[Leica] Mylapore

[Douglas Barry]

Fascinating, Jayanand, but, for some of us outside India, the caste 
system seems very restrictive, and certainly doesn't appear to be just a 
tribal arrangement. The murder a few days ago, reported by the BBC, of a 
Dalit in Gujurat - by higher Kshatriya caste men - because he had the 
temerity to buy and ride a horse, sticks in the craw more than a bit.

Douglas


On 03/04/2018 02:25, Jayanand Govindaraj via LUG wrote:
> Douglas,
> Thanks for looking.
>
> That thread is very strong, actually. I should also be wearing it, as I am
> also a Brahmin, but I do not (though both my sons do!). It is just a
> caste/tribal distinction nowadays, nothing more, nothing less. It is
> incredibly useful, though, both as a safe place to hang house keys, and as
> a backscratcher.
>
> All the old caste distinctions, which, as originally envisaged, 3000 years
> ago, were really all about slotting people into work areas where they could
> be most productive, are all gone. It is really no different to the class
> divides in Western society, except it was codified, and flexible as
> originally envisaged.. Over the millennia, the caste orders became
> ossified, and rigid, and you were born into it and could not escape, even
> if you wanted to. Today, they are just tribal distinctions, though very
> much alive and rigid in societal norms, fighting for the most part for ever
> increasing Govt handouts (so what is new?). So much so, that even
> Christians and Muslims have retained their original castes after conversion
> here, and still maintain the distinction.. It is probably one of the more
> successful societal orders in human history, having lasted the longest,
> being pretty stable, and still thriving, at that!
>
> Cheers
> Jayanand
>
> On Tue, Apr 3, 2018 at 6:33 AM, Douglas Barry <imra at iol.ie> wrote:
>
>> Fascinating, Jayanand.
>> It was a good shot of the man, and I suppose wearing that easily snapped
>> thread indicating his priestly caste is also an age old barrier to physical
>> work too?
>>
>> Douglas
>>
>>
>> On 02/04/2018 11:45, Jayanand Govindaraj via LUG wrote:
>>
>>> Don, Jim, Robert, Philippe, Alan, Bharani
>>>
>>> Thanks for looking.
>>>
>>> Actually what the person is reading is interesting. It is a magazine on
>>> traditional Hindu religious philosophy published locally, not in Sanskrit
>>> or Tamil, but in English!
>>>
>>> To decode the image a little further, the thread over his left shoulder
>>> (actually should be nine threads knotted together) indicates that he
>>> belongs to the Brahmin caste, and the vertical lines of ash on his
>>> forehead, which signifies a trident, means that he is a worshiper of
>>> Vishnu, one of the supreme trinity of gods in the Hindu pantheon,
>>> collectively known as Trimurthi.
>>>
>>> Cheers
>>> Jayanand
>>>
>>> On Mon, Apr 2, 2018 at 9:46 AM, scleroplex via LUG <lug at leica-users.org>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Wonderfully timeless.
>>>> Bharani
>>>>
>>>> Message: 12
>>>> Date: Sun, 1 Apr 2018 21:31:58 +0530
>>>> From: Jayanand Govindaraj <jayanand at gmail.com>
>>>> To: Leica Users Group <lug at leica-users.org>, PSM
>>>>           <psm-1857 at googlegroups.com>
>>>> Subject: [Leica] Mylapore
>>>> Message-ID:
>>>>           <CAH1UNJ1raZdJNmxwXevBHwmbnUDLrON6PRdeJc6yyAkmqnTVbw at mail.
>>>> gmail.com>
>>>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
>>>>
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