Kinship, Caste and Class (Mahabharata)

2.1 Core concepts

• Why the Mahabharata? It is "a colossal epic running in its present form into over 100,000 verses" with depictions of a wide range of social categories; composed over about 1,000 years (c. 500 BCE onwards), with a central story about two sets of warring cousins (Kauravas and Pandavas) (NCERT Intro, p. 53).
• Critical Edition project. Begun in 1919 under V.S. Sukthankar, a noted Indian Sanskritist; dozens of scholars collected Sanskrit manuscripts (in different scripts) from across the subcontinent — from Kashmir/Nepal to Kerala/Tamil Nadu; selected verses common to most versions; project ran 47 years (1919-66), published in volumes running over 13,000 pages, more than half devoted to regional variations (NCERT §1, p. 54).
• Texts as source — cautions. Each text/inscription was written from the perspective of specific social categories; we must keep in mind who composed what, for whom, the language used, and how it circulated. Used carefully, texts allow us to piece together attitudes and practices (NCERT Intro, p. 53). Understanding is derived primarily from Sanskrit texts by/for Brahmanas; later scholars also studied Pali, Prakrit and Tamil works (NCERT §1, p. 54).
• Terms for family and kin. Sanskrit texts use kula for families, jnati for the larger network of kinfolk, and vamsha for lineage (NCERT §2.1, p. 55, sidebar).
• Patriliny vs Matriliny. Patriliny = tracing descent from father to son, grandson, etc.; Matriliny = descent through the mother. Under patriliny sons could claim the resources (including the throne) of their fathers after the latter's death (NCERT §2.2, p. 55).
• Kuru-Pandava feud. The Mahabharata is a feud over land and power between two groups of cousins — Kauravas and Pandavas — of the Kuru lineage, one of the janapadas. After the Pandava victory, patrilineal succession was proclaimed (NCERT §2.2, p. 55).
• Variations in patrilineal succession. Most ruling dynasties from c. 6th century BCE claimed patriliny, with variations — sometimes brothers succeeded, sometimes other kinsmen claimed the throne, and in very exceptional circumstances women such as Prabhavati Gupta exercised power (NCERT §2.2, pp. 55-56).
• Concern with patriliny was not unique to rulers — mantras in the Rigveda (e.g. one inserted c. 1000 BCE for the marriage ritual asking for "fine sons") show wealthy men and high-status Brahmanas shared the concern (NCERT §2.2 Source 1, p. 56).
• Rules of marriage — endogamy/exogamy. Endogamy = marriage within a unit (kin group, caste, locality). Exogamy = marriage outside the unit. Marrying daughters into families outside the kin was considered desirable; kanyadana (gift of a daughter in marriage) was the father's religious duty (NCERT §2.3, p. 57).
• Polygyny/Polyandry. Polygyny = a man having several wives. Polyandry = a woman having several husbands (NCERT §2.3 sidebar, p. 57).
• Dharmasutras and Dharmashastras. From c. 500 BCE Brahmanas compiled Sanskrit codes of social behaviour. The Manusmriti is the most important, compiled c. 200 BCE - 200 CE (NCERT §2.3, p. 58).
• Eight forms of marriage. The Dharmasutras/Dharmashastras recognised eight forms; the first four were considered "good", the remaining four were condemned. The Manusmriti excerpt lists the first (Brahma — father gifts daughter to a Veda-learned man with jewels), fourth (gift after enjoining duties together), fifth (groom gives wealth to kinsmen/bride), and sixth (voluntary union of maiden and lover from desire) (NCERT §2.3 Source 3, p. 58). [The eight Dharmasutra forms are Brahma, Daiva, Arsha, Prajapatya, Asura, Gandharva, Rakshasa, Paishacha.]
• Gotra of women. From c. 1000 BCE Brahmanas classified people (especially Brahmanas) by gotras, each named after a Vedic seer; two rules — women had to give up father's gotra and adopt husband's gotra at marriage, and members of the same gotra could not marry (NCERT §2.4, p. 58).
• Satavahana evidence. Satavahana queens (e.g. Gotami, Vasithi, Vasathi, Madhari, Hariti) retained their father's gotras instead of adopting the husband's; some belonged to the same gotra as their husbands — exemplifying endogamy rather than the Brahmanical ideal of exogamy. Several rulers were also polygynous. Endogamy among kinfolk (e.g. cousins) was and is prevalent in south India (NCERT §2.4, pp. 58-60).
• Were mothers important? Metronymics. Satavahana rulers are identified by metronymics (names derived from the mother — Gotami-puta, Vasithi-puta, "puta" being Prakrit for "son"); the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad also lists teachers by metronymics. Yet Satavahana succession was generally patrilineal — so we must be cautious (NCERT §2.5, p. 60).
• Caste — varna order. "Caste" refers to a set of hierarchically ordered social categories. The ideal order laid down in Dharmasutras/Dharmashastras ranked Brahmanas first; Shudras and "untouchables" at the bottom; positions were supposedly determined by birth (NCERT §3, p. 61).
