An Investigative Study of Women’s Education in the Vedic Age Based on Vedic Literature

Abstract

Nowadays, education has become a basic need of everyone, irrespective of gender. It is accepted by the majority that in the past, the right to education was reserved only for the male side. The reason for this is the fact that historical facts are known in various sources, especially regarding the education received by Royal princes from childhood. In addition to the education received by the male side, there is little information about the education received by women during the period of the Vedic culture, which is considered between 8000-3000 BC. It is a popular idea that there was no opportunity for women to get an education because the Vedic literature was not suitable even for Shudras. The primary objective is to reveal the fact about whether there was freedom for women to get an education in that Vedic period with the help of Vedic literature. Accordingly, focusing primarily on the Vedic period, women were educated when considering the position of women in the male-dominated Indian society. There are many irrational misconceptions about the position of women in male-dominated Indian society. In this research, special attention is paid to the superiority of the educational status of women in the Vedic era by dispelling those misconceptions. Qualitative methodology and Vedas are studied as the primary references. As a secondary source, the focus is on the experimental texts by various authentic scholars on Vedic literature education and Indian women. On the whole, there are many examples in Vedic literature that the women of the Vedic era had the freedom of education and the opportunity to develop their talents in a way that even the women of the twenty-first century did not experience. In Vedic literature, women who showed many talents lived there even nominally. This research also provides the support needed to give correct understanding to more people regarding Vedic women’s education away from traditional misconceptions.