Cultural Background

of Indian Socio-Political

Organization

Dr Poornima Jain

(Part-II)

Contents

1. Customs

2. Folklore

3. Culture

4. Festivals

5. Caste System

6. Varna & Jati

7. The Four Ashrams

8. Four Purusharthas

Customs

• Customs are generally referred to as traditional practices that are followed by the people of a section of society or by society at large and make-up the foundation structure of a society.

• Indian society has diverse customs and traditions and they usually bring out the distinctiveness of Indian people.

• These customs are an out come of the cultural matrix which are followed by the people.

Definition

K.M. Panikkar (1967) defines culture as,

“the complex of ideas, conceptions,developed qualities and organized relationships and courtesies that exist generally in a society.”

• He described it as a “community of thought, a similarity of conduct and behaviour, a common general approach to fundamental problems, which arrives from shared traditions and ideals.” Culture is more general whereas custom is specific, specific to a society, or community.

According to MacIver and Page

“the socially accredited ways of acting are the

customs of society.”

According to Kingsley Davis,

“custom refers primarily to practices that have often

been repeated by a multitude of generation,

practices that tend to be followed simply because

that they have been followed in the past.”

Nature of customs

• Custom is a social phenomenon –

Customs are created by groups, associations, communities institutions and are considered to be conducive for the integration of society.

• Customs are followed unconsciously-

MacIver and Page opine, “we conform to the customs of our society in a sense ‘unconsciously’, because they are a strongly embedded part of our group life. We are trained from our infancy to behave in a customary way.

contd…

• Customs are varied in nature-

Customs are universal in nature but they differ from

community to community and society to society.

• The origin of custom is obscure-

It is difficult to ascertain the exact way in which

customs emerge. As McDougall writes, “The ends

and purposes of many customs are lost in the midst

of antiquity.”

contd…

• Customs are relatively durable-

In comparison with the folk ways, fashions, customs

are more durable. Customs evolve gradually and

hence they are obeyed mostly in a spontaneous

manner. Once the customs are established they gain

grounds to become firm. They are implicitly obeyed

with least resistance by the majority of the people

Social Importance of customs

• Customs regulate our social life-

Customs act as the effective means of social control.

Individuals can hardly escape their grip. They are the

self accepted rules of social life. They bind people

together, assimilate their actions to be the accepted

standards and control their purely egoistic impulses.

They are found among the pre-literate as well as the

literate people.

Customs constitute the treasury of our social heritage

• Customs preserve our culture and transmit it to the

succeeding generations.

• Add stability and certainty to our social life.

• Bring people together and develop social

relationships among them.

• Provide for a feeling of security in human society.

People normally abide by these and their violation

is considered as a sin.

Contd..

• Customs are basic to our collective life-

Customs are found in the communities world

over. They are more influential and dominant

in the primitive society than in the modern

society. As Malinowski writes in the context of

the study of Trobriand Islanders that, “A strict

adherence to customs…is the main rule of

conduct among our natives ….”

Customs support law

• Customs also provide the solid foundation for the formulation and establishment of law.

• Customs become laws when the state enforces them as rules binding on citizens.

• Laws divorced from customs is bound to become artificial.

• This happened in USA in the case of ‘prohibition’.

• Customs consolidate law and facilitate its practice.

Indian Society - custom of joining hands while greeting a person

Folklore

• Like custom, Folklore is also part of culture and includes stories, music, dance legends, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, customs and so forth. It is also the set of practices through which, those expressive genres are shared.

• The academic and usually ethnographic study of folklore is sometimes called folkloristic. The word ‘folklore’ was first used by the English antiquarian William Thomas in a letter published by the London Journal ‘Athenaeum’ in 1846.

• Smith Thompson made a major attempt to index the motifs of both folklore and mythology, providing an outline into which new motifs can be placed, and scholars can keep track of all older motifs.

Contd..

• Folkways, mores and customs represent different kinds of social norms.

• Social norms refer to the group shared standards of behaviour.

• A social norm is a pattern setting limits on individual behaviour. Norms are the blue prints of behaviour. They are the rules for social living or for social being. They determine, guide, control and also predict human behaviour.

