:Varna (Hinduism)

The word appears in the Rigveda, where it means "colour, outward appearance, exterior, form, figure or shape".{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zUezTfym7CAC&pg=PA924 |page=924 |title=A Sanskrit-English Dictionary: Etymologically and Philologically Arranged with Special Reference to Cognate Indo-European Languages |first=Monier |last=Monier-Williams |author-link=Monier-Williams |edition=Reprinted |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |year=2005 |orig-year=1899 |isbn=978-81-208-3105-6}} The word means "color, tint, dye or pigment" in the Mahabharata. Varna contextually means "colour, race, tribe, species, kind, sort, nature, character, quality, property" of an object or people in some Vedic and medieval texts. Varna refers to four social classes in the Manusmriti.{{cite book |last=Malik |first=Jamal |title=Religious Pluralism in South Asia and Europe |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford UK |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-19-566975-6 |page=48}}

The earliest application to the formal division into four social classes (without using the term varna) appears in the late Rigvedic Purusha Sukta (RV 10.90.11–12), which has the Brahman, Rajanya (instead of Kshatriya), Vaishya and Shudra classes forming the mouth, arms, thighs and feet at the sacrifice of the primordial Purusha, respectively:{{cite book |title=The Origin and Development of Classical Hinduism |first=Arthur Llewellyn |last=Basham |author-link=Arthur Basham |edition=Reprinted |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1989 |isbn=978-0-19-507349-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2aqgTYlhLikC |page=25}}

{{poemquote|11. When they divided Purusa how many portions did they make?

What do they call his mouth, his arms? What do they call his thighs and feet?

12. The Brahman was his mouth, of both his arms was the Rajanya made.

His thighs became the Vaishya, from his feet the Shudra was produced.}}

Some modern indologists believe the Purusha Sukta to be a later addition, possibly as a charter myth.{{cite book |last=Jamison| first=Stephanie |title=The Rigveda: The earliest religious poetry of India |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-19-937018-4 |pages=57–58|display-authors=etal}} Stephanie Jamison and Joel Brereton, a professor of Sanskrit and Religious studies, state, "there is no evidence in the Rigveda for an elaborate, much-subdivided and overarching caste system", and "the varna system seems to be embryonic in the Rigveda and, both then and later, a social ideal rather than a social reality".

Ram Sharan Sharma, in his book Śūdras in Ancient India (1990), states :{{quote|"the Rig Vedic society was neither organized on the basis of social division of labour nor on that of differences in wealth ... [it] was primarily organised on the basis of kin, tribe and lineage."{{harvp|Sharma, Śūdras in Ancient India|1990|p=10}}}}

The Chandogya Upanishad indicates that a person's varna is determined on the basis of their actions in their previous life.{{Cite book |last1=Velassery |first1=Sebastian |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=afpcDwAAQBAJ |title=Caste Identities and The Ideology of Exclusion: A Post-Script on the Humanization of Indian Social Life |last2=Patra |first2=Reena |date=2018-06-30 |publisher=BrownWalker Press |isbn=978-1-62734-703-7 |pages=28 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Singh |first=Upinder |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H3lUIIYxWkEC |title=A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century |date=2008 |publisher=Pearson Education India |isbn=978-81-317-1120-0 |language=en}}{{Cite book |last=Feuerstein |first=Georg |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CahvEAAAQBAJ |title=The Encyclopedia of Yoga and Tantra |date=2022-08-16 |publisher=Shambhala Publications |isbn=978-1-61180-185-9 |page=285 |language=en}}

{{Blockquote|text=Among them, those who did good work in this world [in their past life] attain a good birth accordingly. They are born as a brāhmin, a kṣatriya, or a vaiśya. But those who did bad work in this world [in their past life] attain a bad birth accordingly, being born as a dog, a pig, or as a casteless person.|title=Chandogya Upanishad}}

The Vajrasuchi Upanishad, however, states that the status of brahman is not based on birth, knowledge, or karma, but on the direct realisation of one's own Atman (inner self, soul).{{cite book |title=The banyan tree. Vol. 2 |date=2000 |publisher=Manohar Publishers & Distributors |location=New Delhi |isbn=9788173042775 |page=442}}

