Page 141 - DSOC201_SOCIAL_STRUCTURE_AND_SOCIAL_CHANGE_ENGLISH

Social Structure and Social Change

Notes had started as a class in early India and gradually came to have religious sanctions. It is the accepted
religious principles supporting the caste system that distinguish it from the stratification system in
America and many other countries based on ascriptive status, endogamy and low-prestige status (for
example, of Negroes).
Caste and Varna

Caste and varna are two separate concepts. It was Senart who for the first time brought to the attention
of the world the fact that a caste and a varna are not identical. The peculiarity of the Hindu theory of
social organization is its reference to Varnashram organization. Though the varna organization and
the ashram organization are two separate organizations, yet they go together as they refer to the
problems of nurture and nature of man. Ashram organization refers to the conduct of an individual in
the world (nurture) in different stages of his life and varna organization refers to the work that an
individual would undertake in the society according to his nature. The approach to the study of these
two organizations is different. In the ashram organization, the problem is approached from the point
of view of training or nurture of an individual through four different stages of life (Brahamcharya,
Grihastashram, Vanprasth, and Sanyas), whereas in the varna organization, the problem is considered
from the point of view of an individual’s position in relation to group and with reference to his innate
nature and his tendencies and dispositions.
In the Rig Veda (written in about 4000 B.C.), only two varnas have been mentioned: Aryavarna and
Dasa varna. However, in the same Veda, there is a description of the division of society into three
orders: Brahma (priests), Kshatra (warriors) and Vis (common people). There is no mention of the
fourth order, that is, Sudras, though there is a reference to groups despised by the Aryans, like Ayogya,
Chandal and Nishad, etc. These four orders ultimately became four varnas. Initially, the Sudras were
not considered as untouchables. Srinivas (1962: 63) has also maintained that the people of this fourth
order were not untouchables but to this group belonged peasants, labourers and servants. Sudras
were employed not only as domestic servants but also as cooks. There was nothing like higher or
lower varna in the Vedic period. The division of society into four varna (or four orders or classes) was
based on the division of labour. Brahmins actcd as priests, Kshatriyas as rulers and fighters, Vaishyas
as traders, and Sudras as a servile class. Each varna worshipped different deities and followed different
rituals. This difference was because each group had to achieve different object according to its
occupational role. Brahmins wanted maximum holy lustre for which they worshipped agni (fire) and
recited Gayatri mantras; Kshatriyas wanted physical strength (viryam) for which they worshipped
Indra and recited Trishtubh mantras; and Vaishyas wanted cattle-wealth (pasavah) for which they
worshipped Visvedevas and recited Jagati mantras. But there were no restrictions on the matrimonial
alliances or on the commensal or social relations or even on the change of membership from one to
the other varna. Later on, however, as we pass from the Vedic (4000-1000 B.C.) to the Brahmanic (230
B.C. to 700 A.D.) period, the four varnas came to be arranged hierarchically, with Brahmins at the top
and Sudras at the bottom.
According to one viewpoint, this distinction and hierarchichal arrangement had probably something
to do with colour difference. Varna means ‘colour’, and it was in this sense that the word seems to
have been employed in contrasting the Arya and the Dasa, referring to their fair and dark colours
respectively. The colour-connotation of the word was so strong that later on when the clasps came to
be regularly described as varnas, four different colours were assigned to the four classes, by which
their members were supposed to be distinguished. The colour associated with the Brahmin is white,
with Kshatriya red, with Vaishya yellow, and with Sudra black. Hutton (1963: 66) believes that it is
possible that this colour distinction is in some way associated with race. But according to Hocart
(1950: 46), the colour has a ritual and not a racial significance.
Though like the origin of varnas, the origin of castes also is explained by scholars like Risley, Ghurye,
Majumdar, etc. in terms of the racial factors but it cannot be said taat castes are the sub-divisions of
varnas. The origin of castes had noting to do with varnas, though in the process of development of
castes, they came to be associated with varnas, and the hierarchy of the castas and the mobility of a
caste came to be stated in varna terms. Varna, thus, provided a framework which conditioned all
Indian thinking about and reaction to caste (Hsu, 1963: 96). Srinivas (1962: 69) also suggests that

136 LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY