Ancient Indian Society (Buddhism)

Introduction

This article provides bibliographic information on ancient Indian society from 2500 BCE until 300 CE, with most of the relevant publications relating to the period 500 BCE to 300 CE. For both periods we are almost entirely bereft of information about secular (and indeed religious) history, or political and social matters, except as filtered through a priestly lens, and as reported as asides, in their texts. Despite this, there has been a large body of scholarly writing on ancient Indian society, especially after 500 BCE when both the textual and archeological evidence becomes more transparent. There is an abundance of material derived from both sources, yet interpretation of it has always been problematic, as the conceptual frames shaping the contents of the texts must first be understood in order to ascertain how the primary data drawn upon was to be presented. In addition, one of the problems in dealing with ancient Indian society that has become very apparent since the turn of the 21st century has been that imposed on scholars by reading contemporary Indian social problems back into the past. Under the influence of Subaltern studies, and especially of postcolonial theory, there has been a repositioning of some of the fundamental themes of ancient Indian social history. This has been especially so with the treatment of caste and has led to an increased questioning of the origin of caste and of its development in the early historical period.

Definition of Society

The study of ancient Indian society throws up countless problems of sources, definitions, and interpretation. It is not self-evident what society might have meant in the ancient period, whether it was tribal, nomadic, urban, or pastoral, or likely all these existing simultaneously. Ethnographic research on contemporary South Asian societies can be useful here, but does not tell us how societies, tribes, and so forth were conceptualized over two millennia ago. Words such as rāṣṭṛa (“kingdom”), pura/pur (“city”), grāma (nigāma, gāma) (“village”), and samāja (“assembly”) refer to spatial locations as well as to social and political groupings, but they are not defined in detail in the texts although some descriptions of them are given. Nor do we have any understandings of what a society would be like except for normative descriptions of the varṇāśrama type found in many brahmanical texts or rules governing how monks should behave with lay people, especially women. Finally, most of the items mentioned in this article closely intertwine society and social history with the development of the state, urbanization—involving transformations in the built landscape—and the technological and economic changes underlying all of these. Milner 1994 gives a brief introductory survey of the main features of Hindu society, both ancient and modern, while Wagle 1995 makes some incisive distinctions between tribe and caste in dealing with ancient Indian social groups. Thapar 2003 briefly describes various categories of society defined in terms of modes of subsistence and whether they are urban or rural, while Bailey and Mabbett 2003 argues that the most useful methodological entrée into the study of ancient Indian society is to focus on the difference between small-scale and large-scale groups. Parasher-Sen 2004 insightfully explores the difficulties in analyzing ancient Indian society from the perspective of group inclusion and exclusion, and, relatedly, Chattopadhyaya 2009 calls for a focus on studying the diversity of ancient Indian society, lamenting the sense in which the dominance of the varṇa theory has obfuscated this.

Bailey, Greg, and Mabbett, Ian. The Sociology of Early Buddhism. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511488283Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Chapter 2 focuses on the categorization of elite groups in the early Buddhist texts, drawing out the differences between the multiplicity of social roles incumbent upon an individual in small-scale and large-scale societies. Moves on from Thapar 2003 by attempting to define the social significance of the word “elite” as found both in Buddhist and Hindu texts.
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Chattopadhyaya, Brajadulal D. “Introduction: One Blind Man’s View of an Elephant; Understanding Early Indian Social History.” In A Social History of Early India. Vol. 2, Part 5 of History of Science, Philosophy and Culture in Indian Civilization. Edited by Brajadulal D. Chattopadhyaya, XXXI–L. New Delhi: Pearson Longman, 2009.
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A very insightful survey and analysis of the historiography of social history and studies of society since the mid-1800s. Also includes some original comments on the development of caste in relation to varṇa (pp. xxx–xxxvii) and includes an extensive bibliography on pp. xlvi–l.
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Milner, Murray. Status and Sacredness: A General Theory of Status Relations and an Analysis of Indian Culture. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.
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Chapter 4 gives a brief overview of the key features of Indian society, relevant mainly to the period post–500 BCE. It covers Hinduism, caste and social structure, economic and political power, and purity and pollution. A useful introduction from an anthropological perspective.
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Parasher-Sen, Aloka. “Introduction.” In Subordinate and Marginal Groups in Early India. Edited by Aloka Parasher-Sen, 1–80. Oxford in India Readings. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2004.
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Very detailed survey of the historiography of ancient and medieval Indian society from the perspective of marginal groups outside of the varṇa system. Argues that Hindu society can never be seen in a monolithic sense but must always be seen as a set of discursive maneuvers where different dominant and subordinate groups interact with each other.
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Thapar, Romila. The Penguin History of Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300. New Delhi: Penguin, 2003.
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Divides the different groups of Indian society into hunter-gatherers, pastoralists, peasants and townsman, and gives a brief description of each as a prelude to a more extensive description of them throughout her book. Follows this with a brief survey of “The Creation of Castes.” See pp. 54–68.
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Wagle, Narendra K. Society at the Time of the Buddha. 2d rev. ed. Bombay: Popular Prakashan, 1995.
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Chapter 2 (pp. 12–47) that deals with “patterns of settlement” provides a good working definition of tribal groups and caste, and supplements these with the idea of the “extended kin group.” Though based on Pali sources, its conclusions resonate with what little is found in contemporaneous Sanskrit sources. A pioneering work (1st ed. 1966).
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General Overviews

