Power of Gender and the Gender of Power

Roy, Kumkum:
The Power of Gender and the Gender of Power : explorations in early Indian history / Kumkum Roy. - New Delhi : Oxford University Press, 2010. - xiv, 386 S.
ISBN 978-0-19-806676-7
Rs. 850,00
US$ 38,60 (D.K. Agencies)
US$ 47,00 (Vedams Books)
DDC: 934.03

Beschreibung
Is it possible to recover the histories of gender for early India? How can gender analyses enrich our understanding of early India today? Drawing upon a range of textual traditions, this unique collection examines the significance of gender in the reconstruction of India's past. It goes beyond the simple binaries of a 'high' or 'low' status for women to explore the diversities and complexities of gender relations in early India.
   Kumkum Roy draws attention to distinct strategies through which identities of men and women were constituted. She presents a gendered analysis of institutions and processes, ranging from the household to urbanism to renunciatory traditions to show how they remain critical for an understanding of early Indian history. The book also highlights the ways in which rituals were used for socialization as well as evidence for the subversion of the normative traditions.
   The author explores classic śāstras — Manusmṛti and Kāmasūtra along with a range of Sanskrit, Prakrit, and Pali literature, including texts and inscriptions—as much for what they expressly state as for their implications, tensions, and inconsistencies. She shows how such textual traditions were informed and structured by prevailing notions and conceptions of power. [Verlagsinformation]

Inhalt
Introduction
I. TOWARDS HISTORIES OF GENDER RELATIONS
   1. The 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-2nd century AD)
   4. Defining the household : some aspects of prescription and practice in early India
   5. Engendering the urban world : an investigation early Indian textual traditions
   6. Re-presenting the courtesanal tradition : an exploration of early historical texts
   7. Representations of gender relations in early India : exploring the plays of Kalidasa
   8. Turbulent waves : constructions of gender relations in the Rajatarangini of Kalhana
   9. The politics of reproduction in early India : controlling and contesting conceptions
   10. Gender relations during the first millennium : an overview
II. INTERROGATING TEXTUAL TRADITIONS
   11. Marriage as communication : an exploration of norms and narratives in early India
   12. Legitimation and the Brahmanical tradition : the Upanayana and the Brahmacarya in the Dharma Sutras
   13. Invoking authority : investigating the Sastras
   14. The king's household : structure/space in the Sastric tradition
   15. Justice in the Jatakas
   16. Domesticating the king : the royal household in early North India
   17. Unravelling the Kamasutra
   18. The making of a Mandala :Fuzzy frontiers of Kalhana's Kashmir
   19.The artful biographer : Sandhyakaranandin's Ramacaritam
Index.

Autorin

KUMKUM ROY is Professor, Centre for Historical Studies, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Her works include The Emergence of Monarchy in North India (OUP 1994).

Quellen: Oxford Univeristy Press (India); Vedams Books; WorldCat; D.K. Agencies