Prof. Dr. Klaus Bruhn
The four varnas, the three or four vargas, the four ashramas, the eight forms of marriage and the different forms of sonship (e.g. twelve forms of sonship) are important elements of ancient Indian thought. The concepts were developed from the perspective of man (the eight forms of marriage excepted); they demonstrate the patriarchal system.
The great number of chains is typical of the Indian history of ideas. We find inter alia numerous chains in the Indian ars amatoria (§ 10.4). Chains are related to the fields of syntax and style. Some chains coordinate facts, other chains are purely speculative, some are rhetorical. A discourse with many chains is, naturally, different from a discourse with few chains. Chains and other structural elements in Sanskrit texts are subjects in their own right.
Partiality for chains is linked with partiality for certain figures (3-4-5-8-12: groups of three etc.). Chains based on figures help to organize the material, but chains with favoured figures also do violence to the material. The actual development of culture is not determined by popular figures.
Four varnas
It is not easy to describe the 'varna system' in an adequate manner.
There were four varnas or social categories (formerly labelled 'castes'): (1) Brahmans (sacrificers, ritualists, scholars), (2) Kshatriyas (warriors, kings), (3) Vaishyas (merchants, farmers) and (4) Shudras (servants, craftsmen). The caste was determined by the father. Untouchables (outcastes) were outside the system and only in a later period headed in Sanskrit by a general term. -- FICK passim; PANIKKAR 29-50; KANE: 19-104, 268-415; BRINKHAUS passim; GONDA I 298-301; MICHAELS 159-175.
We start with the rite introducing an adolescent into his varna.
The male members of the first three varnas were 'twice-born' on account of a period of study and asceticism introduced by a particular rite: the investiture of the adolescent with the sacred thread (yajnopavita). The investiture is called upanayana, a life-cycle ritual. Upanayana means 'leading the boy for the sake of the investiture to a religious teacher (the teacher is a Brahman).' HILLEBRANDT §§ 24-36; JOLLY § 56; OLDENBERG 464-468; GONDA I 119-121; MICHAELS 71-99. There is no very specific ceremony demarcating the end of the study. The student merely has to take a ceremonial bath. Upanayana stands for the initial rite but also for the whole course of study and ritual. The initiation bestows upon the initiated important ritualistic rights. For the duration of study, the law-books give exaggerated figures (up to 48 years).
Shudras were excluded from the investiture and they never attained the status of twice-born men. Before the investiture, everybody, Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaishya, man and woman, was a Shudra.
There was no investiture (upanayana) for women, and the marriage ceremony served as a substitute (was there upanayana in an earlier period?) "In fact, we can view the marriage ceremony as a very abbreviated period of 'studentship' for the bride" (JAMISON 47: Manu). But what was the varna of an unmarried adult woman? Was she living in a varnic no-man's-land?
The exclusion from the true upanayana implied for women the life-long exclusion from the study (implying hearing) of the Veda, not of course exclusion from the sacrifice. But the actual sacrificer is male and twice-born, see § 8.3. Recitation of a mantra by women was anathema.
Before continuing the discussion we have to mention customs for women reflecting the better varna situation (upanayana/study in general) in an early period. KANE says at any rate about Manu "this [certain ceremonies] shows that in the day of the Manusmriti, upanayana for women had gone out of practice, though there were faint glimmerings of its performance for women in former days." (295)
In a twice-born family all children (boys and girls) were actually Shudras, whatever that implied for the daily practice (Shudras and twice-born in the same family...).
The twice-born status of Kshatriyas and Vaishyas (formalizations, not the actual rank) was sooner or later on the decline, but we do not have many details. "... from comparatively early times the yajnopavita [sacred thread] came to be regarded as the peculiar indicator of the wearer's being of the brahmana caste." (KANE 296) In other words: Kshatriyas and Vaishyas (whatever that meant in early days) wore no longer the yajnopavita. -- Is there a study of the yajnopavita in iconography?
The importance of the upanayana follows inter alia from the typical over-detailed rules for the ceremony. In the case of the sacred thread the texts prescribe white cotton for Brahmans, red wool for Kshatriyas, yellow linen for Vaishyas, to give just one example (see MICHAELS' Table 7 on p.81 for further details). The age of initiation is between 8 and 16, between 11 and 22, and between 12 and 24 respectively. The thread runs over the left shoulder and is worn life-long. The boy (the young man) has the status of an ascetic, and his temporary life with the teacher or guru is subject to ascetic rules. He has to study (to study and to memorize) the Veda (Vedic mantras) and to observe numerous injunctions (not to take a bath, to live from begging, to wear an animal's skin etc.). See GONDA I 119-121.
