Tuesday, November 21, 2006
chastity a virtue?
A comment on my blog ‘Prostitution – the oldest profession’ made me ponder about Chastity.
I searched in dictionary for the word chastity and found the meaning; sexual purity, virginity. Some equal Chastity with continence, or brahmacharya, one of the five moral values, yamas, prescribed as preliminary disciplines in the Yoga system of Patanjali, which confuses the matter, making it not only a virtue of women but men also.
I tried to recollect similar word in Hindi, Bengali and Sanskrit; the 3 Indian languages I know and surprisingly could not recollect any word with similar meaning.
A similar word for virgin also is elusive. The nearest word I could recollect is Kumari, kanya. There may be words, but I could not recollect. How come? Does it mean that in ancient India virginity was not an issue? Or may be it was believed that kumari i.e unmarried is equivalent to virgin. I knew that is not true, but felt it prudent to look further before giving my comments. A little study gave me this information.
What is the meaning of Kumari and Kanya? Present day Hindi denotes is as unmarried. With our obsession with virginity and marriage we can safely presume that it is presumed that Kumaris should be virgin also. But a study of Hindu mythology gives some mind-boggling answer. In Hindu mythology; five satis or five kanyas are revered. Who are these five satis or kanyas?
‘Ahalya Draupadi Kunti Tara Mandodari tatha Panca kanyd smarennityam mahdpataka nasanam’
Ahalya: She was wife of Rishi Goutam. She had adultery with Lord Indra. I remember from my childhood memory that she was tricked by Indra; he came to her taking the form of Rishi Goutam. Rishi Goutam cursed her and converted her to a stone, to be revived by Lord Rama.
Draupadi: We all know about her 5 husbands. And we also know that morally she was not that pure. She had special affection towards Arjuna. (By the way, the system of multiple husbands was prevailing in some parts of Himalayan Uttaranchal, at least till early seventies, when I visited)
Kunti: She was given a mantra by Rishi Durvasa by which she could summon any DEVA and have a child by him. She did not believe and called Surya, who appeared and thus ‘Karna’ was borne. Subsequently her other children were gifted by four more devas. Well I think, we modern readers can throw the ‘devaleela’ in the trash basket and safely presume she had sexual relations with the ‘devas’.
Tara: She was wife of monkey king Bali, later she married her brother-in-law Sugriva after the death of her husband. Incidentally Bali was killed by Lord Rama on behest of Sugriva. (In some parts of UP, the system of marriage of a widow with her brother-in-law is a custom)
Mandodari: She was wife of King Ravana. I could not find out anything else about her. And am a bit puzzled about the reasons of her inclusion in this illustrious list.
Anyway if we look at the five kanyas, we find that at least four of them were not monogamous. All five were married. Did have relations with more than one man/Deva. Question of virginity does not arise.
What does that imply? That the myth of virginity did not exist in ancient India. Kanyas even did not imply unmarried. I feel that is true. In ancient India, women had equality in every sphere of social life. The society was not over zealous about virginity. The obsession with virginity in Hinduism has come in later period and due to the influence of Islamic and Christian culture. The society was even permissive of sex outside marriage; at least they had good word to say about a woman having sex by deceit as in case of Ahalya.
A more detail study of chastity gives us this information:
The word chastity derives from the french word chastete, which in turn was derived from latin word castitas. Castitus is the abstract of castus, whcih originally meant pure state of conformity with the Greco-Roman religion. It is no way limited to only sexual behaviour.
However, in Islamic, Judaism and Christian context, act of sexual nature is prohibited outside of marriage and are considered as sin. The term chastity has become associated with sexual abstinence because it is commonly percieved as a tool against offenses like adultery. That’s why we find the word Chastity belt – a device said to be worn by the wives of the absent crusaders to prevent them from sexual intercourse in the absence of their husbands.
So what we find that the word chastity has nothing to do with virginity even in anglo-Isalmic context. The meaning of the word does not reflect about virtue of a woman, rather I find the word repressive and derogative to feminism. Definitely the use of chastity belt does give that impression only.
Then how come chastity becomes a virtue for women?
‘To insist that chastity is only for women and should not be insisted upon for men, is a philosophy based on individual ownership; the view that women is the property of the male determines the current status of a wife.’ This quote is taken from Periyar.org.
On my search, I came to know of this Malayalam book: Nalini Jameela: Oru Lyngika Thozhilaliyude Atmakatha, (Autobiography of a Sex Worker). I heard about this book earlier, but never gave any specific thought about it. It may give more insight on ‘Prostitution – the oldest profession’. I don’t know whether an English translation is available or not.
