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Ramanuja List Archive: Message 00122 Mar 2003

 
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Sri:
Srimathe Ramanujaya nama:
Dear bhAgavathAs,
Salutations to all. Advanced apologies for anything written 
in ignorance. Please feel free to share your thoughts. I feel the 
topic of vedas,women and shudras has taken a detour. The actual 
question was why women and sudras are not privileged to learn the 
vedas. 

Strictly speaking,varNAshrama dharma has collapsed in 
this kaliyuga(few people could be exceptions in relation to the 
world's population). Which brAhmaNa(male) seeks alms or goes for 
unjavrtti and lead his daily life? It applies to other varNAs too. I 
know quite a number of people belonging to the kshatriya and vaishya 
who are phds and do not perform what is enjoined for them in the 
vedas. I always find solace in Sri ParAsara Bhattar's statements amd 
Sri Bhattar had instantaneous solutions to "you-name-it-problem". 

Leaving all this side,let us come to the main topic of 
women and sudras. If karma kANda is mandatory and pre-requisite for 
learning j~nAna kANda,then based on the natural physical problems 
that exist for women,it can be justified that they are not allowed to 
undergo vedic lessons if not the proof becomes difficult. Still the 
problem doesn't answer why sudras are not allowed and frankly 
speaking I haven't seen anyone giving a convincing answer to this 
question. PS:I never had the fortune to question or interact with 
great AcAryAs along these lines. 

With so much advancement in Science and Technology,women 
can find solace in allopathic medicine for the benefits that it 
offers but they have to pay a price for the side effects. Women can 
postpone their menstrual cycle with 100% guarantee and I personally 
know a dozen women who had their marriage ceremonies postponing their 
cycles. But then a cyclic process may become acyclic and hence it is 
advised to leave it to nature. As far I know there is no natural 
remedy for postponing the cycle(hence resort to allopathy) but there 
is plenty to prepone the cycle and even abort the baby if one doesn't 
want. I doubt if this problem can be given as a strong reason for 
women not to participate in prabandha ghOShTi. 

I haven't heard a person, with a horrible voice,after 
changing his/her vocal chords, become a great singer. There is a 
fundamental base pitch in case of both men and women. Women's pitch 
become fixed and it can not be altered while men's pitch is flexible. 
No matter what the student's(or the master's) natural pitch is,he/she 
can still learn under a male tuitor without compromising his/her 
original pitch and this is not case with a female tuitor. Whenever 
there is a duet,it is normally males' voice that is adjusted 
according to the female's pitch. Men with different pitches can still 
make a nice chorus song but in the case of women it will sound 
cacophonous. For learning music,one has to have a "reasonable" good 
voice while it is not a must to learn prabandham(all it requires is 
the desire for the Lord). 

When both men and women musicians sing panca ratna krtis,it 
can be easily synchronised as most of their voices would fall in 
an "accepatble" ranges. Even here they have to prcatise because each 
of their style(depending on the master who teaches) may be different. 
There is a group of students near my place who are all very good 
singers(my cousin has a style of Alathur brothers and Chemmangudi,one 
has the style of Brinda sisters,another is a direct disciple of TN 
Sheshagopalan,one is a student of TN Rukmini) and they sing 
pancaratna without prior practise and it sounds so horrible to hear 
the chorus and I recorded their voice and played it back for them and 
they all laughed. We can not do this kind of gimmicks and take care 
of acoustic arrangemnts everytime for prabandha ghOShTi. In the case 
of panca ratna we can still distinctly hear male and female voices 
and we don't want this in prabandha/veda chorus. We want to be heard 
as though only one person recites/chants. The best solution is to 
filter out women(however gruff a female voice is,still it can be 
distinguished from the male voice). Please forgive if this post has 
offended anyone even in the slightest way.

AzhvAr EmperumAnAr JIyar thiruvadigaLE sharaNam
NC Nappinnai 






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