Ancient India had women Brahmavadinis, women Rig Vedic composers, and rituals for obtaining learned daughters — Dr. Brishti Guha dismantles colonial stereotypes.

Dr. Brishti Guha, Professor of Economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, draws on 8th-century Sanskrit plays, the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, the Rig Vedic Anukramani, and the Theri Gatha (the world’s earliest known collection of women’s writing, composed during the Buddha’s lifetime) to reconstruct a picture of ancient Indian women that defies every colonial-era stereotype. Women like Atreya in Bhavabhuti’s Uttaramacharita travelled alone in search of better education — a matter of complete social normalcy.

The conversation covers the Haridharma Sutra’s categories of women scholars (Sadyavadhus and Brahmavadinis), ancient India’s zero-victim-shaming approach to gender violence, and how women rulers, philosophers, and military strategists operated with full societal support. A meticulous, evidence-driven corrective to centuries of distorted historical narrative about Indian women.

About the Speaker:
Dr Brishti Guha has a PhD in economics from Princeton. She studied at St Stephen’s College and JNU and is currently an associate professor at the School of International Studies, JNU. Besides publishing in international academic journals, she publishes regularly on themes related to ancient India in the popular press. Her translations from Sanskrit literature and her essays have also appeared in a number of popular international magazines.

Dr Sabareesh P.A is a writer and author of ‘A Brief History of Science in India’, ‘Our Hindu Nationhood’ and a PhD from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi with wide academic interests.