Enough is enough, we've suffered, and still suffering enough ill treatment at the hands of non-brahmins.. and Iyers and Saivites are
heading to oblivion. Like a Rajasthan minister said, give each Saivite Brahmin an ax and weapons like Ravana had..
Time for us to reclaim our rights and prevent extinction by looking back at our violent but righteous ancestors without whom we wouldn't have been alive.
Merely singing karnatic music and meekly surrendering will obliterate our race forever.
Or atleast master the Atharvana Veda and get even with our enemies.
Dear Shri Ashwin_ash,
I do not know what you mean when you say "our rights"; have we been deprived of any rights?
Secondly, what are the circumstances which make you conclude that "Iyers and Saivites are heading to oblivion" apparently because of "ill treatment at the hands of non-brahmins"?
If you have not just decided to withdraw after posting such a RDX-like OP, kindly elaborate.
I personally have a different set of ideas and beliefs about brAhmins and their past in India, but it has been the majority view here in this forum (and this has been iterated again and again, on many occasions, I remember) that brAhmins had been a sAtvik community for almost all its existence and that the brAhmins had been used by the powerful kshatriya and vaisya communities to write out scriptures, purANAs, dharma sAstras and so on and so forth in such a way that these three (brAhmin, kshatriya and vaisya) castes would enjoy supremacy over the rest of the population of bhAratavarsha. As a small concession, the brAhmins had been permitted to give unto themselves a nominal superiority in all such scriptures, purANAs, dharma sAstras, etc.
Our history possibly confirms the above view. I have the instance of the "Darshaneeya" brAhmins who made it a religious routine, during the reign of Akbar not to eat their noon meals unless they had a "darshan" of the emperor in his palace balcony. In addition they reportedly believed that such darshan had mystic and religious results and one's wishes would get fulfilled. I am sure even today some north indian brAhmins of this
darshaneeya lineage are there, but whether they now accept this historical fact is not known to me. Of course, there must have been people of other (higher) castes also who observed similar routine during those times, but the fact to be noted is that brAhmins by themselves could not go against this and had to fall in line with the rest.
Going back to our mythology, the first brAhmin to have taken up the axe against the high caste non-brAhmins (kshatriyas) and probably the personality who impelled you write this OP also, was ParasurAma. Though he is believed to be an avatAra of vishnu and was invincible, so to say, yet you find that our ancient history itself shows that this ParasurAma was humbled by a kshatriya, rAma. This shows, once again, that even a brAhman avatAra could not stand up to a kshatriya avatAra. Again, ParasurAma could not win his battle with Bheeshma and even the gods and rucheeka came and said that a brAhmin fighting could not win against a great kshatriya like bheeshma.
Till the beginning of the 20th. century or so, the tabras it seems, had generally been not affluent and many of them lived below subsistence levels. Only for a very brief period (from the time Macaulay's English education system -1835- was enthusiastically embraced by tabras and British Government jobs came within their reach, till the Independence and the implementation of the reservation system) did we tabras enjoy a "golden period" and that too was not as any "right" but due to the favour granted by the British. In the 19th. century Tanjore also, poor brAhmins who had no other means of livelihood, used to go sit in some spot in the Temple prAkAram and start recounting stories from purANAs or itihAsas along with songs (carnatic music, interestingly!) crafted by themselves or by other well-known harikathA exponents; people used to put some cash in the brass plate kept before such entrepreneurs and they used such meagre income to sustain themselves and their families.
It should thus be clear to you and other readers that we brAhmins (especially Tamil Brahmins) are not a people who enjoyed any rights or material prosperity historically; we were a very meek lot and the other powerful NB castes always had the upper hand in the society. Hence, the most suitable and appropriate way for us today is not to confront any other group, nor even to consider any group as our "enemy"; if we do so, that will surely be the beginning of our end, imho.
What we may do best is to identify the areas in which we tabras can still be of some use to others and earn a decent living. One good friend of mine (he is also 70+ now) always tells me that his poor father used to remind him that for a brAhmin there are only two ways — the "darbhai" & the "karaNTi" — meaning one can choose between priesthood and catering. My friend has been a professional cook all his life time and he now manages a very prosperous hotel also.
Let us therefore, set aside all righteous indignation and ideas of confrontation with imaginary "enemies" and explore ways of survival, as a minority group within the Hindu fold which did not enjoy any superior rights or status historically.
:wacko:
