The Village - 16

...Then there are meaningful ways devised to prevent them from attending the schools. In the grand tradition of separation between jatis the students from the weakest of society are made to sit separately. They are also not allowed to draw water from school taps for the purpose of drinking for the fear of contamination. They have to wait for somebody from upper caste to open the tap so that they drink water and who will also close it afterward. Further to add insult to injury the teacher never misses a chance to scold or punish them in a humiliating manner in front of the class or the school on filmsy grounds. It is always caste exemplary. The insults are added after insults as if though the ever present insults in their lives are not enough. The more they are insulted the more soothing it is to others. A cloud of insults always hovers over their heads ever ready to rain furiously. At times the punishment can be corporal and so severe and so frequent that the student stops going to school. Even the social insulting is some times sufficient for them to leave the school. Had it not been for British and their egalitarian outlook the untouchables would have never got the education. The British with an attitude of superiority in favor of their educational system overrode the dharmic and social and divine objections of upper castes in allowing the lowest stratum to enter the schools. They did the greatest damage to sacred, pure and divine Varna dharma in forcing the upper castes and the lowest castes to sit together in the schools. Not even the Muslims tried that with the Hindus. Anyway the people whose dharma got contaminated must have gone straight to hell or must have taken the birth of jackals, lizards, insects, worms and other lower level form of lives.

Just out of context, there are people who consider the Vedic Rishis being superior to Newton and Einstein on the grounds best understood by them. They agree with each other and live in eternal bliss. The explanations they offer are restricted to themselves and not to be told to lower strata people. They also illogically consider the Vedic education to be superior to modern education.

And in rural areas there is a system of two tumblers. It is matter of preventing the contaminations of different castes through touch. It is a matter of keeping away the clean from the unclean. The village restaurant is a small dingy makeshift arrangement of dirty wooden work. All the broken, uneven and unequal pieces of wood are joined to give it a semblance of a room. The gaping holes are covered with dirty and torn cloth pieces. No cleanliness reaches there but they keep the clean separate from unclean. One set of tumbler is meant for the use of higher caste people. There is one more lone tumbler for the use of the lowest stratum of the society. A member of the fifth stratum has to drink the tea in the tumbler marked for untouchables. After that he has to clean it and keep it back. Then another fifth stratum member can repeat the process. And if there are many of them then they have to drink tea in sequence. No staff from these dingy and dirty restaurants would touch this tumbler and neither would clean it. The higher caste people would not drink from this tumbler to maintain the sanctity of their higher social status. It is an indication of wisdom of ancient people who categorized people into different compartments and made their dwellings and other things separate to keep the pollution at bay. However, the new generation of the lowest section of the society does not believe in such wisdom, they are infused or contaminated with the ideas of modern world and considers it to be inhuman thereby questions the entire philosophy of Varna dharma...

The Village -15

...Getting education also qualifies to be major offence. One reason is that it involves sitting of high caste children with untouchable children which is responsible for spread of impurities directly from person to person. One should know this dharmic fact. This can make all the high caste children impure which require bathing at home or risk the spread of impurities in other members of family and thereby in the whole of village society. This can impurify whole of the village endangering the pure, sacred and innocence dharma. Secondly it goes against the major rule of Varna dharma of subordination of untouchables to higher Varnas. The education enables the untouchables to fill the gap between themselves and others. Thus it is a major move toward their emancipation. And high castes do not like them to get nearer; the lower down they are, the better it is. The education among the untouchables jeopardizes the entire dharma. However the education to them is considered purposeless especially when the traditional education specialists in other Varnas are available. Only the higher three Varnas are eligible for education. After all there should be labor specialization. The untouchables are deemed to be fit only for leatherwork, scavenging and at best for doing the agriculture labor or lower level unskilled work. This is the maximum talent they are supposed to possess and not the awesome talent of cramming Vedas. They are supposed to be unfit for any higher-level work like education. There were the golden times for Brahmans when the molten lead was poured into the ears of impure people who happen to hear even a single word of sacred and divine Vedas. Such times of non-competition are looked upon by upper castes with nostalgia. Tears after tears are shed for disappearance of such dharmic times. These tears come straight from the pious, pure and innocent hearts. If untouchables are allowed to study then it is an indication that the civilization has since degenerated to abysmal depths. The education is not supposed to be part of life of these lowly people and it should not become one. Getting education means going to school which means encroaching on the dharmic monopoly of high castes and which is strongly resented in village society. It is needless to say that the schools are deemed to be meant for upper caste people. It is getting to be repetitive but the crippled lives of the people from lowest stratum have been a integral part of the Hindu civilization for 2500 years which requires to be repeatedly told. The people from lowest stratum are supposed to follow their traditional jobs only for which they are supposed to have appropriate and innate talent. They should not cut off themselves from their traditional roots of their cultural heritage. In addition it was the dharma which their ancestors followed faithfully. In getting education they are supposed to be flouting the rules by which their forefathers lived. ...

