The making of Brahmanic hegemony : studies in caste, gender, and Vaisnava theology / Suvira Jaiswal.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 207-228) and index.

This book is a collection of essays about the creation of Brahmanical hegemony through the institutions of caste, gender, and religious ideology in the history of early India. The essays focus on the role played by religion and mythology in the making of this hegemony. The studies in this book argue that myths reveal the stories of domination and resistance if we give attention to the process of their production and not take them as factual historical narratives.The idea is not to dismiss myths as false, distorted, or bad history but to examine the kind of reality they represent, to delve into the dynamics of their formation and their impact, and account for elements of continuity and change in them.