Twice-born

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In Hinduism, the highest three castes of Hindu society are known as the twice-born (Sanskrit: Dvija ) because they have undergone the sacred thread ceremony (Upanayana), in which male members are initiated into the second stage of life (ashrama) for a Vedic follower.

Traditionally, twice-born Hindus belong to the first three groups of the Hindu caste-system: 1) Brahmins, 2) Kshatriyas, and 3) Vaishyas. However, in many Hindu scriptures the word Dvija usually only refers to Brahmins who possessed mythical, religious superiority in the Hindu texts.

The doctrine of the "twice-born" has been criticized for promoting hierarchy and elitism although its supporters see it as a type of initiation and purification into a higher state of existence, analogus to baptism in other religions.

Socio-religious Context

The Hindu doctrine of the twice-born castes arose from the fusion of a number of interrelated doctrines that provided ideological backing for this teaching. These affiliated doctrines are known as the Varna System, the ashrama system, and the purusharthas (four aims of life).

Stages of life

The "stages of life for a twice-born man" or Ashrama are discussed in the Hindu Manusmriti. This concept says that a member of the Dvija (twice-born) castes (Brahmin, Kshatriya, and Vaishya) are to undergo four periods of life: first, as a student Brahmacharya; then, as a householder Grihastha; then, they shall live in retirement Vanaprastha; and finally, as an ascetic Sanyasi. The Manusmriti goes into some detail, regarding what is expected of an individual during each stage. Asrama refers to the four stages of individual life prescribed for all Hindus. The life assuming maximum of hundred years was divided into four stages. Brahmacharya ("student life") for 25 years, Grihastha ("householder life") after marriage for another 25 years, Vanaprastha or age of retirement for another 25 years ("anchorite life") and if after that somebody lives, Sannyasa ("renunciate life") or permanent seclusion from all human activities for the rest of life

Varna System

Varna is a Sanskrit term derived from the root vrn meaning "to choose (from a group)." Literally translated, "Varna" means colour. Hinduism categorizes human society into four "Varnas" define the group's social standing in marital and occupational matters.[1]

The classes of society described in the Hindu scriptures are as follows:

  • Brahmin - "scholarly community," including teachers, doctors, and other scholars.
  • Kshatriya - "warriors and rulers or politicians community"
  • Vaishya - "mercantile and artisan community"
  • Shudra - "service-providing community"
  • Dalit - "untouchables, those without varna"

The Manu Smriti talks clearly about the classes and their duties.

The first three varnas are seen as 'twice born'. They are allowed to study the Vedas. In India and Nepal the sub-communities within a Varna are called Jat or Jati (The varna is also used instead of Jat). Traditionally, each Jati members are allowed to marry only with their Jati members. People are born into their Jati and normally it cannot be changed, though there were some exceptions in Hindu Scriptures. For example, sage Vishwamitra was born as a Kshatriya (ruling class) and by deep meditation (tapas) became a venerable Brahmin rishi (saint). Once someone is born to certain sub-community or Jati he or she cannot normally change their Jati, although some groups throughout history have risen or fallen according to their deeds. Community is a permanent attribute in Indian societies.

The occupations of the Vaishya are those connected with trade, the cultivation of the land and the breeding of cattle; while those of a Kshatriya consist in ruling and defending the people, administering justice, and the duties, of the military profession generally and ruling and expounding all Dharma. Both share with the Brahmin the privilege of reading the Vedas. To the Brahmin belongs the right of teaching and expounding the sacred texts Vedas. Shudras were the serfs, and performed agricultural labour. Muluki Ain has incorporated the entire ethnic group of Nepal into the social hierarchy.

Orthodox Brahmins may classify them as Shudras, because they do not have a tradition of undergoing through the thread ceremony, that would make them dvija द्विज .

Manu Smriti is often quoted in reference to the Varna system as an inherited social class system. Use of the Manu Smriti by the British colonialists has been used by politicians and sociologists to denigrate those of the Hindu faith.[1].

The Manu Smriti claims that by the time it was written, Hindu society included another class (untouchables) of people without a position in any of the four Varnas and therefore associated with the lowest of the jobs. The upper classes, who were supposed to maintain ritual and corporal purity, came to regard them as untouchables. The people of this "fifth varna" are now called Dalits (the oppressed) or Harijans; they were formerly known as "untouchables" or "pariahs". However, this last addition social strata is not a part of the religion of Hinduism. Hinduism only categorizes occupations in to four categories.

It is very clear that in the early Vedic times, the Varna system (if at all it existed) meant classes with free mobility of jobs and intermarriage. One hymn of the Rig Veda states:

कारुरहं ततो भिषगुपलप्रक्षिणी नना । (RV 9.112.3)
"I am a bard, my father is a physician, my mother's job is to grind the corn......"

While intermarriage between Brahmana bridegrooms and Kshatriya princesses was extremely common (even sanctioned by the later Manu Smriti), in many instances, marriages between Kshatriya princes and Brahmana brides was also observed (severely condemned by Manu Smriti). One of such instances is marriage of Yayati, a Kshatriya King, with Devayani, a daughter of the sage Shukracharya.

