Bangalore : Whenever we say that caste is killing the Hindu society, those advocates of “‘ Go back to Vedic age”, hit back saying that caste has no sanction under the Vedas and it was all milk and honey during the Vedic period. We are not interested if caste was there during the Vedic period or not in such a remote past (about 15th century BC) but what it is today. The answer to the question that caste is killing us is not that caste was not there during the Vedas We are concerned with what it is today and not what it was when the society was primitive.
All the more it is necessary that we should know the facts though our Veda worshippers are never known for facts. We can’t get a better authority on the Vedas than Sir Monier Williams, who studied Sanskirt for 50 years and occupied the world’s most prestigious Boden Chair at the Oxford where many top Brahmin scholars ” studied Sanskirt under him. A great admirer of Hinduism, he toured India several times and Brahmin Sanskrit “‘scholars” had admitted Sir Williams’ mastery of the subject. Author of many books including the celebrated, Indian Wisdom, his magnum opus, Religious Thought & Life in India, first published in 1813, came out as an Indian edition (1974) as it became the most authoritative work even for Brahmins (write to Oriental Books Reprint Corp ., No. 54 Rani Jhansi Road, New Delhi-110 055, pages 520, price Rs. 100) This is the best book on Vedism, Brahminism and Hinduism and, therefore, every Dalit and presecuted minority must possess a copy.
About the Rig Veda, he says “it is the first Bible of the Hindu religion.” Such is the respect commanded by this ‘Sacred’ text even to this day. It is in this Veda the caste is mentioned in the “celebrated Purusha hymn (Rig Veda, Mandala X. 90, translated by me in the Indian Wisdom, p. 24 ……. It also foreshadows the idea of sacrifice, as well as the institution of caste, which for so many centuries, has held India in bondage”. (page 17)
The embodied spirit has a thousand heads, A thousand eyes, a thousand feet, around
On every side enveloping the earth, Yet filling space no larger than a span He is himself this very universe , He is whatever is, has been, and shall be; He is the lord of immortality
All creatures are one fourth of him, three fourths Are that which is immortal in the sky. From him, called Purusha, was born Viraj, And from Viraj was Purusha produced, Whom gods and holy men made their oblation. With Purusha as victim, they performed
A sacrifice. When they divided him, How did they cut him up? What was his mouth? What where his arms? And what his thighs and feet? The Brahman was his mouth, the kingly soldier Was made his arms, the husbandman his thighs, The servile Sudra issued from his feet.
The author says that during the Vedic period “polygamy, existed, though monogamy was the rule, they killed animals for sacrifice; they ware in the habit of eating animal food, and did not even object the flesh of cows, they were fond of gambling, and indulged in intoxicating beverages.” (pg. 18) Even “human sacrifice was once part of the Brahmanical system” (pg.24) Referring to the same subject Dr. B. R. Ambedkar ( Who Were the Shudras ? Thacker’s, Rampart Row, Bombay, 1970) says : “The constituion of the society prescribed by the Purusa Shukta is known as chaturvarnya … Purusha Sukta has never been questioned by any one except the Buddha ….. ”Not only our Hindu salesmen do not condemn the Purusha Sukta but often propogate the idea. that the solution to all the ills of India lies in our going back to the Vedas. That means our Shankracharyas must give up vegetarianism and start eating cow and drinking Liquor. In that case what will happen to their worship of mother cow ? What will happen to Gandhi’s Prohibition ? And the Ahimsa (non-violence)? The Tallow controversy ?.
There are so many contradictions in what our Hindu leaders talk that some-times they secretly feel ashamed of the go-back-to-Veda call. But this is done privately. For public they have a different face.
Those who want to know more of the absurdities, the contradictions, the stupidities of Hinduism may read Arun Shourie’s famous book, Hinduism: Essence & Consequences A Study of the Upanishads, the Brahma-Sutras & the Gita, [Vikas 204, Industrial Area, Sahibabad, Dt. Gaziabad, UP. India.
