On the one hand, men, women, and children are divided up into separate communities. As the lowest of the low, Dalits are assigned the most “unclean” tasks the removal of waste tending of funeral pyres butchery, etc.Īccordingly, the Hindu caste system has two main aspects. Outcastes from the Hindu fold are those who do not belong to any varna ( avarna): the Adivasi tribes of the subcontinent, and the Untouchables or, Dalits (“depressed” or “broken” people) who are seen to pollute Hindu society. The Varna system outlines four castes, or savarna: Brahmins (priests intellectuals) Kshatriyas (warriors administrators) Vaishyas (farmers traders) and Shudras (workers laborers). The authority of Varna is derived from its codification in the Vedic-Brahmin Manusmriti (Laws of Manu) - one of Hinduism’s most holy books. However, each Jati also fits into the overarching hierarchy of the four-fold Varna system. The caste system as it actually works on the ground is called Jati.
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