• Folklore, just like folkways, represent a means of social control.

Genres of Folklore

• Material culture

folk art, vernacular architecture, textiles, modified

mass-produced objects

• Music

traditional, folk, and world music

• Narrative

legends, urban legends, fairy tales, folk tales,

personal experience narratives

Genres of Folklore (contd..)

• Verbal art

jokes, proverbs, word games

• Belief and religion

folk religion, ritual, and mythology

• Food ways

traditional cooking and customs, relationships

between food and culture

Folklore as an Academic Discipline

• Folklorists focus on the study of human creativity within specific cultural and social contexts, including how such expressions (i.e. stories, music, material culture and festivals) are linked to political, religious, ethnic, regional, and other forms of group identity.

• The elusive materials of folklore can be best defined through the formal genres into which they fall. Four broad sectors of folklore studies have been outlined by scholars

Sectors of Folklore

• Oral literature

• Material Culture

• Social Customs and festivals

• Performing folk- Art

• Examples - myth, fairy- tale, romantic tale or novella, religions tale, folklore, legend, animal tale, anecdote, joke, numskull tale etc.

Oral Poetry

• Sub- division of oral literature is oral poetry or folk poetry which has its own family of related forms i.e. folk epics, ballads, folk songs, lullabies, work songs, ‘Deh- bichar’ songs, ‘Zikirs’ (with reference to the North East of India) and songs associated with rituals and rites (Samskaras), of birth, marriage, death, etc. commonly found in almost all parts of India.

• Also included is the rich oral poetry connected with festive occasions, feasts

• “Folklore” is a general term for different variation of traditional narrative.

• The telling of stories appears to be a cultural universal, common to basic and complex societies alike.

• Even the forms, folktales are certainly similar from culture to culture, and comparative studies of themes and narrative ways have been successful in showing those relationships.

• Also, it is, considered to be oral tale to be told for everybody.

• On the other hand, folklore can be used to

accurately describe a figurative narrative, which has

sacred or religious content.

• In the Jungian view, which is but one method of

analysis, it may need to pertain to unconscious

psychological patterns, estimates or arched types of

the mind. This may or may not have components of

the fantastic (such as magic, ethereal beings or the

personification of inanimate objects).

Material Culture

• Material culture or folk life responds to techniques, skills, recipes, and formulas transmitted across the generations subject to the same forces of traditions and individual variations as verbal art.

• Folk architecture, art & craft, designs and decorations of the buildings and utensils and performance of home industries according to traditional styles & methods.

• Decorative paintings embellishing the walls and entrances of rural/ tribal homes having both ritualistic and aesthetic significance is a pan- Indian phenomenon.

Social Customs and festivals

• Emphasis is on group interaction rather than on individual skills and performances.

• Verbal & tangible elements are added group behavioral traits such as birth, initiation, marriage, death and similar paraphernalia.

• Rituals & customs associated with festivals are sometimes related to agricultural activity following a calender cycle.

• These along with customs associated with religious practices & the concept of Indian world view form an important part of folk life.

• The religious aspect is multi- dimensional

encompassing the most complex caste hierarchy

which has a net-work of inter- relations with the

religious hierarchy.

• Besides pan- Indian mode of worshipping Hindu

pantheon, there are very ancient and indigenous

modes of worship and performance of rites

prevalent in tribal belts quite distinguishable from

other parts of the country.

Performing Folk–Art

• Traditional music, drama and dance passed on to the succeeding generations by ear and performed by memory rather than by the written and printed musical score and relevant literature.

• The folk- music is ‘functional’ in the sense that it is not entertainment or of particular aesthetic interest, but is an accompaniment.

• Both moral and psychological scope to the work, entertainment value, nature of the teller, style of telling, ages of audience and the overall context of the performance.

• Folklorists generally resist universal interpretations

of narratives and wherever possible, analyze oral

versions of telling in specific context, rather than

print sources, which often show the work or bias of

the writer or editor.

