Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c7.s16.t2: (b) The Impact of the Lower Orders

The Positive Background of Hindu Sociology c7.s16.t2

Language
English

(b) The Impact of the Lower Orders

c7.s16.t2.1

Our attention is invited by the chronology of the Indian state-systems to another set of “geopolitical” forces. We are led to witness the incessant dynastic expansions, contractions and dissolutions, the ups and downs in the fortunes of families as well as the constant activities of soldiers and generals on the go. During the five thousand years or so exhibited here the Indian peoples seemed all the time to carry out in life the *Aitareya-Brāhmaṇa* (VII. 15) ideal of being ever on the move, “*charaiveti*,” “*charaiveti*” (go on, march on etc.) and to function, so to say, as the living embodiments of “social mobility,” both horizontal and vertical.⁴⁹ All these movements from region to region and family to family could not but set in motion strong demographic convection-currents, leading very often to metabolistic re-arrangements in or transformations of social stratification, —the fall of the high and the elevation of the low.

c7.s16.t2.2

⁴⁹ P. Sorokin: *Social Mobility* (New York 1927), ch. VIII, ‘The Channels of Vertical Circulation.”

c7.s16.t2.3

It is an interesting fact that the origins of not only the Rajput dynasties but of many other ruling families in Indian history through the ages are somewhat dark, shady and shrouded in mystery. Another interesting item that we come across almost invariably in regard to the establishment of the Indian dynasties is, as the analysis of inscriptions leaves no doubt, that subsequent generations tried to get their forefathers or founders recognized either as Kṣatriyas or somehow related by blood to some well-known royal families. We are forced to suspect and to believe that the originators of many of the ruling dynasties in India were not born with blue blood in their veins but came from the ranks, and were often perhaps “natural-born.” Not all of them rose indeed from the very lowest of the low, but most probably many of them must have been born in the lower strata of society. From the "heroic ages" of the Vedic complex, the *Purāṇas* and the Epics down to the Mauryas, Pālas, Senas and the Rajputs of all grades the story of origins is more or less uniform in being indefinite and anything but clear.

c7.s16.t2.4

A statistical analysis of the stories regarding the origins of Indian ruling dynasties through the ages, as derived from literature as well as from inscriptions, ought to be valuable as the subject of a monograph. It is likely to throw light not only on race-intermixture and caste-fusion but also on the importance of the *viṣ*, the "folk" and the demos in societal remaking and perhaps likewise on the place of bastards in the establishment of royal and aristocratic families in India. Among the manufacturers of states and the makers of epochs the rôle of "low origin" and illegitimate birth may be found to be not negligible.

c7.s16.t2.5

It is the personal qualifications,—the proficiency in the use of arms as well as the diplomatic handling of situations,—that accounted for the ascendency of many lowly individuals to the position of generals and premiers and finally to kingship. The demand for military skill and diplomatic tact was perennial in the Indian society here and there and everywhere. In India as elsewhere the army has functioned as a great "ladder." And as the dynasties were changing and the boundaries of states were moving in season and out of season the adventurers from every nook and corner were in a position to exploit the conditions and build up their social, economic and political fortunes.⁵⁰ Individuals of lower castes could thereby get themselves admitted as Kṣatriyas, Brāhmaṇas and what not. The Indian aristocracies of all denominations were very often the instances of social mobility of the vertical type. This aspect of “geopolitics” was as common in India as in Europe.

c7.s16.t2.6

⁵⁰ "Caste System and Military History" in B. K. Sarkar: *Chinese Religion Through Hindu Eyes* (Shanghai, 1916).

c7.s16.t2.7

For, the world submits inevitably to the man, who, whatever be his origin, is audacious enough to take up the ambitious messages of the *Atharva Veda* as the guiding principles of life and actually venture upon carrying them out. In this *Veda* (XII, i, 54) *Puruṣa* (man) is made to declare to the Earth as follows:

c7.s16.t2.8

*Aham asmi sahamāna*
*Uttaro nāma bhumyām*
*Abhiṣādasmi viśvāṣād*
*Āśām āśām viṣāsahi*

c7.s16.t2.9

“Mighty am I, Superior by name, upon the earth, conquering am I, all-conquering, completely conquering every region.”

c7.s16.t2.10

The respect for personality and individual valour, the Buddhist *viriya*, the *parākrama* of the Gupta inscriptions that finds expression in this and similar passages of the *Atharva Veda* and other Vedic texts furnished the atmosphere of energists and enabled them to look for chances wherever there was a muddle. And in the sphere of energism and individualism the *Sūdra* and the *Vrātya* found the world as wide for themselves as the *Ārya*.

Linked texts (2)