ISSN 0975-4067

KIRA¤ÀVALÃJournal of Sanskrit Research Foundation

The New Trivandrum Sanskrit SeriesVol.V. Book.I & II

January-June2013

SANSKRIT RESEARCH FOUNDATIONT.C 39/37

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM-36

KIRA¤ÀVALÃ

Journal of Sanskrit Research Foundation

EditorDr.M. ManimohananSree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit,Kaladydr.m.manimohanan@gmail.com

Executive EditorDr.C.S.SasikumarSree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit,Kaladydrsasikumarcs@yahoo.co.in

Managing EditorDr.G.NarayananSree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit,Kaladydr.g.narayanan@gmail.com

Editorial BoardDr.V.Sisupalapanikkar,Professor of Sanskrit(Rtd.) Uty. of KeralaDr.R.Vijayakumar, Professor of Vyakarana, S.S.U.S.KaladyDr.K.Muthulakshmi, Associate professor in Vedanta, S.S.U.S.KaladyDr.K.K.Sundaresan, Registrar, Kalamandalam

Editorial Advisory BoardDr.T.Devarajan, Professor of Sanskrit(Rtd), University of KeralaDr.P.Chithambaran, Rtd.Professor of Vedanta,S.S.U.S. KaladyDr.P.K.Dharmarajan, Professor of Sahitya, S.S.U.S. Kalady

Dr..S.Sobhana, Associate professor in Vedanta, S.S.U.S.Kalady

Dr.K.Sekharan, Professor of Sanskrit, University of Calicut

Associate EditorProf.R.Jinu

jichelnu@yahoo.co.in

Views expressed in the articles are those of the authors and notnecessarily those of the publishers

Contents

I¿a UpaniÀad and R¡m¡ya¸a Dr.V.Vasudevan- 7Bhadrakalikalam- a Reminiscence ofDhuli Chitra: A study Babu.K -15

Modern and Vedantic Viewson Mental Health Dr.H.Sylaja -38

Cultivation and related incomein the Artha¿¡stra Pushpadasan Kuniyil -44

R¡m¡ya¸a Plays ofBh¡sa Dr. N. Vijayamohanan Pillai - 49

The Creative Geniusin Sree Narayana Guru Dr.Asaletha.V -56

Eco Feminism Shamshad Begum.R - 62

Ajitamah¡tantra:Treatise on V¡stuvidya Soumya. K -70

Historical and Cultural Aspects Reflected InAshtamimahotsava Prabandha Krishnaveni -79

Influence of Buddhism in the Social HealthEnvironment of Kerala Soumya.c.s -84

¶É¤nùùºÉÉvÉÖi´ÉÊSÉxiÉÉvÉÉ®úÉ b÷É.ªÉ¨ÉÖxÉÉ.Eäò -90

{Éä ûxiÉÉxÉÆ xÉÉ®úɪÉhÉÊuùVÉ´É®úºªÉºÉÖMÉÖ±ÉÉlÉÇ ÉɱÉɪÉÉ& ´Éèʶɹ]õ¬¨É b÷É.BºÉÂ.Ê´ÉVɪÉEÖò¨ÉÉÊ® -96

EòɱÉ&-´ÉèªÉÉEò®úhɨÉiÉä ¦ÉÉMÉÇ É®úɨÉ& .Eäò.Eäò -104näù¶ÉÒªÉÉänÂùOÉlÉxÉä ¶ÉRÂóEò®ú´ÉänùÉxiɺªÉ |ɺÉÊHò& b÷Éì. ʺÉ. BxÉÂ. Ê´ÉVɪÉEÖò¨ÉÉ®úÒ -109

