Classes and castes in ancient India

 

I. PRETEXT EXERCISES

Ex. 1. Make sure you know how to pronounce the following terms-realia:

 

Ex. 2. Practice the pronunciation of the following words:

classes, castes, conscious, ordained, untouchable, violating, associate, defilement, feature.

 

Ex. 3. Guess the meaning of the words:

emphasis, assimilate, warrior, extremely, subdivide, occupation, ostracism, contrariwise, diet, patriarchal attitudes.

 

Ex. 4. Look at the title of the text. Do you expect to find political, economic, sociological or religious information in it?

Ex. 5. Answer the following questions:

1. Is the concept of castes a universal notion or is it unique for India?

2. Does the division into castes exist nowadays?

3. What is your attitude towards caste system?

 

 

II. TEXT VI

CLASSES AND CASTES

A distinctive feature of the brahman religion was an emphasis on human differences. The Aryans were extremely conscious of the possibility that the native peoples of India might well assimilate them. The caste sys-tem prevented that from happening. Brahmans taught that the caste sys­tem was, in fact, divinely ordained.

This story appears within the Rig Veda. One of the gods was responsible for human creation. The first people appeared from his mouth. This was the priestly class, the brahmans. The second class came out of his arms. The rajas and the kshatriyas (the warriors) were members of this class. From his legs the vaishyas came. These were the landowners, artisans, and merchants. Finally, there were the shudras, drawn from his feet. The consequence required the shudras to become peasant farmers. All who were of Aryan ancestry fit somewhere within these classes.

The indigenous Indian people, those Dravidians present before the Aryan invasion, were pariahs. They fell outside the Aryan classes. Another name for them was untouchables, for no one in a caste would get near them for fear of pollution. They formed the lowest group of all Indian society, doing the hardest work. Even within the class of untouchables, there was a distinction between sweepers and tanners and those whose jobs required dealing with human waste.

Each of the Aryan classes subdivided into what the Indians called varnas, but what Europeans knew as castes. The castes became thousands in number, each occupation having its own, and each thought of as better or worse than all others. A person's birth determined to which caste he or she belonged. The caste not only determined one's occupation but also the rank in society, diet, and choice of marriage partners. The brahmans saw to it that the walls between the castes were kept rigid. Anyone violating the rules of caste was punished with beating and ostracism from the community, which could well mean death.

Should people in the higher castes associate with anyone of a lower one, they risked becoming ritually unclean. Brahman men and women had to be careful not to get too close to someone not on their level. They had to drink from their own wells, lest they incur defilement.

The brahmans taught that whatever caste a man or woman happened to be born into was the result of an earlier life. If a person had good karma at the end of his or her life, then it was possible to ascend into a higher caste or class. Contrariwise, a person without good karma, even a brahman, could fall back a step. Therefore, the Upanishads gave Indian society a set of values that rewarded good actions and threatened punishment for bad ones. Eventually, when a man or woman had gained enough karma, moshka occurred and the person went out of personal existence.

What explains the caste system? There are several explanations, but the most probable was the fear of the light-skinned Aryans that they would be completely submerged by the larger, darker Dravidian population. The loss of their ethnic superiority appeared to them the ultimate disaster. To prevent this from happening, rigid class and caste lines prohibited intermarriage and social contacts with the indigenous people, allowing the Aryans to keep their superior status and ethnic purity.

When other peoples later arrived in India, the brahmans made room for them, placing them into a caste, ranking them with those who had come earlier. In this way they ensured the stability of society.

Among the Aryans, and it was their values that counted, families more than individuals mattered. Every member had his or her duties and responsibilities. When confronted with the need to chose between individual happiness or the family welfare, it was always the family's concerns that won out. Sometimes four generations lived under the same roof, especially among the wealthy. Most peasants had nuclear families, with only father, mother, and children living in the house.

Indian women had to cope with very patriarchal attitudes. They did not make their own decisions. Parents arranged their marriages, and once wedded, they came to live in the home of their husband. The major duty of a wife was to give birth to sons. Some outstanding women became teachers and poets in early Aryan society, but later these opportunities closed.

Notes

 

Hinduism is one of the world religions. It is the chief religion of India which includes belief in destiny and reincarnation.

A Hindu (the Hindus) is a person whose religion is Hinduism.

Hindu is an adjective for everything belonging to Hinduism, e.g. a Hindu temple.

Hindustani is a language spoken in India together with Urdu (which is mainly the language of the Muslim population of modern India and Pakistan).

Hindi is a literary form of Hindustani.

 

Thus, do not mix up:

 

Hindu — a Hindu — the Hindus — Hinduism are religious terms,

asfor an Indian, it is a nationality word.

 

III. READING SKILLS