In continuation of my post no.156 dated 04 May 2010:
Hindu social structure in the times of the Vedas: a glimpse
It is anyone's guess that the hiearchical system of caste was derived from the equitable system of chatur-varNa. Although the different castes as we know them today were not there in the times of the Vedas and ItihAsa-PurANas, the BhAratIya social structure of those times certainly comprised of different groups of people, who were broadly identified as Aryas--those who respected and followed the Veda Dharma, and anAryas--those who disrespected and opposed it.
In addition, there were different groups among the Aryans themselves, identified by their varNa. Similarly, there were groups among the anAryans, some of which figure in the Vedas: DAsas/Dasyus, PaNis, and Asuras. This compilation is about the social groups of people who lived in the times of the Vedas.
Astronomical chronology of the Vedas
Although the Vedas are eternal, and were/are preserved by an impeccable oral tradition, they were compiled by VyAsa Maharshi for the Kali Yuga, which started on 18 Feb 3102 BCE. A discussion of the date of Kali Yuga is given at:
(51) The beginning of kaliyug. (3102 BC)
• Hindu tradition makes mention of the conjunction of the 'seven planets' (Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Mercury, sun and moon) and Ketu (southern lunar node, the northern node/RAhu being by definition in the opposite location) near the fixed star Revati (Zeta Piscium) on
18 February 3102 BCE. This date, at which KRShNa is supposed to have breathed his last, is conventionally the start of the so-called Kali-Yuga.
• If we can read the Vedic and post-Vedic indications properly, they mention constellations on the equinox points which were there
‣ from 4000 BCE for the Rg-Veda (Orion, as already pointed out by B.G.Tilak)
‣ through around 3100 BCE for the Atharva-Veda and the core MahAbhArata
‣ down to 2300 BCE for the SUtras and the shatapatha brAhmaNa.
‣ Thus, the kauShItaki brAhmaNa puts the winter solstice at the new moon of the sidereal month of MAgha (i.e. the MahAshivarAtri festival), which now falls 70 days later: this points to a date in the first half of the 3rd millennium BCE.
‣ The same processional movement of the twelve months of the Hindu calendar (which are tied to the constellations) vis-a-vis the meterological seasons, is what allowed Hermann Jacobi to fix the
date of the Rg-Veda to the 5th-4th millennium BCE.
• A lesser-known Hindu system of time-reckoning is the Saptarishi cycle of 3600 years (possibly based on the 60-year cycle).
‣ The medieval Kashmiri historian Kalhana claimed that the previous cycle had started in 3076 BCE, and the present one in 525 CE.
‣ J.E.Mitchiner has suggested that the beginning of the Saptarishi reckoning was one more cycle earlier, in 6676 BCE. He says in his work 'Tradition of the Seven Rishis':
"We may conclude that the older and original version of the Era of the Seven Rishis commenced with the Seven Rishis in KrittikA in 6676 BCE, used a total of 28 NakShatras, and placed the start of the Kali-Yuga in 3102 BCE. This version was in use in northern India from at least the 4th century BCE, as witnessed by the statements of Greek and Roman writers; it was also the version used by Vrddha Garga, at around the start of the Christian era."
This would roughly coincide with the start of the PurANic dynastic list reported by Greco-Roman authors as starting in 6776 BCE.
‣ This would, according to the implicit chronology of PurANic tradition, be the time of
Manu’s enthronement, Manu being the Aryan patriarch who established his kingdom in North India after having survived the Flood. One of Manu’s heirs was
IlA, ancestress of YayAti, whose five sons became the patriarchs of the "five peoples" who form the ethnic horizon of the Vedas, one of them being Puru; in Puru’s tribe, then, one Bharata started the Bharata clan to which most of the Vedic seers belonged.
‣ The PurANas describe Manu as the leader of mankind after the Flood, and if we apply a realistic average length to the rulerships of the kings mentioned in the PurANic dynastic lists,
Manu may have lived in the 7th millennium BCE, the time of the rising waters, warranting the suspicion that the Flood story is related to historical events at the end of the Ice Age.
