Strī-dharma-paddhati
Open-knowledge reference entry
Strī-dharma-paddhati is an 18th-century Sanskrit-language text written by the court pandit Tryambaka-yajvan in the Thanjavur Maratha kingdom of present-day Tamil Nadu, India. It outlines the duties of women from an orthodox Hindu point of view, based on several shruti, smriti, and puranic texts. A strongly patriarchal text, it assigns a subservient role to women, and suggests that they can achieve salvation only through complete devotion to their husbands. Like the dharma-shastra texts it quotes, the norms presented in the text are a mixture of contemporary social reality and what the author considers to be the ideal behavior.
Authorship and date
Tryambaka-yajvan, the writer of Strī-dharma-paddhati ("Guide to the Religious Status and Duties of Women"), was an orthodox pandit from Thanjavur. He was a pupil of Yajnesha (IAST: Yajñeśa), and a court pandit and minister of the Thanjavur Maratha king Serfoji I.
The text does not mention the exact date of its composition, but quotes Dharmākūta (1719), another work by Tryambakayajvan. The author died in 1750, so Strī-dharma-paddhati must have been composed sometime between 1719 and 1750 CE.
Contents
Introduction
At the beginning of the text, Tryambaka invokes Ganadhipati, Sarasvati, and his teachers. The text focuses on married women, and Tryambaka declares that the primary religious duty of women is to obediently serve their husbands. He states that he has compiled sacred laws related to women from various texts including the law books (dhrama-shastras) and the Puranas.
The daily duties of women
Tryambaka divides the night (and presumably the day) into six periods, and specifies various activities that the women should engage during each period.
“Strī-dharma-paddhati” enters the record as open-knowledge reference entry. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Strī-dharma-paddhati, Open-knowledge and entry can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Strī-dharma-paddhati” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Strī-dharma-paddhati, Open-knowledge and entry provides the most credible route into that argument.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 3, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q116265771. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1719 and 1750.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Strī-dharma-paddhati”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Strī-dharma-paddhati primary sources, Strī-dharma-paddhati archive and Strī-dharma-paddhati research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Strī-dharma-paddhati”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Strī-dharma-paddhati” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.