The Term Gṛhastha and the (Pre)history of the Householder

This chapter investigates the words for “householder” in Vedic and early Dharma texts, pointing out that the standard word for “householder” in the latter, Sanskrit gṛhastha, is not found in previous texts. This suggests that it is a new coinage to cover a new conceptual role. It further appears that the term was a Sanskritized borrowing from Middle Indo-Aryan, where its Middle Indo Aryan equivalent is found in the Aśokan inscriptions and in early Buddhist texts.

The Gṛhastha in the Mahābhārata

This chapter presents a survey of terms and concepts related to the householder in the Mahābhārata. It gives a statistical overview of the key terms and provides an account of their relational contexts, especially in their juxtaposition to the wandering mendicant, and their positioning in various versions of āśrama systems. It also highlights the prominence given to the king as the maximal householder, particularly with respect to Yudhiṣṭhira. Finally, it offers some considerations to account for the diversity of the Mahābhārata’s presentation of the householder.

Householders, Holy and Otherwise, in the Nı̄ti and Kāma Literature

This chapter explores the use of terms for the “householder” in the extant nīti (statecraft) and kāma (erotics) texts of the classical period. It examines the word gṛhastha (“householder”), its synonyms gṛhamedhin, gṛhāśramin, and gṛhin, and its derivative gārhasthya (“householdership”). The chapter looks also at three other words for the “householder,” namely gṛhapatika, gṛhasvāmin, and kuṭumbin, which among these texts occur only in the Arthaśāstra of Kauṭilya. The gṛhastha, as the holy householder depicted in the āśrama system, sits on the margins of both statecraft and erotics as technical disciplines. It is pertinent only to what might be considered the ideological framework in which the technical heart of each tradition is embedded.

Gṛhastha in Aśoka’s Classification of Religious People

Aśoka in his inscriptions (3rd century BCE) uses the term pāṣaṇḍa to refer to organized religious groups, prominent among whose members were the homeless ascetics (pravrajita). He also refers to people who “stayed at home” (gṛhastha), juxtaposing this term to the two preceding ones. Aśoka’s gṛhastha householder is clearly a person dedicated to holiness, just as the ascetic. It is also probable that the pāṣaṇḍa groups contained both ascetics and householders either as members or in some kind of less formal affiliation. It is from this usage of the term that gṛhastha entered the Brahmanical vocabulary—especially within the newly created theological classification of the four āśramas—and became the central figure in the new genre of literature, Dharmaśāstra, that was invented probably around the third or fourth century BCE.

The Late Appearance of the Gṛhastha in the Vedic Domestic Ritual Codes as a Married Religious Professional

The Gṛhyasūtras (rulebooks of household ritual) might be expected to use the word gṛhastha, since it becomes the standard label for a married householder responsible for performing such rites. But in fact, when that role is mentioned, they employ older terms, suggesting that gṛhastha came into use only after the core works of the genre were composed, or that the ritualist authors were slow to accept it. The few occurrences we do find are in restricted contexts in supplementary chapters: in an appended list of penances (a penance for a gṛhastha vidyārthin, “a wisdom-seeker-who-stays-at-home,” Baudhāyana Gṛhyasūtra 4.12.1), and in two appendices that mention a gṛhastha alongside other individuals (including ascetics) worthy to be fed at rituals. This suggests that domestic ritual authorities in the era when the term was coming into use saw it as most applicable for depicting the married ritualist as a home-based religious professional comparable to an ascetic.

Householders and Housewives in Early Kāvya Literature

Early Buddhist kāvya contrasts the hassled life of a householder with the peaceful life of a forest hermit: the former is devoid of tranquility and therefore militates against striving for liberation from saṃsāra. Those householders, however, who lead an exemplary life can make at least the first steps on the road leading to mokṣa. Early Prakrit kāvya brings not so much the householder but the housewife into focus, beside the figure of the wealthy landowner. In Kālidāsa’s works both household life and renunciation have their appointed time and role, exemplified by the model kings of the Solar Dynasty.

Gṛhastha in the Śramaṇic Discourse

Stephanie Jamison suggests in her chapter of this volume that the Brahmanical authors of the Dharmasūtras borrowed the term gṛhastha from the śramaṇic discourse of the time. Aside from Aśoka’s inscriptions, this śramaṇic discourse may also be reflected in the earliest layer of the Buddhist Pāli canon. This chapter takes a closer look at these texts and its vocabulary for householders. A lexical survey shows that of the three most commonly used terms, gahaṭṭha (Sanskrit gṛhastha) is the least popular one. The other two, gahapati (Sanskrit gṛhapati) and gihin (Sanskrit. gṛhin) are much more common and also more clearly distinguished in their usage, with positive and negative connotations, respectively. The chapter suggests that precisely the fact that it was the least specific and most flexible term may have made gahaṭṭha/gṛhastha attractive for Brahmanical appropriation.

Gṛhasthas Don’t Belong in the Rāmā̄yaṇa

This chapter explores the position of the gṛhastha in the Rāmāyaṇa primarily through its striking absence—the concept is not found in the text with the exception of one verse. It properly contextualizes this single reference and explore a number of other references to other “life-modes” to show where the Rāmāyaṇa sits ideologically in relation to the development of the āśrama system. Ultimately, it becomes clear that the Rāmāyaṇa has no narrative concern for a codified system of āśramas and the fluidity of the life-modes as depicted in the epic allowed the author of the Rāmāyaṇa to effectively ignore the gṛhastha, an institution we have come to accept as quintessential to the classical Hindu worldview.

The Householder in Early Dharmaśāstra Literature

This chapter provides a historical and philological analysis of the Brahmanical householder as he is portrayed in the early Dharmaśāstra literature and also in the Mahābhāṣya of Patañjali. Specifically, it focuses on the precise meanings, connotations, and usages of the various terms employed by these texts to denote a householder or married man. It ends by listing the various terms for householder used by early Dharmaśāstra texts in their probable order of introduction to the dharma tradition; presenting succinctly the precise meanings or range of meanings of these words; and providing brief histories of their usage within early Dharmaśāstra.

Pāṣaṇḍa

This chapter studies the term pāṣaṇḍa and its Middle Indic equivalents in literature from the last centuries BCE through the first centuries of the Common Era. In later Brahminical and non-Brahminical traditions, it is a term that characterizes “heretical” teachings and communities. This chapter shows that in earlier texts, however, pāṣaṇḍa is normally a neutral term for a religious community characterized by a dharma. It then attempts to define the nature of such religious communities in the Aśokan inscriptions. In particular, it addresses the question of whether Aśoka includes “householders” as members of such religious communities or not.