The transformation of Gender Relations in Ancient India, rise of monarchy and the Origin of Romantic Drama from 4 BC to 5 AD

Abstract

My paper argues that the Ancient Sanskrit dramatic tradition dominated by the romantic drama with kingly themes originated in the socio-political context of the transformation of gender relations in ancient India from 400 BC up to the 500AD owing to the demands of the new political form that was being established, i.e hereditary monarchy. During this period the Indian continent was under continual siege of foreign invaders which eroded both the cultural and political fabric of the Vedic polity based on civic participatory governance and female-centric Vedic marriage practice. It produced a whole new class of hybrid individuals that sought to establish a hereditary monarchy. Drama developed to replace the cultural vacuum so created and was soon patronized by the newly fashioned patron kings as a political and didactic tool for the manipulation of public opinion to sway official policy especially regarding women, marriage, and child custody in favor of hereditary monarchy. The epics which made up the stock of narratives for cultural circulation during this time also provided the raw material for the subject of the romantic drama but in a suitably altered as is testified by the Sakuntala story.