Evolution of Hinduism from Many Indian Religions
Dr.Krishnan Nallaperumal, Professor, MS University,
Tirunelveli
Introduction: The sixth sense prevailing in Man
has kindled in him the questions of “What is life?”, “Where do I come from?”,
“What will happen to me (as a soul) after I leave the body?”, “Who created the
world and the worldly materials and other lives?”, “What am I supposed to do
here?”, so on and so forth; these enquiries transformed man into a social human
being. The inquisitive nature of thirst for truth made him to look for ‘The God’
beyond the tangible Science at his reach. This thought process got evolved into
different culture, faiths, religions and philosophies in different forms and
expressions, albeit on the God and His creations. Science is only that
dimension of understandings and discoveries of Man related to the worldly
materials and those connected with it externally; Man’s spiritual journey
beyond science enabled him to leaps and bounds of the Universe and the Ultimate
truth and happiness, namely the salvation at the floral feet of The God.
However, only a few enlightened
individuals could achieve salvation as many in the world fall prey to the
attractions of worldly enjoyments alone. Science and
technologies have ensured that there is no meaningful separation among social,
economic, political, environmental, cultural and spiritual dimensions of life; hence,
many faith communities are struggling to
come to terms with the threat of ‘consumerism’ due to globalization.
Under these backdrops, this article would revisit the development of
Hinduism as a religion evolved from many Indian religions. This article would
also evaluate how the Hinduism so evolved from different faiths could address
the issues of cultural and ethnic diversity. Further, it will also discuss how
the process of exchanges of experience of the supreme reality among different
religious beliefs and traditions has led to the strengthening of the spiritual
life and moral values of individuals and societies in pluralistic ancient
India. Finally, it will trace how the pre-colonial India, despite being ruled
by several dynasties across the sub-continent, had demonstrated the holistic
art of living together happily and peacefully. The concluding remarks would focus on what
need to be done to change the present explosive situations in India that have
become a threat to the pluralistic life and how could we work together as
living religious faiths towards justice and peace so that people can live
together under the horizon of the divine.
1. Defining Hinduism as a Religion
Any religion has a prophet whose preaching based on his/her experiences
becomes the Holy Scripture/Text or Bible to the followers of that religion and
the philosophy that defines the creation of souls, lives, world and worldly
materials and the Creator of these, namely the GOD and His connections with the
former entities. Let us try to understand Hinduism as a religion within this
definition by identifying the supreme God of Hinduism, the Holy Scripture of
Hinduism and the Philosophy of Hinduism that defines the creation of souls,
lives, world and worldly materials and the Creator of these, namely the GOD and
His connections with the former entities.
1.1. The Supreme God of Hinduism
If one searches the Supreme God for all Hindus from the perspective
of the definition of a religion, the individual encounters an ever expanding
list … Shiva, Vishu, Brammah, Ganapathy, Subramanya, Durga, Kali, a lot many
number of Native Mother Goddesses and Gods, leaving the individual in awe and desperation.
Some of these Gods are named Supreme Gods and others as folk deities. Is it
fair to call some as Supreme and some as folk deities? A village bound Mother
Goddess is the supreme God to those folks in the village; the temple history (purana)
of that Mother Goddess proclaims that the universe was created by Her besides
creating Shiva, Vishnu, Brammah and other Devas. Differences do exist among the
followers of religious sects such as South Indian Saivaites and South Indian
Vaishnavites headed by the concerned Supreme Gods Shiva and Vishnu. Worship
rules and rituals vary substantially among Saivaite brahmins, Smartha Brahmins,
Saivaite vellalas and Saivaite native groups; This is the case with Vaishnavaites;
brahminic vatakalai Vaishnavaites, brahminic thenkalai Vaishnavaites, yadava Vaishnavaites,
nayudu Vaishnavaites etc. As no one is agreeing upon the Supreme God of
Hinduism, identifying ‘The Supreme God of Hinduism’ becomes a task impossible.
1.2 The Holy Scripture of Hinduism
Having failed to identify the supreme God of Hinduism, let us move
onto identify ‘The Holy Scripture’ of Hinduism.
Holy Hindu scriptures are many manuscripts with several diverse
traditions within India. A few scriptures are shared resources across these
traditions, for instance, the Vedas and the Upanishads. Vedhas have oral and
texual traditions - the Shruti, that is heard(oral), and Smriti, that is
remembered(texual). The Śruti refers to the body that is most authoritative,
ancient religious texts, with unknown authors, claims the central canon of Vedic
Religion. It contains the four Vedas including its four types of embedded texts
- the Samhitas, the Brahmanas, the Aranyakas and the early Upanishads. The
Upanishads are widely influential among a section of Vedic Hindus, and their
central ideas got influenced by the thoughts and traditions of other Indian
philosophies. The Smriti Hindu texts are specific bodies of texts attributed to
several named authors. They include Vedaangas, the Hindu epics, the Sudras and
Shastras, the texts of Hindu philosophies, the Puranas, the Kaavya or poetical
literature, the Bhasyas, and numerous Nibandhas(digests) covering politics,
ethics, culture, arts and society.
For Vedic Brahmins, Vedas are the Holy Texts; however, scholars
hesitate to name them as Holy Texts given the diverse nature of Hinduism, which
claims components from many other philosophies including Jainism, Buddhism and
Sikhism born in the Indian sub-continent.
Many try to include Bhagavad Gita and Agamas as Hindu Holy Scriptures.
Here again, we find the Bhagavad Geetha of Lord Krishna is the Holy Scripture
for one sect of Vaishnavaites only; another sect of vaishnavaites holds Bhagavata Purana and Yagnavalkya Smriti
to the list of Hindu Holy Scriptures. While Saivaites and Vaishnavaites of
south Indian Temple traditions hold their respective Saiva and Vaishnava Agamas
as Holy Scriptures, they are outcastes for Advaitis of Adi Sankara smartha
Brahmins. For the non-brahminical Saivaites in Tamilnadu, the twelve Holy
Scriptures (Panniru Thirumurais) are the Holy Texts while the 4000 Prapandhas
are the Holy Scriptures for their Vaishnavaite counterparts. For the folklore
based Mother God followers, the Holy Texts happen to be several Puranic stories
and songs on their Goddesses, preserved and transmitted orally through
generations in the forms like Villuppaattu, which describe the creations of
Gods, world and every mystical component. They have no idea about Vedas,
Agamas, Bhagavad Geettha, Panniru Thirumurais and 4000 Prapandhas. Under these
circumstances, it is very clear that no single ‘Hindu Canon’ could be named as ‘The
Holy Scripture of Hinduism’.
1.3 Hinduism represents Many Religions other than Islam and
Christianity
The inability to name ‘The Supreme God’ and ‘The Holy Scripture’ of
Hinduism explicitly indicates one fact – That Hinduism is not about one
single religion. Hinduism is an attempt to depict the culture of several co-existing
religions born in the Indian sub-continent as one faith and way of life; The
word ‘Hinduism’ is being used to extract social and political mileage by different
rulers and the Indian politicians before, during and after India’s independence.