• Folk literature is but a part of folklore. Customs and

beliefs, ritualistic behavior, dances, folk music and

other non- literary manifestations form part of the

larger study of ethnology.

• However, these distinctions are of concern to the folklorists. The study of folklore materials was, at the time, being carried on under labels such as ‘Popular Antiquities’ or ‘Popular Literature’. Therefore, he suggested ‘a good Saxon Compound Folk- lore… the lore of the people.

• Besides, the work of Brothers Grimm, particularly German Philologist Jacob Grimm (1785-1863) who published the first volume (1812-12) of the ‘Kinder Und Mausmarchen’ (translated as Grimm‘s Fairy Tales), the scholarly scientific study on folklore was initiated.

• German scholar, Theodor Ben fey claimed in his

introduction to Panchatantra (1859) that India, the

seat of an ancient, highly developed civilization that

had spread to Europe, was home of the master tales

subsequently found in Grimm's’ collection.

• Along with language and mythology, these wonder

tales had diffused from India to Europe in ancient

and historic times along well – traversed trade

routes.

Various Schools of Study

• Mythological School

• Migrational / Benfey’s School

• Anthropological School

• Historical – Geographical School /

Finissh School

• Psychoanalytical School

• Structural School

(contd..)

• Syntagmatic/ Propp’s Morphological School

• Paradigmatic/ Levi Straussian School

• Thompsonian Concept of Motif / classificatory

analysis- tale- types

• Functional School

• Historical reconstructional theory

• Ideological theory

Various Theories

• Oral Formulaic theory

• Cross- cultural theory

• Folk- cultural theory

• Mass- cultural theory

• Contextual theory

• Hemispheric theory

• In India, we always talk of Margi and Desi, Vedic

and Laukik i.e. classical and folk traditions, which is

also as Great and Little traditions.

• Unilinear evolutions and few universals may not

explain the variety produced by multi- culture folk

traditions.

• In this sense, the Indian equivalent of folklore,

‘Lokayana’ coined by Suniti Kumar Chatterji,

expresses the real scope of folklore as it signified a

way of life (yana) of a people (lok).

Caste System

• Caste is known as jati in common parlance. And in social relations has been a central point in Hindu society for several centuries.

• It is an all- encompassing system, an ideology, which governs all others relations.

• Its whole notion is hierarchy based on the ideas of pollution and purity.

• A Caste is an endogamous group.

• A man is born in a caste and remains in that for ever.

(contd..)

• A caste occupies a particular rank in the hierarchy of castes, hence some are superior to it, some are inferior.

• Certain rules regarding eating, drinking and social interaction are followed by all castes.

• Caste panchayats used to regulate the behavior of its members by implementing these rules.

• Caste is a dynamic institution; it has changed a great deal in accordance with changes in the wider society.

Origin of Caste

• It dates back to the age of the Rigveda, refered as

the word varna i.e. colour.

• Arya is referred to as fair and Dasa as dark.

• People of the two Varnas differed not only in their

skin colour but also in their worship and speech.

Thus the differences were both social and cultural.

• Brahmanas, Rajanyas (Kshatriyas) and Vaishyas

constituted the Arya varna, and the non- Aryans

made up the Dasa Varna.

• The Purusha – sukta, a part of the Rig Veda, states

that Brahmanas, Rajanyas, Vaishyas and Shudras

sprang up from the mouth, arms, thighs and feet of

the Purusha (God).

• Priests and the warriors were above Vaishya and

the Shudra.

• There was interchange of duties as also inter- class

marriages. Ban on eating food cooked by shudras

did not exist.

• There was no trace of untouchability.

• Three main stages in the evolution of caste may be

identified;

• 1. Caste in ancient age (the period up to 1100

AD) which is inclusive of vedic age, post-vedic

age and puranic age.

• 2. Caste in medieval age (1100 -1757 AD)

which includes the muslim rule in India.

• 3. Caste in modern age (post 1757 AD till

independence).

Changes in caste system in independent India

• Changes in the traditional features of caste

• The religious basis of caste has been attacked –

caste is no more believed to be divinely ordained.

• It is being given a more social and secular meaning

than a religious interpretation.

