RAIPUR: Recitation of vedas by women will have an adverse effect on their health, according to Jagatguru Shankaracharya Kapiles waran and Saraswati of the Sumerupeeth Karachi.
“Women never had the right to recite the vedas in the past, nor do they have the right to do so at present, nor should they have the night to do so in the future,” he told newsmen in an informal chat here.
He also challenged anyone to enter into a debate with him on whether women should have the night to recite vedas or not.
Maintaining that he bore no ill will of grudge against women, the Shankaracharya said if a woman recites vedas it will affect her uterus and she may not be able to produce a healthy child. “We are not depriving the women of the recitation of Vedas, but we are only protecting them from the vedas,” he observed.
Observing that no woman in other parts of the world gets so much respect or honor as a woman in India, he said the propaganda that women can also recite vedas is being made by leaders having: vested interest.
Article extracted from this publication >> August 5, 1994
