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...