Shudra 7

...Not only this Karana had to suffer humiliation in his later days because his Shudra identity of impure origin - the people born from impure feet. How could he aspire to marry a princess? If a king wants to marry a commoner then it is properly proper. But a Shudra and a Kshatriya princess? The thought was sufficient to throw the lawmakers in a nauseating mental turmoil.

There was a princess in Mahabharata who played major part in the epic. She belonged to Panchala kingdom. Her father was the king of Panchala kingdom. He organized a Swayamvar for his daughter in question; her name was Draupadi. A Swayamvar was the occasion where only that Kshatriya who fulfilled the condition to marry the girl was permitted to marry her. It was a kind of choosing the most capable groom for the girl. The king Drupad invited all the Kshatriyas in the Swayamvar for his daughter. Karana along with Kauravas also went to Swayamvar. Many kings and Kshatriyas were present there to try their luck. There was a condition to marry Draupadi; only the one who could pierce the eye of a fish could marry her. The fish was placed on a top of a pole and a wheel was moving under it. One had to shoot the arrow while standing beneath the moving wheel near the pole by looking down at the reflection of fish in a vessel filled with water placed on the ground. If Eklavya’s thumb was not cut off and if the competition was open to all the warriors then he could have won it hands down. But that would have caused the pure lawmakers to suffer from nightmares. Their pure digestive system could not have digested it. Vomiting was certain indicating a high regard they had for the lower caste people. The kings after kings and Kshatriyas after Kshatriyas tried it but failed. So Karana got up to try his luck, he might have certainly done it. At once Draupadi objected saying that she did not want to marry a Shudra Suta-Putra. This made Karana stop then and there. No amount of bravery or skill or talent could convert a Shudra into a Kshatriya eligible to marry among Kshatriyas. He could have fought with them but not marry into them. None of the elders like Bhishma and Yudhister tried to justify the claim of Karana. Later in Mahabharata these two persons are found extolling the importance of deeds and Gunas in determining one’s Varna...

Shudra 6

...Then we have another example from another grand epic, Ramayana, which show how the people from lower castes were stopped from achieving spiritual peace. Not stopping them meant turning upside down the eternal dharma of intelligent people. Lord Rama, the king of Ayodhya returned after achieving a dharmic victory the demon king Ravana of Lanka and finishing a period of fourteen years in jungles. He is considered as a reincarnation of Lord Vishnu along with Lord Shri Krishna of Geeta fame. During his reign a Shudra called Shambuk started to perform the penance to attain spiritual peace. At the same time, a son of a Brahman fell ill. A group of Brahmanas joined together and took the ailing boy along with them to Lord Rama. Ram the king asked about the purpose of their visit. The Brahmans told him that the boy had fallen sick and therefore they had come to see him. Lord Rama said that the boy should have been taken to a physician to get the treatment and get cured. Then he was told that the boy had taken ill not due to natural sickness but because dharma was getting destroyed in his rule. Further the Brahmanas told him that a Shudra was performing penance as a result of which dharma was getting corrupted and destroyed. A Shudra was doing the adharmic deed of performing penance. His rule was becoming sinful. As a result of corruption of dharma the pious Brahman boy was taken ill. This was as simple as that. Nothing exponential logic was involved in that. The causation was there for any twice-born man to see. Only the heathen and brainless creatures could not see such pious logic. Only pious brain could give such a pious logic. The pious Brahmanas said that the only pious course of action was to kill this penance performing sinful Shudra to save the pious dharma. A single Shudra was posing grave danger to divinely ordained dharma. Somebody had to find a solution to this catastrophic problem. Any further delay would have resulted in the death of Brahman boy and king Rama would have been responsible that. The kings were supposed to uphold the dharma. A Shudra had committed the ghastly crime of transgressing upon the dharma of Brahmanas. The corruption of dharma had to be removed at any cost. Its sanctity had to be restored. A human being had defiled it. Therefore Lord Rama took his bow and arrow and went to forest where Shambuk was corrupting dharma by doing penance. Then Lord Rama showing his faith in Sanatana dharma killed armless and meditating Shambuk with a single shot. And behold, the Brahman boy got cured the moment Shambuk was killed thus justifying the causation of his sickness. In this story it is interesting to note that it was necessary for Brahmanas to ask Lord Rama to kill Shambuk. They themselves could have killed him but they chose a Kshatriya to do it to avoid committing the crime themselves. It also meant that the deeds do not define a Varna.

