The Village -2

...It was quite a merciful system where lower castes lived at the mercy of upper castes. They were born with it and accepted it as their true living condition, which was not far away from reality. It was a fait accompli. Lower caste people lived a life resigned to their dasterdly fate. The powerful towered above the wretched ones. And absolutely it produced no upward bounce. Allowing it would have been totally adharmic. Everybody knew his place in the society and behaved accordingly. The lower caste people showed deference to higher case people who showed it to still higher caste people. The contempt moved piously in opposite direction. The untouchables prostrated on the ground on which upper caste people moved. They walked with their eyes downcast, head bowed down, shoulder stooped, meek gait and torn out clothes so that the dharma was maintained. The time stood still for generations altogether. It was a time of eternal exploitation for permanent dharmic exploiters. It was Varna exploitation. At the bottom of the society were untouchables who lived at the inauspicious southern end of the village or outside the southern end of the village.

People lived like masters and servants. The slavery was avoided because impure Shudras and polluted untouchables were not supposed to live in the houses of upper castes. The purity had to be maintained. They were like eternal masters and their servile servants. The servants were generally kept at a safe distance. The consideration of purity kept them separate from each other. The castes were closely knit but not the society. The higher ones lorded over others. There was little violence in the village. The land owning castes usually maintained a private army of musclemen who were tillers on their land. The violence anyway was unnecessary because the Shudras and untouchables were not allowed to carry the arms; it was a demilitarized society. Only Kshatriyas, soldiers and land owning castes were allowed to carry the arms. Any conflict between land owning castes and lower castes would have been one-sided show of arms. The demilitarized population contributed significantly to a stable society. Actually the three ancient, stable and still existing civilizations India, China and Japan have one thing in common. The population in all three civilizations was demilitarized. This by and large prevented successful rebellion by the general population. The lack of arms and land or any kind of any other assets hardly provided the Shudras and untouchables with any force or motivation to rebel. They had to face the enemy with bare hands, empty bellies without any support from anywhere. In absence of weapons how did the Shudras enter into a serious argument with each other? Both the weak parties used agriculture equipments and bamboo sticks for such purposes. Entering into a serious argument with the Kshatriyas was beyond their capabilities. The God created bravery and rulership of Kshatriyas needed a disarmed population to lord over. The population had to be weakened to affirm the strength of the Kshatriyas. A strange kind of bravery it was. The lower castes willingly acknowledged their servility because of handicaps imposed on them by the Vedic dharma. They did not have much alternative. Bare handedly it was difficult to rebel against the armed people on whom they depended for their sustenance. The lower castes did not dare to show any violence because they knew the horrible consequences of such an act. The retaliation would have been swift, cruel and murderous. It was a self-defeating proposition for the dependent people living in mud huts and wearing torn clothes. Thus they avoided violence...

The Village -1

....This land is very big. It is littered with villages. The villages are different in sizes; some villages are large and some villages are small. There are under populated and overpopulated villages. The villages are ridden with casteism which is the soul of Hindu dharma. The souls of untouchables are buried under it. Their personalities are suffocated; their lives unbearable; their conditions hellish; their dignity tattered; and their shadows polluting. And all this is under the name of pure and eternal Sanatana dharma. And the mainstream is proud of its heritage. The insulted others have never experienced the pride. They are worthless human beings.

A large part of population lives in rural areas - about 70 percent. These villages where the worth of certain human beings is equal to trash were considered epitome of self-sufficiency. The villages were thought to be stable and without any violence. The roaring railway engines pierced the calm, peaceful and serene soul of these villages, during the British period. The cruel roar of cruel engines harbored the voices of modernity that played havoc with the independent ancient Varna dharma, tormenting the psyche of believers in superiority by birth. Before that the people in the villages were perceived to be mutually cooperative and lived in natural peace and harmony. They lived in a kind of innocence; away from the materialism of West. In such a system everybody was well adjusted to his position in the permanently exploiting caste system. The social, economic and religious powers of the twice born were unchallengeable. The fort of caste system was unassailable for thousands of years. The untouchables are not supposed to take breath properly for the fear of breaking the social equilibrium. The engines came and people buried under social system started to take some breath, which caused unbearable pains to the defenders of Varna dharma....

