Aryans without caste - 11

...The Vedic people lived in a society where the appeasement of gods was supposed to determine the welfare of the tribe and success in the wars. This played a very important crucial role in the development of Varna system and the spread of cultural hegemony of Brahmans. The appeasement of gods had become a specialized function of the society. It involved long intricate complex rituals and chanting of mantras. These had become so complex that they had to be rigorously learned from people who had already specialized in them, the Rishis. They were important because the welfare of whole of the tribe supposedly depended upon them because they could invoke the divine help without which no war could be won. So much depended on gods in war means that the opposing sides were more or less equally matched and thus nobody was confident of the victory. The invocation of divine help was a must. The appeasements of gods were mainly in the form of performing the Yagyas and associated animal sacrifices. The Yagyas were actually fire worship used to invoke the Vedic gods. In the Yagyas chanting of complex mantras was used and animal were sacrificed to appease or invoke the gods like Indra, Varun and others. The mantras chanted in Yagya ceremonies were had to be correct to last detail including pronunciation. Anything out of sequence in chanting of mantras was a terrible disaster along with any wrong pronunciation. A small error and chanting mantras was supposed to anger the gods and was sufficient to bring the wrath of gods on its performers and the king and on whole of tribe by implication. A faulty invocation of gods was supposed to be sufficient for brining divine retribution and only very skilled Rishis could have avoided it. This divine wrath had to be avoided and at the same time the blessings of gods were needed to be achieved in war. This increased the importance of Rishis who could verbatim recite the mantras without a single pronunciation error and without a single small error. The importance of people possessing such skills became paramount; it helped them to attain the highest position in the society. Incidentally, the Yagyas involved butchering which was relegated to untouchable profession in the times to come. The perfect disowning and outcasting the profession of butchering is completely surprising. However, non-performance of Yagyas by a king meant defying Rishis and as a result the god. Such a king was not supposed to be looking after the welfare of the tribe and could have been responsible for bringing divine retribution on the society. He was supposedly putting his tribe at risk. This meant weakening of his hold over tribe’s people. The non-performance of Yagyas meant displeasing the gods resulting in an invitation to divine retribution. No tribe (Visha) member (Vaisya?) could have a faith in a king who was harming welfare of the tribe by displeasing the powerful gods. Such a king was putting his tribe in peril. Any defeat in war could have been easily attributed to non-performance of Yagyas or faulty invocation of gods during Yagyas – this means politics at work. Thus, he invariable had to perform them and it became a cultural and political necessity. The rituals became religious elements and also political weapons at the hands of Rishis performing Yagyas. These Rishis were the most powerful people in Vedic society. The mantras they chanted were supposed to possess awesome power in them of invoking the gods. They were powerful as they could always refuse to perform Yagyas and make the king look like anti-tribe because he could not get Rishis to perform the Yagyas for the welfare of tribe. The fear of divine retribution always helped the Rishis and gave them enormous power. Only they could manage the gods correctly. Nobody could have touched because they were supposed to have divine power to give curse and punish the opponent. And there was no way to escape this curse, further it could not be taken back. Thus Rishis who could do so were greatly in demand because they were short in numbers. The threat of s divine retribution is also very clearly indicated in Gita – the show piece of Hindu religion to outside world...

Aryans without caste - 10

...The shifting of Aryans from place to place also indicates a strong resistance offered by local people to Aryans. Only when small Aryan tribes combined to form big tribes; they become large enough to subdue the local kings. After subduing the local kings or arriving at a compromise with them, the Rig Vedic people were able to take up agriculture and start living a relatively comfortable life as compared to their original professions of cattle rearing and plundering. The agriculture in Vedas is known as the occupation of defeated people which also indicates a long drawn out low intensity warfare for the control over upper north India. It also tells that the agriculture was the technology of natives of India.

We have already mentioned that with the introduction of agriculture in Vedic society, which they learned from local people; the Rig Vedic dharma called Rita met its demise. This religion was not the same Sanatana dharma as at present but a cosmic or divine order indeed.

With political supremacy in upper north India there was a need to assimilate the original people of India into Aryan thread based communities. The agriculture made it possible to produce more than what the people needed. The socially and politically dominant people extracted the food surplus from others who worked on the land. The introduction of agriculture started the division of Aryan society. This division was new to Rig Vedic people and with it the Rig Vedic society also ended. In addition the Sanskrit also lost its Rig Vedic form. The privileged groups of people emerged in the society. The similarly privileged individuals formed a group which could be called homogenous. After this the Varnas were born. The Varnas were not created in a day. They came into existence one by one through coming together of similar people at the top. They appear in the society in the time sequence of Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas and Shudras. Later one more group also emerged at the lowest end of the society. This was the group of untouchable which now form 20 % of Hindu society or about 200 millions in numbers. These are the wretched lot. Bad luck when it pours for these people then it pours and poura as it has been pouring for last 2500 years and shows no signs of stopping...

