Mahabharata :-
Mahabharata is a major poetic text of Hindus, which comes in the history category of Smriti. This poetry book is a unique religious, mythological, historical and philosophical texts of India.
The world's longest literary text and epic, it is one of the main texts of Hinduism. This book is considered as the fifth Veda in Hinduism.
Composition of Mahabharata :-
Historians believe that it was written by Ved Vyasa , but most historians believe that it is the creation of several authors.
There were only 8800 verses in it, later the number of verses has increased to 1 lakh . An important work began in 1919, under the leadership of VS Suthankar , "a noted Sanskrit scholar" who supported the preparation of an important version of the Mahabharata.
The old name of Mahabharata was Jai Samhita. The composition of the Mahabharata has been going on for 1000 years (about 500 BC) Mahabharata gives information about the condition of the society and social rules of that time.
Critical version of Mahabharata :-
In 1919 , a very ambitious project was started under the leadership of a great scholar of Sanskrit language (whose name was VS Sukthankar ).
The objective of this project was to collect various manuscripts from different places of the great epic called Mahabharata to form a book.
Many great scholars together took up the responsibility of preparing a critical edition of the Mahabharata. Scholars found a way to compare the verses found in all the manuscripts, choosing the verses that were written in almost all the manuscripts.
All these were published in several volumes spread over 13000 pages . The project took 47 years to complete .
Two things in particular emerged in this whole process.
- (i) There was similarity in the parts of many Sanskrit texts. This is evident from the fact that this similarity was seen in all Pandu scripts throughout the subcontinent, from Kashmir and Nepal in the north to Kerala and Tamil Nadu in the south.
- (ii) Many Kshatriya distinctions emerged in the transmission of Mahabharata during some centuries.
Brotherhood and marriage
family :-
- The family was an important institution of the society.
- People of the same family do food by sharing it.
- The members of the family use the resources by sharing them together.
- Family members lived together.
- The members of the family recite the puja together.
- In some societies, cousins and cousins are also considered to be related by blood.
Patriarchy: -
Patrilineal means that after the death of the father, his son is entitled to his resources, this is called patrilineal system.
But after the death of the king, his throne is handed over to his son. And in the absence of a son, the relative brother was made the heir.
Rules of marriage :-
The Brahmins have prepared a detailed code of conduct for the society.
From about 500 BC, these norms were compiled in Sanskrit texts called Dharmasutras and Dharmashastras. The most important of these was Manusmriti. Which was compiled between 200 BC to 200 AD.
The interesting thing is that the Dharmasutras and the Dharmashastras give their approval to 8 types of marriages. Of these, the first four are considered excellent and the rest are considered condemned. Probably these marriage systems were prevalent among those people who rejected the Brahmanical rules.
Note: – Ant-vivah system = Ant-vivah system means marriage in the total caste within the gotra.
Exogamy system = Exogamy means marriage in a caste outside the gotra.
The son had great importance in the patrilineal society. The daughter was seen differently. The marriage of a daughter was done outside the gotra and daughter donation was considered an important duty of the father.
Gotra :-
Gotra A Brahmin system which came into practice after about 1000 BCE. Under this, people were forbidden in the gotra, each gotra was named after a Vedic sage, the members of that gotra were considered to be the descendants of the sage.
New cities emerged, social rules started changing. People used to come to the cities for buying and selling. Ideas started being exchanged. So the initial beliefs and behavior were questioned. To challenge these, the Brahmins prepared a code of conduct. Everyone had to follow this.
Gotra of woman :-
The gotra system came into vogue in 1000 BC. Its main purpose was to classify Brahmins on the basis of Gotra.
Each gotra is named after a Vedic sage. The members of that gotra were considered to be the descendants of the sage.
Gotra rules :-
The first rule of gotra was that after marriage, women had to adopt the gotra of the husband instead of the father.
Second rule of gotra: The second rule of gotra was that members of the same gotra could not marry among themselves.
This practice was the opposite in the Satavahana kings. From the name of the Satavahana kings, it was found that even after the marriage of the woman there, you used to keep the gotra of your father.
The Satavahanas believed in polygamy.
Polyandry and Polyandry:-
In polygamy, more than one woman is married. (This used to happen in Satavahana kings)
In polyandry, more than one man is married. (For example: Draupadi)
Were mothers considered important?
There are many such tales in history that show that 600 AD. From P.O. to 600 AD. Mothers were also considered important in early society.
One such anecdote is of Satavahana kings, Satavahana kings used to put their mother's name before their name, which shows that mothers were also considered important.
social inequalities
Character system :-
A. Kshatriya :-
- They used to fight when the time came.
- It provided protection to the kings.
- He used to do the work of reading the Vedas and performing Yagyas.
- They used to do the work of providing justice to the people.
B. Brahmin :-
- They used to study books, they used to study texts.
- He used to get education from the Vedas.
- It was their job to make yagyas and perform yagyas.
