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India
Theme: Order Through Society
Lesson 20
Roots of Hinduism: The Vedas
• The Vedas (“Wisdom”) were
collections of prayers and
hymns of the Indo-European
Aryans who migrated into India
around 1500 B.C.
– Reflect the knowledge that
priests needed to carry out
their functions
• The Aryans developed a social
structure with sharp
distinctions between
individuals and groups
according to the occupations
and roles in society
– These distinctions became
the basis of the caste
system
– Brahmins (priests) were at
the top of the caste system
Fanciful depiction of the IndoAryans entering India
Roots of Hinduism: The Vedas
• The Vedas required ritual sacrifices by which the
Aryans hoped to win favor of the gods
– Gods required constant attention
– Proper honor for the gods required households to
have brahmins perform no less than five sacrifices
per day
– As time passed, many Aryans, to include the
brahmins became dissatisfied with the sacrificial cults
of the Vedas, viewing them as sterile rituals rather
than genuine means of communicating with the gods
– Sought something to satisfy their spiritual longings
Roots of Hinduism: The Dravidians
• Beginning about 800 B.C.,
many individuals retreated into
the forests of the Ganges
Valley, lived as hermits, and
contemplated on the
relationships between human
beings, the world, and the
gods
• They drew inspiration from the
Dravidians who believed
human souls took on new
physical forms after the death
of their bodily hosts
– Transmigration and
reincarnation: An individual
soul could depart one body
at death and become
associated with another
body through a new birth
Idyllic representation of the
Dravidians before the arrival of
the Indo-Aryans
Roots of Hinduism: The
Upanishads
• Aryan and Dravidian values began to
blend
• The Upanishads were Indian reflections
and dialogues from around 800-400 B.C.
that reflected basic Hindu concepts
– Upanishads means “a sitting in front of” and
refers to the practice of disciples gathering
before a sage for discussion of religious
issues
Roots of Hinduism: The
Upanishads
• Upanishads taught that appearances are
deceiving, that individual human beings are not
separate and autonomous creatures
– Instead, each person participates in a larger cosmic
order and forms a small part of a universal soul
(Brahman)
• The physical world is a theater of change
instability, and illusion
• The Brahman is an external, unchanging,
permanent foundation of all things that exist– the
only genuine reality
Roots of Hinduism: The
Upanishads
• Individuals souls were born into the
physical world not once, but many times
• Souls appear most often as humans, but
sometimes as animals, plants, or other
vegetable matter
• The highest goal of the individual soul is to
escape this cycle of birth and rebirth and
enter into permanent union with Brahman
Roots of Hinduism: Teachings of
the Upanishads
• Samsara
– Upon death, individual souls go temporarily to the
World of the Fathers and then return in new
incarnation
• Karma
– “Now as a man is like this or like that, according as he
acts and according as he behaves, so will he be: a
man of good acts will become good, a man of bad
acts, bad. He becomes pure by pure deeds, bad by
bad deeds.”
• Brhadaranyaka Upanishad
Roots of Hinduism: Teachings of
the Upanishads
• Mosksha
– The goal (escaping the
cycle of rebirth)
– A deep, dreamless sleep
that came with
permanent liberation from
physical incarnation
– Obtained by asceticism
and meditation
• Separation from the
physical world to
merge with Brahman
Shiva: The Lord of Yoga
meditating on Mount Kailasa in
the Himalayas
The Emergence of Popular
Hinduism
• Bhagavad Gita
– Short poem finalized around 400 A.D. which
represented the new Hindu ethical teaching
that promised salvation to those who
participated actively in the world and met their
caste responsibilities
• Contrast with the Upanishads that taught that
individuals could escape the cycle of incarnation
only through renunciation and detachment from the
world
The Emergence of Popular
Hinduism
• Bhagavad Gita and other new teachings
made life easier for the lay classes
• Individuals should meet their
responsibilities in a detached fashion
without striving for reward or recognition
• Perform your duties faithfully,
concentrating on your actions alone, with
no thought of the consequences
Four Principal Aims of Human Life
• Dharma
– Obedience to religious and moral laws
• Artha
– The pursuit of economic well-being and honest
prosperity
• Kama
– The enjoyment of social, physical, and sexual
pleasure
• Moksha
– The salvation of the soul
• A proper balance of dharma, artha, and kama would help
an individual attain moksha
Popularity Spreads
• As devotional Hinduism evolved and became
increasingly distinct from the Upanishads and
the brahmins, its appeal spread across Indian
society
