Origin of Indian caste system

(A self-declared system to hereditary system)

Author: Muktipada Behera
Though the caste system is fading away slowly, still there are doubts in Indians mind how it got
originated and what is the solution to get rid of it. This is a major issue even today in states like
Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar etc. I got few requests to put lights on this long standing social
disorder. I am trying to summarize the concept after studying all relevant Hindu texts and
documents.

1. Introduction:
Our Veda (the Sruti), the only Hindu authority, does not mention anything on caste system. It
just mentions (for example Rig Veda Purusa Sukta etc) four keywords (called Varna, color,
class) Brahmana, Kshyatriya, Vaisya and Shudra with their definition based on Guna-Karma or
mental inclination. Later texts like Mahabharat, Gita(4.13) also defines these keywords based on
Guna-Karma.
These Guna-Karma divisions as per Sankhya darshan is:
1. Activities done by a person with dominant Satwa guna called as Brahmana.
2. With dominant Rajo guna mixed with Satwa guna called as Kshyatriya.
3. With dominant Rajo guna mixed with Tamo guna called as Vaisya.
4. With dominant Tamo guna is called Shudra.
Veda and Gita do not command to divide the society based on Guna-Karma. People choose this
as a formula to divide the society. Other formula could have been based on economy (high class,
middle class, low class) as it is done in USA. Due to advancement of technology, we can think of
dividing people based on genetic pattern. Twenty-three human chromosomes can provide all
details of mental, psychological inclination of a person.
So this caste system is neither the God created, nor a vision of Veda. It is a human creation.
Interestingly Yajur Veda and Mahabharata say in the beginning all humans were with dominant
Satwa guna, pure mind. Later their mind got corrupted when Greeks opened the Pandoras box.
This is in contradiction with what we study about primitive humans from western study: living in
jungle, taking raw meats, barbaric life etc. Our civilization says the first set of humans born with
pure mind, called as Risis. And we are all the Risi-putra(children of saints).
Unfortunately there are smritis(e.g. Goutama smriti, Manu Smriti etc) which say such fierce
words as these: If the Shudra hears the Vedas, fill his ears with molten lead, and if he
remembers a line, cut his tongue out. This is diabolical old barbarism no doubt. These books are
not aligned to Veda. However people thought that Smriti is a Hindu scripture. But those are not.
Unfortunately those books are instrumental in diving people.

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2. How it adopted into Hindu society?

Given the definition in Veda, Gita (like IEEE-LRM), how it got implemented in Hindu society?
That is the trick of specification vs implementation inconsistency.
1. At some level of our parent generation the caste was a self-declared or a voluntary
designation based on what kind of profession they choose. There are instances mentioned
in Purana, Mahabharat(in Ajagara, Uma and Maheswara story). And it was not
hereditary.
2. Later it was a political (Kings) decision to allocate caste to individual to give it a
permanent shape. In Mahabharat, King Yudhisthira is saying it was difficult for him to
determine the caste of an individual based on mental inclination. Here also it was not
hereditary. There was choice for profession and change in caste.
3. Wherever politics enter, the thing gets spoiled. Same happened here also. And caste
became a matter of (a) privilege, later (b) hereditary and tied to some (c) old customs.
Individuals were imposed a caste forcefully to get the low profile jobs done. This became
a hereditary system.
4. History says there are many royal communities once they became powerful, they
declared themselves as Brahmin caste as a whole community and ruled over rests. And
others were dominated for their selfish gain. Evidence says this self-declaration is done
till recent years in Tamilnadu and Kerala. Mighty is the right is proved.
5. Hindu society was so conservative and social customs were very tight. Anybody violated
any custom was thrown out of village, property and made untouchables. History says
even many Brahmins, who wanted to be liberals or violated any custom; they were forced
to become untouchables as a punishment. It more similar to honor killing of married
couples from different communities in todays India.
6. On one side the rulers made rules to make a concrete infrastructure to divide people. On
the other hand the priest-class did not leave any stone unturned. Various tags were
discovered to identify people using (a) Surname (b) Gotra (c) Sutra (d) Caste/sub-caste
(e) external symbols like sacred thread, Tilakam, Tulsi necklace (f) false rituals with
wrong notion like Pinda-dana (g) fear of eternal hell on mixture of community, even if
Veda do not mention of any hell etc. False rumors were spread through folk songs, on
sharing of Roti and Beti(common dining and marriage) will incur sin.
7. Some of our Mahapurusha(saints) directly or indirectly helped to give it a shape. Started
with, Buddha (800 BCE) strongly condemned any division of Humanity. During his time
99% of Brahmins and Kshatriyas were converted into Buddhism. This practically
abolished castism and Vedic rituals from India. Later Adi Sankaracharya (8th century)
was a great advocate of Brahmin caste and caste maker, for which he is criticized most.
Ramanujacharya (13th century) tried to eradicate and declared all of his followers as
Brahmins. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (17th century) followers themselves declared as
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Vaisnava-Brahmins. Rammohan roy, Swami Dayananda (19th century) were strong

