Soon after its publication in 1965, this book earned recognition in anthropological and sociological circles as a pioneering and ethnographically rich account of the Hindu family indeed it has since become a classic. It has been widely cited and discussed and used as a text worldwide in courses on kinship.
In his foreword, Professor J.A. Barnes (then at the Australian National University) wrote: ‘Dr Madan’s study adds to our understanding of social behaviour in general, without restriction on region and epoch.’ Professor Leela Dube, in her 1974 review, wrote: ‘[This book] is the only full length published study focusing entirely on family and kinship as they function within Hindu society. It contains excellent ethnography, gives vivid details of various aspects of Pandit life, offers useful numerical and graphic data.’ Three decades later Professor Michael Witzel (Harvard) said: ‘The book was my “Bible” during the 1970s in my search for the literary traditions of the Kashmiri Pandits.’ This fiftieth anniversary edition contains a new preface by the author, who highlights the loss of the traditional Pandit way of life between the years of his fieldwork (1956–86) and now.
