A Social History of Early India

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For a long time, the writing of the social history of early India was under the influence of colonial historiography. Dichotomous categories that were nineteenth-century inventions, such as Aryan-non-Aryan, were the norm. There was heavy reliance on empirical data, collected from texts that had partial or normative descriptions, multiple authorship, and a complex evolution. Though archaeological and oral sources indicated otherwise, social history perforce was equated with the literate phase. Also, an ambiguity about the very idea of ‘social history’ was evident in the tendency to see the ‘social’ as something separate from ‘history’. Later works, however, tried to integrate advances made in archaeology. New approaches and methodologies were used. Attention was paid to marginalized groups and to the living traditions, their evolution and impact. This volume introduces readers to several specific dimensions of Indian society in its formative stage. The aim is to present an integrated approach in which polity, economy, religion and society can all be seen as different, constantly interacting spaces within a society subject to transformation. The diverse themes in the volume range from perceptions of the country—very much a social expression—to modes of communication and popular culture. The volume seeks to explore new thinking and new research on social history, thus underlining the need to incorporate such themes as ‘urban’ attitudes, gender history, and popular culture into all future projects on early Indian social history. At the same time, the centre space is that of varòa-jâti, representing an oppressive social system of inequality and exclusion, which dwells on how the system may have originated, the ideological implications of the system and Brâhmaòical perception of what deviation from the system might entail. This important volume, containing incisive essays reflecting the change in the way the past of India is looked at, will be invaluable for teachers, scholars and students of Indian history.ContentsPreface Part I. The Archaeological Background 1. Archaeology and Some Aspects of the Social History of Early India Part II. Early Perceptions of India and its Peoples 2. India: Its Regions and Peoples 3. Cankam Literature as Social Prism: An Interrogation 4. Brahmanical Conception of Origin of Jatis: A Study of Manusmrti Bhairabi Part III. Social Processes 5. Social Processes: Historical and Chronological Framework 6. Urbanism and Society in Early India Part IV. Power and Authority 7. Power and Authority in Early India Part V. Beliefs, Practices and Social Internalization 8. Beliefs Practices and Social Internalization in Modes of Daily Living Part VI. Modes and Spaces of Interaction 9. Relationships and Interactions in the Economic Sphere 10. Brahmana Settlements in Ancient and Early Medieval India Part VII. Religion and Society: Movements and Communication 11. Religious Developments in North India 12. Temples as Sites of Social and Religious Interaction Part VIII. Gender Issues 13. Gender Relations during the First Millennium: An Overview 14. Gender and Transcendence in Early India Part IX. Art and Society 15. Early Social History of Indian Metal Crafts: Some Archaeometallurgicaland Ethnoarchaeological Perspectives Part X. Popular Culture 16. Modes of Articulation of Popular Culture: Early India About the EditorB.D. Chattopadhyaya studied and researched at Calcutta University and Cambridge University and taught at Burdwan University and Visva-Bharati University, and, for the longest stretch (1971-2004), at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. His own publications, in addition to several volumes edited by him, include Coins and Currency Systems in South India (1977); Survey of the Historical Geography of Ancient India (1984); Aspects of Rural Settlements and Rural Societies in Early Medieval India (1994); Representing the Other? Sanskrit Sources and the Muslims: 8th to 14th Century (1998) and Studying Early India: Archaeology, Texts and Historical Issues (2003). His Coins and Currency Systems was awarded the Prix Duchalais by the Institut de France in 1978. He was also awarded the H.C. Raychaudhuri Birth Centenary Gold Medal in 2002 by the Asiatic Society, Bengal for his contribution to the study of Indian history.