Thread by @RangaTheDude

Going to be a long thread. Disclaimer: caveat emptor

https://twitter.com/intellisurfer/status/1180979562483724291

Indo-European society just like any other human society was stratified. We can infer a tripartite system having these broad categories: (a) priest-philosophers, (b) warriors/royalty and (c) the laity. In Aryan system it is brahma, kshatra and viś. Viś is indeed the general term

For people. The mobile Aryan society just had these 3 and there was hardly a necessity for anyone else. In parallel,the Iranians had their own system that others have tweeted to death.Now the Aryas' enemies were the Iranian dAsas.

Homologous mantras in Atharvaveda (shaunaka) vs paippalada have shudra in place of dAsa (as an aside the surname meant for shudras is dAsa in smritis). Like any other tribes, there will be a period of clash and periods of calm.

Members of enemy camps will start selling their services in the other camp. Iranians had daeva worshippers amidst them. It's a social reality where 'demon worshippers' are living next to you and Iranian law book vendidad has rules about dealing with them. Obviously they won't

Have same privileges as a normal Iranian. As a counterpart, Iranian shudras living amidst Aryas was a social reality. What's more, they are from similar Indo-Iranian cultural background. A layperson won't even know difference between a vedic recitation and a day's recitation to

His asura. Moreover they are curses upon our devas. Obviously leaving them unchecked will be a civilizational suicide. References to shudras in those layers of dharmashastra indicate hostile non-aryan residents living within

Compare clueless Hindu behavior allowing unrestricted access to our culture - yoga, carnatic music, dance, festivals and how missionaries subvert those.

Then the Aryas were squarely in Indian subcontinent. By the period of yajurveda, we see an explosion of references to guild based groups- beadmakers, ropemakers, conch cutters, potters, smiths etc. The names even have correspondences with modern caste surnames.

Originally the contacts were business transactions. In due course the Arya society becomes settled society and the pre-existing guilds are squarely part of it as service providers. Also bluntly putting the dominant culture that caused integration of wide geographical area was

The 'vedic' culture. The tripartite system of yore + the 4th shudra category is no longer a reality and has now become an abstract representation of society that dharmashastra authors pay lip service to. The abstract system is always hierarchical with v1s at top. (Counter nAstika

Religions place kshatriyas at top.
If the varna are abstract now, what is the actual reality? The jAtis which were there at least for 12,000 years before Aryas were anywh6in the picture.
The lines between vaishyas and various service guilds also get blurred.

Kshatriyas need not really be birth based as any foreign invader can conquer your land and become royalty. We see a meek acceptance making Chinese, Huns, Greeks as fallen kshatriyas.

Dharma authors try to explain the reality of the jātis as the outcome of anuloma viloma marriages of the 4 varNas, but a close examination if various smritis shows that's a bogus explanation and impractical to be implemented in the first place.

Moreover they deal with a small subset of all available subsets. The whole endeavor is post-facto rationalization. In the new reality of jAtis, the word shUdra lost the original context of hostility and is now part and parcel of the system.

Vedic system has evolved into classical Hinduism by now. Things played out differently in different parts of the country. Different jAtis had their own councils and had autonomy. It is going to cause heartburn- various jAtis had their own way of worship.

Aryas did not have the tendency to stamp out 'wrong religions' or commit genocide against people who worshipped the wrong God. None of the preexisting religions of any jAti had mosaic distinction. Polytheistic cosmic religions have convertibility of Gods. A Greek may see his

Heracles and happily build a temple for Krishna and Balarama. So as long as there are worship of female deities, holy trees, holy rivers, springs, lakes, animals a polytheist from different region can participate in local religion. A south Indian can easily see

his Amman in a shakti temple from Madhyapradesh. An Arya with his aupanishadic philosophy can worship the same as manifestation of brahman.
Given this situation various jAtis have climbed up the varna ladder or climbed down. M.N. Srinivas has documented

the process and the data is available in public domain. A brahmana Mayura sharman establishes a kingdom whose descendants became kshatriyas and in modern times shudras.

What does this all mean? Varna has been an abstract construct for a while now. So whether it is birth based can only have a theoretical answer - yes it is birth based. Do the 4 varnas cover all Indian jAtis - No. Did various jAtis enter varNa system - depends on the

degree of sanskritization. A branch of 'untouchable castle's in modern TN have historically migrated to Kerala lands and became 'kshatriyas'. I've already mentioned mayurasharman and kadambas starting as v1 and climbing down to shudras.

Is being born as V1 confer special privilege- if you consider a life that's more austere than benedictine monk, then sure. A king can treat a v1 as a shudra if he's not fulfilling his duties as v1.
The biggest bane of our modern society is to look at our history with varNa lens.

Ideally the hard work of studying dominant jAtis per geographic region, how they became dominant and whether the same jAti is uniformly dominant throughout a subcontinent would have shown the right picture. Being the sheep we are, we hang onto odious lugubrations of

pro-independence Indologists and even use it to set social policies. Unsurprisingly we end up with perversion of justice like land owning dominant jAtis claiming "oppression" and enjoy reservation largesse.