CHATURVARNYA – The real picture

Though not a single comment has come over for the previous post, yet it could never deter this amateur historian from writing the sequel. In my last post regarding Chaturvarnya, I had put forward the words of Chandrasekara Swamiji of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetam. However anyone who had read the post could have easily identified that the whole of the talk regarding Chaturvarnya was merely Superfluous. Swamiji had tried to put the entire positive motivations that might have lead to the Varnashrama Dharma; however he had carefully tried to ignore the real situation and the prejudice against the fourth caste. The following post gives the actual prejudice and hatred towards the Sudhras in the ancient Aryan civilization. Most of the information in the blog has been taken up from the book Who were the Sudhras written by B.R.Ambedkar.

The only place where there is a reference regarding shudras in the entire Vedas is in the Purusha Suktha, the ancient theory of the Aryans regarding Cosmogony or the theory of the universe. The entire hymn statement is available here, The description regarding Chaturvarnya is as follows

1. When (the gods) divided Purusha, into how many parts did they cut him up? What was his mouth? What arms (had he)? What (two objects) are said (to have been) his thighs and feet
2. The Brahmana was his mouth, the Rajanya(Kshatriya) was made his arms; the being called the Vaishya, he was his thighs; the Shudra sprang from his feet.

This is the only depiction regarding the shudras in the purusha suktha. There is absolutely no description regarding the origin of the varnas, whether they are by birth or whether they are by birth or by their Guna (character). It has also not stated what was the job that must be done by the four varnas and whether each varna was above one another. There are different types of argument that are put forward, the most important argument (the argument supported by Ambedkar) was that the author of the Purusha Suktha was wilfully malicious in depicting the four varnas with four different parts where the sudra was depicted to the lowest part and hence it has depicted the real society as an ideal society. However I do not think that this theory could hold water because if the motivation of the author was malicious, he could have easily elaborated the malicious or the prejudice details or he could have similarly made the depiction in the other parts of the Vedas too, but such depictions are not found in any other part of Vedas. Hence it could be easily concluded that there was absolutely no caste prejudice or differences during the ancient Vedic period. Another argument which states that even these verses might have been inserted into the Purusha Suktha during the later vedic period is also a worthwhile argument, since the mention about the Chaturvarnya is not present in any other part of the Vedas

But then when did all this prejudice begin to happen and why did it all happen? There are so many arguments that have been put forward regarding this which is however out of scope of this article, but the fact remains that somehow the racial prejudice had got into the Aryan civilization and it had reached its culmination during later phase of the Vedic period (700 BC) during which the Dharma Sutras (which are a part of the Kalpa which is one of the six disciplines of Vedanga), the laws that deals with rituals and law were written. If one could have an analysis through all these Dharma Sutras it is clear that the Sudras were treated to be the menials amongst all and they were subjected to so many inhuman tortures is clearly visible. A small brief of all the Dharma Sutras and smrithi’s that deal with varnashrama has been made as a word file that is available here. Sorry I could not cut those short since each of them depict the cruel and inhuman treatment metted out to the Sudhras.

Now if you have read it completely, I’m sure the mind of any learnt, sane person who treats all humans as equal would have turned vitriolic against the caste system in Hinduism and sometimes even against the religion. The gist of all of them can be summarized as

1. The Shudra was to take the last place in the social order.
2. The Shudra was impure and therefore no sacred act should be done within his sight and within his hearing.
3. The Shudra is not to be respected in the same way as the other classes.
4. The life of a Shudra is of no value and anybody may kill him without having to pay compensation and if at all of small value as compared with that of the Brahmana, Kshatriya and Vaishya.
5. The Shudra must not acquire knowledge and it is a sin and a crime to give him education.
6. A Shudra must not acquire property. A Brahmin can take his property at his pleasure.
7. A Shudra cannot hold office under the State.
8. The duty and salvation of the Shudra lies in his serving the higher classes.
9. The higher Classes must not inter-marry with the Shudra. They can however keep a Shudra woman as a concubine, but if the Shudra touches a woman of the higher classes he will be liable to dire punishment.
10. The Shudra is born in servility and must be kept in servility for ever.

Even from the first two verses it can be easily understood that the Sudhras are no more a people of bad character, but they are Sudhras by birth and they are menials by law. Now there is nothing uncommon in having a social inequality amongst people, every civilization in the world had social inequalities, for example Roman Civilization there were Freeman who had all social liberties and there were Slaves who did not have any liberty. But what makes the Aryan society so unique is that here the inequality was made fixed by giving it a religious paint and the society that already existed was depicted to be the ideal society that was intended by God. And hence as a result the inequality that had crept in had perpetuated and could never be removed.

Another astonishing thing that could be observed is that unlike in any part of the world, even the criminal law was not common to all the people even in which the Brahmins were given a special privilege and the Sudhras were punished extremely severely even for the slightest of the mistakes. The disabilities were so high that it never allowed a sudhra to obtain even the slightest liberty.

But who were really these Sudhras? Were they people, who were captured and enslaved by the invading Aryan race? Or were they a part of the Aryan people itself? Why have these people been disabled and crippled so badly? Can a religion which had preached and practices Ahimsa even towards animals and to other livind beings can act so heinously and in an inhuman fashion towards a particular sect of people? More would follow in the next post.

Regards

Janakiraman