There are several overviews of ancient Indian society from 1200 BCE to 300 CE, but none take into consideration the Harappan civilization. Sharma 1983 utilizes a Marxist perspective in associating social change with innovations in technology and the use of material resources. Two books, Thapar 1978 and Thapar 1984, cover similar ground and trace the transformation from tribalism, where clan and lineage is of fundamental importance, to state formation post–500 BCE where caste begins to emerge as an organizational principal of society. Sahu 2006 looks in great detail at the relationship between iron-based technology and social change, and Chattopadhyaya 2009 is an introduction to all the important aspects of ancient Indian society and its historiography.

Chattopadhyaya, Brajadulal D. A Social History of Early India. Vol. 2, Part 5 of History of Science, Philosophy and Culture in Indian Civilization. Edited by Brajadulal D. Chattopadhyaya. New Delhi: Pearson Longman, 2009.
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A very useful book of sixteen essays divided into 10 sections dealing with the historiography of different aspects of ancient Indian society. Each of the essays includes a comprehensive bibliography, but the essays are directed toward those desiring an introduction to the study of ancient Indian society and social history rather than to specialists.
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Sahu, Bhairabi P. Iron and Social Change in Early India. Oxford in India Readings. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2006.
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A collection of previously published essays covering the entire realm of debate about the introduction of iron technology in India and its role in effecting fundamental changes in economy, society, and polity after 500 BCE. Not so much a study of society, but of the causes behind a period of great social change in ancient India.
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Sharma, Ram S. Material Culture and Social Formations in Ancient India. New Delhi: Macmillan India, 1983.
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Searches for terms in literature, from the Ṛg Veda onward, which define economic, agricultural, and institutional concepts, and deals with the introduction of iron ore in northwestern India. Subsequent chapters take up the implications of this for the structure of society. Somewhat outdated, but stays very close to the texts and archeology.
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Thapar, Romila. Ancient Indian Social History: Some Interpretations. New Delhi: Orient Longman, 1978.
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A collection of thirteen essays published in the 1960s and 1970s covering subjects such as the methodology of social history, sources of social history, genealogy, origin myths, lineages, social mobility, and the image of the barbarian. Perhaps a bit dated, but still filled with insights.
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Thapar, Romila. From Lineage to State: Social Formations in the Mid-First Millennium B.C. in the Ganga Valley. Bombay and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1984.
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A synthesis of data about social, economic, and political material illustrating the transformation over a period of about seven hundred years from a society built on tribal lineages to one characterized by different forms of social organization involving large-scale societies and state formation. Tends to collate material from texts of different periods.
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Sources

To actually find primary sources that deal with social interaction at a microlevel is a necessary, yet difficult task. Either the texts, in the case of many Hindu sources, are normative, or anything dealing with social interaction is incidental. Here I have suggested only a few sources, and they relate specifically to the period 300 BCE–200 CE. The third book of the Mahābhārata in van Buitenen 1975 contains considerable material about the interaction between members of the four varṇas and outcaste figures, engaging in conduct that seemingly violates correct social behavior. In the twelfth book of the same text, there is much material describing how kings should rule, but in the Āpaddharma section in Fitzgerald 2004, there are several stories involving animals that satirize unequal power relations within society. More realistic in their portrayal of social interaction and social stratification based on wealth, occupation, and prestige are a range of Buddhist texts. The Sutta Nipāta in Norman 1984 is a valuable source of information on the gahapati, an important category of landowner in the states of Northeastern India after 500 BCE, whereas the Vinaya in Horner 1938–1952 contains many anecdotes detailing interaction between monks and laypeople. The Jātaka tales in Cowell 1969 narrating the Buddha’s previous lives are texts designed for a popular audience and are a treasure trove of material for interaction between people of different classes, and the Lalitavistara in Goswami 2001, a biography of the Buddha dating to the 1st century of the common era, contains some extravagant descriptions of urban centers and of social interaction within them.

