In 1919, a remarkable scholarly endeavor commenced, spearheaded by the renowned Indian Sanskritist, V.S. Sukthankar. This ambitious project aimed to create a critical edition of the Mahabharata. To accomplish this monumental task, a dedicated team comprising numerous scholars was assembled. Their primary objective was to collect Sanskrit manuscripts of the text, penned in diverse scripts, from various regions across the country.

The central story of Mahabharat reinforced the idea of which of the following practices being practiced around the 6th Century BCE and even later?

Patriliny

While patriliny had existed prior to the composition of the epic, the central story of the Mahabharata reinforced the idea that it was valuable. Under patriliny, sons could claim the resources (including the throne in the case of kings) of their fathers when the latter died. Most ruling dynasties (c. sixth century BCE onwards) claimed to follow this system, although there were variations in practice: sometimes there were no sons, in some situations brothers succeeded one another, sometimes other kinsmen claimed the throne, and, in very exceptional circumstances, women such as Prabhavati Gupta exercised power.