For the colonial rulers, Hindus were non-Christians and non-Muslims of
Hindustan from the governance point of view. For the pre-independent freedom
fighters, colonial definition of Hinduism came in handy to fight the colonial
rulers united. For the independent Indian politicians, Hinduism became a
vote-bank politics. From time to time, these forces have done a lot of damage
to the interfaith fabric that existed several centuries across this sub-continent
ruled by many monarchs and rulers.
Before the institution called religion came into force, there were worships
and rituals on both poles of Vedic and Indus Valley Civilizations(IVCs). The
first orthodox Vedic school, Mimamsa (मीमांसा) showed little interest in systematic examination of the existence of
God. Rather, it held that the soul is eternally omnipresent and inherently
active spiritual essence; they focused on the dharma (rituals and social
duties), not devas (gods); the Mimamsa school (also called the karmakaaṇḍa
of Vedas) placed emphasis only on the Brahmanas(Vedic rituals). They
held the spirituality-related texts of IVCs and Upanishads irrelevant. However,
a major section of Aryans, pursued the school of Vedanta (Gnanakaṇḍa)
Upanishads, dealing with the meditation, reflection and knowledge of Self, Oneness,
Brahman to establish supremacy over the other IVC non-Aryans (having their own
Supreme God).
Now, let us try to document the history of the excellent interfaith
exchanges happened among different religions and philosophies of Hinduism in
terms of the exchanges and evolutions, elevations and eliminations of certain
Gods during their course of evolutions, the central issue of caste-ism that
plagued all faiths in India including the Christianity and Islam.
2. Interfaith Exchanges among Indian Religions – B.C. Era
Broadly, Indian Religions may be classified as Vedic Religions based
on Upanishad Vedanta (Advaita Vedanta, Vishishtadvaita, Dvaita, Dvaitadvaita,
Achintya, Bheda, Abheda, Bhedabheda), Non-Vedic IVC Religions compromised with
Vedas later on (Six sects of Saiva, Agamic Saiva of Nayanmars, Agamic Vaishnava
of Alwars, Tantric Shakta, Saiva Sidhdhanta, VeeraSaivam, Shakism) and Pure Non-Vedic Religions(Aajeevika, Jainism,
Buddhism, Sikhism etc). Indian Philosophies could be identified as Pure Vedic, Non-Vedic
(self-evolved philosophies that admit Vedas) and pure Non-Vedic philosophies
negating the tenets of Vedas. The Vedic philosophy upholds Monism while all non-Vedic
religions uphold Pluralism.
The early Vedic Civilization flourished along the river Saraswati, that
belong to Haryana and Punjab. Researchers contradict the Vedic texts claiming
astronomical dates that go back to the 5th millennium BC and specify them at
1500 BC. The timeline of IVC, 3300
BC-1800 BC, happens to be the earliest civilization in Indian History. The
Vedic Aryan Civilization and IVCs had two diametrically opposite culture and qualities.
The Vedic Aryans were always on the move in search of grazing land
for their cattle; to know the time and directions, they had to look upon the
sky. Therefore, all their Gods were sky bound like Indra, Agni, Maruts and
Parjanya(rain god). As sky is apparently monistic, Vedic religion talks of
monism. Vedas are the Holy Texts of Yagna based Sanathana dharma; Agni is the
principal connector to Vedic Gods. Vedic religion believes that all
offerings to Gods would reach them if they are burned in the Yagna Agni and
Agni purifies all sins/evils. (That
is why King Rama asked his wife Seetha to enter into Agni(fire) to prove her purity.)
The IVC and its variants that existed in south India were based on
river water fed cultivation. Agriculture was their livelihood; their culture
and worships including some form of worships on Siva and Mother Goddesses were
connected with the plurality of the Earth and its prosperity. Their later
cultural evolution could be traced in the agamic traditions of temple worships on
Saivism, vaishnavism and saktha religions; for them, their respective Agamas
are the Holy Texts. Water was used as the principal connection with the god and
they believed that water would purify all including the idols of their deities;
by doing a mild sprinkling of water on their offerings to god, they believed
that the god has accepted their offerings and they distribute the god accepted
offerings to the devotees of god with whom the god is believed to have communion;
The first Tamil Agamic Veda of SaivaSiddhantha, Thirumandhiram of
St.Thirumoolar, declares that to offer and pray God is to remove the hunger of
human being:
The offerings you give to the
Lord in the steeple temple
Reaches not His walking
temples, the Human beings
The offerings to Human
beings, His walking temples
That sure reaches the Lord in the steeple temple
high.
படமாடும் கோயில் பகவர்க்கு ஒன்று ஈயில்
நடமாடும் கோயில் நம்பர்க்கு அங்கு ஆகா
நடமாடும் கோயில் நம்பர்க்கு ஒன்று ஈயின்
படமாடும் கோயில் பகவர்க்கு அது ஆமே.
They idolized god as the complementary completion of Man-Woman
(arthaNareeshwar: half-Man and half-Woman idol of god).
Let us trace the religious and cultural history of the religions of
Hinduism through these two opposite early cultures and how they had their
impact on each other through exchanges and fusions of their concepts and their
composite culture on the other religions of India throughout the history of
Indian religions and philosophies.
2.1. Interfaith Engagement of IVC with Vedic Religions
2.1.1. Early Rig Vedic(RV) Gods
Our knowledge of the early Vedic Religion comes from the Rig-Veda,
the earliest of the Vedas. The early RV Primary Deities by prominence as they
appear in Rig Veda are the Chief Deity of Rig Veda, namely, Indra(289 dedicated
hymns), Agni(218), Soma(123), The Aswins(56), Varuna(46), Maruts(38), Mitra(28),
Ushas(21), Savitar(11), Rbhus(11), Pushan(10), Apris(9), Brhaspati(8), Surya(8),
Dyaus(6), Prithivi(6), Apas(6), Adityas(6), Vishnu(6), Brahmanaspati(6), Rudra(5),
Yama(3), Parjanya(2) and Vastopathi(2). From this compilation, it is very clear
that Indra was the chief deity of Vedic Religion in its formative stages and
the Agni down to others were their order of worship.
The mode of Vedic worship was essentially sacrifices and chanting of
hymns. Some of the specific rituals and sacrifices of the Vedic religion
include:
• The Soma cult described in the Rigveda and the Fire rituals.
• The Agnihotra or oblation to Agni
• The Agnicayana, the sophisticated ritual of piling the fire altar.
• The Agnistoma or fire sacrifice
• The Ashvamedha or horse sacrifice
• The Purushamedha, or sacrifice of the cosmic Purusha, cf. Purusha
Sukta
• The rituals described in the Atharvaveda concerned with demonology
and magic.
The Ashvamedha (horse sacrifice) in India continued till the 4th
century AD. Killing cows for food was done as a sacrifice. Sacrifice was a
regular practice. It is to be noted that the Early Vedic religious prayers
were essentially for material gains, wealth, health and progeny. Early
Vedic prayers were devoid of the concept of the supreme God and the
communion of soul with the supreme God (salvation).
2.1.2 Monotheist Vedic Upanishads’ search for the Alternative
Supreme God – Neti-sm.
