Is Brahmin truely a Caste???
(an attempt on preventing the modern genetic exploration of intellectualism of Indians as a contribution of Brahmins and other 'high caste' people only.)
Brahmins are the self proclaimed upper caste in India. Vedas were crude documents of aryans which later were refined under the influence of indegenous Yogic and Tantrik civilization of India.
The Brahmins , in another opposing view, are only a "Class"("Varna", profession-based categorisation) and not a Caste("Jaati", a descendance-based categorisation) of People. This is because, a Caste, which can be interpreted nearly same as what is called a "tribe' in the west, the brahmins have no specifically described physical features or a geographical region to describe their origin.
In the Vedic literature also, there are hardly any specifc story to showcase the origin of this 'caste' of people, unlike the case of oher 'caste'.. Infact the stories which exist also reveal how people from different 'Caste' moved into the 'Class' of being callled Brahmins, and this by virtue of hard 'tapasya'(yoga/learning, as the case may be) they performed.
The word Brahmin connotes thing which is "Brahma' who is a hindu god who created this universe. The knowledge which was held in creation of the universe is called "Brahmmah". And the custodian of this knowledge is called a "Brahmin".
Thus a Brahmin is the holder of knowledge --the knowledge which relates to origin of universe, or call it, the theory of interconnection of actions and events in this Universe. One can notice, how the Concept of 'Brahmmah', further connotes about the ability of it's keeper, the Brahmin, in speaking about a future event. That is a Brahmin, a person able to speak about Future.
In course of time, the ability got further mystified into a new subject called "Astrology", which was about using the Star-gazing to do future-telling. This was quite an aberration and a kind of 'corruption' of the true knowledge --an art and a science- which was meant to provide a person his position while at sea-- called Nautical Astronomy. As this science of Nautical Astronomy also provided a sea-farer an ability to predict his position and to decide about his future course ( of his ship) at sea, It appears that some 'new" (read Weird) theories came about to 'corrupt' this science into an art of future-telling by way of Astrology!
The one who acquired this sophisticated knowledge of future-telling was called a Brahmin. In its original sense, the knowledge was resting on the theories of Action, the Karma, and thereby evolution of Ethics from it, the Dharma. In modern equivalent terms , this was like a study in Psychology and Social Psychology. Notice that with the help of knowledge of Psychology, a psychologist attempts to 'predict' the consequences of conduct of a person. That is how the actual knowledge of the Brahmmah must have worked.
In the Vedic Religion, there is no definite distinction between the Good and the Evil. It is in fact one such thing which makes the Vedic religion strikingly different from the Abrahmic faiths. Therefore the Vedic Faith is , in the study of religions across the world, also referred to as Dharmic Faith.
In Dharmic faiths, the Good and Evil are decided based upon Karma. For example, Ravan despite his huge knowledge and respect and devotion to Lord Shiva, stole away (kidnapped) Ram's wife Sita. Now, it is among these vacillating values and action that the legend hails the killing of Ravan by Ram, but also mentioning at one point that after arrowing down Ravan, Ram ordered his brother Lakshman to sit by Ravan to respectfully beg the latter to impart knowledge of "raaj paath" (Political Science and Public Administration) from the learned Scholar. (Refer J.L. Nehru's special mention of this episode in his book 'The Discovery of India')
THAT IS the reverence and worth of a Brahmin, which Ravan was.
Actions decide one's position as Good(meaning ,a publicly acceptable thing ) and Bad (meaning, a publicly reject-able thing).
Owing to this ever-shifting nature of Good and Evil, and a complex means to conclude the Good and Evil, that is, the understanding of Dharma, the Vedic people had tremendous dependence on the special acquirer of the knowledge, who were the Brahmins. NOTE AGAIN THAT SUCH ACQUIRERS OF KNOWLEDGE COULD COME FROM ANY CASTE OF PEOPLE.
Therefore, the whole idea of Brahmin being a 'Caste' and since the wisdom being predominantly of Genetic origin, thus apportioned to this club of people , is a kind of myth. The likely origin of the myth may be the fact that since the concept of Brahmm is very difficult to be understood, the Muslim rulers of India and later the British rulers, gave the Brahmin the treatment of a Caste. That was the mistake. Again, take note that there is no mention of Brahmin as a Caste in the Panchjanya of Vedas, the first five 'tribes' of people on earth, as per Vedas.
