Women and Society in Early Medieval India

Re-interpreting Epigraphs

Anjali Verma

• Publisher: Routledge India
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9780429826429
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Historia
• Subtopic: Historia de la India y el sur de Asia

This book examines women and society in India during 600–1200 CE through epigraphs. It offers an analysis of inscriptional data at the pan-India level to explore key themes, including early marriage, deprivation of girls from education, property rights, widowhood and sat?, as well as women in administration and positions of power. The volume also traces gender roles and agency across religions such as Hinduism and Jainism, the major religions of the times, and sheds light on a range of political, social, economic and religious dimensions. A panoramic critique of contradictions and conformity between inscriptional and literary sources, including pieces of archaeological evidence against traditional views on patriarchal stereotypes, as also regional parities and disparities, the book presents an original understanding of women's status in early medieval South Asian society.

Rich in archival material, this book will be useful to scholars and researchers of ancient and medieval Indian history, social history, archaeology, epigraphy, sociology, cultural studies, gender studies and South Asian studies.

1 Introduction

Textual context

Epigraphy has proved to be an indispensable source for the study of Indian history. The decipherment of a large number of inscriptions from different parts of India has opened up the new era for Indian history writing. Information provided by epigraphic evidence is considered as the most authoritative as well as authentic source material for writing social, economic, cultural and political history. The study of women’s history through epigraphical sources is considered as free from brāhmaṇical male biases and closer to historical reality than idealized Indian women portrayed in literature.¹ But to develop a balanced and comprehensive view on subjects of historical relevance, a combined study of inscriptions, chronicles, official records and literary sources is amply suggested. Of course, poetry, folklore, folk songs and narratives are valued new additions. The epigraphs generally offer information about personages and events of Indian history, about which sometimes nothing is known from any other sources. Their text is generally free from variant readings as they were not usually liable to modifications like those of literary works, which were copied and recopied by people of later times.² They are contemporary records which throw a flood of light not merely on social, cultural, religious and economic conditions of the time but also on battles, kings, queens, political institutions and administrative details and much more. They are helpful for genealogy, chronology, origin of the dynasty, inter-state relations, growth of ideas and so on, although one should be warned that their use requires the greatest care and skill.³ Until the 1970–80s, the epigraphical material is frequently seen as a means of checking and verifying the evidence from literary sources. The use of inscriptions for gender studies, institutions and social structures studies was considered comparatively new, since earlier historians tended to use inscriptions largely for collecting information on dynastic history.⁴ With the passage of time, exploration and translation of more and more inscriptions, especially in the South, enabled historians to bring these peripheral sources into the centre. Nevertheless, we agree that epigraphic material has its own limitations. The numerous epigraphic finds, a by-product of desultory archaeological work, do not suffice either to restore a reasonably comprehensive dynastic list or to define the regnal years and complete territorial holdings of those Indian kings whose names survive.⁵ Thus, the epigraphs need to be read carefully as they present the case of ‘reading between the lines’.

The earliest attempt at reading the inscriptions was made perhaps by Feroz Shah, who invited a number of scholars to read the Aśokan inscriptions.⁶ From the sixteenth century to twentieth century, regular efforts to read the inscriptions are seen at various levels, which is continuing until today.⁷ These enthusiastic efforts created ripples up to the regional level. The process of decipherment of large numbers of Tamil records, which is the earliest regional language in Indian epigraphy, boosted further the reading of Kannada and Telugu inscriptions. The Marathi language came into use in the inscriptions of the tenth century AD, and the earliest Nāgarī inscription is on a Jaina image dated CE 1022.⁸

