Varna

= refers to the Indian caste structure and ideology

Description

Jan Krikke:

"The role of Varna in the history of India is comparable to that of Confucianism in China but is much older. It developed at the dawn of civilization. Some 12,000 years ago, during the neolithic period, hunter-gatherers turned to farming, initially wild varieties of crops like peas, lentils, and barley, and then herded wild animals like goats and wild oxen. Agriculture led to the first settlements, towns, and cities. The organic emergence of large, structured communities led to a “division of labor,” a requirement in the development of larger social structures. Fig. 2 The four generic Varna types: spiritual-intellectual, warrior, merchant, and worker

As these larger social structures emerged, Indian sages concluded that the development of societies evolved around activities that could be classified into four distinct types. Some people became administrators or religious teachers; some became soldiers providing protection; others became merchants who sold food produced by farmers and merchandise produced by craftsmen; and some became workers, employed by merchants, farmers, and craftsmen.

Translating the four generic types from Sanskrit is problematic, especially the term Brahman, which is translated as both spiritual and intellectual type (see also below). Generally, the four Varna types are broad categories, just like the yin and yang are broad, generic categories. Fig. 2 The four generic Varna types: spiritual-intellectual, warrior, merchant, and worker

The identification of the four types can be interpreted as an early form of psychological profiling. Taub referred to the Varna as “probably the deepest psychological profile of the human race.” Even more remarkable, Taub points out, is that the sages used this generic classification as the basis for a prophecy that resembles the prophecies we also find in monotheistic religions.

The Indian sages predicted that humanity as a whole goes through four cycles. Each of the four types — spiritual, warrior, merchant, and worker — after which the cycle returns to the first, spiritual phase to start the cycle again. The coming of a new spiritual era has its equivalence in the prophecy of the Promised land and the return of Jesus in the Bible, the Ingathering in the Talmud, and the return of the Mahdi (the “divinely guided one”) in the Quran.

Like their contemporaries elsewhere in the world, the Indian sages were mythologizers. They conceived of the cycle in astronomical terms. They spoke of ages (Kalpa and Yuga) lasting hundreds of thousands and even over a million years. "

(https://jankrikke2020.medium.com/repairing-the-future-p-r-sarkar-and-lawrence-taub-8c8d6898f294)

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