Question

Describe the familial relationship observed during the Mahabharat era.

Answer 1

1. Families are usually parts of larger networks of people defined as relatives/kinfolk.
2. People belonging to the same family share food, resources, work, and live together and perform rituals together.
3. Familial ties were often regarded as “natural” and based on blood.
4. Rules about patriliny - The Mahabharata shows patriliny. It describes a feud over land and power between the Kauravas and the Pandavas.
5. Most ruling dynasties followed patrilineal with little variations.
6. In very exceptional circumstances, women such as Prabhavati Gupta exercised power.
7. Rules of marriage - There were two systems of marriage Endogamy and Exogamy.
8. Marriages - Girls were married at the “right” time and to the “right” person.
9. Kanyadana or the gift of a daughter in marriage was an important religious duty of the father.
10. There are three types of marriage Monogamy, Polygamy, or Polyandry.
11. Marriage norms were compiled in Dharmasutras, Dharmashastras, and Manusmriti.
12. These texts recognized as many as eight forms of marriage.
13. The Gotra rules for women Each gotra was named after a Vedic seer, and all those who belonged to the same gotra were regarded as his descendants.
14. Two rules about gotra were particularly important:
    a) women were expected to give up their father’s gotra and adopt that of their husband on marriage and
    b) members of the same gotra could not marry.
15. Some of the Satavahana rulers were polygynous.
16. Importance to mothers.