RELG365-Lecture#2

RELG365-Lecture#2

1. Dharmasastra

   • Gautama Dharmasutra
   • Laws of Manu/Manava Dharmasastra
     • most influential Dharmasastra written
       • 100 BCE- 200 CE
     • manu= wise one
       • mythological ancestor of humanity
     • discusses social responsibilities of various castes and individuals at different stages of life
       • Chp. 5
         • idea of the ideal woman
         • a woman should serve her husband like a god
         • self-restrained, chaste, long-suffering
       • Chp.8
         • rules of punishment
         • approves upper male access to lower class women (not other way round)
         • extreme punishment reserved for unfaithful men
       • Chp.9
         • guarding & protecting women
         • a woman is not fit for independence
         • father, husband, son
   • body of text
     • sastras & sutras
       • sastras
         • 200 BCE- 200 CE
         • lit. def: long & elaborate texts
       • sutras
         • refers to an aphorism
           • def: an observation that confirms a general truth
           • earliest texts
             • 1200 BCE
     • 4 major Dharmasutras
       • Gautama
         • 3rd cent. BCE
         • an ancient seer
         • emphasis on maintaining hierarchy
         • major themes
           • marriage
             • stresses heteronormativity
             • patrilineal hierarchy
             • ability to produce male heirs
             • varna-endogamy
             • 2 types of marriage
               • anuloma
                 • with the grain/ natural marriage
                 • 1. husband older than wife
                 • comes from equal or higher caste background
                 • husband & wife from same varna
               • pratiloma
                 • against the grain
                   • abhorrent marriage
                 • caste of wife is higher than husband
                 • children of these marriages are without caste
           • Expiration
             • acts preferred to rid oneself of the sin accrued by performing an unethical act
             • early concerns over ritual purity/pollution, auspiciousness/ inauspiciousness
             • ritual bathing, important form of expiation
       • Apastamba
       • Baudhayana
       • Vasistha
   • both texts encode a brahmanical, patriarchal worldview
     • idealized texts, don't correspond w/ reality

2. Key Terms

   • Dharama
     • to uphold, sustain maintain
     • main meaning
       • order
         • social
           • social and cosmic order are linked
             • human laws mirror order expressed in cosmos and nature
         • cosmic
     • privileges of individuals
       • cast
       • stage of life
       • gender
       • savadharma
         • self-dharma
   • cast
     • literal meaning: color
     • groups based on hereditary or occupation
     • sanskrit: varna
       • 4 varnas
         • arranged in hierarchical sequence
         • priests, teachers
         • nobels kings
         • servants, labourers
         • farmers, merchants
         • some outside varna order
     • within varnas = various subcategories
       • jatis
         • birthing groups
     • Dumon
       • french anthropologist
       • caste as a religious idea based on a scale of purity/ impurity
       • biological/ organic substances considered to be pure/ impure
     • Caste Misconceptions
       • 1. caste determines occupation
         • thousand of birth groups
           • only 18 recognized service groups
             • most work today is not tied to caste
       • 2. caste is rigid and consumes all aspects of life
         • caste distinctions are fluid and flexible
         • caste discrimination is illegal
       • 3. caste rankings are fixed and unchangeable
         • caste is a "work in process"
           • you can change rank and reputation
       • 4. Caste is Hindu
         • also related to other religions
   • Brahmanic
     • ideas enforced by a large canon of sanskrit texts
     • ideas perpetuated in an orthodox context
       • values caste hierarchy
         • varnadharma
     • ideology
       • for upper-caste males
       • textual canon meant for men
     • "Brahmanic Patriarchy
       • 1990s
       • Uma Chakravarti
       • how hindu elites construct social discussions based on gender and casted based hierarchies

3. Pure/ Impure

   • 1500 BCE
     • connection to the Rg Veda
   • cosmic being pursue sacrifices himself
     • castes emerge from his body parts
       • face
         • Brahmins
       • arms
         • Ksatriya
       • thighs
         • vaisya
       • feet
         • sudra
   • sharing physical substances

4. The Sanskrit Texual Canon

   • Sruti
   • Smrti
     • that which is remembered
       • knowledge that arises in temporal and spatial contexts
     • texts
       • specific authors
     • ex:
       • Manusmrti

5. Four Purusarthas

   • lit.
     • goals of man
       • each goal has a theoretical body of text associated with it
       • 1. dharma
       • 2. artha
       • 3. kama
       • 4. moksa
   • shifting orientations of life
     • linked to asramas
     • renunciate
       • moksa
     • forest-dweller
     • householder
       • dharma
     • student
       • artha, kama