Topics

(Indo-Greeks,Sakas, Kushanas, Western Kshatrapas):

Contact with outside world; growth of urban centres, economy, coinage, development of religions, Mahayana, social conditions, art, architecture, culture, literature and science.

Theory :

Iron tools and agriculture

• The use of iron began in the subcontinent around 3000 years ago.
• Some of the largest collections of iron tools and weapons were found in the megalithic burials.
• Around 2500 years ago, there is evidence for the growing use of iron tools. These included axes for clearing forests, and the iron ploughshare. The ploughshare was useful for increasing agricultural production.

Other steps to increase production: irrigation

• While new tools and the system of transplantation increased production, irrigation was also used.
• Irrigation works that were built during this time included canals, wells, tanks, and artificial lakes.

Who lived in the villages?

• There were at least three different kinds of people living in most villages in the southern and northern parts of the subcontinent.
• In the Tamil region, large landowners were known as vellalar, ordinary ploughmen were known as uzhavar, and landless labourers, including slaves, were known as kadaisiyar and adimai.
• In the northern part of the country, the village headman was known as the grama bhojaka. Usually, men from the same family held the position for generations. In other words, the post was hereditary. The grama bhojaka was often the largest landowner. Generally, he had slaves and hired workers to cultivate the land. Besides, as he was powerful, the king often used him to collect taxes from the village. He also functioned as a judge, and sometimes as a policeman.
• Apart from the gramabhojaka, there were other independent farmers, known as grihapatis, most of whom were smaller landowners.
• And then there were men and women such as the dasa karmakara, who did not own land, and had to earn a living working on the fields owned by others.
• In most villages there were also some crafts persons such as the blacksmith, potter, carpenter and weaver.

The earliest Tamil compositions

• Some of the earliest works in Tamil, known as Sangam literature, were composed around 2300 years ago.
• These texts were called Sangam because they were supposed to have been composed and compiled in assemblies (known as sangams) of poets that were held in the city of Madurai.
• The Tamil terms mentioned above are found in Sangam literature.

Finding out about cities: stories, travellers, sculpture and archaeology

• Jatakas : These were stories that were probably composed by ordinary people, and then written down and preserved by Buddhist monks.
• Many of the cities that developed from about 2500 years ago were capitals of the mahajanapadas . Some of these cities were surrounded by massive fortification walls. In many cities, archaeologists have found rows of pots, or ceramic rings arranged one on top of the other. These are known as ring wells. These seem to have been used as toilets in some cases, and as drains and garbage dumps. These ring wells are usually found in individual houses.
• Ring well found in Delhi ( system of drainage)

• This is a sculpture from Sanchi, a site with stupas, in Madhya Pradesh, showing the scene in a city.

•  We have hardly any remains of palaces, markets, or of homes of ordinary people. Perhaps some are yet to be discovered by archaeologists. Others, made of wood, mud brick and thatch, may not have survived.
• Another way of finding out about early cities is from the accounts of sailors and travellers who visited them. One of the most detailed accounts that has been found was by an unknown Greek sailor. He described all the ports he visited.
• One such account for the city of Bharuch :

The story of Barygaza (the Greek name for Bharuch)

The gulf is very narrow at Barygaza, and very hard to navigate for those coming from the sea. Ships had to be steered in by skilful and experienced local fishermen who were employed by the king. The imports into Barygaza were wine, copper, tin, lead, coral, topaz, cloth, gold and silver coins. Exports from the town included plants from the Himalayas, ivory, agate, carnelian, cotton, silk and perfumes. Special gifts were brought by merchants for the king. These included vessels of silver, singing boys, beautiful women, fine wines and fine cloth.

Coins

• Archaeologists have found several thousands of coins belonging to this period.
• The earliest coins which were in use for about 500 years were punch marked coins, such as the one shown below. They have been given this name because the designs were punched on to the metal — silver or copper.

