Book review: Taniya Roy,Representations of Marriage and Beyond: An Investigation of Early Buddhist Textual Traditions (c. Sixth Century bce to Fifth Century ce )

The aim of this work is to trace representations of marriage, so as to present ‘everyday lives of the lay followers of Buddhism and their interactions with the wider society’. In doing so, it explores the negotiations and contestations within households and the making and working of marriage in ancient times. The book places discussions on these matters within the ambit of the soteriological perspective that dominates the Pāli imaginaire (without actually using the term) and is able to present the notions of marriage and the reservations and concerns about it in these specific texts, thereby allowing us an interesting peep also into the minds of the authors and composers of the texts studied.

In traditional scholarship, there used to be a tendency to trace the ‘evolution’ of marriage to an ancient period of pre-marriage ‘promiscuity’ (within and outside of kin groups), which was followed ultimately by the institution of formal marriage. This kind of evolutionary approach to the study of social institutions has now been eschewed, and, in that vein, this book makes no attempt to explore the historiography relating to the ‘origins’ of marriage in early India, which might typically begin with an analysis of the Rig Veda X.85 hymn. Nor does it frame the discussion in the backdrop of sociological and anthropological studies of conjugal relations, the debates about marriage as an institution or as a signifier of human relationships arising out of conjugal bonding. Diving straight into the selected sources, viz., the Jātakas, Therīgāthā and Theragāthā, the author traces the manner in which marriage and marital relationships, gender, and class and caste hierarchies are conceived in these sources.

The Pāli imaginaire, as described by Steven Collins, is something that ‘can refer to objects of imagination, the ensemble of what is imagined, without implying falsity; it can also refer to specific imagined worlds….’ (CUP, 1998, 73). In this work, we can see how the world of marriage is ‘imagined’ in the varied versions of marriage that the texts offer. The author draws attention to the fact that these texts are more concerned with soteriological gains, and marital propriety is here more of an afterthought: aberrant marriages are described in graphic detail as the very notion of marriage was a challenge that had to be dealt with. Marriage is presented as an institution that is the epitome of attachment to earthly desires and has therefore to be warned about, even while engaging with it. However, according to the author, this complexity ‘dissolves with the valorizing of the gahapati as the perfect householder; he was recognized as an efficient producer, reproducer and support of the sangha’ (149). One doubts if the problem is so simply ‘dissolved’, the texts constantly grapple with this conflict: the need for patronage from the householder, on the one hand, and the urge to propagate renunciation as the ultimate goal of all human beings.

Women in Buddhist texts have been a subject of research since the time of I.B. Horner. Our author, instead of going into the entire process of previous debates and discussions, keeps the work cohesive by restricting her study to some select historians who have worked on gender and social categorisation, even if they have not directly dealt with the subject of marriage. The contributions of scholars like Uma Chakravarti and Kumkum Roy are discussed in detail, and although Richard Gombrich, Alice Collette, Diana Paul and Jose Cabezon are cited, their particular views and the disparity in their approach towards gender issues are not elaborated. The Therīgāthā has been exhaustively treated by Kathryn Blackstone and the Therāgathā by K.R. Norman, and Roy’s present work draws on both, particularly highlighting many of the issues relating to different types of marriage in order to trace ‘a past of gender relations’ (16).

The monograph begins with an analysis of sources and explains why the Jātakas, the Therīgāthā and the Therāgathā are chosen as sources. The author argues that the Buddha might not have been a sacred figure at the time being more of a social persona. She makes an interesting point about the use of animal motifs to describe mundane life, but not for depicting the renouncers. While marriage has been regarded as a contract organised by males, she picks out instances where the mothers of the groom play an important role in arranging the marriage of the son; in contrast, they are not visible in the daughter’s marriage. The author’s inference that men were not therefore much involved in the son’s marriage is, however, debatable (33).

In the chapter on ‘The Working of Marriage and “Beyond”’, the author discusses many examples of different relationships—extramarital, multiple partners and polygynous households. Some statements seem sweeping and can be contested, for example: ‘It is beyond doubt that Buddhism was antithetical to conventional tradition and was one of the protestant religions’ (109). Other statements are ambiguous and lack clarity, for example, the statement that ‘we get hints of anuloma and pratiloma marriages’ (47)—we are not told if the terms are used in the texts and if so in which texts and in what context.

The chapter on ‘The Household: Contextualizing Marriage and “Beyond”’ refers to the changing perceptions of the household and highlights the confrontations between different kinds of households. The chapter makes interesting reading as it takes us into the lives of kings and the elite. Here the preoccupation with Brahmanas as protagonists could have been further explored, but the book does bring out some interesting facts: how the Brahmanas were sent to Taxila for training, how there were separate quarters for kings and queens and how the queens were not allowed access to Buddhist monasteries. We learn of the King being inevitably suspicious of the queens, the internal intrigues of the palace and also the fact that not everyone was allowed access to the queens who led a sheltered life. For teaching the queens in the King of Kosala’s court, Ānanda required the Buddha’s permission. From the vignettes presented in this book, one gets the sense that the Jātakas too seem to be representing life from an elite perspective, away from the commoners’ everyday lives. The courtesan as the ‘matriarch’ of her household is, indeed, mentioned in the book reviewed; but one feels the author could have further investigated the role of women in common households.

The last chapter on ‘Representing the Tradition of Liberation’ deals with some interesting aspects of society—consent, choice of renunciation versus leading a householder’s life and the role of family elders, as well as the masters of households.

The work draws attention to the conventional gender roles and attitudes, and the author makes the interesting point that the Jātakas ‘rarely represent women from higher status as renouncing the world’ (157). The ability of women to gain arahantship and their ‘determination and quality of leadership’ is contrasted with the ‘passive presence of daughters’ in the Jātakas. The need for parental consent for male and female renouncers, and, in some cases, also the approval of the king, needs to be noted. Pitching the monastic order vis-à-vis marriage, the author points out how the former was open to all, irrespective of age, appearance and status, whereas for marriage the requirements were different. The author shows that while describing worldly life, the texts paint women particularly in a negative way. Uma Chakravarti, in her seminal work on patriarchy, had brought to light how the notion of ‘strīsvabhāva’—that is, the innate nature of women to be trouble-makers—is held forth in the Jātakas and other literature. However, it is interesting to see how the author, while referring to Chakravarti, seems to shy away from using terms like strīsvabhāva or even drawing attention to the misogyny that is evident in these texts, which Alan Sponberg has shown to be an inherent aspect of this literature.

The book makes the important point, however, that these are, after all, ‘representations’—but it itself tends to take the representations literally without bringing in the undercurrent of vested interests that the compilers may have had with regard to patronage and popularity. The compilation of the texts involved conscious sortition, editing and compilation in order to showcase specific stories and hagiographies that would suit the interests and notions of the sangha. The world that is ‘imagined’ and presented in the texts has to be contextualised within the world in which these texts were compiled. When retrieving data on how the marriage within the household was envisaged in Early Indian thought, we have to first explore the instances when the household, familial issues and social relationships are discussed and what is the intention and purpose behind the authors discussing relationships within the household at that particular juncture. The oral, performative aspects of the texts also have to be kept in mind when addressing them as sources—very often narrative styles and the need to make a point throw up an exaggerated ‘reality’. We also have to keep in mind that most of these texts before the first century bc were probably orally transmitted.