Destiny of Choice 004

Destiny of Social Divisions


G: This is not clear. Hindus have caste system. It is something bad and adopted by Hindus out of their own choice. How does destiny Principle come here?

S: It is only because of the operation of destiny principle that the caste system evolved. Whether it is bad or good is a separate issue and does not any way stop caste system to evolve. Caste grouping tendency is the natural property of human beings as imparted by the destiny principle.

G: Please explain.

S: Fine. Let us explore caste tendencies in a bit detail. In West Bengal, as in other provinces of India, many Hindus classify themselves into different castes. The four castes / barnas (Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Sudra) defined a social system based on occupational structure and might have emerged in ancient Hindu India. It might have been long time back when societies consisted of small population to classify people in different families into the four castes based on the basis of the occupation of the families. Over a few decades or centuries, this caste system could have become rigid and reached a point of breakdown due to natural forces. For some time, a society could have limited the choice of individuals to vocations/ professions to that of the caste of the family to which the individual was linked by birth.
G; But such a system cannot continue for long.

S: You are right. The system did not last long. Surely, such an occupation-based system must have faced problems, as new generations might not have liked to stick to their ancestral occupations, as new occupations emerged and old occupations became irrelevant to the society. The economics of different occupations changed. People migrated from one place to another and got involved into inter-caste marriages. It could have been difficult for any caste, particularly the Sudras, to shift to other occupation classes unless they migrated to newer places. It could have been possible for some persons / families to migrate to less inhabited regions and claim their origin to different occupation-based castes. After all, until very recent period, family tree records were not maintained and available for public scrutiny.

G: So these are independent choices made by people to shift occupations. There is no destined choice here.

S: Exactly the opposite. The decisions to choose new occupations were not independent decisions but were forced by changing environment circumstances and natural human tendency to uplift itself from onerous bondages of the past.

G: But all people did not change. The Brahmins might have resisted the change.

S: Yes. For most Brahmins, the bondage to the past social structure was not onerous. So they would have not let go the advantages of such a system.

In the beginning, the Brahmins might not have helped Sudras or Kshatriyas or Baishyas to acquire from them the knowledge necessary to enter the vocations of the Brahmins. But, some Brahmins might as well have agreed to partly share their knowledge with the Ksatriyas fearing that the Kings might kill them if they declined to share knowledge. Again, wealthy Baishyas could have used their money power to buy knowledge from the poor Brahmins and buy part of kingdoms from weak kings.

G: But how does destiny come here?

S: The changes in external environment did not come about because of independent choice by the society but resulted from the aggregation of individual choices forced by the natural law of human beings to explore, discover and improve their lot. Economics of the professions might have changed over time depending on the laws of demand for and supply of services / products, inducing individuals and families to change professions / occupations. It would be too simplistic to suggest that markets for demand and services are of a recent origin. The ancient (Hindu) civilization in Bharat could not have prospered unless markets existed. Exchange of labour/ service/ commodities is a very ancient phenomenon. Modern competitive markets with paper money as medium of exchange are of recent origin; exchange is an essential ingredient of ancient civilizations. With the growth of population, migration from one land to another and emergence of new occupations, further divisions in the form of sub-castes or gotras arose.

G: But the old castes, subcastes and gotras are no longer socially relevant. Yet many Hindus identify themselves as belonging to particular caste/sub-caste/gotra classification based on their birth.

S: Yes, they do. That is also part of the Destiny process. People like to have a lineage identity. But the caste based on birth would have lost meaning once a person had shifted from a family’s occupation to a different occupation. Shifts in occupation might have caused problems of identification of family trees/ loyalties and purity of castes (problems of the same nature that is caused in the modern world due to inter-religion/ inter-racial marriages and immigration from one nation state to another). Shifts are only natural. Hindu Gods in their incarnations were reportedly born in/ raised by families of different castes: Ram belonged to Kshatriyas, Krishna to Kshatriyas/ Sudras, Gautama Buddha to Kshastriyas, and so on. Many kings in Hindu mythology were Brahmins rather than Kshatriyas (eg.,Ravana). Clearly, natural forces make it difficult to keep a caste system to be consistent with both birth and occupation. Family is a stronger tie and hence an occupation-based caste system had to drift to a pure birth-based caste system and castes had to get de-linked from occupations. Thus, the Hindu caste system died its natural death long, long time ago. It could not have survived with the spread of Buddism by Emperors like Asoka, growth and migration of population, inter-caste marriages, the invasions by the Muslims, the period of Moghul Rule followed by the British Rule in a country with a large, growing population speaking such large diversity of languages.