Cowell, Edward B., ed. The Jātaka; or, Stories of the Buddha’s Former Births. 3 vols. London: Luzac, 1969.
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Containing 543 tales of the Buddha’s previous lives, it is a mine of information about Brahmins, merchants, farmers, laborers, despised classes, and many other groups in north Indian society in the 1st century CE. Many articles listed in this article use Jātaka tales as their primary source of information.
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Fitzgerald, James F., trans. The Mahābhārata. Vol. 7. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004.
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The Āpaddharmaparvan (Śāntiparvan, chapters 129–167) deals with the duties of a king when everything is falling apart in the world. It illustrates various modes of behavior through stories involving animals and humans of different social classes and occupations. Many of these show how individuals in social and familial situations must have negotiated with each other. See pp. 494–602.
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Goswami, Bijoya, trans. Lalitavistara: English Translation with Notes. Calcutta: Asiatic Society, 2001.
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A biography of the Buddha probably composed in the 1st century CE, it contains many descriptions of palace and urban life. Though not previously used much for exploring ancient Indian society, more notice should be taken of its multitude of descriptions of social interaction for the study of social conditions.
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Horner, Isaline B. Book of the Discipline. 6 vols. London: Pali Text Society, 1938–1952.
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Contains many narratives about the Buddha and other monks interacting with laypeople and also tells about life in urban areas. Though a considerable part of its various texts are concerned with rules regulating monkish conduct, the stories illustrating the reason for the particular rules tell us much about social interaction.
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Norman, Kenneth R. The Group of Discourses (Sutta-Nipāta). London: Pali Text Society, 1984.
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An early Buddhist text in Pali that contains many individual conversion stories. It is an important source of information about the wealthy gahapati householder and of Brahmins, some of whom are ritualists, others landholders over large estates. Very suggestive of the expansion of the Brahmins into Northeastern India.
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van Buitenen, Johannes A. B. The Mahābhārata. Vol. 2, Book 2: The Book of the Assembly Hall; Book 3: The Book of the Forest. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1975.
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The Mārkaṇḍeyasamayāparvan (Āraṇyakaparvan, chapters 179–221) contains a number of short narratives, some of which depict dystopian and utopian views of society, and others that depict the education of a Brahmin by a low caste seller of meat. In these narratives there are considerable illustrations of interaction of people at different levels of society. See pp. 557–664.
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Historical Perspectives

This section includes bibliographical sources as they pertain to different historical periods in ancient India. Although there may be some disagreement about the temporal limits of these periods, all the evidence from the primary sources suggests distinctive differences in the society of each period, even though there is considerable overlap at the boundaries. Of course, as time goes on and especially in the third period and beyond, the sources for determining social conditions become more abundant.

2500 BCE–1900 BCE

This covers the period of the mature and late Harappan period. While there have been many excavations and studies of Harappan sites, any inferences on social structure remain conjectural. It is clear from the archeological evidence that Harappan civilization rested on an urban-based land system based on agriculture and pastoralism, and trade between larger towns and small outlying villages, as well as interregional trade. Suggestions have been made in past scholarship that the Harappan civilization was one exhibiting a high degree of conformity, perhaps backed by a centralized ruling model of government. Recent studies have shown, however, that while there is a degree of ideological conformity implied in the material remains, this masks considerable regional variation, reflected in a social situation manifesting various status differences, partly economically based, and possibly ethnically based as well. Possehl 2002 (p. 52) admits that virtually nothing can be known about Mature Harappan social structure, but does suggest that throughout its evolution the various societies associated with the individual cities did become more variable in structure and organization. Kenoyer 2008 argues for social variability in the main Harappan cities and status differences based on wealth. Wright 2010; Chase 2010; and Chase, et al. 2014 develop Kenoyer’s views on the basis of very close analyses of landscape patterns, dietary preferences, and the different modes of identity formation based on the production of beads and other bodily ornaments.

Chase, Brad. “Social Change at the Harappan Settlement of Ghola Dhoro: A Reading from Animal Bones.” Antiquity 84 (2010): 528–543.
DOI: 10.1017/S0003598X00066758Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Focuses on a Harappan site in Gujarat, showing how changes in skeletal remains of animals can lead to conclusions concerning “inter-regional interaction networks.” It also shows how class differences can be inferred from the different practices involved in the butchering of cattle, as further evidenced from skeletal remains.
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Chase, Brad, P. Ajithprasad, S. V. Rajesh, Ambika Patel, and Bhanu Sharma. “Materializing Harappan Identities: Unity and Diversity in the Borderlands of the Indus Civilization.” Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 35 (2014): 63–78.
DOI: 10.1016/j.jaa.2014.04.005Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Extensively analyzes items of personal adornment and domestic practices, based on finds of terracotta ornaments and clay cooking pots, at two Harappan sites located in Northern Gujarat. Shows how both sites displayed a conformity with the broad Harappan cultural tendencies in material production, but that distinctive individual differences were apparent, reflective of social differences between the two urban settlements.
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Kenoyer, Jonathan M. “Indus Urbanism: New Perspectives on Its Origin and Character.” Paper presented at the Colloquium of the National Academy of Sciences, “Early Cities: New perspectives on Pre-industrial Urbanism,” held 18–20 May 2005, at the National Academy of Sciences in Washington, DC. In The Ancient City: New Perspectives on Urbanism in the Old and New World. Edited by Joyce Marcus and Jeremy M. Sabloff, 183–208. Arthur M. Sackler Colloquia of the National Academy of Sciences. Santa Fe, New Mexico: School for Advanced Research, 2008.
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A good synthesis covering the main Indus Valley cities and excavation work at Harappa, Mohenjo Daro, Dholavira, and Rakhigarhi, focusing mainly on their urban development. Points out that Harappan society was probably ruled “by competing elites, merchants, landowners, or religious leaders,” (p.195) with mercantile and possibly religious elites represented in each of the main cities.
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Possehl, Gregory L. The Indus Civilization: A Contemporary Perspective. Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira, 2002.
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Chapter 2 gives an excellent introduction to the Harappan civilization, detailing its historical stages from 7000 BCE, and the extent and size of the different excavated sites. Deals very briefly with Harappan society on pp. 52–53.
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Wright, Rita P. The Ancient Indus: Urbanism, Economy, and Society. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
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Chapter 9 is a very comprehensive survey of three Indus Valley sites. By studying their landscape layout, architectural profile, and the organization required to construct well-planned towns—plus remains of ornaments and beads as well as burial practices—glimpses of different communities and differences between elites and others can be seen.
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1200 BCE–500 BCE

