|
|
||
|
Home | Hindi | Kabir | Poetry | Workshop | BoloKids | Writers | Contribute | Search | Contact Shop Online |
|||
|
|
||
|
Home | Hindi | Kabir | Poetry | Workshop | BoloKids | Writers | Contribute | Search | Contact Shop Online |
|||
|
Hinduism The Indian epics are replete with accounts of women much celebrated and revered in our culture. Most of these women find a place in the list of revered women by adhering to “pativrata dharma”, a virtue much sought after in the earlier times as it is even today. However, the shloka seems inexplicable by celebrating:
“Ahalya,
Draupadi, Kunti, Tara and Mandodari tatha It seems like an aberration to the practice prevalent in the society as it records a very interesting deviation from the stereotyped image of the revered women of the epics and more so when we all know that these women were not only very much married women but strangely had “known” more than one man in their life. In what way these women were extraordinary persons and why the chanting of their name could redeem a sinner (?) from transgression, were some of the questions that haunted us in even today in the twenty first century. Therefore, the National Seminar on the Pancha Kanyas was really a much-awaited event. The five distinguished women of our epics the Mahabharata and the Ramayana invoked in this shloka of obscure origin seek our attention by being addressed as “kanyas”, an epithet used for maidens in Indian culture. Although the literal meaning of the word means a maiden but she has to be of within an age specified for “kanyabhav.” However, more important is the connotative meaning of the word that generates emotions of reverence for a “kanya” as she depicts everything that is pure in a “being”. So, what was so pure in these women that would give them the epithet of “kanyas”? The second important point to be analyzed in this shloka refers to the chanting of their names that redeems the sinners from transgression. All the distinguished speakers made the best possible endeavor to make us understand this puzzle by elaborating some very exciting insights about these women, and if the shloka still remains mystifying for us, perhaps the fault lies in our inability to comprehend or the credit goes to the poet for writing a verse that would stimulate scholars to debate upon it even in the twenty first century!
Therefore, it was in the very beginning of the seminar that a part so far lying dormant in my consciousness was suddenly awakened and awaited an elaborate discussion on this part of the shloka as well. Pages : 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
|
|
|
|
Analysis |
Architecture |
Astrology |
Ayurveda |
Book Reviews |
Buddhism |
Cartoons | Cinema |
Computing |
Culture |
Dances |
|
Home | Hindi | Bolography | BoloKids | Kabir | Poetry | Quotes | Workshop | Writers | Contribute | Search | Contact |
|
|
A Critique
In fact, like most of the people present there, I was so enchanted by the
kanya part of the shloka that mahapataka nashaka part did
not register much on my understanding of the shloka. Had it not been for
P. K. Mohanty, Director, EZCC, who in his welcome address stressed the
mahapataka nashaka part of the shloka, I confess that I would not have
even thought about it. As in common parlance, both the words – papa
and pataka stand for a common etymology. With commendable
erudition, he brought to light the basic difference between these words
and as per him, while papa stands for sin; so papanashinih
would mean redeemer of a sinner. It is as simple as committing a sin and
then redeeming it by indulging in some way out. On the other hand,
mahapataka nashaka stands for stopping a man who is about to
transgress but has not done so. It, therefore, acts as a checks and
controls mechanism and a person stops short when he thinks of these five
kanyas. Is it merely thinking about the after effect of what might
happen that stops him, if yes, then how?