• Ideal occupations of the four varnas. Brahmana — study/teach Vedas, perform sacrifices, give/receive gifts. Kshatriya — warfare, protect people, administer justice, study Vedas, get sacrifices performed, make gifts. Vaishya — the last three Kshatriya duties plus agriculture, pastoralism and trade. Shudra — serve the three "higher" varnas (NCERT §3.1, p. 61).
• Brahmana strategies to enforce varna. (1) Assert divine origin (Purusha sukta of Rigveda — Brahmana from Purusha's mouth, Kshatriya from arms, Vaishya from thighs, Shudra from feet); (2) Advise kings to enforce; (3) Persuade that status is by birth; reinforced by stories in the Mahabharata (NCERT §3.1, p. 61; Source 6).
• Ekalavya story. Drona (Brahmana teacher of archery to Kuru princes) refused Ekalavya the nishada (a forest-dwelling hunting community) as a pupil. Ekalavya practised before a clay image of Drona, then surpassed all; Drona demanded his right thumb as guru-dakshina so that Arjuna would remain unrivalled (NCERT §3.1 Source 7, p. 62).
• Non-Kshatriya kings. Despite the Shastric rule that only Kshatriyas could be kings, the Mauryas' background was disputed (Buddhist texts — Kshatriya; Brahmanical — "low" origin); the Shungas and Kanvas, immediate successors of the Mauryas, were Brahmanas; the Shakas from Central Asia were called mlechchhas by Brahmanas — yet Rudradaman, the best-known Shaka ruler (c. 2nd century CE), rebuilt Sudarshana lake and his inscription is one of the earliest in Sanskrit (NCERT §3.2, pp. 62-63).
• Satavahana paradox. Gotami-puta Siri-Satakani claimed to be a unique Brahmana (eka bamhana) AND a destroyer of Kshatriya pride, claimed to prevent intermarriage among the four varnas, yet married into the kin of Rudradaman (a Shaka mlechchha). Integration within caste was therefore complicated (NCERT §3.2, p. 63).
• Jati. A second term for social categories — like varna, based on birth in Brahmanical theory, but unlike varna (fixed at four) jatis had no fixed number. New groups (e.g. nishadas) and occupational categories (e.g. suvarnakara = goldsmith) that did not fit the fourfold varna were classified as jatis. Jatis sharing an occupation were organised into shrenis (guilds) (NCERT §3.3, p. 63).
• Mandasor silk-weavers inscription. A c. 5th-century CE stone inscription from Mandasor (MP) records a guild of silk weavers who migrated from Lata (Gujarat) to Dashapura (Mandasor); some members adopted other occupations (music, biography, religion, Vedic astronomy, battle); collectively built a sun temple — showing that members shared more than craft (NCERT §3.3, pp. 63-64).
• The case of the merchants. Sanskrit texts use vanik for merchants. The Shastras say trade is for Vaishyas, but plays like the Mrichchhakatika of Shudraka (c. 4th century CE) describe the hero Charudatta as both Brahmana and sarthavaha (merchant). A 5th-century inscription describes two brothers donating for a temple as kshatriya-vaniks (NCERT §3.3 sidebar, p. 64).
• Beyond the four varnas — integration. Forest-dwellers (e.g. nishadas), nomadic pastoralists, and speakers of non-Sanskritic languages were labelled mlechchhas by Brahmanas, yet ideas and beliefs were shared. The Hidimba story (Adi Parvan) — Hidimba a rakshasi who married Bhima and bore Ghatotkacha — is read as marriage with a non-Brahmanical community (NCERT §3.4 Source 9, pp. 64-65).
• Subordination — chandalas and untouchability. Brahmanas classified certain groups as "untouchable" based on a purity/pollution divide. Chandalas handled corpses and dead animals; the Manusmriti ordered them to live outside the village, use discarded utensils, wear clothes of the dead and ornaments of iron, dispose of unclaimed bodies, serve as executioners, and not walk in villages/cities at night. Fa Xian (c. 5th c. CE, Chinese Buddhist monk) wrote that "untouchables" had to sound a clapper; Xuan Zang (c. 7th c.) observed that executioners/scavengers were forced to live outside the city (NCERT §3.5, pp. 65-66).
• Resistance — Matanga Jataka. A Pali story (the Bodhisattva as the chandala Matanga) describes him marrying Dittha Mangalika the merchant's daughter; their son Mandavya, who fed 16,000 Brahmanas, refused alms to his ragged father; Matanga remarks: "Those who are proud of their birth and are ignorant do not deserve gifts." Suggests chandalas sometimes resisted the Shastric prescription (NCERT §3.5 Source 10, p. 67).
• Gendered access to property. During the dice-game Yudhisthira staked his property, brothers, himself, and finally Draupadi. The Manusmriti said the paternal estate was to be divided equally among sons after the parents' death (with a special share for the eldest); women could not claim a share. Stridhana (literally "woman's wealth") — gifts received at marriage — could be retained by women and inherited by their children, with the husband having no claim; but the Manusmriti warned women against hoarding family property without the husband's permission (NCERT §4.1, p. 68).
