Chapter 182
The Brahmin and Kshatriya conferred and suddenly realized something was amiss: wouldn't the Shudra be able to practice asceticism in the next era? And wouldn't the Dalit also appear after that?
What the hell is this? It's some kind of piece of trash that's come here to practice asceticism!
Therefore, within the Dharma, only three levels are permitted to practice.
Those of lower castes who were found practicing asceticism were beheaded on the spot—this is also recorded in the Ramayana.
Hebe could not deduce the background of the simulation, but she was able to determine that the "time" in the simulation should take place in the Age of Perfection, the era in which Brahmin held both spiritual and secular power.
That is why the Ragged Ascetic strives to uphold the Dharma —because when the next era arrives, the Kshatriya will begin to seize power in the mortal world.
This time, Hebe chose to simulate the martial arts of the Kshatriya king.
She then entered the simulation as Vaishya merchant.
You were born in the Ganges River basin according to the destiny of the Vaishya.
[Your ancestors were also Vaishya, and your family has accumulated great wealth through generations of business. From a young age Vaishya, you were taught business by your father, and at a young age, you mastered trade routes to several countries.]
For merchant families, the trade routes they've built over generations are their lifeline and their most important asset.
Although your father could not afford to support your ascetic practices, he still sent you to a school run by Brahmin teachers to study the Vedic Scriptures. This was so that you could better conduct trade with Brahmin and Kshatriya in the future.
When you come of age, your father will entrust the entire family to you.
Most of your former classmates have settled down and started families, returning to inherit the thrones of their respective countries. Leveraging your past connections, you've established a new trade route between several nations, quickly accumulating considerable wealth.
You've been traveling day and night on trade routes. After a successful transaction, you're returning home with your earnings. By the roadside, you see a beggar sitting.
You took pity on the ragged beggar and gave him some money.
[The beggar heard the sound of your money falling into the bowl and opened his eyes. He claimed to be Brahmin, a descendant of Mitara, the god of day, and Varuna, the god of wind.]
He believes your donation stems from good intentions, but lacks genuine reverence; if you truly had reverence, you should donate all your wealth and family to support yourself.
You state that you are willing to give away money because it is wealth you can control; however, you cannot use all your possessions and family to support others.
The beggar stood up angrily, claiming to be Mountain-Throwing Ascetic. The Vaishya's disrespectful almsgiving had disrupted his spiritual practice.
The Mountain-Throwing Ascetic gathers up dirt and hurls it at your retreating figure: He curses you! He curses you to never return alive to your homeland! He curses you! He curses your wealth to vanish into thin air! He curses you! He curses your family to ultimately decline!
You did not hear his curse. On your way home, you passed through the battlefield of two warring nations. To make up for your losses, the defeated Kshatriya general ordered his troops to plunder caravans, looting all the wealth you had painstakingly earned through trade.
You yourself died in the war; your father was devastated upon learning of your death and passed away shortly afterward. After that, your family declined.
You can choose one result to extract from the simulation.
Well, Hebe has gotten used to this kind of "wild Brahmin sage jumping out from the roadside" scenario.
According to Hebe's deduction, the time background of this simulation should be the Age of Three Divisions.
The Vaishya amassed great wealth through commerce, becoming a significant force influencing the royal family, the court, and even the nation.
However, they cannot be called nobles under any circumstances.
Although Vaishya can practice asceticism, very few practitioners can become immortals, and even among those who practice asceticism, they have no voice.
Hebe chose to bring out this time was the Vaishya's trade routes, which were intangible assets.
As Bharata's generation progressed, the original Brahmin priests, due to their ascetic practices, lost the opportunity to control worldly wealth; and with the rise of the Kshatriya aristocracy, worldly power also slipped away.
Although they held the right to perform sacrifices, the Brahmin descendants were numerous. With too many monks and too little porridge, how to feed themselves was a problem.
Brahmin priests can bow down to Kshatriya, as they can tell themselves that the Kshatriyas also have noble lineage and are a force capable of upholding the Dharma; and the Kshatriya also need the Brahmin to endorse their sanctity.
However, with the passage of generations and the long process of consolidation, the good old days when the Kshatriya could become kings simply by occupying a piece of land were gone forever, like a young bird that never returned.
—Dude, you say you're royalty, born to rule this land?
Where are your troops? Where are your chariots? Where are your armor, weapons, and provisions?
The Brahmin relied on the Kshatriya, Kshatriya then set their sights on the Vaishya.
