Certainly you can't discount though, that since majority of Sikhs cant possibly know the true meaning (since you all seem to think it's some hidden thing) then the outward effect is still going to be conditioning of the male mind to that of contempt towards females? Read enough stories condemning women as is portrayed there, and eventually you will believe that is how women are, and start treating women as such. So whether or not that was the original intended meaning, that is and has been the actual outcome.
As there is a huge debate on authenticity of Dasam Granth across the internet and in Sikhi, I have come across both sides of the story... and authenticity is not my concern at this point, as I believe at least 'some' of it is authentic from Guru Ji. Other parts I am unsure, but that is not what I wanted to discuss and please keep that out of this post.
What I wanted to discuss is the reasoning behind the way the stories were written. What would the author have intended by writing so many anti-female stories? Was the intention as this one poster from another site named "Poet Warrior" commented:
"The dasam granth is the most anti-female book in Indian history. One half of the book is devoted to stories of great vulgarity. These stories depict females as a filthy, conniving and depraved sex. The stories are explicitly designed to psychologically condition men to hold females in contempt and accord them vile treatment."
Was this the intention of those stories (whoever wrote them)? For men to hold women in contempt as he said, and psychologically condition men to see women as vile, filthy and depraved, and as a result, treat them badly?
If the intention were to air out dirty laundry as the saying goes... then where are equally telling stories about depraved men deceiving women? If the intent were merely to warn Sikhs of people who might deceive then surely BOTH sides of the story should be presented? That is, if the stories are to be taken literally as some of you have stated. So where are the equally vulgar stories of men deceiving women to have sex with them? Where are the warnings for women to conversely not be so trusting of men - since women more easily trust men then men do of women anyway, and men more readily want sex than women, surely we should be the ones to be warned more? But nope... the vast majority of the stories are about vile women trying to deceive men. So what did the author intend to invoke in the reader, if not to "psychologically condition men to hold females in contempt" as Poet Warrior rearked? And in that time period when birth control was not really available, I find it VERY VERY difficult to believe that all these women would be willing to deceive for a quick roll in the hay, when pregnancy was a huge risk. Remember back then childbirth had high mortality rates, and even if you did survive it, you had excruciating levels of pain to deal with, and that's after 9 months of morning sickness, and other serious health consequences. It just doesn't seem worth the risk to me that women would risk their lives literally, and go to such serious lengths to have sex with someone that they would even deceive for it, knowing the result might be that they will die in childbirth as a result, or at the very least experience unbelievable pain and sickness. It was also much easier for men to sleep around and then run away leaving the woman to deal with it... so it seems to me the stories depict opposite to what actually would have been reality. Remember we are not discussing WHO exactly authored the stories as that is an ongoing debate I want no part of. Just the intention of what the author was trying to invoke in the readers mind.
mrsingh reacted to SikhKhoj in Purpose Of Dasam Granth