Women characters in the text Sekaśubhodayā: A Cosmopolitan voice of Moral and Ethical Values
Bhattacharya, Partha Sarathi
Assistant Professor in Sanskrit, Baghajatin, Sammilani Mahavidyalaya
Abstract
“Social organization cannot be really understood expect as a part of culture; and all special lines of enquiring referring to human activities, human groupings and human ideas and beliefs can meet and become cross fertilized in the comparative study of cultures” Values, Morality and Ethics – this try polar system i.e. (the sense of righteous) are the epitome of Human existence. Although it is differ from man to man. In the present century search for a theory of values has become a separate branch and has been called axiology. According to our opinion the main approach to value system comprises two parts i.e. theistic and humanistic. Theistic approach opines that absolute values are related to absolute reality where the supreme power is the upholder of all values. Whereas, humanistic holds that the values are as a distinct component of the total human personality, which guide or affect attitude and behaviour of the individual and social groups. The text we are dealing here is entitled with Sekaśubhodayā; is a hagiological literature which attributed to Halāyudha Miśra. The blending of Sanskrit and Bengali makes the text unique. Political discrepancy, social and moral degeneration, adultery and mutual rivalry projected boldly without much pretention. Although the text is a pen picture of decadent Medieval Bengal, still a handful of Women excels in their own merit and retains the morality that is equally relevant even in 21st century. The position of women in Medieval Bengal, especially of the house-wives of well-to-do families, as reflected in this story is somewhat unparalleled in Sanskrit literature. This text predicts as a unique collection in the genre of Sanskrit literature because of its sharp representation of women characters. Characters like Madhavī, Vidhutprabhā taught us a lesson that the concept of Satyam, Śivam and Sundaram is the beauty of human nature if we violate one another one automatically disturbed. Our endeavor is to reevaluate this value system in our life which is still relevant.
Keywords: Sekaśubhodayā, Madhavī, Vidhyutprabhā, concept of ethical and moral values.
About The Author
Dr. Parthasarathi Bhattacharya is an Assistant Professor in Sanskrit, Baghajatin Sammilani Mahavidyalaya, kol 94. He pursued his PH. D from the University of Calcutta on 2019. He had published several articles in National and International journals with good number of Impact factor. He also translated the 13th Kāṇḍa of the Śatapatha-Brahamaṇa into Bengali which was published from the Golpark Ramakrishna Mission Institute of Culture on 2020. (ISBN=978-81-7702-523-1) He is now working on Buddhist Tantra and its evolution with various aspects of modern science.
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