EÖòºÉÖ ÉÉ\VɱÉÒ®úÒiªÉÉ |ɱɪɺlÉÉ{ÉxɨÉ ¸ÉÒnùɺÉÂ. B.Ê¤É -113

Eco FeminismShamshad Begum.R

Nature is only valued in terms of its usefulness to us. It isthe nature of Humans to interfere with the environment andeconomic activities are responsible for long scale alterationsfor natural eco systems. Natural resources are very importantfor development and human progress. The study ofenvironment has been given inadequate attention in the studyof history with the growth of environmental history as an activefield; it become necessary to revisit the question of the role ofhuman initiative in history As John R Mc Neill defines it ‘Environmental history is the history of the mutual relationsbetween humankind and the rest of nature. Human kind haslong been a part of nature , but a distinct part—— Humanhistory has, and will always unfold with in a larger biologicaland physical context, and the context evolves in its ownright.’(McNeill 87)

The first citation of the modern sense of ‘pollution’ in theOxford English Dictionary is from Francis Bacons TheAdvancement of hearing 1605, a founding text of modernScientific methodology.

The new organic pesticides such as DDT, Aldine andDialdine that had been introduced after the Second WorldWar and had already proven highly successful in controllingpests insects constituted a serious threat both to wild life andhuman health.

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There is an acceleration in the rate of construction of largedams built to service the mining and smelting processes. Thesechanges have been characterized by an increasing level ofstate violence accompanying attempts to vacate tribal land formining and dams. These have frequently involved since 1998mass shooting and related incidents, arguably genocidal ineffect and intention along with unregulated and illicitenvironmental impacts involving deforestation, pollution andspecies decline. This undermining of the law by statemechanisms posess greater threats both to human rights andto the implementation of environmental protections. Thehistorical causes and environmental consequences of thesedevelopments have been very little researched to date but needto be understood if local cultures and heritages are to besustained a long side biodiversity protection(McNeill 18).

Eco-feminism ‘ a new term for an ancient wisdom’ growout of various social movements- the feminist, peace and theecology movements- in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Thoughthe term was first used by Francoise D Eaubonne(Mies andShiva 13). It become popular only in the context of numerousprotests and activities against environmental destruction,sparked off initially by recurring ecological disasters. Themeltdown at Three Mile Island prompted large members ofwoman in the USA to come together in the first ecofeministconference- Women and life on Earth : A conference on Eco-feminism in the Eighties – in March 1980, at Amherst. At thisconference the connections between feminism, militarization,healing and ecology were explored . As Ynesta king, one ofthe conference organizers, wrote. Eco- feminism is aboutconnectedness and wholeness of theory and practice. It assertsthe special strength and integrity of every living thing - We area woman identified movement and we believe we have a specialwork to do in these important times. We see the devastation of

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the earth and her beings by the corporate warriors, as feministconcerns . It is the same masculinit mentality which woulddeny us our right to our own bodies and our own sexuality andwhich depends on multiple system of dominance and statepower to have its way(King 10). Women were the first to protectagainst environmental destruction. Wherever women actedagainst ecological destruction or/and the threat of atomicannihilation, they immediately become aware of the connectionbetween patriarchal violence against women, other people andnature: In defying this patriarchy we are loyal to futuregenerations and to life and this planet itself. We have a deepand particular understanding of this both through our naturesand our experience as women(11).

As feminists activity seeking women’s liberation from maledomination, we could not however ignore the fact that‘modernization’ and ‘development’ processes and progresswere responsible for the degradation of the natural world. Thuswomen in Switzerland demonstrated against the seveso(Mies14)poisoning. In India women have most severely affected bythe Union Carbide pesticides plant in Bhopal. Again theChipko(Bahuguna) women in India, women and men whoactively oppose mega dam construction women who fightagainst nuclear power plants and against the irresponsibledumping of toxic wastes around the world, and many moreworldwide. The women of Sicily who protested against thestationing of nuclear missiles in this country stated-

Our ‘no’ to war coincides with our struggle for liberation—— It is no co-incidence that the gruesome game of war- inwhich the greater part of the male sex seems to delight- passesthrough the same stages aggression, conquest, possession,control of a woman or a land, it makes little difference(Mies15). Nuclear power plant at Whyl in South- West Germanyalso saw the connection between technology, the profit oriented

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growth mania of the industrial system and the exploitation ofthe Third World(Mies 91). This connection was also mostclearly spelt out by a Russian woman after the chernobylcatastrophe in May 1986. ‘Men do not think of life they onlywant to conquer nature and the enemy’. whatever the costsmay be the chernobyl disaster in particular provoked aspontaneous expression of women’s outrange and resistanceagainst this war technology and the general industrial warriorsystem.

