.png)
In standard Sanskrit texts, Bhagiratha's lineage follows traditional succession. However, regional Bengali texts from the 14th to the 17th centuries introduce a significant shift, depicting him as the child of two mothers.
To understand this, I look at the historical conditions of medieval Bengal. The story provides insight into:
Socio-Legal Resistance: How the narrative counters the strict property blockages imposed on medieval widows.
Early Biological Understandings: The use of the Sushruta Samhita to explain the physical condition of the newborn child.
Historical Vocabulary: How concepts like svairini from historical texts describe non-normative roles outside conventional structures.
The narrative indicates that these authors were using regional variants to explore complex ideas of fertility and lineage during a shifting legal era.
Read the full analysis here:
