How the system worked ?- 5

...Here one has to understand that the Varna system is not a system of allocation of jobs on the basis of individual merit. Indeed the individual on his own and as an independent identity figures nowhere in Varna dharma. It is a group oriented system where the allocation of jobs to individuals is not possible; the group has to be considered first then the individual. Varna system is actually an inherited group meritocracy. The merit of an individual depends on the merit of his inherited group. One has to do the jobs postulated for his Varna in the scriptures. To be meritorious one has to take birth in a particular group. No individual is intelligent enough to deliberately take birth in a particular Varna. The unintelligible Karmas of his previous lives are supposed to do it for him. The cosmic order in Hindu society is the state where people belonging to all the Varnas are doing the jobs ordained to them in scripture – a picture of perfect harmony with the scriptures. It was king’s duty to see that all the Varnas were doing the jobs allotted to them cosmically. He had to see that Vaisyas and Shudras were doing the jobs cosmically ordained for them. Thus maiming and mutilation of Shudras and killing of untouchables were perfectly in order if they defied dharma. The king also had to separate the untouchables by forcing them to carry an identification mark on their bodies in the city. It was done so that the people from higher Varnas got away from them and thereby avoiding the corruption of their dharma. Further they lived outside cities in marked huts to differentiate them from others. In addition the Shudras and untouchables were not allowed to carry the arms. They were forced to do so by the kings. Thus, we see that so called natural division of the so called specialized labor was achieved under maiming, mutilating and killing force of the Kshatriyas. Any deviation from this division of labor was adharma.

Further the pure and inherited Varna was maintained by outlawing the inter-Varna marriage. Any such attempt meant ostracization and a call by the king. Further discouragement to such marriage was in the form of branding their children as outcastes because they did not inherit any Varna. The existence of only four Varnas precluded the possibility and existence of any mixed Varna. The Varna-Sankars were, we know, a grave and serious threat to the existence of dharma. They were mutual antagonists.

The provision of making a person outcaste helped in maintaining the caste structure of the society. It was a very potent weapon. The ostracization meant disinheritance of Varna, disinheritance of property and a prohibition from entering the village and also excommunication. Any person found to unknowingly associate with the outcastes was heavily fined along with atonement or penance and purification. If somebody did associate himself with the outcastes then he himself ran the risk of becoming an outcaste and stood to lose his family and property. Any person flouting the rule of his castes or Varna was punishable with excommunication...

How the system worked ?- 4

.......When the Brahmanas became vegetarian, then it became the question for kings so as to which religion to support or patronize. It was essential because an irreligious king did not have much durability. One course was to patronize the religion which he got in heritance. The other course was to choose the religion which suited him best to further his territorial ambitions and which solidified his grip on the state. In this respect the Vedic religion scored heavily over the Buddhist religion. It provided direct divinity to kings. The Brahmans always extolled the virtues of kings who upheld dharma and performed Yagyas. They performed Rajsuya and Ashwamedha Yagyas for the welfare of kings while the Buddhist did not have any such concept. The Buddhism also eschewed the violence; the violence in fact was evident in the coercive power of the state. Thus Buddhism was not attractive to newly emerging kings because any violence was indispensable to formation of a new kingdom and a subsequent increase in its territory. However it was a god sent opportunity to Brahmans who were ever willing to grant Kshatriya status to new kings of obscure origin in return of land grants and plum postings with the kings and to save the dharma. And of course they used the performing of Yagyas as a mighty weapon. The Yagyas in themselves had a fascinating and a beneficial mystique around them. The kings who did not aspire to be Kshatriyas opted for Buddhism. The Buddhism automatically granted them Kshatriya status on the basis of presumed deeds of past lives. However their kingly ambitions suffered because of non-violence of Buddhism. Thus, the new kings were more oriented toward Vedic dharma and that ultimately led to its victory over Buddhism. There was a shifting of patronage towards Brahmanas. Over a period of time Vaisyas also shifted to Vedic religion to be on the safe side of the political powers. And after that Shudras also followed. There was a complete reversal to Hinduism. The Muslim invaders only destroyed the monasteries of a dying religion in north India.

However we find that by the time of Gupta kings, the Brahmanas had been successful in prohibiting the slaughter of cow - the divine and pure animal having pure excreta and pure urine. So they were the ultimate victors. It was made the most serious crime after the crime of killing a Brahman. The ploy of Brahmans of being deeply interested in the welfare of kings through performance of Yagyas paid rich dividends.

