How Vedic Brahmanism Stunted the Development of Sciences

Ever since the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power and ruled the nation for two terms, from 1999 to 2004 and 2014 to the present, a lot of propaganda by Brahmanic pundits belonging to that ideology has clamoured that all the modern sciences that originated in Europe, America, China and Japan are no match for the Vedic science ancient Brahminism built.

Particularly after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s coming to power all the Science Congresses have turned into Vedic Science congresses. They have started propagating that all colleges and universities must teach Vedic science instead of the universal science discovered in many countries over many millennia.

They do not want to recognise the agrarian science that the Shudra/ OBC/ Dalit/ Adivasi masses of India discovered, also over many millennia.

It is, now, very clear that all four Vedas were written during the period of pastoral economy, after the Harappan economy had been destroyed and before the Buddhist economy was built. The villages and cities were completely erased after the Indo-Aryans settled down. The Indo-Africans who later came to be known as Indo-Dravidians were enslaved to do the basic cattle rearing and sustaining of the pastoral economy.

It is clear that food production using animals — buffalo, cow, bull, sheep, goat and so on — was built by the Vedic Shudras. But they were not allowed to take any decisions for advancing that economy which could lead to the rebuilding of villages and cities.

The Vedic Brahmins were the main decision makers. The Ksatriyas were assigned the work of defending and protecting the hegemony of Brahmins and the Vaisyas were assigned the work of distribution of the cattle economic products. The Brahmins could get the highest share of that pastoral economy for consumption and spiritual sacrifices.

The horse was the only other animal the Aryans brought with them and used for mainly for war by Kshatriyas with a specialisation. They were under the guidance of Brahmins who composed the Vedas. Once Brahmin spiritual hegemony was established all other forces, including the non-Brahmin Aryans, were under the Brahminic control. It was during this period that they established psychological control over the rest of the communities — Shudras and non-Shudras alike.

The saints said to have composed or written the Vedas survived now on Shudra slave labour based on the cattle economy. They did not teach them their spiritual knowledge. As there were no village communities after Harappan society was destroyed, the pastoral life was mostly one of roaming cattle herders and saints living in the forests under trees or in caves, looking for self salvation.

This is the reason why even today a typical Hindu (mainly Brahmin) saint’s image in the school text books is of a lonely man sitting semi-naked under a tree or in a cave for self salvation. He is never seen amidst people teaching divine ethics or religious morals. It is here that the roots of Brahminical isolationist castesist Hinduism were struck in Indian soil.

The Brahmin saints never believed in community salvation. The Shudras were not treated as human beings. Although such Shudra socioeconomic slavery does not exist now, the culture of Shudra spiritual slavery continues to operate in the 21st century. Hence the Brahmin priest or saint remains apart from the rest of the communities and the Shudras cannot lead the Hindu spiritual system.

The Shudras including Marathas, Jats, Patidars, Gujjars, Kammas, Reddys, Nairs and so on are not even conscious of this spiritual non-existence. As their spiritual illiteracy and ignorance is long drawn out, from the Rigvedic period to the present, they have not acquired the philosophical strength to assert themselves. Modern philosophy is more associated with religious thought, though materialist and secular thought co-exists with it. For a long time in human history the Shudras were not allowed to enter into the world of reading and writing of text — religious or secular. This caused a huge loss for human knowledge of the world. One of the major productive human societies was kept out of positive philosophical discourses. Hence the poverty of philosophy among the Shudras continues even today. The Brahmin saints and priests did this quite deliberately and systematically beginning in the Vedic period.

Even the family culture was taken backwards by Vedic brahmanism. The Brahmin saints in the Vedic period were either celibate or had sexual relations with women only occasionally, without accepting the marriage system that may have existed in Harappan civilisation. They did not construct a spiritual theory of moral family life, of one wife and one husband, as happened in other religious spiritual books. The Shudras must have carried Harappan man-woman relations with them into the Vedic period where some kind of marriage system existed among them. However, the Brahmanic saints have not evolved any positive marriage system. This is very clear from all the Purana writings of the same saints.

They did not recognise female sainthood. No woman was allowed to construct spiritual text. The first Indian text written by women is the Therigatha of the Buddhist women, only after the 6th century BCE.

The very nature of pastoral economy was such that the cattle herders would roam or travel along with their cattle without any scope of settling. The pastoral economy was by nature and character an unsettled economy with a food resource centered around meat and milk. The Brahmin saints were living in the forests either among themselves or sitting alone in the dhyana (meditation) and mantra pattana (reciting of Vedamantras) activity.

Agni, Vayu, or Brahma must have been their gods of worship and of offering sacrifices. They slowly seem to have left Indra to his textual existence. The sainthood they constructed during the pastoral economy was by and large anti-people and self survivalist, and without any interaction with the labourers. The animal economy also needed lot of hard work, of grazing, taking care of young ones, keeping a watch out for wild animals that may attack the domesticated ones, and so on. No saint was involved in this work.

Even the animal economic activity was treated as impure and un-brahminic by the saints. Thus they systematically cut their relationship with physical economic activity. Purity and pollution relations in different forms were established.

