Vestiges of Vedic Culture among the Jats

Vestiges of Vedic Culture among the Jats
Dr. S.S.Rana

Fewer questions of Indian History have elicited bipolar answers than the question of the identity and origin of the people who are today known as or call themselves Jats. On the one hand there are die hard protagonists who would not move an inch from their stated position that the Jats are none other than the inheritors and descendants of the indigenous Aryan people who millenniums ago traversed the land called Saptasindhu in the hymns of the Rig Veda. On the other hand we have scholars who are not prepared to accept the Jats even as indigenous people and clubbing them with their brethren, the Rajputs and Gujjars trace their origin in the invading Hunas and Shakas on the basis of some far fetched similarity of some solitary custom or belief in utter disregard of yawning evidence permeating the daily life of the Jats strongly pointing to their Vedic connection. In an attempt to drive a wedge between the Rajputs and the Jats the famous historian of the Rajputs James Todd sought to establish the Vedic Aryan connection for the Rajputs putting the Jats in the category of foreign immigrants, though not denying the essential similarities between the two great castes. Among the protagonists we have distinguished foreign writers like H. Risley, Denzil Ibbetson, Dr. Trumpp and Beams etc. Grierson, faced with the strong evidence of linguistic content grudgingly accepted the Aryan origin of the Jats but not before categorizing them as degraded Aryans. Indian writers tracing an Aryan origin of the Jats include scholars like Thakur Deshraj (Jat Itihas), G. S. Ghurye (Castes and Tribes of India), K.R. Qanungo (History of Jats), B.S. Dahiya (Jats: the Ancient Rulers), Hukam Singh Pawar (The Jats,Their Orgin, Antiquity and Migrations) etc. though among themselves, they differ with regard to the indigenous home of the Aryans. Thakur Deshraj, and following him Hukam Singh Pawar connect the Jats with the Aryans via the Shaka route i.e. a branch of the Shakas was originally of vedic Aryan stock. This at best can be described as proxy for the Shaka origin of the Jats, which falls neither here nor there. B. S. Dahiya tracing a foreign origin of the Aryans themselves falls into the web of etymology and finds himself in an inextractible position in the absence of adequate tools of scientific and historical methodology.
A superficial view of the Jat way of life on the part of the scholarly world can be seen as a major road block in the way of tracing the vedic link of the Jats. As Qanungo points out, almost all observers generally agree that in religious and social usages the Jats do not differ much from other Hindu communities of admittedly Aryan origin. In fact the label Hindu or Indu was given to the inhabitants on both sides of the river Indus (Sindhu) by the Persian king Darius (522-486 B.C.) and by Xarxes (465 B.C.). The Greeks called the people of this region Indoi (from which the word Indian is derived). Rigveda is conversant with the river Sindh and its seven tributaries. The tract traversed by these seven rivers is called Saptasindhu in the Rigveda. The Saptasindhu region of the Vedas is known to have been inhabited by the Jats. So there is no reason to deny the Rigvedic connection of the Jats.
Let us examine a few features of the vedic culture reflected in the life of the Jats. Entering the religious domain we find a refreshing echo of the vedic religion in the beliefs and practices of the Jats all along the ages. The Rig Vedic seer candidly declares- ekam sad viprah bahudha vadanti i.e.‘wise men describe (pray to) one Reality (God?) in many ways (or forms)’. The Jat has never been in doubt about oneness of God and formal worship of a particular deity has not been found to be his problem. It is not that he does not believe in worshiping God. He does. He can pray without uttering a single word of formal prayer. He is quite conscious of the essential unity of all souls but he does not believe in running after agents to get him religious merit. When he says-‘what matters in life is action, and prayer in any form reaches God(kar le so kam, bhaj le so Ram), he is only echoing the Ishavasyopanishad which sings- ‘kurvanneveha karmani jijivishet shatam samah –‘one should continue to do one’s duties and wish to live hundred years’. The Jat in the fashion of his Vedic ancestor is aware of the glories of the elements of nature. The rivers are sacred to him and he recognizes the value of water. He lives by and can die for water. The sacred Ganga is a swear word for him which he would not like to falsify at any cost. As a true householder he knows how to keep fire (Agni) going. The kind wind (Vayu) and the strong storm all visit his life and he takes all phenomena in their stride as God’s doings. The sky (Dyaus) far above, blue in hue, is synonymous with formless (nirakara) God whom he calls Ramji (not to be confused with Shri Ram of the Ramayana). What the famous Earth (Prithivi) Hymn of the Atharvaveda (XII.1) contains by way of lessons on environmental protection and sustainable development (sa no bhumi vardhayad vardhamana); co-existence of different elements of a plural society, is eminently demonstrated in the life and beliefs of the Jat of yesterday and today in ample measure. The child and mother relationship of man with the Earth (mata bhumi putro=ham prithivyah) runs through the veins of every Jat, who tears the crust of the earth and in turn gets his food in the manner of from his mother. The agenda chartered by the Rig Veda for the simple peasant in the famous hymn of Gambler (X.34.13) has been scrupulously pursued by the Jat peasants for thousands of years. The Rig Veda declared –akshair ma divyah, krishim it krishasva i.e. do not play with the dice, play a true ploughman’. The Jat has not failed to follow the dictum. In the words of Father Wendel, the pioneer historian of the Jats, ‘to be Jat, is to be peasant or ploughman’.
