Woman – Foundation of knowledge

The Vedic attitude towards woman is clear and unambiguous. She forms the foundation of our society. If you want to destroy the society, destroy the status, education and dignity of woman, If you want to form a society that stands up to highest benchmarks of principles and nobility, accord highest glory to woman and let her possess knowledge, dignity and leadership.

It was the greatest misfortune that befell on our nation and society when we started considering women as commodity – either for sensual pleasure or for servile jobs. This did not happen in one day. The degradation of women started around 1000 years before Mahabharat. But after the Islamic invasions in middle ages, the status kept deteriorating like anything. And in sync with that, the society started becoming more and more weak, cowardly, impotent, tortured, mutilated and devastated. The price that we paid for ignoring the Vedic advice on women has been indeed very heavy. So foolish have we been that, in name of Dharma, we allowed the undeserving among us to dictate that women do not have rights over study of Vedas or to even recite Vedic mantras.

It is indeed a matter of shame that many such anti-Vedic mindsets claim to represent so-called Hindutva or Hinduism or Vedic culture and many even revere them blindly. And this is what has been making our society even more hypocritical. Agniveer categorically states that all those people and all those texts that justify prohibition of Vedic studies or inferior rights for women are the GREATEST ENEMIES OF HINDUISM. Period.

The lessons of repression of women have been learned by us not from Vedas but from traditions of the invaders who plundered us – be it the tribals of West Asia representing so-called Islam or the British representing so-called Christianity. And of course all those bogus texts that were written to dissuade people from study of Vedas. We do not know when and till when were these texts written. (Some kept being written till printing press became popular in late 19th century!) But we are of firm opinion that any text that demeans women or provides them inferior rights or restricts them from being leaders of society should be trashed into garbage or reinterpreted in lines of Vedas. Its high time we get back directly to the Vedas to know what true Dharma is.

In this article, we shall trash the myth that women do not have right to study Vedas or perform Yajna. We shall also study what Vedas have to say about a scholarly woman.

Woman and Yajna

Rigveda 1.146.3: The Yajamaan (performer of Yajna) and his wife are two cows and the fire of Yajna is the calf.

Rigveda 1.72.5: Scholars perform Yajna with their wives and achieve bliss.

Rigveda 2.6.5: If mother and sister perform Yajna together, that brings bliss.

Rigveda 7.1.6: The young woman approaches the fire with Havi

Atharvaveda 3.28.6: O wife, you have entered the world of Yajna.

Atharvaveda 3.30.6: All the members of family should perform Yajna.

Atharvaveda 14.2.18: O woman, you should perform Yajna in Grihastha Ashram.

Atharvaveda 14.2.25: O woman, perform Yajna with bliss.

Further, there is NOT ONE SINGLE mantra in entire Vedas that prohibit Yajna for women.

Please note that Yajna here does not mean merely Agnihotra or Havan, but all kinds of noble deeds. Vedas simply do not differentiate on basis of gender or birth for conduct of any noble deed.

And when women can do Yajna, what stops her from reciting Vedic Mantras!


The restriction of women from Vedas or Yajna is an innovation of medieval age whose only contribution to our society has been disaster and slavery.

Its a matter of shame that many revered representatives of Hinduism still justify such perverted beliefs. But thanks to legends like Swami Dayanand Saraswati who gave right interpretations of Vedas, we hear Gayatri Mantra sung by women even in temples!

Here is a tip to expose black sheep among us – Ask the representative of Hinduism – be he a Shankaracharya or Mahant or Master of Sanskrit or whatever – if he can have a woman perform priestly duties, recite Vedic mantras and conduct Agnihotra. If answer is anything but an immediate and emphatic yes, he is an enemy to cause of Dharma. Reject him in same manner as one rejects a snake despite having a Mani on head.