LIBERATING INDIAN MIND- 35
RELIGION and BRAHMANISM (ii)

This problem has vexed for decades, but I could not find an answer. how little we see of what we claim to see! The Rig Veda is full of contradictions. I noted contradictions in the Ramayan, and made good use of these contradictions in my creative work. A similar contradiction was noted by me in Mahabharat that shows that the historical event must be quite at variance with what is available in the epic. I was embarrassed to note that Brahmanical superiority has been advocated by the those intellectuals whom conservative Brahmins never give any importance because they came from the Asura background. In fact only they were the careers of our legendary past through gathas and Puranas (गाथया पुराणया पुनानं अभ्यनूषत) and, dance and drama.

Let’s play a bit safe. our evidence is strewn throughout our tradition in different forms and genre. let us piece them together but first we should make a stock taking.
1. Bharat Muni the author of Natya Shastra (नाट्यशास्त्र) reminds us of a time, which by our reckoning falls in Vedic time-bracket, when for the first time drama was staged by the Asuraj, on the theme centring Indra and Vritra battle.

2. This tradition survives in Kinnaur (किन्नौर) where like Ramalila (रामलीला) something like Vritraliila (वृत्रलीली) is enacted and the festival runs through a month, as informed by a learned friend of mine.

3. There are a number of hymns called samvad Suktas (संवादसूक्त/ वाकोवाक्य), which support the hypothesis that drama was one of the entertainments of the Vedic society..

4. A replica of mask with horns, found from a Harappan site, vindicates the claim.

5. Scholars have vaguely noted the subtle differences between the oral traditions and the Vedic accounts and have not been able to work it out.

6. The Rigvedic tradition upholds yajna (यज्ञ) as the most auspicious work (श्रेष्ठतमं कर्मं) but a Vedic poet is known for having discarded the Yajna (हता मखं न भृगव:), and yet he finds a revered position among the luminaries. Of all the seers, it is Bhrigu and The Bhargvas who carried the loom of tradition.What we call MANUSMRITI is in fact Bhrigushastra (एतत् वोऽयं भृगु:
शास्त्रं श्रावयिष्यति अशेषत:, मनुस्मृति १.५९)

7. But despite his illustrious position the Seer is admired for his skills in carpentry- making wheel, chariot. We may also add ship building to this inventory.

8. Another illustrious seer, Angiras, reminds us of the Agarias (आगरिया) who are experts in metallurgy and mining. We find him breaking rocks with hammer (अद्रिं भिनत् अंगिरसा रवेण), and yet there is the an ambition to emulate him (दिवस्पुत्रा अंगिरसा भवेम).

9. Jamadagni falls in the line of Bhrigu, he appears to have made some innovation in graffiti, in Puranic literature he is shown to be the father of legendary Parashuram, a late creation, but Jamadagni enjoys parity with Vashishtha (गृणाना जमदग्निवत् स्तुवाना च वसिष्ठवत्).

10. Another outstanding figure Vishvamitra, is allegedly the son of Gathin (गाधि of the epics) the carrier of traditional loom. He is Kaushik a generic name (reminiscent of kash/ kash who appear to have been far widespread than we can grasp). The Kushikas took a lead in promoting Indra Cult, to undermine fire cult, making the latter subservient to the former. Indra is said to be their creation, he is Kaushik (आ तू न इन्द्र कौशिक), and one of his epithets is Shakra (again reminding us of Shakas, who also had wide presence in India, following the natural catastrophe called glaciation, and had become part of the Indian demographics.
10.1 It mustn’t be forgotten that Indra by every reckoning is a new God who has to struggle to establish his supremacy.

11. Twashta (त्वष्टा), is at times identified with the Sun god and Fire, but the use of fire he makes is not for burning forests and savanna outgrowth but to make weapons. He makes that lightening-like missiles for Indra (त्वष्टा तत वज्रं स्वर्यं ततक्ष), who himself strikes the Vritrass. We must not forget that Vritra is a chimerical word meaning (1) clouds. (2). The banks of rivers, (3) the rocks or boulders obstructing watercourse, (4) Asuras surrounding the Devas/Brahmanas, (5) enemies in general, (6) anything that encloses/surrounds something, (7) soma juice which is thrice enclosed, (8) moon that contains soma etc. He himself is Asura. (It is apparently strange that an Asura is arming his rank enemy to destroy his own people.

