भारतीय SECULARISM

कब से बेहोश पड़े हैं देखो
यह नशा तो बड़े
क माल का है।

#LIBERATING_INDIAN_MIND–43
I believe that the Semitic religions developed in a violent to society as a measure of reform. It used almost the same methods that were used by Vedic poets and the later tradition In India. Some specimen:

Happy are those who is greatest Desire used to do what God requires.
…

Happy are those who work for peace; God will call them his children.

—-
Happy are those who are persecuted because they do what God requires.
Happy for you when people insult you and persecute you and tell all kinds of evil lies against you because you are my followers…
….Sermon on the mount

you are like salt for all the whole human race. but alt loses its saltiness there is no way to make it salty again….
7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the childrenof God.
10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you,and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.
12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
13 ¶ Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.
14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.
16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
17 ¶ Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.
18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.
19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
20 For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.
21 ¶ Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment:
22 But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.

भारतीय मुसलमान

जरूरी नहीं कि आप हमसे सहमत हों। अधिक अच्छा है हमारी समझ में कमियां तलाशते हुए इसका पाठ करें और मेरी सीमाओं से अवगत भी कराएं, परन्तु यदि मैं आप के तर्क से सहमत न हो सकूं तो मुझे अपने विचार पर कायम रहने का अधिकार दें जो अधिकार आपको भी है। । किसी सर्वशुद्ध निष्कर्ष की अवधारणा और उससे असहमत होने वालों को दुष्ट समझने का दुराग्रह एकेश्वरवादी और एकग्रंथी मजहबों की देन है जो अपने मजहबी समुदाय के भिन्न मतों के लोगों तक को दुष्ट मानते और शेष मानवता को शैतान समझते हैं, भले इसे प्रकट रूप में व्यक्त न करें।

जिनके साथ हम रहने को बाध्य हैं उनकी गतिविधियों की ओर से असावधान नहीं रह सकते, भले वे अपने परिवार के सदस्य ही क्यों न हों। संभवतः यही सोचकर मेरे एक मित्र ने इसी नाम से पुस्तिकाएं लिखी थी । वाह पत्रकार और उर्दू तथा दूसरी भाषाओं में मुस्लिम लेखकों- पत्रकारों ने जो कुछ लिखा था उसी के आधार पर उनकी मानसिकता को समझ कर उन्होंने अपनी पुस्तिकाएं लिखी।यह किसी को समझने का सबसे सतही तरीका है विशेषतः भारत में जहां कुछ सवालों पर निजी सोच और सार्वजनिक कथन में काफी अंतर होता है। फिर किसी एक पक्ष के असंतोष या आरोप के आधार पर बनाई गई राय भरोसे की नहीं होती।यह मान लेना कि हम जिस समुदाय के हैं उसके बारे में तो जानते ही हैं भ्रामक है। जो भी हो, उनका निष्कर्ष था मुस्लिम अच्छे होते हैं. बुराई हिंदू समाज में है।

मेरे दो अन्य मित्र जो पुलिस विभाग में उचतम पदों पर रहे हैं, अपने अनुभव से उसी नतीजे पर पहुंचे थे। वैसे तो समाज की मानसिकता को समझने के लिए पद की ऊंचाई का कोई महत्त्व नही या उल्टा संबंध है – एक गश्ती अफसर का लोगों के बीच अधिक घुलना मिलना होता है, अफसरों तक कम लोगों की पहुंच हो पाती है फिर भी बड़े पदों पर बैठे लोगों को यह विश्वास होता है कि उनकी सोच बड़ी है, रपट और पुस्तक लिखने की योग्यता उनमें से ही कुछ के पास होती है, बड़ों की बात बड़ों ने किस्सों से लेकर मुहावरों तक मानी है, इसलिए उनका निष्कर्ष सिर माथे।

एक अन्य मित्र जिन्होंने 19वीं शताब्दी में हिंदी को लेकर हुई खींचतान का विवेचन करते हुए यह नतीजा निकाला कि नागरी लिपि की वकालत करने वाले भारतेन्दु और दूसरे लोग सांप्रदायिक थे और अरबी लिपि और फारसी अरबी बोझिल उर्दू (शरीफों की जबान) के प्रचलन की वकालत करने वाले सर सैयद अहमद खान सेक्युलर थे।

पत्रकारों-लेखकों में ऐसे लोगों की संख्या खासी अधिक है जिनकी राय इसी से मिलती जुलती है। बल्कि उनके बीच आपके समझदार माने जाने की अनिवार्य शर्त है कि आप ऊपर के निष्कर्ष से सहमत हों। जिस आदमी की समझ में इतनी मोटी बात न आती हो कि ऐसा न मानना संकीर्णता है उससे नासमझ भला कौन हो सकता है। यदि वह नासमझ नहीं है, तो गिरा हुआ इंसान है। ऐसे लोगों से संपर्क रखना, उनकी बातें सुनना, या संवाद करना तक गुनाह है। बौद्धिक अस्पृश्यता का यह नया संस्करण भारतीय सेकुलरिज्म की देन है।

बौद्धिक जगत में स्वयं सिद्धि का रूप ले चुके इन विचारों से मेल खाती कोई जानकारी है तो वह प्रामाणिक है, अनमेल है तो वह विद्वान, ज्ञान की वह शाखा, सूचना का वह माध्यम, वह अनुसंधान, वे प्रमाण सभी संदिग्ध हैं। उदाहरण के लिए पुरातत्व हिन्दुत्ववादी है, जनगणना के वे आंकड़े जिनसे यह सिद्ध होता है कि आबादी में मुसलमानों की जन्म दर में होने वाली वृद्धि दूसरे समुदायों की तुलना में अधिक है वह हिंदू संप्रदायवादियों का दुष्प्रचार है। हिंदू संप्रदायवाद कितनी तेजी से बढ़ता हुआ संस्थाओं में भी प्रवेश करता जा रहा है इसका यह प्रमाण है। और कोई चारा न होने पर यदि मान ले कि यह सही है, तो भी इसे सही मानना हिंदुत्ववादियों के हाथ में खेलने जैसा है, इसलिए जो अकाट्य है वह भी, सच होकर भी, मान्य नहीं है।

समर्पणवादी बौद्धिकता का ऐसा नमूना विश्व इतिहास में ढूंढ़े न मिलेगा

इसके दबाव में शिक्षित और बुद्धिजीवी वर्ग का बहुत बड़ा हिस्सा ऐसा है जो नाम से हिंदू है परंतु अपने को हिंदू कहने में लज्जित अनुभव करता है। इसकी प्रतिक्रिया यह है की हिंदुत्व की रक्षा के लिए चिंतित नेता हिंदुओं से अपने को गर्व से हिन्दू कहने को कहता है, और उपहास का पात्र बनता है।