In the original sense,The Brahmin 'class' of people , thus, came with its own sets of duty towards common people . That was about imparting knowledge, helping the common people to distinct between Good and Evil, to help him with his day-today conduct, a good practice personal behaviour, to inform common man about future of his personal conduct, etc. The brahmins were thus respected by those same common people, for their altruism, austere conduct, renunciation, high knowledge.
Trouble seems to start at a later stage when the Brahmin Class of people also started to see themselves as a caste. There seems to be a rise of fascism (belief of seeing oneself better and higher than the rest) in them therefore, which is quite an antithesis of there reverend self in eyes of the common people.It is this self-proclaimed conduct of upper caste which reveals out the corruption of Brahmin from a mere class of people to a caste of people.
Another attempt by some common speaker on this matter , who has also pointedly expressed the problem of people, particularly the English Language writers, about the Jaati and Varna system of Indian society is available here. The author, however, as I disagree with him, treats a Varna to mean Color.! Like Indian society also believed in color discrimination., while the Gods were generally seen as dark -"Shyam".
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_origin_of_Brahmins&updated=1&waNoAnsSet=2
Brahmins are the self proclaimed upper caste in India. Vedas were crude documents of aryans which later were refined under the influence of indegenous Yogic and Tantrik civilization of India.
The Brahmins , in another opposing view, are only a "Class"("Varna", profession-based categorisation) and not a Caste("Jaati", a descendance-based categorisation) of People. This is because, a Caste, which can be interpreted nearly same as what is called a "tribe' in the west, the brahmins have no specifically described physical features or a geographical region to describe their origin.
In the Vedic literature also, there are hardly any specifc story to showcase the origin of this 'caste' of people, unlike the case of oher 'caste'.. Infact the stories which exist also reveal how people from different 'Caste' moved into the 'Class' of being callled Brahmins, and this by virtue of hard 'tapasya'(yoga/learning, as the case may be) they performed.
The word Brahmin connotes thing which is "Brahma' who is a hindu god who created this universe. The knowledge which was held in creation of the universe is called "Brahmmah". And the custodian of this knowledge is called a "Brahmin".
Thus a Brahmin is the holder of knowledge --the knowledge which relates to origin of universe, or call it, the theory of interconnection of actions and events in this Universe. One can notice, how the Concept of 'Brahmmah', further connotes about the ability of it's keeper, the Brahmin, in speaking about a future event. That is a Brahmin, a person able to speak about Future.
In course of time, the ability got further mystified into a new subject called "Astrology", which was about using the Star-gazing to do future-telling. This was quite an aberration and a kind of 'corruption' of the true knowledge --an art and a science- which was meant to provide a person his position while at sea-- called Nautical Astronomy. As this science of Nautical Astronomy also provided a sea-farer an ability to predict his position and to decide about his future course ( of his ship) at sea, It appears that some 'new" (read Weird) theories came about to 'corrupt' this science into an art of future-telling by way of Astrology!
The one who acquired this sophisticated knowledge of future-telling was called a Brahmin. In its original sense, the knowledge was resting on the theories of Action, the Karma, and thereby evolution of Ethics from it, the Dharma. In modern equivalent terms , this was like a study in Psychology and Social Psychology. Notice that with the help of knowledge of Psychology, a psychologist attempts to 'predict' the consequences of conduct of a person. That is how the actual knowledge of the Brahmmah must have worked.
In the Vedic Religion, there is no definite distinction between the Good and the Evil. It is in fact one such thing which makes the Vedic religion strikingly different from the Abrahmic faiths. Therefore the Vedic Faith is , in the study of religions across the world, also referred to as Dharmic Faith.
In Dharmic faiths, the Good and Evil are decided based upon Karma. For example, Ravan despite his huge knowledge and respect and devotion to Lord Shiva, stole away (kidnapped) Ram's wife Sita. Now, it is among these vacillating values and action that the legend hails the killing of Ravan by Ram, but also mentioning at one point that after arrowing down Ravan, Ram ordered his brother Lakshman to sit by Ravan to respectfully beg the latter to impart knowledge of "raaj paath" (Political Science and Public Administration) from the learned Scholar. (Refer J.L. Nehru's special mention of this episode in his book 'The Discovery of India')
THAT IS the reverence and worth of a Brahmin, which Ravan was.
