Opinion | Vira Panchalas: A Story That Awaits A Comprehensive Retelling – News18

Last Updated:January 03, 2025, 15:20 IST

Vijayanagara Empire was built with the grit, blood, and sacrifice of kings, commanders, and soldiers. But it was sustained by the all-round contributions of a beautiful kaleidoscope of communities like the Vira Pañcālas

In the Gundlupet inscription mentioned in the previous episode, this is how the Vira Pañcālas describe themselves:

“…all the Vira Pañcālas, the originals of the Manu race, of incomparable character…delighting in Parabrahma, creators of the fourteen worlds, of unshaken joy, of daily pure and enlightened salvation, self-known and self-manifest; by their authority as the original men, making (?) in Tungala (or Tungalale) of Bendukaliyur, hundreds and thousands of inquiries of all manner of seeds and plants; well-versed in weighing and comparing, in Vedas, science, logic, grammar, poetry, in pronouncing distinctly the palatals and labials, in training horses and elephants, and in holding the breath charged with perfume; masters in reading, writing, arithmetic, and the deception (?) of skilful people… perfumers of Sarasvati with rare jasmine, ornaments in the ears of Sarasvati; distinguished for cities, island forts, hill forts, forest forts… Five Principles [pancha-tattva]… domes, pinnacles; they create the sixteen signs of the original house, the sign of the sacrificial hall, the sign of the pit for the consecrated fire, the sign of slopes, etc., according to standard  rules, for these and all other signs; they are authorities for the creation of . . . mansions… adorners of Sriparvata deeply learned in all the science of language and the Puranas to the utmost limits; fond of and merciful to war elephants…. accomplished as Rama; boon-lords of Pindotipura, devotees of the lotus feet of Sri Kāḻikā-Devi and Kamaṭeśvara — such were the Vira Pañcālas of Terakanambi.”

The first element in this inscription that stands out is the immense pride the Vira Pañcālas took in their educational and professional accomplishments. The list of subjects they claim mastery over encompasses all knowledge systems prevalent in Bharatavarsha since the time of, say, Kautilya. These included the traditional caturdaśa-vidyās (14 branches of knowledge) and the catuṣaṣṭi-kalās (64 arts).

On the authority of a vast repository of primary epigraphical sources, it is reasonable to aver that this singular inscription is enough to bust the concocted colonial and Marxist narratives regarding an alleged “caste system.”

The aforementioned constituents of the Vira Pañcālas include communities that are today recognised by our Constitution as ‘backward classes’ — carpenters, goldsmiths, blacksmiths, stone-cutters, braziers, washermen, barbers, etc.

Yet, here is an inscription that tells the opposite story. We need to remember that the Vira Pañcālas were the authors of this inscription. And here, when they describe their educational qualifications, it reads like the CV of a typical Brahmana Pandit or Vidvaan.

Here, the Vira Pañcālas were well-versed in the Vedas, tarka (logic), vyākaraṇa (grammar), āgama (the science of temple building, management and rituals), śikṣā (phonetics), and kāvya (literature).

This high standard of educational accomplishment also serves as the basis on which they justify their preeminence in society. It was earned preeminence, not doled-out authority.

Clearly, no Brahmin had denied them education in any of these subjects.

Interestingly, the Vira Pañcālas claim that they—and not the Brahmanas or other so-called ‘higher castes’—are the “originals of the race of Manu.” They also supply the reasoning for it: they are of “incomparable character,” which is the outcome of their immersion in the “Parabrahman,” which is “self-known and self-manifest.” This reverence for the Parabrahman harks right back to the very essence of Vedanta.

The emphasis on character is neatly consistent with the Sanatana ethos of Bharatavarsha. To state the obvious, the Vira Pañcālas had attuned themselves to and took pride in the shared values and ideals that built the Hindu civilisation and society.

On the larger canvas, this inscription, like hundreds of others related to the Vijayanagara era, is a small slice that shows the fluid and harmonious social order in that great kingdom. Professor BA Saletore, one of the top authorities on Vijayanagara, describes this flexible social structure in words embossed in gold:

“… we may observe that the adjustment of the duties of, and the distribution of patronage to, the four varnasramas was indeed a problem which called forth the ingenuity of the Vijayanagara rulers. For, in addition to the need of reconciling the differences between the various communities, without lowering in any way the prestige of the Hindu monarchs as promoters of the Dharma, there was the grave question of defending the country against an ever-watchful enemy who was waiting for an opportunity of crushing the Hindu Empire.

“The fact that the monarchs of Vijayanagara were able to achieve both these ends for a considerable length of time, in spite of the many shortcomings in their political system, is enough to prove that, so far as the social side of their history is concerned, they must have conferred on the people those advantages of person, property and religion which assured them the heartiest co-operation of the people in times of grave political crisis.

“The existence of the four great varṇāśramas and the eighteen subsects proved no barrier to them. On the other hand, their public avowal to promote Sakala-varṇāśrama-dharmas may have been partly responsible for their success…The history of the Hindu State, viewed from this standpoint, becomes interesting as the record of a people who, although divided into four main groups with numerous subdivisions, yet lived to turn the times in which the monarchs struggled to maintain the honour of the land into an age of intense social and intellectual activity.”

Even from this valuable perspective, the story and the Order of the Vira Pañcālas is a brilliant case study. It demonstrates how the so-called representative democracy worked in action under a purely monarchical system. The same holds true for almost all the other so-called “lower castes” that existed during the period.

Unfortunately, the colonial-Marxist chokehold over history and popular narrative has proven quite enduring and hard to break. Its spurious definition — that Hindu society = caste and caste = evil — has prevailed as the iron curtain that has scared several generations of scholars, authors and novelists from speaking about the profound truths embedded in the real-life stories represented by communities like the Vira Pañcālas.

And so, the pride that the Vira Pañcālas took in the Vedic tradition and Sanatana Dharma is interpreted as “an aspiration for Brahminism,” the “savarnaisation of marginalised groups,” and other mindless nonsense spewed by the hate factories of sociology and anthropology. The latest instance of hurling mud at this profound social and cultural legacy of Vijayanagara is in the form of Salman Rushdie’s novel, Victory City.

The Vijayanagara Empire was built with the grit, blood, and sacrifice of kings, commanders, and soldiers. But it was sustained by the all-round contributions of a beautiful kaleidoscope of communities like the Vira Pañcālas.

For the diligent researcher, the comprehensive story of the Vira Pañcālas is a monumental volume waiting to be written.

Concluded

The author is the founder and chief editor, The Dharma Dispatch. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.