Emergence of Social Classes In Ancient India

Emergence of Social Classes In Ancient India

In ancient India we find reference to four classes or varnas. They are Brahmanas, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras. The literary meaning of varnas is colour or complexion. These different varnas did not emerge at a single point of time. It took several years for these four varnas to emerge and exist in ancient India. Romila Thapar says that initially there existed certain lineages. Among them there were junior lineages and senior lineages. The latter were those which were able to dominate in the society.

BRAHMANAS
The most important sections were the brahmanas and the rajanyas. The brahmanas were the priestly class who performed cattle and other animal sacrifices for the benefit of society. They, in a way, supported the ruling class. The rajanyas were the ruling class. Out of this category later emerged kshatriyas. The word kshatra meant power. During this period there existed intra tribal and inter tribal conflicts. Out of these conflicts emerged certain important clans like kurus.

KSHATRIYAS
There is a reference to one battle called the battle of ten kings. We find references to a pattrn of tribal setups in polity, society and economy. Vis was the term used to refer to the group of people who provided resources needed for all the social classes to survive. These people were the pastoralists and agriculturists. Initially there existed equality between rajanya and the vis. But later the rajanyas grew more ambitious. There is reference to visamatta, which meant rajanya eating vis, which indicates that rajanyas or kshatriyas could dominate the vis with the help of their military power.

ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES
The main economic activity during this period was cattle domestication. Then followed limited agriculture. The method of farming was slash and burn or swidden cultivation. The people used to move from one place to the other. In the texts we find many references to use of words related to cow. On certain occasions like sacrifices, the brahmanas and others are known to have consumed the flesh of cows and other animals. The guest in the house is considered as one who kills cows. In the sacrifices it is mentioned that hundreds and thousands of cattle were distributed to the brahmanas as gift.

ASPECTS OF VEDIC POLITY
The vedic tribes consisted of administrative units like sabha, samiti, vidhata, etc. which meant the decisions were taken collectively by the members of the tribe. Due to tribal war fare the rajanyas were able to obtain booty or wealth, which they shared with the brahmanas. It is now that we find the beginning of social differentiation because of economic differences among various social classes.

BRAHMANAS AND KSHATRIYAS: COMPETITION AND COLLABORATION
Initially the brahmanas and rajanyas competed among themselves, but later they decided to co-operate with each other to occupy a dominant position in the society as mentioned in the brahmanical text, Satapatha Brahmana. There is reference to migration of people from one region to the other. There was migration of people from west towards the east and later they established their settlements in regions like Bihar and eastern U.P.

In the process of migration they came into conflict with local tribes who followed an alien religion and custom. These local people were subjugated as the vedic people made use of war animals like horses and chariots, and used weapons made of iron. The vedic people called themselves Aryas and the subjugated people were called the dasas which meant that they were supposed to serve the other sections in the society. Thus there was creation of Arya varna and dasa varna.

EMERGENCE OF WORKING CLASS
Later we find reference to dasa-karmakaras who were both agriculturists and artisans. It is found that later they became part of the shudra varna. It is mentioned in the brahmanical texts that sudras are supposed to serve other social groups, brahmanas, kshatriyas and vaishyas.

Among the brahmanas there existed gotras, which meant that they belonged to a particular lineage. These gotra names were derived from the names of sages like Visvamitra and Vaistha and others. Marriage within the same gotra was a taboo. There is reference to exogamous marriage system. There was an increase in the number of gotras which meant the brahmana families increased. The gotra system could absorb important sections in the society.

The kshatriyas had vamsas like surya vamsa and chandra vasma. They were endogamous groups and married within the same family called kula. With the emergence of greater agricultural production, the community called vaisyas became land lords and they were dominant heads of the family. They initially produced agricultural commodities with the help of family labour and later they depended on extended labour.

Gradually vaisyas gave importance to trade and there was the emergence of vaisyas as traders. Later we find reference to another social category called jatis, which were usually sudras. We also find reference to the emergence of mixed jatis as a result of inter mixture of higher and lower jatis and varnas.

TEXTUAL SANCTION
In Purushasukta, a later part of Rg Veda mentions the four varnas - brahmanas, kshatriyas, vaishyas and sudras emerging from different parts of god called Prajapati Brahma. Different functions were assigned to these social categories. There were political units called janas which later emerged as janapadas. There were social units like kula which was a family. The head of the family was called kulapati.

Reference:
1. R.S. Sharma, Material Culture and Social Formation in Ancient India, Macmillan, Delhi, 1983