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WOMEN IMAGES £ RÏWÏT W O M E N I MA GE S Edited by Pratibha Jain Rajan Mahan 0 Rawat Publications Jaipur and New Delhi ISBN 81-7033-306-9 © Contributors, 1996 f K D I Y'-' : » \ ' * ^ Ä \Nl Co I ^ \ H ^ ^ No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the publishers. Published by Prem Rawat for Rawat Publications 3-Na-20, Jawahar Nagar, Jaipur 302 004 India Phone: +97 141 567022 Fax: +91 141 567748 Delhi Office G-19, Vijay Chowk, Laxmi Nagar, New Delhi 110 092 India Typeset by Rawat Computers, Jaipur Printed at Nice Printing Press, New Delhi Preface Recent researches have emphasized that by overlooking the con tribution of women to human evolution, as social actors who re inforce both continuity and change in society, the social sci ences have grievously undermined their fundamental objec tive—the objective of understanding social reality. This anthol ogy strives to redress this imbalance by exploring the enduring linkages between cultural ideas, women images and the perpetu ation of gender dichotomies. The basic endeavour has been to locate the enormous variety of women images, identify the ideo logical inspiration and underpinnings behind these images, and comprehend the manner and processes through which these im ages affect, shape and even determine the reality of women’s lives in the subcontinent. However, the editors make no claim whatsoever that the present study provides an exhaustive or even representative coverage of the wide gamut of issues and themes that might well be expected of a book with such an evocative title as Women Images. The essential objective of the volume has been to investi gate not so much actual women as ‘ideas’ about them and to fo cus upon the manner in which women and women’s potential 6 Preface have been perceived in India’s social ethos and cultural heri tage. The fifteen essays in this collection are grouped under three sections which address themselves to three inter-related themes. The first section highlights some of the major ‘Concepts and Categories’ that are relevant to an understanding of women images. The second section examines the manner in which ‘Art and Literature’ have reflected images of the feminine. The final section furnishes ‘Historical Perspectives’ to the images of In dian women in medieval and modem times. These articles es tablish that female images have perceptibly influenced attitudes towards women in at least three major ways. At the societal plane, the perception of different categories of women is dis tinctly shaped by the popularly accepted female images; at the inter-personal level, within the family, these images frequently impinge in a variety of ways with regard to the rights and roles of women; and at the individual level, these images leave a deep imprint upon women’s self-perception. In cumulation, these ar ticles confirm that Women Images do exert a powerful influence on the social order and the situation of Indian women in a vari ety of ways ranging from the ostensibly normative to the dis tinctly causative. Contributors to this anthology belong to a variety of disci plines history, political science, sociology, art and literature. We are deeply indebted to each one of these distinguished scholars but for whose whole-hearted cooperation it would not have been possible to bring out this volume. While the views expressed in the individual contributions are solely those of their respective authors, wc acccpt full responsibility for all limitations and shortcomings which, despite our sincere efforts to the contrary, may have inadvertently crept into this collection. Pratibha Jain Rajan Mahan Contents Preface 5 Contributors 9 Introduction 11 Part One Concepts and Categories 1 The Image of Woman in the Indian Tradition: 39 Some Reflections G.C. Pande 2 Women in Classical Sanskrit Literature 46 R.C. Dwivedi 3 Gender Theme: Issues and Perspectives 55 N.K. Singlii 4 Cinderella’s Stepmother: An Analysis of a Counter-Image 72 Jasbir Jain 5 Widows: Role Adjustment and Violence 84 Ram Ahuja 8 Contents Part Two Ait and Literature 6 Images of Women as Reflected in Sculpture 99 Neelima Vashishtha 7 The Image of Woman in Ramcharitmanas 113 Anand Kashyap 8 Women Images as Reflected in 129 Late 19th Century Gujarati Literature Shinn Mehta 9 From Indignity to Individuation: 138 Women in Indo-Anglian Novel Asha Kaushik PartThraa Hisorical Perspectives 10 Women in Medieval India: 151 A Study of Position and Images V.S. Bhatnagar 11 Indian Renaissance, Concept of 173 Womanhood and Dayanand Saraswati Sangeeta Sharma 12 Women in the Freedom Struggle: Invisible Images 188 Pratibha Jain and Sangeeta Sharma 13 Nehni’s Vision of Women 204 Pratibha Jain and Rajan Mahan 14 Gandhi on Women: Imaging a New Identity 238 Pratibha Jain 15 Unveiling the Valorous: An Exploration of 256 the Veerangana Image Rajan Mahan Index 290 Contributors Ahuja, Ram, Former Professor and Head, Department of Sociology, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur. Bhatnagar, V.S., Former Professor and Head, Department of History and Indian Culture, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur. Dwivedi, R.C., Former Professor and Head, Department of Sanskrit, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur. Jain, Jasbir, Professor of English and Director, Academic Staff College, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur. Jain, Pratibha, Head, Department of History and Director, Gandhian Studies Centre, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur Kashyap, Anand, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur. Kaushik, Asha, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur. Mahan, Rajan, Research Associate, South Asia Studies Centre, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur. 10 Contributors Mehta, Shirin, Professor and Head, Department of History, Gujarat University, Ahemdabad. Pande, G.C., Professor of History and Former Vice Chancellor, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur. Sharma, Sangeeta, Research Officer, Centre for Women’s Studies, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur. Singhi, N.K., Professor and Head, Department of Sociology, Univetsity of Rajasthan, Jaipur. Vashishtha, Neelima, Associate Professor, Department of Fine Arts, University of Rajasthan, Jaipur.
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