The village - 14

...However, all this fabulous display of bravery is reserved to be used against helpless, weak and unarmed people who can barely manage to make the ends meet. None of this fabulous, legendry and god created inherently superior bravery was on display when it met with Muslim invaders and British colonizers. Then their righteous mightiness disappeared into unknown places with its tail tucked deep inside. At that time they gladly adjusted to their subordinated status; not an iota of an effective bravery was on display. All the bravery was trampled upon by the foreigners with ridiculous ease; the Hindus could rule only over a disarmed, unclothed and hungry population. Only a handful of foreigners were needed to bring this ancient and mammoth civilization down to its knees and that too with effortless ease. Absolutely at that time the question of their honor or honor of their womenfolk did not arise. The Muslim warriors who were without women were not supposed to play marbles with the girls and women of this land. It was forced Niyoga. The question of honor or dharma did not arise at that time. Actually the concept of dharma became malleable instead of being permanent or divine. The non-Hindu human beings could easily play with this divine dharma. This malleability or a tendency to capitulation enabled this Varna dharma to survive. They opted for submission to avoid further damage. Had they taken brave and rigid stand at that time then the dharma would have been destroyed totally. The authority of Muslims was submissively acknowledged. So it was not desirable for Muslims to push the servile Hindus too far. The sheer arrogance of higher Varnas got completely reduced to dust. Their pride crawled on the ground. At that time the eternal dharma went to pieces and nobody effectively objected to it. The God created intelligence, the God created bravery, which were used with killing effects against the untouchables refused to essay anything other than complete servility. A paralysis developed in the innate superior qualities. After all, the God created them to rule; they turned out to be miserable failures. Dharma survived by accepting the meek position of servitude and subordination. The divinely ordained intelligence and bravery hid themselves under the dust raised by the hooves of horses of Muslim invaders. These qualities readily mingled with earth on which the foreigners treaded with their mighty boots. The half-baked bravery and half-baked intelligence were reserved for the landless, hungry, weaponless, isolated untouchables living in small mud huts without any viable means of subsistence...

The village - 13

...And wearing sleepers is also a great offence. It is out of touch with their social status. This simple act is also an absoloute act of insubordination. Thus it is punishable by the dharmic high caste people. Anybody can take law into his hands to save the dharma which amounts to saving Varna dharma. All the untouchables have to take off the sleepers when passing by upper castes or their houses. They cannot wear them in their presence. There should be no quarrel with that. They have to appear totally helpless with a bare minimum covering on their bodies. Any untouchable assertion is dharmically prohibited.

And taking an untouchable groom on a mare during a marriage procession can play havoc with the mental peace of upper castes. The man who is supposed to go barefoot and wear unclean, old and torn clothes dares to ride a mare, which is the sign of a ruler, in their presence and bring so many people to show off. From such a height he dares to look down upon the upper castes. He can never raise himself to their heights. And going through the cluster of houses of upper caste! It is pure sacrilege. It may cause serious law and order problem. It seems that the heathen people have slapped the upper caste people right in the face; anybody superior to them doing it would have been all right; but the untouchables? They are not allowed to do that. Their status and dharma is in danger. So the mentally tortured upper castes decide to save dharma by taking recourse to arms. A brave display of bravery takes place. The violence erupts. The troubled conscious of upper caste people does not take rest until the blood of unarmed untouchables flows on the earth like polluted red water. Few untouchable dead bodies are sufficient to give the feelings of serenity to their agitated conscious. So some of heathens are killed and this continues until the untouchables have given up. After killing they safely go to their large houses while the cries of bereaved people can be clearly heard from small untouchable huts. The honor of upper castes has been saved and they are satisfied; a sense of eternal bliss prevails. These heathen people cannot play with their honor. The gaping whole that was about to appear in the delicately woven fabric of dharma has been embroidered with a few corpses. They cannot be accused of not being aesthetic. Everybody on the side of dharma heaves a sigh of relief. The twang of pain on the faces of untouchables is equally matched by the radiant smiles on the faces of tormentors; the protectors of divine Varna dharma; the Brahman lawmakers appreciate themselves in an appreciating way; the self satisfied grins spread on their faces and silent appreciating glances are exchanged...