Then there is another example from Mahabharata where a Shudra (Suta-Putra, son of charioteer) was forced to fake his identity to learn the art of warfare. The Sutas were the Shudras and hence not eligible to learn the art of warfare. Karana was eldest of the Pandavas brothers. His mother was Kunti, same as mother of Pandavas of whom Arjuna is most famous. He was born before her marriage to Pandu. So she abandoned him to avoid social disgrace. He was brought by a Suta (a charioteer) of Kauravas who were cousins of Pandavas. Therefore he came to be known as Suta-Putra and hence dharmically ineligible to learn the art of warfare and wielding weapons. So it goes without saying that no high Varna teacher was willing to teach him. But he had a burning desire to learn the art of warfare and specially that of archery. So he went to a far away place where nobody knew him. He went to a renowned Brahman teacher who taught the art of wielding weapons to Brahmanas only. His name was Parshuram. He did not know the true identity of Karana. So Karana put on a sacred thread and claimed to be a Brahman before him. On knowing this Parshuram admitted him as his student. It is unethical to assume the identity of somebody else for personal gains but his inethicality paled before the inethicality of Brahmanas who gave false identities to all the people and prevented Shudras and those below them from fulfilling their dreams, their aspirations, their heart’s desire and their ambitions. The Shudras and those below them had to live a life without dreams. If their hopes were children then it amounted to gross infanticide. Their dignity lied tattered on the earth. One piece here and one piece there, the upper castes walked on them as they wished. And all the blame went to their Karmas.

Parshuram took Karana under his wings and started teaching him the art of wielding weapons. The time went by and Parshuram kept teaching him under the illusion that he was a Brahman. The Brahmanas were allowed to wield weapons to save the dharma under emergency. There came a time when Karana became a skilled exponent of warfare. His favorite weapon was bow and arrow. At that time, one day, Parshuram decided to take rest and Karana offered to his thigh to be used as a pillow. So Parshuram put his head in Karana’s thigh and went to sleep. Soon after a scorpion came there and stung Karana on his leg. The pain was piercing but Karana bore it with all the patience so as not to disturb his teacher. Soon this was going to result in his expulsion and a curse. When Parshuram woke up he noticed the wound on the leg of Karana and asked the reason for it. Karana told him about the scorpion. Then Parshuram doubted his identity since no Brahman could have bore such a pain, only a Kshatriya could have done it. He asked Karana his true identity. Karana in his all sincerity told him that he was a Suta-Putra. That was what he knew at that time. On knowing this Parshuram got angry that a Shudra had learnt the art of wielding weapons. He expelled Karana and cursed him that he would forget all the skill of warfare taught to him when the he needed them most. Justified was the anger of Parshuram and so was the inethicality of the Varna system. The righteous got righteously angry. There was scant regard for anybody’s natural feelings and emotions. The sub humans are not supposed to possess feelings and emotions...

Shudra 5

...Any participation or contribution to Yagya ceremony by a Shudra is prohibited because it contaminates the whole ceremony. Even contributions in his absence are not permitted. This means that ritually he was untouchable if not for the purpose of doing mundane tasks.

The Shudras were exploited as if there was no tomorrow. Also as if there was nobody answerable for their exploitation.

Further he is not to be encouraged, his talent is to be suppressed. Rather the talent of lower two strata is to be sacrificed at the alter of Varna dharma.