• Restrictions on food habits have been relaxed.

• Distinction between ‘pakka’ food and ‘kachha’ food

has almost vanished.

• Food habits have become more a matter of

personal choice than a caste rule.

• Still some taboos are not completely ignored

especially in the rural areas.

• Inter-dinning has not become the order of the day.

• Caste is not very much associated with hereditary

occupations.

• Caste no longer determines the occupational career

of an individual.

• Even Brahmins are found driving taxis, dealing with

foot-wear and running non- vegetarian hotels and

bars and so on.

• Endogamy, which is often called the very essence of

the caste system, still prevails.

• Inter- caste marriages though legally permitted,

have not become predominant, especially in rural

areas.

The Ritual Aspect and the

beginning of the Jati System

• The “Varnadharma” or code governing the conduct

of different varnas received a high degree of

elaboration in post-vedic period.

• The three lower castes are ordered to live according

to the teachings of the Brahmins.

• Lannoy observes that, “different specialist tasks

among the Brahmins themselves became associated

with degree of ritualistic purity and impurity…..”.

The Varna and the Jati

• Vedic theory of varna system is reference to Indian

Social Organization for maintaining a subtle balance

between Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaish and Sudra.

• Varna system is uniform throughout the country.

• It is the classical form of social stratification.

• The caste system is apparently linked with the

varna, but is so different from it.

• The jati system is an “empirical order, verifiable by

direct observation of caste ranking and other

familiar distinctions”.

• The jati system is not uniform and It varies from

region to region.

• Whatever the nature of ranking, the consideration

of pure and impure remains the sole common basis

of the jati system.

• Dumont, according to Lannoy, regards these two

systems as homologous and to have interacted with

each other.

Jati and its Transformation

• The Dharma – Shastras, the law books of Manu,

Yajnavalkya and Vishnu throw considerable light on

the contemporary social institutions.

• The Manu Smriti, which is pre- Buddhist in

composition, maintains a distinction between the

Arya and non-Arya called Dasa.

• This term was also used for Chaandaals, Savapakas

and others, who were considered inferior to Sudras.

Jati and its Transformation (contd..)

• According to Manu Smriti, as indicated in the Hindu

Civilization,

“There were mixed castes (antar-prabhavah)

springing from adultery, marriage and ineligible

women, and violation of the duties of caste…..”.

• “Inter-marriage between castes produced a crop of

unclassified progeny who were all branded as

Sudras…..and described by their occupations

(svakarmabhih)”.

Caste in Urban and Rural Society

• In Urban society too, caste differentiation became

rigid.

• Orthodox, avoided not only the new settlers but

also the converts for consideration of personal

hygiene and pollution and using the word malechha

for them.

• The expediency of social intercourse, later did bring

the people closer, and the belief in chhoot- chaat

got relaxed.

• In rural India a dominant caste continues to exist

with three characteristics,

• 1. It should be land owning class

• 2. Land owners should be of higher caste

• 3. They should be numerically strong.

• In case of more than one dominant caste, one of

them had to give in to another.

• This according to M.N. Srinivas happened

“occasionally even in pre-British India, and has been

and important aspect of rural social change in the

twentieth century”.

• Brahman was the supreme arbitrator in religious

matters. Temporal disputes were settled by within a

caste.

• Lannoy states, “Internal affairs of each middle or

law caste were governed by its own caste

panchayat, and by Sabhas….

• …Caste Council covering the affairs of a caste within

a readily accessible region also existed, though

some were rarely convened; in many cases,

particularly among middle and low castes, these

still survive”.

New Socio-Economic Force & Caste

• Buddha, Kabir, Guru Nanak, Chaitanya, Raja Ram

Mohan Roy, Swami Dayanand, Mahatma Gandhi

and Swami Vivekananda, all spoke against caste

system.

• “The caste system is opposed to the religion of

Vedanta” - Swami Vivekananda.

• “The Arya Samaj repudiates caste by birth” - Lala

Lajpat Rai.

English language, Modern Education and Caste prejudices

• Introduction of English language, as the language of

administration made the first serious breach in the

caste system.

