A short history of women in fine arts

**** One was very proud of the kolam tradition, only as long as it remained in the woman's domain. For the male of the species, to indulge in this was taboo. **** When I copied this sentence yesterday, I began to think hard. It is normal to classify literature, music, dance and painting as fine arts. In fact, literature and music are compared to the twin breasts of the goddess sarasvatI. There is a two-volume book entitled "Women writing in India" edited by Susie Tharu and K Lalita published by the Feminist Press, NY in 1991. In it they mentioned the following as the woman poets in classical literature - Therigatha (6 century BC), the sangam poets (early Christian era) including auvaiyyAr, akka mahAdEvi and sULe Sankavva (12 century), Jana bai (14 c), Rami (15 c), gangAsati and ratnAbai (12 c to 14 c), mIrA (16 c), molla (16 c), gul-badan bEgam (16 c), chandrAbati (late 16 c), bahinIbAi (17 c), honnamma (late 17 c), muddu pazhani (18 c), mahlaqa bai chandA (18 c), venkamAmba (19 c) and may be a few more like vijjika (not mentioned by these authors). This is a very short list for the whole of India. That means the women were not educated and so they could not write. Of course the women, naturally, were musically inclined and perhaps got some tuition in this regard. However, they were not allowed to perform publicly. Their songs were reduced to a few occasions like during worship or during weddings, etc. The only singers and dancers were the dEvadAsIs who were quite well versed in these arts. However, these talented people were shunned and had no place in respectable society. In fact, women who could sing and dance, were compared to these. Again, I am not sure how many women painted. That means throughout history, women were reduced to chores like cooking, washing, bringing up children and of course satisfying their husbands and in-laws. In this regard, the twentieth century, particularly the latter half, brought real freedom to women and liberated them. In the books I mentioned above, only about 150 pages are devoted to the classical literature by women and nearly 1000 pages for the present generation. We have now woman singers, artists, dancers and writers, some of whom are far better than men, both in quality and quantity. One may surmise that at least the men had the grace to leave kOlams to women. Once again, it is not because of any generosity. They don't want to get up early in the morning, clean the front yard and sprinkle water and draw rangOlis. That is too much work, one can sleep for half an hour more, is it not? We may complain a lot that much progress has not been made. Yes, more progress in the uplift of women, particularly in the fields of education and health, is absolutely necessary. But when you read the above history (or his story?), don't you think we have progressed by leaps and bounds?

Regards! - mOhana