The Village -12

...The Varna dharma morality also dictates that the untouchables shall behave their divinely ordained status. The untouchable shall not indulge in such acts which offend upper castes and that is dharmically final and settled. He shall never try to become equal to an upper caste; that is the bare bone essential. He shall never indulge in the unethical act of hurting social sensibilities of his superiors. He shall willfully submit to all the humilities heaped upon him, his family and his jati. He shall always be servile to upper castes. He shall possess no ego. He shall not study. He shall not walk in an upright posture. He shall not talk back. He shall never assert himself. He shall never enter into temples. He shall endure with the insults heaped on his womenfolk. That is the culture.

He has committed the involuntary ghastly crime of being born in an untouchable family and goes on to compound his sins by wearing a decent set of clothes and thus treading upon the dharmic egos of upper caste people. He ought to be taught a lesson and he will be. It will be an enduring lesson. It should set up such a depth containing cruel example so that it prevents other untouchables from following the same anti-social path of dishonoring the upper castes by trying to become honorable. He is guilty of tearing the delicate and meticulously built social fabric of the society where preponderous servility passes as proof of social harmony. He is guilty of challenging the social authority. He is impurifying the society by trying to mix his polluted self with others. So a nice piece of ruthless thrashing, at least, would be forthcoming, in order to maintain the divinely ordained Varna dharma. So that in future he desists from such an anti-social act amounting to interference in the cosmic order. He shall not wear away from god assigned nature and duties. He should wear only old, unclean and torn out clothes. He shall extend all his servile cooperation in maintaining the Varna dharma otherwise it should be extracted from him. The punishment also assures the high caste people of their great dharmic heritage. A river of such assuring and soothing feelings runs through upper caste psyches through the system of punishing the untouchables. If the punishments were not deemed to be sufficient then dishonoring their womenfolk would be next in order. And they shall be mute witness to this, cursing their helplessness, destiny and of course Karmas. Only their Karmas are to be blamed for dishonoring of their womenfolk; nobody can be held responsible for this; especially when the high caste people are not answerable to low caste people. Sometimes the upper caste people do not need any flimsy reasons for committing this highly cultural dastardly act. This dastardly act has been long culturalized in Hindu society. Since ancient time, there has been no law and order as far as untouchables are concerned. It has been a Goonda Raj for them from the very beginning. They are like the preys to be hunted upon by the dharmic people....

The Village - 11

...And should an untouchable desire to dress him well? The heavens would fall. It would be quite contrary to dharmic ways. An untouchable is supposed to talk, walk, wear, eat, sleep and behave his jati. All his acts should be in perfect alignment with his lowest status in the society. It is quite painful and mentally unstabilizing for an upper caste to see an untouchable getting out of this alignment. Perfect geometry of alignment has to be maintained. Harmony is harmony no matter what. The way of living of an untouchable should be in harmony with his insulting status. Otherwise it makes high castes emotional wrecks. It makes them angry with a perfect degree of righteousness. It is sufficient to send them in a maniacal mind set causing destruction to untouchables and their huts. Nobody can ever accuse them of not being geometrical and. they cannot also be accused of not believing in harmony. The upper castes do not see any meaning in seeing a well-dressed untouchable. They think it is purposeless and the particular untouchable is aspiring for too much; getting out of alignment of dharmic social structure. It is an affront to their dignity. Any untouchable ought to be satisfied with getting two square meals a day; filling his belly should be the highest ambition for him. That is the limit imposed on him by Varna dharma. If he is dressing himself well then he is crossing the ethical limits; it is unethical to hurt the dignity of higher castes; no dharma-abiding untouchable should do it. It is demeaning for higher castes to see a polluted man going around the village in decent clothes. By wearing decent clothes he is being indecent to others. The decency incorporates indecency. The honor of untouchables implies dishonor of high castes. And dishonor of untouchables means honor of high castes. Some untouchable has been indecent enough to wear decent clothes. Now he has to be fixed for that. His forefathers never dared to do it. No high caste can bear such social indecency; it is a matter of honor. The untouchables were never in a position to face the wrath of upper castes and they are still not. It is not for him to fill the gap in clothing between him and the upper castes; he is supposed to know his wretched place. He shall not dare to come out of his wretchedness. Otherwise breaking few bones of such a recalcitrant untouchable is quite satisfactory to righteously, morally and ethically superior high castes. Thrashing badly an untouchable is like thrashing the wheat...