Aryans without caste- 9

...The Rig Vedic life of Aryans was very tough and filled with poverty. One reason was the inter-tribal wars and other was the low level of sustenance provided by nomadic economy. Another reason was the tough resistance faced by the Aryans from the local population. In fact they were chased from place to place due to their defeat at the hands of local chieftains which is evident from their frequent requests for divine help from gods to be victorious in wars and in plundering. The natural and forced movements from place to place prevented them from taking up a settled life. The Rig Vedic people lived among Dasas, Dasyus, the noseless people, Panis, Aja, Shigru, Yaksha, Matsya, Kiril and people who spoke bitter language. Therefore, it cannot be said that the Rig Vedic people were living in vacuum or they came and populated the Sapta-Sandhav region. Panis were the much hated people who stole the cattle of Rig Vedic people. The other great enemies were the Dasyus who had frequent war with the Aryans at that time. These people were the original people of India who were defeated ultimately through war, diplomacy, matrimonial alliances and cultural means. The culture of performing Yagyas became most in demand for which Rig Vedic Rishis were needed. This assumed ability of Rishis and Brahmans of bringing gods to the side performing yagyas helped in a significen manner in spread of their influence and Sanatana dharma which development in cultural hegemony of Brahmans. The all powerful Rishis were forerunners of all later powerful Brahmans. At present all the Brahmans trace their patrinilieal lineage from Vedic Rishis.

The Rig Vedic people were not able to take up agriculture because of resistance from the natives. The other reason for not taking up agriculture might have been that the Aryans considered themselves superior to native people and refused to copy their mode of living which they consider as inferior. This feeling of superiority might have been due to their fair skin. This mode of thinking indicates a kind of racism and might have provided seeds for the later discriminatory Varna system. The other reason might be that they considered the agriculture as inferior occupation because of the use of manual labor which rendered it below their level and thus demeaning for the people used to fight with arms. This also indicates seeds for the development of discriminatory Varna system. Otherwise, there seems to be no reason for not taking up agriculture by Rig Vedic people, which was quite beneficial as compared to nomadic life which barely providing sustainable life, and no comforts. These comforts became available to later days Kshatriyas and Brahmans and theory of Karma was developed to safeguard these comforts till eternity...

Aryans without caste - 8

...The Harappan people have not left any written records and as such their history is not known. Their script which has about 400 characters is still to be deciphered. So it cannot be said with any certainty that they did not have the hereditary caste system. However, the well developed nature of their cities indicates that they also had a stratified social structure like any other civilization of their times. In absence of any records about Harappan civilization the Hindu scriptures become our main source of knowledge about social structure in this sub-continent. It does make sense because word “Varna” makes it appearance in connection with the groups which emerged during later the Vedic period.


However, the agriculture was nearly absent from the life of Rig Vedic people for full 600 years. Agriculture, as compared to cattle rearing, is superior occupation. In turn the cattle rearing is superior to hunting. In pastoral economy one has a ready supply of meat but this supply of food is not as certain as in agriculture. The difference lies in relative control over nature in both the activities. In agriculture there is assured supply of surplus food which comes from relatively higher man’s control over the nature. It gives more benefits compared to pastoral life. The pastoral life is barely a sustenance life with little surplus. The food available in a cattle stock economy depends on the natural growth rate of the cattle stock. The nomadic life also necessitated the movement from one place to another place in search of new pastures. This migration from place to place had inherent uncertainties attached with it. It also resulted in waging small wars with other Aryan tribes and the natives. It also meant poverty as compared to agricultural societies. Agriculture allows one to have sufficient surplus and a well-settled relatively comfortable life avoiding hardship of moving from one place to another. It is surprising that the Aryans who were surrounded by agriculturist communities refused to take up the agriculture for an extremely long period of 600 years. The Rig Vedic Aryans were surrounded by small village based agricultural communities. The contemporary presence of agriculture in Sapta-Sandhav cannot be denied since it was the place of urban Harappan civilization which was based on agriculture, manufacturing and trade. Though the Harappan civilization had declined the agriculture had survived. It is strange that those who claimed that the Vedas contain knowledge about everything had the ancestors who did not know a thing about agriculture. This perfect knowledge had the imperfection of ignorance about agriculture. This they had to learn from the natives of India. This land taught them the agriculture. The natives of India were set to become impure Shudras excluding their kings...