स्वतंत्रता प्राप्ति के बाद से आज तक हमारी मुख्य समस्या शैक्षिक और आर्थिक विकास की न रह कर सामाजिक समायोजन की बनी रही है। आज इसकी अपरिहार्यता इतनी बढ़ गई है कि जब तक इसका समाधान नहीं हो जाता दूसरी समस्याएं रुकी रहेंगी। केवल भाव तेजी से बढ़ने पर महंगाई, अराजकता बढ़ने पर शांति और व्यवस्था, चुनाव आने पर रोजी-रोजगार को समस्या बनाया जाएगा। सत्तर वर्षों के इस पूरे अभियान में समस्या का समाधान निकलने की कोशिशों के साथ समस्या और विकृत होती चली गई है, अतः निकट भविष्य में दूसरी किसी समस्या पर ध्यान देने की जगह इससे निपट कर ही आगे बढ़ा जा सकता है।

समस्या इतनी गंभीर है कि छात्रों के लिए पढ़ने की जगह राजनीति करना अधिक जरूरी हो गया है। वैसे तो ऊंची शैक्षिक योग्यता के अभाव में राजनीति अधिक सफलता से की जा सकती है पर समझदार कहे जाने वाले अध्यापकों का भी मानना है कि छात्रों को कूप मंडूक बनने से बचाने के लिए उनको राजनीति में झोंकना अधिक जरूरी है । स्तरीय शिक्षा की जरूरत विदेशों से इसी काम के लिए भेजे जाने वाले और हमारी हर समस्या का अध्ययन करने वाले विद्वानों से चल जाएगा।

इससे उत्पन्न मनोवैज्ञानिक दबाव की माप तो नहीं की जा सकती परंतु यह समझा जा सकता है की इस का प्रतिरोध करने की क्षमता बहुत कम लोगों में हो सकती है । समझदार आदमी बहुत जल्द समझ जाता है कि समझदारी इससे टकराने मैं नहीं है, सहमत हो कर अपना भाग्य संवारने में ही है। ऐसी स्थिति मी बुद्धिजीवियों की जो भर्ती लगातार सेक्यूलर खेमे में होती रही है उसके लिए हम उनको दोष तो नहीं दे सकते, परंतु इतने कमजोर मेरुदंड के लोगों को बुद्धिजीवी और समाज का मार्गदर्शक भी नहीं मान सकते। मनस्वी व्यक्ति सूचना के स्रोतों की उपेक्षा नहीं कर सकता। ऐसा करने पर वह बौद्धिक विकलांगता का शिकार हो जाएगा। समाज को नीरोग रखने की चिंता करने वाले किसी वायरस की उपेक्षा करते हुए उसे फैलने का अवसर नहीं दे सकते। हमें गहराई में उतर कर इस बात की पड़ताल करनी होगी कि यह विचार किसी साजिश के तहत पैदा किया और बढ़ाया गया है या इसका वास्तविक आधार है।

सबसे पहले हम उस निष्कर्ष को मानकर उसका परिणाम देखें। समस्या लगातार उग्र होती गई है। यदि यह हिंदू के कारण है तो इसका एक आसान उपाय यह है कि भारत को हिंदू मुक्त किया जाए। परिणाम क्या होगा ? हमारी दशा बांग्लादेश या पाकिस्तान जैसी हो जाएगी। परंतु आरोप लगाने वाले कहते हैं भारत की दशा हिंदुओं के कारण पाकिस्तान या बांग्लादेश जैसी होती जा रही है।

अर्थात् वे भी मानते हैं कि इन देशों की दशा भारत की तुलना में बहुत बुरी है और हमने पाया हिंदू को हटाते ही या उसका बहुत कम होते ही 1 दिन में हमारी दशा उन देशों जैसी हो जाएगी जिस से देश को बचाने की चिंता उनको भी है। यदि भारत की दशा वैसी नहीं है तो इसका एकमात्र कारण यह है कि यहां हिंदू बहुमत में है। हमारे प्रयोग में यह सिद्ध होता है हमारे मित्रों का निष्कर्ष नितांत काल्पनिक है।

हमारा ध्यान इस तथ्य की ओर गए बिना भी नहीं रह सकता कि इस श्रेणी में आने वाले वाचाल लोगों में अधिकांश लड्डूगोपाल हैं, अथवा लड्डू के लिए कतार में खड़े रहे हैं। उन पर अधिकस्य अधिकं फलं का नियम भी लागू पाया जाता है, जो उनके उत्साह को कायम रखने और आवाज़ को बुलंद रखने में सहायक रहा है। हमने अपने आकलन में उन्नीसवीं शताब्दी को भी रखा है इसलिए किसी को यह लाभ नहीं मिल सकता कि उनके ऐसे विचार भाजपा और उससे जुड़े संगठनों के कारण हैं। अतः हम इस निष्कर्ष पर पहुंचते हैं कि हमारी समस्याएं लड्डूगोपालों के कारण हैं। उनके ही कारण मुस्लिम समाज में असंख्य विकृतियों के होते हुए भी यह मानसिकता पैदा हुई है कि वे विकृतियां नहीं धर्माचार हैं और हिंदू बुद्धिजीवी भी उन्हें विकृति नहीं मानते और स्वीकार करते हैं कि सारी विकृतियां हिंदू समाज में हैं।

भारत पर तलवार से आक्रमण करके मुसलमानों को उतनी बड़ी विजय कभी न मिली जितना बड़ी विजय स्वतंत्र भारत में लड्डूगोपालों के कारण मिली है। स्वयं मुसलमान रहते हुए हिन्दू प्रत्याशियों को सेक्युलर का प्रमाणपत्र वह बांटता या वापस लेता है। सेक्युलर छवि को बचाने को चिन्तित मित्र कुछ भी कहने या लिखने से पहले यह सोचते हैं कि उसके परिचित मुस्लिम मित्रों की इस पर क्या प्रतिक्रिया होगी। अर्थात् वह उनका conscience keeper बन चुका है।

कुछ मुसलमान भारत में बाहर से आए, शासन किया यह इतिहास का सच है परन्तु यह भारतीय मुसलमान स्वतंत्र भारत के लड्डूगोपालों और सहमकर सोचने वाले और उनके समवेत आतंक के आगे घुटने टेकने वालों की रचना है जो कट्टर इस्लामी देशों मे आए सुधारों का भी विरोध करता है।

LIBERATING-43

{ Friends ! As you must have noticed my treatment is not straight but discursive. There was no other method to deal with glorified servitude prevalent among the better informed, better placed, highly demanded equally opportunistic intelligentsia in nations which had earlier their vested interest in keeping us under subjugation. They had not a good, but yet favourable opinion about those whose minds were shaped by them in their endeavour to perpetuate slavery even after the shackles were removed. They are on record to have said that Asiatics are born slaves. This may not be true but it applied to the high profile opportunist sections of our society. They enjoy the power and pose a threat to national self respect including national security. One has to be polymath and discursive to deal effectively with them under compulsion.

