History of India/Volume 1/Chapter 21

by Romesh Chunder Dutt

CHAPTER XXI

CASTE IN THE AGE OF LAWS AND PHILOSOPHY

IN trying to reduce the caste-system into a code of rigid rules, the Sutrakaras of the period met with difficulty from the very first. They firmly believed that there were originally but four castes among men, Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, and Sudras; but they actually found around them various other castes, formed by tribes of non-Aryans, who had gradually entered into the Hindu fold and formed low Hindu castes. Believing that all mankind was originally divided into only four castes, the Sutrakaras tried to evolve the new castes from the four parent castes. The fiction was then conceived that the new castes were formed by intermarriages among the parent castes. Thus Vasishtha, from whom other Sanskrit authorities vary but in detail, says:—

"The offspring of a Sudra and a Brahman woman becomes a Chandala.

"That of a Sudra and Kshatriya woman, a Vaina.

"That of a Sudra and Vaisya woman, an Antyavasayi.

"The son begotten by a Vaisya on a Brahman woman becomes a Bamaka. "The son begotten by a Vaisya on a Kshatriya woman, a Paulkasa.

WOMAN CARRYING WATER.

"The son begotten by a Kshatriya on a Brahman woman becomes a Suta.

"Children begotten by Brahmans, Kshatriyas, and Vaisyas on women of the next lower, second lower, and third lower castes become respectively Ambashthas, Ugras, and Nishadas.

"The son of a Brahman and a Sudra woman is a Parasava."

Here we have an authoritative statement which may well stagger the most faithful believer. Magadhas and Vaidehas, who were different races, Chandalas and Paulkasas, who were undoubtedly non-Aryan tribes, and even Yavanas, who were Bactrian Greeks and foreigners, were all treated by the same general and rigid law which recognized no exception, and were all declared to be descended from the four parent castes. And as the Hindus came to know other foreign nations later on, the elastic theory was stretched, and Manu derived those nations, too, from the same Hindu parent castes.

It is remarkable, however, that the castes or races named above were nearly all aboriginal tribes or foreigners, or Aryans who had incurred odium by their partiality for skepticism and Buddhism. We do not find names of profession-castes, answering to the Kayasthas, the Vaidyas, the goldsmiths, the blacksmiths, the potters, the weavers, and other artisans of Modern India, for the great and yet undivided Vaisya caste of the Philosophic Period still embraced all those different professions which in modern times have been divided and disunited into castes. The Aryan Vaisyas followed different trades and professions in Ancient India without forming separate castes; they were scribes and physicians, goldsmiths and blacksmiths, potters and weavers, while still belonging to the same caste. Thus the great body of the Aryan population was still united, and was still entitled to religious knowledge and learning.

The study of the Veda, the performance of sacrifices, and the gift of alms were prescribed for all twice-born men, i.e. for Brahmans, Kshatriyas, and Vaisyas. The special and additional occupations of the Brahman were the performance of sacrifice for others and the receiving of alms, and agriculture and trade were also allowed to him provided he did not work himself. Yet the abuses begotten of the privileges of caste had already commenced as early as the Philosophic Period, and Brahmans, relieved of manual labour, had already commenced to feed on the resources of the industrious classes, without acquiring that learning which alone would justify their exemption from labour. Vasishtha felt the injustice keenly and protested against it in language which could only be indited while Hinduism was still a living nation's religion, when he wrote:—

"(Brahmans) who neither study nor teach the Veda nor keep sacred fires become equal to Sudras.

"The king shall punish that village where Brahmans, unobservant of their sacred duties and ignorant of the Veda, subsist by begging, for it feeds robbers.

"The sin that dunces, perplexed by ignorance, and unacquainted with the sacred law, declare to be duty, shall fall, increased a hundredfold, on those who propound it.

"An elephant made of wood, an antelope made of leather, and a Brahman ignorant of the Veda, those three have nothing but the name of their kind."

