Post-Mauryan Period: Society (Social Conditions) | History Optional for UPSC (Notes) PDF Download

New Elements in Indian Society

• The Greeks, Shakas, Parthians, and Kushans eventually lost their distinct identities in India over time, becoming fully Indianized. They settled in India and completely integrated into its culture. Lacking their own script, written language, or organized religion, they adopted these cultural components from India and became integral to Indian society, contributing significantly.
• Most of these groups arrived as conquerors but were absorbed into Indian society as a warrior class, identified as kshatriyas. Their integration into the Brahmanical social order was explained by the lawmaker Manu, who described the Shakas and Parthians as kshatriyas who had strayed from their duties and thus fallen in status, considered second-class kshatriyas. In no other period of ancient Indian history were foreigners assimilated into Indian society on such a large scale as in the post-Maurya era.

Yavanas as Varna-Samkara

• Outsiders like the Yavanas were incorporated into the varna system through the concept of varna-samkara(mixture of varnas). In the early Dharmasutras, the Yavanas were described as the offspring of Kshatriya men and Shudra women.
• In the Mahabharata, they are variously depicted as the sons of Yayati, born from the sage Vasishtha's cow (along with others like the Pahlavas, Dravidas, and Shakas) to defeat Vishvamitra's army, or as Shudras. The Manu Smriti refers to them as vratya-kshatriyas, Kshatriyas degraded due to their failure to perform sacrificial rituals. These references reflect a tension between social inclusion and exclusion.

Jati, Lineage, and Occupation

• Jati, lineage, and occupation remained crucial bases of social identity. Texts show a preference for endogamy and a hereditary aspect in occupations. There are mentions of people sharing the same profession living in separate settlements or distinct parts of settlements.
• Regarding restrictions on giving and accepting food, texts primarily discuss those at the top of the caste hierarchy—the Brahmanas—and those considered outside caste society—the Chandalas.

Chandalas

• The Manu Smriti provides a more detailed account of Chandalas than earlier texts. While some of its statements continue earlier lawgivers' views, it stands out for the complete segregation of this group.
• The Chandala is mandated to live outside the village. They may enter a village or town to perform assigned tasks but must be marked by the king's command. They are considered apapatra, meaning food for them should be placed on the ground, and they must not eat from others' dishes.
• Several Jataka stories suggest that the injunctions regarding untouchability in the Manu Smriti were in line with prevailing social practices. In these stories, Chandalas are depicted as a despised group living in separate settlements, their sight and touch considered polluting by others. Their tasks included corpse removal, cremation, execution of thieves, sweeping, public performance, hunting, and fruit selling.
• Extreme prejudices against Chandalas are also reflected in Jaina texts, echoing similar sentiments.

Social Flexibility

The presence of jati or caste distinctions and hierarchies did not imply that the system operated with absolute rigidity. There are indications of social flexibility, exemplified by the acceptance of offspring from unequal unions:

• The Bhaddasala Jataka recounts the story of Prasenajit, the king of Kosala, who was enraged upon discovering that the Sakyas had deceived him into marrying the daughter of a Sakya prince by a slave woman. Initially, the king rejected his wife and son, but he accepted them back after the Buddha advised him that the family of the mother was inconsequential; what mattered was the father’s family.
• Another Jataka tale narrates the journey of a prince who, during a romantic affair, apprenticed himself successively to a potter,basket maker,florist, and cook. Other stories depict a prince becoming a trader and a young man from a noble family taking up work as an archer.
• Brahmanas are depicted as engaging in trade, living as hunters and trappers, farming, and working as cowherds, among other occupations. These instances illustrate individuals of higher social standing adopting the vocations of lower orders. However, narratives of successful upward mobility from lower-status groups are relatively rare.

Condition of Women

Texts from this period present seemingly contradictory views about women. For example, the Manu Smriti both praises and criticizes women, with the nature of the statements varying based on the topic of discussion.