As for the Mountain-Throwing Ascetic's request for offerings, in Hebe's eyes it was more like a plea, a begging armed with "confident demeanor".
—As a great Brahmin ascetic, I have humbled myself so much, hoping you would invite me to your home to make offerings. Why don't you immediately kneel down and pay homage to me?
In this context, his curses were more like a desperate outburst of anger stemming from unfulfilled desires.
Hebe chuckled silently for a while before starting the fourth simulation. This time, she was fully prepared, because as the lowest caste, the Shudra would inevitably be subjected to inhuman harshness.
But it doesn't matter. Hebe thought to herself with a wry smile, there's still Dalit's life to experience later.
You were born in the Ganges basin according to the destiny of Shudra.
Your mother was a fisherwoman who lived by the river and worked on a boat; you have never seen your father's face since birth.
As the lowest caste in the caste system, you are not allowed to stray far from your homeland, nor are you permitted to study any Vedic Scriptures. Those of higher castes will never meet with those of lower castes except when their desires become uncontrollable.
[But your mother still has faith, Shakti, the Bharata Earth Mother Goddess who existed from ancient times. She gave birth to a child through an unblessed union, and because of her low caste, she could not find salvation, and could only turn her faith to primitive esoteric Buddhism.]
[During a ritual following an excessive consumption of Soma wine, your mother cut open her own chest and beat her body with charred cedar wood—she eventually died from exhaustion, but the sect's followers called it a return to God.]
You believe all of this is due to the workings of the Dharma, so you take the small boat left by your mother, sail along the river into the wilderness to fish for a living, and do not interact with or communicate with anyone.
You've grown up, but you remain indifferent to everything around you.
One day, several princes, accompanied by their wives, arrived at the ferry crossing in a panic. They explained that they were being hunted by their own royal relatives, and that they had encountered a sage by the roadside who instructed them to flee to this place.
[You coldly stated that you were Shudra, the lowest caste, and probably incapable of supporting several Kshatriya.]
The princes and priests said that this was indeed against the Dharma, but that in the past, when the immortals were on the verge of starvation during their cultivation, they were forced to sacrifice their spiritual power to eat a piece of unclean meat to survive. This story teaches us that when our precious lives are in danger, we can be flexible and adaptable.
You agreed with their reasoning, so you took them to the other side of the river.
The princes exchanged bewildered glances, unable to offer you a reward befitting your status. Therefore, the moment they stepped ashore, they drew their bows and shot you dead.
[Then, with tears in their eyes, they devoured your body. This is because, according to Brahmin teachings, when a noble person eats a lowly person, it diminishes their own virtue and merit, thus helping the lowly person to be reborn into a higher caste.]
These Kshatriya have indeed offered the best reward they could imagine, but you don't want it.
You are dead.
You can choose one result to extract from the simulation.
"Let's choose the Shudra fishing technique." Hebe's eyes lit up.
With this skill, she won't go home empty-handed anymore.
Of course, the Shudra's perspective was limited, and he did not provide Hebe with any information for reference.
Hebe sighed.
Brahmin monopolized the right to education and legal interpretation. According to the Manusmriti, the first three castes were obligated to study the scriptures, but only Brahmin were allowed to teach the Vedic Scriptures.
If Shudra recites the Vedic Scriptures, his tongue must be cut out; if he memorizes or recites the Vedic Scriptures, his limbs must be chopped into mincemeat; if he overhears someone reciting the Vedic Scriptures, molten lead, tin, and wax must be poured into his ears.
Even so, people of higher castes still feel "unclean".
From this perspective, the simulated Kshatriya have truly repaid kindness with great generosity.
A slight, cold smile appeared on Hebe's face.
Fate began to favor Dalit.
She wanted to see how Dalit's destiny differed from that of the Shudra.
You were born in the Ganges basin according to the destiny of Dalit.
[Dalit, the true untouchables in the traditional sense, beings not included in the caste system. You once had a glorious past, building ancient city-states along the Indus River, until the Aryans invasion shattered your original states, reducing you to a state of ignorance.]
Your parents told you that you are not Dalit, Dravidian —the original inhabitant of this continent.
You once had your own writing system, your own language, and your own beliefs. But now they are all gone, leaving only stories passed down orally. The land you inhabit is called the Demon Country, and the gods you worship are called Asura.
Your tribe is fortunate, for this is fertile land. You yearn to reclaim the land you once inhabited.