These seven centuries cover the period in which the people who composed the bulk of Vedic literature came into Northwestern India, settled there as nomadic pastoralists, and then moved progressively to the southeast along the Ganges valley. As pastoralists, their economy was based on cattle, sheep, and horses and some trade with sedentary communities with whom they interacted and eventually integrated. Their society is usually conceptualized as kin based, with no concept of private property, and with minimal state apparatus. After about 800 BCE, it is likely that the process of integration with people from different cultures and different socioeconomic structures became intensified, eventually leading away from a tribal-based society to one that was class based. Rau 1957 offers a very careful philological analysis of all the words relating to society, economic activity, and kingship in the Brāhmaṇas; Sharma 1983 builds on Rau by using archeological evidence as well as textual, while Thapar 1984 offers a very densely written reconstruction of lineage and household relations up to about 500 BCE. Witzel 1997 focuses on the development of the first ancient Indian state with its accompanying social implications, and Proferes 2007 is mainly about kingship yet also draws out implications concerning the social implications of tribal organization in the Ṛg Veda.

Proferes, Theodore N. Vedic Ideals of Sovereignty and the Poetics of Power. New Haven, CT: American Oriental Society, 2007.
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Argues that fire as a substance and concept unites kingship, tribe, and clan into one single group, suggesting “a network of fires spreading horizontally across the landscape, organized hierarchically in accordance with the relative magnitude of the grouping with which each is associated” (p. 25). The implications for social organization are then further developed. See chapter 2.
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Rau, Wilhelm. Staat und Gesellschaft im Alten Indien: Nach Den Brāhmaṇa-Texten Dargestellt. Wiesbaden, Germany: Otto Harrassowitz, 1957.
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A somewhat dated, but still valuable treatment of social forms, economic activity, and kingship up until about 600 BCE, based on the second strata of Vedic literature. Part 3 deals with the social classes in considerable detail, presenting a situation where varṇa is known but not caste as it is later understood.
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Sharma, Ram S. Material Culture and Social Formations in Ancient India. New Delhi: Macmillan, 1983.
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Chapters 1–4 deal with Vedic texts down to 600 BCE. They list terms in literature, from the RV onward, which define economic, agricultural, and institutional concepts, and cover the introduction of iron ore in Northwestern India. Somewhat outdated but shows how difficult it has always been to discern anything about early Vedic social structures.
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Thapar, Romila. From Lineage to State: Social Formations in the Mid-First Millennium B. C. in the Ganga Valley. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1984.
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Chapter 2, pp. 21–69 (esp. pp. 36–38) traces the development from the pastoralist society of the early Vedas to the small- and large-scale societies associated with the larger states (500 BCE and beyond). Includes a good summary of knowledge on the socioeconomic structures of early Vedic society and the increasing complexity involved when pastoralism and sedentary activity come together.
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Witzel, Michael. “Early Sanskritization: Origins and Development of the Kuru State.” In Recht, Staat und Verwaltung im klassischen Indien. Edited by Bernhard Kölver, 27–52. Munich: Oldenbourg, 1997.
DOI: 10.1524/9783486594355.27Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Witzel argues that a Kuru kingdom develops about 800 BCE and brings together in its realm most of the preexisting Vedic tribes. It is perhaps the earliest Indian state and foreshadows the development of later societies where the Brāhmaṇa and kṣatriya classes stand in a close relationship against the mass of the people, the viś. (Digital version.)
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500 BCE–100 BCE

This period is characterized by the development of urbanization, state formation, an ongoing migration of people out of Northwest India, and their integration with people from different linguistic and ethnic groups. Dating this period from 500 BCE to 320 CE, we find a dramatic increase in literary and archeological sources over either of the two previous periods. Agriculture becomes an important base of subsistence, state formation becomes the norm for political organization, and class becomes an organizing factor in society, and there is also the development of new religions, part of whose teaching is an abandonment of household society. This period corresponds especially to an increase in the size of two states, Magadha and Kosala, after the middle of the 4th century BCE, abundant information about which is given in early Buddhist literature in Pali. Much of our knowledge of ancient North Indian society after 500 BCE is then based on Buddhist literature, with normative brāhmaṇical literature coming into play about 350 BCE, and the early Upanishads giving only sparse information about society and social practices. Wagle 1995 is a very comprehensive account of society at the time of the Buddha, perhaps giving too early a dating to the texts. Tsuchida 1971 is an insightful study of types of Brahmins mentioned in Buddhist texts, and Chakravarti 1987 surveys the various social and occupational classes in the early texts. Sarao 1989 lists the number of converts to Buddhism by varṇa, and Bailey and Mabbett 2003 gives a survey of recent scholarship on social and occupational categories in early Buddhist literature. Yamazaki 2005 studies both Brahmins and kṣatriyas during this period and also gives a very comprehensive survey of the position of the vaiśya.