Aryans without caste - 7

......The great Harappan urban civilization had already declined before Rig Vedic people entered India. In its glorious days it was two steps ahead of nomadic Rig Vedic Aryan civilization. Earlier, the Harappan civilization had already passed the nomadic and agricultural stages and established itself at the next higher stage of civilization – the urban civilization. The Aryans had not even come up to the next higher level of agriculture which is clear from absence of agricultural word from their vocabulary. The next step of developing urban centers was far ahead; they were backward in this sense. In terms of civilization the Aryans were inferior people. They did not even know agriculture which they had to borrow from the natives of India.

These backward tribal Aryans were destined to move from lower level of nomadic level to higher level of city culture but before that they had to take up agriculture and start living a settled village life. The nomadic life is normally characterized by absence of food surplus. These shifting pastoral tribes, with small populations, were not capable of forming kingdoms. At most they could plunder other Aryan tribes and communities of native people. The early nomadic Aryan tribes did not live in settled villages. They constantly moved from one place to another along with their cattle and horses in search of greener pastures or to avoid the attackers. Ultimately they took up the higher level of agriculture and then city culture but in the process they classified certain people (Shudras) as inherently impure and some as inherent polluted (Antyajas) – it was indeed a great achievement with an obsessive insistence on purity, supremacy and sacredness of Vedas. As we will see that for the purpose of giving divine authentication to their Varna system they rigged the most ancient and sacred of scriptures – the Rig Veda....

Aryans withoyt caste - 6

...The Rig Vedic Aryans took up the agriculture with an inordinate delay of 600 years. They came to India in about 1500 BC and took up agriculture only in later Vedic period, which starts from 900 BC onwards. But before they could take up the agriculture and form large village based communities one more thing had to happen. This was the demise of Rig Vedic way of life of communes. It was the end of Rita, the cosmic order, which was the religion of Rig Vedic people. The Rig Vedic dharma emphasized on commune living, common ownership of tribal wealth (cattle stock) and equal distribution of tribal wealth and captured cows. In addition it meant devotion to Vedic gods and fire mode of worship and a cosmic order. Only fire worship, thread ceremony and Rig Veda were to survive and rest of the things were confined to dustbin of history. The transformation took placed under the aegis of newly acquired agricultural technology. This dharma called Rita was later to be replaced by eternal Sanatan dharma based on Chaturvarna system which was to make living hell out of lives of uncountable people in coming ages. The sickening durability of this hellish system is surprising.

Over a period of time especially in the later Vedic period (or later three Vedas), the agriculture came to acquire a prominent place in the Aryan society when they took up the superior occupation of defeated native people. By this time the Aryans had lost the character of a race and got intermixed with local people through mixing of blood and alliances with local kings with whom the Rig Vedic people had won and lost many wars. But they were winners, ultimately, through diplomatic and war like means. Their region extended from Sapta-Sandhav to Ganga and Yamuna with many Janapadas and Mahajanapadas (small kingdom like territories). As a result of this intermixing, the color of skin had changed from white to light brown and other darker versions. The Vedic people settled on land copying the technique of agriculture of native people. The small tribes combined and formed big tribes. These big tribes in turn formed small kingdoms in the upper northern parts of Indian sub-continent...

Aryans without caste -5

...The cow was such an important animal for the Rig Vedic people that they attacked other tribes to capture their cows. Any attack was certainly a matter of life and death. It was also necessary because cows were required for their survival. It was a cause worth fighting for - getting killed or kill. The term Gavasti (going for cows) in Vedas meant going for attack. These attacks were lightening in nature that caught the enemy by surprise. The reason for this was the small size of each tribe which limited the number of warriors available for such purpose. Secondly, the sustained warfare required an uninterrupted supply of food which was not available due to lack of agriculture. They still had not learnt the technology of agriculture from natives and hence unable to conquer them. From this we can decipher that agriculturist natives had a higher level of civilization. The Rig Veda is full of low intensity warfare which indicates the small groups continuously fighting each other. Because of small size of tribes no large attack on natives was possible. There could be only low intensity warfare and running away after a defeat and with loot after a victory. A stable life was not possible in such a state of warfare for pastoral people. The Rig Vedic people kept moving from one place to another. This movement was necessitated by the need to attack other tribes and to escape from other attacking tribes and retaliation from native people whose land or the portion of land they temporarily occupied. Another reason was to search for the greener pastures for their all-important asset – the cows – which were to be reared and eaten. This life style was the result of neglecting agriculture by the Aryans. The people involved in agriculture generally live a much better settled life with a relatively assured supply of food. They live in well-settled villages among other agriculturists resulting in much less bloodshed.