Temples - 4

...The temples were places of worshipping the God, spiritual realization and salvation of soul. Being the abode of god in the form of idol, they were as sacred as they could be. These religious places were sacred and pure and hence the entry of untouchables was prohibited. Here we have a case of the strange kind of God who could be defiled by the mere presence of human beings. Any defilable God has to be less powerful then the defiler; all this goes contrary to the notion of all powerful God; actually such a weak God by definition cannot exist. There is no defilable God by definition. Dharma Shastras prescribe severe punishment for an untouchable who dares to enter the temple. They also prescribe purification of temples that have been defiled by such an entry by a human being. However any purifying act after a contact with any untouchables actually meant a defilement of untouchables and not that of God. The untouchables who dared to enter the abode god were severely punished sometimes even with death. May be the spiritual and cultural people thought that it was a nice way to help them to get rid of their wretched lives. Still an untouchable who dares to enter a temple runs the risk of his life in many parts of this pure land. In the same tradition none of the great untouchable saints of Bhakti movement were allowed to enter the temples not withstanding the large followings they had. The spiritual equality that was taught by Bhakti movement gurus was in respect of personal attachment to God. The benefits of devotion were to be reaped in next birth only which is correctly in nice alignment with Karma theory. No amount kind of Bhakti could to make them pure and thus eligible for temple entry. The pollution embedded in them could not be removed by any kind of devotion to any god.

Religion and faith in God is essential part of life of a man who is not an atheist. It gives him the reason for his existence. It gives him mental and emotional support. For his own satisfaction a religious man can complain to God or ask him to alleviate his wretched conditions. The support of religion is essential for a religious human being. It provides him support in his troubled times. The troubled times always accompany an untouchable from street to street. By denying him the reach to temple the mental well being of a religious untouchable is destroyed thereby wrecking his emotional state. Further the actual effect of Bhakti movement on untouchables’ lives has been worthless....

Temples - 3

...The priests in temples were Brahmans only. The people from other Varnas were not eligible to become priests. It was in accordance with Vedic dharma where the pure and pious people of highest social stratum, the lawmakers, controlled divinity and all the sacred things and god. These lawmakers were the only people who could recite the word of God. They were the only people who could worship the sacred temple gods.

Over a period of time the temples became highly popular. They came to enjoy the patronage of kings, Kshatriyas and Vaisyas and this made them quite rich. The temples received various land grants. Everybody was damn interested in improving his next world, which nobody had seen. By making donations to temples people expected to prevent their rebirth in lower categories lives like jackals, cats, dogs and others. Not only that, their social status, with in their Varna, also increased directly in proportion to donations made by them. It was actually a transfer of wealth from kings, Kshatriyas and Vaisyas to Brahmanas; the deviceful spiritual people. The lawmakers were very happy. With people controlling the resources of society attaching themselves with the temples, the temples became centers of religious and social activities. The Brahmans who controlled temples were not under the rulership of kings. As a result the temples emerged as parallel power centers in Hindu society. This was the section of society which accumulated ample wealth and which was not under the purview of kings. The development of super rich temples under the renunciating and sovereign Brahmanas had its harmful effects. No Hindu king or robber dared to attack the temples with a view to take away the wealth without hurting the supreme dharma. Unfortunately the coming Muslim invaders did not think so. They did not believe neither in Hindu gods and nor in the Hindu dharmic theory of divine retribution. And they met with no divine retribution thus falsifying the Hindu theory of divine retribution.

However the distribution of wealth went in favor of temples and thereby in favor of renunciating and spiritual lawmakers who were forever interested in welfare of people through dharma by denying all the rights to Shudras and untouchables. These epitomes of spirituality happily enjoyed all the wealth that came their way. Such a high level of rationality was never seen. It was a divine reward for their social and religious control...

