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Oct 17, 2024 · Accessed 28 October 2024. Varna, any one of the four traditional social classes of India: the Brahman (priestly class), the Kshatriya (noble class), the Vaishya (commoner class), and the Shudra (servant class). The Rigveda portrays the classes as coming forth from, respectively, the mouth, arms, thighs, and feet of the primeval person.
Hinduism. ' Varṇa' (Sanskrit: वर्ण, Hindi pronunciation: ['ʋəɾɳə]), in the context of Hinduism, [1] refers to a social class within a hierarchical traditional Hindu society. [2][3] The ideology is epitomized in texts like Manusmriti, [1][4][5] which describes and ranks four varnas, and prescribes their occupations, requirements ...
Jan 13, 2023 · Varna in Hinduism is the term given to the four traditional social categories of Hindu society. The word "varna" in Sanskrit, the ancient Indian language, means "color" and traditionally referred ...
- Varnas in Hinduism are social categories based on occupation or personal nature. Each individual is responsible for observing the duties assigned t...
- Varna is based upon occupation or personal nature, and there is some mobility possible among the four groups.. There are hundreds of castes, howeve...
- There are four varna, or social classes, in Hinduism. These are: brahmin, the intellectuals, for example, priests and teachers; kshatriya, the prot...
- Overview
- Religious orders and holy men
The origin of the caste system is not known with certainty. Hindus maintain that the proliferation of the castes (jatis, literally “births”) was the result of intermarriage (which is prohibited in Hindu works on dharma), which led to the subdivision of the four classes, or varnas. Modern theorists, however, assume that castes arose from differences in family ritual practices, racial distinctions, and occupational differentiation and specialization. Scholars also doubt whether the simple varna system was ever more than a theoretical socioreligious ideal and have emphasized that the highly complex division of Hindu society into nearly 3,000 castes and subcastes was probably in place even in ancient times.
In general, a caste is an endogamous hereditary group of families bearing a common name, often claiming a common descent, as a rule professing to follow the same hereditary calling, adhering to the same customs—especially regarding purity, meals, and marriages—and often further divided into smaller endogamous circles. Moreover, tribes, guilds, or religious communities characterized by particular customs—for example, the Lingayats—could easily be regarded as castes. The status of castes varies in different localities. Although social mobility is possible, the mutual relationship of castes is hierarchically determined: local Brahman groups occupy the highest place, and differences in ritual purity are the main criteria of position in the hierarchy. Most impure are the so-called “untouchables,” officially designated as Scheduled Castes in the constitution of modern India. Many Scheduled Caste groups now prefer the name Dalit (“Crushed” or “Oppressed”). Among the Scheduled Castes, however, there are numerous subdivisions, each of which regards itself as superior to others.
Traditional Hindus maintain that the ritual impurity and “untouchability” inherent in these groups does not essentially differ from that temporarily associated with mourners or menstruating women. This, and the fact that some exterior group or other might rise in estimation and become an interior one or that individual outcastes might be well-to-do, does not alter the fact that there was social discrimination. The Scheduled Castes were subjected to various socioreligious disabilities before mitigating tendencies helped bring about reform. After independence, social discrimination was prohibited, and the practice of preventing access to religious, occupational, or civil rights on the grounds of untouchability was made a punishable offense. Despite these prohibitions, Scheduled Castes were sometimes barred from the use of temples and other religious institutions and from public schools.
From the traditional Hindu point of view, this social system is the necessary complement of the principles of dharma, karma, and samsara. Corresponding to hells and heavenly regions in the hereafter, the castes are the mundane social frame within which karma is manifested and worked out.
Members of the various denominations who abandon all worldly attachment enter an “inner circle” or “order” that, seeking a life of devotion, adopts or develops particular vows and observances, a common cult, and some form of initiation.
Varna classifies people into four types, namely: Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaishya, and Shudra. The Varna System started in the Rig Vedic period. It was the caste system that was prevalent in ancient times during the Vedic period. According to the Four Varna System in Hinduism prevalent during the Vedic period: The Brahmans were considered supreme.
The word means "color, tint, dye or pigment" in the Mahabharata. [4] Varna contextually means "colour, race, tribe, species, kind, sort, nature, character, quality, property" of an object or people in some Vedic and medieval texts. [4] Varna refers to four social classes in the Manusmriti. [4][5]
The term ‘Varna’ means colour in Sanskrit. In Vedic literature, it is signified as a particular class in a contemporary society defined by the colour and occupation of people. The Varna meaning is defined and epitomized in Manusmriti and Vedic scriptures of Yajur Veda. The distinction was made based on skin colours, origin, and occupation ...