‣ The influence of Indian astronomy on both China and Babylonia confirms the Vedic-
Harappan civilization’s status as the world metropolis in the 4th-3rd millennium BCE.
• This corpus of astronomical indications suggests
‣ that the Rg-Veda was completed in the 4th millennium BCE,
‣ that the core text of the MahAbhArata was composed at the end of that millennium,
‣ and that the BrAhmaNas and SUtras are products of the high Harappan period towards the end of the 3rd millennium BCE.
• Baudhayana shrauta sUtra 18.44:397.9 speaks of
migration of the Aryan Princes Ayus and AmAvasu, sons of Pururavas:
"AyuH went east, his is the YamunA-GangA region", while "AmAvasu went west, his is Afghanistan, Parshu and West Panjab".
Though the then location of 'Parshu' (Persia?) is hard to decide, it is definitely a western country, along with the two others named, western from the viewpoint of a people settled near the SarasvatI river in what is now Haryana.
• The ethnonyms of the enemies of the Vedic Aryans, the DAsas (Iranian Daha, known to Greco-Roman authors as Daai, Dahae), Dasyus (Iranian dahyu, 'tribe', esp. hostile nomadic tribe) and Panis (Greek Parnoi), as
unmistakably the names of Iranian tribes.
‣ The Iranian identity of DAsas and Dasyus is now wellestablished, a development which should at least put an end to the talk of the DAsas being "the dark-skinned aboriginals enslaved by the Aryan invaders".
‣ the explicit evidence of the geographical data given in the same Vedic texts, (which) locate(s) the interaction with the DAsas and Dasyus in Panjab. From the identification of the DAsas and Dasyus as Iranians, it could be deduced that these Iranian tribes have lived in India for a while.
• Shrikant Talageri's survey (in his book 'The Rg-Veda, a Historical Analysis') of the relative chronology of all Rg-Vedic kings and poets has been based exclusively on the internal textual evidence, and yields a completely consistent chronology.
‣ Its main finding is that the geographical gradient of Vedic Aryan culture in its Rg-Vedic stage is from east to west, with the eastern river GangA appearing a few times in the older passages (written by the oldest poets mentioning the oldest kings),
‣ and the western river Indus appearing in later parts of the book (written by descendents of the oldest poets mentioning descendents of the oldest kings).
Semantics of the group names in the Vedas
In refutation of the AIT, Dr.Ambedkar took the trouble of verifying the meaning and context, in every single instance, of the Vedic terms which Western scholars often mentioned as proof of a conflict between white Aryan invaders and dark non-Aryan aboriginals. His line of argument has been elaborated further by V.S.Pathak and Shrikant Talageri.
DAsa
Among the Vedic terms figuring prominently in the AIT reading of the Vedas, the most important one is probably dAsa.
• DAsa, known to mean 'slave, servant' in classical Sanskrit, but in the Rg-Veda the name of an enemy tribe, along with the apparently related word dasyu, is interpreted in AIT parlance as 'aboriginal'.
• More probably these words designate the Vedic people’s white-skinned cousins, who at one point became their enemies, for both terms exist in Iranian, 'dahae' being one of the Iranian tribes, and 'dahyu' meaning 'tribe, nation'.
• The original meaning of dAsa, long preserved in the Khotanese dialect of Iranian, is 'man'; it is used in this sense in the Vedic names DivodAs, 'divine man' and SudAs, 'good man'.
• In Iranian, it always preserved its neutral or positive meaning, it is only in late-Vedic that it acquired a hostile and ultimately a degrading connotation. Strangely a similar evolution has taken place in Greek, where 'doulos--slave', is an evolute of 'doselos', from 'dos-', the IE root of dAsa.