The Eklavya episode of grand epic Mahabharata shows that how the talents of natives of India; was supposed to be suppressed by the twice born. Eklavya was a Nishad boy. The Nishads fell outside the pale of Aryan or Vedic community. They were as good as outcastes. This community lived among forests. The five Pandavas were the sons of king Pandu. They were the Kshatriyas belonging to Kuru tribe. At that time they were learning the art of warfare from Guru Dronacharya. One of the arts he taught was archery. The best archer of the Pandavas was Arjun of Geeta fame. He was third of his brothers. Indeed he was one of the best archers among the Kshatriyas of Mahabharata. Dronacharya was also renowned for teaching the art of warfare. When Eklavya came to know about Dronacharya, he approached him with the purpose of becoming his pupil. Dronacharya refused him on the dharmic grounds that Kshatriyas should only learn the archery skills and since Eklavya was not a Kshatriya, he was not eligible to become his pupil. Eklavya was a boy with a burning desire. He went to forest and made a clay idol of Dronacharya under a tree and started practicing archery all alone without help from anybody. As it happened, one day Dronacharya took all the five Pandavas to forest for practicing archery. His favorite student Arjun was the most promising archer. All the Pandavas started practicing archery. A dog also happened to go with them. After some time the dog decided to take a walk. So it went there; chasing a rabbit or two. It was a matter of little time when it started barking. The barking of the dog disturbed the Pandavas. But soon after, the barking stopped. After sometime, the dog came back where Dronacharya was teaching archery to the Pandavas. When they saw it, its mouth was filled with arrows because of which it could not bark. It came to Pandavas and stood helplessly. Then the Pandavas and Dronacharya noticed that not a single drop of blood was coming out of its mouth. There was not even a single wound. It was an archery skill par excellence and certainly beyond them. The peerless and invincible warrior, Arjun, stood stunned. He was rooted to ground and totally numb. Here was an archer who had the potential of defeating Arjuna and Karana put together. They were curious to know that who was this archer who had put the dog in such a condition. So they went out and followed the dog to find out this mighty archer. Following the dog they reached a spot where a Nishad boy was practicing archery. He was Eklavya, the mighty archer who was never destined to become a mighty warrior. The Varna system was going to play tricks with him. If Gita is correct in saying that Varna of a man is decided by his Gunas then this Nishad boy should have married Draupadi the Panchal princess. However, the immediate events which followed, cast a doubt on the thinking given in Gita. Even of Gita is to be taken as correct than it was not followed by anybody. Dronacharya had forgotten the boy. He asked Eklavya that what he done to the dog. Eklavya replied that it was disturbing him by barking, so he had stopped the dog from barking by filling its mouth with arrows. For this purpose he had shot several arrows at the same time. The dog was not harmed because it was not his intention to harm the dog. It was a stunning blow to Dronacharya’s mind. Here was a boy who was not even a Shudra and more skilled than the best of Kshatriyas. His all worlds, previous, this and next were shaken at the same time. He understood that this Nishad boy could be troublesome for Kshatriyas and thereby to dharma. Dharma says that only Kshatriyas should wield arms. Then he asked the boy who was his teacher. Eklavya bowed to him and told that his teacher was none other than great Dronacharya himself. Dronacharya was surprised and introduced himself. He then added that he had never taken any Nishad boy as his pupil and had never taught any Nishad boy the archery. Then Eklavya pointed to clay idol of Dronacharya under the tree and said it was the idol of his Guru Dronacharya. Thus he was his Guru. Dronacharya still had not recovered from the stunning blow to mind, which was the result of superb archery skill of this non-Vedic boy. Soon he was going to set an excellent example of teacher ship. The basic principle of which is still followed. It is the principle of destroying the talent of Shudras and those below them by whatever means available to higher Varnas. This stupid boy was soon going to know that what it means to be to a non twice born but neither he nor anybody was going to learn anything from it. The talent of Brahmanas in imposing their superiority over others without the use of physical force is awesome. And stupidity exactly does not belong to them. However we come back to Eklavya and his story. He was indeed a threat to dharma. Dronacharya needed to find a way to save the spiritual Varna dharma. Eklavya was going to corrupt it by becoming a mighty warrior. Dronacharya then asked the boy to give him Guru Dakshina if he really considered him as his teacher. Eklavya’s heart was filled with unbound happiness. His wish was going to be realized. He thought that he was going to be accepted formally as pupil of great teacher Dronacharya. His happiness was set to disappear in thin air shortly under the greatness of his teacher. His teacher then asked him to cut off his right thumb and give it to him in Guru Dakshina. Truly the greatness of Dronacharya knew no limit, it was limitless like the sky, like a freely river, like the unselfishness of a fruit giving tree, eternal like Sanatan dharma. It was a trivial matter to decapitate a man. Now it was the turn of Eklavya to get stunned. Giving up his right thumb meant that he would never be able to practice archery which was his dream, love and ambition. So being a little, mean and cunning fellow he agreed to give up his thumb for the sake of the great and pious teacher. It was a fine part of instant malefic planning of this heathen boy. At once, he took a knife and cut off his thumb, the thumb that was going to give trouble to Kshatriyas, and offered it to Dronacharya. After that Dronacharya left the place along with Pandavas well satisfied in his heart that the dharma had been saved. None of the five righteous Pandavas objected to this cruel injustice. Sense of honor and fair play requires that your opponent be given a fair chance, not disabling him. Such sense of fair play and honor is missing from Varna dharma and Hindu culture. Later Sanatana dharma provided that lower two strata of population be demilitarized to avoid any encroachment on dharma by them. Brahmans and Vaisyas can take up arms in time emergency and necessity. It seems that Pandavas including Yudhister also agreed with the cruel act of Dronacharya. Later in Mahabharata, the eldest of Pandavas, Yudhister is found discussing ethics in the society. This is an example as to what an extent the upper three Varnas can go to suppress and destroy the talent from the lower castes as a matter of righteous was of life. This is the killing the problem in bud. This works on an enduring basis. Thus the appearance of an effective challenge from within the Hindu society is almost impossible. The upper castes nurture the talent only from the upper three strata of the society...

