RELG 353 Lecture Notes - Lecture 15: Rg Veda, Dalit, Chandala

• School: McGill University
• Department: Religious Studies
• Course: RELG 353
• Professor: Michael Gollner

Document Summary

Refers to people and communities excluded from the varna system. Below sudras in terms of ritual status. Perceived ritually polluting to upper castes (cid:498)untouchables(cid:499) Scheduled tribes: often considered first people"s of )ndia. Gov. of india uses: scheduled castes, scheduled tribes. Dalits fall under category of scheduled castes, scheduled tribes refers to. In second millennia before indo aryan migration there were people some of whom were brought into brahminic tradition some of which were not and remained marginalized another marginalized group. Reservations in government positions, school entry etc. for both of these. Purusa sukta: the origin of the castes vedic period) Term gandhi used for dalits (dalit=recent term) Earliest reference to the four varnas is in rg veda (from earliest strata of the. Hymn describes the creation of the universe by the sacrifice of a giant. No reference to (cid:498)untouchables(cid:499) in this particular text. Unclear as to whether the vedas promoted the ideology of untouchability.