Actions decide one's position as Good(meaning ,a publicly acceptable thing ) and Bad (meaning, a publicly reject-able thing).
Owing to this ever-shifting nature of Good and Evil, and a complex means to conclude the Good and Evil, that is, the understanding of Dharma, the Vedic people had tremendous dependence on the special acquirer of the knowledge, who were the Brahmins. NOTE AGAIN THAT SUCH ACQUIRERS OF KNOWLEDGE COULD COME FROM ANY CASTE OF PEOPLE.
Therefore, the whole idea of Brahmin being a 'Caste' and since the wisdom being predominantly of Genetic origin, thus apportioned to this club of people , is a kind of myth. The likely origin of the myth may be the fact that since the concept of Brahmm is very difficult to be understood, the Muslim rulers of India and later the British rulers, gave the Brahmin the treatment of a Caste. That was the mistake. Again, take note that there is no mention of Brahmin as a Caste in the Panchjanya of Vedas, the first five 'tribes' of people on earth, as per Vedas.
In the original sense,The Brahmin 'class' of people , thus, came with its own sets of duty towards common people . That was about imparting knowledge, helping the common people to distinct between Good and Evil, to help him with his day-today conduct, a good practice personal behaviour, to inform common man about future of his personal conduct, etc. The brahmins were thus respected by those same common people, for their altruism, austere conduct, renunciation, high knowledge.
Trouble seems to start at a later stage when the Brahmin Class of people also started to see themselves as a caste. There seems to be a rise of fascism (belief of seeing oneself better and higher than the rest) in them therefore, which is quite an antithesis of there reverend self in eyes of the common people.It is this self-proclaimed conduct of upper caste which reveals out the corruption of Brahmin from a mere class of people to a caste of people.
Another attempt by some common speaker on this matter , who has also pointedly expressed the problem of people, particularly the English Language writers, about the Jaati and Varna system of Indian society is available here. The author, however, as I disagree with him, treats a Varna to mean Color.! Like Indian society also believed in color discrimination., while the Gods were generally seen as dark -"Shyam".
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_origin_of_Brahmins&updated=1&waNoAnsSet=2
There have been tremendous interpretations and mis-interpretations over these two words , Jaati, and Varna by lots of scholars of Indian society on this matter.
ReplyDeleteA branch of people believes that Jaati is a profession-based categorization of hindu masses whereas a Varna is a color based categorization of hindu masses.! People , the scholars, have even cited refernces from many Vedic documents to make their assertion and to prove them. But what sounds surprising to me is point that none of the scholars, particularly the English scholars, have attempted to understand the contextual sense of what the authors of those vedic documents have attempted to mean when they speak something about these two systems. For example, one cited Vedic document speaks that the four Varna/Jaati, whatever one may treat that for the time being, were created from the limbs of Manu-- the Brahmins being those from his head and mouth, the Kashtriya being his Arms and hand, the Vaishya being his torso and Sudra being his Legs...and for normal functioning of the society all have to do their duty, like for the case of human body.
Is it not surprising that scholar fail to mention the metaphor involved in the description above?? Does it anywhere mention that Brahmins were created from the head of Manu, to be taken as a serious note answer for "what is the origin of Brahmins ?" , or for that matter , " what is the origin of Kashtirya ?".
Similarly the word varna which duly has one of its meaning as Color, as in "woh shaym varna ke the " (he was of dark complexion). From this, a derivative comes that Varna was about color discrimination, and this further supported by another Vedic Document which mentions that Brahmins were fair complexioned, the Kastriya were Red, Vaishya were yellow , and Sudra weer black !
Being a hindu, I have hardly felt the existence of color discrimination in our people, although a preference for a "gori bahu" (a fair complexioned bride) is seen. But even then, the above remains only a simili/metaphor in my opinion, while the vedic author of the above might have been attempting to theorise how the Varna difference might be showing up, (as in, a V-shape underwear may mean that the wearer is likely to be a sporty chap, or 'Lord Lochinvar' means he was a noble person, although he was a 'the highway man'), which the English Scholars of Indians Sociology have almost successfully managed to thrust in the minds of our, hindu youngsters, to the extent that color discrimination might begin now, even when nobody is red or yellow. While a 'dark Brahmin' may be actually falling out with his distractors about his Brahmin status, or otherway, the standards of 'Fair complexion' as assigned to the Brahmin club.!!
