The origin of Brahmanism, Caste and Riddles in Hinduism

The Brahmins wrote contradictory statements about the origin of Gods and their supremacy, about the Vedas and its origin, about the creation of Universe etc (Ref: RIDDLE IN HINDUISM – By Dr.B.R.Ambedkar). Why did they do so?

The guardian of Buddhism, the Mauryan Empire was brought down and Buddhism was demolished. There was chaos throughout India. 

It was the beginning of Brahmanism. So each one of the Brahmin philosophers tried to propose his own theory on creation. 

For example during the 19 and 20 century AD, when Physics was born, with the discovery of atoms, electron proton, neutron and sub-atomic particles, there were so many theories that tried to explain atoms and the sub-atomic particles, e.g. the Nucleus theory, Dalton atomic theory, Quantum theory etc. Some of these theories were contradictory to one-another and some aided one-another. This happened with Brahmanism. This was the period, after 185 B.C, when Buddhism collapsed in India by a revolution and Brahmins were trying to introduce a new system with a new Political and religious Philosophy. Hence initially the Brahmins tried to use the Vedas as their basis and started to propose new theories about the creation of Universe and the God who created it. So there were so many conflicting and aiding theories. But this did not give a satisfactory explanation. So then they started writing the Upanishads attacking the Vedas and claiming they are inferior to the Upanishads and proposed new theories. This also did not work out. Then there were new proposals in the name of Smrithis. So in the name of Manu Smrithi, Sumati Bharagava wrote a set of rules (like a constitution) and made that as the final authority (Manu Smriti was written by Sumati Bharagava after 185 B.C. i.e. after the Revolution of Pushyamitra by Killing the Buddhist Mauryan Emperor Brihadratha – Based on Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Ancient India, Chapter 6: The Literature of Brahminism). This one got accepted and implemented by the then rulers of that time (Most probably by the Guptas between 2^nd to 4^th century AD and started spreading gradually through India over the next 1500 years with resistance and counter-resistance). The outcome of this is the 4 + 1 class system (Note: Earlier the Aryans had only a 3 class system). Brahmins held their position no matter, which Kingdom/dynasty came to power through the immunity given in the Manu Smrithy. The Kings who accepted the system were absorbed as Ksathrias itself as long as they were in power. The rich Businessmen were also absorbed as Vaisyas. All other classes were included in a new class called the Sudras. The ones that did not accept the system plus the Kings and his soldiers that were defeated in war were ex-communicated and ostracized from cities and towns and were gradually made untouchables.

As the system started growing the Brahmins and their supporters wrote more and more stories (e.g. addition of Bhagawat Gita to the Mahabharata, elevation of Rama as an avathar of Lord Vishnu, contradictory and unfitting avathars, of Lord Vishnu, like Balarama and Parasurama during the same time as Krishna) to aid and support their system and added them to the existing pre-Vedic, pre-Brahmanism literature that people knew about like the Bharatha (to be renamed Mahabharata), Ramayana etc. But also to hold their position the Brahmins had to be flexible enough to praise and raise the God of the King that ruled. Hence if the King was a devotee of Lord Vishnu, the Brahmins wrote stories in high praise of Lord Vishnu and degraded the other Gods, similarly if the King was a devotee of Lord Shiva, the Brahmins wrote stories in high praise of Lord Shiva and degraded the other Gods, similarly if the King was a devotee of Goddess Kali, the Brahmins wrote stories in high praise of Goddess Kali and degraded the other Gods. This is the reason there are numerous conflicting ideas about the supremacy of various Gods in Hinduism.

NOTE: According to Tolgapeeam – a Sangam Tamil literature that describes the life and state of affairs in ancient Tamil Country (Like an Encylopedia of that time) the land was classified into four major regions – Marutham – Plain lands and agricultural fields that comprised most of the Urban civilization, Mullai – Forest and settlements surrounding Forests, Kurunchi – Mountains and settlements surrounding Mountaneous region, Neythal – Seashore, Sea and settlements surrounding the seashores. 

The God for Marutham was Indran

The God for Mullai was Thirumal (Lord Vishnu) 

The God for Kurunchi was Murugan (Lord Karthik)

The God for Neythal was Varunan 

The people in the 4 regions were considered as stable settlers.

All four Gods among other Gods were described as Mallas. 

Later one more region was added as Palai – Desert region.

The God for Palai was Kotravai . 

