Women Of Ancient History, WOAH!
Although the term ‘Women empowerment’ may have been coined a few centuries ago, the struggle has been eternal. We must draw inspiration from the women who have ruled with iron fists and gentle hands since the beginning of history.
Here in this blog article, I want to talk about five important women from Ancient times who catalysed women's empowerment by being valiant and resolute. These women from around the world hailing from different civilisations engraved their mark in the deep caves of history.
- Gargi Vachaknavi -
Born around the 9th to 7th century BCE, she was named after her father sage Vachaknu, who was a celebrated philosopher in ancient India. She was known to be a great natural philosopher and was a prodigy. Right from a young age, she was very intellectual and acquired knowledge of all the Vedas and Upanishads. Vachaknavi was also known as Brahmavadini, a person with the knowledge of Brahma Vidya. Brahma Vidya is considered to be the one and only truth of the world. And to master it, one should be a great philosopher.
Gargi, not only mastered the Vedas but also used to participate in brahma yajna, a philosophical debate organised by King Janaka. She challenged a lot of great sages like Yajnavalkya with baffling questions about Atman. She is also reputed to have written many hymns in the Rigveda.
The Vedic period, considered the pinnacle of Indian civilization, was more liberal towards women than in the later phases of the civilization. We can come across many women philosophers like Gargi, Maithreyi and so on who were very educated and well-versed in the Vedas and Upanishads. Education was equally open for both men and women. Unmarried daughters even had an equal share in their father’s property, a feat our government just achieved. It is inspiring to think that we were so evolved thousands of years ago.
2. Arachne -
Discovered from the depths of Greek mythology, was the daughter of Idmon. She was an extremely skilled weaver and spinner. People all over the world praised her work and even claimed her to be better than the goddess Athena herself. Athena, the goddess of wisdom and strategy, was also renowned for her great weaving skills. Hearing such profane remarks, Athena was furious that a mortal would dare say such a thing and challenged Arachne to a weaving competition. Athena weaves tapestries depicting the supremacy of gods, while Arachne depicts the wrath of gods. Athena, jealous and enraged at her rival’s perfection, tears down Arachne’s work and turns her into a spider. Arachne literally means spider in Greek. Hence, the name of the zoological class to which spiders belong to is called Arachnida. While there are many versions to this story, we can see jealousy being the basic plot line of it all.
Now or centuries ago or even just a myth, women being jealous of each other has been constant. Arachne might not be a very good example or an inspiration to women, but you cannot find a better ancient myth that teaches us about women pulling other women down. This should open our eyes to support and uplift each other. If we cannot encourage each other, how can we expect others to?
3. Theodora -
Born c. 497 CE, is considered as one of the most powerful women in Byzantine history. The byzantine empire was the eastern half of the Roman empire, present-day Istanbul, Turkey. Theodora, the daughter of Acacius, a bear trainer in the hippodrome (circus) in Constantinople. She became an actress and a prostitute and led a very unconventional life to make a living. When Justinian I met her, he was so smitten by her beauty and wit, that he made her his mistress and married her in 525 AD. After their marriage, Theodora worked profusely behind the scenes to make her husband the emperor. He succeeded to the throne in 527 AD, making her the empress. Her intelligence and political acumen made her Justinian’s most trusted advisor. Once she became the empress, she began introducing rules and reforms that she wanted. Many people have claimed that it was she who actually ruled and not Justinian. She is celebrated as one of the first rulers to recognize the rights of women. She passed many strict laws for the upliftment of women, like the prohibition of trafficking young girls and altering divorce laws which gives greater benefits to women. She lived almost a thousand years ago but has been an inspiration throughout, by striving for what she wanted. What we can gather from Theodora is that we don’t have to be in the forefront to achieve what we need.
4. Nefertari -
Born around 1301 BC, was the beloved wife of King Ramesses II. She was very well-educated and could both read and write hieroglyphs. Though Egyptians were considered to be more progressive towards women, this was a very rare skill. She used these skills to send messages and carry out diplomatic negotiations and hence, played a vital role in Ramesses’s rule. Ramesses showed great love and always had the highest appreciation towards his wife. He went to great lengths to show that they were equal and he showed his appreciation through numerous amounts of paintings, statues and temples. Their statues were almost always sculpted together.
Nefertari along with Cleopatra, Nefertiti, and Hatshepsut, are considered to be the greatest queens of ancient Egypt. She had titles like “The Wise diplomat “. But, this paragraph is about Ramesses as much as it is about Nefertari because he should be an inspiration to men all over the world. Men of today should learn from people like Ramesses who respected and considered the women in their lives as their equal counterparts and not anything less. Ramesses is also known to have married a lot of women which was a norm in that era but should not be an inspiration today.
5. Amaterasu -
the Japanese goddess of the sun is the daughter of the creator deities, Izanagi and Izanami. She appears in numerous mythological tales like Kojiki and Nihon Shoki. She is considered to be the central figure of the Shinto religion, as the superior ruler of the universe. Amaterasu is not just an embodiment of the rising sun but Japan itself. This is very interesting as most of the civilizations have considered a male as the sun. The sun god has various forms in various places like Ravi, Helios, Sol, Ra, etc. But the Japanese are one of the only civilizations to have considered the sun to be a woman. Amaterasu’s foremost role is that of the rising sun, by which she not only illuminates the world but also nourishes all living things. She has always been the most important kami(spirit) in Japanese spiritual life and represents order and just. One could say that the entire Shinto religion and Japan itself is based on the concept of Amaterasu. The Japanese Imperial family who claimed to be the descendants of Amaterasu, sits on top of the caste system.
Ancient civilizations and their cultures have always inspired me. It’s so fascinating that all of our cultures have so much in common and we don’t even realise it. The most interesting correlation that I can think of, which is relatable to my blog is the concept of Yin—Yang, Sura—Asura, Chandravansh — Suryavansh.
The most common misconception is we believe that ‘Yin’ is female and ‘Yang’ is male.
While yin and yang are not exclusively defined as male and female, are just feminine and masculine energies and either of the genders can be considered as both yin or yang. This correlates to Sura (gods) and Asura (monsters). Suras are considered feminine which includes both gods and goddesses and Asuras are considered masculine. It is the same with Chandravansh and Suryavansh as the descendants of the moon are considered to be feminine and descendants of the sun are considered masculine. This should enlighten us that any gender can fall into either feminine or masculine and that it is completely unfair to have gender stereotypes. Our civilizations and cultures were very much evolved and they paved the way to lead life, only for us to head in the other direction. We should retrace our footsteps back to our roots, and trot the right path.
