PART1 CH3 Kinship,caste and class early societies (Important Question Answer)

THEMES IN INDIAN HISTORY PART I

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

IMPORTANT QUESTION ANSWER

1. Critically examine the duties as laid down inManusmriti for the chandalas.

 Ans. They had to live outside the village. They had to use discarded utensils. To dispose off the bodies. They could not walk in villages and cities. 

2. In what ways was the Buddhist theory of a social contract different from the Brahmanical view of society derived from the Purusha sukta.

Ans. (i) Four varnas emerged from purushaSukta.

 (ii) Brahmanas ,kshatriya,vaishya and shudra. 

(iii) Brahmanas supreme

 (iv) The Buddhist did not accept this concept

3. Why Mahabharata is considered a colossal epic? 

Ans. The Mahabharata is a colossal epic running over 100,000 verses with depictions of social categories and situations.

 It was composed over a period of about 1,000 years (c. 500 BCE onwards) 

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. Occasionally (though not always), the principal characters seem to follow these norms

4. What were three strategies adopted by the Brahmins for enforcing Social norms?

 Ans. The Brahmanas evolved two or three strategies for enforcing these norms.

 One was to assert that the Varna order was of divine origin. 

 Second, they advised kings to ensure that these norms were followed within their kingdoms.

 And third, they attempted to persuade people that their status was determined by birth. However,  this  was not always easy. So prescriptions were often reinforced by stories told in the Mahabharata and other texts.

5. How new jatis were grouped?

 Ans. Whenever Brahmanical authorities encountered new groups – for instance, people living in forests such as the nishadas – or wanted to assign a name to occupational categories such as the goldsmith or suvarnakara, which did not easily fit into the fourfold varna system, they classified them as a jati. Jatis which shared a common occupation or profession were sometimes organised into shrenisor guilds.

6. Explain different social dimensions propounded by historians from the central episode of Draupadi’s marriage in the Mahabharata Ans. One of the most challenging episodes in the Mahabharatais Draupadi’s marriage with the Pandavas, an instance of polyandry that is central to the narrative. If we examine the section of the epic, it is evident that the author(s) attempted to explain it in a variety of ways. 

1. Present-day historians suggest that polyandry may have been prevalent amongst ruling elites at some point of time. 

2. Polyandry gradually fell into disfavour amongst the Brahmanas, who reworked and developed the text through the centuries.

3. Some historians note that the practice of polyandry may have seemed unusual or even undesirable from the Brahmanical point of view.

 4. Others suggest that there may have been a shortage of women during times of warfare, and this led to polyandry. In other words, it was attributed to a situation of crisis.

 5. Some early sources suggest that polyandry was not the only or even the most prevalent form of marriage. The reason for the authors to choose to associate this practice with the central characters of the Mahabharata is that creative literature often has its own narrative requirements and does not always literally reflect Soocial realities.