Vaishya

“ No doubt also, as the fusion of races proceeded, and bodies of the indigenous tribes who were cultivators adopted Hinduism, the status of a cultivator sank to some extent, and his Vaishyan ancestry was forgotten. But though the Vaishya himself has practically disappeared, his status as a cultivator and member of the village community appears to remain in that of the modern cultivating castes, as will be shown subsequently. [29]
15. ”

“ The Vishas or clans afterwards became the Vaishyas or third classical caste. Before they entered India the Aryans were a migratory pastoral people, their domestic animals being the horse, cow, and perhaps the sheep and goat. The horse and cow were especially venerated, and hence were probably their chief means of support. The Vaishyas must therefore have been herdsmen and shepherds, and when they entered India and took to agriculture, the Vaishyas must have become cultivators. ”

“ Those among the Golden Age people in whom excessive action of Rāja develops some Tama as well, and partly covers the Sattwa Attribute, form yet another distinct caste. They are called Vaishyas. While the Kshatriyas occupy themselves in taking over the control and government of countries and peoples, the Vaishyas take to the occupation of agriculture, commerce and raising of cattle, as much in their own individual material interests as in the interests of all humanity. In the Golden Age, owing to the fulness of spirituality within Nature, all kinds of grains grow wild and abundant. ”

“ The Vaishyas represent the vital vigor of the Four-Caste organism, and as, according to the Shāstras, the seat of the vital vigor is the loins, the Vaishyas form the loins of that body. The Silver Age Vaishyas take to cultivation of the soil, raising of cattle and trade more for the weal of all mankind than for their own personal aggrandizement.
The Sudras are the feet of the Four-Caste organism, very important members of the body too. They represent devotion through service. Indeed, devotion is the training which each caste passes through while fulfilling the duties of its profession. ”

“ The suggested conclusion from the above argument is that the main body of the Aryan immigrants, that is the Vaishyas, settled down in villages by exogamous clans or septs. The cultivators of each village believed themselves to be kinsmen descended from a common ancestor, and also to be akin to the god of the village lands from which they drew their sustenance. ”

“ The group of village menial and artisan castes comes between the good cultivating castes who hold the status of the Vaishyas or body of the Aryans, and the impure castes, the subjected aborigines. The most reasonable theory of their status seems to be that it originated in mixed descent. As has already been seen, it was the common practice of [64] members of the higher classes to take lower-caste women either as wives or concubines, and a large mixed class would naturally result. ”

“ The origin of the name is obscure; the suggestion that it comes from Nimār appears to be untenable, as there are very few Nemas in that District. They say that when Parasurāma was slaying the Kshatriyas fourteen young Rājpūt princes, who at the time were studying religion with their family priests, were saved by the latter on renouncing their Kshatriya status and declaring themselves to be Vaishyas. These fourteen princes were the ancestors of the fourteen gotras of the Nema subcaste, but the gotras actually bear the names of the fourteen Rīshis or saints who saved their lives. ”

“ Vasishta thought for a while and said, “In a former life, O Queen, you were a maid of a jungle tribe. Every Monday you used to fast yourself and offer the choicest fruits that you picked to the god Shiva. In return for them he has made you a queen, and he has entrusted the king’s children to you. Therefore look after them and be kind to them, and in the end he will take you to live with him in Kailas.” The rishi then blessed the third queen, and she prostrated herself before him. Then she ran off, her face all smiles, to play with the king’s children. ”

“ As mendicants they are attached to the Mādigas.”
Gōsāyi or Gōswāmi.—The Gōsāyis are immigrant religious mendicants from Northern and Western India. I gather from the Mysore Census Reports that “they mostly belong to the Dandi sub-division. The Gōsāyi is no caste; commonly any devotee is called a Gōsāyi, whether he lives a life of celibacy or not; whether he roams about the country collecting alms, or resides in a house like the rest of the people; whether he leads an idle existence, or employs himself in trade. ”

