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...

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 -10

...There are some people who claim that Varna of a man is not birth based but depends on Karmas and Gunas (deeds and nature). The strongest evidence that the caste is based on birth is the existence of endogamous jatis. People belonging to a particular jati refused to marry outsiders and thus make jati a birth based system. However we may see the arguments in favor of Guna (nature) based Varna. These people seem to imply that Varna is different from jati. However Varna is a socially ranked group of similarly ranked endogamous jatis as given in scriptures. If nature (Guna) of man is going to decide his Varna then endogamous nature of jatis has to break down. As far as Gunas are concerned there are three Gunas. These are Satvik, Rajsik and Tamsik. The Satvik guna denotes purity, calmness, intelligence and renunciation. These qualities are supposed to be possessed by Brahmanas. The Rajsik guna denotes power, vitality and dynamism. These qualities are supposed to be possessed by Kshatriyas. The Tamsik guna denotes darkness, ignorance and inertness. These qualities are supposed to be possessed by Shudras. And the third Varna of Vaisyas possesses a combination of Rajsik and Tamsik Gunas. It is like being a combination of pure and impure. This description is not necessarily right but let us assume that it is right. Different Varnas possess different Gunas. But it is not same as saying that Gunas determine Varna. Or nature of a man decides his Varna. Do the Gunas decide Varna of a man? Whether a man from any Shudra jati possessing Satvik Gunas belongs to Brahmanas Varna? Does he have the right the right to study and teach Vedas? Does he have the right to guide King in running his kingdom? Does he have the right to be revered by Kshatriyas and Vaisyas? Does he have the right to become priest of temples? And biggest of them all – does he have the right to marry a Brahman girl? This is the right which even the kings do not have. The Varna system does not come in isolation, it comes with a complete baggage. It would be interesting to note the number of Brahmanas, Kshatriyas and Vaisyas willing to extend him all these rights. The number of such people would be zero. As long as such a man exists in the arguments of defenders of Varna system there is no problem. However the moment such a Shudra possessing Satvik Gunas presents himself in physical form the problems start. First thing, he would have to go through thread ceremony to become a Brahman which no Brahman would perform. Secondly all the Brahman families would refuse to give him a girl in marriage. They would even refuse to dine with him. The Kshatriyas would refuse to honor him and refuse to touch his feet. The Vaisyas would also refuse to honor him and refuse to touch his feet. The Kshatriyas and Vaisyas would refuse to dine with him, walk with him and sit with him. Offering a girl in marriage cannot even be thought of. None of the higher three Varnas would be willing to cross the first stage of walking and talking with him. So after facing the rejection from all the sides he is back to being a Shudra. Therefore, the claim that a man born in Shudra jati possessing Satvik Gunas belongs to Brahman Varna is grand fable which falls flat on its face when applied socially. Such a man exists in the arguments of defenders of Varna system not in their hearts. There he is simply non-existent. Nobody followed the teachings of Gita rendering it meaningless. Even Gita does not provide a way of handling the baggage associated with Varnas created by the God...

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...

Varna ashram -8

...The Hindu society is actually a pentagraded society which includes four Varnas and one group of Antyajas. The Antyajas or untouchables are not considered as a part of Chaturvarna system. They are also known as Avarnas meaning people without any Varna. The degrading of jobs has been taking place in Hindu society. The jobs of butchering and skinning were carried down from Rig Vedic times. At some point of time the jobs of butchering, skinning and scavenging were downgraded to fifth level. So the people attached to these jobs by inheritance became downgraded. Nevertheless, by the time this last category came into existence due to degrading of jobs by Brahmans, the Vedas had been finalized. The Purusha sukta of Rig Veda was the final word on Varna origin. Any addition to Varnas meant changing Rig Veda or Word of God, which nobody could do. Neither it was possible to add anything to add to Vedas. This degrading was not objected to because those who suffered were people without any means of sustance who survived merely on their labor. These people did not know when they became untouchable. Only passage of time told them so. One indication that they have come down from Varna system is that like the people of four Varnas these people also have their own jatis. This category emerged after the entry of each Varna into Varna system so they were called Antyaja. The word “Antyaja” means those who are born at the end or last-born. Being born after everybody, they were also placed at the end of everybody, which means at the bottom social structure. Like Shudras they were also supposed to have an impure origin. Even more impure than the Shudras. Thus they were placed at the end. The impure people were always linked to impure jobs through inheritance. A man born in Hindu society inherits his parents’ jati and the occupation of jati also...