Now there is one more opinion that the Hindu caste system works like a division of labor. Everything is interdependent. Considering the level of agriculture available in Hindu society and its related ancient level of technology calling it a division of labor will be a misnomer. A real division of specialized labor requires a very advanced technology of multi stage production of different specialized goods that are required by most of the people.

However, it is better to call it a division of functions relating to a society which had a primitive level of agricultural technology. The Brahmans were engaged in intellectual and priestly work. The Kshatriyas were engaged in military and administrative work. The Vaisyas were engaged in business activities. The Shudras were engaged in doing labor activities. The untouchables were doing unclean jobs. Every body was supposed to be doing the job he was natural most suitable for – a great kind of dharmic harmony. On the face of it, it looks like scientific division of labor; the most suitable job goes to most suitable man. Only thing was that this suitability had to be acquired by birth. The status of a man also appeared to be job related. Higher was the job; higher was the status. The Brahmana doing the intellectual job got the highest status. The Shudra doing the blue-collar jobs had the lowest status among Varnas. The untouchables doing the lowest level unclean jobs got the lowest position in the society. This state where everybody is doing his divinely ordained function is also known as a cosmic order – with its all pervading divine harmony. But the question was how to maintain this cosmic order if Shudras aspired to become Kshatriyas and Brahmanas? If such aspirations of Shudras were realized then the cosmic order of the things would have broken down. The harmony was to get converted into disharmony with mere threat of demand for equality by Shudras. But how come the Shudras who were reciting Vedas and ruling over the people like Kshatriyas, would have been responsible for a break down in the cosmic order of pure and pious Sanatana dharma?.....

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...

Varna Ashram -11

...There is also another misconception, which is advanced as a defense of Varna system by its defenders that the deeds of man determine his Varna. There is no possibility that a Shudra is allowed to perform the deeds of Brahmanas. Because to begin with no Brahman would be willing to teach him Vedas and other ritualistic rites. If a Shudra is brave enough he should be classified as Kshatriya. The deeds speak for themselves but unfortunately not in Hindu society. Again there would be problem because no Kshatriya would be willing to give him a girl in marriage. No Kshatriya would be willing to sit and dine with him. So he is back to being a Shudra. The caste system comes with a baggage not alone. At the most such a brave Shudra would be called a goon, a rogue or a robber but nothing more then that. On the other hand a Kshatriya is called brave and a warrior since his birth.

Another misconception which comes out of fort of defenders of Varna system is that everybody is a Shudra when born and Sanskars (rituals) make him a twice born. So when born a Brahman boy is Shudra. The thread ceremony makes him pure and a Brahman. If it is that simple then all the Shudras can be converted into Brahmanas by investing them with thread ceremony. But Shudras being of impure origin are not eligible for thread ceremony. So a Brahman boy and a Shudra boy are two different things since birth and because of birth.

Now we will see Manusmriti the most famous of timeless Hindu dharma Shastras. It is widely acknowledged as the most important and most authentic source of functioning of Hindu society. It is surprising that a scripture 2500 years old describes the current structure of Hindu society, with minor changes, so accurately that nothing seems to have changed. It is truly timeless. Its timelessness is legendry unlike that of Vedas. There are some people who disown Manusmriti completely. They say that real Hindu dharma is not given in Manusmriti but in Rig Veda. However, we know that Hindu dharma known as Sanatana dharma did not exist in Rig Vedic times. The Rig Vedic religion was called Rita and not Sanatana dharma. It was a cosmic order like Sanatana dharma but it was different. The Rig Vedic people did have the activities of butchering and skinning but these were not called polluting or untouchable activities. The Rig Vedic society was characterized by the absence of Varnas or any such group claiming privileges by inheritance. It was an egalitarian society in a system without agriculture. The inequality of groups had no role to play there since groups themselves were not there. It was a commune system of living where every thing was shared equally on community basis. It should be remembered that the Purusha sukta does not really belong to Rig Vedic times. Though it belongs to Rig Veda, it was a later addition during later Vedic times when the different Varnas had come into existence. Anybody believing in Rig Veda should be willing to inter-marry with the scavengers if all the Hindus are to be treated as a part of single Rig Vedic community. If they are not willing to do it and show it by trend setting examples then they do not believe in Rig Veda but in Chaturvarna system of Sanatana dharma with its notions of purity and pollution.

