Rahul M wrote:
AL basham was thapar's thesis adviser wasn't he ?
Do not know that for sure, but she does refer to his works.
Here is the issue with the Basham's of the world, this is from Dr. Arvind Sharma.
Quote:
A. L. Basham narrates a Hindu folktale.
A wealthy merchant, Ratnadatta, has no sons, and his only daughter, Ratnāvalī, much loved and pampered by her father, refuses to marry, despite the pleading of the parents. Meanwhile a desperate thief had been captured by the king, and is led through the streets to the execution by impalement.
“To the beat of the drum the chief was led
to the place of execution,
and the merchant’s daughter Ratnāvalī
sat on the terrace and watched him.
He was gravely wounded and covered with dust,
but as soon as she saw him she was smitten with love.
Then she went to her rather Ratnadatta, and said:
‘This man they are leading to his death
I have chosen for my lord!
Father, you must save him from the king,
or I will die with him!’
And when he heard, her father said:
‘What is this you say, my child?
You’ve refused the finest suitors,
the images of the Love-god!
How can you now desire
a wretched master-thief?’
But though he reproached her thus
she was firm in her resolve,
so he sped to the king and begged
that the thief might be saved from the stake.
In return he offered
the whole of his great fortune,
but the king would not yield the thief
for ten million pieces of gold,
for he had robbed the whole city,
and was brought to the stake to repay with his life.
Her father came home in despair,
and the merchant’s daughter
determined to follow
the thief in his death.
Though her family tried to restrain her
she bathed,
and mounted a litter, and went
to the place of impalement,
while her father, her mother and her people
followed her weeping.
The executioners placed
the thief on the stake,
and, as his life ebbed away,
he saw her come with her people.
He heard the onlookers speaking
of all that had happened,
For a moment he wept, and then,
smiling a little, he died.
At her order they lifted the corpse
from the stake, and took it away,
and with it the worthy merchant’s daughter
mounted the pyre.”[3]
He then concludes the account with the following note.
Stories such as this puzzle the social historian. If the texts on the Sacred Law have any relation to real life it is quite incredible that a girl of good class in the 11th century should have been given such freedom by her parents, or should even have thought of legally marrying a despised outcaste. The story probably looks back to a much earlier time, when social relations very much freer.
The question is: should we not revise our view of filial relations in the 11th century rather than locate the evidence in a distant past, so that we don’t have to?
. Indian historical novels in regional languages, and magazines provide good insight into our history and thought.
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