• When discussing how men should guard their wives, women are portrayed as lustful,fickle,hard-hearted, and utterly untrustworthy. Conversely, when the focus is on how men should respect women, they are described as bearers of numerous blessings and likened to Shri, the goddess of fortune, within the household.
• In discussions about the treatment of women, Manu emphasizes that the gods are pleased where women are revered, and where they are not, no religious rite is effective.
• The Manu Smriti stresses the husband’s control over his wife and her property. However, it also asserts that a wife cannot be sold or repudiated and should not be treated as property, as she is obtained from the gods and not acquired like cattle or gold in the market. The husband is expected to support the wife under all circumstances, provided she is faithful.
• Apart from individual statements and their contexts, it is crucial to recognize the broader social and family roles valorized in texts like the Manu Smriti. The strengthening of the patriarchal nature of the family and the increasing subordination of women are reflected in various ways in Dharmashastra works of this period. Women gradually withdrew from public life, their access to knowledge diminished, and they became increasingly dependent on male relatives.
• The preference for sons over daughters intensified, and women were increasingly confined to the domestic sphere. The heightened restrictions on their sexuality were evident in the strong emphasis on chastity, with pre-puberty marriages being one method to ensure this.

Women’s Right to Inheritance

Changing relationships between women and property in Brahmanical texts from the time of the Rig Veda to the 5th–6th centuries CE:

• By the time of the Smritis and Puranas, women were relegated to a position of almost complete subordination and subservience, treated as items of property, comparable to Shudras.
• In the early Dharmasutras, women had a low priority among claimants to inherited property. However, from around the 2nd century BCE, lawgivers began to recognize and prescribe women’s right to inheritance, albeit limited to stri-dhana.
• According to the Manu Smriti,stri-dhana includes six types of gifts, such as those received before the nuptial fire, in the bridal procession, and from close relatives. It did not encompass inherited property or property acquired through a woman’s own labor.
• Regular property rights remained governed by patrilineal inheritance rules. However, women’s rights to inherit immovable property were significantly acknowledged and expanded in later centuries (Gupta and post-Gupta periods) to maintain family control over property and prevent it from escheating to the state.

Marriage

The Smriti texts do not elaborate on the specifics of marriage ceremonies but contain various statements regarding marriage in general. The Manu Smriti states that after completing his studentship, a dvija male should marry a girl from his own varna who possesses good qualities.

• The urgency to marry off girls as early as possible is linked to the paramount importance placed on maintaining female chastity and producing children. Several Smritis reflect the belief that each menstruation a girl experiences represents a missed opportunity for conception, equating such a situation to the killing of an embryo (bhruna-hatya).
• Unlike earlier Dharmasutras, which advocated for marrying girls upon reaching puberty, later texts encouraged pre-puberty marriages. For instance, Manu suggests that a 30-year-old man should marry a 12-year-old girl, and a 24-year-old man should marry an 8-year-old girl.
• In addition to the young age of girls at marriage, this prescription indicates a significant age gap between the bride and groom. Like other Dharmashastra works, the Manu Smriti prefers marriages within the same varna but acknowledges the existence of inter-varna unions, particularly approving of anuloma(hypergamous) marriages.
• However, the mixture of varnas resulting from pratiloma marriages is condemned as leading to chaos and ruin, and kings are urged to prevent such unions. Unlike the Baudhayana Dharmasutra, the Manu Smriti strongly disapproves of a man marrying his maternal uncle’s daughter or paternal aunt’s daughter.
• The Manu Smriti discourages the sale of daughters (i.e., accepting bride-price) but establishes certain rules for situations arising from this practice. For example, if one girl has been shown to a man and another is presented, he can marry both for the same price.

Abandonment of Wife and Polygamy

According to the Manu Smriti, there are various reasons for which husbands can abandon their wives. These include if the wife is notorious, afflicted with disease, addicted to alcohol, cruel, treacherous, insubordinate, barren, a spendthrift, or harsh in speech. The text discusses how long a man should wait before abandoning a wife with such faults. For instance, a barren wife should be abandoned after the eighth year of marriage, one whose children die in the tenth year, one who has produced only female children in the eleventh year, but a wife who speaks harshly should be abandoned immediately.

• On the other hand, the Manu Smriti also states that a sick but virtuous wife who takes care of her husband should never be insulted or abandoned; her husband should only take another wife with her consent.
• The Yajnavalkya Smriti also indicates that if a man gives up his first wife and marries again, he must take care of her; otherwise, he will incur sin. There are other indications of the prevalence of polygyny in the Dharmashastra, such as discussions about the property rights of a man’s sons born from different wives. For women, however, lifelong monogamy is presented as the ideal.

