Reconstructing ancient society has always been a challenging task for a historian. How do we shrug off the ‘baggage’ of modernity that we carry and relocate ourselves in the (very distant) past so as to be accurate? The only way to do it is with curiosity and with honesty—approach the ‘sources’ with an open and eager mind, without preconceived notions, which is what is being attempted in this compilation of articles written over a period of roughly two decades. Uma Chakravarti, in her incredibly inquisitive and penetrating style, moves, quite literally, ‘beyond’ hackneyed discussions of state, political institutions and the caste system, to highlight lives of wideranging groups and communities which played a significant role, but have been treated cursorily by most historians. She seeks to ‘represent’ Ancient India with essays related to peasants, servile labour, dasas and karmakaras, widows, monks and householders and the bhaktin; hitherto grey areas of historical studies and in doing so, reveals how methods of production, processes of social stratification, creation of ideological structures and institutions are inherently linked to each other.
The book begins with an introduction entitled ‘History as Practice’, a revealing chapter on how Uma Chakravarti evolves as a teacher and a ‘practicer’ of history. A must read for all academics, it reveals how one who is deeply involved and passionate about history can motivate others to read, research, and revel in the issues that are close to their hearts. The chapter, even while taking us through Uma’s personal journey as a historian, is full of details—how historical perceptions change from the colonial period to the nationalist period; the contribution of D.D. Kosambi; how Dev Raj Chanana and R.S. Sharma brought attention to marginal groups; how Buddhist texts are oriented differently as compared to Brahmanical sources. In the course of an absorbing discussion on changing historiography set against the backdrop of the women’s movement in India, the readers are introduced to the crucial issue of gender in history and how she along with Kumkum Roy, have helped change perceptions towards ancient India in such a way that no historian can ever find it imbued with ‘golden hues’, especially with respect to women. If history is a study of continuity with change, this chapter shows us how the predilection for ‘marginal groups’ would finally lead Uma Chakravarti to bring women’s issues to the mainstream of historical research. Drawing attention to the intricate relationship between caste, class and patriarchy, her work inspires feminist scholarship, draws attention to the need to recover ancient sources and rediscover colonial, nationalist attitudes.
Uma Chakravarti skillfully connects the modern with the ancient, peeling off varied layers of fixed perceptions and misconceptions that have constantly coloured our notions of early Indian history. In the provocative, ‘Whatever happened to the Vedic Dasi?’ she shows how oriental, occidental and nationalist perceptions on ‘women’s status,’ had commonalities and how Altekar’s work eulogizing the Vedic period for women, had actually emerged as a defensive mechanism against the colonial projection of Indians as an emasculated, vanquished community that ill treated its women. In a brilliantly constructed argument imploring scholars to move beyond the ‘Altekarian paradigm’, (her exposure to Law and Jurisprudence as a Law student is evident), she shows how this develops: “What was gradually and carefully constituted, brick by brick, in the interaction between colonialism and nationalism is now so deeply embedded in the consciousness of the middle classes, that ideas about the past have assumed the status of revealed truths… But for women in particular, this heritage, is almost a burden. It has led to a narrow and limiting circle in which the image of Indian womanhood has become both a shackle and a rhetorical device that nevertheless functions as a historical truth”. This is where Uma Chakravarti’s contribution is significant—she has shown how it is not only ancient customs and social traditions, but modern interpretations of the past that have played a role in constructing ideologies which severely limit and marginalize women even now. In ‘Conceptualizing Brahmanical Patriarchy’, she develops the argument further, revealing how patriarchal traditions have deep roots in literary traditions of the subcontinent, which, irrespective of whether they are Brahmanical or Buddhist, caution against women’s inherent nature, strisvabhava, which was fickle, weak, treacherous and libidinous and had to be controlled through strict codes, constructed as stridharma, based on which women were expected to mould themselves as ideal wives and mothers.
The essays highlight how marginalization of women and stratification of society on the basis of caste and class are concurrent developments—the structure of the state and brahmanical ideology played a considerable role in ensuring that stratas and distinctions were maintained in ancient India. Emphasizing on social reality, rather than dwelling only on theoretical constructs, she focusses on production activities and relations of production that emerge between producers and consumers. In the chapter on the peasant in early India, not only is the peasant described as a social and economic category, the distinction between the peasant producer and the landowner, gahapati is recognized. Labour and its value in social and economic terms, its extraction and exploitation, are issues that are explored in the context of servile labour and hired labour, the dasas and karmakaras. The interrelationship between gender, caste and labour is extended and brought out in the discussion on Widowhood, wherein Chakravarti shows how widowhood entailed ‘social death’ for high caste widows, whereas lower caste widows were exploited materially as well as sexually.
The book delves into the different sources with ease—Brahmanical notions are pitted against Buddhist traditions, highlighting the distinctions between them. Moving effortlessly from Vedic sources, to the epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, to the Vinaya and Sutta Pitakas and the Jatakas, the vast repository of literary traditions are explored to bring to life ‘everyday lives’ . However, a word of caution is necessary here as the ease with which the essays move from one literary tradition to the other, even within individual essays, may imply that while dealing with ancient India, we are dealing with one large undifferentiated continuum or that these texts represent social reality at a given period. Even though the texts are dealt with sequentially in the articles, and it is a difficult task to fix dates for many of the texts, a careful analysis of chronology, especially while dealing with ancient literary works is required. The point needs to be made that Brahmanical texts are themselves severely stratified, as are Buddhist texts. This aside, the manner in which legends, stories and myths are explored show how the study of early traditions is important for understanding the psyche of those who invented these traditions and also those who passed them on from generation to generation. With deft sweeps Uma Chakravarti is able to explore why the nation came to a halt while watching the Ramayana television serial, or why custodians of saffron history while floundering in their attempt to carve an identity of their own, needed to resurrect a ‘celibate’ hero from the past, Chanakya. She shows how the Jatakas, with their treatment of women, men and beasts are repositories of information for ancient times and also explores the reasons why they survived as ‘popular’ tradition. The articles not only connect disparate chronological phases—the modern with the ancient, and disparate traditions—Brahmanical and Buddhist, elitist and popular, traditional and unconventional; but also seek to bring out spatial interlinkages—the inner with the outer—thus interests and emotions within the family are sought to be situated within the enveloping stratified society while the bhaktin, influenced by her inner spiritual needs, uses her body to escape from orthodox religious traditions, turning them ‘upside down’. It is these connections and linkages which allow us to have a more comprehensive understanding of ancient India—indeed it is a treat to find these varied articles in one compilation. In reality, the articles show us that attempting to carve out the identities of certain groups actually enhances our understanding of the ‘others’ too and thus, even while focusing on ‘others’, this book actually also enriches our understanding of kings as well as brahmanas.
Jaya Tyagi is Reader in Department of History, Sri Venkateswara College, University of Delhi.