DOI: 10.24308/iass-2014-089

University of Hyderabad, India

prasheelanand@gmail.com

Abstract

Brahmanic mythology is fraught with systemic significations produced as part of the Brahmanic legacy. Through these mediating formulations, mythology has been eventually constructed as history aimed at explaining the universal through symbolic co-optation of elements of nature.

The paper attempts at drawing a schematic analysis of the imagery of three female Brahmanic Gods – Saraswati, Laxmi, Parvati – and arrive at certain interpretation emerging from these symbolic negotiations occurring between the human-like Gods with super human abilities, their adoption of metallic weapons and eventually the use of verse by the priestly Brahmanic class to edify mythology as history. 

Infusing elements of nature, the production of imagery of the Brahmanic Gods and Goddesses since the Vedic age has cemented the reception of religious practices extending into the social, cultural, economic, and political realms; the structure of Caste being one such production which extended/extends into all these realms and beyond. This particular imagery and symbolism, signifying ritualistic practices to be conducted by the worshiping humans, has shades of complexity that range from being human to becoming super human, embodying values and virtues corresponding to the very same mythical Brahmanic legacy.

This research paper uses the semiotic framework to argue that the ‘Gods and Goddesses’ of Brahmanic mythological production embody a signifying ideal laden with elements of nature – the way the human body and in particular the cutaneous layer has been characterized in symbolizing the ‘Godly’ ideal, the use of various engineered metals to extend the purposiveness of that particular ‘Godly’ body, and the use of verse at various points in time to extend the combination of the flesh and the metal eventually signifying an ideal which represents the ‘Godly’ whole to be venerated, idolized, ritualized, and feared by the consuming Brahmanic and Bahujan subjects.

Using the formulation of Umberto Eco, the s-code, the paper recreates this particular ritualistic pattern of the Brahmanic Gods by enunciating this ‘Godly’ figurine. In addition to this, the paper also borrows from Kancha Ilaiah’s works on the violence perpetrated by the unproductive, patriarchal and violent narratives of the Brahmanic Gods.

This paper argues that the violence signified in Brahmanic mythology needs to be understood as the axis between the institution of Caste, the symbolism embodied by the verbal and visual illustration of the Gods and Goddesses, and the constitutional texts which justify graded castigation of select sections of the populace. Though the consolidation of Brahmanic mythology into Hinduism over generations has undergone multiple revisions and exponential interpretations the central idea here is to introduce facets of the mythology which have been arguably agreed upon as the emergent discourse of Brahmanism. Hence, this broad introduction will focus more on the symbolic cooptation of various signifying elements which, when analysed from a socio-historical perspective, produces a culture of violence. The violence in question is not merely physical, as the attempt is to bring to surface particular nuances of ritual, sexual, and psychological violence. Following the idea of the s-code as propounded by Umberto Eco, the concept of violence is fore-grounded. Brahmanism, popularly known as Hinduism has a mythology spanning over five millennia and the aggregate of these legendary constructions have given rise to Hinduism as it has come to be known today. However, the problem with Brahmanism consolidating into a religion is not as much as Brahmanism projecting Brahmanic mythology as the history of the land. As the paper seeks to address, the purpose of this mythology, gradually edified as history, was one, to co-opt the diverse sections of the populace living in and around the Indian sub-continent, two, to segment the diverse populace into categories of human capability based on the community they were born in, and three, legitimize the socio-political rule of the priestly elite. The analysis is divided into three sections. The first section broadly outlines the institution of Caste which is peculiar to the Indian region. The second section focuses on Brahmanic mythology and is sub-divided into three further sections which dwell on the symbolism of the three most important Hindu Gods & Goddesses. The final section examines certain verses from the literary texts of the Brahmans which serve as guiding principles in holding the religion together.