At the outset I had opted for dialogical approach to raise and discuss contrary views and ancillary issues. That to me appears to be the best way of dealing with such a multidimensional issue but had a hitch that it lapses into mannerisms which I dislike. The change in style leaves some of the aspects sidelined and ther treatment becomes one dimensional. For example I promised to compare almost verbatim repetitions of Indian ideas in the Bible without discussing the most controversial book MANUSMRITI which occasionally has been mistaken as a religious scripture by some otherwise brilliant brains. We must delve deeper into the subject to assess its authenticity as well as its value as a law book.}

MANUSMRITI

Of all the law books why was only this given prominence? It may be accidental let us suppose. Muslim law books were there, England had neither a law book nor a constitution, it followed convention that worked well. For civil grievances to redress the complaints of Hindus a code book of their own was required. Tarkpanchanan, a brilliant and legendary scholar who had enjoyed the patronage of Raja Nand Kumar, the Navab of Murshidabad and fabulously granted landed property, vehicles of all sorts to be cherished by anyone at that time, more than once by his patrons and lived in a stately grandeur, had written a book based on the MANUSMRITI perhaps on the demand of the Navab of Murshidabad that passed into the hands of Company officials. They called it Gentoo Laws, a derogatory name once you know that jantu ( जन्तु) was written as Gentoo by Englishmen. It was this book which was published by the Company privately but slipped into private hands and published for general readers soon after. It was this book that Stuart Mills refers to in his History of British India. We do not know the points of deviation if any from the Manusmriti, as we have not seen it.

When William Jones decided to get an authoritative version he employed the same Jagannath Tarkapanchanan on a fabulous fee of Re 3000 a month, i.e 36000 a year, while the Englishman who had translated Muslim law book from Persian got the maximum to a British scholar Re 2000 per month, say two thirds of the fee paid to the assistant of William Jones. The copy of the MANUSMRITI relied upon was also from a Bengali scholar kulluk Bhatt.

We have no information regarding any interpolation made by Tarkapanchanan nor his personal demeanor raises suspicions, not even the fabulous fee paid as he was in a position to bargain undermining his British rivals. He composed verses in Sanskrit with due command and was capable of inserting at will if he chose or was invited to do that. But that is nowhere near an evidence.

One thing of course is certain, authenticity of this version has been challenged by competent authorities.”Over fifty manuscripts of the Manusmriti are now known, but the earliest discovered, most translated and presumed authentic version since the 18th century has been the ‘Calcutta manuscript with Kulluka Bhatta commentary’. Modern scholarship states that its presumed authenticity is false, and the various manuscripts of Manusmriti discovered in India are inconsistent with each other, and within themselves, raising concerns of its authenticity, insertions and interpolations made into the text in later times.”(Wikipedia)

The most controversial of it’s provisions are those pertaining to the Shudras that agitated even as balanced a thinker as Dr. Ambedkar, who burnt a copy of it. We, examining the controversial version, find there was definitely an interpolation in this regard, because the text suffered from contradictions. How could the same book provide that a Brahmin should not refuse food from the hands of Shudras while out on begging spree:आर्धिक: कुलमित्रं च गोपालो दास नापित:, एते शूद्रेषु भोज्यान्ना यश्चात्मानं निवेदयेत। ४.२५३

Sanctions imposed on free movement of women of any age without an escort had again been made an issue by feminists gone berserk. We do not know how many societies are even to day safe for women to move freely with police presence, light arrangement, means of transport so improved.

There are provisions more favourable to a shudra vis a vis a Brahmin in matters of similar offence.

But we do not consider it a book for today nor evaluate it thus. We must see the time and find any book in any other society parallel or even approximately close to it. There in none.

Over fifty manuscripts of the Manusmriti are now known, but the earliest discovered, most translated and presumed authentic version since the 18th century has been the “Calcutta manuscript with Kulluka Bhatta commentary”.[5] Modern scholarship states this presumed authenticity is false, and the various manuscripts of Manusmriti discovered in India are inconsistent with each other, and within themselves, raising concerns of its authenticity, insertions and interpolations made into the text in later times.

LIBERATING-42

In our survey so far we have found that no other country had religion but the Semitic nations. They shared common mythology but have different prophets. The idea of Prophet is although close to incarnation of God but not the same. There are such elements in Indian speculations and western beliefs that we may reiterate William Jones observations regarding kinship of Indo-European languages :

“The Sanscrit language whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing with both of them a stronger affinity, both in roots of verbs and in the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong indeed, that no philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists; there is a familiar reason, though not quite forcible, for supposing that both the Gothick and the Celtick, though blended with a very different idiom, had the same origin with the Sanscrit; and the Old Persian might be added to the same family, if this were the place for discussing any question concerning the antiquities of Persia.” 34
He proceeded to make some other comparisons, “These letters, with no greater variation in their form by the change of the straight lines to curves, or conversely, than the Cusick alphabet has received in its way to India, are still adopted on more than twenty kingdoms and states, from the border of Cashgar and Khoten to Rama/s bridge, and from Sindhu to Siam; nor can I help believing, althrough the polished and elegant Devanagari may not be so ancient as the monumental characters in the Caverns of Jarasandha, that the square Chaldaick letters, in which Hebrew books are copied, were originally the same, or derived from the same prototype, both with the Indian and Arabic characters: that the Phoenician, from which the Greek and Roman alphabets were formed by various changes and inversions, had a familiar origin, there can be little doubt ; and inscriptions at Canarah, of which you now possess a most accurate copy, seem to be compounded of Nagari and Ethiopick letters, which bear a close relation to each other, both in the mode of writing from the left hand, and in the singular manner of connecting the vowels with consonants. ….
“Of the Indian religion and philosophy I shall here say but little; because a full account of each would require a separate volume: it will be sufficient in this differentiation to assume what might be proven beyond controversy, that we now live among the adorers of those very deities who were worshiped under different names in Old Greece and Italy, and among the professors of those philosophical tenets, which the Ionick and attic writers illustrated with all the beauties of their melodious language. On one hand we see the trident of NEPTUNE, the eagle of JUPITER, the Satyrs of BACCHUS, the bow of CUPID and the chariot of the Sun; on another we hear the cymbals of RHEA, the sone of Muses, and the pastoral tales of APOLLO NOMIUS. In more retired scenes, in groves, and in seminaries of learning, we may perceive the Brahmans and Sarmanes, mentioned by CLEMENS, disputing in the forms of logick, or discoursing on the vanity of human enjoyments, on the immortality of the soul, her emancipation from the eternal mind, her debasement, wanderings, and final union with her source. The six philosophical schools, whose principles are explained in the Dersana Sastra, comprise all the metaphysicks of the old Academy, the Stoa, the Lyceum; nor is it possible to read the Vedanta, or the many fine compositions in illustration of it without believing, that PYTHAGORAS and PLATO derived their sublime theories from the same fountain with the sages of India.”

