53 - Discourses on Tantra Volume One

Chapter 14 Tantra and Indo-Aryan Civilization (3)

The Aryans did not have their own script and thus were first introduced to the [written] alphabet after coming in contact with the Dravidians. The Dravidians of the Harappa and Mahenjodaro civilizations of India were already using a script, the Saendhavii script; after the Aryan migration into India, that script became transformed into the Bráhmii and Kharośt́hi scripts.

The inconvenience that the non-Indian Aryans had faced for want of script no doubt disappeared after the Indianized Aryans learned it, but owing to their old superstitions, most of the Aryans were reluctant to put the Vedas in black and white. They refused to believe that the reason that the Vedas were not written at the time of their composition was simply the lack of script. They adhered to their illogical reasoning even after the scripts came into being: they thought that the rśis had not written out the Vedas, one, because it was improper, and two, because the Vedas were named shruti. However, much later, in Kashmiira,(1) the Vedas were written down in the Sáradá script in use there at the time. There was really no alternative to writing them down, because there was almost nobody left who knew all the Vedas by heart, and the number of people who knew even parts of them was very small. When the Kashmiira scholars finally did write down the Vedas, it was discovered that many parts of them were missing for good.

It was not difficult for the healthy, martial, almost invincible Aryans to conquer northern India. The victorious Aryans treated the vanquished non-Aryans as slaves, trampling them underfoot to the bottom of their trivarńa [three-caste] society – their society of Bráhmańas, Kśatriyas and Vaeshyas. There the non-Aryans became the fourth class, or Shúdra Varńa, while society became a cáturvarńa [four-caste] society. In the beginning the Aryans tried their utmost to avoid blood relationships with the Shúdras – overwhelming proof of this is found in the Vedas and later books – but eventually it became impossible for them to avoid intermixture.

Although in northern India the Aryans enjoyed predominance in the political sphere, the non-Aryans’ influence in the social sphere gradually increased, and persists even today. It was not possible for the Aryans to extend their political power into southern India. There they did exert some social influence, but even less than in the north.

The courage, strength and physical beauty of the Aryans was conspicuous in the north, south and east of India, so in these areas, the non-Aryans were very eager to establish social relations with the Aryans, and often proudly called themselves Árya-Vipras [Vipra = Bráhmańa, or Brahman], Árya-Kśatriyas or Árya-Vaeshyas. Although the Aryans’ predominance was mainly political, and the non-Aryans maintained social and cultural predominance, the Aryan influence over the language spread everywhere. Moreover, the influential leaders of society everywhere began to introduce themselves as Aryans. The anti-Aryan sentiment gradually weakened, causing a widespread inferiority complex to take root among the non-Aryan population. This inferiority complex proved extremely detrimental to the interests of the non-Aryans.

The Aryan leader Agastya was the first to go to southern India to popularize the ideas and ideals of the Aryans. He explained the greatness of the Aryans to the people there allegorically. According to this mythological tale, Vindhya Hill on the northern frontier of the Deccan bent its head out of reverence for Agastya, enabling him to cross into southern India, and has kept its head bent in reverence ever since. The great epic Rámáyańa depicts the Aryan invasion of southern India. Needless to say, the monkeys of Kiśkindhyá and the rákśasas [demons] of Lanka, as described in the Rámáyańa, were in fact neither monkeys nor demons, but the people of different sub-castes of the Dravidian society itself. The proof that the non-Aryans, particularly the Dravidians, were a highly developed community in regard to knowledge, learning, intellect, city and town building, cultivation of science, and social order and discipline, is traceable in every line of the Rámáyańa. It was extremely difficult for the Aryans to hold their own in an intellectual duel with the Dravidians. At every step they found themselves outwitted, and said, “Queer are the ways of demons.”

As a result of co-existing with the non-Aryans for a long time, the Aryans learned many things from them. In fact there is hardly anything of Aryanism left in them today. Of course, the non-Aryans also took on certain Aryan traits, among them their fair complexion, their proficiency in various activities, and their ostentatious lifestyle. From the non-Aryans the Aryans acquired a well-knit social system, a subtle insight, spiritual philosophy and Tantra sádhaná. In the beginning the Aryans tried hard to preserve the purity of their blood – Shúdras used to be kept scrupulously at arm’s length – but such endeavours and precautions eventually proved a failure. More or less everywhere in India there was intermixing between the Aryans and the non-Aryans – the Dravidians, the Austrics, and the Mongolians - which resulted in a new mixed race. This is why dark Vipras and fair Shúdras are not at all rare in India today. Their very colours pay testimony to the intermixture of Aryan and non-Aryan blood running in their veins.

The victorious Aryans, coming from cold countries, were a skilled and competent race. Their competence, their sense of superiority over the non-Aryans, and their unity born out of hatred for the non-Aryans, helped them in their victory over India. Though the non-Aryans were defeated by the Aryans in northern India, though the non-Aryans of southern and eastern India were under the spell of an inferiority complex, none of them surrendered to the Aryans without a fight. As they were constantly engaged in warfare with the Aryans, they became much more proficient in battle. Thus Aryan victory in southern and eastern India eventually became impossible. In the accounts of major battles fought between the Aryans and the non-Aryans, as depicted in the Sanskrit books written in the subsequent period,(2) the non-Aryans display no less competence than the Aryans.

(1) Author’s note: It is wrong to write “Káshmiira”, for the word káshmiira means “pertaining to Kashmiira”, or “saffron”. The Aryans saw saffron for the first time in Kashmiira.

(2) Author’s note: In these books the non-Aryans were sometimes called rákśasas [demons], sometimes pishácas [ghouls], and sometimes asuras [monsters].