Women and Work in Precolonial India

Vijaya Ramaswamy is Professor and Chairperson, Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. She is an alumni of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, and was a Fulbright Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, California, in 1988–1989. She was a teacher-fellow on an Indo-Canadian Fellowship at York University, Ontario, Canada, in 1998. She was also a Fellow at the Indian Institute of Advanced Study between 1992 and 1995. She was also a Senior Fellow at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, Teen Murti House, New Delhi from 2012 to 2014.Vijaya Ramaswamy is the author of 10 books amongst which the best known are: Textiles and Weavers in Medieval South India (1985, 2nd ed. 2006), Divinity and Deviance: Women in Virasaivism (1996); Walking Naked: Women, Society, Spirituality in South India (1997, 2007), Historical Dictionary of the Tamils (2007), Song of the Loom (2013) and Migrations in Medieval and Early Colonial India (2016). Vijaya has been the President of the Medieval India Section of the 63rd Indian History Congress Session at Mysore, 2003. She also won the ‘Professor Hiralal Gupta Research Award’ for the Best Book by a Woman Historian for the years 1996–2001, Indian History Congress, 60th Session, Bhopal, 2001.

The fact that many of the contributors to this book are women scholars, it is worth reflecting whether enough men are involved in feminist studies of labour history. The book is also very detailed and academic, with its scrupulous footnotes. This book is for students and scholars in the field.

• Foreword - Aparna BasuPrefaceAcknowledgementsIntroduction - Vijaya RamaswamyWOMEN AND THE HOUSEHOLD: CANONICAL PRESCRIPTIONS AND THEIR FEMINIST CRITIQUEThe Daily Duties of Women - Julia LesliePosition and Status of Women in the Upanisads - T R SharmaWoman in the Household - M A IndraEconomic Rights of Ancient Indian Women - Sukumari BhattacharjiDynamics of Women’s Work in the Sastric Sources: Household and Beyond - Kavita GaurTracking Economic Transitions: Tamil Women from Tribe to Caste and Changing Production Roles - Vijaya RamaswamyThe Question of Women’s ‘Agency’: Women, Work and Domesticity in Early Textual Traditions - Jaya TyagiWOMEN AND WORK IN EARLY TEXTUAL TRADITIONSThe Woman Worker - I B HornerOf Dasas and Karmakaras: Servile Labour in Ancient India - Uma ChakravartiWomen and Work in Kautiliya′s Arthasastra - Upasana DhankarWOMEN AND ECONOMIC RESOURCES: WOMEN’S PROPERTY RIGHTSProprietary Rights during Coverture - Anant Sadashiv AltekarProprietary Rights: Inheritance and Partition - Anant Sadashiv AltekarThe Legal Status of Women: Their Right of Inheritance - M A IndraProperty Rights of Women in Ancient India - N N BhattacharTurmeric Land: Women’s Property Rights in Tamil Society since Early Medieval Times - Kanakalatha MukundProperty Rights of Women in Medieval Andhra - A PadmaCONTEXTUALISING WOMEN’S WORK IN THE PUBLIC DOMAINState of the Field: Perspectives on Women and Work in Early South India - Vijaya RamaswamyWomen’s Professions in Medieval Andhra - A PadmaTemple Women and Work in Medieval Keralam - Anna VargheseGender, Caste and Labour: Ideological and Material Structure of Widowhood - Uma ChakravartiWork and Gender in Mughal India - Shireen MoosviDEVARADIYA: HAND-MAIDENS OF GOD OR SEX-WORKERS?Courtesans - Vatsyayana MallanagaTemple Women as Temple Servants - Leslie OrrIn the Business of Kama: Prostitution in Classical Sanskrit Literature from the Seventh to the Thirteenth Centuries - Shalini ShahProstitution in Ancient India - Sukumari Bhattacharji