{{Blockquote|text="Who indeed then is a Brahmana? He who has directly realized his Atman is without a second, devoid of class and actions[…] that exists penetrating all things that pervade everything. [He who] is devoid of the faults of thirst after worldly objects and passions… Whose mind is untouched by [pride and egoism], he only is the Brahmana. Such is the opinion of the Vedas, the smritis, the Itihasa and the Puranas. Otherwise one cannot obtain the status of a Brahmana."|title=Vajrasuchi Upanishad}}

The Mahabharata, estimated to have been completed by about the 4th century CE, discusses the Varna system in section 12.181.

The Epic offers two models on Varna. The first model describes Varna as colour-coded system, through a sage named Bhrigu, "Brahmins Varna was white, Kshtriyas was red, Vaishyas was yellow, and the Shudras' black". This description is questioned by another prominent sage Bharadwaja who says that colours are seen among all the Varnas, that desire, anger, fear, greed, grief, anxiety, hunger and toil prevails over all human beings, that bile and blood flow from all human bodies, so what distinguishes the Varnas, he asks? The Mahabharata then declares, according to Alf Hiltebeitel, a professor of religion, "There is no distinction of Varnas. This whole universe is Brahman. It was created formerly by Brahma, came to be classified by acts."

The Mahabharata thereafter recites a behavioural model for Varna, that those who were inclined to anger, pleasures and boldness attained the Kshatriya Varna; those who were inclined to cattle rearing and living off the plough attained the Vaishyas; those who were fond of violence, covetousness and impurity attained the Shudras. The Brahmin class is modelled in the epic, as the archetype default state of man dedicated to truth, austerity and pure conduct.{{harvp|Hiltebeitel, Dharma|2011|p=532}} Indeed, it goes on to assert that all men are children of Brahmins, which does not make sense, unless understood this way.In the Mahabharata and pre-medieval era Hindu texts, according to Hiltebeitel, "it is important to recognize, in theory, Varna is nongenealogical. The four Varnas are not lineages, but categories."{{harvp|Hiltebeitel, Dharma|2011|p=594}}

The Bhagavad Gita describes the professions, duties and qualities of members of different varnas.

{{blockquote| title = Bhagavad Gita

| source = chapter 18{{Cite web |date=2022-01-02 |title=Varna versus Caste in Bhagavad Gita |url=https://globalgita.org/varna-versus-caste-in-bhagavad-gita/ |access-date=2024-02-06 |website=Global Gita |language=en-US}}|text=

There is no entity on earth, or again in heaven among the Devas, that is devoid of these three Gunas, born of Prakriti.

Of Brâhmanas and Kshatriyas and Vaishyas, as also of Sudras, O scorcher of foes, the duties are distributed according to the Gunas born of their own nature.

The control of the mind and the senses, austerity, purity, forbearance, and also uprightness, knowledge, realisation, belief in a hereafter– these are the duties of the Brâhmanas, born of (their own) nature.

Prowess, boldness, fortitude, dexterity, and also not flying from battle, generosity and sovereignty are the duties of the Kshatriyas, born of (their own) nature.

Agriculture, cattle-rearing and trade are the duties of the Vaishyas, born of (their own) nature; and action consisting of service is the duty of the Sudras, born of (their own) nature.}}

The Brahma Purana states that acting against both varna and ashrama (stage), which together guide one's dharma, leads to hell.{{cite book |last=Debroy |first=Bibek |date=May 1, 2022 |title=Brahma Purana Volume 1 |publisher=India Penguin Classics |page=508 |isbn=978-0143454892}} The Brahmanda Purana calls associations between low and high varnas signs of the Kali Yuga, the age of immorality and decline.{{Cite journal |last=O'Flaherty |first=Wendy Doniger |date=1971 |title=The Origin of Heresy in Hindu Mythology |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1061913 |journal=History of Religions |volume=10 |issue=4 |pages=315, 322 |doi=10.1086/462634 |jstor=1061913 |s2cid=170763142 |issn=0018-2710}}

