11. THE SHUDRAS

The fourth and the last Varna in the Varna system, is called Shudra. This is not the last group in the Hindu society; the last group is that of the Antyajas or the Untouchables. The Shudras were the forever born servants in an eternal religion. The eternal religion, Sanatana Dharma, has a Varna meant for the born-servants! They and their generations are born as servants, lived as servants and died as servants; hardly a beautiful life but some would like to call it a spiritually fulfilling life ordained by God himself. I never knew that God, if any, believed in born servants. They live in servitude and die in servitude. Their sole task is to meekly serve the higher Varna without accumulating any wealth or property. They always have to depend upon their labor. A Shudra with a property was considered as a grave danger to Dharma - the cosmic order. That is the traditional India. There have been Shudra kings but they were co-opted by the lure of Kshatriyahood either in Sanatana Dharma, Buddhism or Jainism. The vast majority was until independence was dependent on the higher Varnas for their lively hood.
The Shudra Varna was supposed to be for the servants of twiceborn but ultimately the artisans and heen Jatis (low castes) also came to be included in this. In Hindu Dharma who does not belong to higher three Varnas or Untouchables can be labeled as a Shudra. It is a residual group where non-twiceborn and non-untouchables can be grouped together. This is indeed a complicated Varna because it has given the kings as well as the landlords in the areas which were not known as Aryavrata. In south India the Shudras were the kings as well as the landlords but only kings came to be qualified as Kshatriayas and not their respective castes.
There are numerous castes and numerous occupations in the Shudra Varna. If one is not twice-born or Untouchable then one is Shudra by residual logic as there is no fifth Varna. Since these Shudras had taken to save Dharma and thereby the Brahmans and follow them, they can be called Sanatani Hindus. It poses no problems as the Hindu Dharma allows anybody including the Shudras to take up the arms to save Dharma and the Brahmans. One could not save Dharma without saving the Brahmans. Thus, any upgradation in Varna was not required. If Shudra kings were ready to save Brahmans and fight religious wars (common in south India until 2nd and 3rd century C.E.) then there was no problem because they were doing it willingly. The problem of birth-attached Varna was solved by allowing anybody to take up the arms to save the Brahmans thereby obviating the needs for the Kshatriyas in certain areas. Anybody, who wielded the weapons, ruled a kingdom, saved the Brahmans and Dharma was a defacto Kshatriya. We prefer to call these landlords and weapon holding castes as the pseudo-Kshatriayas. And those were doing the function Vaisyas we prefer to call them pseudo-Vaisyas. It may be remembered that both the pseudo-Kshatriayas and pseudo-Vaisya were/are ritually impure. The myth of Parshuram annihilating the Kshatriyas twenty one times was created to explain the absence of Kshatriyas in the south India. Twenty one times! Again beats my puny head! 
The landless people living only on their labor by producing goods meant for general use or by providing their services, lived in caste-based system within the Shudra Varna.
There were various factors responsible to development of the caste system. Here we make further enquiries. The caste system was, most probably, developed due to the gradation of the Varna functions which, in turn, led to development of graded occupations in a given Varna. The functions in society are graded in Varna system but what about the occupations within a given function? These also had to be necessarily graded otherwise the overall gradation gets contradicted destabilizing society but this was an eternal society which could not be destabilized. The banning of sagotra marriages caused the breakdown of tribes because each tribe was having similar paternal lineage and hence the marriage could not take place within a tribe. Therefore, the tribes had to break up or merge. Its place was taken by the emerging castes because of professional fraternity. The heen Jati people (low caste - Shudra Jati) also became graded because of the gradation of occupations. This gradation of occupation is quiet clearly given in Pali literature. The occupational gradation might have resulted in a kind of fraternity among people having the same occupation. This fraternity might have got stronger along the line of strengthening of fraternity in higher Varnas. Then in marriage, the trust is a very valuable. This could be found only among people you know better. These people could be from the occupation fraternity under the dominant Varna doctrine. Most probably, the ban on freedom of movement of marriageable boys and girls in the Brahman Varna also had its effect. As the time proceeded, a Brahman girl had to be married before coming of age to keep her purity and chastity to be suitable for a Brahman boy. This ban on freedom of movement percolated, most probably, down and prevented the inter-mixing of gender. The emphasis on purity of a girl increased and thus she was kept separately from boys. The importance of purity of girls reached its zenith during the period in which the Ramayana was written where, there is total avoidance of polyandry unlike Mahabharata. Most probably, the responsibility of finding a suitable match for boys and girls fell on the parents. The arranged marriage seems to have appeared on the horizon, and it is still a pillar of Hindu society. And the most suitable match any parent could find was among his/her fraternity two grade occupations were the same. Each occupation refused to marry into any other occupation because it was either superior to or inferior to it - and as a result, most probably the caste or sub Varna was born. The examples of the occupational fraternity were the Shrenis (guilds) which were cooperatives dealing in only a single good. We can see one Varna one function and one Shreni one product. We can see the one group one specialty resulting in the so-called labor specialization. The labor specialization took place because of grading of occupations, which followed from downgrading of agriculture, and prevention of inter-mixing of genders.