Cities with many functions

Very often, a single town was important for a variety of reasons.

Mathura

• It has been an important settlement for more than 2500 years. It was important because it was located at the cross roads of two major routes of travel and trade — from the northwest to the east and from north to south.
• There were fortifications around the city, and several shrines. Farmers and herders from adjoining areas provided food for people in the city. Mathura was also a centre where some extremely fine sculpture was produced.
• Around 2000 years ago Mathura became the second capital of the Kushanas.
• Mathura was also a religious centre — there were Buddhist monasteries, Jaina shrines, and it was an important centre for the worship of Krishna.
• Several inscriptions on surfaces such as stone slabs and statues have been found in Mathura. Generally, these are short inscriptions, recording gifts made by men (and sometimes women) to monasteries and shrines. These were made by kings and queens, officers, merchants, and crafts persons who lived in the city.
• For instance, inscriptions from Mathura mention goldsmiths, blacksmiths, weavers, basket makers, garland makers, perfumers.

Crafts and crafts persons

• We also have archaeological evidence for crafts. These include extremely fine pottery, known as the Northern Black Polished Ware.
• It gets its name from the fact that it is generally found in the northern part of the subcontinent. It is usually black in colour, and has a fine sheen. Remember that the archaeological evidence for many crafts may not have survived.
• We know from texts that the manufacture of cloth was important. There were famous centres such as Varanasi in the north, and Madurai in the south. Both men and women worked in these centres.
• Many crafts persons and merchants now formed associations known as shrenis. These shrenis of crafts persons provided training, procured raw material, and distributed the finished product. Then shrenis of merchants organised the trade. Shrenis also served as banks, where rich men and women deposited money. This was invested, and part of the interest was returned or used to support religious institutions such as monasteries.

Rules for spinning and weaving

• These rules are from the Arthashastra. They describe how spinning and weaving could be done in workshops under the supervision of a special official.
• “Widows, young women who are differently abled, nuns, mothers of courtesans, retired women servants of the king, women who have retired from service in temples, may be used for processing wool, bark, cotton, hemp and flax. They should be paid according to the quality and quantity of work. Women who are not permitted to leave their homes can send maidservants to bring the raw material from the superintendent, and take the finished work back to him. Women who can visit the workshop should go at dawn to give their work and receive their wages. There should be enough light to examine the work. In case the superintendent looks at the woman or talks about anything other than the work, he should be punished. If a woman does not complete her work, she will have to pay a fine, and her thumbs can be cut off.”

A closer look — Arikamedu

• Between 2200 and 1900 years ago, Arikamedu (in Pondicherry) was a coastal settlement where ships unloaded goods from distant lands.
• A massive brick structure, which may have been a warehouse, was found at the site.
• Other finds include pottery from the Mediterranean region, such as amphorae (tall double-handled jars that contained liquids such as wine or oil) and stamped red-glazed pottery, known as Arretine Ware, which was named after a city in Italy. This was made by pressing wet clay into a stamped mould.
• There was yet another kind of pottery which was made locally, though Roman designs were used. Roman lamps, glassware and gems have also been found at the site.
• Small tanks have been found that were probably dyeing vats, used to dye cloth.
• There is plenty of evidence for the making of beads from semi-precious stones and glass.

Kinship, Caste and Class : Early Societies (C. 600 BCE-600 CE)

1. We saw that there were several changes in economic and political life between c. 600 BCE and 600 CE. Some of these changes influenced societies as well. For instance, the extension of agriculture into forested areas transformed the lives of forest dwellers; craft specialists often emerged as distinct social groups; the unequal distribution of wealth sharpened social differences.
2. Historians often use textual traditions to understand these processes. Some texts lay down norms of social behaviour; others describe and occasionally comment on a wide range of social situations and practices.
3. We can also catch a glimpse of some social actors from inscriptions. As we will see, each text (and inscription) was written from the perspective of specific social categories. So we need to keep in mind who composed what and for whom.
4. We also need to consider the language used, and the ways in which the text circulated. Used carefully, texts allow us to piece together attitudes and practices that shaped social histories.
5. In focusing on 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, we draw on one of the richest texts of the subcontinent. 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. Occasionally (though not always), the principal characters seem to follow these norms.

