Abstract
Gārgī Vācaknavī is known for her challenging interrogation of the sage Yājñavalkya, in what was by then a male dominated activity: philosophical debate. Gārgī distinguishes herself for challenging Yājñavalkya, being rebuked and challenging him a second time. Gārgī demonstrates her mastery over the concept at dispute (Growth, Expansion, Development) by being able to revise her approach to the question. Gārgī philosophically demonstrates the very idea she is investigating. Her salvos at Yājñavalkya display the two contrasting modes of philosophical investigation of the early Vedas, characterized by naturalism, and the latter philosophy of the Upaniṣads, characterized as a procedural nonnaturalism. Gārgī engages in this dispute, challenging gender norms of her day. Over a millennia later, Gārgī and Yājñavalkya’s personas are reprised in a post-Vedic dialogue, the Yogayājñavalkya, on the technological application of Yoga philosophy. Here Gārgī is cast as the unassuming interlocutor—in stark contrast to her earlier firebrand, gender-norm-breaking performance in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad (BU). As this latter depiction is not historically accurate, we will focus on Gārgī’s contribution to the BU.
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Notes
- 1.
Translations of the BU here are mine but in many cases they coincide with Patrick Olivelle’s. See Olivelle (1996).
- 2.
For more on this, see Bouy (1994).
- 3.
By analogy, Fruit Salad is a class category. Fruit Salad’s criterion of inclusion is a diversity of different pieces of fruit. It doesn’t follow from this that a piece of fruit salad is a diversity of different pieces of fruit. Put the pieces of fruit together: fruit salad. On its own, no piece of fruit is itself fruit salad.
- 4.
. In Hinduism: A Contemporary Philosophical Investigation (Ranganathan, 2018) I explore the historical conditions of this colonial innovation, and its philosophical implications—too numerous to catalogue here.
- 5.
For a review of the Western literature and its commitment to interpretation, see Ranganathan (2022).
- 6.
- 7.
Compare Ranganathan (2017b) for a survey of these positions.
- 8.
The Monier Monier-Williams Sanskrit English Dictionary gives many accounts of the meaning of “Brahman”. The primary meanings are: “growth”, “expansion”, “evolution”, and “development.“ (Monier-Williams, 1995, 737–8).
- 9.
For a study of this historical development spanning the earlier and later Vedas, see Ranganathan (2017a).
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Ranganathan, S. (2023). Gārgī Vācaknavī of India गार्गी वाचक्नवी fl. Eighth Century BCE. In: Waithe, M.E., Boos Dykeman, T. (eds) Women Philosophers from Non-western Traditions: The First Four Thousand Years. Women in the History of Philosophy and Sciences, vol 19. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-28563-9_3
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