Question 8: How important were gender differences in early societies? Give reasons for your answer.
Answer:
It is seen that in early societies families were generally patrilineal. Patriliny means tracing descent from father to son and to grandson and so on. The Matriliny family was k generally not in use. But exceptions were also available. As an exception, Satavahanas of Andhra can be mentioned. Historical sources mention the name of some rulers from inscriptions associated with the names of the mothers of the king. As Gotami-putra means’ son of Gotami’. Gotami and Vasistha are the feminines of Gotama and Vasistha. Sons were considered important for the continuity of the family. Attitudes towards my daughter were different. They had no claims towards the resources of the household. But marrying them into the families outside the kin was considered desirable. This system of marriage was called exogamy.
According to this system, the lives of the young girls and women belonged to those families which claimed that high status were often carefully regulated to ensure that they were married at the right time and to the right person. This gave rise to the tradition that in marriage Kanyadana was an important religious duty of the father. After marriage women were supposed to give up their father’s gotra and adopt their husband’s.As per Manusmriti, the paternal state was to be divided equally amongst sons after the death of parents, with a special share for the eldest. Women were not given any share in this state. But women were allowed to keep the gifts with themselves which they received at the time of their marriage. This was called stridhana. This could be inherited by. their children and the husband had no claim over it.
But at the same time Manusmriti also told women not to hoard family property or even their own valuables without the permission of their husband. In fact, social differences were sharpened because of the differences in access of resources. Many texts suggest that while upper class women may have access to resources but land, cattle, money were generally controlled by the men. Vakataka queen Prabhavati Gupta was a rich woman.
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