A new non-fiction work by civil servant Mukul Kumar takes a rigorous look at the status of women in ancient Indian civilisation, challenging the assumption that gender discrimination in India is rooted in timeless scriptural tradition. Titled 'Women in the Womb of Time: Unveiling Ancient Feminism' (BluOne Ink Pvt, 328 pp, ₹799), the book asks a pointed question: did patriarchal oppression always define the Indian social order, or is that narrative itself a product of selective — and at times mischievous — interpretation?

The Central Argument

Kumar, an Indian Rail Traffic Service officer whose earlier published works include novels and poetry anthologies, frames the investigation around a single driving query: 'How did discrimination against women emerge?' To answer it, he undertakes a comprehensive scrutiny of ancient texts and corroborating evidentiary material, mapping the arc of women's status from the earliest Vedic compositions through to the Gupta era of the 7th century CE.

The findings, the book suggests, are counter-intuitive. Far from confirming a monolithic tradition of female subjugation, the evidence Kumar marshals points to a far more complex and contested historical reality.

Scope and Methodology

Before entering the textual record, Kumar establishes his analytical framework, engaging with contested definitions of femininity, masculinity, and feminism itself. This opening section draws on Karl Marx and his theory of the means of production, Friedrich Engels, Simone de Beauvoir, and Judith Butler, grounding the inquiry in both Western feminist theory and indigenous intellectual traditions.

The main body of the work moves through Shruti literature — the Vedas, particularly the Rig Veda, and the Upanishads — before turning to Smriti literature, which includes the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Shastras, and the Puranas. Kumar then devotes separate chapters to three texts that rarely receive joint treatment in gender studies: the Manusmriti, the Arthashastra, and the Kamasutra.

His rationale is instructive. The Manusmriti warrants examination for its internally contradictory treatment of women; the Arthashastra earns its place as arguably the first Indian work to address women's roles in the economic domain beyond the household; and the Kamasutra, he argues, is widely misread as an erotic manual when it is, in fact, a broader treatise on social customs and conduct.

Female Luminaries Brought to Light

One of the book's more valuable contributions is its recovery of lesser-known women from the Vedic period. Alongside familiar figures such as Gargi, Maitreyi, and Lopamudra, Kumar draws attention to Viswavara and Apala, philosopher-poets who deserve wider recognition. In his treatment of epic literature, the lens extends beyond Sita and Draupadi to encompass Tara, Mandodari, Savitri, and other characters whose stories complicate easy readings of women's agency in the epics.

The survey also covers varying traditions across the subcontinent, including Buddhism and Jainism, before moving from scriptural exegesis to epigraphical and numismatic evidence — material that often escapes literary-focused gender histories.

Voices the Book Draws On

Kumar marshals a wide range of domain experts alongside his own analysis, citing — among others — Mahatma Gandhi, Sri Aurobindo, historian Romila Thapar, Radha Kumud Mukherjee, D.N. Jha, and Wendy Doniger. The breadth of reference lends the work its authority, while the author's stated aim — to assess how far ancient articulations resonate with contemporary feminist concerns, using indigenous rather than purely Western frameworks — gives it contemporary relevance.

Verdict

Kumar acknowledges that the work should be read as the beginning of informed exploration rather than a definitive settlement of the debate. As a first non-fiction offering, it is an impressive and intellectually honest start — cerebral in ambition, yet lucid in presentation, wearing its considerable erudition lightly. The book arrives at a moment when questions of tradition, gender, and historical interpretation carry acute political weight in India, making its timing as significant as its content.