The people who wandered in the deserts were robbers and did not have stable settlement. As the men of these robbery tribes always wandered they did not have families. 

These robbers looted people travelling outside the 4 regions and killed the male travellers most often and sacrificed these travellers to their Godess Kali. These robbers took the female travellers and had sex and left them. The children born to these robbers and raped women were raised by females. So usually a female is the head of a group or tribe. Hence they had female Godess named Kali.

At some point in time one of the robbery tribe should have gained power and established a Kingdom. The Brahamins who served this Kingdom performed pujas for the Godess of this Kingdom - Kali and later equated Kali to the wife of Lord Shiva.

The evolution of the concept: ‘Work by Birth’ in Brahmanism. 

Now a days, we know there are certain inert characteristics of each individual. Say some never seem to get tired and seem to work all the time, some take short breaks between works. Some take long rest and suddenly erupt into massive burst of speed intensive work and then go back to rest for long duration, some have specific talents on specific engineering tasks, some have specific talent as surgeon etc that we call as natural. (This may be attributed to the Sun signs e.g. Aries have certain traits, Taurus have certain traits, Cancer have certain traits etc)

The ancient Indians were aware of this. So at the time of birth astrologers tell the child’s parents of what the newborn will become to be and what special talents it will have so that the parents can nurture those fields that the child is supposed to naturally possess and become an expert in it. (There are numerous examples of these incidents in ancient Indian stories, e.g. Astrologers said Siddhartha would become King of Kings if took interest in warfare or will become a Buddha, a great teacher if he took interest in Philosophy. The Sangam age Tamil Poet Elango (born to Chera King) to become much famous than his elder brother Senguttavan. Thinking that Elanglo may become powerful than his elder brother as a king to become famous and hence to avoid a war within the family, Elango choose to become a Jain Monk and wrote the Tamil poem Silapathigaraam and became very famous). So ancient Indians believed that a person had a natural talent for a specific field and was destined to go to that field. This is what they specified by birth a person was destined to become. In the case of Vashista and Vishwamitra this was the conflict. Vashista was talented to become a sage and became a sage. Vishwamitra was already a King so as a child he was supposed to be destined to be a King. But when Vishwamitra saw the magic / mantric powers of Vashista, Vishwamitra also wanted to learn those magic / mantric powers and approached Vashista to teach him. But as Vashista believed that the natural talents of each individual was pre-destined / determined during the time of birth, Vashista told Vishwamitra that by birth Vishwamitra was destined to be a King and not a sage and hence cannot learn those tricks / mantras and refused to teach Vishwamitra (with the belief of natural talents by birth). Vishwamitra out of great curiosity and will learned the tricks elsewhere and proved to be a great sage with great power. This shattered the belief of Vashista and hence there were numerous stories about the conflict between Vashista and Vishwamitra. 

But the Brahmins during the evolution and rise of Brahmanism were looking into the Vedic stories to get their theories, as mentioned earlier, misinterpreted / misrepresented the concept of by birth (natural) talents and wrote that each person was destined to specific work when they were born (by birth), but instead of taking into account the natural talents took parentage (to whom the child was born) to mean by birth and wrote a child born to a Brahmin should work like a Brahmin (Priest), a child born to a King should become a King, a child born to a Merchant should work as a Merchant and a child born to a worker should work as a worker(Sudra). This concept very well helped the King as well to very easily make his sons as the next King without outside competition, similarly for the aristocrats to hold the position for their sons in the Kings court without difficulty. Hence the concept was well received by the King and rich to spread the concept of Brahmanism. (Note: In ancient India Democracy was well established. E.g. Within Koshlas – clan of Buddha, the King was selected from a round robin among a group of Chiefs for a specific tenure. The Mallas at the time of Buddha had democracy, Perumal was elected as the King for a period of 12 years from the chiefs of group of villages, When a King dies before his tenure, the new King was selected using the Chief King Temple Elephant from public – The Elephant was taken in procession from the King’s Temple with a garland in its trunk. Whom ever the Elephant places the garland on, becomes the next King). With the adoption of Brahmanism, the Kings had a secure way of making his son as the next King and very happily adopted Brahmanism, which gradually led to the strict enforcement of tight caste compartments and prevented anyone from switching profession.

What Brahminism did to India?

1. Destroyed democracy in India
2. Removed equality for women
3. Prevented Philosophy and Science from developing.
4. Divided people from socializing.
5. Made life a misery to most of the population.