Inscriptions from the seventh century onward are found in large numbers, almost in every major region of India paved the way to assess the social, religious, political and economic developments through them. The trend of praśastis was replaced by the new socio-religious movements from the seventh century onwards. Resultantly, religious factors dominated inscriptional writing and tried to replace royal orders. It seems very likely that the practice of engraving inscriptions on rock gradually was replaced by copper-plates. Change in the social set-up also influenced the contents of inscriptions. This sudden emergence of newer and richer sources, entirely different in form and content from those of earlier period, is indicative of a transformation that society had gone through.⁹ Women’s studies also found its new source other than textual. Inscriptions provided a new stage of comparative study with more accuracy and authenticity to re-work on the status of women in structured patriarchic Indian society. Earlier, most of the historians working on women’s issues provided inscriptional references as supplementary proof, as they seemed more concerned with defining the status of women on tripartite periodization suggested by Orientalists.

Periodization and politics

The colonial tripartite periodization of Indian history remained in use for a very long time. It was introduced by James Mill, who divided Indian history for the first time into three major sections – Hindu Civilization, Muslim Civilization and the British Period – in 1817 in his History of British India.¹⁰ This trend was being stereotypically followed with a slight change of ancient, medieval and modern periods. Romila Thapar proposed the need of redefining the various periods of Indian history, if periodization is necessary, or else to dispense with such divisions altogether.¹¹ Most of the historians until the 1970s dealing with ancient Indian history considered the death of Harṣa to be the closure of the Hindu period. Medieval historians who worked from the period of CE 712 (like Woleseley Haig’s The Cambridge History of India; i.e. arrival of Muhammad-Bin-Qāsim) suffered the same flaw.¹² V.A. Smith’s observation of Harṣa as the last emperor of ancient Indian history and the period after him as ‘a medley of petty states, with ever varying boundaries and engaged in unceasing internecine War’ (Early History of India) was accepted by most of the historians working on ancient Indian history.¹³ K.A. Nilkanta Sastri and G. Srinivasachari (Advanced History of India) worked on the South Indian history with the same approach and tried to justify the rise of powerful kingdoms in the south.¹⁴ Most of the early historians found it difficult to peep through the dark clouds that gathered in the latter half of the sixth century and found it difficult to place a span of almost six hundred years at the place that could justify its slow severance from ancient and entry into the medieval age in Indian history. But a study of epigraphs at various places in India gave rise to the study of regional politics, which proved that the early medieval period is not that bleak or decadent as is generally believed. On the contrary, it is varied, rich and complex in its content and character. This was the period that linked ancient to the medieval period and shed light on both. This observation on the importance of a lesser known period made the historians to declare that the historians of early medieval India need not feel less respectable than those dealing with the ‘golden age’ on accounts of the period they have chosen to study.¹⁵

The trend earlier was to study the history through political and dynastic angles, where the political history of India during CE 600 to 1200 appears as the history of decentralization and disintegration of the state in the country. Romila Thapar championed the cause of social and economic changes for the basis of periodization. Historians like B.D. Chattopadhayaya, Kesavan Veluthat, Upinder Singh and many more, successfully placed regional history as the period of transformations in the processes and structures in economy, society and polity.¹⁶ Regional history suddenly gained ground, as each component of varied sources explored tries to co-relate and narrate the story. Regardless of the theoretical framework invoked, regional and pan-Indian historical processes have emerged with greater vividness and detail than the earlier centuries since the last two to three decades.¹⁷