1. The Institution of Caste

The institution of Caste has been theorized extensively by scholars presenting diverse points of view on its creation, operation, and range of influences in Indian social, political, historical, and economic life in India. While many argue that it is a an imperial creation during the reign of the British empire aimed at dividing the Indian populace, there are enough evidences to show that there is mention of Caste in one of the earliest Brahmanical texts called the Rig Veda. However, this particular evidence in the form of a hymn only mentions the physical creation of Caste but does not dwell on the nature of creation itself. In the context of this paper, the mention of Caste as an institution which derives legitimacy by diving people based on their birth in a particularly community would suffice for the time being. The Hindu Caste system recognizes Brahmans as the priestly Caste, Kshatriyas as the warrior and administrative Caste, Vaishyas  as the business and trading Caste, and Shudras as the servile Caste meant to cater to the needs of the above three sections. Apart from this four-fold hierarchy, the Brahmanic thought processes embedded in the Caste system also recognizes Ati-Shudras as untouchables who are placed outside of the Caste system and are excluded from social life, needed only when ritually ‘polluting’ work was/is required by the Hindu society. Therefore, this institutional creation though termed Hindu has to be read as Brahmanical. The community which lived in a self-sufficient tribal state located in the forests away from the Hindu village dwelling, were/are called Adivasis, traditionally regarded by the Brahmanical Castes as demons, murderers, and uncivilized beings.

In his work Castes in India: Their Mechanism, Genesis, and Development, Ambedkar points out that the human institution of Caste which is peculiar to the Indian region is a product of the superimposition of endogamy over exogamy by the priestly class, the Brahmans. Over the years this priestly class, by claiming superiority through ritualistic proceedings and linguistic dominance, formulated further canons which closed the doors towards social movement and intermingling with the other classes, thereby creating the institution of Caste (Rodrigues, 2010).

Elucidating on the role of Brahmanism in producing and propagating an anti-social ethos among the Indian populace, Mani says that, “Ideology as an instrument of domination of ensuring that the common people thought and behaved as the ruling elite want them to, finds an archetypical expression in Brahmanism. Named after those at the top of the Caste hierarchy, Brahmanism is the main exploiting system of traditional Indian society. It stands for the aggregate of the sacerdotal literature, social structure and religio-political institutions that have been masterminded by the elite with the primary aim of keeping the masses ignorant, servile and disunited. Brahmanism uses the ideology of Caste as a crucial instrument to dehumanize, divide, and dominate the productive majority” (Mani, 2011). It is this productive majority which is referred to as the Bahujan, a Buddhist term. The Bahujan peoples who have been traditionally called Shudras, Ati-Shudras, and Adivasis by the Brahmanic populace.