The law-books consider the old fourfold varna system (however theoretical it is) a reality. We read time and again that such are the rules for varna x and such (but different) the rules for varna y. See the following: different materials of the sacred thread (supra); different forms of marriage... (infra); different punishments... (JOLLY 127; § 9.4); different forms of greeting... (HOPKINS Re 8; MICHAELS 176). E.W.HOPKINS has studied the relation between the structure of the dharma (specific rules) and the fourfold varna system in detail (HOPKINS Re: Manu Smriti).
The varna system may be called theoretical. Even more theoretical is the doctrine of the 'mixed castes' (infra). There are thus two different theoretical levels (varnas and 'mixed castes'). 'Mixed castes' originate when the parents of a person belong to different varnas: the child of a Brahman women and a Vaishya man is a 'Vaidehaka' (a Vaidehaka is actually a citizen of Videha in Northern India). Members of 'mixed castes' are the products of inter-varna marriages. Maybe such marriages existed. See KANGLE 146-151 (detailed).
The varna system in its totality (not to speak of the system of mixed castes) disintegrated in the course of time. Only the Brahmans have persisted to this day as a well-defined, though not very uniform group. The varnas are relevant to the present article mainly because women are Shudras with the well-known consequences.
Refer for a critical approach to the varna system and to the Dharma Shastras to PANIKKAR: "The fact is that the four-fold caste is merely a theoretical division of society... It is a sociological fiction." (33) "The great Hindu Legal Codes [Manu etc.] are based on the caste [varna] system. Manu especially ordains different kinds of punishment for different castes and holds up varna-sankara or the mixture of castes as the greatest of evils [see also p.84]. But no divine character was at any time claimed for the Dharma Shastras, even by the Brahmins themselves." (41) Obviously PANIKKAR wants to say that the caste system is neither based on facts nor linked with religion. Modern Hindu leaders will, on the contrary, emphasize the unity of religion and culture (e.g. unity of religion and caste). See also KANGLE 146-148.
For mixed marriages, where the husband belongs to a lower varna than the wife, the Sanskrit uses the expression pratiloma (incorrect marriage, pratiloma = against the grain, hypogamy). The opposite case, the correct case (husband belongs to a higher varna than the wife), is called anuloma (with the grain, hypergamy). The two terms appear often in references to marriages.
The “mixed castes” and further lists of names comprise all sorts of people: Aryan and Non-Aryan, “castes”, “tribes” and “stems” (e.g. KANGLE 146-150; BRINKHAUS 208, graph; BROCKINGTON 209-210; WITZEL 48-50). What was their language and religion, what was the position of the women, what was the material culture?
Three vargas
Trivarga designates the three (tri) spheres of human activity. They are (1) material riches, (2) sexual love, and (3) socio-religious duties (artha, kama, dharma). Later on, spiritual efforts (4) have been added: striving for liberation (moksha). This produced a group of four (catur-varga, catur = four). Varga actually designates class or category in general
Trivarga is mentioned by us as it calls to mind the ashrama concept (infra). The three positions of trivarga correspond also to the well-known compendia or disciplines (different in extent etc.) of Artha-, Kama- and Dharma Shastra. See MICHAELS 96..
Four ashramas
The other categorization of human life is the ashrama chain just mentioned: (1) brahmacarin (novice after upanayana), (2) grihastha (householder, head of a family), (3) vanaprastha (hermit, living in a hermitage in the forest, attending to the sacrificial fire), (4) parivrajaka (wandering mendicant who lives without the sacrificial fire). See Manu 4.1 combined with Manu 6.33; SPROCKHOFF 376-377; GONDA I 283-284 combined with 287-288; MICHAELS 95-96. -- As everything else, varga and ashrama are conceived from the point of view of the male. The ashrama doctrine demonstrates moreover (1, 3 and 4) the emphasis on renunciation as forming a contemporary trend.
Eight forms of marriage
There exists an octad of more or less different forms of marriage (not of eight well-defined forms of ritual). The octad is the best known list of this type. Refer for the history of the octad, and for divergences (number etc.), to JOLLY (p.53). The octad: (1) Brahma-marriage, (2) Daiva-, (3) Arsha-, (4), Prajapatya-, (5) Asura-, (6) Gandharva-, (7) Rakshasa-, (8) Paishaca-. The eight words are well known, but their connection with the traditional marriage forms is in most cases not clear. -- JOLLY § 16; ALTEKAR 35-49; KANE: 516-526; JAMISON 210-250 (210-212: overview); MICHAELS 114, Table 9; Manu Smriti 3.27-34.