• It weakened the position of the Purohit, his ritual

sanction authority, traditionalism and encouraged

social mobility since to learn the English language

one had to go to the town or to the city; one

needed no initiation in the orthodox manner or any

other help from the purohit Brahman.

• It caused power disequilibrium in the social group;

may be even in the village.

• The English learning progressed under the

government patronage and progressed independent

of influence of Brahman.

• Those who got the benefit of this education secured

the position of prestige and worked in the towns,

and earned a good salary.

• This added significance, prestige and power to the

caste group ofthe individual.

Caste–Stabilising Factor

• We have primitive tribes and progressive

communities, the custom and practices of unknown

antiquity and also a long tradition of resentment

against them.

• We are a pluralistic society with much pluralism at

every level of our social order.

• We are a structural society with many knots within

the social structure; there are insular caste minded

groups who do not seem to take into account the

changes that influence communities.

• We are also a society of contradictions; there are

primitive practices which everybody talks of

eradicating , yet all along these are accommodated.

• We are instinctively and constitutionally a secular

society, yet there is a commission to look after the

interests of minorities.

• We are a society, yet one of the least integrated.

Much of the past hinders our progress.

• Varna- ashrama Dharma, Purusharth and the

system of Samskaras imparted individuals and

social discipline, inculcated tradition and culture

and helped in acculturation.

• The varna system insisted on a certain cultural

standard which others were expected to follow.

• The internalization of norms and values was

effected on one hand by ashrama system and on

the other by performance of the sanskaras.

• Role of Brahman- Purohit was singularly significant.

• He put, as Lannoy indicates, “the stamp of sacred

approval on any unavoidable change…..on the one

hand they (Brahmins) were the most rigid the

authoritarian of dogmatists, on the other they were

extremely flexible if it suited their interests”.

• The jati system developed in response to changing

social conditions.

• By the beginning of the 8th century A.D., the

society was again a crucible.

• The political India had broken up and the society

was in disruption.

• Brahman had lost the intellectual leadership,

priestism had become dominant, and the caste

rigidities had compartmentalized the society and

killed the community sense.

• The Turks, Afghans and Mughals in succession

gained political ascendancy.

• While retaining their strong sense of belonging to

the Islamic west, they followed the policy of Dar- ul

- Islam, imposed jajiya on the people, effected

conversions to Islam, which in consequence

developed situation extremely unusual, like of

which the society had never confronted before.

• Caste system failed for the first time to bring these

people within the social fold.

• The society got divided.

Social Mobility

Varna Mobility

• The varna –ashram dharma was the social structure

based on this understanding that social mobility is a

social necessity.

• This pluralistic arrangement was expected to

facilitate the social mobility of individual or of a

group on the Varna basis, which meant choosing

one’s vocation according to one’s qualification.

• It was open also to the people outside the

structured system who had to be brought within the

social order.

• There was thus a two fold social mobility, the

internal and external: from lower to the higher

varna and from non-varna order.

• It was obviously expected to be a continuous

process.

De- Tribalization

• Process of de-tribalization was co-extensive with

development of structural society.

• It gained momentum during the Magadha – Maury

– Satvahana period, when great urbanization was in

progress.

• The process began by insisting on personal moral

conduct, the svadharma, social ethical system, the

ethical system of the Varna, the Varna dharma &

submission to the eternal and the universal, the

Sanatan Dharma.

Aryanization, Brahmanization or

Culturalization and Sanskritization

• The continuous process of caste mobility and de-

tribalization has been described as Aryanization,

Brahmanization, Culturalization.

• In view of the fact, that much of our culture is pre-

vedic in origin, use of the expression Aryanization

would be inadequate.

• Brahmanization gives the impression that de-

tribalized had to accept Brahmanical system.

• Moreover, as indicated by M.N. Srinivas, Brahmans

alone did not work in the direction.

• Culturalisation is too vague as the effort was not to

enforce a well defined system, pluralism was never

intended to be eliminated.

• The intention was not to enforce uniformity but to

effect harmony.