The Village - 10

...The untouchables are still searching for their crimes which caused this exclusion forcing them to use the water shared by animals. Nobody is coming forward with any proof. However, the untouchables dare not approach the village wells not meant for them as few splattered brains here and there do not matter. Few bloodstained bodies lying here and there on the ground assure the high castes of their superiority and purity of their Varna. The blood flowing on the earth is merely dirty red thick water that comes dirt-cheap. The flash of untouchables looks good only when it is separated from their bodies in the cause of dharma. This would assure the souls of tormentors thousands of years in heaven for such brave and dharmic deeds. Even some of them would get the Moksha straight away. The Sanatana dharma would be eternally thankful to them. No, that is wrong; the Brahmas can never be thankful to any Hindu; see it was their (the tormentors’) Varna job they were doing – nothing personal about it. The impure souls of heathen untouchables would be separated from their impure bodies and take the birth of jackals, dogs, lizards and insects etc in their next life as a due punishment for taking the water from high caste well, resulting in violation of dharma. The heavens had never been happier. So the untouchables have to search for another source of water other than the upper caste wells. They may have to tread for miles altogether but they would do it even if it is scorching sun. They have to avoid the death at the hands of dharma defenders. They have to minimize their sufferings.

Few people going without water is immaterial; dharma is supreme.

This infallible and supreme dharma suddenly developed paralysis when faced Muslim invaders and British colonizers. It immediately went into a mode of capitulation and submissive, egoless cooperation with such adharmic people – the cow-eaters. The superiority mingled with earth and nobody objected but everybody objected to the use of village well by untouchables; perfectly logical; only the armless people with half filled bellies could be shown dharma but not the adharmic people backed with full armies. The village well cannot be used by untouchables though the dharma can be buried under the feet of Muslims and British. The priorities were clear-cut; rule of dharma in case of untouchables and rule of foreigners in case of Muslims and British; a clean and crystal clear piece of thinking; knowing which side of the bread was buttered; bending with the wind and hunting the hare...

The Village -9

...As far as the leftovers are considered, it looks like that there was a pact between high castes and untouchables that if the untouchables did not compete for the food with the animals like cows and dogs then the high castes would break their heads. Or the Brahmans were given a boon by the almighty God that the untouchable would compete with the animals to get food from them. This very soothing element of Varna dharma approaches deep down the hearts of lawmakers and others. The consequences of not competing with the animals for food were self destructive for untouchables. They could have starved to death and any violence from the weak people was immensely punishable. If few heads were broken and brains splattered on the streets, it hardly mattered. The atrocities committed in past and present are the proof of highly cultural and spiritual attitude of highly spiritualized people. The hatred flowed like an overflowing Amazon, the hatred born out of purity.

Next, we will see the traditional inhuman treatment of untouchables in the innocent villages. Some people consider the villages as innocence personified, far away from the exploitative modern materialism. Of course the villages are devoid of any element of humanity but even after that they are considered to contain an inbuilt ancient pure and pious innocence. First of all the untouchables do not have reach up to common village well. This keeps the standing water in the village well pure. They have to have their own well or they have to use any other source of water. Animals like dogs and buffalos may share this other water source – see the equality – no room for complaint is left to the dogs and buffaloes. According to Rig Veda the water is great purifier; however, the touch of an untouchable can pollute the standing water. Now what happens when the purifier is polluted? The basic need of life is polluted which can play havoc with the dharma of people in general. Everything will be thrown out of gear. Anybody using polluted water would get polluted. And many would use it. Then many people’s dharma would get corrupted or destroyed or infected. This would result in lowering of dharmic and social superiority of concerned people. Some would still be pure and some would be impure. The people belonging to same caste would no longer be equal because some would be pure and some would be impure. Their understanding of each other would get adversely affected. They would not know how to treat each other. Nobody would be sure about Brahmans’ purity for reciting Vedas and worshipping the gods. Nobody would know who is high and who is low. There would be nobody pure enough to teach dharma and complete the rituals. If highs become low then what would happen to lows. It would be total chaos if allowed to happen; the order the divine order would break down. Thus the untouchables should be kept away from village waters...

The Village - 8

...Did anybody say anything about exploitation of human beings in materialistic western societies?