Varna Ashram -7

...The jobs are related to purity of each Varna, which is decided by scriptures. The most pure Varna was given the job of preserving sacred and pure Vedas and other scriptures. This also amounted to preserving dharma. The second most pure Varna of Kshatriyas was given the second most sacred job of upholding dharma. The Brahmanas were to decide the sacred dharma and Kshatriyas were to uphold this sacred dharma through their force. The partly pure and partly impure Varna of Vaisyas was given job of trading and impure job cattle rearing and agriculture. In due course of time cattle rearing and agriculture were reduced to Shudra level and Vaisyas were limited only to trading activities. The Shudras being most impure were given the menial job of serving other Varnas without accumulating any wealth. The untouchables being polluted in nature were given the unclean or polluting jobs...

Varna Ashram -6

...The social position of each Varna is related to purity of its place of origin. There are four places of origin, the mouth, the arms, the thighs and the feet. The body parts above naval are considered pure and below it are considered impure. The purest part of these four is the mouth so the Brahmanas from it are considered most pure and have highest social position. The second most pure part is arm so the Kshatriyas who were born from arms have the second highest social position. The Vaisyas were born from thighs which are considered as impure. They were impure is also evident from their earlier manual labor occupations of cattle rearing and agriculture. However they were partly pure and partly impure as they were entitled to thread ceremony making them eligible for Vedic rites. The feet are the most impure of these four and Shudras originating from them were considered most impure and denied thread ceremony that made them ineligible for Vedic rites. Over a period of time another group with impurity more than the Shudras also emerged. This group was that of Antyajas or untouchables. They had the lowest position in the society...

Varna Ashram -5

...The Vaisyas being mercantile caste owned all the capital in the economy though they had no say in the state and its coercive power. The Kshatriyas owned all the land. Apparently the highest group of Brahmanas was not supposed to own anything but it had devised various means to transfer the wealth from Kshatriyas and Vaisyas to them. They got the land grants from Kshatriyas and donations from Vaisyas through temples. They were the people who controlled the kings and society. Hence there was no need for them to have a direct desire or activity to own the resources. The king was not supposed to rule over these divine lawmakers. During Vedic sacrifices they got all the share of animals sacrificed. When sacrifices were stopped then they got a significant number of cows in donation that ultimately came from kings and Vaisyas. And when land became important they got the land grants from kings. When temples came into existence; they controlled them and the wealth that came in the form donations from Kshatriyas and Vaisyas. They also controlled the land given to temples in grant. Therefore, it cannot be said that they were the poor people of the society. They wielded the power in the society along with the king. One can say that the Hindu society was characterized by double power centers. The king could also not rule over them which mean that they were beyond any questioning. In other words, they were not responsible to anyone except scriptures which they had created and interpreted according to their likings. In addition they got all the administrative jobs with the kings. The state was a virtual fief for Kshatriyas and Brahmanas. The Brahmanas enjoyed the resources of state without doing any labor or running the risk of life like Kshatriyas. In later times the risk to a king’s life was also reduced to some extent by demilitarizing the general population. Only Kshatriyas and soldiers were allowed to hold the weapons. The much-acclaimed virtue of renunciation of Brahmanas is a grand deception that went quietly in the name of scripture. They sanctified all the transfers of wealth to them, in the scriptures. So such transfer of wealth was beyond question. This lasted for more than 2500 years. The current trend in this direction is weak but one never knows when it may become strong. Hindu religion has survived many bad times in the history....

Varna Ashram -4

The last two groups lived by their labor alone. They did not have any right to possess any property that was the sole prerogative of twice born. They had to remain without any property or any wealth all their life. The Varna system tramples on their rights and personalities nicely. All the non-labor resources of the economy and society like land and capital were under the control of higher three Varnas forever. They were supposed to be in their hands till eternity because Hindu dharma is known as eternal religion. All the arrangements are made under Hindu dharma on forever or eternal basis. The last two Varnas were supposed to be dependent on higher Varna for their survival. They could not live a really independent life. Without servility their wretched survival was impossible. If one is born in a low jati then he has to live a low-level substance life devoid of any self-respect. The self-respect is reserved for upper three castes only.

