
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Historically, organized and institutionalized religions while catering to the spiritual needs of communities have also served as ideological mechanisms to help construct and legitimize inegalitarian social orders in the interests of the dominant classes. Rituals and myths as crucial constituents of an organized religion communicate and reinforce social norms and practices that are considered ‘appropriate’ or ‘desirable’ by the dominant classes. Thus, the rich repertoire of rituals in the Vedic texts constitutes an important area of investigation into the dynamics of social relations in general and gender relations in particular. This essay assesses the relative participatory status and roles of the principal actors in Vedic sacrifices, the sacrificer, his wife and the priests in the srauta (solemn) rituals as detailed in the principal Later Vedic texts, viz., the Samhitas and the Brahmanas. The essay argues that the ritual roles of key participants and their relations with each other within the ritual context were governed by the principle of centrality of the male and marginality of the female to the ritual. Indeed, the ritual process itself was controlled and regulated by the priests and the sacrificer so as to construct and reinforce their superior roles vis-a-vis the wife’s and thereby structure gender relations on hierarchical terms.
Keywords
Wife, Sacrificer, Samhita, Brahmana, Procreation.
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- J. C. Heesterman. Vedism and Brahmanism. In Encyclopaedia of Religion, edited by Lindsay Jones. Thomson Gale. 2005[1987]; 2nd ed.; vol. 14: p. 9553.
- Rajesh Kochhar. The Vedic People: Their History and Geography. Orient Longman, New Delhi. 2000: p. 15; Heesterman, Vedism and Brahmanism, p. 9553.
- R. S. Sharma. Material Culture and Social Formations in Ancient India. Macmillan India Ltd., New Delhi. 1983: p. 55.
- For example, Satapatha Brahmaṇa (hereafter SB) 2.1.3.5-8, 3.1.1.9.
- Kumkum Roy. The Emergence of Monarchy in North India Eighth-Fourth Centuries B.C. as Reflected in the Brahmanical Tradition. Oxford University Press, New Delhi. 1994: pp. 236-37.
- Stephanie W. Jamison. Roles for Women in Vedic Srauta Ritual. In Goddesses and Women in the Indic Religious Tradition, Edited by A. Sharma. E. J. Brill, Leiden and Boston. 2005: pp. 1-2.
- SB 3.2.2.12, 13.2.11.2, 13.2.2.1; Aitareya Brahmana (hereafter AB) 1.28.
- SB 3.3.4.21.
- SB 1.9.1.2, 3.2.1.30, 3.2.2.12, 3.4.1.19, 4.4.4.6.
- SB 3.1.4.21.
- SB 3.1.3.27.
- SB 3.1.3.25-26, 3.2.1.37, 38.
- SB 3.1.4.3-4, 3.2.2.2-3, 3.2.2.28-29, 3.2.2.12, 3.9.2.1-2.
- SB 2.1.4.20, 22.
- SB 2.1.4.7, 1.9.1.3, 3.1.1.8, 3.2.2.10, 3.2.2.19, 3.2.2.22, 6.6.1.12.
- SB 2.1.2.17, 2.1.4.7, 2.1.4.9, 2.2.2.14, 2.2.3.1, 2.4.3.11-12, 3.2.2.10, 4.5.4.2-6.
- SB 2.1.2.11, 3.3.3.10, 3.4.2.15, 4.5.4.8. He is also called the representative of Indra (indrabhajana, SB 3.4.2.15).
- SB 3.2.1.17, 6.7.2.10.
- SB 6.3.3.21, 6.4.1.3, 6.4.4.18, 6.5.1.8, 6.6.2.7, 6.7.1.24, 6.7.3.12, 7.4.1.21.
- SB 1.6.1.20; AB 3.13.
- Brian K. Smith. Ritual Perfection and Ritual Sabotage in the Veda. History of Religions. 1996, 35(4): 289-91.
- SB 1.1.2.12, 1.2.2.8, 1.7.1.11, 4.2.2.10, 3.6.3.15, 3.6.4.3, 4.5.1.16.
- SB 2.3.2.6.
- SB 1.4.1.32, 1.4.5.4, 2.1.2.11, 2.3.1.37-38, 2.3.4.38, 3.2.4.20, 3.3.4.18, 3.4.3.18, 3.5.4.8, 3.7.1.17, 3.9.4.5, 3.9.4.9, 4.2.3.10, 4.2.5.17, 4.6.3.2.
- SB 1.9.2.13.
- SB 3.7.4.10.
- In one instance, the gods desire to obtain the offering of Soma cup and grant him his desired boon (vara) in order that he offers it (SB 4.1.1.21). In another instance, he gratifies the gods by offering the graha and the latter being gratified convey him to the heavenly world (SB 4.1.1.25).
- SB 2.2.4.1.
- SB 2.2.2.15, 2.2.3.14, 2.2.3.26.
- SB 2.2.4.10.
- SB 3.4.4.11-15, 3.4.4.17-20.
- SB 3.2.1.5-7.