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.
• What exactly did this involve? Initially, it 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.
• Ultimately, they selected the verses that appeared common to most versions and published these in several volumes, running into over 13,000 pages. The project took 47 years to complete.
• Two things became apparent: there were several common elements in the Sanskrit versions of the story, evident in manuscripts found all over the subcontinent, from Kashmir and Nepal in the north to Kerala and Tamil Nadu in the south.
• Also evident were enormous regional variations in the ways in which the text had been transmitted over the centuries. These variations were documented in footnotes and appendices to the main text. Taken together, more than half the 13,000 pages are devoted to these variations.
• In a sense, these variations are reflective of the complex processes that shaped early (and later) social histories – through dialogues between dominant traditions and resilient local ideas and practices. These dialogues are characterised by moments of conflict as well as consensus.
• Our understanding of these processes is derived primarily from texts written in Sanskrit by and for Brahmanas.
• When issues of social history were explored for the first time by historians in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, they tended to take these texts at face value – believing that everything that was laid down in these texts was actually practised.
• Subsequently, scholars began studying other traditions, from works in Pali, Prakrit and Tamil. These studies indicated that the ideas contained in normative Sanskrit texts were on the whole recognised as authoritative: they were also questioned and occasionally even rejected. It is important to keep this in mind as we examine how historians reconstruct social histories.

Kinship and Marriage : Many Rules and Varied Practices

Finding out about families

• We often take family life for granted. However, you may have noticed that not all families are identical: they vary in terms of numbers of members, their relationship with one another as well as the kinds of activities they share.
• Often people belonging to the same family share food and other resources, and live, work and perform rituals together. 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. For instance, some societies regard cousins as being blood relations, whereas others do not.
• For early societies, historians can retrieve information about elite families fairly easily; it is, however, far more difficult to reconstruct the familial relationships of ordinary people.
• Historians also investigate and analyse attitudes towards family and kinship. These are important, because they provide an insight into people’s thinking; it is likely that some of these ideas would have shaped their actions, just as actions may have led to changes in attitudes.

The ideal of patriliny

• Can we identify points when kinship relations changed? At one level, the Mahabharata is a story about this. It 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.

• Ultimately, the conflict ended in a battle, in which 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, although there were variations in practice: sometimes there were no sons, in some situations brothers succeeded one another, sometimes other kinsmen claimed the throne, and, in very exceptional circumstances, women such as Prabhavati Gupta exercised power.
• 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.
• Patriliny means tracing descent from father to son, grandson and so on. Matriliny is the term used when descent is traced through the mother.

Rules of marriage

• While sons were important for the continuity of the patrilineage, daughters were viewed rather differently within this framework. They had no claims to the resources of the household. At the same time, marrying them into families outside the kin was considered desirable.
• This system, called exogamy (literally, marrying outside), meant that the lives of young girls and women belonging to families that claimed high status were often carefully regulated to ensure that they 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.
• With the emergence of new towns, social life became more complex. People from near and far met to buy and sell their products and share ideas in the urban milieu. This may have led to a questioning of earlier beliefs and practices.
• Faced with this challenge, the Brahmanas responded by laying 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.
• While the Brahmana authors of these texts claimed that their point of view had universal validity and that what they prescribed had to be obeyed by everybody, it is likely that real social relations were more complicated.
• Besides, given the regional diversity within the subcontinent and the difficulties of communication, the influence of Brahmanas was by no means all-pervasive.
• What is interesting is that the 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. It is possible that these were practised by those who did not accept Brahmanical norms.