What was missed by Jones was a close comparison between Indian ideas and their reflection on the Semitic mythology and Christ’s teachings. Similarly of ideas, method of expression is so similar that no one can read them in isolation. But he was not familiar with that literature at the initial stage. Anatolian connection of Sanskrit (Vedic) speakers and their prolonged stay with dominance has not been unearthed even a century after him and Max Muller who came across similarly of certain word that did not appear accidental to him only suspected the presence of ‘Aryans’ there, but only hesitantly.

But looking at his religiousness he could hardly have admitted the borrowings straightaway. It goes to the credit of Jones that he flattered Indians to believe that Sanskrit language was imported from West, even though Europeans did not rely on his thesis for a long time. The task of reversing the Indian content in the Bible was taken by Weber, who suggested identify of the name Christ and Krishna and perhaps ish (ईश/ ईश्वर) and Jesus pronounced as (ईशस्) but soon the damage was noticed and averted silence as to the correspondences. But We have a good case here for a comparison. We may take it later.

Here we intend to suggest that extreme missionary aversion towards Hinduism was caused out of the panic as well, lest they should lose the very ground of missionary work in India.

How strange that a country that had no religion produced three religions out of its ideas and ideology and the latter did not owe any gratitude to the inspiration, nor we noticed it earlier.

The five principal nations, who have in different ages divided among themselves, as a kind of inheritance, the vast continent of Asia, with the many islands depending on it, are the Indians, the Tartars, the Arabs and the Persians: who the severally were, whence, and when they came, where they now are settled, and what advantage a more perfect knowledge of them all may bring to our European world, will be shown , I trust, in five distinct essays; the last of which will demonstrate the connexion or diversity between them, and solve the great problem, whether they had any common origin, and whether that origin was the same, which we generally ascribe to them. 24/25
I begin with India, not because I find reason to believe it the true centre of population or of knowledge, but, because it is the country, which we now inhabit, and from which we may best survey the regions around us, as, in popular language, we speak of the rising sun, and of his progress through the Zodaic, although it had long been imagined, and now demonstrated, that he is himself the centre of our planetary system. Let me here promise, that , in all the se inqueries concerning the history of India, I shall confine my researched downwards to the Mohammedan conquests at the beginning of the eleventh century, but extend them upwards, as high as possible, to the earliest authentic records of the human species.
India then, on its most enlarged scale, in which the ancients appear to have understood it, comprises an area of near forty degrees on each side including a space almost as large as all Europe; being divided on the west from Persiaa by the Arachosian mountains, limited on the east by the Chinese part of the Peninsula, confined on the north by the wild Tartary, and extending to the south as far as the isles of Java. This trapezium, therefore , comprehends the stupendous hills of Potyid or Tibet, the beautiful valley of Kashmir, all the domains of Indoscythians, the countires of Nepal and Bhtan, Camrup or Asam, together with Siam, Ava, Racan, and the bordering kingdoms, as far as China of the Hindus or Sin of the Arabian geogrphers; not to mention the whole western peninsula with the celebrated Sinhala, or lion-like men, at the southern extremity. By India in short, I mean the whole extent of country, in which the primitive languages of the Hindus prevail at this day with more of less of their ancient purity, and in which the Nagari letters are still used with more or less deviation from their original form.
The Hindus themselves believe their own country, to which they give the epithet madhyama or Central, and Punyabhumi, or the land of virtues, to have been the portion of Bharat, one of the nine brothers, whose father had dominion of the whole earth; and they present the mountain Himalaya as lying to the north, and to the Vidhya, called Vindian by the Greeks, beyond which the Sindhu runs in several branches to the sea…
The domain of Bharat they consider as the middle of the Jambudwipa, which the Tibetans also call the Land of Zambu, and the appellation is extremely remarkable; for Jambu is the Sanscit name of a delicate fruit called Jaman by the muslemans, and by us roseapple; but the largest and the richest fort is named Amrita, or Immortal; and the Mythologists of Tibet apply the fame word to a celestial tree bearing ambrosial fruit, and adjoining to four vast rocks, from which as many sacred rivers derive their several streams.
The inhabitants of this extensive tract are described by Mr Lord with great exactness, and with picturesque elegance peculiar to our ancient language: “A people, says he, presented themselves to mine eyes, clothed in linen garments somewhat low descending , of a gesture and garb, as I may say, maidenly and well neigh effeminate, of a countenance shy and somewhat estranged, yet smiling out a glozed and bashful familiarity.” Mr. Orme, the Historian of India, who unites an exquisite taste for every fine art with an accurate knowledge of Asiatic manners, observes, in his elegant preliminary Dissertation , that this “country has been inhabited from the earliest antiquity by a people who have no resemblance, either in their figure or in their manners, with any of the nations contiguous with them” and that, “although conquerors have established themselves at different times in different parts of India, yet the original habitants have lost very little of their original character.” The ancients, in fact, give a description of them, which our early travelers confirmed, and our own personal knowledge of the nearly verifies; as you will perceive from a passage in the Geographical Poem of Dionysius which the analyst of ancient Mythology has translated with great spirit:
“To th’ east a lovely country wide extends
“INDIA, whose borders the wide ocean bounds;
“On this the sun, new risinf from the main,
“Smiles please’d , and sheds his early orient beam.
“Th’ inhabitants are swart , and in their locks
“Betry the tint of the dark hyacinth.
“Various their functions; some the rock explore,
“And from the mine extract the latent gold;
“Some labour at the woof with cunning skill,
“And manufacture linen; others shape
“And polish iv’ry with nicest care;
“Many retire to rivers shoal, and plunge
“To seek the beryl flaming in its bed,
“Or glittering diamond. Oft the jasper’s found
“Green, but diaphanous; the topaz too
“Of ray serene and pleasing; last of all
“The lovely amethyst, in which combine
“All the mild shades of purple. The rich soil,
“Wash’d by a thousand rivers, from all sides
“Pours on the natives wealth without control.”
Their sources of wealth are still abundant even after so many revolutions and conquests; in their manufacturers of cotton they still surpass all the world; and their features have, most probably, remained unaltered since the time Dionysius; nor we reasonably doubt how degenerate and abased for eve the Hindus may now appear, that in the same early age they were splendid in arts and arms, happy in government, wise in legislation, and eminent in various knowledge: but, since their civil history beyond the middle of the nineteenth century from the present time, is involved in the cloud of fables, we seem to possess only four general media of satisfying our curiosity concerning it; namely, first, their Languages and Letters ;
