Brāḥmaṇa by Rabindranath Tagore (Part III)
Translated from the original Bangla by Sreejit Datta
(continuing from Part I and Part II)
We know that not every member of a community upholds his dharma in its pristine form at all times; in fact, many of them fail to do so. In the Purāṇa-s we come across instances wherein many individuals, even though they were Brahmins themselves, have functioned as Kshatriyas and Vaishyas. However, if the ideal remains alive within a community, if efforts are made to uphold one’s dharma; if, notwithstanding the progress or decline of individuals, there still are a few pilgrims on the path to attaining the community’s ideal; and if the ideal is directly exemplified by a considerable number of people, then by such pursuits, through such sadhana, and by the very accomplishment of those who succeed in them, the entire community can attain an exalted fulfilment.
That very ideal is missing from our modern Brahmin community! That is why a Brahmin’s child takes to English manners as soon as he learns the English language – and that doesn’t even upset the father. Why doesn’t an MA-qualified Mukhopadhyay or a Scientist Chattopadhyay invite the students over to his house and sit them down to dispense his acquired knowledge? Why do they deprive themselves as well as the Brahmin community of the glory of making the society beholden to them by the debt of knowledge?
They might ask, how shall we make ends meet? If they can manage without feasting on Kalia-Pulao, then surely the society will come and feed them of its own accord. The society will not be able to do without them; indeed, the society will fall at their feet and protect them. Today, they spread out their palms to get their salaries, and so the society pays them the salary only after a thorough scrutiny of the pay-bill and extracts work from them down to the last penny. They too, like machines, function strictly according to the predetermined set of coded instructions; neither do they give reverence, nor do they get any — moreover, from time to time they end up making themselves a famous party to extremely trivial events such as the landing of some sahib’s shoes on their back.
I do not consider the possibility of a recommencement of the Brahmin’s mission in our society to be far-fetched; and I cannot flippantly dismiss the hope of this recommencement from my mind. The eternal character of India will certainly rectify its momentary distortion.
Many Non-Brahmins will also join in the mission of this reawakened Brahmin community. Even in Ancient India, many Non-Brahmins had vowed themselves to the mission of the Brahmins and had taken to the pursuit of pure knowledge and the vocation of instructors – there is no dearth of such examples where even Brahmins had received instructions from them.
In ancient days, when Brahmins were not the only Dvija-s[i] of this society, when the Kshatriyas as well as the Vaishyas were also counted as members of the Dvija community, when the Kshatriyas and Vaishyas were duly endowed with proper education while observing the discipline of Brahmacarya and following the investiture of the Upavīta – it was during those times that the ideal of the Brahmin was held high in this country. For, no one community can maintain its lofty standards when the society all around it has degenerated; gradually the attraction of the lower forms of existence gravitates it to the lower levels. When the Brahmins remained the only Dvija-s in India – when there was no one around to remind the Brahmin of his ideals and to exact the vows of Brahminhood from him – it was at such a time that the pure and onerous ideals of his Dvija-hood began to deteriorate rapidly. It was from that time onwards that the Brahmin fell into the ranks of the lesser possessors of knowledge, faith, and taste. To protect one’s distinction, it is enough to build a proper eight-roofed thatched hut in a neighbourhood of crude shanties; one naturally feels averse to undertaking the labour and expenses of raising a seven-storied palace in such a locality.
In the old days, all Brahmins, Kshatriyas, and Vaishyas were Dvija-s, that is to say the entire society of the ārya[ii]-s was a Dvija society. The people who were known as the Shudras were those who belonged to the communities of the Santal, the Bhil, the Kol, or the Dhangar. The complete unification of their instructional methods, their customs and their dharma with those of the ārya society was absolutely impossible. And yet there was no harm in that, because the entire ārya society was Dvija — that is to say, the same methods of instruction were followed throughout the ārya society. Distinctions remained in the domain of duties only. Due to this uniformity in their instructional methods, they could fully support each other in maintaining the pristineness of their respective ideals. The Kshatriyas and the Vaishyas helped the Brahmins to attain their Brahminhood, and likewise the Brahmins assisted the Kshatriyas and Vaishyas to attain their respective ideals of Kshatriyahood and Vaishyahood. This could never have happened, had the standards and ideals of education not been equally lofty, cutting across all communities in the society.
If it is essential for even the present society to maintain a head, if that head is to be held high, and if that head should be regarded as the Brahmin, then its shoulder and its neck cannot be levelled with the ground. Unless the society is uplifted, its head cannot be raised high up; and it is the job of that head to elevate the society by all means.
If the gentlefolk of our present society – that is, the Vaidya, the Kayastha and the Vanik[1] communities — are not considered as Dvija-s by the society, then there is no hope for the Brahmins to rise again. The society cannot stand only on one foot and keep talking hypocritical nonsense.