{{See also|Caste system in India}}

The varna system is extensively discussed in the Dharma-shastras.{{harvp|Olivelle, Caste and Purity|1998|pp=189–216}} The Varna system in Dharma-shastras divides society into four varnas (Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishya and Shudras). Those who fall out of this system because of their grievous sins are ostracised as outcastes (untouchables) and considered outside the varna system.{{harvp|Olivelle, Caste and Purity|1998|pp=199–216}}{{citation |last=Bayly |first=Susan |title=Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-521-26434-1 |pages=9–11}} Barbarians and those who are unrighteous or unethical are also considered outcastes.{{harvp|Olivelle, Caste and Purity|1998|pp=199–203}}

Recent scholarship suggests that the discussion of varna as well as untouchable outcastes in these texts does not resemble the modern era caste system in India. Patrick Olivelle, a professor of Sanskrit and Indian Religions and credited with modern translations of Vedic literature, Dharma-sutras and Dharma-shastras, states that ancient and medieval Indian texts do not support the ritual pollution, purity-impurity as the basis for varna system.{{harvp|Olivelle, Caste and Purity|2008|pp=240–241}} According to Olivelle, purity-impurity is discussed in the Dharma-shastra texts, but only in the context of the individual's moral, ritual and biological pollution (eating certain kinds of food such as meat, urination and defecation). In his review of Dharma-shastras, Olivelle writes, "we see no instance when a term of pure/impure is used with reference to a group of individuals or a varna or caste". The only mention of impurity in the Shastra texts from the 1st millennium is about people who commit grievous sins and thereby fall out of their varna. These, writes Olivelle, are called "fallen people" and impure, declaring that they be ostracised.{{harvp|Olivelle, Caste and Purity|2008|p=240}} Olivelle adds that the overwhelming focus in matters relating to purity/impurity in the Dharma-sastra texts concerns "individuals irrespective of their varna affiliation" and all four varnas could attain purity or impurity by the content of their character, ethical intent, actions, innocence or ignorance, stipulations, and ritualistic behaviours.{{harvp|Olivelle, Caste and Purity|2008|pp=240–245}}

Olivelle states: {{blockquote|Dumont is correct in his assessment that the ideology of varna is not based on purity. If it were we should expect to find at least some comment on the relative purity and impurity of the different vamas. What is even more important is that the ideology of purity and impurity that emerges from the Dharma literature is concerned with the individual and not with groups, with purification and not with purity, and lends little support to a theory which makes relative purity the foundation of social stratification.{{harvp|Olivelle, Caste and Purity|2008|p=210}}}}

The first three varnas are described in the Dharmashastras as "twice born" and they are allowed to study the Vedas. Such a restriction of who can study Vedas is not found in the Vedic era literature.{{cite book|first=Mark |last=Juergensmeyer |author-link=Mark Juergensmeyer |title=The Oxford Handbook of Global Religions|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SwXz4uFWiRgC&pg=PA27 |year=2006 |publisher=Oxford University Press, USA |isbn=978-0-19-972761-2 |page=27}}

Manusmriti assigns cattle rearing as Vaishya occupation but historical evidence shows that Brahmins, Kshatriyas and Shudras also owned and reared cattle and that cattle-wealth was mainstay of their households. Ramnarayan Rawat, a professor of History and specialising in social exclusion in the Indian subcontinent, states that 19th century British records show that Chamars, listed as untouchables, also owned land and cattle and were active agriculturalists.{{cite book |last=Rawat |first=Ramnarayan |title=Reconsidering untouchability : Chamars and Dalit history in North India |publisher=Indiana University Press |location=Bloomington |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-253-22262-6 |pages=53–63}} The emperors of Kosala and the prince of Kasi are other examples.

