Voices of Women in Vachanas

Woman it’s, if one develops breast and plaits of hair, Man it’s, if one grows moustache.Woman it’s, if one develops breast and plaits of hair, Man it’s, if one grows moustache. Tell me what is, The Knowledge of these, Whether female or male, O Nastinatha! (1) It is a stark truth that male and female are the basic components of the human society. But over the years the misconstruction about physical differences between man and woman has overpowered in the society. Woman has been suppressed in the highly prejudiced male centric society. The patriarchal system rooted deeply then and prevailing even today, considered women as sinful, lustful, fickle-minded as illustrated in Manusmriti. This idea became inseparable part of Indian psyche. Further when we turn the pages of history, it is unveiled that the class – hierarchy, blind beliefs, rituals, sacrifices, selfish motives of the priest class, idol worship, fear of God, belief in fate, rebirth, heaven and hell, no rights for women, - entangled in all these evil, intricate practices, the society was paralyzed. The innocent and ignorant people were forced to follow the practices blindly. “Women were considered to be sinful on virtue of their being born as women and it was considered the result of particular sins in a previous birth. They were regarded as impure mainly due to the association of impurity with menstruation.”(2) Such a chaotic and chocking environment was prevailing all over India and Karnataka in particular in the beginning of the 12th century. There came a ray of hope through Vachana Movement, triggered by Basavanna- the social reformer. This social movement brought revolutionary changes in the society. People from all strata, caste, creed and color came together to build a new society. The movement sowed the seeds of equality in all the sections of the society i.e. Gender, Caste, and Class. The voiceless have gained their voices and these voices were revealed in the form of Vachanas. This paper attempts to explore gender equality, emancipation of women and social position enjoyed by women during the 12th century.