I searched in dictionary for the word chastity and found the meaning; sexual purity, virginity. Some equal Chastity with continence, or brahmacharya, one of the five moral values, yamas, prescribed as preliminary disciplines in the Yoga system of Patanjali, which confuses the matter, making it not only a virtue of women but men also.
I tried to recollect similar word in Hindi, Bengali and Sanskrit; the 3 Indian languages I know and surprisingly could not recollect any word with similar meaning.
A similar word for virgin also is elusive. The nearest word I could recollect is Kumari, kanya. There may be words, but I could not recollect. How come? Does it mean that in ancient India virginity was not an issue? Or may be it was believed that kumari i.e unmarried is equivalent to virgin. I knew that is not true, but felt it prudent to look further before giving my comments. A little study gave me this information.
What is the meaning of Kumari and Kanya? Present day Hindi denotes is as unmarried. With our obsession with virginity and marriage we can safely presume that it is presumed that Kumaris should be virgin also. But a study of Hindu mythology gives some mind-boggling answer. In Hindu mythology; five satis or five kanyas are revered. Who are these five satis or kanyas?
‘Ahalya Draupadi Kunti Tara Mandodari tatha Panca kanyd smarennityam mahdpataka nasanam’
Ahalya: She was wife of Rishi Goutam. She had adultery with Lord Indra. I remember from my childhood memory that she was tricked by Indra; he came to her taking the form of Rishi Goutam. Rishi Goutam cursed her and converted her to a stone, to be revived by Lord Rama.
Draupadi: We all know about her 5 husbands. And we also know that morally she was not that pure. She had special affection towards Arjuna. (By the way, the system of multiple husbands was prevailing in some parts of Himalayan Uttaranchal, at least till early seventies, when I visited)
Kunti: She was given a mantra by Rishi Durvasa by which she could summon any DEVA and have a child by him. She did not believe and called Surya, who appeared and thus ‘Karna’ was borne. Subsequently her other children were gifted by four more devas. Well I think, we modern readers can throw the ‘devaleela’ in the trash basket and safely presume she had sexual relations with the ‘devas’.
Tara: She was wife of monkey king Bali, later she married her brother-in-law Sugriva after the death of her husband. Incidentally Bali was killed by Lord Rama on behest of Sugriva. (In some parts of UP, the system of marriage of a widow with her brother-in-law is a custom)
Mandodari: She was wife of King Ravana. I could not find out anything else about her. And am a bit puzzled about the reasons of her inclusion in this illustrious list.
Anyway if we look at the five kanyas, we find that at least four of them were not monogamous. All five were married. Did have relations with more than one man/Deva. Question of virginity does not arise.
What does that imply? That the myth of virginity did not exist in ancient India. Kanyas even did not imply unmarried. I feel that is true. In ancient India, women had equality in every sphere of social life. The society was not over zealous about virginity. The obsession with virginity in Hinduism has come in later period and due to the influence of Islamic and Christian culture. The society was even permissive of sex outside marriage; at least they had good word to say about a woman having sex by deceit as in case of Ahalya.
A more detail study of chastity gives us this information:
The word chastity derives from the french word chastete, which in turn was derived from latin word castitas. Castitus is the abstract of castus, whcih originally meant pure state of conformity with the Greco-Roman religion. It is no way limited to only sexual behaviour.
However, in Islamic, Judaism and Christian context, act of sexual nature is prohibited outside of marriage and are considered as sin. The term chastity has become associated with sexual abstinence because it is commonly percieved as a tool against offenses like adultery. That’s why we find the word Chastity belt – a device said to be worn by the wives of the absent crusaders to prevent them from sexual intercourse in the absence of their husbands.
So what we find that the word chastity has nothing to do with virginity even in anglo-Isalmic context. The meaning of the word does not reflect about virtue of a woman, rather I find the word repressive and derogative to feminism. Definitely the use of chastity belt does give that impression only.
Then how come chastity becomes a virtue for women?
‘To insist that chastity is only for women and should not be insisted upon for men, is a philosophy based on individual ownership; the view that women is the property of the male determines the current status of a wife.’ This quote is taken from Periyar.org.
On my search, I came to know of this Malayalam book: Nalini Jameela: Oru Lyngika Thozhilaliyude Atmakatha, (Autobiography of a Sex Worker). I heard about this book earlier, but never gave any specific thought about it. It may give more insight on ‘Prostitution – the oldest profession’. I don’t know whether an English translation is available or not.
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