Lecture 5: Dharma, the Society and the Individual Flashcards
When was the classical period?
400 BCE – 600 CE
What was the classical period characterized by?
Characterized by a synthesis of early Vedic and late Vedic (Upaniṣadic) views.
- Early Vedic worldviews – this worldly, social duty, early caste system.
- Late Vedic (Upaniṣadic) worldviews – other worldly, duty to the soul, movement away from the caste system.
What was composed during the classical period?
- Dharmaśāstras (classical law books)
- The Epics
- The Mahābhārata (& Bhagavad Gītā)
- The Rāmāyaṇa
- The Purāṇas
- Also see the beginning of the Bhakti (devotional movement)
what two core concepts do the central beliefs of Hinduism cluster around?
- Dharma
- Mokṣa
What are the two things necessary to fulfill one’s destiny?
1) uphold and preserve the physical world including human society (dharma);
2) find release from the world (mokṣa) which one achieves by renouncing society.
How can we reconcile the two opposing demands (dharma and moksa)
- Demonstrate that they are somehow essentially related.
- Tension between dharma and mokṣa is played out against the background of karma and saṃsāra.
What are the views on Karma and Samsara from the two separate streams?
Moksa Stream:
- The stuff that binds one to an ignorance-dominated, ego-centered existence.
Dharma Stream:
- ideas that underlie, explain and give rational coherence to the Hindu social system.
- The world is here, it is real, the gods work to maintain it, and humans have the duty to contribute to its welfare.
What is the primary concern of Vedic religion?
Religious duty (dharma) – ensure blessings and maintain cosmic order by performing sacred rituals
What is Dharma?
- Dharma comes from Sanskrit root that means “to support or uphold”.
- Rodrigues defines dharma - righteousness; duty; morality; law; social obligations; particular religious teachings.
- Developed alongside the Vedic concept ṛta (cosmic order)
- Dharma - articulates the way things are and prescribes how one should behave in relation to cosmic order.
- Dharma tradition firmly rooted in Vedic literature.
What did Dharma become aligned with over time?
- In time, dharma became closely aligned with karma
- understood both as ritual action and as personal and social behavior in harmony with the cosmic order.
What were all human actions believed to contribute in the Bhagavad Gita?
In the Bhagavad Gītā (200 BCE) all human actions were believed to contribute to the maintenance of cosmic/social order.
What lies at the heart of the dharma tradition?
- Loka-samgraha (support of the world) - lies at the heart of the dharma tradition.
- Every person has a fundamental obligation to perform his or her assigned social function for the welfare of society.
What is an important text that stresses the maintenance of social order?
Dharmaśāstras stress importance of maintaining cosmic and social order
When and why did the Dharmasastras emerge?
- Emerged around the beginning of the CE.
- Arose in response to tensions between the Vedic world view and the śramaṇic movement.
- Interactions with outsiders were causing concerns surrounding intermarriage and differing values.
What were the Dharmasastras attempting to do? and what type of text were they?
- Dharmaśāstras - an attempt to articulate standards of conduct, to protect status of upper classes, and to bring together differing worldviews.
- They reflect the social norms of that time.
- Smṛti (remembered, traditional).
What are the 4 stages of life?
1) Apprentice (learns roles with religion, politics, or trade)
2) Householder (works and raises a family)
3) Forest Dweller (focuses on spiritual matters and helps with grandchildren)
4) Renouncer (renounces ties to family and property, focuses on liberation)
What stage do writers have great respect for?
- The writers have great respect for renunciation (seeking mokṣa).
- Relegated this aspect of the religious quest to old age.
What were the Dharmastras concerned with?
- Concerned with social stability – an orderly, refined, stable society is something to be cherished.
- Order/stability comes from the proper functioning of the various castes, the proper interaction between castes, and observance of the stages of life.
Which Dharmasastra is the most well known?
- Most well known is the Mānava Dharmaśāstra (Laws of Manu) – 200BCE -200CE.
- Attributed to the primordial man that Viṣṇu saved from the flood
What kind of topics are covered in the Manava Dharmasastra?
- Mānava Dharmaśāstra (Laws of Manu) covers a wide variety of topics including
- creation, cosmic geography
- How to choose a wife, how to perform post-cremation rituals.
- Issues of purity and pollution
- Rules for kings, boundary disputes, loans, punishment, relationships, duties of varnas, injunctions for women, and law of karma.
- Divisions of the Vedas, and class system.
What was the social structure in the Dharmasastras?
- Divided into 4 classes called varṇas (“light” or “color”).
- Characterized by particular social functions.
- Dharmaśāstras set out roles and duties of the 4 principle classes.
- Acknowledge that in times of adversity one may do the task of another class.
- Emphasize importance of marrying within one’s own class.
- However, they do recognize that mixed marriages take place quite often (sub-castes as the result).
What are the 4 Classes (a.k.a Varnas)?
- Brahmin
- Kshatriya
- Vaishya
- Shudra
What is the Brahmin class?
- Priestly class.
- Conduct rituals for themselves and others
- Study and teach Vedas
- Uppermost position of social structure.
- Duties of other classes defined in relationship to the Brahmins.
- Embodiment of dharma.
- Worthy of attaining the realization of Brahman.
- Fundamental duty – protect and support dharma.
What is the kṣatriyas class?
- Study (but not teach) the Vedas.
- Dharma was to protect the people and country.
- Give gifts and commission sacrificial rituals.
- Strive to conquer the senses, for only one in control of his own senses can lead or control others.
What are the duties of a king(kṣatriyas class)?
Duties of a king:
- Enforce punishments should dharmic rules be broken.
- Must embody a dharmic lifestyle to ensure the prosperity of his kingdom.
- Pay high regard to Brahmins.
- Encourages rulers to be firm because without firm control human society would return to the law of the fish
What is the Vaisya’s class?
- Commercial transactions, agricultural work, raising of cattle.
- Bestow gifts
- Sponsor sacrifices
- Study the Vedas.
- Power of wealth and economic decisions.
What is the Sudras class?
- One duty – to serve the upper three classes.
- Accumulate no wealth.
- No power.
Were the rules outlined in the laws of manu followed by all Hindu’s?
- The rules outlined in the texts, like the Laws of Manu were not followed by all groups of Hindus.
- The Dharmaśāstra literature presents an idealized notion that the 4 varṇas existed in a harmonious balance.
- This was probably never realized.
- 4 varṇas well known throughout India.
- Ideological model, rather than one present in everyday life.
- In reality, Hindu social structure did not and does not always conform to the idealized scriptural presentation.
- In practice caste system is far more complex and flexible than the Dharmaśāstras suggest.
