Guptas Society: Caste system, Position of Women

Guptas’ Society: Caste System and the Position of Women

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• Information on social life during the Gupta period can be drawn from a variety of sources — accounts such as Faxian’s, coins and seals, and other contemporary literature.
  • The structure of society was undergoing change during this period, in both positive and negative ways.
• Most legal texts of the period took the Dharmashastra of Manu as their base, elaborating upon it — notable works of this kind include those of Yajnavalkya, Narada, Brihaspati, and Katyayana.

Varna System

• Society was divided into four varnas — Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya, and Shudra — each performing its prescribed set of functions and enjoying whatever rights were assigned to it.
  • This was regarded as the ideal social order, which the state was expected to preserve — meaning that even a small state emerging in some corner of the country was expected to recognise this order as ideal.
• The supremacy of the Brahmanas was steadily increasing.
  • The Guptas, originally Vaishyas, came to be looked upon as Kshatriyas by the Brahmanas, who represented the Gupta kings as possessing the attributes of gods — legitimising the position of the Gupta princes, who in turn became great supporters of the Brahmanical order.
  • The Guptas received large-scale land grants, not only from rulers and officials but from others as well, with land given along with administrative rights and tax exemptions — creating, in effect, a new class of Brahmana landlords.
    • Land grants went not only to individual Brahmanas but sometimes incited entire groups of Brahmanas to settle in remote areas, leading to a growing number of Brahmana settlements, variously called Brahmadeyas and Agraharas, which helped spread the idea of a varna-divided social order.
• The Brahmanas came to be recognised as the purest, and therefore the highest, varna.
  • Their association with Sanskritic learning and priestly functions connected them closely with royal power; even rulers who supported Buddhism, Jainism, or other sects continued to patronise learned Brahmanas — a major reason for the Brahmanas’ continued economic prosperity and prestige.
• However, the varna order was not, in practice, an ideal order:
  • Various groups fell outside the fourfold scheme entirely, their varna identity never determined — these were the antyajas, or untouchables.
    • They were considered impure, their very touch deemed polluting, and their physical presence was disallowed in areas frequented by higher varnas.
    • The Chandalas, Charmakaras, and similar groups were treated as impure outcastes; the number of untouchables, especially Chandalas, grew enormously, and they lived outside villages, engaged in unclean occupations such as scavenging or butchery.
    • Thus, within the Brahmanical social order, the condition of several social groups remained miserable throughout.
  • It was also assumed that each varna would perform its prescribed duties, though in reality this may not always have held true — suggesting that real society diverged from the ideal, a fact recognised even by the Brahmana authors of the Dharmasastras.
    • These writers attempted to explain the status of various castes (jatis) through fictitious accounts of their origin, suggesting that many jatis arose through varna-samkara, or inter-marriage between varnas.
    • The Dharmasastras also speak of apadharma — conduct to be followed in times of distress — meaning that varnas could take up professions not originally assigned to them when necessity demanded, further reflecting the gap between the ideal and real social order.
• The position of women of the higher varnas was low.
  • Though figures like the Vakataka queen Prabhavatigupta wielded considerable power, not all women were so privileged.
  • Brahmanical texts prescribed norms expecting women, within the family, to function chiefly as an ideal wife and mother; many Brahmana texts even placed women in the same category as Shudras for various reasons.
  • While Brahmanas regularly received land grants, there is no evidence of land being granted to Brahmana women.
• The position of Shudras improved somewhat in this period.
  • They were now permitted to listen to the Ramayana, Mahabharata, and Puranas, and to worship the new god Krishna.
  • They were also allowed to perform certain domestic rites — bringing fees to priests — reflecting a change in their economic status.
• The varna system did not always function smoothly.
  • The Shanti Parva of the Mahabharata, likely datable to the Gupta period, contains at least nine verses stressing the need for cooperation between Brahmanas and Kshatriyas, possibly indicating concerted opposition from Vaishyas and Shudras.
  • The Anushashana Parva of the Mahabharata, meanwhile, portrays the Shudra as a “destroyer of the king.”

