________________
96
A CULTURAL STUDY OF THE NISITHA CURNI
Aryans who had developed a high social life from the earliest times. Family
Family (kula) was the nucleus of all social activities of the individual, and society was but an aggregate of such families. 1 Birth in a particular family higher or lower (ibbha’ or jumgiya:) determined the social status of a man, and we find various kulas belonging to all the four Varņas, viz. Bambhaņakula, Khattiya-kula, Vaniya-kula and Sudda-kula.
The pattern of the family was a joint one (samanna.ghara), in which the uncles (pitȚvya), brothers (bhrata), grandfather (pitamaha) and grandsons (pautraka) lived together under the same roof and followed the common customs (ega-savvd-samacari).. Every thing spiritual or material must have been shared by them in common. "Joint in food, worship and estate' has been the ideal of Hindu Joint Family, and Kautilya also lays down that the members of a family must live in the same abode, partake the food cooked in the same kitchen, and enjoy the common property."
The following six relations, i.e. mother, father, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters were the prime members of the family. They have been called 'blood-relations' or members united due to the relationship of a common umbilicalcord (malabaddha). Besides these six family members, the other 1. Agrawala, V. S., India as known to Panini, p. 93. 2. NC. 2, p. 433. 3. NC. 2, p. 243. 4. NC. 3, p. 413. 5. NC 2, p. 140. 6. fazati, TM, Cate:, 07:--104 cm: 37621- toag af
et Hal Alert-NC. 4, p. 86. According to Kautilya also the family includes children, wife, mother, father, minor brothers, sisters or widowed daughters-Arthasāstra,
p. 47. 7. Arthašāstra, p. 190. 8. TEITH_Ara font HT afruft get al-NC. 4, p. 86; BỊh. Vg.
4. p. 1267.
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
