The Culture of Rarh

The culture of the human race is one. But there are variations in the cultural expressions according to changes of time, place and person.

These variations in expression are not cultural differences.

If all the children in one family have different food habits and speak in different styles, then do they belong to different cultures?

Nevertheless we speak much about culture, and we keenly observe cultural advancements and declines.

The more introversial the movement of a culture is, the subtler it is.

It cannot be said just what the culture of Ráŕh was like at the dawn of human history.

• But it could not have been developed since human intellect was crude at that time.

The advent of Lord Sadáshiva improved the culture of Ráŕh.

There is neither caste discrimination nor caste division in Shaeva Dharma.

So where did the caste discrimination and caste division in today’s Ráŕh come from?

Caste division is the expression of a fissiparous mentality.

Culture cannot move properly if caste division exists.

The Aryans

The Aryans entered India between 7,000-10,000 years ago well before the advent of Shiva.

The conflict between the pre-Aryan civilization and that of the invading Aryans went on for centuries.

• In time, synthesis happened.

This state of synthesis went on for thousands of years and extended up to the Buddhist and Jain ages.

The process of give-and-take between the pre-Aryan civilization and the invading Aryan civilization happened with much bargaining and tug-of-war.

The Aryans gave defective gifts, such as the system of caste division, to the indigenous Indians.

• This spread hatred between the high and the low.

The Aryan civilization came to a standstill at the threshold of the kingdom of Káshiirájya (Varanasi).

Then a lot of strenuous efforts were made in order for Mithila to be accepted in Áryyavartta [Land of the Aryans], or Uttarápath [northern India].

The word magadh means “a population which is opposed to the Vedic system”.

• Maga means “opposed to the Vedas”
• Dha means “one who abides by”

In the end, Magadh was not accepted.

Ráŕh was on the eastern border of Magadh.

• It had no opportunity to become “sanctified” by the touch of the Aryans’ feet.

But the system of caste division entered Magadh under the influence of the Aryans.

• It also entered Ráŕh to some extent.

Ráŕh too became segmented into so many castes.

But thanks to the firmly-rooted Shaeva Dharma, caste-based hatred could not crystallize in Ráŕh.

Buddha came from a Kśatriya varńa [here, a sub-caste] belonging to the Malla branch of the Shakya pravara [dynasty].

• His father was a feudal king.
• This proves that there was casteism in India even before the emergence of Buddhism and Jainism

Vardhaman Mahavir was born in a Vaeshya family of Bideha.

His father, Siddhartha, was a businessman. So the caste system did exist in India.

This caste system also reached a peak in Magadh in a later period.

After the demise of Buddha, both Buddhist and non-Buddhist kings said that since Buddha was a Kśatriya, they were entitled to the ashes from his cremation.

But it was not like this in Ráŕh. The caste system was made to grow among the common people in Ráŕh.

There is no logic behind the contention that the Ráŕhiiya Utkal Brahmans came from outside.

To say, based on imaginative stories, that the Brahmans of Ráŕh were outsiders, would not be logical.

I clearly refute the Kulatantrárńava of the Ráŕhii Brahmans.(1)

Caste discrimination came to Ráŕh much later.

The Puranic Dharma of Shankaracharya weighed Ráŕh down and immobilized its social consciousness.

It converted the spontaneous flow of life in Ráŕh into a stagnant pool and paved the way for countless weeds to burgeon.

The defective mentality and way of life of Puranic Dharma became intolerable for people.

Hence, many in Ráŕh-Samatat-Barendra-D́abák who came in contact with the more humanitarian Islam took shelter in it.

1981, Kolkata

Footnotes

(1) A book containing the details, history and lineage of the Ráŕhii Brahmans, and indicating that they were not among the original inhabitants of Ráŕh. –Trans.