Even within Shudras there were infinite grades of occupations. If any labor who does not have any land or weapon to raise his status, then the only course for him, is to look within his Shudra Varna. Within Varna (the landless people) he chose people of his occupation because he was equal to them and he trusted them because of the occupational fraternity. Of course, this process took a longtime, but, by the time of the Buddha, the caste was there, within a Varna. The landless man bonded his blood with his occupational fraternity and over a period of time the caste emerged in the landless people where it should not have but who can stand up to dominant doctrine of that time - the divine Varna doctrine allotting one function to one group and allowing marriages within one group. The status seeking has been the old game for Hindus where the low castes really have gone downward only. The grading occupations in the Shudra Varna, was probably due to the element of purity introduced by Brahman Varna. Otherwise, skill wise grading in primitive agriculture seems to be impossible. In a low grade agriculture society the grading on the basis skills only cannot be very discriminating. But enter the paradigm of purity which graded the occupation on the basis of purity grading which associated the status with the pure and impure grading. The definite caste groups emerge where people having impurity refusing to marry people having still lower level of impurities or occupation. This was more discriminating. There were impure occupations; there were more impure occupations; and so on. The people having similar status (the marriages are usually among equal) or similar purity married each other, as the yard scale of equality was the equal occupation.
The Vedas, the main religious scripture, are so sacred for the impure Shudras and Antyajas that they could not even listen to them. Any such voluntary or involuntary act was punishable by making them to lose their hearing power by pouring the molten lead in their ears - very touching! The hearts roll in the quagmire of hatred. Any utterance was punishable by making them dumb by cutting off the tongue. It should melt your heart. Blessed were such lawmakers who provided for such punishments - in a literal sense. They fulfilled their responsibilities competently and smugly. And condemned were the victims who were the culprits also. In fact, these paranormal lawmakers had the highest and sacred position in society and came to acquire the land grants, which supported them. In addition, they guided the kings without being under their subordination - the knowledge of statecraft helped. They enjoyed the unfettered social powers for their religious and state status being answerable only to the self-created Dharma. They wielded state power by the virtue of being guides to the kings. They had religious, social and state powers behind them.
 Let us recall that the majority of Hindu society is made up of, among other Varnas, the impure Shudras born from the feet of the primal man. They are not entitled to the thread ceremony, and they cannot perform any Vedic rites. Being born from the feet of the primal man makes Shudras impure. These inherently impure men are not entitled to thread ceremony. This is called being ritually impure with a destructive effect on their lives. Their inherent impurity is related to the inherent impurity of the manual work (and thus heathen). They lived under their birth-attached subordination to the higher Varnas. It is the fourth of the five strata of Hindu society and it is powerless. It is a finely divided Varna with many occupations and thousands of Jatis. The rule of the Varna system that no one should hold two functions, is applicable to the castes also; no two Shudra castes have the same occupation. All of these Jatis are distinct from each other. There is no common bond between them. There could not be because endogamy makes their bloodlines separate from each other. There is total absence of blood ties. Each Jati has its own universe though they have to follow the divine Varna Dharma under social, cultural, economic and traditional forces. The Jatis in higher three Varnas can come together for a common cause but not the Shudras as there is no common cause for people with widely different occupations and distinct blood lines. Each Jati has its own different occupational jobs. These different needs separate them and stop them from coming together. They are a disjointed group of numerous Jatis or castes which have been commonly defined by pious and ancient lawmakers; this common definition is the only link between them. There is no homogeneity between different Shudra Jatis. They only come together when a temporary common cause presents itself for the time being. Afterward, they go back to being vastly different groups of people who willingly serve the upper castes and make a living through labor. In the terms of Brahmanical cultural hegemony, they are the eternal, voluntary and dharmic servants of twiceborn. In terms of Varna Dharma, they are dependent on the twiceborn for their livelihood – indirectly enforced penury.
One point should be noted about the South India - there are no Kshatriyas and Vaisyas in South India. Here the role of Kshatriyas was played by the land holding Shudra castes that lorded over others except the Brahmans. We have already identified these dominant Shudras as pseudo-Kshatriyas because they played the full role of Kshatriyas without being elevated to Kshatriya status. There are mercantile castes in South India which have not been upgraded to Vaisyas status; technically they remain the Shudras. These we have already identified as pseudo-Vaisyas because they completely played the role of the Vaisyas. The pseudo-Kshatriyas and the pseudo-Vaisyas follow all the caste rules, venerate the Brahmans, consider the Vedas as supreme, consider the low caste as low caste, follow the rules made by the Brahmans and worship the gods from the Hindu pantheon. For our purpose when we talk about the Shudras we do not include the pseudo-Kshatriyas and the pseudo-Vaisyas.
The Shudra Varna includes cattle herders, land tillers, potters, carpenters, ironsmiths, goldsmiths, garland-maker, plasterer (mason), weavers, tailors, painters, sharpener of weapons (armorer), blacksmiths, bangle-makers, coppersmiths, barbers and hosts of other occupations. The division of labor is really evident in this group though they are not dependent on each other as in industrial specialization of labor. They all worked for the land holding castes under the Jajmani system and got a pittance for it.
What do you think, we the pure people, should give it to them? They deserve gruel; they get gruel. They remained alive! Did they not? Under our magnanimity! Magnificent, is it not? For their livelihood, they are dependent on the land holding castes in their areas or on utilization of their services by the higher castes. There was no multi stage production, which could make them interdependent in modern sense. Because of multitude of occupations, no particular Varna-occupation was assigned to these people though a Varna with general function was assigned to them. The function of serving could include anything - cattle rearing, tilling for the upper caste and producing anything, which could be used by the upper castes. For all the labor, they got a pittance since accumulation of wealth was banned for them. This general Varna function was to serve the higher three Varnas. These artisans have to do it through their heredity occupations. However, these people proudly refuse to provide their services to fifth stratum people, the Untouchables - and the same glorious pride is naturally not evident while dealing with the upper castes. The servility visits them whenever they are dealing with the upper castes. In South India, the function of upholding Dharma was taken up by land holding Shudra caste which is not really an anomaly since anybody can take up the arms to save Dharma which essential means saving the Brahmans – remember the ideas behind the Hindu judicial system. It caused no problems to the Brahmans. These dominant Shudras in South India doubled as Kshatriyas as well as Shudra; they were never upgraded to Kshatriya level but they became virtuous Shudras; the kings in South India were converted as Kshatriyas through the Hirangarbhya ritual. Bribe the Brahmans and be Hindus.
