General President's Address - Caste, Gender and Ideology in The Making of India

GENERAL PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS: CASTE, GENDER AND IDEOLOGY IN THE MAKING OF
INDIA
Author(s): Suvira Jaiswal
Source: Proceedings of the Indian History Congress , 2007, Vol. 68, Part One (2007), pp.
1-35
Published by: Indian History Congress
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/44147814
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GENERAL PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS
CASTE, GENDER AND IDEOLOGY IN

THE MAKING OF INDIA
Suvira Jaiswal
I am deeply aware of the honour that the Executive Committee of

the Indian History Congress has done me by electing me the General
President of the 68th Session of this august body. I wish to express
my most sincere thanks. Thirty-six years ago I was privileged to
preside over the Ancient Indian Section of the India History
Congress held at Bhubaneswar. On that occasion I had pointed
out1 that for a restructuring of Indian society on the principles of
equity and social justice it was necessary to have a scientific
understanding of the factors which have given rise and continue to
nurture a highly exploitative system of social stratification in the
form of caste. Although annihilation of caste discrimination has
been one of the main priorities of national agenda since
Independence, it cannot be gainsaid that caste continues to impact
in a major way not only the sphere of personal relations but also
various aspects of public arena - legal, political and economic -
including access to land, water resources,2 etc. Hence it may not
be inopportune to reflect upon its historical roots and inner dynamics
in order to have a better understanding of the reasons of its tenacity
and stranglehold.
The post-modern and neo-colonial critiqueá of caste visualize
it as a relatively modern phenomenon, a product of the British
colonial rule, traceable not to the ancient, the so-called 'Hindu'
period of Indian history or to the Purusa-sūkta of the Rgveda and
the Manusmrti but to the British Census Reports.3 Hierarchy-cum-
interdependence, occupational specialization, endogamy and
commensal restrictions, which the earlier Indologists and
sociologists regarded as the defining features of the caste system,
were from this point of view, Orientalist-Colonial readings
motivated by the desire to systematize diverse forms of local social
realities and identities into a holistic theory fcessentializing' it as a
unique culture. Despite this criticism of 'essentialization' ,
endogamy is recognized implicitly or explicitly4 by these scholars
as the essence of the caste system, without which the formation of

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2 IHC : Proceedings , 68th Session, 2007
'discrete categories' or the allegedly modern process of

'ethnicisation' or 'substantialization' of caste - which according
to Nichdas B. Dirks5 make it 'a worthy synonym of community in
the best sense' - would not have taken place. The question arises:
is endogamy then an irreducible transhistoric phenomenon
embedded in the psyche of the Indian people or it evolved through
a historical process and has continued to survive through the ages
in a favourable material environment ?
In the first decade of the twentieth century the British census

commissioner Sir Herbert Risley ascribed the origin of an
endogamous caste structure to the desire of the Aryan conquerors
to retain their racial purity from contamination of the blood of
defeated aborigines. A hierarchical gradation of people born of
mixed unions is said to have evolved in proportion to the admixture
of aboriginal blood in them with the brāhmaņas at the top
representing the purest of Aryan blood. Later, the principle of
endogamy was 'strengthened, perpetuated and extended to all ranks
of society by the fiction that people who speak a different language,
dwell in a different district, worship different gods, eat different
food, observe different social customs, follow a different profession,
or practise the same profession in a slightly different way, must be
so unmistakably aliens by blood that intermarriage with them is a
thing not to be thought of' .6 The thesis of Aryan invasion and racial
origin of caste is no longer subscribed, but the impact7 of Risley 's
ideas may be still seen in explanations offered for the prevalence
of endogamy. Thus, according to one view the caste system may
be defined as a form of differentiation in which the constituent units
justify endogamy 'on the basis of putative biological differences
which are semaphored by the realization of multiple social
practices.'8 Risleys' notion that castes (i.e.jātis) considered each
other 'aliens by blood' was an elaboration of his theory of racial
origin of the system. It is curious that although the theory of racial
origin is no longer accepted, the perception that there exists a
'mythical notion of biological differences'9 in the ideologies of
all castes is retained, and it is argued that because of this notion
castes value the principle of endogamy very highly'.10 However,
I may point out that the idea that there are inborn, biological
differences which distinguish one varņa or jāti11 from the other is
a typically brahmanical concept invented to justify the hereditary
nature of varņas,12 and it cannot be regarded as part of all caste
ideologies, particularly of the subaltern castes, which in their origin

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General President 's Address 3
myths almost invariably trace their descent fr

ksatriyas ancestor. It is not biological differenc
the original ancestor was cheated or had violated some rule
inadvertently which is regarded as the reason for the present
predicament of his descendants.13 Moreover, rise of a new
endogamous unit through the processes of fusion and fission owing
to the adoption of some new technological, professional, religious
or cultural practice, and emergence of a new social group in
medieval times is a feature well known to historians and
sociologists, but this cannot explain the origin of caste en
Nevertheless, the view that caste endogamy is a residue o
tribal past of communities integrating with the expandin
society is quite common,14 perhaps because history does
many instances of tribal groups being transformed into end
castes. But this only shows that as a rule assimilation int
society could take place only on a group or community b
the new entrants retaining their distinctive identities, for th
society was already fragmented into social groups differ
on hereditary principles. Attributing the origin of endo
customs to incomplete fusion of tribal elements would im
caste identities were biologically constructed, but in my vie
society was not a biological but social construct.
I have argued elsewhere15 that caste endogamy wa
borrowing or survival of aboriginal practice. It evolved and
consolidated in the process of regulating hierarchical subordination
of social groups and reproduction of patriarchy. It is not possible
to agree with Dumonťs strongly idealistic view16 of caste which
makes it "above all a system of ideas and values' embedded in the
Indian mind, the Homo Hierarchicus, presenting a perfect contrast
to the Western Homo-Aequalis.17 In my view18 hierarchy, defined
as separation and superiority of the pure over the impure, of the
priest ( brahma ) over the warrior-ruler ( ksatra ), which forms the
keystone of Dumonťs model, derives from the material context of
the ecology of cattle - keeping tribes, among whom two groups of
specialists emerge, one claiming to mediate with gods through
specialization over rituals and thus increas^ the cattle - wealth of
the tribe and ensure success in tribal wars, the other of warriors
who provide protection and increase the wealth of the tribe through
cattle raids. Both groups, initially functional, claim and are able to
acquire privileged positions. Caste ideology evolves gradually in
consonance with changing material conditions and is not a mental

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4 IHC: Proceedings , 68th Session , 2007
invention unrelated to its material roots. Nevertheless, I agree wit

Dumont that 'endogamy is a corollary of hierarchy, rather than a
primary principle',19 although for me caste hierarchy is not simp
a matter of superiority of the pure over the impure but a form o
exploitation which evolved in the process of enforcing subjecti
of women and weaker social groups.
II
The beginnings of the twin processes may be seen in the Rgveda.

D.D.Kosambi in a perceptive article 'Urvaší and Purūravas'20
analysed a number of Rgvedic hymns containing traces of a
matriarchal culture, which was suppressed and superimposed by
the Aryan patriarchy. In his view, the conflict and transition is
reflected in the earliest stratum, the matriarchal elements came from
a pre-Aryan culture and early Rgvedic society was formed from a
combination of the conquered pre-Aryans and their Aryan
conquerors. Kosambi identifies the pre-Aryans as survivors of the
Harappa culture, not the elite trading or ruling classes but the
'women with their cults. ...either as wives or slaves, which would
account for all the traces of their cults'. He adds that in any case
Aryan means a particular manner of life and speech and not a
race.21 The thesis of direct confrontation and conquest of the
Harappans by the Rgvedic Aryans is now generally discounted,22
but there are strong grounds to believe23 that pre-vedic elements
were accommodated in the later sections of the Rgveda,. particularly
in Book VIII, which is supposedly authored by the sage Kaņva and
his lineage.
Although it is plausible that certain external matriarchal
components crept into Rgvedic narratives through absorption of pre-
Aryan elements the - Apālā Sūkta (RV VIII. 91), which is a female
puberty spell,24 is a case in point - not all traces of women's
autonomy and subjectivity need to be attributed to external sources.
There is a general tendency to force interpretations suited to
patriarchy even when hymns suggest more equitable gender
relations25 owing to the presumption that patriarchy was deep-
rooted among the warring 'bronze-age pastoral invaders'. Generally
speaking the Rgvedic poet does reflect a patriarchal attitude and
speaks contemptuously of his adversaries as having been deprived
of their manliness (e.g. RV X.48.12). Nevertheless, systematic
displacement of women from Śrauta rituals and appropriation of

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their role by male priests in later vedic texts h

by a number of scholars,26 and it is difficult
traces of earlier practices as derived from a nön
source. The apologists of vedic tradition have argued that
marginalization or exclusion of women is only one side of the story,
but in fact women were central to Rgvedic concerns, the desire for
progeny, material wealth, etc. Vedic yajña ritual required the
presence of the wife of the sacrificer too, and much of the Hindu
women's deep identification with religion, her 'positive self-
image... .stemmed from the Rgvedic Age'.27 Such an essentialist.
ahistorical approach, apart from creating a homogenized category
of 'Hindu Women' regardless of their position in terms of caste,
marital status, etc., does not take into account the material
environment which may have induced women to internalize the
patriarchal values of the brahmanical culture. Moreover, one cannot
ignore the fact that the stereotyping of women as sensual creatures
lacking in wisdom and self-control and acting as temptresses to
reluctant males, who are devoted to higher moral and ascetic goals,
has its beginnings in the hymns of the Rgvedci , as illustrated in the
dialogue between Yama and Yam! (RV X.10) and Agastya and
Lopāmudra (I. 179).
Ill
However, the consolidation of patriarchy and a hierarchically

differentiated society comprising four varņa divisions is an ongoing
process in later vedic texts, and the two developments were dosely
linked. Sedentary agriculture and availability of servile labour of
the defeated and enslaved Dāsa and Śudra tribes made it possible
for the men and women of the vedic elite lineages to withdraw from
manual labour and be contemptuous of those, who had to serve
others and perform physical, filthy tasks. They were categorized
into a distinct sūdra varņa in later vedic times. The Purusa- sūkta
hymn, which is undoubtedly a late insertion in the Rgvedci ,28
ascribes the lowest position to the śudra, but it has an organic
conception of society and traces his origin from the feet of the same
Cosmic Being whose mouth, arms and thighs produce brāhmaņa,
rãjanya and vaiśya respectively. But several later vedic texts
attribute divine origin to only three upper varņas. The Taittirlya
Brāhmaņa states that the śudras sprang from Asuras or demons.29
The same text says at another place that the śudra sprang from
'untruth' or 'non-existence' ( asat ).30 Emphasis on the 'otherness*

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6 ¡HC: Proceedings , 68th Session, 2007
and evil character of the śudra may have been partly due to ethn
prejudice but also because of his dependence on slavish manua
work and marginal location. It is generally held thaťthe śudra va
arose out of defeated Dāsa, Śudra and other aboriginal non-Ar
tribes reduced to various degrees of servitude. The Śudra tribe31
not mentioned in the Rgveda^ but it speaks of the capture an
enslavement of a large number of Dāsa men and women32 with t
result that the tribal name 'Dāsa* became a signifier of 'slave'.
Rgvedic chieftains made liberal gifts of male and female slaves to
priests and composers of the hymns and, as Kosambi has
argued,33 the assignment of slave-labour to the priestly and warrior
lineages by the tribal chieftain played a catalytic role in the growth
of social differentiation within Aryan tribes and emergence of a
class structure in the form of four original castes, i.e., the varņas.
Kosambi explains that the subjugation of the Dāsa, Śudra and other
tribes gave rise to a generalized form of servitude in the form of
the śudra varņa and not chattel slavery, for the tribal influence was
still strong and individual property had not developed sufficiently
yet. Internal differentiations among the vedic tribes emerged with
the priestly and warrior lineages uniting to exploit both the 4 Aryan
peasant (vaiśya) and non-Aryan helot (śudra)'.
The cooperation and interdependence of the priestly and ruling
groups and their exploitation and subjugation of the vaiśya and śudra
producers is a well-known feature of the later vedic epoch. What
deserves note is the fact that the varņa ideology from its very
inception plays a political and not just religious role in the
hierarchical structuring of social relations. The varņa system, and
later its expanded version the jāti system,34 regulated the class
structure of early India and as such was a powerful instrument
functioning in the interest of the ruling classes. Its strong links
with contemporary political powers and politics have been
maintained, as we shall see, throughout its long history.
It may be argued that elaboration of vedic sacrifices into rituals
of great complexity made it a preserve of specialist lineages, and
the transmission of expertise to one's descendants and disciples
finally gave rise to the brāhmaņa varņa.35 The vedic ritual
specialists played a crucial role in providing religious justification
for the superior claims of the vedic chieftain and his râjanya
kinsmen over the vis commoners reducing the need for the use of
force, which undoubtedly underpinned such claims.36 As tribal
structure disintegrated and socio-economic disparities grew the