- SB 3.2.1.11-12.
- SB 3.2.1.16.
- SB 3.3.3.12.
- SB 6.7.2.12.
- SB 3.9.1.5.
- SB 3.9.1.1-4.
- SB13.2.11.1.
- Kumkum Roy. Vedic Cosmogonies: Conceiving/Controlling Creation. In Tradition, Dissent and Ideology: Essays in the Honour of Romila Thapar, Edited by R. Chamapakalakshmi and S. Gopal. Oxford University Press, New Delhi. 1996: p. 16.
- SB 6.5.3.5.
- SB 3.5.1.11.
- SB 2.2.1.1.
- SB 3.5.3.12, 4.3.4.4, 6.3.1.16.
- SB 2.2.2.7; AB 2.32.
- David M. Knipe. Priesthood: Hindu Priesthood. In Encyclopaedia of Religion, Edited by Lindsay Jones. Thomson Gale. 2005[1987]; 2nd edn, vol. 11: p. 7405. The hotṛ was assisted by maitravaruṇa, acchavaka and gravastut; the udgatṛ by prastotr,̣ pratihartṛ and subrahmanya; and the adhvaryu by pratiprasthatṛ, neṣṭṛ and unnetṛ (Michael Willis. The Archaeology of the Hindu Rituals: Temples and the Establishment of the Gods. Cambridge University Press, New York. 2009: p. 182).
- SB 1.9.1.2.
- SB 3.4.2.15, 4.2.4.20.
- SB 3.9.1.11-12.
- AB 1.21, 2.32, 3.3, 3.7, 3.11.
- SB 3.1.3.24, 3.4.3.19, 3.4.2.14, 3.4.2.15, 3.5.4.16, 4.3.1.9.
- The priests (vipras) were equated with Prajapati and the devas, and were described as ‘great inspirer of devotion’ (SB 6.3.1.16).
- The brahmanas were considered human gods (manuṣya devaḥ), the dakṣiṇa given to them being considered a form of sacrifice akin to the oblations to the gods (SB 2.2.2.6, 2.4.3.14, 4.3.4.4). Being seated in the sacrificial tent (sadas), where all gods sat, they were implicitly likened to gods (SB 3.6.1.1). The hotṛ was equated with Agni (SB 6.4.2.6, 6.4.2.7) and related to him (agneya, SB 13.2.6.9).
- SB 1.9.1.2.
- SB 3.4.3.11.
- SB 2.2.2.1, 2, 4.3.4.1-2, 6.6.4.7, SB 4.3.4.20.
- For instance, wealth (rai, SB 3.7.1.21), growth of wealth (rayaspoṣa, SB 4.2.1.16), food and ability to eat (anna, annadya, AB 2.4), cattle (pasu, AB 2.4, 2.30), rain (vrsti, AB 2.4), etc.
- For instance, fiery spirit (tejas, SB 13.2.6.9,12), holy lustre (brahmavarcas, SB 13.2.6.9), rebirth (punarayus, SB 13.2.6.11), breaths (praṇa, apaṇa, vyana, AB 2.4, 2.29), speech (vac, AB 2.4), support (pratistha, AB 2.4), etc.
- SB 4.3.4.4.
- SB 4.3.2.6.
- SB 7.3.1.12.
- SB 3.6.1.21.
- SB 3.8.4.10, 3.8.4.18.
- AB 1.1.
- AB 3.7.
- AB 2.4.
- Stephanie W. Jamison. Sacrificed Wife, Sacrificer’s Wife: Women, Ritual, and Hospitality in Ancient India. Oxford University Press, New York. 1996: p. 30; Jamison, Roles for Women, p. 2.
- For instance, it is stated in the Taittiriya Brahmana (hereafter TB) 3.3.3.1: ‘The sacrifice without the presence of the wife (apatnikah) is not real sacrifice (ayajnah) and if the wife were to be absent, no children would be born; the wife attends to the sacrifice, since the sacrificer has undertaken the sacrifice for the procreation of children’.
- Jamison, Sacrificed Wife, pp. 32-36.
- AB 7.10.
- AB 7.10. The response avoids the issue of the absent wife and rather stresses on the significance of the ritual: by offering the agnihotra, the sacrificer without a wife obtains sons, grandsons and great grandsons in ‘this’ or terrestrial world and ‘that’ or heavenly world and thereby maintains the continuity (of his lineage) in that world. Just how progeny was to be acquired by the sacrificer to secure his after-life remains obscure. On the problem of the absent wife, Frederick M. Smith (Indra’s Curse, Varuna’s Noose, and the Suppression of Women in the Srauta Ritual. In Roles and Rituals for Hindu Women, Edited by Julia Leslie. Motilal Banarsidass, New Delhi. 1992: pp. 42-43) mentions contradictory recommendations in later ritual texts for the use of inanimate substitutes (e.g., gold or kusa grass modeled into the shape of wife), and for the omission of rites involving the wife. However, in general, later legal literature allowed a widower to remarry and continue his ritual life (Jamison, Sacrificed Wife, p. 35).
