@sbarrkum
Not all of them were agrarian,right? There were martial class,merchant class,scholars,priests ect. It looks similar to modern Bangladeshi society somehow,which is divided between upper class,upper-middle class,lower-middle class,lower class ect. since Buddhism doesn’t have a caste system like hindus, so anything not related to hindus are automatically outcaste. Even under Medieval muslim rulers, the bengali society had a genuine class system,formed by Elite muslims(rulers/noblemen),upper/middle Common folks(by their profession and status),other common folks ect. For example,my paternal ancestors in Mughal period were Imam by profession so my house got the title of “Mullah”, I don’t know if they were wealthy or not , but they were respected by everyone. Later some of their descendants become wealthy merchants, so when they settled in Homna,Comilla(my hometown in Bangladesh) from Munshiganj(in medieval
time known as Bikrampur) in British era, they bought many lands from local hindu zamindar.
I think majority of Bengali muslims didnt have any sort of hindu-caste like endogamy for a few thousands of years(atleast under Palas and Muslims), but those social status always existed.

Zahid,

Everyone wants to be descended from upper castes.

I would argue that before Vedic Brahamin intrusion into East India, (e.g. Kalinga, Vanga (bengal) and Bihar), society was very agrarian and egalitarian. Pretty much what Sri Lanka is to this date.

Agrarian by Vedic Hindu definition are Sudras. In case you think the Shudra’s were were just farmers, just remind yourself about the biggest and greatest Indian Empire, the Mauyra Empire. Chandra Gupta Mayura was an East Indian Shudra.

It is very likely most of Bangladeshi Muslims are converted from Pala Empire Buddhists during the Muslim period. The Buddhist Bengali folks in pala era were likely similar to non-Brahmin upper caste Hindus like Kayesthas/Vaidyas, modern Bangladeshis are very similar to them after all.
@Razib Khan What would be autosomal DNA of Baruas of Chittagong?

Thanks for the clarification Razib. 🙂

sbarrkum, all Shudra are and have always been Arya. Just as all Buddhists and Jains are. Sikhs and Zorastrians are also regarded by Hindu to be Arya.

Shudras are venerated in Purusha Suktam, one of the most commonly chanted sections of the Vedas (which many of my friends have memorized):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-NHJffUIIo
Shudras are those people who are Thama Guna predominant. Shudras are masters of bhakti or devotion.

hi Sereno
“Vijay, you are doing some intellectual quibbling.

Arya in general in India implies light skinned peoples.”

You have reduced 3500/5000 years of Hindu history and culture to a racial joke Any non-racial reading of Hindu history you just push away ‘intellectual quibbling’ . Great pity . Arya in general is vedic/hindu pedigree . What you call Shudras also considered themselves part of this cultural complex
Many Muslims and Christians are much lighter skinned than manu if not most Hindus , OTOH they are not part of arya society as they don’t subscribe to it’s basic tenets.
Racial reading of Indian/Hindu society and history was a western contribution , that has to be thrown out lock, stock and barrel. More later, beer, food and mrs waiting

This is a strange comment. ‘aryan’ in traditional Hindu sense was ritual and cultural .

Vijay, with all due respect, Arya in India implies light skinned and CULTURALLY part of the twice born within the Varna Dharma.

In the Rg veda there is this verse,
The Valiant Aryas slew the dark huckster Dasa’s.

No question, in Buddhism, Arya is a reference a learned person, not his/her cultural/ethnic background.

Vijay, you are doing some intellectual quibbling.

Arya in general in India implies light skinned peoples.
Are not the Sudra castes in India, not considered Aryan.

“SL cricket team. Do they scream Aryan…”

This is a strange comment. ‘aryan’ in traditional Hindu sense was ritual and cultural . Buddhism defines itself as ‘Charutani Arya satyani’ (Four Arya truths) or ‘Ashtanga arya marga’ (Eightfold arya way) . Due to political correctness , in English this is usually given as Four Noble Truths and Eightfold Noble way , blanking out ‘aryan’ .
Even if the SL cricket team had screamed aryan , that would not have been out of place. But it is upto them what they scream

Cyrus, one of my Iraqi friends talked a lot about Manicheism. He was very familiar with Sumerian, Accadian, Babylonian religion and many now extinct religions. He wrote interesting papers in his graduate program that post modernist academics had difficulty understanding. He was very intelligent and interesting. Maybe I should check up on him.

Are you familiar with Manicheism? What can you share about it? How did the Persian empire persecute Manicheism? And why? They seemed okay with Jews and Hindus.