12. Vishvarupa (विश्वरूपा) the son of Twashta who was next to Brahma (चतुरानन, with four heads) with his three heads(त्रिशिर) three mouths, six eyes(षडक्ष), is beheaded by Indra for the reason that he enjoyed all the bounties available to men and gods with something special to Asuras, or because he is more prosperous.

13. Tvashta although does not refuge service to Indra but takes revenge on him by inviting him for a soma drink and secretly poisons it. Indra as a result suffers from such an acute dysentery that all the pores of his body start bleeding. He repents and performs Sautrmani (सौत्रामणि) as penance the only occasion on which Brahmans drank wine.

14. Vishvamitra, the most influential seers is said to be making desperate efforts, but is not granted status of a traditional Brahmin, and his extraordinary ability to make graphic signs so improved that all the things and ideas could be expressed as if it was a creation parallel to the creator, is ridiculed even for his achievements in the style that Bauddha/ Buddhist and Jains were ridiculed later.

15. All the Seers with Asura Background, i.e. who rejected yajna or clearing land for agriculture by burning and formal yajna adopted the course of personal enlightenment, that is meditation and attainment of bliss, were severed from the original Brahmans, despite their claim to Bramanis.

16. Despite this arrogance of the Brahmanas with Deva background the loom bearers of tradition, i.e., vyasas, or scholars with Asura background are the only ones, that take extraordinary interest in collecting the almost lost Vedas and Puranas. Conventional Brahmins are not known for this extra-ordinary feat.

17. It is the Brahmins not accepted as ‘real’ Brahmins who wrote the Mahabharat, Ramayan,, Gita, Manusmriti, Natyashastra etc. that made strongest plea for supremacy of the Brahmanas as a Varna, the inevitability of caste system and yet were never granted that status and occasionally humiliated by the same Brahmanas.

18. The most unexpected thing is that they made provisions for the Shudras who much like them had come from the same Asura background after they were deprived of their territory due to constant encroachment of the Devas who being better organised and fire as their weapon which the wild tribes could not afford to use because it amounted to the same destruction, helplessly surrendered to the agriculturists and shouldered all those tasks that were tabooed and because of which they had so long resisted..

All these puzzling problems have only one convergence point and that is the entry at an early stage into the Brahmanical category reserved earlier for elders.

But there are still some suspicions which we shall rais़

LIBERATING INDIAN MIND -34
RELIGION and BRAHMANISM (i)

Brahmanism is not an order, but a conglomerate of numerous disarray developments some of these coming from gathering days. They include rites, rituals, practices, beliefs, and even worship and sacrifices from non-violent to merciless killing of animals which were a threat to agriculture. More than anything it is a clever design to misappropriate without sweating the best of all produced by others through knowledge control even those through such a mechanism that the armed and moneyed sections which protected and provided must not get disgruntled. Nevertheless it kept them dependent on him for information and counselling. It is the same role that west started to play right from the day it learned this secret from the Brahmins.*

Brahmanism is a new coinage, with no authority nor mention in earlier texts and yet as a tendency it has a hoary past penetrating into the gathering day’s Magician priests. Yes, cunningness has a long and inglorious past to make the cunning proud. The term Brahman itself had come into use with cleaning the land of shrubs and outgrowths by fire.

Initially the arrangement was so flawless and just, that the entire society felt proud to kneel before them and really must have offered them the best : they were their own elders, their own future, and closer to their manes. But they were past productive age. If unable to produce corn, they were also past the age to produce off springs. There was no way they could make privileges offered to them hereditary.

How and at what stage some clever men managed to enter this idle class, free from all risks and strains, and yet able to control the protectors and producers claiming secret knowledge through which to to keep the forces of nature in good humor and get relief from drought and epidemics is beyond our comprehension. All we can guess is that with gradual drift of indecisive environmentalists (Rakshasas) towards agriculture, some witches might have entered the network and moderated the despise of the agriculturists towards witchcraft (kritya कृत्या, yaatu. यातु), recycling it into sacrificial rituals (कर्मकांड), emulating agricultural operations, known as formal (yajna (यज्ञ the art of causing rain and indirectly promoting production).

This may be true or not, we have nothing better than this inference which of course is built on slender bits of information. What is more interesting is that whereas the Devas had clearly cut themselves off the gathering stage, these entrants appear never to have severed their connections with the past. They readjusted and reshaped everything to make the accord more acceptable.

