Caste and Race in India c8.183

c8.183

The religious upheaval in Mahārāshṭra, which began about the beginning of the thirteenth century, produced considerable appreciation in the religious position of the Śūdra. We have already seen that the Śūdra was exhorted to mutter the descriptive names of God for his salvation. This method of spiritual betterment was gradually becoming an integral part of the developing creeds of Śaivism and Vaiṣṇavism. About the beginning of this period or a little earlier, Nāmamāhātmya or the importance of muttering the names of God was freely acknowledged in the Brahmanic works. In the period under review, there flourished in Mahārāṣṭra a number of Śūdras of outstanding personality. They explored and perfected this easy method of salvation for the Śūdras. The special method of preaching by means of peripatetic sermons delivered in temples with the accompaniment of some simple music was carried to perfection by two non-Brahmin saints, Nāmdev and Tukārām. The traditional history written by Mahipati in the middle of the eighteenth century makes this quite clear. Further, of the saints who contributed to the new religious forces a large majority was formed by the non-Brahmins. Of the Brahmin saints, many cannot be regarded as being wholly in a direct line of this movement. They still laid much emphasis on the philosophic aspect of religion. Jñāneshwar with his brother and sister and Ekanāth seem to be the outstanding Brahmin saints who had the greatest sympathy with the new doctrine of salvation through the muttering of the names of God. The former were the children of a Brahmin ascetic, returned to the living of a householder and as such much despised by the Brahmins. Ekanāth ventured to feed the untouchables at a Śrāddha-dinner (dinner in honour of the manes) before the invited Brahmins had had their meals. For this sacrilegious act, even though God had performed a miracle in favour of Ekanāth, the local Brahmins insisted on his undergoing a purificatory rite which Ekanāth duly performed. Almost everywhere the Brahmins figured as opponents of the new movement which appeared to them to upset the good old Brahmanic way of salvation through proper rites and ceremonies and to undermine the system of caste.¹ By their poetic ability, their capacity for religious experience, and by their pure life, these Śūdras impressed their contemporaries—irrespective of caste—so much so that they were enthroned as saints and adored by all. These saints of Mahārāṣṭra produced a revolution without the uproar of a rebellion. The Śūdra, who was accustomed to look upon it as a great privilege to be allowed to practise the Brahmanic rites, though only with the accompaniment of the Puranic mantras, now produced individuals who struck out a new path and established themselves as teachers. And the Brahmin, who was doubtful whether a Śūdra was even capable of profiting by his religious teachings, had to accept some of these Śūdras as his religious masters. Devotional schools of religious sects produced a more or less similar change in the other parts of India.