7. The Socio-Cosmic Order and the Aims of Mankind

Question 1

The Brahmanical tradition or “Brahmanical Hinduism” (ca. 500 BC-500 AD)

Answer 1

• Core dimensions of the ideological framework deployed by the Brahmanical tradition
• socio-cosmic and ritual order:
  men, gods, cosmos
• the caste system
• the aims of mankind
• continuities with the Vedic world
• contested by the Śramanic traditions or a reaction to them
  (- Sanskrit as a language of power)

Question 2

Chronology of the key religious traditions, up to the turn of the second millennium CE

Answer 2

Indus Civilisation (ca. 2600–1750 BCE)
Vedic Period ca. 1750–400 BCE
Vedic period: 1500–1000 BCE
Brāhmaṇa exegesis and Upaniṣads: ca. 1100–500 BCE
Emergence of the Śramanic religions: ca. 5th century BCE
Jainism: remains minority religion till today Buddhism: pan-Asiatic religion, mostly disappeared from India between 13th and 19th century revival.
Emergence of Brahmanical “Hinduism”: ca. 4th century BCE–early centuries CE.
Classical “Hinduism”: 300–ca 1300 CE
Prominently Śaivism and Vaiṣṇavism, dominant to this day
Arrival of Islam in (some parts of India): 8th century CE.

Question 3

Dharma, the socio-cosmic order

Answer 3

Dharma: Order of the world by following social norms and recognised practices (e.g. Vedic ritual)

• the possibilities of existence of living beings and thus also the social system with its differences is part and expression of a ‘cosmic order’ to which all beings are bound
• maintaining the order is a duty that the individual “owes” to the world
• part of the doctrine of debts developed in Vedic texts

Question 4

Dharma as natural laws

Answer 4

Dharma is the ensemble of laws that guarantee the natural basis of life for all beings (e.g. seasons)
* akin to Vedic ṛta, “Socio-Cosmic order” or “truth”
* good order of the world according to the characteristic abilities of individual living beings (e.g. in humans, language, digestion, etc.), as also through their ability and duty to perform sacrifice
“How does the wind not cease? How does the mind not rest? Why do the waters, seeking to attain truth (ṛta), at no time soever cease?”

Question 5

Dharma as svadharma (“one’s own duty”) A working definition:

Answer 5

“Dharma includes all aspects of proper individual and social behaviour as demanded by one’s role in society and in keeping with one’s social identity, according to age, gender, caste, marital status, and order of life.”
(Patrick Olivelle, Dharmasūtras, 1999)

This is also referred to as Integrated social order (dharma) of classes (varṇa) and stages of life (āśrama) The term was probably first popularized in the various renouncer traditions such as
Buddhism (àsaddharma “the true dharma”)

Question 6

Dharma as law

Answer 6

Dharma is the legal order that arises from the observance of all individual laws.
* Legal texts are the Dharmasūtras and Dharmaśāstras
* The King ensures the preservation of the legal order and thus the socio-cosmic order as a whole.
* It is the king’s duty to protect the dharma, also in the sense of a legal system, and, if necessary, to enforce it by means of his punitive powers.

Question 7

How to know what dharma is

Answer 7

Sources of Dharma
1. Śruti (‘revelation’: The Veda, especially for Brāhmaṇas)
2. Smṛti (‘Tradition’: Śrautasūtras, Gṛhyasūtras, Dharmasūtras, Dharmaśāstras [à Role of the King])
3. Ācāra (‘Conduct [of the elders // of the good people]’)
4. Ātmatuṣṭi (‘what is pleasing to oneself’, ‘contentment of one’s own self’)
“The root of the Law is the entire Veda; the tradition and practice of those who know the Veda; the conduct of good people; and what is pleasing to oneself.”
Mānavadharmaśāstra 2.6, transl. Olivelle (2006)

Question 8

varṇāśrama-dharma
(duties based on caste and life-stage)

Answer 8

Dharma of the individual (svadharma) is based on: 1. social position, caste: => varṇa
2. stage of life: => āśrama

Question 9

The caste system

Answer 9

Classical Indian society as a whole was organised since Vedic times according to a highly structured hierarchical system that evolved into what is known as the “caste system”.
The common Indo-European background is the tripartite pattern that Dumézil has shown to be present in the religious practices of the entire ancient Indo-European world.

Question 10

Classes (varṇa) and castes (jāti) (or castes and subcastes)

Answer 10

The term “caste” used by Europeans to designate the subdivisions of Indian society is an ambiguous term.
Originally a Portuguese word, the word “casta” “family, race, human group” was used from the XVIe century onwards with a still very broad meaning. When it took on a more technical meaning, it was actually used to translate two Sanskrit terms corresponding to two different concepts: varṇa and jāti
“While the term varṇa refers to the four classes of Vedic society, the term jāti (`birth’) refers to those endogamous sections of Hindu society which we know as ‘castes’.”