• The post-Vedic evolution in meaning from an ethnic name to 'servant' does not necessarily point to enslavement of enemies; no military event of such nature and relating to the word, dAsa is mentioned in the Vedic literature.
• Instead of seeing the Vedic people as warriors, we may see them as a prosperous merchant population which at some stage, in a perfectly normal economic development, attracted the inflow of neighbouring populations as guestworkers willing to do the menial work, the way the Biblical twelve sons of Jacob went to Egypt of their own free will, where their children became a class of menial workers.
• But it is admittedly just as likely that the evolution was from 'enemy' through 'captive' to 'slave'. Whatever the scenario of their social degradation may have been, nothing in the Vedic text shows that the DAsas were dark, nor that they were aboriginals as opposed to invaders.
Asura
Asura is the original Indo-Iranian and Vedic term for 'Lord', a form of address both for the gods and for people of rank.
• The late- and post-Vedic concept of DevAsurasaMgrAma, usually translated as 'war between Devas/gods and Asuras/demons', has led to the notion that this represents a war between two categories of gods, comparable to the Germanic Aesir and Wanir, or to the warring Gods and Titans of Greek mythology.
• However, there never existed a separate category of celestial beings called Asuras; the Devas themselves were originally addressed as Asura.
• At this point, we have to give credit to the invasionists for identifying the DevAsurasaMgrAma as essentially a political struggle between two nations using their respective religious terminology as a banner. However, the Asura-worshippers, or Asuras for short, are not the non-Aryan aboriginals of whom we merely assume that they must have worshipped Asura; they are the nation known to worship Asura, or in their own dialect Ahura (epithet Mazda, so 'wise Lord'), the usual Iranian term for the Vedic god VaruNa, god of the cosmic order and the truth (rta/arta).
• The religious difference between Iranians and Vedic 'fire-worshippers' was a minor difference in emphasis, and had nothing to do with the causes of their conflict.
• It was only after a war over the control of prize territory in the Panjab erupted, that the term Asura got identified with the aggression of the Kashmir-based Anava/Iranian people against the Paurava/Vedic heartland in Sapta-Saindhavah, and acquired a negative, anti-Vedic or anti-Deva meaning. Conversely, it must have been on that same occasion that the Iranians turned Deva/Daeva into a term for 'demon'.
Speech defects
• mRudhravAk--of harsh speech, could refer to hecklers mocking the Vedic rituals, more or less 'blasphemers'. Usually it is interpreted as 'speaking a foreign language', though that is not its literal meaning; and even if correct, this could still refer to another IE language or dialect.
‣ Scornful references to other people's languages are more often about closely related ones, cfr. the many English expressions pejoratively using the word 'Dutch', the language of England’s enemies in the 17th century, but nonetheless also the language which is (except for Frisian) the most closely akin to English.
• anAsa is interpreted as a-nAsa, 'noseless', stretched to mean 'snub-nosed'; but classical commentators analysed it, just as credibly, as an-Asa, 'speechless' (Asa being the regular cognate of Latin os--mouth).
‣ This type of anthropomorphic imagery is often used in the Vedas for characterizing natural elements, e.g. fire as 'footless'. If referring to people, it is to be remarked that few Indians even among the tribals are snub-nosed. If taken to mean 'speechless', hence perhaps 'unintellegible', the same remark is valid as in the case of mRudhravAk: unintellegibility is most striking when hearing someone speaking a dialect of your own language, i.e. when he was expected to be intellegible in the first place.
• Nevertheless, it stands to reason that the Vedic people have encountered enemies on some occasions, that some of these enemies did speak a completely di?erent language, that Vedic hymns were composed in preparation or commemoration of the battle, and that the enemies were mentioned in the hymns along with their strange language as their most distinctive trait. So, let us assume that the above terms do refer to people speaking a non-IE language. That would not at all be proof of an Aryan invasion, because both parties may be native, or the non-IE-speaking party may be the invading one.