condemner of caste-system. Swami Vivekanand (19th century) converted few thousands
dalits into Brahmins by initiating them into Gayatri. It is said an individual who is
initiated into a Mantra from an eligible Guru, will be considered as Brahmin. Many,
including untouchables, followed these saints, took Mantra and got converted into
Brahmins. All most all saints have put their maximum energy (by initiating through
Mantra) to fix this social disorder. Still this is an unsolved problem. So why to blame the
limitations of Semitic religions, where they have only one prophet?

3. What is the Consequence of Indian caste system?

1. Due to this wrong implementation of Vedic definition, the Varna (class, color) systems
converted into caste (Jati) hereditary systems.
2. India lost its patriotic feeling. Rather it was just a combination of few separated
communities without any coherence. All the feeling and enjoyment and marriage were
limited to same narrow community.
3. The only way the human breed can mix is through marriage. This cross-community
marriage got blocked in fear of losing property and privilege. Even in some communities
only elder son was allowed to marry. Youngers were advised to practice polyandry e.g
Kerala Namboodiri Brahmins. Later again each community gets divided and sub-divided
into many smaller castes to protect the selfish and narrowness among themselves. So where
is the Indian-ness?
4. Women were considered as Sudra as mentioned in Srimad-Bhagavatam. They were
deprived of Vedic rights and temple worships. Though there are twenty five women risis
(Gargi, Maitreyi, Vak etc) mentioned as editors of Veda, not sure why women were not
allowed to chant Vedic Mantra. Even today many women are scared to chant Veda.
5. Many including Swami Vivekananda, Dr, B. R. Ambedkar pointed out; this disjoint
communalism was the cause of Mohameddan and Christian invasion into India. Because the
downtrodden, the major population, during that time cooperated them to find an escape
route of suffering.
6. History says when a pariah (Chandala) gets converted into Islam and Christian, nobody was
hesitating to do hand-shake and offer a chair. Most of the religious conversions were
voluntary. Foreigners come with few thousands soldiers and gets multiplied into many
millions in a few years.
7. Foreign rulers did not try to solve this social disorder. Rather they had tried to make it sticky
by following Smrities and took advantage of this Indian weakness. Because their
colonization policy was based on divide and rule. And we were succumbed to our own
faulty system.

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8. Even today Christian missionaries are targeting the downtrodden, rural, poor lower caste
people to convert into other religion. And this has a strong impact on Hindu population and
Hindu civilization. Unless they are uplifted, there is no solution to this conversion issue.

4. What is the solution as given by Swami Vivekananda?

1. Remove false notion: Though our castes are apparently linked with our religion, but they
are not so. In religion there is no caste. Caste is social custom. Same is told by Mahatma
Gandhi also to the nation.
2. Revert back to Brahmin-hood: We are all Risi-putra. The solution is not by bringing
down the higher, but by raising the lower caste up to the level of the higher. The goal is
to uplift everyone into Brahmin Varna. After independence Dalits were given special
privilege as compensation under constitution. We need to reach a civilization where
everybody will be treated equally without any special privilege to any community. Then
only caste-less Indian society will be possible.
3. Continue self-declaring: There are thousands of castes, and some are even getting
admission into Brahminhood, for what prevents any caste from declaring they are
Brahmins? Instead of crying foul, people can self-declare or correct their castes based on
Vedic definition.
4. Rename the whole Community: Thus caste, with all its rigor, has been created in that
manner. Let us suppose that there are castes here with ten thousand people in each. If
these put their heads together and say, we will call ourselves Brahmins, nothing can stop
them; I have seen it in my own life. Some castes become strong, and as soon as they all
agree, who is to say nay?[CW-III page-295]
5. Expose to western science: Keep harmony between Vedantic theories and western
science. Science and technology is a greatest gift from western civilization. All Indians
need to be exposed to modern developments across globe. This will help in removing the
narrowness about our own civilization, customs and way of life.

Conclusion:
So your caste was voluntarily declared by your own forefather. Now it is your turn to undo the
mistake.
Anything that does not show dynamism (we call it evolution) will eventually die. For example
there is a huge water pool and it is decided not to allow any water enter into it thinking that its
purity will be lost. Eventually this water pool will be stinky. Similarly if you dont allow other
community (caste) to enter into your family life, then whole genetic system, immunity system
and cultural system will fall apart. The aroma has vanished and only the stinky ugly part is
poisoning the mind of society. Dont propagate this ignorance to your next generation, your sons
and daughters.
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