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räjanyas emerged as a separate privileged group and formed

alliances with similar groups of other tribes giving rise to the
ksatriya varņa. Thus, the oligarchical lineages of the gaņa-rājyas
of the age of the Buddha claimed to belong to the ksatriya varņa
although their lineages were described as jātis, to wit, Śakya jāti,
Licchavi jāti, Jnātrika jāti and so on. But these were not jätis in
the modern sense of the term constituting separate endogamous
units. They practised endogamy within the ksatriya varņa marrying
across their own jāti boundaries.37 The term 'jāti' was used in a
literal sense to emphasize birth in a particular group, hence, we
have also references to hīna jāti and ucca jāti , birth in a low or
high social group. But the operation of the principle of heredity in
establishing the identities of the brāhmaņa and räjanya categories
is clear.ly indicated in the Śatapatha brahmano 38 and early
upanisads such as the Chãndogya. The latter text links it to the
doctrine of transmigration and karma . It is said that those who have
pleased the gods with their pleasant conduct enter a pleasant
womb'. They are born either as a brāhmaņa, or a ksatriya or a
vaiáya. But those whose conduct has been evil enter a 'stinking
womb' such as that of a bitch, a pig or a Cannala.39 Thus birth in
higher varņas was considered the fruit of meritorious acts performed
in the previous life.
IV
In an illuminating lecture40 published posthumously late Professor

A. L. Basham meticulously examined the upanisadic passages which
revealed the gradual evolution of the doctrine of rebirth from
inchoate speculations into a well-developed'ideology. He shows
that this doctrine was first adumbrated by the brāhmaņa and the
ksatriya intellectuals in an age, which was characterized by great
material progress but also disintegration of tribal social life and
the rise of varņa divisions. The developments created a sense of
insecurity and pessimism among many thinkers, who opted out of
society and became ascetics and wanderers trying to discover 'the
ultimate meaning of existence'. To this, one might add that the
emergence of wide socio-economic disparities must have been an
important cause of disillusionment. It is said in the Chãndogya
Upanisad41 . that in this world one's greatness depends on cattle,
horses, elephants, gold, female slaves, fields and houses. The
doctrine of karma, rebirth and moksa - the idea that the individual
soul keeps on passing from one body to another to reap the fruits

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of the good or bad deeds, and this is an unending cycle from whic
one can find release only through a realization of the imperson
brahma or Truth - developed in this environment. The significant
point is that it was an ideology which germinated in the elite circle
Not being rooted in early vedic thought it was taught initially as a
secret knowledge discussed by a few, but later became the basic
principle of the ideological explanation of the cosmos ( samsara )
preached by the brāhmaņas, wandering ascetics and mystics
filtering down from them to lower orders. Basham is quite emphatic
that it was not a borrowing of a pre-existing idea from non-Aryan,
indigenous peoples having animistic beliefs as was suggested by
earlier scholars but an invention of the upanisadic thinkers. It had
its sceptics in the form of Cārvākas, Lokâyatikas and Nāstikas but
soon became the ideology of the mainstream, and at the time of the
rise of Jainism and Buddhism it was accepted by everyone in the
Gangetic valley.
However, the texts available to us are documents of the upper
castes and it is difficult to infer on their basis the extent to which
this ideology was internalized by the depressed groups. Max Weber
wrote42 that the inexorable logic of this doctrine reconciled the
poor and the depressed to their lot in the hope that through good
conduct they could improve their destiny in their next birth. But
field studies conducted among the 'untouchable' castes by a number
of sociologists43 show that although the ideas of transmigration and
karma - that is, sins committed in previous lives are the causes of
misfortunes in the present one - is accepted generally, the low
status of their caste is not explained in this fashion. Their origin
myths ascribe their present degraded social ranking to some
historical accident or trickery of the high castes played on their
ancestors or genealogical founder. We shall be doing less than
justice to the common sense of the exploited if we imagine that
there would have been no resistance even in thought let alone
practice.
Traces of resistance are not altogether lacking despite the nature
of our sources. These have been overlooked generally owing to
the preconceived notions of the Orientalist and Nationalist
historiographies. If colonial reconstructions emphasized the static,
stagnant nature of Indian society immune to changes owing to a
rigid caste structure rooted in religious beliefs, the nationalists
presented an idealized picture of social harmony and contentment
with castes engaged in their traditional occupations without any
social tensions or conflicts.

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General President's Address 9
However, R. S. Sharma's analysis of the Kali age .

crisis44 mentioned in the Mahābhārata , Rãmãyana and some e
purāņas clearly shows that the varņa order and its ideology, face
serious challenge in the early centuries of the Common Era from
the lower orders, and although generally the upsetting of the so
order is attributed to the vaišyas and the śudras, some passages
also speak of the antyas or untouchables in this context. The earliest
reference to a revolt by the menial labourers pertains to the slaves
of the Śakyas who had carried away 'married women, unmarried
girls and daughters-in-law of high families of their masters'. Dr.
Devaraj Chanana was of the view that the way Buddha reacted to
this incident suggests that it was not the only occurrence of its
kind.45 One may presume that since the slaves acted in a collective
manner in retaliation to their exploitation, they formed a collectivity,
perhaps a defeated and enslaved tribal population, but their
integration as a depressed caste within the varņa framework cannot
be taken for granted, for the dāsa - kammakaras of the Pāli sources
constituted an economic category. Although the varņa categories
had hardened into exclusive hereditary statuses in the age of the
Buddha, the jāti structure within varņa framework was yet to
develop. The category of untouchables grew rather slowly,46 and
the first untouchable groups seem to have been food-gatherers and
hunters living on the periphery of agrarian settlements. In the listing
of social groups in early Buddhist sources they are mentioned
separately and not as a part of the šūdra varņa. The Jātaka
tales47 depict Canéalas being engaged as musicians, night
watchmen, executioners, corpse-removers and sweepers removing
garbage from the streets, but not in agricultural work. They were
kept away from Aryan homes as their sight and proximity was
considered polluting.48 However, in brahmanical perception they
all formed part of the šūdra varņa; for Pāņini, who is generally
assigned to the fourth century BCE, speaks of two groups of śudras
the 'excluded' and the 'unexcludeď ( šūdrānām aniravasitānām,
Astãdhyãyl , II. 4. 10), and, as Patañjali's comment on it shows, the
former included Cāņdālas, Mrtapās, etc.
Contrary to ideological interpretations which attribute the origin

of the caste system to Indian psyche, a careful scrutiny of our
sources shows that condemnation of certain peoples as of despicable
and impure birth (jāti) begins much earlier than the formulation of

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10 ¡HC: Proceedings , 68th Session, 2007
religious concepts ascribing permanent impurity to certain

occupations and practices. The most polluting task according to
Hindu notions of impurity is cleaning of human excrement, latrines,
etc., a task imposed upon the lowliest of the untouchables known
by different names in various regions as Bhangi, Balmiki, Chuhra,
Paki, Hadi, etc. Dumont argues that the Hindu belief in the
desecrating nature of organic activities makes the Hindu of good
caste temporarily impure and leads to attribution of massive and
permanent impurity to those categories of people who have
specialization in impure tasks, in practice or in theory.49 In other
words, even without being actually engaged in 'polluting'
occupations theoretically they are associated with such tasks and
hence regarded as permanently impure. However, we may point
out that in brahmánical theory impurity does not arise from
specialization in impure tasks but from impure birth. Those whose
putative ancestors are deemed to have violated the varņa norms
and contracted mixed pratiloma unions or marriages are condemned
to subsist on impure vocations, and their impurity is not removed
even when they are not engaged in occupations ascribed to them
by brahmanical tradition. Dumont completely ignores the
instrumental nature of the ideology of purity/impurity invented by
the brahmanical ideologues for justifying a system of class
exploitation. This becomes evident from the fact that from the early
medieval down to late medieval times the work of manual
scavenging in the houses of the well-to-do peoples50 was done b
domestic slaves who were of 'clean' castfes51 and the same perso
had to do other type of housework as well such as fetching drinkin
water, grinding corn, cooking food, etc., without any prejudice,52
a situation unthinkable in modern-day conventional Hindu home
This shows that notions of pure / impure could be modified or
elaborated depending upon circumstances to suit the convenien
of the exploiting classes. The creation-of a caste of manual
scavengers is linked with the growth of towns53 and close
dwellings without open spaces; and the process seems to have be
accelerated in the nineteenth century perhaps aided to some extent
by the Government of India Act V of 1843 abolishing slavery
despite the opposition of the landed aristocracy on the ground tha
it was an ancient custom for slaves to do all manual labour for
respectable people.54 Moreover, army cantonments too required
such services and the municipalities and cantonments created
official posts of manual scavengers. It is rightly remarked55 that

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General President 's Address 1 1
the British did not invent the caste of manual scav

intervened to institutionalize it ; and 4 the technol
was structured to deepen social prejudice in Indi
A similar inference can be drawn from an enq
emergence of a caste of Chamars (cobblers). In the early Buddlist
sources leather work is regarded as hTna (low) sippa (craft or
occupation) of low status value;56 but leatherworker or carmakãra
does not figure in the list of hīna jātis enumerated in the Vinaya
texts. The hīna jātis or nīca kulas (low lineages) repeatedly
mentioned57 are Cannala, Nešāda, Vena, Rathakāra and Pukkusā,
who with the possible exception of Rathakāra58 seem to have been
aboriginal tribes living on the margins of the Aryan settlements.
Although tanning of hide is an ancient profession and is known to
the Rgveda59 and the later vedic texts, there is nothing to show that
leather or leatherworkers were considered polluting even in later
vedic times. We have references to leather bags filled with milk
and clarified butter ( ghrta ) for use in sacrificial ritual.60 According
to Vivekanand Jha61 the Carmakãra, the Rajaka (washerman) and
similar craftsmen and manual workers appear as untouchables only
in texts datable between CE 600 and 1200. The Manusmrti refers
to the mixed caste of leather workers with three different names,
Carmāvakartin,62 Dhigvaņa63 and Kārāvara,64 which is taken as
indicative of the existence of subcastes among leather workers; but
the dating of these passages is problematic. Professor Ram Sharan
Sharma suggests a time bracket of CE 220-400 with later portions
added in the fifth century and even later.65 I would like to point
out that a Buddhist Prakrit inscription66 from Amarāvatī speaks
of a cammakāra ( Carmakãra ) Vidhika, who describes himself as
the son of an upãjhãya ( upãdhyãya , apparently a brāhmaņa teacher)
Nāga. He made the gift of a slab with a filled vase. Paleographically
the inscription is assigned to the early centuries of the Common
Era and it shows that in the Deccan leather work was still a
respectable profession. Patañjali commenting upon Pāņini's s
mentioned above assigns Canéalas and Mrtapas the lowest pos
placing the carpenters, washermen, blacksmiths and weavers abo
them67 but does not speak of the Carmakãra in this connect
Apparently, defining of untouchability / impurity with referen
leather work is a later development.

