Gārgī
The Ṛṣikās · Ṛṣis and Ṛṣikās
The woman who rose twice in King Janaka's assembly to question Yājñavalkya, and drew from him the teaching of the imperishable on which space itself is woven.
When King Janaka called on the brahmins of the Kuru and Pañcāla peoples to show which of them best knew Brahman, the one reality behind all things, Gārgī Vācaknavī stood up twice in his assembly to question the sage Yājñavalkya. The first time she pressed him from world to world until he warned her that she was asking too far. The second time she rose against him like a warrior with two arrows, and drew from him the teaching of the imperishable, at whose command the sun and moon are held apart, each in its place. Then she told the assembly that none of them would ever defeat him, and the teachers of the Veda have remembered her name ever since.