The Shudras are supposed to do all the jobs in society that are not done by the twiceborn and these jobs are also not unclean in nature. The unclean jobs belong to the group of Untouchables. The Shudras are supposed to do all the jobs involving the use of manual labor. The twice-born are not supposed to do jobs involving the use of manual labor; they want easy money, easy domination and easy respect. Shudras are supposed to supply all the labor for the use in agriculture and industry. All the material things are supposed to be produced by the use of their labor like crops, pulses, milk, metal, oil, vessels, instruments, pots, clothes, wooden material and any conceivable item which can be used and which requires manual labor. They cannot take up the higher level and purer jobs of twice born. If they do that then the non-cooperation and boycott visit them along with the necessary violence.
Shudras were the original inhabitants of India. They were certainly not the part of the Rig Vedic society. Even they are not visible in most of the later Vedic Period.
 They came into existence at the end of later Vedic Period.
 In the beginning, they were not in the majority in Vedic society which is evident from the Manusmriti. According to the later Vedas and the Manusmriti the agriculture (land tilling not the land owning) and cattle rearing were the jobs of Vaisya Varna and not of Shudra. The agriculture and cattle rearing formed together almost 90 percent of the economic activities in later Vedic times. Therefore, the Shudras were supposed to supply their labor only for serving the higher Varnas; and they were not to be engaged in agriculture and cattle rearing. Thus, they were not the essential part of later Vedic society. They were the later import into the Vedic society which had already internally developed the three Varnas with entitlement to thread ceremony. They were the natives of India who were slowly defeated and lost their land to the Aryans. Most probably, all of them did not leave the conquered region. Some of them stayed back. They were assimilated into Vedic society as landless laborers. They were classified as Shudras (the inferiors) and ranked below the Aryans without any entitlement to the thread ceremony. Being powerless, they had to agree to these conditions. Initially there were so few of them that they could not be assigned the jobs of agriculture (land tilling) and cattle rearing. However, in a due course of time, these two jobs were degraded to the Shudra level. All the artisans of native agriculture-based village societies were included as Shudras without any right to land or to Vedic rites. He land went into the hands of Aryans.
In the initial stages, the regions beyond the Sapta-Sandhav and the Ganga were, most probably, ruled by the Shudra kings or the native chieftains. These people at that time most probably buried their dead in graves or big earthen pots. They started cremating their dead after assimilation into the Vedic fold. Over a period of time, all these Shudra kings were either defeated or assimilated into Vedic society by granting them the status of Kshatriyas. These new Kshatriyas also helped in the spread of the Vedic culture by defeating the Shudra kings who did not believe in Vedic rituals and in the superiority of Brahmans. Aryavrata was not really the land where the Aryans ruled but the areas where the Aryan way of life or the Vedic culture had become dominant. In other words the region where Varna system spread, and, where Brahmans were safe and respected, was called the Aryavrata. Aryavrata did not necessarily mean the rule by imported Aryan communities.
By 200 B.C.E., the paranormal Brahmanas are found performing Yagyas for the Dravidian kings in the deep South in lieu of the land grants and the acceptance of their superiority. They went there on the invitations from the local kings or chieftains. For these regional rulers, the Yagyas with their war winning qualities, acted like magnets, and they could not stay away from them; they had to have them at any cost. They accorded all the respect to the Brahmans and invited them to their kingdom. The Brahmans were welcome everywhere. The paranormal Brahmans won the cultural war through their paranormal powers and controlled society with the help of Shudra kings, divine Vedas, and magic, mystique and magnetism of the Yagyas. The Yagya culture should not be taken lightly; it took the Buddha and the Mahavir (of Jain religion) to wage lifelong struggles to reduce their importance. The way of non-violence of Buddhist religion has been nicely usurped by the Hindu religion. The cultural hegemony of Brahmans was complete with the local rulers accepting their supremacy. This process is also called assimilation or cooption. However, only the kings were converted to Kshatriyas but not their relatives.
Over a period of time, the occupations of agriculture and cattle rearing were degraded to the Shudra level. It indicates that the mercantile activities became very profitable and as result, the Vaisyas gave up the inferior manual jobs of land tilling and cattle rearing and avoided their involvement with the manual labor. As a result, they became disconnected from the labor oriented impure jobs. It was a relative rise in Varna due to accumulation of wealth by the Vaisyas after the emergence of currency system. Vaisyas undertook the newly opened trading which upper two Varnas were not willing to do, and the Shudras did not have the resource to engage in trading. The trading activities increased and these were cornered by the Vaisyas. Another possibility is that the Vaisyas involved in agriculture and cattle rearing were downgraded to the Shudra level. Another possibility is that with the increasing cultural hegemony of Brahmans and spread of the Varna culture, the Brahmans did not upgrade the local Shudras who were engaged in agriculture and cattle rearing to the level of Vaisyas. This may explain the inordinately large portion of the Shudras in the current population whereas in the beginning they were in minuscule minority.