Tim Ingold, an anthropologist, writes that the Manusmriti is a highly schematic commentary on the varna system, but it too provides "models rather than descriptions".{{cite book |last=Ingold |first=Tim |title=Companion Encyclopedia of Anthropology |publisher=Routledge |year=1994 |isbn=978-0-415-28604-6 |page=1026}} Susan Bayly states that Manusmriti and other scriptures helped elevate Brahmin in the social hierarchy and these were a factor in the making of the varna system, but the ancient texts did not in some way "create the phenomenon of caste" in India.{{citation |last=Bayly |first=Susan |title=Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-521-26434-1 |page=29}}

Ancient Buddhist texts mention Varna system in South Asia, but the details suggest that it was non-rigid, flexible, non-hierarchal, and with characteristics devoid of features of a social stratification system.

Digha Nikaya provides a discussion between Gotama Buddha and a Hindu Brahmin named Sonadanda who was very learned in the Vedas.{{cite book |last=Walshe |first=Maurice |title=The Long Discourses of the Buddha: A translation of the Dīgha Nikāya |publisher=Wisdom Publications |location=Boston |year=1995 |isbn=978-0-86171-103-1 |pages=129–131}}{{cite book|url=http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/dob/dob-04tx.htm|title=DN4: To Sonadanda, Digha Nikaya Verses 13-21, Translated from the Pâli|last=T. W. Rhys Davids|publisher=Oxford University Press}}

Gotama Buddha asks, "By how many qualities do Brahmins recognize another Brahmin? How would one declare truthfully and without falling into falsehood, "I am a Brahmin?"

Sonadanda initially lists five qualities as, "he is of pure descent on both the mother's and the father's side, he is well versed in mantras, he is of fair color handsome and pleasing, he is virtuous learned and wise, and he is the first or second to hold the sacrificial ladle".

Buddha then asks the Brahmin, "If we omit one of these qualities you just listed, could not one be still a true Brahmin?"

Sonadanda, one by one, eliminates fair colour and looks, then eliminates Varna in which one was born, and then eliminates the ability to recite mantra and do sacrifices as a requirement of being a Brahmin.

Sonadanda asserts that just two qualities are necessary to truthfully and without falling into falsehood identify a Brahmin; these two qualities are "being virtuous and being learned and wise". Sonadanda adds that it is impossible to reduce the requirement for being a Brahmin any further, because "for wisdom is purified by morality, and morality is clarified by wisdom; where one is, the other is, the moral man has wisdom and the wise man has morality, and the combination of morality and wisdom is called the highest thing in the world". Brian Black and Dean Patton state Sonadanda admits after this, "we [Brahmins] only know this much Gotama; it would be well if Reverend Gotama would explain meaning of the two [morality, wisdom]".{{cite book |first1=Brian |last1=Black |first2=Dean Laurie |last2=Patton |title=Dialogue in Early South Asian Religions: Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain traditions |publisher=Ashgate |location=Burlington |year=2015 |isbn=978-1-4094-4013-0 |pages=245–246}}

Peter Masefield,{{cite book |last=Masefield |first=Peter |title=Divine Revelation in Pali Buddhism |publisher=Routledge |year=2008 |isbn=978-0-415-46164-1 |pages=146–154}} a Buddhism scholar and ancient Pali texts translator, states that during the Nikāya texts period of Buddhism (3rd century BC to 5th century AD), Varna as a class system is attested, but the described Varna was not a caste system. The Pali texts enumerate the four Varnas Brahmin, "Kshatriya",Vessa (Vaishya) and Sudda (Shudra). Masefield notes that people in any Varna could in principle perform any profession. The early Buddhist texts, for instance, identify some Brahmins to be farmers and in other professions. The text state that anyone, of any birth, could perform the priestly function, and that the Brahmin took food from anyone, suggesting that strictures of commensality were as yet unknown. The Nikaya texts also imply that endogamy was not mandated in ancient India. Masefield concludes, "if any form of caste system was known during the Nikaya period - and it is doubtful that it was - this was in all probability restricted to certain non-Aryan groups".