Varna Ashram -3

...Thus the functions were not assigned to individuals. The functions of Brahmans were to study and teach scriptures and help Kshatriyas in upholding dharma. It is normally not mentioned in the scriptures that they were the lawmakers also. Such a move would have undermined their image of great renunciators. All the laws were made by them in the name of God. The functions of Kshatriyas were to rule the land, protect people and uphold dharma. The functions of Vaisyas were to do trade, cattle rearing and agriculture. The function of Shudras was to serve higher three Varnas without accumulating any property or assets. The Antyajas were below Shudras and without any Varna. The wretched Antyajas were more disabled than Shudras and were given unclean jobs in the society....

Varna Ashram -2

...It divides all these three power among different jatis on heredity basis. This allocation of power is decided by the lawmakers. The endogamous nature itself indicates that a jati is occupied by birth and so is its related Varna. Nobody can choose his occupation or Varna because nobody can choose his parents. His all social, political and economic rights follow from his jati. He or anybody else has no control over them. The rights have been decided for an individual forever before the time of his birth. If he is born in a low jati then he is destined to live a low level life forever...

Varna Ashram -1

...Varna is neither caste nor clan. It is a permanent control structure. It grades different endogamous jatis on vertical scales of hierarchy depending on their control over the society and people and thus on the resources of the society. It is a system of exclusion in which the lowest two strata (Shudras and untouchables) are excluded from enjoying the resources of the society. One embedded indication of control over others is the relative purity of a Varna. Jatis are endogamous groups following a given heredity occupation and have a given position in social structure. The Varnas are graded according to purity, the basis for which is provided in the scriptures...

Aryans original people oof India! -5

....When comparing Harappan civilization and Rig Vedic civilization, two things are to be noted. First is that the civilizations are developed in the order of hunter, pastoral, agricultural and urban stages. For a community, a movement down to lower stages means that the higher stages have become extinct. For an urban civilization to become a purely agricultural in nature means that its cities must have become extinct. And for agricultural civilization to become pastoral civilization means that agriculture has become extinct. Otherwise there seems to be no known reason for the people to take up an inferior way of live by opting for a lower level civilization. The people at higher level would not move knowingly to a lower level. Second is that copper was discovered and used earlier than iron.

The Rig Vedic civilization was pastoral where as Harappan civilization was urban in nature. The Harappan civilization was two steps ahead of Rig Vedic people’s way of life. It had agriculture as well cities both of which are missing from the life of Rig Vedic people who depended on their cow, horses and plunder. The Rig Vedic people did not have permanent villages - a well planned city was a far fetched thing. There is no mention of cities in Rig Veda. It is impossible that such big cities missed the eyes of Rig Vedic people if they were contemporary of Harappan people. If they were same people then still Rig Vedic people had to mention these big cities. The cultural mascot of Aryans, horse has negligible presence in Harappan civilization. However the importance of Ashwa (horse) is also evident in Avesta where it is know as Aspa indicating outside connections of Aryans. The horse along with cow was mainstay of Rig Vedic Aryans and agriculture and trade that of Harappans. Then there is no original knowledge of elephant in Rig Veda where as Harappans used ivory in trade. One more thing is that the now discovered dried up river flows through a region which was the empire of great cow killer, the tiger. This great cow killer is never mentioned in Rig Veda where as it is found on Harappan seals. The Rig Veda mentions neither Harappan seals nor trade. Thus Rig Vedic people never came into contact with Harappan people. They came after Harappan civilization had disappeared and only its agriculture survivors were there. The now discovered dried up river is not Sarsawati. The real river Sarsawati is in Afghanistan now. This also indicates that some parts of Rig Veda were heard in Afghanistan. The newly discovered river must be given some new name.

However we may consider some other possibilities. One possibility is that Rig Vedic people were very ancient and original inhabitants of this mammoth land. They heard Rig Veda and then took up agriculture and developed urban cities of Harappa and traded with Sumerian people. After that they went into decline. The cities disappeared. The agriculture also became extinct and they took up the pastoral life. The extinction of agricultural is a must if they were to go down to the level of nomadic living. However there are no signs that agriculture became extinct in Sapta-Sandhav region. The Vedas themselves mention that agriculture was the occupation of defeated people. Thus, the sequence of Rig Vedic people going down to the level of pastoral living from agriculture is incorrect. And there is no possibility that Rig Veda is older than Harappan civilization.

