Now we will present our view about the development of Varnas and caste system which does not tally with the account given in the Hindu sacred scriptures. This is adharmic you know? It is complete heresy.
The term Varna does not lend itself to any easy translation in English language. The term used for both Varna and Jati is caste in English, which is unable to impart any real meaning of the word and/or its implications. Varna is a permanent dividing, subjugatory, unequal and lopsided distributing system. It was a permanent system devised to perpetuate the comforts and super ordination by the birth based divided elites. The elites achieved their aim by excluding all the future generations of birth based divided non-elites from the benefits of society and economy, forever. Both the elites and non-elites are, further permanently divided, based on birth.
The Varna system in India was not born in a day. No sacrifice was made. Nobody was born from any part of the Brahma or any primal man. This is just a glorified crap. It was developed and crystallized slowly over a long period of time. This system was not brought from outside because it is not traceable in the places where the Aryans were supposed to have gone from their home place of Russian steppes. Its non-existence outside India implies that it was developed within this subcontinent. The Varnas emerged after one another in the order of Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaisya and Shudra after the end of the Rig Vedic Period.
The appearance of Varnas coincides with the introduction of agriculture in Rig Vedic society. It also coincided with the formation of big tribes through merger of small tribes. With the introduction of agriculture, the Rig Vedic society met its demise. It was transformed. The cow and plunder based economy slowly disappeared into oblivion. Now, the agricultural surplus made it possible for the higher level groups to emergence in an egalitarian society. The structure of Rig Vedic society was broken and a slow power struggle developed between the Rishis and the warriors. There were the clear-cut two groups that emerged in this power struggle. Those who did not take in part this power struggle were later assigned the manual occupations and a low Varna by the emerging lawmaker. But first the dominant groups, these were the Rishis having divine power to curse and power to bring victory to a tribe by invoking gods and on the other side were the warriors. The warriors lost to Rishis ' underlying powers over common people. Thus first group of Rishis emerged on the top and in the due course called itself the Brahman Varna. The second group which was of warriors came to be known as the Kshatriya Varna. Then the Vaisya Varna and the Shudras Varnas emerged, one after another in considerable time. The strata emerged in the form of Varnas. Another stratum emerged in the post-Vedic period in the form of Untouchables or the Antyajas. The lawmakers assigned the Varnas for rest of the people, defined their functions and implemented them through the Kshatriyas.
To understand the emergence of Varnas it is necessary to understand the warring and plundering society of the Rig Vedic period, appeasement of gods, fear of divine retribution caused by human errors and its avoidance. It was a period low intensity warfare which continued till the end of the Rig Vedic Period. In warlike conditions, the warriors should have emerged at the top but that did not happen.
The existence of too many sovereign entities made the situation warlike especially when the Aryans were not prepared to take up agriculture and live in relative peace. In the absence of agriculture, the only recourse was to plunder other communities. The attacks on other communities and tribes became a necessity. The survival of a tribe depended on its capacity to repel successfully frequent attacks and capacity to successfully attack others. The uncertainty of survival made the warring ability a necessity. There were no standing armies as there was no money to be paid. The small size of tribes and native communities made the results of wars very uncertain. For this purpose, the divine help was invoked. When it was a matter of life and death, it was natural to call for the divine help, especially when they knew the trick of appeasing the gods.
The Vedic people lived in a society where the appeasement of gods was supposed to determine the welfare of tribe and success in wars. It played a very important crucial role in the development of Varna system and in the spread of cultural hegemony of the later Brahmans. The appeasement of gods became a sacred, specialized and necessary function in society, well, at the top of society. It involved long intricate complex rituals and chanting of the mantras. These had become so complex that they had to be rigorously learned from the people who had already specialized in them - the Rishis . They were important because the welfare of the tribe, supposedly, depended on them because only they could invoke the divine help, with their paranormal powers, without which no war could be won. Perhaps. So much dependence on the gods in the wars means that opposing sides were more or less equally matched, and thus nobody was confident of the victory. The invocation of divine help was a must. The confident people do not need gods but for uncertainty! The lightening wars in the absence of assured food supply, surely, needed divine help. The godless people, meaning people without any faith in Vedic gods, were known to have lost wars due to their lack of belief in the Aryan gods.
This trick of appeasing gods was in the form of Yagyas. The trick was to offer the oblation to gods through fire, in Yagyas, which burned the oblation and carried them upwards to heavens. And, in heavens there are gods. The almighty gods were hungry so they needed the sacred food sacrificed in any Yagya in the form of fumes. Wow, the fumes! The gods require fumes as food! They survive on carbon dioxide! Only requirement was the correct invocation of gods through chanting of the sacred mantras. This made the Yagya complete. Obviously, the divine help did not come cheap. A high price was extracted by the divine help invokers from the divine help seekers. The Rig Vedic gods needed to be invoked; for invocation, the Yagyas were necessary; for Yagyas the Rishis were necessary. A Yagya was essentially a fire ceremony where animals were sacrificed to appease the hungry gods who otherwise had everything for them. The gods could manage their own food; otherwise, it is pointless to be a god. However, the animals sacrificed went mainly to the priests. The mantras or hymns were used in the Yagyas for invocation of gods and asking favor from them in war. The appeasement of gods was a necessary cultural feature of Vedic society. Any improper invocation of gods or any erroneous Yagya was supposed to bring a certain deadly divine retribution which could have devastated the chieftain or the tribe. The Vedic people lived in perpetual insecurity, as outcome of any war was very uncertain, and sought divine help. The divine power was feared and revered. The divine power was required to be handled very carefully unless it exploded on the tribe itself. The war god Indra was most in demand and next was Agni (the fire), then follow other nature gods. The divine retribution was much feared beyond known limits; it found its ultimate expression in the much esteemed Gita.
The complex rituals and mantras came into existence; those who knew them attained a high indispensable position in the Vedic society because without them no war could be initiated. These were the people with paranormal powers of invoking the gods. The army could move only after the Yagya had been completed. The more important people, the people who actually fought, became secondary. The actual warriors could have fought the enemy but they could not have invoked the gods to help them without inviting the divine retribution as their invocation was bound to be faulty. Therefore, they needed the Rishis - the forerunners of the present day Brahmans - the people with the paranormal powers. Still there are people who claim that the Vedic mantras have paranormal powers and still there are people who believe it. And by no stretch of imagination their number or their control is insignificant in the traditional India. The veracity of paranormal powers of Vedic mantras is never verified. Anyway, the stupidity has no claim here. Or does it?
The appeasement of gods was mainly in the form of performing the Yagyas and offering of animal sacrifices. The Yagya was a kind fire worship used to invoke Vedic gods. The Yagyas involved chanting of complex mantras and the sacrifice of animals appeased or invoked the gods like Indra, Varun and others. The mantras chanted in Yagya were required to be correct to last detail including pronunciation. Anything out of sequence in chanting of mantras was a terrible disaster along with any wrong pronunciation, terrible enough to bring the retribution. You cannot play with divinity. A small error in chanting mantras was supposed to make the gods angry. It was sufficient to bring the wrath of gods on its performers, the king, and also on the tribe; so wide were its effects. A faulty invocation of gods was supposed to be sufficient for bringing divine retribution and only very skilled Rishis could have avoided it. The divine wrath had to be avoided and at the same time the blessings of gods were required. The route to success went through the Rishis .
This increased the importance of the Rishis who could verbatim recite the mantras without a single pronunciation error and without a single small error. The importance of people possessing such skills became paramount. Their supposed paranormal powers helped them to attain the highest position in society. However, non-performance of Yagyas by a king meant defying Rishis and as a result God. Defying people with paranormal powers was not in the best interest of the chieftains. Any war devoid of the Yagyas was only half prepared and was sure to be lost. Such a chieftain was not supposed to be looking after the welfare of the tribe and he could have been held responsible for bringing the divine retribution on the tribe or his people. He was supposedly putting his tribe at risk. This could have weakened the king’s hold over the tribe. The non-performance of Yagyas meant displeasing the gods resulting in an invitation to divine retribution. No tribe (Visha) member (Vaisya?) could possibly have a faith in a chieftain who was harming the welfare of the tribe by displeasing the powerful gods. Such a chieftain was putting his tribe in a peril. Any defeat in war could have been easily attributed to non-performance of war winning Yagyas or faulty invocation of the gods during Yagyas. This means politics at work. The importance of the Rishis and Brahman followed from the need of persons needed to perform the war winning Yagyas for the chieftain and tribe. Facing the irrevocable curse from people with paranormal powers was supposed to be beyond even the kings. Even the kings could not evade these curses. A cursed king or chieftain was doomed. There were some struggles between the divine lawmakers and the kings but ultimately the Brahmans emerged at the top thanks to their paranormal powers. In the later Vedic period and slightly afterward the emerging Kshatriyas asserted their supremacy as in most of the civilizations where rulers prevailed over the priestly class. Nevertheless, the proximity to gods increased the purity and thus God invoking power of the Rishis . It brought God fearing general population under the control of the Rishis . Most probably, the people were less willing to fight the wars not backed by Rishis ; the king had to compromise with Rishis by giving them a higher status. One added factor was that the Rishis acquired the sole right to coronate the kings. It seems of little significance but a king who was not coroneted seemed to be little out of place. So a king had to, invariably, undergo the coronation ceremony or ritual and for that Rishis or Brahmans were needed who had monopolized the rituals. As the influence of Brahmans increased, the coercive power of state became less and less effective against them, and then disappeared altogether.