The additional occupations of the Kshatriya were to govern and fight and make conquests, to learn the management of chariots and the use of the bow, and to stand firm in battle and not to turn back. The special duties of the Vaisya were trade, agriculture, tending cattle, lending money, and labour for gain. Sudras were to serve the other three castes, but were also allowed to labour for gain, and there can be no doubt that they traded and earned money by independent work to a large extent in the Philosophic Period as in all succeeding periods. Religious knowledge was, however, forbidden to them.

It is evident that the seven castes described by Megasthenes are virtually the four castes spoken of above. His philosophers and counsellors were the Brahmans, those who engaged in religious study, and those who took employment under the state respectively. His husbandmen, shepherds, and artisans were the Vaisyas and Sudras, who engaged in cultivation, in pasture, and in manufacture. And his soldiers were the Kshatriyas; while his overseers were only special servants, spies of the king.

Megasthenes further subdivides the philosophers into Brahmans or householders, and Sramans or ascetics. Of the former he says that " the children are under the care of one person after another, and as they advance in age, each succeeding master is more accomplished than his predecessor. The philosophers have their abode in a grove in front of the city within a moderate-sized enclosure. They live in a simple style, and lie on beds of rushes or skins. They abstain from animal food and sensual pleasures, and spend their time listening to religious discourse and in imparting their knowledge to such as will listen to them. After living in this manner for seven and thirty years, each individual retires to his own property, where he lives for the rest of his days in ease and security. They then array themselves in fine muslin, and wear a few trinkets of gold on their fingers and in their ears. They eat flesh, but not that of animals employed in labour. They abstain from hot and highly seasoned food. They marry as many wives as they please, with a view to having numerous children, for by having many wives greater advantages are enjoyed, and since they have no slaves, they have more need to have children around them to attend to their wants."

SYLVAN SCENE.

Of the Sramans, or ascetics, Megasthenes tells us that "they live in the wood, where they subsist on leaves of trees and wild fruits, and wear garments made from the bark of trees. They communicate with the kings, who consult them by messengers, regarding the causes of things, and who through them worship and supplicate the deity." Some of them practised medicine, and Megasthenes writes: "They effect cures rather by regulating diet than by the use of medicines. The remedies most esteemed are ointments and plasters." We learn from this account, as we learn from other sources, that sects of ascetics, subsisting on roots and wild fruits, lived in Ancient India, bearing the name of Sramanas, before and after the time of Gautama Buddha. And when that great reformer preached a holy life and retirement from the world as the essence of his religion, his followers, who retired from the world, were called Sakyaputriya Sramans, or ascetics who followed the Sakya, to distinguish them from other sects of ascetics.

Elsewhere Megasthenes says of the philosopher-caste that they, "being exempted from all public duties, are neither the masters nor the servants of others. They are, however, engaged by private persons to offer the sacrifices due in lifetime and to celebrate the obsequies of the dead. They forewarn assembled multitudes about droughts and wet weather, and also about propitious winds and diseases."

Of the military class, or the Kshatriya caste, Megasthenes gives a very brief sketch. The soldiers were organized and equipped for war, but in times of peace gave themselves up to idleness and amusements.

Of the husbandmen, shepherds, and artisans, Megasthenes gives us a more interesting and lifelike sketch. Being exempted from fighting and other public services, the husbandmen "devote the whole of their time to tillage; nor would an enemy, coming upon a husbandman at work on his land, do him any harm, for men of this class, being regarded as public benefactors, are protected from all injury. The land thus remaining unravaged, and producing heavy crops, supplies the inhabitants with all that is requisite to make life very enjoyable. They pay a land tribute to the king, because all India is the property of the crown, and no private person is permitted to own land. Besides the land tribute, they pay into the royal treasury a fourth part of the produce of the soil. The shepherds neither settle in towns nor in villages, but live in tents. By hunting and trapping they clear the country of noxious birds and wild beasts. Of the artisans some are armourers, while others make the implements which husbandmen and others find useful in their different callings. This class is not only exempted from paying taxes, but even receives maintenance from the royal exchequer."