Download Hindu Scriptural Quotes on Women - PHS

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Hindu Scriptural Quotes on Women
An anthology of sacred quotes from Hinduism on women.
1)A wife, obedient to her husband, renowned, light-footed,
eloquent in speech, sympathetic to the patients, attains to
happiness when she lives peacefully with her husband, and
nicely cooks the food highly efficacious, and grown through
rain, conducive to our physical growth, brought daily in use,
and relished by our ancestors. Yajur Veda Chapter XXXIII,
Verse 59
2)Rama (addressing Bharata) said: "Do you keep your
womenfolk pacified? Are they duly protected by you? I hope
you do not repose excessive faith in them and do not confide
your secrets to them." Valmiki Ramayana Ayodhya Kanda,
100.49
3)Krishna said: "For, taking refuge in Me, they also who, O
Arjuna, may be of sinful birth--women, vaisyas as well as
sudras--attain the Supreme Goal." Bhagavad Gita, Ch.9,
Verse 32
4)Men must make their women dependent day and night, and
keep under their own control those who are attached to
sensory objects. Her father guards her in childhood, her
husband guards her in youth, and her sons guard her in old age.
A woman is not fit for independence. Manusmriti 9.2-3
5)They (women) make a lie appear as truth, and a truth appear
as a lie. The Mahabharata Anusasana Parva, Section
XXXIX
6)Addressing Shakuntala, Dushmanta said:
"Women generally speak untruth" The Mahabharata Adi
Parva, Section LXXIV
7)Yudhishthira (addressing Bhishma) said:
Women in particular, the Rishis have said, are false in
behaviour. Women in particular have been declared in the
ordinances to be false. In the very Vedas one may read that
women are false. The Mahabharata Anusasana Parva,
Section XIX
8)Women do not care for beauty, nor is their attention fixed on
age; (thinking), '(It is enough that) he is a man,' they give
themselves to the handsome and to the ugly. Through their
passion for men, through their mutable temper, through their
natural heartlessness, they become disloyal towards their
husbands, however carefully they may be guarded in this
(world). Knowing their disposition, which the
Lord of creatures laid in them at the creation, to be such,
(every) man should most strenuously exert himself to guard
them. (When creating them) Manu allotted to women (a love
of their) bed, (of their) seat and (of) ornament, impure desires,
wrath, dishonesty, malice, and bad conduct. For women no
(sacramental) rite (is performed) with sacred texts, thus the
law is settled; women (who are) destitute of strength and
destitute of (the knowledge of) Vedic texts, (are as impure as)
falsehood (itself), that is a fixed rule. Manusmriti 9.14-18
9)For women there is no ornament more valuable than their
husbands. Valmiki Ramayana Sunder Kanda, 16-26
10)A damsel whose menses begin to appear (while she is
living) at her father's house, before she has been betrothed to a
man, has to be considered as a degraded woman: by taking her
(without the consent of her kinsmen) a man commits no
wrong. Vishnusmriti 24.41
11)"Lord Indra himself has said, 'The mind of woman cannot
be disciplined; she has very little intelligence.' " Rig Veda
8.33.17
12)Sage Ashtavakra said:
Women can never be their own mistresses. This is the opinion
of the Creator himself, viz., that a woman never deserves to be
independent. There is not a single woman in the three worlds
that deserves to be regarded as the mistress of her own self.
The father protects her while she is a maiden. The husband
protects her while she is in youth. Sons protect her when she is
aged. Women can never be independent as long as they
live. The Mahabharata Anusasana Parva, Section XX
13)Even if destitute of virtue, or seeking pleasure (elsewhere),
or devoid of good qualities, a husband must be constantly
worshipped as a god by a faithful wife. Manusmriti 5.154
14)After the death of her husband, a woman should preserve
her chastity or ascend the pyre after him. Vishnusmriti 25.14
15)Arjuna said:
When irreligion is prominent in the family, O Krishna, the
women of the family become corrupt, and from the
degradation of womanhood, O descendant of Vrishni, comes
unwanted progeny. Bhagavad Gita, Ch.1, Verse 40
16)Women are powerless, have no inheritance, and speak
more humbly than even a bad man. Krishna Yajur Veda
Taittiriya Samhita 6.5.8.2
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17)Rama said:
For a (married) woman, so long as she is alive, her husband
indeed is her deity as well as her lord. ... Nay, that woman
who, though extremely noble and keenly devoted to sacred
observances and fasts, does not serve her husband, is sure to
attain the destiny of a sinner. Through service to one's
husband (on the other hand) even that woman who does not
offer salutations (to anyone other than her husband) and is
averse to the worship of gods secures the highest heaven.