The gotra of women

• One Brahmanical practice, evident from c. 1000 BCE onwards, was to classify people (especially Brahmanas) in terms of gotras.
• Each gotra was named after a Vedic seer, and all those who belonged to the same gotra were regarded as his descendants.
• Two rules about gotra were particularly important: 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.
• One way to find out whether this was commonly followed is to consider the names of men and women, which were sometimes derived from gotra names.
• These names are available for powerful ruling lineages such as the Satavahanas who ruled over parts of western India and the Deccan (c. second century BCE-second century CE). Several of their inscriptions have been recovered, which allow historians to trace family ties, including marriages.
• Some of the Satavahana rulers were polygynous (that is, had more than one wife).
• An examination of the names of women who married Satavahana rulers indicates that many of them had names derived from gotras such as Gotama and Vasistha, their father’s gotras. They evidently retained these names instead of adopting names derived from their husband’s gotra name as they were required to do according to the Brahmanical rules. What is also apparent is that some of these women belonged to the same gotra.
• As is obvious, this ran counter to the ideal of exogamy recommended in the Brahmanical texts. In fact, it exemplified an alternative practice, that of endogamy or marriage within the kin group, which was (and is) prevalent amongst several communities in south India. Such marriages amongst kinfolk (such as cousins) ensured a close-knit community. It is likely that there were variations in other parts of the subcontinent as well, but as yet it has not been possible to reconstruct specific details.

Were mothers important?

• We have seen that Satavahana rulers were identified through metronymics (names derived from that of the mother).
• Although this may suggest that mothers were important, we need to be cautious before we arrive at any conclusion. In the case of the Satavahanas we know that succession to the throne was generally patrilineal.

Social Differences: Within and Beyond the Framework of Caste

• You are probably familiar with the term caste, which refers to a set of hierarchically ordered social categories. The ideal order was laid down in the Dharmasutras and Dharmashastras.
• Brahmanas claimed that this order, in which they were ranked first, was divinely ordained, while placing groups classified as Shudras and “untouchables” at the very bottom of the social order. Positions within the order were supposedly determined by birth.

The “right” occupation

• The Dharmasutras and Dharmashastras also contained rules about the ideal “occupations” of the four categories or varnas.
• Brahmanas were supposed to study and teach the Vedas, perform sacrifices and get sacrifices performed, and give and receive gifts.
• Kshatriyas were to engage in warfare, protect people and administer justice, study the Vedas, get sacrifices performed, and make gifts.
• The last three “occupations” were also assigned to the Vaishyas, who were in addition expected to engage in agriculture, pastoralism and trade.
• Shudras were assigned only one occupation – that of serving the three “higher” varnas.
• The Brahmanas evolved two or three strategies for enforcing these norms. One, as we have just seen, 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.

Non-Kshatriya kings

• According to the Shastras, only Kshatriyas could be kings. However, several important ruling lineages probably had different origins.
• The social background of the Mauryas, who ruled over a large empire, has been hotly debated. While later Buddhist texts suggested they were Kshatriyas, Brahmanical texts described them as being of “low” origin.
• The Shungas and Kanvas, the immediate successors of the Mauryas, were Brahmanas.
• In fact, political power was effectively open to anyone who could muster support and resources, and rarely depended on birth as a Kshatriya.
• Other rulers, such as the Shakas who came from Central Asia, were regarded as mlechchhas, barbarians or outsiders by the Brahmanas. However, one of the earliest inscriptions in Sanskrit describes how Rudradaman, the best-known Shaka ruler (c. second century CE), rebuilt Sudarshana lake. This suggests that powerful mlechchhas were familiar with Sanskritic traditions.
• It is also interesting that the best-known ruler of the Satavahana dynasty, Gotami-puta Siri-Satakani, claimed to be both a unique Brahmana (eka bamhana) and a destroyer of the pride of Kshatriyas. He also claimed to have ensured that there was no intermarriage amongst members of the four varnas. At the same time, he entered into a marriage alliance with the kin of Rudradaman.
• As you can see from this example, integration within the framework of caste was often a complicated process. The Satavahanas claimed to be Brahmanas, whereas according to the Brahmanas, kings ought to have been Kshatriyas.
• They claimed to uphold the fourfold varna order, but entered into marriage alliances with people who were supposed to be excluded from the system. And, as we have seen, they practised endogamy instead of the exogamous system recommended in the Brahmanical texts.

