Mahabharata: History of Kinship, Caste and Class (600 BCE onwards)
Archaeologists have reconstructed the history of kings and their kingdoms and later in mid 20th century they got interest in early social norms and behaviours. Some texts like Mahabharata, a colossal and the longest epic gives us a deep insight of social norms.
Some messages and ideas of social actors were seen in the inscriptions like that of Lord Krishna. But its not easy to read inscriptions, so some thing we should consider as important while reading inscriptions are:
- Timeline of the inscription found.
- Who composed what?
- Who was the target audience?
- The language used.
Mahabharata consists of 100,000 verses in its present form tells us a lot about different social categories in early India. It took about 1,000 years (500 BCE- 500 CE) to compose this epic. The main story of Mahabharata circulates around two sets of cousins (Pandavas and Kauravas).
The Critical Edition of Mahabharata
In 1919, under the leadership of V.S. Sukthankar who was an Indian Sanskritist, the project to compose the critical edition of Mahabharata started. For this, the inscriptions written in Sanskrit about Mahabharata were collected from all the parts of the country.
Then, all the common verses were used to compose the critical edition of Mahabharata. Even, the common verses were composed in 13,000 pages and this composition of Mahabharata took about 47 years. Archaeologists say that while transmitting this story to future generations, some regional variations and stories were added with the main story of this epic.
After this composition, Mahabharata, a colossal epic took its form like what it is in present time. Scholars used to think that the Sanskrit texts were authoritative but when they studied about other traditions in Pali language, they got to know that many people questioned and even rejected the authority of these Sanskrit texts.
Kinship and Marriage
Through inscriptions and some texts like Mahabharata, we got evidences about the families. Mainly, families were larger with so many relatives or kinfolk (relations based on blood) who used to exchange gifts and resources with other family members.
Mahabharata is the story which revolves around the war between the relatives or cousins over the land and power. Kuru was the lineage of both Kauravas and Pandavas, hence cousins, who later became rivals of each other to get access over land. This shows us that the people’s thinking was responsible for their actions which led to the changes in their attitudes.
The central story of Mahabharata also represents the idea of patriliny according to which sons could claim their right over the land after their father’s death. In case of death of the king, the princes could also claim over the throne. This is what we have seen in Mahabharata too. And if the person had no sons, then the brothers or other relatives could claim over all the resources but women had no rights over it. Prabhavati Gupta was an exceptional case.
Now, let’s talk about marriages. Exogamy or the marriage outside the kin used to prevail at hat time. It was the responsibility of the parents to ensure that their child is getting married with the right person and at the right time. Kanyadana was considered as the religious duty of a father in which he used to give his daughter as a gift to the groom. This practice prevails in many parts of the subcontinent even now.
When the Brahmanas got challenge by the society about their authority, Brahmanas composed the famous texts such as Dharmasutras and Dharmashastras. The most important text compiled by Brahmanas was Manusmriti (200 BCE- 200 CE).
According to the Dharmasutras and Dharmashastras, eight forms of marriage were recognised, out of which four forms were considered as good while the other four ways were considered as bad. Some forms of marriages are:
- First form of marriage: The gift of a daughter with other resources like jewels to the man who has the knowledge of vedas.
- Fourth form of marriage: In this form of marriage, the father of a bride gives her as a gift to the groom by saying “May both of you perform your duties together” and gives respect to the groom.
- Fifth form of marriage: The groom gives the gifts to the bride and her family by his own will.
- Sixth form of marriage: Maiden and her lover get married with their own will (love marriage).
Gotra of women
By 1000 BCE, people were classified into gotras, named after a Vedic seer or rishimuni. And the people belonging to the same gotra were considered as the descendants or disciples of the vedic seer after whose name the gotra’s name was derived. Two main rules of the gotra were:
- Marriages among the members of the same gotra was not allowed.
- Women had to leave her father’s gotra after marriage and had to adopt the gotra of her husband.
It was considered that the Sanskrit texts were authoritative and everyone used to follow it. But it was not really true. Many people rejected the Sanskrit texts and the authority of Brahmanas. For example, Satavahana rulers got married with the women belonging to the same gotras (endogamy) and hence, they broke one of the rule of gotra.
