Social, Political and Judicial Ideas, Institutions and Practices: History of Ancient India (Vol-6)

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The human society offers a vast field of study in any context, and for this volume of essays devoted to the study of ancient Indian society we have selected only a few of its aspects. The first essay is an introduction to the modern anthropological studies on caste whereas the second one is a detailed study of how the ancients perceived the caste differences through time and how the complexity of the system was matched even in the ancient context by some of the complexities that one observes today on the ground. The third essay is basically about the rural and urban contexts in which the caste system operated. It offers a generalized picture of the rural and urban societies of ancient India, giving a spatial and social backdrop to the tangible manifestation of the caste system. The position of women in ancient Indian society is then discussed by two scholars, one examining mainly the sources on which our ideas are based, and the second offering the theoretical historical frameworks within which the problem has been generally perceived. The sixth essay outlines the basic shapes of ancient Indian education, state and government, and law. What emerges very clearly is both the logic and stability of the ancient Indian social system with its roots in the concept of Dharma which manifests itself in detail in the Dharmas of the various Varnas and Jatis which have honeycombed this society through the ages.

Dilip K. Chakrabarti is Emeritus Professor of South Asian Archaeology of Cambridge University and Editor, History of Ancient India series, VIF. His recent publications include The Borderlands and Boundaries of the Indian Subcontinent: Baluchistan to the Patkai Range and Arakan Yoma (Delhi 2018: Aryan Books).

India is presently undergoing a multidimensional renaissance. Tremendous political, social, economic and demographic changes are underway. In the last few years, there has been a great deal of interest the world over in rising India. People are curious what India's rise means to the world. More important, people want to understand what fresh ideas India brings to the high table. It is therefore essential that Indian scholars should explain India to the world. One way to do so effectively is to understand what true India is like. There is no proper appreciation of India's history and culture even among Indians, let alone the foreigners. I would like to quote from the foreword written by Shri Ajit Doval to the earlier volumes of this series: "One can never understand a society, civilization or a nation unless its past is understood and interpreted correctly. Both by design and default, India's past has been mutated, events arbitrarily selected disproportionate to their real historic import and interpreted to substantiate a preconceived hypotheses. When myth masquerades as reality, then reality becomes the casualty".

The human society offers a vast field of study in any context, and for this volume of essays devoted to the study of ancient Indian society we have selected only a few of its aspects. The first essay is an introduction to the modern anthropological studies on caste whereas the second one is a detailed study of how the ancients perceived the caste differences through time and how the complexity of the system was matched even in the ancient context by some of the complexities that one observes today on the ground. The third essay is basically about the rural and urban contexts in which the caste system operated. It offers a generalized picture of the rural and urban societies of ancient India, giving a spatial and social backdrop to the tangible manifestation of the caste system. The position of women in ancient Indian society is then discussed by two scholars, one examining mainly the sources on which our ideas are based, and the second offering the theoretical historical frameworks within which the problem has been generally perceived. The sixth essay outlines the basic shapes of ancient Indian education, state and government, and law. What emerges very clearly is both the logic and stability of the ancient Indian social system with its roots in the concept of Dharma which manifests itself in detail in the Dharmas of the various Varnas and Jatis which have honeycombed this society through the ages. It is perhaps with a lot of justification that the Anthropological Survey of India under Suresh Singh used the term Samudaya to denote various ethnic groups living within the territorial limits of modern India.