Thus, invariably the king had to perform the rituals. Performing of war winning Yagyas became a cultural and political necessity. These rituals became religious elements as well as political weapons at the hands of Rishis who had monopolized the rituals. These Rishis became the most powerful people in the Vedic society. The mantras they chanted were supposed to possess the awesome paranormal power of invoking the gods. They were powerful as they could always refuse to perform Yagyas and make the chieftain look like anti-tribe because he could not get the Rishis to perform the Yagyas for the welfare of the tribe. The chieftains also could not force the Rishis because they were supposed to have paranormal power of putting an irrevocable curse on them also. The natural or divine calamities were certain to visit the kings and the kingdoms which did not appease the Rishis and the later day Brahmans. The faith in them was overwhelming. Such a faith should break anybody's heart. It gave them leverage over the kings. It is clear from the killing of Shambuk in the Ramayana. The curses were really effective in an indirect way. The cursed chieftain lost the confidence of his people resulting in weakening of his kingdom. The coincidental divine calamities were touted as the sure proof of paranormal powers of the enraged Rishis and Brahmans.
The fear of divine retribution always helped the Rishis and gave them the enormous power. The metaphysical forces were always with them. Only they could manage the gods correctly. The threat of divine retribution kept the chieftains in check, and they could not use force against the Rishis to force them to perform the rituals. Nobody could have touched them because nobody could have escaped their curses and their paranormal powers; nobody else knew the sacred mantras. The monopoly on mantras concentrated the ritual powers in few hands and it was duly taken advantage of. They were supposed to have the divine power to give curses and punish the opponent. Further, there was no way to escape the curse; it could not be taken back. The divine anger or retribution could have resulted in grave but assumed danger to people. However, these paranormal supermen never destroyed the opposing armies through their divine powers.
These priests possessed the awesome talent of cramming. Or rather they developed methods of memorizing the mantras. They kept them secret to maintain their monopoly on performing Yagyas. They also kept, the teaching of Sanskrit in which the mantras having paranormal powers were composed, away from the local population. Over a period of time Sanskrit came to be known as dev-bhasha or gods' language and it died leaving only the Brahmans to interact with gods. The Brahamans became the ritual monopolists without whom, a ritual based society could not move. All this is hardly selfish! Is it?
The idea that divinity dances at the correct chanting of mantras got fused into people's mind. Few people knew the art; they kept it secret, limited to their progenies. At the same time, the terror of divine retribution brought by the curses of Rishis also got fused into people's mind. Maybe the Rishis did it by frequently reciting the coincidences of successful wars with performing of Yagyas and forgetting the losses. This technique still prevails in the Hindu society - especially in the sphere of miracles of godmen. One or two miraculous coincidences and you are a godman after repeating them as examples repeatedly. There are other ways to become the godman.
The most impressive point is the existence of fear of divine retribution from the divine powers dancing at the chanting of mantras. This divine retribution could only be stopped by the esteemed Rishis and their future progenies - the Brahmans! It is a holy cow which has been milked all it’s worth in the social, religious, economic and carnal spheres since eternity.
The threat of divine retribution is also very clearly indicated in the Gita - the showpiece of Hindu religion to the outside world.
Any cursory look at the Hindu Shastras and Puranas would tell that the Rishis came to wield enormous power in the later Vedic society and post Vedic society. These Rishis made rules which others had to follow including kings and queens. They were the main beneficiaries of Niyoga system which gave them temporary conjugal rights over others' women including the queens. No kidding! The rituals performed at the Ashwamegha Yagya are clear indications of their power. The Rishis came to acquire the highest status in society because of their indispensability in performing the war winning Yagyas - the supposed lifeline of a tribe. They were the preservers of a tribe's welfare with their extraordinary paranormal abilities of invoking the gods.
Thus they enjoyed the extraordinary status, in lieu of their paranormal powers, in society, and they passed it down to their coming progenies, the Brahmans. They were the ones who got the Vedas straight from the mouth of God and thus a direct connection with God. No one was as near to God as they were - and no one could be as nobody was allowed to access the sacred mantras written in Sanskrit. They could marry any woman of any social status without any objection or question from anybody. Or at least they had temporary conjugal rights over any women or girls without any objection from anybody - as usual the highest owed no explanation to the lower ones. It was a form of temporary Anuloma marriage, which was later, sanctified in Dharma Shastras. They were considered superior to chieftains and kings who in turn ruled over the rest of the people.
The Rishis who occupied the highest status were the forerunners of the Brahmans who formed the first Varna to appear on the scene. It is also indicated by the fact that all the Brahmans trace their paternal lineage (gotra) to these Rishis only and to nobody else. Small tribes were combining to form the big tribes under the aegis of agriculture. People were combining also and forming influential groups. Some of these groups were probably the forerunners of the future Varnas. This first Varna was a group of people with paranormal powers; over a period of time they became an endogamous group. These progenies of Rishis maintained their superior position in the Aryan society. They retained the right to marry the woman from any stratum from Aryan society. In other words, they retained the rights to marry the best of women in society irrespective of her social status, and that subtly conveyed the lower Varna (rest of society) males of their subordination.
They memorized the Vedas fully by taking cue from the earlier or from the previous mantra for the current mantras and the process flowed on. It took years to master it under a competent teacher. The teachers chose their pupils carefully and finally they chose only progenies of people knowing mantras. Thus, they passed on the benefits of wealth transfers to their progenies. These people became the Brahmans.
These very people were later going to claim themselves as otherworldly people. For their livelihood, they made the dharmic provision of transferring wealth from the kings and other people. They became masters in transferring of wealth from others to them. They reserved the state administrative jobs for themselves. They devised various methods of transferring the wealth from others to them. They also religiously claimed the animals sacrificed in the Yagyas. They also got cows in gifts for performing the Yagyas. In the due course, they also claimed the land grants, gained the control over the temples, temple-wealth and temple land in later times. Their power to coronet the ling yielded rich dividends. It was very simple. They refused to teach the coronation rituals to anybody and fear of curse and divine retribution saved them from the wrath of the kings - not a mean achievement. They also came to possess the right to consecrate idols in the temples gaining the leverage over the segmented religious masses. Very innocent and pious people indeed! Not indeed sly! Not indeed sly!
The religious and indirect political control led to the formation of a group of people interested in safeguarding their privileges. They were the holders of the sacred and exclusive knowledge of the Vedas originated from the mouth of God - exclusively for them. They denied others the right to marry a woman from their group. A paternal society. Awesome and wonderful superiority! And unworldly people! It was because any such move could have undermined their controlling social position. They were the special people, with power to curse, knew about God through the Vedas and became superior most at the end of the post-Vedic Period.
Brahman itself means the knower of Bruhm (the Absolute) - the incomprehensible being. So, only the Brahmans could marry the Brahman women, which was most probably the start of endogamous Jati system. They also limited the teaching of Vedas only to their kith and kin to the exclusion of others. The Vedas became their and their coming generations' exclusive property from which all the sacred power flowed. That also meant taking care of their future generations through their monopoly on the Vedas and scriptures.
The next Varna to appear on the horizon was the Kshatriya Varna. The word "Kshatriya" is derived from the word "kshatar" meaning rulership. Another meaning is the group of people holding land (kshetra, kheta - field, land) - the warrior landlords. We have already mentioned that in the then dynamic society another group formation of the chieftains and the warring heads of the tribes was taking place. They formed a kind of coalition as a reaction against the Rishis. They also entered into matrimonial alliances across the tribes to strengthen themselves. There were no standing armies as the money had not come into circulation. In these circumstances, they could depend only on their paternal relatives, maternal relatives and in-laws for their protection because being a chieftain or king was a risky job. This group was warlike in nature and controlled the society with their might. The kings who emerged generally depended on the army made up of largely their kith and kin because they were the most reliable. There was no standing army but the kith and kin of the king formed an ever-ready army. During later Vedic period, the tribes were merging and becoming amalgamation of different people. A king could more securely rely on the people who were near and dear to him. Thus, they formed a group, the members of which depended on each other to defend their political position.