Saints in other religions like Buddhism or Catholic Christianity were from early days working among the masses. Teaching the ignorant was their main job. They lived in the villages and towns. As there were no villages and cities in the pastoral economy the Brahmin saints of that period became so self-centered and exclusionary that they stopped all forms of social interaction with the Shudras. Any encounter with an unknown human being was scary and sinful for the saints. It was here that human untouchability was constructed. The saints became so anti-labour that the cattle herding Shudras were treated as totally untouchable.

It was only in the 19th and 20th centuries, during the Bhakti movement, that Shudra touchability began, leaving only the Dalits as untouchable. The Shudra Bhakti Movement was given recognition in the face of large scale Shudra conversion to Islam in Afghanistan, Pakistan and East Bengal (present-day Bangaldesh). Till then all Shudras, including the present Marathas, Patidars, Jats, Gujjars, Reddys, Kammas, Nairs, Lingayats and so on were also treated as untouchable by Brahmins.

In issues related to Food (dining) and Bed (marriage) untouchability is practiced even now with the same Vedic fervour by the Brahmins pundits and saints. No Shudra community is in a position to challenge this kind of spiritual and social untouchability. The RSS/ BJP are not opposing this practice. They justify it as a social practice with Indian sentiments.

The varna and caste system seems to have been constructed like that in the Vedic period. It had huge implications for the economy of ancient and modern India. Two major spiritual systems that Vedic Brahminism created did not allow any surplus generation in that period. Without surplus generation no good village and town system could survive. Actually religion should have played a positive organisational role for generating surplus and distributing that surplus among various working forces. But Vedic Brahminism chose a negative role, of social fragmentation and anti-communitarian life. This practice of the spiritual intellectuals did not allow the emergence of an advanced village system and its development into urbanisation.

This whole process played an anti-scientific role. Science can develop only in the social collectivity and with the involvement in hard physical and mental labour of the people. The educated teachers of the society both spiritual and secular play a critical role in the process. The self isolationism of Brahmin saints only negated that process of surplus generation. The Vedic pastoralist period is a good example of long drawn out socioeconomic stagnation in a big nation like India. Till the Buddhist school emerged this stagnation continued.

What are the two anti-surplus generation mechanisms that Vedic Brahminism deployed?

One was the wastage of milk products in the fire and in other rituals. The second was the massive animal sacrifices that they indulged in. The Yagnas, Yagas, Kratus were perfomed by sacrificing hundreds and thousands of cattle—cows, bulls, buffaloes, sheep, goats and so on. In yagnas or yagas like Rajasuya or Aswamedha thousands of cattle were killed at one go. The dead animals were thrown in the open space where they rotted, polluting the environment.

Animal sacrifice was the norm in all religions in ancient times. Only Buddhism completely avoided such animal sacrifice. Catholic Christianity and Islam practised animal sacrifice in various forms. Islam continues such a large number of animal sacrifice on Bakrid day, which has its negative impact on the modern Islamic economy.

Although the Brahmin priests gave up this practice after the Buddhist spiritual revolution, Shudra/ Dalit/ Adivasi people continue animal sacrifice even today, in a limited way. Except for pure food purpose no animal should be killed and this is what Gauthama Buddha also propagated. Pure vegetarianism is also anti-developmental.

In Nepal there is still a practice of mass animal sacrifice with Brahminic priestly class involvement. Such animal sacrifice without proper use for food purpose of human beings certainly negates the economic development of any society at any given point of time. The Vedic period was full of unwanted sacrifices and that negated its economic advancement.

Now the Brahminic forces and the BJP/ RSS live a vegetarian life but even within that vegetarianism the wasting of food through fire poojas and homam performances is allowed.

Throwing mainly ghee that was being produced in plenty in the pastoral economy came into Brahminic life and it continues till now. Of all the milk products only ghee gets burnt in fire. The other products like milk, curd would only put out the fire. But milk and curd they used for washing the idols (what is known as milk wash) and leaving lot of curd (now with mixed rice) before idols as naivedhyam (godly food) to Godheads. Most of the ghee was either consumed by the Brahmins or poured in the fire rituals leaving hardly any milk products — particularly ghee — for the Shudra slaves and other Aryan Varnas like Ksatriyas and Vaisyas. However, the Ksatriyas seem to have asserted their right to better food and better status as they were handling the horse power and war weapons.

The ghee consuming culture of Brahmins on a daily basis continues even today, along with pouring ghee into Agni while performing fire rituals. Among the Shudras, Other Backward Classes and Dalits who actually produce ghee by grazing cattle, the consumption of ghee is minimal. Hence the hardworking people lived only for a short period and the saints lived for a long time.

The Vedas do not have any social science content, leave alone science content. They have only mantric content. The Buddhist Suttas and Pitakas have some social science content. Of course, the ancient Brahmin thinkers who wrote books of some social science content were Kautilya amd Manu. But those books — Arthashastra and Manudharma Shastra — written after the Buddhist revolution justified the Vedic social divisions and sacrifices of animals and food.

If the BJP and RSS want that ancient Hindu literature to be taught as science and social science to the Shudra upper castes like Marathas, Patidars, Jats, Gujjars that are fighting for reservation, this will only help restore the Vedic slavery.