The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c13.s4.4

c13.s4.4

A separate stanza is given over to the *vellarher perumai* (honour of agriculturists). The agricultural work done by the *vellarher* (farmers) is to maintain the prayers of Brāhmaṇas, the strength of kings, the profits of merchants and the welfare of all. Charity, donations, the enjoyments of domestic life, connubial happiness, homage to the gods, the *śāstras*, the *Vedas*, the *Purāṇas* and all other books, truth, reputation, renown, the very being of the gods, things of good report or integrity, the good order of castes, manual skill,—all these things come to pass by the merit or efficacy of the *vellarher’s* plough. This sort of what, to use a Marxist category, may be described as the “agricultural interpretation of history” can be traced back, as we have seen, to the *Atharva Veda’s* hymns on the cow, the draft-ox, etc. (IV, ii). We must not, however, read into Indian texts the monistic determinism of Marxist economics or sociology. Hindus, used as they are to heinotheism, are fundamentally pluralists in as much as they can appreciate, admire and deify any and every force for the time being as a supreme influence in life and thought.