However even if their claim is taken on its face value or it is assumed it is right (which is contrary to facts), then according to them Varna dharma was a simple division of labor where each one did the job he was most suitable for. And any occupation could not be imposed on any individual. It is interesting to note that we have specialization of labor in a community of cattle rearing where only job was to graze the cattle. Labor specialization means a technology of a very high level where as the Rig Vedic people could not even master agriculture. However according to such a point of view all the malpractices crept in later due to vested interests. If that is the case then they are discounting what happened during last 3000 years which is a very long period of time. During this time the real things have happened to real people. The argument goes further that we should go back to Rig Vedic dharma by discounting malpractices which crept in later. However in doing so they are making a jump from Rig Vedic times to modern times - a jump of 3000 years. That also amounts to saying that nothing has happened during last 3000 years and everything should be forgotten. For all the anomalies they blame the vested interests and not the original formulators of Varna dharma. But the original formulators of Varna dharma, the great Rishis the forerunners of Brahmanas, lived not during the Rig Vedic times but afterward. Then they went back and rigged the Rig Veda by inserting Purusha sukta to justify the newly formulated discriminatory Varna dharma. It was done after appearance of Shudra Varna on the horizon. However such people who advocate the purity of Rig Vedic times do not make any attempt to identify the vested interests that introduced malpractices in such a pure and simple system of division of labor or made it an inheritable set of privileges and disabilities. But the agreement to existence of vested interests amounts to saying that their ancestors who benefited from such malpractices lived a life full of lies, cheating and deceits for a period of about 3000 years because they acted against the guidance of Rig Veda or defied it for their personal and group interests. The punishment for defying the most sacred of the Hindu scriptures, Rig Veda, should be considerable irrespective of any Varna. It would be interesting to note that how such a punishment is meted out to such adharmic people. However coming back to malpractices, these were introduced to perpetuate their group privileges and impose inequalities on others. They committed atrocities on others in the name of dharma. It is strange that people forget their Rig Vedic roots of equality and live a life full of deceit and lies for generations altogether without feeling a bit guilty. These people cannot be said to be unwilling partners of so the called vested interests because they proudly and happily benefited from malpractices without raising any objection. It also means that later Hindu scriptures other than Rig Veda are a big bundle of lies though they governed the lives of Hindus for 3000 years. Thus, it means that somebody is lying either defenders of Rig Veda or the people who created scriptures. In addition, clearly it is not God because God cannot lie and cannot discriminate. Thus, the present generations of these so called vested interests have inherited a culture which is full of deceptions. However, if it is other way round meaning that they lived a life as enumerated in Manusmriti then still they lived a life full of deceits, lies and cruelties.

Coming back to Hindu dharma Shastras we find that there are eighteen of them. The most prominent is Manusmriti; the rest are Parashara smriti, Vyas smriti and Narad smriti and others. The Vedas as such do not provide a set of coherent and comprehensive rules for lives of Hindus. Only dharma Shastras provide us with a full rules and regulations of social life. They are the commandments of Hindus. Others have only Ten Commandments or so, the Hindus have a full set of books devoted to this aspect. The Hindus were more serious regarding social behavior of people and control of dharma over them. They worked out more details than others and were more systematic. They defined the code of conduct in detail for five groups. The Manusmriti contains about 2600 shlokas which were written over a long period of time but formally compiled around 200 BC. It is the most authoritative text on rules and regulations of Hindu society. It contains an elaborate set of dos and don’ts for individuals belonging to different Varnas and untouchables. The dharma Shastras provide a formal concerted treatment of dharma. Dharma regulates the life of millions of Hindus. It also holds the world together like Rita of Rig Veda, a kind of cosmic or divine order.

The Manu dharma (the way of life permitted in Manusmriti) is also known as Manav dharma which is by its inherent purity and goodness is supposed to be applicable to all men, in all times and in all places. However one should expect that such a Manav dharma should include a definition of Manav or man or at least man in the form of an individual should be at its center. But it is not so. In Manusmriti, it is nowhere described that who is Manav (human) and what are his rights and duties. The definitions is simply is missing from it. It is not indicted that who is this Manav among all the four Varnas. If all of them are human beings then why they should not have the same dharma? If they have to follow the different dharmas then they are not the same. In that case Manusmriti cannot make a claim that it is a general code of conduct for all the men all the times. Actually it has five codes of conducts, one for each Varna. The universality is missing from Manusmriti. Instead Varnas are different categories of humans who have different codes of conduct. There is no underlying single basis of deciding the code of conduct instead it depends on the purity of origin of a man. The only single underlying need is the desire for power. Thus the people having different powers have the different code of conduct applied to them. The power of each group matches with the level of purity assigned to it and their relative occupations. The purity is supposed to be a theoretical basis of power of each Varna. It is also a standard of measurement of social status of each Varna.

