10 Facts About Suvira Jaiswal

Suvira Jaiswal is known for her research into the social history of ancient India, especially the evolution of the caste system and the development and absorption of regional deities into the Hindu pantheon.

Suvira Jaiswal obtained a master's degree in history from Allahabad University.

Suvira Jaiswal received her doctorate under at the guidance of Ram Sharan Sharma at Patna University.

Suvira Jaiswal was a professor at the Centre for Historical Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University from 1971 until her retirement in 1999.

In 2007, Jaiswal was the General President of the Indian History Congress.

Suvira Jaiswal has researched the evolution of the caste system in India, its origins and functions.

Suvira Jaiswal showed that in the period of the Rig Veda, the caste system hadn't yet become the complex hierarchy of later periods.

Suvira Jaiswal showed that the grihapati, previously thought to be a head of a family, was in fact the leader of an extended kin-group, and that the transition from a pastoral to a sedentary mode of production led to increased social stratification with the grihapati becoming an archetype of the patriarchal principle.

Suvira Jaiswal showed that neither skin colour and notions of race were the basis of caste differentiation.

Suvira Jaiswal determined that there were consequences to specialist economic roles, endogamy and hierarchical society: the systematic suppression of women as a class.