Kshatriyas or Kshudras?
skom...@sprynet.com
Can anyone tell me if Reddys, Kapus and Kammas are Kshatriyas or Kshudras?
People have told me that these were warrior castes in bygone days, but then
they have told me in the same breath that these castes are essentially
Kshudras?
How can that be?
Sujeev
PS: If nobody wants to answer for fear of being flamed (this being a
sensitive topic) can someone point out some good book(s) tracing the history
of the caste system in Andhra Pradesh?
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Godesam
following terminologies:
kshudra
ksheera
sudra
sandra
sindri
shudha
(and the following unofficially added):
kshadra
kshedra
kshodra
(you get the drift....)
I think one has to be a little bit logical to understand the ancient
terminologies. Ever heard of one's complement? It is the difference between 1
and a set. Imagine, the set is Americans. What is the complement? Aliens
perhaps because some americans are immigrants. But then who are people (if
there are any) from outer space? AFAIK, americans can call whatever they want
the people from other countries living here.
Hinduism (actually the caste/varna system) excels in labelling or classifying
people which is, believe it or not, essential to good governance and policy
making if you forget for a moment the tears and wails of the caste opponents. I
will now attempt to rectify the bias in their thinking by defining complements
of major castes:
caste complement
brahmin sudra
vysya vudra
kshatriya kshudra
sudra asudra
Note that I've made up some of the names, but they are quite "logical." From a
sudra's point of view the rest of the castes are asudras. It doesn't matter if
this sudra was a brahmin once. It could have been "asudham" also given that
the term is quite proper and in fact applies to any thing considered as impure.
Like caste divisions, we also have religious differences. All "nastikas" are
those who (i) do not believe in hindu gods and (ii) do not believe in any gods.
If you are not a believer of krishna, then you may be called "akrushna" which
does not mean you are a "vaishnava" or a "nastika." You can imagine what a
"vaishnava" thinks about rama, krishna, and all the dasa (10) avatarams.
In sum, the various labels we hear from hinduism, casteism and hindusthan are
very eloquent symbols of who we are. To the extent that we are proud of them
the rest of the world respects us. No one who left india/hindusthan is above
such labels albeit of a different language or religious denomination. One can
take shelter in the indian labels given their specificity or seek new ones for
variety. Either way no hindu is above these labels.
To answer the question, everyone in the caste community can choose to play a
different role than what the birth ordains but no one can is absolved from the
sudra title. A case in point, the moment one handles a clean-up activity, one
has made a commitment to being a sudra or the saying that "cleanliness is
godliness." And no caste member can live their lives without cleaning something
or other (including the cobwebs in their minds).
Nisankarao Chandrasekhar
skom...@sprynet.com wrote:
I am going to try to answer this question in the best possible manner. All
the three above mentioned castes plus the Velamas are Sudras. Yet
some of them are Rajas of this and that etc. I belong to Kapu
community and can safely say that Kapus are Sudras. Many Kammas
will also agree that they too are Sudras since all of us belong to the
Rythu or farming community. Yet if one goes to Telengana, the Reddys
and Velamas will claim to be Kshatriyas since there are no Rajus or
Kshatriyas living in Telengana. Raja Rameswar Rao claim to a big Raja
in Telengana. Yet for a reddy to be a Raja, he must have the surname of
Rao. Doesn't the system seem crazier and crazier???
IMHO everyone should feel equally proud or humble of whoever she or he is
and not rely on this silly Caste system. The only people proud of this crazy
system are the Brahmins who cite several nonexistent Hindu scriptures for their
purported superiority. A Brahman is one who attains the highest status due to
his or her behavior and not due to an accident of birth, like Brahmin.