The new developments in biotechnology genericengineering and reproductive technology have made womenactual conscious of the gender bias of science and technologyand that sciences whole paradigm is characteristicallypatriarchal, anti- nature and colonial and aims to disposewomen of their generative capacity as it does the productivecapacities of nature. Those involved look not only at theimplications of these technologies for women, but also foranimals, plants for agriculture in the Third world as well as inthe industrialized North. They understand that the liberationof women cannot be achieved in isolation, but only as part of alarger struggle for the preservation of life in this planet.

The common ground for women’s liberation and thepreservation of life on earth is to be found in the activities ofthose women who have become the victims of the developmentprocess and who struggle to conserve their subsistence base.In the final outcome of the present world system is a generalthreat to life on planet earth, then it is crucial to resuscitate andnarture the impulse and determination to survive, inherent inall living things. A closer examination of the numerous localstruggles against ecological destruction and deterioration, forexample against atomic power plants in Germany(Mies 3)against chalk mining and logging in the Himalayas(Shiva,Staying Alive)(Shiva, “Fight for Survival -Interview with

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Chamun Devi and Itwari”) the activities of the Green BeltMovement in Kenya(Dankelman) and of Japanese womenagainst food pollution by chemically- stimulated, commercialagriculture and for self- reliant producer- customer network(Ekins) poor women’s efforts in Ecuador to save themangrove forests as breeding- grounds for fish andshrimp(Mies 3), the battle of thousands of women in the southfor better water management, soil conservation, land use, andmaintenance of their survival base (forests, fuel, fodder) againstthe industrial interests, confirmed that many women,worldwide, felt the same anger and anxiety, and the same senseof responsibility to preserve the bases of life, and to end itsdestruction. Irrespective of different racial, ethnic, cultural orclass women together to forget links in solidarity backgrounds,this common concern brought with other women, people andeven nations . In these process of action and reflection similaranalyses, concepts and visions also sometimes emerged.

The contemporary women’s movement in India spans a largecanvas. Many smaller and larger movements originated in thegeneralized economic and political crises that gripped thecountry towards the end of the nineteen sixties.(I. SenIntroduction)1

According to the different action groups and the feminists,the origins of the exploitation of women is inthe patriarchalsystem of society————[ in] the writings of the feministsin India the Political and left parties as well as trade unions arepartiarchal(Khullar 81).

The concept of womanhood , of mata (mother)hasautomatically got connected with this whole movement,although the concept of Narmada as mata is very much part of(it. ) So the feminine tone is given, both to the leadership andthe participants- then (it all) comes together(G. Sen 294).Nature is sobordinated to man; women to man; consumption

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to production; and the local to the global, and so on. Feministhave long eriticized this dichotomy, particularly the structuraldivision of man and nature, which is seen as analogous to thatof man and woman(Ortner).

Diversity, of life and cultures, which instead are experiencedas divisive and threatening. An ecofeminist perspectivepropounds the need for a new cosmology and a newanthropology which recognizes that life in nature (whichincludes human beings ) is maintained by means of co-operation, and mutual care and love. Only in this way can webe enabled to respect and preserve the diversity of all life forms,including their cultural expressions as true sources of our wellbeing and happiness. The concept of emancipation necessarily,implied dominance over nature including human, femalenature, and, that ultimately, this dominance relationship wasresponsible for the ecological destruction we now face. Modernchemistry, household technology and pharmacy wereproclaimed as womens saviours, because they would ‘emancipate’ them from household drudgery.Today we realizethat much environmental pollution and destruction is causallylinked to modern household technology. The preservation ofthe earth’s diversity of life forms and of human societiescultures is a precondition for the maintenance of life on thisplanet.

To find a way out of cultural relativism, it is necessary tolook not only for differences but for diversities andinterconnectedness among women, among men and women,among human beings and other life forms, worldwide.