It is difficult to supply a rational overview of the different forms of marriage or to detail the eight forms one-by-one. The marriage forms are attributed to different varnas, e.g. in one Sanskrit verse nos. 1-6 to Brahmans, nos. 5-8 to Kshatriyas, nos. 5-8 (with the exception of no.7) also to Vaishyas and Shudras. Another verse (structure irregular) attributes nos.1-4 to Brahmans, no.7 to Kshatriyas and no.5 to Vaishyas and Shudras. Further verses state that nos.1-4 produce good sons and nos.5-8 bad sons. The attribution differs from verse to verse (not only from text to text). The entire situation (different attributions) is anarchic; see JAMISON 296, footnote 10 (examples quoted from Manu 3.23 etc.).
The octad is not arranged according to the principle of mutual exclusion. There are thus links between Gandharva, Rakshasa and Paishaca: capture and abduction (JAMISON), and between Asura and Arsha: bride-price and quasi-bride-price. Brahma, Daiva, Arsha and Prajapatya are standard (no special elements of any importance), if we ignore the quasi-bride-price (quasi-shulka) of Arsha (bull and cow). Gandharva, Rakshasa and Paishaca are midway between legal and illegal. Asura is condemned on account of the bride-price. In nos.1-5 the bride is given to the bridegroom by her father, in 6-8 the situation is different. The act of giving is otherwise in all centuries central to the marriage. JOLLY § 16.
The bride-price was strongly criticized by the authors of the law-books: "The writers of Dharma Shastra literature almost lose their temper in condemning the custom of the bride-price." (ALTEKAR 40)
The famous Svayamvara form of narrative literature is not contained in any shastric list (but see JOLLY 53). In the Svayamvara form (narrative reality rather than reality in actual life) the girl chooses the husband herself. Best known instances are the stories of Satyavan and Savitri (JAMISON 245-247; § 11.2 infra), and of Nala and Damayanti (JAMISON 238-239). The Svayamvara motif (in its widest sense) is widespread in narrative literature, and in India it is occasionally linked with the rule that a father who does not give the girl in marriage in time commits a grave sin. A Svayamvara is here the way out of the difficulty. SCHMIDT 76-109 (forms of Svayamvara), 91-106 (Svayamvara in other countries). § 11.2 (Savitri).
There are various discussions on the Gandharva form in juridical texts: THIEME 460-466.
The Rakshasa marriage (abduction), also called Kshatra (= Kshatriya) marriage, solves (theoretically) the general problem of the Kshatriyas: they are not supposed to accept gifts. As a consequence they cannot accept the bride as a gift from the father-in-law; they must win her by force -- although this is illegal in other respects (JAMISON 235).
Forms of sonship
SCHMIDT observes "To have a son is of paramount importance for a man in most societies." (44). The priority of sons is strengthened in India by the significance of the 'ancestor worship,' i.e. by the view that only males can feed the ancestors. See adoption (§ 6.3) and niyoga (§ 9.1): necessity of a son.
There are generally twelve types of sonship (JOLLY 72-73) and, in addition to that, different forms of the individual twelve-son-lists, and further lists. The Manu Smriti has the following two hexads (9.159, 9.160), translation by BURNELL and OLIVELLE. Refer also to the list in Manu 9.166-180 (OLIVELLE 324). The five sons by adoption (explained in JOLLY's commentary) are asterisked:
(1) A son of the body, (2) a wife's son (infra), (3) *a son-given, (4) *a son-made, (5) a son-in-secret, and (6) *a son-rejected (infra),
(7) a son by a girl, (8) a son taken with the bride, (9) *a son bought, (10) a son of a twice-married woman, (11) *a son self-given, (12) a son by a Sudra woman (infra).
Commentary. (1) A legitimate son (THIEME 477), (2) a son by the wife from a brother etc. (niyoga, Manu 9.167), (3) *an adopted son who had been given by the parents, (4) *a son who is adopted as an adult, (5) an adulterine son (borne during the absence of the husband?) (6) *a son who is cast off and has been taken by others, (7) the son of an unmarried girl, (8) a son of a wife by an earlier partner? (9) *a son sold by his biological parents to the receiving parents, (10) a son of a first or second husband? (11) *a son who arranges his adoption himself, (12) a son by a Shudra woman. The meaning of these short definitions is not always clear. 5-2-7-8 are not fathered by the husband (OLIVELLE 324).
The twelve forms of sonship are to some extent derived from reality. The order is not clear. See JOLLY 73 for the varying claim to inheritance. The well-known putrika (§ 6.2) is missing in the above list, but considered in other cases (JOLLY 72, lines 13-20 and following). Differences between the different twelve-son lists are moderate. See the treatment in JOLLY 73. There are also lists of three or five forms of sonship (JOLLY 72).
The whole § 3 consists of concepts, apparently basic for any description of the culture of the period. The difference between theory and practice is not considered a fundamental question.
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