Ādi purāṇa, an 8th-century text of Jainism by Jinasena, is the earliest mention of Varna and Jati in Jainism literature.{{harvp|Jaini, The Jaina Path of Purification|1998|pp=294, 285–295}} Jinasena does not trace the origin of Varna system to Rigveda or to Purusha Sukta, instead traces varna to the Bharata legend. According to this legend, Bharata performed an "ahimsa-test" (test of non-violence), and those members of his community who refused to harm or hurt any living being were called as the priestly varna in ancient India, and Bharata called them dvija, twice born.{{harvp|Jaini, The Jaina Path of Purification|1998|p=289}} Jinasena states that those who are committed to ahimsa are deva-Brāhmaṇas, divine Brahmins.{{harvp|Jaini, The Jaina Path of Purification|1998|p=290}}

The text Adi purana also discusses the relationship between varna and jati. According to Padmanabh Jaini, a professor of Indic studies, Jainism and Buddhism, the Adi purana text states "there is only one jati called manusyajati or the human caste, but divisions arise account of their different professions".{{harvp|Jaini, The Jaina Path of Purification|1998|p=340}} The varna of Kshatriya arose when Rishabh procured weapons to serve the society and assumed the powers of a king, while Vaishya and Shudra varna arose from different means of livelihood in which they specialised.{{harvp|Jaini, The Jaina Path of Purification|1998|pp=340–341}}

Sikhism is a late 15th-century religion that originated in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent. Sikh texts mention Varna as Varan, and Jati as Zat or Zat-biradari. Eleanor Nesbitt, a professor of Religion and specialising in Christian, Hindu and Sikh studies, states that the Varan is described as a class system in 18th- to 20th-century Sikh literature, while Zat reflected the endogamous occupational groups (caste).{{cite book |last=Nesbitt |first=Eleanor |title=Sikhism – A very short introduction |edition=1st |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford New York |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-19-280601-7 |pages=116–120}}{{cite book|author=Harjot Oberoi|title=The Construction of Religious Boundaries: Culture, Identity, and Diversity in the Sikh Tradition|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1NKC9g2ayJEC |year=1994|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-61592-9|pages=83–84 with footnotes}}

The Sikh texts authored by the Sikh Gurus and by non-Sikh Bhagats such as the Namdev, Ravidas and Kabir, states Nesbitt, declared the irrelevance of varan or zat of one's birth to one's spiritual destiny. They taught that "all of humanity had a single refuge" and that the divine teaching is for everyone. Sikhism teaches a society without any varan.{{cite book|author=H. S. Singha|title=The Encyclopedia of Sikhism (over 1000 Entries)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gqIbJz7vMn0C|year=2000|publisher=Hemkunt Press|isbn=978-81-7010-301-1|page=42}} In practice, states Harjot Oberoi, secondary Sikh texts such as the Khalsa Dharam Sastar in 1914 argued that the entry of certain Sikh castes into major Sikh shrines should be barred.{{cite book|author=Harjot Oberoi|title=The Construction of Religious Boundaries: Culture, Identity, and Diversity in the Sikh Tradition|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1NKC9g2ayJEC |year=1994|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-61592-9|pages=105–108 with footnotes}} Similarly, in practice and its texts, the Gurus of Sikhism did not condemn or break with the convention of marrying (and marrying off their children) within the jati, and all the Sikh Gurus were Khatri, had Khatri wives and practiced arranged marriages within their zat.{{cite book|author=W. H. McLeod|title=The A to Z of Sikhism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vgixwfeCyDAC&pg=PA42|year=2009|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-6344-6|page=42}};
{{cite book|author=W. H. McLeod|title=Sikhs and Sikhism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kXTXAAAAMAAJ |year=1999|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-564745-7|pages=36, 87–88}}{{cite book|author=William Owen Cole|title=Sikhism|url=https://archive.org/details/sikhism0000cole|url-access=registration|year=1994|publisher=NTC|isbn=978-0-8442-3747-3|pages=[https://archive.org/details/sikhism0000cole/page/92 92]–93}} According to Dhavan, the Rahit-namas and other prescriptive Sikh texts from mid-18th century onwards accommodate and affirm the "natal and marriage traditions of different caste groups within the Sikh community".{{cite book|author=P Dhavan|editor=Pashaura Singh and Louis E. Fenech|title=The Oxford Handbook of Sikh Studies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7YwNAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA54|year=2014|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-100411-7|page=54}}

