Book Title: Lord Mahavira Vol 01
Author(s): S C Rampuria
Publisher: Jain Vishva Bharati Institute

Previous | Next

Page 129
________________ 120 Lord Mahavira known as kshatriya republics in the Indological literature. Here, on the territory of modern Bihar and the eastern regions of the state of Uttar Pradesh, republics of shakkya; koliya; Lichchavi (vaishali), videha, Bhana, Bali, Malia, Mauriya etc., were situated. It is known that marriages frequently took place between kshatriyas and especially kshatriyas from solar dynasty-and the women from the local peoples. It is also known that towards the middle of the first millennium B.C. (and possibly also earlier) the category of so-called vratya-kshatriyas i.e. kshatriyas by -vow, which means not by birth-existed in the east. Many a scholar assumes that those were the kshatriyas who were the local chiefs and heads of kinships whom the Aryan kshatriyas were compelled to acknowledge as members of their own caste, according to the diplomatic consideration of those times. The result of the developing caste-class relations and the division into the caste of priests-Brahmins was the formation of caste-structure and further with this, elevation by the Brahmins of prohibitions and limitations to the level of religious dogmas. This divided the people into castes and prohibited transfer from the lower castes into the higher. Hence Brahmanism, invariably attended by caste structure and by the demand of assigning high postion to Brahmins in the society and showing them limitless respect, started spreading in the whole of India. The spiritual domination of the kshatri, the patriarch of the family-kin groups in the past and the independent position of the kshatriya warrior in military-democratic republics, later on, was replaced by their dependence on Brahmins, not only in the religious-cultural matters but also in the affairs of State administration, in the questions of war and peace, in the distribution of surplus products, in a word, on all the aspects of social and productive life. All around, one of the main demands of the Brahmins was the demand of generous offerings to Gods and liberal gifts to themselves. The offering to Gods were to consist mainly of cattlesometimes thousands of cattle, sheep and goats were driven out for offerings. Horses which were rare animals in India in those days were also driven out for offerings. Huge number of poultry was also chopped off. The whole ritual of worship was made complicated to the extreme by the Brahmins and the role of the sacrifices and the prayer was reduced to obediently repeating after

Loading...

Page Navigation
1 ... 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320