Jatis and social mobility

• These complexities are reflected in another term used in texts to refer to social categories – jati.
• In Brahmanical theory, jati, like varna, was based on birth. However, while the number of varnas was fixed at four, there was no restriction on the number of jatis.
• In fact, 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 shrenis or guilds. We seldom come across documents that record the histories of these groups.
• But there are exceptions. One interesting stone inscription (c. fifth century CE), found in Mandasor (Madhya Pradesh), records the history of a guild of silk weavers who originally lived in Lata (Gujarat), from where they migrated to Mandasor, then known as Dashapura. It states that they undertook the difficult journey along with their children and kinfolk, as they had heard about the greatness of the local king, and wanted to settle in his kingdom. The inscription provides a fascinating glimpse of complex social processes and provides insights into the nature of guilds or shrenis.
• Although membership was based on a shared craft specialisation, some members adopted other occupations. It also indicates that the members shared more than a common profession – they collectively decided to invest their wealth, earned through their craft, to construct a splendid temple in honour of the sun god.

Beyond the four varnas: Integration

• Given the diversity of the subcontinent, there were, and always have been, populations whose social practices were not influenced by Brahmanical ideas. When they figure in Sanskrit texts, they are often described as odd, uncivilised, or even animal-like.
• In some instances, these included forest-dwellers for whom hunting and gathering remained an important means of subsistence. Categories such as the nishada, to which Ekalavya is supposed to have belonged, are examples of this.
• Others who were viewed with suspicion included populations such as nomadic pastoralists, who could not be easily accommodated within the framework of settled agriculturists.
• Sometimes those who spoke non-Sanskritic languages were labelled as mlechchhas and looked down upon.
• There was nonetheless also a sharing of ideas and beliefs between these people. The nature of relations is evident in some stories in the Mahabharata.

Beyond the four varnas : Subordination and conflict

• While the Brahmanas considered some people as being outside the system, they also developed a sharper social divide by classifying certain social categories as “untouchable”.
• This rested on a notion that certain activities, especially those connected with the performance of rituals, were sacred and by extension “pure”. Those who considered themselves pure avoided taking food from those they designated as “untouchable”.
• In sharp contrast to the purity aspect, some activities were regarded as particularly “polluting”. These included handling corpses and dead animals. Those who performed such tasks, designated as chandalas, were placed at the very bottom of the hierarchy. Their touch and, in some cases, even seeing them was regarded as “polluting” by those who claimed to be at the top of the social order.
• The Manusmriti laid down the “duties” of the chandalas. They had to live outside the village, use discarded utensils, and wear clothes of the dead and ornaments of iron. They could not walk about in villages and cities at night. They had to dispose of the bodies of those who had no relatives and serve as executioners.
• Much later, the Chinese Buddhist monk Fa Xian (c. fifth century CE) wrote that “untouchables” had to sound a clapper in the streets so that people could avoid seeing them.
• Another Chinese pilgrim, Xuan Zang (c. seventh century), observed that executioners and scavengers were forced to live outside the city.
• By examining non-Brahmanical texts which depict the lives of chandalas, historians have tried to find out whether chandalas accepted the life of degradation prescribed in the Shastras. Sometimes, these depictions correspond with those in the Brahmanical texts. But occasionally, there are hints of different social realities.