Bailey, Greg, and Mabbett, Ian. The Sociology of Early Buddhism. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
DOI: 10.1017/CBO9780511488283Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Chapters 2–6 deal with the nature of society, urbanism, the economy and state formation, and the position of the Brahmins in early Buddhist texts, all having implications for the description of social classes and interaction between the Buddha and Brahmins between 400 BCE and 100 CE.
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Chakravarti, Uma. The Social Dimensions of Early Buddhism. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1987.
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While focusing mainly on social data in the early Buddhist texts, she gives much information on society in general, especially social groupings pertaining to economic and political dimensions. Begins the process of using some statistical analysis to assess the importance of particular groups in a society becoming increasingly stratified.
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Sarao, Karam T. Origin and Nature of Ancient Indian Buddhism. New Delhi: Eastern Book Linkers, 1989.
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Studies in detail the class and occupational backgrounds of converts to Buddhism as found especially in the Vinaya. Covers some of the same ground as Chakravarti but is more comprehensive in its statistical coverage of the different social groups.
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Thapar, Romila. From Lineage to State: Social Formations in the Mid-First Millennium B. C. in the Ganga Valley. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1984.
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Chapter 3 deals with the period from 500 BCE to 100 CE and charts synthetically the development of large-scale societies associated with the political groupings called gaṇasaṅghas and janapadas located in the Ganges valley and Bihar. Focuses on the development of classes and landless laborers associated with large landholdings controlled by kin groups and gahapatis.
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Tsuchida, Ryūtarō. “Two Categories of Brahmins in the Early Buddhist Period.” Memoirs of the Toyo Bunko 49 (1971): 51–95.
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An excellent study of Brahmin ritualists and landowners in early Buddhist texts. Gives a comprehensive elaboration of their lifestyles and occupational statuses, rather than concentrating exclusively on their position as ritual specialists and vedic scholars.
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Wagle, Narendra K. Society at the Time of the Buddha. 2d rev. ed. Bombay: Popular Prakashan, 1995.
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Chapter 3 (pp. 47–82) is a thorough study of how the Buddha and different grades of monks are addressed through the titles that are used of them by different groups of people, including Brahmins and other groups. Especially valuable in demonstrating how particular titles are able to point out the exact nature of status differences.
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Yamazaki, Gen’ichi. The Structure of Ancient Indian Society: Theory and Reality of the Varṇa System. Toyo Bunko Research Library 6. Tokyo: Toyo Bunko, 2005.
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Parts 1 and 2 deal with the Brāhmaṇa and the kṣatriya varṇas, contrasting the normative view of the Hindu dharma literature with the more “realistic view” of Buddhist texts. Part 3 deals with vaiśyas and peasants mainly from Buddhist sources, arguing for the development of a large peasant class of land-holding farmers and urban traders, and shopkeepers.
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100 CE–300 CE

This period includes the culmination of the development by the Brahmins of a tight theoretical structuring of society based on the four-varṇa theory, as this is presented in the Dharmasūṭras and the two Sanskrit epics, especially the Mahābhārata. The general consensus of scholars is that the Mahābhārata in its narrative sections operates partly in terms of the vision of a tribal society, whereas its didactic books are attempting to create a vision of how a large-scale centralized state should be run. Above all, in most of its bulk, the Mahābhārata is normative, whether by creating situations where individuals act in an entirely inappropriate manner in relation to dharma, or where there are multiple statements in a homiletic style laying out dharmic behavior. Because its contents bear on the normative side, it is difficult to tease out from the material how society might have been on the ground, how people actually lived. In part this is because it is attempting to refine a document dictating how a society should operate from the Brahmins’ viewpoint. That is, it offers a vision for the future, one that perhaps enables us to glimpse a vision of what society (or societies) may have been during the early centuries (200 BCE–200 CE) of the composition and initial transmission of the Mahābhārata. Significantly, there occurs the development of the āśrama system as a theological structure for defining the progression of the life of an ideal Brahmin. The Buddhist Jātakas also provide much information for social life in these centuries and have been drawn upon in the studies listed. Fick 1972 gives a comprehensive study of society in Northeastern India based mainly on the Jātakas, whereas Ritschl 1980 collects information about Brahmin farmers found in texts of this period. Sharma 1983 collects economic and social data found mainly in the Mahābhārata, and Olivelle 1993 is the most comprehensive account of the theoretical āśrama system that defines the stages of life through which a Brahmin can potentially transit. Fitzgerald 2004 gives the sociopolitical and doctrinal background to the Mahābhārata, and Chakravarti 2006 is a collection of previously published essays based mainly on Buddhist sources dealing with this time period.