The fifth stratum of untouchables is represented by Chandals in Manusmriti for whom a code of conduct is given.

It also provides civil and criminal laws, punishment and atonement. The main aim of codification of Hindu laws in various smritis was to ensure the security and welfare of different Varnas in descending order. This descending order is Brahmanas, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, Shudras and Antyajas. The welfare of Brahmanas takes precedence over the welfare of Kshatriyas. The welfare of Kshatriyas takes precedence over the welfare of Vaisyas. The welfare of Vaisyas takes precedence over the welfare of Shudras. The welfare of Shudras and Antyajas is simply missing. However the disabilities imposed over Shudras were less than the disabilities imposed over Antyajas. For this the Shudras and their present past and future generations should be utmost grateful to swindling Brahmans. Actually Manusmriti completely destroys the welfare of Shudras and Antyajas. Their welfare is burned in the fires of social status and purity. The welfare of Shudras is completely destroyed and the life of Antyajas’ is actually made hellish courtesy the rules created by the pious lawmakers, the Brahmanas. The compassion of these sacred lawmakers is spread all over the Shastras and especially reserved for the last two strata. The social cruelties against Antyajas are all encompassing over the entire range of Shastras wherever they are mentioned. The low level of welfare available to Shudras and Antyajas is generally attributed to the law of Karma, no swindling lawmaker is supposed to have any hand in it. The existence of universal ethical principle and humanity in Manusmriti or other dharma Shastras is similar to the existence of Dodo.

Now we are back to the question of how the Varna of a man is to be determined. Manusmriti, the most authentic of dharma Shastras can help in this regard. Apart from the endogamous natures of different jatis we have the abhorrence for Varna-Sankar in Manusmriti and the great spiritual epitome of Sanatana dharma, the unestimable Geeta. Varna-Sankar is an offspring of parents belonging to different Varnas. According to both the scriptures, the emergence of Varna-Sankar should be prevented as this causes corruption or destruction of dharma. The presence Varna-Sankars makes the world unsafe for dharma. Now what is the nature of dharma which can be destroyed or corrupted by the emergence of Varna-Sankar people? The concept and presence of Varna-Sankar is antagonist to dharma. Any Varna-Sankar is anti-dharmic. Dharma would like to see the extinction of Varna-Sankars and prevent them from emerging altogether. So dharma aims to prevent marriages between two different Varnas. Sometimes directly and sometimes indirectly by calling them adharmic. A Varna-Sankar person is without Varna and not entitled to one. Also he is not entitled to any Vedic rites. The Varna-Sankars are to be abhorred. An obsessive abhorrence to Varna-Sankar implies that only the people belonging to same Varna can marry. Manusmriti is very clear in this regard that only those offspring who have the father and mother from same Varna can inherit their Varna and not the others. A person has true Varna only if he has the parents from the same Varna. Otherwise he/she is a Varna-Sankar. The dharma Shastras are very clear that there are only four Varnas and there exists no fifth Varnas. Thus no additional Varna can be created through inter-Varna marriages. A Varna-Sankar is without any Varna and is deprived of any Vedic rites and ceremony. This also deprives them of any status in the society. This means that the Varna is decided by pure parentage or in other words by birth. The parentage of a pure Varna cannot come from any other Varna. Keeping in view the superiority of higher Varnas, Manusmriti allows, as a matter of subordination of lower Varnas, higher Varna men to marry lower Varna women. This is called Anuloma marriage. The children out of such marriages are not allowed to have their father’s Varna. They are Varna-Sankar and they are called base-born. They are assigned the jobs which are not done by twice born. This makes them affectively Shudras since the only job left is that of Shudras’. The children from such marriages have no place in the society no family from pure Varna would be willing to marry them. So their lineage stops or to find life partners they are forced to go to Shudra level and then remain there. This veritable threat of degrading to Shudra level prevents effectively the Anuloma marriages. The marriage in opposite direction, where father is from lower Varna and mother is from higher Varna is called Pratiloma marriage. Anuloma marriages imply the subordination of lower Varnas to higher Varnas and Pratiloma marriages imply an insubordination to higher Varnas. The Pratiloma marriages are straight forwardly outlawed by Manusmriti. The children born out of such marriages are classified as outcastes which ultimately makes them to degrade to the level of fifth stratum of untouchables. Anybody involved in insubordination is consigned to the level of untouchables, a punishment for life till death, which is carry forward to next generations. The ostracization which makes a person an outcaste is equivalent to prison system in society where the presence of a king is not needed to carry out the sentence. The society could collectively impose the punishment of ostracization which also deprived man of any inheritance. Thus the ostracized man is deprived of social interaction and economic means. He has no property; he is not supposed to be employed by anybody. Nobody is supposed to interact with him, not even Shudras. Thus he has untouchable for company and has to take up their jobs to survive.

