Finding Out About Families

Finding Out About Families

Family life is something we often overlook, but it is important to recognize that not all families are the same. They differ in size, relationships, and shared activities. Families often share resources and perform rituals together, forming part of larger networks known as kinfolk. While familial ties are commonly seen as natural and based on blood, different societies define family in various ways....

The Ideal of Patriliny

The Mahabharata follows a patrilineal narrative, focusing on the lineage traced through the male descendants. Within the story, the characters are part of a single ruling family, the Kurus, who governed one of the janapadas, or territories....

Rules of Marriage

Two primary systems of marriage existed:...

Types of marriages

Three types of marriages exist:...

The Gotra of Women

From around 1000 BCE onwards, one Brahmanical practice was to classify individuals, especially Brahmanas, based on gotras. Each gotra was named after a Vedic seer, and those belonging to the same gotra were considered his descendants. Two key rules about gotras were significant: women were expected to adopt their husband’s gotra upon marriage, and individuals from the same gotra were prohibited from marrying....

Were Mothers Important?

The importance of mothers among the Satavahanas rulers was evident in their naming conventions. Instead of the more common practice of deriving names from the father’s lineage (patronymics), Satavahana rulers were identified by their matronymics, which means their names were derived from that of their mothers....

FAQs on Class 12 History Notes Chapter 3 Kinship and Marriage Many Rules and Varied Practices

Why is the study of kinship and marriage important?...