Arya consolidation

Spread within India

  • From baudhAyana and manu, it is clear that kuru-pAnchAla realm was where major brAhmaNa vedic consolidation happened. Gradually, this culture and its carriers (mainly in the form of brAhmaNa-s) spread elsewhere in India and beyond. {GA_17}
    • baudhAyana-dharma-sUtra implies that vaidika karma-s can only be conducted in the “madhya-desha”, not even in kalinga, vanga, AraTTa, gAndhAra etc.. - going where expiation is required [TW]. Yet, we observe baudhAyana-s and vaidika-s in kerala and TN.
    • “Almost none of the elite definitions: brahmavarta, brahmaRSidesha or madhyadesha. That region is indeed sacred for all Hindus today but there was a time when it was not held in high esteem by the kurupa~ncalas/madhyadeshis. In the baudhAyana shrauta sUtra, right after choosing the priests for his yaj~na, a yajamAna has to “deposit” all evils & illnesses in him in various “safe” places which were deemed suitable for storing those undesirable elements - It starts, “my anger in a lion, hunger in wolf…” & later has “may my bile (excess) settle among ikSvAkus & elephantisis among videhas”!!”
  • Also see “Brahmanas → Penetration and Aryanization” note below and the varNa-theory page regarding the “crossing the seas” prohibition.
  • “Can estimate that approximately at least 50% of the Y-chromosomes of varNa populations as a group originated from invading Aryan males.” See note on R1a1 in Genetics page.
  • Some of the proto-Indian tribal population was incorporated into the fringes of evolving Indo-Aryan society as specialized service communities, while the rest retained their tribal existence with a symbiotic relationship with the Arya-s. The encounter and the with the tribal groups is seen in many different forms in the post-R^igveda texts of the Indo-Aryans.

Arya-shUdra conflict

  • See racial enmity page.
  • In the far antiquity, intermarriage among varNa-s must have been permitted.
    • Consider the tale of satyavatI (when the marriage was proposed, neither bhIShma nor shantanu knew the supposed kShatriya origins of satyavatI).
  • Later internal sources view mixing of the varNa-s with scorn.
    • dharmashAstra-s.
    • The famous stance of the bhagavadgItA against varNa-sankara.
  • By the time Megasthenes visited, there were already rigid restrictions about intermarriage and avocations. [MI]
    • " Such, then, are about the parts into which the body politic in India is divided. No one is allowed to marry out of his own caste, or to exercise any calling or art except his own: for instance, a soldier cannot become a husbandman, or an artizan a philosopher. "
  • Further history is considered [in clan/theory] (/AgamaH/AryaH/hinduism/social-cultivation/clan/theory/).

vaidika brAhmaNa glue

See separate page.