Insightful Articles Portraying Interesting Facts about - A UNIQUE CASTE HIERACHY IN ANCIENT INDIA

 

Caste System in Ancient India

It represents the hierarchy of Caste - the Brahmins (priests and scholars) occupying the topmost position and the rest namely Kshatriya (kings, governors, and warriors), Vaishya (cattle herders, agriculturists, artisans, and merchants) and Sudras coming in descending order. From this it has been concluded that the Sudra caste (laborers and service providers).  It indicates the colour, type, order or class of people.  It reinforced the idea that lifestyles, occupations, ritual statuses, and social statuses were inherited.

Caste System in Vedic Age

The Vedas were ancient scriptures, written in the Sanskrit language, which contained hymns, philosophies, and rituals handed down to the priests of the Vedic religion. The low position, accorded to people like blacksmiths, tanners, butchers in the Smriti literature, are not found in the Vedas. The term 'dasa' seems to be the designation of a section of powerful non-Aryans who used to cause trouble to the Aryans. Dasas are stated to have been wealthy and lived in cities

Caste System in Age of Brahmanas

The Brahmanas confirm the fact that Sudras were called dasas. Those among them who did not surrender to the Aryans were termed dasyus (robbers). In the Brahmanas it has been found that Sudras were servants by occupation and that he could be ejected from a place or even slain at will. Priests, gurus, rishis, teachers, and scholars constituted the Brahmin.

Caste System in Age of Epics

It clearly indicates the Aryan expansion into South India and also hints at the use of military force in this process. The epic also makes it clear that the Dravidian culture was also equally superior. The Mahabharata shows that by that time the whole of India was Aryanised. It also provides us information regarding the various states existing at that time. The life of the Epics tells us that the Aryans were no longer divided into small clans or tribes, and powerful states like Panchalas, Pandus, Kosalas, Kashih had come into existence. Far reaching changes took place in the religion of the people during the Epic period. 

 

Caste System in Jainism

 Jainism divides mankind into a caste system which is further divided into numerous sub-castes (Jatis). All sorts of beings belong to Jainism, but it does not mean that they are equal in their status. All Jivas are divided into four levels of existence; Gods, human beings, animals and beings in hell. Each one of them has a number of classes which are precisely distinguished from one another, and the individual classes are further divided into sub-classes. The uppermost three castes are called ‘twice-born’ because their males experience a second, spiritual birth by a special consecration in which they are encircled by a holy thread. The castes of Brahmins or the priests, Kshatriyas or the warriors and Vaishyas or the businessmen are the ‘twice-born’.

Jainism holds that the universe has existed through all eternity and will continue to exist forever. Thus, there is no need for a creator-god, or a creation myth. Indeed, in its original form Jainism had no gods and did not worship idols (in direct contrast to Hindu practices). The 24 Jain Tirthankaras ("fordmakers") were to be revered, but they were men, not gods. They had attained perfect knowledge, and their appearance in the world was tied to the moral and religious decay of the people and the need for a reawakening and revival of religious values.

The founder of Jainism is generally regarded to be Mahavira, who was born in Vaisali (in Basarh in northern Bihar) in the 6th century BC. Mahavira literally means "great victor" and is the name given by Jains to Vardhamana, the son of a ksatriya (warrior-caste) chieftain. Mahavira most likely lived from 599 to 527 BC, although some sources give 549–477 BC as his dates. The Jains claim that rather than being the founder of their religion, he was but the twenty-fourth in a line of prophets and teachers stretching back through time. There is historical evidence for the existence of Parsvanatha, the twenty-third Tirthankara, who lived in the 8th century BC. Some Jain scholars even claim that Jainism was present in the Harappan civilization, a thousand years earlier (the swastika, a religious symbol of the Jains, is found in Harappan culture).