“ By rights, too, each caste should keep to its own occupation. Indeed, there has been a tendency to erect every separate kind of employment or handicraft in each separate province into a distinct caste. But, as a matter of practice, the castes often change their occupation, and the lower ones sometimes raise themselves in the social scale. Thus the Vaisya caste were in ancient times the tillers of the soil. They have in most provinces given up this toilsome occupation, and the Vaisyas are now the great merchants and bankers of India. ”

“ As Śiva was the popular deity of the Brahmans, so was Vishnu of the people; and while the literature of the Śaivas and Śāktas [6] is almost entirely in Sanskrit, and exercised little or no influence on the popular mind in northern India, that of the Vaishnavas is largely in Hindī, and in itself constitutes the great bulk of what has been written in that language.
The Vaishnava doctrine is commonly carried back to Rāmānuja, a Brahman who was born about the end of the 11th century, at Perambur in the neighbourhood of the modern Madras, and spent his life in southern India. ”

“ The raising of Vasantasenā to a new status is an extraordinary event, which is dependent on an action of the new king Āryaka, who, as an overthrower of the former monarch, exercises the supreme right of sovereignty in favour of the lady, in defiance of the rules of caste. The political intrigue thus becomes a vital element in the play. ”

“ Another cause of it was that, Harischandra, King of Ayodhyá, was cursed by Vasishtha, whereupon he made Viswámitra his priest to the annoyance of Vasishtha, although the office of Bráhmana was held by him (Müller Id. page 408 Web. pp. 31-37) . In the Bráhmana period we find Vasishtha forming a family title for the whole Vasishtha race still continuing as a Gotra name, and that these Vasishthas continued as hereditary Gurus and purohitas to the kings of the solar race from generation to generation under the same title. ”

“ Vasishta, the king’s spiritual adviser, who had unbounded confidence in Vishwamitra’s power to protect the prince from all harm, strongly advised compliance with the ascetic’s request, and Dasahratha was prevailed upon to allow Rama and Lakshmana to leave Ayodhya with Vishwamitra.
The incidents of the journey reveal a very primitive state of society. The princes and their guide were all of them on foot, apparently quite unattended by servants and unprovided with even the most ordinary necessaries of life. ”

“ To reach them my white brethren must pass over the vast plains which lie between the Limpopo and the Zambesi, which the foot of the white man has never yet trod. The elephant and the lion abound there. The savage moohoohoo breed undisturbed, and not less cruel tribes, to whom Mozelkatse’s name carries no terror, inhabit them. Let my white brethren stay to hunt, and to trade with us. A party of my braves shall seek the fallen huts and bring back the images.”
The rattling sound of the rude applause was once more heard.
“No, chief,” replied Wyzinski; “we are not traders. ”

“ Vishnu participated in the Yajna offerings. Addressing Daksha He said: — "Only ignorant people see the difference between Me and Śiva. I, Śiva and Brahmâ are Three in One. For the creation, preservation and dissolution of the Universe, We assume three different Names. We, as the triune Âtmâ, pervade all beings. Wise men therefore look upon all others as their own selves." ”

“ Sometimes he is represented with a battle-axe (gadha, or parasha) , and an antelope (mirg) in his superior hands: and in many plates of the deity his loins are wrapped in a tiger’s skin, and the goddess Gunga (the Ganges) flows from his mugut or head-piece. The followers of Vishnŭ assert, that the blessed river flowed originally out of heaven, from the foot of Vishnŭ, and, descending upon Kailasa, the terrestrial paradise of Mahadēo, fell on the head of Shivŭ. Each sect is desirous of tracing the source of the sacred river to the head or foot of its own deity. ”

“ It took a long time and much labour to clear away the undergrowth, and then but to meet with disappointment.
“The different wandering tribes who have camped here have used the slabs as fire-places,” observed Wyzinski, sighing. “We must have water, and how can we get it here.”
“Oh, easily,” replied Hughes, whose experience of Indian life came to his aid. “With a buffalo hide we can make a bag which will hold water, and can be carried on a man’s back. We call them bheasties in Madras.”
“The black grime and the dirt of ages seems encrusted on the slabs of Gorongoza,” remarked the missionary. ”

