Of-Meta Narratives and ‘Master’ Paradigms: Sexuality and Reification of Women in Early India

Abstract

Transitional moments in history have typically been associated with ‘events’, understood initially as political: new dynasties, wars, and such moments shaping ‘history’ in the rise-and-fall mode of marking the passage of time. In India, this periodisation of history  led to outlining the rise and the decline of the Magadhan Empire, or the decline of the Mughal Empire, as if there is, or can be, an inherent stability to political power.