Widow Remarriage

The Manu Smriti disapproves of widow remarriage, asserting that a daughter should only be given away in marriage once. However, it also refers elsewhere to paunarbhava, the son of a woman who has remarried due to being widowed, abandoned, or desiring to do so. In the Manu Smriti, the earlier practice of temporary self-denial and celibacy for widows is replaced by lifelong restrictions.

• The text considers niyoga(levirate) a despicable custom, referring to it as pashu dharma(the dharma of animals). Nevertheless, it outlines certain procedures to be followed if recourse to niyoga is necessary.
• The Manu Smriti states that if a woman’s husband dies after kanyadana, his younger brother should marry her. The text recognizes a son born from a niyoga union as kshetraja(‘born of the field’, i.e., the woman).

Other Sources about Women

While the Dharmashastra texts contain various prescriptions regarding the ideal roles of women in the upper echelons of society, other texts introduce us to women from diverse backgrounds associated with different vocations. In the Pali Jatakas, besides queens, nuns, and courtesans, we encounter women engaged in various occupations such as basket making,weaving, and dyeing.

• Our understanding of gender relations expands further when examining non-textual evidence, particularly inscriptions from different parts of the subcontinent. Some inscriptions record the activities of royal women, such as royal women of the Satavahana family, who are prominent in the epigraphic record and took the initiative to make donations independently.
• Matronyms: The use of matronyms by certain Satavahana kings, such as Gautamiputra and Vasishthiputra, suggests that the king adopted his mother’s gotra. In the Brahmanical system, gotra is inherited from the father, not the mother. Therefore, the evidence of kings identified by their mother’s lineage is significant, although it does not necessarily indicate matriarchy or even matriliny.
• Matronyms may have served as a means of identifying parentage in a polygamous context or may reflect the prevalence of forms of marriage deemed less appropriate by the Brahmanical tradition. The use of the same matronym by multiple kings also raises the possibility that some Satavahana kings practiced cross-cousin marriage.
• An inscription from Nashik, seemingly a copy of one issued by Gautamiputra Satakarni and his mother, describes the composer as a woman pratiharakshi(doorkeeper) named Lota. Numerous royal and elite women appear as donors in inscriptions from the Ikshvaku period at Nagarjunakonda. Inscriptions also reveal the activities of many non-royal women, with a notable presence of women as donors at Buddhist sites.
• The evidence of a similar high incidence of female patronage in favor of Jaina establishments has been less extensively studied. These instances may not specifically illuminate norms of inheritance but suggest that certain women possessed some degree of control over the economic resources of their households.
• To explore women from this period, it is essential to move beyond textual and inscriptive evidence into the realm of artistic representations. Various aspects of women and femininity are depicted in the sculptures of this era.

The Jatakas as a Source of Social History

• The Jatakas offer valuable insights into the daily lives of ordinary people and reflect a society with significant class and caste distinctions. Themes such as hierarchy and pollution taboos are prevalent throughout the stories.
• Despite the popular narrative format not allowing for a direct discussion of Buddhist philosophical themes, the stories were crafted to convey clear messages emphasizing Buddhist ethics. Buddhist monks likely drew upon existing folklore and infused it with a Buddhist perspective.

The Jatakas are structured as stories within stories, with each tale comprising four parts:

• Introduction: A story set in the time of the Buddha.
• Main Story: A tale from a mythical past featuring the Buddha as the protagonist or witness.
• Verse Summary: A verse summarizing the story's essence.
• Present Link: A connection between the past story and the present.

Although the Jatakas may seem to involve animals, they address real societal concerns. Animals, like humans, are depicted in an unequal world. Sometimes, an inferior animal recognizes its inferiority compared to superior ones, while other times, weaker animals outsmart stronger ones.
In the Setaketu Jataka, a Chandala(an outcast) challenges the Brahmanical concept of pollution. However, several Jataka stories also reflect biases against women, similar to those found in Buddhist canonical texts. Upper-class women are often portrayed as inherently fickle, untrustworthy, and adulterous, with infidelity among royal women being a common theme.

In contrast, there are stories of women from humble backgrounds who, alongside their male counterparts, seek moments of joy amid a life of hardship and poverty.