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1 2 IHC: Proceedings , 68th Session, 2007
VI
However, notwithstanding the evidence of Aniaravati inscription,

it is not possible to accept the thesis of B. R. Ambedkar that the
Chamar and other dalit communities of modern India had been
originally Buddhists and were degraded as untouchables by the
brāhmaņa law-givers, as they continued to eat beef even after it
was given up by the brāhmaņas and brahmanical communities.68 Th
brahmanical law-givers, poets and playwrights continued to
countenance the eating of animal flesh including that of cow till
the end of the first millennium CE,69 and in the sixth century
Varähamihira especially recommended to the king to eat the flesh
of the bull, buffalo and other animals on ceremonial occasions.70 But
references to untouchable communities have been traced in sources
datable several centuries earlier, and crystallization of social groups
earning their living by leather work as specific castes of low status
may be seen in the Manusmrti?x In later smrtis the Carmakāra is
clearly an untouchable.72 So leather work, beef-eating, or eating of
carrion cannot be regarded as having given rise to the phenomenon
of untouchability, although, later, condemnation of such practices
was undoubtedly used73 to relegate large sections of lower classes
and aboriginal communities to untouchable status. This is obvious
in the case of present day Chamars. This large caste spread over a
vast area of northern India seems to have been formed through
assimilation of a number of tribes, artisanal groups, local castes,
etc. Only a small proportion of this caste lives on leather work, the
rest subsists on agricultural labour in rural areas.74
However, following the theory of Dr. Ambedkar a number of
Dalit scholars visualize a glorious Buddhist past of the ex-
untouchables. The more cautious among them do not attribute the
origin of untouchability to the brahmanical ostracization of the
Buddhists but argue that the revival of Brahmanism under the
Guptas and the persecution of the Buddhists was largely responsible
for the large increase in the number of untouchable castes in Gupta
and post-Gupta times.75 The thesis is emphatically espoused by
Gail Omvedt,76 who asserts that the 'defeat of Buddhism in India'
was the result of the alliances between the brāhmaņas and the kings
and violent persecution of the Buddhists. She hypothesizes that
the Cāņ<Jālas were indigenous to Bengal, they had been speakers
of a proto-Muņdā language, their name being strikingly similar to
the Mundari speaking Santhals. The Cándalas had spread out from

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Bengal to Central India and into the regions of the G

where under brahmanic hegemony they had been defeated and
reduced to untouchable status. In Bengal, communities like the
Kaivartas and the Cāņtļālas had been supporters of Buddhism
"imbibing its equalitarian high tradition'. Later, many of them
converted to Islam to avoid persecution and being made
untouchables. However, those who were unable to convert for
whatever reason were reduced to untouchable rank. Omvedt does
not accept Basham's explanation that the decline of Buddhism may
be attributed to the decadence of Buddhist monasteries, hold of the
brāhmaņas on the performance of life cycle rituals, reformed
character of Brahmanism with the adoption of ahimsã doctrine and
its syncretistic attempts in making the Buddha the ninth incarnation
of Visņu. She is also critical of Kosambi's view77 that the
brahmanical individual priests were more suited to meet the needs
of the self-contained villages of the agrarian economy rather than
the large Buddhist monasteries, which had become uneconomic,
dependent upon the patronage of higher classes and out of touch
with the common people, and that these institutions were now
'mired in wealth and superstition'. Omvedt argues that Buddhist
monasteries were not any more unproductive or 'parasitical than
the Brahmanic priests living off innumerable gifts from believers'.
In her view Buddhism did not 'decline1 but was 'defeated' and
eliminated by the brāhmaņas in collusion with the kings.
This is not the place to go into the causes of the decline o
Buddhism - which is no doubt an important question and needs
separate treatment notwithstanding the meticulous work of R.
Mitra78 - but it needs to be mentioned that the attitude of the ear
Buddhist and Jaina writers towards the Cāņdālas as well as all tho
who are dubbed as hīna jātis was no different from the brahmani
authors of the Dharmasutras. This is amply shown by Richard Fic
Devaraj Chanana, Vivekanand Jha and Uma Chakravarti in th
studies cited above. The theory of karma , which is taken for gran
by Jainism and Buddhism could be used effectively to rational
discriminations on account of birth in a family or caste,79 and
Professor Irfan Habib had argued80 in his General President'
Address to the Indian History Congress given in 1982, the princip
of ahimsã could legitimize the hostility of the land-based peasantr
towards hunting tribes of the forests living on the borders of th
agrarian settlements and justify their ostracism providing the ba
for untouchablility. The hatred towards such communities is fully
reflected in the early Jaina and Buddhist sources.

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1 4 ¡HC: Proceedings, 68th Session, 2007
The myth of a harmonious and conflict free golden age of India

has been exploded in a number of studies,81 and there is no dou
that there is evidence of tensions, conflicts and a few instances of
persecution of Buddhists too in early medieval times.82 For instance,
Bhūdeva, a king of Katyuri dynasty ruling over the regions of
Kumaun and Gadhwal in the tenth century took pride in describing
himself as a great enemy of Buddhist monks
(paramabuddha> ramaļuaripu) and a great patron of the
brāhmaņas.83 Several rulers of this region assumed the title of
paramabrahmajuya ,84 which according to D.C. Sircar should be
translated as 'highly devoted to brāhmaņas'.85 We have also
sculptures from Bihar and Orissa depicting Buddhist deities
trampling the brahmanical gods under their feet,86 unmistakably a
reflection of acute hostility between Buddhism and Brahmanism.
However, it will be a mistake to think that sectarian conflicts,
denunciations and violence were directed against Buddhists alone.
The Periya Purāņa speaks of the impalement of eight thousand
Jainas at the instance of the Śaiva saint Nānāsambandār; and a
festival to commemorate the 'gruesome event' is observed to this
day in the Madura temple.87 Even if the story is the invention of a
sectarian mind, it reflects extreme hatred. The Tamil Alvar and
Nãyanãr saint-poets denounced Jainism and Buddhism, but the
attacks on the former were particularly vehement. Attempts were
made to appropriate the worship of Jina Rsabha too, while
imprecating the Jaina śramanas at the same time.88 According to a
<aiva hagiographical work god Śańkara had incarnated himself as
the philosopher Śańkaracarya to destroy heretics, particularly the
Jainas, who were massacred and their books and temples
destroyed.89 The Basava Purāņa and the Panditãrãdhya caritra too
speak of the severe persecution of the Jainas and destruction of
their temples.90 The inscriptions of the tenth-eleventh centuries
testify to the persecution of the Jainas in the South. It is believed
that Tailapa II of the Çãlukya family, who overthrew the Rāstrakūta
dynasty, persecuted the Jainas and destroyed their shrines in the
process.91 Later the Co±a armies overran the Câlukya country
causing extensive destruction of Jaina temples.92 The underlying
causes may have been political, but greed for the wealth stored in
religious institutions was no less a motivating factor. The
Rājatarangiņī narrates the iconoclastic activities of several kings,
Śańkaravarman,93 Ksemagupta,94 Kalaśa95 and his son Harsa, who,

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astonished at the amount of wealth stored in a deserted shrine, was

tempted to loot the rich temples of gods and appointed especially
an 'officer for uprooting the gods'.96 Religious literature of this
period gives expression to acrimonious theological disputes among
the Jainas, Buddhists, Śaivas and Vaisņavas denouncing each other
in strong terms.
If there are traces of conflicts,97 there are many examples of
syncretism98 and equal veneration of deities of different and
opposing religions,99 giving grist to the mill of those who wish to
paint a picture of tolerant, harmonious and homogeneous "Hindu"
India; although it is possible to argue that in many cases these may
have been attempts at reconciliation and resolution of conflicts.
Nevertheless, the crucial question is, faced with similar challenges
why did Buddhism decline whereas Jainism was able to survive
and retain its social base?
It seems to me that the answer lies not in the conspiracy theory

of the brāhmaņa-king collusion100 but the way the two 'heterodox'
religions responded to the caste system. Both Jainism and
Buddhism denounced the cult of vedic sacrifices and challenged
the superior position of the brāhmaņas in the varņa system but did
not reject the division of society into varņa
categories.101 Enumeration of the fourfold division of socie
regular feature of the early Buddhist texts.102 However, B
had a more liberal attitude towards the śudras and untouchables
and it allowed them admission into its monastic organization.
Although the majority of the monks mentioned in the early Buddhist
sources came from the brāhmaņa and the ksatriya background, quite
a few, such as Upāli and Subhadda (barber), Canna ( dāsīputra ),
Talaputa (nata), Dhaniya (potter) and Sāti (fisherman) were born
in nīcajculas.1 03 In the Theragathã the monk Sunīta speaks of his
birth in a Mow family' of sweepers ( pukkusā ).104 It has been argued
that it was not possible for the Buddha to bring about a radical
change in society owing to the limitations of the existing mode of
production; but he tried to create an egalitarian order of monks,
which was open to all irrespective of rank or varjaa, to even those
who had been slaves.105 The Jātaka stories tell us of the Bodhisattvas
born in the low families of potters and Cāņcjālas.106 Buddhism as a
religion retained its catholicity and criticism of the caste system
even in its later phases, despite the fact that the Buddhist kings of
early medieval period, like Dharmapāla and Vigrahapāla of the Pāla

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16 IHC: Proceedings , 68th Session, 2007
dynasty of Bengal, took credit in their inscriptions for reestablishin

the varņāsrama dharma and stopping any deviation from it,
apparently because caste provided a useful mechanism for
controlling and regulating the economic and political resources.
However, Buddhism seems to have had a large following among
the lower classes. Kumārila Bhatta (8th century) wrote that the
teachings of the Buddha were followed by those who belonged to
the fourth varņa, i.e., śudras or by outcastes ( niravasitas ).107
Purāņas denounced the Buddhists as pāsaņdins , who were adept
in argumentation and wilfully transgressed the duties arising out
of the distinctions of caste and order of life.108 The example of
Rāhulabhadra, the disciple of Aryadeva, shows that even a śudra
monk could rise to the position of the abbot of the Nālandā
monastery and control immense amount of wealth.109 The Vajrasūcī
of Ašvaghosa110 makes a trenchant criticism of the caste system
and the selfishness of the brāhmaņas. In the Latakamelaka of
Śaiikhadhara a Buddhist monk rejects the idea expressed by a
Digambara monk that anyone can become polluted by the touch of
somebody, who is of a dissimilar caste' ( asadrsa-jātī-sparsa).iu
Contrary to the Buddhist attitude, the Jainas fully endorsed
the caste system. Raviseņa in his Padma Purāņa , which is the
Jaina version of Rãmãyana written in Sanskrit in 676 CE, credits
Rsabhadeva for creating the four varņas from different parts of his
body and assigning them their respective duties.112 The theme is
further developed in the Ādipurāņan 3 of Jinasena (9th century)
and Ādīšvaracarita 1 14 of Hemacandra (11th century) with some
variations. The Jaina texts condemn the intermixture of varņas as
strongly as do the brahmanical law-books. 1 15 Somadeva Sūri ( 1 Oth
century) in his NTtivãkyãmrta recommends that everyone should
stick to one's hereditary occupation determined by his caste116
and restricts religious initiation to the upper three varņas
only.117 Jainism also evolved rituals for its laity. Jaina domestic
rituals were similar to brahmanical ones officiated by the Jaina
brāhmaņa priests.118 Kosambi's pithy comment on the survival of
Jainism and decline of Buddhism is typical of his deep
understanding. 'Jainism survives in India to this day for the same
reasons that prevented its spread outside the country... it soon came
to terms with caste and ritual, as Buddhism did not'. 119 Caste system
ensured the structured dependence of the agricultural and artisanal
labour, which was to the great advantage of the land-owning and

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General President s Address 1 7
ruling elite.120 Movements of protest could no

long without basic changes in material conditions.
VII
The upper class contempt of manual labour has been one of the
basic organizing principles of the varņa-jāti hierarchy. It is held121
that the Buddha forbade the monks manual labour in order to free
them from worldly preoccupations. The prohibition could have been
also under the influence of the doctrine of ahimsã (non-violence),
as levelling the soil, watering fields, gardens, etc. destroyed
'lives'.122 Hence, Buddhist monasteries were gifted ã rãmikas
(monastery-slaves) and to supervise their work a monk was elected
as ārāmika-pessaka (supervisor of ãrãmikas ).123 Manual work wąs
avoided by the nuns too and domestic work was declared an offence
by a pãcittiya rule.124 Such a negative attitude distanced the monk-
philosophers of Mahãyãna Buddhism from physical work to such
an extent that they developed a philosophy which took into
cognizance only the 'mental' nature of our experiences arguing that
everything is essentially no more than a 'mental construction
( prajnaptimãtraY 125 Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya describes it as a
revolutionary philosophy passing into its opposite.126 In material
terms the effect of this ideological turn of Buddhism was to further
devalue and depress those who earned their living through physical
labour; and ultimately it gave rise to Sahajayäna form of Buddhism
popular among the lower castes.127 In Jainism too there was an
excessive emphasis on non-killing of all forms of life leading to
the prohibition of agricultural and other types of manual activities
from the very beginning. I have shown elsewhere128 that in post-
vedic times with the depression of the peasantry, the well-to-do
members of the vis community became traders and adopted Jainism
in order to emphasize their disassociation from agriculture, with
the result that in course of time only merchants and traders came
to be known as vaisyas. The shift from the later vedic to the post-
vedic connotation of the term is indicative of the decline in the
status of those communities which were engaged in the cultivation
of the soil and artisanal activities involving manual work. In
Brahmanism, as we have seen, the servitude of the śudra was the
foundation stone of the varņa system. Disdain towards him was
extended to cover all the jāti s subsisting on manual work and
primary production in post-vedic times and the attitude was further