Beyond Birth : Resources and Status

• If you recall the economic relations discussed earlier, you will realise that slaves, landless agricultural labourers, hunters, fisherfolk, pastoralists, peasants, village headmen, craftspersons, merchants and kings emerged as social actors in different parts of the subcontinent.
• Their social positions were often shaped by their access to economic resources. Here we will examine the social implications of access to resources in certain specific situations.

Gendered access to property

• Consider first a critical episode in the Mahabharata. During the course of the long-drawn rivalry between the Kauravas and the Pandavas, Duryodhana invited Yudhisthira to a game of dice. The latter, who was deceived by his rival, staked his gold, elephants, chariots, slaves, army, treasury, kingdom, the property of his subjects, his brothers and finally himself and lost all.
• Then he staked their common wife Draupadi and lost her too. Issues of ownership, foregrounded in stories such as this one, also figure in the Dharmasutras and Dharmashastras.
• According to the Manusmriti, the paternal estate was to be divided equally amongst sons after the death of the parents, with a special share for the eldest. Women could not claim a share of these resources.
• However, women were allowed to retain the gifts they received on the occasion of their marriage as stridhana (literally, a woman’s wealth). This could be inherited by their children, without the husband having any claim on it.
• At the same time, the Manusmriti warned women against hoarding family property, or even their own valuables, without the husband’s permission.
• However, cumulative evidence – both epigraphic and textual – suggests that while upper-class women may have had access to resources, land, cattle and money were generally controlled by men. In other words, social differences between men and women were sharpened because of the differences in access to resources.

Varna and access to property

• According to the Brahmanical texts, another criterion (apart from gender) for regulating access to wealth was varna.
• As we saw earlier, the only “occupation” prescribed for Shudras was servitude, while a variety of occupations were listed for men of the first three varnas.
• If these provisions were actually implemented, the wealthiest men would have been the Brahmanas and the Kshatriyas. That this corresponded to some extent with social realities is evident from descriptions of priests and kings in other textual traditions.
• Kings are almost invariably depicted as wealthy; priests are also generally shown to be rich, though there are occasional depictions of the poor Brahmana.
• At another level, even as the Brahmanical view of society was codified in the Dharmasutras and Dharmashastras, other traditions developed critiques of the varna order. Some of the best-known of these were developed within early Buddhism (c. sixth century BCE onwards ).
• The Buddhists recognised that there were differences in society, but did not regard these as natural or inflexible. They also rejected the idea of claims to status on the basis of birth.

An alternative social scenario: Sharing wealth

• So far we have been examining situations where people either claimed or were assigned status on the basis of their wealth.
• However, there were other possibilities as well; situations where men who were generous were respected, while those who were miserly or simply accumulated wealth for themselves were despised.
• One area where these values were cherished was ancient Tamilakam, where, as we saw earlier, there were several chiefdoms around 2,000 years ago. Amongst other things, the chiefs were patrons of bards and poets who sang their praise.
• Poems included in the Tamil Sangam anthologies often illuminate social and economic relationships, suggesting that while there were differences between rich and poor, those who controlled resources were also expected to share them.

Explaining Social Differences: A Social Contract

• The Buddhists also developed an alternative understanding of social inequalities, and of the institutions required to regulate social conflict.
• In a myth found in a text known as the Sutta Pitaka they suggested that originally human beings did not have fully evolved bodily forms, nor was the world of plants fully developed.
• All beings lived in an idyllic state of peace, taking from nature only what they needed for each meal. However, there was a gradual deterioration of this state as human beings became increasingly greedy, vindictive and deceitful.
• This led them to wonder: “What if we were to select a certain being who should be wrathful when indignation is right, who should censure that which should rightly be censured and should banish him who deserves to be banished? We will give him in return a proportion of the rice … chosen by the whole people, he will be known as Mahasammata, the great elect.”
• This suggests that the institution of kingship was based on human choice, with taxes as a form of payment for services rendered by the king. At the same time, it reveals recognition of human agency in creating and institutionalising economic and social relations.
• There are other implications as well. For instance, if human beings were responsible for the creation of the system, they could also change it in future.

