NCERT Book Class 12 History Chapter 3 Kinship, caste and Class

53

THEME
THEME TWO Kinship, Caste and Class
THREE Earl
Ear ly Socie ties
Societies
( C . 600 BCE - 600 CE )

In the previous chapter we saw that there were several
changes in economic and political life between c. 600
BCE and 600 CE . Some of these changes influenced societies
as well. For instance, the extension of agriculture into
forested areas transformed the lives of forest dwellers;
craft specialists often emerged as distinct social groups;
the unequal distribution of wealth sharpened social
differences.
Historians often use textual
traditions to understand these
processes. Some texts lay down
norms of social behaviour; others
describe and occasionally comment
on a wide range of social situations
and practices. We can also catch a
glimpse of some social actors from
inscriptions. As we will see, each
text (and inscription) was written
from the perspective of specific
social categories. So we need to
keep in mind who composed what
and for whom. We also need to
consider the language used, and
the ways in which the text
circulated. Used carefully, texts allow us to piece together Fig. 3.1
attitudes and practices that shaped social histories. A terracotta sculpture
In focusing on the Mahabharata, a colossal epic running depicting a scene from
the Mahabharata
in its present form into over 100,000 verses with depictions
(West Bengal),
of a wide range of social categories and situations, we draw c. seventeenth century
on one of the richest texts of the subcontinent. It was
composed over a period of about 1,000 years (c. 500 BCE
onwards), and some of the stories it contains may have
been in circulation even earlier. The central story is about
two sets of warring cousins. The text also contains sections
laying down norms of behaviour for various social groups.
Occasionally (though not always), the principal characters
seem to follow these norms. What does conformity with
norms and deviations from them signify?