2. Brahmanic Mythology

In the pursuit of analysing the mythological production of bodies produced, identified and consumed as Gods and Goddesses, and their embodiment of certain elements of nature, the formulation of s-code as theorized by Umberto Eco is used. Eco says, “S-codes are systems or ‘structures’ that can also subsist independently of any sort of significant or communicative purpose, and as such may be studies by information theory or by various types of generative grammar. They are made of finite sets of elements oppositionally structured and governed by combinational rules that can generate either finite and infinite strings or chains of these elements... Taken independently of the other systems with which it can be correlated, an s-code is a structure; that is, a system (i) in which every value is established by positions and differences and (ii) which appears only when different phenomena are mutually compared with reference to the same set of relations” (Eco, 1979). Going by Eco’s formulation Brahmanic mythology can be understood as representing this structure with elements signifying contradictory and often incongruous meanings. As the paper will explore further, while the gods signify a holy order and seemingly represent a way of life that is non-violent, respectful, and prosperous the ambiguity arises when the oppositional qualities of the same structure such as violence, oppression, and depravity surface. It is at this juncture that a semiotic analysis becomes necessary to gain a deeper understanding of the Brahmanic religion in relation to its dynamics with the diverse population of the region. While in Christianity and Islam the acceptance of monotheism is across the sub-sects of these faiths, in Brahmanism, the polytheistic tendencies exhibited by the faithful come from a loose argumentative grounding. The position shifts between monotheism and polytheism based on the nature of the addressee and the addresser delivering a particular sermon. It is this inherent nature of Brahmanic mythological sign systems which have been taken up for study. In his exposition of the dominant religion in an Indian context Frykenberg (1993) points out that there have been three constructions of Hinduism which are the Logic of the Brahmanical, or Bio-Social which is based on the concepts of purity-pollution and separation, the Logic of the Regal or Imperial based on contractual integration, and the Logic of the Constitutional based on Indo-European synthesis. Out of these there, it is worthwhile in the context of this paper to cite Frykenberg’s articulation on the ‘Logic of the Brahmanical’. He says, “The first structure was Brahmanical in origin. A highly sophisticated system for categorizing all life; it lumped all mankind into a single category and then subdivided this category into a color-coded system of separate species and sub-species, genuses and subgenuses; and then ranked these hierarchically according to innate (biological, cultural, and ritual) capacities and qualities. The Brahmanical (Sanskritic) name for this ranked ordering, varnash ramadharma, was devised so long ago that its roots go back to the Manu Smriti (Dharma Shastra) if not to the Rig Veda itself. This term described a single and ordered, albeit highly stratified, hierarchical system that genetically accounted for inherent differences within all forms of life. It was an intellectual rationale for explaining inherently different properties (colors: varnas), or inequalities. This system of ranking different birth communities eventually became so dominant, philosophically, and politically, that its rationale and its epistemology came to be regarded as virtually synonymous with Cosmic Law (Dharma).” While Frykenberg lays out the schema of Brahmanic conception related to Caste in a broad manner, it is essential to review the means used to propagate the Brahmanic system of thought which primarily aimed at a social hegemony in the guise of spiritual emancipation. An aspect of these means can be found in the literary religious texts of the Brahmanic creation, the Vedas. The Vedas are regarded as those which have not emerged from humans and are infallible and contain in them an all pervading knowledge. It is propagated by the Brahmanic myth that the Vedas were not written but revealed through sound to old sages who later wrote them. The four Vedas of the Brahmans are Rig Veda the oldest, followed by Sama Veda, Yajur Veda, and Atharva Veda. The other aspect which this paper mentions is the use of religious iconography of the Godly figurines embodying superhuman-like physical qualities while personifying the abilities of knowledge, justice, and divinity. However, the argument is to substantiate that a close reading of these figurines renders an understanding which leads to the articulation that these Gods are representative of real and symbolic violence - the use of weapons representing real violence, and the threatening verses used in literary texts and notions of Phallocentric heterosexuality representing symbolic violence.

2.1. The Symbolic Canvas: Producing the ‘Ideal’, Signifying the Phallocentric, Edifying the Heterosexual

The representation of three canonical male gods and their female consorts will be taken for analysis in this section. Eco & Chilton (1972) say that, “The traditional figure of religion was a character of human or divine origin, whose image had immutable characteristics and an irreversible destiny. It was possible that a story as well as a number of traits backed up the character; but the story followed a line of development already established, and it filled in the character's features in a gradual but definitive manner” (Eco & Chilton, 1972). In Brahmanic mythology the characteristics of these three Godly couples were/are of super-human projections as they were/are depicted as embodying more than one head, having four hands, delivering justice to their subjects through calculated violence, and eventually being regarded as the ideal couples. Unlike the Greek mythological figures who had human forms with super-human capabilities, the Brahmanic Gods and Goddesses were projected as those whose form varied a great deal from their Greek or Roman counterparts. The only similarity recurring in the themes of the various geographical mythologies was that the ability of the Gods and Goddesses to take part in the proceedings of their subjects’ daily routines and engage them from time to time purely to showcase the superiority of the Gods at the inadvantage of the people.