Handling Texts : Historians and the Mahabharata

• Historians consider several elements when they analyse texts. They examine whether texts were written in Prakrit, Pali or Tamil, languages that were probably used by ordinary people, or in Sanskrit, a language meant almost exclusively for priests and elites.
• They also consider the kinds of text. Were these mantras, learnt and chanted by ritual specialists, or stories that people could have read, or heard, and then retold if they found them interesting?
• Besides, they try to find out about the author(s) whose perspectives and ideas shaped the text, as well as the intended audience, as, very often, authors keep the interests of their audience in mind while composing their work.
• And they try and ascertain the possible date of the composition or compilation of the texts as well as the place where they may have been composed.
• It is only after making these assessments that they draw on the content of texts to arrive at an understanding of their historical significance. As you can imagine, this is a particularly difficult task for a text as complex as the Mahabharata.

Language and content

• The Sanskrit used in the Mahabharata is far simpler than that of the Vedas, or of the prashastis.
• Historians usually classify the contents of the present text under two broad heads – sections that contain stories, designated as the narrative, and sections that contain prescriptions about social norms, designated as didactic.
• This division is by no means watertight – the didactic sections include stories, and the narrative often contains a social message. However, generally historians agree that the Mahabharata was meant to be a dramatic, moving story, and that the didactic portions were probably added later.
• Interestingly, the text is described as an itihasa within early Sanskrit tradition. The literal meaning of the term is “thus it was”, which is why it is generally translated as “history”.
• Was there a real war that was remembered in the epic? We are not sure. Some historians think that the memory of an actual conflict amongst kinfolk was preserved in the narrative; others point out that there is no other corroborative evidence of the battle.

Author(s) and dates : Who wrote the text?

• This is a question to which there are several answers. The original story was probably composed by charioteer-bards known as sutas who generally accompanied Kshatriya warriors to the battlefield and composed poems celebrating their victories and other achievements.
• These compositions circulated orally. Then, from the fifth century BCE, Brahmanas took over the story and began to commit it to writing.
• This was the time when chiefdoms such as those of the Kurus and Panchalas, around whom the story of the epic revolves, were gradually becoming kingdoms.
• Did the new kings want their itihasa to be recorded and preserved more systematically? It is also possible that the upheavals that often accompanied the establishment of these states, where old social values were often replaced by new norms, are reflected in some parts of the story.
• We notice another phase in the composition of the text between c. 200 BCE and 200 CE. This was the period when the worship of Vishnu was growing in importance, and Krishna, one of the important figures of the epic, was coming to be identified with Vishnu.
• Subsequently, between c. 200 and 400 CE, large didactic sections resembling the Manusmriti were added.
• With these additions, a text which initially perhaps had less than 10,000 verses grew to comprise about 100,000 verses.
• This enormous composition is traditionally attributed to a sage named Vyasa.