G: While that may be true, in reality caste system still rules.

S: Yes, it does. But this attachment to caste system is a natural human property. It has nothing to do with the ancient Bharatiya occupation based social structure that became extinct long ago. It is surprising that Indians still talk about Hindu caste system being in existence. They talk of oppression by the higher castes that died with the occupation-based caste system centuries ago, long before the British or the Moghuls appeared on the scene. From the Moghul days and throughout the British rule, a new caste system emerged among the Indian Hindus. This fairy-tale caste system has established since then. The foreign rulers had given the opportunity to their elite Hindu subjects to evolve a new caste system and link it to the ancient Hindu caste system. The names of the original Hindu castes were retained but the caste system was not linked now to current occupations. Individuals and families now could assume certain occupations for their unknown ancestors who lived thousands of years and declare them as belonging to the occupational caste of their ancestors.

G: You may be right. But the Hindus continue to have a caste system.

S: A new Fairy Tale Caste system emerged after the Hindu Kings began losing control over the major parts of India. Interestingly, the new foreign political rulers encouraged the growth of this new system and supported its being christened as Hindu System. The fairy-tale Hindu caste system is based on unrecorded, presumed and so-called superior/ inferior occupations of the forgotten forefathers who died thousands of years ago. As I have understood, the Fairy Tale caste essentially tries to link a person to some occupations or other beginnings of his ancestors thousands of years ago.

G: So you admit that caste system exists even today,

S: Hold on. Caste system exists everywhere throughout the World among all religions and cultures. That is the destined human property. But today’s caste system has nothing to do with the ancient four-barna caste system.

G: What we have today is an extension or modification of that ancient system only.

S: No. That is completely a false notion perpetuated by ignorance and deliberate distortion of reality.

G: What was the ancient system and what is the current system?

S: In the ancient ages, Brahmins seemed to have been traditionally honoured or they had established claim as the most superior caste. The ancient people belonging to this caste originally were in the vocation of learning, teaching, worshipping, praying to the God on behalf of others, engaged in the profession of priesthood, sanyasis (those who have renounced material world), preachers and so on. The claim of Superiority of the Brahmins might have been contested by the Kshatriya caste that originated from the ancient warriors, kings or those who fought wars and battles. Most Hindu royal dynasties of the olden times are supposed to belong to this caste. If the Brahmins claimed superiority, it could not have been without the tacit approval of the Kshatriya kings with Brahmin subjects. In ancient ages, a Brahmin could have become a Rishi, or Brahmarshi (one with the supreme knowledge of the Universe) through hard work, deep thinking, extensive study, penance and sacrifices. The Kings also had found their path to superiority. There could have been a Kshatriya who would become a Raja Rishi (Rajarshi) of status equal to Brahmarshi by efforts, sacrifices and learning similar to the Brahmins. King Janaka, the father of Sita, Rama’s wife, was a Rajarshi. Again, a Brahmin could have become as good a warrior as a Kshatriya king and become a King. Ravana, the king of Lanka who was defeated and killed in war by Rama, might have been a Brahmin, though an Asura (demon), was a very learned person, devotee of God and also a reputed warrior. Did he become a King to prove to the Kshatriyas that Brahmins were a superior class!

G: Caste system has something to do with claiming superiority over some others while being equal to some.