Ravidassi Sikhs and Ramgarhia Sikhs follow their own textual and festive traditions, gather in their own places of worship.{{cite journal|url= http://www.global.ucsb.edu/punjab/journal/v16_1/articles/RonkiRam16_1.pdf |journal=Journal of Punjab Studies|year=2009 |volume=16 | issue=1 |title=Ravidass, Dera Sachkhand Ballan and the Question of Dalit Identity in Punjab |publisher=Panjab University, Chandigarh |author=Ronki Ram}}{{citation |first=Paramjit |last=Judge |year=2014 |title=Mapping Social Exclusion in India: Caste, Religion and Borderlands |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=179–182|isbn=978-1107056091 }} These are varan-based (caste-based) religious congregations that emerged from Sikhism, states Nesbitt.{{cite book |last=Nesbitt |first=Eleanor |title=Sikhism – A very short introduction |edition=2nd |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford New York |year=2016 |isbn=978-0198745570 |pages=112–113}} The Ravidassia group, for example, emphasizes the teachings of Bhagat Ravidas – a poet-saint born in a family whose traditional untouchable occupation related to dead animals and leather.{{cite web|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1350770/Ravidas |title= Ravidas (Indian mystic and poet) |publisher= Britannica Online Encyclopedia |year= 2014}} They consider the teachings of living Gurus and the texts of Ravidass Dera as sacred and spiritually as important as the historic Sikh Gurus. This is rejected by Khalsa Sikhs. The disagreements have led the Ravidassia Sikhs to launch the Ravidassia religion movement which, amongst other things seeks to replace the Guru Granth Sahib in their Gurdwaras with the texts of Ravidas.{{cite book|author1=Knut A. Jacobsen|author2=Kristina Myrvold|title=Sikhs in Europe: Migration, Identities and Representations|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Y3v3t9bjPAcC&pg=PA290|year=2011|publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.|isbn=978-1-4094-2434-5|pages=290–291}}

{{Main|Jāti}}

The terms varna (theoretical classification based on occupation) and jāti (caste) are two distinct concepts. Jāti (community) refers to the thousands of endogamous groups prevalent across the subcontinent. A jati may be divided into exogamous groups based on the same gotras. The classical authors scarcely speak of anything other than the varnas; even Indologists sometimes confuse the two.{{citation |last=Dumont |first=Louis |author-link=Louis Dumont |title=Homo Hierarchicus: The caste system and its implications |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=1980 |pages=66–67 |isbn=0-226-16963-4}}

Hindu texts claim Brahmins are supreme in Varnas hierarchical order, while opposite to Hindu tradition Jain and Buddhist texts assert Kshatriyas hold the highest status. During the Buddha period, Kshatriyas elevated themselves as the first Varna. Buddhist literature includes stories reflecting this belief, King Arindama called a priest son a man of low birth (hīnajacca), and the King of Kosala used a screen while speaking to his Brahmin employee to avoid seeing their face. Similarly, the Sakyas laughed at a Brahmin who entered their Mote Hall, pushed him back with a finger, and did not offer him a seat.{{Cite book |last=Bhupendransatha Datta |url=https://archive.org/details/studiesinindians0000bhup/page/13/mode/1up|title=Studies in Indian social polity |date=1983-01-01 |publisher=Nababharat Publishers |others=Internet Archive |pages=13}}{{cite book | last=Fick | first=Richard | title=The Social Organisation in North-East India in Buddha's Time | translator-last=Maitra | translator-first=Shishirkumar | publisher=University of Calcutta | pages=83–87 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xs5GAAAAIAAJ }}

{{col div|colwidth=30em}}

• Dalit ('untouchables')
• Adi Dravida
• Classical Hindu law
• Four occupations – fourfold Confucian division
• Hindu law
• Hindu reform movements
• Manuvāda
• Trifunctional hypothesis
• Estates of the realm – comparable European concept

