smita sahgal

Lady Shri Ram College, University of Delhi, Department of History, Faculty Member

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Smita Sahgal is from Delhi, India. She is a Professor, at the Department of History, Lady Shri Ram College, University of Delhi. She has teaching experience of more than thirty years and twenty-seven years at Lady Shri Ram College, University of Delhi. She completed graduation and post-graduation in history from St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi, and was a position holder in the university. Her M.Phil on ‘Spread of Jainism in Ancient India, with special reference to Mathura’ is from the University of Delhi, as is her Ph.D. on, ‘Bull Cults in North India

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Hunting And Dicing: Where Leisure Intersected With Masculine Aspiration In Early India

Hunting and Dicing: Where Leisure Intersects with Masculine Aspiration in Early India Leisure can... more Hunting and Dicing: Where Leisure Intersects with Masculine Aspiration in Early India Leisure can be defined as time free from work and other commitments and includes doings distinguished by a sense of relative freedom. Can leisure be conceived of as an occasion when there is ‘liberty from rules and acknowledged or socially imposed models of behaviour’ or should it be analyzed as “non-productive consumption of time’, as an antithesis to &#39;work&#39; as an economic function accompanied with a psychological perception of freedom? There can be ways of defining leisure, especially in the context of modernity. But how was it understood in ancient times? Ancient Greek scholars looked at leisure as a state of being free from the necessity to labour, which only a citizen could aspire for. Discussion in the context of Early India can be complex. A range of questions emerge: Can leisure be associated with a particular class or was it a phenomenon experienced across caste and class? How was an activity like ‘hunting’ understood in Early Indian Literature? Should it be defined as a masculine sport for the king and elite or should it be seen as an essential activity for survival by forest tribes? Similarly, gambling or ‘dhyǖta krῑdha’ too, can be easily problematized. It appears as a fun sport that men across caste and class dabbled in but at the same time, it could often be strategized into ruining an opponent not just financially but socially and politically too. All the activities have been portrayed in Early Indian literature as krῑdā or sport, but these were charged with significant masculine attributes in early India. These three ‘sports’ appear to be gendered where both the participation and watching, were largely for men but had serious consequences for others including women, associated with them. The paper offers to look at the intertwining of leisure activities of ‘Hunting’ and ‘Dice-Game’ with masculine aspirations to unearth deeper social implications in a world beset with material and gender inequities.

Locating Non-normative Gender Construction Within Early Textual Traditions of India

In the world of gender historiography, it has been assumed that methodical and as well as complex... more In the world of gender historiography, it has been assumed that methodical and as well as complex works on gender, gender equity and sexuality were first initiated by Europeans. When it comes to analysing non-normative gender constructions, once again, western precedents are projected as fair instances. Sources to be tapped range from Greco-Roman literature to that of the Renaissance. We know that the Roman law banned male-male relationship though Greek literature informs us of practice of mature men acquiring a young male of lower social group as his sexual partner. The classical western medical literature recognizes categories of persons held to be physiologically and/or psychologically distinct from the norm, some of whom are distinguished primarily on the basis of their preferred sexual practices (Zwilling and Sweet in &#39;Like a City Ablaze&#39;: the third sex and the creation of sexuality in Jain religious literature. J Hist Sexual 6(3):359-384 (1996) [23]). Even within the Japanese literature of the Tokugawa period, we come across reference to a class of men with exclusively same-sex interest, the onna-girai. They are also referred to as or woman-haters (Saikaku in The great mirror of male love. Schalow Stanford, CA, 1990 [21]). Within the Indian context, non-normative/third-sex constructions are largely ignored by cultural historians though Indian historical tradition does refer to the opposite. The aim of the paper is to establish third gender as a historical reality based on a litany of textual references in the ancient texts and especially in the ones that Jain theologians produced propelled by Jain monastic jurisprudence which had clear sense of regulating sexual existence of monastic inmates. It may be worthwhile to look at these in the larger context of issues of gender equity.

