PART1 CH3 Kinship,caste and class early societies (Summary)

THEMES IN INDIAN HISTORY PART I

CH3 Kinship, Caste and Class Early Societies (c.600 BCE -600CE)

SUMMARY

• Many rules and different practices were followed by the people.
• Very often families were part of larger networks of people we define as relatives.
• Blood relations can be defined in many different ways.
• Mausmriti is considered the most o important Dharma Sutra and Dharmashastra. It was compiled between 200 BCE and 200 CE. This laid down rules governing social life.
• During Mahabharata age gotras were considered very important by higher verna of societies.
• Social differences prevailed and integration took place within the framework of caste system.
• According to the sutras only Kashtriyas could be a king.
• The original version of Mahabharata is in Sanskrit.
• It contains vivid descriptions of battles forest, palaces and settlements.

Finding out about families

1. Family varies in terms of numbers of members, their relationship with one another as well as the kinds of activities they share.
2. People belonging to the same family share food and other resources, and live, work and perform rituals together.
3. Families are usually parts of larger networks of people defined as relatives, or to use a more technical term, kinfolk.
4. While familial ties are often regarded as “natural” and based on blood, they are defined in many ways.
5. Historians also investigate and analyse attitudes towards family and kinship.

The ideal of patriliny

• Patriliny means tracing descent from father to son, grandson and so on.
• Matriliny is the term used when descent is traced through the mother.

1. The concern with patriliny was not unique to ruling families. It is evident in mantras in ritual texts such as the Rigveda.
2. It is possible that these attitudes were shared by wealthy men and those who claimed high status, including Brahmanas.

The Critical Edition of the Mahabharata

• One of the most ambitious projects of scholarship began in 1919, under the leadership of a noted Indian Sanskritist, V.S. Sukthankar. A team comprising dozens of scholars initiated the task of preparing a critical edition of the Mahabharata, a colossal epic running in its present form into over 100,000 verses with depictions of a wide range of social categories and situations.
• It was composed over a period of about 1,000 years (c. 500 BCE onwards), and some of the stories it contains may have been in circulation even earlier. The central story is about two sets of warring cousins. The text also contains sections laying down norms of behaviour for various social groups.
• The critical edition meant collecting Sanskrit manuscripts of the text, written in a variety of scripts, from different parts of the country. The team worked out a method of comparing verses from each manuscript. The project took 47 years to complete.
• There were several common elements in the Sanskrit versions of the story, Also there were enormous regional variations in the ways in which the text had been transmitted over the centuries, which reflect complex processes that shaped early (and later) social histories.

Kinship and Marriage Many Rules and Varied Practices

• Families are usually parts of larger networks of people defined as relatives, or to use a more technical term, kinfolk. While familial ties are often regarded as “natural” and based on blood, they are defined in many different ways.
• Historians also investigate and analyse attitudes towards family and kinship.They provide an insight into people’s thinking.
• Mahabharata describes a feud over land and power between two groups of cousins, the Kauravas and the Pandavas, who belonged to a single ruling family, that of the Kurus, a lineage dominating one of the janapadas. At the end the Pandavas emerged victorious. After that, patrilineal succession was proclaimed.
• While patriliny had existed prior to the composition of the epic, the central story of the Mahabharata reinforced the idea that it was valuable. Under patriliny, sons could claim the resources (including the throne in the case of kings) of their fathers when the latter died.
• Most ruling dynasties (c. sixth century BCE onwards) claimed to follow this system, with variations in case of no son.
• The concern with patriliny was not unique to ruling families. It is evident in mantras in ritual texts such as the Rigveda. It is possible that these attitudes were shared by wealthy men and those who claimed high status, including Brahmanas.
• Marriage: Daughters had no claims to the resources of the household. They were married into families outside the kin. Thos system was exogamy.
• Women were married at the “right” time and to the “right” person. This gave rise to the belief that kanyadana or the gift of a daughter in marriage was an important religious duty of the father.
• The Brahamanas laid down codes of social behaviour in great detail. These were meant to be followed by Brahmanas in particular and the rest of society in general. From c. 500 BCE, these norms were compiled in Sanskrit texts known as the Dharmasutras and Dharmashastras. The most important of such works, the Manusmriti, was compiled between c. 200 BCE and 200 CE.
• Dharmasutras and Dharmashastras recognised as many as eight forms of marriage. Of these, the first four were considered as “good” while the remaining were condemned.
• Gotra: From c. 1000 BCE, people (especially Brahmanas) were classified into different gotras. Each gotra was named after a Vedic seer, and all those who belonged to the same gotra were regarded as his descendants.
• Two important rules of gotras are: Women were expected to give up their father’s gotra and adopt that of their husband on marriage and members of the same gotra could not marry.
• Satavahanas are one of the powerful ruling lineages, who ruled over parts of western India and the Deccan (c. second century BCE-second century CE). Some of the Satavahana rulers were polygynous.
• Satavahana rulers were identified through metronymics (names derived from that of the mother) but that succession to the throne was generally patrilineal.