1.

Discuss the evidence that suggests that Brahmanical prescriptions about kinship and marriage were not universally followed.

Answer»

Solution :Brahmanical prescriptions about kinship and marriage: (A) Prescription about Kinship: (i) As per SANSKRIT TEXTS, the term .Kula. was used to designate families and Jati. for the larger network of kinfolk. The term vansha was used for lineage. Very often people belonging to the same family share food and other resources they live, work and perform rituals together.
(ii) Families were considered as the part of larger networks of people defined as relatives a technical term used to defined them was kinfolk. While familial ties were considered "natural" and based on blood they can be defined in different ways. (iii) Some societies regard cousins as being blood relations, WHEREAS others do not regard as from historians retrieve information about elite families fairly easily from it is very hard to reconstruct the familial RELATIONSHIP of ordinary people.
(iv) Historians also try to analyse their attitudes towards family and kinship. These are important because they provide an insight into people.s thinking.
(B) Prescriptions about Marriage:
In the continuity of the patrilineage the sons were considered important. The daughter could not claim over the resources of their household. They were married into families outside the kin. This system was known as exogamy which means marrying outside one.s kin or gotra.
(ii) The women of high status families were married to the right persons at right time. Kanyadana or the gift of a daughter in marriage was considered as an important religious duty of the father. With the emergence of new means of communication people came into contact with each other and they began to share their view.
(iii) The Brahmanas laid down codes of their social behaviour. Their codes regarding social behaviour were later on enshrined in Dharmashastras. These text recognised EIGHT types of marriage. Among these types of marriage four were considered as good while the rest four as condemnable. Satavahana ruler did not follow exogamy of Brahmans.


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