S: Yes, and that tendency in human beings continue even now everywhere and in all communities. Let us go back to ancient times. Apart from the Brahmins and the Kshatriyas, there was the Baishya caste that originated from the people who were engaged in trading and other businesses. They were the real money-spinners and wealthy people. They had to keep the Kings happy if they had to continue with their money-spinning businesses smoothly. They paid the most taxes and ensured that the Kings had adequate wealth to be happy and not become jealous of the business community. The Baishyas were also afraid of God, given the inherent risks and uncertainties of businesses ventures. So they also kept the temple priests happy so that the latter would worship God on their behalf and get for them the blessings of God. Not that some Baishyas would not have thought of becoming kings. It might be that some kingdoms were taken over by the Baishyas who became Kshatriyas thereafter. The Brahmins who were almost always a part of the King’s courts and acted as minister/ advisor might have attempted at installing their stooges as Kings or tried to become Kings themselves. In any case, many Hindu Kings tried to establish their fame by donating lands to their army chiefs, their ministers, their physicians, courtiers and other talented citizens. The landowners in turn would become kings of smaller kingdoms. As land became a tradable asset, some wealthy traders might have bought vast lands and became kings themselves. To protect their wealth, they would not have stopped short of raising army of security guards. They would not have supported weak kings and kings who borrowed money from them. They would have rather tried to remove them and become kings themselves. In any case, many wealthy businessmen of Hindu kingdoms would have behaved like kings given their money-powered influence on the society.

G: What about the Subras who were the most oppressed?

S:The fourth caste, the Sudras might have had very little opportunity to prove their Superiority as a caste. The Sudras consisted of the rest of the society and included all types of workmen, tradesmen, labor, craftsmen, and self-employed people excluding the occupations of other three castes. Since the Sudra caste supposedly covered most occupations, the bulk of the population would have belonged to this caste. Clearly, no society would have needed a large proportion of people to teach, to be busy in the pursuit of knowledge, become Sanyasis and preachers and provide the services of priests. No society needed a large proportion of people to be engaged as warriors or as kings. A society would have needed only a small percentage of people to be deployed as traders and businessmen to serve the needs of the society. So, the Sudras would have represented a wide range of assorted occupations and formed the bulk of the population. An omnibus caste could not have claimed superiority over other caste with smaller population. That did not mean that different sections of the Sudra caste could not have claimed superiority. Sudra castes would have covered various craftsmen who had held special skills handed down through the generations. There would have been goldsmith, yarn spinners and fabric weavers, carpenters, architects, sculptures, painters, musicians, ironsmiths, cattle-raisers. It could have been possible for some families in these occupations to establish a goodwill and reputation and enjoy monopoly power in selling their services. Some of them could have obtained royal patronage, benefited from land gifts from the kings and extracted high price for their wares from the Baishyas. These skilled and talented families over a period of time would have become wealthy and established a social prestige of their own. They could have become traders, businessmen and kings on their own using their wealth and acquired landed property. The power of money could have made them enjoy the life-style of Biashyas and Kshatriyas and buy the services of Brahmins. Many wise Sudras acquired as much (if not more) fame and influence as Brahmin scholars and Sanyasi preachers. Kabir, a weaver, probably a convert Muslim, had large following among the Indians. He preached the essence of Hinduism. Many Hindus, claiming to be originally Sudras, converted to Buddism, Islam and Christianity during the last thousand years. But even among those who converted or were forced to convert into Christianity in the west coast of India, there were some who until recently traced their origin to Brahmin Caste and preferred marriages among Christians with the similar Brahmin background.

G: That is a brief of a long history. What does it say?

S: It shows that the so-called Hindu Caste system is a hoax. Given the history of different castes, how many Indian Hindus today can really claim lineage to any particular caste. There is no way they can prove their link to any specific ancient Hindu caste. Hindus of today are mostly tied to a fairly tale caste system evolved in the recent centuries. This fairly tale Hindu caste system has nothing to do with the Ancient Caste system that could not have survived for long under the impact of natural forces. The fairy tale caste system was propounded by the elite Hindu subjects of the foreign rulers to create a superior (but false) image for themselves and power over other Hindus and in the process pave the way for the religions of the ruling class to convert more Hindus into Islam, Christianity and Buddhism.

G: So what is the new caste system now?

S: Hold on. Even today, the fairy tale Hindu Caste system continues to provide spice to life. There is one caste called Baidya / Vaidya or Baidya-Brahmins (in current Bengali language usage letter ‘B’ is common where the letter ‘V’ is used in Sanskrit language). Baidya literally means a person who practices medicine. My immediate ancestors (say, 7-11 generations up to my father) handed down the belief that we were Baidya-Brahmins, a special class among the Brahmins, supposedly superior caste among the Hindus. I have checked with friends who boasted of their Brahmin caste superiority: according to some of them, the Baidyas are the descendants of a family resulting from an inter-caste marriage between a Brahmin husband and Sudra wife. So, Baidyas are a mixed caste, inferior to the Brahmins. G: Quite interesting!

