The Political Narrative of Vishnava Rama, the Kshatriya, Defeating the Brahmin Ravana, a Shivite, in Dasavatara stories of Hinduism

In the avatara stories of Vishnu, the first significant appearance of a Brahmin is in his Vamana avatara, the fifth incarnation, where Vishnu cleverly defeats the Kshatriya king Mahabali by deceit. This episode marks the beginning of a complex chronological arc of conflict between the Brahmin and Kshatriya classes, culminating in the killing of the Brahmin king Ravana by the Kshatriya prince Rama. This sequence offers a compelling lens to understand the power dynamics between these two dominant ruling classes that have shaped Hindu socio-cultural history.

In Hinduism, both Brahmins and Kshatriyas claim the right to govern within the Hindu varna system—though in distinct spheres. Brahmins traditionally hold authority over intellectual, cultural, and philosophical domains; their control over knowledge shapes societal norms and power structures. On the other hand, Kshatriyas command physical and material power as warriors and rulers. While their dharmas share foundational ideals, their practical enactments and perspectives on duty differ. Significantly, Brahmins and Kshatriyas each cultivated divergent interpretations of their own and each other's dharma, and the entire avatar narrative can be viewed as a mythic struggle for these competing worldview.

Returning to the story: despite being a devout follower of Vishnu and outside the classical varnashrama order, the Asura king Mahabali's growing power threatened the Brahminical (Deva) dharma. Vishnu, in the guise of Vamana, thus strategically deceived and removed Mahabali from the scene, reaffirming Varna system's supremacy. However, this victory triggered a degeneration in Kshatriya dharma. The aftermath witnessed the resurgence of a symbolic "cow politics" represented by Kamadhenu during the Battle of Ten Kings among Vedic tribes.

The Kshatriya king Kartavirya Arjuna, demanding Kamadhenu, violated dharma by killing Sage Jamadagni, a Brahmin and father of Parashurama—the next Brahmin avatara of Vishnu. This act intensified the struggle for supremacy between Brahmins and Kshatriyas, with Parashurama, a Brahmin by birth who assumed and fulfilled Kshatriya duties, annihilating the Kshatriyas to restore order. His avatar embodies the profound blurring and contestation of dharma between these two classes.

As confusion and conflict over dharma escalated, the next Vishnu avatara appeared explicitly as a Kshatriya—Rama—to re-establish dharmic order by slaying the Brahmin king Ravana. This story adds another dimension to the narrative: the conflict between Vishnu's devotees and the Shiva-worshipping Brahmin Ravana, shifting from a simple Deva-Asura dichotomy (seen in Vamana and Mahabali) to a more nuanced Brahmin-Kshatriya and Vishnavite-Shivaite dynamic.

Together, the three avatars—Vamana, Parashurama, and Rama—mythically chronicle the socio-cultural evolution of Brahminical ascendancy, its challenge by Kshatriya power, and the eventual complex interplay of battle of perspectives on varna system and its role reversals in Hindu society. The story of Brahmins that begins with Vamana finally ends with Ravana's death in Vishnu avatara stories.

In contemporary times, as Hindutva groups—particularly those led by Chitpavan Brahmin Peshwa descendants such as the RSS—seek to reinstate a Brahminical varnashrama social order, this mythological narrative serves both as a warning to Hindutva and a strategic resource for their critics. It reveals the complex and contested history of Brahmin-Kshatriya power dynamics, challenging the simplistic and hierarchical casteist accounts of social roles. The caste-conscious RSS's current appropriation of Kshatriya Rama must be seen as a reenactment of the Vamana avatar narrative. At the same time, their resistance to the Constitution's commitments to secularism and caste-based affirmative action echoes the Parasurama avatar story. Implicit is a latent fear—or at least an expectation—of another Rama: a force that could expose their contradictions and strip them of their ideological sheen. After all, alternate socio-political frameworks persist—be it the mythical Deva-Asura tensions or Vaishnavite-Shivite-Shakteya traditions, regional diversities across North, South, East, and West, linguistic pluralities, or the secular Constitution itself—all capable of resisting and dismantling the Brahminical varnashrama order, that the Hindutva breed RSS envisages.

That is the underlying political construct conveyed through the chronology of the Avatars and their corresponding battle narratives. That is the story, the politics of Vishnava Rama, the Kshatriya, Defeating the Brahmin Ravana, a Shivite, trying to tell us.