The cattle ownership and distribution of plunder was common to whole of the tribe. Therefore there was no question of division of society into different functional Varnas or castes. It was necessarily a community based living which prevented the formation of castes. There was only one king and only one priest. Their kith and kin did not enjoy any special powers because whole of the tribe was made up of kith and kin only. The people other than the king or priest were commoners who were engaged in cattle rearing and warfare. The cattle rearing, which enjoyed the place of pride and was the mainstay of Rig Vedic people, was later going to be degraded to Shudra level. No more wars were going to be fought for capturing them. Its place was to be taken by the land. It was a jump from cow grazing to land cultivating. Considering the commune nature of society, it is futile to look for hereditary groups having different graded occupations...

Aryans without caste -4

.....The cattle stock in Rig Vedic period was the wealth of whole of the tribe; it was commonly owned. They were dependent on hunting and cattle rearing. When required they plundered other Aryan tribes and native people. There was no group wise grading in the commune based society. The private property institute was absent, No claim on land could be made since the tribe itself kept on moving from one place to another. All the cattle belonged to whole of the tribe. There was one king who sometime doubled as priest also. He was above others but had to function under the regulation of Sabha (committee) of the tribe. He did not have divinely ordained inheritable position of later days Brahmans and Kshatriyas.

These people moved along the banks of life giving rivers. The river Sindhu and Sarawati assume great importance in Rig Veda. The river Sindhu is now known as river Indus. The source of food was mainly hunting and cattle stock. The grain was not substantive part of the diet. Their food naturally included milk and dairy products. But alone, these are never sufficient for human body. So definitely the meat formed a major portion of their food. The source of daily meat was hunting. When the hunting was scarce, the livestock became the source of food. The cattle were killed and eaten meaning killing of cows also. However, in later times the cow eating was downgraded to the prohibited level and cow killing became the second highest crime next only to killing of Brahman. The people made a complete somersault to achieve this position in their coming eternal religion – the current Sanatana dhama. The eating of cow was downgraded to become a heathen act but, strangely, their beef-eating ancestors remained great. In the period after Rig Veda the cow came to be killed for feeding the guests. This invariably included butchering of cow and other animals which in fact was one of the major activities of Rig Vedic people. This profession of butchering was later to belong to the untouchables – actually it should not surprise anybody. To make them pure and more pure, the Brahmans degraded others as much as they could. Another important activity was that of skinning the dead cows and other animals. The skinning gains importance due to near absence of cotton from Rig Veda. The skins were used as clothes by Rig Vedic Aryans and also used to make tents to live in. This activity was later downgraded to untouchable level. The fire was also important as an object of worship and also for roasting the animals for the purpose of eating. In addition it also kept wild animal away. For worshipping they had Indra, Varun , Agni and Vayu and other gods. These gods were invoked to assure the victory in a war as well as for improving the general welfare of the tribe. The importance of war preparing ceremony and fire’s part in it was extreme - almost beyond describable point. These extremely and crucial activities were known Yagnyas...

Aryans without caste - 3

........The people who came to India developed a culture which was to dominate this mammoth land for thousands of years. These people known as Indo-Aryans developed their own scriptures. However, these scriptures are not known outside India. The oldest of these scriptures are four Vedas. The oldest is Rig Veda then come Sama Veda, Yajur Veda and Atharva Veda. These Vedas are most sacred and most ancient


Among Vedas the Rig Veda is the oldest one and written in old Sanskrit similar to Sanskrit of Avesta or Indo-Iranians. The word Veda is derived from word “vidit” which means “told”. This actually means that the Veda are word of god and hence immutable. Another word for Vedas is “shrutis” which means “heard”. The Vedas, the word of God, were heard by the Rishis from the God himself in the solitude of forests. The Rishis did not compose the earliest of scriptures; they heard them from God and they merely remembered them verbatim. The other major scriptures are Brahmans, Puranas, Dharma Shastras and epics of Mahabharat and Ramayana.

