The Mahabharata: a Brahminical Struggle for Power

The Mahabharata: A Brahminical Struggle for Power The desire for power has always been an issue throughout the ages. As foreign ideas and invaders became a threatening situation, the Brahmin caste during time of the Mahabharata responded by stressing the importance of dharma in society. The writers of the Mahabharata's twelfth book, The Book of Peace, place extra emphasis on dharma to not only maintain order within the kingdom, but also to preserve the social status of Brahmins and dissuade other castes from converting to new and foreign influences in the Mahabharata. To better understand why such an act was needed, this paper will discuss the Brahminical social status relative to other castes, the importance of dharma in society to Brahmins, the growing influence of the Buddhism in India, and lastly the presence of Jainism in society and it’s minor effect. During the period the Mahabharata was written, there was a clear defined four-tiered caste system consisting of the Sudras, Vaishyas, Kshatriya, and Brahmins. These classes were meant to maintain order by stressing that each class must to adhere to its proper dharma. The Sudras were the lowest level of the caste system. Known typically as slaves and workers, their dharma was to do be slaves or do hard labor. They held no power although they represented a large portion of society. They were owned by the Kshatriya, but they were considered “untouchable” by both Brahmins and Kshatriyas because of the impure stigma placed upon the class by the Brahmins. This idea of impurity of the Sudras pervaded even throughout the class itself, and at the pinnacle of the caste system, there were divisions within the Sudra class The Vaisyas were placed below the Kshatriya and Brahmins and “slightly above the Sudras” in the caste system. This class’s main focus was agriculture and livestock. Scholars such as Richard Fick state that, “Originally in the oldest Vedic age Vaiyas was a name of the class of cattle-breeding and

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