The universalism does not deal in abstract universal human‘rights’ but rather in common human needs which can besatisfied only if the life- sustaining networks and processesare kept intact and alive. These symbiosis of livinginterconnectedness both in nature and human society are the

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only guarantee that life in its fullest sense can continue on thisplanet. These fundamental needs; for food, shelter, clothing,for affection, care and love; for dignity and identity, forknowledge and freedom leisure and joy, are common to allpeople, irrespective of culture, ideology, race, political andeconomic system and class. “The Ecofeminist perspective asexpressed by women activists recognizes no such divisionculture is very much part of their struggle for subsistence andlife. They identify freedom with their loving interaction andproductive work in co-operation with Mother Earth(Shiva,“Fight for Survival -Interview with Chamun Devi and Itwari”).Eco- feminism has held greater appeal for historians thus hasworld system analysis, and to date is perhaps moresuccessful(Jacobs).

Notes1.Ajitha K (1990) Reminiscences from Wynad.2.Datar, Chhaya (1990) Bidi Workers in Nipani3.Everett, Jana (1986)” We were in the Forefront of the fight: Feminist

Theory andPractice in Indian Grass Roots Movements.4.Gandhi Nandita (1990) The Anti- Price Rise Movement.5.Geetha (1990) The Tamil Nadu Construction Workers ‘Union’6.Kelkar, Govind and chetna Gala (1990) The Bodhagaya Land

Struggle.7. Kishwar, Madhu (1998) The Nature of Women’s Mobilization in

Rural India.8.Omvedi Gail (1990) The Farmers Movement in Maharashtra.9. Nayak, Nalini(1990) The Kerala Fisher Workers Struggle.10.Barthakur, Sheila and Sabita Goswami (1990) The Assam

Movement.11.Omvedt, Gail (1990) The Farmers Movement in Maharashtra.12. Raman Vasanthi (1986) Nari Mukthi Movement in Assan.13.Ranadive. V (1987) Feminists and the Womens Movement, Delhi.14.Sathe, Nirmala (1990) The Adivasi Struggle in Dhulia.15.Sen, illina (1990) Workers Struggle in Chhattisgarh.16. Sree Sakthi Sangathana (1989) We were making History: Life

Stories of women in the Telangana Peoples Struggle.

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17. Vindhya U (1990) The Srikakulam Movement.

18. Bahuguna Vimla (1990) The Chipko Movement

Works CitedDankelman, Irene. Women and Environment in the Third World:Alliance for the Future. London; Wolfeboro, N.H.: EarthscanPub. in association with IUCN; Distributed in the USA byLongwood Pub. Group, 1988. Print.

Ekins, Paul. A New World Order/ : Grassroots Movements forGlobal Change. London; New York: Routledge, 1992. Print.

Jacobs, Nancy J. Environment, Power, and Injustice: a SouthAfrican History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003.Print.

Khullar, Mala. “Writing the Women’s Movement: a Reader.”Zubaan, an imprint of Kali for Women, 2005. Print.

McNeill, John R. Environmental History: As If Nature Existed.Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. Print.

Mies, Maria. Ecofeminism. Halifax, N.S.; London; AtlanticHighlands, N.J.: Fernwood Publications; Zed Books, 1993. Print.

Ortner, S. “Is Female or Male as Nature to Culture?” Women,Culture and Society. Ed. M Rosaldo & M.Lamphere Zand.Standford: Standford University Press, 1974. Print.

Sen, Geeti. Indigenous Vision/ : Peoples of India, Attitudes tothe Environment. New Delhi: Sage Publications/ : IndiaInternational Centre, 1992. Print.

Sen, Ilina. A Space Within the Struggle: Women’s Participationin People’s Movements. New Delhi: Kali for Women, 1990. Print.

Shiva, Vandana. “Fight for Survival -Interview with ChamunDevi and Itwari.” The Illustrated weekly of india 15 Nov. 1987: n. pag. Print.

—. Staying Alive: Women, Ecology, and Survival in India. NewDelhi: Women Unlimited, 2010. Print.