Chakravarti, Uma. Everyday Lives, Everyday Histories: Beyond the Kings and Brāhmaṇas of Ancient India. New Delhi: Rulika, 2006.
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A collection of previously published essays focusing much on Buddhist literature for developing a picture of early Indian society as it was depicted especially in the Jātakas, and takes seriously the activities of people at the lower levels of society who are often neglected in other studies.
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Fick, Richard. The Social Organization in North-East India in Buddha’s Time. Varanasi, India: Indological Book House, 1972.
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A pioneering early study of social class, occupations, and marginalized groups. Provides the foundation for many later studies that refine the conclusions of his work, which is mainly based on the Jātakas. Partly superseded by later developments in archeological research. Translation of Die Soziale Gliederung in Nordöstlichen Indien zu Buddhas Zeit (Kiel, Germany: Haeseler, 1897).
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Fitzgerald, James. The Mahābhārata. Vol. 7. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004.
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In his introduction to the translation of the Mahābhārata’s twelfth book, outlines some of its main themes, especially those pertaining to kingship, dharma, and the Brahmin’s vision of society. It is full of information about how society might have been conceptualized both normatively and disfunctionally.
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Olivelle, Patrick. The Āśrama System: The History and Hermeneutics of a Religious Institution. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
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An extremely comprehensive investigation of how Brahmins conceived of a model of society embodying the desired requirements of the socioreligious life. The āśrama system, as it is called, divides life for the Brahmin male into four stages, and this book examines the arguments about these stages in great detail and how it functions as a hermeneutical system.
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Ritschl, Eva. “Brahmanische Bauern: Zur Theorie und Praxis der brahmanischen Ständeordnung im alten Indien.” Altorientalische Forschungen 7 (1980): 177–187.
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One of the few articles detailing the social and economic basis of Brahmins beyond what the normative texts treat as primarily religious specialists. Uses as sources the Jātaka tales, the Mahābhārata, and the Laws of Manu. An important corrective to other studies that overemphasize the religious side of the Brahmin’s social role.
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Sharma, Ram S. Material Culture and Social Formations in Ancient India. New Delhi: Macmillan, 1983.
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Chapter 8 summarizes material in the Mahābhārata relating to economic and social changes, and explains how this might have been shaped by material causality. Somewhat dated, but still a very useful beginning point. Explores the tension between the kin-based tribal elements reflected in many parts of the Mahābhārata and those reflecting large-scale states.
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Themes

The subsections within this section all relate to specific, but central, aspects of society that occur in all of the historical periods and so transcend temporal boundaries, especially after 500 BCE. They constitute aspects of society that provide the possibility for defining the conditions under which social hierarchy occurs, and the beliefs and practices determining who lay at the center of society in terms of prestige and who lay at the margins. Finally, the question of gender is included here as it is one pivotal point around which certain social relations have always been practiced and theorized.

Caste or Class

While caste and lineage group have been dominant categories in Indian society since at least 500 BCE, the definition of caste and its origins are still very much disputed, in part because of the difficulty in defining the precise difference between varṇa (or “occupational class”) and jāti (a lineage group within a particular varṇa). Rau 1957 offers a very careful analysis of social categories in the Brāhmaṇas, whereas Dumont 1970 develops a general theory of caste and hierarchy based on classical literary sources and contemporary ethnography. Brinkhaus 1978 is a meticulous philological study of post-Buddhistic texts pertaining to the intermixture of castes (varṇa), whereas Smith 1994 provides an up-to-date treatment of varṇa classification from the Vedas onward. Chattopadhyaya 2009 gives a brief overview of previous work on the caste system and discusses how it became a successful means of creating social inclusion and exclusion within the one social system.

