The
concept of Dharma is fundamental to Hinduism, as it is believed that it is only
through the pursuit of Dharma that there is social harmony and peace in the
world. The pursuit of Adharma (a path that rejects righteousness) leads to
conflicts, discord and imbalance.
The
saying, Dharanat Dharmah' means Dharma sustains the world and it is that which
holds the world together. It is duty performed with righteousness, with
discipline and moral and spiritual excellence. Varnashrama Dharma is
fundamental to Hindu belief and includes the duties of the various occupations,
orders and classes (Varna) and the duties in the four stages (ashramas) of
one's life. It enjoins that each person's dharma or duty depends on his
occupation, position, moral and spiritual development, age and marital status.
The Caste System
Although
the caste system has now been legally abolished, it is interesting to know its
origin. The original meaning of the word `varna' was order or class of people.
When the Indo-Aryans invaded the country, they came across the local
inhabitants whom they called Dasas or Dasyus. Instead of destroying them after
conquest, as has happened in other civilizations, they absorbed them by giving
them a lower but definite place in their society.
In time
this system came to be four-tiered, with four classes, the Brahmanas or
Brahmins (not to be confused with the Brahman) who were the teachers and
priests, the Kshatriyas or warriors and rulers, the Vaishyas, those who
followed commercial occupations, and the Sudras who performed manual labour and
were also farmers and agriculturists. The word 'varna' therefore implied the
social order and not caste, as even Manu has given the difference between Varna
(class or order) and jati (sect of birth or caste). A man's Varna depended as
much on his mental and physical equipment as on heritage. Therefore it was a
fluid state. A Brahmin for example, was one who evolved with the guna or
qualities and performed the karma, or action, enjoined on a Brahmin. (It was
only later that the word `varna' came to mean colour.)
The
untouchables or outcastes were originally those who had broken certain caste
rules. For example, the Nayadis, who were considered outcastes of the lowest
order, were originally Brahmins who were excommunicated for some reason. Also
later the Hindus, who were originally meat-eaters, slowly changed their eating
habits to vegetarianism, especially the Brahmins and Vaishyas who were
influenced by early Buddhism and Jainism. With this change, those who ate beef
or the meat of certain proscribed animals came to be considered outcastes or
untouchables, as, by this time, the cow had come to be regarded akin to a
mother, the people, being largely rural, having to depend on the cow's products
for sustenance. (This is why the cow is given the reverence due to a mother in
Hindu society to this day.)
However
there is no religious sanction whatsoever in Hinduism to the concept of
untouchability although later additions on the subject were inserted into the
earlier scriptures to justify its existence. It was a purely social practice
introduced by the upper castes to provide themselves with menial labour to
perform certain tasks repulsive to themselves such as those of cemetery
keepers, scavengers and cleaners. Hindu society has much to answer for this
inhuman treatment of a whole section of its own people, but the Hindu religion
had nothing to do with it.
These
four classes were not as rigid in ancient times as they became later. In the
Upanishads is the story of Satyakama, neither son of a servant maid, Jabala,
who did not know his gotra or clan of origin as even his mother did not know
who his father was nor his caste. He went to a great teacher known for his
wisdom that took young Brahmin boys as disciples, and told him the truth of his
parentage. He gave his name as Satyakama Jabala, after his mother. The Guru,
impressed with the truthfulness of the young man, initiated him as a
Brahmachari or student under him. He then gave him 400 head of cattle and asked
him to take them to the forest and to return only when these became a thousand
in number.
While
living in the forest alone for years, Satyakama learnt of the Brahman, the
Absolute, from communing with Nature, from the clouds in the skies, from the
music of the birds, from the trees and the flowers and from the beauty of all
Creation around and about him.
After
he had 1000 head of cattle he returned. When his Guru gazed at the brilliant, shining
face of his pupil, he knew that the young man had realised the Brahman and had
only to complete this knowledge by study with his teacher. Although only
Brahmins were initiated into higher religious education not birth alone but
aptitude also permitted the upward movement of the castes in Upanishadic times,
as seen by the beautiful story of Satyakama Jabala.