Caste Proliferation

• Castes proliferated into numerous sub-castes owing to several factors:
  • A large number of foreigners were assimilated into Indian society, each such group coming to be regarded as a kind of Hindu caste.
    • Since these foreigners typically arrived as conquerors, they were granted Kshatriya status. The Hunas, who appeared in India towards the close of the 5th century, eventually came to be recognised as one of the thirty-six clans of the Rajputs — even today, some Rajputs bear the title “Huna.”
    • They were given a semi-Kshatriya status (vratya Kshatriya), since they could not be considered of pure Kshatriya origin.
  • The absorption of tribal peoples into Brahmanical society through land grants was another major factor.
    • Ruling chiefs of these tribes were typically ascribed a respectable origin, while most of the rest of the tribal population was assigned a low origin — with every tribe effectively becoming a kind of caste within Hindu society.
  • Various jatis also originated through varna-samkara, or inter-marriage between varnas.
  • It has been suggested that transfers of land or land revenue gave rise to a new caste, the kayasthas (scribes), who came to challenge the Brahmanas’ earlier monopoly over scribal work.

Untouchability

• The practice of untouchability grew more intense than in earlier periods.
  • The Chandalas appear in society as early as the 5th century BCE; penance was prescribed to remove the sin of touching one.
  • By the 5th century CE, their numbers had grown so large, and their disabilities so pronounced, that they drew the attention of Fa-Hien.
    • He recorded that the Chandalas lived outside villages and worked in meat and flesh-related trades, and that whenever they entered towns or marketplaces, they would strike a piece of wood to announce their arrival — so others could avoid touching them and becoming polluted.
• In South India, the notion of untouchability appears to have emerged in the late Sangam period.
  • A work called the Acharakkovai describes water touched by a pulaiya as defiled and unfit for consumption by higher castes, stating that even glancing at a pulaiya was polluting.
  • The Tamil epics likewise allude to this practice — in the Manimekalai, Brahmanas are warned not to touch Aputtiran, son of a Brahmana woman and a Shudra man, lest they be polluted.

A Note on Faxian’s Account

• The primary aim of pilgrims such as Faxian was to allow devout Buddhists in China the chance to visualise places and events connected with the Buddha’s life — as such, his references to the mundane details of Indian life are few and cursory.
  • He presents an idyllic, idealised picture of Indian society in the 5th century, describing a happy and contented people enjoying peace and prosperity.
  • Households were not required to register or appear before magistrates; farmers working royal land were required to give a portion of their produce to the king.
  • The joint family system, an essential feature of Hindu caste society, was already prevalent at this time.

The Position of Women

• While inscriptions offer glimpses of royal and elite households, Kamasutra and Dharmashastra texts — such as the Narada, Brihaspati, and Katyayana Smritis — shed light on household and gender relations at a more general level.
• The position of women improved in certain respects:

Royal Women on Coins and Seals

• Queens are depicted on the “king and queen” type of coins, such as those showing Chandragupta I and his wife Kumaradevi.
  • Queens also appear on the reverse of certain coins — a queen seated on a couch, holding a flower in her right hand, appears on coins of Kumaragupta I and Chandragupta II.
  • A standing female figure holding a fly-whisk appears on the reverse of the Ashvamedha-type coins of Samudragupta and Kumaragupta I — since the queen was expected to fan and bathe the horse during the Ashvamedha sacrifice, this figure may represent a queen.

Matrimonial Alliances

• Matrimonial alliances formed an important part of the politics of the age, evident from the mention of queens in Gupta inscriptions such as the Allahabad Prashasti of Samudragupta and the Bhitari pillar inscription of Skandagupta.
  • Vakataka inscriptions reveal the exercise of political power by queen Prabhavatigupta across the reigns of three consecutive Vakataka rulers.

Gift-Giving by Women

• Some royal women took the initiative in gift-giving — Prabhavatigupta made grants in her own right.
  • The Masoda plates of Pravarasena II record a grant made at the request of an unnamed chief queen.
  • An inscription on the walls of the Kevala-Narasimha temple in Ramtek (Nagpur district) records the construction of this temple — named Prabhavatisvamin — in memory of the deceased queen Prabhavatigupta, by her daughter.
• Like Shudras, women were also permitted to listen to the Ramayana, Mahabharata, and Puranas, and advised to worship Krishna; they could also take part in rituals alongside their husbands.

Stri-dhana

• Law books reflect an expanding scope for stri-dhana (women’s property). The Katyayana Smriti lists its various types:
  • Adhyagni stri-dhana — given to a woman at marriage, before the nuptial fire.
  • Adhyavahanika stri-dhana — obtained while being taken in procession from her father’s house to the groom’s house.
  • Pritidatta stri-dhana — given out of affection by her father-in-law or mother-in-law, or received while performing obeisance at the feet of elders.
  • Shulka (bride’s fee) — obtained as the price of household vessels, beasts of burden, milch cows, ornaments, and slaves.
  • Anvadheya (subsequent gift) — received after marriage from her husband’s family or her father’s kinsmen.
  • Saudayika — received by a married woman from her husband’s or father’s house, or by an unmarried girl from her parents or brothers.