Brinkhaus, Horst. Die Altindische Mischkastensysteme. Alt-und-Neu-Indische Studien 19. Wiesbaden, Germany: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1978.
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A careful philological study of the development of mixed-caste groups in the centuries following the early development of Buddhism. Based on Hindu sources and presents an increasingly complex social situation that certainly existed in embryonic form in the Buddha’s time, and becomes more formally recognized in the Dharmasūtras and later śāstras and is implied in the Mahābhārata.
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Chattopadhyaya, Brajadulal D. “Introduction: One Blind Man’s View of an Elephant; Understanding Early Indian Social History.” In A Social History of Early India. Vol. 2, Part 5 of History of Science, Philosophy and Culture in Indian Civilization. Edited by Brajadulal D. Chattopadhyaya, XXXI–L. New Delhi: Pearson Longman, 2009.
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Offers an important corrective to much earlier work on this subject by focusing on the extent to which varṇa involves establishing a reference point to those outside of the defined varṇa system. Also ranges far and wide over many issues relating to ancient Indian societies, offering new insights developed elsewhere in the same volume.
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Dumont, Louis. Homo Hierarchicus: The Caste System and Its Implications. Translated by Mark Sainsbury. London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson, 1970.
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A classic work that analyzes caste as an ideological system, involving especially the opposition between king and Brahmin. It has spawned many other related studies and recently much criticism, but it is still fundamental for understanding the ideological structure lying behind caste, even where this is sometimes contradicted by ethnographic evidence.
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Rau, Wilhelm. Staat und Gesellschaft im Alten Indien: Nach Den Brāhmaṇa-Texten Dargestellt. Wiesbaden, Germany: Otto Harrassowitz, 1957.
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A somewhat dated, but still valuable treatment of pre-Buddhistic social forms, economic activity, and kingship. Part 3 deals with the social classes in considerable detail, presenting a situation where varṇa is known but not caste as it is later understood.
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Smith, Brian K. Classifying the Universe: The Ancient Indian Varṇa System and the Origins of Caste. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.
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Using copious sources from Vedic literature of all periods, Smith discusses (chapter 2, pp. 26–57) the evidence pertaining to the mode in which social classes are classified. In chapter 3, pp. 55–85, he discusses the origins of the varṇas and how these overlap with, and possibly derive from, other classificatory systems. More theoretically inclined than Rau.
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Marginalized Groups

Thematically this relates to the section Caste or Class insofar as the existence of many of the known marginalized groups makes sense only in relation to the development of the varṇa system, which, in conjunction with other social forces, itself developed into the caste system. There is a considerable scholarship on those groups that exist below the śūdra, the fourth of the classical varṇas. Included here is a whole panoply of names—niṣāda, caṇḍāla, dāsa, karmakāra—some of whom are mentioned in Vedic literature, and others becoming more prominent in Buddhist literature while also being mentioned in Hindu texts. Whether these groups were regarded as ritually impure, whether they were ethnically different, whether they performed what were considered low-status occupations, or whether they were considered as forest dwellers—all these factors are taken into consideration in explaining the development of the so-called outcaste groups. Sharma 1958 is a classic study of the śūdra class and, using a huge range of sources, argues that they were mainly landless laborers working in agriculture. Parasher-Sen 2004b provides an excellent survey of the historiography of the relation between the varṇas and the excluded classes, and how the varṇa system successfully gave some kind of coherence to the social diversity of ancient India. Parasher-Sen 2004a explains how the varṇa system functioned both to include and exclude groups marginalized at different periods of history. Part 4 of Yamazaki 2005 deals with śūdras and caṇḍālas, contrasting the orthodox position given in Hindu literature with the “actual” situation given in Pali texts, especially the Jātakas. Chakravarti 2006 attempts to bring further precision to the understanding of slaves/servant (dāsas) who operated within the varṇa system and those who were consciously excluded from it.

Chakravarti, Uma. “Of Dasas and Karmakaras: Servile Labour in Ancient India.” In Everyday Lives, Everyday Histories: Beyond the Kings and Brahmanas of “Ancient” India. Edited by Uma Chakravarti, 70–100. New Delhi: Rulika, 2006.
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An important article of synthesis analyzing the definition and status of dispossessed laborers (dāsa) and “slaves” from the Ṛg Veda down to the Arthaśāstra. Notes the development of a class of landless laborers who must be distinguished from bonded slaves, and has a section on women dasīs.
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Parasher-Sen, Aloka. “‘Foreigner’ and ‘Tribe’ as Barbarian (Mleccha) in Early North India.” In Subordinate and Marginal Groups in Early India. Edited by Aloka Parasher-Sen, 275–313. Oxford in India Readings. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2004a.
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Attempts to work out “whether there were levels of sociocultural interaction and/or exclusion that did not necessarily result from the issues of domination. . .” (p. 278). Points out how processes of exclusion could eventually lead to interaction and then acceptance, even if this was outside of the normative system.
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Parasher-Sen, Aloka. “Introduction.” In Subordinate and Marginal Groups in Early India. Edited by Aloka Parasher-Sen, 1–80. Oxford in India Readings. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2004b.
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In dealing with marginal groups outside of the varṇa system, she argues cogently that Hindu society can never be seen in a monolithic sense. Rather it always involved a set of discursive maneuvers where different dominant and subordinate groups interact with each other.
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Sharma, Ram S. Śūdras in Ancient India: A Survey of the Position of the Lower Orders Down to Circa A. D. 500. New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1958.
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Comprehensive study of the origin of the śūdra varṇa, followed by a survey of the functions and roles of the śūdra after 500 BCE, including the strengthening of class differences during the Mauryan period. Also studies the interaction between vaiśyas and śūdras, and the relations between śūdras and some marginalized groups.
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Yamazaki, Gen’ichi. The Structure of Ancient Indian Society: Theory and Reality of the Varṇa System. Toyo Bunko Research Library 6. Tokyo: Toyo Bunko, 2005.
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Part 4 deals with śūdras and caṇḍālas and follows the same pattern as previous chapters, contrasting the orthodox Hindu literature with Pali texts. Chapter 10 is exclusively devoted to caṇḍālas and contains some very extensive charts (pp. 215–218) listing the kinds of mixed caste/untouchable groups resulting from intercaste marriage as found in the early Hindu lawbooks.
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Gender

