z:\ ambedkar\vol 04\vol4 05.indd MK SJ DK YS 23 9 2013/YS 8 11 2013 198
198 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
and mighty Manu, and also the renowned Yama, his (Manu’s) younger brother. Righteous was this wise Manu, on whom a race was founded. Hence this (family) of men became known as the race of Manu. Brahmans, Kshattriyas, and other men sprang from this Manu. From him O King, came the Brahman conjoined with the Kshatriya.”
The theory propounded here is very much the same as that contained in the Ramayana with this difference, namely, the Mahabharata makes Manu, the progenitor of the four Varnas and secondly it does not say that the four Varnas were born from the different parts of Manu.
The second explanation [1] given by the Mahabharata follows what is given in the Purusha Sukta of the Rig-Veda. It reads thus:
“The King should appoint to be his royal priest a man who will protect the good, and restrain the wicked. On this subject they relate this following ancient story of a conversation between Pururavas the son of Ila and Matarisvan (Vayu, the windgod). Pururavas said: “ You must explain to me whence the Brahman, and whence the (other) three castes were produced, and whence the superiority (of the first) arises.” Matarisvan answered: “The Brahman was created from Brahma’s mouth, the Kshatriya from his arms, the Vaisya from his thighs, while for the purpose of serving these three castes was produced the fourth class, the Sudra, fashioned from his feet. The Brahman, as soon as born, becomes the lord of all beings upon the earth, for the purpose of protecting the treasure of righteousness. Then (the creator) constituted the Kshattriya the controller of the earth, a second Yama to bear the rod, for the satisfaction of the people. And it was Brahma’s ordinance that the Vaisya should sustain these three classes with money and grain, and that the Sudra should serve them.” The son of Ila then enquired: “Tell me, Vayu to whom the earth, with its wealth rightfully belongs, to the Brahman or the Kshattriya?” Vayu replied: “All this, whatever exists in the world is the Brahman’s property by right of primogeniture; this is known to those who are skilled in the laws of duty. It is his own which the Brahman eats, puts on, and bestows. He is the chief of all the castes, the first-born and the most excellent. Just as a woman when she has lost her (first) husband, takes her brother in law for a second; so the Brahman is thy first resource in calamity; afterwards another may arise”.
The third view is expounded in the Shantiparva of the Mahabharata [2] :
1 Muir’s Vol. I p.
2 Ibid pp. 139-40.