Many queens who got married with the Satavahana rulers didn’t adopt their husband’s gotra after marriage and continued their father’s gotra. Hence, both of the rules about the gotra were not adopted by Satavahanas which shows that both Brahmans and the Brahmanical texts were challenged by many people.
If we are talking about women, then let’s consider mothers also. Were mothers important? Of course, they were. Even many of the Satavahana rulers derived their name from their mothers which is also known as metronymics. For example, Raja Gotami Puta Siri Satkani.
Social Differences
The society was divided into four varnas, that is, Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra. Dharmasutras and Dharamshastras contain some rules related to occupations for all the four categories. These were:
- Brahmanas job was to study and teach Vedas, to perform sacrifices and get sacrifices performed, to give and receive gifts.
- Kshatriyas were supposed to perform in warfare, to protect their subjects, administer properly, to have knowledge about vedas and lastly, give gifts and perform sacrifices.
- Vaishyas job was to study vedas, to trade and to do agriculture and pastoral activities.
- Shudras were supposed to provide services to the higher categories.
Now the challenge was to make sure that these rules are applicable to all. So, the three strategies adopted by Brahmanas to enforce these norms were:
- By proving that the varna system is of divine origin.
- Brahmanas used to give advice to the kings to ensure that these norms were followed by everyone.
- Lastly, they used to persuade people.
But again not everyone was adopting these norms. According to the Brahmanical text, rulers were supposed to be Kshatriyas but Mauryas who ruled over such a vast territory were of low origin according to Brahmanical text but Kshatriyas according to Buddhist texts. Shungas and Kanvas who were the successors of Mauryas were Brahmanas. This shows that these norms were not uniformly applicable in all parts of the subcontinent.
This indicates that the person who had resources and could muster support could become a king. Shaka rulers belonged to the central Asia established the empire in the north western part of India were regarded as mlechchhas (barbarians or outsiders) in Brahmanical texts. There is an inscriptions depicting the story of the Shaka ruler, Rudradaman who rebuilt the Sudarshana lake.
One of the Satavahana ruler, Gotami Puta Siri Satakani claimed to be a unique Brahmana (eka bahamana) and he saw himself as a destroyer of the pride of Kshatriyas. He claimed to make sure that nobody will do intermarriage within his territoty while he was the one who did intermarriage and broke rules. Somewhere, he saw himself connected to the Sanskritic traditions while on the other hand, he was not following the norms.
Jati system
With time, the society got more complex. The new social categories called jatis added up into the society. Jatis were based on birth and the number of jatis were not fixed. The new group of people or the people involved in different kind of occupation were given a new jati. Such as forest dwellers were known as nishadas.
Some people were categorised according to their occupation like goldsmiths, blacksmiths, etc. People whose occupation was same were organised into shrenis or guilds. We got evidence of a guild on stone inscription (5th century CE) found at excavation in Mandasore (Madhya Pradesh). This inscriptions depicts the story of a guild of silk weavers who origanlly used to live in Lata (Gujarat) but they migrated to Mandasore (then, Dashapura). They migrated because the king of Dashapura was great.
Beyond the four varnas
India has been a diverse country. So, there were so many categories of people other than these four varnas. Those who did not follow the Brahmanical ideas were described as mlechchhas, odds, uncivilsed and even animal like. Even those who used to speak Non- Sanskrit languages were considered as mlechchhas.
Some social categories were considered as polluted. They were referred to as untouchables, everyone used to stay away from them and even from their shadows. These people were not allowed to take part in rituals and were not allowed in sacred places. People used to avoid taking food from them.
According to Manusmriti, the duty of Chandalas (category of untouchables) used to handle corpses and dead animals. They used to dispose the dead bodies of those people who had no relatives and used to perform as the executioners. Chandalas were supposed to live outside the village, they used discarded utensils, wear the clothes of dead people and if they wanted to wear ornaments, then the ornaments should be made of iron.
All these evidences were found in the traveller’s accounts. A Chinese Buddhist monk, named Fa Xian visited India during 5th century CE, wrote in his account that the untouchables were not allowed to travel into the cities at night and in the daytime, they had to sound a clapper while walking around the street, so that people can avoid their sight and touching. Another Chinese pilgrim, Xuan Zang during 7th century CE noted that the scavengers and executioners (Chandalas) were forced to live outside the city.