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1 8 IHC : Proceedings, 68th Session , 2007
hardened with the adoption of the principles of ahimsã]29 in neo-

Brahmanism and its use in ascribing impurity to menial occupations
and communities. The Manusmrti not only ranks hunters and
gatherers as low-born outcastes but lays down that if a brāhmaņa
or ksatriya is unable to earn his livelihood by his own specific
vocation, he may earn his living by the vocation of a vaišya by
trading in uncondemnable wealth-increasing articles but should not
practise agriculture. '(Some) declare that agriculture is something
excellent (but) that means of subsistence is blamed by the virtuous;
(for) the wooden (implement) with iron point injures the earth and
(the beings) living in the earth' 130
The ideology had serious implications for women. According
to Manu the householder ( grhastha ) has five 'slaughter houses'
(panca sūnā ), the fire-place ( culli ), the grinding-stone, the broom,
the pestle and mortar and the water-pot. Using these he is bound
with the fetters of sin, so he should expiate by performing the five
great sacrifices (pañca mahayajñas) daily.131 But these are the
'sinful* sites around which revolves the life of a common housewife.
It is not surprising that women were regularly clubbed with the
śudras in brahmanical texts.132 The pain and drudgery of a life
around the 'pestle and mortar' is vividly expressed is some songs
of the Buddhist nuns included in the TherJgãthã .133 Manu's attitude
to work presents a striking contrast to the Rgvedic poet, who
worshipfully invokes the mortar set to work in every house to give
a clear loud sound like the drum134 of conquerors and compares
the mother-goddesses Usas (in plural) to women singing as they
perform visti , apparently working*in the fields.135 In later medieval
literature the term visti means forced labour; but in the Rgvedic
hymn it is a collective activity with no trace of scorn.
VIII
Attribution of impurity to tasks involving manual labou

religious sanction to the exploitation of the working clas
helped in the evolution of a brahmanical paradigm of
integration136 of diverse communities into a highly stratifi
society with an ideological tool with which to measure and ju
the ranking of a particular social segment. The role of brā
in the spread of this ideology from its home in the Gangetic
to the various regions of the subcontinent is duly stressed; a
Sharma has laid particular emphasis on the consquences of lan

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to brāhmaņas in tribal areas in early medieval times. However,

brāhmaņas alone were not the carriers of caste ideology which was
useful in the restructuring of tribes into an hierarchical society
legitimizing the claims of the tribal elites as superior status groups
based on heredity. It may be noted that in Sri Lanka caste system
developed under the influence of the Buddhist monks,137 who had
carried with them the theory of karma and a notion of the functional
hierarchy of social groups based on birth, but as there were no
brāhmaņas or a caste of priests, castes were not defined in terms of
pure/ impure communities. The Sri Lankan example shows that
the opposition of the brāhmaņa and the untouchable, i.e., the 'pure'
and the 'impure', is not the founding principle of the caste system
as assumed by Dumont. Rather, it is a superimposition on a
structure of rigid class differentiations; and castes can exist without
the heip of the ideology of pollution.
Expansion of the caste society in various regions of India took
place through multiple processes;138 and a few studies139 have
underlined the role of tribal chieftains, who emulated the ksątriya
model in order to legitimize their political power and control over
community- resources and took initiative for the diffusion and broad
acceptance of brahmanical norms in Orissa in early medieval times.
In some regions the dominant ideology could have been
disseminated through Jaina and orthodox Śaiva monastic orders.
It has been argued140 that in the backward tribal territory of
Rayalseema in south-western Andhra Pradesh the transition from
tribe to state took place in the sixth-seventh centuries CE, when
this area was -exposed to outside influence owing to its strategic
importance in the power struggle between the Câlukyas of Bādāmī
and the Paliavas of Kancī. The region did not attract any brāhmaņa
settlements or agrahāras but was penetrated by the Jaina monks
and the Śaivas of the Kālāmukha sect, who used the local vernacular
to spread their message. They were patronized by the emerging
local elite and chieftains, who also showed preference to the local
language in their inscriptions in order to assert their sepárate ethnic
identity and local roots vis-à-vis the Câlukyas and the Paliavas.
These developments contributed not only to the growth ofTelugu
language and literature but also integrated this region with the pan-
Indian culture through ideologies which were opposed to the caste
system. While we agree with the broad generalizations of this
argument, we may point out that neither the Kālāmukhas- who are
wrongly confused with the Kāpālikas141 nor the Jainas in these
centuries were opposed to the caste system. In fact, the Kālānmkhas

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20 IHC : Proceedings , 68th Session , 2007
were thoroughly imbued with the dominant ideology and many of

them became the preceptors of kings ( rãjaguru ) or family priests
of the village headmen ( gāvuņdas ). They actively promoted
construction of temples, which apart from being places of worship
also imparted brahmanical education to people and received grants
for the purpose.142 It is not surprising that a Kalacūri inscription of
the twelfth century praises Vimalašiva, the Šaiva rãjaguru of king
Jayasimha, as one whose counsel had made even more distant people
pay taxes.143 Nevertheless, the basic point that the initiative of the
brāhmaņa caste is not the essential condition for the spread of the
brahmanical ideology of caste is substantiated by the example of
the numerically large caste of Kallar located in the southern districts
of Tamilnadu. Huttonļ44 describes it as a cultivating and predatory
Tamil caste notable for their efficient agriculture, expert thieving,
cattle lifting, etc. Dumont did intensive field work among the
Pramalai Kallar, a subcaste of the Kallars, and published a
monograph145 on them from a social anthropological point of view.
He writes that the Kallars are relatively unaffected by brahmanic
ideas and customs. They bury their dead, and although they have
warrior pretensions, they willingly allow themselves to be classed
among the śudra.146 However, in the local hierarchy they occupy
the middle rung of the caste ladder. They seem to have migrated
from the Andhra country and founded the kingdom of Pudukkotai
between Tanjavur and Madurai in the last quarter of the seventeenth
century. Nicholas B.Dirks, who has made a, detailed study of the
kingdom of Pudukkottai,147 compares them with the Rajputs of
northern India and cogently argues that the assumption of power
led to a restructuring of the Kallar caste which got divided into a
number of subcastes graded hierarchically not on the basis of their
'purity /impurity but with reference to their relative proximity to
the royal power and control over land'.148 Pramalai Kallar was the
royal subcaste. It is endogamous and is also known as Tevar (from
Sanskrit deva), originally a political designation but now a general
title. The domination of the Kallars in the areas occupied by them
manifested itself in the imposition of extremely humiliating and
discriminatory prohibitions upon the 'exterior' castes, who worked
on their fields as labourers living in 'serf-like' conditions. Dumont
describes these impositions upon untouchables as 'customary' but
as recorded by Hutton,149 the prohibitions had nothing to do with
the notions of pure/impure and were merely expressions of arrogant
power. Dirks speaks of the increasing trend towards patriarchy

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and adoption of some of brahmanic practices by t

of Kallar, such as seclusion of women, disapproval of widow-
marriage, etc. But the field work of Dumont shows150 that widow
marriage prevails among the Kallar and divorce is extremely easy.
It could be based on nothing more than the desire of one of the
spouses, male or female. It follows that the brahmanical influence
was perhaps confined to the royal family and sankritizing efforts
had very limited impact on the caste. Dirks' assertion151 that caste
as a social system, whether in the political milieu of pre-British
period or in its 'increasingly brahmanical forms under colonial rule'
was a most pervasive form of oppression directed against women
is valid in general; but as far as the Kallar women are concerned
the impact of caste formation is yet to be worked out.
Nevertheless, the twin pillars that sustain the caste system are
firstly, subordination of women and secondly, its capacity to
reinvent itself in changing social formations in the service of the
powerful and the dominant. It has been shown that in spite of its
apparent rigidity the system was able to enroll new members and
create new caste categories at various levels. There was scope for
political or economic mobility through processes of fission and
fusion as examplified by the formation of the Rajput and Kayastha
categories. In these processes control over woman's sexuality was
critical, endogamy as well as hypergamy was used to create a
distinct caste identity and raise its status. In the pre-British period
fission rather than fusion was adopted for upward mobility; but the
trend in modern India has been towards fusion to form numerically
large caste identities by integrating subcastes and groups having
parallel positions.152 It is said that the Census Reports have played
a crucial role in this development by generating greater caste
consciousness and an awareness for the bargaining possibilities of
larger sodalities. Whatever the case may be, the change of trend
underlies the real nature of this form of social stratification, which
is its capacity to reconstruct itself as an instrument of power for
the new elite in a different political formation. It is being argued153
that caste should not be disavowed or sought to be erased, as a
'site of identity and power'; for it has possibilities for political
mobilization that would transform the prevailing relations of state
and society in the favour of the oppressed; and it provides a potent
ideological tool for the assertion of Dalit identity. Such post-
modernist arguments are in fact arguments in favour of the status
quo pleading for the replacement of one set of power-elite with
another without bringing about any revolutionary change in the

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22 IHC : Proceedings , 68th Session, 2007
politico-economic patterns of domination and exploitation. These

do not take into consideration the fact thai caste is no longer tied
with occupation. Post-independence changes in the political and
economic set up and industrialization have had their impact on the
internal homogeneity of castes which have thrown up their own
elite, who may use the ideology of caste for narrow political
interests without effecting any radical transformation in the
condition of their caste in general. It is not without significance
that the caste battles are fought these days on issues of reservation
in jobs and institutions of higher education, but there is no strong
movement around the questions of land-reform and primary
education which would transform the lives of the Dalit masses. Dr.
Ambedkar seems to have foreseen this possibility when he criticized
the view that abolition of subcastes should be the first step towards
caste-reform. He categorically wrote, Abolition of sub-castes will
only help to strengthen the castes and make them more powerful
and therefore more mischievous'.154 He argued for the annihilation
of caste155 for which he thought the real remedy lies in inter-caste
marriages. The fact that he taught the Dalit communities self-
respect and organized them for collective political action does not
mean that he wanted to nurture caste identities. For Ambedka* social
and cultural emancipation of women and men was as important as
political and economic empowerment. It is unfortunate that in the
unabashed pursuit of political power today the holistic vision of
Ambedkar is completely forgotten; and the pernicious strength of
caste and patriarchal mentalities in our society is not seriously
combated.156
NOTES AND REFERENCES

I am thankful to Professor Kunal Chakrabarti, Dr. Rakesh Batabyal and D
Anand for helping me in various ways in the preparation of this lecture
1 . 'Caste, in the socio-economic framework of Early India' , Presidentia
Section I, Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, 38th session,
Bhubaneswar, 1977, pp. 23 - 48.
2. On the 1 9th and 20th J une 2007 the TV Channel Aaj Tak showed a Dalit named
Ramlal of Tonk in Rajasthan badly beaten up .He was punished by the upper
caste villagers for the crime of drinking water from a nearby borewell and
received multiple fractures. This is not an isolated case. Incidents of this
nature are still frequently reported from various parts of the country.
3. Ronald Inden, 'Orientalist constructions of India', Modern Asian Studies , Vol.
20 no. 3 (1986), pp.401-46. As Aijaz Ahmad remarks 'Colonialism is now
held responsible not only for its own cruelties but, conveniently enough, for
ours too* In Theory , Oxford University Press, (hereafter OUP) Delhi, 1994, p.