Temples - 2

...The decline of Vedic gods was related to the decline of popularity of animal sacrifice due to intense competition from Buddhism. Any invocation of Vedic gods involved fire worship essentially meaning animal sacrifices. This made the Yagyas very costly. The Yagyas became limited to only kings and Kshatriyas who were landlords and could afford costly sacrifices. The Yagyas were still important to kings. The Vaisyas could not do it because if they sacrificed their animals then their survival would be at stake. By the time the Vaisyas gave up agriculture and cattle rearing the Brahmanas had also given up animal sacrifices and shifted mainly to temples. Thus to attract the general population and mainly the Vaisyas the Brahmanas gave up their Vedic gods and took up new gods to please. It was not necessary to offer animal sacrifices to please these new gods. The rituals in temples did not generally involve animal sacrifices.

With the growing importance of agriculture and kingdoms in Vedic society, there was also a need for the gods who could look after the whole of the affairs of these ever enlarging areas. The gods were needed who could handle growing importance of state territories, agriculture and all prevailing nature of rulership. More powerful gods were needed to look after this new universe and also those who could do without animal sacrifices. One alternative was to increase the powers of Vedic gods but it meant rewriting Vedas, which was not permitted. Thus the gods needing animal sacrifices fell out of general use. The general people needed other kinds of gods for their religious needs in this world and here after, with little cost attached to them. The donations in tmples were voluntary which did not impose involuntary cost on people like animal sacrifices. Thus costly Vedic gods needing costly animal sacrifices like Indra, Agni became minor or small deities or fell out of use. However, these costly gods who ensured victories in wars continued to be popular with the kings. The new gods were happy with worship and devotion of a devotee and, of course, a lot of donations. The temples also had the advantage of getting donations round the clock whereas the Yagyas had to be actually performed on a given occasion to get the donations and fees. The donations pertaining to Yagyas were related to certain specific activities. There was an enlargement of scope of taking donation and as well as that of powers of gods. The Stupas and temples were actually a regularization of worship that did not need any special occasion; they were open all the time with their daily rituals...

Temples -1

...The temples are an integral part of Hindu society. Whole of the India is littered with temples, big and small; old and new; rich and not so rich. Some temples are very well known and rich beyond normal imagination. The Balaji Tirupati and Nathdwara are quite rich and have very large following of devotees. These devotees come from every nook and corner of India.

The temple system is very old in India but not as old Vedas, the word of God himself, which are not older than the multiple Vedic gods. There are no temples mentioned in either Vedas or Manusmriti. The temples made their entry about the same time as Buddhist Stupas. The Vedic gods had lost their importance along with animal sacrificing rites of Yagyas. With the entry of temples one thing happened, it was the demise of importance of Vedic gods like Indra, Agni, Varun and Mitra etc. But the Yagyas maintained their mystique and fascination though with limited animal sacrifice. More powerful and significant gods came into existence. The most famous of them is the trinity of Hindu pantheon, Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh. These gods were not nature specific like Indra and Agni but all powerful and looking after the affairs of whole of the world. These gods did not need animal sacrifices for their appeasement; Aartis could please them. Still all the rituals to please the gods were to be performed by a Brahman priests. The priests became divine middlemen between men and gods like in Vedic times.

.The functions of the trinity of gods are creation, nurturing and destruction. Brahma is the creator of the world, Vishnu nurtures the world and Mahesh (Shiva) is the destroyer of the world. The followers of Lord Vishnu are called Vashnavites and those of Lord Shiva are called Shaivites. Initially there were disagreements and tensions between these two cults but with the formation of trinity the tension disappeared and now there is no discernible antagonism between them. The followers Lord Vishnu are in majority and Shaivites are in minority, but generally there are worshippers who cut across this line. The worshipping of a different Hindu god is not a major or minor issue. This is proclaimed as an indicator of tolerance of Hindu religion not withstanding the fact that defiling untouchables are not allowed entry into pure and sacred temples. However any Hindu is free to worship any deity from Hindu pantheon, which is full of innumerable deities. With the increasing importance of minor Vedic and non-Vedic gods the idol worship came into existence...

