India Theme: Order Through Society Lesson 20

Roots of Hinduism: The Vedas The Vedas (“Wisdom”) were collections of prayers and hymns of the Indo-European Aryans who migrated into India around 1500 B.C. Reflect the knowledge that priests needed to carry out their functions The Aryans developed a social structure with sharp distinctions between individuals and groups according to the occupations and roles in society These distinctions became the basis of the caste system Brahmins (priests) were at the top of the caste system Fanciful depiction of the Indo-Aryans entering India

Roots of Hinduism: The Vedas The Vedas required ritual sacrifices by which the Aryans hoped to win favor of the gods Gods required constant attention Proper honor for the gods required households to have brahmins perform no less than five sacrifices per day As time passed, many Aryans, to include the brahmins became dissatisfied with the sacrificial cults of the Vedas, viewing them as sterile rituals rather than genuine means of communicating with the gods Sought something to satisfy their spiritual longings

Roots of Hinduism: The Dravidians Beginning about 800 B.C., many individuals retreated into the forests of the Ganges Valley, lived as hermits, and contemplated on the relationships between human beings, the world, and the gods They drew inspiration from the Dravidians who believed human souls took on new physical forms after the death of their bodily hosts Transmigration and reincarnation: An individual soul could depart one body at death and become associated with another body through a new birth Idyllic representation of the Dravidians before the arrival of the Indo-Aryans

Roots of Hinduism: The Upanishads Aryan and Dravidian values began to blend The Upanishads were Indian reflections and dialogues from around 800-400 B.C. that reflected basic Hindu concepts Upanishads means “a sitting in front of” and refers to the practice of disciples gathering before a sage for discussion of religious issues

Roots of Hinduism: The Upanishads Upanishads taught that appearances are deceiving, that individual human beings are not separate and autonomous creatures Instead, each person participates in a larger cosmic order and forms a small part of a universal soul (Brahman) The physical world is a theater of change instability, and illusion The Brahman is an external, unchanging, permanent foundation of all things that exist– the only genuine reality

Roots of Hinduism: The Upanishads Individuals souls were born into the physical world not once, but many times Souls appear most often as humans, but sometimes as animals, plants, or other vegetable matter The highest goal of the individual soul is to escape this cycle of birth and rebirth and enter into permanent union with Brahman

Roots of Hinduism: Teachings of the Upanishads Samsara Upon death, individual souls go temporarily to the World of the Fathers and then return in new incarnation Karma “Now as a man is like this or like that, according as he acts and according as he behaves, so will he be: a man of good acts will become good, a man of bad acts, bad. He becomes pure by pure deeds, bad by bad deeds.” Brhadaranyaka Upanishad

Roots of Hinduism: Teachings of the Upanishads Mosksha The goal (escaping the cycle of rebirth) A deep, dreamless sleep that came with permanent liberation from physical incarnation Obtained by asceticism and meditation Separation from the physical world to merge with Brahman Shiva: The Lord of Yoga meditating on Mount Kailasa in the Himalayas

The Emergence of Popular Hinduism Bhagavad Gita Short poem finalized around 400 A.D. which represented the new Hindu ethical teaching that promised salvation to those who participated actively in the world and met their caste responsibilities Contrast with the Upanishads that taught that individuals could escape the cycle of incarnation only through renunciation and detachment from the world

The Emergence of Popular Hinduism Bhagavad Gita and other new teachings made life easier for the lay classes Individuals should meet their responsibilities in a detached fashion without striving for reward or recognition Perform your duties faithfully, concentrating on your actions alone, with no thought of the consequences

Four Principal Aims of Human Life Dharma Obedience to religious and moral laws Artha The pursuit of economic well-being and honest prosperity Kama The enjoyment of social, physical, and sexual pleasure Moksha The salvation of the soul A proper balance of dharma, artha, and kama would help an individual attain moksha

Popularity Spreads As devotional Hinduism evolved and became increasingly distinct from the Upanishads and the brahmins, its appeal spread across Indian society Hinduism gradually displaced Buddhism as the most popular religion in India Buddhist monks began to confine themselves to their monasteries rather than actively seeking to spread their message

Aryan Social Order Aryan social hierarchy served to maintain order and stability that other societies such as Mesopotamia, Egypt, and China maintained through state and political structures The term caste comes from the Portuguese word casta meaning a social class of hereditary and usually unchangeable status Coined by Portuguese merchants and mariners who visited India during the 16th Century

Caste and Varna As the Aryans settled in India they interacted with more people to include the darker-skinned Dravidians The Aryans began using the word varna meaning “color” to refer to the major social classes This suggests that social distinctions arose partly from differences in skin color

Varnas After about 1000 B.C., Aryans increasingly recognized four main varnas Brahmins (priests) Kshatriyas (warriors and aristocrats) Vaishyas (cultivators, artisans, and merchants) Shudras (landless peasants and serfs)

Untouchables Some centuries later, the Aryans added the category of untouchables The untouchables performed dirty or unpleasant tasks such as butchering animals or handling dead bodies Such work made them become so polluted that their very touch could defile individuals of higher status Members of the untouchable class dispose of corpses after the 2004 tsunami

Subcastes (Jati) Until about the 6th Century, the four varnas were sufficient to maintain the desired social distinctions, but increased urbanization and specialization demanded a more complex hierarchy Jati emerged as subcastes Largely determined by occupation By the 18th and 19th Centuries there were several thousand jati Even untouchables had jati and some looked down on others as more polluted and miserable than themselves

Castes and Subcastes Prescribed an individual’s role in society in the minutest of detail Members of the same jati ate together, intermarried, and cared for their own sick Elaborate rules dictated how members of different jati addressed each other and communicated Violation of the rules could result in expulsion from the larger group

Social Order Individuals came to identify themselves more closely with their jati than with their cities or states The caste system served as the principal foundation of social stability in India, doing what states and empires did to maintain public order elsewhere

Mobility There were some provisions for movement between classes, but individual upward mobility was not easy More often it occurred for a group as members of a jati improved their condition collectively The caste system did enable foreign people to find a place in Indian society

Expansion of the Caste System As more people migrated to India, especially Turks and Muslim merchants, the caste system continued to provide order Immigrant groups gained recognition as distinct groups under the umbrella of the caste system Established codes of conduct both within their group and in their interactions with others

Caste and Economic Development Since jati was so closely tied to occupation they often took the form of workers’ guilds that were able to powerfully represent the group’s interests Merchants and artisans established distinct jati based on their particular type of commerce or industry

Geographic Expansion At first the caste system was confined to northern India where the Aryans had first entered As commercial relationships pushed south, the caste system took hold there as well By the 11th Century the caste system was the principal basis of social organization in southern India

Caste in India Today The preamble of India's constitution forbids negative public discrimination on the basis of caste. In reality, caste ranking and caste-based interaction continue More prominent in the countryside than in urban settings and more in the realms of kinship and marriage than in less personal interactions “The National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR) is part of a wider struggle to abolish ‘untouchability’ and to ‘cast out caste’. ‘Untouchability’ and caste discrimination continue to be a brutal reality for more than 160 million Dalits living in India today, despite the fact that more than half a century has passed since India was born as a ‘democratic’ and independent state.” http://www.dalits.org/

How were populations controlled in India?

How were populations controlled in India? Caste system Maintains order by assigning an individual to a place in the social hierarchy and establishes a rigid code of behavior based on that assignment Allows immigrant groups to find a place in society by recognizing them as distinct groups within the overall system

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