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196-7. Inden has, however, in a later work. Imagining In

1990, p. 82) has modified his position a little by linking the formation of
'modern form' of caste to 'the collapse of Hindu Kingship' in the thirteenth or
fourteenth century. For a devastating critique of Inden's book, Aijaz Ahmad,
'Between Orientalism and Historicism: Anthropological knowledge of India'.
Studies in History. Vol. 7 no. 1 (Jan. June 1991), pp. 135-63.
4. In her essay entitled ' The Changing Caste System in India' Pauline Kolanda
writes, 'the persistent feature of Indian society, its basic building block, is the
endogamous group', which has now become a 'segmentary one rather than an
organic one' Pauline Kolanda, Caste, Cult and Hierarchy: Essays on the
Culture of India. Folklore Institute, Meerut, 1981, p. 83. Dipankar Gupta
speaks of the castes as 'discrete categories', which 'value the principle of
endogamy very highly' without explaining that these discrete categories could
not exist without practising endogamy. Interrogating Caste: Understanding
Hierarchy and Difference in Indian Society. Penguin Books, India, 2000.
p. 70. For a detailed discussion. Su vira Jaiswal, Caste: Origin, Function and
Dimensions of change, (Hereafter, Caste) Manohar, Delhi, 1998, Introduction.
5. Nicholas B. Dirks, Castes of Mind; Colonialism and the making of Modern
India , Permanent Black, Delhi, 2002, paperback , 2006, pp. 7-8.
6. H.H. Risley , Census of India, Vol. I, p.l, 1901 quoted in Dirks ibid, p. 222.
7. For references, S. Jaiswal, Caste , p.40-1.
8. Dipankar Gupta, 'Continuous Hierarchies and Discrete Castes' , Economic and
Political Weekly, 19, no. 46 (17 November 1984), reprinted in Dipankar Gupta
(ed), Social Stratification, OUP, Delhi, 1991, p. 137, also see idem,
Interrogating Caste: Understanding Hierarchy and Difference, p. 70; 84.
9. Ibid., p. 70. However, earlier Gupta ascribed the origin of the varņas to the
attempt of the Aryans to maintain their social distance from the indigenous
community, 'From Varņa, to Jāti : The Indian Caste System from the Asiatic
to the Feudal Mode of Production', Journal of Contemporary Asia , Vol. X
( 1980), pp. 249-71 reprinted in K.L. Sharma (ed.). Social Inequality in India,
Profiles of Caste, Class, power and Social Mobility. Rawat Publications, Delhi,
1995, pp. 159-91.
10. Ibid.
11. I have shown that thç two terms are used interchangeably in early India
Caste, pp. 42-3.
12. P.V. Kane quotes Sūta Samhitã, Śiva Mãhãtmya Khançla, 1 2.5 1 .52, which states
that 'a man belongs to a caste by birth and no action of his can alter that fact,
that several castes are like the species of animals and that caste attaches to the
body and not to the soul' History of Dharmašāstra, vol. II, pt ii, (Bhandarkar
Oriental Research Institute, Poona, 1941), p. 52. The Bhagavad-gītā (XVIII.
4 1 ) clearly says that owing to their natural (inborn) qualities ( guņas ) the four
varņas have been assigned different functions. For a detailed discussion, S.
Jaiswal, The Making of a Hegemonic Tradition: The cult ofßäma Dāsarathī ,
S.C. Misra Memorial Lecture, Indian History Congress, 67 session, March
2007, p. 26-7 note 54. For the implication of the theory of guņas for the
hereditary nature of varņa organization, idem, 'Caste, Ideology and Context',
Indologica Taurinensia, ' ol. XXIII- XXIV (1997-98) p. 611.
13. See the origin myths current among Chamars, Dacca Chandals, Kayasthas,
Vaniyans, Bhangis, etc. cited by Dipankar Gupta to show that there were many
and not one caste ideologies. Interrogating Caste , pp. 73-7.

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24 IHC: Proceedings , 68th Session, 2007
14. D.D. Kosambi, Introduction to the Study of Indian Histo ry, Popular Prakasha
Bombay, 1956, p. 25; Morton Klass, Caste: The Emergence of the South Asian
Social System , Institute for the study of Human Issues, Philadelphia, 1980, p
175; Irfan Habib, Essays in Indian History : Towards a Marxist Perception ,
Tulika, New Delhi, 1995, p. 165. S.M. Michael, (ed.), Dalits in Modern India:
Vision and Values , Sage Publications, New Delhi (1999), 2nd ed. 2007,
Introduction, p. 17.
15. S.Jaiswal, Caste , p. 9f ; 157-8.
16. Louis Dumont, Homo Hierarchicus: The Caste, System and its Implications,
first published, 1 966, complete revised English edition, OUP, Delhi, 1988.
17. S. Jaiswal, Caste , p. 34-8, 103 Note 54; 1 1 8 note 207; idem. 'Caste: Ideology
and Context', lndologica Taurinensia , vol. XXIII-XXIV ( 1997-98), pp. 611-
5. Also see Gerald D. Berreman's excellent critique, 'The Brahmanical view
of caste', Contributions to Indian Sociology (n.s.) No. V (1970), pp. 16-25.
18. S. Jaiswal, 'varņa Ideology and Social Change'. Social Scientist, vol. 19, nos.
3-4, March- April 1991, p. 4 If.
19. Louis Dumont, op. cit., p. 1 13.
20. D.D. Kosambi, Myth and Reality : Studies in the Formation of Indian Culture ,
Popular Prakashan, Bombay, 1962, pp. 42-81
21. Ibid., p. 68; 76.
22. Romila Thapar, Ancient Indian Social History , Orient Longman, New Delhi
1978, p. 18; R.S. Sharma, Material Culture and Social Formations in Ancient
India, Macmillan, Delhi, Ltd. 1983, p. 157; D.N. Jha, Ancient India in
Historical outline, Manohar, Delhi, 1998. For the latest summing up of the
archaeological and linguistic arguments respectively, Jonathan Mark Kenoyer.
'Culture and Societies of the Indus Tradition', and Madhav M. Deshpande,
'Aryan Origins: Brief History of Linguistic Arguments' in Romila Thapar (ed.),
India : Historical Beginnings and the concept of the Aryan , National Book
Trust, New Delhi, 2006, pp.4 1-97 and 98-156.
23. S. Jaiswal, Caste, pp. 136-7, 195; idem, 'Inventing a Culture of Patriarchy:
An Aspect Brahmanism', Mamidipudi Venkatarangaiya Memorial Lecture- 14,
Proceedings of the Andhra Pfadesh History Congress, XXVI Session,
Anaparti, 2002, Appendix I, pp.i-xv.
24. Suvira Jaiswal, 'Reconstructing History from the Rgveda: A Paradigm Shift?'
Social Science Probings , vol. 18, no. 2 (Dec. 2006), pp. 15-6.
25. For example, see Hans-Peter Schmidt on RV .X. 27.12 which speaks of a
beautiful woman choosing her spouse among the suitors of her own free will
( svayam sa mitram vanuté jane cit). According to Schmidt the hymn shows
the prevalence of bride-price and the girl goes to the highest bidder. Hans-
Peter Schmidt, Some Women's Rites and Rights in the Veda, Bhandarkar,
Oriental Research Institute, Poona, 1987, pp. 76-7. He translates panyas as
bride-price, but Monier-Williams equates it with paniyas meaning very
wonderful' ( Sanskrit-English Dictionary , s.v. panyas and Säyana glosses it as
'one who is eulogised with praise' ( panyasa stotreņa). For a detailed
discussion, S. Jaiswal, 'Process of gendering in the Brahmanical Tradition,
Prajnā Bhāratī, vol. XI, in Honour of Prof. Ram Sharan Sharma, K.P. Jayaswal
Research Institute, Patna, 2005, pp. 21-5.
26. Sadashiv Ambadas Dange, Sexual Symbolism from Vedic Ritual , Ajanta
Publications, Delhi. 1979, pp. 73-4; Fredrick M. Smith, 'Indra's curse, Varuņa's

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Noose, and the Suppression of Women in the Vedic Śr

Leslie (ed.), Roles and Rituals for Hindu Women, Moti lal Banarsidass, Delhi,
1992, pp. 17-45, Kumkum Roy ,_£ merge nee of Monarchy in North India: Eighth
to Fourth Centuries B.C. as reflected in the Brahmanical Tradition , OUP,
Delhi, 1994, , p. 67.
27. Katherine K. Young, 'Hinduism' in Arvind Sharma (ed.), Women in World
Religions , State University of New York Press, Albany, 1987, p. 64. M.N.
Srinivas speaks of the considerable empowerment of high caste women through
their meticulous observance of purity-pollution rules, performance of
periodical rituals, etc., which are considered necessary for the material and
spiritual welfare of the household. The Changing Position of Indian Women ,
OUP, Delhi, 1976, pp. 17-8. Nevertheless, high-caste women's assertion or
celebration of self-worth through the performance of Hindu rituals can hardly
be linked to Rgvedic vision. Women were debarred from listening to the vedas.
The Brhannãradiya Purāņa says, 'A man who reads the vedas in the proximity
of women and sudras goes to hells successively during thousands of crores of
kalpas', XIV. 144, quoted in R.C. Hazra, Studies in the Upapurāņas , Vol. I,
Sanskrit College, Calcutta, 1958, p. 325. The prohibition is restated in the
Ràmacaritamãnasa of Tulasīdāsa (1.109.1), published by Hanuman Prasad
Poddar, Gita Press, Gorakhpur, Samvat 2050, thick print, p. 107).
28. For the remodelling of an ancient myth regarding the creation of the cosmos
through the original sacrifice of the primordial being to justify the four-fold
social differentiation, S. Jaiswal, Caste , pp. 135-6
29. Taittinya brahmaņa I. 2.6.7 quoted by U.N. Ghoshal, A History of Indian
Political IdeaSy OUP, Madras, reprint, 1966, p. 31.
30. Taittiriya brahmaņa III. 2.3.9 quoted in Jogiraj Basu, India of the Age of the
brāhmaņas Sanskrit Pustak Bhandar, Calcutta, 1969, p. 12. Some other texts
speak of the birth of the śudra from Evil, Kāthaka Samhita . XXXI. 2;
Maitrayanî Samhitā, IV. 1.3 quoted in U.N. Ghoshal, op. cit.
3 1 . For the name of the Śudra tribe becoming a generic term for the fourth varņa,
R.S. Sharma, Śudras in Ancient India , Motilal Banarasidas, Delhi, second
revised edition, 1980, p. 34f.
32. Rgveda , I. 126.3 speaks of ten chariots carrying vadhūs given to Kaksivān as
part of his dakšiņā. These were apparently women captured from defeated
alien tribes, presumably Dāsas. Rgveda , VIII. 19.36 mentions a gift of fifty
vadhūs given to the composer of the hymn by king Trasadasyu. Griffith
translates the term as female slaves. For women of the Dāsa tribes participating
in wars against Aryan enemies, S. Jaiswal,' Process of Gendering in the
Brahmanical Tradition', pp. 25-7. Also see Rgveda , VIII, Valakhilya 8.3 ; X.
62. 10. In RV 1 .92.3 the poet beseeches the Dawn goddess to grant him ample
wealth in the form of brave sons ( suvīrāh ), horses and troops of slaves (dāsa
- Pravarga).
33. Introduction to the Study of Indian History , p. 93; 104.
34. S. Jaiswal, Caste , p. 167; 196-7.
35. For the rise of brahmaņa varņa, ibid., pp. 149-62.
36. R. S. Sharma, Aspects of Political Ideas and Institutions in Ancient India , third
revised edition, Motilal Banarsidas, Delhi, 1991, pp. 178-80. Rgveda , VII.
6.5 describes Agni as using force ( balainirudhya ) to make the vis give tribute
to Nahusa.