As the Vedic religion confronted the well developed IVCs worshipping
Lord Shiva as the Supreme God with implicit philosophies, Vedic philosophers decided
to have a Supreme God and started debates on the search of supreme God in
Upanishads. They named their Supreme God as “Brahman”, to retain their identity
distinct from the IVCs. The Upanishads contain a lot of debates on ‘What is
Brahman?”. The early answers were ‘Surya is Brahman’, ‘Sky is Brahman’ etc. In
Upanishads, we witness many attempts to define an abstract formless one as ‘Brahman’.
At the end of such attempts, the final answer to ‘What is Brahman?’ happens to
be ‘Neti Neti’.
The Sanskrit expression 'neti, neti'
means "not this, not this", or "neither this, nor that"
(neti is the join from na-iti "not so"). Neti-sm tries to define the
nature of 'Brahman' by first understanding what is 'not Brahman'. Neti-sm is
the method of Vedic analysis of negation and is a key tool of Vedic inquiry.
With the aid of ‘Neti-sm, the Upanishad Gnanis negate ‘all identifiable things which
can be specified of’ in the universe from ‘Brahman’ to reach the
non-identifiable, formless supreme ‘Brahman’. Some instances, Neti-sm is also
explained in certain other words like ‘nirPrapanja’(not the universe), nirGuna,
nirVishesh etc. Through this process Neti-sm keeps on negating the world, mind
and all worldly experiences etc., till nothing remains but the ‘Self’. It tries
to visualize the ‘Absolute Brahman’ in a platform where no worldly qualities
are present; essentially, it seeks union with the 'Absolute Brahman' by denying
the existence of body, name, form, intellect, senses and all limiting adjuncts
and discovers what remains, the true "I" alone. Neti-sm is the tradition
of inquiry in Vedic Philosophy. The concept of supreme God ‘Brahman’ in Vedic
Tradition was necessitated due to the presence of Supreme God Shiva in IVCs.
Further, the Aryan ethnic groups felt the necessity of retaining
their ethnic identity by defining their supremacy, holiness, specialty and
existence at higher level with reference to the IVC ethnic groups. This was
kept in their mind while they created Upanishads around 700 BC. Perhaps, the
ethnic fear that existed within the Aryans that they should not get dissolved
among the natives could have made them to establish their identities as Holy
and their Supreme God ‘Brahman’ as the only permanent entity. ‘Brahman’ besides
defining itself, defined its opponents as plurals, lower, inferior and unholy.
The concept of ‘Supreme God’ was an important interfaith exchange that
happened from IVC to Vedic religion. The ‘Neti-sm’ of ‘Upanishads’ landed the
Vedic Philosophy to ‘monism’ and ‘monotheistic Advaitha Vedanta’ Philosophy.
2.2 Polytheist Iti-sm of IVC
While Neti-sm tried to find its supreme God beyond the world, beyond
the worldly concepts and beyond the worldly characteristics, the Iti-sm of IVC was
following an opposite stand to Neti-sm; 'Iti,
Iti' means ‘is here’, ‘can be this, can be this’, or ‘can be this, can be
that’. The philosophers in search of ‘The Supreme God’ and ‘The Truth’ find
them in this world, in this worldly materials and worldly characteristics
through ‘Iti-sm’. The famous Saiva Sidhthantha Philosopher Thayumaanavar says ‘பண்ணே னுனக்கான பூசையொரு
வடிவிலே பாவித் திறைஞ்ச ஆங்கே பார்க்கின்ற
மலரூடு நீயே யிருத்தி அப்பனிமலரெடுக்க மனமும் நண்ணேன்’ means “O God! To plug a flower to pray you is
not coming forth to mind as I see You in this flower too!” is an embodiment of
‘Iti-sm’. The nucleus of ‘Iti-sm’ is that God is omnipresent in every worldly being
and He lives within them; through the experiences of the worldly beings only
one could reach the Supreme God is the philosophy Iti-sm. Neti-sm disowns the
world and worldly beings to reach ‘Sanyas’.
Iti-sm says that the divine experience of each individual is a
partial realization of the Supreme God and hence it proposes to combine such
experiences to get a broader realization of the Supreme God. To emphasize this view, the story(purana) of unsuccessful
attempts of the Lords Bramma and Vishnu to reach the crown and feet of the
Supreme God Siva was created. If the experiences of the top two Lords on
the Supreme God is partial, no need to talk about the rest. To explain further
regarding the rest, a story of five blind men to figure out the Elephant
is in vogue in India. The philosophy of the story is that all human beings are
blind with respect to their knowledge on the Supreme God and hence their perceptions
are as partial as the experiences of the blind men who groped the elephant at
different parts of its body. Therefore, one needs to pool the experiences of
many saints to get a broader realistic vision of reality; Iti-sm speaks of pluralistic
inclusion and Pluralism is the central nerve of Iti-sm.
2.3 The Non-Vedic Polytheist Contemporaries of Upanishads on
Pluralism
The
Sankhya (सांख्य) is the oldest non-Vedic orthodox school of Indian dualistic
philosophy founded by the St.Kapila. It is directly
related to the Yoga school, and Tantric, Saktha and Saiva Siddhanta
schools and religions. The existence of God or supreme being is not in
Sankhya. The Sankhya philosophy
is, not only atheistic but also inimical to the Veda. The Advaita Vedanta
philosopher Adi Shankara considered Sankhya philosophy to be inconsistent with
the teachings in the Vedas, and considered the dualism in Samkhya to be
non-Vedic. He had not only criticized Sankhya, but also declared that Sankhya
is the first enemy of Vedanta.
Ironically
Vedic Hinduism claimed Vedic authority for Sankhya due to its popularity and
swallowed it into Vedanta School by creating 'Easwara Samkhya' and depicted
St.Kapila, the founder of Sankhya as one of the incarnations of lord Vishnu;
such attempts continued in Bhagavath Geeta too.
Sramaṇa (श्रमण) refers to non-Vedic Indian religious
movements around 700 BCs, a variety of heterodox religious traditions like Jainism,
Buddhism and Aajivika. The Sramaṇa movements in ancient India led to the development
of Yogic practices and the popular concept like Saṃsaara (the cycle
of birth and death) and moksha (liberation from that cycle). The
Śramaṇic traditions range from accepting or denying the concept of soul,
fatalism to free will, idealization of extreme asceticism to that of family
life, wearing dress to complete nudity in daily social life, strict ahimsa
(non-violence) and vegetarianism to permissibility of meat-eating.
The thinkers of Jainism and Buddhism belong to the
royal families of these ethnic groups. Jainism spoke of non-violence and
Pluralism (non-absolutism or anekantavada) and non-possessiveness
(aparigraha); when truths are of many kinds, the relationships between the
pluralistic entities need to be based on non-violence, tolerance, accommodative
to different viewpoints and most importantly, one point of view should not
overshadow the other view. The non-violence and pluralism of Jainism are
opposing the power, dominance, monism and monistic viewpoints; essentially
means that Jainism is opposed to the tenets of Vedic Tradition. Besides
Jainism, Samnkhya (700 BC) Yoga (800 BC) and Vaishesika (200 BC) were also
pluralistic in nature and were opposing the monistic Vedic tradition. Caarvaaka
also known as Lokāyata, is the ancient school of Indian materialism(atheism).
