Representations of Marriage and Beyond: An Investigation of Early Buddhist Textual Traditions (c. Sixth Century BCE to Fifth Century CE)

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At the core of the social world of Buddhism was the alternative system of salvation provided by the Buddha. Representations of Marriage and Beyond explores this alternative by investigating the relationship between gender and history in Buddhist society. allowing us to trace the roots of subordination and hierarchical difference among men and women, monks and nuns during this time period. Closely analysing three Buddhist textual traditions-the Jätakas, the Therīgāthā, and the Theragāthā-this book examines representations of marriage and gender relations in a period that witnessed far- reaching changes in economic, political, material, and social life.

Investigating and understanding the confrontations and contradictions inherent in the verses of these narratives, this volume explores the elusive everyday lives of lay Buddhist followers and their interactions with the wider society. Instead of being a social reformer, the Buddha, by way of the sangha, tried to provide an alternative to the tradition of marriage that was rooted in the caste system and contemporary gender biases. The interlinkages of these power structures, social hierarchies, and relations of production and reproduction based on class, gender, and sexuality have been examined in this book to rethink the social world of early Buddhism.

Taniya Roy is Assistant Professor at Asutosh College, University of Calcutta. She has contributed papers to the Indian History Congress, where her work was chosen as the best paper in the gender history section in 2014. Her other works focus on the intersections of gender, power structures, and religious practices..

I HAVE WORKED on issues of gender and power structures for many years. It is during my time working in this field that I began thinking of gender, and specifically conventions of marriage, in Buddhist textual traditions. Many years of research on this subject, and subsequent revisions, have culminated in this current volume.

My experience writing this work would not have been the same without the support and encouragement of several individuals.

First, I am grateful to my mentor Professor Kumkum Roy for her guidance, meticulous attention to details, invaluable comments and immense patience in dealing with the flaws through the years spent in formulating this volume. Without her constant insistence in looking through the diverse possibilities in the sources, many questions would have remained unraised. The entire faculty at the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, has provided extremely useful insights and suggestions.

I take the opportunity to thank Professor Nupur Dasgupta of Jadavpur University, Kolkata, for introducing me several works of gender historians in the field of social history of early India for the first time during undergraduate lecture classes. My interest in investigating the past of gender relations began there.

MARRIAGE IS ONE of the most important institutions in the Indian subcontinent. This rite initiates an individual into the life of a householder. This stage of life is defined by the individual's worldly duties and production of offspring. Richard Gombrich' poses a contrast between communal or social religions and those emphasizing soteriology. He states that soteriology would not regard nuptial ties as more significant than initiation to the religion. It is evident from Buddhist texts that the Buddha preached soteriology and Buddhism was regarded as a heterodox religious sect that rose in the background of the sixth century BC in the Ganga valley as a critique of the Vedic and other brāhmanical religions. However, the Buddha was no reformer. He never denied the existing caste system nor attacked the patriarchal misogyny of society. Rather, he tried to show an alternative system of salvation which was beyond gender bias, and which could be followed without giving much importance to the caste system or Vedic rituals.

This seems to be true of the Buddhist attitude towards marriage. We hardly find depictions of marriage rites in early Buddhist texts but marriage is still the linchpin of narratives in the Buddhist textual traditions. It is difficult to treat the Buddhist traditions as completely antithetical to the life of the householder. Maximum assistance for the sustenance of the sangha came from the lay supporters.