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26 I HC: Proceedings , 68th Session , 2007
37. According to a Tibetan tradition the Śakyas and the Licchavis were branches
of the same tribe. The origin myths of both the groups attribute brother-sister
marriage to the founders; and the origin of the Koliyas of Rāmagāma too is
traced from a Śakya girl in such texts as Sumarigalavilasini and Mahāvastu .
Quoted by S.N. Misra, Ancient Indian Republics . The upper India Publishing
House, Lucknow, 1976, p. 46. Śuddhodhana, the father of the Buddha, is said
to have married two Koliyan princesses, Maya and Mahāpajāpati Gotami.
Kosambi discounts this tradition on the ground that the Śakyas were too proud
to marry outside their tribe. He cites the story of Pasenadi, the king of Kosala,
who was tricked into marrying Vãsabhakhattiyã, the daughter of Mahānāma
Śakya by a slave girl named Nāgamuņ^ā. However, this only shows that the
Śakyans did not want to displease Pasenadi, who had asked for the hand of a
Śakya girl, but at the same time they did not wish to give a girl of pure Śakya
lineage in marriage to him, who belonged to the lowly Mātanga-kula. The
tribe of Mātangas was later equated with Çãndãlas. In the Dlgha Nikclya , the
Buddha tells brāhmaņa Ambattha that the khattiyas (ksatriyas) are more rigid
and refuse to accept in their own gro^p a man who is not pure by birth for
seven generations on the side of his both parents, but the brāhmaņas accept
sons born of partial non- brāhmaņa origin on either side and allow them to
participate in yajña , irāddha, sthālīpāka, etc. Dīgha Nikãya , vol. I, pp. 92-7
quoted in N. Wagle, Society at the time of the Buddha , Popular Prakashan,
Bombay, 1966, pp. 101-3.
However, the Licchavis and Jñatrikas, both members of the Vajjian
confederacy, are known to have had marriage relations. Licchavi chief Cetaka's
sister Triśala was married to Siddhārtha of the Jñatrikas, the father of the J aina
Tirthańkara Mahāvīra. Cetaka's daughter Cellana was married to Bimbisāra
the king of Magadha and Ajataśatru was her son. Cetaka had several daughters
whom he gave in marriage to ksatriya rulers of the time. No doubt kings took
wives from other varņas too but the mother of the heir-apparent or claimant to
the throne had to be of ksatriya lineage as is shown by the story of Viduçlabha,
son of Väsabha-khattiyä. Also see S. Jaiswal, Caste , p. 15; 27 note 83. Wagle
speaks of Śakyas, Licchavis, etc, as extended kin-groups which slowly ossified
into castes by the time of the Manusmrti. That ksatriyas too had become a
caste like the brāhmaņas is shown by the fact that an inscription from Andhra
Pradesh paleographically assigned to the early centuries of the Common Era
speaks of ksatriya marchants. K. Gopalachari, Early History of the Andhra
Country , Madras, 1941, p.91. The Manusmrti , X. 43-4 speaks of ksatriya jātis
in plural indicating the existence of a number ksatriya castes within the broad
varņa category.
38. Śatapatha brāhmaņa, II. 1.4.4; Xi. 5. 7. 1; XII. 4. 4. 6; 4.4.7; XIII 19.1.-2,
edited by Ganga Prasad Upadhyaya, The Research Institute of Ancient
Scientific Studies, New Delhi; 1970, Translator , J. Eggeling, Sacred Books
of East Series, Vols. 12, 26, 41, 43, 44, Reprint, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi,
1988.
39. Chandogya Upanisad , V. 10.7, The Thirteen Principal Upanisads, Translated

by R. E. Hume, 2nd edn, OUP, Madras, 7th impression, 1968, p. 233.
40. A. L. Basham. The Origin and Development of Classical Hinduism, edited
and annotated by Kenneth Zysk, OUP, Delhi, 1990, Chapter Three.
41. Chandogya Upaniçad, VII. 24.2.
42. Max Waber, The Religion of India: The Sociology of Hinduism and Buddhism .
translated by Gerth and Martindale, Free Press, New York, 1958, p. 1 22.

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43. Pauline Kolenda, "Religious anxiety and Hindu fate", in Religion in South
Asia , edited by E.B.Harper, pp.7 1-81, University of Washington Press, Seattle,
reprinted in P. Kolenda, Caste, Cult and Hierarchy , pp. 1 69-83 ; Joan P.
Mencher, 'The caste system Upside Down, or the Not -So- Mysterious East'.
Current Anthropology, Vol.15 no. 4, December 1974. Eleanor Zelliot, From
Untouchable to Dalit: Essays on the Ambedkar Movement , Monohar, Delhi ,
1996, p. 74 note 5; Robert Deliege, 'The Myths of Origin of the Indian
Untouchables', Man , New series, Vol 28, No 3 (September 1993), pp 533 -
549.
Following Jan Vansina, ( Oral Tradition : A Study in Historical Methodology ,

translated by H. M. Wright, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London 1965), one
may assume that these oral myths had been a part of the consciousness of the
oppressed castes for a long time. But these have to be distinguished from caste
histories written in response to the colonial documentation project. See V.
Geçtha, 'Rewriting History in the Brahmin's Shadow : Caste and the Modern
Historical Imagination', Journal of Arts and Ideas , December 1993, nos. 25-
26, pp. 127-37; Badri Narayan, Women Heroes and Dalit Assertion in North
India: Culture, Identity and Politics , Sage Publishers, New Delhi, 2006,
p.l70f. However, the Mahar saint Chokhamela (13th -14th centuries) accepted
his birth in the low caste as a consequence of his karma , Zelliot, op. cit., p. 7.
44. R. S. Sharma, Early Medieval Indian Society: A study in Feudalization, Orient
Longman, Hyderabad, 2001, pp. 50-1; 53.
45. Vinaya Pitaka , Vol. IV p. 181 quoted in Devaraj Chanana, Slavery in Ancient
India , Peoples publishing House, Delhi, 1960, reprint 1990, p. 62. Uma
Chakravarti remarks that this is one of the first written records which shows
that women were the obvious targets in case of antagonism between two social
groups. Social Dimensions of Early Buddhism , OUP, Delhi, 1981, p. 27. fn.
145.
46. Vivekanand Jha, 'Stages in the History of Untouchables' Indian Historical

Review (hereafter IHR), Vol II, no. i (July 1975), pp. 14-31; idem, 'Caste,
Untouchablilty and Social Justice: Early North Indian Perspective', Social
Scientist , vol.25 nos 1 1-12 (Nov- Dec. 1997). p. 24.
47. Idem, IHR, II, i, p. 22.
48. Richard Fick, The Social Organization in North East India , translated by S.
K. Maitra, University of Calcutta, Calcutta, 1920 p.43f: For the evidence of
early D har masutras, Vivekanand Jha, 'Cannala and the Origin of
Untouchability', IHR, XIII, nos 1-2, (July 1986 - Jan '87), pp.4-7.
49. L Dumont, op. cit, p. 47. Italics ours. Similarly, the view that primitive notions
about accepting food from non- kin causing pollution are at the base of
untouchability cannot be sustained. Restrictions on interdining and acceptance
of cooked food from various categories of people have evolved gradually, much
later than the emergence of untouchability. S. Jaiswal, Caste, pp. 86-7; 125-6
note 285.
50. Ordinary people of 'clean' ( śuddha ) castes must have used open spaces.
5 1 . Hiroyuki Kotani, cites a document of 1 8th century (quoted from G.S. Sardesai
(ed.) Selections from the Peshva Daftar , Vol 43-92) that a female servant
employed in the house of a brāhmaņa family turned out to be of the Chambar
caste. Hence all those who had come in contact with her had to undergo various
degrees of purification. Another instance cited by him shows that a female
slave belonging to a family of Prabhu caste committed adultery with an antyaja

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(ati-śudra), which fact made all the members of the Prabhu family impure. H.
Kotani, "Ati-śudra castes in the Medieval Deccan.' In H. Kotani (ed), Caste
System, Untouchability and the Depressed , Monohar, Delhi ,1997, pp 56 -7.
52. For fair looking Rājaputra (Rajput) girls sold into slavery and obliged to do
all kinds of pure and 'impure' work, Pushpa Prasad, 'Female slavery in
Thirteenth century Gujarat; IHR, XV nos. 1-2 (July 1988 - Jan 1989) pp. 269-
75, S. Jaiswal, Caste , pp. 84-5. The Nāradasmrti, written perhaps in the 4th
century CE clearly specifies that while a hired servant ( karmakara ) is supposed
to do pure work only, slaves are to do all kinds of impure work. P.V. Kane,
History ofDharmasāstra, II, pt.i.p. 1 84f. Also see Prabhati Mukherjee, Beyond
the Four varnas: The Untouchables in India , Indian Institute of Advanced
Study, Shimla, Revised ed. 2002, p. 75.
53. This does not, however, mean that the institution of untouchability can be
traced to Harappa culture as was done by Christoph von Furer-Haimendorf.
See S. Jaiswal, Caste , pp. 78-9.
54. T.R. Sareen, 'Slavery in India Under British Rule, 1772-1843', IHR, XV nos.l-
2, (July 1988 & January 1989), pp. 257-68.
55. Gita Ramaswamy, India Stinking: Manual Scavengers in Andhra Pradesh and
their work, Navayana Publishing, Chennai, 2005, p. 6.
56. Uma Chakravarti, op. cit., p. 104.
57. Narendra Wagle, Society at the Time of the Buddha , Popular Prakashan,
Bombay, 1966, pp. 1 19-20; 122-23.
58. On Rathakāra, Vivekanand Jha, 'Status of the Rathakara in Early Indian ,
History', Journal of Indian History, vol.52, pt.i (Trivendrum, April 1974),
pp. 39-47. In the Arthaśclstra of Kautilya (III. 7.35) He is described as a
vaišya. The Veņas seem to have been a non-Aryan tribe of 'bamboo-workers'
or basket-makers.
59. Rgveda, VIII, 5.38 has carmamna. Sayana explains that it refers to armour
made of leather.
60. S. Jaiswal, Caste , p. 82.

61. IHR, II, i, p. 19.
62. Manusmrti , IV. 218.
63. Ibid, X. 15.49.
64. Ibid., X.36. Also repeated in Mahabharata (cr. edn.), XIII, 48.26.
65. Śudras in Ancient India , 2nd revised edition, Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1980,
p. 330-333.
66. Epigraphia Indica , vol.X, Lüder's List No. 1273.
67. Patañjali on Pāņini II. 4.10, Mahabhasya of Patañjali, edited by F. Kielhorn
vol.1 (Mumbai, 1892), p. 475.
68. See Vivekanand Jha, IHR, II, i, pp. 21-31.
69. D.N. Jha, The Myth of the Holy Cow , Verso, London, 2001, chapt. 3.
70. Ajay Mitra Shastri, India as Seen in the Brhatsamhita of Varahamihira , Motilal
Banarsidass, Delhi, 1969, p. 214.
7 1 . Manusmrti cited above. It also approves of meat eating by declaring that the
flesh of an animal killed by a dog, a carnivorous animal and a Cāņdāla is pure.
Cāņdālas, called Dasyu in this verse, were apparently hunters selling animal
flesh.