In the Tamil culture, the tenets
of worship of Supreme God along with the deities who carry out their assigned
duties of creation, preservation and dissolution and other secondary nature
were present much earlier to Vedic Period which are evident from the Tamil
classic Sangha literature (1600 BCE or earlier). The Tamil Sangha
literature reveals that the ancient Tamils had worshipped Lord Shiva as their
supreme God; whenever they mentioned of the Supreme God, they used the
alternate names of Lord Shiva, namely,பிறைமுடி(ChandraChud),
முக்கண்(ForeHead Eyed), கறைமிடறு(NeelKant), etc. ‘People of Sangha Era held Lord
Shiva as their Supreme God and other deities Mayon(Vishnu), Muruga(Subramanya),
Vendhan(Indra), Varunan(Varuna), KotRtRavai(Durga) according to the five types
of region (forest, hills, agrarian plains, sea coast and desert) they resided;
the supreme god has no beginning or end; The sangam literature further reveal
the concepts of Souls, Good and Bad Deeds(karma), fate, rebirth, salvation,
heaven and hell and the associated rules governing them. Pluralism was their
philosophy which is totally independent of Vedic tenets.
3. The Interfaith Exchanges among the Indian Religions
3.1 Interfaith Exchanges during BCE and Early CE
The mode of early Vedic Religion was chanting of hymns and
performance of sacrifices. Rig Vedic poets and priests were free lancers
doing physical work for their livelihood themselves besides chanting and
performing Yagnas and rituals similar to the priests of IVCs and pujaris of
folklore deities of present India. With the advent of Yajur Veda, the Vedic
religion was born with the first ever caste of full time professional priests free
from physical work; they earned their wealth from others for doing Yagnas on their behalf.
They defined the others to be at three lower social stages, Kshatriyas,
Vaishyas, and the working class Sudras.
They wrote the Veda to suit their interest to say that the universe,
human beings and other living beings were created from the Yagna when a Mahapurush
was sacrificed in the Yagna; from the forehead of the Mahapurush came the
Bramans and Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Sudras came from the shoulders, the thighs
and the foot respectively of the Mahapurush (PurushaSukta). They further
defined the duties of these four classes as Varna(Sanadana) Dharma. It is to be
noted that the Varna dharma was designed to be a religious, social and economic
formulation so as to keep all other than the Vedic Brahmins in their lower
strata forever. The Vedic Brahman priests performed the solemn rituals for the mighty
Kshatriya rulers and wealthy Vaishyas levying charges from them. Brahmans
conducted Yagnas on behalf of other People
for abundance of children, rain, cattle (wealth), long life and an afterlife in
the heavenly world of the ancestors.
Vedic Brahmins wanted to control the numerically larger IVC non-Aryans;
they understood that the ‘Supreme Brahman’ did not attract them and hence tried
to snub the Shiva worship as ‘Phallic symbol worshiping sudra religion’; that did
not prevent the majority non-Brahmins who continued to worship Shiva as the
supreme God, leaving a larger section of the society out of the ambits of
Brahman priests’ income generation zone.
This prompted the Vedic religion to adapt Siva, Vishnu and Shakthi
worships and their philosophies into its fold by baptizing them under the
banner ‘Saguna Brahmans’ (Gods with Gunas) and downgraded its Rig Vedic Gods; their
primary deity Indra was relegated to the background who was belittled and
cursed to have ‘thousand yoni female organs’ spread all over his body; and
most of the Rig Vedic deities except Agni lost their positions to
the Dravidian Gods; their Temple Agamas and rituals were Sanskritised;
Yagnas based rituals were injected into Agamas; Agamic temple priests were
taught to perform pujas in Sanskrit; Vedic priests kept their role specific to
performing pure Vedic Yagnas for the temple festivals and consecrations. While
doing all these interfaith exchanges, it retained the supreme God ‘Brahman’ as
‘Nirguna Brahman’ above all Gods with Gunas. Vedic Religion further accepted
temples as the prime seats of Gods so as to influence and control the native non-Aryan
majority population. These moves made the acceptance of Vedic rituals among
most of the non-Vedic Religions barring a few like Buddhism and Jainism. The
Varna dharma social strata evolved into several deep-rooted castes; the caste conflicts
among the non-Brahmins were damaging the Indian society; this was the negative
impact of Vedic religion with other religions in India.
In the last four centuries of BCE, the growing popularity of Sankhya,
Yoga, Buddhism and Jainism due to their ahimsa or non-violent stands on
shunning animal and human sacrifices of Vedic Yagnas to Gods, posed major
threats to the very existence of Vedic religion. Survival compulsions made the
Vedic religions to accept the ahimsa principle of Jainism. The rituals of Vedic
Yagnas were redefined; food grains and vegetables were listed as the new sacrificial
offerings to Gods in the Yagnas. Vedic priests converted themselves into
vegetarians and even prohibited Onions and Garlic to Vedic Brahmins. Non-Violence
and Vegetarianism were the two major interfaith exchanges between Vedic
Hinduism and Jainism/Buddhism. Buddhism spread fast to South India followed by
Jainism during the last two centuries of BCE and early two centuries of CE.
3.2
Interfaith Exchanges during 400 CE 1000 CE
400 CE and later in the Christian Era, bakthi movement gained momentum
among the commoners throughout India. New Religious Gurus with no Vedic
education emerged at different parts of India, reviving Pluralistic polytheistic
culture. Many religions emerged with their own forms of Supreme Gods in
different linguistic regions with distinct worship rituals and totems. They
rejected the Vedic monopoly; questioned Vedic Sanskrit leadership on the holy
aspect of Yagnas burning valuable food materials in Yagna fire. Tamil Saiva and
Saiva siddhanta start with the Nayanmaars, and Tamil Vaishnava start
with Alwars; Veerashaivam/Lingayatism of Karnataka starts with Basava
in 12th century; it rejected the authority of the Vedas and the caste
system. Sikhism is a non-Vedic monotheistic religion of the 15th century based
on the spiritual revelations of Guru Nanak (the first Guru) and the ten
successive Sikh gurus. Medieval India had Guru Ramanada, Guru Namadeva, Guru
Ravidas and Guru Chaitanya of Bengal Vaishnavism. The Hindu-Muslim interfaith exchanges
produced many Guru Babas who have sizeable number of followers in India.
Vedic Religion and all of the above Guru religions were opposed to
each other. Even the word ‘Guru’ was a foreign word to the Vedic religion.
‘Achaaryaa’ was the Vedic terminology for ‘Guru’. Guru
was a loanword to Vedic religion later on whose roots lie in the Tamil Language.
The Kanchi Sankarachaaryaa distinguishes the ‘Acharya as one who preaches Vedic
Dharmas and Vedas in Sanskrit to specific sects as per the established norms of
Sanadana dharma’; He says further that the Guru, is an enlightened person with the
‘blessings of God’, preaches spirituals in any language to any person for the
betterment of the souls. The ‘Gurukul’ method of teaching was the interfaith
exchange to Vedic tradition from the Guru Religious tradition.
Contrary to Vedic, the Guru Religious traditions evolved alternative
philosophies empathetic to Sudras involved in physical hard work. These
philosophies were helpful to the Sudras to get social recognition and to move
upwards in the social strata. Such philosophies which do not come under the
‘Vedic Subthapramaana’ (Vedic proof) are said to exist due to ‘the Bliss of God’.
