Towards an Historical Sociology of the Purāṇas

The aim of this paper is to canvass the possibility of what a sociological study of the Purāṇas might be. That is, whether this be the view(s) of society presented in the Purāṇas or the social conditions which may have produced the genre and individual texts within it. I argue that there is a very clear intertextual relationship between the Purāṇas and the Mahābhārata, even where there are considerable narrative differences. On the one hand, I see the Purāṇas as partly being conservative and adaptive texts fully accepting the brahmanical view of society developed in the Mahābhārata. On the other hand, they seem to have also accepted the existence of a wide variety of social groups arising in the early centuries of the Common Era and their corresponding occupations. I also raise the question of the sociological implications of devotional practices, which are so dominant in the Purāṇas. Finally, I study a few chapters from the Mārkaṇḍeya Purāṇa, which, in the manvantara section, raises the possibility of varṇasaṃkara, gender relations, and the treatment of brahmins by members of other varṇas

Historical sociology · History of sociology · Narrative · Sociological research · Sociological theory · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Indian and Buddhist Studies · South Asian Studies and Conflicts

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