Women’s Education

• Vatsyayana refers to princesses and other elite women learned in the shastras, listing 64 branches of knowledge that women should learn, including:
  • Solving riddles
  • Reciting from books
  • Completing poetic verses
  • Knowledge of poetic metres and lexicons
• Sanskrit drama suggests that women associated with the royal court may have been well versed in reading, writing, instrumental music, singing, dance, and poetry.
  • The free representation of women in art suggests the absence of a purdah system in society.
• Despite these improvements, the overall status of women continued to decline during the Gupta period.
  • The main cause of women’s subordination was their complete dependence on men for their livelihood.
  • Women were denied any right to property except stridhana — jewellery, garments, and similar gifts given at marriage.
    • Women of higher orders lacked access to independent livelihoods in both pre-Gupta and Gupta times, while women of the two lower varnas, free to earn a living, enjoyed comparatively greater freedom.
  • Except for elite women, most women were not entitled to formal education.

Marriage

• Dharmashastra literature of this period reflects a tendency toward lowering the marriageable age of girls, with some texts recommending marriage before puberty.
  • The Kamasutra of Vatsyayana appears to support this idea in one instance, though its general discussion of courtship and conjugal life presupposes a mature bride and groom.
  • The Kamasutra states that progeny, fame, and social approval come to a man who marries a virgin of his own varna according to religious rites; it forbids sexual relations with women of higher varnas or with married women.
    • However, it raises no objection to relations pursued purely for pleasure with women of certain lower varnas, placing these on par with relations with prostitutes and remarried widows.
• Vatsyayana discusses marriages arranged by parents or guardians, corresponding to the types described in the shastras as Brahma, Prajapatya, Arsha, or Daiva.
  • He also refers to girls choosing their own grooms, and marriages based on mutual love — a practice reflected in the dramas of the age, particularly within elite groups.

Polygyny

• The polygynous alliances of kings are well documented, and the Kamasutra suggests polygyny was also prevalent among sections of the non-royal elite.
  • As members of higher varnas acquired more land, they grew more polygamous and property-minded — in this patriarchal setting, women increasingly came to be treated as items of property.

Duties of a Wife

Kamasutra

• According to the Kamasutra, a good wife serves her husband diligently, keeps the house clean and well-decorated, and efficiently manages servants and household finances.
  • She is dutiful and submissive — attending social occasions only with her husband’s permission, entertaining his friends, and serving and obeying her in-laws.
  • She tends different plants and trees in the garden, and possesses knowledge of agriculture, cattle-rearing, spinning, and weaving, along with the care of her husband’s pets.
  • If she has a co-wife, she is expected to treat her as a sister or mother, depending on relative age.

Katyayana Smriti

• The Katyayana Smriti states that a wife must always live with her husband, remain devoted to him, and tend the domestic fire.
  • She must attend on her husband while he lives, and remain chaste after his death.

Courtesans and Prostitutes

• The Kamasutra and Sanskrit kavya literature refer to courtesans known as ganikas.
  • In some works, the heroine of a drama is herself a ganika — the most celebrated being Vasantasena in the Mrichchhakatikam.
• Texts display an ambivalent attitude toward the ganika: admired and celebrated for her beauty, wit, and accomplishments, yet — since her sexual favours could be purchased by anyone for money — she could never attain full social respectability.
  • There are also textual references to the ordinary prostitute, whose life lacked the glamour and wealth associated with the ganika.

Adultery

• The Kamasutra treats sexual relations between men and married women in a pragmatic, matter-of-fact manner.
  • Dharmashastra texts, however, classified adultery by women as an upapataka (lesser sin), for which penances were prescribed — though some texts held penance unnecessary, holding that an adulterous woman regained her purity after her menstrual period.
• The Narada Smriti prescribes that a woman found guilty of adultery should have her head shaved, lie on a low bed, be given poor food and clothing, and devote herself to sweeping her husband’s house.
  • A great deal depended on the social status of those involved — if a woman committed adultery with a Shudra or low-caste man, the Smritis suggest her husband abandon her outright.
  • A virtuous wife, by contrast, was to be cherished — the Narada Smriti states that a man deserting such a wife was liable to pay one-third of his estate, or a fine.

Widowhood

Sati

• The patriarchal treatment of women as items of property extended so far that a woman was expected to follow her husband into the next world.
  • The first recorded instance of a widow’s immolation after her husband’s death appears in Gupta times, in an inscription dated 510 CE at Eran, Madhya Pradesh.
  • The Brihaspati Smriti likewise recommends that she burn herself on her husband’s funeral pyre.