Let us recall some noticeable conditions about a Shudra. The first is that he is not entitled to thread ceremony; the second is that he is not entitled to have any property; the third is that he cannot marry into higher Varnas and the fourth is that he has to survive only with the help of his manual labor and at the mercy of upper castes. And as usually all his generations have to eternally do the same. This is the inherited burden of Varna system. It is just not called the eternal religion for nothing. It has inbuilt eternal exploitation. The Shudras are the eternal servants in the eternally pure society. All these servants have earned their Shudrahood due to their bad Karmas. They have been working extremely hard to attain the servile status all through their uncountable but accountable previous lives. After such hard work, they achieve the justified status of a permanent servant; it not a matter of joke; they needed several life times to attain this. Their present status confirms the bad deeds of their past lives. However, nobody has found a single actual connection of any specific Shudra with his identifiable and confirmed previous lives' identifiable Karmas; anyway, we are dealing with extremely intelligent and impeachable people, not the conmen or frauds. There is no way to confirm the nature of deed of their past lives. Still, some consider the justification through Karma Hypothesis as scientific. These people are usually twiceborn or people having blind faith in the failed Karma hypothesis.
And the Shudras have something to crow about. It is the superiority over Untouchables. The Shudras are the lowest in Varna but they have been given a reason to feel superior when they compare themselves with those who were born at the end and do the unclean jobs - the Untouchables. The lawmakers have given them a reason to rejoice. They made them superior to Antyajas. The proud Shudras refuse to serve Untouchables or mix with them. They, their ancestors and their coming generations should be eternally grateful to the pious and pure lawmakers for providing them such a divine reason to rejoice. They do not know that to what an extent, they are indebted to considerate, compassionate and altruistic lawmakers for such happiness! They have provided happiness even to the servants!!! Somebody is dying somewhere due to internal explosions of happiness due to the imploding stupidity of the lower strata. It speaks volumes of other worldliness of these lawmakers. However, this sense of superiority which gives the Shudras eternal joy evaporates when they come face to face with the higher Varnas. Happiness is a relative matter here; it becomes negative or positive depending upon whom one is facing. The scriptures play big cruel jokes on the Shudra and still bigger and still crueler jokes on the Untouchables - the profound crippling jokes. And they treat pure people luxuriantly. Divinity, man, the divinity which dances at the chanting of the mantras! Need I remind you?
The ignorance of lower strata is wonderful. It blooms the flowers in the hearts of pure people. And it does wonder to the sustainability of Dharma. It soothes the collective heart of upper three Varna and causes extreme happiness there. The lower strata are caught in the dark knot of vicious ignorance. Their ignorance is overwhelming; and their condition is pathetic. They can do better.
Now we turn to the Manusmriti, the most celebrated of the Dharma Shastras, to know the abilities and disabilities imposed on them by the Varna system. The righteousness, wisdom and sagacity are spread all over the Dharma Shastras in overwhelming overabundance. A Shudra is a man without any rights in the Varna system. His rightslessness starts from the birth itself. He has no right even to name himself. He cannot give any dignified name to himself. According to Manusmriti, a Shudra cannot have a respectable name. It breaks the harmony between his name and Varna-function which is dangerous to a society in harmony with the divine order. This denotes that he has no claim to dignity in society. I have already said that the lower two strata are born-insulted and the lowest are the most insulted. His indignity starts from birth itself and continues with naming, afterward, it marches on relentlessly. His first name is supposed to denote something contemptible and the second name should denote service. The people born in the contemptible Varna should, logically and dharmically speaking, should have the contemptible names! You cannot beat the logic here! It indicates that he was made to be insulted and to serve others. Enforced labor division? And his job is to meekly serve the higher Varnas. Nothing should come as a shock; Hindu society is shockproof if the inhuman traditions are followed. When the inhuman traditions are not followed then it goes into a state of shock, even into a coma. Anyway, God created the Shudras to serve the higher level beings, the twiceborn people. They represent God created servanthood and this servanthood never created brotherhood. Further, they are excluded from the duties of an Aryan. This effectively means that a Shudra is kept out of rituals, ceremonies and religious functions of the higher Varnas. These upper Varnas, who are in minority, controlled the social, religious, political and economical space among them. In other words, they form a majority in resources controlling people. A Shudra's job was to serve these socially, politically, ritually and economically dominant groups of people. He was effectively kept out of important social, ritual, political and economical activities. In other word, he was cut off from the dominant Vedic culture. He was supposed to be a thoroughly unfit man for such purposes. It speaks volumes about the wisdom of lawmakers - Rishis, sages and Brahmans. Fitness or unfitness of any person for any job was decided by his Varna not by abilities. There is no such thing as earned merit in the Hindu society but only the caste-merit – this makes the life easy for the high caste people; this suits them; this makes them suitable candidates in high value added areas. The different castes have different merits, suitably so.
Further, any Shudra is to be respected only when he reaches the tenth decade of his life or attains an age of more than ninety years while a Brahman attains respect by birth – no anomaly at all; only adharmic and foolish people can see any anomaly here. Such is the natural Varna Dharma process! Such a condition means that a Shudra never effectively gets the respect in his entire life. He was not created for that - if there are doubts in your minds, please, remove them; scratch them away. And obviously, he cannot have a wife from any of the higher Varna as a mark of his subordination. Further, the only way a Shudra can relate to a Brahman is as his servant - note. Any relations with upper castes on the basis of equality are prohibited. It goes against the implicit concept of the divine Varna Dharma of insulting the lower two strata. There is no such thing as respecting Varna Dharma. If Dharma is unable to insult the lower strata then it suffers from the loss of self-respect.   When a Shudra goes to the house of a Brahman, he is allowed to eat only with his servants. Naturally, any Shudra cannot move with a Brahman.