That will be the tragic irony of myths created by English Scholars while studying Indian System, which is prone to accepting the outside observer as a Judge impartial !!
Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_difference_between_class_and_caste#ixzz1M0UwNz9a
The word Jaati I think remains that of the Vedic origion, but has to treated as something connoting a tribe. There are other usages, such as jan-jaati, janya, to mean the 'club of people' but , as i see them, referentially to mean the Tribe of people who share a common descent. It is in this regard that there are Vedic mentions of 'Panchjanya' to mean the five tribes of early vedic people. A janjaati is impling- 'those people who are commonly found in a given territorial area', a small town, of a forest region, etc. Thus a Jaati, spoken of as Caste in English ('casto' a portugese origin for the word caste), is suppose to mean a birth/hereditrical/genetic categorisation of people.
ReplyDeleteA Varna on the other hand is likely to mean a work/profession based categorisation. The word, Varna, has an alternate meaning as "categorisation' (a close derivative of Varga; Varnamala meant the alphabets in Sanskrit ), itself, apart from the previous meaning 'Color'.
Thus a person from any Jaati was accepted to come to any Varna depending upon how he fared-- behaved/conducted/practised his vocation.
The examples of Jaati would be-- Saini, Kurmi, yadav, raghuvansh, jaat, Puru, khatri, etc.
But for the Varna-- there are only four of them-- Brahmin, Kshtriya, Vaishya, Shudra.
It is here that one can note there is no Jaati as Brahmin. In fact, all the four Varna are Status only, which people from any of the several Jaati attain by virtue of their accomplishment. But the modern Indian scholars, and also the common people, interpret it as one and same, which for some natural psychological causes is not too far from reality for the reason that Children do acquire the traits if the parents better than anyone else, and hence become almost one and the same. The further affirming of uch mistaken belief of seeing them as one is attibutable to the treatment and recognisation to the system in this manner by the past Invading rulers of India, the Moghuls and the British.
Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_difference_between_class_and_caste#ixzz1M0V23Hc4
Another cause of confusion of Jaati and Varna to come around in Indian society was the fact that the descendants of the Varna- Brahmin, the people who attained a high state of wisdom, the Brahmmah , and thus provided discretion on Good and Evil, and also gave Prudence thoughts to the people at large from rest of the Varna, the descedants attempted to retain their high social status, by releasing it from the clutches of continuous attainment of wisdom, the Brahmmah, by putting Brahmin also as a Jaati. This was one of the first cases of moral corruption by high wisdom people. One can very plainly note that among all Jaati and Varna as known to Indian system today, only the Brahmin are both (!!) a Jaati and also a Varna. The causes of this can be plainly understood, and more when one tries to explore the origin of Brahmin as Jaati in the Vedic Literature.
ReplyDeleteside note: the word "Varanan' means the act of describing something.
Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_difference_between_class_and_caste#ixzz1M0ndlE5T
Brother Manish Singh I would like to share some information with you which can stop your argument... and blame for brahmins.. Being a Brahmin at Dsdevendrakhandal@gmail.com
ReplyDeleteDear devendra,
ReplyDeleteRec'd your honoured comments on my blog over here:-
(The Arguments within: Is Brahmin truely a caste???)
http://imsingh1999-mannu.blogspot.in/2011/05/is-brahmin-truely-caste.html?showComment=1366907840450#c96095657258564711
Brother, you completely miss the point I make. Rather you end up putting one more evidence to establish what I say. However I will overlook that aspect as neither of the two angles are supposed to be proved by such a method.
To summrise in simpler words the point I want to make, see it like this
When someone makes a beautiful painting, who do you think should be the appropriate people to rate the painting as "Good" or "Bad". The people or the Painter himself??
And when that painter, if by fortune, gets a rating of a "Good" painter from the people, do his children also have a right to call themselves a "Painter", or worse, "GOOD painter"?
That is the viewpoint. Brahmin is someone whom people were suppose to be celebrating as "intellectual", "intelligent", "revered for the knowledge he possess", etc.
You do not go the reverse way by saying that 'since this person was born in a Brahmin family, he shall be treated as intellectual, intelligent , and he shall be revered for the knowledge he possesses".
Do you catch the point now?
regards,
Manish.