These kings and their kith and kin were the forerunners of later day Kshatriyas. As usual as it happened, they prevented commoners from marrying their woman or their girls. Only a Kshatriya could marry a Kshatriya girl. It was a matter of honor in a paternal society. Thus, another birth based endogamous Varna occupying the second highest position in society came into existence. They ceded superior position to Brahmans due to widely held deep belief in the divinity, divine retribution, sacredness and superiority of the Vedas over everything else. The sacred Vedas became the monopoly of the Brahmans - the preservers of Dharma. If they were to appear to be interested in the welfare of the tribe, they had to perform as many Yagyas as possible. Thus, they needed the learned Brahmans. The Brahmans became the source which could legitimize the rule of a king; thus, they were high in demand. The Brahmans in turn provided them with the blessing of the Gods by invoking the gods with the sacred mantras and protected the kings from any divine retribution. The act of being interested in welfare of the tribe got the kings acceptance from the tribe. It was a kind of indirect acceptance. For indirect acceptance, they had to depend on the Brahmans who legitimize the rule of the king. For Brahmans, it was a kind of indirect control over the common people through the scriptures, whose authority and efficacy very few people denied. Being any Brahman involved little risk to life. Everybody was below the Word of God which was exclusively in the hands of the Brahmans. Brahmans, the ritual monopolists, were the exclusive people who could save the tribe from the divine retribution by performing accurate rituals. And this has been the trend ever since. Kshatriyas accepted the Brahmans as superior and, provided them with land, the state administrative jobs and other gifts. Brahmans in turn provided the social acceptance and divine legitimacy to the kings and upheld their divine right to rule. There was a kind of reciprocal exchange of benefits. Rest of the population could go to hell.
We can clearly see that in trying to dominate society both the Brahmans and the Kshatriyas engaged in status seeking which is give in the appendix.
The third Varna to appear on the scene was the Vaisya Varna. The term "Vaisya" is derived from "Vish" which means the tribe. Therefore, the Vaisya meant the one who belonged to the tribe or a common man. Actually, it was a residuary Varna made up of people not having any other Varna. The Varnas were defined by the Brahman and concretized by the kings; the lower most Varna of Vaisyas was not allowed any state power; they were kept reserved for performing the manual jobs. The Brahmans and Kshatriyas needed each other but they did not need the Vaisyas. The state coercive power could be used against the Vaisyas to bring them in line with the thinking of the Brahmans. They were not part of any dominating groups in society of combining tribes. They did not know the Vedas and did not take part in the warfare. The Kshatriyas trusted only their kith and kin for safety, not the common people of other merging tribes, the Vaisyas. Thus, the Vaisyas were kept out of the Kshatriya hood. However, the common people of other tribes which were either merged or were defeated were made to engage in cattle rearing and land tilling by force - the job of native people - all by default since upper two Varnas were not interested in labor; the natives had left the place. Brahman Varna was interested in earning on the basis of its devastating (to others) intellect. Kshatriya Varna was interested in income from taxes in kind. Both upper Varnas were interested in owning/holding land tilled by the Vaisyas where the main proceeds went to the landholder. The Vaisyas were filling the vacuum left by the local cultivating communities who had left the conquered areas. In the emerging inter-Aryan-tribal-native-chieftain matrimonial scenario, the Vaisyas were left unconnected to the emerging powerful groups across the tribes and communities. The Vaisya Varna arrived there by default. Somebody was needed to grow the food for the new powerful groups. So far, there were no Shudras; they made their appearance later on. The Varna system was in its crystallizing stage. While considering the agriculturists in India, it should be kept in mind that there were two types of agriculturists - the one who held the land and another who tilled, the latter were called tillers who had no stake in the land. Therefore, an agriculturist Brahman is not the one who tills the land but the one who holds the land. One should not develop a notion of the humble Brahmans in the name of agriculturists – they were the landholders not the humble tillers.
The Vaisyas also became endogamous by force because they could not marry into higher Varnas. They could marry only the Vaisya girl or non-Brahman or non-Kshatriya girls in the combining tribes where the chieftains were losing their identities and the new stronger kings were emerging. The upper groups did not want any encroachment on their conjugal areas; the vaisyas were powerless to stop any encroachment on their conjugal areas. The Vaisyas were common people without any special power in society. Their name suggests that they still belonged to tribes (Vis) and had no access across the tribes when the tribes were combining. Most probably, they started marrying outside the tribe when sagotra marriages were banned; the merged tribes then lost their independent identities losing their tribal character; the tribes disappeared and Varnas emerged; so far only three. Most probably, the access across the tribes was available only to the Rishis and the kings. Vaisyas were left out of higher-level activities like politics and the sacred Dharma. The sacred Dharma was, invariably, a political tool. The religion was a part of politics. Vaisyas were engaged, at that time, in the lower level activities of cattle rearing and land tilling. The trading activity had not come into existence by the end of later Vedic Period.
The currency had not come into circulation by and large. The activity of trading was a later addition to their occupation. The Vaisyas had the lowest position in three Varnas because they did not have any power; they were engaged in the powerless jobs of cattle rearing and land tilling, now inferior jobs involving the use of manual labor, heavy human and animal secretions; all abhorred and despised by the emerging pure people. The higher two Varnas were not interested in performing manual labor. Another reason for Vaisyas' lower ranking was that they were also doing the inferior job of agriculture which was earlier done by the defeated, and thus by implication the inferior natives of India. The inferiority hops onto to the defeated people and the superiority follows the winners, naturally. Or the victors were superior and the conquered were inferior. The conquerors were superior to the conquered. But, the paradigm of purity sneaked in, devastatingly, through the backdoors of rituals, spirituality and Sanskrit. The portion of Aryan society that was forced to take up the job of inferior people, came to be regarded as inferior – the Vaisyas. The occupations became graded - agriculture being the lowest and the communication with gods being the highest. Nevertheless, the Vaisyas were still allowed the thread ceremony meaning that they were Aryans but doing the degraded job. The jobs of Vaisyas were also going to be degraded to Shudra level in the due course of time when the commercial trading was to emerge as a sustainable activity. The Vaisyas might have been the Aryans of the tribes defeated by the main Rig Vedic Aryan tribes; thus, they were ordained with inferior jobs.
The Shudra was the last Varna that came into existence. The word "Shudra" is derived from the word "kshudra" which means inferior. And, they were exactly like that because they had been defeated. The natives of India, brown or black, were inferior because they have been defeated politically or culturally. The defeated natives of India ran away to other places. It is indicated by the facts that the Aryans (Vaisyas) had to take up the agriculture implying the absence of native people from the conquered areas. The natives were dispossessed of their land, which in turn went into the hands of Kshatriyas who gave it to Vaisyas to till it and pay the taxes in kind. The Shudras ran away to the kingdoms or areas of other Shudra chieftains or kings.
Some of the Shudras stayed back. These Shudras had lost their land and became landless laborers in the land of Aryans. They were assimilated at the lowest level in Varna system and were denied the thread ceremony implying that they were not Aryans. It also indicates that the Shudras earlier did not agree to the Vedic rules. Over a period of time the Varna system degraded many twiceborn (the upper three Varnas entitled to thread ceremony) to Shudra level and also below it through the system of ostracization. Over a period of time, many Aryans lost their land and came down to the Shudra level. There were many Shudra occupations: blacksmith, carpenter, skinner, charioteer, goldsmith, potter etc. The important point was that the Shudras were disconnected from land or from any kind of assets through dharmic edicts. They were to be kept into penury courtesy the laws made by the pious people having eternal paranormal powers. They had to live by their labor alone. How touching! The star occupation of Rig Vedic people, cattle rearing, was degraded to third level of Vaisyas and in the due course of time to fourth level of Shudras. Another star occupation of Rig Vedic people, plundering, was made a crime. The status of these activities moved a great deal from higher to lower level. Their sad degradation was not noticed by anybody. The Varna system was crystallizing. The amorphous mass of tribes got amalgamated from which the Varnas emerged and crystallized. The stage of amalgamation is often obtusely forwarded as an immutable proof of flexibility of Varna system though the carnal desires of powerful Rishis were very apparent in this stage. The totally crystallized Varna system was never flexible. Insertion of Purush Sukta in the Rig Veda was also a part of this crystallization. Total crystallization was completed through the Dharma shastras.
