Caste System

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Caste System
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Caste system

• The Caste systems is a division of society into
  distinct social classes that are created by birth
  or occupation
• The Caste system was originally known as varna
  meaning color
• The Caste system is mentioned in the Rig Veda
• The Gita also mentions it there are different
  types of people and they have their own way to
  achieve perfection- depending on their
  personality type and role in society.
• The Caste system dissuades members of different
  castes from intermarrying

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Social classes

• Members of society are divided into five main
  social classes
• The priest (brahmin)
• The warrior-noble (kshatriya)
• The merchants (vaishya)
• The peasants (shudra)
• The untouchables (dalit)

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The priest (brahmin)

• The highest caste
• Performs Vedic rituals
• Act as a counselors
• Act as scholars
• Act as cooks as well- is seen as a natural
  extension of the priestly relationship with fire
  and sacrifice
• May prepare food for people in all other castes
  as well as their own.

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The warrior-noble (kshatriya)

• Has the role of protecting society
• The traditional caste of the aristocracy
• Administrators
• Arjuna was a warrior

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• The merchants (vaishya)

• This class includes merchants, landowner,
  producers, farmers, moneylenders, and artisans

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• Males of these three upper classes brahmin
  (priets), kshatriya (warrior-noble), and vaishya
  (merchant) receive a sacred cord during a
  ceremony in their youth and afterward are called
  twice-born

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The peasant (shudra)

• Does manual labor
• is expected to serve the higher castes.
• The origin of this caste probably goes back to
  the Aryan subjection of native people, who were
  forced to do the work of servants
• The peasant is called once-born

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The Untouchables (dalit)

• They do the dirties work
• Cleaning toilets, sweeping streets, and
  collecting animal carcasses
• What was an early concern for hygiene led to the
  separation of untouchables from the rest of
  society

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Children of God

• Untouchables have been denied the use of wells
  used by other social classes and have even been
  forbidden from entering many temples.
• Untouchables have been forced to live in ghettos
  and sometimes have been horribly mistreated
• Gandi urged their inclusion in regular society
  and gave them a new name Harijan (means
  children of God)