"Retrieving Women’s 'Agengy' from Puranic tradition: Representations and re-presentations of women in the Matsyamahapurana" a talk by Dr. Jaya Tyagi at Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg > 3pm on 17th September 2013
Time : 3:00 pm
Entry : Free (Seating on First-Come First-Served basis)
Place : Seminar Room, First Floor, Library Building, Nehru Memorial Museum & Library (NMML), Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg, New Delhi
Venue Info : Events | About | Map | Nearest Metro Station - 'Race Course(Yellow Line)'
Event Description : The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library cordially invites you to the Weekly Seminar on ‘Retrieving Women’s ‘Agengy’ from Puranic tradition: Representations and re-presentations of women in the Matsyamahapurana’ by Dr. Jaya Tyagi, Sri Venkateswara College, New Delhi.
Abstract : Retrieval of women’s ‘agency’ from early texts requires careful ‘re-reading’ as texts like the Purāṇas project patriarchal ideologies which attempt to camouflage clearly discernible threads of women’s existences, their negotiations and their agency. It is these underlying threads that we have to explore, tracing how the thin channels of agency which women manage to negotiate have an overarching reach-- penetrating into the realms of socio-politico- cultural spaces, even leading to re-formulation of patriarchal ideologies and strategies. In scholarly traditions, although there is a tendency to seek agency outside of and in opposition to religious traditions, actually, in early societies the boundaries between theological, political and socio-cultural traditions are blurred and ‘theological’ traditions can generate intense and heated internal debates, especially with regard to women. This paper attempts to ‘re-read’ the Matsyamahāpurāṇa and through the study of ritual observances, vratas and myths, reconstruct the anxieties and expectations that Puranic traditions have with regard to women. These anxieties are manifest in the manner in which women are included in varied religious traditions, from the early centuries of the first millennium C.E.., be it Buddhist, Jaina, Puranic or Tantric theology. The premise of this paper is that Puranic ideology marks a significant departure from earlier brahmanical thought and women may have had a significant role to play in leading to these reformulations and in the ideological shift in theological approach of the Dharmaśāstras vis a vis the Puranas; their inclusion in Puranic rites and rituals certainly seems to indicate this. In the milieu that Matsyamahāpurāṇa emerges in, performance of vrata rituals was one of the critical ways in which women underlined their sacral and ritual roles in familial situations. This allowed them to extend control over resources and decision making and is reflected in the reference to them as patrons and promoters of Puranic ideology. The paper also shows how the re-presentation of Vedic and epic myths in the Matsyamahāpurāṇa is an attempt to incorporate resistance and deviations put forward by women, revealing variations in their social roles. The representations of the Goddess in Puranic traditions gives cognizance to feminine agency and underlines the inclusiveness of the Purāṇas. The paper will conclude with an exploration of the possible social consequences of ‘sacralising’ familial roles of women, suggesting that there are both definitive and open ended conclusions as the representation of women in texts and women’s responses to these representations have been subject to constant evolution and change.
Speaker : Dr. Jaya Tyagi is Associate Professor in the Department of History at Sri Venkateswara College, University of Delhi. She has written and published several articles on gender, households and religious traditions of early India. Her monograph ’Engendering the Early Household, Brahmanical Precepts in the Early Gṛhyasūtras, middle of first millennium B.C.E’ (2008) discusses rituals of the household and how they underline the sacral and social position of the householder. She has been a Fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Shimla (2010-2012) and this paper is largely drawn from her forthcoming monograph, written while at IIAS- ‘Contestation and Compliance: Women’s ‘Agency’ in the Matsyamahāpurāṇa’
Related Events : Women | Talks
Entry : Free (Seating on First-Come First-Served basis)
Place : Seminar Room, First Floor, Library Building, Nehru Memorial Museum & Library (NMML), Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg, New Delhi
Venue Info : Events | About | Map | Nearest Metro Station - 'Race Course(Yellow Line)'
Event Description : The Nehru Memorial Museum and Library cordially invites you to the Weekly Seminar on ‘Retrieving Women’s ‘Agengy’ from Puranic tradition: Representations and re-presentations of women in the Matsyamahapurana’ by Dr. Jaya Tyagi, Sri Venkateswara College, New Delhi.
Abstract : Retrieval of women’s ‘agency’ from early texts requires careful ‘re-reading’ as texts like the Purāṇas project patriarchal ideologies which attempt to camouflage clearly discernible threads of women’s existences, their negotiations and their agency. It is these underlying threads that we have to explore, tracing how the thin channels of agency which women manage to negotiate have an overarching reach-- penetrating into the realms of socio-politico- cultural spaces, even leading to re-formulation of patriarchal ideologies and strategies. In scholarly traditions, although there is a tendency to seek agency outside of and in opposition to religious traditions, actually, in early societies the boundaries between theological, political and socio-cultural traditions are blurred and ‘theological’ traditions can generate intense and heated internal debates, especially with regard to women. This paper attempts to ‘re-read’ the Matsyamahāpurāṇa and through the study of ritual observances, vratas and myths, reconstruct the anxieties and expectations that Puranic traditions have with regard to women. These anxieties are manifest in the manner in which women are included in varied religious traditions, from the early centuries of the first millennium C.E.., be it Buddhist, Jaina, Puranic or Tantric theology. The premise of this paper is that Puranic ideology marks a significant departure from earlier brahmanical thought and women may have had a significant role to play in leading to these reformulations and in the ideological shift in theological approach of the Dharmaśāstras vis a vis the Puranas; their inclusion in Puranic rites and rituals certainly seems to indicate this. In the milieu that Matsyamahāpurāṇa emerges in, performance of vrata rituals was one of the critical ways in which women underlined their sacral and ritual roles in familial situations. This allowed them to extend control over resources and decision making and is reflected in the reference to them as patrons and promoters of Puranic ideology. The paper also shows how the re-presentation of Vedic and epic myths in the Matsyamahāpurāṇa is an attempt to incorporate resistance and deviations put forward by women, revealing variations in their social roles. The representations of the Goddess in Puranic traditions gives cognizance to feminine agency and underlines the inclusiveness of the Purāṇas. The paper will conclude with an exploration of the possible social consequences of ‘sacralising’ familial roles of women, suggesting that there are both definitive and open ended conclusions as the representation of women in texts and women’s responses to these representations have been subject to constant evolution and change.
Speaker : Dr. Jaya Tyagi is Associate Professor in the Department of History at Sri Venkateswara College, University of Delhi. She has written and published several articles on gender, households and religious traditions of early India. Her monograph ’Engendering the Early Household, Brahmanical Precepts in the Early Gṛhyasūtras, middle of first millennium B.C.E’ (2008) discusses rituals of the household and how they underline the sacral and social position of the householder. She has been a Fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies, Shimla (2010-2012) and this paper is largely drawn from her forthcoming monograph, written while at IIAS- ‘Contestation and Compliance: Women’s ‘Agency’ in the Matsyamahāpurāṇa’
Related Events : Women | Talks
"Retrieving Women’s 'Agengy' from Puranic tradition: Representations and re-presentations of women in the Matsyamahapurana" a talk by Dr. Jaya Tyagi at Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg > 3pm on 17th September 2013
!["Retrieving Women’s 'Agengy' from Puranic tradition: Representations and re-presentations of women in the Matsyamahapurana" a talk by Dr. Jaya Tyagi at Teen Murti House, Teen Murti Marg > 3pm on 17th September 2013]()
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Tuesday, September 17, 2013
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