Caste-Based and Hereditary Priesthood in Hinduism

 The caste based system of priesthood in Hinduism is very ancient. That day will be very unfortunate for the Hindus and Hinduism if the caste-based hereditary system of priesthood is abolished. The day the hereditary and traditional, caste-based priesthood system of Hindus ceases to survive will be the beginning of the destruction of Hinduism. Regardless of all the attacks, opposition, and criticism, Hindus must preserve and protect this great system. It is all the more important in the light of some self-styled leading figures and organisations within and outside who are almost reformist extremists these days in the name of social justice and inclusiveness.

Secularists, socialists, communists, missionaries, Dravidians, and Ambedkarites, etc, always criticize this system for grabbing a higher position within Hinduism. However, they justify their rights to freebies, quotas, and special laws in the name of social justice, inclusiveness, and protection. They always speak very ill about the priests. Priests are undeterred  by the criticism. They keep working honestly and piously in the temple system, religious rituals, and spiritual systems.

Every religion has a proper caste system; the nomenclature may be different. Similarly, every religion has some core castes with a core nature. If that system is lost, nothing remains. Religion will be lost, identity will be finished. Many castes have hereditary specialization in some skill or profession. The hereditary, or largely caste-based, priesthood system is part of the core of Hinduism. Islam and Christianity also borrowed the same system of priesthood from Hinduism.

It is the duty of the priests to preserve the fundamental foundation of religion, the foundation stone, in the classical and Vedic form. Some will call it a casteist system. Listen to all, but don't believe it, not even by mistake. Priests must be protected; only then can Hinduism be protected. It should be viewed like a plant that needs regular water and care. Otherwise, the plant withers, so as the religion.

Muslim invaders attacked the temples and killed the Brahmins and their families to conquer Hindustan and finish the Hindus and Hinduism. Somnath Temple was attacked seventeen times by Muslim invaders, and all the priests and their families were wiped out. But they failed to kill the idea and spirit. The priests again revived the temple and the religion. The same is the story about Kashi, Ayodhya, Mathura, Malabar region (modern-day Kerala), Melukote (Modern-day Karnataka) etc, temples.  

Religions that lack the proper system of priests perish. Every religion has its own system. Islam and Christianity have the strongest priest system, so they are the strongest and wealthiest religion.

For Islam, it's like a military system; for Christianity, it's a power system; for Buddhism, it's knowledge and seniority-based; for Hindus, it's hereditary and knowledge-based. All have different systems. One system won't work for the other.  Hindus are accustomed to a Brahmin-hereditary priest system. This has been going on for centuries. It is in their nature and character.

Famous journalist, activist, and atheist Dilip Mandal supported this system relied on years of study and experience. Baba Saheb Ambedkar was initially a harsh critic of Hinduism's Brahmin-caste-based priestly system. In "Annihilation of Caste," he writes in detail about abolishing this hereditary priesthood system, opening it to all castes, conducting entrance examinations of the priesthood, granting priests a government certificate or degree, similar to that of Charted Accountant.

He took twenty years to understand this hereditary system. After growing older, mature and experiencing many experiences, in one of his final and famous works, "Revolution and Counter-Revolution," he supports and argues that the hereditary priesthood system protected Hinduism from Muslim attacks. Its absence led to the decline of Buddhism in India. Buddhism could not resist the onslaught of Islam.

Here, Baba Saheb views the hereditary priesthood system not as a problem for Hindus, but as a boon like a long-term insurance scheme. Unfortunately, his later works are less popular and less well-read.

These harmless and dedicated Hindu priests are the primary target of every attacker and opponent of Hinduism and  Bharat. The Somnath temple was attacked by Islamic invaders seventeen times. However, with the help of the kings and the Hindus, they constructed the temple every time. Priests and the temples were the first targets of attackers. Temples were destroyed, and the thousands of Brahmin priests were killed every time. But this could not deter their determination and devotion. Kashi, Mathura, Ayodhya, Delhi, Mysore, and many other places in the country have the same history of attacks and destructions.  

Temples were big centers of Dharma, culture, tradition, art, education, dance, music, knowledge, trade and commerce, wealth, etc, due to the dedication and hard work of hereditary priests who were custodian of all this treasure and contribute to the economy of the nation and the society.  

 In Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh, temples were attacked first, and priests and their families were persecuted brutally. As a result of this, Hindus and Hinduism were wiped out of these countries. The same thing happened in Kashmir, and the result was the same. In Punjab, Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya, the system of hereditary priests were either very weak or vanished. This resulted in the presence of a very powerful conversion mafia in these states. For every opponent of Hinduism, that poor priest in his worn-out dhoti is the biggest and ultimate enemy. There, they target him first to eliminate Hindus.

These priests, on a meager income, often go kilometers on foot or a broken bicycle to a deserted temple in some deep and dense forest, worshiping the deity, lights the lamp, rings a bell loudly, and chanting the holy prayers even if there is not a single person there to hear him. He is a true protector of your religion and culture.