It is necessary to have a section on gender, one which includes women’s roles both normative and actual, as gender relations are so central both in Buddhist and Hindu texts and the image of the woman is also fundamental in defining men’s roles. Possehl 2002 summarizes evidence pertaining to gender roles on the basis of the large number of female figurines found at Harappan sites. Sutherland 1989 studies the role of two prominent heroines, Draupadī and Sītā, in Sanskrit epic literature focusing on the choices available to them within the framework of marriage. Roy 1994 studies marriage rites in the Gṛhyasūtras and contrasts these with the description of the marriages of Draupadī and Sītā, while Chakravarti 2006 looks at the family, idealized in both epics, as a no-conflict zone. Jamison 1996 is a study of the role of women in the sacrifice and of marriage as it is depicted in the lawbooks and the Mahābhārata. Jamison 2006 studies the changing perception of women across a body of normative literature from 300 BCE to 200 CE. Finally, Roy 2009 provides a critical account of the manner in which women have been studied by earlier historians, and makes a plea to move away from the paradigm that sees the status of women as experiencing a process of continual decline since the Ṛg Veda.

Chakravarti, Uma. “Exploring a ‘No-Conflict’ Zone: Interest, Emotion and the Family in Early India.” In Everyday Lives, Everyday Histories: Beyond the Kings and Brahmanas of “Ancient” India. Edited by Uma Chakravarti, 253–274. New Delhi: Rulika, 2006.
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Studies the portrayal of power relations within the family in the two epics, utilizing the themes of “emotion” and “interest.” Contrasts the normative order of the family as a “no-conflict zone” with the larger lineage-based conflicts involving royal succession. Also makes a useful comparison with the distribution of material goods within a family in the Buddhist Vinaya.
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Jamison, Stephanie W. Sacrificed Wife/Sacrificer’s Wife, Women, Ritual and Hospitality in Ancient India. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
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Superb study of the wife’s role in relation to sacrificial performance and the ritualized treatment of guests in Vedic and post-Vedic literature. The introduction contains important methodological suggestions, and the fifth section (pp. 207–250) is a very detailed study of the eight types of marriage and their portrayal in the Mahābhārata and the Laws of Manu.
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Jamison, Stephanie W. “Women ‘Between the Empires’ and ‘Between the Lines.’” In Between the Empires: Society in India 300 BCE to 400 CE. Edited by Patrick Olivelle, 191–214. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195305326.003.0008Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Focuses on the changing perception of women reflected in the earliest Dharmasūtras (3rd century BCE) and extending to those composed up until the 2nd century CE. Notes the shift in the texts from a normative approval of women having social/familial agency to the idea of the “unmarried religious women”—a widow or an ascetic—as being a threat to men’s power.
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Possehl, Gregory L. The Indus Civilization: A Contemporary Perspective. Walnut Creek, CA: Altamira, 2002.
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Chapter 10 (pp. 177–183) provides many examples of female and some male figurines found in Harappan sites. Suggests some valid limits as to how these should be interpreted and argues that many of the images, apparently signifying fertility, could be seen in the same way as Barbie dolls in contemporary America.
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Roy, Kumkum. “Marriage as Communication: An Exploration of Norms and Narratives in Early India.” Studies in History 10.2 (1994): 183–198.
DOI: 10.1177/025764309401000202Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
Compares marriage rituals in the Gṛhyasūtras with the marriages of Ḍraupadī and Sītā described in the two Sanskrit epics. Points out how the communicative functions of the marriage in both sets of texts emphasizes different groups, whether mainly kin or varṇa groups, indicating the existence of a much wider set of marriage rituals than those codified in the normative texts. Reprinted in Kumkum Roy, The Power of Gender and the Gender of Power: Explorations in Early Indian History (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2010), pp. 223–240.
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Roy, Kumkum. “Gender Relations during the First Millennium: An Overview.” In A Social History of Early India. Vol. 2, Part 5 of History of Science, Philosophy and Culture in Indian Civilization. Edited by Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya, 213–231. New Delhi: Pearson Longman, 2009.
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An introduction to the problems of dealing with the status of women in the post-Buddhistic period of early India. Argues against the view that their status was one of steady decline and pleads for a more comprehensive view of gender relations, including women’s role in the family, their economic role, gender definition, and position as political elites.
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Sutherland, Sally. “Sītā and Draupadī: Aggressive Behavior and Female Role-Models in the Sanskrit Epics.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 109 (1989): 63–79.
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Studies how Draupadī and Sītā are treated by their husbands and how they respond to this treatment, especially when they are placed in very dangerous conditions. Though dealing with royalty, both cases do demonstrate the limited choices available to women in dealing with their husbands and wider kin groups.