- Jamison, Sacrificed Wife, pp. 36-38. Moreover, such injunctions in the later legal and ritual texts as against a young maiden acting as priest in the agnihotra or a brahmana eating at a sacrifice offered by a woman raise the possibility of more ritual responsibilities undertaken by women (Jamison, Sacrificed Wife, p. 37). In contrast, however, several Gṛhyasutras permit the wife to make the daily offering in the domestic fire (Jamison, Sacrificed Wife, p. 36).
- Jamison, Sacrificed Wife, p. 38.
- SB 1.3.1.12.
- SB 1.3.1.12, 1.9.2.3.
- SB 1.3.1.13.
- SB 1.3.1.13.
- Jamison, Sacrificed Wife, pp. 42-48; Jamison, The Position of Women, pp. 4-5.
- SB 1.3.1.14.
- Smith, Indra’s Curse, pp. 24-27.
- SB 1.3.1.14.
- SB 1.3.1.16.
- TB 3.3.3.4. Here, the cord is not identified as Varuṇa’s noose.
- S. A. Dange. Sexual Symbolism from the Vedic Ritual. Ajanta Publications, New Delhi. 1979: p. 77.
- SB 1.3.1.15.
- SB 1.1.4.5, 1.3.3.4, 1.2.1.14.
- SB 1.3.1.14.
- Aditi is derived from ischolar_main dā (to bind) prefixed with a in the negative or privative sense.
- A. B. Keith. Religion and Philosophy of the Vedas and Upanisads, 2 vols. Motilal Banarsidass, New Delhi. 1989[1925]: pp. 215-16.
- TB 3.3.3.5.
- Keith, Religion and Philosophy, pp. 71-72.
- Roy, Changing Kinship Relations, p. 13.
- SB 1.3.1.18.
- SB 1.3.1.22.
- Jamison, Sacrificer’s Wife, pp. 56-57.
- In fact, her ritual roles, akin to domestic chores, were largely an extension of her domesticity as opposed to the essentially sacred activities of the sacrificer, viz., making offerings, chanting mantras, etc. (Kumkum Roy. The Emergence of Monarchy in North India Eighth-Fourth Centuries B.C. as Reflected in the Brahmanical Tradition. Oxford University Press, New Delhi. 1994: p. 274).
- SB 1.9.2.22.
- SB 3.8.2.4,6.
- SB 3.8.2.5.
- SB 3.8.2.8.
- SB 3.8.2.9-10.
- SB 1.9.2.1.
- Jamison, Sacrificer’s Wife, pp. 50-51.
- ‘Offspring is produced by means of a productive union after the completion of the sacrifice. This is why they now perform the patnisamyajus’(SB 1.9.2.5).
- SB 1.9.2.6.
- SB 1.9.2.27.
- SB 1.9.2.9.
- siktam-retah-vikaroti (SB 1.9.2.10).
- Their names are never given: they are simply a collective, and apparent metaphor the feminine energy and reproductive capacity (Smith, Indra’s Curse, p. 29).
- SB 1.9.2.11.
- SB 1.9.2.13.
- Smith, Indra’s Curse, p. 30.
- Jamison, Sacrificer’s Wife, p. 50.
- Smith, Indra’s Curse, p. 29.
- SB 1.9.2.4.
- SB 1.9.2.3.
- Smith, Indra’s Curse, p. 27.
- SB 1.9.2.12.
- SB 4.4.2.15.
- SB 4.4.2.17-18.
- Vajasaneyi Samhita (hereafter VS) 4.23, in SB 3.3.1.12.
- SB 3.3.1.11-12.
- VS 4.22, in SB 3.3.1.8.
- VS 4.22, in SB 3.3.1.9.
- SB 3.3.1.10.
- Taittiriya Samhita (hereafter TS) 6.1.8.5; SB 3.3.1.11.
- That is, wife and the yajna are a pair (mithuna), according to the 14th-century commentator on the text, Sayana.
- TS 6.2.1.
- A. S. Altekar. The Position of Women in Hindu Civilisation. Motilal Banarsidass, New Delhi. 1987[1938]: p. 223.
- She chants the verses: ‘I will urge the seed layer’; and ‘May the vigorous male, the layer of seed, lay seed’ (SB 13.2.8.5, 13.5.2.2).
- SB 13.5.2.2.
- SB 13.2.6.7.
- Roy, The Emergence of Monarchy, pp. 120-21.
- ‘With whom do you have intercourse?’ (SB 2.5.2.20).
- J. C. Heesterman. Kautilya and the Ancient Indian State. In J. C. Heesterman, The Inner Conflict of Indian Tradition: Essays in Indian Ritual, Kingship and Society. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. 1985: pp. 134-37.
- SB 2.5.2.25.
- Jamison, Sacrificer’s Wife, pp. 88-95.
- Jaiminiya Brahmana (JB) 1.17.
- SB 1.8.3.5, 6.
- SB 1.1.4.13.
- SB 1.3.1.26.
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