While there are ritualistic, diverse, conforming and conflicting accounts capturing the origin and purpose of Brahmanic Gods and Goddesses, there is an overarching tale through which Brahmanic mythology ascribes certain figures responsible for the creation, maintenance, and destruction of the universe including all forms of organic and inorganic entities as we know them – Trimurti, which loosely translates to mean the Great Trinity or the Holy Triad. As many scholars, theologists, scientists, among others have argued from different stand-points about the existence and purposiveness of these varied figures of Brahmanic mythology by providing diverse theoretical formulations and have attempted to address the various manifestations of this organization of mythology, mentioning all or even a few of them would be to address the specific without addressing the general. Thus, it is the aim of this paper to include, at one level, address and analyze the generic story rather than the various capillaric constructions which feed into the whole, and at another level, to include, address and analyze the man-woman relationship of these Godly figurines.

The Trimurti includes Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva – the creator, the preserver, and the destroyer respectively. The female consorts of these three canonical Gods are Saraswati, Laxmi, and Parvati, respectively. It is important to note that the three female consorts have emerged from the male Gods themselves and it is thereby significant that they do not have an independent origin but have been created by the Trimurti, from time to time, to aid in the functioning of the universe and its subjects. These three couples exhibit behavioural characteristics which signify the ‘ideal’ couple – heterosexuality, devotion to the male, and submission to the self-assigned segregated duties of creation, maintenance, and destruction.

2.1.1. Brahma-Saraswati

The generic Brahmanic myth ascribes the creation of the universe with all its properties, organic and inorganic to the male god Brahma. The depiction of Brahma is one with four heads – three visible and the fourth is placed behind the head which looks at the beholder, thereby rendering it invisible as per the iconography. Brahma’s long, flowing grey beard, his four hands with each holding a specific item, crown on each of his head, seated on a lotus flower, is the prominent representation of this mythological figure. The Brahmanic mythology attributes particular qualities to this depiction and as per the Hindu Holy Scriptures, the Vedas, Brahma uses the mouths of the four heads to recite the four Vedas continuously. In each of his four hands is held a particular thing – an Aksamala or garland of eyes, a book, and, a sceptre. Brahma’s consort, wife, and in some myths regarded as daughter, is regarded as the Goddess of knowledge and learning believed to be born out of Brahma’s mouth. In essence, Saraswati is born out of an auto-endogamous intercourse which Brahma has with himself thereby depicting the manifestation of the belief in genetic purity. She is depicted as young woman sitting on a lotus flower having four hands, two of which hold a string musical called Veena while each of the other two hold the Vedas and an axe (sometimes one hand is shown holding a lotus flower instead of the axe). Refering to the intrinsic contradictions within Brahmanical texts Ilaiah (2002) asks, “The absurdity of Brahmin patriarchy is clear in these texts. The source of education, Saraswati, did not write any book as the Brahmins never allowed women to write their texts. Nowhere does she speak even about the need to give education to women. How is it that the source of education herself is an illiterate woman?” The Brahmanic correlation and gendered break between the signifiers of Brahma and Saraswati can be drawn as: Brahma is older than Saraswati; Both of them carry a weapon made of metal in one of their hands; He can see all around whereas she can see in one direction only; She is born out him thereby conforming to his order whereas he has an independent emergence and existence. Brahma himself is produced as someone who has more eyes than a human being, where-in eyes serve the function of not just seeing but searching, of looking and surveillance, of scanning and registering. Brahma is claimed to be the one who creates, and contrastingly, his figurine includes a scepter which could be used for violent physical assertion. Saraswathi is claimed to be the Goddess of education, knowledge and learning and contrastingly, one of her hands has an axe, another indication of a depiction where flesh and metal of the Gods and Goddesses can be unified to perform one specific function of violence, intellectual, physical, and sexual – the Vedas representing intellectual violence, the weapons representing physical violence, and the patriarchal references of heterosexuality representing sexual violence.

