Kinship Caste and Class Notes Class 12 History

Mahabharat is a text which has more than 1000,00 verses in it. It has rich content of stories and epics. This epic was composed before 1000 years (e,500 BCE onwards). This epic has a story with the theme of war between cousins. Its text carries the norms of behavior for different social groups. The principal character of this epic follows the rules which were to be expected.

Chapter At a Glance

Vs Suthankar started discussing Mahabharata in detail in 1919.
The project was completed in 47 years and prepared 13,000 pages.
Texts were written in Sanskrit by Brahmanas. Historians get to know about pali, Prakrit, and Sanskrit languages in detail. A simple way of Sanskrit as a language is used in Mahabharata. Sanskrit texts were recognized as authoritative.

Kinship Caste and Class Notes

key points

The Mahabharata is one of the most colossal epics of the sub-continent. This epic has more than 100,000 verses.
The focus of the story is a war between two groups of cousins. Norms and behavioral concepts are also given in this chapter. The principal characters of this epic, occasionally, seem to follow these norms.
According to the idea of patrimony, the sons of a person could control all of his assets. Thrones are also included in the context of kings.
Mahabharata is a story of changing relations. A land dispute between Kauravas and Pandavas who belongs to the kuru lineage. They belong to the same lineage. In the end, this conflict ended in war and the Pandavas won the war.
Daughters could not claim any resources from their houses.
Eight forms of marriage have been recognized in Dharmasutras and Dharmashastras.
Four, out of these eight were considered good while the other four were condemned. Probably they were practiced by those who refused to accept Brahmanical norms.
Gotra’s determination was a crucial element of Brahmanical culture. Gotra played an important role in the history of our culture. vedic seer was determined very important.
There were two important rules of gotra

(i) women used to adopt their husbands’ gotra after marriage.
(ii) No marriage between members of the same gotras.

Satavahana rulers were identified through their metronymic. Though most of the empires at that time were patriarchial but satavahana rulers were somewhere different from others.
There was a mention of an ideal system in the Dharmasutras and Dharmashastra which was based on class. According to it, there were four classes or varnas in the society. Brahmanas were given the highest status in such a society.
It has been written in Shastras that only Kshatriyas could be kings. But many important ruling lineages probably had different origins. Here we can take the example of the Mauryan dynasty.
Brahmanas were considered barbarians or melachhas as the person who came from central Asia. But according to one of the earliest inscriptions in Sanskrit, Rudradaman, the best-known Shaka ruler rebuilt Sudarshana lake.
It suggests that powerful Mlechchhas were aware of Sanskritic traditions.
Society was classified based on caste, used in Shastras. In Brahmanical theory, Jati, like Varna, was also based on birth. Though there were four varnas but there was not any restrictions on jatis formation.
Jatis sharing a common occupation were sometimes organized into Shrines or guilds. Membership in a guild was based on the specialization of craft.
Brahmanas considered some people as outsiders to the system. With this, they also developed a sharper social division by classifying some social categories as untouchable.
According to the Brahmanical texts, Varna was another criterion for regulating access to wealth. Only one occupation was prescribed for fourth Varna and that was servitude. Several occupations were prescribed for the first three Varnas.
Historians consider several elements when they analyze texts like language, kinds of texts, authors, place where they have been composed, the content of texts, a time when they have been composed, audiences, etc.
As Mahabharata was written in Sanskrit, there are several other languages of this epic as well. Sanskrit language used in Mahabharata is far simple than the language of Vedas. In the end, we can say that it was probably widely understood.
Historians classify the contents of Mahabharata into two parts-narrative and didactic. The narrative section is that which contains stories and the didactic section is that which contains a prescription of social norms.

The Search for Convergence

Mahabharata is a dynamic epic and contains vivid details of battles, forests, palaces, and settlements. In 1951-52, B.B. Lal found evidence from the Hastinapura as he excavated the area. Its location is in Ganga doab and the Kuru kingdom was situated there.

There were five occupational levels that B.B. Lal found. Unplanned houses have been found, walls of these houses are made of mud and mud bricks.

Bricks drain and soakage jars were used for draining wastewater.

A Dynamic Text

Today it is available in the world’s leading language. A lot of different stories are incorporated into this epic. It has become a big epical text. Different lessons, stories, and themes are shown in epic through images and sculpture formation.

Timeline

500 BCE:-Major Textual Traditions
500-200 BCE work on Sanskrit grammar and dharamsutras.
500-100 BCE:- Tripitaka (in Pali) was written
500 BCE-400 CE:- composing and compilation of Tamil Sangam
100 CE:- works on medicine (in Sanskrit)
From 200 CE onwards Puranas were written
300 CE: a work on dramaturgy (in Sanskrit).
300-600 CE Other Dharmashastras (in Sanskrit).
400-500 CE:- the works of Kalidasa and Sanskrit plays; works on astronomy and Mathematics by Aryabhatta.

kinship caste and class notes have been very beneficial for students because they are also connected with the next chapters.

Conclusion

In these kinship caste and class notes, we first discussed the Mahabharata epic. It causes and consequences. Then we understand the political and economic conditions of that period in brief. kinship caste and class notes are made according to the curriculum of CBSE. These kinship caste and class notes are very important according to exams. you will easily find a long questions in board exams from these kinship caste and class notes. So if you like this blog, kinship caste, and class notes then please share it with your friend so that they can also reach good content.