Achanta Nagarjun, based in Hyderabad, is a banker turned teacher of Indian culture to UPSC aspirants. Interestingly, the work of a doyen, Kota Venkatachalam, sparked a passion for Indian culture and history in him. The recent book, which the author plans as a trilogy, is a tribute to the latter’s genius and inspiration. In this book, he examines the essential values of Sanatan Dharma permeating the land of Bharat, which are interrelatedness, interdependence, and harmony. He frequently employs the metaphor of Bharat as a divine tree. The book amply demonstrates Indian culture’s amazing achievements in arts, sciences, and spirituality. Sanatana Dharma, or Bharatiya culture, has existed for at least five thousand years. He also lists the various threats to Sanatana culture and how best the present and future generations could strive to avert a cultural and civilisational collapse. History is filled with examples of sudden collapses. In less than a century, an unthinkable idea that a pagan Roman-Greek world could become entirely Christian became a reality at the beginning of the millennium.

Knowledge and Ignorance in Indian Culture

Metaphysics, where the Self is the beginning and the unity from which the diversity and multiplicity of the world arises, forms the basis of our knowledge (or epistemology). Such a top-down approach does not contradict “progress” and scientific achievements. The proof lies in the significant advancements made by Indian culture in the fields of arts and science. The development of the most perfect language, Sanskrit, and the creation of the most exquisite literature, poetry, and philosophies are also significant achievements. Indian culture places knowledge on the highest pedestal, equating it with Brahman, or the Supreme Reality. Hence, seeking knowledge is the essence of Indian culture. Secularism, or the separation of the secular and the sacred, is actually a form of violence in Indian culture because every “secular” activity is deeply interlinked with the “sacred” and becomes a route to the divine.

This book is an attempt to help present-day derooted and deracinated Indians understand what Indian culture truly means. The Sanatani tree is eternal, and its roots, shoots, flowers, and fruits are products of this divinity. The fear is that the smoke of ignorance should not obscure this tree. Fundamentally, the difference between the Sanatani worldview and that of Abrahamic religions is in the concept of “original sin,” the author writes. This does not exist in Sanatana Dharma; what does exist is original ignorance. The purpose of human life is to gain the light of knowledge to liberate us from the darkness of original ignorance, which is that we are all immortal and divine.

The Narratives of Indian was “Never a Nation” and “A Primitive Ancient India”

There is repeated criticism that Bharatiyas never had a sense of the collective, and thus, “India was never a nation.” The author shows how the texts and verses like Nasadiya Sukta, Markandeya Purana, and the Rigveda attest that Indians had a robust sense of the collective. In Western scholarship, taken up eagerly by our Indian counterparts, this combines with another idea of a linear progression of time, where the past, representing ancient India, is primitive and the future, represented by the West, is advanced. It was the duty of the White Christian West to elevate the primitive cultures to modernity. This has been the consistent message, starting with the past colonials (Macaulay or James Mill) and stretching across centuries of Indological scholarship (initiated in German universities) to the present USA-centred scholars. Secularisation replaced the earlier theological narratives, but the core message of a “primitive India” remained unchanged.

Indian intellectuals eagerly accept these narratives without question. Unfortunately, post-independence leaders who laid the groundwork for a “New India” were clueless about Indian traditions. They either chose to ignore it or perpetuated the same negative stereotypes about India’s past. Marxist-dominated academia also found this narrative of a “primitive past to future advanced” appealing, actively contributing to the further alienation of India’s past from its people. All our sophisticated contributions in mathematics, astronomy, town planning, philosophy, architecture, arts, poetry, metallurgy, shipbuilding, bricks, medicine, and economics, which made us truly advanced, were reduced to footnotes by British scholars, and we persisted with the view.

A five-thousand-year civilisation, which had withstood numerous attacks without collapsing and made significant contributions to the material and spiritual richness of humanity, abruptly transformed into a “new country” under a new “father” and necessitated the adoption of new ideals to guide the nation. The Marxist narratives widely permeating academia, bureaucracy, and political leadership were antithetical to the Dharmic idea of nationhood, leading to a crisis in Hindu identity. Modern ideas of one nation, language, people, and religion do not fit the definition of Indian nationhood.

India is a civilisational-cultural unity, as influential thinkers like Sri Aurobindo and Rabindranath Tagore stressed. Western notions of nationhood, which emerged from the Treaty of Westphalia following Europe’s religious wars, significantly undermine our understanding of India as a nation. It is noteworthy that nationhood, a product of European religious history, became a catalyst for intense nationalism, colonialism, and global wars. The Saraswathi Sindhu excavations demonstrate that India has maintained a civilisational and cultural continuity for at least five thousand years. The shared sacred geography (temples, pilgrimages, rivers) and Sanskrit define the essential unity of the country despite differences in traditional practices, language, and physical features.