secondly, their Philosophy and Religion; thirdly, the actual remains of their old Sculpture and architecture; and fourthly, the written memorial s of their Sequence and arts.
1. It is much to lamented, that neither the Greeks, who attended Alexander into India, nor those who were long connected with it under the Bactrian Princes, have left us any means of knowing with accuracy, what vernacular languages they found in this Empire. The Mohammedans, we know, heard the people of proper Hindustan, or India on a limited scale, speaking a Bhasha, or living tongue of a very singular construction, the purest dialect of which was current in the districts round Agra, and chiefly on poetical grounds of Mat’hura; and this is commonly called the idiom of Vraja. Five words in six, perhaps, of this language were derived from the Sanscrit, in which books of religion and science were composed, and which appears to have been fprmed by an exquisite grammatical arrangement, as the name itself implies, from some unpolished idiom; but the basis of the Hindustani, particularly the inflexions of the Hindustani, particularly the inflexions and regimen of verbs, differed widely from both those tongues, as Arabick differs from Persian, or German from Greek. Now the general effect of the conquest is to leave the current language of the conquered people unchanged, or very little altered, in its ground-work, but to blend with it a considerable number of exotic names both for things and for actions; as it has happened in very country, that I can recollect, where the conquerors have not preserved their own tongue unmixed with that of the natives, like the Turks in Greece, and the Saxons in Britain; and this analogy might induce us to believe, that the pure Hindi, whether of Tartarian or Chaldean origin, was primeval in Upper India, into which the Sanscrit was introduced by conquerors from other kingdoms in some very remote age; for we cannot, doubt that the language of the Veda’s was used in the great extent of the country, which has before been delineated, as long as the religion of the Brahma has prevailed.
The Sanscrit language whatever be its antiquity, is of a wonderful structure; more perfect than the Greek, more exquisitely refined than either, yet bearing with both of them a stronger affinity, both in roots of verbs and in the forms of grammar, than could possibly have been produced by accident; so strong indeed, that no philologer could examine them all three, without believing them to have sprung from some common source, which, perhaps, no longer exists; there is a familiar reason, though not quite forcible, for supposing that both the Gothick and the Celtick, though blended with a very different idiom, had the same origin with the Sanscrit; and the Old Persian might be added to the same family, if this were the place for discussing any question concerning the antiquities of Persia. 34
These letters, with no greater variation in their form by the change of the straight lines to curves, or conversely, than the Cusick alphabet has received in its way to India, are still adopted on more than twenty kingdoms and states, from the border of Cashgar and Khoten to Rama/s bridge, and from Sindhu to Siam; nor can I help believing, althrough the polished and elegant Devanagari may not be so ancient as the monumental characters in the Caverns of Jarasandha, that the square Chaldaick letters, in which Hebrew books are copied, were originally the same, or derived from the same prototype, both with the Indian and Arabic characters: that the Phoenician, from which the Greek and Roman alphabets were formed by various changes and inversions, had a familiar origin, there can be little doubt ; and inscriptions at Canarah, of which you now possess a most accurate copy, seem to be compounded of Nagari and Ethiopick letters, which bear a clos relation to each other, both in the mode of writing fromthe left hand, and in the singular manner of connecting the vowels with consonants. These remarks may favour an opinion entertained by many, that all symbols found, which at first, probably, were only crude outlines of the different organs of speech, and had a common origin: the symbols of ideas, now used in China, and Japan, and formerly, perhaps in Japan, and formerly, perhaps in Egypt and Mexico, are quite of a distinct nature; but it is very remarkable, that the order of sounds in the Chinese grammars corresponds nearly with that observed in Tibet, and hardly differs from that which the Hindus consider as the invention of their Gods .
Of the Indian reigion and philosophy I shall here say but little; because a full account of each woud require a separate volume: it will be sufficient in this differentiation to assume what might be proven beyond controversy, that we now live among the adorers of those very deities who were worshipped under different names in Old Greece and Italy, and among the professors of those philosophical tenets, which the Ionick and attick writers illustrated with all the beauties of their melodious language. On one hand we see the trident of NEPTUNE, the eagle of JUPITER, the Satyrs of BACCHUS, the bow of CUPID and the chariot of the Sun; on another we hear thw cymbals of RHEA, the sone of Muses, and the pastoral tales of APOLLO NOMIUS. In more retired scenes, in groves, and in seminaries of learning, we may perceive the Brahmans and Sarmanes, mentioned by CLEMENS, disputing in the forms of logick, or discoursing on the vanity of human enjoyments, on the immortality of the soul, her emancipation from the eternal mind, her debasement, wanderings, and final union with her source. The six philosophical schools, whose principles are explained in the Dersana Sastra, comprise all the metaphysicks of the old Academy, the Stoa, the Lyceum; nor is it possible to read the Vedanta, or the many fine compositions in illustration of it without believing, that PYTHAGORAS and PLATO derived their sublime theories from the same fountain with the sages of India. The Scythian and Hyperborean doctrines and mythology may also be traced in every part of these eastern regions; nor can we doubt, that WOD or ODEN, whose religion, as the northern historians admit, was introduced into Scandinavia by a foreign race; was the same with BUDDH, whose rites were probably imported into India nearly at the same time, though received much later by the Chinese, who soften his name into FO.
This may be a proper place to ascertain an important point in the Chronology of the Hindus; for the priests of BUDDHA left in Tibet and China the precise epoch of his appearance, real or imagined, in this Empire; and their information, which had been preserved in writing, was compared by the Christian Missionaries and scholars with our own era. COUPLET< DE GUIGNES< GIORGI< and BAILLY, differ a little in their accounts of this epoch, but that of Couplet seems the most correct: on taking however, the medium of the four several dates, we may fix of VISHNU, in the year one thousand and fourteen before birth of CHRIST, or two thousand seven hundred and ninety-nine years ago. Now the Cashmirians, who boast of his desent in their kingdom, assert that he appeared on earth about two centuries after CRISHNA the Indian APOLLO, who took so decided a part in the war of MMahabharat; and, if an Etymologist were to suppose, that the Athenians had embellished their poetical history of PANDION’S expulsion and the restoration of the AEGEUS with the Asiatick tale of the PANDUS and YUDHISTHIR, neither of which words they could have articulated, I should not hastily decide his conjecture: certain it is , that Pandumandel is called by the Greeks the country of PANDION. We have therefore determined another interesting epoch, by fixing the age of