Question 11

The caste system: varṇa and jāti

Answer 11

varṇa: “colour” (skin or symbolic?): four main hierarchical and functional categories
* Brāhmaṇa * Kṣatriya
* Vaiśya
* Śūdra
priests, priesthood, or Brahmins warriors, royal class
farmers, breeders (and later traders) servants, day labourers
Outside of this structure: Caṇḍālas (untouchables)

jāti “birth”: smaller but much more numerous categories based on the profession (in the narrow sense of the term), equated with function in society and based on hierarchical notions of relative purity and impurity (pure and impure professions).

Question 12

varṇāśrama-dharma

Answer 12

(duties based on caste and life-stage)
Dharma of the individual (svadharma) is based on: 1. social position, caste: => varṇa
2. stage of life: => āśrama

Question 13

Āśrama: disciplining lifetime

Answer 13

Four Āśramas (‘stages of life’, ‘orders of life’)
* Brahmacārin: celibate student (Veda and service)
* Gṛhastha: married householder (family life)
* Vānaprastha: forest hermit (asceticism—tapas)
* Saṃnyāsin: renouncer (renounce of fire)

In the Dharmasūtras, āśramas are not successive ‘stages of life’ but ‘lifestyle choices’, permanent and voluntary, as the direct expression of the ascetic traditions both within and without Brahmanism.

Question 14

Life goals - Stages of Life

Answer 14

4 Puruṣārtha
(lit. “aims of mankind”)
Dharma (law)
Artha (property)
Kāma (desire)
Mokṣa (liberation)

4 Āśrama
Brahmacārin: celibate student
Gṛhastha: Householder
Vānaprastha: forest hermit
Saṃnyāsin: renouncer

“Abstention from injuring, truthfulness, refraining from anger, purification, and mastering the organs—this, Manu has declared, is the gist of the Law for the four classes.”
(Manusmṛti 10.63, Translation Olivelle 2005 The Laws of Manu)

Question 15

Taming Renunciation: The Three Debts

Answer 15

In order to undertake renunciation and pursue the path of liberation (mokṣa) any man should first pay off his three debts (ṛṇa):
* Vedic Study to the seers (ṛṣi)
* Ritual performances to the gods (devas)
* Begetting a son for the ancestors (pitṛ)
Tension between two opposite social institutions and world-views: the householder and the renouncer.
The technology of svadharma is the Brahmanical solution

Question 16

varṇāśramadharma and Hindu Kingship

Answer 16

Regarded as a sacral, divine being (deva)—especially an incarnation of Viṣṇu (from the Gupta Age onwards)—and as the summit of a hierarchical, organic cosmos, the ‘Hindu king’ played a central role in realizing dharma in his kingdom.
The king is also the ideal householder:
Qualities: ‘purity’ and ‘auspiciousness’
Functions: Protection, Punishment,
Maintenance of the social order (varṇāśramadharma)
Kauṭilya’s Arthaśāstra (2nd BCE–2nd CE) is the reference point for Hindu kingship

Question 17

Gender “issues”: what about women?

Answer 17

Mānavadharmaśāstra 5.147-148:
“a woman should never carry out any task independently.She must never seek to live independently.”

However, in Vātsyāyana’s Kāmasūtra (ca. 3rd CE), women—especially courtesans—enjoy relative independence and the ‘right’ to pleasure (kāma), their aim and individual duty (svadharma), their feminine duty (strīdharma)

Question 18

Saṃskāras

Answer 18

• “Life cycle rituals”
  => transform the “natural” body, characterised by karman, into a “social” body
• literally: “perfections”
• rituals performed differently depending on caste and gender

Question 19

Marriage (vivāha)

Answer 19

• Alliance relationship between the two families
• Endogamous (intra-caste) marriage is favoured
• Women can marry into higher status groups, men should not

Question 20

Women and ritual rights

Answer 20

• Women only acquire their final social status through marriage. The husband’s family become her relatives, not the family of origin.
• This is associated with ritual rights (adhikāra) at the husband’s side.

Question 21

The ideal woman: pativratā

Answer 21

• Ideal image of the wife according to the Dharmaśāstras:
• pativratā: “one whose observances are for the husband”, i.e. it is interpreted as a form of asceticism (tapas)
• Religious merit is acquired through fulfilment of the marital role

Question 22

Death ritual (antyeṣṭi)

Answer 22

Transfer to the status of an ancestor
* Last life cycle ritual
- Annual ritual of offering to the dead (śrāddha)
Go forth, go forth along the ancient paths on which our ancient forefathers departed.