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With the agricultural
system developed fully under the Mauryas by 321 BC basing on collection of
revenues from land, a centralised system of monarchy flourished in the Gangetic
valley. Towns and ports like Shravasti, Champa, Rajgirha, Ayodhya, Kausambi,
Kashi, Vaishali, Ujjain, Taxila, Broach, etc. shot into prominence with hectic
trade and commerce, facilitated by a monetary system between western Asia and
northwestern India. The artisans increased and organised themselves into guilds
(shrenis), members of each guild inhabited particular sections of towns.
By this time Prakit, the language of the common people received
encouragement from Buddhism, Sanskrit the language of Brhaministic domination
received a temporary jolt. A flourishing agrarian economy caused the decline of
tribal republics and tribal cultures, stimulating the growth of monarchies and
the formation of hereditary kinship.
The normative notion
of the Kshatriya royalty and other aspects of the Brahministic order went upside
down. In the urban centres established orthodoxy was questioned and new social
groups arose, heterodoxy and philosophical speculation ranging from extreme
materialism to determinism flourished. The Ajivikas with their founder
stuck to the concept of free determination, the Charvakas were
materialistic, Jainism and Buddhism with their support base in urban centres
strongly opposed Brahminical orthodoxy defying the authority of the Vedas and
rejecting the rituals of sacrifice. Both these sects had an appeal to the
Vaishyas and other downtrodden having lower social status. The ascetic order
also considerably opened themselves to the women. Yet none of the heterodox
schools offered any substantive radical and structural challenge to Brahministic
Hinduism. The acceptance of the Shudra both by Hinduism and Jainism to extract
the surplus from the working population of the Sudras did not alter the basic
social structure and the acceptance of such sects by the state sprang from the
certitude of getting the socio economic condition going smoothly. "In fact if
Buddhism flourished so far and wide it was because it encouraged the very source
and fountainhead by which Brahminic Hinduism thrived, namely, it preached the
history of transmigration which reinforced hierarchical social organisation. For
instance when Buddhism went outside India it took with it the idea of social
inequality along with nonviolence and vegetarianism," observes S.C.Malik.
Brahminism struck
root originally in areas of Aryan influence, "Neither Sapta Sindhavah the
name applied to their homeland by the Vedic Aryans, nor Aryavarta, the
designation of Aryandom in the days of Bodhyana and Manu, meant the whole of the
Indian sub continent and even the term ‘Hindus’ does not refer to the whole of
India" writes Hemendra Roy chowdhury. The Southern part of India was still
beyond the ambit of Brahminical Hinduism. In Karnataka, the Satvahanas ruled; in
the states of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Goa and Gujarat of the
earliest Deccan dynasties to be Brahminised, were new converts that came forward
as the zealous champions of the Varna system........."
During Satvahana
rule, Jainism, Buddhism and Vedic relations were introduced to Karnataka, yet
local castes of the masses were most popular among the common people. Even in
the big cities where the above three religions struck root teracotta figurines
of local cults have been found aplenty. In fact, the Satvahanas lent maximum
patronage to Buddhism while the Brahministic Varna system began to prevail in
the Southern part of India. In R.S. Sharma’s words, under the Satvahanas the
Buddhist monks, the earliest beneficiaries of land grants, preached peace and
rules of good conduct to maintain the royal authority and social order. The
Brahmans were to enforce the rules of the Varna system. R.S.Sharma observing the
above, added, " Perhaps all the four Varnas mentioned on the Satvahana
inscription were not equally well established in their dominions, and in actual
practice the royal task may have been confined to the disciplining of the Sudras.........."
