As I've mentioned in some reading notes, the Indian caste system really interests me so this week I did some extra research on it. I started by following a link from the Mahabharata to Varna, the Sanscrit word meaning class. This led me to Purusha Sukta, the hymn where varna is first mentioned. However, many scholars like Max Muller believe that the part about the varnas was not apart of the original text. He believed that the Vedas is a form of nature worship which I might agree with concerning earlier Hindu texts, but definitely not the ones that we have been reading for this class.Image: Pyramid of Indian Caste System, Wikimedia Commons
Oh how interesting that you were interested about learning about the caste system! I don't know what you learned, but here's the truth: the caste system was created by the British and stuck around even after the British left India. Even today, there are conservative villages where you can see the caste system being used. Honestly, it's somewhat sickening to see the caste system being used today, even though it is something that the true Indian didn't even create.
ReplyDeleteI find the sociological implications of the caste system to be incredibly concerning/fascinating... having such a heavily stratified society, especially based around religion, is an incredibly powerful tool for social control. It reminds me a lot of the Great Chain of Being that governed social interactions and was used by the ruling class to subjugate the working/servant classes.
ReplyDeleteWell, this is a very interesting and challenging wikipedia trails post! I could definitely spend faaarrrr too much time going down the rabbit hole on the Indian caste system as well. I'm not so sure I completely agree with Dhruti's comment above, although I do acknowledge that, yes, I am sure the British emphasized/exploited the caste system for personal gain, certainly, but have we not seen the caste system played out and mentioned in the Indian epics we have been reading this semester? I seem to recall one of the Pandava brothers, Arjuna, perhaps, going away from his brothers for a while to learn a special Bramastra. During that time, he endures extreme pain in his leg while his guru is sleeping upon him, but he does not wake his guru. When his guru wakes up, he realizes only one of the Kshatriya caste could have endured such pain, therefore his guru outs him for not being a true Brahmin (and only a Brahmin would be allowed to learn the Brahmastra). He allows him to still remember the Brahmastra, but curses him so that he will forget how to use it in the house of his need. This would seem to indicate that the caste system was acknowledged and somewhat in play during the time of the Indian Epics....
ReplyDelete