‣ When the Germans invaded France in 1870, 1914 and 1940, the French duly noted that the German language was full of 'harsh' sounds; even so, it was the mRudhravAk Germans who were the invaders.
Black
• kRShNayoni--from a black womb, kRShNa-tvach==black-skinned, tvacham-asiknIm, asiknivishaH--black tribe and other composites involving 'black', read in their contexts, usually refer to darkness, to nightly stratagems in war, or metaphorically to evil.
‣ Most languages have expressions like 'black deeds', 'dark portends', 'the dark age', associating darkness with evil, ignorance or danger.
‣ Vedic Sanskrit is extremely rich in metaphors, in techno-scientific contexts (for lack of a separate technical jargon) as well as in cultural and religious contexts, e.g. the word go-cow, can refer to Mother Earth, the sunshine, material wealth, language, the Aum sound, etc. It is not far-fetched to perceive a metaphorical intention behind the use of words like 'black', similar to that in other languages.
• It also has to be inspected case by case whether the reference is at all to human beings (whether skin-colour or figurative characterization), because many Vedic expressions are about gods and heavenly phenomena.
‣ When it is said that Agni, the fire, 'puts the dark demons to flight', one should keep in mind that the darkness was thought to be filled with ghosts or ghouls, so that making light frees the atmosphere of their presence.
‣ And when UShA, the dawn, is said to chase the 'dark skin' or 'the black monster' away, it obviously refers to the cover of nightly darkness over the surface of the earth.
varNa
The term varNa is understood in classical Sanskrit as 'colour'.
• This is then explained as referring to the symbolic colours attributed to the three cosmological 'qualities' (guNa): white corresponds to sattva--clarity, red to rajas--energy and black to tamas--darkness, following the pattern of daylight, twilight and nightly darkness.
• Likewise, the different functions in the social spectrum are allotted a member of the colour spectrum: the menial (tAmasika) ShUdras are symbolically 'black', the heroic (rAjasika) KShatriyas are 'red', and the truth-loving (sAttvika) Brahmins are 'white'; in addition, the entrepreneurial Vaishyas are considered to have a mixture of qualities, and are allotted the colour yellow.
‣ This sense of 'colour' has nothing to do with skin colour, as should also be evident from the ancient use of the same colour code among the all-white Germanic peoples.
• Moreover, 'colour' might even not be the original, Vedic meaning of varNa. Reformist Hindus eager to disentangle the institution of varNa from any doctrines of genetic determinism, derive it from the root var--choose (as in svayamvara--a girl’s own choice of a husband, with the implication
that one’s varna is not a matter of birth but of personal choice. This seems to tally with Stanley Insler’s rendering, in his classic translation of The GAthAs of Zarathushtra, of the corresponding Avestan term varna as 'preference' (which other translators sometimes stretch to mean 'conviction', 'religious affiliation'). But we believe that the root meaning is even simpler.
• In the Rg-Veda, the word varNa usually (17 out of 22 times) refers to the 'lustre' (i.e. "one’s own typical light", a meaning obviously related to 'colour') of specified gods: UShA, Agni, Soma, etc. As for the remaining cases,
‣ in 3:34:5 and 9:71:2 it indicates the lustrous colour of the sky at dawn.
‣ In 1:104:2 and 2:12:4, reference is only to quelling the varNa of the DAsas, meaning "the DAsas’ luster" (in the first case, Ralph Griffith translates it as 'the fury of the DAsa').
‣ Finally, in the erotic Rg-Vedic hymn 1:179, verse 6, where Agastya, in doing the needful with his wife Lopamudra to obtain progeny, is said to satisfy 'both varNas', this is understood by some as referring quite plainly to the two families of husband and wife, who rejoice in the arrival of a grandchild. Since the hymn mentions the conflict between sexuality and asceticism, others interpret it as meaning "both paths (of worldliness and world-renunciation)". At any rate, there is simply no question of reading a racist meaning into it.
Source:
1. 'Update on the AIT' by Koenraad Elst
