Indeed.
'Avvento del "Quinto Stato"' was published in the 1960's, and, by
then, Tantrism and Avalon no longer seemed to be of any interest to
Evola, any more than Islam was, judging from its post-WW2 writings.
See http://www.hinduwebsite.com/sacredscripts/tantra/mahaindex.asp/
for an English translation of the 'Mahanirvana Tantra'. The Samanya is
also mentioned in the 'Mantra Shastra', in which it is defined as a
fifth or hybrid caste, resulting from the intermixture between the
other castes. The tantra-Shastra too refers to the Samanya, as the
inverted reflexion of the only primordial original caste - Hamsa.
However, what is even more curious is that it apparently never
occurred to him to relate that fifth caste to the notorious
'intouchables' - Asprushya, or, as Gandhi called them, Harijan
('Children of God'). That's why, by analogy, we repeat that it is not
unfounded to compare the leaders of the 'fifth estate' with the
Pariahs in Vedic society and with those who, in ancient Rome, had
"neither hearth nor home".
Yet, he was right to relate the 'fifth estate' to the 'Underworld' -
in the broadest sense of this word.
--- In evola_as_he_is@yahoogroups.com, "Toni Ciopa" <hyperborean@...>
wrote:
>
> RE: (from 19 May)
>
> In 'Avvento del "Quinto Stato"' ('Fenomenologia della sovversione'),
> Evola wonders whether this involutive process stops at the 'fourth
> estate' ; whether there may be current symptoms of the emergence of a
> 'fifth estate', on the basis of a book published during the interwar
> years by H. Berl, called, precisely, 'Die Heraufkunft des fünften
> Standes', in which American gangsterism and some 'demonic' aspects of
> Bolshevism are considered as symptoms of the emergence of that 'fifth
> estate'. According to Evola, there does not seem to be any counterpart
> of that 'fifth estate' in traditional hierarchy ; "it can only be
> connected with a sort of substratum, with the shapeless, wild, and
> almost sub-human element which was checked in traditional orders, in
> which it was found in the latent state". In 'The Revolt against
> Civilisation', which is meant to be an interpretation of modern
> democratic revolutionary movements from a racial standpoint, and which
> is mentioned in a footnote of 'Sintesi di dottrina della razza',
> Lothrop Stoddard' shows that the biological substratum of their
> representatives is a 'sub-humanity'. On that basis, it is not
> unfounded to compare the leaders of the 'fifth estate' with the
> Pariahs in Vedic society and with those who, in ancient Rome, had
> "neither hearth nor home".
>
>
>
> This is curious, as someone has recently point this out to me from
one of
> the Tantras:
>
>
>
> Here is the extract from Avalon's Mahanirvana Tantra:
>
>
>
> Shri Sadashiva said:
>
>
>
> O Thou of auspicious Vows! in the Satya and other Ages there were four
> castes; in each of these were four stages of life, and the rules of
conduct
> varied according to the caste and stages of life. In the Kali Age,
however,
> there are five castes–namely, Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra, and
> Samanya. Each of these five castes, O Great Queen! have two stages
of life.
> Listen, then, Adye! whilst I narrate to Thee their mode of life,
rites, and
> duties (4-6). I have already spoken to Thee of the incapacity of men
born in
> the Kali Age. Unused as they are to penance, and devoid of learning
in the
> Vedas, short- lived, and incapable of strenuous effort, how can they
endure
> bodily labour? (7).
>
>
>
> O Beloved! there is in the Kali Age no Brahmacharya nor Vanaprastha.
>
> There are two stages only, Grihastha and Bhikshuka (8). O Auspicious
One! In
> the Kali Age the householder should in all his acts be guided by the
rules
> of the Agamas. He will never attain success by other ways (9). And,
O Devi!
> at the stage of the mendicant the carrying of the staff is not
permitted,
> since, O Thou of Divine Knowledge! both that and other practices are
Vedic
> (10). In the Kali Age, O Gentle One! the adoption of the life of an
> Avadhuta, according to the Shaiva rites, is in the Kali Age
equivalent to
> the entry into the life of a Sannyasin (11). When the Kali Age is in
full
> sway, the Vipras and the other castes have equal right to enter into
both
> these stages of life
>
> (12) The purificatory rites of all are to be according to the rules
ordained
> by Shiva, though the particular practices of the Vipras and other castes
> vary (13).
>
>
>
>
>
> Especially in the light of the fact that Evola personally selected
several
> of Avalon's texts for inclusion in an Italian collection, it is
curious that
> he did not take note of this prediction of a "fifth caste" in the
Kali Yuga.
>