We may also consider another possibility that first Rig Veda was there and then agriculture was developed in later Vedic period and the urban Harappan cities were developed. These cities declined and new phase of urban development started after 600 BC. This puts later Vedic period to be older than Harappan period. But here we have to consider the use of metal in both the civilizations. The Harappan civilization used bronze and copper with no trace of iron. In later Vedic period use of iron also became frequent. Thus we have absence of iron in Harappan civilization and its presence in later Vedic period. As we know that copper was discovered earlier than iron, so Harappan civilization has to be predated to later Vedic period. Thus Harappan civilization is in no way connected with Vedic civilization. Rig Vedic Aryans came to India from outside and established their cultural hegemony through culture of Yagyas. ..

Aryans origina people of India ! -4

...If Rig Vedic people were the original people of India and moved outside from east to west then this is not indicated by the presence of Vedas in the regions outside India. It is logical that the people who heard Vedas took the word of God with them to other regions. It is quite clear that the gods Indra, Varun and Mitra predate Rig Veda. They are mentioned separately and independently of Rig Veda...

Aryans origina people of India ! -3

... The common river to both the people can only be Harhawati because Indo-Iranians are not known cross the river Sindhu. If Rig Veda is older than Avesta and river Harhawati was known to Indo-Iranians through Vedas then Avesta must mention Rig Veda which it does not...

Aryans origina people of India ! -2

... If the movement of Aryans was from east to west then the river Ganga is placed to west of river Sindhu, which is contradicted by the present position of rivers...

...The region of Sapta-Sandhav was known to Rig Vedic people and also to Indo-Iranians. It was one of the sixteen regions known to Indo-Iranians. They knew it as Hapta-Hindhav (“s” gets converted into “h” in Avestan old Sanskrit). In addition, they, also, knew a river called Harhawati which translates into Sarsawati in Rig Vedic Sanskrit. Avesta is dated back to 1400 BC which means that there was a river called Sarsawati in 1400 BC in Sapta-Sandhav region. Avesta does not mention Rig Veda which means that it is a separate source about river Sarsawti...

Aryans original people of India ! -1

...Recently, a once dried up river has been discovered in the area of Sapta-Sandhav of Rig Vedic Aryans through satellite imagery. At the same time, there is river Saraswati mentioned in Rig Veda which cannot be identified with any of the rivers following in the Indian subcontinent. The river Saraswati was very important to Rig Vedic people. It has been praised and praised for its mightiness and its beneficial affects. Sometime it is more prominent than the river Sindhu. Sapta-Sandhav was the region in which Rig Vedic people lived. This region now a day contains only five rivers. The mention of river Saraswati becomes less as one moves from Rig Veda to other Vedas and Puranas. Some people have identified this newly discovered dried up river with the river Saraswati mentioned in the Rig Veda. This river was supposed to have been dried up by 1900 BC. Therefore, if it is the same river which is mentioned in Rig Veda, then Rig Veda is at least as old the river meaning it was heard before 1900 BC. And most probably much earlier than that because it mentions a Saraswati in its full flow and not in its drying stages. This intends to refute the general dating of Rig Veda of 1500 BC to 900 BC. If correct this also goes to show that Rig Vedic people were contemporary of Harappan civilization. The Harappan civilization has been dated from 2800 BC to 1900 BC. Some people have even gone to extent of claiming Harappan civilization as Rig Vedic civilization...

...As far as we are concerned it makes no bearing on our interpretation of caste system, it merely pushes back the date of beginning of caste or Varna system...

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...

Aryans without caste - 10

...The shifting of Aryans from place to place also indicates a strong resistance offered by local people to Aryans. Only when small Aryan tribes combined to form big tribes; they become large enough to subdue the local kings. After subduing the local kings or arriving at a compromise with them, the Rig Vedic people were able to take up agriculture and start living a relatively comfortable life as compared to their original professions of cattle rearing and plundering. The agriculture in Vedas is known as the occupation of defeated people which also indicates a long drawn out low intensity warfare for the control over upper north India. It also tells that the agriculture was the technology of natives of India.