The superiority of the paranormal Brahmans, slowly got converted into their cultural hegemony, in the developing Hindu society. Varna Dharma became the dominant doctrine helped by spiritual thinking through the Upanishadic Karma hypothesis. The broad and central culture, by and large, moved on their fingers. The Shudra kings who could not be defeated were assimilated into Aryan society by granting them Kshatriya status provided they agreed to the superiority of the Vedas by implication of Brahmans, and agreed to Vedic rituals. If you agree with the Rig Veda, you agree to their superiority; there is no way out; you have to live a second rate or third, fourth rate life; take it if this degradation by birth suits you. This kind of assimilation is a recurrent theme in the history of this subcontinent. The Purusha Sukta of the Rig Veda was the unquestionable proof of Brahmanical superiority. What else do you want? Their cultural hegemony is evident from the fact that by 200 B.C.E. the paranormal and ritual monopolists Brahmans had spread down to the deep end of south India where they were found performing the magnetic Yagyas for the south Indian kings who were not interested in Varna Dharma at that time. They were interested only in the paranormal powers of Yagyas, which were supposed to protect kings and ensure success in wars. The Yagyas acted like strong magnets and the new and ambitious kings were strongly gravitated toward the Brahmans who could perform the Yagyas. These kings invited Brahmans to their kingdom and granted them land in lieu of coronation and performing of Yagyas. The most ambitious Yagya was the Ashwa-megh Yagya. In it, a horse was left in the fields and whatever area it could cover was deemed to be the territory of the king on whose behalf the Yagya was performed. If any king harbored territorial ambitions then the horse sacrifice Yagya was performed. It was a warning to weak kings that a strong king was coming to claim their territory and they should give up without a fight. On the other side, the Brahmans performed Rajsuya Yagya as a preparation to war. Both the sides invoked the gods through Yagyas and imported the Brahmans for this purpose. The faith in the paranormal powers of Brahmans was overwhelming. It has been the source of the underground rivers of tears for the Untouchables. The Hindu religion developed from top to bottom. The top was decided earlier, and which in turn decided the bottom. The Brahmans got the land grants and power jobs from the Dravidian kings in lieu of their divinity related services. They always upheld, the king's right to rule and protect the Dharma. The superiority of the scriptures had become unquestioned strengthening the hold of Brahmans over the society. The scriptures became society-controlling instruments. From top, the Brahman guided the society to a dharmic path of salvation. No, sorry, guided to an exalted path of eternal dharmic subordination. There was no separation between the religion and the politics.
The Shudra kings and chieftains in India had been assimilated into Sanatana dharma fold by granting them the Kshatriya status. The most prominent example of a Shudra king being assimilating in Vedic society is that of Krishna. Krishna was a Shudra as he was the nephew of Shudra king or chieftain, Kansa who was a Shudra himself who did not believe in the Vedic rituals. Kansa is known as Rakshasha (demon). He did not believe in the Vedas and always prevented the Rishis from performing the Yagyas. If he had agreed to the Vedic rituals then he would not have been called a Rakshasha (the demon) and could have earned the Kshatriya status. The Varna system was still crystallizing. Thus, Kansa was a Shudra king and Krishna being his nephew comes automatically to be qualified as a Shudra. He was elevated to the Kshatriya level and then to God level and then to the Absolute level in Gita. May be the saviors of local culture called themselves the Rakshaks (saviors) which in due time got converted to Rakshasha (demon). Being the native agriculturists, they were most probably against the Vedic rituals and the superiority of lawmakers over the kings. The importance of Krishna suggests that the local Shudra chieftains played a crucial role in politics at that time and the natives of India were not without any culture or polity as has been suggested by the assumption that the Aryans brought the culture to India. Well, the Rig Vedic Aryans had nothing to offer but plundering, oblation of fumes to gods and some speculation on the existence of supreme being.
The defeated native population moved south but, most probably, they did not cross the Vindhyas because in that case they should have taken agriculture with them, which in all probability did not happen at that time. The agriculture, most probably, went to South India with Buddhists and Jains in later times.
The non-Aryan natives were given a new Varna- the Shudra. With the arrival of Shudra Varna, still more inferior and landless, the status of Vaisyas rose relatively. Now they had somebody to lord upon. God turned in their favor. They came to enjoy their occasions of jubilation now and then. Now the Varnas had become endogamous which automatically means that the Varnas were birth based and under this dominant philosophy, the further segmentation of society led to development of endogamous caste. No person could hold two occupations in different functions which were Varna assigned. The Shudras did not have any land which they could pass on to their offspring. They were to live in the penury and die in the penury. As a result, their offspring remained landless and hence remained Shudras – grand provision – no land or assets for them so that they are forced to serve the higher Varnas - it is a non-violent religion, so to speak of – see, no use of force and forever elimination of the problem of short supply of servants. They also had no means to acquire the land since only twiceborn could acquire any property in Vedic and post-Vedic society. Turning any Shudra into higher Varna required a redistribution of resources and respect, which was not in the interests of higher Varnas.
Thus, the power of higher strata, their endogamous nature and the existence of non-propertied Shudras made them exclusive and it assured that the Varna was birth based. However, the intermixing of blood was still possible because the higher Varnas had the right to marry the women from the lower Varnas. There are hardly any examples of lower Varna men marrying higher Varna women in the Hindu scriptures. The only examples were the Shudra kings who were always assigned the status of defacto Kshatriyas. The Shudra soldiers were not allowed the status of Kshatriyas most probably because they could not pay the fee to Brahmans to perform the Vedic rituals.
The functions (a disguise for duties and rights) or Varna Dharma of each Varna came to be defined. Brahman Varna function was to study the scriptures and guide the Kshatriyas in ruling the kingdom according to Dharma. Kshatriya Varna function was to rule the kingdom according to Dharma (not general law and order or general safety). Vaisya Varna function was to engage in agriculture, cattle rearing and trading. Shudra Varna function was to serve the upper three Varnas. These Varnas became heredity in nature under the guidance of the Brahmans. Whole of the society was structured toward the welfare of paranormal Brahman Varna. No function was assigned on individual basis but on group basis.
Thus, the four Varna system emerged in the post-Vedic society. This system was called the Chaturvarna system. It need not be reminded that these Varnas in the descending social order were the Brahman, the Kshatriya, the Vaisya and the Shudra. The Brahmans were at the top, the Kshatriyas at the second place, the Vaisyas at the third place and the Shudras at the fourth place. The paranormal Brahmans were the lawmakers, social authority and priests. The Kshatriyas were the rulers or the kings. The Vaisyas were the traders and agriculturists. And the Shudras were the eternal servants or landless people. The artisans were also Shudras since in absence of currency they had to work for higher Varnas for paltry payment in kind. This most probably led to the emergence of Jajmani system. Or a system where the Shudra castes got a small piece of land in lieu of providing services to the village. They worked on this small piece of land to grow food for themselves. These Varnas were not created in one day through the Purusha Shukta of Rig Veda. Brahmans after defining themselves defined others and as a measure to prove their exclusivity formed a different endogamous group at the top. They occupied the risk free highest position in the Hindu society. This crystallization culminated in the development of Dharma shastras. A further culmination took in the form of development of sub-varnas or castes.
The spread of Sanatana Dharma owed a lot to magnetic nature of the Yagyas. The culture of performing mystique Yagyas became most in demand for which the Rishis or Brahmans were needed. The assumed abilities of Rishis and Brahmans, of invoking gods through the Yagyas, helped in a significant manner, in spreading their influence and the Sanatana Dharma. These paranormal powers behaved like magnets. The new kings were drawn to them in no insignificant number. The belief in Brahmans' paranormal power got converted into their cultural hegemony.
By the time the Untouchable category came into existence due to degrading of jobs by the pious Brahmans, the Vedas had been finalized. The inserted Purusha Sukta of Rig Veda had become the final word on the Varna origin. Any addition to Varnas meant changing the Rig Veda or the Word of God, which nobody could do. It was not possible to add anything to the Vedas. The degrading was not objected to because those who suffered were the people without any means of subsistence who survived merely by their labor. These ignorant people did not know when they became Untouchables. Only the passage of time told them so. One indication that they have come down from the Varna system is that like the people of four Varnas these people also have their own Jatis. This category emerged after the entry of each Varna into the Varna system. Therefore, they were called the Antyaja. The word "Antyaja" means those who are born at the end, or the last-born. Emerging after everybody, they were also placed at the end of everybody, meaning at the bottom of social structure - nice and logical. The Hindu social structure evolved from top to bottom; the bottom was always residuary and was at the mercy of higher Varnas. The top people kept with them the most important functions and power and left the degrading jobs for the low castes. Like the Shudras they were also supposed to have an impure origin. Their origin was supposed to be even more impure than that of the Shudras. Thus, they were placed at the end. The impure people were always linked to impure jobs. A man born in Hindu society inherits his parents' Jati and the occupation of Jati also. Thus, we have seen that the Varnas emerged on historical scale and not at a point of time as given in the Rig Veda. The development of Varnas in direction from top down was a race to control the resource of society. The lawmakers were the winners. The others were losers.
Then there arose the question of guarding the privileges of Brahmans and Kshatriyas in the post Vedic period when the purity based Varna system was crystallizing; then the hypothesis of Karma was developed to safeguard these comforts till eternity. Hence, this is an eternal religion.