Krishna Mohan Shrimali, The Religious Enterprise: Studies in Early Indian Religions

Studies in people's history, Jun 1, 2023

Krishna Mohan Shrimali, The Religious Enterprise: Studies in Early Indian Religions (Delhi: Aakar... more

Gathasaptashati: Retelling Intimate history of Ancient Deccan

Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, Feb 28, 2019

A peep into intimate relations through the study of ancient Indian literature is rather rare. Mos... more A peep into intimate relations through the study of ancient Indian literature is rather rare. Most of the time Sanskrit literature presents a fairly regulated version of reality, bound by societal norms. On the other hand, Gathasaptashati or Sattasai, composed in Maharashtri Prakrit provides us a rare glimpse into the minds of the populace, especially that of the women who state their intimate desires, anguish and deprivations with a sense of abandon and honesty. This may have become possible as the society of ancient Deccan, where these verses were first composed and compiled, was still not fully stratified or complex. Patriarchy had not yet consolidated and did give women a voice which was preserved in the folklore and recalled now and then subsequently. It may be worth exploring these intimate relations by re-reading some verses and studying the context of their composition. Key words: Gathsaptashati , rendezvous, go-between, traveller, love, eroticism, niti

Apaddharmaparva: Articulating the Dilemma on Ethics and Politics within the Epic, the Mahabharata

Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, Jun 27, 2021

The Mahabharata is an epic with encyclopaedic complexity. It weaves many mundane issues of politi... more The Mahabharata is an epic with encyclopaedic complexity. It weaves many mundane issues of political and social relevance with those of theology and philosophy. Without doubt the Mahabharata is a troubled story, a story of war and violence. Troubled times beckon distinct solutions, which appear at odds with socially recognized norms. The text understands these solutions in terms of apaddharma, the law of Exigency. We need to locate the concept and theory of apaddharma within the magnum Opus and attempt to comprehend its many layered meaning along with investigating if it were a digression from dharma. The vital issue is to postulate how it came to imply a law in the times of emergency. We mull over a number of issues that push one to use the tool of apaddharma. For instance, how do people negotiate crisis, especially the one that threatens their survival? Can a king justifiably stabilise his rule by becoming violent and what are the limits to political behaviour in the world of realpolitik? How does political conduct be adjusted within the frames of morality that demands steadfast conduct of ethical behaviour? Can the laws of apaddharma come to the rescue of the populace and the king? The dialectics becomes evident as we go deeper into studying the issue though our queries also start getting answered

