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Woman as Fire, Woman as Sage: Sexual Ideology in the Mahabharata

By Arti Dhand

The ***** tradition has held conflicting views on womanhood from its earliest texts—holding women aloft as goddesses to be worshipped on the one hand and remaining deeply suspicious about women’s sexuality on the other. In Woman as Fire, Woman as Sage, Arti Dhand examines the religious premises upon which ***** ideas of sexuality and women are constructed. The work focuses on the great ***** epic, the Mahaμbhaμrata, a text that not only reflects the cogitations of a momentous period in ***** history, but also was critical in shaping the future of Hinduism. Dhand proposes that the epic’s understanding of womanhood cannot be isolated from the broader religious questions that were debated at the time, and that the formation of a sexual ideology is one element in crafting a coherent religious framework for Hinduism.

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