The Power of Gender and the Gender of Power

Description

This volume examines the ways in which relations of power were conceptualized in early India and shows how gender was envisaged in this conceptualization. Arranged chronologically, the essays are grouped into two sections. The first focuses on a gendered analysis of institutions and processes, ranging from the household to urbanism and renunciatory traditions-areas which are critical for an understanding of early Indian history. The second section highlights strategies of textual analysis. It shows how most socio-religious texts are gendered in overt and covert ways. Produced by and for elite consumption, they were structured by prevailing notions and conceptions of power.
Concentrating on the post-Vedic phase, the essays in this collection are richly grounded in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and Pali sources, including texts and inscriptions. This collection will be of especial interest to scholars and students of early Indian history and gender studies.

About the author

Table of contents

SECTION I: TOWARDS HISTORIES OF GENDER RELATIONS
1.: Of Theras and Theris: Visions of Liberation in the Early Buddhist Tradition
2.: Women and Men Donors at Sanchi: A Study of the Inscriptional Evidence
3.: The Other Ksetra-Some Aspects of Procreation and Peasantization in North India (c. 2nd Century BC to c. 2nd Century AD)
4.: Defining the Household: Some Aspects of Prescription and Practice in Early India
5.: Engendering the Urban World: An Investigation of Early Indian Textual Traditions
6.: Re-Presenting the Courtesenal Tradition: An Exploitation of Early Historical Texts
7.: : Representation of Gender Relations in Early India: Exploring the Plays of K?lid?sa;
8.: Turbulent Waves: Constructions of Gender Relations in the Rajatarangini of Kalhana; Chapter
10.: Gender Relations During the First Millennium: An Overview;
SECTION II: INTERROGATING TEXTUAL TRADITIONS
11.: Marriage as Communication: An Exploration of Norms and Narratives in Early India; Chapter
13.: Invoking Authority: Investigating the Sastras;
14.: Searching for Humanity: The Case of the Manusmrti;
15.: The King's Household: Structure/Space in the Sastric tradition;
16.: Spatial Expressions of Socio-Political Relations: an Investigation of the Palace and Stupa in Early Historical India;
17.: Justice in the Jatakas;
18.: :Domesticating the King: The Royal Household in Early North India;
19.: Unravelling the Kamasutra;
20.: The Making of a Mandala: Fuzzy Frontiers of Kalhana's Kashmir;
21.: The Artful Biographer-Sandhyakaranandins' Ramacaritam; Index.