Evolving Dharma Consciousness of Dharmaputra Yudhishthira within the Mahabharata

Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, Dec 9, 2020

The objective of the paper to comprehend a deep implication of what dharma meant to Yudhishthira ... more The objective of the paper to comprehend a deep implication of what dharma meant to Yudhishthira through the length of historical events related to war and philosophical questioning on the issue. He had to fight through so much in terms of pitting his intuitive understanding of dharma against a whole gamut of mundane ideas of what dharma stood for. For instance, his struggle with his brothers on the complexity of svadhrama and its rejoinder in form of sukshadharma or knowledge of subtle consciousness. His inner conflict continued and there came a time in the last parva, Svargarohana parva, when he just denounced dharma. It was through these trials and tribulations that Yudhishthira was finally able to evolve his own idea of what real truth, conduct, duty, morality and inner consciousness were about. In other words what was true dharma. Through this paper the author attempts to tease out complexities of the philosophical queries that bothered Yudhishthira and also trace his historical trajectory in the quest. The method of investigation would include historicizing the text. This means locating our source, the Mahabharata, on a time line and within a geographical expanse so that we get an idea when the logic of dharma mutated and in what particular region. The text had an expansive period of formulation right from the 8th Century BCE to 4th Century CE, that is, what we understand as the Gupta period. But the text had many later regional recensions as well. We are primarily looking at the older Sanskrit version of the text as recorded in V.S.Sukthankar edited Critical edition (Bhandarkar Oriental edition, Poona) of the Mahabharata. The exercise also requires reading of the magnum opus, locating the usage of the term in association with Yudhishthira and raising some significant issues. These may include queries such as what is dharma according to the Mahabharata. Is definition fixed or is it dynamic? Do all people speak of it with the same voice? Is the notion of dharma same for Yuthishthira and his Pandava brothers? Does his wife. Draupadi, subscribe to his idea of dharma? If his notion of dharma changes over time, does it have anything to do with changing consciousness of the society or at least some people within the society? Can we get a sense of a subtle move towards a shift from karma yoga to jnana yoga and finally to bhakti yoga? In this changing paradigm where do we locate the dharma philosophy of Dharmaputra Yudhishthira, especially as there comes a time when he himself begins questioning the idea of dharma? In a sense his character brings out the dilemmas arising out of the differences in meanings and approaches of comprehending the complexities associated with the concept of dharma. Another point of our methodology would be to understand the etymology of the term dharma and its location in the ancient language. The Sanskrit root of the word is dhr, &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;to support&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;, &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;to sustain&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;. In other words, it means that whereby whatever lives, is sustained, upheld, supported. More often than not, the word dharma in its ancient usage denoted the moral realm in its widest sense, meaning both morality as an ideal— man&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;s eternal quest for the good, the right, the just—as well as the given, actual framework of norms, rules, maxims, principles that guide human action. It was integral to the doctrine of purushartha or that of the four goals of a human being; these being artha (success/material possessions), kama (passion/procreation), dharma (virtue/religious duty), moksha (self-perfection). All the four are intertwined. Throughout the epic we witness the evolution of Yudhishthira’s notion of true dharma. What comes out strongly is his holding fast to the value of nonviolence (anrishṃsya), his identification with the sukshma or subtle nature of dharma, his insistence on constricted use of brute force as a part of Kshatriya dharma, his ultimate benevolence towards his family and people. These were actually revealed to be the cause of his indisputable success in Dharma’s recurrent tests. Somewhere by the end of the epic, Yudhishthira’s error in entering into the game of dice, getting in conflict with his brothers on the issue of his duty and not being able to answer Draupadi’s queries initially appear as stepping stones in self-realization to a deeper understanding of what dharma as duty, conduct, search for truth and morality were all about. The orderly world of dharma, which was so central to his character, was eventually arrived at only through repeated trials and tribulations

Gendered Construction of War in Sanskrit Epic, the Mahabharata

International journal of languages, literature and linguistics, Jun 1, 2019

Sanskrit is often considered to be the language of gods and, therefore, what Sanskrit texts state... more Sanskrit is often considered to be the language of gods and, therefore, what Sanskrit texts state is taken to be sacrosanct. How was war envisaged in the lengthiest Sanskrit epic of the world? Was it in tune with dharma (moral duty) or not? Did all hold an identical and unchanging view of war? That does not seem to be the case. War and violence were understood differently by men and women. This variance is reflected in their language repertoire too. While many men viewed it as a matter of moral duty, self-aggrandizement and resource harnessing, women differed in their perceptions. For some, located in a particular class, it was a prestige booster, while for many others it spelt out doom. The Mahabharata is a text that reflects on complex location of upper caste men and women and their dynamic view of war; at the beginning of the epic they support war but end up berating it as loss of life, resources and prestige became evident. But did the text also reflect a change of gender relations in the context of shifting war scenario? It is worth exploring.

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Book review: Anamika Roy, Sixty-Four Yoginis: Cults, Icons and Goddesses

Indian Journal of Gender Studies, Oct 1, 2019

The book of 22 essays is a brilliant compendium of facts and theories. Unlike previous works wher... more

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Levirate in Ancient Israel: Overlapping Frames with Early Indian Practice of Niyoga

Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, Jul 22, 2018

Surrogacy was a well-known practice in ancient societies. Its application was rare but mandated w... more Surrogacy was a well-known practice in ancient societies. Its application was rare but mandated when the matter of threatened lineage surfaced. Since very early times and particularly within patriarchal societies, sons were regarded as natural inheritors of property, holders of lineage and on many occasions performers of rites for ancestors. Hence, the absence of a male issue was viewed as a solemn social anomaly. Corrective solutions had to be worked out and many ancient societies came up with their alternative paradigms. In ancient Israel the practice of yibbum emerged and ensured lineage continuity. Its ancient Indian counterpart was the practice of niyoga that came under what is largely understood as apaddharma or the law of exigency. In both societies childless widow/wife was made to cohabit with a man, generally from within the family and the son produced furthered the lineage of her husband. The consent of the widow/wife was not really sought for the practice to get its social sanction. In the paper we shall study the issue from a gendered perspective and explore whether the practices of Yibbum and Niyoga implied exploitation of women. Further what was the class and caste location of the practice respective cultures and who eventually stood to benefit from it in two different parts of ancient world.

Exploring the Beneficiaries: A Gendered Peep into the Institution of Niyoga in Early India

Indian Historical Review, Dec 1, 2012

In patriarchal societies around the world the absence of a male issue has been regarded a serious... more In patriarchal societies around the world the absence of a male issue has been regarded a serious social aberration. Alternatives have been worked out to surmount the problem. Early Indian literature apprises us of one such option; niyoga or levirate wherein a widow or the wife of an impotent man was temporarily made to cohabit with a designated man in order to procure a son who would be regarded as the son of his mother’s legal husband. It clearly came within the fold of apaddharam or the law of exigency, something that could be resorted to only in the time of emergency. There seems to be a divergence of views in the narrative tradition and normative [ shastriya] literature on the issue of its genesis and purpose. But what comes out clearly is that niyoga was hailed as a ‘strategy of heirship’. The article intends to look at the trajectory of the practice in ancient and early medieval India from the vantage of principal female actors. A host of queries would be taken up. It would be worth dwelling upon the issue of its sustainability and popularity; whether the practice of niyoga was designed to benefit a particular section of the society or was meant for larger social good. Did the practice of niyoga bring women some solace or turned out to be an exploitative way of controlling their sexuality? Did the woman have the right to reject it or enter in out of their volition? How did men negotiate this practice? Did it bruise their masculinity or repair, at least in some cases? Did the practice also have caste and class angles to it? Can we detect divergence in the views of Brahman theoreticians and members of other castes such as kshatriyas for whom its practical application amounted to a survival tactic? Who eventually stood to gain from the practice and its eventual fading away? What was the legal and social status of the daughter born of such unions? We shall take up these issues for analysis in the article.

Krishna Mohan Shrimali, The Religious Enterprise: Studies in Early Indian Religions

Studies in People's History

Krishna Mohan Shrimali, The Religious Enterprise: Studies in Early Indian Religions (Delhi: Aakar... more

Niyoga: Alternative Mechanism to Lineage Perpetuation in Early India, A Socio-Historical Enquiry

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Making Dents in the Paradigm of a Perfect Wife: Parvati’s Negotiations with Patriarchy in Indian Mythology

Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, Apr 24, 2023

Pārvatī is a fascinating figure in Indian mythology and generally what stands out is her absolute... more Pārvatī is a fascinating figure in Indian mythology and generally what stands out is her absolute love for Śiva who, too, could not ignore her. Popular folklore reiterates the notion of their timeless love and rituals concretize it. Purāṇas do mention her as a goddess of mountains in her own right, but her character gets principally demarcated by her closeness to her husband, Śiva, for whom she could die to avenge humiliation meted out to him by her father in her Satī form. Subsequently, she was reborn as Pārvatī to seek that proximity again. Historically if she was a mother goddess in her own right, we are curious to know how her cult got amalgamated within that of Śiva. Purāṇas give us clues about this process of assimilation and in the course raise a litany of issues that we would attempt to answer in our paper.