Historically
speaking, the Satvahanas, various religious kingdoms emerged after Kanishka’s
death, such as Kharvella in Orissa, Western Satrapsa — Shaka dynasty — in
Kathiawar and Malwa; and the kingdoms of Chola, Kerela and Pandya in the far
South. Once again by 320 A.D. under the Gupta dynasty, Chandragupta attempted to
fashion a centralised empire. The social basis of Buddhism and Jainism was
virtually lost gradually with the slide down of the "administrator-military
official on the one hand and the merchant on the other." A veritable social
crisis set in, despite assimilation of the Greeks, Kusanas and Shakas - migrants
to India - into the caste order as fallen Kshatriyas. Obviously the old
order of Vedic Brahminism lost its ground by this time. Scholars in the recent
decades observe the relative decline in commodity production, decay in cities,
paucity in metallic currency and consequently the growing phenomenon of the self
sufficient village economy …….. India began to embark on the feudal mode of
production under a caste based social structure. The description of the Kali
age in various epics and the Puranic passage, datable to the early third and
fourth centuries, was a prelude to the feudalization of Indian society. The
early accounts of the Kali age reflect the following facts pointedly. The
disturbances in the Chaturvarnya (the system of four Varnas) was
evidenced by: the rise of the Sudras, the degradation of Vaishyas, and the
depression of the older ruling aristocracy and the priestly elite, the
heightened social conflict, the exploitation by the newly emerging ruling class,
as revealed refers to exorbitant taxes and oppressive forced labour leading to
peasant subjection, the impact of heretical relation; the general decline in
traditional moral and religious values, etc. In this period there has been a
phenomenal growth of the ruling landed aristocracy and the petty landed estates,
as suggested by some Puranic accounts. This was obviously a process. It was
accompanied by the continuous practice of land grants to the Brahmins in various
regions. D. N. Jha substantiates this phenomenon stating that "....the
practice of donating land and village began in regions where land was plentiful,
leading to an unprecedented agricultural expansion in a situation of crisis
generated by a sharp social conflict. It also led to the spread of the
Brahminical settlements and ideology in newer areas and thus facilitated the
process of acculturation of the tribal population of India. Not surprisingly a
direct transition from tribalism to feudalism has been postulated in the
peripheral areas (e.g. Assam)."
The expansion of
Brahmin settlements in Karnataka, which started with the land-grants in the
middle of the second century, with the infiltration of the Brahmana villages to
"a large area of peasant production and assumed the characteristics of the
private domains of government jurisdiction. Now these units of advanced
agriculture were able to exercise some influence on the modes of surplus
production."
So far as the
production process was concerned there was obviously a conceivable change but
this process paved the way for Brahminisation as well. R.N. Nandi sums up the
results as under:
"........(1) Attempts
to increase the production of food crops by reclaiming new lands, by converting
old dry land into wet rice fields through consolidation of drainage
facilities.(2) Development of new modes of surplus collection by modes of the
free feeding places (Satra), and sanctification of the village as rural places
of pilgrimage (Tirtha), and (3) Introduction of the Brahminical temple
institutions in a world which did not earlier know much of these establishments."
In the Gupta and post
Gupta periods, the rigours of the Varna legislations were softened and, as R.S.
Sharma writes, probably some of the harsh measures against the Sudras were
annulled. The religious rights of the Sudras were considerably enlarged. However
social degradation undoubtedly took place in the case of the untouchables. As
regards education, the Sudras were definitely conceded the rights of hearing the
epics and the Puranas and sometimes even the Veda. In fact, in this period we
find the emergence of Hinduism and we are also familiar with One Marxist
commentator who in his exuberant speculation went so far as to consider this
changed state as the "Fall of Brahmin Dharma and the Emergence of Hinduism."
With the decline of Buddhism, Jainism and other such sects, very shrewdly
Brahminical authority not only introduced Buddhist and Jain contractual
concepts of the state, it also twisted the idea to vest the king with divinity
stating that his status and power resulted from a contract between the people
and the social order or caste system. This notion of social order and Dharma was
replaced by the idea of state, allowing for the removal of even a divine king.
Thus caste was accorded a higher plane than any political office. Even
though Brahminical thought concerned itself with individual salvation, yet it
was never divorced from the social context of making the individual highly
group-oriented, confirming his action to the accepted norms of duty or right
action.
Hinduism, as we know
it today, actually evolved in this period as neo Brahminic religions, having no
homogeneity, nor likes of early forms of Brahminisn, Buddhism and Jainism. Barth
sums up the essentials of this puzzling Hinduism in the following words:
"They constitute a
fluctuating mass of beliefs, opinions, usage, observances, religious and social
ideas, in which we recognise a certain common ground principle, and a decided
family likeness indeed, but from which it would be difficult to deduce any
accurate definition..........’.