A Brahman is prevented from doing many things in the presence of a Shudra. First, he cannot move with any Shudra. He cannot recite the sacred text or the Shastras in presence of a Shudra. He cannot go to any journey with a Shudra. He cannot eat food given by a Shudra (shades of limited untouchability!). He cannot explain any of the sacred scriptures to any Shudra. This effectively prevents a Shudra from benefitting from the company of any Brahman.
 Further, if a Shudra refuses to serve the higher Varnas then the king should force him to do so since he was created by God to serve the twice born. In doing so, the king would only be fulfilling God's will because God purposely created the Shudra to live in servitude in perpetuity. Not doing so, should be a contempt of God. And it may bring divine retribution on the lower strata through higher strata. One should be afraid of people having paranormal power to invoke God. Should not one be?
If a Shudra accumulates property then the king or Brahman should seize it because if he earns his livelihood from any property then he would forget his Dharma of serving others without caring for fruits or gains. It is quite a dangerous proposition. If he accumulates property then he would create aDharma by trying to become equivalent to the higher Varnas. Equality is aDharmic in Hindu society. Equality is kicked around in scripture to scripture. Any equality is essentially a corruption of Dharma which is to be avoided by king. The inequality in favor of higher Varnas was much preferred and edicted  by the esteemed, pure and pious lawmakers with unimpeachable integrity. It was a hallmark of the Hindu society.
If a Shudra causes a Brahman to suffer then he should be punished in an exemplary manner which puts terror in the hearts of all the Shudras on perpetual basis. This should ensure the endurance of Dharma. This should prevent other Shudras from harming the Brahmans. This should also prevent the other Shudras from rebelling for achieving equality. If a Shudra wants to improve his next birth then he should serve the higher Varnas with all his humility, without raising his voice. The high castes get served whether the Shudras gets better next birth or not; it might as well be a false promise; and there is no dearth of false promises in a dishonest society, and also no dearth of knowledgeable fools. He should be a virtuous servant to those in the higher Varna. A subservient and supplicating voice is music to twiceborn ears. And a virtuous servant could provide that. Let the music begin which draws the dark clouds over the lower strata.
Further, for all his hard work, labor and serving the upper castes, he is to be rewarded with the leftover food of his master, his old clothes and refuse of his grain. Be virtuous man, be virtuous! And, accept all this, graciously! A Shudra having quality food and wearing nice clothes was supposed to be corrupting Dharma which was required to be punished suitably. It was a manner in which indignities could be heaped upon the Shudras. Anyway it should not have mattered because the heathens are made to be insulted. They can be buried under the heaps of insults.
Any participation or contribution to Yagya ceremony by a Shudra is prohibited because it contaminates the whole ceremony. His contributions even in his absence are not permitted. This means that ritually he was Untouchable if not for performing the mundane tasks.
Shudras were exploited as if there was no tomorrow. It seems nobody was made answerable for their exploitation and sufferings.
Shudras are the impure people with impure destinies and the Untouchables are polluting people with polluted destinies. All manmade, and the fate stands still.
The impure people pursue the servility like eager beavers; claims to contrary are much abounding, but, are nothing more than the trifling boasts. These self-congratulating boasts are without any basis.
Further, a Shudra is not to be encouraged; his talent is to be suppressed. Rather the talent of the lower two strata is sacrificed at the altar of the Varna Dharma. A talented lower strata man is an insult to Varna Dharma. It should make for a grand sacrifice doctrine; well seemingly, there were no beasts; anyway, what is the difference between beasts and lower caste people; both carry the burden for unknown reasons. And the leeches feast on the sacrificed labor or efforts.
The Eklavya episode of the grand epic Mahabharata shows that how the talents of natives of India, was supposed to be suppressed by the respected twiceborn. Eklavya was a Nishad boy. The Nishads fell outside the pale of Aryan or Vedic community. They were as good as outcastes from the perspective the Vedic society. This community lived among the forests. The epic Mahabharata is a story from the times when the Varna system was taking shape. It could have been the real history also. The story might be set around 900 B.C.E. This is the epic in which the influences of gambling, polyandry, polygamy and temporary conjugal rights of Rishis or seers or sages are quite evident. And this epic is also, sometimes, known as the fifth Veda! Now, do not stretch your imaginations, please.
The five Pandavas were the sons of impotent king Pandu. I might be exaggerating and may be unreasonable but there is a possibility that there was a curse on Pandu by the Rishis . And this curse prevented Pandu from enjoying the conjugal bliss. And, it is just guesswork, that Rishis spread this canard to prevent any union between Pandu and Kunti, so that they could enjoy the Niyoga benefit with Kunti. And any canard coming from the unimpeachable source having paranormal powers can only be true - remember the word is enough. This might have enabled the Rishis/sages/seers to enjoy the conjugal bliss with Kunti by disguising themselves as different gods. Kunti got all her six sons including Karna from various people. Pandu and Dhritrashtra were the Kshatriyas belonging to the Kuru tribe. At that time, the Pandavas, sons of Kunti, were learning the art of warfare from Guru Dronacharya. One of the arts that he taught was the archery. The best archer of the Pandavas was Arjun of Gita fame. He was third of his brothers, a son of warrior god Indra, so it is said; it also said that actually he was fourth son of Kunti, Karna being the eldest and disowned because born before marriage. Indeed, Arjun was one of the best archers among the Kshatriyas of Mahabharata. Dronacharya was also renowned for teaching the art of warfare. When Eklavya came to know about Dronacharya, he approached him with the purpose of becoming his pupil. Dronacharya refused him on the then developing dharmic grounds that only Kshatriyas should learn the archery skills and since Eklavya was not a Kshatriya, he was not eligible to become his pupil. Eklavya was a stupid boy with a burning desire. He went to forest and made a clay idol of Dronacharya, put it under a tree, and started practicing archery all alone without any help from anybody.