Smita Sahgal

Studies in People’s History, 10, 1 (2023): 106–115

It is a review article on Krishna Mohan Shrimali monograph titled , The Religious Enterprise: Stu... more

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Hunting and Dicing: Where Leisure Intersected with Masculine Aspiration in Early India

Delights and Disquiets of Leisure in Premodern India, 2023

Hunting and Dicing: Where Leisure Intersects with Masculine Aspiration in Early India Leisure can... more Hunting and Dicing: Where Leisure Intersects with Masculine Aspiration in Early India
Leisure can be defined as time free from work and other commitments and includes doings distinguished by a sense of relative freedom. Can leisure be conceived of as an occasion when there is ‘liberty from rules and acknowledged or socially imposed models of behaviour’ or should it be analyzed as “non-productive consumption of time’, as an antithesis to 'work' as an economic function accompanied with a psychological perception of freedom? There can be ways of defining leisure, especially in the context of modernity. But how was it understood in ancient times? Ancient Greek scholars looked at leisure as a state of being free from the necessity to labour, which only a citizen could aspire for. Discussion in the context of Early India can be complex. A range of questions emerge: Can leisure be associated with a particular class or was it a phenomenon experienced across caste and class? How was an activity like ‘hunting’ understood in Early Indian Literature? Should it be defined as a masculine sport for the king and elite or should it be seen as an essential activity for survival by forest tribes?
Similarly, gambling or ‘dhyǖta krῑdha’ too, can be easily problematized. It appears as a fun sport that men across caste and class dabbled in but at the same time, it could often be strategized into ruining an opponent not just financially but socially and politically too. All the activities have been portrayed in Early Indian literature as krῑdā or sport, but these were charged with significant masculine attributes in early India. These three ‘sports’ appear to be gendered where both the participation and watching, were largely for men but had serious consequences for others including women, associated with them. The paper offers to look at the intertwining of leisure activities of ‘Hunting’ and ‘Dice-Game’ with masculine aspirations to unearth deeper social implications in a world beset with material and gender inequities.

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Making Dents in the Paradigm of a Perfect Wife: Parvati’s Negotiations with Patriarchy in Indian Mythology

by smita sahgal and Vinita Malik

Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal

Locating Non-normative Gender Construction Within Early Textual Traditions of India

Springer Nature, Singapore , 2022

In the world of gender historiography, it has been assumed that methodical and as well as complex... more In the world of gender historiography, it has been assumed that methodical and as well as complex works on gender, gender equity and sexuality were first initiated by Europeans. When it comes to analysing non-normative gender constructions, once again, western precedents are projected as fair instances. Sources to be tapped range from Greco-Roman literature to that of the Renaissance. We know that the Roman law banned male-male relationship though Greek literature informs us of practice of mature men acquiring a young male of lower social group as his sexual partner. The classical western medical literature recognizes categories of persons held to be physiologically and/or psychologically distinct from the norm, some of whom are distinguished primarily on the basis of their preferred sexual practices (Zwilling and Sweet in 'Like a City Ablaze': the third sex and the creation of sexuality in Jain religious literature. J Hist Sexual 6(3):359-384 (1996) [23]). Even within the Japanese literature of the Tokugawa period, we come across reference to a class of men with exclusively same-sex interest, the onna-girai. They are also referred to as or woman-haters (Saikaku in The great mirror of male love. Schalow Stanford, CA, 1990 [21]). Within the Indian context, non-normative/third-sex constructions are largely ignored by cultural historians though Indian historical tradition does refer to the opposite. The aim of the paper is to establish third gender as a historical reality based on a litany of textual references in the ancient texts and especially in the ones that Jain theologians produced propelled by Jain monastic jurisprudence which had clear sense of regulating sexual existence of monastic inmates. It may be worthwhile to look at these in the larger context of issues of gender equity.

Download

Exploring the Beneficiaries: A Gendered Peep into the Institution of Niyoga

Niyoga: Alternative Mechanism to Lineage Perpetuation in Early India, A Socio-Historical Enquiry

Book Review: Jaya Tyagi, Contestation and Compliance: Retrieving Women’s Agency from Puranic Traditions

Finally, a separate head for boundary detail contained in each charter could have been added. The... more Finally, a separate head for boundary detail contained in each charter could have been added. The use of modern district names instead of old ones could have been more useful, since one who is not so conversant with the geography of Odisha would find it difficult to locate Korosanda which, in Acharya’s book, has been put under the Ganjam district, but at present actually lies within the Gajapati district.

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