• Sanskritization has come to be accepted as the

suitable term. It is coined by M.N.Srinivas.

• There does not exist any fixed model for

Sanskritization. It proceeds in terms of reference

group.

• The local dominant caste is mediated by the non-

Brahman caste.

• The “life style of the merchant and peasant have

been taken as models in localities where these

groups are dominant”. “At times, the groups

enjoying the political patronage and power may be

mediated”.

• In “secular matters Mughals and the British at

various times have provided a standard by which

secular prestige is gauged”.

• In this process of mobility, the cultural content,

which differs form caste to caste, is the attraction.

• Among the twice born, Brahmins are most particular

about the performance of Vedic ritual and donning

of the sacred thread and “they may therefore, be

regarded as “better” models of Sanskritization than

the other”.

Ashram Vyavastha Traditional Hindu Social Organization

• The traditional social organization is based on

Varnashrama- dharma and Purushartha.

• The Indological approach to the Indian society

directly brings us to analyse and to understand the

Varnashrama-dharma and the Purushartha system

which is the foundation of our social order.

• It deals with individuals and society in all its

comprehensiveness.

• An individual must contribute his best.

• But his role is not the end of his doings. He is not

just be sacrificed for the social order. He must have

also his inner fulfillment.

• The way to it is by Purushartha. Purusasukta hymn

of rigveda compares Society as a giant organism

having Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaish and Sudra as its

head, arms, trunk and feet respectively; each Varna

being functional like each organ, and all make

together the society as the organs make the

organism.

• All like the organs perform the co-equal

functions, “It is expressly stated in the text

that no part of the whole may claim exclusive

importance and superiority over the others;

collaboration and exchange of services are

the essence of this organismic theory. The

various organs of the projected Purusha

body- image are related in structural

consistency”.

The four Ashramas

• The Ashrama system has four stages of life,

Brahmacharya, Grahastha, Vanaprastha and Sanyas,

in succession.

• Ashrama means “making an effort”. It implies that

for the fulfillment of ones life, one has to make an

effort, at every stage to have the best of it.

• On an average, life span was taken to be hundred

years and each Ashrama was assigned a period of

twenty- five years.

The Brahmacharya

• It is also known as Indriyasamyama - the period of

self- control. It is the first of the Ashramas. It began

with the Upanayana that is, with the investure of

the sacred thread, the yajnopavita.

• Initiating the pupil-Brahmachari, Acharya- the

teacher, whispered in the ears,

Ta’t savitu’r V’areniam

Bhargo deva’sya dhimahi

Dhiyo yo’nah prachodayat

“May we attain that excellent glory of Savitur the

God that he may stimulate our thoughts”.

• With it, the Brahmacharya entered upon the second

birth, which it was assumed, he got endowed with

in consequence of the ceremony, as distinguished

from the physical, given to him by his parents.

• With this spiritual birth, the twice- born now began

his educational career.

• It commenced for the Brahman, Kshatriya and Vaish

in the 8th, 11th & 12th years.

• During Brahmacharya the pupil lived with his

teacher for studies.

• Period of studentship varied. One could cease to be

a student after a particular standard, proficiency in

a discipline or remain a student all one’s life.

• Education imparted was both literary, technical, and

spiritual. The aim was, to prepare one, to play ones

role in life.

The Grihastha

• It began with marriage & family, obligations to parents, children & society.

• The three rinas (debts) implied release self from “debt of gods by yajna (Sacrifice), to pitas (ancestors) by raising off springs & to rishis by observing continence on parvan days”.

• One was expected to acquire wealth and remain engaged in all activities incidental to one’s varna. It has for this been described as the most important to the Ashrama”.

The Vanaprastha

• Stage of progressive retirement.

• After children had settled and needed no more

parental care and attention, one left every thing to

enter Vanaprastha stage.

• He retired with his wife to a quiet place to lead a

life of inquiry, meditation and work out within

himself the truth of his being in an atmosphere of

freedom from social strife.

• He lived a simple life to subsist on corn, fruit and

vegetable.

