kshatriya lineage. The same jati’s social
position can vary from region to region,
depending on if they comprise a major-
ity or a minority of the population or
have status as a land-holding community.
As in most of Hindu life, a group’s status
is usually influenced by local factors; in
the past fifty years, such status determi-
nations have also been affected by
changes in Indian society, which have
tended to relax social distinctions. For
further information see McKim Marriot,
“Hindu Transactions: Diversity Without
Dualism,” in Bruce Kapferer (ed.),
Transaction and Meaning, 1976.
Castration
Castration of human beings has been
almost completely absent in Indian his-
tory, with the notable exception of the
hijras. Hijras are male cross-dressers
who dress and behave as womenand
have usually undergone self-castration
as a ritual renunciation of their sexuality.
Hijras are often homosexual prostitutes,
and they are an established part of the
decadent underside of most Indian
cities. Their most important ritual func-
tion is to sing and danceat the houses in
which a male child has been born, but
they may also be called to perform on
other auspicious occasions. Despite the
hijras’ associations with certain auspi-
cious occasions, they are marginal to
society and have very low social status.
For a reliable study of the hijras, see
Serena Nanda, Neither Man Nor Woman,
- See also auspiciousness.
Causal Chains
The underlying ultimate concern in all
Indian philosophical schools is to
uncover and understand the causal
forces that keep human beings
enmeshed in samsara, the continual
cycle of reincarnation. One of the ways
that Indian philosophers attempted to
do this was to formulate various chains
of cause and effect detailing the process
through which human beings become
subject to the bondage of karma. By
understanding this process, they hope
to be able to manipulate it, ultimately
leading to the final liberation of the soul
(moksha). The oldest causal chains were
formulated by the Buddha and the Jains.
In each of these theories, avidya, or lack
of genuine understanding, starts the
causal chain. In the Buddhist and Jain
traditions, these causal chains can be
broken by a religious discipline that
begins with moral action and at more
advanced levels involves meditation
and wisdom.
Causal chains in Hindu philosophy
have much in common with these
beliefs, particularly the notion that
avidya is the basic problem. In the
Nyaya Sutras, the Nyayaphilosopher
Gautamapropounded a five-fold causal
chain: pain, birth, activity, defect, and
wrong notion. Each of these elements
is caused by the one succeeding it
and is eliminated with the destruction
of its cause. The Vaisheshika school,
which was traditionally paired with
the Nyayas, also used this model. The
causal chain in the Samkhyaphilosoph-
ical school, as described by its founder,
Ishvarakrishna, ascribes bondage to
the process of evolution, stemming
from the confusion between purusha
(conscious spirit) and prakrti(primal
matter). According to Samkhya,
these two first principles are always
separate from one another, but humans
can confuse them. The Yoga school,
traditionally paired with the Samkhya,
used this model as well. The philosopher
Ramanuja, founder of the Vishishthadvaita
Vedantaschool, proposes an evolution-
ary scheme similar to the Samkhya
model, although instead of Samkhya’s
dualism, all things evolve from a single
source,Brahman.
The only major Hindu philosophical
school without a causal chain is Advaita
Vedanta. All of the other schools explain
the relationship between the Ultimate
Reality (in most cases, Brahman) and
the perceivable world with the doctrine
of parinamavada. This philosophical
perspective accepts the reality of the
world as it is perceived and also assumesCastration