The period during which the Vedas were composed is roughly divided into two phases. First phase is called Rig Vedic period during which Rig Veda was heard and second phase is called later Vedic period during which other three Vedas were heard. The Rig Vedic period is taken to be from 1500 BC to 900 BC and later Vedic period is taken to be from 900 BC to 600 BC. There are two main differences between these two periods. First is that the language used in Rig Vedic period is old Sanskrit which is similar to the Sanskrit of Avesta, the language of Indo-Iranians – the separated brothers of Indo-Aryans. The Sanskrit used in later Vedas is different. The second important difference is the importance of agriculture in Aryan society. The agriculture in Rig Veda plays a little role. It is indeed a critical factor. The most important thing was the cattle stock in this period. The villages or tribes were always moving from one place to another. The economy was pastoral in nature involving a lot of movement from one place to another, in search of new pastures and avoiding the attacks from other tribes. The attacks were mainly to capture the cows. On the other hand the economy in later Vedic period is agricultural based which almost changed everything. This was characterized by the settled life in villages and joining of different tribes in bigger units. In this period the importance of cattle stock declined. The Varna system was developed under the aegis of agriculture in later Vedic period. It is significant to note that in Rig Veda the absence of agriculture is matched by the absence of Varna system......

Aryans without caste -2

....To begin with there was no Sanatan dharma or any of the Vedas or any such cosmic order which could be called dharma. The Aryan people lived in a nomadic community worshipping the gods related to natural powers like Indra (rain god,) Vayu (air god), and Varuna (water god) etc. Inter tribal conflicts among them were common as well as the conflicts with the natives of India. Without agriculture these tribes depended on meat of their cattle stock and plundering others’ cattle stock. Later these experts in beef eating gave up beef eating and degraded it to prohibited level. They forgot their roots – amazing, is it not!!!

They descended in the region of Sapta-Sandhav (land of seven rivers) populated by village based communities and most probably agriculture-based small kingdoms of native people. These natives of India were later to be characterized as Shudras – the lowest in order in Varna system.

The Aryans moved out of their homeland of southern Russian steppes around 1500 BC. These steppes are generally identified with the Aryan homeland because it tallies with the description of large green land of Aryans. There are signs of outward movement of people from this region around 1500 BC. Some of them moved in the direction of Southeast. They came to present day Afghanistan and settled along the banks of river Saraswati (Harhawati). These tribes were separated after a violent quarrel which is indicated in the demonizing one’s deities by the other. One of the Aryan groups that came to India came to be known as Indo-Aryans. The other group that went to Iran came to be known as Indo-Iranians. The group which came to India claimed Devas as their deities and Asuras as demons. The group which went to Iran claimed Asuras as their deities and Devas as demons. These two groups went on to develop separate life styles. They lost touch with each other. However, there are four additional links between them. First the language they used was almost the same – old Rig Vedic Sanskrit; second the thread ceremony, which is performed when a boy comes of age, was common to them; third the fire worship was also common to them; and fourth was the intoxicating drink of Soma/homa....

Aryans wihtout caste - 1

.........India, a country in south Asia, is a perplexing and mammoth land with a long history. It is a home to many languages, religions, cults, ethnicities and caste system. Its inhabitants follow Hindu, Buddhist, Christian and Muslim religions. About eighty percent population follows Hindu religion. The diversity found here is amazing. Some consider it a power house of spirituality with gross disregard to Western materialism. Its still ancient society is based on caste. The caste is still the unofficial system of India.
The caste system or Chaturvarna has four Varnas viz. Brhaman, Kshatriya, Vaisya and Shudra in socially descending order. There is one more, large group, below the Shudra, called Untouchables. There are thousands endogamous castes/jatis belonging to each Varna. If left to itself, it is an unchanging system and tends to keep some specific people permanently at the top. And the same deprived group, permanently, at the bottom. It is operates through an inheritance system, where not only the wealth, but also social status and occupations, social/economic disabilities are transferred to an individual by birth. The marriages take place on endogamous basis.
To get an idea about this insensitive social system we have to go to the times when nomadic Aryans tribes entered India.

Around 1500 BC, the agricultureless, casteless, moving on horses the Aryan tribes arrived in North-Western region of Indian sub-continent. They moved in search of greener pastures for their cattle stock. The tribes came after tribes in succession; most probably having 2000 members in each. All the Aryan tribes, living without agriculture, lived a separate life until they combined. However, this process took 600 years to be really effective. These egalitarian, casteless, meat-eating people were later to create the Chaturvarna system with its related notion of inherent purity and inherent impurity with related social and power structure. This system gave rise to heinous, cruel and eternal system of untouchability which made the life a living hell for a large number of people. These eternal exploiters took pride in developing such an eternal system. They still take pride in it. And occasionally the blood of Untouchables is splattered on the earth for its cause. This causes the terror to be entrenched in the victims’ minds forever. And we will see in the chapter related to Karma doctrine that these victims, whose blood is splattered on the ground for dreaming, are the culprits!!.........