Debrahmanising History: Dominence and Resistence in Indian Society 9788173046483

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DEBRAHMANISING HISTORY Dominanceand Resistancein IndianSociety

DEBRAHMANISING HISTORY Dominanceand Resistancein IndianSociety

BRAJRANJANMANI

MANOHAR 2005

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First published2005 .

C Braj Ranjan Mani, 2005 '

All rights reserved.No pan of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without prior permissionof the author and the publishei:

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Do not believe in hearsay; do not believe in what is handed down through generations; do not believe in anything becauae it is accepted by many; do not believe because some revered aage or elder makca a statement; do not believe in truths to which you have become attached by habit; do not believe merely on the authority of your traditional teachings. Have deliberation and analyae, and when the result accords with reuon and conduces to the good of one and .all, accept it and live up to it GAUTAM

BuDDHA

The AnguuaraNika,a, I, 188, see Woodward and Hare, 1932

. . . I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three . meala a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits .. I believe that what selfcentred men have torn down men other-centred can build up.. .. I still believe that we shail overcome. This faith can give us courage to face the uncertainties of the future. It will give our tired feet new strength as we continue our forward stride toward the city of freedom. When our days become dreary with low-hovering clouds and our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, we will know that we are living in the creative turmoil of a genuine civilisation struggling to be born.

MARTINLlJlliERlla:Yer, is m-yeldeYbrother. So why do you not know me, 0 Lord of theMeetingRivers?(ibid .: 52)° The 'untouchable' Madar Cannayya, idolised by Basava in the above vachana as his father, was a major Virashaiva saint ,poet. He castigates caste in one of his vachanas by presenting a remarkable line,up. of celebrated cultural personalities from the despised castes :

Sankhya was a sweeper;/Agascya , a huntsman; Duroasa,a cobbler;/Dadhichi,a _locksmith; ; Kas,apa, a blacksmith;/Romaja,a coppersmith Kaundilya,a barber; So, why shouldyou then, In ignoranceof this, Insist on caste? (Ray et al. 2000 : 480, 1) Many saints entreat their fellow beings to give up their caste identity and loyalty. In a long poem, Allama pinpoints the 'six errors' one must · overcome in order to become a truly religions person. The first major barrier, he says, is jati that hinders people to realise ·their real worth: The second fallacy is the vamashrama, dharma that gives sanctity to four caste categories and four stages of life. The other errors, according to Allama, are the pride in one's own background (kula) , lineage, name and native land (Schouten 1995: 54,5). In other words, one simply cannot become a Virashaiva without forsaking one's belief in distinctions based on caste.

DebrahmanisingHistory

166 Siddharama, Virashaiva:

for instance, asserts that caste is anathema

to a

What doesit mean to belongto thesystem of thefour castes? Look, he is a ½rashaivawhotranscendsthefour castes. (ibid.: 54) Comparing innumerable vachanas like the ones quoted above with the egalitarian Buddhist texts, Schouten points out that Basava appeared to be deeply familiar with - and influenced by - the teachings of the Buddha. This, he says, was not improbable as Buddhism was very strong in several regions in Karnataka:

... In 1095,only about ten yearsbeforeBasava'sbirth,a largeBuddhist monastery was founded in Dambal(in the present Dharwar district). Dambal later becameone ·of the most important religiouscentres of ½rashaivism. .. . The strongresistanceagainst thecaste system, as it occurredin theBuddhisttradition,was stillpreservedin thelaststrongholds of Buddhismin northernKamatakawhenBasavatriedto find an alternative for thestrictBrahmanavalt•esof hisfamily. It is an obvioussuggestionthat healsoacquaintedhimselfwiththeBuddhisttradition.In that tradition,he would certainlyhave been fascinatedby theegalitarianphilosophythat rejecteddiscriminationon thebasisof caste. (Schouten 1995: 61) A sparkling feature of Virashaivism is the strong presence of women who played a significant role in the movement. There were many influential female ascetics in early Virashaivism . There are instances of women who joined their husbands in the radical movement on an equal footing. The movement severely criticised the brahmanical legitimation of female subordination and tried to build a new vision on the man -woman relationship . It was characteristic of Virashaivism that there was place in it for the most unconventional of women like Akka Mahadevi and Muktayakka. The foremost woman among vachanakaras, Mahadevi was mainly interested in her individual redemption, but her spiritual insight has social implications. The following poem is an exquisite and typical example of this:

Those who have becomeequalby love, Should they heed backgroundor pretensions ? Those who havegonemad,

SubalternSaint-Poets

167

do theyknowshameor reltraint? Thosewho are lovedlrythe Looel-,Lord of the Jasmines, Could theyhauelcryalr,to the world?(ibid.: 30) Akka Mahadevi appears to imply here that traditional distinctions are of no value to those who experience the divine love. Background or pretensions do not matter to the true devotees, made equal for love. The word ku1aincludes all factors which are determined by birth, such as family, gender, and caste. In her own ardent style, Akka says that those besotted with divine love are like insane people who do not care for the established rules and cherished values. , The Llngayatas ado~ed a pragmatic approach to realise their ideals and came up with alt~mative rituals, ceremonies, taboos and other religio-cultural symbols. The movement not only rejected the core values and sOCialinstitutions associated with the brahmans, it also developed an institutional framework for an egalitarian order:

In its desirefor 'humanrelationships', it felt it was necessaryto breakdoom interpersonalbarriersand conventionalnorms that preventedinterpersonal contacton issueslikeinterdiningand intercastemarriage,i.e. it discarded the notionsof purir,and pollutionbetweenbrahmansand non-brahmans. It revealedtherealitieshiddenlryrituals, practices,conuentionsof brahmans, in order to be liberatedfrom the oppressionof brahmandomination. (Bali 1978: 69) The movement laid special emphasis on the dignity of labour and connected it with social progress and spiritual uplift. All people were required to work to earn their living irrespective of their status. Social mobilisation was taken up vigorously, and people were recruited to the community through the institution of math. All in all, the Virashaiva movement was a 'social upheaval by and for the poor, the low-caste and the outcaste against the rich and the privileged ... ' (Ramanujan, cited in Bali, ibid.). The aims and achievements of the Virashaiva movement were ahead of other such movements. And despite its later decline and disintegration as the movement fell victim to rigidity and social hierarchy in its own ranks against which they once fought so heroically, the Lingayatas today form the single largest ethnic group

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Debrahmanising History

in Kamataka. Though the movement later lost its initial zeal and fervour for social change and gradually faded away, its legacy of struggle against brahmanical domination still continues. In fact, it was the community of Lingayatas that provided the core structure for the backward· classes movement in the Madras Presidency iri the twentieth century.

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