As it happened, one day Dronacharya took all the five Pandavas to forest for practicing the archery. His favorite student Arjun was the most promising archer. All the Pandavas started practicing archery. A dog also happened to go with them. After some time the dog decided to take a walk. So, it went there and here, chasing a rabbit or two. It was a matter of little time, when it started barking. The barking of the dog disturbed the Pandavas. Soon after, the barking stopped. After sometime, the dog came back where Dronacharya was teaching archery to the Pandavas. When they saw it, its mouth was filled with the arrows because of which it could not bark. It came to Pandavas and stood helplessly. Then the Pandavas and Dronacharya noticed that not a single drop of blood was coming out of its mouth. There was not even a single wound. It was an archery skill par excellence and certainly beyond them. The peerless and invincible warrior, Arjun, stood stunned. He was rooted to the ground and absolutely numb. Here was an archer who had the potential of defeating Arjun and Karna put together. They were curious to know the archer responsible for putting the dog in such a condition. So, they went out and followed the dog to find out this mighty archer. Following the dog, they reached a spot where a stupid Nishad boy was practicing the archery. He was Eklavya, the mighty archer who was never destined to become a mighty warrior. The developing Varna system was going to play tricks with him. Dronacharya had forgotten the Nishad boy. He asked the stupid Eklavya that what he had done to the dog. The stupid Eklavya replied that it was disturbing him by barking so he had stopped the dog from barking by filling its mouth with arrows. For the purpose, he had shot several arrows at the same time. The dog was not harmed because it was not his intention to harm the dog. It was a stunning blow to Dronacharya's mind. Here was a boy who was not even a Shudra and more skilled than the best of the Kshatriyas. His all worlds, previous, this and next were shaken, at the same time. He understood that this Nishad boy could be troublesome for Kshatriyas and thereby to Dharma. He did not know that this boy was stupid also. Or did he? Dharma says that only Kshatriyas should wield the arms. Then he asked the boy who was his teacher. Eklavya, the stupid, bowed to him and told that his teacher was none other than the great Dronacharya himself. Dronacharya was surprised and introduced himself. He then added that he had never taken any Nishad boy as his pupil and had never taught any Nishad boy the archery. Then Eklavya, the stupid, pointed to the clay idol of Dronacharya under the tree and said it was the idol of his Guru Dronacharya. Thus, he was his Guru. Dronacharya still had not recovered from the stunning blow to mind, which was the result of superb archery skill of the non-Vedic boy. Soon he was going to set an excellent example of the highest-level Dharmic teachership. The basic principle of nipping in the bud is still followed. It is the principle of destroying the talent of Shudras and those below them by whatever means available to the higher Varnas. This stupid boy was soon going to know that what it meant not to be a twiceborn. But neither him nor anybody else was going to learn anything from it - the stupidity proved to be continuous and contagious. It is still continuous and contagious. The talent of Brahmans in imposing their superiority over others without the use of physical force is awesome. The stupidity of any kind exactly does not belong to them.
However, we come back to the stupid Eklavya and his story. He was indeed a great threat to Dharma. Dronacharya needed to find a way to save the spiritual and divine Varna Dharma. Eklavya was at the threshold of becoming a mighty warrior leading to corruption of Dharma. Dronacharya then asked the boy to give him Guru Dakshina if he really considered him as his teacher. Stupid Eklavya's heart was filled with unbound happiness. The stupid and a moron though a matchless self-taught archer, Eklavya was! His wish was going to be realized. He thought that he was going to be accepted formally as a pupil of the great teacher Dronacharya. He was on the ninth cloud. How stupid one can be? Hoping the stealing bitch to guard the cake!
His stupid happiness was set to disappear in the thin air shortly under the unparalleled greatness of this great teacher. His teacher then asked him to cut off his right thumb and give it to him in Guru Dakshina (the teaching fee). Truly, the greatness of Dronacharya knew no limit. It was limitless like the sky, like a freely flowing river, like the unselfishness of a fruit giving tree, eternal like the Sanatana Dharma. It was a trivial matter to decapitate a man. Now it was the turn of stupid Eklavya to get stunned. Giving up his right thumb meant that he would never be able to practice archery which was his dream, love and ambition. So being a little, sly, scheming, mean and cunning fellow, he agreed to give up his thumb for the sake of the great and pious teacher. It was a fine part of instant malefic planning by this sly heathen boy. At once, he took a knife and cut off his thumb, the thumb that was going to give trouble to Kshatriyas, and offered it to Dronacharya. Was he totally stupid? After that Dronacharya left the place along with the Pandavas well satisfied in his heart that Dharma had been saved. None of the five righteous Pandavas objected to this cruel injustice - Note.
The sense of honor and fair play requires that your opponent be given a fair chance, not crippling him. Such sense of fair play and honor is missing from the Varna Dharma and the Hindu culture. Later Sanatana Dharma provided that the lower two strata of population be demilitarized to avoid any encroachment on Dharma by them. The Brahmans and the Vaisyas could take up arms in time emergency and necessity to save the Dharma. And where the Kshatriyas and the Vaisyas were not there then even the Shudras could also take up the arms to save the Brahmans and Dharma like in the South India.
