Upanishads · Yājñavalkya 5
॥
Devanāgarī
मांसपाञ्चालिकायास्तु यन्त्रलोकेऽङ्गपञ्जरे । स्नाय्वस्थिग्रन्थिशालिन्यः स्त्रियः किमिव शोभनम्
Transliteration (IAST)
māṃsapāñcālikāyāstu yantraloke'ṅgapañjare | snāyvasthigranthiśālinyaḥ striyaḥ kimiva śobhanam
Word-by-word
SanskritIASTMeaning
मांस-पाञ्चालिकायाः तुmāṃsa-pāñcālikāyāḥ tubut of a fleshly puppet
यन्त्र-लोके अङ्ग-पञ्जरेyantra-loke aṅga-pañjarein a machine, in a cage of limbs
स्नायु-अस्थि-ग्रन्थि-शालिन्यःsnāyu-asthi-granthi-śālinyaḥfull of sinews, bones, and knots
स्त्रियः किम् इव शोभनम्striyaḥ kim iva śobhanamwives — what is beautiful in them
Translation
But of a fleshly puppet, in a machine, in a cage of limbs, full of sinews, bones, and knots — wives: what is beautiful in them?
Version
5b194681bc3c · published Aug 12, 2026, 5:00:00 AM UTC
Available inRUENPage between verses with
Here begins a section that must be spoken of plainly and without softening, for there is nothing to soften: ten verses in a row revile women. Let us say at once what we will not do. We will not read this allegorically, and we will not say it means desire rather than women. The text has striyaḥ and nāryaḥ, "wives" and "women," and it means them.
Now let us say what is wrong with it, and say it on the merits, not out of sensitivity. First: the argument applies to any body, including the speaker's own. Sinews, bones, and knots belong to everyone; and if it follows from this that there is nothing to look at, there is nothing to look at in oneself either. An argument that proves too much proves nothing.
Second: the vice is ascribed not to one's own desire but to the object. A person who is drawn to something declares the one he is drawn to guilty; and this is the most ordinary way of not acknowledging one's own. Third, and decisive: the woman here is not a person. She is called māṃsa-pāñcālikā, "a fleshly puppet," that is, a thing; and the whole section is arranged so that she is spoken of without any presumption that she might answer.
The Vaiṣṇava side does not accept this method, and it is worth citing not argument but her own passages. The Gītā: "having taken refuge in Me, even women, vaiśyas, and śūdras attain the supreme goal" (9.32) — that is, a woman is named among those who attain what the first of the brahmins attains. The Bhāgavatam: the highest of the devotees is a woman; whole cantos of it are occupied with the speeches of Kuntī, Devakī, Yaśodā, the gopīs; and the most famous hymn in the whole book is Kuntī's prayer (1.8).
The Caitanya-caritāmṛta goes further and places the gopīs above all other devotees, and Rādhā above all the gopīs. Let us add that Vaiṣṇava practice of restraint is arranged differently, and the distinction is worth naming. The renounced, in her tradition too, are told to avoid; but the basis given is not aversion to the woman, but the weakness of the man. Not "they are vile," but "you will not withstand"; and the difference between these two bases is the difference between an accusation and sobriety.