The inherent power of
its sustainability lay in its overarching accommodative capability to absorb in
its fold heretical forces.
In the post-Vedic
period, the new divinities exalted above the rest, were identified either with
Siva or Vishnu, making their respective followers known as Saivaites or
Vaisnavas. Siva, accepted as the Rudra of the Vedas, "the god of Sudras and
the people of no account" was absorbed into the Hindu pantheon by the
Brahmans and he became Mahadeva, the great god. Vishnu also possessed the honour
of a superior god later in the Mahabharata. Vishnu who has ten Avatars,
rose to prominence. Later Krishna, a popular god of the Yadavas entered the
Brahminic pantheon and was linked to Vishnu. Numerous figures "which form the
pantheon peculiar to Krishnaism and which have almost been identified, on the
one hand, with Brahminical divinities, of what they are conceived to be
incarnations and, on the other hand, with the abstract conceptions of
speculation." It should be mentioned here that the accommodative process of
neo-Brahminism was successful enough to include from Rama to the Buddha as
incarnations of Vishnu. With the introduction of Puja in the Puranic age,
Puja in temples and homes mediated by Brahmins soon became the order of
the day. Epics and Puranas, and other textual literature and traditions, paved
the way for personal relationship between God and the devotee, shifting the
earlier emphasis from rites and rituals. The philosophy of the Gita and the
doctrine of Karma in conformity with Dharma, obeying Brahmanas as
arbiters, became the cornerstone of neo Brahminism or Hinduism. The formation of
the fifth caste, or in other words, the untouchables, at the polar end of "pure"
Brahmins, came into being in this period.
Bhakti Movement
The Hinduism of
medieval India was broadly dichotomized into Vaishnavism and Saivism. The two
major forms through major changes gave birth to what we know as the Bhakti
movement. When northern India became vulnerable to intrusions of the Arabs, the
Afghans, the Turks and the Mongols the Bhakti movement tried to bring about some
sort of integration of the upper castes with the lower ones. The reformists of
the movement the powerful of the two, went for integration with the framework of
Hinduism while the radical one, for a short-lived period, attempted at abolition
of all distinctions based on caste as well as sex.
For ideological
moorings the Bhakti was generally tied to a somewhat liberal trend contained in
the post Vedic literature, especially in the epicsone trend based on social
distinction on birth as contained in concentrated form of Manava
Dharmashastra and others and on the vrtta (conduct) and found running in
parallel streams.
The Bhakti movement,
for a critique of the existing order, with some exceptions, drew sustenance
largely from the structural bounds of Hinduism. However, it should be stated,
that it would be non-dialectical to concede the possibility of absolute
domination of Brahminism or later neo-Brahminism.
In South India, like
their northern counterpart, the rise of the Bhakti movement coincided with the
rise of feudal monarchy. In this life span of three and a half centuries, the
Bhakti movement, centering around Siva or Vishnu, received royal patronage,
clashed with decaying Jainism and Buddhism, and was associated with the elements
of dissent, reform and some sort of protest. These aspects though, are
subordinated to the overall pattern of a greater movement—the extension of
classical Hindu society in early medieval India. The Bhakti movement had its
origin in the east coast in and around the famous temple of Tirupati (Venkatam)
and Kanchi, the significant centres of Aryanisation in Tamilakan and associated
with the Pallava Kingdom. Its rapid extension to the Chola territory was brought
out by the fact that the Cholas were feudatories of the Pallavas. The movement
then spread south to territories of the Pandyas during the eighth century with
temple centres in Madurai, Tirunalveli, Kumbakonam, etc. And in the ninth
century it spread to present Kerala with centres in prominent temples.