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72. The Pardsarasmrtï places the women of washermen (rajakī), leather-workers

(carmakāri), hunters ( lubdhakī ) and bamboo-workers ( veņujīvam ) in the same
category and lays down the rules for purification, if a woman of any of these
castes stays even unknowingly in the house of a member of any of the four
varņas. Paräsarasmrti . edited with the 'subodhini' Hindi commentary,
Daivajnavācaspati Śri Vāsudeva, Chowkhamba Sanskrit series, Varanasi,
1968), VI, 44-45.
73. The Vedavyasasmrti (1.13) enumerates Carmakära, Bhata, B hi 1 1 a Rajaka,

Puskara, Nata, Varata, Meda, Cāņdāla, Dāsa. Śvapaca, and Kolika as aiityajas
and states that on seeing one of these or any other beef-eater ( gavasanah ) one
should wash one's own eyes and have a bath on speaking to them! Smrtinãm
Samuccayahy Ānandašrama-sanskrt-granthāvali, no. 48, 2nd ed., 1929, p. 357.
An example of the internalization of this ideology by the untouchable groups
themselves is provided by K.R. Hanumanthan, who informs that according to
Valaňkai Caritram, as non-beaf-eaters the Pallas considered themselves
superior to the Paraiyas who ate beef, although both were untouchable castes.
'Evolution of Untouchability in Tamil Nadu, A.D. upto 1600', IHR, XXIII,
Nos. 1-2, (July 1996 & January 1997), p. 64.
74. Joan, P. Mencher, 'The Caste System Upside Down, or the Not-So-Mysterious
East, Current Anthropology, vol.15, No. 4, (December 1974), p. 472. Briggs
writes that the Chamar belongs to the great class of unskilled labour. 'He is a
grass-cutter, coolie, wood and bundle carrier, drudge, doer of odd jobs, maker
and repairer of thatch and of mud walls, field labourer, groom, house servant,
peon, brick maker and even a village watchman', G.W. Briggs, The Chamars,
OUP, London, 1920, p. 56. Dumont has to concede in this case that 'those
who are most oppressed materially are at the same time seen as supremely
impure'. Homo Hierarchicus , p. 180.
75. S.M. Dahiwale, 'The Broken Men Theory of Untouchability' in S.M. Dahiwale
(ed), Understanding Indian Society: The non-Brahmanic Perspective , Rawat
Publications, Jaipur and Delhi, 1st published 2005, reprint 2006, pp.86- 103.
Dahiwale points out that V.R. Shinde was the first to indicate the Buddhist
background of a few of the present day untouchable castes, such as the Pulayas
of Kerala and some outcastes of Orissa. He also quotes from P.C. Alaxander's
Buddhism in Kerala (Annamalai University, Annamalainagar, 1949), which
shows that the Nambuthari brāhmaņas converted Buddhist viharas into Hindu
temples and destroyed the influence of Buddhism by using the weapon of
'social ostracism' .
However K.R. -Hanumanthan finds in the Buddhist and Jaina works like
Maņimekalai and Ācārakovai some traces of the concept of pollution and
untouchability 'due to puristic and ahimsa doctrines of these religions. Op. cit.,
p. 65.
76. Gail Omvedt, Buddhism in India , Sage Publications, New Delhi, 2003, pp
149-185
77. D.D. Kosambi, 'The Decline of Buddhism in India' first published in 1956
and included in Exasperating Essays: Exercises in Dialectical Method ,
published by R.P. Nene, Pune, 1986, pp 63-6. Also see idem, Introduction to
the Study of Indian History , pp 246-7; 261-3; 291-4.
78. R.C. Mitra, The Decline of Buddhism in India , Visva Bharati, Santi Niketan,
1954.
79. It is for this reason that in propounding Navayana Buddhism Ambedkar rejected
the doctrine of karma and rebirth altogether, as according to him it was

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contradictory to the basic Buddhist teaching of anatta (non-soul), G. Omvedt,

op. cit. pp. 2-6.
Badri Narayan writes that in the word 'Dalit' itself there is an inherent denial
of karma , pollution and legitimized caste hierarchy'. Women, Heroes and Dalit
Assertion in North India , p 34.
80. 'The Peasant in Indian History', General President's address to the Indian
History Confess, Kurukshetra, 1982 ( Proceedings of the Indian History
Congress, 43 session), p. 1 7.
81. Y. Gopala Reddy, 'Socio-Economic Tensions in the Cola Period' Journal of
the Oriental Institute, Baroda, vol. 29, nos. 1-2, (Sept-Dec 1979), pp 74-84;
R.S. Sharma, Early Medieval Indian Society , pp 214-34; Suvira Jaiswal, 'Social
Dimensions of the Cult of Rama', in Irfan Habib (ed), Religion in Indian
History , Tulika, Delhi, 2007, pp 75-84.
82. For traces of such conflicts in the story of Hayagriva incarnation of Visņu,
Suvira Jaiswal, 'The Demon and the Deity: Conflict Syndrome in the Hayagriva
Legend', Studies in History , vol. I, no. 1, new series (1985), pp 1-13
83. Bageshwar Stone Inscription of Bhūdeva dated 916 Vikram Samvat, Shiva
Prasad Dabařal, Uttarakhaņd ke Abhilekh evam Mudrā , Vīra-gāthā-Prakāshan,
Gadhaval (Vikram Samvat 2047), pp 68-9; 162.
84. Ibid., Pan<Jukeśvara copper plate inscription of Padmatadeva, tenth century,
p.71.
85. D.C. Sircar, Indian Epigraphic Glossary , (Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1966),
s.v., parama-brahmanya.
86. B.N. Sharma, 'Religious Tolerance and Intolerance in Indian Sculpture', in
B.R. Saksena (ed.), Umesh Misra Commemoration Volume , Allahabad, 1970,
pp 657-68; C.S. Pathak, (ed.) Nalanda, Past and Present , Silver Jubilee
Souvenir, Nalanda, 1977, pp 109-13. Also see B.N.S. Yadava, Society and
Culture in Northern India (Central Book Depot, Allahabad, 1973), p 346 for
some instances of the persecution of Buddhists. r r'
87. K.A. Nilakanta Sastri, A History of South India 3 edition, University of
Madras, Madras, 1966, p. 424; Friedham Hardy, The Religious Culture of India:
Power Love and Wisdom , Cambridge University Press, South Asia edition,
Delhi, 1995, p 5 1 . He cites many examples of religious intolerance and conflict
(p 105 f). The literature of this period also reflects intense sectarian rivalry.
Haribhadra Sūri's Dhurtãkhyãna is a biting satire on Puranic myths*
88. Padmanabha .S. Jaini, 'Jina Rsabha as an avatara of^isņu', Bulletin of the
School of Oriental and African Studies , vol. XL, pt.2, 1977, pp 321-37.
89. Śańkara Prãdurbháva quoted by Wendy Deniger O' Flaherty, 'The Images of
the Heretic in Gupta Purāņas' in Bardwell Smith, ed, Essays on Gupta Culturę .
Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi 1983, p. 121.
90. N. Venkataramanayya in G. Yazdani, ed.. The Early History of the Deccan ,
OUP, 1960, Vol II, part IX, p.712.
91. S.R. Sharma, Jainism and Kamataka Culture, Dharwad University, Dharwad,
1940, p. 25; A.D.Pusalker in R.C. Majumdar (ed.), The Age of Imperial Kanauj
: The History and Culture of the Indian People. Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan,
Bombay, 3f ed. 1984, p.291.
92. Gawarwad inscription of AD 1071, Epigraphia ìndica , XV. p. 337;
K.A. Nilakanta Sastri in G.Yazdani (ed.), The Early History of the Deccan ,

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th
Vol.I, Pt. Vi, p. 443. Also see Ablur inscription of 12 century in Epigraphia
I ridica , Vol.V, no.25E. R.N.Nandi has shown that the Jaina temples had become
like landlords organizing charities only for the followers of the Jaina religion,
excluding the non-Jainas. Religious Institutions and Cults in the Deccan ,
Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1973, p. 76.
93. Šatikaravarman plundered sixty-four temples of gods to meet among other
things, the expenses of the royal household ( grhyakrtya ). Rājataraņgiņī
vv. 167-9; R.S. Pandit's translation, Sahitya Academi, reprint 1990, p. 200.
94. Ksemendragupta had the Jayendra Vihāra burnt down as his enemy Dāmara
Sarņgrāma had taken refuge in it. He also robbed the brass statue of Buddha
and built a shrine of Ksema Gaunśvara in Śrinagara. Ibid., VI, vv. 17 1 -3. p. 243.
95. King Kalaśa took away the copper image of the Sun-god known as
Tāmrasvāmin and also many brass statues from the vihāras. Ibid., VII, vv.
696; p. 319.
96. Ibid. VII. vv. 1080-90,. pp 351-2, Harsa, however, spared the images of
Raņasvāmin and Mārtaņ<Ja along with two Buddha images, vv. 1096-8. In the
Prabandha C intā maņ i _Ãcâry a Merutunga refers to king Ajayadeva's
destruction of the temples set up by his predecessor, presumably by his father
Kumārapāla, C.H. Tawney (translator). The Prabandha Cintãmani or
Wishingstone of Narratives. The Asiatic Society, Calcutta, 1901, p. 151.
97. According to B.V. Krishna Rao (A History of the Early Dynasties of
Andhradeśa , Madras, 1942, pp 57-8) and M. Rama Rao (Iksvãkus of Vijayapuri.
S.V. University Tirupati, p. 35f), Iksvāku king Vlrapurusadatta had renounced
Šaivism and adopted Buddhism. A sculpture at Nagarjunakonda depicts him
trampling Šiva-liňga under his foot showing his denunciation of Šaivism.
98. R.C. Mitra, Decline of Buddhism in India , pp 38f; 55f; 74 and elsewhere; KA
Nilakanta Sastri in G. Yazdani (ed.), The Early History of the Deccan , Vol. I,
pt.VI, p 438f.
99. The Hoyasala ruler Ballāladeva is described in his inscriptions as the supporter
of all the four samayas, Māhešvara. Bauddha, Vaisņava and Arhat. R.C. Mitra,
op. cit., pi 14. Similarly an inscription of 1022 CE from Belur informs us that
Akkādevī, the elder sister of Jayasimha II of the Cãlukyas of Kalyãni,
performed all the dharmas mentioned in the ā gamas of Jaina, Buddha, Ananta
(Visņu) and Rudra. Indian Antiquary , vol. 18, ( 1889), pp 279-5.
100. It is wrong to hold that royal patronage of Buddhism ceased after the seventh
century and the Pāla dynasty (750 CE -1161 CE) was the sole exception
(Omvedt, Op. ct, p. 172). In central India the Gahaçlavãla king Jayacandra of
Kanauj was a Buddhist and his preceptor was a Buddhist monk named Śrimitra.
Indian Historical Quarterly , Vol. V (1979), pp. 14-29. His predecessor
Govindacandra, although himself a paramama hesva ra , granted villages to
Buddhist monks living in the Jetavana - vihāra. His two queens Kumāradevī
and Vasantadevï were Buddhists and the former had the famous Dharmacakra-
Jinavihāra constructed at Sarnath. N.N. Das Gupta in R.C. Mjijumdar (ed.),

Struggle for the Empire , Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Bombay, 2 ed. 1966), pp
422-3. In Orissa and the Deccan too several kings patronized Buddhism in the
eleventh twelfth centuries.
101. In the Agarma Suttanta of the Dīgha Nikãya the Buddha explains to his two
young brāhmaņa disciples the origin of the universe as well as of the khattiya
and brāhamaņamaņdalas (groups) and of the vessas and suddas. In its origin
the division is functional with the khattiyas occupying the first place, but later

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32 IHC : Proceedings , 68th Session , 2007
these are assumed to be fixed or hereditary. DTgha Nikäya (T.W. Rhys Davids
and J.E. Carpenter, eds. 3 vols, Pali Text. Society, London, 1 890- 19 1 1 ), vol.
3, p. 93f, translation by TW Rhys Davids (3 vols Sacred Books of the Buddhists,
London 1899-1921), vol. 3; p. 88f
We do not have Jaina works of a comparable early date, but the varna divisions
are taken for granted in the Ãcãraúga and Uttarãdhyayana sūtnis.
102. N. Wagle, op. cit, p 125 f
103. Uma Chakravarti, op. cit., Appendix C.
104. A.K. Warder, Indian Buddhism , Motilal Banarsidass, Delhi, 1970, pp 232-3.
105. Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya, Religion and Society; Stephanos Nirmalendu
Ghose Lectures, (1981) of Calcutta University, Ma-Le Publishers. Bangalore,
1987, Lecture VII; Devaraj Chanana, op cit, p. 60f.
106. Jātaka nos. 59 ; 179; 309; 497; 498 in Jā takas , Faüsboll (ed), 7 vols, with Index,
London, 1877-97. Tr. Various hands under the editorship of E. B. Cowell, 7
vols with index, Cambridge, 1895 -1907.
107. P. V. Kane, History of Dharmaśastra , vol. V, pt ii (Bhandarkar Oriental
Research Institute, Poona, 1962), p 926; 1009-10.
108. Visņudharma Purāņa, chap. 25; Brhannarad'iya Purāna , 14-70; 186; 22.9
quoted in R.C. Hazra, Studies in the Upapurāņas , vol. I, pp 147-8; 325-7. The
Arthaś astra of Kautilya II. 4. 23 instructs that the dwelling place of the
pāsaņdas and Cāņdālas should be on the outskirts of the cremation ground.
The Kautillya Arthasāstra, edited by R.P. Kangle, Vol. 1, University of Bombay,
Bombay, 2nd edition 1970) p. 39.
109. Nalinakshadutt in the Classical Age, History and Culture of the Indian People ,
vol. Ill (Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Bombay, 3rd edition, 1970), p. 386.
110. Vajrasūcī of Ašvaghosa, edited and translated by Sujit Kumar, Visvabharati,
Santiniketan, 1950. The identification of this Ašvaghosa with the author of
the Buddhacarita is, however, doubtful.
111. Latakamelaka , Act II, quoted by B.N.S. Yadava, op. cit., p 8.

