DALIT

Most investigations into the formation of the caste system start from the study of Hindu scriptures as the earliest sources of references to the caste are to be found in these.

However to rely purely on such sources, is seriously flawed as these documents can not be taken at their face value as it was not in the interest of the Vedic authors to record the truth or for that matter the time frame. Put simply the Vedas have to be interpreted in the light of other known scientific facts.

Relying purely on Vedic sources also suffer from lack of scientific analysis and independent validation. This is not to say that the scientists, archaeologists and historian will sooner or later all reach a common agreement. It is when all these disciplines are combined that there can be some hope of a common convergence. If such a convergence is not present then the deviation has to be explained somehow. This is the scientific method.

Iron Age in India and societal change

Scholars have recently reignited the debate about the role of iron in societal change that took place in early India. Such a connection was first suggested by the famous D D Kosambi.

Kosambi for the first time posited the casual connection between iron technology, plough agriculture, clearance of he fertile but densely forested plains of the Ganga Valley, leading to an assured supply of food, including a surplus on one hand, and increased trading networks, metallic money, emergence of towns, a new religious ideology and state-society on the other.(Sahu, page2)

Once iron technology had reached a mature level, then the sudra helot of the Aryan society could be used as a semi-slave labourer toiling under the Aryan clans. The forest would be cleared by the use of fire and iron axe and the fields cultivated by the use of iron plough.

Gadgil and Guha quote Irawati Karve to the effect

They (Brahmins) served as pioneers, establishing their outposts in forests and initiating rituals which consumed large quantities of wood and animal fat. thus provoked, the native food gatherers termed demons or Rakshasas, would attempt to disrupt the holocaust and save their resource base in order to retain the control over their territory. Specialist warriors, Kshatriyas would then rush to the rescue of the rescue of the Brahmins..

..Dushyanta combs the forest with the help of hundreds of assistants, killing wild animals with complete abandon. It appears reasonable to conclude that the purpose of this slaughter was to destroy the resource base of hunting and gathering tribals who lived in the forest.(page 80-81)

Caste System and Iron Age nexus

The survivor forest dwellers could be absorbed into the Aryan fold via matrimonial alliances if the tribe was militaristic or it could be reduced to the sudra category if the tribe was less technologically advanced. These external adivasi tribal clans were thus the solar dust out of which came the various jatis or castes incorporated into the theoretical varna model. Thus this process of caste formation was different in different parts of India. It was not an idea that gave rise to the caste system. Rather it was the culmination of various factors whose origins lay in material conditions which led to this. Kosambi was trying to show how various factors could give rise to the qualitative change in the tribal society leading to a caste society giving rise to a state power. He was also trying to focus on material factors which most specialists of his days were either denying or downplaying the importance of the same.

As with all things connected to the caste system there is a debate in India as to whether the use of fire to clear the dense forest and the use of iron in cutting trees down and deep ploughing had an impact on the caste formation. Some scholars argue for example that the ancient Egyptians raised huge pyramids without the recourse to iron technology. There are also arguments as to when the iron age actually started in India.

Although state formation is possible under copper/bronze usage, it was not copper but iron t hat was used to clear the dense forest, otherwise such a land clearance programme could have been initiated at the time of the Indus Valley civilisation. Scholars also tend not to focus on the use of iron in weapons of wars in its initial stage when iron was neither cheap not plentiful but was the monopoly of the ruling classes. Forest burning and land clearance was not a non-violent affair. Both the Mahabharata and the Satpath Brahmana detail the burning of indigenous Naga population in these holocausts by the advancing Aryan way of life.

Diverse factors in initial caste formation and configuration

Kosambi original argument focuses on coming together of many diverse factors which gave rise to the caste configuration. It is well worth remembering that in South India had progressed in iron age technology  and war before the advent of Brahmins from North India which led to the formation of the varna/caste ideology. On the other hands Brahmins were always present on the scene in North India. In other words caste formation was only possible if all crucial factors were present.

Debates such as the above will only accomplish an adjustment to the time frame for the use of iron and Aryan expansion into east India. Currently Kosambi's model would seem to be the best fit given all the facts.

Sources

Iron and Social Change in Early India, edited by Bhairabi Prasad Sahu, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, India, 2006.

This Fissured Land - An Ecological Histry of India, Madhav Gadgil and Ramachandra Guha, Oxford University Press New Delhi, 1999.