Looking at the fact that the teacher of Asuras, Sukrachrya (शुक्राचार्य) is not remembered with any less reverence than the teacher of the Devas, Brihaspati (बृहस्पति) and in the Gita, poet Ushana ( उशना, i.e. शुक्राचार्य) is rated above all the other poets. The Supreme God declares himself to be Ushana among poets, (कवीनां उशना कवी). Through their entry into the category of elders who took upon them the role of teachers of the infants, and counsellors for the workforce, irrespective of their age, they saved themselves from the taboos attached to agricultural operations. As such there is greater likelihood that Brahmanism was initiated by the late comer, tricksters, who transformed division of work, Varna, into hereditary caste system and stratified the Varna and ashram Dharma.

In fact the three Ashramas were inherent in the old scheme the fourth introduced at this stage was a return to the cherished way of life, much in tune with the popular desire to die at the birthplace.

The contradictions of value-systems were resolved by these Asuras who were eager to take benefit of the agricultural How close have my inferences reached to that of Kosambi regarding the origins of the Brahmanism and yet how different it is astonishes me. But Kosambi was driven by vengeance and had no other ground but his reverie, We have abundant documentary evidence driving us to the inevitable conclusion.

We shall examine Brahmanism in this background with evidence relied by us in the coming post.

*n.b.This miyan ki juti miyan ke sar (मियां की जूती मियां के सर) experiment was so successful in Bengal and Benaras that they practiced it universally with extraordinary deft combining it with physical force that even those clung to them who they were out to destroy and disposes of their buried treasures.

आसमां में पहुंच के देखाे तो
यह जमीं आसमां में नाचती है।

जवानी का चित्र देख कर

निगाहों में सपने वही हैं यहां भी
सँजोते जिन्हें रह गए हम अधूरे।

निगाहों में सपने वही हैं यहां भी
सँजोते जिन्हें रह गए हम अधूरे ।

LIBERATING INDIAN MIND -33
TECHNOLOGICAL CHALLENGE

This history preserved in memory for six to eight thousand years could not be a narrative but a struggle to reach the truth, and as such it could be a creation out of the bits of information choreographed picturesquely on the mind. Data from many stages mixed to make the picture vivid. Had I been writing history, we could pass on to the next stage from where we ended. We are scrutinizing the bulk of un-examined and misunderstood aspects of our culture so we think wise to analyse some of them.
Division of Land. There are many hints suggesting that like any other animal humans could move at their will without any restriction and yet they remained confined to defined geographical boundaries as we find in animal world and among birds. Even migratory birds do not cover the entire earth. Animals like zebra, Kangaroo, and ostrich, elephants, tigers are limited to specified zone. Stone tools give indication of a mega beat which in southern India concluded in MP, while the other in northwest spread from MP in India to Caspian and Mediterranean Seas, and yet a third from eastern India to to south-east Asia and its islands. We know nothing in detail. There are many versions of delimitation of gathering area within the mega beat zones. As the entire humanity was stuck up at hunting-gathering stage, the division was sure to be among the Asuras alone. If it was caused by the pioneers of agriculture who “madly’ damaged the ecology, and so limitations were imposed to keep them off, we can not be sure.
The legends that came down vary in detail but reach the same conclusion that the devas were refused any territory to them. As a prelude to Kauravas refusal to give any share (सूच्यग्रं न दास्यामि विना युद्धेन केशव) the Devas are denied any territory wherein they could conduct their experiments, and they had to resort to tricks to dispossess the Asuras of a much larger area than their due. After all these pioneers were initially a smal band.*
{*nb. देवाश्च वा असुराश्च, उभये प्राजापत्याः …अथ ह असुरा मेनिरे अस्माकं खलु इदं भुवनमिति। ते होचुः, हन्तेमां पृथिवीं विभजामहै ता विभज्य उपजीवेम इति। तद् वै देवा सुश्रुवुः। विभजन्ते ह वा असुराः पृथिवीं प्रेत तत ईष्यामो यत्र इमाम् असुरा विभजन्ते के ततः स्याम यत अस्मै न भजेमहीति ते यज्ञं एव विष्णुं पुरस्कृत्य ईयुः। ते ह ऊचुः, अनु नो अस्यां पृथिवीं आभजताः त्वे इव अस्यां भाग इति। ते ह असुरा असूयन्त इव ऊचुः यावत् वै एष विष्णुः अभिशेते तावत् वो दद्म इति।}
The rest of the legen is common knowledge. Vishnu was a spark of fire and once permitted they raised the fire to such a flagration that the Asuras had to flee for their safety.