Eurocentrism and Religious Cultures Contrasting to Traditional Lands

Eurocentrism identifies its own history as “world history,” treating the rest of the world as merely appendages. From 1000 CE to the 20th century, the Crusades marked the beginning of the dominant European Era, which concluded with the two World Wars. In between were inquisitions, witch hunting, the doctrine of discovery, colonialism, ethnic cleansing, slavery, racism, and apartheid, which continued till the 1960s in the US and 1991 in Africa. Colonial rule destroyed our education, political systems, medical systems, judiciary, social systems, agriculture, and handicrafts, caused famines, looted India to the tune of trillions of dollars, and yet claimed to have given India a sense of “unity.” Many Indians persist with this attitude regarding the benign nature of colonial rule.

The author writes that Indian culture and scriptures were more of cooperation, coexistence, and consensus. The individual’s harmony with society and nature was key. The western paradigm, which is based primarily on Abrahamic frameworks, is essentially one of competition, conflict, and comparison. As a member of a particular religion, man stands at the pinnacle of nature, possessing the divine right to utilise the entirety of nature for his own purposes, even individuals from other non-believing faiths as slaves.

Nature and animals are at the disposal of humans in this hierarchical scheme. Slave trade, ecological destruction, widespread animal extinction, and racism are direct consequences of such philosophies. They also make it a divine duty to convert others to their way of thinking. Such a conquering attitude ultimately led to the prevalence of colonialism and imperialism among European nations. Unfortunately, the same attitude to not leave others alone is equally visible in present-day America.

Purusa Sukta and the Caste System: The Distortion of Indologists

The Indologists have maximally distorted the Purusa Sukta, an allegory of the highest sort describing the entire cosmic creation. The classic Indological interpretation of the four Varnas coming from the top to the bottom of the Virata Purusha is one of a clear hierarchy. Thus, the Brahmins at the head of the Virata Purusha (Cosmic Being) assume the “privileged” position, while Sudra at the feet assumes the “lowly” position. The four varnas are simply descriptions of the same Virata Purusha, and the assumption that the head carries greater weight than the feet is almost silly. The sleeping posture, which places all organs at the same level, is a common representation of the divine. How does one then account for the hierarchy? In Sanatana culture, touching the feet of a person, a guru (pada pooja), or the murthi is considered a sign of respect. Selective readings, cherry pickings, and fitting data to preconceived theories have been the hallmark of Indological scholarship.

“Colonial consciousness” was a successful colonial achievement, transforming the caste system and the all-powerful Brahmins into the villains responsible for India’s pathetic state over the ages. At independence, we forgave the colonials and held ourselves accountable for all our problems. The caste system story, which made it almost a moral duty for all Indians to become immoral, was perpetuated after independence by our dominant Marxist scholars in academia. The imposition of “caste,” an idea that originated in western contexts, on the “Varnas and Jatis” of India resulted in significant distortion and injustice. The caste scholars never seriously studied Gotra, which unites people across various Varnas. The governments added to the confusion by consolidating even more caste descriptions.

Selective readings ensured that all evils in Indian society, equally present in other social systems across the world, were caused by the caste system, and the only way to address the evils was to dismantle Hinduism itself. However, the great achievements of Indian civilisation and culture became mere footnotes. Even if acknowledged, the achievements could not have been due to the same Varna-Jati arrangement. There must be something wrong with our understanding of our social systems when greats like Sri Aurobindo and Ananda Coomaraswamy thought that the three quartets (four Varnas, four ashramas, and four purusharthas) were the foundational basis of Indian culture, which prevented a civilisational collapse in the face of extreme challenges over the last ten centuries.

The author writes that all four varnas are progenies of Sage Kashyapa. In a temple, the priest asks for the gotra, and when it is not known, the priest simply assigns the Kashyapa or Siva gotra. Decades after independence, the single narrative of caste discrimination and Dalit exploitation overwhelms every positive facet of Indian culture, past and present.

Indologists, barring some great exceptions, immensely damaged Indian culture by setting false narratives that seeped into public consciousness. The association of Hitler’s Haukencross symbol with the Swastika, a holy symbol in almost all Indian traditions, is one small example. Indologists attribute the Nazi ideology, Aryan supremacy ideas, and its symbols to the Vedic texts and Sanskrit language, despite the fact that Hitler had no knowledge of either. The conflation of race and caste also exhibits numerous glaring inconsistencies and contradictions. The West sets up the narratives, and unthinking Indian intellectuals simply take them further.