• Seven means for men, six for women (Manusmriti). Men's seven means of acquiring wealth — inheritance, finding, purchase, conquest, investment, work, and acceptance of gifts from good people. Women's six — gifts at marriage (in front of the fire / bridal procession / token of affection), and what she got from her brother, mother or father; subsequent gifts; what her "affectionate" husband gave her (NCERT §4.1 Source 12, p. 69).
• Varna and access to property. Only Shudras were prescribed servitude; the wealthiest men should therefore have been Brahmanas and Kshatriyas — and kings/priests are usually depicted as wealthy in textual traditions (NCERT §4.2, p. 69).
• Buddhist critique. Buddhists recognised social differences but did not regard them as natural or inflexible and rejected birth-based status. In the Majjhima Nikaya, Kachchana (a disciple of the Buddha) argues to king Avantiputta that a wealthy Shudra could have a Brahmana/Kshatriya/Vaishya as obedient servant — proving that the four varnas were "exactly the same" (NCERT §4.2 Source 13, pp. 69-70).
• Alternative — Sharing wealth (Sangam). In ancient Tamilakam, generous chiefs were respected, the miserly despised. The Puranaruru (a Tamil Sangam anthology, c. 1st c. CE) describes a poor but generous chief at Irantai who would order a spear from the village blacksmith to earn so he could give to bards (NCERT §4.3 Source 14, pp. 70-71).
• Buddhist social contract. The Sutta Pitaka myth — beings were originally peaceful; greed/vindictiveness/deceit set in; people chose a being to censure and banish, paying him a proportion of rice — he was the mahasammata (great elect). Kingship was based on human choice; taxes were payment for services; human beings could change the system they had created (NCERT §5, p. 72).
• Handling texts. Historians examine language (Prakrit/Pali/Tamil = ordinary people; Sanskrit = priests/elites), kind of text (mantra, story), author(s) and intended audience, date and place of composition (NCERT §6, pp. 72-73).
• Narrative vs Didactic. Historians divide Mahabharata content into narrative (stories) and didactic (prescriptions about social norms — didactic means meant for instruction). The didactic was probably added later. The Sanskrit of the Mahabharata is simpler than the Vedas — probably widely understood. The text is called an itihasa ("thus it was") (NCERT §6.1, p. 73).
• Author(s) and dates. Original story probably composed by sutas (charioteer-bards) who accompanied Kshatriya warriors and circulated orally. From c. 5th century BCE Brahmanas committed it to writing — the time when Kuru/Panchala chiefdoms became kingdoms. A second phase c. 200 BCE - 200 CE coincided with Vishnu worship growing and Krishna being identified with Vishnu. Between c. 200 and 400 CE, large didactic sections (resembling the Manusmriti) were added — the text grew from perhaps fewer than 10,000 verses to about 100,000. Traditionally attributed to Vyasa (NCERT §6.2, pp. 74-75).
• Convergence with archaeology — B.B. Lal at Hastinapura (1951-52). Five occupational levels; 2nd phase (c. 12th-7th c. BCE) — mud and mud-brick walls, reed-marked plaster; 3rd phase (c. 6th-3rd c. BCE) — mud-brick and burnt bricks, soakage jars, brick drains, terracotta ring-wells. The Adi Parvan describes Hastinapura as "bursting like the ocean, packed with hundreds of mansions" — possibly added after urban centres flourished post-6th c. BCE (NCERT §6.3, pp. 75-76).
• Draupadi's polyandry — three explanations. Drupada organised a competition; Arjuna won; Kunti's command that the brothers share what they had got led Yudhisthira to declare Draupadi the common wife. Vyasa offered three explanations to the protesting Drupada — Pandavas were incarnations of Indra (whose wife was reborn as Draupadi); a young woman prayed five times to Shiva for a husband and was reborn as Draupadi. Multiple explanations suggest polyandry fell into disfavour with the Brahmanas who reworked the text; some historians point to its prevalence in the Himalayan region or to a shortage of women in warfare (NCERT §6.3 Source 16, pp. 76-77).
• A dynamic text. Mahabharata grew in many languages, with regional stories woven in, retold in sculpture, painting, plays, dance. Mahashweta Devi, a contemporary Bengali writer, retold the house-of-lac episode in "Kunti O Nishadi" — making the nishada woman's perspective central (NCERT §7, pp. 77-78).
• Major textual timeline. Panini's Ashtadhyayi (c. 500 BCE); Dharmasutras (c. 500-200 BCE); Tripitaka in Pali (c. 500-100 BCE); Ramayana & Mahabharata in Sanskrit (c. 500 BCE - 400 CE); Manusmriti and Tamil Sangam literature (c. 200 BCE - 200 CE); Charaka/Sushruta (c. 100 CE); Puranas (c. 200 CE onwards); Natyashastra (c. 300 CE); other Dharmashastras (c. 300-600 CE); Kalidasa, Aryabhata, Varahamihira, Jaina works in Prakrit (c. 400-500 CE) (NCERT Timeline 1, p. 79).
• Mahabharata study landmarks. Critical Edition 1919-66; J.A.B. van Buitenen began an English translation in 1973, incomplete at his death in 1978 (NCERT Timeline 2, p. 79).

