Untoucables in Classical Tamil Society? (Re: New discovery in Tamil Nadu)

[George Hart]

Dear Palaniappan,

I really don't think we need to drag this out.  We disagree, period.   
For me, the poems describe quite clearly an institution in which  
people who deal with death and the spirit world are stigmatized and  
exist in several categories.  A similar institution existed in  
traditional Japanese society.  As for aNanku, the DED gives cognates  
in several languages, and the Lexicon says, "1 pain, affliction,  
suffering 2 disease 3 fear 4 lust 5 killing 6 deity 7 celestial damsel  
8 demoness that takes away one's life by awakening lust or by other  
means 9 beautiful woman, as resembling a celestial damsed 10 devil 11  
dancing under religious excitement, especially possession by skanda 12  
low-caste person 13 beauty 14 form 15 young offspring"  (Note the last  
meaning is given a different entry in DED).  As a verb, the word means  
"to suffer," "to afflict," and is connected with Kannada aNunku,  
"depress, humble, ruin, destroy."  Rajam is a fine scholar, but I do  
not think she has established that the word means anything other than  
"afflict" or something similar in any of her examples.  And then, of  
course, we have the notion of aNanku in musical instruments played by  
performers (who, yes, are low caste) and in the breasts of beautiful  
women (because they bewitch men).  And certainly, there is no  
commentator who sees the word as meaning anything other than "afflict"  
in some sense.

In any event, I'm tired of quibbling.  I find your commentary very  
interesting and even helpful, and am grateful for the ideas and  
insights it contains, but I don't agree with your conclusions.

Dear Mahadevan,

Thanks for the wonderful piece on the Vedas and varnas.  I completely  
agree with you that the Vedic Aryans did not have a jaati system in  
the early period.  But what about the following speculation:

1. The Aryans must have been a tiny population next to the original  
inhabitants -- evidence: the pre-Aryan skeletons in the IV show the  
same genetic features as today.  Besides, it just stands to reason.

2. We happen to have preserved an enormous amount of sacred literature  
from a very small class one of whose purposes was to empower itself.   
This literature no doubt describes the ritual culture of the Aryans  
from the view of the Brahmins -- but inevitably that view is skewed.   
As you know, one gets very different views of hierarchy in modern  
South India from different groups.

3. The pre-Aryan culture of N. India was materially far more advanced  
than that of the Aryans.  The people who lived there must have had an  
extremely complex and rich culture.  Note that many have seen evidence  
of "caste" separation in IV cities.

4. Even if we ignore the IV Civilization, the fact is that a rich  
village culture existed in N. India for millennia before the advent of  
the Aryans.  Village culture tends to be highly resistant to change.   
Villages may have incorporated Aryan elements and language, but I  
suspect their basic social institutions were little changed.  Who has  
not been struck by the virtual identity of the IV bullock cart and its  
modern counterpart?

Given all these facts, is it not inevitable that many elements of pre- 
existing culture(s) of N. India found their way into the "Vedic"  
milieu?  And, if jaati were a prominent feature of this indigenous  
culture, is it not plausible that it was slowly taken up by the  
"Vedic" people?  (I use quotes because by the time they had absorbed  
these elements, they were as much or more indigenous as they were  
Vedic).  What seems likely to me is that jaati was as much a part of  
all of South Asian culture 4000 years ago as it is today -- though no  
doubt it has changed in many ways (and of course is different today in  
different areas).  Is it not more likely that it was absorbed from pre- 
existing cultures by the Aryans than that it somehow miraculously  
evolved from the varna system (which, I would suggest, was itself a  
response to the jaati system the Aryans encountered among the  
indigenous people)?