Women in Ancient India (III)

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doi:10.15056/00000189

The present article contains a Japanese translation of the well-known stories of three different types of women in ancient India. (1) The first is the story of the type of chaste woman as is related in the Markandeya Purana 16. The irritable sage Mandavya cursed her poor husband to lose his life upon the sun-rise. When hearing this, the devoted wife decided to prevent by the virtue of her chastity the sun-rise and thus succeeded in protecting her husband's life. For ten days the sun did not rise and darkness prevailed. Gods worried about this because they are afraid of a shortage of food in the morning sacrifice performed by the pious human beings. They resorted to another chaste woman, Anasuya, who promised them to restore the sun by the power of her chastity. She raised the sun and the curse was materialized. Then Anasuya revived the dead husband by satya-vacana. (2) The second illustrates the type of energetical woman as related in the Mahabharata 5.131-134 (Vidura-putranusasana). In this story a Ksatriya woman rebukes her son who abandoned the battle-field and encourages him to go back to war for further fight. Here we have the ideal of a Ksatriya woman. (3) The third (found in Mahabharata 13.38) speaks of the evil nature of woman (stri-svabhava-kathana). Being requested by the sage Narada, a divine courtesan Pancacuda enumerates various sorts of evils essential to the woman's nature. In order to illustrate this I have also translated a story given in the Pancatantra 4.5 and its variations in the Dasakumaracarita 6 and Kathasaritsagara 65 where a merciless woman betrayed her loving husband by her fickle misdeed with a cripple. Finally, I have also translated a relevant story in the Hitopadesa. It concludes with a verse saying that a woman surpasses a man twice in appetite (ahara), four times in cleverness (buddhi), six times in determination (vyavasaya), and eight times in sexual desire (kama).

Women in Ancient India (III)

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