The term Varna does not lend itself to any easy translation in English language. The term used for both Varna and Jati is caste in English, which is unable to impart any real meaning of the word and/or its implications. Varna is a permanent dividing, subjugatory, unequal and lopsided distributing system. It was a permanent system devised to perpetuate the comforts and super ordination by the birth based divided elites. The elites achieved their aim by excluding all the future generations of birth based divided non-elites from the benefits of society and economy, forever. Both the elites and non-elites are, further permanently divided, based on birth.
The Varna system in India was not born in a day. No sacrifice was made. Nobody was born from any part of the Brahma or any primal man. This is just a glorified crap. It was developed and crystallized slowly over a long period of time. This system was not brought from outside because it is not traceable in the places where the Aryans were supposed to have gone from their home place of Russian steppes. Its non-existence outside India implies that it was developed within this subcontinent. The Varnas emerged after one another in the order of Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaisya and Shudra after the end of the Rig Vedic Period.
The appearance of Varnas coincides with the introduction of agriculture in Rig Vedic society. It also coincided with the formation of big tribes through merger of small tribes. With the introduction of agriculture, the Rig Vedic society met its demise. It was transformed. The cow and plunder based economy slowly disappeared into oblivion. Now, the agricultural surplus made it possible for the higher level groups to emergence in an egalitarian society. The structure of Rig Vedic society was broken and a slow power struggle developed between the Rishis and the warriors. There were the clear-cut two groups that emerged in this power struggle. Those who did not take in part this power struggle were later assigned the manual occupations and a low Varna by the emerging lawmaker. But first the dominant groups, these were the Rishis having divine power to curse and power to bring victory to a tribe by invoking gods and on the other side were the warriors. The warriors lost to Rishis ' underlying powers over common people. Thus first group of Rishis emerged on the top and in the due course called itself the Brahman Varna. The second group which was of warriors came to be known as the Kshatriya Varna. Then the Vaisya Varna and the Shudras Varnas emerged, one after another in considerable time. The strata emerged in the form of Varnas. Another stratum emerged in the post-Vedic period in the form of Untouchables or the Antyajas. The lawmakers assigned the Varnas for rest of the people, defined their functions and implemented them through the Kshatriyas.
To understand the emergence of Varnas it is necessary to understand the warring and plundering society of the Rig Vedic period, appeasement of gods, fear of divine retribution caused by human errors and its avoidance. It was a period low intensity warfare which continued till the end of the Rig Vedic Period. In warlike conditions, the warriors should have emerged at the top but that did not happen.
The existence of too many sovereign entities made the situation warlike especially when the Aryans were not prepared to take up agriculture and live in relative peace. In the absence of agriculture, the only recourse was to plunder other communities. The attacks on other communities and tribes became a necessity. The survival of a tribe depended on its capacity to repel successfully frequent attacks and capacity to successfully attack others. The uncertainty of survival made the warring ability a necessity. There were no standing armies as there was no money to be paid. The small size of tribes and native communities made the results of wars very uncertain. For this purpose, the divine help was invoked. When it was a matter of life and death, it was natural to call for the divine help, especially when they knew the trick of appeasing the gods.
The Vedic people lived in a society where the appeasement of gods was supposed to determine the welfare of tribe and success in wars. It played a very important crucial role in the development of Varna system and in the spread of cultural hegemony of the later Brahmans. The appeasement of gods became a sacred, specialized and necessary function in society, well, at the top of society. It involved long intricate complex rituals and chanting of the mantras. These had become so complex that they had to be rigorously learned from the people who had already specialized in them - the Rishis . They were important because the welfare of the tribe, supposedly, depended on them because only they could invoke the divine help, with their paranormal powers, without which no war could be won. Perhaps. So much dependence on the gods in the wars means that opposing sides were more or less equally matched, and thus nobody was confident of the victory. The invocation of divine help was a must. The confident people do not need gods but for uncertainty! The lightening wars in the absence of assured food supply, surely, needed divine help. The godless people, meaning people without any faith in Vedic gods, were known to have lost wars due to their lack of belief in the Aryan gods.
This trick of appeasing gods was in the form of Yagyas. The trick was to offer the oblation to gods through fire, in Yagyas, which burned the oblation and carried them upwards to heavens. And, in heavens there are gods. The almighty gods were hungry so they needed the sacred food sacrificed in any Yagya in the form of fumes. Wow, the fumes! The gods require fumes as food! They survive on carbon dioxide! Only requirement was the correct invocation of gods through chanting of the sacred mantras. This made the Yagya complete. Obviously, the divine help did not come cheap. A high price was extracted by the divine help invokers from the divine help seekers. The Rig Vedic gods needed to be invoked; for invocation, the Yagyas were necessary; for Yagyas the Rishis were necessary. A Yagya was essentially a fire ceremony where animals were sacrificed to appease the hungry gods who otherwise had everything for them. The gods could manage their own food; otherwise, it is pointless to be a god. However, the animals sacrificed went mainly to the priests. The mantras or hymns were used in the Yagyas for invocation of gods and asking favor from them in war. The appeasement of gods was a necessary cultural feature of Vedic society. Any improper invocation of gods or any erroneous Yagya was supposed to bring a certain deadly divine retribution which could have devastated the chieftain or the tribe. The Vedic people lived in perpetual insecurity, as outcome of any war was very uncertain, and sought divine help. The divine power was feared and revered. The divine power was required to be handled very carefully unless it exploded on the tribe itself. The war god Indra was most in demand and next was Agni (the fire), then follow other nature gods. The divine retribution was much feared beyond known limits; it found its ultimate expression in the much esteemed Gita.
The complex rituals and mantras came into existence; those who knew them attained a high indispensable position in the Vedic society because without them no war could be initiated. These were the people with paranormal powers of invoking the gods. The army could move only after the Yagya had been completed. The more important people, the people who actually fought, became secondary. The actual warriors could have fought the enemy but they could not have invoked the gods to help them without inviting the divine retribution as their invocation was bound to be faulty. Therefore, they needed the Rishis - the forerunners of the present day Brahmans - the people with the paranormal powers. Still there are people who claim that the Vedic mantras have paranormal powers and still there are people who believe it. And by no stretch of imagination their number or their control is insignificant in the traditional India. The veracity of paranormal powers of Vedic mantras is never verified. Anyway, the stupidity has no claim here. Or does it?
The appeasement of gods was mainly in the form of performing the Yagyas and offering of animal sacrifices. The Yagya was a kind fire worship used to invoke Vedic gods. The Yagyas involved chanting of complex mantras and the sacrifice of animals appeased or invoked the gods like Indra, Varun and others. The mantras chanted in Yagya were required to be correct to last detail including pronunciation. Anything out of sequence in chanting of mantras was a terrible disaster along with any wrong pronunciation, terrible enough to bring the retribution. You cannot play with divinity. A small error in chanting mantras was supposed to make the gods angry. It was sufficient to bring the wrath of gods on its performers, the king, and also on the tribe; so wide were its effects. A faulty invocation of gods was supposed to be sufficient for bringing divine retribution and only very skilled Rishis could have avoided it. The divine wrath had to be avoided and at the same time the blessings of gods were required. The route to success went through the Rishis .
This increased the importance of the Rishis who could verbatim recite the mantras without a single pronunciation error and without a single small error. The importance of people possessing such skills became paramount. Their supposed paranormal powers helped them to attain the highest position in society. However, non-performance of Yagyas by a king meant defying Rishis and as a result God. Defying people with paranormal powers was not in the best interest of the chieftains. Any war devoid of the Yagyas was only half prepared and was sure to be lost. Such a chieftain was not supposed to be looking after the welfare of the tribe and he could have been held responsible for bringing the divine retribution on the tribe or his people. He was supposedly putting his tribe at risk. This could have weakened the king’s hold over the tribe. The non-performance of Yagyas meant displeasing the gods resulting in an invitation to divine retribution. No tribe (Visha) member (Vaisya?) could possibly have a faith in a chieftain who was harming the welfare of the tribe by displeasing the powerful gods. Such a chieftain was putting his tribe in a peril. Any defeat in war could have been easily attributed to non-performance of war winning Yagyas or faulty invocation of the gods during Yagyas. This means politics at work. The importance of the Rishis and Brahman followed from the need of persons needed to perform the war winning Yagyas for the chieftain and tribe. Facing the irrevocable curse from people with paranormal powers was supposed to be beyond even the kings. Even the kings could not evade these curses. A cursed king or chieftain was doomed. There were some struggles between the divine lawmakers and the kings but ultimately the Brahmans emerged at the top thanks to their paranormal powers. In the later Vedic period and slightly afterward the emerging Kshatriyas asserted their supremacy as in most of the civilizations where rulers prevailed over the priestly class. Nevertheless, the proximity to gods increased the purity and thus God invoking power of the Rishis . It brought God fearing general population under the control of the Rishis . Most probably, the people were less willing to fight the wars not backed by Rishis ; the king had to compromise with Rishis by giving them a higher status. One added factor was that the Rishis acquired the sole right to coronate the kings. It seems of little significance but a king who was not coroneted seemed to be little out of place. So a king had to, invariably, undergo the coronation ceremony or ritual and for that Rishis or Brahmans were needed who had monopolized the rituals. As the influence of Brahmans increased, the coercive power of state became less and less effective against them, and then disappeared altogether.
