Hello HH:
I agree with you to some extent...
However, I am not quite sure when exactly "Hinduism that we know of" got started..
As Vedas are the basis of "Hinduism that we know of", don't you find caste consciousness in them?
I concede that there was religious worships (idol worship, in particular) in pre-Vedic period... and even Lord Shiva worship (Lingam worship) predates Vedas, people say.
Also, I learn that early Casteism was benign, not strictly based "ON Birth", but on "profession".
It became very oppressive when "by birth" was the basis of Caste Hierarchy... When exactly such transformation occurred? I am not quite sure...
Most probably, some time AFTER the teachings and practices of Adi Sankara and Ramanuja (1100 CE)..
Probably, historians will have plenty to say about this transformation.
Regards.
Dear Y,
As Sangom sir says, varna consciousness started from the days of purusha sukta (i read abt this in some books also, so i think it is agreed upon by some historians also).
Castes as occupational units of tribes have existed since pre-varna days. When we say "pre-varna" days it means before the period when the development of language / literature indicated presence of varnas.
Since life was primitive, hence it is considered that occupational units (jaatis / castes) did not indicate oppression. Please see this link for the village organisation of Savaras - Welcome to Tribal Cultural Research & Training Institute As you can note they have 'castes" like shamans (kurobo). And occupations like a village "chief". However, there is no indication that the shamans and chiefs oppressed others.
Similarly was reading in some book that the adiyor of Tholkappiyam were stated to be just servents - there is no indication that they were abused or forced to do things against their wishes. Perhaps (i feel), if one fell in love with all concepts which the deity represented, then he was free to serve the diety. But these were primitive times.
Here the difference is between the tribal model and a (developed) state model. In a developed state model, "varnas" turned out to be means of production, of sustaining the economy by having defined classes. A tribal model did not have such means of production despite having "castes" simply because primitive village settlements did not have such an economy .
Lets imagine there were no varnas. I feel that in such a case, as society developed, eventually one group would have ended up as a slave category to handle all the dirty jobs like managing sanitation requirements of a 'town'. Simply because no man will do such jobs willingly.
So although it become easy to blame varnas, we must remember that perhaps "castes" of the pre-varna age, with the passage of time, may have developed in a similar fashion, if left unhindered by 'varnas'.
All the same, am against giving such labour-division laws a 'spiritual' twist. In the old days, maybe the level of understanding was limited to just that much.
Linking socio-political organisation of labour with religion was supposedly the easiest way to legitimise the system. Which is why you find slavery in the Quran and Bible also. They were just old societies.
IMO, it is easy to delink religion from these kind of primitive social-organisations (of castes and varnas); since anyways dieties and worship forms are ancient.
The number of dieties and worship forms amongst various tribals is mind blowing. For example, the Gonds worshipped an earth goddess and performed human sacrifice (their worship pattern imo could be linked to the kalibangan sites of ivc; because of the similarity). The Gotr ceremony of the Gadaba tribe may even be similar to a vedic ceremony of sacrificing Buffaloes. Since the linga (sisna deva) has been mentioned in the Rig, one may say that such gods have been in existence since very long; maybe under different names.
According to social historians, as tribals evolved into a developed society, their dieties also evolved. Imo, some may have become 'vedic-ized' that is absorbed or mentioned by the 'vedic' people in the 'vedic' period. While some (imo) may have become purana-ized, that is become absorbed into a 'hindu' system thru puranas. Who knows maybe Jamua Sum (the savara god of death) became identified with the yama-markendeya story later. Locating which tribal god became mainstream hindu god can be fun...
One can say the religion of tribals like savaras is spiritism [Savaras have a pantheon of spirits or gods. Their word for God is "sonnum'. They do not have the concept of a supreme god. Instead they worship a variety of spirits, both evil and good spiritis, as sonnums (gods). This link has some description on their practices - Spirits of Tribal India ]...
So i suppose hindu practices developed from spiritism, nature worship, animism, etc -- there need not be caste-consciousness wrt worship practices.
Regards.
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