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...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Visvanathan, Meera (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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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
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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