Thus, invariably the king had to perform the rituals. Performing of war winning Yagyas became a cultural and political necessity. These rituals became religious elements as well as political weapons at the hands of Rishis who had monopolized the rituals. These Rishis became the most powerful people in the Vedic society. The mantras they chanted were supposed to possess the awesome paranormal power of invoking the gods. They were powerful as they could always refuse to perform Yagyas and make the chieftain look like anti-tribe because he could not get the Rishis to perform the Yagyas for the welfare of the tribe. The chieftains also could not force the Rishis because they were supposed to have paranormal power of putting an irrevocable curse on them also. The natural or divine calamities were certain to visit the kings and the kingdoms which did not appease the Rishis and the later day Brahmans. The faith in them was overwhelming. Such a faith should break anybody's heart. It gave them leverage over the kings. It is clear from the killing of Shambuk in the Ramayana. The curses were really effective in an indirect way. The cursed chieftain lost the confidence of his people resulting in weakening of his kingdom. The coincidental divine calamities were touted as the sure proof of paranormal powers of the enraged Rishis and Brahmans.
The fear of divine retribution always helped the Rishis and gave them the enormous power. The metaphysical forces were always with them. Only they could manage the gods correctly. The threat of divine retribution kept the chieftains in check, and they could not use force against the Rishis to force them to perform the rituals. Nobody could have touched them because nobody could have escaped their curses and their paranormal powers; nobody else knew the sacred mantras. The monopoly on mantras concentrated the ritual powers in few hands and it was duly taken advantage of. They were supposed to have the divine power to give curses and punish the opponent. Further, there was no way to escape the curse; it could not be taken back. The divine anger or retribution could have resulted in grave but assumed danger to people. However, these paranormal supermen never destroyed the opposing armies through their divine powers.
These priests possessed the awesome talent of cramming. Or rather they developed methods of memorizing the mantras. They kept them secret to maintain their monopoly on performing Yagyas. They also kept, the teaching of Sanskrit in which the mantras having paranormal powers were composed, away from the local population. Over a period of time Sanskrit came to be known as dev-bhasha or gods' language and it died leaving only the Brahmans to interact with gods. The Brahamans became the ritual monopolists without whom, a ritual based society could not move. All this is hardly selfish! Is it?
The idea that divinity dances at the correct chanting of mantras got fused into people's mind. Few people knew the art; they kept it secret, limited to their progenies. At the same time, the terror of divine retribution brought by the curses of Rishis also got fused into people's mind. Maybe the Rishis did it by frequently reciting the coincidences of successful wars with performing of Yagyas and forgetting the losses. This technique still prevails in the Hindu society - especially in the sphere of miracles of godmen. One or two miraculous coincidences and you are a godman after repeating them as examples repeatedly. There are other ways to become the godman.
The most impressive point is the existence of fear of divine retribution from the divine powers dancing at the chanting of mantras. This divine retribution could only be stopped by the esteemed Rishis and their future progenies - the Brahmans! It is a holy cow which has been milked all it’s worth in the social, religious, economic and carnal spheres since eternity.
The threat of divine retribution is also very clearly indicated in the Gita - the showpiece of Hindu religion to the outside world.
Any cursory look at the Hindu Shastras and Puranas would tell that the Rishis came to wield enormous power in the later Vedic society and post Vedic society. These Rishis made rules which others had to follow including kings and queens. They were the main beneficiaries of Niyoga system which gave them temporary conjugal rights over others' women including the queens. No kidding! The rituals performed at the Ashwamegha Yagya are clear indications of their power. The Rishis came to acquire the highest status in society because of their indispensability in performing the war winning Yagyas - the supposed lifeline of a tribe. They were the preservers of a tribe's welfare with their extraordinary paranormal abilities of invoking the gods.
Thus they enjoyed the extraordinary status, in lieu of their paranormal powers, in society, and they passed it down to their coming progenies, the Brahmans. They were the ones who got the Vedas straight from the mouth of God and thus a direct connection with God. No one was as near to God as they were - and no one could be as nobody was allowed to access the sacred mantras written in Sanskrit. They could marry any woman of any social status without any objection or question from anybody. Or at least they had temporary conjugal rights over any women or girls without any objection from anybody - as usual the highest owed no explanation to the lower ones. It was a form of temporary Anuloma marriage, which was later, sanctified in Dharma Shastras. They were considered superior to chieftains and kings who in turn ruled over the rest of the people.
The Rishis who occupied the highest status were the forerunners of the Brahmans who formed the first Varna to appear on the scene. It is also indicated by the fact that all the Brahmans trace their paternal lineage (gotra) to these Rishis only and to nobody else. Small tribes were combining to form the big tribes under the aegis of agriculture. People were combining also and forming influential groups. Some of these groups were probably the forerunners of the future Varnas. This first Varna was a group of people with paranormal powers; over a period of time they became an endogamous group. These progenies of Rishis maintained their superior position in the Aryan society. They retained the right to marry the woman from any stratum from Aryan society. In other words, they retained the rights to marry the best of women in society irrespective of her social status, and that subtly conveyed the lower Varna (rest of society) males of their subordination.
They memorized the Vedas fully by taking cue from the earlier or from the previous mantra for the current mantras and the process flowed on. It took years to master it under a competent teacher. The teachers chose their pupils carefully and finally they chose only progenies of people knowing mantras. Thus, they passed on the benefits of wealth transfers to their progenies. These people became the Brahmans.
These very people were later going to claim themselves as otherworldly people. For their livelihood, they made the dharmic provision of transferring wealth from the kings and other people. They became masters in transferring of wealth from others to them. They reserved the state administrative jobs for themselves. They devised various methods of transferring the wealth from others to them. They also religiously claimed the animals sacrificed in the Yagyas. They also got cows in gifts for performing the Yagyas. In the due course, they also claimed the land grants, gained the control over the temples, temple-wealth and temple land in later times. Their power to coronet the ling yielded rich dividends. It was very simple. They refused to teach the coronation rituals to anybody and fear of curse and divine retribution saved them from the wrath of the kings - not a mean achievement. They also came to possess the right to consecrate idols in the temples gaining the leverage over the segmented religious masses. Very innocent and pious people indeed! Not indeed sly! Not indeed sly!
The religious and indirect political control led to the formation of a group of people interested in safeguarding their privileges. They were the holders of the sacred and exclusive knowledge of the Vedas originated from the mouth of God - exclusively for them. They denied others the right to marry a woman from their group. A paternal society. Awesome and wonderful superiority! And unworldly people! It was because any such move could have undermined their controlling social position. They were the special people, with power to curse, knew about God through the Vedas and became superior most at the end of the post-Vedic Period.
Brahman itself means the knower of Bruhm (the Absolute) - the incomprehensible being. So, only the Brahmans could marry the Brahman women, which was most probably the start of endogamous Jati system. They also limited the teaching of Vedas only to their kith and kin to the exclusion of others. The Vedas became their and their coming generations' exclusive property from which all the sacred power flowed. That also meant taking care of their future generations through their monopoly on the Vedas and scriptures.
The next Varna to appear on the horizon was the Kshatriya Varna. The word "Kshatriya" is derived from the word "kshatar" meaning rulership. Another meaning is the group of people holding land (kshetra, kheta - field, land) - the warrior landlords. We have already mentioned that in the then dynamic society another group formation of the chieftains and the warring heads of the tribes was taking place. They formed a kind of coalition as a reaction against the Rishis. They also entered into matrimonial alliances across the tribes to strengthen themselves. There were no standing armies as the money had not come into circulation. In these circumstances, they could depend only on their paternal relatives, maternal relatives and in-laws for their protection because being a chieftain or king was a risky job. This group was warlike in nature and controlled the society with their might. The kings who emerged generally depended on the army made up of largely their kith and kin because they were the most reliable. There was no standing army but the kith and kin of the king formed an ever-ready army. During later Vedic period, the tribes were merging and becoming amalgamation of different people. A king could more securely rely on the people who were near and dear to him. Thus, they formed a group, the members of which depended on each other to defend their political position.