Shudra 4

...Further he is to be respected only when he reaches the tenth decade of his life or attain an age of more than ninety years while a Brahman attains respect by birth. Such is the natural Varna dharma process. Such a condition means that a Shudra never effectively gets the respect in his entire life. He was not created for that. And obviously, he cannot have a wife from any of the higher Varna as a mark of his subordination. Further the only way a Shudra can relate to a Brahman is as his servant. Any relations with upper castes on the basis of equality are prohibited. When a Shudra goes to the house of a Brahman, he is allowed to eat only with his servants. A Shudra cannot move with a Brahman.

A Brahman is prevented from doing many things in presence of a Shudra. First he cannot move with any Shudra. He cannot recite sacred text or Shastras in presence of a Shudra. He cannot go to any journey with a Shudra. He cannot eat food given by a Shudra. He cannot explain any of the sacred scriptures to any Shudra. This effectively prevents a Shudra from benefiting from the company any Brahman. And also prevents a Brahman from benefiting a Shudra. Further, if a Shudra refuses to serve the higher Varnas then the king should force him to do so since he was created by the God to serve the twice born. In doing so the king would only be fulfilling God’s will. If a Shudra accumulates property then the king or Brahman should seize it because if he earns his livelihood from property then he would forget his dharma of serving others. And he would create adharma by trying to become equivalent to higher Varnas. This is essentially a corruption of dharma which is to be avoided by king. The inequality in favor of higher Varnas was much desired by the esteemed lawmakers. If a Shudra causes a Brahman to suffer then he should be punished in an exemplary manner which puts terror in the heart of all the Shudras in an enduring manner. This should prevent other Shudras from harming the Brahmanas. This should also prevent other Shudras from rebelling for achieving equality. If a Shudra want to improve his next birth then he should serve the higher Varnas with all his humility. He should be virtuous servant to those in higher Varna.

Further for all his hard work, labor and serving the upper castes, he is to be rewarded with leftover food of his master, with his old clothes and refuse of his grain. This means that s Shudra having quality food and wearing nice clothes was supposed to be corrupting dharma which was to be punished suitably...