Women and Property
According to Manusmriti, the state use to be patrilineal. So, after the father’s death, the property was distributed equally among his sons by giving some special or extra share to the eldest son. Women had no claim over the resources. Women were treated as the resources.
This could be seen in Mahabharata too when Yudhishthira (one of the Pandavas) lost all of their resources in the game of dice to Duryodhan (one of the Kauravas), he put Draupadi (the wife of Pandavas) at stake and lost her too. Dushasan, the brother of Duryodhan tried to disrespect her in front of everyone in the royal court. But Lord Shri Krishna helped her.
Upper class women could be exceptional as we have studied about Prabhavati Gupta who not only had access to property but she even granted the land. Women could retain the stridhana (gifts they receive during marriage). Even their husbands had no right to claim over it but it could be inherited by their children.
Property and the Varna System
We are familiar with the four fold division of the early Indian society, also known as The Varna System. Shudras had no access to property and were not allowed to collect it. According to this system, Brahmanas were on top in this hierarchy, so they should be rich but in many stories, Brahmanas were represented as poor.
Kshatriyas who used to be kings were the richest in all the four categories. When the Buddhism emerged during 6th century BCE, they challenged these Brahmanical ideas. According to Buddhists, status of the people cannot be based on birth. They achieve this status through their actions.
While 2000 years ago, from the text Tamil Sangam Literature, we got evidences about the social and economic differences as it contains the poems about the differences between rich and poor. According to this text, in the region of Tamilakam, people who were generous and used to use their wealth for the society welfare were respected while those who were greedy and used to collect wealth for their own use were despised.
According to Buddhist texts, institututions were required to regulate social conflicts. There is a myth in Buddhist text, Sutta Pitaka saying in the earliest ages, human beings used to fulfill their basic needs by taking as much as they need from nature.
But with time, human beings became greedy. And the society got diverse, then an institution was needed to regulate all of it. For this, there was a person who used to be elected by people to maintain peace, known as “Mahasammata”. For his services, people together used to give him a proportion of rice.
Handling Text
Some points which should be kept in mind while handling or examining texts are:
- Language used in the text (like in Mahabharata, the Sanskrit language used was simpler than the sanskrit used in Vedas).
- Kind of text (either it conveys the social message or its about the king).
- Author (who wrote the content and fo which section of the society).
- Date (when was the content composed).
- Place (at which place it was found, so that we can get an idea about history of which place is written in the inscription).
Content of Mahabharata consists of:
- Narrative: the part which conveys a social message.
- Didactive: the part which simply contains the story.
Mahabharata was described as “itihasa” or history in many of the inscriptions. It is considered that the Mahabharata was composed by charioteer bards who used to accompany Kshatriyas and used to compose different stories and poems for their victories to entertain the soldiers while travelling.
It was written during 5th century BCE by Brahmanas. And by the time of Kuru and Panchala becoming kingdoms, some new norms and rules were added into the main story. During 200 BCE – 200 CE Vaishnavism (worship of Lord Vishnu) was at its peak, regional stories and the social actors were considered as his incarnations.
During 200 CE- 400 CE, different didactic sections were added from Manusmriti which helped us in reconstructing the social history of that time. It is considered that there were 10,000 verses of Mahabharata which later comprised of 100,000 verses after the addition of other regional norms. This composition is mainly attributed to Sage Vyasa.
In 1951- 1952, B.B.Lal started excavations in Hastinapur, Meerut in Uttar Pradesh. He founded five occupational levels, from which the second and the third levels were really important.
- In Second level (timeline 12th- 7th century BCE), walls of mud and mudbricks with the reed marks were found.
- In the third level (from 6th- 3rd century BCE), mud bricks, burnt bricks, terracotta wells and soakage jars were found.
Polyandry
Polyandry is the term used to describe the women with two or more husbands. In Mahabharata, we got evidence of Polyandry as Draupadi was a wife of Pandavas (five brothers). The practice of polyandry was disfavaoured by Brahmanas.
Some scholars suggest that shortage of women during warfare led to ht practice of polyandry. But this reason could not be correct as the wars were fought by men so, there should be the shortage of men not women. But even now, in many parts of the country, especially in hilly areas, polyandry is prevalent. So, it is considered that the regional stories were added on in the main story and this part was taken from the hilly areas.
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