To overcome the complexities in the cultural conventions and to simplify and
rationalize the blind beliefs that existed earlier, the new Gurus who appeared
in the society used ‘The Bliss of God’ to substantiate their revolutionary
cultural philosophies.
3.3 Sanskritization of Guru Religions and Traditions
The Guru Religions and Traditions that emerged in the local regions
and languages, mostly by Sudras, created their own Polytheistic, pluralistic Holy
Scriptures and Holy Texts. The Twelve Thirumurais and 14 Meikanta Sastras of
Saiva Siddhanta and 4000 Prabanthas of Tamil Vaishnava and in the north India,
Guru Grant Sahib of Sikh religion are some examples. The sudra followers of
such Guru religions, reached higher social status on a par with Brahmins; they
disowned the monopoly of Vedic culture, refused to accept the Vedic leaderships
and questioned the Holiness of Yagnas, its theory of creation of the Universe
from the Yagnas. The Panjaratra sect of Vaishnavism believed that the universe
was created in the five nights; many others believed that the Garpakgriha of
the temple was the source of world creation. They aimed to unite all under one
Baktha Caste by demolishing Varna dharma based social castes. The bakthi
movement saints Thirumoolar, Appar, Sambandhar, Manicka Vachakar, Nammazhvar, Ramanuja
belonging to the Saiva and Vaishnava Sects were preaching and following the ‘One
Baktha caste’ formulation. The Vaishnavite Nammazhvar even declared that
the food, water and chewing betal are all Lord Krishna and the Savaite Appar
went even further to declare that a third grade rotten beef eating leper would
be his God if He/She was a devotee of Lord Gangadhar(Shiva).
அங்கமெலாம் குறைந்தழுகு தொழுநோயராய்
ஆவுரித்துத் தின்றுழலும் புலையரேனும்
கங்கைவார் சடைக் கரந்தார்க் கன்பராகில்
அவர் கண்டீர் யாம் வணங்கும் கடவுளாரே - Appar
The Vedic Religion that debarred the Sudras from
studying Vedas lost the patronage of the Kings, wealthy traders and warriors
who had converted to Buddhism and Jainism. They witnessed Guru religious
movements with awe which were systematically bringing back the Kings and
warriors into their fold from Buddhism and Jainism; the clever Vedic priests
understood the danger of leaving the Guru religions grow independent of Vedic
rituals that would ultimately change the Varna dharma based strong caste system
leading to the loss of spiritual, economical and political powers they were
enjoying without doing any physical work for generations together.
The circumstantial compulsions made the Vedic religion to move
closer to these Guru religions highlighting to them the need to fight the
atheistic Buddhism and Jainism, their common ideological enemies; with many
compromises and adjustments, they accepted temple religions of sudra bakthi
movements and in turn injected Vedic religious rituals into temple worship
rituals. The sudra followers of early Guru
Religions were happy that the Vedic Brahmans had accepted them; however, the
tragedy was that implicitly they approved the monopoly of Vedic supremacy in
their philosophies without knowing neither Sanskrit nor Vedas; they adopted the
Vedic rituals in their religious life along with the social curse of Brahmanic untouchability
and caste-ism; the upper class sudras (caste Hindus) created several stages of lower caste sudras based on the
level of physical works they do; to cite an example, within the washermen caste,
those washing the clothes of upper sudra classes claimed superiority over the
washermen subcaste who wash the clothes of lower sudra classes. Castes, subcastes
within each caste and class differences were growing alarmingly to irrevocable dangerous
levels inflicting irreparable damage to Indian societies at large.
3.4 Interpolation of Bhagavad-Gita
Out of the six
recognized schools of thought in ancient India, four of them, namely, Sankhya Darshan (700 BC), Yoga (400 BC), Nyaya
(Buddha 500 BC), Vaisesika, were rational philosophies. Mimamsa and Vedanta
were introduced in Upanishads. Next is Charvaka's Materialism in 550 B.C. Between
5th century B.C. up to 8th century A.D., there was decline in Vedic Brahmanism;
Buddhism and Jainism ruled the roost during this period. Christianity came in
with St.Thomas in AD 52 and Islamic invasion took place around 6th century AD.
Vedic religion coexisted with all these powerful religions, and Brahmins lost
their position and power.
During this period, the original Gita was interpolated and
monotheistic concept was inserted into what is today known as Bhagavad-Gita to establish the historical legitimacy to monotheism.
For this purpose, chapters I and X to the Rig-Veda were added, the epics
Ramayana and Mahabharata were restructured by identifying Rama and Krishna with
The Supreme Being; several verses were added to Sankhya Karika to change the
concept of Purusha and Prakriti, more than 100 verses were added to the Yoga
Sutra of Patanjali to introduce the concept of Isvara (God) and to
interpret Yoga as union with God. The original Gita had only 84 verses and the
basic concept was based on Sankya philosophy. The Bhagavad-Gita now has
700 verses and that will mean that 616 verses were interpolated. The
interpolated Bhagavad-Gita and other scriptures were corrupted between 800
and 1000 A.D. Research work concerning the interpolation of Gita was done
by German scholars such as Richard Garbe, Rudolf Otto, JW Hauer, and others and
their findings were later confirmed when copies of the original Gita was
discovered in Bali, Indonesia and another one in Farukkabad. Both these
versions had 84 verses only. Phulgenda Sinha argues in his book "The Gita
as it was" that only the first three chapters of Gita are authentic, and
the rest are interpolated around the year 800 BCE. He says that the Gita was
written by Vyasa, under the influence of Kapilas sankya philosophy and
Patanjalis yoga sutras. After Vyasa’s first three chapters, the Gita seems
to have been interpolated by two entirely different authors, one of them monist
and the other theist.
Only a Smartha (or follower of the Advaita philosophy), would have
no problem worshiping every imaginable deity with equal veneration; he views
these different deities as being manifestations of the same God. You don’t need
to call it God, because that is the only reality. Everything else is an
illusion or dream of that conscious being. In the twentieth century, Hindu
religion, in the west, was identified with the Smartha. Other Hindu sects, such
as Vaishnavism and Shaivism conform more closely to a Western understanding of
what a monotheistic faith is. Vaishnavites consider Vishnu as being the one and
only true God; but there is a blurring of the oneness with the concept of
avatars – the incarnations.
According to Vaishnava doctrine, there are two types of avatars –
Svarupavatars (Purna avatars of Full Form of Vishnu) and Amsa Rupa avatars
(avatars of partial form). In the full avatars, the godhead himself incarnates
while in the partial avatars only certain powers are manifested through certain
creatures and persons.
"O brahmanas, the incarnations of the Lord are innumerable,
like rivulets flowing from inexhaustible sources of water." - Srimad
Bhagavatam 1.3.26.
Dasavatara as given in Garuda Purana lists Lord Buddha as the 9th
avatar of Vishnu.
Theologically within Vaishnavism the many avatars have been
categorised into a number of different types depending on their specific
personality and role as described in scripture. Not all are recognized as
'full' or 'direct' incarnations of Vishnu. Some avatars are believed to be souls
blessed with certain abilities of 'divine origin', although being a Jeeva
themselves. Bhagavata purana lists over 22 such avatars. It is still considered monotheistic since if
you worship the partial incarnation, you are worshipping the Fullness. After
all, you can worship a part and still be worshipping the full.
