Book Reviewed: Sacrificed wife/Sacrificer’s wife by Stephanie W. Jamison

The role of women in Vedic India

In this book entitled “Sacrificed Wife and Sacrificer’ s Wife, UCLA Professor Stephanie Jamieson examines the role of women in Vedic India by focusing mainly on sacrificial hymns of Rig Veda and Rig-Veda Brahmanas. She observes that the Vedic woman was “the bearer of all paradox,” as both sacrificer and sacrificed; giver and given in a ritual, both subject and object. In short, Vedic women were unfairly treated in a male dominated society. Stephanie Jamieson’s analysis of ancient India that goes back to as early 1600 BCE questions her objectivity and understanding of a different culture. She has interpreted a few selected verses from sacrificial literature to support her preconceived ideas. Jamieson is an American woman of 21st century and selecting few verses from Vedic literature out of the context diminishes its significance and leads to erroneous conclusions. Her views about women in Vedic rituals is not coherent with other ancient Indian literature or other historical evidences. The ethnographic and cultural information indicate that women were strong and significant actors within their families and in their communities. This book does not consider other Vedic texts where women had the same rights as men. The cultural norms, strong family values and adherence to moral conduct supports the dominant role of women as matriarchs of the family. For example, in Rig-Veda women were worshipped as goddesses which includes Sarasvati, Ushas, Aditi, Saranya, Aranyi, Nirrti, and Ila. There were several Vedic poets like Lopamudra, the symbol of beauty and brains. She first appears in Rigveda (Rig-Veda 1:179), and later in the Mahabharata and Giridhara Ramayana. She is described as extraordinarily beautiful as well as intelligent. She was known to be a philosopher on par with other women of ancient India like Gargi, Maitreyi and Ghosha. Urvashi, a celestial Apsara and the wife of Purūrava is perennially youthful, infinitely charming and a source as much of delight.

Mystical elements are associated with sacrificial performance of Vedic culture. This ritual was believed to please the Vedic gods and bless the performer with strength. Thus sacrifice is deemed as a wheel for generating the power, and everything connected to a sacrifice has a symbolic meaning. Behind the external ceremony, there is an inner sanctum in which the sacrificer offers his material possessions to the higher powers with full devotion and dedication. It is a self-consecration with Agni who witnesses this journey to the inner sanctum.

In her introduction, the author exhibits pessimism about focusing only on texts and no other evidence. She notes that other specialists in the field did not share her enthusiasm in interpreting few sacrificial hymns out of context to conclude about Vedic women’s status. This book is written mainly from a modern feminist perspective with very little regard for the culture that existed in Vedic period. Men were dominant not only in India, but also in Israel, Greece and Rome. All these cultures were male dominated and most religious and non-religious materials were written by men. For example, women did not participate in ancient Jewish traditions and their roles were limited where all the scribes and interpreters of Hebrew literature were men. In the book “Women in Ancient Greece,” author Susan Blundell observes that women were excluded from any public role in a male dominated Greek society. In “Woman at the Window: Biblical Tales of Oppression and Escape,” UConn Professor Nehama Aschkenasy, after studying the lives of concubine, Dinah, Michal, Abigail, and Tamar during Biblical times, makes a similar conclusion that the early Hebrew culture denied women’s rights with social and legal limitations.

In part II and III, the author examines a wife’s participation in ritual during the middle Vedic period, and the woman’s relationship with her husband and the Vedic deity of the ritual. Their functional roles in Vedic ceremony, the construction of forces, gods and divine powers described in Vedic literature. There is extensive discussion of the ceremonial practices of Ashvamedha, Soma, and Rajasuya sacrifices. In the final two parts, she explores are the practices of hospitality and gift exchange (part IV) and marriage (part V) relevant to the performance of the sacrifice.