From a young age, you were literate and mastered the methods of sacrificing to the Asura. In the year you came of age, you were jointly elected by nineteen surrounding tribes as the Great Asura King and launched an attack on your former homeland.
You defeated the tribe that worshipped Indra, the God of God, and trampled his idols underfoot.
The Brahmin sages wish to curse you, but your actions are in accordance with the Dharma of war, therefore they cannot do so.
You have repelled numerous attacks from all directions, firmly holding onto this former capital.
Victory has never been so within reach. The entire nation belongs to you, at your disposal. Your warriors, after taking control of this great city, indulge in revelry, vent their frustrations, and revel in unrestrained pleasure...
Your repeated victories forced the Brahmin and Kshatriya to submit, and they invited your Dravidian tribe to join Bharata's alliance, thus elevating you from Dalit to the highest caste among the Kshatriya.
You also know that you cannot fight against the entire Bharata; knowing when to withdraw is the best choice.
[You have restored the fallen statue of Indra and offered sacrifices and veneration to it in accordance with Kshatriya rites. Dravidian culture has been abandoned once again—only this time not because of defeat by an enemy, but because you have chosen to discard it.]
[You who are no longer Dalit will soon become the best protectors of the Dharma, amidst the praises of the Brahmin.]
You maintained firm control over the country until you became senile and relinquished the throne to your general.
You relinquished your crown and returned to the tribe's former settlement, where you spent the rest of your life in peace.
You are dead.
You can choose one result to extract from the simulation.
Dalit, but not entirely Dalit... Does this count as demonstrating their value in united front work?
Hebe's expression was strange.
Volume 1: Saving Private Ryan -Fisher King
257 What kind of immortal are you?
Hebe first chose to obtain the results from this simulation.
—Regarding the beliefs, worship, writing, customs, and taboos of the Dravidian.
History is myth after its demystification, and myth is history in its undetermined form—this is absolutely true.
The supreme god worshipped by the Aryans during the Vedic Age was Indra.
This Aryans god of war wielded a vajra in his right hand. This vajra symbolized storms and lightning, representing his great divine power as the Aryan king who conquered nature.
In mythology, he first defeated the great serpent Vritra; then he defeated Varuna was also a patron god of the Aryan clan, and was thus crowned as the Bharata king of the Vedic Age.
In fact, the original meaning of the name "Indra" was "Almighty God".
He was both literate and skilled in martial arts, and was extremely handsome.
The Aryans worshipped a celestial god, so the Dravidian, naturally had their beliefs contemptuously referred to as Asura.
In fact, they were primitive forms of nature worship. For example, Indra's most famous battle Vritra, was a large serpent symbolizing "natural obstacles."
So, what does Indra's defeat of the Asura mean in reality?
"This means that the invasion of the Aryans shattered the ancient civilization centered on Mahabharata, and the Dravidian Ancients originally lived on this land became untouchables, Dalit, outside the caste system."
"And I, the tribal leader in the simulation, defeated the Aryan nation that worshipped Indra and calmly returned to the old capital." Hebe sighed. "In mythology, this is reflected in the Great Asura King's invasion of the heavens, driving Indra, the Heavenly Emperor, off his throne!"
Hebe's eyes were calm.
She stretched out her fingers and gently placed them on her knees.
The Dalit's struggle has continued since the Vedic Age; the Aryans rule was not stable.
Therefore, in mythology, Indra's power gradually diminished until he was repeatedly beaten by various Asura.
But in history, this cause-and-effect relationship should be reversed:
It was precisely Dalit "untouchables" continuously reclaimed their lands that Indra, the chief god of the Aryan kingdoms, gradually declined.
But as the simulation shows, the Dalit's culture, customs, history and beliefs were destroyed after the fall of Mohenjo-daro, and they regressed to a primitive state of tribal coexistence.
They may possess formidable fighting prowess, but culturally they have fallen far behind the Aryans.
It's like the Mongols and the Song Dynasty; the Jurchens and the Ming Dynasty.
The former may win in war, but will be assimilated by the latter culturally.
In the simulation, Hebe knew this very well.
The reason why the immortals did not curse the "Great Asura King" was twofold: firstly, to promote the arrival of the Brahmin generation; and secondly, because the actions of the "Great Asura King" were in accordance with the Dharma of the Kshatriya!
What are Kshatriya? They are military nobles.
What is their Dharma? It is war!