Eternal India Encyclopedia

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Eternal India encyclopedia

THE CASTE SYSTEM

But every caste cannot be fitted into a varna, like the bureaucratic sections of the Kayasthas of the North, or the Reddis of Andhra Pradesh, the Vokkaligas of Karnataka or the Nairs of Kerala, the last three being agriculturists and one - time warriors too. The agricultur- ists of Maharashtra called the Marathas consider themselves as ksha- triyas as Shivaji of this caste identified himself with Rajputs, described as Kshatriyas. The castes are hierarchical in the sense that they present a ritual ranking. Such a ranking is based on the pure and menial jobs and also the kind of food they partake. Flayers of dead animals, butchers, chammars (cobblers) or scavengers performing ‘impure’ professions are considered as of the lowest rung, and even treated as ‘untouchables’ and even among these lowest castes, the Chamar considers himself su- perior to the scavenger. The tribal groups who inhabit the hilly or forest tracts who are now treated as Scheduled Tribes have also got their caste groups under Hindu influence. They have their own castes, which may not be always professional groups, but their life pattern, rituals and beliefs are exclusive when compared to other tribal groups or castes. In the South, there are the Kudiyas who are hilly tribal people engaged in toddy tapping. There are two sections among them, and one of the sections takes pride in the fact that it is socially superior to the other. The second factor influencing this hierarchy was food habits. Castes which are vegetarians are considered as superior, meat-eating ones inferior to the former, and people eating certain animal flesh not commonly eaten by others including that of pigs or bandicoots and dead domesticated animals being considered as beings belonging to the lowermost. This makes the Brahmins, who are mostly vegetarians naturally of superior status, but this criteria was not taken seriously in the initial stages when Brahmins ate flesh, and due to the influence of Jainism the majority of the Brahmins gave up this practice. But the Kashmiri Pandits take meat and the Saraswat Brahmins on the West Coast and the Bengali and Oriya Brahmins eat fish. Another aspect of this caste hierarchy is maintenance of purity and avoiding pollution. Pollution involves not touching, keeping distance and even not seeing. A member of the lowest jaathi (caste) should not enter certain localities, or should not allow his shadow to fall on a member of the superior jaathi or even should not come in the sight of the higher jaati member. Such practices were very strong in Kerala and Tamil Nadu. But each jaathi, even if it is of the middle or lower rung, takes pride in being superior to some other jaati. Every jaathi followed some hereditary profession and this provided economic security to it. There is a jaathi of potters who produced red pots and another only black. A cobbler using leather thread forms one caste, and the other using cotton thread the second, and a third sewing with fibre (flax) thread forms a distinct caste. One should not as a rule adopt the professional practice of the other. Each man born in a caste was assured of a profession to help him earn his livelihood, and a man of another caste was not expected to encroach upon his calling. This is the only brighter side. And in a village community a man of each caste had a place in the corporate life. In a marriage of any caste, the barber, the washerman, the Dalit (by playing drums etc.) had their own role, and they were honoured with special remuneration or a share in the crop during the harvesting season. This is called the Balutedari system in the North and Adade or Kaivada system in the South. Thus each caste has its own role in the corporate life. In the normal course, the carpenter or the blacksmith repaired the

The caste system has been an inseparable part of Indian society, and though it is essentially a part and parcel of Hindu society following the Vedic religion, the non-Vedic religions like Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and Veerashaivism (Lingayats), and even Islam and Christi- anity have not been free from the influence of this system. The word varna and jaathi (caste) are mentioned by Manu, but the Vedas do not speak of the latter. The word caste (casta) standing for jaathi was used by the Portuguese writer Garcia de Orta (1563) to indicate breed, race or kind and this word now has become a word of common usage in the English language. Though classical literature speaks of 18 (ashtaadasa) castes, at present India has, according to one estimate, more than 6,000 castes. A jaathi is an endogamous group, mainly based on an occupation, and the jaathis are graded hierarchically, based on the concept of purity and pollution. Each jaati has its own values, conventions and traditional rituals connected with birth, marriage or funeral, and social norms. Jaatis with varna nomenclature like brahmana, vaishya and sudra are found all over India. However they are divided into local groups having become a distinct variety in their own way. They are confined to particular regions and to languages. One jaati will follow one hereditary profession like that of a potter or a weaver or two pro- fessions like the Telugu - speaking barbers also playing ceremonial in- strumental music (Nadaswara or pipe). The Veda speaks of four varnas. The Purushasukta of the Rig Veda states that the four vamas (interpreted wrongly as colours in this context) which include Brah- mins (the priestly and scholarly sections) were born from the head, the Kshatriyas as (rulers and warriors) from the arms, the Vaishyas as (traders and agriculturists) from the stomach and the Shudras (craftsmen and la- bourers) from the lower limbs of the Purusha or the Primeval Being or tfre Creator. The four varnas were based on guna or psychological dis- position which Motivated the people to choose a calling in social life. Hence the varnas were not regarded as hereditary. Perhaps the allusion of this concept to different parts of Purusha indicated a sense of organic unity as in human beings with differences in function of their own. Such differences might not have originally meant high or low in social position. But in reality they indicated the hierarchical positions of the varnas, Brahmins being at the top of this system. In addition to this, Manu speaks of the Panchamas (the fifth varna ) who are also called as the anthyajas (the low born) or the avarnas (those who are outside the pale of the four varnas). Attempts are made to fit in each jaathi into a varna. But birth had always not been the criterion for following a profession as Par- ashurama or Drona born as Brahmins had followed the profession of warriors. Vayupurana speaks of the successors of Mudgala, a Ksha- triya, later becoming Brahmins with the name of Maudgalyas, Vishwa- mitra or Sanyati, born as Kshatriyas becoming Brahmins, and some successors of King Bali becoming Brahmins and some others Ksha- triyas, etc. In the South, there was no Kshatriya group as such, and men of local castes who became rulers were conferred the status of ksha- triyas, the Pallavas being identified with Kuruba (shepherd) caste and the Chalukyas of Badami or the Rashtrakutas of Malkhed being described as of agriculturist origin. But a majority of Hindus are cate- gorised as shudras who include most of agriculturists and craftsmen, and the anthyajas or the Scheduled Castes (who are treated as ‘un- touchables’). But a person of any caste can also take to farming and also can do menial work.