These kings and their kith and kin were the forerunners of later day Kshatriyas. As usual as it happened, they prevented commoners from marrying their woman or their girls. Only a Kshatriya could marry a Kshatriya girl. It was a matter of honor in a paternal society. Thus, another birth based endogamous Varna occupying the second highest position in society came into existence. They ceded superior position to Brahmans due to widely held deep belief in the divinity, divine retribution, sacredness and superiority of the Vedas over everything else. The sacred Vedas became the monopoly of the Brahmans - the preservers of Dharma. If they were to appear to be interested in the welfare of the tribe, they had to perform as many Yagyas as possible. Thus, they needed the learned Brahmans. The Brahmans became the source which could legitimize the rule of a king; thus, they were high in demand. The Brahmans in turn provided them with the blessing of the Gods by invoking the gods with the sacred mantras and protected the kings from any divine retribution. The act of being interested in welfare of the tribe got the kings acceptance from the tribe. It was a kind of indirect acceptance. For indirect acceptance, they had to depend on the Brahmans who legitimize the rule of the king. For Brahmans, it was a kind of indirect control over the common people through the scriptures, whose authority and efficacy very few people denied. Being any Brahman involved little risk to life. Everybody was below the Word of God which was exclusively in the hands of the Brahmans. Brahmans, the ritual monopolists, were the exclusive people who could save the tribe from the divine retribution by performing accurate rituals. And this has been the trend ever since. Kshatriyas accepted the Brahmans as superior and, provided them with land, the state administrative jobs and other gifts. Brahmans in turn provided the social acceptance and divine legitimacy to the kings and upheld their divine right to rule. There was a kind of reciprocal exchange of benefits. Rest of the population could go to hell.
We can clearly see that in trying to dominate society both the Brahmans and the Kshatriyas engaged in status seeking which is give in the appendix.
The third Varna to appear on the scene was the Vaisya Varna. The term "Vaisya" is derived from "Vish" which means the tribe. Therefore, the Vaisya meant the one who belonged to the tribe or a common man. Actually, it was a residuary Varna made up of people not having any other Varna. The Varnas were defined by the Brahman and concretized by the kings; the lower most Varna of Vaisyas was not allowed any state power; they were kept reserved for performing the manual jobs. The Brahmans and Kshatriyas needed each other but they did not need the Vaisyas. The state coercive power could be used against the Vaisyas to bring them in line with the thinking of the Brahmans. They were not part of any dominating groups in society of combining tribes. They did not know the Vedas and did not take part in the warfare. The Kshatriyas trusted only their kith and kin for safety, not the common people of other merging tribes, the Vaisyas. Thus, the Vaisyas were kept out of the Kshatriya hood. However, the common people of other tribes which were either merged or were defeated were made to engage in cattle rearing and land tilling by force - the job of native people - all by default since upper two Varnas were not interested in labor; the natives had left the place. Brahman Varna was interested in earning on the basis of its devastating (to others) intellect. Kshatriya Varna was interested in income from taxes in kind. Both upper Varnas were interested in owning/holding land tilled by the Vaisyas where the main proceeds went to the landholder. The Vaisyas were filling the vacuum left by the local cultivating communities who had left the conquered areas. In the emerging inter-Aryan-tribal-native-chieftain matrimonial scenario, the Vaisyas were left unconnected to the emerging powerful groups across the tribes and communities. The Vaisya Varna arrived there by default. Somebody was needed to grow the food for the new powerful groups. So far, there were no Shudras; they made their appearance later on. The Varna system was in its crystallizing stage. While considering the agriculturists in India, it should be kept in mind that there were two types of agriculturists - the one who held the land and another who tilled, the latter were called tillers who had no stake in the land. Therefore, an agriculturist Brahman is not the one who tills the land but the one who holds the land. One should not develop a notion of the humble Brahmans in the name of agriculturists – they were the landholders not the humble tillers.
The Vaisyas also became endogamous by force because they could not marry into higher Varnas. They could marry only the Vaisya girl or non-Brahman or non-Kshatriya girls in the combining tribes where the chieftains were losing their identities and the new stronger kings were emerging. The upper groups did not want any encroachment on their conjugal areas; the vaisyas were powerless to stop any encroachment on their conjugal areas. The Vaisyas were common people without any special power in society. Their name suggests that they still belonged to tribes (Vis) and had no access across the tribes when the tribes were combining. Most probably, they started marrying outside the tribe when sagotra marriages were banned; the merged tribes then lost their independent identities losing their tribal character; the tribes disappeared and Varnas emerged; so far only three. Most probably, the access across the tribes was available only to the Rishis and the kings. Vaisyas were left out of higher-level activities like politics and the sacred Dharma. The sacred Dharma was, invariably, a political tool. The religion was a part of politics. Vaisyas were engaged, at that time, in the lower level activities of cattle rearing and land tilling. The trading activity had not come into existence by the end of later Vedic Period.
The currency had not come into circulation by and large. The activity of trading was a later addition to their occupation. The Vaisyas had the lowest position in three Varnas because they did not have any power; they were engaged in the powerless jobs of cattle rearing and land tilling, now inferior jobs involving the use of manual labor, heavy human and animal secretions; all abhorred and despised by the emerging pure people. The higher two Varnas were not interested in performing manual labor. Another reason for Vaisyas' lower ranking was that they were also doing the inferior job of agriculture which was earlier done by the defeated, and thus by implication the inferior natives of India. The inferiority hops onto to the defeated people and the superiority follows the winners, naturally. Or the victors were superior and the conquered were inferior. The conquerors were superior to the conquered. But, the paradigm of purity sneaked in, devastatingly, through the backdoors of rituals, spirituality and Sanskrit. The portion of Aryan society that was forced to take up the job of inferior people, came to be regarded as inferior – the Vaisyas. The occupations became graded - agriculture being the lowest and the communication with gods being the highest. Nevertheless, the Vaisyas were still allowed the thread ceremony meaning that they were Aryans but doing the degraded job. The jobs of Vaisyas were also going to be degraded to Shudra level in the due course of time when the commercial trading was to emerge as a sustainable activity. The Vaisyas might have been the Aryans of the tribes defeated by the main Rig Vedic Aryan tribes; thus, they were ordained with inferior jobs.
The Shudra was the last Varna that came into existence. The word "Shudra" is derived from the word "kshudra" which means inferior. And, they were exactly like that because they had been defeated. The natives of India, brown or black, were inferior because they have been defeated politically or culturally. The defeated natives of India ran away to other places. It is indicated by the facts that the Aryans (Vaisyas) had to take up the agriculture implying the absence of native people from the conquered areas. The natives were dispossessed of their land, which in turn went into the hands of Kshatriyas who gave it to Vaisyas to till it and pay the taxes in kind. The Shudras ran away to the kingdoms or areas of other Shudra chieftains or kings.
Some of the Shudras stayed back. These Shudras had lost their land and became landless laborers in the land of Aryans. They were assimilated at the lowest level in Varna system and were denied the thread ceremony implying that they were not Aryans. It also indicates that the Shudras earlier did not agree to the Vedic rules. Over a period of time the Varna system degraded many twiceborn (the upper three Varnas entitled to thread ceremony) to Shudra level and also below it through the system of ostracization. Over a period of time, many Aryans lost their land and came down to the Shudra level. There were many Shudra occupations: blacksmith, carpenter, skinner, charioteer, goldsmith, potter etc. The important point was that the Shudras were disconnected from land or from any kind of assets through dharmic edicts. They were to be kept into penury courtesy the laws made by the pious people having eternal paranormal powers. They had to live by their labor alone. How touching! The star occupation of Rig Vedic people, cattle rearing, was degraded to third level of Vaisyas and in the due course of time to fourth level of Shudras. Another star occupation of Rig Vedic people, plundering, was made a crime. The status of these activities moved a great deal from higher to lower level. Their sad degradation was not noticed by anybody. The Varna system was crystallizing. The amorphous mass of tribes got amalgamated from which the Varnas emerged and crystallized. The stage of amalgamation is often obtusely forwarded as an immutable proof of flexibility of Varna system though the carnal desires of powerful Rishis were very apparent in this stage. The totally crystallized Varna system was never flexible. Insertion of Purush Sukta in the Rig Veda was also a part of this crystallization. Total crystallization was completed through the Dharma shastras.