• Hinduism gradually displaced Buddhism as the
most popular religion in India
• Buddhist monks began to confine themselves to
their monasteries rather than actively seeking to
spread their message
Aryan Social Order
• Aryan social hierarchy served to maintain order
and stability that other societies such as
Mesopotamia, Egypt, and China maintained
through state and political structures
• The term caste comes from the Portuguese
word casta meaning a social class of hereditary
and usually unchangeable status
– Coined by Portuguese merchants and mariners who
visited India during the 16th Century
Caste and Varna
• As the Aryans settled in India they
interacted with more people to include the
darker-skinned Dravidians
• The Aryans began using the word varna
meaning “color” to refer to the major social
classes
– This suggests that social distinctions arose
partly from differences in skin color
Varnas
• After about 1000 B.C., Aryans increasingly
recognized four main varnas
– Brahmins (priests)
– Kshatriyas (warriors and aristocrats)
– Vaishyas (cultivators, artisans, and
merchants)
– Shudras (landless peasants and serfs)
Untouchables
• Some centuries later, the
Aryans added the
category of untouchables
• The untouchables
performed dirty or
unpleasant tasks such as
butchering animals or
handling dead bodies
• Such work made them
become so polluted that
their very touch could
defile individuals of
higher status
Members of the untouchable
class dispose of corpses after
the 2004 tsunami
Subcastes (Jati)
• Until about the 6th Century, the four varnas were
sufficient to maintain the desired social
distinctions, but increased urbanization and
specialization demanded a more complex
hierarchy
• Jati emerged as subcastes
– Largely determined by occupation
– By the 18th and 19th Centuries there were several
thousand jati
– Even untouchables had jati and some looked down
on others as more polluted and miserable than
themselves
Castes and Subcastes
• Prescribed an individual’s role in society in
the minutest of detail
– Members of the same jati ate together,
intermarried, and cared for their own sick
– Elaborate rules dictated how members of
different jati addressed each other and
communicated
– Violation of the rules could result in expulsion
from the larger group
Social Order
• Individuals came to identify themselves
more closely with their jati than with their
cities or states
• The caste system served as the principal
foundation of social stability in India, doing
what states and empires did to maintain
public order elsewhere
Mobility
• There were some provisions for movement
between classes, but individual upward
mobility was not easy
• More often it occurred for a group as
members of a jati improved their condition
collectively
• The caste system did enable foreign
people to find a place in Indian society
Expansion of the Caste System
• As more people migrated to India,
especially Turks and Muslim merchants,
the caste system continued to provide
order
• Immigrant groups gained recognition as
distinct groups under the umbrella of the
caste system
– Established codes of conduct both within their
group and in their interactions with others
Caste and Economic Development
• Since jati was so closely tied to occupation
they often took the form of workers’ guilds
that were able to powerfully represent the
group’s interests
• Merchants and artisans established
distinct jati based on their particular type of
commerce or industry
Geographic Expansion
• At first the caste system was confined to
northern India where the Aryans had first
entered
• As commercial relationships pushed
south, the caste system took hold there as
well
• By the 11th Century the caste system was
the principal basis of social organization in
southern India
Caste in India Today
• The preamble of India's constitution forbids negative
public discrimination on the basis of caste.
• In reality, caste ranking and caste-based interaction
continue
– More prominent in the countryside than in urban settings and
more in the realms of kinship and marriage than in less personal
interactions
– “The National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights (NCDHR) is part
of a wider struggle to abolish ‘untouchability’ and to ‘cast out
caste’. ‘Untouchability’ and caste discrimination continue to be a
brutal reality for more than 160 million Dalits living in India today,
despite the fact that more than half a century has passed since
India was born as a ‘democratic’ and independent state.”
• http://www.dalits.org/
How were populations controlled in
India?
How were populations controlled in
India?
• Caste system
– Maintains order by assigning an individual to
a place in the social hierarchy and establishes
a rigid code of behavior based on that
assignment
– Allows immigrant groups to find a place in
society by recognizing them as distinct groups
within the overall system
Next Lesson
• Debate