Not pressing upon the rise of regional kingdoms, K.M. Pannikar has cited many reasons for the weakening of the centralized political system of India. According to him, India remained free from threats of external aggression for over five hundred years (Toramaṇa to Mahmud of Ghazani). People started living under a facile feeling that there was no question of their country being ever invaded. They lost a sense of patriotism and national honour. During the early medieval period, India isolated itself from the rest of the world and ceased to grow.¹⁸ Al-berūnī, who visited India in the eleventh century, tried to present a very static, rigid and no-changers picture of Indian society by stating: ‘The Hindus believe that there is no country but theirs, no nation like theirs, no kings like theirs, no religion like theirs, no science like theirs’.¹⁹ The varṇāśrama-dharma, instead of being a social organization of higher castes, more or less homogeneous in culture and traditions, became rigid. In the south, the brāhmaṇic minority imposed the smṛti pattern of social life but in a different form from that in the north India. The Dharmaśāstras as a source of fundamental law were looked upon as a sacred and unifying force.²⁰ But slowly with the emergence of regional history, it was proved that society was never static, politically, socially or economically. Changes in the sixth to seventh and twelfth to thirteenth centuries do not necessarily have to be envisaged in terms of a collapse of the early historical social order.²¹ The shaping of regional societies was a movement from within. B.D. Chattopadhyaya declared that, ‘in Indian history the crystallization of region was a continuous process’.²² But rigidity within caste and communities grew at a regional level that affected the growth of the societies. Upanayana right was snatched from girls, and a further early age of marriage was fixed that resulted in a denial of their education. A complete ban on inter-marriages in various castes was suggested but was not followed strictly. For subordination of women, various rules and regulations were formulated against their natural rights. For widows, strict rules of celibacy and self-restraint were prescribed. A glorified suicide in the form of satī was prescribed for widows so that they may not get their right to property. The male was selected as a widow’s guardian in each sphere of life. Open arguments against women’s rights were put forth. She was declared of ‘fickle mind and lacking strength, unable to decide’. The royal class, being affluent, was degraded continuously in moral standards, while commoners were living under distress.

Surprisingly, the economy did not collapse totally. It was characterized by flourishing trade conditions, powerful guilds, village assemblies and caste-based armies.²³ It was marked by an extension of production, increase in trade and cheapness of essential commodities. The Indian textile industry progressed. Strong trade organizations were established. The variety and excellence of Indian textiles, metal work and Indian jewellery are attested by literary as well as epigraphic evidence.

Bhakti was the key ideological strand of the period. One form of it was devotional hymns, and the second was the record of their extensive itineraries at proliferating temple centres. Practices of tantra rites contributed to the degeneration of feudal Indian society.²⁴ In many significant ways, the crystallization of major cults illustrates the ideological dimensions of the early medieval period. The period between CE 600–1200 seems to be of religious rivalry between various brāhmaṇical sects and two other heterodox sects, Buddhism and Jainism. U.N. Ghoshal, quoting the reference from Brahmāṇḍa Purāṇa, pointed out that ‘not only the touch but even the sight of these sects was regarded by some authorities as involving pollution’.²⁵ The Vriddha-Harita enjoins purification by touching Śaivas and on entering a Śaiva or a Buddhist temple.²⁶ The north was much dominated by brāhmaṇical practices. Jainism gained ascendancy in the Deccan and retained its stronghold in western India. Both Jainism and Buddhism developed theistic tendencies on the analogy of Śaivism and Vaiṣṇavism like idol worship with devotional songs accompanied by rites and ceremonies. It was an age of catholicity. A.D. Pusalker credits it to the efforts of Śaiva Nāyanārs to stamp out Jainism from the Tamil area. Śaiva saints discarded the caste system and recruited people from the lowest grade into their fold.²⁷ Different creeds merged and emerged. This process pressurized Hinduism to either rethink its caste compartments or to revive its caste considerations. K.M. Munshi observed that the Paurāṇic renaissance added sanctity to the Dharmaśāstras.²⁸ Commentators and writers of diverse digests replaced law-givers. Medhātithi, most outstandingly, wrote a commentary on the Manusmriti. Thus, the concept of varṇāśrama-dharma remained in active operation. Philosophical literature was widely cultivated by the Buddhas, Jainas ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of illustrations
• Preface
• List of abbreviations
• Key to diacritical marks
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Childhood and education
• 3 Marriage, widowhood and satī
• 4 Women and sacred rites
• 5 Capacity for governance
• 6 Property rights
• 7 Conclusion
• Bibliography
• Index of names
• Index of terms and subjects