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...