We have already mentioned that with the introduction of agriculture in Vedic society, which they learned from local people; the Rig Vedic dharma called Rita met its demise. This religion was not the same Sanatana dharma as at present but a cosmic or divine order indeed.

With political supremacy in upper north India there was a need to assimilate the original people of India into Aryan thread based communities. The agriculture made it possible to produce more than what the people needed. The socially and politically dominant people extracted the food surplus from others who worked on the land. The introduction of agriculture started the division of Aryan society. This division was new to Rig Vedic people and with it the Rig Vedic society also ended. In addition the Sanskrit also lost its Rig Vedic form. The privileged groups of people emerged in the society. The similarly privileged individuals formed a group which could be called homogenous. After this the Varnas were born. The Varnas were not created in a day. They came into existence one by one through coming together of similar people at the top. They appear in the society in the time sequence of Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas and Shudras. Later one more group also emerged at the lowest end of the society. This was the group of untouchable which now form 20 % of Hindu society or about 200 millions in numbers. These are the wretched lot. Bad luck when it pours for these people then it pours and poura as it has been pouring for last 2500 years and shows no signs of stopping...

Aryans without caste- 9

...The Rig Vedic life of Aryans was very tough and filled with poverty. One reason was the inter-tribal wars and other was the low level of sustenance provided by nomadic economy. Another reason was the tough resistance faced by the Aryans from the local population. In fact they were chased from place to place due to their defeat at the hands of local chieftains which is evident from their frequent requests for divine help from gods to be victorious in wars and in plundering. The natural and forced movements from place to place prevented them from taking up a settled life. The Rig Vedic people lived among Dasas, Dasyus, the noseless people, Panis, Aja, Shigru, Yaksha, Matsya, Kiril and people who spoke bitter language. Therefore, it cannot be said that the Rig Vedic people were living in vacuum or they came and populated the Sapta-Sandhav region. Panis were the much hated people who stole the cattle of Rig Vedic people. The other great enemies were the Dasyus who had frequent war with the Aryans at that time. These people were the original people of India who were defeated ultimately through war, diplomacy, matrimonial alliances and cultural means. The culture of performing Yagyas became most in demand for which Rig Vedic Rishis were needed. This assumed ability of Rishis and Brahmans of bringing gods to the side performing yagyas helped in a significen manner in spread of their influence and Sanatana dharma which development in cultural hegemony of Brahmans. The all powerful Rishis were forerunners of all later powerful Brahmans. At present all the Brahmans trace their patrinilieal lineage from Vedic Rishis.

The Rig Vedic people were not able to take up agriculture because of resistance from the natives. The other reason for not taking up agriculture might have been that the Aryans considered themselves superior to native people and refused to copy their mode of living which they consider as inferior. This feeling of superiority might have been due to their fair skin. This mode of thinking indicates a kind of racism and might have provided seeds for the later discriminatory Varna system. The other reason might be that they considered the agriculture as inferior occupation because of the use of manual labor which rendered it below their level and thus demeaning for the people used to fight with arms. This also indicates seeds for the development of discriminatory Varna system. Otherwise, there seems to be no reason for not taking up agriculture by Rig Vedic people, which was quite beneficial as compared to nomadic life which barely providing sustainable life, and no comforts. These comforts became available to later days Kshatriyas and Brahmans and theory of Karma was developed to safeguard these comforts till eternity...

Aryans without caste - 8

...The Harappan people have not left any written records and as such their history is not known. Their script which has about 400 characters is still to be deciphered. So it cannot be said with any certainty that they did not have the hereditary caste system. However, the well developed nature of their cities indicates that they also had a stratified social structure like any other civilization of their times. In absence of any records about Harappan civilization the Hindu scriptures become our main source of knowledge about social structure in this sub-continent. It does make sense because word “Varna” makes it appearance in connection with the groups which emerged during later the Vedic period.