Frequently, the untouchables had to go to the houses of upper castes and take the leftovers at the gate itself like servile servants or beggars. They moved from house to house and got it wherever it was available; the permanent Varna exploitation in an eternal pious and pure dharma. They were grossly underpaid which forced them to go to the houses of permanent exploiters to beg for food. Sometimes they had to compete for the food directly with animals like dogs and cows in an utterly dharmic manner. The untouchables were required to take out the carcass of dead cows and other animals out of village and throw it at a far away place. However they were forced to eat the meat of the dead cow out of poverty. They could not afford to buy the meat of a butchered goat. This was the meat of a cow that was not butchered or slaughtered but the one that had died due to old age or some kind disease. It came for free. And for this they had to compete with the vultures and kites; a grand and predestined event.

Of course Varna dharma does not know anything about humanity. Why should it?

The atrocities against the untouchables were not very infrequent even when they did not know anything except permanent and humiliating servility. The sword of atrocity was always hanging over their heads. And whoever dared to go against the confirmed rules of the dharmic society was punished severely along with his jati people in that particular area. The Hindu society does not differentiate much between a man and his jati. A man is judged according to his heredity group. The crime of man from one of the lowest jati is the crime of his jati; the punishment is collective with an aim to teach an sustainable cruel lessons to these people. Actually the unsafe and insulted untouchables have faced a Goonda Raj (goons’ rule) for 2500 years; a small period of jubilation for the cruel upper castes; they earnestly desired it to be interminably extended. The more the atrocities were committed on untouchables, the more pious were the upper castes and more was the dharmic content of the society. This is the beauty of caste system. Commiting atrocities, is a finely devised way to increase the dharmic contents of the society. The ghastly details are left to those who play like instruments into the hands of lawmakers...

The Village -7

...The untouchables are segregated outside the village and prohibited from taking part in any the village social functions. If they are allowed then they are allowed in such way as to confirm their insulted status in the society. Their major contribution is unpaid labor for which they are paid with leftovers in a separate corner.

The land was owned by the higher castes but all the people depended upon it for their survival. The landowning castes owned the lifeline of the village. The land was owned by high caste people and tilled by Shudra tillers who are the forever servants in Hindu society. The casual labor was provided by the untouchables; they were the eternal polluted bottom of the heap. They provided lowly paid labor and worked from field to field.

The people from different jatis provided different things to be used in agriculture. They were mainly ironsmiths, carpenters and leather workers. The carpenter and ironsmith provided plough the leather workers provided large water carriers made of full size buffalo skin for carrying the water from well to fields. The potters provided the pots to be used in homes. In exchange they were given their share at the time of reaping the crop. Those who were not directly related to land got their share directly from land owning castes in exchange of their services.

All got their shares does not mean that they got equal share. The share was usually fixed for every jati. The share they got was barely sufficient for survival. The food was not sufficient for untouchables and Shudras. Sometimes they had to eat the bread made out of fodder or grass. Sometimes they had to eat the grains cleaned out of cow dung. It insulted the lower two strata but added tones of superiority to the personalities of higher Varnas. Such a spiritual treatment was never seen; nothing like freezing and demeaning inhumanity or a burning desire to humiliate the lowly human beings but simply an ancient river overflowing with eternal compassion for the two lower strata; and a cool, calm, soothing, self satisfying breeze flowing in the superior and purer clusters of high caste houses; there the ethereal selves walked dozen feet high in the air with ever broadening radiant smiles; the quiet jubilation knew no bound; after all their superior selves could force the Shudras and untouchables to eat such a grain cleaned out of cow dung; such a show of unsaid permanent tormenting superiority was quite common in Hindu society. This goes to show that there was more than sufficient to feed the animals of high castes but not for the human beings. It is a show of Varna exploitation....

The Village -6

...The people from different castes do not have any affinity with each other. A man from a given caste is friendlier with a man from same caste and not with a man from a different caste. The same caste men from different villages are treated as kith and kin by each other. Actually caste is an extended kinship that cuts through village limits and reaches beyond. The village can always be undermined for favoring the caste. This loyalty to caste is maintained from place to place, from cities to cities, from villages to cities and even to foreign countries. Indian Diaspora is known for its castiest nature.

In any group the moment the caste identity of a man is revealed the feeling within group changes. It changes to affinity if the person is from same caste and to contempt and hatred if the person is from lower caste. The caste is the actual place where one mentally and emotionally lives. The village is the physical reality. The village is not an emotional and mental construct to which one can have loyalty. The attachment in the villages is mainly to their caste and caste cluster of houses and to land if they own any; other things are irrelevant. The Indian Diaspora maintains its loyalty to caste; it is in their well honored roots....