The social life of the Jats (known by any name in the past) cast in the Vedic mould has hardly changed in its essentials except in cutting some corners. The familial relationships based on sound ethnological principles have remained personalized without getting faceless even with the ever growing dimensions of social change. Every one means some thing to every one else here. The ideals of marriage set out in the Rigveda (X.85) in its Hymn of Marriage have been the guiding star for matrimony among Jats for the many past centuries. All marriages are performed over an agnihoma with the recitation of Vedic mantras. The components of the ceremony do not fail to include the vedic prayer for well being; the mandatory oblations offered in the fire alter; the couple going round the fire alter holding hand (X.85.36,38); offering libations of parched rice in the fire alter; the bride touching a rock with her toe; sighting the pole star; filling with vermilion the parting of the hair of the bride by the groom, the father giving the hand of his daughter to the groom, and finally the couple walking seven steps together, each affirmed by a Vedic vow made public. Some of the post marriage ceremonies have a vedic origin. The age old custom of appearance of the bride (munh dikhai) before close relations and friends of the family is based on the Rigvedic (X.85.33) mantra-‘sumangaliryam vadhurimam sameta pashyata, saubhagyam asyai datvayathastam vipretana i.e. here is this bride of auspicious mein, come all, see her face and then having showered her with blessings, return. The bride is welcomed in her new home with the same fanfare as contemplated in the Rig Veda. The vedic wish for the bride to have place of honour in her in-laws’ house have not remained mere pious words among the Jats. Elderly ladies of the community showering blessing on a bride are seen wishing her beget sons and grandsons remind us of the Rigvedic (X.85.18,19) tradition. If a jat craves for a son he only betrays a vedic belief where sonlessness was as much deplored as poverty (Rigveda, III,16.5). Again his moorings are traceable to the Rigveda (VII.4.7, 8) when we find him not opposing adoption but hardly resorting to it. Probably it had something to do with custom of restricting ownerhip of land to the members of the gotra of the same village, which system if adopted would result in alienation of land to person of other gotras. However under the dispensation of the modern State things have changed radically, though not fully. The practices of endogamy of caste and exogamy of gotra prevalent among the Jats for ages is a faithful representation of the prohibitions in relation to matrimony prescribed by the Dharmasutras and the Smritis,viz.sagotra, sapravara, sapinda and viruddha-sambandha.
The Brahmana finds a place of respect in the scheme of things of the Jats. It is well known that the Brahmana has enjoyed a respectable and privileged position in society for his role as the repository and propagator of the ancient wisdom contained in the Vedas as also the priest par excellence for all religious ceremonies. Among the Jats, who are not very concerned about the formalism of rituals the Brahmana commands respect more for his intellectual attainments in accordance with the standard set forth in the Atharva Veda (V.19.8)Viz. ‘Brahmanam yatra hinsanti tad rashtram hanti duchchhuna’ i.e. ‘that smites the kingdom, where they do harm to any intellectual’. The Jats show respect to every Brahmana addressing every one as dada irrespective of age or relative hierarchy of a clan. The legendary hospitality of the Jats has connection with the vedic psyche of invoking Agni, the most important deity of the Rigeda with the epithet of ‘guest’ most frequently.
There is frequent mention of the democratic Bodies like Sabha, Samiti and Vidatha in the Vedic literature as fora for discussion and decision making on matters of public interest. The word panchajana or panchamanava also occurs quite frequently indicating some kind of local panchayat system working in the vedic age. The khap and sarvakhap system of the Jats at the micro and macro level respectively is known to have guided the affairs of the society for ages and is not known to be defunct even today in spite of the alternative anchayats recognized and regulated by the government concerned, and we find it rising to the occasion on questions of crucial social content. The records kept of these informal panchayats bear out the continuity among the Jats of the Vedic traditions for centuries. It is a pity that such panchayats become active only sporadically as the initiative has been appropriated by the power of the state which in turn has its own credentials formed as it is on the strength of public support in elections. The Jat tradition of not including their females in the customary panchayat conventions can be traced back to its roots in the Atharvaveda (VII.39.4) where the house wife tells her husband, ‘Here (at home) I shall speak, and you shall not. You can speak in the Assembly’. Who would deny that even though customarily the females did not enter the panchayat arena their views did not remain unrepresented? Are we not entitled to argue the same way in the context of the demand of reservation for women in the representative Bodies above the panchayats in rural areas and Municipal Bodies in urban areas of our country?
And last but not the least we can’t fail to notice the flavour of Vedic Sanskrit in their spoken toungue-the Khadi Boli, the immediate mother of the standard Hindi, our national language to-day. The nomenclatures of their traditional tools, food and drinks, clothes and ornaments, the flora and fauna that abound their tract, and above all their simple and carefree life style have Vedic aroma.
To conclude we may say that the Jats in their sedentary life style have preserved several elements of Vedic life even with the passage of thousands of years and say conversely that the Jats represent the best specimen of the Vedic Aryans.
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