Don't Know Much About Mythology - Kenneth C. Davis [159]
Just as priests ruled the European medieval world, and the imams and ayatollahs dictate to modern Islamic governments in places like Iran, the Brahmin caste of priests, philosophers, and scholars held the high ground in ancient Indian society. Elite and powerful, they attained and held their status through religious principle. In Guns, Germs, and Steel, his groundbreaking view of human history, Jared Diamond coined the word “kleptocracies” to describe powerful ruling classes and the ways in which they were able to transfer wealth—and power—from commoners to themselves. Far from limited to India’s Brahmins, Diamond’s fairly cynical view of these systems neatly sums up the underpinnings of the caste system: “[One] way for kleptocrats to gain public support is to construct an ideology or religion justifying kleptocracy. Bands and tribes already had supernatural beliefs, just as do modern established religions. But the supernatural beliefs of bands and tribes did not serve to justify central authority, justify transfer of wealth, or maintain peace between unrelated individuals. When supernatural beliefs gained those functions and became institutionalized, they were thereby transformed into what we term a religion.”
Whenever myth morphs into religion, elaborate rituals usually emerge.* This was certainly apparent in India, where the sacred Ganges, a river originating high in the Himalayas and revered as the physical manifestation of the goddess Ganga, had been associated with purification since ancient times. Bathing in the waters of the Ganges is still a lifelong ambition for Hindu worshippers and, each year, thousands visit such holy cities as Varanasi (Benares) and Allahabad in pilgrimages to do just that. Temples line the banks of the Ganges and ghats (stairways) lead down to the river, where the pilgrims come to bathe and carry home some of its water. While some come only to cleanse and purify themselves, the sick and crippled come—just as thousands of Christian pilgrims flock to such “miraculous” sites as Lourdes—hoping that the touch of the water will cure their ailments. Others come to die in the river, because the Hindus believe that those who die in the Ganges will have their sins removed.*
Another later symbol of the order permeating Indian society was the construction of Hindu temples, which began to be built around 300 CE, during the period of the Gupta Empire (c. 320–550 CE), a period known as India’s Golden Age for its accomplishments in literature, science and mathematics, the arts, and architecture. Constructed to venerate a particular deity, these temples, now located across India, housed the god, whose devotees came to the temple for a glimpse of the divine in order to absorb the god’s power and carry that power with them in their daily lives. When they came to the temple, worshippers expressed adoration, made offerings, and sought blessings. Often adorned with erotic sculptures celebrating the Hindu pantheon, these temples represented another step in India’s evolving society. As Devdutt Pattanaik points out, “Not satisfied with approaching the divine through trees, animals, rivers, and natural rock formations, the kings sponsored the making of idols of Gods and Goddesses in metal and stone that were enshrined in temples. Between 800 and 1300, vast temple complexes came into being. They were controlled and managed by brahmins, who once again came to dominate society…. Caste hierarchy manifested in the temple tradition too, with caste based on occupation determining whether one was allowed to enter the temple or not. With rituals came the idea of pollution. Those at the bottom of the caste hierarchy—sweepers, cobblers, and other menial laborers—were the most polluted.”