Propoganda of lies by Sita Agarwal part I

Link to the book "Genocide of Women in Hinduism" by Sita Agarwal landed on my twitter time line courtesy Tarek Fateh's tweet:-

Sita Agarwal on the "Genocide of Women in Hinduism"asimiqbal2nd.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/women-…
— Tarek Fatah (@TarekFatah) March 8, 2013

Before going further a personal note: I believe there is/are no religious book/s in this world which can be called as "absolute".  Whether it's Quran , Bible or in current context  Sanatana Dharma scriptures (Vedas  , Upanishads, Bhagavadgeeta et.al)  should be subjected to logic and science. Concepts which aren't relevant/regressive should be shunned. Having said that , i'm against the propaganda of lies. Sita agarwal's book is full of lies, rants and racism against a fictional race called "Aryans" and in particular Aryan male. She has also quoted many one liners from Vedas and other scripture to "proove" male attrocities against women. What i also noticed that in comment sections of many reputed news sites , zakir naik followers have pasted sita agarwal's one liners as evidences of Hindu male attrocities.

Many of these "proofs" like "Aryan invasion Theory" or Hindu Male attrocities against women have been conclusively debunked. For more information please refer to Voice of dharma or Arya Samaj websites . But regarding these one liners I did not find any one debunking it, hence thought of writing series of posts and debunk them.

Who is Sita Agarwal ? My google search did not give much information except that many western "scholars" have widely quoted her book while  writing about Women atrocities in Hinduism/India. 

In one such "proof" of "Aryan" atrocities she sites is of a Vedic verse :-

The friendship of women does not last long. Their nature is like that of the hyena." [ Rig Veda 10-95-10 ] [ Periyar ] 

So this is her "proof" . After reading this quote obvious question  is whether this verse really exist in vedas ? 

Well Ms.Agarwal is correct there is a verse 10.95.15  which says women has hearts of heyna. (10-95-10 refers to some thing different )

So here is the RV 10-95-15 (Sanskrit):-

purūravo mā mrthahā mā pra papto mā tvā vrakaso aśivāsa ukasan | na vai straināni sakhyāni santi sālāvrkanāmhrdayanyeta |

English  (Ralph T.H. Griffith,):-

Nay, do not die, Purūravas, nor vanish: let not the evil-omened wolves devour thee.With women there can be no lasting friendship: hearts of hyenas are the hearts of women.

so According to 10-95-15  "some one " is imploring Pururavas not to have friendship with "women ".

So who is Pururavas? Who is imploring  this Pururavas not to have friendship with women? . Pururavas is commonly known as  Pururava. Yes the same Pururava of  who's  Love story with Urvashi has become a legend and inspired many poets and artists and is still inspiring. Kalidasa(5th century sanskrit poet) has adopted this love story in his play Vikramorvashiyam (won over Urvashi through Prowess). After reading 10.95 previous verses i came to know that it was Urvashi who implored Pururava not to have friendship with women. Note: Rigveda 10-95 has totally 18 verses and all 18 verses are conversation between Urvashi and Pururava.

Urvashi and Pururavas Painting by Raja Ravi Varma

Why did Urvashi implore Pururavas? To answer this I'll give a brief background to the story of Urvashi & Pururava  . 

Story of Urvashi and Pururava: Urvashi was an angel from  heaven. During one of her excursion to earth she was abducted by a demon. Pururava who happens to be there notices this and fights against demon and rescues Urvashi. As it happens in many love stories , both madly fall in love with each other but hesitate to express their love . Urvashi returns back to heaven, but she is unable to concentrate on her work. During one of her dance performances Urvashi was portraying role of Lakshmi (wife of Vishnu) while dancing she had to call the name of Vishnu but instead calls Purarava. Her teacher offended by this gives a curse “You will get to live with the person you are thinking about,” he said, “And you will also give birth to his son. But you will have to choose between the father and son, because the day they see each other you will have to leave them both and return to heaven.” Urvashi returns back to Pururava and Marries him with a  condition that Pururava should never come naked in front of her.

In the mean while Gandharvas (Demi-Gods from heaven) want Urvashi back in heaven. They hatch a plan , and steal pet lambs that belong to Urvashi . When Urvashi notices that she was robbed , cries for help . Pururava who was sleeping with out  wearing his robe jumps for help. Since the promise was broken Urvashi exits from Pururava's palace, while Pururava is still in pursuit of "thieves". Not finding Urvashi in palace distraught Pururava sets off in search of her. This conversation happens when Pururava manages to find her. It was in this context those words were spoken with Pururava urging Urvashi to return back to palace and Urvashi rejecting  at the same time she doesn't want Pururava to harm himself out of misery of seperation. In fact entire RigVeda 10-95 is turbulent conversation between this husband and wife . 

In 10-95-14 Pururava says :-

 Thy lover shall flee forth this day for ever, to seek, without return, the farthest distance.Then let his bed be in Destruction's bosom, and there let fierce rapacious wolves devour him.

To which Urvashi responds  in 10-95-15:-

Nay, do not die, Purūravas, nor vanish: let not the evil-omened wolves devour thee. With women there can be no lasting friendship: hearts of hyenas are the hearts of women.

Infact Urvashi was refering herself as heyna , and she was doing so because she wanted Pururava to return back to palace and not harm himself as pururava in 10-95-14 says he will never return back to palace and would prefer to be food for wolves rather than to return without Urvashi. 

Now my question is where is attrocity against women , where is misogyny? If some one was tormented in this episode it was Pururava who's in inadvertent mistake made Urvashi leave him.

See Mr. lincon is right  ;) never trust a single line quote.