The
great Brahmin Rishi, Vyasa, was born when Parashara, the grandson of the Rishi
Vasishta, fell in love with a beautiful dark-skinned woman of the fisher tribe,
later named Satyavati. The child born to them was named Krishna Dvaipayana,
after his dark colour (krishna) taken after his mother, and the island (dvipa)
on which he was born. Only later did he become known as Veda Vyasa. Yet his
knowledge of the Vedas determined his caste as a Brahmin Rishi and not his
birth to a fisherwoman of a low caste.
Vyasa is often worshipped as divinity in
human form, so great is the regard given to him by Hindus through the ages. His
birth to a tribal fisherwoman was not looked down upon, nor did it affect his
position as a Brahmin sage of the highest caste.
Vyasa is often worshipped as divinity in
human form, so great is the regard given to him by Hindus through the ages. His
birth to a tribal fisherwoman was not looked down upon, nor did it affect his
position as a Brahmin sage of the highest caste.
(Similarly
Valmiki, the author of the epic, the Ramayana, was a hunter of the lowest caste
who came to be considered a Brahmin Rishi by virtue of his erudition.)
Satyavati subsequently married Santanu, King of Hastinapura. Her son
Vichitravirya could not bear any children and her step-son, Bhishma, would not
do so in view of a promise given to his late father not to marry or bear
children, so that Satyavati's progeny would rule the kingdom.
According
to the Niyoga custom of the times, on the death of a childless man or even if
he were alive but could not father children, his brother could father children
on his behalf. When it was found that her sons could not bear children, the
great queen, Satyavati, called on the son born to her through Sage Parashara,
the Sage Vyasa, and asked him to father children by her two daughters-in-law,
which he did. A servant woman of the palace approached Vyasa in a spirit of
great devotion and to her was born Vidura considered again one of the greatest
of Brahmin sages (in view of his wisdom and knowledge of the Dharma Shastras)
in spite of his mother being a servant woman of the lowest caste.
It was
from the sons of Vyasa that the Pandavas and the Kauravas were descended. Their
great-grandmother, Satyavati, belonged to a fisher tribe and their great-grandfather,
Parashara, was a Brahmin sage. Yet because they were princes of the royal house
of Hastinapura, they were considered Kshatriyas. In actual fact they were not
so by birth, only by occupation, once again proving that caste was purely
occupational.
Utanga,
a childhood Brahmin friend of Krishna, took a boon from him that, in his
wanderings, Krishna would provide him with water whenever he needed it. Once,
when he felt very thirsty, he thought of the Lord and suddenly a Nishada (an
outcaste hunter) appeared before him clothed in filthy rags, and offered water
from his animal-skin water-bag. Utanga refused it and berated Krishna in his
mind, as he felt he had not kept to his promise.
The Nishada tried to persuade
Utanga again and again to drink the water but Utanga was adamant. The hunter
then disappeared and the Lord appeared before Utanga and told him that he had
sent Indra, King of the Devas, as a hunter with amrita, the nectar of
immortality. Since Utanga had not shown any wisdom but had continued to
differentiate between man and man based on externals such as caste, he had
missed the rare chance of attaining immortality. The moral of this story is
obvious.
The Nishada tried to persuade
Utanga again and again to drink the water but Utanga was adamant. The hunter
then disappeared and the Lord appeared before Utanga and told him that he had
sent Indra, King of the Devas, as a hunter with amrita, the nectar of
immortality. Since Utanga had not shown any wisdom but had continued to
differentiate between man and man based on externals such as caste, he had
missed the rare chance of attaining immortality. The moral of this story is
obvious.
The
disciples of the great philosopher, Adi Shankara, once asked a Chandala (an
outcaste), to move away from his path. "Who are you and who am I? Is the
Self within me different from yours?" queried the Chandala (believed to be
Shiva in disguise). Shankara, realising the wisdom of these words, prostrated
before the Chandala saying, "One who is established in the Brahman, be he
a low-born Chandala or a twice-born Brahmin, verily I declare him my
Guru".
As late
as in the 8th century, an untouchable could be considered a Guru by
one born a brahmin like Adi Shankara.
Writer – Shakunthala Jagannathan
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