Kinship, Caste and Class Test - 1

Panini was a grammarian from approximately 5th century BC. In the book 'Ashtadhyayi ', he described the structure of Sanskrit completely in 3959 aphorisms, or  sutras . Ashtadhyayi is one of the earliest known grammars of Sanskrit.

The  Satavahana  queens played pivotal role in the administration of the Satavahana State. Many inscriptions of the Satavahana rulers mention the names of their mothers, rather than those of their fathers, such as Gotami-puta Siri-Satakani, son of Gotami. The Satvahana kings usually used the name of their mothers as their initials.

According to Dharmashastras and Dharmasutras, Brahmanas were supposed to study and teach Vedas, Kshatriyas were to engage in warfare, Vaishyas to engage in agriculture, pastrolism and trade; while Shudras were assigned only to serve the upper three Varnas.

Each gotra was named after a Vedic seer, and all those who belonged to the same gotra were regarded as his descendants.

Duryodhana invited Pandavas to stay in a specially prepared house of lac. He planned to set the house on fire. Forewarned, the Pandavas dug a tunnel to ensure their escape.

In the Mahabharata, Nishadas are mentioned as tribes that have the hills and the forests their abode. They are linked with a king called Vena who became a slave of wrath and malice, and became unrighteous. Ekalavya was an archer of a Nishada tribe.

Mandasor stone inscription records the migration of silk weavers from Lata (Gujarat) to Mandasor. The local king was a great ruler. They took this difficult journey with their family to settle in his kingdom.

Kuru was a Vedic Aryan tribal union in northern Iron Age India, encompassing modern-day Delhi, Haryana, Uttarakhand and Western Uttar Pradesh, which appeared in the Middle Vedic period (c. 1200 –c. 850 BCE) and developed into the first recorded state-level society in South Asia around 1000 BCE. It was the dominant political and cultural center of the middle Vedic Period, but declined in importance during Late Vedic period (c.850-500 BCE), and by the Mahajanapada period in the 5th century BCE.

Names of several generations of Satavahana rulers have been recovered from various inscriptions. Every name has a uniform title  raja and every name  ends with the term ‘puta ’, a Prakrit word meaning “son ”.

In the same manner, Exogamy refers to marriage outside the unit, caste or a group living in different locality.