Before Genealogy?: Marking Descent in the Inscriptions of Early Historic India
This paper examines the forms of descent recorded in the Brāhmī inscriptions of early historic India (c. 300 bce–300 ce). I will argue that they afford us the possibility of viewing how non-noble groups traced kinship, lineage and ancestry. We see this in the development of kin networks; in the arti...
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
|
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Equinox
2011
|
| In: |
Religions of South Asia
Year: 2011, Volume: 5, Issue: 1/2, Pages: 245-265 |
| Further subjects: | B
Women
B gahapati B Genealogy B Inscriptions B Sanskrit language B metronymics B Aśoka B Kinship B Brāhmī B gotras |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Summary: | This paper examines the forms of descent recorded in the Brāhmī inscriptions of early historic India (c. 300 bce–300 ce). I will argue that they afford us the possibility of viewing how non-noble groups traced kinship, lineage and ancestry. We see this in the development of kin networks; in the articulation of descent and proprietal control among landed and mercantile groups; in the patriarchal norms laid down for women; and in the use of metronymics and gotras. Finally, by tracing the slow emergence of genealogies in the inscriptional record, I show that they must be linked to changes in socio-economic, literary and political domains. |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 1751-2697 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Religions of South Asia
|
| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1558/rosa.v5i1/2.245 |