CRISHNA near the three thousandth year from the present time; and, as the three first Avatars, or descents of VISHNU, relate no less clearly to an Universal Deluge, in which eight persons only were saved, than the fourth and fifth do to the punishment of impiety and the humiliation of the proud, we may for the present assume, that the second, or silver, age of the Hindus was subsequent to the dispersion form Babel; so that we have only a dark interval about a thousand years, which were employed in the settlement of nations, the foundation of states or empires, and the cultivation of civil society. The great incarnate Gods of this intermediate age are both named RAMA but with different epithets; one of whom bears a wonderful resemblance to the Indian BACCHUS, and his wars are the subject of several heroic poems. He is represented as descendent from SURYA, or the Sun, as the husband of SITA, and the son of a princess named CAUSELYA: it is very remarkable, that the Peruvians, whose Incas boasted of the same descent, styled their great festival Ramasitoa; whence we may suppose, that South America was peopled by the same race, who imported into the farthest parts of Asia the rites and fabulous history of RAMA. These rites and this history are extremely curious; and, although I cannot believe with NEWTON, that ancient mythology was nothing but historical truth in a poetic dress, nor with BACON, that it consisted solely of moral and metaphysical allegories, nor with BRYANT, that all the heathen divinities are only different attributes and representations of the Sun or of deceased progenitors, but conceive that the whole system of religious fables rose, like the Nile, from several distinct sources, yet I can not but agree, that one great spring and fountain of all idolatry in the four quarters of the globe was the veneration paid by men to the vast body of fire, which, “looks from his sole dominion like the God of this world;” and another, the immoderate respect shown to the memory of powerful or virtuous ancestors, especially the founders of kingdoms, legislators, and warriors, of whom the Sun or the Moon were wildly supposed to be the parents. III. The remains of architecture and sculpture in India, which I mention here as mere monuments of antiquity, not as specimens of ancient art, seem to prove an early connection between this country and Africa: the pyramids of Egypt, the colossal statues described by PAUSANIANS and others, the sphinx, and the HERMES Cains, which last bears a great resemblance to the Varahavatar, or incarnation of VISHNU in the form of a Boar, indicate the style and mythology of the same indefatigable workmen, who formed the vast excavations of Canarah, the various temples and images of BUDDHA, and the idols, which are continually dug up at Gaya, or in its vicinity. The letters on many of those monuments appear, as I have before intimated, partly od Indian, and partly of Abyssinian or Ethiopick, origin; and all thse indubitable facts may induce no ill-grounded opinion, that Ethiopea and Hisndutan were peopled or colonized by the same extraordinary race; in confirmation of which, it may be added, that the mountaineers of Bengal and Behar can hardly be distinguished in some of their features, particularly their lips and noses, from the modern Abyssinians, whom the Arabs call the children of CUSH: and the ancient Hindus, according to STRABO, differed nothing from the Affricans, but in straightness and smoothness of their hair, while that of the others was crisp or woolly; a difference proceeding chiefly, if not entirely, from the respective humidity or dryness of their atmospheres: hence the people who received the first light of the rising sun, according to the limited knowledge of the ancients, are said by APAULEIUS to be the Aru and Ethiopians, by which he meant certain nations of India; where we frequently see the figures of BUDDHA with curled hir apparently designed for representation of it in its natural shape. IV. It is unfortunate that Silpi Sastra, or collection of treatises on Arts and Manufactures, which must have contained a treasure of useful information on dying, painting, and metallurgy, has so long been neglected, that few, if any traces of it are to be found; but the labours of the Indian loom and needle have been universally celebrated; and fine linen is not improbably supposed to have been called Sindon, from the name of the river near which it was wrought in the highest perfection: …and the Egyptians yet more, as we learn from several passages in scripture, and particularly from a beautiful chapter in EZEKIAL containing the most authentic delineation of ancient commerce, of which Tyre had been the principal mart. Silk was fabricated immemorially by the Indians, though commonly ascribed ti the people of Serica or Tancut, among whom probably the word Ser, which the Greeks applied to silk-worm, signified gold; a sense, which it now bears in Tibet. That the Hindus were in early ages a commercial people, we have many reasons to believe; and in the first of their sacred law-tracts, which they suppose to have been revealed by Menu many millions of years ago, we find curious passage on the legal interest of money, and the limited rate of it in different cases, with an exception with regard to adventures of the sea; an exception, which the sense of mankind approves, and which commerce absolutely requires, though it was not before the reign of Charles I, that our own jurisprudence fully admitted it in respect of maritime contracts. We are told by the Grecian writers that the Idians were the wisest of nations; and in moral wisdom, they were certainly eminent: their Niti Sastra, or System of Ethicks, is yet preserved, and the Fables of VISHNUSERMAN, whom we ridiculously call Pilpay, are the most beautiful, if not the most ancient. The Hindus are said to have boasted of three inventions, all of which, indeed, are admirable, the method of instructing by apologues, the decimal scale, adopted now by civilized nations, the game of chess, on which they have some curious treatises; but, if their numerous work on Grammar, Logick, Rhetorick, Musick, all which are extant and accessible, were explained in some languages generally known, it would be found, that they had yet higher pretensions to the praise of a fertile and inventive genius. The lighter poems are ively and elegant; their Epick, magnificent and sublime in the highest degree. Their Puranas comprise a series of mythological Histories inblank verse from creation to the supposed incarnation of BUDDHA; and their Vedas, as far as we can judge from the compendium of them, which is called Upanishat, abound with noble speculations in metaphysicks, and fine discourses on the being and attributes of GOD. Their most ancient medical book, entitles Cherecca, is believed to be the work of Siva. The philosopher, whose works are said to include a system of the universe founded on the principle of attraction and the Central position of the Sun, is named YAVANACHARYA, because he had travelled, we are told, into Ionia: if this be true, he might have conversed with PYTHAGORAS; this atleast is undeniable, that a book on astronomy in Sanscrit bears the title of Yavana Talica, Of these cursory observations on the Hindus, which it would require volumes to expand and illustrate, this is the result: that they had an immemorial affinity with the old Persians, Ethiopeans, and Egyptians, the Phoenicians, the Greeks, and Tuscans, the Scythians or Goths, and Celts, the Chinese, Japanese, and Peruvuans; whence, as no reason appears for believing, that they were a colony from any one of those nations, or any of those nations from them, we may fairly conclude that they all proceeded from some central country, to investigate which shall be the object of future Discourses;