The Sanyasa

• Sanyasi is one who “abandoning truth and

falsehood, pleasure and pain, the Vedas, this world

and the next, seeks only the Atman”.

• Sanyasi is, “a super social man a privrajaka, a

wandering teacher who influences spiritual standard

though he may live apart form Society”.

• This supreme ideal of life has been described by

Kalidas as “owning the whole world while disowning

one self .”

The Four Purusarthas

• The full scope of the Varnashrama-dharma would

be more clear, once the underlying aims of life as

signified by the Purusarthas: Kama, Artha, Dharma

and Moksha are taken into consideration.

• They are intended to guide one to achieve a high

standard of living and also a high standard of life.

• Hindu social order kept positive ends in view.

The Four Purusarthas

• Fulfillment of desire, the Kama; Economic enrichment, the Artha were the aims to be realized in accordance with Dharma, the righteous way of living.

• The Trivarga, triple pursuit, as it is called, were recognized to be interdependent.

• Their fulfillment alone could make the Moksha possible.

• Social action for this was to be tested on the touchstone of Dharma, the highest aim set before an individual, was the realization of moksha, the spiritual freedom.

The Dharma

• The righteous way of living. One is expected to live

and act in a manner that is good for all. It is

recognized as the foundation of all good action and

hence the stabilizing factor in life. It is intended to

provide guidelines, in all social action, and to

harmonise relation between Kama and Artha, to

work as a check on self indulgence and to eliminate

exploitation of weak and helpless. It is corrective of

social evils. “Dharma tells us that while our life is in

the first instance for our own satisfaction, it is more

essentially for the community and most of all for

that universal self which is in each of us and all

beings. Ethical life is the means to spiritual

The Artha

• It means acquiring wealth by honest means.

• Without Artha, no desire (Kama) can be satisfied.

The object of Kama would not be achieved and the

purpose of life would remain unrealized without

economic well being. Living is not mere existence.

• Economic insecurity & individual attainments do

not go together. Economic security is the basis of

social stability, individual advancement and

spiritual attainment.

The Kama

• It springs in humane mind, the moment one is born.

It is the essence of life.

• These influence and determine social actions in

various ways. The desire to live and enjoy becomes

foremost and remains strongest.

• Varnashrama-dharma provides the direction to the

Kama, the fulfillment of desire.

• It is an wrong belief that the pleasure of living need

be discarded for the other world.

• The ancient sociologists and men of religion,

appreciating the purpose of life, studied it in all its

aspects.

• For success in life and goodness, sacrifice was given

importance. It remained with them the motivating

force.

• Desire to have children and riches was always

prayed for; emphasis on home décor, use of

ornaments, celebration of festivals, and going on

pilgrimage to the distant places for pleasure and

success in life respectively was most cherished.

The Moksha

• It means self realization

• Life is not the grant to prepare for the next world.

We do not live only to die.

• “To be shut up in one’s own ego, to rest in the

apparent self and to mistake it for the real, is the

root of all unrest to which man is exposed by reason

of his mentality”.

• The Sociologists have held that there is nothing

higher than individual.

• The aim of living is to enjoy and to attain fulfillment

and at the same time to inquire into the truth of

life, its purpose and aim.

• It is the transcendental movement from approach

to real, from ignorance to bliss of enlightenment,

and from destruction of death to eternal living.

• This dispels the possibility of frustration in life, and

the alienation from society.

• Moksha is the ‘freedom’.

Asrama as a Place and as a Way of life

Ancient Indian literature reveals two meanings of

the term ‘Asrama’.

• 1. A residence where holy people live and perform

religious austerities (the term is commonly

translated as “hermitage”).

• 2. A religious or holy way of life(a technical usage as

it occurs exclusively in Brahmanical literature and

mainly within the context of the asrama system.

Asram System -a Social Institution

• Originally, the four asrams were treated as four

legitimate modes of life open to adult male. In the

classical formulation, the system became

prescriptive. It was associated with the

performance of sacraments. It was desirable for an

adult male to follow it.

• In the later Hinduism, the asram system assumed

the function of regulating the life of individual

members of society and in this way it became a

social institution.

Thank You