ANCIENT INDIAN SOCIAL HISTORY SOME INTERPRETATIONS Ancient Indian Social History Som e Interpretations R O M IL A THAPAR ORIENT LONGMAN Orient Longman Ltd., 1978 ORIENT LONGMAN LIMITED Registered Office 3/5 Asaf Ali Road, New Delhi 110 002 Other Offices Kamani Marg, Ballard Estate, Bombay 400 038 17 Chittaranjan Avenue, Calcutta 700 072 36A Anna Salai, Mount Road, Madras 600 002 1/24, Asaf Ali Road, New Delhi 110 002 80/1 Mahatma Gandhi Road, Bangalore 660 001 3-5-820 Hyderguda, Hyderabad 600 001 Published by ftdnted by Sujit Mukherjee fiyed Ishaque Orient Longman Ltd. Sangam Press Ltd. 3/5, Asaf Ali Road 17B Kothrud New Delhi 110 002 Pune 411 029 Preface Of the papers written by me over the last ten years and published in various journals and publications, I have select­ ed for reprinting those which relate in a general sense to the study of ancient Indian social history, since I thought it might be worthwhile to put them together in one volume. By and large, the papers deal with the early period of Indian history to the end of the first millennium A.D. The opening paper, although historiographic in content, sets out the framework for the subsequent papers where the emphasis is on interpretation. The viability of this collection seems to me to be basically in terms of the interpretations suggested and the historiographic background to these inter­ pretations is discussed in the latter half of the first paper. In arranging the papers thematically rather than in the order in which they were written, some papers of ten years ago are juxtaposed with those of recent months. This may in some cases result in a modification of, or an added em­ phasis on, particular historical generalisations over the years. I have not now sought to revise my views of an earlier period since they do not substantially differ from more re­ cent analysis: the difference is more in nuance than in essentials. Inevitably such a collection of papers cannot avoid some degree of duplication in themes. Since the papers were originally published in different places there is some discrepancy in the forms of foot-noting and the use of dia­ critical marks which I have tried to reduce to a minimum. The arrangement of papers is broadly around certain sub­ themes: society and religion, social classification and mobi­ vi Ancient Indian Social History lity, archaeological data in the study of society, historio­ graphical concepts of the early period and approaches to the study of regional history. The papers ‘Society and Law in the Hindu and Buddhist Tradition’, and ‘Ethics, Religion and Social Protest in the First Millennium B.C. in Northern India’, are attempts to view the social dimensions of groups organised around religious ideas, Hindu and Buddhist, and supporting a religious identity. ‘Renunciation: the making of a Counter-Culture?’, examines the degree of success of groups of renouncers seeking to create a parallel or alter­ native society., ‘Dana and Daksinâ as Forms of Exchange’, is a preliminary perspective on the tradition and system of gift-giving on ritual occasions as an indicator of economic changes. ‘Social Mobility in Ancient India with Special Re­ ference to Elite Groups’ and ‘The Image of the Barbarian in Early India’ relate to the two ends of the social hier­ archy— elite groups {brahmans and ksatriyas) and their social gradation on the one hand and on the other, the defi­ nition and evolution of the categories generally termed mleccha. ‘The Historian and Archaeological Data’ is a general assessment of the possible ways in which archaeo­ logical data can provide evidence for social and economic history. The correlation of archaeological data and literary sources in the specific context of early India is investigated in the subsequent two papers. ‘The Study of Society in An­ cient India’ and ‘Puränic Lineages and Archaeological Cul­ tures’. Both focus on the evidence of the nature of society and the migration of peoples and language as available from two categories of source material. The three papers, ‘The Tradition of Historical Writing in Early India’, ‘Origin Myths and the Early Indian Historical Tradition*, and ‘Genealogy as a Source of Social History’, examine the con­ tent of the itihäsa-puräna tradition — the early Indian his­ torical tradition — in the context of its social and politicai function. Finally, the paper ‘The Scope and Significance of Regional History’, is an attempt, on the basis of a case study of Punjab history to suggest the kinds of investigations Preface vii which at this stage may be carried out by those working or regional history. One of the problems with working on early Indian social history is that not all the texts can be accurately dated ; some can be precisely dated while others span across centuries. This may be due in part to a lack of concern in the tradition with carefully dated texts, but also perhaps to the over­ lapping of social formations, which seem to be a more char­ acteristic feature of early Indian society as compared to other ancient societies. This may also to an extent account for the continuity of what might otherwise be regarded as anachronistic features in certain social institutions. I would like to thank my colleagues at the Centre for His­ torical Studies of the Jawaharlal Nehru University, with whom I have on various occasions discussed the contents of some of the papers. New Delhi April 1978 Romila Thapar A cknowledgements The author and the publishers would like to thank the editors and publishers of the journal and books listed below for the permission they granted for the inclusion in this volume of the material cited: For ‘Interpretations of Ancient Indian History’ from History and Theory, (1968), Wesleyan University, Connecticut, USA. For ‘Society and Law in the Hindu and Buddhist Traditions’ from International Social Science Journal (1966), UNESCO, Paris, France, For ‘Ethics, Religion and Social Protest in the First Millennium B.C. in Northern India’ from Daedalus, Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Science, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. Spring 1975, Wisdom, Revelation and Doubt. For ‘Renunciation: The Making of a Counter-culture?’ from Homage to a Historian, Dr. N. Subrahmanian Felicitation Volume, N. Jagadesan and J. Jeyapragasan (eds.). For ‘Dana and Dakçinâ as forms of Exchange’ from Indica (1976), St. Xavier’s College, Bombay. For ‘Social Mobility in Ancient India with Special Reference to Elite Groups’ from Indian Society: Historical Probings (in memory D. D. Kosambi) by R. S. Sharma (ed.) (1974), Indian Council of Historical Research, New Delhi. For ‘Image of the Barbarian in Early India’ from Comparative Studies of Society and History (1971), Cambridge University Press, London, England. For ‘The Historian and Archaeological Data* from Radiocarbon and Indian Archaeology by D. P. Agarwal and A. Ghosh (eds.) (1973), Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Bombay. For ‘The Study of Society in Ancient India’ from the Presidential Address, Ancient Indian History Section, XXXI Indian History Congress, (1969), Varanasi.