2.1.2. Vishnu-Laxmi

The male god Vishnu is regarded as the supreme God in Brahmanic mythology and is given the highest order of importance as he is considered to be the all-powerful and all-knowing. He is depicted as a blue-skinned God (unlike the fair-skinned Brahma) having four hands, wearing a golden crown on his head, and a multi-headed snake rising above his head from behind. In each of his four hands, Vishnu holds a mace made of metal, a rigged sharp-edged discuss made of metal, a lotus flower, and a conch. Usually depicted standing with his eyes open, Vishnu is considered to have taken different incarnations in different epochs to preserve justice in the world and uphold Brahmanic values of justice as endorsed by the sacred texts. Hence, he becomes the embodiment of the protection of Brahmanic socio-historical dynamic. The use of metal in various configurations to collaborate with his mutated super-human form, the use of a multi-headed snake rising behind him signifying a protector, and the use of the flower lotus in one of his hands leaves to interpretation the understanding that Brahmanic mythology’s successful cooptation of elements of nature finds its ultimate expression in Vishnu – which also is evident from a sect of followers preaching Vaishnavism, or the form of religious doctrine that Vishnu propagates. Vishnu’s blue color can also be understood as him being a result of intercourse between dark-skinned Kshatriyas and fair-skinned Brahmans. The idea here is not justify that Vishnu existed and was really blue in color but to drive home the point that Vishnu as a production needed to embody certain elements of other Castes apart from features of the Brahmans’ only. That’s why the blue color and feudal crown on his head. Another reason to support this argument is the holding of a mace in one of his hands which is a symbol of the feudal weapon era which probably existed in India two-three thousand years ago (Ilaiah, 2002). Vishnu’s consort Laxmi is regarded as the Goddess of wealth and prosperity. There are many legends regarding her creation where it is believed that she emerged from the water during an epic war between the Gods and Demons, and another that she was born to a great Brahmanical saint called Bhrigu, and another version which says she was born to the sun god. She is shown standing on a lotus flower holding two lotuses in two hands and showering gold coins with the remaining two hands. Though her creation is of little importance in this paper, it is the features she embodies which would lead us to a significant understanding of the construction of this Goddess. The Vaishyas in the Brahmanical Caste system are the ones engaged with duties of trade and commerce. Their caste-duty is to serve the two upper castes while ensuring profit and prosperity for themselves. The heterosexual pair of Vishnu-Laxmi is the signifying equation leading to the cooptation of the Kshatriyas and Vaishyas into the Hindu fold by the Brahmanical priests. While Vishnu symbolizes administrator, warrior, and preserver of a particular order, Laxmi symbolizes wealth and riches. This cooptation can be seen as one of the first phases of Brahmanism’s consolidation into Hinduism. The contradiction with Laxmi, however, runs deeper. Though she is shown as the one showering riches on her believing subjects, she herself does not have the power to own property and has to follow the whim and fancy of Vishnu while granting boons. She herself is dependent on her male consort for legitimizing her actions involving matters of religious subjects.

2.1.3. Shiva-Parvati

Ilaiah (2002) says that the third most important God in the Brahmanic construction of the Trimurti is the male God Shiva. Unlike Brahma and Vishnu, Shiva is depicted as a muscular being with matted hair nesting a half-moon, having two hands, wearing a tiger’s skin, holding a trident in his hand, with a snake circling his neck, and usually sitting in a meditative pose with his eyes half-closed. While the Brahmanical meaning originating out of this symbolism describes him as the one who is innocent, is a carefree forest-dwelling ascetic living by himself on his own terms. However, the figurine of Shiva while embodying certain differences from the earlier discussed figurines of Brahma and Vishnu, also has certain elements which can be studied as belonging to the Brahmanical construction of a ‘Hindu’ God. His use of the trident, his heterosexual nature, and his sitting posture are indicative of his representation conforming to the canon of the Hindu Gods’. It is Shiva’s cooptation through symbolic and ritualized means that the tribal populace were gradually brought into the Hindu fold depicting another phase of consolidation from a Brahmanic identity that of a Hindu one. Shiva’s female consort is Parvati. Unlike the earlier two Goddesses of Brahmanic origin, Parvati does not have a specific role to play apart from assisting in Shiva’s activities and accompanying him in his travels. However, Parvati is also depicted as the effeminate, delicate woman who places her husband over everything else and the purpose of her life is to uphold her husband’s ideals, the ideals of the Brahmanic variety. Though she is considered to have many violent forms and incarnations, she is often featured as one who bears Shiva’s children and takes care of the family duties. There is also evidence to suggest that she may have been a creation based on the legends of non-Aryan Goddesses who lived in the mountains (Kinsley, 1988).

