Caste in India: The Facts and the System c7.s5.24

c7.s5.24

The most suggestive is without doubt the story of Paraśu-Rāma. The son of Jamadagni, he belonged to the line of the Bhārgavas. One day King Arjuna, who had been received into the hermitage of Jamadagni, treacherously repaid this hospitality by stealing the calf of the cow that the holy man was about to sacrifice. Quick to avenge the paternal wrong, our hero, holy but truculent, twenty-one times devastated the Kshatriya race. Such destruction did he wreak that, according to certain versions of the legend, all the warriors disappeared, and no other course lay open to the Brahmans, if they were to restore to the earth its tutelary masters and the indispensable equilibrium to the social organization, but to unite with the widows of the Kshatriyas to found together a new caste of nobles. What is really the origin of this story? Does it reflect a vast class-struggle between nobles and priests? This conclusion appears to me, I admit, less obvious than to other critics; but it is not worth while to argue the point. The story undoubtedly betrays exceedingly strained relations between the two classes, at least in certain places and at certain times.