- He used to take this charity as Dakshina.
C. Vaishya: -
- He was doing business.
- Used to do animal husbandry.
- Their main work was agriculture.
- Giving charity is one of their main reasons.
D. Shudra :-
They used to serve the three classes, their main task was to serve these three.
To get these rules followed, the Brahmin had adopted two or three policies.
- The caste system is a divine gift.
- To motivate the rulers to implement the varna system.
- To convince the public that their reputation is based on birth.
Can Kshatriyas always be kings?
No, it is untrue, there have been many kings in history who were not Kshatriyas.
Chandragupta Maurya, the founder of the Maurya dynasty, who ruled a vast empire, says in Buddhist texts that he is a Kshatriya, but in Brahmanical scriptures it is said that he belongs to a lower clan.
The Sungas and Kanvas were the successors of Mauryas who are believed to have belonged to the Brahmin clan.
From these examples we know that anyone could become a king, for this it was not necessary that he should have been born in the Kshatriya clan, strength and support was more important to become a king.
Caste :-
Where there were only 4 varnas , there were many castes.
Those who were not included in the Varna were put in the castes like :- Nishad, Suvarnakar
Castes were created according to karma. Some people used to take other livelihood from you.
Beyond the four classes: subjugation and struggle: -
Some people were excluded from the varna system created by the brahmins. He declared some classes as " untouchables " .
The Brahmins considered rituals to be sacred works.
Brahmins did not accept food from the untouchables.
Some works were considered contaminated such as: - cremating dead bodies and touching dead animals. The person who performed these works was called Chandal.
Touching and seeing the Chandalas was considered a sin.
According to Manusmriti, the position of Chandalas in the society :-
- Chandalas were considered the lowest in the society and their main job was to bury dead bodies and dead animals.
- living outside the village.
- Using discarded utensils.
- Wearing clothes of dead people.
- Wearing ornaments of dead people.
- It is forbidden to walk in villages and cities at night.
- The untouchables had to play kartal while walking on the road. So that others can avoid seeing them.
Resources and Reputation:
The study of economic relations revealed that the social status of ten, landless agricultural laborers, fishermen, cattle herders, farmers, chieftains, hunters, craftsmen, merchants, kings, etc., depended on how they had control over economic resources.
Different rights of man and woman on property :-
According to Manu Smriti :-
- After the death of the father, his property was divided among the sons.
- The eldest son was given a special share.
- The gift received during the marriage was the right of the woman.
- This property was inherited by his children.
- Her husband had no right over her.
- A woman could not accumulate secret wealth without the permission of her husband.
- The women of the upper class held the right over the resources.
Manusmriti says for men there were 7 ways to earn money :-
- (i) Inheritance
- (ii) purchase
- (iii) by conquering
- (iv) Investment
- ( V ) Search
- (vi) by work
- (vii) accepting the offering by gentlemen
6 Ways to Earn Wealth for Women
(i) in front of the matrimonial fire
(ii) Gift received at the time of marriage
(iii) as a symbol of affection
(iv) Gifts given by the mother
(V) Gifts given by the brother
(vi) Gifts given by father
Note:- Apart from this, the gift received during the Pravatti period and everything that she gets from the loving husband.
Varna and property rights:-
- There was only one livelihood for the Shudra → To serve
- But men in the upper classes were more likely.
- Brahmins and Kshatriyas were wealthy people.
- The Buddhists criticized the brahmanical varna system.
- Buddhists did not accept social status on the basis of birth.
Use of literary sources:-
- While analyzing any book, historians keep in mind many aspects.
- language = ordinary language or special language
- Book Type = Mantra or Story
- About the author (view)
- audience monitoring
- time of writing
- book content
Language and Content :-
narrative
Stories
Text content =
didactic
norms of social ethics
In search of equality B. b. Red's Efforts:
In 1951-52, a famous archaeologist and historian (whose name was B. B. Lal ) did excavation work in a village named Hastinapur in Meerut district (Uttar Pradesh).
But this Hastinapur was not at all like what we have been reading in books.
Although incidentally the name of this place was also Hastinapur. b. b. Lalji got some evidence of the population here. b. b. Lal said that, apart from the earthen walls and raw bricks, nothing was found from the place where the excavation was done.
And from this it came to know that perhaps as Hastinapur has been shown in the Mahabharata, which also had big palaces, but nothing like this was found from here.
Mahabharata is a dynamic book, how?
Mahabharata is a dynamic book because it has been written for thousands of years, many changes have come in it in the last many years, its translation has also been different in many languages, it has many verses and it is the biggest epic in the world.
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History – Themes
in Indian History |
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Pol
Science – Contemporary World Politics |
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– Politics
in India since Independence |
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Geography – Indian
People and Economy |
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– Fundamental of Human Geography |
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Chapter 1: - Population: Distribution, Density, Growth
and Composition |
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Chapter 12: - Geographical Perspective on Selected
Issues and Problems |
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