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By the end of the Vedic period, the Caste system became very strict. Brahmins used the caste system to ensure their supremacy in society. They claimed that this system was divinely ordained. The divine origin of the caste system was emphasized in the Dharmasastra also.

• The highest position in the caste system was given to Brahmins by the Dharmasutras and Dharmasastras. The untouchables were placed at the bottom of the ladder.
• The caste of a person was based on birth.

The Brahmins did all they could to make people follow the caste system.

They formulated three techniques,

1. They propagated that the caste system is ordained by god.

2. They asked the kings to strictly enforce this system in their countries.

3. They tried to convince people that one’s class and caste are decided by birth.

Right from 1000 BC, the Brahmins began to divide people into clans or classes. Each clan was given a name of a Vedacharya. Members of that clan were considered his followers.

There were two important rules regarding the clans:

1. A woman leaves the clan of her father and accepts the clan of her husband.

2. Members of one clan, can’t marry members of the same clan.

The Brahmin laws regarding the clans were not obeyed by all people. Rulers like the powerful Satavahanas, who ruled parts of Western India between 2^nd century BC and 2^nd century AD, did not follow the Brahmin laws. The wives of the Satavahana kings retained their fathers’ clan name. The clan names like ‘Gautama’, Vasishta’, etc. were of their fathers.

The Purusha Sukta of the Rig Veda says that the four Vamas emerged because of the sacrifice of Purusha, the primeval man. The four vamas were Brahmanas, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras. These Vamas had different jobs. The Brahmanas had supreme position in the society. They were also considered as teachers.

 Kshatriyas were considered warriors. They also ran the administration. The Vaishyas were the masters of trade. The Shudras were at the lowest strata. Their duty was to serve the above three vamas. Under this Brahmanical system, birth was the only criteria to judge the status and prestige in the society. But the Buddhisftheory of a social contract was different. As per the Buddhist concept, there was inequality in society.

 But they also opined that this inequality was neither natural nor permanent. They did not favour the idea of birth being the criteria of social status.

Drona: Drona was a Brahmanas. As per the Dharmashastras, it was the duty of the Brahmana to impart education. It was considered a pious deed of the Brahmanas. Drona was also following that system. He was imparting education. He taught archery to the princes of the Kuru Dynasty. In those days, people of low caste were not entitled to get education. Keeping this view in mind, Drona refused imparting education to Ekalavya. But in the course of time, Ekalavya learnt archery and acquired great skill. But Drona demanded right thumb of Ekalavya as his teaching fee. This was against religious norms. In fact, Drona did this just to ensure that no one could be better archer than Aijuna in the field of archery.

 Hidimba: Hidimba was a lady demon, that is rakshasini. In fact, all the rakshasas were man-eaters. One day her brother asked her to catch Pandavas so that he may eat them. But Hidimba did not follow this. She fell in love with Bhima and married him. A rakshasa boy was bom to him, named Ghatotkacha. In this way, Hidimba did not keep ; the norms of rakshasas.

 Matanga: Matanga was Boddhisatta who was bom in the family of a chandala. But he married Dittha Mangalika who was the daughter of a merchant. A son was bom to him named Mandavya Kumara. In the course of time he learnt three Vedas. He used to offer food to sixteen hundred Brahmanas every day.’But when his father appeared before him dressed in rags with a clay alms bowl in his hand, he refused to offer food to him. The reason was that, he considered his father as outcaste and his food was meant for Brahmanas only. Matanga advised his son not to be proud of his birth. After saying this, he disappeared into the air. When Dittha Mahgalika knew this incident, she went after Matanga and begged his forgiveness. This way acted like a true wife. She performed her duty religiously. A donor is considered generous. But Mandavya failed to follow the norms of religion and generosity.

As per the Dharmashastra, only Kshatriyas were supposed to be the kings. But it was also to be noted that many important ruling lineages perhaps had different origins. Mauryas were considered Kshatriyas by many people. Some Brahmanical texts described Mauryas as of low origin. The Shungas and Kanvas who were immediate successors of the Mauryas were Brahmanas. In fact those sections of the society controlled the political power which enjoyed support and resources. It did not depend on the question of being bom as Kshatriya.

 . There were other rulers like Shakas who came from Central Asia. But the Brahmanas considered them as mlechchhas, barbarians and outsiders. Similarly, Gotami-putra Satkami, the best known ruler of the Satavahana dynasty, became a destroyer of the pride of kshatriyas. This we see that the Satavahanas claimed to be Brahmanas whereas the Brahmanas were of the opinion that the king should be Kshatriyas.

There are so much views about the author of the Mahabharata. Following views have been put forward regarding the authorship of the Mahabharata.

 •It is believed that the original story was written by the charioteer-bards known as sutas. They generally accompanied Kshatriya warriors to the battle field and composed poems celebrating their victories and other achievements.

 •It is also believed that in the beginning the text of the Mahabharata was orally circulated. Scholars and priests carried it from one generation to another. From the fifth century BCE, the Brahmanas took over the story and started writing. This was the time when Kurus and Panchals were gradually becoming kingdoms. The story of the Mahabharata also revolved round them. Some parts of the story reflect that old social values were replaced by the new ones.

 • C. 200 BCE and 200 CE is another phase in the composition of the Mahabharata. During this period worship of Vishnu was gaining ground Krishna came to be identified as Vishnu. Large didactic sections resembling the Manusmriti were added during the period between C 200 and 400 CE. These interpolations made the Mahabharata an epic consisting of 100,000 verses. This enormous composition is traditionally attributed to a sage named Vyas.