LIBRATING – 41
BRAHMNISM : PROBLEM OF SURVIVAL
(To be edited)

Brahmin is the most secular of all the people. Like a thorough secular he keeps his eyes fixed on the end (the gains). The means does not count. It can be meanest (Kashi karavat, mahapatra) as well as the most sublime. He has made sacrifices which bewilder us, he has resorted to methods which even hardened criminals may shudder to think. He could worship gods, he could throw away the same gods that he worshipped. He could defile the same god if he found it profitable. Right from the time he joined, or say rendered his services to the Deva society his problem has been that of survival. A dying man can do anything to survive- मरता क्या न करता- or in his own words- क्षीणा: नरा: निष्करुणा: भवन्ति। The problem with him was that he perpetuated the profitable crime even after his belly was full. But these are aberrations, normally Brahmins have been more sensitive and sensible and have risen to support a good move and just cause as and when demanded by circumstances.

Brahmanism as a vile design is a recent invention firstly by the Muslim mullahs who, looking at the fact that Brahmins enjoyed greater respect and voluntary command than them in their circles, besides being the source of education and counsel. They treated them as Satans and encouraged the king and warmongers to annihilate them. This brief was taken more vehemently by Christian missionaries who preferred to use unabated propaganda than force. Gobbles only perfected a practice that had been adopted by Indian Brahmins for thousands of years, and was borrowed and refined by missionaries and European diplomats to defy recognition. Brahmins, because of their interests placed in education were the first to kick their sacred language and exclusive property vsanskrit and switch over to English and emerge as the middle class improving their status so thoroughly as to invite jealous attention of the rest of the Hindu sections. I empathise with injured sentiments of Dr B.R. Ambedkar, but despite my regards for his extraordinary brilliance and erudition, I fail to agree with him on his judgments on caste and role of Brahmins. They have occupied the traditional avenues of family astrologer and priest, temple priest, cornering major share in all the jobs. One of the primary sources, namely begging has been left because of legal ban and improved job opportunities. His representation in all the political parties is many times more than his ratio in demographic makeup. In order to maintain his vantage position he is a staunch campaigner for continuance of English as medium of education, research and its use from judiciary to general administration.

This causes general unhappiness against him and this anguish is pumped back in history showing him crooked and despotic.
We have not to argue to cancel these allegations which may take us astray. What we underline is the naked truth that these are all economic problems not religious in nature. Work-division has nothing to do with belief system. There is nothing metaphysical, spiritual or devotional even in legal provisions whether just or unjust, that too when it is not immutable, but ideal according to one authority among many, each claiming to be the best, and individual is free to check and decide the best. It is interesting that even the civil code of the despots are advisory in nature, a licence, a freedom of choice not heard so far in any other state or civilisation.

There are institutions in Hindu society which give an illusion of religiously and have been criticised as such, but it was the duty of anthropologists to make in depth study of the same. They could not cross scholastic barriers imposed by the colonial scholars whose aim was to create academic drowsiness rather than awakening. Take for example pandagiri. They throng every ghat or pilgrimage site. They are relics of pre agrarian meeting stations of diverse bands on fixed days of the year near the river or waterbody in an identifiable locale. Their festivities lasted for days with utmost permissibility. When the lawgivers prohibited the pious not to cross the boundaries determined by them except for pilgrimage, they indirectly recalled that those far off sites were visited by the residents of the sacred land. Adi Shankaracharya only chose the station at the extreme points of the country, making special provisions, to encourage religious tourism and improve the awareness level of the home bound peasantry. These Pandas served almost as inns or hotels providing hospitality at nominal charge but realising service charges as charity, donation or defrauding them ttthem on other known pretexts. It is a business operation with legitimised cheating. Belief in sanctity of bath and maternal reverence for rivers and lakes and discharge point of sacred rivers (Ganga Sagar and Sarasvant) again is a primitive legacy.

The openness of Hinduism, showing respectful attitude to any one believing in any thing, with any life style, made those vices appear as vices of Hindu society after their distinct identity was forgotten. So are the most ancient survivals from gathering days. They’ve no place in
Hindu value system. The value system as honoured by all is the Sanatan dharm.

पुनर्विचार के लिए

मेरा समसामयिक विषयों का ज्ञान दूसरे बहुत सारे लोगों से कम है। उनसे मैं सीखना अधिक चाहता हूं। परंतु कुछ कारणों से अधिकांश लोगों का लेखन नितांत सतही और बतंगड़ लगता है। लक्ष्यनिर्धारित सोच और राजनीतिक दलों से हितावद्धता विचार पर हावी रहती है। इससे पढ़ने और ना पढ़ने में अंतर नहीं रह जाता। मेरी रुचि इस बात में नहीं है कौन जीतता है और कौन हारता है। इसमें लड्डूगोपालों की रुचि होती है। मेरी रुचि इस बात में अवश्य है कि किन नीतियों से देश किधर जाता है और हमारा कितना बुरा-भला होता है।

मैंने आज से तीन साल पहले यह आशा पाली थी कि मोदी का ‘सबका साथ. सबका विकास’ का नारा झांसा नहीं है। उन्होंने अपने अब तक के कारनामों से मुझे निराश नहीं किया। भाजपा और संघ के संबंध की ओर ध्यान दिलाते हुए मित्रों का कहना था वे चाहें तो भी राष्ट्रीय स्वयंसेवक संघ उनको अपनी संकीर्णता से आगे जाने नहीं देगा। लोग कहते आखिर भाजपा है ते संघ का ही मुखौटा। मैंने यह भरोसा जताया था कि मोदी में वह क्षमता है कि वह उसकी सोच में भी बदलाव ला सकें। दो दिन पहले मोहन भागवत के प्रेस सम्मेलन ने मेरी भविष्यवाणी को सही सिद्ध किया। इसे तीर न सही, तुक्का ही समझा जाए, परंतु मेरे सोचने का आधार यह था कि मोदी की महत्वाकांक्षाएं बहुत बड़ी है। वह विश्व फलक पर अपना नाम दर्ज कराना चाहते हैं और हिंदू राष्ट्रवाद की संकीर्णता से स्वयं को और संघ को भी बाहर जाने का प्रयत्न करेगे। मैंने लोकतंत्र और चुनाव प्रक्रिया की बाध्यताओं की याद दिलाते हुए कहा था राजनीति से दूर रहने वाले संगठन कट्टरता का सहारा ले सकते हैं, लोकतांत्रिक प्रक्रिया में अनगढ़ताएं दूर हो जाती हैं। अधिक से अधिक लोगों को साथ में लेकर चलने की बाध्यता कट्टरता को कम कर देती है। यही हुआ।