The Village -5

...To segregate is a natural characteristic of caste system. The castes themselves are segregated groups of different endogamous people. The area of one caste starts at the end of wall of the last house of cluster of another caste. These areas never intersect each other though many areas may be adjoining. The people belonging to a given caste hardly talk to people from another caste. Any talk should be only on the caste basis other wise it has to be salutations and their acceptances. All socializations among different castes are only pretensions because those who cannot eat together cannot talk together. The talks among different castes are need based only.

The overflowing cup of hatred and contempt flows in the downward direction. The steam of respect moves in upward direction. They hatred and respect never cancel out each other. The environment in the village usually appears to be cordial and friendly; everybody goes around doing his job according to his place in the social and economic system. Each caste is a society in itself; insulated and isolated. It is logical because for the marriages they do not need the other castes. Thus no relations mean insulation. This insulation and isolation provided the purity in the society; exactly the non-mixing of bloodlines. People are separated from each other in their hearts...

The Village -4

...In an Indian village the people from different castes are found. All the innumerable castes in India are not found in one village. From outside one can never guess the caste nature of an Indian village. From outside it looks like a random cluster of houses. However there is a strong caste pattern in this seemingly randomness. There are many adjoining clusters of houses in the village. There are clusters alongside clusters. The people belonging to a given caste live in the houses or huts that clustered together, the helmet. The high caste people live in the important area of the village which is usually the middle of it. Their houses are usually big and large. Other castes live around them and in clusters. The untouchables usually live at the inauspicious southern end of the village or outside the southern end of the village. The inauspicious people live in the inauspicious direction. Such a positioning meant that they absorbed all the ill effects due inauspicious southern direction. This direction is considered inauspicious probably since Rig Vedic days when the settlements of Vedic people were prone to violent attack from the southern side where the natives of the land lived. Considering the history of this land, the northern direction should be the inauspicious because all the attacks on land come from there.

The untouchables generally have their small mud huts in an isolated corner as an indication of their poverty and isolation. These hamlets have mud huts with hardly anything inside them. They have hardly anything to sleep on; few torn and ragged clothes to put on; few old cooking utensils and a small box. This small box can hold inside it more things than they can accumulate in their lifetime. The earning abilities granted to them by sacred and pure Varna dharma can be easily dwarfed by a handful of grains....

The Village - 3

....The sole objective of untouchables was to minimize their sufferings. The miseries; eternal, the man made, predestined miseriess followed them even in their mud huts. The miseries followed them while they worked on others’ land. The miseries of being born insulted. The miseries of watching their women being dishonored under the great culture of the great land was like piercing the mind. The miseries followed them while they walked. In addition there were the miseries of half filled bellies; the miseries of being denied water to drink; the miseries of ragged clothes; the miseries of watching the whole family being insulted; the miseries of watching their whole community being insulted; the never ending miseries. The miseries existed prior to birth and will exist after death. The lowest stratum is always predestined to swim in the mud swamp of gutter miseries; all this indicates what a great dharma it is.

The powerful did not actually use the violence frequently but always kept it ready in their armor. The weak could not resort to violence. So the violence was minimal and the dharma was happy. It was an eternal situation. The Brahmans chanted the mantras and skinners tanned the skins. And never the skin tanners crossed willingly the paths of pious, pure and powerful lawmakers. They deliberately kept away from Brahmans which was desired by the Brahmanas and safe for the untouchables also. There was smooth and rampant treading of casteism on the lives of lower caste people which did not create any backlash but only ineffective and silent murmurs, silent cries and silent sobbing which were not destined to go beyond their mud huts....

And this was the innocence that was broken by the roaring steam railway engines.

The Village -2

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

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

The Village -1

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

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

Temples - 4

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

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

Temples - 3

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

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

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

Temples - 2

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

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

Temples -1

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

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

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

How the system worked ?- 10

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

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

How the system worked ?- 9

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

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

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

How the system worked ? -8

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

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

How the system worked ? -7

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

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

How the system worked ?- 6

...This provision gave authority to caste. Therefore it was not voluntary to follow the rules of caste but it was mandatory. Any recalcitrant person defying the rules of his caste or Varna could have been easily made an outcaste. It maintained the purity of caste and society. The people who dared to defy the Varna dharma were thrown out of the villages. And there was no appeal against it. The man who lost his property due to becoming an outcaste could not appeal to king for restoration of his property. As far he was concerned the decision of his caste was final. As we have already said that the Hindu society was characterized by multiple power centers. It was one of the reasons for the sustainability of caste system because at least the local caste authority was always there to regulate the caste conduct of a man. The absence of king hardly mattered in caste matters.