S: Equally interesting is the version I heard some elderly Baidyas who are no more. They said that the Brahmins also practiced medicine as a profession but they would not visit the residence of patients from other caste, especially Sudras, in order not to lose their purity. Some among the Brahmin medicine professionals, out of their dedication to patients (or, I guess, because of their relatively inadequate experience or knowledge or skill or reputation which would take time to build), had gone out to serve generally poor income Sudra families to earn fee incomes. This group was therefore outcast by the rest of the Brahmins. Since then these people were called as Baidya- Brahmins, a superior liberal class among the Brahmins. Later on, I used to taunt my Brahmin friends that they had right to knowledge from the Four Vedas (the most ancient Hindu scriptures covering various disciplines of knowledge from Philosophy to Spiritualism), but the Baidyas had the right to five Vedas – not only Rig Veda, Sam Veda, Yajur Veda, Atharva Veda but also Ayur Veda, the Veda of the medicines. Some friends who knew more than me however were quick to point out that Ayurveda (Treatise on Medicine/ Medical Treatment) was actually a part of the basic four Vedas.

G: But all this is funny and has nothing to do with our original inquiry.

S: Funny as these might be, they point to the basic human tendency to create around one’s family background a glory. Just consider that I grew up to marry a Brahmin girl. I do not know how Hindus would classify my sons in terms of caste. But recently I happen to meet a young person who is the son of a Baidya father and Brahmin mother. Among his relatives there were many such Baidya and Brahmin inter-caste marriages. And, they continue enjoy the debates over the superiority of castes in family get-togethers. He told me that one of his relatives, Mr. Biswajit Dasgupta, born around 1970 and a keen student of mathematics, radiology and ancient Hindu scriptures including the Vedas had done some research on the origins of Baidyas. I requested him to get me some of his research output. In what follows, I give below a short summary of his research findings.



Mr. Dasgupta quotes from Sanskrit grammar authored by Panini. According to Panini, the word Bid (Vid), meaning To Exist or To Know, is the source of three words: Veda, Vaidya and Vaidya. Vid + Acha = Vada, Vid + Kyap = Vidya (education), Vidya + on (favourable sense) = Vaidya. Vidyasyaptam Vaidya i.e., the descendant of Vid is called a Vaidya. All this would to link existence and knowledge with B(V)aidya.



According to Dasgupta, the reference to the Baidyas is found in Rig Veda Samhita: mondol 10, sukta 97, mantra 6 in which Rishi Vishak prays in anustupchhanda verse to the God of medicinal plants. The same verse also appears in Shukla Yajur Veda Samhita Chapter 12 mantra 80. His translation of the verse from Sanscrit to Bengalee when translated to English reads: “Hail thee, the medicinal plants. Just like the kings go to war to defeat the enemy, you all go to the Bipra (the best among the Brahmins) to win over all illness and disease. The Bipra to whom you go is called the disease-killer, life saver Baidya (Vishak)”. Mr. Dasgupta also refers to Mantra 10 of Chapter 30 of Shukla Yajur Veda Samhita (relating to Purushamedha Yagna). His Bengali version of the verse translated to English reads: “(I) enjoin Vishak (Baidya) for Purity ”. Dasgupta also quotes Mantra 33 of Chapter 5 and Mantra 74 of Chapter 20 of Shukla YajurVeda. These verses refer to AswiniKumardwyas (Aswini Kumar named Twins) as the physicians practicing medicines among the god-patients (Hindus believe in one from-less God, 330 million gods/ devatas of various forms, a select group of lesser gods and humans as incarnation of God on earth). God Surya (Sun) is the father of Aswini Kumar duo, born out of the womb of goddess Sangya in the form of a feminine horse and the duo were created to serve as the Baidyas (physicians) for the medical treatment/ protection of health of gods. Mr. Dasgupta then refers to the BrahmaBaibarta Purana, a centuries-old scripture widely publicized among the Hindus in the province of Bengal in India and quotes Baidya/ Vaidya as “ Aswinikumareno Jatascha Biprajyoshiti” which means that ‘ the Baidyas were created by the Aswini Kumar duos from the wombs of women from the families of the best class of Brahmins’. A direct link of the Baidyas to the gods: Human Baidyas are descendants of the physicians and medicine specialist gods who protected the health of citizens of the kingdom of gods.



