Sambodhi 1989 Vol 16

Author(s): Ramesh S Betai, Yajneshwar S Shastri
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 24

15
Aryans and Non-Aryans
Radhakrishnan points out that Hinduism is a missionary religion if not in the sense of individual proselytism then at least in the sense that whole tribes or communities have been absorbed by Hinduism. 'Hinduism has come to be a tapestry of the most variegated tissues and almost endless diversity of hues. It would be difficult indeed to get anything coherent out of such a heterogeneous mass of doctrines and practices. This very heterogeneity of content makes for tolerance. It is to be remarked however that no reformer in the long centuries of Hinduisin has escaped the bentem and contempt of the orthodox or the tribulation which goes with an exquisitely organised excommunication. Radhakrishnan holds that 'It is a matter of history that vast masses of the original ponAryan population were absorbed by the Aryan fold as Shudras, a class which was not included in the Vedic trivarnikas (a threefold division of society as contrasted with the later fourfold division). As against the old dogma of the Aryan superiority over the Dravidian, recent historical discoveries have gone to show that the Aryans were unable to resist the pressure of Dravidian ideas to such an extent that it has become a real riddle to determine with any definiteness whether the Hinduism of to-day is more Aryan or more Dravidian. Moreover the excavations of Mohenjodaro and Harrappa in 1911 by John Wheeler and his teain have at least shown that there was no such so-called Aryan invasion from north-western India. There are at least two hundred and more such sites in western and norther parts of India where it is shown that Aryans and Dravidians lived together and there was very systematic city-dwelling life with well-facilitated amenities and articles of decoration as well as utilities. This city dwelling has shown further that there was pre-Mohenjc Harrappa civilization in which Vedas and Upanishads were a part of cultured life. There is shown no historical landmark when Aryans entered India and as a race attempted to overpower and dominate the supposed hostile Dravidians. The said battles and their descriptions in Rigveda are symbolic of two parts of inward life and forces evident in human struggle expressed in 'syinbolic metaphors by poets. It is however a fact that Aryans and Dravids have mixed and they lived their lives together. There were at times conflicts of ideas and ways of living. This is evident in the lives of heroes of Ramayana and Mahabharata. Vasudeva was an Aryan but his wife Devaki was Dravid as she was sister of Kansa who was later on killed by Lord Krishna. Similarly Shishupala and Jayadratha were non-Aryans with whom Lord Krishna had to fight. In Ramayana Ravana was non-Aryan but Mandodari, his wife was Aryan