Kausalya and Mahatma Gandhi

[Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav]

Prof. Dr. Yogendra Yadav

Senior Gandhian Scholar, Professor, Editor and Linguist

Gandhi International Study and Research Institute, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, India

Contact No. – 09404955338, 09415777229

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Kausalya and Mahatma Gandhi

Dasharatha was a king of Ayodhya. Now which is situated in Uttar Pradesh? He had three queens. Kausalya was one of them. Raja Dasharatha loved her very much. Mahatma Gandhi read about her in Tulsidas’s Ramayana. He was very impressed and quoted many times in his speeches and writings. The first lesson will certainly be to put them in good shape. The mother will give them a bath lovingly, she will do nothing but crack jokes with them for several days and in many ways, just as mothers have done till this day, just as Kausalya did with little Rama; she will bind them in the bonds of her love and train them to dance to her tune.

Until the mother succeeds in this, just as a cow distractedly runs here and there for her lost calf, she will become anxious about those five children. She will not rest so long as the children have not learnt to be normally clean, their teeth, ears, hands and feet have not become clean, their stinking clothes have not been changed, and `hun’ has not become `shun’. After gaining this much control over them, the mother will teach the children the first lesson of Ramanama. Some will call Him Rama, some will call Him Rahman, but it is all the same. Economics will surely come after religion and so the mother will now start teaching them arithmetic. She will teach the children the multiplication tables and addition and subtraction orally. Children ought to know about the place where they reside; hence she will point out to them the adjoining rivers and channels, hillocks and buildings and while doing so given them an idea of the directions. And she will add to her own knowledge for the sake of the children. In this concept, history and geography can never be separate subjects. Knowledge of both can be imparted in the form of stories only. The mother cannot be satisfied with this much. A Hindu mother lets her children hear the sound of Sanskrit from their childhood and therefore makes them learn by rote verses in praise of God and trains the children in correct pronunciation.

A patriotic mother will surely give them knowledge of Hindi. Hence, she will talk to children in Hindi, read to them from Hindi books and turn them bilingual. She will not at this stage impart to them knowledge of writing, but will surely place a brush in their hands. She will make them draw geometrical figures, straight lines, circles, etc. A mother will not at all concede that the children who do not draw a flower or a jug or a triangle, have received education. And she will not deprive children of music. She will not tolerate it if the children do not sing in chorus and in a sweet voice national songs, devotional songs, etc. She will teach them to sing in rhythm. If she is a good teacher, she places a one-stringed instrument in their hands, gives them cymbals and teaches them a dance with sticks in which both boys and girls join. In order to develop their bodies, she makes them do physical exercise, makes them run and jump. And because the spirit of service is to be inculcated in them and they are to be taught some craft too, she would teach them to pick cotton pods and break them open, to gin and card cotton and to spin it and the children would playfully spin for at least half an hour every day.  1

What should be the attitude of the reformer regarding the position of women or towards Tulsidas under such circumstances? Can he derive no help whatever from Tulsidas? The reply is emphatically ‘he can’. In spite of disparaging remarks about women in the Ramayana it should not be forgotten that in it Tulsidas has presented to the world his matchless picture of Sita. Where would be Rama without Sita? We find a host of other ennobling figures like Kausalya, Sumitra, etc, in the Ramayana. We bow our head in reverence before the faith and devotion of Shabri and Ahalya. Ravana was a monster but Mandodari was a sati. In my opinion these instances go to prove that Tulsidasji was no reviler of women by conviction. On the contrary, so far as his convictions went, he had only reverence for them, So much for Tulsidasji attitude towards women. 2

 

References:

1. Navajivan, 2-6-1929
2. Young India, 31-10-1929