The related facts
with this Puranic, epic based movement were the growth of new Brahman backed
feudal monarchies under the Pallavas, followed by the Pandyas, Cheras and Cholas
of the post-Sangam period, the rise in temple complexes, with vast landed
property administered by Brahman trustees, the decline of Buddhism and Jainism
and the well- settled caste system with the Brahman being the point of reference
for fixing the ritual and social status. In Tamilnadu, it unleashed a Tamil
consciousness, provided an impetus to a great deal of intellectual activity at
both secular and spiritual levels rejecting abstract metaphysics. Initially, it
also showed a sort of indifference to caste regulations and the temple cults
having followers in the agrarian settlements reformed, to great extent, the
rigid hierarchical nature of Brahminism into popular Hindu religion. MGS Narayan
and Veluthat Kesavan observe that the "ideology of bhakti served as a
cementing force bringing together kings, Brahman priests and the common people
in a harmonious manner. The intoxication of bhakti could enable the high to
forget the pride and the low of their misery. This provided an illusion of
equality while retaining the stubborn walls of inequality in the feudal system
of production and distribution...." A close look at the Bhakti movement
makes it clear that it was by and large, with some contrary trends, a refined
form of brahminism. About the South Indian Bhakti movement, S.C. Malik
succinctly concluded: "Thus Brahminism returned with a vengeance with its
institutional base in the temples that were supported by agrarian settlements.
These emerged as a dynamic force whereby a communication system between the
south and the north was established." In north India, Brahmin intellectual
monopolists had already accepted the path of philosophical awareness or
inanamarga exclusively for themselves. They chalked out two alternative
paths: one of unquestioning dharma, based on Karmamarga, and the other of
blind faith or surrender or bhaktimarga. The Bhagavad Gita contained and
provided a safety-valve of compromise and philosophy in a caste-ordered society.
Bhakti suited the lower order people who were condemned to take up menial work
but also required an aspiration for some form of escape.
The Virasaiva
movement, beginning in the 12th century in Karnataka, under the charismatic
Basavesvara, was one of the offshoots of early Saivism, shorn of its Brahminical
or Vedic content. It was a protest movement against Brahaministic rituals
especially against the subordination and exploitation of the lower castes by
Brahmins and it was a forthright quest for equality, liberty and fraternity,
i.e. a quest for equal access of the unprivileged sections to political power,
economic share, and for limiting the arbitrary powers so long wielded by
Brahmans.... The core of Virasaiva teachings was its rejection of ritual
pollution basic to Brahminical Hinduism. It proclaimed the non-observance of
five kinds of pollution basic to Brahminical Hinduism. jatti, janama, preta,
uchista and rajasa (caste, birth, death, spittle and mensuration).
For a good number of
positive contributions with the participation of the lower castes, one observer
called the movement "a social upheaval by and for the poor and the outcaste
against the rich and the privileged; it was a rising of the unlettered against
the learned pundits."
The telling reality
is that since Bhakti movements did not aim to bring about fundamental changes,
the orthodox elements came to dominate the movement of the tenth century. By the
ninth century, the South Indian Bhakti movement got stabilised with a new
emphasis on the attitude of observance to Brahmans and temples among the Saivas
and Vaisnavas. Even protest against the caste system was followed by a second
phase of conformity to caste rules. There is a surprising resemblance between
the lord-serf relationship forming the core of feudal society and the
deity-devotee relationship idealised in Bhakti literature. A large number of
Bhakti songs emerged from the Vaishnavites and Saivites justifying the poetic
flourishes of this master-slave like bond around their feudal institutions of
the age. The more rebellious Basva’s movement too had the same fate later,
developing a hierarchical relationship with its community and accepting first
the caste system and much later even Varnashram.
In the case of the
saint poets of Maharashtra or the Hindu literature, the latter emerged with the
weakening of the Brahminical hold at the top under Turkish rule. The pattern of
the Bhakti movement here, with an appeal to the oppressed castes, trying to
infuse some form of liberalism with Karma and Bhakti forming the core, went on
almost parallel lines to that of South India. It is worth recalling, that in the
process, an undercurrent of non-compromise or bold repudiation of Brahminism and
its practices passed on generally as minor trends.
The Basava led
movement initially carried a revolt-attitude towards Brahminism, and Kanaka of
the Haridasa movement in Karnataka remained unsparing in his criticism of the
caste system, feudal lords and even gods like the prime deity Tirupati as
symbols of feudal lords, moneylenders and merchants. And Dadu Dayal during the
Hindu-Muslim tension under Turkish rule, invited hostility of both the religious
leaders by rejecting both the Vedas and the Korana to rise above narrow
limitations of sectarian beliefs. With non-Hindu Turkish and later Mughal rule
at the top weakened, and the power of Brahminism at the top, yet Brahministic
hold over the caste-ridden society continued to exist. The Bhakti movements got
stablised over time revitalising and reshaping the old tradition of India. A
partial dissociation between caste and occupation in the urban centres did not
in fact, symbolise any decisive break with the caste structure of India. The
socio-economic matrix of Brahm-inism though it found some changes at the top
layer of the power structure and an intrusion of Islamic faith even into the
bottom of the society under the Mughal dispensation, did not encounter any
shattering blow to its existence.
