How important were gender differences in early societies? Give reasons for your answers.

Solution

Gender differences in the early societies were very important. As it divided the society into two with different functions altogether.

society- If we look into society we find that the gender differences played very important role because the society was patrilineal. Thus it was clear that head of the household will be male child. And girl child was looked as something to be given away, thus giving rise to the concept of Kanyadana and stridana, giving away of daughter and wealth of daughter respectively. As girl child was looked as something to be given away it also gave rise to the notion of right time and right place. The right time was the age and right place was outside one's gotra and inside one's caste. Girl was looked as someone who would bore husband a male child.

Economy- we find that there were differences in the way wealth was inherited. Manusmriti makes it clear that only the male child will inherit the properties of his father, with eldest male child having the mammoth share and so on. Female child was not suppose to inherit the property of her father, although there are few instances of female inheriting her fathers wealth but it is a very rare case.

Thus we can see that gender differences played very important role in the early societies.

Some More Questions From Kinship, Caste And Class Chapter

Discuss whether kings in early states were invariably Kshatriyas.

Compare and contrast the dharma or norms mentioned in the stories of Drona, Hidimba and Matanga.

In what ways was the Buddhist theory of a social contract different from the Brahmanical view of society derived from the Purusha Sukta?

The following is an excerpt from the Mahabharata in which Yudhisthira, the eldest Pandava, speaks to Sanjaya, a messenger:

Sanjaya, convey my respectful greetings to all the Brahmanas and the chief priest of the house of Dhritarashtra. I bow respectfully to teacher Drona .... I hold the feet of our preceptor Kripa .... (and) the chief of the Kurus, the great Bhishma. I bow respectfully to the old king (Dhritarashtra). I greet and ask after the health of his son Dpryodhana and his younger brother ......Also greet all the young Kuru warriors who are our brothers, sons and grandsons......Greet above all him, who is to us like father and mother, the wise Vidura (born of a slave woman)......I bow to the elderly ladies who are known as our mothers. To those who are our wives you say this, 'I hope they are well-protected.'...... Our daughters-in-law born of good families and mothers of children greet on my behalf. Embrace for me those who are our daughters..... The beautiful, fragrant, well-dressed courtesans of ours, you should also greet. Greet the slave women and their children, greet the aged, the maimed (and) the helpless.

Try and identify the criteria use to make this list in terms of age, gender, kinship ties. Are there any other criteria? For each category, explain why they are placed in a particular position in the list.

This is what a famous historian of Indian literature Maurice Winternitz, wrote about the Mahabharata: “just because the Mahabharata represents more of an entire literature.... and contains so much and so many kinds of things....(it) give (s) us an insight into the most profound depths of the soul of the Indian folk.' Discuss.

Discuss whether the Mahabharata could have been the work of a single author.