The search for convergence

• The Mahabharata, like any major epic, contains vivid descriptions of battles, forests, palaces and settlements.
• In 1951-52, the archaeologist B.B. Lal excavated at a village named Hastinapura in Meerut (Uttar Pradesh).
• Was this the Hastinapura of the epic? While the similarity in names could be coincidental, the location of the site in the Upper Ganga doab, where the Kuru kingdom was situated, suggests that it may have been the capital of the Kurus mentioned in the text.
• Lal found evidence of five occupational levels, of which the second and third are of interest to us.
• This is what Lal noted about the houses in the second phase (c. twelfth-seventh centuries BCE): “Within the limited area excavated, no definite plans of houses were obtained, but walls of mud and mud-bricks were duly encountered. The discovery of mud-plaster with prominent reed-marks suggested that some of the houses had reed walls plastered over with mud.”
• For the third phase (c. sixth-third centuries BCE), he noted: “Houses of this period were built of mud-brick as well as burnt bricks. Soakage jars and brick drains were used for draining out refuse water, while terracotta ring-wells may have been used both as wells and drainage pits.”
• Was the description of the city in the epic added after the main narrative had been composed, when (after the sixth century BCE) urban centres flourished in the region?
• Or was it a flight of poetic fancy, which cannot always be verified by comparisons with other kinds of evidence?
• Consider another instance. One of the most challenging episodes in the Mahabharata is Draupadi’s marriage with the Pandavas, an instance of polyandry that is central to the narrative.
• If we examine the section of the epic that describes this event, it is evident that the author(s) attempted to explain it in a variety of ways. Present-day historians suggest that the fact that the author(s) describe a polyandrous union indicates that polyandry may have been prevalent amongst ruling elites at some point of time.
• At the same time, the fact that so many different explanations are offered for the episode suggests that polyandry gradually fell into disfavour amongst the Brahmanas, who reworked and developed the text through the centuries.
• Some historians note that while the practice of polyandry may have seemed unusual or even undesirable from the Brahmanical point of view, it was (and is) prevalent in the Himalayan region.
• 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.
• Some early sources suggest that polyandry was not the only or even the most prevalent form of marriage. Why then did the author(s) choose to associate this practice with the central characters of the Mahabharata?
• We need to remember that creative literature often has its own narrative requirements and does not always literally reflect social realities.

A Dynamic Text

• The growth of the Mahabharata did not stop with the Sanskrit version. Over the centuries, versions of the epic were written in a variety of languages through an ongoing process of dialogue between peoples, communities, and those who wrote the texts.
• Several stories that originated in specific regions or circulated amongst certain people found their way into the epic.
• At the same time, the central story of the epic was often retold in different ways. And episodes were depicted in sculpture and painting.
• They also provided themes for a wide range of performing arts – plays, dance and other kinds of narrations. Most retellings or re-enactments of the epic draw on the main narrative in creative ways.
• Let us look at one example, an episode from the Mahabharata that has been transformed by Mahashweta Devi, a contemporary Bengali writer known for raising her voice against all forms of exploitation and oppression. In this particular instance, she works out alternative possibilities from the main story of the Mahabharata and draws attention to questions on which the Sanskrit text is silent.
• The Sanskrit text describes how Duryodhana plotted to kill the Pandavas by inviting them to stay in a specially prepared house of lac, which he planned to set on fire. Forewarned, the Pandavas dug a tunnel to ensure their escape. Then Kunti arranged for a feast. While most of the invitees were Brahmanas, a nishada woman came with her five sons. When they were satiated with drink and fell off to sleep, the Pandavas escaped, setting fire to the house. When the bodies of the woman and her sons were discovered, people thought that the Pandavas were dead.
• In her short story titled “Kunti O Nishadi”, Mahashweta Devi takes up the narrative from where the Mahabharata ends it. She sets the story in a forest, where Kunti retires after the war. Kunti now has time to reflect on her past, and often confesses to what she regards as her failings, talking with the earth, the symbol of nature. Every day she sees the nishadas who come to collect wood, honey, tubers and roots. One nishadi (a nishada woman) often listens to Kunti when she talks with the earth. One day, there was something in the air; the animals were fleeing the forest. Kunti noticed that the nishadi was watching her, and was startled when she spoke to her and asked if she remembered the house of lac. Yes, Kunti said, she did. Did she remember a certain elderly nishadi and her five young sons? And that she had served them wine till they were senseless, while she escaped with her own sons? That nishadi … “Not you!” Kunti exclaimed. The nishadi replied that the woman who was killed had been her mother-in-law. She added that while Kunti had been reflecting on her past, not once did she remember the six innocent lives that were lost because she had wanted to save herself and her sons. As they spoke, the flames drew nearer. The nishadi escaped to safety, but Kunti remained where she was.