All the doors of society were closed for an outcaste. His social privileges and duties were taken away from. He was barred from communicating with the people. The village caste council or Village caste Panchayats usually did this excommunication. These Panchayats were most probably a hardened variation of clan Sabhas of the ancient Vedic times. The man was deprived of his means of sustenance. Then he had no alternative but to join the untouchables and take up their occupation because other occupations were closed to him. Usually these people were a couple who took each other’s fancy and produced Varna-Sankar offspring. The only punishment was to make them outcaste and throw them out of the village. It maintained the purity of Varna system by expelling the impure people and their progenies. It also increased the population of untouchables.

Thus the Panchayat and its authority to ostracize acted as a very important weapon to maintain the purity of caste system and stop people from rebelling...

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?.....

How the system worked ?- 3

...However, Buddhism became popular among general population and Brahmans felt threatened. Their cultural hegemony was at stake. Many kings also started patronizing Buddhism. This led to a reduction in Yagyas and a loss of income to Brahmans. The Brahmans retaliated by joining the enemy. If they could not beat Buddhists then at least they could join them. They went one step ahead and completely stopped eating of any kind of meat. While the Buddhists still allowed people to eat meat and also ate it themselves. It was a difficult somersault in eating habits but a tough competition from Buddhism forced them to do it. In it they were helped by the ideas of Upanishads. The Upanishads also discounted the philosophy of animal sacrifice of Vedas. The immediate effect was that the anti-Brahman feelings among Vaisyas and Kshatriyas went down. There was no dharmic danger to agriculture and to the income of Vaisyas and also that of kings. The Yagyas had become a device to transfer wealth from Vaisyas and Kshatriyas to Brahmanas. Ultimately the Brahmanas gave up all the meat eating including the beef. It was a great historical somersault. But they still retained the mystique Yagyas with minimum sacrifices and that too on occasional basis. The cow sacrifice was changed to the donations of cows in Yagyas. Still it was a transfer of wealth but not to the required extent. The cow was elevated to sacred level from being important and slaying of cow was later made the second highest crime next only to slaying of a Brahman.

Then one more factor is that the Buddhist philosophy had some common points though it denied the existence of God and soul. It believed in rebirth like Sanatana dharma. It also believed in Karma theory like Sanatana dharma. It believed in the concept of Nirvana that had its counter part of Moksha in Vedic dharma. It also believed in Varna dharma like Vedic dharma. The rebirth in Buddhism took place through Chetana while in Vedic dharma it took place through soul. The counter part of soul in Buddhism was Chetana. The medium to carry forward the Karmas in Buddhism was Chetana while in Vedic dharma it was soul. The Varna in Buddhism was decided by Karmas and by birth in Vedic dharma; both of them are essentially the same thing. Both the religions believed in the concept of reincarnation. The world according to both the religions was not permanent. The only change was the negation of the God. Simply by negating the God in one and accepting the God in another you will get the other philosophy. All the other things were almost similar. Thus there was not much philosophical departure in Buddhism. And that was its undoing. When the occasion arose, all the Buddhists again became part of Sanatana dharma. In other words they got reassimilated.

...The Varna system was maintained outside the Sangha. It was easy to maintain equality within Sangha because Bhikshus were not allowed to marry. And they were also not required to follow a profession. However the acceptance of Varna outside the Sangha even on basis of Karmas allowed the discriminatory Varna dharma to continue. It was so because if one had to change his Varna then one had to change his occupation. And if Shudras wished to change their occupations then it essentially meant that they had to take up the occupations of other Varnas. A change to higher level occupations required the acquisition of the resources of society from the higher three Varnas. It was not possible without bloodshed. It required the Shudras to improve their might which they could not do. Further Buddhism required that there should be no killings. The violence was prohibited by it for the welfare of society. So the Shudras remained where they were....

How the system worked ?- 2

...All prevailing presence of Brahmans all over India is the result of their cultural hegemony and not of any conquest. The cultural hegemony of the Brahmanas is very ancient and evident from the fact that by 200 BC they were performing Yagyas for Dravidian kings in deep south. For this they gained land grants and acceptance of their superiority. If one agreed with superiority of Vedas then one automatically agreed with the inherent superiority of Brahmans. This superiority was imparted to them by Purusha sukta of Rig Veda. Nobody could argue with the Word of God. It is also clear in the performance of Ashwamedha ceremony in the Yajur Veda. This ceremony adds nothing to the respect of either king or queen. However it tells that the Veda–vakya or Veda statements were taken as Word of God and followed to the last detail. This was a matter of faith in divinity of Vedas and also a matter of faith in divine retribution. If the kings could be made to go through this insulting ceremony then the honor of other Varnas had to be worthless. This also indicates general absence of pride in the Hindu society.