Much remains unstated in this episode which agitates against other versions of the conflict. For example, their plight and flight in every quarter to escape the fury of the Asuras. But if we look at the place names with deva as the core, and the deva title continuing till this day we find such names throughout tribal belt in northern India at least. From Bhunjdeva of Chhatisgarh to Deua of Nepal and Deva of Bengal. That puts an affirmative stamp to the claim of the Devas that they sprang from the same background as the Asuras and differed only in their determination to introduce a change in subsistence pattern at whatever cast.

There were fierce protests and bloody sacrifices by the Devas or Brahmanas and the rakshasas were coercive no doubt. This fact is also borne out by many versions, from birth of Sita out of the pitcher filled with blood of the Brahmanas and buried under earth, to Puranic and Brahmanic episodes. The furrowmark deified as Sita and adulated as such occurs in RV as well.^
{^nb अर्वाची सुभगे भव सीते वन्दामहे त्वा। यथा नः सुभगासिस यथा नः सुफलासिस॥ ४.०५७.०६}

It was difficult for the Devas to defeat the ever present and dominant Asuras who kept them in a state of constant awe even after they had been themselves hounded out to secluded corners as at the earliest stage the Devas.

Victory of the Devas over Asuras was not a victory in face to face conflict, but one of the technological superiority. There is linguistic and literary evidence to show that gradually a substantial number of those who earlier opposed agricultural option switched over to agriculture that added to the numerical strength of the Devas. Agricultural prosperity was the greatest attraction:**
{**साकमेधेन वै देवाज्ञ वृत्रं अघ्नन तेन एवव्यजयन्त। )

It was not the defeat of a people. It was not limited to India alone. Revolutions are not completed in a day. They are not made successful with might of armed men or advanced weaponry. Armies and weapons fail in the face of more just and sustaining economic order which redefines social order.

मिला तुमसे वह शायद जख्म ही था
बहुत दिन बाद फिर तुम याद आए ।
उधर देखो, लगे भगवान ही हैं
चले जो जा रहे हैं सिर झुकाए।।

There are thee types f communists: Stocholders, stockbrokers, Share holders.Publicly they go as parties, organizations, the cadres. As insignia they flaunt flags, badges and amulets. None applies Marxism in thought, ethos and analysis.

LIBERATING INDIAN MIND – 32
Division of Work

Agriculture is the grandmother of culture. Agricultural technology is most complicated, most diversified , and yet diversifying a technology. It is as good as the mother of all sciences, arts and philosophy, including all the crimes. It is a new epoch in our traditional history called The Manu Age. The Age of agricultural production.d

Despite this truism, we think, even today, agriculture to be the simplest and the crudest vocation to be efficiently handled even by a man with less than average intelligence. Know you why? Because it demands maximum physical toil, utmost alertness, sacrificial self surrender, extraordinary patience, forbearance and fortitude that clever people mostly lack or shirk from. They, like gamblers, want too much with too little stake and corrupt the incorruptible in numerous ways.

But in the beginning it demanded all these qualities multiplied many times. What looks so common a beginning astonishes me. I fail to imagine the indomitable determination of the pioneers who bore with all the odds, even bloody opposition of their own brothers whom they now recalled as step brothers (सपत्न), and inevitable expulsion from all the corners. Numerically they were none entity (कनीयस्विन इव वै देवा आसन् भूयस्विनो ऽसुराः। ) Physically they neither were more stout nor more courageous. They were affraid of Asuras (ते असुररक्षसेभ्यः आसंगात् बिभयांश्चक्रुः, शतपथ). What could have been the driving force that they faced all the ordeals and yet did not deter. I think it was just their extra-ordinary sensitiveness. They could not tolerate the death during the lean days of infants, feeble, sick, elderly but not old, and even the able bodied due to starvation. They just wanted to produce the seed bearing choice grasses (वरुण प्रघास) in sufficient quantity so that they could sustain the chain of lean periods when there was little fruit , nut or tuber. It was the women who took the lead in agriculture and perhaps they ruled the family, the kulpatni, not the kulpati, as has comedown in our male-centered tradition while enough hints are there to show that women enjoyed more dignified position. But this is just an offshoot.

How arduous was the job when man had no weapons, no instruments, except his vision and compulsion to look for a dependable source of livelihood.

At the gathering stage he had nothing to carry, nothing to store, plucked and ate -ते वै असुरा:… स्व स्व आस्ये जुह्लतश्चेरु: – no need to fetch water. Thy reached the water source to quench their thirst, to wash and clean them. No cloth to wash, no utensils to care for. But plants could not walk up to the water source. To save their crops they had to invent devices to make it possible. hollow in the horn, sculls of dead animals available here and there and later use of mature and dry bottle gourd and still later the hollow of the bamboo.

