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...

Ausführliche Beschreibung

Gespeichert in:  
Bibliographische Detailangaben
1. VerfasserIn: Visvanathan, Meera (VerfasserIn)
Medienart: Elektronisch Aufsatz
Sprache:Englisch
Verfügbarkeit prüfen: HBZ Gateway
Journals Online & Print:
Lade...
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Veröffentlicht: Equinox 2011
In: Religions of South Asia
Jahr: 2011, Band: 5, Heft: 1/2, Seiten: 245-265
weitere Schlagwörter:B Women
B gahapati
B Genealogy
B Inscriptions
B metronymics
B Aśoka
B Kinship
B Brāhmī
B gotras
B Sanskrit
Online Zugang: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung: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
Enthält:Enthalten in: Religions of South Asia
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1558/rosa.v5i1/2.245