Guest guest Posted June 27, 2002 Report Share Posted June 27, 2002 Usually, the "Aryans" are supposed to have created caste system in India. The Tamil contribution is significant in ancient times as well. This has been analyzed by prof. George Hart (UC, Berkeley) after his decades-long study of the sangam texts dating to early centuries CE: Early Evidence for Caste in South India, p. 467-492 in Dimensions of Social Life: Essays in honor of David G. Mandelbaum, Edited by Paul Hockings Mouton de Gruyter, Berlin, New York, Amsterdam, 1987. In the PDF form, the paper is in the net: http://tamil.berkeley.edu/Research/Articles/Caste2.pdf Regards, N. Ganesan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted June 30, 2002 Report Share Posted June 30, 2002 INDOLOGY, Chris Beetle <bvi@a...> wrote: > Of course, in Bhagavad-gita (4.13), Krishna claims to have created the system > of varnas (social divisions) based on guna (quality) and karma (work). > In the course of time this idea degenerated in the idea of castes based on > birth. The Bhagavadgita is not mentioned in ancient sangam Tamil texts. And, as you can see from prof. Hart's article, has little to do with Tamil caste system. In fact, there is little or no information about BhG in the AzvArs themselves. On the modern rise of popularity, Lakshmi Srinivas' note is pertinent: agathiyar/message/15673 Indira Vishvanathan Peterson, Prof. of Sanskrit, The Norton Anthology, World Masterpieces, p. 958, 1995: "There is reason to believe that the Gita, originally an independent philosophical dialogue similar to earlier and contemporary texts such as the Upanishads and the Buddhist scriptures, was deliberately placed in the popular MBh. epic.., This new configuration of elements fortified a view that was at once revolutionary for its time (ca. first century AD) and designed to preserve the Hindu social hierarchy. By the end of the first century BC, the Buddhist and Jain religions had gained a considerable following among the Indian masses and among kings and merchants as well. Focusing on the problem of karma - the belief that all actions involve inevitable consequences that must be suffered thru' many lives- Buddhism in particular offered people from all walks of life a religious path on which ethical action could be combined with contemplative spiritual practices, eventually leading to liberation from the burden of karma.In the Hindu social order, on the other hand, rigid and hierarchical correlations between birth and occupation locked people into existential situations that held no such prospect of ultimate freedom. .. The Gita appears to have been the response of brahman thinkers who stood to lose the most from the potential disintegration of the Hindu social system. Thru' Krishna's teachings, the anonymous author of the Gita articulates a new doctrine that will justify the hierarchies of class and social duty (he uses the word lokasaMgraha, social solidarity) at the same time that it offers universal access to the ultimate goal of emancipation. .. The text synthesizes the contemplative vision of the Buddhists and the sages of the Upanishads..." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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