I have learnt elsewhere that if one examines the Vedas, one will find names of 33 or so gods paying tributes to whom by chanting the Veda verses was the form of worship. These gods were nothing but parts of Nature observed at that time by man. For example, the sky, the cosmic space, the sun and its different phases during the day, the night and its different phases, the moon, the stars, the wind, the rains were all gods. Because these objects or phenomena were observed to be making movements/changing position/ exerting different magnitudes of strength over time and also making a powerful adverse or beneficial impact on the lives of men, these were thought to be having their own individual consciousness/ minds. Aswis were probably two phenomena of light just before dawn. This twin Aswis were turned into Aswini Kumars in later literature or religious stories called Puranas. While the Vedas and the Puranas talk of multiple gods including the Super God who created all including these gods, it is in the philosophy of the Upanishads that the concept of Single formless infinite God got established firmly in the Sanatana/ Hindu Dharma



Mr. Dasgupta also refers to Chanakya’s writing (Bishnu Gupta or Chanyakya, the son of Maha Rishi Chanak, helped Chandra Gupta Maurya to establish a kingdom with capital at what is currently known as Patna in the present Indian state of Bihar). Chankya says: Ayurveda Kritabhyas Sarbeshang Priya Darshana Aryashhel Gunopeto Esho Baidya Bidhiyote”.



Mr Dasgupta says that according to Sreemad-Bhagbat Purana: The warring davas (gods) and the Ashuras (demons) settled for peace to jointly drill out Amritam (the potion that makes one that drinks it, immortal) from the Oceans. God took the form of a huge Tortoise and held the Mountain Mandar aloft from underneath the ocean water. The mountain served as the drilling/churning rod. Bashuki, the huge long king of the snakes served as the rope tied around the mountain rod. With the davas and the ashuras holding on and pulling the two ends of the rope, the mountain rod churned the water of the oceans. This churning led to the arising of a young person in ornamented dress with the pot containing the potion Amritam. This person’s name was Dhannantari. He was a Baidya, the expert in AyurVeda, the science of medicine. Dasgupta thus refers to the great contribution that the Baidyas have thus been making contribution even in the world of the devas (the ashuras failed to get their share of the potion even as they tried to steal the pot of Amrita potion soon after Dhannantari came out of the ocean waters.

G: You indeed narrate interesting stories. But how does it help understand destiny.

S: Yes, these are indeed interesting stories for get-together parties of families with lot of inter-caste marriages. But they also help illustrate how deep the human tendency is to claim superiority of one group over other groups on the basis of relative glory arising from ancestral/ family background. This continues even today between people who live in metros and others, between those who could shift to metros and urban areas from their rural backgrounds and those who could not, between those from traditionally rich families and the new rich, between those who are members of posh clubs and those who are not, between MBAs and others, between CII/ FICCI (two main all India chambers of commerce) members and the members of small chambers, between mafias supported by ruling political party and other mafias, between those who claim to be secular/ animal lovers/ communists/ social reformers and those who do not make such claims, between those who despise smoking and those who smoke, those who claim to be communists, between leftist social scientists/ economists and those who believe in individual liberty and competitiveness, so on and so forth. The special group image is sought for the same reason, as one would have liked lineage to a superior caste in olden days.

G: You mean to say that this tendency is an underlying property of human beings that is destined to play out in all ages. Today also, we see small traders/ businessmen come to organize them as a different caste. The big industrialists are a different caste. The air pilots are a different class. The investment bankers are a different class. The journalists belong to a separate class. People related to Page 3 forms a different class. And, the society and the political system encourage the formation of such different high value castes/ classes. This is a new caste system that divides the mankind.

S: Exactly. People unite into groups and divide the society into separate groups. Both the tendencies, to unite and to divide, operate as natural forces. All this is destined. This tendency of human beings has nothing to do with Hindu religion or Hindu society. One single Guru or a single Prophet has not propounded Hindu religion. Hindu religious scriptures like Vedas, Upanishads, Puranas, Smritis, and are not authored by a single person or a group of connected or related persons. The authors of these scriptures and epics are many different individuals who lived in different centuries and millennium. Until a few centuries ago, most Hindus may not have known about the existence of so many scriptures. Many of these scriptures are collections of sayings of different individuals made available in written form much after the original composers had died. There were many compilers/authors/editors of the same collections. There are differences in style of writing and editing in the collections and even there are different versions of the epics. It may be that the original authors of different parts/ sections/ mantras of the Vedas and Upanishads belonged to different castes by birth or by family profession.