2.2 Definitions to memorise

2.3 Diagrams / processes to remember

• Fig. 3.1 — Terracotta sculpture, West Bengal, c. 17th century, scene from the Mahabharata (p. 53).
• Fig. 3.2 — A section of the Critical Edition showing the main text in large bold and variant readings in smaller print (p. 54).
• Map 1 — Kuru-Panchala region with Hastinapura, Indraprastha, neighbouring janapadas (Shurasena, Matsya, Vatsa, Koshala, Malla, Sakya, Avanti) (p. 56).
• Fig. 3.3 — Satavahana ruler and his wife sculpted on the wall of a cave donated to Buddhist monks, c. 2nd century BCE (p. 59).
• Fig. 3.4 — Battle scene from the Mahabharata, terracotta from Ahichchhatra (UP), c. 5th century CE (p. 60).
• Fig. 3.5 — Silver coin of a Shaka ruler, c. 4th century CE (p. 63).
• Fig. 3.6 — Gandhara mendicant sculpture, c. 3rd century CE (p. 66).
• Fig. 3.7 — Chief and follower, stone sculpture from Amaravati (Andhra Pradesh), c. 2nd century CE (p. 71).
• Fig. 3.8 — Krishna advises Arjuna on the battlefield (18th-century painting; the Bhagavad Gita is the most important didactic section) (p. 73).
• Fig. 3.9 — Lord Ganesha the scribe to whom Vyasa is traditionally said to have dictated; from a Persian Mahabharata, c. 1740-50 (p. 74).
• Fig. 3.10 — A wall excavated at Hastinapura by B.B. Lal (p. 76).

2.5 Timeline / Key events

2.4 Common confusions / NTA trap points

• Patriliny ≠ Matriliny. Patriliny = father-to-son descent; matriliny = through the mother. Metronymics (mother-derived names like Gotami-puta) do not prove matriliny — Satavahana succession was still patrilineal.
• Endogamy ≠ Exogamy. Brahmanical ideal = exogamy (marry outside the gotra). The Satavahanas practised endogamy (within the kin group) — an exception, not the rule.
• Varna ≠ Jati. Varna is fixed at four; Jati is unlimited in number and often occupational.
• Critical Edition dates. Started 1919 (V.S. Sukthankar), took 47 years, published over 13,000 pages. Don't confuse with the date of the Mahabharata's composition (c. 500 BCE - 400 CE).
• Eight forms of marriage are in the Dharmasutras/Dharmashastras — the Manusmriti excerpt quotes only the 1st, 4th, 5th and 6th forms. First four = "good"; last four = condemned.
• Mauryas were disputed, not definitely Kshatriya. Shungas and Kanvas were Brahmanas. Shakas were called mlechchhas.
• Stridhana could be inherited by her children — not by the husband.
• Manusmriti was compiled c. 200 BCE - 200 CE, not by Manu in a single date.
• Sanskrit = elite/priests; Pali/Prakrit/Tamil = ordinary people. This is a key methodological point.
• Fa Xian (5th c.) and Xuan Zang (7th c.) are both Chinese observers — don't swap their centuries.
• B.B. Lal excavated Hastinapura in 1951-52, identified five occupational levels.