Plenty of literary sources are available to reconstruct the ancient Indian history.

 Mahabharata is one of them. It is an important literary and historical source. Its importance has been recognised even by the foreign writers. Its importance has also been recognised by Maurice Wintemitz because in his opinion the Mahabharata represents an entire literature. This great epic is full of various examples of different aspects of the Indians life. The reading of the Mahabharata gives a profound depth of the soul of the Indian folk. It has been written in simple Sanskrit and therefore widely understood.

 Generally, historians classify the contents of the Mahabharata under two sections.They are narrative and didactic. Narrative section contains stories and didactic sections contains prescriptions about social norms. But at some instances, there were intermingling also. Many historians believe that the Mahabharata was a dramatic, moving story and that the didactic portions were a later interpolation.

 We get several different views about the authorship of the Mahabharata. It was believed that the original stories were composed by Sutas. Sutas were charioteer bards. They accompanied Kshatriya warriors to the battle field and composed poems celebrating their victories other achievements. These compositions were circulated orally. From the fifth, century BCE onwards, Brahmanas took over the story and started writing story.This great epic contains vivid descriptions of battles, forests, palaces and settlements.

 It describes kinship, political life of the said period, social priority. Major features of the family life such as patriliny, different forms of marriage and rules related with marriage, position of women in the society, social differences of the Indian society can be traced back to the period of the Mahabharata. This great epic also describes social mobility.

Brahmanical prescription about kinship and marriage: Prescription about kinship:

 According to Sanskrit texts, the term “kula’ was used to designate families and jati for the larger network of kinfolk. The term ‘vamsha’ was used for lineage. Very often people belonging to the same family share food and other resources they live, work and perform rituals together. Families were considered as the part of larger networks of people defined as relatives a technical term used to define them as kinfolk. While familial ties were considered “natural” and based on blood they can be defined in different ways.

 For instance, 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 very hard reconstructs the familial relationship of ordinary people. Historians also try to analyze their attitudes towards family and kinship. These are important because they provide an insight into people’s thinking. It is also expected ideas would have shaped their action because their actions may have led to changes in their attitudes.

 Prescription about marriage: For the continuity of the patrilineage the sons were considered important, the daughters could not over the resources of their household. They were married into families outsidethe kin. This system was known as exogamy which means marrying outside one’s kin or gotra. The women of high status families were married to the right persons at right time. Kanayadana 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. So the Brahaman said down codes of their social behaviour. These codes regarding social behaviour were later on enshrined in Dharmashashtra. 

These text recognised eight types of marriage. Among these types of marriage the four were considered as good while the rest four as condemnable. Satvahana ruler did not follow exogamy of Brahmans.

Families indicate ‘Kulam”

There were some exceptions and differences to the patriarchal system. If a family did not have male children, the brothers of the king would have the right to the crown. In some circumstances, other relatives also claimed the crown. On very rare occasions even women claimed authority and property as in the case of Prabhavati Gupta.

1. The patriarchal system did not limit itself to royal families.

2. Brahmins, people in high positions and rich people also followed this system.

Central Asia

One of the responsibilities of the scholars was the preparation of a critical edition of Mahabharata. This hugely challenging scheme was accepted by the handarkar Oriental Research Institute. This scheme began in 1919 under the leadership of the Sanskrit scholar V.S. Sukthanker. Dozens of scholars took part in this s big scheme. The work went on in good order, strictly following the scientific method.

Before embarking on this project, the scholars under Sukthanker collected as many manuscripts as they could get from different parts of India. After that, they compared the slokas in different manuscripts. They then chose the common slokas found in all versions. Then they published them in different volumes running into more than 13,000 pages. It took them 47 years to complete this task. Two things became clear from this project.

First of all, there were common features in the Sanskrit version of the story. There are evidences for this from the manuscripts collected from all over India, from Kashmir and Nepal in the North and Kerala and Tamil Nadu in the South. The second thing is that there were regional variations in the story. This happened centuries ago and the books became popular. All these differences are shown as footnotes and appendices, in the main book.

More than half of the entire book is devoted to these differences. The social history of India is made up of some very complex processes. We are to understand these processes from the Sanskrit books written by Brahmins. It was the historians of the 19^th and 20^th centuries that looked into the problems of social history. Therefore they took these books on their face value. Later the scholars also began to study the books written in Prakrit and Tamil.

It is the ideas in the Sanskrit books that are generally approved as authentic. But sometimes they have been questioned or rejected. When we consider how the social history was reconstructed, we should also remember that there were many differences even among scholars.

Indra is the god of war and rain

Masheshwata Devi

It is the longest epic in the world. It has more than one lakh slokas. This is the richest book in the Indian subcontinent. It took nearly a thousand years to write it, starting from 500 BC.

The central theme of Mahabharata is the conflict between Kauravas and Pandavas. This book talks about a number of social classes and their rules and regulations. The main characters of the story followed these rules as heeded. Any moving away (deviation) from these rules created conflicts.

B.B. Lai was the archaeologist that made excavations based on Mahabharata.

V.S. Sukthanker

Swagana marriage means marrying within one’s own gana or group. This can be relatives, classes or castes and people living in the same place.

Anyagana marriage shows it is a marriage outside one’s gana-group.

‘Swagana’ marriage.

Manusmriti is the most important book in Dharmasutra (Dharmasatra)

‘Purushasuktam’ is found in Rigveda .

Gandharva Marriage.