A Constructive Survey of Upanishadic Philosophy c4.s3.20

c4.s3.20

20. Let us now examine somewhat the social condition in which these philosophers lived and made their speculations. (i) It seems the castes did evidently exist at the time of the Upanishads. We have the formulation of the caste system so far back as at the time of the Purusha-sūkta, which must be, in any case, considered anterior to the Upanishads. In the Bṛihadāraṇyaka, there is a very unorthodox theory about the origin of castes. This Upanishad does not argue, like the Bhagavadgītā at a later date, that the castes were created by God according to "qualities and works." On the other hand, we are told in the Bṛihadāraṇyaka that Brahman was the first to exist; but because it was alone, it did not fare well, and therefore it produced a better form, namely Kshatriya-hood. It was thus that from the original Brahman were created such heavenly deities as Indra, Varuṇa, Soma, Rudra, Parjanya, Yama, Mṛityu and Īśa. These constitute the warrior caste in the heavenly kingdom. Furthermore, after having created even Kshatriya-hood, Brahman did not fare well; and therefore it created Vaiśya-hood in the heavenly kingdom, namely the Vasus, the Rudras, the Ādityas, the Maruts and the Viśvedevas. But even then it thought it was deficient, and therefore, it created the Śūdra order, represented in the heavenly kingdom by the god Pūshan. In order to give itself completeness, again, Brahman created Dharma or Law, which probably binds all these castes together. Finally, Brahman assumed the form of Agni who was the Brahmin of the gods, and then we are told that the castes on the earth were created after the pattern of the castes in the heaven (S. 14). In this unorthodox theory, we have the origin of the earthly caste system on the pattern of a heavenly caste system almost in the manner in which the ectypes in Plato’s theory of Ideas are merely replicas of the archetypes. Then, again, as regards the existence of Āśramas at the time of the Upanishads, we learn from the Taittirīya Upanishad that those of the student and the householder did definitely exist (S.15. a) ; while we have to conclude from other passages where one is advised “ to leave the world as soon as one becomes weary of it ” that the order of the recluses did also exist ; and finally, from such Upanishads as the Muṇḍaka as well as the mention of Saṃnyāsa elsewhere, that the order of the Saṃnyāsins came last and was the completion of the three previously mentioned. In the Chhāndogya we have all the four orders enumerated deliberately. The householders are advised to give themselves up to sacrifice, study and charity; the recluses to penance; and the students to a life of celibacy with the master and extreme emaciation in his service. All these verily reach the holy worlds after death ; but we are told that he alone who lives in Brahman, referring probably to the life of the Saṃnyāsin, attains to immortality (S. 15. b). When we rearrange these orders, we find that the foundations of the future Āśrama system are already to be found firmly laid even in such an old Upanishad like the Chhāndogya. So far about castes and orders at the time of the Old Upanishads.