modes of religious life—that of the
householder, which is based in the
world, and that of the ascetic, which
renounces the world. The latter ideal
originated with the religious adepts
known as the shramanasand evolved
into the monastic asceticismof the
Buddhists and Jains, which was por-
trayed as a superior religious path than
the householder’s life. Both these groups
were highly influential—the Jains had a
significant presence in southern Indian
society up to the eighth century C.E.—
and it is generally accepted that the pat-
tern of the four ashramas was evolved as
a way to appropriate and transform this
stress on ascetic life. The doctrine of the
four stages provided a place and time for
asceticism, but as the last stage, at the
end of one’s life. The clear message was
that one should engage in the search for
religious truth only after fulfilling one’s
social and ancestral duties.
Steya
(“theft”) In the dharma literature, one
of the Four Great Crimeswhose com-
mission made one an outcast from soci-
ety; steya was theft of a brahmin’sgold,
above a certain specified amount. One
guilty of this crime was to go to the king
bearing an iron club and receive a blow
to the head intended to be fatal. This
blow would absolve the sin, whether or
not one actually died, although one
was also expected to restore the stolen
property. For lesser amounts of gold the
punishment was less severe and satis-
fied by fasting (upavasa) and other
penance (prayashchitta). The stress on
the seriousness of this sin clearly reflects
the interests of the brahmins, who
undoubtedly wrote most of the
dharma literature.
Sthala Murti
(“fixed image”) Image of a deitythat is
fixed in a certain place and does not
move from it (in the case of stone
images, this is often because such
images are so large and heavy that
moving them is virtually impossible).
The other sort of image is the utsava
murti, a movable image used during
festival processions.Sthunakarna
In the Mahabharata, the later of the two
great Hindu epics, Sthunakarna is a
nature spirit (yaksha) who exchanges
sexes with Shikhandi, the rebirth of
the maiden Amba, daughter of the
king of Kashi.Stridhan
(“woman’s wealth”) Term denoting any
property owned or inherited by a
woman, which usually included any
gifts given to her by her family or money
that she earned herself. In the patrilineal
inheritancesystems prescribed by texts
such as the Mitakshara and the
Dayabhaga, stridhan was not consid-
ered part of the family property, but a
woman’s personal property that she
could dispose of as she pleased.
Stridhan could be inherited, but the
inheritance patterns were different than
those for family property. The primary
inheritors were a woman’s daughters;
for womenwith no daughters, the own-
ership would devolve to her husband
and his heirs, or to her birth family.Stridharma
Term denoting “women’sreligious duty”
(dharma), the set of social roles, rules,
and duties broadly conceived as apply-
ing to all women. In the dharma litera-
ture, it was generally assumed that
appropriate women’s roles were as
daughters, wives, and mothers, and that
their lives would be primarily defined by
their relationships with men—whether
fathers, brothers, husbands, or sons. As
described in the dharma literature, their
position seems to have had status, but
little authority. One well-known passage
from the Manu Smrti warns that a
woman must never be independent, but
always under the guardianship of a man;
this is followed by an equally famousSteya