Shudra 3

...There are four noticeable things about a Shudra. The first is that he is not entitled to thread ceremony; the second is that he is not entitled to have any property; the third is that he cannot marry into higher Varnas and the fourth is that he has to survive only with the help of his manual and at the mercy of upper castes. And as usually all their coming generations have to eternally do the same. It is not called eternal religion for nothing. It has inbuilt eternal exploitation. They are the eternal servants of this eternal society. All these servants have earned their Shudrahood due to their bad Karmas. They have been working to attain this status all through their uncountable previous lives. After such a hard work they achieve the justified status of a servant. Their present status confirms bad deeds of their past lives. There is no other way to confirm the nature of deed of their past lives. Though being lowest in Varna they have been given a reason to feel superior when they compare themselves with those who were born at the end and do the unclean jobs - the untouchables. The lawmakers have given them a reason to rejoice. They refuse either to serve the untouchables or mix with them. They, their ancestors and their coming generations should be eternally grateful to lawmakers for providing them a reason to rejoice. They do not know that to what an extent they are indebted to considerate and compassionate lawmakers for such happiness. They have provided happiness even to servants. It speaks volumes of other worldliness of these lawmakers. However, this sense of superiority which gives them eternal joy evaporates when they come face to face with higher Varnas.

Now we turn to Manusmriti, the most celebrated of the dharma Shastras to know the abilities and disabilities imposed on them by the Varna system. A Shudra is a man without any rights in Varna system. His rightslessness starts from the birth itself. He has no right even to name himself. He cannot give any dignified name to himself. According to Manusmriti, a Shudra cannot have a respectable name. This denoted that he has no claim to dignity in the society. His indignity starts from birth itself and continues with naming; afterward it marches on. His first name is supposed to denote something contemptible and second name should denote service. It indicates that he was made to be insulted and serve others. And his job is to meekly serve the higher Varnas. The God created them to serve the higher people. They represent the God created servanthood. Further he is excluded from the duties of an Aryan. This effectively means that a Shudra is kept out of rituals, ceremonies and religious functions of higher Varnas. These upper Varnas controlled the social, religious, political and economical space between them. His job was to serve these socially, politically, ritually and economically dominant group of people. He was effectively kept out of important social, ritual, political and economical activities. In other word he was cut off from the dominant Vedic culture. He was a thoroughly unfit man for such purposes...

Shudra 2

...The Shudra were the original inhabitants of India. They were certainly not the part of Rig Vedic society. Even they are not visible in most of the later Vedic period. They came into existence at the end of later Vedic period. In the beginning, they were not in the majority in Vedic society which is evident from Manusmriti. According to later Vedas and Manusmriti the agriculture and cattle rearing were the jobs of Vaisya Varna and not that of Shudra. The agriculture and cattle rearing formed almost 90 percent of the economic activities in later Vedic times. So Shudras were supposed to supply their labor only for serving the higher Varnas and not to agriculture and cattle rearing. So they were not the essential part of later Vedic society. They were the latter import into Vedic society which had already internally developed three Varnas with entitlement to thread ceremony. They were the natives of India who were defeated and lost their land to Aryans. All of them did not leave the conquered region. Some of them stayed back. They were assimilated into Vedic society as landless laborers. They were classified as Shudras (the inferiors) and ranked below Aryans without any entitlement to thread ceremony. Being powerless they had to agree to these conditions. Initially there were so few of them so that they could not be assigned the jobs of agriculture and cattle rearing. However in due course of time these two jobs were degraded to Shudra level. All the artisans of native agricultural based village societies were included as Shudras without any right to land or to Vedic rites. The regions beyond Sapta-Sandhav and Ganga were still ruled by Shudra or native kings. Over a period of time, all these Shudra kings were either defeated or assimilated into Vedic society by granting them the status of Kshatriyas. These new Kshatriyas also helped in spread of Vedic culture by defeating the Shudra kings who did not believe in Vedic rituals and in superiority of Brahmanas. Aryavrat was not really the land where Aryans ruled but the area where Aryan way of life or Vedic cultural had become dominant. In other words wherever Varna system spread and where Brahmanas were safe and respected was called Aryavrat. Aryavrat did not necessarily mean the rule by imported Aryan communities. By 200 BC the Brahmanas were found performing Yagyas for Dravidian kings in deep South in lieu of land grants and acceptance of their superiority. The Brahmanas won the cultural war and controlled the society with the help of Shudra kings. The cultural hegemony of Brahmanas was complete with the local rulers accepting their supremacy. This is also called assimilation.

