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Castes and Races in Traditional Thought with Specific Reference to   Topic List   < Prev Topic  |  Next Topic >
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Castes and Races in Traditional Thought with Specific Reference to India


In a review by Guénon of an article by Evola published in 'La Vita
Italiana', whose precise reference we haven't been able to find yet,
but which must date back the early 1930's, when the latter started to
deal with the question of race, the former stated that "the author
seems to tend to accept the theory according to which the distinction
of castes, in [ancient] India, was related to a difference of race, a
theory which is based on a misinterpretation of the word "ârya"".
However, we are not given the right interpretation, that is, the
guenonian interpretation, of this word.

Now, have you paid as much attention as required to the notes to 'The
Reign of Quantity'? If so, you must have noticed that some of them
are just as enlightening as others are a product of pure fancy and,
to say the least, odd. As far as the latter are concerned, in the
first note to chapter XXI, we are told calmly that "Iran" or "Aryana"
comes from the word "arya" (hence, by extension, "ârya"), which
means 'ploughman', and that the use of the word "ârya" as an honorary
designation (for superior castes) is, therefore, typical of the
tradition of farming peoples. Thus, according to Guénon, "ârya" was
an "honorary designation". In fact, "ârya" comes from the proto-
IE "*ar(y)-", meaning "master, lord" (beyond its use as the ethnic
self-designation of the Proto-Indo-Iranian, the
meaning "noble/spiritual" has been attached to it in Persian and in
Sanskrit), while "arya"comes from the proto-IE "*aro-", meaning 'to
plough'.

In 'Sintesi di dottrina della razza', Evola acknowledged that "ârya
is essentially a designation of caste", apart from the fact, a fact
which constitutes a fundamental difference between these authors on
this issue, that, to him, it is a "designation of caste" only "in the
specific sense", whereas, to Guénon, it is so in a general sense.
Besides, to Evola, the caste is a racial barrier - which was put up
by Aryan invaders between the autochthonous race and them as soon as
they conquered Northern India - that is to say, an institution of the
contingent order, dictated by the conditions of the environment at a
given stage of the present cycle of manifestation, whereas, to
Guénon, everything he has written about the regime of caste shows
that he held it as something more 'original' and less conditioned. In
other words, to Evola, race is uppermost and cannot be dissociated
from caste, whereas Guénon focuses on 'caste' and empties it
virtually from any racial content ; in an article written, if our
memory serves us right, under the pseudonym of 'L'archéomètre' in the
late 1910's, he did something rather unexpected for someone who
claimed "not to stop at the colour of the skin" : he went so far as
to posit a positive correspondance between the symbolic colour of
each caste and the colour of the skin of the individuals who belonged
to them originally, so that we find 'white men', 'red men', 'yellow
men', and 'black men' ; in the chapter VI of 'The Reign of Quantity',
which deals, among other things, with the notion of 'genus',
of 'species', and of 'individuals, he managed the tour de force of
not even alluding to that of 'race'.

This difference of perspective can actually be brought back to a
fundamental difference in their respective conception of human
being : despite Guénon's constant claim that 'one's own nature' is
uppermost, the fact is that he basically lays stress on 'function',
whereas, in the work of the latter, it is laid on 'one's own nature',
of which the function of a given individual should be an outer
manifestation.

Schuon, at the beginning of the second part of 'Castes and Races', a
work which, as all Schuon's, is brilliantly written, so brilliantly
that the somewhat casuistic rhetoric it is based on is almost not
felt, and works from aesthetical a prioris, made the same mistake as
Guénon did, though far more explicitly, since he stated : "Caste
prevails over race, because spirit prevails over form : race is form,
caste is spirit". It is so well written that a superficial reader
filled with a prioris may not even realise that the argument by which
he tries to make his point in the following sentence backfires on the
specious distinction he has just made : "Even Hindu castes, which
were originally purely Indo-European, cannot be limited to one single
race". "Cannot"? Indeed, Schuon goes on : "there are Tamil, Balinese,
Siamese Brahmins", just as, after all, there are nowadays Swiss,
Californian, Parisian Lamas. Here, among other confusions, the one
between religion and race is too obvious for us to dwell on it. It is
true that theoricians and supporters of the 'transcendent unity of
religions' do not seem to realise that, originally and traditionally,
religion and race was one and the same thing and their intimate
connexion could not even be conceived in a different manner by
the 'genotheist' ancestors of native European peoples.