The superiority of the paranormal Brahmans, slowly got converted into their cultural hegemony, in the developing Hindu society. Varna Dharma became the dominant doctrine helped by spiritual thinking through the Upanishadic Karma hypothesis. The broad and central culture, by and large, moved on their fingers. The Shudra kings who could not be defeated were assimilated into Aryan society by granting them Kshatriya status provided they agreed to the superiority of the Vedas by implication of Brahmans, and agreed to Vedic rituals. If you agree with the Rig Veda, you agree to their superiority; there is no way out; you have to live a second rate or third, fourth rate life; take it if this degradation by birth suits you. This kind of assimilation is a recurrent theme in the history of this subcontinent. The Purusha Sukta of the Rig Veda was the unquestionable proof of Brahmanical superiority. What else do you want? Their cultural hegemony is evident from the fact that by 200 B.C.E. the paranormal and ritual monopolists Brahmans had spread down to the deep end of south India where they were found performing the magnetic Yagyas for the south Indian kings who were not interested in Varna Dharma at that time. They were interested only in the paranormal powers of Yagyas, which were supposed to protect kings and ensure success in wars. The Yagyas acted like strong magnets and the new and ambitious kings were strongly gravitated toward the Brahmans who could perform the Yagyas. These kings invited Brahmans to their kingdom and granted them land in lieu of coronation and performing of Yagyas. The most ambitious Yagya was the Ashwa-megh Yagya. In it, a horse was left in the fields and whatever area it could cover was deemed to be the territory of the king on whose behalf the Yagya was performed. If any king harbored territorial ambitions then the horse sacrifice Yagya was performed. It was a warning to weak kings that a strong king was coming to claim their territory and they should give up without a fight. On the other side, the Brahmans performed Rajsuya Yagya as a preparation to war. Both the sides invoked the gods through Yagyas and imported the Brahmans for this purpose. The faith in the paranormal powers of Brahmans was overwhelming. It has been the source of the underground rivers of tears for the Untouchables. The Hindu religion developed from top to bottom. The top was decided earlier, and which in turn decided the bottom. The Brahmans got the land grants and power jobs from the Dravidian kings in lieu of their divinity related services. They always upheld, the king's right to rule and protect the Dharma. The superiority of the scriptures had become unquestioned strengthening the hold of Brahmans over the society. The scriptures became society-controlling instruments. From top, the Brahman guided the society to a dharmic path of salvation. No, sorry, guided to an exalted path of eternal dharmic subordination. There was no separation between the religion and the politics.
The Shudra kings and chieftains in India had been assimilated into Sanatana dharma fold by granting them the Kshatriya status. The most prominent example of a Shudra king being assimilating in Vedic society is that of Krishna. Krishna was a Shudra as he was the nephew of Shudra king or chieftain, Kansa who was a Shudra himself who did not believe in the Vedic rituals. Kansa is known as Rakshasha (demon). He did not believe in the Vedas and always prevented the Rishis from performing the Yagyas. If he had agreed to the Vedic rituals then he would not have been called a Rakshasha (the demon) and could have earned the Kshatriya status. The Varna system was still crystallizing. Thus, Kansa was a Shudra king and Krishna being his nephew comes automatically to be qualified as a Shudra. He was elevated to the Kshatriya level and then to God level and then to the Absolute level in Gita. May be the saviors of local culture called themselves the Rakshaks (saviors) which in due time got converted to Rakshasha (demon). Being the native agriculturists, they were most probably against the Vedic rituals and the superiority of lawmakers over the kings. The importance of Krishna suggests that the local Shudra chieftains played a crucial role in politics at that time and the natives of India were not without any culture or polity as has been suggested by the assumption that the Aryans brought the culture to India. Well, the Rig Vedic Aryans had nothing to offer but plundering, oblation of fumes to gods and some speculation on the existence of supreme being.
The defeated native population moved south but, most probably, they did not cross the Vindhyas because in that case they should have taken agriculture with them, which in all probability did not happen at that time. The agriculture, most probably, went to South India with Buddhists and Jains in later times.
The non-Aryan natives were given a new Varna- the Shudra. With the arrival of Shudra Varna, still more inferior and landless, the status of Vaisyas rose relatively. Now they had somebody to lord upon. God turned in their favor. They came to enjoy their occasions of jubilation now and then. Now the Varnas had become endogamous which automatically means that the Varnas were birth based and under this dominant philosophy, the further segmentation of society led to development of endogamous caste. No person could hold two occupations in different functions which were Varna assigned. The Shudras did not have any land which they could pass on to their offspring. They were to live in the penury and die in the penury. As a result, their offspring remained landless and hence remained Shudras – grand provision – no land or assets for them so that they are forced to serve the higher Varnas - it is a non-violent religion, so to speak of – see, no use of force and forever elimination of the problem of short supply of servants. They also had no means to acquire the land since only twiceborn could acquire any property in Vedic and post-Vedic society. Turning any Shudra into higher Varna required a redistribution of resources and respect, which was not in the interests of higher Varnas.
Thus, the power of higher strata, their endogamous nature and the existence of non-propertied Shudras made them exclusive and it assured that the Varna was birth based. However, the intermixing of blood was still possible because the higher Varnas had the right to marry the women from the lower Varnas. There are hardly any examples of lower Varna men marrying higher Varna women in the Hindu scriptures. The only examples were the Shudra kings who were always assigned the status of defacto Kshatriyas. The Shudra soldiers were not allowed the status of Kshatriyas most probably because they could not pay the fee to Brahmans to perform the Vedic rituals.
The functions (a disguise for duties and rights) or Varna Dharma of each Varna came to be defined. Brahman Varna function was to study the scriptures and guide the Kshatriyas in ruling the kingdom according to Dharma. Kshatriya Varna function was to rule the kingdom according to Dharma (not general law and order or general safety). Vaisya Varna function was to engage in agriculture, cattle rearing and trading. Shudra Varna function was to serve the upper three Varnas. These Varnas became heredity in nature under the guidance of the Brahmans. Whole of the society was structured toward the welfare of paranormal Brahman Varna. No function was assigned on individual basis but on group basis.
Thus, the four Varna system emerged in the post-Vedic society. This system was called the Chaturvarna system. It need not be reminded that these Varnas in the descending social order were the Brahman, the Kshatriya, the Vaisya and the Shudra. The Brahmans were at the top, the Kshatriyas at the second place, the Vaisyas at the third place and the Shudras at the fourth place. The paranormal Brahmans were the lawmakers, social authority and priests. The Kshatriyas were the rulers or the kings. The Vaisyas were the traders and agriculturists. And the Shudras were the eternal servants or landless people. The artisans were also Shudras since in absence of currency they had to work for higher Varnas for paltry payment in kind. This most probably led to the emergence of Jajmani system. Or a system where the Shudra castes got a small piece of land in lieu of providing services to the village. They worked on this small piece of land to grow food for themselves. These Varnas were not created in one day through the Purusha Shukta of Rig Veda. Brahmans after defining themselves defined others and as a measure to prove their exclusivity formed a different endogamous group at the top. They occupied the risk free highest position in the Hindu society. This crystallization culminated in the development of Dharma shastras. A further culmination took in the form of development of sub-varnas or castes.
The spread of Sanatana Dharma owed a lot to magnetic nature of the Yagyas. The culture of performing mystique Yagyas became most in demand for which the Rishis or Brahmans were needed. The assumed abilities of Rishis and Brahmans, of invoking gods through the Yagyas, helped in a significant manner, in spreading their influence and the Sanatana Dharma. These paranormal powers behaved like magnets. The new kings were drawn to them in no insignificant number. The belief in Brahmans' paranormal power got converted into their cultural hegemony.
By the time the Untouchable category came into existence due to degrading of jobs by the pious Brahmans, the Vedas had been finalized. The inserted Purusha Sukta of Rig Veda had become the final word on the Varna origin. Any addition to Varnas meant changing the Rig Veda or the Word of God, which nobody could do. It was not possible to add anything to the Vedas. The degrading was not objected to because those who suffered were the people without any means of subsistence who survived merely by their labor. These ignorant people did not know when they became Untouchables. Only the passage of time told them so. One indication that they have come down from the Varna system is that like the people of four Varnas these people also have their own Jatis. This category emerged after the entry of each Varna into the Varna system. Therefore, they were called the Antyaja. The word "Antyaja" means those who are born at the end, or the last-born. Emerging after everybody, they were also placed at the end of everybody, meaning at the bottom of social structure - nice and logical. The Hindu social structure evolved from top to bottom; the bottom was always residuary and was at the mercy of higher Varnas. The top people kept with them the most important functions and power and left the degrading jobs for the low castes. Like the Shudras they were also supposed to have an impure origin. Their origin was supposed to be even more impure than that of the Shudras. Thus, they were placed at the end. The impure people were always linked to impure jobs. A man born in Hindu society inherits his parents' Jati and the occupation of Jati also. Thus, we have seen that the Varnas emerged on historical scale and not at a point of time as given in the Rig Veda. The development of Varnas in direction from top down was a race to control the resource of society. The lawmakers were the winners. The others were losers.
Then there arose the question of guarding the privileges of Brahmans and Kshatriyas in the post Vedic period when the purity based Varna system was crystallizing; then the hypothesis of Karma was developed to safeguard these comforts till eternity. Hence, this is an eternal religion.
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