Resources, status and alternatives

Gender and property. In the Mahabharata, Yudhisthira stakes and loses his wife Draupadi in a game of dice. This raises the question: were wives treated as their husbands' property?

According to the Manusmriti, the paternal property was divided equally among sons after the parents' death. Women could keep the gifts they received at marriage, called stridhana (a woman's wealth), which their children inherited. But men controlled the main resources: land, cattle and money.

Varna and property. The Brahmanical texts prescribed servitude for Shudras, and kept wealth for the higher varnas. But Buddhist texts challenged this: they argued that a wealthy Shudra could even have a Brahmana as his servant, so birth did not decide rank.

Sharing wealth. In ancient Tamilakam, Sangam poems praised generous chiefs, who were expected to share their wealth. Bards composed poems in praise of chiefs, and pleaded with them for gifts.

An alternative view of society. Buddhists had their own story of how society began: originally, people lived in peace; when greed and conflict grew, people chose a ruler, the mahasammata ('great elect'), and agreed to pay him a share of their rice. This means that kingship was human-made, by agreement, and so it could be changed. Wealth and gender shaped status as much as birth.