VEDIC HINDUISM by S. W. Jamison and M. Witzel - people.fas ...

Jamison & Witzel VEDIC HINDUISM 48
The role played by women in the Upani�ads is usually overstated. It
should be noted that women (Gårgī, Maitreyī) -- just like K�atriyas and kings, or
even the son of a god, Bh�gu, -- are inserted into the Brahmanical dialogues at
critical points or when a special proposition has to be made, e.g. when
introducing a particular new or striking theory. However, there also is clear
evidence of female learned activity, such as at BĀU 6.4.17 with a special
prescription of how to obtain a female ��i in one's family.
The division of society into the four var�as is attested from the late RV
onwards: the three twice-born groups, bråhma�a, k�atriya (or råjanya in RV
10.90), and vaiśya, with the scorned and extra-systematic śūdra at the bottom.
This "social charter", indeed the "first constitution of India" (Paul Mus), is
contained in the puru�a hymn (RV 10.90), which first proclaims its blueprint
and provides, at the same time, a mythological basis for stratified society. Like
many Vedic concepts, the image has held up until today.
The point of view of our priestly texts is, needless to say, without
exception that of the Bråhma�as, though the king and his court, as the focus of
so many rituals, assure the inclusion of K�atriya materials. Many of these are
actually composed to discuss rituals meant to buttress the status of the lower
and higher nobility and of the king. A Yajurveda text actually proclaims, with
Marxist analysis before its day, that the Brahmins and K�atriyas (brahmak�atra)
exploit the rest. It is this interdependence and cooperation which allowed the
two classes to dominate the others (Vaiśya and Śūdra) as well as the aboriginals,
-- a matter that has not changed much until today. However, even given the
prominence of the K�atriyas in ritual and in political life, the old theory that the
Upani�ads (and Buddhism) originated in the K�atriya sphere (e.g. Horsch 1966)
has to be reexamined, taking into account the rather complex ethnic and
political situation in eastern North India (Kosala and Videha, s. Witzel 1989a, n.
328).
Vaiśyas and Śūdras, and also representatives of certain artisans (rathakåra,
Minkowski 1989), or the chief of aboriginal groups (e.g. Ni�åda-sthapati) barely
figure in the Vedic textual material, except as occasional supernumeraries with
small roles in certain rituals -- with the result, as noted early on, that we lack any
real sources of information not only for "popular" religion, but even for the
simpler observances of Kuru(-Pañcåla) "orthodoxy" that lack of wealth and
influence would necessitate.
Finer social and occupational divisions within the great var�as are
enumerated in the texts (e. g. Zimmer 1879, p. 425-428), but it is not clear what
these divisions mean, how they affected the social and religious life of their