For the spiritual life of many of the original authors, worldly life – not mere caste-ism- was meaningless. They had preached the concepts of Single God, of omni-presence of God everywhere and in every living being and non-life matter. They had analysed the material elements of the universe as they had observed then as also analysed human body, mind and behaviour. Their analysis helped them classify all matters and the human beings into different categories with different properties. To relate caste system to Hindu religion or any religion for that matter is both wrong and foolish. But to do so is natural and destined.

G: Maybe, the caste system is not the essential part of Hindu society or Religion. But such social divisions are creation of Man and not destined by divine will.

S: I believe that the caste system or similar social divisions are the results of processes that are part of the Stochastic Destiny Process and therefore are destined to be created in human societies. Human societies have no choice but to create them. Even the communism of Soviet Union and the Republic of China, not to speak of communists of countries where communism could not capture complete State power, has failed to resist the creation of social divisions, even though the goal is to create a class-less society where every one belonged to the same class.

G: I see your point. Social divisions are natural phenomena and not the result of deliberate, independent choice of societies. The forms of social divisions vary over time and across societies. But they evolve in response to certain basic natural tendency of human beings and under the impact of prevailing circumstances.

S: You are right. Even those who try to eradicate social divisions create new divisions. The communists talk about labour and capitalists as also about the proletariat and others. These others ultimately include those who manage the State on behalf of the proletariat. The Indian politicians talk about minorities, about dalits (oppressed), about backward classes, about the common man, about the weaker sections of the society. All this is reflective of divisive tendencies. This happens naturally to human beings. They close one form of social division to create another. They despise caste systems of the past and create new caste system. This is done in pure self-interest, which is the natural dharma / property of human beings. The caste system continues in new forms in perpetuity and the social conflicts continue as a destined process.

G: I understand what you are saying, Attempts to eradicate social divisions are as much a destined force as the emergence of social divisions. We may preach equality through speeches and books and we may even try to bring about equality among human beings by peaceful or violent means. But simultaneously we are destined to practice inequality in actual social life. No human, it seems, is capable to practice equality. Each human or group believes in his/ her/ their unique identity distinctively different from another human being or group. Human beings form into separate groups each of which is supposed to be unequal in relation to other groups. Such groups form naturally and often are with conflicting interests. Therefore, the emergence of caste system or other social divisions is an essential part of the natural social process.

S: You are absolutely right. There is no social choice made independently: all social choices are resultant of forces that are part of the Stochastic Destiny Process or Principle. Men and women consider themselves unequal, so do fathers and sons, husbands and wives, friends and foes, colleague and colleague, teachers and students, peoples in location X and peoples in location B, workers and managers. Groups grow larger and then split. All this just happens because of the inherent property of human beings to divide themselves into persons or groups in conflict. This does not happen because they make choices to form or join groups, but because it is in their nature to make such choices. No body becomes Hitler or Mother Teresa by choice, it just happens. We know that all Indians born after 14th August 1947 are born equals. Are they equals in reality? No they are not. Those whose ancestors were recognized as backward castes or tribes during the mogul and British rule are a special caste entitled to reservation on a major part of the Nation’s resources while those who have different lineage are the new neglected caste. These are not independent decisions of the State or society but the fall out of the process of destiny of India and the Indians.

G: We create new inequalities: we go back to the long past and create new reserved / categories to perpetuate social conflicts. This happens because it is natural and hence destined, even though there is no logic to justify such divisions. Yesterday’s royal descendants abroad are our friends even if their forefathers oppressed us. Day before yesterday’s royal descendents are minorities. Descendents of oppressors who lived before the Moguls or British came are today’s hated castes, even if they are in minority.

S: These are not divisions created by Indians by applying unbiased logic and independent judgment. Indians create these under the influence of jealousy, pity, and anger and under compulsions electoral politics in socalled democracy where most people are uneducated AND many remain illiterate.