Varna-jati system

Topic: Society in Early India: Kinship, Varna-Jati, Women · NCERT: Class 7, Ch 4 "New Beginnings: Cities and States"; Class 7, Ch 7 "The Gupta Era: An Age of Tireless Creativity"

Meaning

The varna-jati system was the two-level way early Indian society was ranked. Varna was the four ritual ranks set out in Brahmanical texts: Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra. Jati was the many real occupational communities, such as weavers, potters and herders, that people were born into.

It matters for two reasons. It shaped who could study, offer sacrifices, own land or trade. It also shows a clear gap between what the rule-books said society should be and how people actually lived. That gap is a favourite theme in GS-I.

Explanation

Background: where the varna idea came from

• The word order of the varnas is fixed: Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra.
• The four-class scheme is called chaturvarnya. The lawgivers built their whole picture of society on it [2].
• The earliest Vedic world was looser.
• Rigveda 9.112.3 says: "I am a poet; my father is a physician, my mother a grinder of corn." Three members of one family did three different jobs, so the jobs were not inherited.
• In the early period, a person's varna seems to have rested mainly on personal skill, not on birth, rank or wealth [2].

• The hereditary principle (status passing from parent to child) had taken root by the end of the Rigvedic period [2].

• At the start, varna was a ranking by function, that is, by the work each class did. The order was knowledge above power, and power above wealth.

Main features: the duties of each varna

The Dharmasutras and Dharmashastras were rule-books in Sanskrit, written from about the 6th–5th century BCE onwards. They fixed what each varna could do. The Manusmriti is the best known of them [4][5].

• Brahmana: had three paired duties.
• Study the Vedas and teach them.
• Perform sacrifices, and get sacrifices performed for others.

• Give gifts and receive gifts.

• Kshatriya: warfare, protecting the people and delivering justice.

• A Kshatriya could also study the Vedas, sponsor sacrifices, and give and receive gifts.

• But a Kshatriya could not teach the Vedas and could not perform sacrifices for others.

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

• On top of these came agriculture, pastoralism (keeping cattle and herds) and trade.

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

• A Shudra could not study the Vedas, offer sacrifices or give gifts.

• The ranking was about ritual status, not money. A rich Vaishya still ranked below a poor Brahmana.

• Jati was different. Jatis were real, local occupational groups. Skills passed from parents to children. Each jati had sub-jatis with their own customs. The number of jatis kept growing, but there were always only four varnas.

How Brahmanas enforced the order

• Strategy 1: claim it came from the gods.
• The proof text was the Purusha sukta, Rigveda 10.90, in Mandala 10 [3].
• It tells of a first man, Purusha, who was offered in the first sacrifice. Different parts of his body became the varnas:
  • mouth → Brahmana
  • arms → Kshatriya
  • thighs → Vaishya
  • feet → Shudra [3]
• The argument was simple. If the order came from the body of a cosmic man, no king or assembly could change it. This is a cosmological justification: the social order is shown as part of how the universe was built [3].

• Later Dharmashastra texts, including the Manusmriti, repeat this image [2].

• Strategy 2: ask kings to enforce it.

• Only a king had soldiers, courts and the power to punish.

• So the rule-books carry long sections on the duties of the king and on juridical matters, meaning court cases, offences and punishment [4].

• Strategy 3: persuade people that status comes from birth.

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

Change over time: flexible first, rigid later

• In early times the system bent, and this bending kept it stable.
• Farmers moved to towns and took up new work.
• Brahmins took up trade or arms when priestly work did not pay.

• New groups were taken in as fresh jatis instead of being shut out.

• The four-varna scheme was always more a model than a picture of real life. The texts stress the work each class did more than membership by birth [2].

• Rigidity, inequality and exclusion grew later. According to NCERT, the hardening was sharpest under British rule, when castes were counted, listed and fixed in official records.