It seems that the Pandavas including the legendary truthful Yudhister also agreed with the cruel act of Dronacharya. Later in Mahabharata, the eldest of Pandavas, the legendary truthful Yudhister is found discussing ethics in society. This is an example as to what an extent the upper Varnas can go to suppress and destroy the talent of the lower castes as the matter of a righteous way of life; and afterward they can discuss ethics and morals of caste or Varna system without batting an eyelid. Nipping the problem in the bud! This works on an enduring basis. Thus, the appearance of an effective challenge from within the Hindu society is almost impossible. The upper castes nurture the talent only from the upper strata of society.
If Gita is correct in saying that Varna of a man is decided by his Gunas then this Nishad boy should have married Draupadi, the Panchala princess. I can see nauseating feelings developing instantly at this thought among the higher Varnas.
However, the immediate events which followed, cast a doubt on the thinking of the Gita. Even the Gunas idea of Gita is taken to be correct than it was, obviously, not followed by anybody. Then we have another example from another grand epic, the Ramayana, which show how the people of lower castes were supposed to be stopped from achieving the spiritual peace. Not stopping them meant turning upside down the eternal Dharma of divinely intelligent people. This story may be dated later to Mahabharata because traces of polyandry are not found there. The purity of women had become a prime concern. The upper castes had been born.
Lord Rama, the king of Ayodhya returned after achieving a dharmic victory the demon king Ravana of Lanka and finishing a period of fourteen years in the jungles. He is considered as a reincarnation of Lord Vishnu along with Lord Shri Krishna of the Gita fame. During his reign, a Shudra called Shambuk started to perform the penance to attain spiritual peace. At the same time, a son of a Brahman died. A group of simpleton, innocent, pure and pious Brahmans joined together and took the ailing boy along with them to Lord Rama. Ram the king asked about the purpose of their visit. The simpleton, innocent, unworldly and unimpeachable Brahmans told him that the boy had fallen sick which had brought them to see him. Then he was told that the boy had taken ill not due to natural sickness but because Dharma was getting corrupted and destroyed in his rule. Further, the simpleton and innocent Brahmans told him that a cunning Shudra was performing penance as a result of which the divine Dharma was getting corrupted and destroyed. Well performing penance corrupts Dharma!! Unlimited innocence and unimpeachable integrity! What else do you want? A Shudra was doing the adharmic and dastardly deed of performing a penance. Lord Ram's rule was becoming sinful. A sacred masterpiece of great reasoning, it appears to be! And all the likeminded people benefitting from the Varna Dharma would agree to it. Watch out for the innocence here! And you can innocently believe that the shadows can pollute also! You are in a strange world that has existed for a long, long time. There was no miracle, only causation. You are not supposed to think of “how’ and “why”, never; the word you should accept without question is “Therefore”. And eliminate any “process” from your adharmic thinking.
 As a result of the corruption of Dharma, the pious Brahman boy was taken ill. In traditional Indian society, the causes are not found but created. It was as simple as that. Nothing exponential logic was involved in that. The causation was, crystal clear, for any twiceborn man to see; crass, obtuse, simple and asinine. Only the heathen and brainless creatures cannot see such pious logic! Only pious brains could give such pious logic. The pious Brahmans said that the only pious and righteous course of action was to kill this penance performing sinful Shudra to save the pure Dharma, the cosmic order. The deed theory of Varna by deeds is consigned to the dustbin - note! A single Shudra was posing a grave danger to the divinely ordained Dharma, the will of God. Somebody had to find a solution to this catastrophic problem. Somebody had to save the will of God from disintegrating. Any further delay would have resulted in the death of Brahman boy and the king Rama would have been responsible for it as the kings were supposed to uphold the Dharma, not protect the people. He would have been a failed king if he did not save Dharma.
 A Shudra had committed the ghastly crime of transgressing upon Dharma of the Brahmans. The corruption of Dharma had to be removed at any cost. Its sanctity had to be restored. The interference in the divine functioning of system was to be extinguished. A human being had defiled the Dharma and challenged the cosmic order. Therefore, Lord Rama went to forest where Shambuk was corrupting the Dharma through his penance. Then the Lord Rama showing his faith in the Sanatana Dharma killed unarmed and meditating Shambuk with a sword. And behold, the Brahman boy got cured at the very moment Shambuk was killed thus justifying the causation of his sickness- theory proved. It is not at all sickening. It brings happiness to some people. It also proves that the Brahmans were simpleton and innocent with unimpeachable integrity.
The compelling interests of Dharma required that Shambuk be killed. In this story, it is interesting to note that it was not necessary for Brahmans to ask Lord Rama to kill Shambuk. They themselves could have killed him but they chose a Kshatriya to do it to avoid the committing of crime themselves. The hands of Brahmans are clean; clean enough to handle the sacred Vedas, the Word of God. It also meant that the deeds do not define a Varna. Shambuk's deed could not define his Varna; his Varna was decided by birth.