But look, this simple task of irrigation was so exacting, not to talk of the protection of crop from animals as ferocious as water buffalo, rhino, and as swift as herds of gaval (नीलगाय, घोड़रोज), deer. and as sly as hare/mouse on the one hand and as sneaky and fearsome as wolves, jackals, cats from hyena to tiger. But none was more formidable than the roaming bands of gatherers in the vicinity who had no moral reserve outside their tribe and therefore commited any offence, even poisoning to kill their domesticated animal.

This small enterprising group was variously named as Devas(देव), Baram/Brahmans (बरम/ब्राह्मण) and Suras (सुर) by different speech-groups. The first two names were initially derogatory in the modern sense of arsonist as they resorted to use of fire to burn the wild outgrowths that had been the source of provision earlier, to clear the land for agricultural operations and even to deter the pressure and assault of the Asuras (अग्निर्वै रक्षसां अगहन्ता. It is clear that deva and baram denoted fire and later underwent semantic improvements. The last one denoted production.

Agicultural production demanded division of the group to ensure smooth operation with adequate protection. We cannot imagine the nature and dimensions of the challenge, especially from sunset to sunrise; the courage and patience, self control to keek awakened in the night. As such the healthiest and brave young ones were drafted for this hazardous duty to save the ‘family’ from damage. क्षतात किल त्रायत इति उदग्र क्षत्रस्य शब्द: भुवनेषु रूढ़:| They were required to be in the best of health and fondly offered the best nourishment, beloved of all as they were. (२) Elderly once, the sick, toddlers, and infants who could neither Work were spared physical chores but the elder once had to take care of the rest. Their job can in modern terminology was the entertainment and teaching them necessary skills, to attending the sick and offer their advice as and when needed. This could be the initial form of Brahmin cast of later days. (3) All the rest comprised the working team who devoted their energies to physical work- scratching / tilling, sowing, irrigating, cropping, separating, grinding, processing or storing, cooking with namesake crude and simple aids and devices. It was labour intensive, risk-free, community sensitive operation, which possessed the entire wealth, provided all and was happy with if it had to face some material inconvenience. Naturally it formed the Vaishya Varna. These three could be called the earliest Aryans तिस्र: प्रजा आर्या ज्योतिरग्रा. The elder ones through their advice became the rudimentary lawgivers and the seniermost among them played the role of the Kulapati. This defines why Manu the originator of agriculture was called the first king i.e. Kshatriya, the first producer or the Vaishya and the first lawgiver.

Enormously different from this self reliant and industrious society was the leisure loving, art and dance loving, nature worshipping, loosely bound protectionist राक्षस, abstaining from productive activities (असुर) mutually sharing and ready to donate even its best (दानव) collectives surviving on bounties of nature, thought to be idle and mentally backward. They did not wage war, but kept constantly to reverse the process or at leat contain the former while they kept their pressures all along and we, in a way, are still fighting devasura war with a minute difference that on moral ground or under some strategy to re-establish the classless and discrimination free society a section of visionary youths from the devas have joined hands with the Rakshasas and are continuing a loosing battle.
It must be mentioned that with this unwritten understanding of duties came into existence the Varna-Dharma which has been so emphatically and uniformly mentioned in all the lawbooks. The rigorous part of the duties of the Vaishyas was transferred to those who were late to realise their mistakes or under serious deprivation caused because of numerous factors came to offer their services to the devas in exchange of food, or agreed to use their skills to meet their requirements. They were called the Shudras. This is what our traditional history as recorded in Puranic accounts- those who came repenting- shudatah – were called the Shudras. The Purush Sukta, mentions in its own style the birth of all the Varnas from Brahm, but it was the original unit called, as we have seen, by many names- Brahmana, Deva, Sura, and later Aryans – and that Brahm was personification of the same unit with thousands of feet, and thousands heads and thousands eyes, and only this could and did self divid itself, after the productive obligations, i.e. Yajna.

Herein lies the secret how the two were freed from productive labour. Why the Brahmanas called themselves bhudeva, bhusura, and intermediary between humans and the gods, and why they were called fire incarnate.

जाने कितने 22 अगस्त बीते, किसी को परसाई याद नहीं आए। हिन्दी में वह अकेले प्रेमचन्द की बराबरी के लेखक हैं।