Vedic and Non Vedic Hindus:
(A bit of History of Hinduism in India)
The incoming Aryans (read as Brahmins, by and large) were meat eaters. They did so well in part of the first millennium BCE. The counter rise was the birth of Jainism which preached to the folks that there is no God, and worship of God via idols is not a good thing. They preached starting with Aadinatha (9th century BCE) that if you believe there is something called God, then he/she is in every one of us, and thus the goal of life is to serve fellow human beings. That virtually resulted in vegetarianism.
Buddha followed in 6th century who preached also Ahimsa. Seeing the growth of these principles, the "Hindu leaders" adopted Ahimsa principles and that is when the Aryan derived Brahmins adopted vegetarianism.
So, if you run into a non-brahmin non-meat eater, he is likely to be a person of Jaina or Buddhist faith in TN and probably in all of South India. Have you ever met a Bengali Brahmin who does not eat fish?
Only the Vedic Hindus are the Brahmins. Other Hindus are Non Vedic Hindus belong to native Dravidian religion that is vastly varied and very regional. Especially in the current Tamilnadu where folks worship Gods other than Shiva and Vishnu whom Brahmins worship, like Pachai Amman, Maariamman, Murugan etc etc. worshipped by low caste Hindus. If any one in the family had measles or chicken pox off we went to Amman Koil with offerings and prayers.
This Shivite / Vaishnavite divide still exists in South India and is no different to Christians being Catholics or Protestants or the Muslim being Sunnis or Shias who are all at war with each other from times immemorial.
Shivites men make it known with their Vibudhi Pattai or horizontal lines of Ash on their foreheads and Vaishnavite men adorn the red and white Naamams on their foreheads
To my family the Krishnaswamys, a Temple was God's abode and we frequented the Mylapore Kapali Shiva temple until 1972, when our Vashnavite Brahmin neighbour told my mother you are all having bad luck as with a family name like Krishnaswamy you should be going to Vishnu temples like the Ramar Temple at Sanskrit College or Venkateswara Temples. My Mother took her advice and we shifted to becoming Rama and Venkateswara worshippers.
I must admit things did look up for us after that, but then by the time that advise came we had all graduated and were employed and there was money at home compared to the whole family depending on my fathers meagre pension forcing him to work in his retirement.
Vedic HIndus are a tiny minority.. this community is primarily the Brahmins.
Non-Brahmins in South India had their own gods and worship. What emerges is the belief in God was present, but not to Gods such as Shiva/Vishnu etc. In principle they are not followers of the so called Brahmin ways.
Shiva/Vishnu were native Gods of India, and the belief in these deities came from the North to South about 1700 years ago, and folks in the south adopted them as gods because their Kings adopted them.
In a sense a good number of folks like my Non Vedic ancestors got converted and accepted Shiva and Vishnu just as folks got converted more recently to Christianity and Islam.
So now I feel enlightened that I am a Non Vedic Vaishnavite Hindu. What Bunkum?.
A friend of mine says 'One way to empower folks is to bring about awareness of their heritage." Like me trying to understand who I am at this point of time at age 73 in 2020.
My response was " When you are struggling to earn Rs 100 a day to feed mouths at home, where is the time to learn about heritage? Instead in despair the men take to alcohol.
Yet the time is right for me to try and understand my heritage.
When the term "Hindu" is used we often get confused. We have to distinguish for nomenclature
- Vedic Hindus (those who follow as per the Vedas, typically Brahmin) and
- Non-Vedic Hindus or just Hindus who are like me with a Non Vedic heritage
But then take a look at this:-
Hinduism is not a religion - it’s Dharma .
Dharma means Duty , Truthfulness , Ethics , Righteousness, ........
Hinduism is a philosophy!
One can believe in God or need not believe .
Just one has follow Dharma .
Wish it was as simple as that.