However, the agriculture was nearly absent from the life of Rig Vedic people for full 600 years. Agriculture, as compared to cattle rearing, is superior occupation. In turn the cattle rearing is superior to hunting. In pastoral economy one has a ready supply of meat but this supply of food is not as certain as in agriculture. The difference lies in relative control over nature in both the activities. In agriculture there is assured supply of surplus food which comes from relatively higher man’s control over the nature. It gives more benefits compared to pastoral life. The pastoral life is barely a sustenance life with little surplus. The food available in a cattle stock economy depends on the natural growth rate of the cattle stock. The nomadic life also necessitated the movement from one place to another place in search of new pastures. This migration from place to place had inherent uncertainties attached with it. It also resulted in waging small wars with other Aryan tribes and the natives. It also meant poverty as compared to agricultural societies. Agriculture allows one to have sufficient surplus and a well-settled relatively comfortable life avoiding hardship of moving from one place to another. It is surprising that the Aryans who were surrounded by agriculturist communities refused to take up the agriculture for an extremely long period of 600 years. The Rig Vedic Aryans were surrounded by small village based agricultural communities. The contemporary presence of agriculture in Sapta-Sandhav cannot be denied since it was the place of urban Harappan civilization which was based on agriculture, manufacturing and trade. Though the Harappan civilization had declined the agriculture had survived. It is strange that those who claimed that the Vedas contain knowledge about everything had the ancestors who did not know a thing about agriculture. This perfect knowledge had the imperfection of ignorance about agriculture. This they had to learn from the natives of India. This land taught them the agriculture. The natives of India were set to become impure Shudras excluding their kings...

Aryans without caste - 7

......The great Harappan urban civilization had already declined before Rig Vedic people entered India. In its glorious days it was two steps ahead of nomadic Rig Vedic Aryan civilization. Earlier, the Harappan civilization had already passed the nomadic and agricultural stages and established itself at the next higher stage of civilization – the urban civilization. The Aryans had not even come up to the next higher level of agriculture which is clear from absence of agricultural word from their vocabulary. The next step of developing urban centers was far ahead; they were backward in this sense. In terms of civilization the Aryans were inferior people. They did not even know agriculture which they had to borrow from the natives of India.

These backward tribal Aryans were destined to move from lower level of nomadic level to higher level of city culture but before that they had to take up agriculture and start living a settled village life. The nomadic life is normally characterized by absence of food surplus. These shifting pastoral tribes, with small populations, were not capable of forming kingdoms. At most they could plunder other Aryan tribes and communities of native people. The early nomadic Aryan tribes did not live in settled villages. They constantly moved from one place to another along with their cattle and horses in search of greener pastures or to avoid the attackers. Ultimately they took up the higher level of agriculture and then city culture but in the process they classified certain people (Shudras) as inherently impure and some as inherent polluted (Antyajas) – it was indeed a great achievement with an obsessive insistence on purity, supremacy and sacredness of Vedas. As we will see that for the purpose of giving divine authentication to their Varna system they rigged the most ancient and sacred of scriptures – the Rig Veda....

Aryans withoyt caste - 6

...The Rig Vedic Aryans took up the agriculture with an inordinate delay of 600 years. They came to India in about 1500 BC and took up agriculture only in later Vedic period, which starts from 900 BC onwards. But before they could take up the agriculture and form large village based communities one more thing had to happen. This was the demise of Rig Vedic way of life of communes. It was the end of Rita, the cosmic order, which was the religion of Rig Vedic people. The Rig Vedic dharma emphasized on commune living, common ownership of tribal wealth (cattle stock) and equal distribution of tribal wealth and captured cows. In addition it meant devotion to Vedic gods and fire mode of worship and a cosmic order. Only fire worship, thread ceremony and Rig Veda were to survive and rest of the things were confined to dustbin of history. The transformation took placed under the aegis of newly acquired agricultural technology. This dharma called Rita was later to be replaced by eternal Sanatan dharma based on Chaturvarna system which was to make living hell out of lives of uncountable people in coming ages. The sickening durability of this hellish system is surprising.

Over a period of time especially in the later Vedic period (or later three Vedas), the agriculture came to acquire a prominent place in the Aryan society when they took up the superior occupation of defeated native people. By this time the Aryans had lost the character of a race and got intermixed with local people through mixing of blood and alliances with local kings with whom the Rig Vedic people had won and lost many wars. But they were winners, ultimately, through diplomatic and war like means. Their region extended from Sapta-Sandhav to Ganga and Yamuna with many Janapadas and Mahajanapadas (small kingdom like territories). As a result of this intermixing, the color of skin had changed from white to light brown and other darker versions. The Vedic people settled on land copying the technique of agriculture of native people. The small tribes combined and formed big tribes. These big tribes in turn formed small kingdoms in the upper northern parts of Indian sub-continent...