How the system worked ?- 10

....However the Jajmans owned the land so they owned all the food in the village. Those who tilled their land and those who provided the labor were paid in the form of grains and other agriculture produce itself. However this was not sufficient to dress them well though enough for survival. The village community included Brahmanas and Shudra artisans also. The provision for the food of Shudra artisans was also to be made so that they did not die of hunger. With all servility they had to look up to the Jajmans to fill their hungry bellies or obtain their sustenance. We know that the dignity was reserved for the upper castes by the dharma. The Shudras and those below them were born undignified. The Shudra artisans those who were not connected with land as either tillers or labor got the food for them by permanently connecting themselves with the Jajmans. The Jajmans on their own needed servants to do all their menial non-agriculture jobs. When they did not do the agriculture then it was unrealistic for them to do other menial jobs especially when a full community of heredity servants was available to perform such jobs. If the Shudra artisans did the work for each other they could not pay each other because they did not have land or resources. So the only alternatively was to perform the jobs for the upper castes. So the upper caste Jajmans lived a comfortable life while Shudras did all their menial jobs. Thus the Shudras gave their services to Jajmans to get their undignified sustenance. It was a really merciful system; all the Shudras lived at the mercy of Jajman. The richer was the Jajman the better off were his clients or workers. A richer Jajman performed many more ceremonies which all needed the services of the Shudra artisans like barbers, potters, carpenter, ironsmith, goldsmith, weavers, construction workers, actors, the washer men and others. All the ceremonies related to marriage, birth, death, festivals and social functions were performed smoothly and everybody got his share barely enough for sustenance. More surplus with them could have made them to forget their dharma of serving upper castes. Everybody left in happiness after the function or ceremony; now they had something to eat. Then they blessed the Jajmans. They showed their reverence by prostrating on the land. The helplessness and indignities in their lives were a normal part of their lives; a fait accompli since birth.

Many consider the Jajmani system as a socially amicable system where the relations between Jajmans and Shudra artisans and others (or between independent patrons and dependent clients) were amicable. These clients were known as Kaamwale – the work doers (or Kammens). There was an understanding in the dependent Shudra clients that they would not encroach upon each other’s Jajmans. It had become a relationship, which neither patron nor dependent clients could relinquish. They were almost bound to each other. The Jajman would not get another Kaamwale and Kaamwale would not get any other patrons. The Kaamwale almost had an exclusive right to work to the exclusion of any right of other Kaamwale. It was a kind of agreement of non-competition between all the Kaamwale. The Jajman was virtual social and local government. His authority was limitless but he also believed that it was necessary to give grains and other things to work doers so that they could survive and serve him. The dead man serves nobody. If the Jajman neglected the Kaamwale then they were bound to suffer. In Jajmani, the links of generations developed familiarity between the two partie. But the bonding did not develop to the point of nurturing the aspirations of Shudras and untouchables. They knew their undignified limits and thus in the absence of rebels the system was stable. It was a matter of survival. The Jajmani system was one of dependence of Shudra work-doers on the powerful Jajmans. And as usual the Shudra work-doers had to walk, talk, wear and work their caste. And all of these were fractured and torn up. The Jajmani system maintained status quo in a rigid caste system. No Shudra work-doer ever became a landlord due to Jajmani system. No Shudra or untouchable became a Sahukar or moneylender under a Jajman. It was not designed for that. It was designed to maintain the servile dependence of lower castes on higher castes. In the Jajmani system, the Chamarins did the job of midwives. The scavengers beat the drum in front of Jajmans’ house. There was no possibility of happening it other way round....

How the system worked ?- 9

....Therefore the cultural hegemony of Brahmanas, upholding of dharma by the kings, demilitarization, the mutilating system of justice, ostracization, Panchayats and the theory of previous life Karmas kept the Shudras and untouchables in their place and served to make the Varna dharma eternal. Any desire to rise up is killed by Karma theory and any actual action in such direction is punishable by Panchayats and kings.

Now we will see how the system worked as an economic unit. The Jajmani system is borrowed from the later Vedic period of Yajmans. The Yajmans were the Kshatriya patrons of the Brahmans. The Yajman or Jajman was the Kshatriya for whom the Brahman performed all the Yagyas and ritualistic ceremonies. The Jajman and the Brahman were tied personally to each other with generational ties. Once tied together the Jajman and the Brahman did not normally part company. The relationship continued for the generations altogether until some natural calamity occurred or when the patron or client became spatially separate due to some reasons.

This Jajmani system was also carried in the villages where the Jajman was the patron of village artisans also. The Jajmani system did the job of distribution of agriculture produce among the non-land owning classes. In other words they controlled the distribution of food and with it the lives of village people. There was no money transaction. The Jajman not only had the land but also an army of musclemen to help maintain the dharma in the society. These musclemen were the tillers on his land. They were ready to perpetrate violence on demilitarized village people. This provided the Shudras enough persuasions to fall in line. The muscle force, the social forces and the economic forces were really persuading which effectively prohibited the Shudra and untouchables from rebelling. This eliminated the use of frequent violence in the village. The subordination of low castes had become naturalized....

How the system worked ? -8

....All his sufferings are blamed on unintelligible his previous lives’ Karmas. Since he was the doer in his previous lives, now he is the sufferer. Thus he was the agent for his sufferings. He was the creator of his own wretched life. And for that he was born into same kind of wretched people who performed equally bad Karmas. Blaming dharma, the upper castes and the pious lawmakers is simply barking on the wrong tree. Is it not logical that one should suffer for his unconfirmed, unintelligible and assumed bad deeds of all the previous lives? It is a backward logic. The result decides the existence of unspecific and unverifiable causes. The existence of present wretched conditions implies the existence of previous bad Karmas. Nobody has actually seen or experienced such Karmas, which directly result in a particular type of completely identifiable and practically visible next life and the related individual. It is all an unspecified exercise. Nobody has seen any individual with his past Karmas and nobody will see; there is eternal non-existence of such person. This precision is also not even in the backward logic. This backward logic has played havoc with millions and millions lives in Hindu society. These are the strange kinds of unconfirmed previous life Karmas which are not remembered by even the doer himself. It would be better if somebody were actually able to produce a man with his actual precise and confirmable records of his previous life Karmas. And these actually verifiable Karmas should be precisely liked to the conditions of the present life. It should be possible to trace the previous life along with the Karmas and the relatives and the previous life to that and so on. Until then the previous life Karma theory would be merely a figment of imagination.

However according to Karma theory the birth of man in a particular Varna is justified and is binding. This is given in the Brahman created divine scriptures. This creates no sympathy for the wretched lives of untouchables since their present wretched conditions are the result of own wretched deeds of their previous lives’ Karmas. Thus the consciousness of people goes to deep sleep under dharmic guidance. The present life and its conditions are beyond control of anybody because nobody can go back to previous life and correct the Karmas....

How the system worked ? -7

....The social structure and social mechanics make the better jobs available to higher Varnas and lower level jobs to lower Varnas. A lower Varna within the Hindu framework is allotted the job; which is in consonance with his heredity status. A person belonging to higher Varna is trained for higher jobs and a lower Varna person is trained for lower jobs. It is so because in heredity oriented society the training for jobs is also based on heredity. The only persons available to teach one are his parents or the persons belonging to his caste. Others would not teach him because of caste consideration. A Brahman would never teach Vedas to a Potter who provided pots for the entire village. A Shudra artisan would never teach his job to higher Varnas because nobody would be interested in job; which infringes on his dharma. The pure (powerful controller) should not learn the impure (manual and unclean) jobs and the impure (landless and powerless) should not learn the pure (pious and power) jobs. Either way would be adharmic and hence extremely desirable. If the pure and impure got mixed and spread impurities and contaminating dharma then it was a highly undesirable and despicable activity. This enforced the rule that the only training one got was the heredity one. It was natural also that the son was taking up the father’s occupation; it is another thing that no other option was available to the son. The optionless son got the occupation as if though it was destined for him. Actually his all life was predestined; the lawmakers ensured it. It was a predestined allocation, which was supposed to last till eternity; it was a hallmark of eternal system. It was the vision of lawmakers, which took account of all times to come till eternity. They aimed to provide the eternal solution to the problems of their all their coming generations. No body was really bothered about the society as whole as such.

The fault of being a Shudra lies with himself. No God, no scripture, no Brahman, no king, no Kshatriya and no Vaisya was responsible for his wretched existence. The wretched existence in which he lived from birth to death is entirely of his own making. He should look first inside him then blame others; it is another thing that whenever he looks inside him he finds no evidence of Karmas of his previous lives....