Long ago I said that 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 is obvious that it could not have been developed, because the movement of the human intellect is from crude to subtle.

If there is anything that is sweet and anything that is worth following in the culture of Ráŕh, it is due to the advent of Lord Sadáshiva. 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? Another question may arise here: why do I bring up caste discrimination and caste division while talking about culture? It is because culture cannot move in an appropriate way if caste division, which is the expression of a fissiparous mentality, exists. Hence everything comes within the purview of a discussion on culture.

The Aryans entered India between seven and ten thousand years ago. This was well before the advent of Shiva. The conflict between the pre-Aryan civilization and that of the invading Aryans went on for centuries. Then in the course of time synthesis began to come. 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 did take place, but not without much bargaining and many a tug-of-war. Of all the defective gifts of the Aryans that the indigenous Indians accepted, one was the system of caste division, which 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]. But in the end Magadh did not win this acceptance. The word magadh means “a population which is opposed to the Vedic system”. Maga means “opposed to the Vedas” and dha means “one who abides by”. Ráŕh, which was located on the further [eastern] border of Magadh, had no opportunity to become “sanctified” by the touch of the Aryans’ feet. But just as the system of caste division entered Magadh under the influence of Áryavartta, so also did it enter 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.

That there was casteism in India even before the emergence of Buddhism and Jainism is best proven by the fact that 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.) And 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, the kings – both Buddhists and non-Buddhists – said clearly 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 [inhabitants of 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. In clear terms I hereby refute the Kulatantrárńava of the Ráŕhii Brahmans.⁽¹⁾

But it is true that caste discrimination came to Ráŕh much later. The Paoráńika 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 Paoráńika Dharma became intolerable for people, hence a great number of people in Ráŕh-Samatat-Barendra-D́abák who came in contact with the more humanitarian Islam took shelter in it.

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.