3. The Constitutional Texts: Verses of Violence

The nature of violence exhibited by the concoction of the social institution of Caste, the iconography of the Gods and Goddesses, and the constitutional texts of the religion work in tandem and cannot be looked at being isolated from each other in the functioning of Brahmanic mythology. The ritual, sexual, physical, and social violence illustrated by these three congruent elements form the basis for the creation of identity and lay bare the rules of conformism or castigation.

A couple of Sanskrit verses from Brahmanical texts such as the Vedas on the creation of Caste:

Braahmanosya mukhamaasidbaahu raajanyo abhavat Madhyam tadasya yad vaishyaha padbhyaam shudro ajaayata.

And

Bṝahmanosya mukhamaasidbaahu raajanyah krtah| Uru tadasya yadvaishyaha padbhyam shudro ajaayata.

The verses read out that the human civilization sprang out of Brahma’s different parts of the body in different configurations: From Brahma’s face sprang the priestly class the Brahmans, from his arms and chest came forth the warrior and administrator class the Kshatriyas, from the central part of the body were born the trading class the Vaishyas, and from Brahma’s feet emerged the Shudras, the servile class. The Ati-Shudras or untouchables and the Adivasis or forest-dwelling tribes did not find any mention in these verses.  The segmentation of individuals found legitimacy in the religious texts which thereby gave strength and fortified the social order in which humans engage with each other and the way they engage with nature around them. This particular segmented system was so violent that it was only the Brahmans who could decide the fate of a particular individual or community and any transgression would have to be strictly punished as per the ruling of these holy texts. One such verse from a Manu Smriti, a Brahmanical Holy text epitomizing Brahmans as the sole authority reads:

Let the king after rising early in the morning worship Brahmans who are well-versed in the threefold sacred sciences and learned in the policy and accept their advice.

And

Brahman is the root of sacred law. By his origin alone he is a deity even for the gods and his word is authoritative for men.

The rules for transgression, restricting movement from one segment to another, disallowing people from practicing the routines of the other were laid out in rules such as:

The tongue of the Sudra who spoke evil about persons in the first three castes should be cut off. A Sudra who dared to assume the position of equality with the first three castes should be flogged.

And

A Sudra who abused a twice-born[1] man or assaulted him with blows should lose the limb with which he offended, if he overheard a recitation of the Vedas molten lac or tin was to be poured into his ears; if he repeated the Vedas his tongue should be cut; and if he remembered Vedic hymns, his body was to be torn to pieces.