A more realistic monotheism very similar to Christianity is found in
Saivism. Siva has no incarnation. Saivites believe God transcends form, and
devotees often worship Siva in the form of a lingam (Formless Form),
symbolizing all universe. Later other progenies of Siva were added which
includes Mani and Ayyappa. Because of this exclusivism, Saivites and
Vaishanavites were constantly at war with each other.
Great number of temples in south India were built during the
thousand years between 600 and 1600 A.D. Buddhism had great influence in the
down south, especially part of the present Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Saivism
(Shiva Siddhanta) was more popular in the Dravidian South while Vaishnavism was
more popular in the Aryan North. There are historical evidence for intense
rivalry between the Saivites and the Vaishnavites. It is viewed that the
dramatization of Sabarimala Ayyappa is a compromise between Buddha, Siva and
Vishnu worshippers. The name, Dharma Shastha and the prayer song "Swamiye
Saranam" are strong indications of the influence of Buddhism. The Vratham,
Pilgrimage and associated rituals point to the influence of Advaita and Dwaita
sects.
3.5 Interfaith Exchanges of Vedic Religion and Guru Religions in
Tamilnadu: Case Study - Saiva Sidhdhanta
and Tamil Vaishnava
In Tamilnadu, Bakthi movement of Saiva Sidhdhanta started during third
century to counter the other two dominant atheist pluralistic Guru religions
Jainism and Buddhism which came into existence since 200 BCE and were popular
till 500 CE. Karaikkal Ammaiyar and Thirumoolar were the two early Saivite
Saints who accepted Vedas in general while sticking on to the Agamas (temple
worships) in particular with the four tiered passage to salvation (sariya,
kriya, yoga, gnana). Thirumoolar’s thirumanthiram was the first formal work on
Saiva Sidhdhanta philosophy. Thirumandiram, while rejecting the meaning of
Vedic Yagnas, Vedic rituals and Vedic Puranas as defined by Vedas, defines novel
interpretations for the same in terms of Yoga and Saiva Sidhdhanta
philosophies; such interpretations are not only revolutionary and rational, but
also gave humane values to the hitherto irrational, inhuman, unpopular Vedic
Yagnas and Puranas. For instance, in contrary to the four tiered
Varnas(Brahmans, Kshaktriyas, Vysys, Sudras) based Manu Dharma, which prohibits
Sudras from studying Vedas, St.Thirumoolar democratizes and confers the eternal
happiness to everyone and declares that the bliss of Veda Mantras are not
hidden in sky but intrinsically woven with everybody; on meticulous meditative
inward journey and introspection, eternal bliss and salvation are well within
the reach of everyone.
85. யான்பெற்ற இன்பம் பெறுக இவ்வையகம்
வான்பற்றி நின்ற மறைப்பொருள் சொல்லிடின்
ஊன்பற்றி நின்ற உணர்வுறு மந்திரம்
தான்பற்றப் பற்ற தலைப்படும் தானே.
85: Bliss To Humanity
Let all the world may attain the
Eternal Bliss and Happiness I have;
May I say on Who hold firm to the Heavenly secret
Whose hymns that thrills and swells the flesh and heart on chant,
They, sure, will all be yours on firm following.
Thirumoolar dismisses Varna based casteism; He
declares all human beings belong to One Race called Human Race and The God is
One; he assures that no one needs to travel elsewhere for salvation but can
attain the salvation through consistent meditation on God through one’s mind.
2104. ஒன்றே குலமும் ஒருவனே தேவனும்
நன்றே நினைமின் நமனில்லை நாணாமே
சென்றே புகுங்கதி இல்லை நும் சித்தத்து
நின்றே நிலைபெற நீர் நினைந்து உய்மினே.
2104.One the family, One the God; Thus intense hold,
No more will death be; None Other is Refuge, With
confidence you can seek; Think of Him and be redeemed,
In your thoughts, holding Him steadfast.
Periyaazhvaar of Tamil Vaishnava tradition addresses all devotees of
Lord Naaraayanaa(Vishnu) irrespective of their Varna based caste as “one Vishnu
Bakth Race” (“தொண்டர் குலத்தில் உள்ளீர்”) “பண்டைக்குல வேறுபாடுகளைத் தவிர்த்துப் பல்லாண்டு பாட வாருங்கள்” – He invites
all human beings to come together as one family forgetting their earlier castes
to praise the Lord.
These saints declare that all those devotees of God belong to one
family. Thirumoolar goes still broad based to include all living beings,
irrespective of theist or atheist beliefs, irrespective of their race, religion
and language, all in to One Family and One God. He further declares
that Love is Lord Siva and Lord Siva is Love; they are one and the same.
Further, Thirumoolar vouched that all can do some charity with prayer to God
irrespective of their financial position by stating that just any green leaf
offering suffices God, a handful of grass be the charity to a Cow, a handful of
food be the charity to the needy, a couple of soothing words be the charity to
everyone.
270.அன்பும் சிவமும் இரண்டு என்பார் அறிவிலார்
அன்பே சிவமாவது ஆரும் அறிகிலார்
அன்பே சிவமாவது ஆரும் அறிந்தபின்
அன்பே சிவமாக அமர்ந்திருந்தாரே.
270: Love and Siva are One
The ignorant prate that Love and Siva are two,
But none do know that Love alone is Siva
When known that Love and Siva are the same,
Love as Siva, they ever remained.
252:யாவர்க்குமாம் இறைவற்கு ஒரு பச்சிலை
யாவர்க்குமாம் பசுவுக்கு ஒரு வாயுறை
யாவர்க்குமாம் உண்ணும்போது ஒரு கைப்பிடி
யாவர்க்குமாம் பிறர்க்கு இன்னுரை தானே.
252: Charity is Within Reach of All
Easy to all to offer in worship a green leaf to the Lord,
Easy to all to give a mouthful grass to the cow,
Easy to all to give a handful food, sitting down to eat,
Easy to all, good, kind words on others to bestow.
Thirumoolar, besides being a complete Siva Yoga Guru, explains his Yoga system step by step in Thirumanthiram,
first introduces Ashtanya Yoga (same
as that of Patanjali's) and susequently adds details of the
celestial powers, centres of consciousness, the divine force and the consummate
mystic experience. Thirumanthiram is a compendium of the philosophy, the theory
and the practice of Siva Yoga.
It is pertinent to note that Adi Sankara, one of the commentators of
Vedanta belittled the Agamas as low grade tantric practices; he held that the Gnana
kanda of Agamas is nowhere comparable with Vedanta Gnana.
