Both the ancient Chinese and the ancient Indian cultures were patriarchal. Women were subordinate to men and children answered to their parents, but mainly their father. Both cultures followed a type of class system with a chance for social mobility, although both class systems differed slightly from the other.
In the ancient Indian world, women were expected to be subservient to men. We have seen this in the Ramayana. After rescuing Sita, Rama would not accept her back because she may have been raped while held in captivity. "Wives were instructed to be attentive to their husbands" needs and ready to obey their every command." .
Family was important in Indian culture.
" [B]y the middle centuries of the last millennium B.C.E., the extended family was increasingly regarded as the ideal. Those who could support such large households, which normally meant only the highest caste groups, gathered all the male members of a given family and their wives and children under the same roof. At times up to four generations, from great-grandparents to their great-grandsons and great-granddaughters, lived together in the same dueling or family compound." .
In ancient India the caste system had four Varnas, or classes: The Brahmans, which were the priests; the Kshatriyas, which included the rulers and warriors; the Vaishyas, which were the landowners and merchants; and the Shudras, which were the servants. Other than that there were the people too polluted to be included in the caste system, the Pariyas. This group had people like clothes washers, or street sweepers and shoemakers in it. Within the castes of the Indian culture, there are sub castes, called Jati. These sub castes are defined by occupation and would determine such things as marriage and even who your eating partners would be at a feast. There was hope for social mobility, only not in the same sense as the Chinese with their civil service exam.
