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Here is presented the well-known story of a Brahmin's family in danger with his wife, daughter and son, given in the Mahabharata 1.145-147. The article consists of two parts, a Japanese translation and a study.(I) The story is located in the Baka-vadha-parvan, where the man-eating Raksasa Baka demanded a victim from a Brahmin family, otherwise he threatened to devour all the four. First, the Brahmin deplores of the tragedy and suggested the possibility to offer himself as a victim (145). Upon this, his wife proposed to offer herself instead (146) and then his daughter repeated the same (147). Both the wife and the daughter insisted the important role of a father in family and triviality of the wife after bearing children and of the daughter as a nuisance for the family. In the statement of wife and daughter we can see how women were treated and regarded in ancient India. (II) The second part consists of three portions. (II-1) Responsibility of the Head of Family. Both the wife and the daughter emphasize the important role of a father in the family. The duty of family ptotection (pati<palana, bhartr <bharana) is attributed to him, whereas all other dependant upon him. Women are considered weak (abala). Wife without husband is anatha (without resort) or anavrta=nagna (uncovered) and is destined to be exposed to danger. (II-2) Women should not be killed. The wife dissuades her husband from going, insisting that if he go, he would be killed, but if she go, she may be safe, since it is the universal maxim that women should not be killed (avadhya). The maxim is observed even among dasyu (plunderers) as prescribed in the Steya-sastra. The maxim includes stri-purva, stri-nama, stri-svarupin, hence Bhisma did not fight with Sikhandin. (II-3) Remarriage of men and women. Despite the rule of monogamy established by Svetaketu (MBh.1.113) and Dirghatamas, (1.56), polygamy was prevalent and remarriage was admitted for men, but not generally for women. In the case of a man, it was part of his duty to remarry after his wife's death (MS.5.167, YS.1.89), though Rama refrained from remarrying after Sita's death (R.7.89.4). Yet, the life of a widow was miserable as Maddi speaks of it in the Vessantara-Jataka.

2021-10-31 03:54:51
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1 0 0 0 OA 古代インドの女性観 (3) ―貞女、烈女、淫女―

著者: 原實 Minoru Hara
出版者: 国際仏教学大学院大学
雑誌: 国際仏教学大学院大学研究紀要 = Journal of the International College for Advanced Buddhist Studies (ISSN:13434128)
巻号頁・発行日: no.8, pp.322-281, 2004-03-31

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).

2021-10-31 03:54:51
1 + 1 Wikipedia

1 0 0 0 OA 古代インドの女性観 (1)

著者: 原實 Minoru Hara
出版者: 国際仏教学大学院大学
雑誌: 国際仏教学大学院大学研究紀要 = Journal of the International College for Advanced Buddhist Studies (ISSN:13434128)
巻号頁・発行日: no.5, pp.230-189, 2002-03-31

Problems of gender have been attracting the attention of scholars such as sociologists, historians, and anthropologists, but if we are expected to write about the same problems in ancient India, Sanskrit philologists have to resort to textual evidence. Based upon such evidence as the Smrti prescriptions of asvatantrya about women, the literary motif of sex-change, and the traditional custom of Suttee, people are often inclined to emphasise as a characteristic of Indian society the predominance of men over women. But we meet also counter-evidence such as the eulogy of the mother, the idea of the better-half, and stories of pati-vratas. Often the negative side is revealed in stri-svabhava (the nature of condemned women) and the positive side in stri-dharma (women's duty as their ideal). In a series of papers we are planning to elucidate these aspects, but here in this paper we shall collect passages relevant to chaste women (pati-vrata) and discuss the mystic power inherent in women's chastity.

2021-10-31 03:54:51
1 + 1 Wikipedia

1 0 0 0 OA 古代インドの女性観 (4)

著者: 原實 Minoru Hara
出版者: 国際仏教学大学院大学
雑誌: 国際仏教学大学院大学研究紀要 = Journal of the International College for Postgraduate Buddhist Studies (ISSN:13434128)
巻号頁・発行日: no.9, pp.1-64, 2005-03-31

Three topics, of uneven length, are discussed in this paper: (1) The way women can prove their chastity when suspected of infidelity. Two cases are presented: (1-1) Sita I translate Valmiki's Ramayana 6.102-106 into Japanese. In this fragment, Rama, who fears public rumour (janapavada), rejects Sita after recovering her from her confinement in the Lanka Island. In spite of her piteous protest, Rama does not accept her, and as human means (manusa-pramana) fail to prove her innocence, Sita resorts to divine means, i.e. ordeal (daivika-pramana). She invokes Agni, the fire god, and steps into it. Agni, however, does not burn her and thus testifies to her chastity. (1-2) Yasodhara Yasodhara, one of Sakyamuni's wives (the other two being Gupika and Mrgi), was doubted of her lack of chastity because she conceived just before the Buddha's departure from the palace and delivered on the same day of his awakening-the well-known story of Rahu's six-year stay in his mother's womb. According to several sutras preserved in Chinese translation, Suddhodana, her father-in-law, and other people accused her of being unchaste and sentenced her to death. Yasodhara (in some variants, together with Rahu) was thrown into fire, but the fire turned into a pond, which proved her chastity. In another narrative version, she herself threw Rahu, tied to a stone, into a pond in order to prove that he was a legitimate son. Water did not let Rahu sink, and this testified to Yasodhara's chastity. I translate and discuss six Chinese sutras describing the fire-ordeal and seven texts containing the water-ordeal, alongside their Sanskrit equivalents. Compared to the ordeal (divya) prescribed in later Smrti literature, these narratives are simple and closely related to sapatha and satya-vacana. (2) Jati-smarana (The miraculous power of a chaste woman) I offer a Japanese translation of Visnu-purana 3.18.53-104. This is a story of a king who undergoes bad re-births because of his talking to a heretic (pasanda). His queen, however, refuses to speak with the heretic and does not even look at him, keeping instead her eyes on the Sun. Even after her death as a sati, she continues to be faithful to the king and retains his memory. Because of her chastity, she is able to find her husband six times in various forms (dog, jackal, etc,) until she is finally united with him. (3) The story of Dirghatamas I translate Mahabharata 1.98 and 12.328.43-51 into Japanese. The lustful sage Brhaspati seduced Mamata, (the wife of Utathya, Brhaspati's own brother), and unites with her against her will. As Mamata was already pregnant with Dirghatamas, the latter notices Brhaspati's penis entering his mother's womb and kicks it out saying there is no room for his tejas or retas. Discovering that his semen was wasted and fell on earth, Brhaspaiti becomes angry and curses Dirghatamas to be born blind (jaty-andha). (The story seems to presuppose complete darkness in the womb.)