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Secondly, while Vedic Aryans had monopolized the knowledge of
Vedic mantras, hymns and whole cultic ritual complex known as
Brahminism, which represented the later stage of Vedic social
relations, wherein the head of the family was invested with
the right of performing sacrificial rituals, and thus later
traditionally Brahminism came to monopolise all religious
rituals, that is, priestcraft.
The Ksatriyas, meaning the martial caste of the Indian
society, managed republics- Janapadas or Ganas. The etymology
of the word Ksatriya or ‘Ksatra’ will show that it signifies
in Sanskrit ‘killer’, ‘cutter’, ‘distributor’ from the stem ‘Ksad’-
to kill, to carve meat, to divide, to distribute food and also
sometimes to give shelter. Ksatri also means charioteer,
driver, of the harness. The word ‘Ksatra’ signifies strength,
might, power, domination.
Dr. Guseva suggests that there were three distinct lines in
the genealogical notes and tables. One line desends from great
father by the name of Manu Chakshusha and two lines from great
father by the name Manu-Vaivaswata. The descendent rulers from
Manu-Chakshusha were in the non-Aryans, from Manu Vaivaswata
two lines of Aryan kins came: solar and lunar dynasties. There
were mutual marriages and a process of assimilation went on by
which those who were not Ksatriyas by birth, were adopted in
the category of Vratya- Ksatriyas, i.e. Ksatriyas by vow, to
be the local chiefs and heads of kinships, whom the Aryan
Ksatriyas were compelled to acknowledg as members of their own
caste. Eventually the priestly prohibitions of the Brahmins
became religious dogmas and during the Mahabharata period
there was in evidence rigid caste stratification and even the
dominant position of Ksatriya warriors came to yield before
them.
As noted by Dr. Guseva,” Brahmins became the professional and
the sole votary of the cult, spiritual leaders and mentors of
members of all other castes.” More importantly this led to
“the spiritual domination of the Ksatri, the Patriarch of the
family-kingroups of the past and the independent position of
the Ksatriya-warrior in military democratic republics later
on, was replaced by their dependence on Brahmins, not only in
religious culture matters but also in the affairs of State
administration, in the questions of war and peace, in the
distribution of surplus products, in a word, in all aspects of
social and productive life.”
This is corroborated as succinctly put by Mr. Justice G.N.
Vaidya in his inaugural speech delivered at Nanded District
Lawyers’ Conference on ‘Justice and Judges- Then and Now’
comprising a masterly survey of Justice, law and legal
institutions in India from Mohenjo Daro to the present day:
“The king and each man and woman had to have faith in Dharma-
eternal; - (Sanatana) and immutable law and order to be
followed. It is divine and not human. A king and Brahmin
deeply learned in Vedas were to uphold the moral order in the
world. King is master of all, except the Brahmins. Brahmins
are exempted from taxes. Despotism of the king was thus
controlled by the wisdom or foolishness of the priestly class.
Justice and law was what they thought to be Dharma-“maximum
freedom for them to exploit all others.”
Jain & Buddhist Challenge to Brahmin Supremacy
However the Brahmin supremacy was not secured without struggle
with the monarchs. It is noteworthy as pointed out by Dr.
Guseva, that it is during this struggle, that a new heterodox
religious temper was born in ancient India challenging the
supremacy of Brahmins and that the progenitors of new faiths
like Jainism, Buddhism and Bhagwatism belonged to the
Republican, Ksatriya clans. As Dr.Guseva puts it:
“Precisely in the north-eastern regions, not only caste-class
struggle took place but also ethnical movements, directed
against the march of the Aryan masses. And precisely here on
the borders of the world of the Brahmins, new, anti-Brahminic
faiths were to become the ideological banner of this struggle
and these movements.
“It is considered that earlier than all the other religions of
that kind, arose Bhagvatism (from the word ‘Bhagwat’ or
Bhagvan’-God) i.e. the creed which proposes to set apart the
Vedic polytheism, pantheon and to worship the individual
supreme God Krishna, was pronounced as the incarnation of the
God Visnu.- According to the opinion of the scholars of Indian
religion, both these Gods came in Aryan polytheism from the
pre-Aryan peoples of India.”
Dr. Guseva regards Krishnaism as a “clearly an example of the
rise of anti-brahmanic cult in the non-Brahmanic and clearly
non-Aryan environment. Here Krishnaism merits attention as a
religion similar to Jainism in its origin.”
Dr Guseva traces the geneology of Krishna to Satwata clan, a
branch of Yadava people settled in the Vindhya Mountains.
These Satwata people are relegated to South India along with
Nishads in the Aitareya-Brahmana (see Ethnography of Ancient
India by R. Shafer) She therefore, thinks that the Brahmana
did not reckon them amongst Aryans.
Further as Krishna descended directly from the branch of
Satwatas, Andhaka- Vrishni, one has ground to consider
Andhakas as Aitareya as i.e. Dravidian people because in the
opinion of Mr. B.C. Law in his India As Described in Early
Texts of Buddhism and Jainism the word “Andhaka’ in Pali is
used in the same sense as the word ‘Andhra’. Vincent Smith
concurs with this view.
As described by Dr. Guseva: “In the Brahmanic literature and
in the epic Mahabaratha it is said. Krishna’s uncle Kansa was
indeed an incarnation of a demon and that is why the Gods
endowed Krishna with the strength to kill him. Such an
interpretation can be easily understood as an attempt on the
part of the Brahmins to ‘Aryanise’ the image of goodness of
one who had been the object of wide reverence. In Bhagvatism
the prince Krishna , was apparently only a semi-Aryan Ksatriya
by origin and did not simply grow in the non –Aryan
environment of rural settlement.. As is known that Krishna’a
father carried him across Jamuna, Jamuna apparently served in
that region as the border between the Aryan and the non-Aryan,
settlements.”
... Continued
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