Sexuality in Hinduism
Essay by Ravin Bhakta • July 9, 2016 • Essay • 687 Words (3 Pages) • 1,037 Views
Since the dawn of Primal people, men and women, both have been worshipping female goddesses even more than male gods. Goddess’ were often symbols of life and death, itself. In most cases, shrines dedicated to these goddess’ depicted women with large stomachs or in some cases where the women was shown opening her legs. In today’s culture, when a women opens her legs, it is a sign of insult, however back in the Primal ages, it symbolized the creation of life into the word. Numerous questions have been formed as to understand why goddesses were worshipped more than gods such as what roles did female gods have, what's the primary role, if there was such a role, and why was it important?
The question of why goddesses were worshipped more than male gods causes one to go back and study the archaeological times during Egypt and Mesopotamia as well as ancient Greece. To better understand the question, one must look at the personality and physical aspect to the role of female goddesses. In this role, she was the great mother, the earth mother, whose magical powers assured the food supply and the continuance of the human race(Barstow). Some scholars have agreed that women have never held dominant positions in any society,…(Barstow). It quite known throughout history and others’ religion that women haven't exactly held superior roles with the exception to women dominating groups such as the Amazon tribe, a woman warrior tribe.
The questions of what the primary role and what it meant to be a female goddess are closely related as every religion has a connection. For Hinduism, there was the Goddess Sarasvati, who was honored with the invention of the alphabet. Whereas in Celtic Ireland, the Goddess Brigit was the deity of language. However, more recently, texts are revealed that Goddess Nidaba from Sumer had the honor of the invention of clay tablets and writing. Even with the evidence appearing throughout the world, the era of goddess worshippers is lost through the pages of history. According to Barstow, sometimes the goddess is portrayed being pregnant, a twin figure goddess or even a triple figure goddess. Plus, Barstow states that when visiting the shrines, what was noticed was the sculptures or carvings of these goddess painted naked and some were giving brith, which was a symbol of life. The worshipping of these goddess gave women a ray of hope in a society dominated by men. The question that is being asked, is why was worshipping these females such an important deal.
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