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...

Aryans without caste -4

.....The cattle stock in Rig Vedic period was the wealth of whole of the tribe; it was commonly owned. They were dependent on hunting and cattle rearing. When required they plundered other Aryan tribes and native people. There was no group wise grading in the commune based society. The private property institute was absent, No claim on land could be made since the tribe itself kept on moving from one place to another. All the cattle belonged to whole of the tribe. There was one king who sometime doubled as priest also. He was above others but had to function under the regulation of Sabha (committee) of the tribe. He did not have divinely ordained inheritable position of later days Brahmans and Kshatriyas.

These people moved along the banks of life giving rivers. The river Sindhu and Sarawati assume great importance in Rig Veda. The river Sindhu is now known as river Indus. The source of food was mainly hunting and cattle stock. The grain was not substantive part of the diet. Their food naturally included milk and dairy products. But alone, these are never sufficient for human body. So definitely the meat formed a major portion of their food. The source of daily meat was hunting. When the hunting was scarce, the livestock became the source of food. The cattle were killed and eaten meaning killing of cows also. However, in later times the cow eating was downgraded to the prohibited level and cow killing became the second highest crime next only to killing of Brahman. The people made a complete somersault to achieve this position in their coming eternal religion – the current Sanatana dhama. The eating of cow was downgraded to become a heathen act but, strangely, their beef-eating ancestors remained great. In the period after Rig Veda the cow came to be killed for feeding the guests. This invariably included butchering of cow and other animals which in fact was one of the major activities of Rig Vedic people. This profession of butchering was later to belong to the untouchables – actually it should not surprise anybody. To make them pure and more pure, the Brahmans degraded others as much as they could. Another important activity was that of skinning the dead cows and other animals. The skinning gains importance due to near absence of cotton from Rig Veda. The skins were used as clothes by Rig Vedic Aryans and also used to make tents to live in. This activity was later downgraded to untouchable level. The fire was also important as an object of worship and also for roasting the animals for the purpose of eating. In addition it also kept wild animal away. For worshipping they had Indra, Varun , Agni and Vayu and other gods. These gods were invoked to assure the victory in a war as well as for improving the general welfare of the tribe. The importance of war preparing ceremony and fire’s part in it was extreme - almost beyond describable point. These extremely and crucial activities were known Yagnyas...

Aryans without caste - 3

........The people who came to India developed a culture which was to dominate this mammoth land for thousands of years. These people known as Indo-Aryans developed their own scriptures. However, these scriptures are not known outside India. The oldest of these scriptures are four Vedas. The oldest is Rig Veda then come Sama Veda, Yajur Veda and Atharva Veda. These Vedas are most sacred and most ancient


Among Vedas the Rig Veda is the oldest one and written in old Sanskrit similar to Sanskrit of Avesta or Indo-Iranians. The word Veda is derived from word “vidit” which means “told”. This actually means that the Veda are word of god and hence immutable. Another word for Vedas is “shrutis” which means “heard”. The Vedas, the word of God, were heard by the Rishis from the God himself in the solitude of forests. The Rishis did not compose the earliest of scriptures; they heard them from God and they merely remembered them verbatim. The other major scriptures are Brahmans, Puranas, Dharma Shastras and epics of Mahabharat and Ramayana.

The period during which the Vedas were composed is roughly divided into two phases. First phase is called Rig Vedic period during which Rig Veda was heard and second phase is called later Vedic period during which other three Vedas were heard. The Rig Vedic period is taken to be from 1500 BC to 900 BC and later Vedic period is taken to be from 900 BC to 600 BC. There are two main differences between these two periods. First is that the language used in Rig Vedic period is old Sanskrit which is similar to the Sanskrit of Avesta, the language of Indo-Iranians – the separated brothers of Indo-Aryans. The Sanskrit used in later Vedas is different. The second important difference is the importance of agriculture in Aryan society. The agriculture in Rig Veda plays a little role. It is indeed a critical factor. The most important thing was the cattle stock in this period. The villages or tribes were always moving from one place to another. The economy was pastoral in nature involving a lot of movement from one place to another, in search of new pastures and avoiding the attacks from other tribes. The attacks were mainly to capture the cows. On the other hand the economy in later Vedic period is agricultural based which almost changed everything. This was characterized by the settled life in villages and joining of different tribes in bigger units. In this period the importance of cattle stock declined. The Varna system was developed under the aegis of agriculture in later Vedic period. It is significant to note that in Rig Veda the absence of agriculture is matched by the absence of Varna system......