Now, to answer your question, Guénon refers to Tilak in a chapter of
the first edition of "Introduction général à l'étude des doctrines
hindoues", which, as previoulsy pointed out here, was deleted by the
author from its following editions : 'L'influence allemande' (it
seems that it has been republished lately, separately, by Jean
Varenne, who held the chair of Indo-European studies at the
univeristy of Lyon, and wrote the rather trivial preface to the
fourth edition of 'La dottrina del risveglio', Mediterranee, 1995).





--- In evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com, "brightimperator"
<brightimperator@...> wrote:
>
> First, I cordially thank all who promptly and instructively
answered
> my last question on Guenon, Evola and Hyperborea. (I suppose
> Guenon's racial views will remain ambiguous until further data
comes
> to light. Incidentally, does anyone know in which book(s) Guenon
> positively cites Arctic-Aryan theorist Bal Gangadhar Tilak? This
> would almost seem to imply on Guenon's part an implicit endorsement
> of Tilak's overall worldview. In relation to Aryan prowess, Tilak
> concluded that "the vitality and superiority of the Aryan races, as
> disclosed by their conquest, by extermination or assimilation, of
> the non-Aryan races with whom they came in contact...is
intelligible
> only on the assumption of a high degree of civilization in their
> original Arctic home.")
>
> Recently, due to largely extra-academic, political (leftist)
> efforts, what is called "the Aryan Invasion Theory" is no longer
> fashionable in academic circles. Evola takes the AIT theory and
Indo-
> European racial basis of the Indian caste system for granted, and
> this forms a key part of his worldview, as he posits the Eastern
> Aryans preserved more of the original Hyperborean spirit in their
> religious creations (Vedism, Buddhism) than the comparatively
> degenerated Western Aryans. The references in the Vedic scripture
> to "Indra's white-complexioned friends" and their conflict with
> the "lawless, riteless, noseless black Dasyu", etc., seem clear
> enough to me, as do the references in Buddhist literature to its
> aristocratic founder's moon-colored countenance and deep blue eyes.
> The owner of this list already posted modern genetic studies of
> Indians, which tend to support the racial duality between the Afro-
> Asian lower castes and the European-like higher castess. What I am
> looking for are 1) non-counter-traditional, objective studies
> relating to the historical-racial and eugenic aspects of the Indian
> caste system and 2) the subjects of castes and races and their
> interactions in general.
>
> Relevantly and intriguingly, the well-known Traditionalist Frithjof
> Schuon authored a short and extremely hard-to-find book
> entitled "Castes and Races". I have yet to acquire this probably
> illuminating book, but in "To Have a Center" Schuon denounces race-
> mixing as equivalent to destructive caste-mixing and as anti-
> Traditional: "Another point to be considered is the personal center
> in connection with certain racial factors. If the mixture between
> races too different from each other is to be avoided, it is
> precisely because this disparity generally has as a consequence
that
> the individual possesses two centers, which means practically that
> he has none; in other words, that he has no identity..."
>







Sun Nov 5, 2006 7:48 pm

evola_as_he_is
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First, I cordially thank all who promptly and instructively answered my last question on Guenon, Evola and Hyperborea. (I suppose Guenon's racial views will...
brightimperator Offline Send Email Nov 5, 2006
3:38 pm

In a review by Guénon of an article by Evola published in 'La Vita Italiana', whose precise reference we haven't been able to find yet, but which must date...
evola_as_he_is Offline Send Email Nov 5, 2006
8:22 pm

In "Le Roi du Monde" Guénon mentions on page 80 that Erin (anglicised as Ireland) was once given to Thule or Orgyia. Erin has been associated with Iran...
darkiexx Offline Send Email Nov 8, 2006
5:46 pm

'Castes and Races' is indeed illuminating: your head will light up like a bulb reading that masterful rhetorician making polar opposites appear one and the...
zenon_noir Offline Send Email Nov 6, 2006
3:30 pm

"Castes and Races" consists of three chapters, "The Meaning of Race", The Meaning of Caste" & "Principles and Criteria of Art", published in 1982 in England. ...
caleb afendopoulo
afendopoulo Offline Send Email
Nov 13, 2006
10:35 am

... In relation to Aryan prowess, Tilak ... Hello BI, Just for your information, you'll find an introduction on the grandson of the man who translated Tilak's...
kshonan88 Offline Send Email Nov 19, 2006
10:56 pm

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