The Manu Smriti believed to be authored by a great Brahman sage Manu who was the first man on earth was/is capable of producing a nature of violence that can be comparable to Hitlerite proportions, if not worse. As Nietzsche was the spiritual guru for shaping Nazism and his concepts of the superman created foundation for the assertion of the Nazis, Manu Smriti in principle and practice is capable of creating forms of violence peculiar to Caste transgression. In fact, Nietzsche in his Anti Christ says, “After all, the question is, to what end are falsehoods perpetrated? The fact that, in Christianity, ‘holy’ ends are entirely absent, constitutes my objection to the means it employs. Its ends are only bad ends; the poisoning, the calumniation and the denial of life, the contempt of the body, the degradation and self pollution of man by virtue of the concept of sin, – consequently its means are bad as well. My feelings are quite the reverse, when I read the law book of Manu, an incomparably intellectual and superior work, it would be a sin against the spirit even to mention in the same breath with the Bible. You will guess immediately why; it has a genuine philosophy behind it, in it, not merely an evil-smelling Jewish distillation of Rabbinism and superstition – it gives something to chew even to the most fastidious psychologist. And, not to forget the most important point of all, it is fundamentally different from every kind of Bible: by means of it the noble classes, the philosophers and the warriors guard and guide the masses; it is replete with noble values, it is filled with a feeling of perfection, with saying yea to life, and triumphant sense of well-being in regard to itself and to life, – the Sun shines upon the whole book... I know of no book in which so many delicate and kindly things are said to woman, as in the Law Book of Manu ; these old grey-beards and saints have a manner of being gallant to woman which, perhaps, cannot be surpassed. “The mouth of a woman”, says Manu on one occasion, “the breast of a maiden, the prayer of a child, and the smoke of the sacrifice, are always pure”... “there is nothing purer than the light of the Sun, the shadow cast by a cow, air water, fire and the breath of a Maiden”. And finally-perhaps this is also a holy lie: – “all the openings of the body above the navel are pure, all those below the navel are impure. Only in a maiden is the whole body pure” (Nietzsche, 2005), (Ambedkar, 1987).

The verses of violence as seen above were restricted to legitimize the Brahmanic rule and keep the Shudras engaged within their sphere of activities. The Shudras consisting primarily of artisans of diverse capacity could make weapons for the twice-born but not use them, they could make clothes for the twice-born but not wear them, they could grow copious amounts food for the twice-born but keep just enough to feed themselves and their families. Such was the line to tow to avoid the ‘sacred’ punishment, in order to win favour of the Gods, and to avoid the wrath of the Brahmanical figurines deposited as all-knowing, all-pervading rulers of the disjointed community. Another verse from one of the Vedas which spells out the schema of the self-appointed Brahman in legitimizing the worship of the Gods through the ritualistic priest is as below, thereby pronouncing the modes of ritual violence to be carried out against the non-believers of this scheme.

We learned persons accept as our ruler, thee, the introducer of new plans for our advancement, the master of loyal subjects, the embodiment of virtue, the most advanced in noble qualities and acts, the queller of the irreligious… (Razvi, 2014).

And

When the glorious Vishnu heard their prayers he emitted from his person an illusory form wliich he gave to the celestials and said, “This illusory form shall so deceive the Daityas, that being led astray from the path of the Vedas, they shall be slain; for all gods, demons and others, who shall transgress the authority of the Veda, shall perish by my prowess which I exercise for the preservation of the universe. Go then; be not afraid; this illusory form shall go before you. celestials, it shall be of great service to you, this day. (Razvi, 2014).

As is evident in the earlier mentioning of the Godly figurines’ violent symbolism and the texts which further legitimize the use of violence against those who tend to resist the Brahmanical hegemony, it can be said that the culture of violence which Brahmanism as a system of thought proposes has transformed, gradually over the centuries, from a purely mythological production to a historical one. The primary reason for constructing mythology as history is to produce a conforming subject from the Bahujan populace through the various manifestations of the caste consciousness. It is to keep Caste at the core of socio-political, religious and cultural realms that the thrust of mythology appears, reappears, and presents itself as history. It is through the embodiment of human-like characteristics and superhuman-like tendencies that the Gods and Goddesses profess the conduct of social life, fervently supported by the religious texts such as the Vedas. It can be seen that a combination of visual and linguistic productions signifies the mythological. Through the dynamics of Caste, this mythology gets constructed as history, thereby signifying the Brahmanical religious ways as natural.

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