The Dharmashastras (a collection of collections of Hindu codes and laws) say that varna is not just determined by birth, but by action in life according to the dharma of varna-ashram as well.

Kanakadasa of the 15th century also denounced inherited social status. He believed that Life in every human being is Divine, and that only the ignorant wrought injustice against their own brethren by this practice. Basavanna of the 12th century is said to have denounced inherited social status and tried to unify all communities under the Linga (form of Shiva).

In later times, with the elaboration of ritualism, class status became hereditary (the historians disagree as to when) and the Shudras were not even allowed to hear the sacred word of the Vedas.

The Brahmins (priests), The Kshatriyas (warriors, nobility), the Vaishyas (the craftsmen and men of commerce), and the Shudras (agriculture workers; menial workers) were the four varnas. A person of each varna was said to possess certain set of characteristics: the Shudras, they believed, were of the tamasic nature; the Vaishyas were either tamasic or rajasic; the Kshatriyas were believed to be noble, learned and selfless, his or her duty being the administration of the people and fighting of battles against intruders, often very spiritually inclined; and that the Brahmins were religious, pure, Society's bank of knowledge and wisdom for their memory of holy scriptures, the performers of rituals. However, there is a dispute as to which varna holds the greatest spiritual purity. Brahmins are associated with the evil Daksha, an arrogant Brahmin that received the head of a goat, and according to scriptures caused all Brahmins to be cursed by Nandi to never attain the greatest spiritual heights in Hinduism as Daksha insulted Shiva.

Hindu tantrics are a part of Hinduism whose scriptural texts, the Agamic texts known collectively as the Tantras, assert their descent from the Vedas, especially the Atharva-Veda. Claiming that the Vedic rituals no longer necessary in Kali Yuga, that the fourth and final epoch of humanity in Hinduism shall see morality ebb to complete dissolution until the end of the earth, the Tantrics see themselves as natural continuations of the Vedas through Hindu yogic practices—and not of any particular caste, yet not Untouchables.

Many Hindu yogis and sages have, over the centuries, constantly commented about inheriting social status. Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu (15th century), the powerful bhakti of Krishna also denounced inheriting social status. He famously distributed the Hare Krishna mantra to non-brahmins all around India, claiming this was the True path to moksha.

Opposition within Hinduism

Critics point that the effect of communities (jatis) inheriting varna was to bind certain communities to sources of influence, power and economy while locking out others and thus create more affluence for jatis in higher classes and severe poverty for jatis in lower classes and the outcast Dalit. In the last 150 years Indian movements arose to throw off the economic and political yoke of an inherited class system that emerged over time, and replace it with true Varnashrama dharma, described in the Vedas.

In the religious scripture Mahabharata, Yudhisthira, is questioned by Yama in the form of a Yaksha, about what makes one a Brahmin. Yudhisthira, without hesitation, said that it is conduct alone that makes one a Brahmin.

Ramananda, an ascetic of the Sri Ramanuja's Sri Vaishnava sampradaya, accepted all varna as his disciples. Mirabai, the 15th century mystical poet and Queen of Chittor is known to have ignored varna distinctions and elected the cobbler, Sant Rohidas, as her guru. Annamacharya, a 15th century Telugu poet's famous Bramhamokkada song, preaches equality of all in the eyes of God and condemns inheriting social status as un-Vedic. And proposed a return to traditional varnashrama dharma. Which promoted equality and stressed the importance of all varnas. Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, the 19th century Hindu religious leader, also did not recognise varna distinctions and took his first alms as a twice-born Brahmin from a Shudra woman.

In response, defenders argue that Varnashrama dharma (Devanagari: वर्णाश्रम धर्म) refers to the system of classes of social life and stages of individual life in Hinduism. Varna refers to the belief that most humans were created from different parts of the body of the divinity Purusha.

Notes

  1. "Low-caste Hindus adopt new faith", BBC News; Last accessed 15 October 2006

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  • Sri Aurobindo (1970), The Human Cycle, The Ideal of Human Unity, War and Self-Determination, Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust. ISBN 81-7058-014-5
  • Sohail Inayatullah, Understanding P. R. Sarkar: The Indian Episteme, Macrohistory and Transformative Knowledge, Brill Academic Publishers, 2002, ISBN 9004128425.
  • Elst, Koenraad. Update on the Aryan Invasion Debate. 1999. ISBN 81-86471-77-4 [2]
  • Kane, Pandurang Vaman. History of Dharmasastra: (ancient and mediaeval, religious and civil law) — Poona : Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 1962-1975.
  • Welzer, Albrecht. 1994. Credo, Quia Occidentale: A Note on Sanskrit varna and its Misinterpretation in Literature on Mamamsa and Vyakarana. In: Studies in Mamamsa: Dr Mandan Mishra Felicitation Volume edited by R.C. Dwivedi. Delhi: Motilal Banarasidass.

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