Thus we find that the Varna is determined by birth because true Varna comes only from same Varna. The people with same level of relative purity are supposed to marry each otherwise the impurities will prevail which will impurifiy the dharma and the Varna...

Varna Ashram -9

...According to some people Varna system is a simple division of labor. Everyone is doing the job he is most suitable. However it can be a division of function between rulers, traders and servants etc. It cannot be division of labor in industrial sense. It is so because Varna system was born in agrarian conditions where no particular specialization of labor was needed. Anybody could do any job with little learning. The ancient technology did not require an advanced degree in engineering to perform any job. The job of potter or forger could have been performed by anybody. The endogamy most probably started with Brahmanas not with the Shudra artisans. This endogamy started most probably as matter of honor. The highest Varna was desirous of keeping its women away from the heathen people. Over a long period of time the ratio of men to women is one to one. All the Brahman girls were supposed to be married to Brahmans. Thus, all the Brahmans got married and there was no need for them to marry outside. In addition, a full-scale endogamy came into existence. Then it percolated down again as a matter of honor among lower jatis. Each jati had its relative honor to maintain depending upon its social rank. Each jati refused to marry into jatis below them and in turn inviting refusal to marry from higher jatis. So endogamy became a basic feature without which Varna system could not survive.

It was not essential to be a specialist to perform any production activity in an agrarian economy. Further, the upper castes that controlled land and capital in the society did not provide any labor. Therefore, any division of labor if it was there took place within last two groups. If it was a division of labor then Shudras could have simply changed their Varna at will by changing their occupation, which did not happen. Any such move would have required a reallocation of land, capital and authority which no higher Varna was willing to do.

One more thing about division of labor is that it is need based and not based on birth. In division of labor any worker can change his occupation if he does not get enough to eat. Such a change is not permitted under Varna system. Varna was, in fact, power based with extreme strands of purity. This power had to be acquired by taking birth in a suitable Varna.

Function wise there was no replacement for Kshatriyas killed in warfare. There are only 5 percent Kshatriyas in Hindu society at present. Considering a family of five only 1 percent of population is available to maintain the law and order and defend the country. This gives a ratio of 100 to 1 for the army and police combined together. And if one considers the society where there are no guns only swords, spears and bows and arrows then this ratio is too low. One man with sword cannot handle 100 men with sticks. The minimum ratio, for such a sword-based society is 10 to 1, which gives a population of 10 percent for able-bodied Kshatriyas. Again considering a family of 5 we find that Kshatriyas should be 50 percent of total population and not 5 percent as at present. The present population of Kshatriyas is too low. Where have all the Kshatriyas gone? Why they were not replaced? If it were to be a division of labor?

Considering the case of untouchables one finds that they constitute about 20 percent of Hindu population. This means that Hindu society needs 20 percent of its population or labor force to provide it with unclean goods and services. No society can have such a high demand or requirement for such goods and services that it needs 20 percent of its population to provide them. Only 1 to 2 percent people are needed for such jobs and that too without untouchability. So 18 to 19 persons out of every 20 untouchable are redundant. How does the division of labor explain this? On the other hand Kshatriyas fall short by 45 percent. Clearly it is not a division of labor. It is a power structure where entry of outsiders is not allowed.

Hindu society is simply a caste based society where control of everything is acquired by upper castes by natural act of taking birth and crippling the lower castes. A newborn upper caste child is predestined to be a controller and a newborn Shudra child a servant. And nobody can change that. The control over lower castes is passed on heredity basis. The upper castes get this control through inheritance. The cosmic forces are said to be behind this...