Then there is another example from the Mahabharata where a Shudra (Suta-Putra, the son of a charioteer) was forced to fake his identity to learn the art of warfare. The Sutas (the charioteers) were the Shudras and hence not eligible to learn the art of warfare. Karana was eldest of the Pandavas brothers. His mother was Kunti, the same as mother of Pandavas of whom Arjun is the most famous. He had been born before her marriage to Pandu. Therefore, she abandoned him to avoid the social disgrace. He was brought up by a Suta (a charioteer – a Shudra) of the Kauravas who were the cousins of the Pandavas. Therefore he came to be known as Suta-Putra and hence dharmically ineligible to learn the art of warfare and wielding weapons. Thus, it goes without saying that no high Varna teacher was willing to teach him. But he had a scorching desire to learn the art of warfare and specially that of archery. Therefore, he went to a faraway place where nobody knew him. He went to a renowned Brahman teacher who taught the art of wielding weapons to the Brahmans only. His name was Parshuram. He did not know the true identity of Karana. So Karana put on a sacred thread and claimed to be a Brahman before him. On knowing this, Parshuram admitted him as his student. It is unethical to assume the identity of somebody else for personal gains. Nevertheless, his unethical behavior pales before the unethical behavior of the Brahmans who gave the false identities to all the people, and prevented the Shudras and those below them from fulfilling their dreams, their aspirations, their heart's desire and their ambitions. What a really dharmic excellence! The Shudras and those below them had to live a life without the dreams. Their dignity lied tattered on the earth. One piece here and one piece there, the gloating upper castes walked over them and their egos got bloated. And all the blame went to the unknown Karmas - poor karmas.
Anyway, Parshuram took Karana under his wings, and started teaching him the art of wielding the weapons. The time went by and Parshuram kept teaching him under the illusion that he was a Brahman. The Brahmans were allowed to wield weapons to save Dharma under an emergency. There came a time when Karana became a skilled exponent of warfare. His favorite weapon was bow and arrow. At that time, one day, Parshuram decided to take rest and Karana offered his thigh to be used as a pillow. Therefore, Parshuram using Karana's thigh as pillow went to sleep. Soon after, a scorpion came there and stung Karana on the leg. The pain of the sting was piercing, but Karana bore it with all the patience so as not to disturb his teacher. Soon, this was going to result in his expulsion and a curse. When Parshuram woke up, he noticed the wound on the leg of Karana and asked the reason for it. Karana told him about the scorpion. Then Parshuram doubted his identity since no Brahman could have bore such a pain; only a Kshatriya could have endured it. He asked Karana his true identity. Karana, in his all sincerity, told him that he was a Suta-Putra. That was what he knew at that time. On knowing this, Parshuram got angry that a Shudra had learnt the art of wielding the weapons! He expelled Karana and cursed him that he would forget all the skill of warfare taught to him when he needed them most. How dharmic! Justified was the anger of Parshuram and nobody questioned the unethicality of the Varna system. The righteous got righteously angry. Nothing astonishing about it? Is there? There was scant regard for anybody's natural feelings and emotions. The subhuman are not supposed to possess feelings and emotions.
 Karana had to suffer humiliation in his later days because of his Shudra identity of impure origin. How could he aspire to marry a princess? If a king wants to marry a commoner then it is properly proper. But a Shudra man and a Kshatriya princess? The thought was sufficient to throw the lawmakers in a nauseating mental turmoil. And we see that in Dharma Shastras the children of such Anuloma marriage were straight forwardly made the Untouchables or the outcastes. It satisfied the Dharma.
There was a princess in the Mahabharata who played a central part in the epic. She belonged to the Panchala kingdom. Her father was the king of the Panchala kingdom. He organized a Swayamvar for his daughter in question; her name was Draupadi. A Swayamvar was the occasion where only the Kshatriya who fulfilled the condition to marry the girl was permitted to marry her. It was a kind of choosing the most capable groom for the girl. The king Drupad invited all the Kshatriyas in the Swayamvar for his daughter. Karana along with Kauravas also went to Swayamvar. Many kings and Kshatriyas were present there to try their luck. There was a condition to marry Draupadi. Only the one who could pierce the eye of a fish could marry her. The fish was placed horizontally on a top of a pole and a wheel was moving under it. One had to shoot the arrow while standing beneath the moving wheel by looking down at the reflection of the fish in a vessel filled with water placed on the ground. If Eklavya's thumb was not cut off and if the competition was open to all the warriors then he could have won it without trouble. But that would have caused the pure lawmakers to suffer from nightmares with hard nail piercing their soft and angel like sacred brains! Their pure digestive systems could not have digested it. Vomiting was certain indicating a high regard that they had for the lower caste people. The kings after kings and Kshatriyas after Kshatriyas tried it but failed. So Karana got up to try his luck, he might have certainly done it. At once Draupadi objected saying that she did not want to marry a Shudra Suta-Putra. This made Karana stop then and there. No amount of bravery or skill or talent could convert a Shudra into a Kshatriya eligible to marry among Kshatriyas. And, Varna by deeds, Gunas? Do not crack these sly jokes anymore. He could have fought with them but not marry into them. In the due course of time, the lower strata were disallowed to carry the arms so that they could not fight against the higher Varnas. Splendid! None of the elders like Bhishma and Yudhister tried to justify the claim of Karana. Later in Mahabharata these two persons of grand principles and integrity are found extolling the importance of deeds and Gunas in determining one's Varna!!! Beats my puny brain.
Then, there is this sinking feeling that goes with the fused insulted status. The Shudras and the Untouchables live their lives with unborn dreams and unborn ambitions and unavailable choices. The presence of these would lend quaintness to their lives. So would the notions of equality and freedom. For harmony, these quaint features ought to be removed. Don't think, sleep man sleep. A life lived in total servility, is best, as it serves the cause of Dharma. They should find solace in that. And what can be better than that? Be happy. Why should others sacrifice their comforts for you? It is highly illogical. And that is the truth.