MS RAMNIKA JALALI’S BOOK INDIAN WOMEN IN THE SMRITIS is a
good book. In 248 pages she has listed nearly 100 law books, what are called
Smritis in Sanskrit. She has compared the status of women in 37 important law
books and listed another 57 law books.
She has dealt with woman
As a girl
As a wife
As a mother
As a widow
As a prostitute
It is a balanced book and gives a long list of reference
books.
It is treasure house for researchers.
She has given the famous sloka of Manu smrti in the very
beginning:
Yatra naaryastu puujyante ramante tatra devataah
Yatretaastu na puujyante sarvaastatraaphalaah kriyaah
Manu 3-56
The deities delight in places where women are revered, but
where women are not revered all rites are fruitless – Manu 3-56
Here some pages from the book
Full list of Hindu Law Books called Smritis is in the book.
Hindu woman in Toronto, Canada Hindu Temple Festival from Facebook
The Rev Dr W S Rainsford once told the futility
of trying to comfort people with Bible texts.
“Whenever I tried to persuade an Irish member
of my flock to pay more attention to his church duties, he would make the
excuse that it took his all time to earn a living, and he would touch my heart by
his expatiation upon the difficulty of making money.
But Patrick”, I protested, “man does not live
by bread alone”.
“No, Y’r Riverance, replied Patrick, “Sure an’
he needs a bit o’ mate an’ some vegetables as well!”
(meat and vegetables)
Xxxx
A bigoted old church goer, firmly set in his notions,
rebuffed his neighbour who was speaking of a new American version of the Bible.
Said he, “If the King James version was good enough
for St Paul, its good enough for me”.
Xxx
Mark twain and Bible story
Mark Twain was fond of telling the story of the
small boy’s account of Elijah in his less ingratiating mood.
“There was a Prophet named Elija. One day he
was going up a mountainside. Some boys threw stones at him. He said, “If you
keep on throwing stones at me, I will set the bears upon and they will eat you
up. And they did, and he did, and the bears did”.
Xxxx
US President and the Bible
Someone remarked in President Grant’s presence
that Sumner did not believe in the Bible.
Why should he? asked the President, “he did not
write it”.
Xxx
God alone knows all!
On one occasion, when Mrs William Gladstone was
entertaining visitors, conversation turned on the Bible, and there was a lively
argument on the meaning of a certain passage.
Presently one of the callers, hoping to end the
discussion, remarked devoutly,
“There is One (God) alone who knows all”
The cloud vanished from Mrs Gladstone’s face
and she smiled sunnily as she said,
“Yes, and William will be down in a few minutes”.
Xxx
Bible and Baseball
Greatly distressed by the prevailing ignorance
of the villagers in the small village in which she was vacationing, an old lady
persuaded the school teacher to give some lessons to some of the more
illiterate adults.
Meeting one of the pupils on the street one day
she asked kindly,
“Well, John, I guess you can read your Bible by
this time.”
“Bless your heart , Madam” was the grateful
reply, I was out of the Bible and into the baseball news over a week ago”
Please see the jewelleries and the hair styles of the statues. Now we don’t have the crowns of our ancient kings. Fortunately our temples have the ancient crowns and these statues and idols also show the old type of crowns
Pictures are taken with my Samsung mobile phone camera.
Tamil and Vedas 