In the colonial
period, the new administration’s network of commodity-based economy, opening up
of substantial non-caste areas, wider scope of familiarity with liberal,
rational and revolutionary trends of thought, etc., had to some extent an
emasculating effect on the tradition of Brahministic hold on the society. But
one should not miss out more pertinent aspects of the colonial rule, the much
vaunted purvey or of ‘equalitarianism’, ‘secularism’, and liberalism’ was in all
actuality "built around the central principles of institution-alised racial
inequality and of strong support for indigenous structure of power and
authority". The political alliance of British imperialism with the feudal
landlords, the policy of non-interference in ‘social and religious customs’ of
the people as stressed in the first statement of the Queen after India came
formally under the British rule in 1858, enforcement of religious and ritual
restrictions by the judiciary, and the vast array of ingenious colonial
policies, were in fact an adjustment with the Brahministic religious set-up,
with caste remaining at the core.
To come to the
post-colonial period, the caste system in its dynamics has assured new roles
with the mass participation in politics, countrywide communication system, entry
of money relationship on a wider scale, installation of considerable number of
industrial-based unity, large number of cities, etc. If the Brahministic system
has lost its earlier appeal in certain areas it has also retained its power
adjusting itself to the changes in the Indian socio-political and religious
situation.
In an extreme view, "If
and when caste disappears from India, Hinduism will also disappear." This
view fails to discern the fact that anti-casteist forces and individuals in
history did not necessarily remain avowedly an anti-Hindu atheists in real life.
About the Varna system Romila Thapar stated that the first three varnas or
twice-born castes were probably a theoretical framework evolved by the Brahmans
into which they systematically arranged various professions and the forth
Varna seems to have been based on race as well as occupations. The same
principles were applied to the outcastes. If we consider the dehumanised
condition of the dalits and other low castes, we find that Varna has
remained an overarching theoretical framework explaining and legitimizing
certain fundamental principles governing the relationships among the jatis
and discriminatory exclusion of the dalits.
So far as the Varna
ideology is concerned it reveals two dimensions, an existential-inclusive
dimension incorporating the religious concepts of Karma and Sansara and
religious rituals offering expiation and on the ultimate questions of life and
death. The positional-historical dimension of the Varna ideology forms
the individual to occupy determined positions in a patterned social hierarchy.
The later provides the notion of purity and pollution in respect of body,
occupation, food, dwelling and marriage in particular. The deep rooted notion of
superiority in the Varna order consequently leads to repugnance towards
some jatis, socially, economically, at the bottom, as untouchables. And since
the Brahministic Varna ideology tends to legitimise the dominant position of an
individual or group, creating a framework of distinction between ‘ above’ and
‘below’, it cannot exist effectively in the absence of, or separated from,
power. Ideological discourse itself therefore must be seen as an exercise of
power. Eliciting consent to conform to order is also an operative aspect of this
power. In the real life situation, the miserable existence of the dalits, the
subjection and oppression of women, the battle cry of the upper-castes over the
reservation question, and the prevalence of graded inequality between different
classes as Ambedkar pointed out, only epitomise the Brahministic ideological
practice in present day India.
There is only a
dwindling section of religious preachers like Dayanand Saraswati who wanted to
reestablish Vedic glory believing in Manu’s dictum that he who condemns or
insults the Vedas rejects the Vedas or behaves otherwise than prescribed in the
Vedas is an atheist. Brahminism like the caste system itself has undergone
changes over centuries. It exists even today providing ideological justification
to the graded inequality as found in the caste system, the subjection of women
under the Hindu order and the multifarious rituals, mores and social norms in
the fatalistic Karma view of life it is like a dead weight on the society.
(To be continued)
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