The general acceptance of Vedic supremacy with interpreting
and redefining the meaning of Vedas and Puranas from Saiva Siddhanta’s point of
view while dismissing the inhuman Varna dharma, bakthi movement initiated by
Thirumoolar, Karaikal Ammaiyar, Appar, Sambandar et.al, gained ground among the
masses which decimated the presence of Buddhism and Jainism from Tamilnadu; the
same trend continued till the beginning of 14th Century; the mass
followers of Saiva Siddhanta, the hitherto 4th Varna caste Sudras of
Vedic Manu Dharma(Vellalas and allied groups), gained social, political and
economic powers on a par with Brahmans. Their social status and political power
corrupted their mind; they used the Manu dharma caste discriminations against
other sudra caste people; they claimed that the Meikanda Sastras(the 14 Canons
of Saiva Siddhanta Philosophy) were the Philosophical extracts of Thirumurais (the
12 Bakthi Canons of Saivism), the vocabulary of Meikanda Sastras were mostly
derived from the Vedic Sanskrit, just the opposite of the popular chaste Tamil
based Thirumurais;
The 14
Meikanda Saiva Sidhdhanta sastras were devised more to conceal the Saiva
Siddhanta philosophy than to reveal; only learned Pandits could understand and
explain them as the Manipravala style(a mix of Tamil and Sanskrit) was
incomprehensible to the majority Sudras who knew only Tamil. This way,
neo-braminic castes were developed; these people kept the Saiva siddhanta
Meikanda Sastras out of reach for the other socially, economically and
politically weaker Sudras and even prohibited them from Temple entry and
practiced untouchability too with them.
The same
fate was meted out to the Tamil Vaishnava Bakthi movement; the upper caste
Vaishnavites, mostly Brahmins, wrote commentaries for the chaste Tamil written
4000 Divya Prapandhas in Sanskrit-zed Manipravala syle while reciting the 4000
Divya Prapandhas in Sanskrit accent and style in Temple rituals; these
activities alienated the masses from the Vaishnava traditions.
The scheming
Saiva Siddhantis scored a point above the Vaishnavaites by reciting the
Thirumurais in Chaste Tamil Accent through a dedicated Oduvar community during
Temple rituals; this retained many other sudras with saivism. While fighting
the Brahmins supremacy with the support of other sudras on one side, they
carefully nurtured Brahminic Varna approach innocuously with the other sudras.
They
carefully avoided Thirumandhiram, the first Saiva Siddhanta philosophy work in
chaste Tamil, as it strongly preached equality of all human beings, fought
against untouchability and democratized temple institution in favour of the downtrodden;
this was the reason for the naming of this 4th Century work as 10th
Thitumurai after the 5th -9th Century Thevaram and
Thiruvasagam etc. as 1-9 Thirumurais. Thirumandhiram is neither recited in
Temple rituals nor discussed as Saiva Siddhanta Canon, though it finds a place
in 12 Thirumurais.
The birth of
Meikanda Saiva siddhanta Mutts were seen encouraging importing Sanskrit rituals
into saivism. Even the most simple erstwhile Siva Dhiksha of initiating people
in to Saivism by just administering the holy ash ‘Thiruneeru’ on the forehead
of a devotee by the Guru was made into an expensive Vedic ritual driving the
poor away from Saivism.
This way,
the social alienation of lower ranked Sudras nurtured by the Smartha Vedic
Brahmins, upper sudra caste Tamil Saiva Siddhantis and Tamil Vaishnavites
provided a fertile ground for later religious conversions into Islam and
Christianity in Tamilnadu.
3.6 Interfaith Exchanges between Hinduism and Islam Religions: Case
Study – Tamilnadu
With respect to those people converted to Islam between 11th
and 17th centuries, a lot of lower strata people moved upwards both
socially and economically. Since Islam dismisses caste discrimination, those
converted to Islam faith from different castes did not explicitly declared
their castes after conversion; however, they remained distinct groups within
Islam religion without mingling among the caste groups for marital purpose.
Hence, caste remained a silent factor among Indian Muslims; however, lower
caste Muslims were not prevented from entering into Mosques of upper caste
Muslims. The philosophy exchanges of composite Hinduism with Islam have led to
the Sufi movement - Baba saints followings - by a sizable section of the
society. The converted Muslims of lower sudra castes were able to move upwards
socially and economically. The composite Hindu-Muslim saints of Baba Movement
have large followings in India.
3.7 Interfaith Exchanges between Hinduism and Christian Religions:
Case Study – Tamilnadu
With respect to those people converted to Christianity during, before
and after colonial era, a lot of lower strata people moved upwards both
socially and economically. Christian mercenaries imparted education and health
care to the under privileged needy people irrespective of their religion. This
gesture made the Hindu Missionaries serve the people in the health care and
education areas who were earlier confined to religious activities. Many
Christian Reverent priests took pains to learn and master the Indian languages
and contributed immensely to the growth of the Indian languages, wrote
commentaries to the Indian religious Canons; notable among them are
Rev.Fr.G.U.Pope who wrote the first ever commentary for the Tamil Saivaite
eighth Canon Thiruvaasagam in 1900; His work not only popularized Thiruvaasagam
but also took the greatness of Thiruvaasagam world over. Rev.Fr.Robert Caldwell’s
work on Comparative Grammar established the supremacy of Tamil language as a
classical language among the Dravidian languages. The involvement of saivaite
scholars like Jaffna Arumuga Navalar in the Translation work of Early Tamil
Bible saw the inclusion of many saiva siddhanta vocabulary and culture in to
Christianity. Catholic Missionaries assimilated the Hindu culture and religious
rituals with the Catholic churches changing just the Hindu deities with Jesus
Christ; temple Car festivals became part of Catholic rituals with the customary
temple flag hoisting for the church annual events. However, Christianity
allowed the upper caste converts to retain their caste identity intact even
after becoming Christians, hoping that such conversions would attract lower
caste Hindus to Christianity. This was a fatal mistake committed by the
Christian ideologues. In India, Christians remain divided along caste lines by
creating separate Churches for each caste and ethnic groups irrespective of the
geographical areas within India. Dalit Christians remained dalits and
untouchables even after their becoming Christians. Further, they have also lost
their social reservation benefits they were enjoying as Hindu Dalits.
Rev.Fr.Rhenius who contributed immensely to the downtrodden people and the
Tamil language was expelled from the church he founded for being firm on the
view that all are equals before Lord Jesus and implementing common kitchen and common
dining hall to all Christian inmates including the lower sudra caste Nadars and
SC/ST students along with the upper sudra sect Vellalas and Brahmin Christians;
Rev.Fr.Rhenius did not lose heart and continued his services for the lower
strata people he loved; CSI church did not permit Rev.Fr.Rhenius’s body in to
Church; The cemeteries of Rev.Fr.Rhenius, his wife and Son on the public road of
busy Christian city of Palayamkottai in Tirunelveli district stand a testimony to
the percolation of cancerous Vedic Hindu casteism into Christianity; this is a
wrong side of Interfaith exchange Christianity had with the Varna based Manu
Dharma; Christianity in India has become yet another Indian religion drowned in
the casteism of Vedic Varna system.
