Varna (Hinduism)

Varna (Hinduism)

Varna is a Sanskrit term varṇa (वर्ण) is derived from the root vṛ, meaning "to cover, to envelop" (compare vṛtra). Derived meanings include "kind, sort, character, quality". Contemporary students of Hindu society understand Varna as an ancient fourfold arrangement of socioeconomic categories called the varnas, which is traced back to an oral tradition preserved in the Rigveda (dating perhaps from between 1500 and 1200 bce).. In this tradition four varnas are recognised: Brahmins (priestly or scholarly caste), Kṣatriya (martial or royal caste), Vaiśyas (merchant caste) and Sūdras (labor caste).

Varna is not to be confused with the jāti. Varna is roughly similar to western class system of middle, aristocrat, business and working classes and is an artificial/intellectual classification of society while jāti along with kula is a more natural classification and is roughly or exactly the same as clan/tribe/kinship similar to what is followed in most central Asian, middle eastern, African, south east Asian cultures and perhaps in the west as well until modern age and still in some parts.

The Portuguese term caste was adopted during the British times to represent ones social status based on their jati and varna as over the years the varna was being applied to refer to a people/jati rather than an individual due to restriction on social mobility due to various reasons including large influx of foreigners and alien conquests etc. with rare exceptions of individual or clan status changing.

Also people who could not assimilate into the mainstream society were outcast as they were not accounted in the system later known as harijans or more recently dalits. These were mostly nomads, hunter gatherer tribes, refugees, anti-social/dacoit tribes and socially and lawfully ostracised peoples during a certain age or time but eventually never were given a chance to assimilate back into the mainstream after adopting a more mainstream lifestyle perhaps due to continuous strife, conquests and uncertainty over a 1000 years, until recently during the modern age under the British and free Indian Governments, that they are being attempted to assimilate again into the mainstream.