The Vaidya-s have already taken up the sacred thread. From time to time the Kayastha-s are saying that they are Kshatriyas, the Vanik-s are saying that they are Vaishyas. I see no reason to disbelieve these claims. They do not differ from the present-day Brahmins with respect to their physical features, their intellect, or their capabilities – that is, with respect to the signs of ārya-ness. Unless one looks for the sacred thread, it is impossible to differentiate the Kayastha, the Suvarna-vanik[2] etc. from the Brahmins in any learned assembly of Bengal. But it is easy to distinguish them from the real anārya[3], that is, the forest-dwelling people of India. The pure ārya blood has mixed with the anārya blood, something which is clear in our complexion, build, religion, customs, and weak-mindedness; but that admixture is present in Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas – in all communities.
However, even after this mingling and the social anarchy of the Buddhist era, the society has protected the Brahmins with a special boundary. For, such is the structure of our society, that, but for the Brahmins, it would face hindrances in all directions; it has to protect the Brahmins by any possible means for its own self-preservation. In recent history, even such incidents are found where, in some places, a group of Brahmins has been constituted by the king by investing them with the sacred thread in order to address the demands of some special exigencies. When the Brahmins of Bengal lost their Brahminhood in terms of their customs, practices, and learning, the king was forced to bring in Brahmins from outside to run the affairs of the society. And when the same Brahmin was degenerating under all sorts of influences from all around, the king had artificially established Kulinism[4] to prod and awaken the about-to-be-extinguished dignity of the Brahmin. On the other hand, the barbarism created by Kulinism with respect to marriage itself became a secret way of adulteration of the Varnas.
Be that as it may, the society felt compelled to put extra efforts to especially confine and distinguish the Brahmins as a matter of special necessity. There was no pressing need in the Bengali society to confine the Kshatriyas and the Vaishyas to the hardness of their previous age-old customs in such a special way. Whosoever wanted could go to war or indulge in trade – it did not affect the society much and there was no need to distinguish those who would be engaged in war/trade/agriculture/industry with some special mark. People engage in commerce of their own accord; they don’t depend on any special arrangements in order to do that – but the same does not apply on religion; it is bound by ancient rules; its methods, organisation, and rituals are not determined by our whims.
Therefore, due to the laxity of the inert society, the Kshatriyas and Vaishyas have at one point in time deviated from their prerogative and become mixed up to form a confused mass. If they now become aware, if they come forward to truly lay claim to their prerogative, if they take the initiative to rightly prove their glory, then it will be good for the whole society, and it will be good for the Brahmins.
Just as the Brahmins have to strive towards the ancient ideals in order to attain their true glory, so must the entire society strive. Only the Brahmin will go there alone and everyone else will be lying where they currently are – this can never happen. If the whole society does not move in one direction, no one part of it can attain fulfilment. When we will see that the Kayastha-s and the Vanik-s of our country are trying to become greater by associating themselves with the ancient Kshatriya and Vaishya communities, that they are trying to unite with the very old and make the soul of our nation coherent and continuous by integrating Modern India with Ancient India, only then will we know that hand in hand with the modern Brahmins and the ancient Brahmins they will succeed in unifying the Indian society in a vital, just, and integral manner. Otherwise, it will be impossible to save the society from the deadly impact of foreign influences with only local quarrels, petty disputes or factionalism; otherwise, the prestige of the Brahmins, that is, the prestige of all of our society, will gradually become less and less.
(To be continued..)
[1] The traditional class of merchants and traders among the Hindus in Bengal
[2] a prominent mercantile sub-group of the Vanik-s from Bengal, one which traditionally dealt in gold and silver.
[3] Non-ārya
[4] The Kaulinya Prathā or Kulinism is a system of caste and marriage rules prevalent among the Hindus of Bengal. The system was introduced among the upper castes of Bengal (Brahmins and Kayasthas) by Maharaja Vallala Sena of the Sena dynasty, who reigned in Bengal between 1158–1169 CE. The term Kaulinya derives from the Sanskrit word kulīna (“of good family”).
[i] ‘Dvija’ is a Sanskrit word which literally means ‘ The Twice-Born’. Those who undergo the upanayana saṃskāra (i.e., the ceremony of investiture with the sacred thread or ‘upavīta’ for one’s initiation into the study of the Vedas by the āc) are known as the Dvija, indicating that they have been born anew, as it were, into the life of the spirit through their upanayana saṃskāra.
[ii] The name that the Vedic people have consistently used to refer to themselves, from the Rig Veda to the Mahabharata/Bhagavad-Gita and right down to Buddhist literature and beyond, is ārya (not to be confused with English ‘Aryan’, which is a much-contested linguistic-racial construct created mainly by the 18th and 19th century philologists and linguists).