“ If a Vaisya, after having taken birth as a Kshatriya, goes through the usual purificatory rites, becomes invested with the sacred thread, and betakes himself to the observance of vows, he becomes, in his next life, an honoured Brahmana. Indeed, after his birth as a Kshatriya, he should make presents, adore the deities in great sacrifices with plentiful Dakshinas, study the Vedas, and desirous of attaining to Heaven should worship the three fires. He should interfere for dispelling the sorrows of the distressed, and should always righteously cherish and protect those subjects that own his sway. ”

“ In their completely developed forms they represent two ways of looking at the world. The main ideas of the Vaishṇavas are human and emotional. The deity saves and loves: he asks for a worship of love. He appears in human incarnations and is known as well or better by these incarnations than in his original form. But in Śivaism the main current of thought is scientific and philosophic rather than emotional. [338] This statement may seem strange if one thinks of the wild rites and legends connected with Śiva and his spouse. ”

“ Similarly, a Kshatriya should protect the people in accordance with the injunctions of the law, diligently practise the virtue of charity, offer sacrifices, study the whole Veda, take a wife, and lead a virtuous householder’s life. If he be possessed of a virtuous soul, and if he practise the holy virtues, he may easily attain the region of the Supreme Being. A Vaisya should study and diligently earn and accumulate wealth by means of commerce, agriculture, and the tending of cattle. ”

“ Vaishnavas of some places, e.g.,Valavanur, Savalai, and Perangiyur, in the South Arcot district, are considered low by the orthodox sections of Vaishnavas, because they are recent converts to Vaishnavism. A good example of Smarthas becoming Vaishnavas is afforded by the Thummagunta Drāvidas, some of whom have become Vaishnavas, but still take girls in marriage from Smartha families, but do not give their daughters in marriage to Smarthas. All Vaishnavas are expected to undergo a ceremony of initiation into Vaishnavism after the Upanayanam ceremony. ”

“ In their caste organisation, marriage and death ceremonies, the Halēpaiks closely follow the Billavas. They do not, however, construct a car for the final death ceremonies. As they are Vaishnavites, after purification from death pollution by their own caste barber, a Vaishnavite mendicant, called Dāssaya, is called in, and purifies them by sprinkling holy water and putting the nāmam on their foreheads. ”

“ A solitary figure was wending his way through the huts, coming towards them.
“It’s weary work this,” he remarked, as he sat down again with a sigh, “keeping watch and watch all day, and dividing the night between us, too. It’s a weary life. What can have become of Masheesh?”
“The Matabele brave has cared for his own skin, and has fled to the mountains, like the rest of them,” replied the missionary.
“I thought better of him,” said Hughes, absently, “and I am sorry I was wrong.”
“Look, is not that Umhleswa coming towards us,” said Wyzinski. ”

“ Strange as it may seem, his marriage with the lovely Ganga, the divinity of the sacred river Ganges, resulted from a curse uttered by one of those terrible saints, so common in Indian poetry, whose irritability of temper seems to have been in direct proportion to the importance of their austerities. The saint in question, Vasishta by name, was once engaged in his devotions when a party of celestial beings, known as Vasus, unwittingly passed between him and the rising or setting sun. “Be born among men!” ”

“ Wyzinski was earnestly studying a piece of broken stone, on which appeared some rude and defaced carvings; while, squatted on the ground, looking up into the missionary’s face, quite naked and his head ornamented with the waving ostrich plume, the firelight danced over Hasheesh’s black face and quick intelligent eyes.
“The Batonga tell,” said he, “of a range of mountains to the northward and eastward, called ‘Gorongoza.’”
“It is not the place we seek. Gorongoza is known to the Portuguese.” ”

“ Vaisya Brāhman is noted * [3] as being a curious hybrid name, by which the Konkani Vānis (traders) style themselves. A small colony of "Baniyans," who call themselves Jain Vaisyas, is said † [4] to have settled in Native Cochin. Vaisya is recorded as the caste of various title-holders, whose title is Chetti or Chettiyar, in the Madras Quarterly Civil List. ”