{{colend}}

{{Reflist}}

• {{citation |last=Bayly |first=Susan |title=Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2001 |isbn=978-0-521-26434-1 |ref={{sfnref|Bayly, Caste, Society and Politics|2001}}}}
• {{cite book |last=Jaini |first=Padmanabh |title=The Jaina Path of Purification |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass |year=1998 |isbn=978-81-208-1578-0 |ref={{sfnref|Jaini, The Jaina Path of Purification|1998}}}}
• {{cite book |first=Govind Sadashiv |last=Ghurye |author-link=G. S. Ghurye |title=Caste and Race in India |edition=Fifth |publisher=Popular Prakashan |date=1969 |orig-year=1932 |isbn=9788171542055 |oclc=1066815345 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nWkjsvf6_vsC |ref={{sfnref|Ghurye, Caste and Race in India|1969}}}}
• {{cite book |last=Hiltebeitel |first=Alf |author-link=Alf Hiltebeitel |title=Dharma: Its early history in law, religion, and narrative |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-19-539423-8 |ref={{sfnref|Hiltebeitel, Dharma|2011|pp=529–531}}}}
• {{cite journal |last=Olivelle |first=Patrick |author-link=Patrick Olivelle |title=Caste and Purity: A Study in the Language of the Dharma Literature |journal=Contributions to Indian Sociology |volume=32 |number=2 |year=1998 |pages=199–203 |ref={{sfnref|Olivelle, Caste and Purity|1998}} |doi=10.1177/006996679803200203|s2cid=144201754 }}
• {{cite book |last=Olivelle |first=Patrick |author-link=Patrick Olivelle |chapter=Caste and Purity |title= Collected essays |publisher=Firenze University Press |location=Firenze, Italy |year=2008 |isbn=978-88-8453-729-4 |ref={{sfnref|Olivelle, Caste and Purity|2008}}}}
• {{cite book |last=Sharma |first=Ram Sharan |author-link=Ram Sharan Sharma |title=Śūdras in Ancient India: A Social History of the Lower Order Down to Circa A.D. 600 |year=1990 |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publishers |page=10 |isbn=9788120807068 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gsZkAu-RHVgC&pg=PA10 |ref={{sfnref|Sharma, Śūdras in Ancient India|1990}}}}

• {{cite book |last=Ambedkar |first=B.R. |author-link=B. R. Ambedkar |date=1946 |title=Who were the Shudras?}}
• {{cite book |last=Danielou |first=Alain |author-link=Alain Danielou |date=1976 |title=Les Quatre Sens de la Vie}}
• {{cite book |last=Sri Aurobindo |date=1970 |title=The Human Cycle, The Ideal of Human Unity, War and Self-Determination |publisher=Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust |isbn=81-7058-014-5}}
• {{cite book |author-link=Pandurang Vaman Kane |date=1975 |last=Kane |first=Pandurang Vaman |title=History of Dharmasastra: (ancient and medieval, religious and civil law) |publisher=Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute, 1962–1975}}
• {{cite book |last=Sarkar |first=Prabhat Raijan |author-link=Prabhat Rainjan Sarkar |date=1967 |title=Human Society-2 |publisher=Ananda Marga Publications, Anandanagar, West Bengal, India}}
• {{cite book |last=Ghanshyam |first=Shah |title=Caste and Democratic Politics in India |date=2004}}
• {{cite book |last=Welzer |first=Albrecht |date=1994 |title=Credo, Quia Occidentale: A Note on Sanskrit varna and its Misinterpretation in Literature on Mamamsa and Vyakarana". In: Studies in Mamamsa: Dr Mandan Mishra Felicitation Volume |editor-first=R.C. |editor-last=Dwivedi |publisher=Delhi: Motilal Banarasidass}}
• {{cite book |author-link=Vinay Lal |last=Lal |first=Vinay |date=2005 |title=Introducing Hinduism |publisher=New York: Totem Books |pages=132–33 |isbn=978-1-84046-626-3}}

{{Hindudharma}}

Category:Social class in Asia