Varna

Also called: Varna system, Four varnas · Topic: Society in Early India: Kinship, Varna-Jati, Women · NCERT: Class 7, Ch 4 "New Beginnings: Cities and States"; Class 9, Ch 5 "State and Society up to 1000 CE"; Class 12, Ch 2 "Kings, Farmers and Towns"; Class 12, Ch 3 "Kinship, Caste and Class - Early Societies"; Class 12, Ch 1 "Through the Eyes of Travellers"

Meaning

Varna was the four-fold ranking of society set out in Brahmanical Sanskrit texts. The order was always Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra. Each varna had a set list of duties and jobs. The Dharmasutras and Dharmashastras (Sanskrit rule-books) later claimed that this order was made by the gods and fixed by birth.

It matters because it was the main way the Brahmanical texts described how society should be arranged. It is also central to UPSC questions on varna versus jati, on how inequality was justified, and on how far the texts matched real life.

Explanation

Background: from skill to birth

• Early on, a person's place was not fixed by birth.
• Rigveda 9.112.3 says: "I am a poet; my father is a physician, my mother a grinder of corn." One family does three different jobs.

• In the early period, a person's varna seems to have depended mainly on personal skill, not on birth, rank or wealth [2].

• The hereditary principle (status passed down by birth) had taken root by the end of the Rigvedic period [2].

• Varna began as a ranking by function: knowledge above power above wealth. So Brahmana came above Kshatriya, and Kshatriya above Vaishya.
• The four-class scheme is called chaturvarnya (the four varnas). Later lawgivers used it as the base for their whole picture of society [2].

Main features: jobs fixed for each varna

• Brahmana: had six duties, in three pairs:
• study the Vedas and teach them,
• perform sacrifices and have sacrifices performed for them,

• give gifts and receive gifts.

• Kshatriya: fight wars, protect people and give justice.

• Could study the Vedas, pay for sacrifices, and give and receive gifts.

• Could not teach the Vedas and could not perform sacrifices for others.

• Vaishya: had the same three shared rights (study, pay for sacrifices, give gifts).

• Plus agriculture, pastoralism (keeping cattle and herds) and trade.

• Shudra: had only one job, which was serving the three "higher" varnas.

• No Vedic study, no sacrifice and no gift-giving.

• The ladder was about ritual rank, not wealth. A rich Vaishya still ranked below a poorer Brahmana.

How the Brahmanas enforced it: three strategies

• 1. They claimed a divine origin.
• The proof text was the Purusha sukta, a hymn in Mandala 10 of the Rigveda (10.90) [3].
• In this hymn, a primeval man (Purusha) was offered in the first sacrifice. The world was made from his body: mouth → Brahmana, arms → Kshatriya, thighs → Vaishya, feet → Shudra [3].
• This is a cosmological justification. It presents the social order as part of how the universe was built, so no king or assembly could change it [3].

• The Dharmashastras, including the Manusmriti, repeat the same body-part image [2].

• 2. They asked kings to enforce it.

• Only a king had soldiers, courts and the power to punish.
• So the rule-books have long sections on the duties of the king and on juridical matters (court cases, offences and punishment) [4].

• Result: the Brahmana set the rule and the Kshatriya enforced it.

• 3. They persuaded people that status came from birth.

• Stories carried this message. The best-known one is Ekalavya and Drona in the Mahabharata.
• Ekalavya was a nishada (a forest-dwelling hunting people) and stood outside the varna order. Drona refused to teach him.
• Ekalavya taught himself archery in front of a clay image of Drona and became excellent.
• Drona then asked for his right thumb as guru-dakshina (a teacher's fee), so that no one would be better than Arjuna, the Kshatriya prince.
• Lesson of the story: skill does not give you status; birth does.

Results and change over time

• Varna was a model, not a picture of real life. It was a social model held by lawgivers, not a description of how society actually worked. The texts stress what each class should do more than who was born into it [2].
• Real society ran on jati. Jatis were occupational communities such as weavers, potters, oil-pressers and herders, with skills passed from parents to children. Each jati had sub-jatis with their own customs. Jatis kept multiplying, but there were always only four varnas.
• Early on, the system was flexible.
• Farmers moved to towns and changed their work.
• Brahmins took up trade or arms when priestly work did not pay.