There is a repeated criticism, arising from ignorance, that the Shudras have no gods. In the sacrifices, there are gods connected to various Varnas: Agni to Brahmanas; Rudra, Varuna, and Indra to Kshatriya; Marutas, Rudras, and Vasus to Vaisyas; and Pushan to the Sudras. Pushan is one of the twelve Adityas, and the Rigveda contains ten hymns dedicated to him. The Purusa Sukta has nothing to do with caste system, social discrimination, untouchability, pollution, or ritual status. It is a creation hymn that further describes the creation of the Vedas, moon, sun, animals, and so on. The most distorted is the 13th mantra, which mentions the four varnas. The hymn is filled with three powerful ideas: unity, harmony, and Yagna. The Western scholarship, which demonises the feet, is sad, shallow, and biased. However, we were unable to refute this narrative by demonstrating that Sanatana, on the other hand, divinises the feet. Sadly, we lost the narrative war.

Advaita and the Great Gurus

A famous story that demonstrates the equality of all Varnas in accessing the highest ideal of Indian culture, Moksha, is Adi Shankara meeting a Chandala in Kashi. Siva comes in the form of a Chandala and illuminates Adi Shankara. Maneesha Panchakam of the latter demonstrates unity at the highest levels, saying, “Be he a Brahmin or a Chandala, he who has opened my eyes, he is my Guru, he is my Guru.” The author describes the wonderful lives of the legendary Advaita gurus.

One of the most amazing personalities of Indian culture was Adi Shankara (509 BCE or 788 CE). He lived for only 32 years, but in that span, he wrote fifty-two philosophical works, twenty-three Bhashyas on Vedas and Upanishads, and set up the four mathas across the country. He placed Nambudiri priests in the North and Northern priests in Rameshwaram, strengthening the country’s civilisational-cultural unity based on sacred geography.

The great Narayana Guru (1856–1928) of the Ezhava jati of Kerala, a devotee of Adi Shankara, had an important role in Kerala as a spiritual guru and a social reformer. He fought against social prejudices and even fought against his own Ezhava community, denying entry to Pulayas and Pariahs in Ezhava temples. He founded sixty temples and separated the negative aspects of social systems from scriptures. Similar to the symbolism of the Chidambara temple, where one prays to empty space, he used a mirror as a symbol of prayer. He also created space for non-Brahmin priests in the temple. Narayana Guru started educational institutions and abolished animal sacrifices in the temples. He strongly advocated prohibition.

Ramana Maharishi’s simple answer to the question, “How to treat the other?” was, “There is no other.” This is the quintessential metaphysical idea of unity in Indian Sanatana culture, whose closest correlate is Hinduism as we know it. The dominant philosophy of Advaita is based on two fundamental beliefs: the oneness of all existence and the essential divinity of man. All our spiritual gurus, including Ramakrishna Paramhansa, Swami Vivekananda, Annamacharya, and Narsi Mehta, insisted on the oneness of humans, nature, and the gods.

The social classification had different connotations, and our scriptures make it clear that Sudras were never denied the highest ideal of the individual and the nation, which is Moksha. Raikva, the cart puller, conveys divine knowledge to a king. Our gurus made it clear that the Vedas were not required for moksha. However, the preservation, protection, and transmission of Vedic knowledge was restricted to the Brahmins as a matter of duty rather than rights. Indologists successfully made this into a “rights-based” idea, which we gleefully accepted. Mahabharata, Ramayana, and Bhagavatam get the status of the “Fifth Veda,” and it was meant for all. Sadly, modern intellectuals completely missed this.

Even the idea that Vedanta is “other-worldly” is plain wrong, as Swami Vivekananda’s Practical Vedanta helped to set up the IISC in Bangalore. Swami Vivekananda always insisted on the need for sciences in our educational systems. Regrettably, the alleged “discriminatory and exploitative social system of caste” has countered every achievement of our magnificent civilisation. Addressing this issue requires significant effort.

Sanatana Dharma: Scriptures, Reforms, and Unfortunate Divisions

The West is characterised by a configuration of competition, comparison, and conflict, where different philosophies such as capitalism, social Darwinism, or socialism have at various points become the “ultimate” solution for all humanity. Such normative ideas easily lead to “othering,” a phenomenon that is all too evident in contemporary liberalism. Only one ideology is true, while the rest are false, resulting in an inherent intolerance for any other alternative way of thinking.

In Sanatana, especially Vedanta, nature, animals, humans, and even the dieties are part of the same Divine. The feminine too is an inseparable part as a Shiva-Shakti combination of the cosmos. In our Vedas, there are at least thirty Rishikas and mantradrishtas, including Lopamudra, Maitreyi, and Gargi. Conservation and ecology play a major role in Indian cultural thinking. Sarvam Khalvidam Brahma (Everything is Brahman) is the foundation of our entire ecology. The Creator is both immanent and transcendent in relation to creation. The author cites the example of the vegetarian Bishnoi community in Rajasthan, drawn from Rajputs, Brahmins, and Jats, which has twenty-nine rules of compassion, of which eight are for animals and trees. The famous Shanti mantra at the end of every discourse asks for peace in the bipeds, quadrupeds, space, herbs, and plants.

