Sita Anantha Raman - Womens Rights and Law Codes in Early India, 600 BCE570 ACE

This book looks at the first eight Sanskrit law codes written in India, between 600 BCE and 570 ACE. It focuses on the legal, religious, and ethical customs that were codified in this period and their impact on the social and political life of women.

The volume analyzes texts such as the Dharma Stras, the Arthastra, the Manu Smiti, the Yjyavalkya Smiti, and the Nrada Smiti, among others. It studies discourses on justice, conduct, virtues, and duties, and how early laws were used to systematize patriarchy and the varna caste system in South Asia. It examines how patrimonial laws and male property rights highlighted social anxieties about female chastity and varna lineage, which led to the subordination of women and the lower varnas. These anxieties are most evident in codes from the late Vedic-early classical eras when diverse new settlers arrived upon the subcontinent. At this time, kings decentralized governance and allowed local groups to practice communal laws, while they meted out court justice with a specific law code. As the state became prosperous from trade conducted by merchants of diverse castes, sects, and classes, and social peace was ensured by officials from disparate backgrounds, kings began to rely upon a law code that aspired for equity above intolerance. These chapters examine heterodox Thervada Buddhism and Jainism, their origins in the oligarchic state, their impact on the royal Sanskritic state, as seen in canonical literature. They especially focus on womens roles in heterodox sects, and the emergence of new spaces for women, as such changes were adopted in disparate ways and degrees by other South Asian communities.

The volume will be a useful resource for students and researchers of history, women and gender studies, social anthropology, sociology, and law. It will also serve as an information guide for readers who are interested in the political and social life of women in early India.

Sita Anantha Raman is Emerita Associate Professor, Santa Clara University, where she taught South Asian history and SE Asian history. She is the author of the books Women in India: A Social and Cultural History (Vols.1& 2; 2009); A. Madhaviah: A Biography and a Novella (Muthumeenakshi, trans. by Vasantha Surya; 2004); and Getting Girls to School: Social Reform in the Tamil Districts, 18701930 (1996); and of various journal articles.

First published 2020
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge
52 Vanderbilt Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2020 Sita Anantha Raman

The right of Sita Anantha Raman to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested

ISBN: 978-0-367-19869-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-429-26006-3 (ebk)

Typeset in Sabon
by Apex CoVantage, LLC

Dedicated with gratitude to
Professor Stanley Wolpert (19272019)
&
Professor Damodar R. SarDesai (19312016),
who inculcated respect for humane laws