VarNa - Is it by birth ?

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SrI:

SrImathE Gopaladesika mahadesikaya namah:

Dearest srivaishnavas,

Given below is a post from Sri Anand Karalapakkam Swamin on the subject

Regards

Namo Narayana

aDiyEn

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SrI:

SrImatE rAmAnujAya namaH

 

namO nArAyaNa!

 

Dear devotees,

 

There was a query on this issue - Whether varNa (caste) is

by birth. Already some articles have been posted on this.

The appended response to the devotee has new contents.

 

aDiyEn rAmAnuja dAsan,

anantapadmanAbhan alias Anand.

 

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In any SmRti (dharma SAstra work) by Rishis, the

fundamental point of acceptance is that, varNa is based upon

birth. It then prescribes the varNa dharmas in detail.

There is no controversy as far as the traditional Vedantic System

of thoughts like ViSishTAdvaita, Dwaita and advaita are concerned

in this fundamental issue.

 

Refer Purusha-SUkta wherein all the varNas are said to be

created by Lord Himself. To begin with, these four varNas

will be there for sure. The SmRtis take much pains to explain

various names of castes arising from the cross-marriages between

these varNas to even two or three generations and prescribe the

varNa dharmas for such castes too. This will be treated in

SmRtis- Refer Manu, YAjn~avalkya, Aapasthamba etc.

 

In dharmaSAstra works, which is basically a synthesis of

principles from various SmRtis, this issue will also be discussed.

You can refer such books also.

 

PUrva-MImAmsa deals with the varNa issue to a good extent.

They (Sage Jaimini and other commentators etc) have analysed

various texts of VEdas related to varNa very well and have

thoroughly discussed these things.

 

I will just give one example for now on how this fundamental issue

of varNa being based on birth is freely used in PUrva-mImAmsa :

 

Lets take the rathakAra-adhikaraNam of pUrva-mImAmsa SUtras

of Jaimini (6.1.12) :

 

a. Background Details you may need on who is "rathakAra"

(Refer any SmRti text) :

 

The caste of the offspring born to a Kshatriya Male and

VaiSya Women is "MAhiSyan".

 

The caste of the offspring born to a VaiSya Male and

SUdra Women is "KaraNi".

 

The caste of the offspring born to a MAhiSyan Male and

KaraNi Women is "rathakAra".

 

b. This adhikaraNam discusses a text in Vedas which prescribes

agni aadAnam for rathakAra (if I remember it right). Who is the

rathakAra mentioned here ?

 

Objection : Since the varNa of rathakAra is based on so many

cross-marriages including SUdra, the Vedas wouldn't have

prescribed the agni aadAnam for rathakAra varNa men, which

it prescribes for the likes of BrAmhaNa varNa. Hence, we

should not take the rUDi meaning (conventional meaning in usage)

of the rathakAra, which denotes the name of the varNa; Instead,

the yOga meaning (etymologically derived one) should be used.

rathakAraH can be derived as "ratham karOti iti rathakAraH"

ie. One within the BrAmhaNa etc three varNas, but who is

capable <has the skill> of building a ratha ie.chariot is only

referred.

 

Reply : rUDi meaning is more powerful than the

yoga meaning. Hence, we need to understand the text

only in its rUDi sense and rathakAra caste (varNa)

men should follow that injunction.

 

This will be referred to us "rathakAra-adhikaraNa nyAya" in

various works of VEdAnta as well.

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We need not even go so deep. We can just understand these things

from various episodes in IthihAsa-PurANas itself.

 

King Janaka was a great bramha-jn~Anin and was highly

sAtvik {Ref RAmAyaNa ; Or the King Janaka referred in

Upanishads as disciple of YAjn~avalkya; Or in Gita}. He didn't

perform the duties of a brAmhaNa; Instead, he performed

the activities as befitting a King, since he was a Kshatriya {ie.

by

birth}. His varNa didn't change just because he was a very

great bhakta. For that matter, devotees of the order of Arjuna,

who is a master of his senses was only advised/instructed by

Lord KrishNa to perform duties befitting to his varNa ie. fighting

a dharma-yuddha {but with the spirit of sAtvIka-tyAgam with

aatma dhyAnam,bhagavad sEshatvam etc}. The devotees like

Arjuna were never instructed to behave as brAmhaNas after

observing very good sAtvik qualities in them.