Women and work in precolonial India: a reader
- Los Angeles Sage 2016
- xxxv, 446 p.
Table of Contents:
Section I. Women and the household: canonical prescriptions and their feminist critique 1 The Daily Duties of Women 2 Position and Status of Women in the Upanisads 3 Woman in the Household 4 Economic Rights of Ancient Indian Women 5 Dynamics of Women’s Work in the Sastric Sources: Household and Beyond 6 Tracking Economic Transitions: Tamil Women from Tribe to Caste and Changing Production Roles 7 The Question of Women’s ‘Agency’: Women, Work and Domesticity in Early Textual Traditions
Section II. Women and work in early textual traditions 8 The Woman Worker 9 Of Dasas and Karmakaras: Servile Labour in Ancient India 10 Women and Work in Kautiliya's Arthasastra
Section III. Women and economic resources: women’s property rights 11 Proprietary Rights during Coverture 12 Proprietary Rights: Inheritance and Partition 13 The Legal Status of Women: Their Right of Inheritance 14 Property Rights of Women in Ancient India 15 Turmeric Land: Women’s Property Rights in Tamil Society since Early Medieval Times 16 Property Rights of Women in Medieval Andhra
Section IV. Contextualising women’s work in the public domain 17 State of the Field: Perspectives on Women and Work in Early South India 18 Women’s Professions in Medieval Andhra 19 Temple Women and Work in Medieval Keralam 20 Gender, Caste and Labour: Ideological and Material Structure of Widowhood 21 Work and Gender in Mughal India
Section V. Devaradiya: hand-maidens of god or sex-workers? 22 Courtesans 23 Temple Women as Temple Servants 24 In the Business of Kama: Prostitution in Classical Sanskrit Literature from the Seventh to the Thirteenth Centuries 25 Prostitution in Ancient India
Women and work is an important dimension of the ongoing debate on gender parity. This book is a compilation of essays related to traditional perceptions of women’s work juxtaposed with recent feminist writings on women’s space in India’s labour history. The essays highlight the points and counterpoints of the ongoing debate on the nature, quantification and monetary valuation of women’s work.