• New groups were fitted in as new jatis instead of being kept out.

• The system became rigid later. According to NCERT, rigidity and exclusion grew especially under British rule, when caste was counted, listed and fixed in official records.

• People challenged it at the time. The Buddhist Sutta Nipata says: "A Brahmana is such by his deeds."

Time, place and evidence

• Period: The idea goes back to the Purusha sukta, which Britannica places in the Rigveda of c. 1500–1200 BCE [3]. It was turned into detailed rules in the Dharmasutras and Dharmashastras, written from about the 6th–5th century BCE onwards. The main era for its enforcement is c. 600 BCE – 600 CE.
• Region: The Brahmanical, Sanskrit-using society of north India.
• Key texts:
• Rigveda 10.90 (Purusha sukta): the myth of divine origin [3].
• Dharmasutras and Dharmashastras: the rule-books. There are over 5,000 Sanskrit titles on conduct, rites, food rules, offences, the king's duties and court matters [4].
• Manusmriti: the best-known of these, treated as the oldest codification of the rules of dharma (duty) [4][5].

• Mahabharata: the story of Ekalavya and Drona.

• Evidence against the text model:

• Rigveda 9.112.3: one family doing several jobs.

• Sutta Nipata: a Buddhist text that judges a Brahmana by his deeds.

• Key figures: Drona, Ekalavya and Arjuna, all from the Mahabharata.

• Travellers' accounts: NCERT's chapter on travellers shows that later foreign observers also described the four-varna scheme. They often drew it from Sanskrit texts rather than from what they saw in daily life.

Don't confuse with

• Jati: Varna was a closed scheme of four ritual ranks found in Sanskrit texts. Jati was the real occupational community, and the number of jatis kept growing as new crafts and groups appeared.
• Caste: This is an English word from the Portuguese casta (lineage or breed), used by Portuguese traders from the 16th century. It mixes up varna and jati. It is not an Indian term.
• Purusha sukta vs Dharmashastras: The Purusha sukta is a Rigvedic hymn (10.90) that gives the myth of divine origin [3]. The Dharmashastras are later rule-books that set the duties and punishments for each varna [4].
• Nishada: This was a forest-dwelling hunting people outside the four varnas, not a fifth varna or a kind of Shudra. Ekalavya was a nishada.

Prelims Hooks

• The Purusha sukta is in Mandala 10 of the Rigveda, hymn 10.90. The body parts are: mouth = Brahmana, arms = Kshatriya, thighs = Vaishya, feet = Shudra [3].
• Agriculture, pastoralism and trade were Vaishya jobs, not Kshatriya jobs. Teaching the Vedas and performing sacrifices for others belonged only to the Brahmana.
• Only the Shudra had a single job: serving the other three varnas.
• "I am a poet; my father is a physician, my mother a grinder of corn" comes from Rigveda 9.112.3. "A Brahmana is such by his deeds" comes from the Sutta Nipata (a Buddhist text).
• Ekalavya was a nishada. He gave his right thumb to Drona so that Arjuna would stay the best archer.
• The Manusmriti is counted as the oldest codification of dharma. Dharmashastra literature runs to over 5,000 Sanskrit titles [4][5]. The word "caste" comes from the Portuguese casta.

Mains Points

• An idea needs power to become practice. Varna lasted because three things worked together:
• the Purusha sukta gave it divine legitimacy [3],
• the king gave it force, as seen in the Dharmashastras' sections on royal duty and punishment [4],
• stories like Ekalavya's won everyday acceptance.

This shows how religious ideas and state power supported each other in early India.

• What the texts prescribed is not what society was. The four-varna scheme was a lawgivers' model, not a survey of society [2]. Rigveda 9.112.3, the Sutta Nipata, the growing world of jatis and Brahmins taking up trade all show a more fluid society. Use this gap as the backbone of any GS-I answer on early social structure.
• Rigidity has a history; it was not always there. Membership first rested on skill and became hereditary later [2]. It was questioned by Buddhism early on. NCERT places its sharpest hardening under British rule, through colonial counting and classification. This supports the argument that caste rigidity came from specific historical processes.

Related concepts

• Brahmana varna
• Kshatriya
• Vaishya
• Shudra
• Caste
• Varna-jati system
• Ekalavya

Read more

• The varna order and its enforcement