112. Padma Puraņa , pt. I, chap. 4 vv 86f, quoted by Ram Bhushan Prasad Singh,
Jainism in Early Medieval Karnataka (c. AD 500-1200), Motilal Banarsidass,
Delhi, 1975, pp.75-6.
113. Ādipurāņam, VIII. 64; XV. 6-12, quoted by Malini Adiga, The Making of
Southern Karnataka : Society, Polity and Culture in the Early Medieval Period ,
Orient Longman, Chennai, 2006, p. 259.
114. U.N. Ghoshal, op. cit., pp 457-62.
115. Malini Adiga, op. cit.
1 16. Jyoti Prasad Jain, The Jaina Sources of the History of Ancient India ( 100 BC-
AD 900), Munshiram Manoharlal, Delhi, 1964, p. 215.
117. Yaśastilaka , pt II, Book viii, quoted by R.B.P. Singh, op. cit., p. 73. R.S. Sharma
quotes Dharmanand Kosambi ( Bhagavãn Buddha , trans. From Marathi into
Hindi, Shripad Joshi, Delhi, 1956, p. 258) to point out that Jainism forbids
the initiation of untouchables (Jumgita) into monkhood. Material culture and
Social Formations in Ancient India, pp. 129-30.
118. R.B.P. Singh, op. cit., pp 74-82.
119. D.D. Kosambi, An Introduction to the Study of Indian History p. 155,
According to Sukumar Dutta Buddhism was instrumental in giving a death

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blow to the pretensions of caste superiority of heredit

divinity of kingship in Cambodia^.'/ transactions of India
Studies , Simla, vol. I, 1965, p. 179f.
120. S. Jaiswal, Caste, pp 53-4, Irfan Habib, Essays in Indi
Marxist Perception, Tulika, New Delhi, 1995, pp 161-79
121. Devaraj Chanana, op. cit. p 82-4.
122. Yi-Jing (I-Tsing), A Record of the Buddhist Religion as Practised in India
and the Malay Archipelago, translated by J. Takakasu, Oxford, 1896, p. 62
quoted by Irfan Habib, (ed), Religion in Indian History , Introduction, p xxiii.
123. Devaraj Chanana, op. cit., p. 83.
124. Vinaya Pitaka , IV. pp 300-1 quoted by I.B. Horner, Women under Primitive
Buddhism . Motilal Banaisidass, Delhi, first edition, 1930, reprint, 1990, p. 222.
Also see pp.2T3-4.
125.Friedham Hardy, The Religious Culture of India: Power Love and Wisdom,
Cambridge University Press, South Asian Edition, Delhi, 1995, p. 45 1 .
126. Debi Prasad Chattopadhyaya, op. cit.
127. B.N. S. Yadava, op. cit., p. 380; Nupur Chaudhuri and Rajat Kanta Ray, 'Eros
and History: Sahajiya Secrets and the Tantric Culture of Love' in Irfan Habib
(ed), Religion in Indian History, p. 107.
128. For the shift in emphasis from relative purity of function to relative purity of
birth in the varņa-jāti organization, S. Jaiswal, Caste, pp 13-18; 7 1-7.
129.Suvira Jaiswal, Origin and Development of Vaisņavism, 2nd revised and
enlarged edition, Munshiram Manoharlal, Delhi, 1981, pp. 123- 129.
130. Manusmrti, X. 84. Biihler's translation. Irfan Habib writes that this provided
one more argument for treating all peasants as sūdras. Religion in Indian
History , p. xxiii.
131 . Ibid., III. 68-70. On the changing concept of th q pañca-mahayajñas. S. Jaiswal,
Caste, p. 121 note 239.
132. R.S. Sharma, Perspectives in Social and Economic History of Early India ,
Munshiram Manoharlal, Delhi, 1983, pp 45-8.
133. C.A.F. Rhys Davids, Psalms of the Early Buddhists , vol. II, P.T.S., London,
1948, pp. 15; 25; Uma Chakravarti, Social Dimensions of Early Buddhism , p.
34.
1 34. Rgveda, I., 28.5.

135. Ibid., I. 92.3. Does this hymn represent some older matriarchal substratum?
Later, verse 3 of this hymn prays for the gift of 'troops of dasas' Compare
D.D. Kosambi, Myth and Reality, pp. 68-9.
136. S. Jaiswal, 'Semitizing Hinduism: Changing Paradigms of Brahmanical
Integration', Social Scientist, vol. 19, no. 12, December 1991, pp 20-32.
Reference is to the brahmanical ideology and not to the role of the brāhmaņa
caste in particular. Also see S. Selvam, 'Sociology of India and Hinduism:
Towards a Method', in Dalits in Modern India: Vision and Values, edited by
S.M. Michael, p. 189.
137. Richard F. Gombrich, Buddhist Precept and Practice: Traditional Buddhism
in the rural Highlands of Ceylon, revised edn., OUP, Delhi, 1991, p. 345.
138. Brajadulal Chattopadhyaya speaks of the shaping of regional societies as
essentially a movement from within. He also draws attention to the fact that

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34 IHC: Proceedings, 68th Session , 2007
the horizontal spread of the varna ideology 'drew widely dispersed and
originally outlying groups into a structure which allowed them in a large
measure to retain their original character'. The Making of Early Medieval
India . OUP, Delhi; 1994, pp.35; 203. Also see S. Jaiswal, Caste , pp.230- 1.
139. Hermann Kulke, Kings and Cults: State Formation and Legitimation in India
and South- East Asia, Manohar, Delhi, 1993, pp. 82-93; Bhairabi Prasad Sahu,
The Past as a Mirror of the Present: The Case of Oriya Society' Social Science
Probings , vol. IX (1-4), March-December 1995, pp. 8-23.
140. S. Nagaraju, 'Emergance of Regional Identity and Beginnings of Vernacular
Literature: A Case Study', Social Scientist , vol. 23, nos. 10-12, October-
December 1995, pp 8-23.
141 . The confusion has been traced to Rāmānujācārya, who in his book Brahmasatra
B has y a (II. I. 37-42) identifies the Kālāmukhas with Kāpālikas. But in fact
these two were quite distinct; and the Kālāmukha monks seem to have been in
active competition with the Jaina monks. Lorenzen is quite positive that there
is no reason why the Kālāmukhas should not be regarded as orthodox pandits.
'The Kālāmukha Background to Vīrašaivism: Studies in Orientology' in S.K.
Maity, Upendra Thakur and A.K. Narayan eds.. Essays in Memory of Professor
A.L. Basha/n , Y. K. Publishers, Agra, 1988, p. 279. Also see S.C. Nandimath
'Saivism' in R. R. Di vakar and others, (eds .)t_Kamataka Through the Ages ,
The Government of Mysore, Bangalore, 1960, pp 153-4, R.N. Nandi, Religious
Institutions and Cults in the Deccan, pp. 85-90.
Nagaraju refers to the anti-caste feelings expressed in the poems of
Mallikārjuna Paņditārādhya. But he belongs to the twelfth century and was a
contemporary of Basava, the founder of the Lingãyat movement, which was
strongly anti-vedic and anti-caste at least in its origins.
142. The ninth century Maruru inscription of Arkalgud Taluk records a landgrant
to a Kālāmukha centre for vidyä dāna. B.R. Gopal et al., Epigraphut Carnatica,
1984, 8: Ag 28 quoted in Malini Adiga, op. cit., 308.
143.Jabalpur Stone Inscription of Jayasimha, verse 44, V.V. Mirashi, Corpus
Inscriptionum Indicarían , Vol. IV pt. I, no. 64, Government Epigraphist for
India, Ootacamund, 1955. trans, p. 339.
144. J. H. Hutton, Caste in India : Its Nature . Function and Origins . Cambridge
University Press. Cambridge. 1946, p. 249.
145. Louis Dumont. A South Indian Súbeoste: Social Organization and Religion
of Pramalai Kallat' OUP, Delhi, 1986.
146. Ibid., p. 12. For the reinterpretation of the śudra category in the context of
South Indian communities, S. Jaiswal, Caste , pp 70-71.
147. Nicholas B. Dirks, op. cit., pp 12-60.
148. Ibid.
149. Hutton, op. cit., p. 178-9 for the eight prohibitions propounded by the Kallar
of Ramnad in December 1930. Some of these were that the Adi-Dravida
(untouchable) women shall not cover the upper portion of their bodies, shall
not use flowers or saffron paste; the males shall not wear clothes above their
hips or below their knees and so on. Non-compliance led the Kallars to use
violence against the Adi-Dravidas, whose huts were burned, granaries and
properties destroyed and livestock looted.
150. A South Indian Subcaste . pp 218-23.

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151. Nicholas B. Dirks, op. cit., p. 72.

152. For example, the assumption of the 'Yadava' title by Gwala, Ahir, Gope,
Sargope, and Ghasi castes and formation of the All-India Yadava Mahāsabhā.
Not rarely the drive towards unification remains confined to political level,
social interactions still being regulated by traditional customs.
153. Nicholas B. Dirks, *op. cit., pp 295-6, Kancha 1 1 1 iah, 'BSP and Caste as
Ideology', Economic and Political Weekly , 29 (12), 1994, pp. 668-9; idem,
'Productive Labour, Consciousness, and History: The Dalitbahujan
Alternative', in S Amin and D. Chakraborty, eds., Subaltern Studies , IX, OUP.
Delhi 1996, pp 165-200.
154. B.R. Ambedkar, Annihilation of Caste: An Undelivered Speech , edited by Mulk
Raj Anand, Arnold Publications, New Delhi, 1990, pp 81-82.
1 55. This entire essay goes against Dirks' assertion that Ambedkar 'was convinced
that caste (or, rather untouchable) identities had to be fostered in order to
combat centuries of oppression' (op. cit., p. 278). Ambedkar was so
disillusioned with the caste system that in the end he along with a large number
of his followers converted to Buddhism.
156. On Dalit mentality, S. Jaiswal, 'Dalit Asmit aur Agenda jati vinaša ka' in
Akhilesh, ed., Tadbhav , vol. 15, (Jan. 2007), pp. 27-40.

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General President's Address - Caste, Gender and Ideology in The Making of India

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GENERAL PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS: CASTE, GENDER AND IDEOLOGY IN THE MAKING OF

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CASTE, GENDER AND IDEOLOGY IN

I am deeply aware of the honour that the Executive Committee of

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'discrete categories' or the allegedly modern process of

In the first decade of the twentieth century the British census

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myths almost invariably trace their descent fr

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invention unrelated to its material roots. Nevertheless, I agree wit

The beginnings of the twin processes may be seen in the Rgveda.

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their role by male priests in later vedic texts h

However, the consolidation of patriarchy and a hierarchically

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räjanyas emerged as a separate privileged group and formed

In an illuminating lecture40 published posthumously late Professor

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However, R. S. Sharma's analysis of the Kali age .

Contrary to ideological interpretations which attribute the origin

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religious concepts ascribing permanent impurity to certain

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the British did not invent the caste of manual scav

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However, notwithstanding the evidence of Aniaravati inscription,

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Bengal to Central India and into the regions of the G

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The myth of a harmonious and conflict free golden age of India

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astonished at the amount of wealth stored in a deserted shrine, was

It seems to me that the answer lies not in the conspiracy theory

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dynasty of Bengal, took credit in their inscriptions for reestablishin

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ruling elite.120 Movements of protest could no

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hardened with the adoption of the principles of ahimsã]29 in neo-

Attribution of impurity to tasks involving manual labou

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to brāhmaņas in tribal areas in early medieval times. However,

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were thoroughly imbued with the dominant ideology and many of

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and adoption of some of brahmanic practices by t

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politico-economic patterns of domination and exploitation. These

NOTES AND REFERENCES

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196-7. Inden has, however, in a later work. Imagining In

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Noose, and the Suppression of Women in the Vedic Śr

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39. Chandogya Upanisad , V. 10.7, The Thirteen Principal Upanisads, Translated