4. Concluding Remarks
Hinduism is a composition of many Indian religions which emerged
from the Vedic and Indus Valley cultures; however, during and after India’s
Independence movement times, the monistic Vedic Advaita religion was projected
as the face and core of Hinduism by renounced Scholars like Dr.Radhakrishnan
and Swamy Vivekananda; it is pertinent to note that Vedanata as projected today
has only about 30% of its original philosophy it inherited from the early Rig
Veda; rest of the 70% philosophy, rituals and culture were borrowed from IVC
and other earlier, contemporary and later Guru religions and philosophies like
Samkya, Yoga, Buddism, Jainism, Saiva Siddhanta, Siddha, Sufi and Baba cults which
evolved in this sub-continent independent of Vedic ideologies; instead of
acknowledging and crediting their due, Vedic tradition assimilated them like
the puranic Asuras as if they were part of them by sanskritizing and projecting
such Gurus as the incarnation of Vishnu etc. For instance, Adi Sankara honestly
declared the Sankya philosophy as the ‘Primary Enemy’ of Advaita Vedanta;
however, later Vedantis sanctified the Sankya Guru Kapila as one of the
incarnation of Lord Vishnu and modified Sankya with the concept of Eswar and
claimed Vedic sanctity to the Sankya philosophy; a similar treatment was meted
out to Yoga Philosophy and Buddism(Mahayana, by removing Balaram and inserting
Lord Buddha in the Dasavadhar of Lord Vishnu). Such attempts are seen
throughout the passage of Vedic tradition till date. This is nothing but robing
the face of every other Indian religion with the mask of Vedic face; an
intellectual impropriety and lack of integrity in granting due credits to them.
Samsara(cycle of birth and death), non-violence and vegetarianism were
innocuously copied from Jainism while claiming Vedic legacy for the same is the
Vedic culture.
A sincere effort has been taken in this paper to expose this
misconception and to present Hinduism in its true pluralistic polytheist character,
by exposing the designs of monistic Vedanta Advaita. It is pertinent to note
that early Rig Vedic Brahmins were doing physical work to earn their livelihood.
The lust for wealth, power and political control without doing physical work propelled
them to device Varna based Manu Dharma system to maintain the four-staged caste
system based on birth, relieving Brahmins from physical work forever and
putting them on the top and pushing all physical works to Sudras and grounding
them permanently in the name of Sanadhana Dharma and Religion. This move brought
them abundant wealth for performing the Yagnas for others. The concept of never
changing Supreme ‘Brahman’ and ‘Internal Marriage based Varna Caste System’
were created to safeguard their ‘Ethnic Sanctity’. This ethnic fear made them
insist the same for the three Kshatriya, Vysya and Sudra castes; this system
grew cancerously as several thousands of castes within every Varna, becoming a
permanent curse for the Indian society. To the external world, they have
created the impression that Hinduism is synonymous with Vedic Religion and
maintained it consistently by compromising with every popular independent religion
even to the extent of sacrificing their traditional deities like Indra, Mitra
etc. to the non-Brahminic Gods Siva and Vishnu (Rama, Krishna etc). It is worth
remembering that the very concept of ‘Supreme Nirguna Brahman’ was borrowed
from IVC God Siva. Maya, Karma theory on Births and Deaths (Samsara), Malas or
‘Impurities’ naturally associated with the ‘Souls’, theory of Creation and
Salvation of Souls from ‘Samsara’ were all ‘Non-Vedic Concepts’; only at later
stages, they were assimilated into Vedic System.
Vedic Brahmins’ acceptance and interfaith exchanges with the Guru
Religions of IVC tradition were done only to keep the non-Brahmins well under
their spiritual and political control. Varna System of caste-ism worked simultaneously
as the economic, the cultural and the spiritual frameworks. Therefore, it
planted and percolated in to every influential religion that emerged in India
at different points of times throughout the history of India. All revolutionary
popular religions which emerged in the Indian subcontinent opposing the evils of
Vedic religion accepted the Vedic supremacy happily the moment Vedic religion
recognized them, their philosophies and religions; in return, Vedic Brahmins
intruded and sanskritized their Agamic religious rituals to sanctify their
temple consecrations and translated their prayers, archanas and pujas in
Sanskrit; Vedic Brahmins also trained the non-Brahmanic sudra priests in such
rituals; these Sanskrit trained sudra-priests (Sivacharyaas and Bhattacharyaas)
later called themselves ‘Brahmins’ and followed Vedic Agamic rituals faithfully;
however, Vedic Brahmins (now called Smartha Brahmins) did not get into marital
alliances with the Sivachaaryaas and Bhattachaaryaas.
Through these efforts and compromises, Vedic System kept all
non-Brahmins and their spiritual institutions under its control; like the
tentacles of an octopus, Vedic Varna system intruded in to each and every
religious system that emerged in India. All Bakthi movement religions come
under this category. The rituals of Shridi Sai baba and Puttaparthi Sai Baba cults
were very quickly Sanskritized by the Vedic Brahmins though they have nothing
in common with Vedas.
During Indian Independence movement times Vedic Religion propagated
Advaitha Vedhantha as a unifying philosophy by stating that ‘Advaitha
philosophy’ considers all as equals. This way, Advaita Vedanta was shown as the
face of the emerging Hinduism and its philosophy by the powerful Vedantis and
the upper caste sudra neo-Vedantis, concealing several prominent religions and
philosophies that existed in India. Tamil
Saiva Siddhanta Saivaites and Kannada Veera Saivaites fiercely opposed such
moves; they declined to call themselves as Hindus to Swamy Vivekanada when he
visited South India. However, their protesting voices were washed away in the
nationalist movement as they wrote their views in the local languages.
The two prominent Islam and Christian religions were free from Vedic
impacts; however, the Indians who embraced Islam and Christianity did not shed
their caste-ism; In Islam, caste-ism was not exhibited explicitly, but was
silently practiced at the marital levels. Islam did not spread much in
Independent India due to the absence of influential knowledgeable popular
Islamic scholars who could preach and convert the down trodden out-castes who
are denied even the right to worship in the Temples controlled by caste Hindus,
the erstwhile upper caste sudras. Caste-ism was blatantly open among Indian
Christians; they practiced caste-ism not only at the marital level, but also
used it at all levels of their social movements within the Churches. CSI and Catholic Churches in many places in
South India are plagued with rotten caste-ism.
There are several notable, knowledgeable, well trained Christian
Scholars available in India who can spread Christianity to the downtrodden
out-caste sudras through their powerful speeches. However, they too are always
known by their castes first rather than for their Christian scholarships and
Christian values; this make them ineffective in their mission of carrying the
message of Jesus. This would explain the lower percentage of Christian
population in India. Most of the Church groups in India do not want to enroll outsiders
in their Churches; rather they encourage the creation of new churches for the
new converts. This approach makes Christianity into yet another one among the
several religions in India.
In order to contribute meaningfully to the cause of building life
affirming communities based on interfaith engagements, one needs to re-visit
the cultural history, religious practices and philosophies of the Indian
sub-continent with an interpretative mode of studies of early India and figure
out the lessons learnt from them with concrete action plans to weed out the
roots of damaging factors, particularly, the caste-ism, the India specific root
cause of all our sufferings. We need to study and interpret the cultural, religious
and philosophical legacies of this subcontinent through interrogation and
interpretation of the past by integrating the study of ancient cultural and
philosophical histories with sociology, social and cultural anthropology,
geography and political science. Instead of just glorifying our rich cultural
and philosophical past, we need to resort to introspective readings of the past
action plans so that the results would be the solutions of several social evils
we face. Only then life affirming interfaith engagements would yield the
anticipated results.
References
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2. AL Basham (1951), “History and Doctrines of the Ajivikas - a
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3. James G. Lochtefeld (2002). “The Illustrated Encyclopedia of
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same ascetic circles as the early Sramana movements (Buddhists, Jainas and
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5. Flood, Gavin. Olivelle, Patrick., “The Blackwell Companion to
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273-4, 2003.
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