Aryans without caste -2

....To begin with there was no Sanatan dharma or any of the Vedas or any such cosmic order which could be called dharma. The Aryan people lived in a nomadic community worshipping the gods related to natural powers like Indra (rain god,) Vayu (air god), and Varuna (water god) etc. Inter tribal conflicts among them were common as well as the conflicts with the natives of India. Without agriculture these tribes depended on meat of their cattle stock and plundering others’ cattle stock. Later these experts in beef eating gave up beef eating and degraded it to prohibited level. They forgot their roots – amazing, is it not!!!

They descended in the region of Sapta-Sandhav (land of seven rivers) populated by village based communities and most probably agriculture-based small kingdoms of native people. These natives of India were later to be characterized as Shudras – the lowest in order in Varna system.

The Aryans moved out of their homeland of southern Russian steppes around 1500 BC. These steppes are generally identified with the Aryan homeland because it tallies with the description of large green land of Aryans. There are signs of outward movement of people from this region around 1500 BC. Some of them moved in the direction of Southeast. They came to present day Afghanistan and settled along the banks of river Saraswati (Harhawati). These tribes were separated after a violent quarrel which is indicated in the demonizing one’s deities by the other. One of the Aryan groups that came to India came to be known as Indo-Aryans. The other group that went to Iran came to be known as Indo-Iranians. The group which came to India claimed Devas as their deities and Asuras as demons. The group which went to Iran claimed Asuras as their deities and Devas as demons. These two groups went on to develop separate life styles. They lost touch with each other. However, there are four additional links between them. First the language they used was almost the same – old Rig Vedic Sanskrit; second the thread ceremony, which is performed when a boy comes of age, was common to them; third the fire worship was also common to them; and fourth was the intoxicating drink of Soma/homa....

Aryans wihtout caste - 1

.........India, a country in south Asia, is a perplexing and mammoth land with a long history. It is a home to many languages, religions, cults, ethnicities and caste system. Its inhabitants follow Hindu, Buddhist, Christian and Muslim religions. About eighty percent population follows Hindu religion. The diversity found here is amazing. Some consider it a power house of spirituality with gross disregard to Western materialism. Its still ancient society is based on caste. The caste is still the unofficial system of India.
The caste system or Chaturvarna has four Varnas viz. Brhaman, Kshatriya, Vaisya and Shudra in socially descending order. There is one more, large group, below the Shudra, called Untouchables. There are thousands endogamous castes/jatis belonging to each Varna. If left to itself, it is an unchanging system and tends to keep some specific people permanently at the top. And the same deprived group, permanently, at the bottom. It is operates through an inheritance system, where not only the wealth, but also social status and occupations, social/economic disabilities are transferred to an individual by birth. The marriages take place on endogamous basis.
To get an idea about this insensitive social system we have to go to the times when nomadic Aryans tribes entered India.

Around 1500 BC, the agricultureless, casteless, moving on horses the Aryan tribes arrived in North-Western region of Indian sub-continent. They moved in search of greener pastures for their cattle stock. The tribes came after tribes in succession; most probably having 2000 members in each. All the Aryan tribes, living without agriculture, lived a separate life until they combined. However, this process took 600 years to be really effective. These egalitarian, casteless, meat-eating people were later to create the Chaturvarna system with its related notion of inherent purity and inherent impurity with related social and power structure. This system gave rise to heinous, cruel and eternal system of untouchability which made the life a living hell for a large number of people. These eternal exploiters took pride in developing such an eternal system. They still take pride in it. And occasionally the blood of Untouchables is splattered on the earth for its cause. This causes the terror to be entrenched in the victims’ minds forever. And we will see in the chapter related to Karma doctrine that these victims, whose blood is splattered on the ground for dreaming, are the culprits!!.........