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THRS 312: Hindu Faith & Practice
Women in Hinduism

 

Female Priest

Female priest conducting Vedic ritual,
Pune 2001

The question of the role and experience of women in Hinduism is and interesting and topical area of study.  As in all religious traditions, this issue has come increasingly to the fore in recent years.  Hinduism (like other religious traditions) has been accused of oppressing women, but also praised for providing "empowering" symbols for women's liberation in its goddess traditions, doctrine of shakti, and so on.  Quite a few studies have emerged in recent years.

NOTE: If you write about women in Hinduism, make sure that you specify which women you are talking about, where, and when. The experience of women in India, in many cases, differs radically depending on region, caste (upper/lower), and historical period.

See also the page on The Goddess in Hinduism.

Web Resources

Manushi: A Journal About Women and Society (India)

Books and Articles

Coomaraswamy, Ananda K. 1985. "Status of Indian Women." In The Dance of Siva, see above.

Dehejia, Vidya. 1988. Slaves of the Lord: The Path of the Tamil Saints. Delhi: Munshiram. By a leading scholar, about women saints.

Dehejia, Vidya, trans. 1990. Antal and Her Path of Love: Poems of a Woman Saint from South India. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.

Forbes, Geraldine. 1999. Women in Modern India. Cambridge University Press.

Feldhaus, Anne. 1995. Water and Womenhood: Religious Meanings of Rivers in Maharashtra. New York: Oxford University Press.

Hallstrom, Lisa Lassell. Mother of Bliss: Anandamayi Ma. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Harlan, Lindsay, and Paul B. Courtright. 1995. From the Margins of Hindu Marriage. New York: Oxford University Press.

Hawley, John Stratton, ed. 1994. Sati, the Blessing and the Curse: The Burning of Wives in India. New York: Oxford University Press.

Hawley, John S. and Donna Marie Wullf, eds. 1986. The Divine Consort: Radha and the Goddesses of India. Boston: Beacon Press.

Herman, Phyllis.  "Sita in the Kitchen: The Pativrata and the Ramarajya." Manushi 120 (Sept.-Oct. 2000): 5-11.

Jacobson, Doranne and Susan S. Wadley. 1992. Women in India: Two Perspectives. 2d enl. ed. New Delhi : Manohar Publishers & Distributors.

Kinsley, David. 1989. The Goddesses' Mirror: Visions of the Divine from East and West. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Kumar, Radha. 1994. The History of Doing: An Illustrated Account of Movements for Women's Rights and Feminism in India, 1800_1990. Verso Press.

Leslie, I. Julia, ed. 1991. Roles and Rituals for Hindu Women. Rutherford, NJ: Fairleigh Dickenson University Press.

Leslie, I. Julia. 1989. The Perfect Wife: The Orthodox Hindu Woman according to the Stridharmapaddhati of Tryambakayajvan. New York: Oxford University Press.

Lipski, Alexander. 1983. Life and Teachings of Sri Anandamayi Ma. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass.

Marglin, Frederique A. 1985. Wives of the God_King: The Rituals of the Devadasis of Puri. New York: Oxford University Press.

Mukerji, Bithika. 1989. "Sri Anandamayi Ma: Divine Play of the Spiritual Journey." In K. Sivaraman, Hindu Spirituality (see above). About the most highly regarded woman saint of the 20th century.

Mullatti, Leela. 1989. The Bhakti Movement and the Status of Women: A Case Study in Veerashaivism. New Delhi: Manohar.

Pearson, Anne Mackenzie. 1996. Because It Gives Me Peace of Mind: Ritual Fasts in the Religious Lives of Hindu Women. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.

Patton, Lauie L.  2002.  Jewels of Authority: Women and Textual Tradition in Hindu India.  New York: Oxford University Press.

Raheja, Gloria and Ann Grodzins Gold. 1994. Listen to the Heron's Words : Reimagining Gender and Kinship in North India. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Roy, Manisha. 1975. Bengali Women. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Schiffman, Richard.  2000. Mother of All: A Revelation of the Motherhood of God in the Life and Teachings of the Jillellamudi Mother.  Blue Dove Press.

Sharma, Arvind, ed. 1987. Women in World Religions. Albany, N.Y.: State University of New York Press.

Sharma, Arvind. 1985. "Marriage in the Hindu Religious Tradition." Journal of Ecumenical Studies 22 (Winter): 48ff.

Sharma, Arvind and Katherine K. Young, eds. 1991-?. The Annual Review of Women in World Religions. Vols. I-?. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.

Wadley, Susan S., ed. 1980. The Powers of Tamil Women. Syracuse, N.Y : Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University.

Weinberger-Thomas, Catherine. 1999. Ashes of Immortality: Widow- Burning in India. University of Chicago Press.

White, Charles S. J. 1980. "Mother Guru: Jnanananda of Madras, India." In Unspoken Worlds: Women's Religious Lives in Non_Western Culture, ed. Nancy A. Falk and Rita M. Gross. New York: Harper & Row.

See Basham, The Wonder that was India, in the General Sources section.

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