Any lower Varna individual worth his ego was a threat to dharma and had to be molded into a meek follower by invoking the authority of Vedas. And also by invoking the meek conduct of his forefathers whom he revered. Of course the threat of mutilation by dharmic kings was also there along with a threat to ostracization. The mutilated Shudras gave a sense of jubilation to higher Varnas. Many mutilations were not needed. Actually few mutilated Shudras were sufficient to put a sense of helplessness and fear among rest of the Shudras. The Shudra kings were a different preposition; they were pacified and convinced by grant of Kshatriya status. Of course Brahmanas got land grants in return for elevating their status. However the soldiers of these Kshatriya kings were not granted Kshatriya status because most probably they could not offer land grants. Brahmans spread from land to land through invitations to them by the Shudra kings interested in Yagyas and elevation of their status. These established social, religious and spiritual authorities were invited by local rulers to help them in ruling their land according to dharma. Brahmans not only raised the Shudra kings but also upheld their divine right to rule over everybody except Brahmans.

One of the reasons for the ultimate victory of Sanatana dharma over Buddhism was the relative importance given to the welfare of king by the former. Buddhism does not believe in authority of Vedas and denies the existence of God or soul altogether. Buddhism became widely prevalent all over India because of its opposition to Vedic philosophy of animal sacrifice in performing Vedic ceremonies. The upsurge and great popularity of Buddhism and its strong opposition to useless animal sacrifices indicates and excessive of animal sacrifices. These sacrifices were excessive and defenders of Varna dharma are in a constant state of denial of practice of meat eating and beef eating in Vedic society. If they are right then it only means that the Brahmans performed Yagyas involving sacrifice of innumerable animals excluding cows. And after that the dead animals were thrown away. However, these offerings never reached the gods until Brahmans ate them. If they were thrown away then the gods could not be appeased. Therefore they were necessarily eaten. Since there is no mention that the cows should be excluded from these; it can be safely assumed that they were eaten also. However such a great destruction of cattle stock meant a great loss to agriculture because it used animal power extensively. It created resentments among Vaisyas who were still agriculturists and cattle herders. All the animals to be sacrificed ultimately came from the Vaisyas which increased the burden of taxes on them. The philosophy of Ahinsa (nonviolence) of Buddhism attracted them since it reduced taxes on them by prohibiting animal sacrifices. Further the Yagyas served the purpose of augmenting the wealth and welfare of Brahmans and Kshatriyas. The real producers stood to lose from such ceremonies. Further Buddhism promised Nirvana or salvation to Shudras that was denied to them under Vedic dharma. But this salvation was available only when they joined sangha. There was no Varna within Buddhist Sangha. Anybody from any Varna could join Sangha and aspire for Nirvana. However Buddhism did not deny the existence of Varnas altogether. Buddha held that Kshatriya was a superior Varna compared to Brahman. However he denied the determination of Varna by birth. The Varna was dependent on one’s Karrma. Further according to Buddhist tradition the Bodhisattvas could take birth only in Brahman or Kshatriya Varna. The lower castes were excluded from this event. Thus, the Varna dharma was not denied; it only became based on deeds or Karma. That essentially meant a Varna system based on birth. It was actually a grossely insufficient attack on Varna dharma. There was no fundamental attack on Varna dharma. There was no special emphasis on alleviating the sufferings of Shudras. The Brahmans exploited the weakness of this attack and returned with full vigor. Even Buddhism could not solve the problems of occupations, inter dining and marriages. The Varna was not important in Sangha because occupation and marriages were not involved. If one did not marry then it was mainly useless from the point of Varna dharma; there was no threat of Varna-Sankars. If one got his food through begging or donations then there was no question of transgressing on others’ occupations. Becoming a monk or a member of Sangha was like becoming an ascetic. One ceases to really matter to society and to its members. All the Buddhist people who remained outside the Sangha retained their inherited Varna. There was no way in which they could give up their inherited Varna. The first two Varnas were not willing to give up their Varnas. The Vaisyas, the third Varna, could become Buddhist but could not get the rulership like Kshatriyas because it needed the use of arms. They also could not become lawmakers and attain the highest social status. They could not raise their Varna if the higher two Varnas who still had respective powers were not willing to accept them as their equivalent. This problem of acceptance is perenennial in Hindu society. The higher Varna is not ready to accept lower Varna as its equal...