Widow Remarriage

• Most Dharmashastra texts advocate that a widow lead a celibate and austere life, and widow remarriage was generally viewed with disfavour.
  • However, some post-Gupta law books permitted remarriage if the husband was dead, incapacitated, impotent, had become a renouncer, or had been excommunicated.
  • That remarriage did, in fact, occur is suggested by the Amarakosha, which provides synonyms for a punarbhu (remarried widow), her husband, and for a dvija whose principal wife is a punarbhu.
• Katyayana discusses the inheritance rights of a remarried widow’s son, as well as the property rights of a son born to a woman who had left her impotent husband — he also mentions widows who took lovers.

Labour and Slavery

Forms of Labour

• Contemporary texts mention hired labour used in farming, watching fields, harvesting, tending cattle, craft production, and household work.

Payment of Wages

• The Brihaspati and Narada Smritis lay down rates and rules for the payment of wages, in either cash or kind — payment in kind could take the form of a share of the produce, such as grain, milk, or livestock.
  • The Narada Smriti states that an employer must pay wages at a fixed time, as agreed — at the beginning, middle, or end of the work; if no wage had been fixed in advance, the worker was entitled to one-tenth of the profit.
  • The Brihaspati Smriti states that a farmer’s servant was entitled to one-fifth of the crop, along with food and clothing, or to one-third of the crop alone.
  • These, of course, remain prescriptions, not descriptions of actual prevailing practice.

Forced Labour (Vishti) and Slavery

• Forced labour (vishti) became more common than before during this period.
  • Its mention alongside taxes in land-grant inscriptions suggests it was treated as a source of state income — effectively a tax paid in labour.
  • Most inscriptions referring to vishti come from the Madhya Pradesh and Kathiawar regions, suggesting the practice was more prevalent there.
• References to slaves appear in contemporary Dharmashastras (law books).
  • Narada mentions fifteen types of slaves — a more elaborate enumeration than that found in the Arthashastra and Manu Smriti, though essentially consisting of further sub-divisions of already known categories, including:
    • Prisoners of war
    • Debt bondsmen
    • Those voluntarily enslaved
    • Those born of a slave woman

Slave as Property

• Slaves could be passed down to descendants along with other items of property, and were generally described as domestic servants or personal attendants.
  • A child born to a slave woman in her master’s household was likewise considered his slave.
  • The Narada Smriti states that a slave could be pledged or mortgaged, and that a master could hire out a slave’s services to another.
  • The Narada Smriti also prescribes amputation of the foot for anyone found guilty of abducting a slave woman.

Manumission of Slaves

• The Narada Smriti discusses the manumission of slaves — whether born in the household, purchased, obtained, or inherited — noting that a slave could be freed only at the master’s discretion.
  • The ceremony of manumission involved the master removing a jar of water from the slave’s shoulder and breaking it, then sprinkling parched grain and flowers over the slave’s head, saying three times: “You are no longer a dasa.”

Other Aspects of Social Life

• A further feature of social life was the stark difference between the ways of life of wealthy city-dwellers and those living in villages.
  • Prosperous town-dwellers appear to have lived in comfort and ease — the ideal city-dweller was the nagaraka, an urbanite who, owing to his affluence, led a life of pleasure and refined culture.
  • The Kamasutra of Vatsyayana describes the life of a well-to-do citizen as one devoted to life’s pleasures and refinements — though it would be wrong to assume that all city residents could afford such a lifestyle.
• Gambling, animal fights, athletics, and gymnastics formed an important part of sporting life, with public participation in various amusements central to religious and secular festivals alike.
  • Dance performances and music concerts were held mainly in the homes of the wealthy and cultured.
• Chess is said to have originated in this period — its early 6th-century form, known as chaturanga (“four divisions of the military”), represented infantry, cavalry, elephants, and chariotry through pieces that would evolve into the modern pawn, knight, rook, and bishop.
• Contrary to Fa-Hien’s claim that vegetarianism was customary in India, meat was commonly eaten, and the drinking of wine and chewing of betel-leaf were regular practices.
  • The joint family system, an essential feature of Hindu caste society, was well established during this period.
• Thus, Gupta society witnessed various changes, though these cannot be said to represent substantial progress.
  • Developments such as the strengthening of the varna and caste system, the worsening condition of untouchables, a widening divide between rich and poor, and the declining position of women raise serious questions about the popular view of the Gupta period as a “Golden Age.”