A Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism Klaus K Klostermaie

209 Woodroff, John
Bhagavadgïtä (1785) inspired many
Europeans. He became co-founder of
the Asiatick Society of Bengal (1784).
He also translated the Hitopadeÿa and
Kälidäsa’s Ÿakuntalä, which prompted
Goethe’s admiration for Indian drama.
Wilson, Horace Hayman
(1786–1860)
Sanskrit scholar. He was the first Boden
Professor of Sanskrit at Oxford
University, the translator of Kälidäsa’s
Meghadüta, the Vi•æu Puräæa, and
author of Lectures on the Religion and
Philosophy of the Hindus and Sanskrit
Grammar.
Winternitz, Moriz (1863–1937)
A diverse and creative Indologist, who
promoted the study of Hinduism in
many fields. While studying Indology at
Vienna, he wrote a thesis on the Hindu
marriage ritual, comparing it with other
traditions. He published a critical edition
of the Äpastambïya Gøhyasütra
(1887) and worked as an assistant to
Max MÜLLER in Oxford. As professor
of Indology in Prague from 1899 on, he
prepared the general index to the 49
volumes of the Sacred Books of the East
series and became instrumental in initiating
the critical edition of the
Mahäbhärata. His three-volume
History of Indian Literature (1905–22)
has remained a standard reference
work.
wisdom
See VIDYÄ.
women
In Vedic times women were the equals
of men in almost every respect: they
shared rituals and sacrifices, learning
and honours. Some sacrifices, such as
the harvest sacrifice (sïtä) and the sacrifice
to secure good husbands for their
daughters (rudrayäga), could only be
performed by women. Women chanted
the SÄMANS and composed many of the
hymns of the Øgveda. There was a provision
for change in gender (uha) in
many ritual formulae to alternately
have a woman or a man perform the ritual.
Women were also teachers of Vedic
lore, and girls were given the same education
as boys.
By the time of MANU (2) the role of
women in society was drastically curtailed,
and women were considered
unfit for Veda study. Women were
treated like ŸÜDRAS: they could not eat
or walk with their husbands, or converse
with them on anything of consequence.
The epics and Puräæas, while
extolling some women such as Sïtä and
Draupadï, generally exhibit a negative
attitude towards women: they describe
them as vicious, sensual, fickle, untrustworthy
and impure. Women’s only
sacrament was marriage and only
through service to their husbands,
regardless of their behaviour, could they
hope to find salvation. A faithful
woman (satï) was supposed to accompany
her husband (if she was childness)
on the funeral pyre. Childless widows
could expect a grim fate: they could not
remarry, and were almost without any
rights.
After centuries of subordination and
repression Hindu women found advocates
in the reformers of the 19th and
20th centuries: they agitated for the
abolition of satï, fought for the right of
women to get an education, to remarry,
to earn an income. The Hindu Marriage
Act of 1955 (with later amendments)
gives women the right to divorce their
husbands and to remarry, to own property
independently, and establishes legal
parity of women with men. (See also
EQUALITY OF WOMEN.)
Woodroff, John (1865–1936)
Writing under the pen name Arthur
Avalon, he translated and wrote many