Over a period of time, the occupations of agriculture and cattle rearing were degraded to Shudra level. It indicates that the mercantile activities became very profitable and as result the Vaisyas gave up the inferior jobs of agriculture and cattle rearing because their involvement of the manual labor. As result they became disconnected from labor oriented impure jobs. Another thing which might have happened was that the Vaisyas who were involved in agriculture and cattle rearing were downgraded to Shudra level. Another possibility is that with the increasing cultural hegemony of Brahmanas and spread of Varna culture, the Brahmans did not upgrade local Shudras who were engaged in agriculture and cattle rearing to the level of Vaisyas. This may explain the inordinately large portion of Shudras in the current population whereas in the beginning they were in miniscule minority....

The Shudras - 1

...They are the forever servants for a forever religion. The eternal religion, Sanatana dharma, has a Varna meant for servants. They and their generations are born as servants, live as servants and die as servants. Their sole task is to serve meekly the higher Varna without accumulating any wealth or property; they always have to depend upon their labor. A Shudra with a property is considered as a grave danger to dharma.

The majority of Hindu society is made up of impure Shudras born from the feet of primal man and not entitled to thread ceremony and cannot perform any Vedic rites. Being born from feet of primal man they are impure also. And these impure men are not entitled to thread ceremony. Their actually impurity is related to the manual nature of work they are involved in and their inherent subordination. It is fourth of the five strata of Hindu society and at the fourth place in social order and powerless. It is a finely divided Varna with many occupations and thousands of jatis. All of these jatis are separate from each other. There is no common bond between these jatis. Each jati has its own universe though they have to follow the Varna dharma because of social, cultural, economic and traditional constraints. The jatis in higher three Varnas can come together for a common cause but not the Shudras because there is no common cause for people with widely different occupations. Each jati has its own need depending on its occupation. These different needs separate them and stop them from coming together. Actually, they are a disjointed group of numerous jatis which have been commonly defined by pious ancient lawmakers. There is no homogeneity between different jatis. They only come together when a temporary common cause presents itself for the time being. After that they back to being vastly different groups of people who willingly serve upper castes and make their living through labor. In terms of Brahmanical cultural hegemony, they are the eternal voluntary servants of twice born. In terms of Varna dharma, they are dependent on twice born for their livelihood. This Varna includes cattle herders, farmers, weavers, potters, carpenters, ironsmiths, goldsmiths and a host of other occupations. The division of labor is really evident in this group though they are not dependent on each other as in industrial specialization of labor. They are dependent on the land owning castes in their areas or higher castes that use their services. There was no multi stage production which could make them interdependent in modern sense. Because of this multitude of occupations no particular occupation is assigned to these people. They are assigned the general function of serving the twice born. And these artisans have to do it through their heredity occupations. However these people proudly refuse to provide their services to the fifth stratum people, the untouchables – this pride is not evident while dealing with upper castes. The Shudra are supposed to do all the jobs in the society which are not done by twice born and are also not unclean in nature. The unclean jobs belong to group of untouchables. They are supposed to do all the jobs involving the use of manual labor. The twice-born are not supposed to do the jobs involving the use of manual labor. The Shudra are supposed to supply all the labor for the use in agriculture and industry. All the material things are supposed to be produced by the use of their labor like crops, pulses, milk, metal, oil, vessels, instruments, pots, clothes, wooden material and any conceivable item which can be used and which requires manual labor. They cannot take up the higher level and purer jobs of twice born...