The colonials successfully accused the Indian scriptures of numerous evils. Unfortunately, the post-colonial Marxist-influenced academia did not pause to even consider the possibility that the colonial narratives might be false. The narrative continued uninterrupted, with the addition of more ‘facts’ to strengthen the thesis. Anything problematic in India traces its roots to the caste system and Hinduism, while a similar problem elsewhere would refrain from mentioning the dominant religion of those places.

Slavery, colonialism, and imperialism were direct outcomes of religious doctrines, where proselytization and intolerance formed the two sides of the coin. A similar exploitation on a large scale is absent in Sanatana culture, and yet there was a projection of Abrahamic ideas onto Sanatana Dharma. The Varna Jati descriptions were more concerned with duties and capabilities than rights-based, as colonial scholarship typically views them. This certainly did not sanction cruel treatment of the members outside the social systems.

Equality of vision is the core value of Sanatana Dharma. In Indian culture and all scriptures, the most divine message is “Self in all.” All saints, all sampradayas, and schools of Advaita, Dvaita, Vishisth Advaita, Ramanandi, and Shuddha Advaita stress that the Self is the thread in all. It is from the level of nature, humans included, that the sattva, rajas, and tamas components exist in varying mixtures, leading to diversity related to personal traits and duties.

Sanatana thought is always open to internal reform. The author explains that a leaking faucet or a broken tile does not require the dismantling of the entire house, which was what the colonials and the missionaries sought to do. The critics of Hinduism also sought an entire dismantling of a 5000-year-old civilisation to address the problem of untouchability and social discrimination. Srutis are eternal, unchangeable, and deal with divine knowledge. The Smritis often dealt with social laws and were subject to review and change in accordance with Yuga dharma or the changing times.

Unfortunately, the phenomenon of untouchability in Indian society weighs down every positive contribution of Indian society and culture. However, reforms originated internally, as saints and intellectuals within the Sanatana fold fought against this issue without attempting to undermine the entire Sanatana structure. Nandanar, Narayana Guru, Chokamela, Namdev, Ravidas, and Tiruppan Alwar, all from the deprived Jatis, were the greatest Bhaktas and gurus. Similarly, Sri Aurobindo, Ananda Coomaraswamy, Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Gandhiji, Vinoba Bhave, and Savarkar recognised the evils and set out to reform them. Sati, widow remarriage, temple entry, and untouchability were part of their thinking, but they were not necessarily the result of missionary-colonial criticisms.

Manu’s laws have garnered immense popularity and have been instrumental in distorting Sanatana Dharma. William Jones chose it as the foundational text for Indian law at a time when the majority of people were and still are oblivious to its contents. While the book contains valuable ideas and points that remain relevant today, some problematic readings and interpretations use it as a weapon to undermine the entire structure of Sanatana. Centralised legal systems based on a single book were an unknown feature in India’s decentralised traditional land. This idea of centralisation, along with the propagation of the Aryan theory, is causing a near-permanent divide in the country. As the author writes, local customs and traditions (achara and vyavahara) played a significant role in the highly decentralised political, social, and judicial system of the Hindus. Dravidian politics are a tragic, divisive outcome of the obnoxious Aryan invasion theory. A separate Dravidian identity was, in large measure, created by Bishop Robert Caldwell of the London Missionary Society in the 19th century.

Concluding Remarks 

Sanatana Dharma is based on goodwill, or samarasya; consensus, or samanvaya; and dialogue, or samvad. There is no dualism of gods and devils; suras and asuras are children of the same mother. The overriding concern of human life is to pay off debts to the devas (through yagna); the rishis (through Swadhyaya or self-study); Pitrus (ancestors) through tarpana; other jivas through annadanam (donation); nara or other humans by honouring the guests. Sanatana is all about interdependency, harmony, caring, kindness, and consideration. Social practices may degenerate, but Yuga dharma allows for correcting mechanisms and reform without large-scale violence and destruction.

India is the last surviving “pagan” civilisation, which has been mostly successful in fending off threats to its civilisational existence. But for how long? The attacks continue in forms that range from subtle to direct, both physical and intellectual. We need to strengthen Sanatana Dharma, a conglomerate of many Vedic and non-Vedic traditions, as it is ultimately the only solution available to address the frictions arising from the integration of multi-culturalism and pluralism into smaller geographical areas. Bharat is the source of hope for the world, and the world seriously needs to look at us to live in harmony and create a better world for our children.

The slightest criticism of the book is that the author perhaps could have organised the chapters a little better and edited out the repetitions of the themes. The book contains a wealth of information, serving as an excellent introduction for those new to Sanatana Dharma and a refresher for those who are already familiar with it. The author promises two more books in this trilogy series, and we certainly look forward to the promised books in the future.