Time, place and evidence

• Period: the main era is c. 600 BCE – 600 CE, when the Dharmasutras and Dharmashastras were written and enforced. The source myth is much older. Britannica dates the Purusha sukta hymn to the Rigveda of c. 1500–1200 BCE [3].
• Place: the Indian subcontinent, with the Sanskrit-using Brahmanical world as its centre.
• Key figures: Brahmana lawgivers and the kings they advised. In the epic story, Drona, Ekalavya and Arjuna.
• Evidence:
• Rigveda 10.90 (Purusha sukta): the divine-origin story [3].
• Rigveda 9.112.3: proof that jobs were not inherited in early times.
• Dharmasutras and Dharmashastras: there are over 5,000 Sanskrit titles on conduct, rites, food rules, offences, the duties of kings and court matters [4].
• Manusmriti: treated as the oldest codification of the rules of dharma (duty) [4][5].
• Mahabharata: the Ekalavya story.
• Sutta Nipata (a Buddhist text): "A Brahmana is such by his deeds." This is a voice against birth-based rank.
• Portuguese usage: from the 16th century, Portuguese traders called what they saw casta.
• Colonial records: these fixed caste labels under British rule (NCERT).

Don't confuse with

• Varna vs Jati: varna is a closed set of four ritual ranks found in Sanskrit texts. Jati is an open, growing set of real occupational communities, each with its own sub-jatis.
• "Caste" vs varna: "caste" is not an Indian word. It comes from the Portuguese casta (lineage or breed) and is often used loosely for both varna and jati.
• Purusha sukta vs Manusmriti: the Purusha sukta is a Rigvedic hymn (Mandala 10, hymn 90) that gives the myth of where the varnas came from [3]. The Manusmriti is a later Dharmashastra rule-book that repeats the myth and turns it into law [2].
• Nishada vs Shudra: a Shudra is the fourth varna, inside the order. Ekalavya was a nishada, a forest hunter outside the varna order altogether.

Prelims Hooks

• The Purusha sukta is hymn 10.90, in Mandala 10 of the Rigveda. Body-part order: mouth = Brahmana, arms = Kshatriya, thighs = Vaishya, feet = Shudra [3].
• Trap: agriculture, pastoralism and trade belong to the Vaishya, not the Kshatriya. Teaching the Vedas and performing sacrifices for others were open only to the Brahmana.
• Only the Shudra had a single prescribed job: serving the three higher varnas.
• Rigveda 9.112.3: "I am a poet; my father is a physician, my mother a grinder of corn." Sutta Nipata: "A Brahmana is such by his deeds."
• Ekalavya (a nishada) gave his right thumb to Drona, so that Arjuna stayed the best archer.
• "Caste" comes from the Portuguese casta. Dharmashastra literature runs to over 5,000 Sanskrit titles, and the Manusmriti is counted as its oldest codification of dharma [4][5].

Mains Points

• An idea needs power before people follow it.
• The myth gave the order legitimacy (the Purusha sukta [3]).
• The king gave it force (the Dharmashastra sections on royal duty and punishment [4]).
• Stories like Ekalavya's won everyday acceptance.

• Together, these three turned a textual idea into social practice.

• The rule-books show what lawgivers wanted, not what society was.

• The four-varna scheme was a model held by textual lawgivers [2].
• Against it stand Rigveda 9.112.3, the Sutta Nipata, migrating farmers, Brahmins who took to trade, and new groups absorbed as jatis.

• Jati flexibility is what let Indian society take in new peoples without breaking apart.

• Caste rigidity has a history; it was not always there.

• Early on, varna rested mainly on skill. Birth-based rank set in by the end of the Rigvedic period [2].
• Buddhism challenged birth-based rank in its own time.
• NCERT places the sharpest hardening under British rule, through colonial counting and records.
• This helps answers that link early critiques to later Bhakti, Sufi and Ambedkarite critiques.

Related concepts

• Varna
• Brahmana varna
• Kshatriya
• Vaishya
• Shudra
• Caste
• Ekalavya

Read more

• The varna order and its enforcement