प्रणव मुखर्जी ने जो आज भारतीय राजनीति के सबके प्रबुद्ध, अनुभवी और बेदाग व्यक्ति हैं इससे पहले ही अपनी उपस्थिति और कथन से यह जता दिया था कि आज की अराजक सी हो चली स्थिति में संघ का राष्ट्रवाद अधिक भरोसे का है और उपलब्ध विकल्पों मे नरेन्द्र मोदी योग्यतम प्रशासक।

LIBRATING – 40
BRAHMNISM as TRADE AND COMMERCE

We have the first clear picture of Social relations and concerns in the Rigveda, but the events reflected or depicted in it may or may not be contemporary. Even the poets who appear to have composed those hymns may or may not be their authors but revered manes only, who are remembered in one Ric. इदं नम ऋषिभ्यः पूर्वजेभ्यः पूर्वेभ्यः पथिकृद्भ्यः । Reverent obeisance to the seers of the time gone by and to manes who set the course of progress. For example it is pointedly mentioned about Vasishtha, the legendary founder of Social division by birth, वर्णव्यवस्थाया: स्थातार:, that it was in his another birth that he was miraculously born out of the illumination of lightening विद्युतो ज्योति: परिसंजिहान: … तत्ते जन्मं अपरं वसिष्ठ। Similar previous births of Gautam is mentioned by none else but he (नाहमतो निरया दुर्गहैतत् तिरश्चता पार्श्वान्निर्गमाणि। बहूनि मे अकृता कर्त्वानि युध्यै त्वेन सं त्वेन पृच्छै ।। परायतीं मातरमन्वचष्ट न नानु गान्यनु नू गमानि । त्वष्टुर्गृहे अपिबत् सोममिन्द्रः शतधन्यं चम्वोः सुतस्य ।। 4.18. 2-3
)। The God Supreme, (परमेष्ठी, नारायण), and such other characters could hardly compose hymns. We should therefore have a larger view of the time and context of Rigvedic allusions. Even as recorded memory of the past, the glimpses do not help us in drawing a clear line of development. In fact the memories recorded in some of the later works are more helpful in drawing a picture of earlier times.

We may give a sketch of the problems of this parasite class taking hints from them and filling the gaps as faithfully as we can:
1. The new Brahmanical section, because of its inhibitions did neither take to agriculture nor own landed property. R.S. Sharma had very rightly observed that in the danstutis (दानस्तुति) there is no mention of land. But the inference that he drew was far from reality. It didn’t mean that the king did not own property in land but the poets weren’t interested in landed property.

As already mentioned the shift from gathering to service of the cultivators was a forced one. They had been defeated not exactly in battle but because of the burning of the woodland and appropriation of their territory by cultivators (देवासरायन् परशूँरबिभ्रन् वना वृश्चन्तो अभि विड्भिरायन् । नि सुद्र्वं दधतो वक्षणासु यत्रा कृपीटमनु तद्दहन्ति ।।10.28.8 ) The Devas came with their workforce, carrying axes, felling the trees. They kept apart the good timber in riverbeds and burnt the useless part. What is left unsaid is that in the process those who depended on the bounties of the woodland were left with the only option to serve those who dispossessed them, baring only one escape, that was exile. But the devas did not allow them even to escape either because of their fear that they may reorganize and attack them, or to force them to surrender and serve them. In recent history we have seen how the Bumihars of Bihar did not allow the land labourers to run to Punjab for better wages. The same appears to be the case with added injury to the Asuras.

We have earlier mentioned how because of the taboo on causing hurt or damage to nature, they used their expertise to serve the peasant joining as priests, technicians, miners, carpenters, smiths, potters,etc, but the rest lacking ingenuity had to help them in agricultural operations, gradually shouldering the entire burden of odd jobs, which must have taken time. We think they could not be accommodated as soldiers, because transferring defense could turn the table. They were so cautious on that score that they did not allow them to hold weapons. It is another thing that tribes switching over to agriculture, overcoming their taboos, entered en mass claiming kshatriya identity were admitted to the Varna fold taking the help of the Brahmins who were as eager to extend their clientele.

Our evidence defies the general misgiving that the Brahmins were responsible for keeping the Shudras in perpetual subjugation. We do not absolve them of their sins and sanctions. Their role has been more complex than our anthropologists have, in their idleness, depending on western ‘researchers’, made us believe. The Brahmins were never a hurdle to upward rise of anyone in social scale.

The process has been that firstly the aspirants had to improve their economic status and acquire necessary qualities and qualifications of the Varna, to which it intended to rise. For some time it had to claim that social status without others recognizing them as such. Then they arranged matrimonial relations offering their daughter with rich gifts to someone in that Varna, and thus meekly entering that Varna which after some time became normal. Brahmin did at no point become a hurdle. On the contrary he presided over the rituals for fee. Throughout the known history foreigners (The Greeks, Huns, Kashas, Sakas etc.) as well as Sudras and tribals made their entry into respective Varnas, but within the Varna, they were deftly discriminated against for generations till some outstanding feat by someone or many, all of a sudden, raised them in esteem and they boasted of superiority in relation to those who earlier looked down upon them. This process was applicable even to the Brahmins. In other words there was both overt and covert discrimination in all the Varnas, justifying three kannaujiyas; thirteen ovens (तीन कनौजिया तेरह चूल्हा).

We must return to the early stages of Varna economy and Varna relations. The Brahmins, as they adhered to the same subsistence pattern as was normal with elders, had no independent support base. It was not out of sheer indifference towards wealth or property that they remained totally parasites but was irony of a peculiar situation. They had no productive avocation either. Begging in absence of gifts and charity, became prime source of income.

We do not have any record of their plight, but even charity and praise showered on the patron, the praise and thanksgiving in return of food served even for a single meal, and some painful memories of such gifted ones who were later patronized as teacher, when they had to serve their son flour mixed water in their inability to arrange milk, do not give a good account of his economic conditions.

This anguish found its expression in his hardness towards the Shudras as the latter had a source of support which on an average was more stable, more respectful, and in case of skilled Shudras more self satisfying. The breach between his desire and material conditions was too wide. In Brahmanical remedies offering food to Brahmins is a recurring theme. Give, give on any pretence please. Give to earn credit of being liberal, give out of shame, and mind it, if you refuse to give you are likely to incur misery either out of Brahmins curse, or as a penalty for sin, so give out of fear (श्रिया देयम्, ह्रिया देयम्, भिया देयम).

More than poverty, the uncertainty of food, forced him to commit fraud, even crime. His extreme aversion towards Shudras was out of this very fact, otherwise he would not provide that in case a Shudra is well off, a Brahmin has the right to dispossess him of his wealth for sacrificial purposes. He had no means to execute his wish, that is another thing. His indifference towards wealth was a compensatory move to maintain his social position, whereas his incitement to gift and donations was a part of hard reality faced by him.