Intent on doing that which is pleasing and good to her husband,
a (married) woman should, therefore do service to him alone:
this is the lasting duty enjoined on a woman in the Vedas as
well as in the Smrti texts. Valmiki Ramayana Ayodhya
Kanda, 24
18)Sita said:
In the case of women neither father nor son nor their own
body nor mother nor their female companions serve as an
asylum here or hereafter. The husband alone is their refuge at
all times. Valmiki Ramayana Ayodhya Kanda, 27.6
19)Addressing sage Ashtavakra, the old Lady said:
The very deities of wind and fire and water, or the other
celestials, O regenerate one, are not so agreeable to women as
the deity of desire. Verily, women are exceedingly fond of
sexual congress. Among a thousand women, or perhaps,
among hundreds of thousands, sometimes only one may be
found that is devoted to her husband. When under the
influence of desire, they care not for family or father or
mother or brother or husband or sons or husband's brother, but
pursue the way that desire points out. ...Verily, in pursuit of
what they consider happiness, they destroy the family to
which they belong by birth or marriage, even as many queenly
rivers eat away the banks that contain them. Even women that
are aged are tortured by the desire of sexual union. The
Creator himself had said this, quickly marking the faults of
women. The Mahabharata Anusasana Parva, Section XIX
& XXI
20)One thing mixed with another should not be sold, nor
anything that is spoiled, deficient, far away, or concealed. If
one girl is shown but another is given to the bridegroom, he
may marry both of them for the single bride-price; that is what
Manu says. Manusmriti 8.203-204
21)Lakshmana (addressing Sita) said:
It is the nature of women all over the world to be vicious,
fickle, and sharp-tongued and to sow seeds of
dissension. Valmiki Ramayana Aranya Kanda, 45.29
22)A woman who has been unchaste should worship Siva in
his calm aspect, Siva who is Kama. Then she should summon
a Brahmin and give herself to him, thinking, 'This is Kama
who has come for the sake of sexual pleasure.' And whatever
the Brahmin wishes, the sensuous woman should do. For
thirteen months she should honour in this way any Brahmin
who comes to the house for the sake of sexual pleasures, and
there is no immorality in this for noble ladies or
prostitutes. Matsya Purana 70.40-60 (cf. Mahabharata III,
2.23)
23)A discarded wife is one who has no son. ... For a wife that
is without a son, is possessed with Nirriti (destruction,
calamity). Shatapatha Brahmana 5.3.1.13
24)It is the nature of women to seduce men in this (world); for
that reason the wise are never unguarded in (the company of)
females. For women are able to lead astray in (this) world not
only a fool, but even a learned man, and (to make) him a slave
of desire and anger. One should not sit in a lonely place with
one's mother, sister, or daughter; for the senses are powerful,
and master even a learned man. Manusmriti 2.213-215
25)A union of a twice-born man with a Sudra wife can never
produce religious merit; it is from carnal desire only that he
marries her, being blinded by lust. Men of the three first castes,
who through folly marry a woman of the lowest caste, quickly
degrade their families and progeny to the state of Sudras. If his
oblations to the gods and manes and (his hospitable attentions)
to guests are offered principally through her (a Sudra wife's)
hands, the gods and manes (and the guests) will not eat such
offerings, and he will not go to heaven. Vishnusmriti 26.5-7
26)And whilst not coming into contact with Sudras and
remains of food; for this Gharma is he that shines yonder, and
he is excellence, truth, and light; but woman, the Sudra, the
dog, and the crow, are untruth: he should not look at these, lest
he should mingle excellence and sin, light and darkness, truth
and untruth. Shatapatha Brahmana 14.1.1.31
27)Ansuya (Rishi Atri's wife) said to Sita:
"A woman is impure by her very birth; but she attains a happy
state by serving her lord (husband)". Tulasi Ramayana
Aranya Kanda, 5 A-B
28)Bhishma said:
Women have one eternal duty in this world, viz., dependence
upon and obedient service to their husbands, and as such, this
one duty constitutes their only end. The Mahabharata
Anusasana Parva, Section LIX