Why [in Vedic culture]
do Women Wear Rings
on the Left Hand
and Men on the Right?
Respected Shyamasundara Prabhu.
Please accept my humble obeisances. Jaya Srila Prabhupada!
I would like to humbly ask for help. My Guru Maharaja sent me the following [research] query:
Why [in Vedic culture] do women wear rings on the left hand and men on the right?
I asked this question to Bhakti Vidyapurna Maharaja and he said that these were the auspicious sides for men and women to wear rings. He said that the source for this might be some astrological texts. Do you know anything about this?
Your servant, Kisora Dasa
My response:
Dear Kisora Prabhu,
Please accept my best wishes. All glories to Srila Prabhupada.
The three main nadis in the body are the Ida, Pingala and Sushumna nadi see image below for clarification.
Ida is the left channel. Ida is white, feminine, cold, and represents the Moon. Originating in Muladhara, Ida ends up in the left nostril.
Pingala is the right channel. Pingala is red, masculine, hot, and represents the Sun. Originating in Muladhara, Pingala ends up in the right nostril.
Sushumna is the central channel running up the body from just below Muladhara chakra to Sahasrara chakra at the crown of the head.
This image Copyright © 2000 by Pratibha Johari.
[If you lay on one side the svara (breath) from the nostril on that side will stop flowing after a very short period of time and will come from opposite side instead. (Try it and you will see for yourself, if you have a heavy cold it should still work and unblock one nostril.) You can thus manipulate which nadi air flows through. Yogis sleep on left side to keep warm at night and to aid digestion because then air flows through Pingala nadi.]
Thus the left half of the body is more feminine, the right side more masculine.
Generally if there is twitching on right side of male body it bodes good luck but if on left bad luck. Opposite is the case for females. (In some instances it can be good or bad no matter what side it is.)
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And we note that in North India the male deity is always to the right of the female deity, and the female is always to the left of the male deity. And, in palmisty we read both hands but emphasize right hand for males and left for females.
This is also reason it is described in Garbhodana Samskara that at time of planting the bija (semen) the svara should dominate male's right nostril and female's left if they want to have male child and opposite if they want female child. And that the male should mount the bed with right leg first and female with left leg if they want male child and reverse for female child.
You can refer to Svara Cintamani and Siva Svarodya for more details.
Astrologers, as described in Prasna Marga, also check the svara in order to make quick predictions or confirm predictions made by other means.
So for the above reason right side is for males, left for females.
Having said that I would not recommend anyone to wear a consecrated astrological gem on their left hand for the simple reason of contamination in the toilet. Unless they religiously remove the ring every time they use the toilet which is not what happens.
I hope this answers your question.
dasa dasa anu dasa
Shyamasundara Dasa
krsne matirastu
