Varna (, ) refers to a fourfold social classification described in Brahmanical texts. The four varnas described are Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, and Shudras. Classical texts such as Manusmriti, describe these varnas as part of a theoretical hierarchical classification, and prescribe their occupations, requirements and duties, or dharma.
This quadruple division is a form of social stratification, quite different from the more nuanced system of Jātis, which correspond to the term "caste".
The varna system is discussed in Hindu texts, and understood as idealised human callings. The concept is generally traced back to the Purusha Sukta hymn of the Rigveda. In the post-Vedic period, the varna division is described in the Mahabharata, Puranas and in the Dharmashastra literatures.
The commentary on the Varna system in the Manusmriti is often cited. Counter to these textual classifications, many Hindu texts and doctrines question and disagree with the Varna system of social classification.
In India, communities that belong to one of the four varnas or classes are called savarna Hindus. The Dalits and tribals who do not belong to any varna were called avarna.Chandra, Bipan (1989. India's Struggle for Independence, 1857-1947, pp. 230-231. Penguin Books IndiaYājñika, Acyuta and Sheth, Suchitra (2005). The Shaping of Modern Gujarat: Plurality, Hindutva, and Beyond, p. 260. Penguin Books India
Etymology and origins The term varna appears in the Rigveda, where it means "colour, outward appearance, exterior, form, figure or shape". The term 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.
Varna and jāti
The terms varna (theoretical classification based on occupation) and jāti (caste) are two distinct concepts. Varna refers to the fourfold social classification found in Brahmanical literature. These four varnas are described as:
Brahmins: Vedic scholars, priests or teachers. Kshatriyas: Rulers, administrators or warriors. Vaishyas: Agriculturalists, farmers or merchants. Shudras: Artisans, labourers or servants.
Scholars describe this classification as theoretical or idealized, in contrast to jāti (community), which refers to the thousands of endogamous groups prevalent across the South Asia. 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 have sometimes confused the two.
The Vedas 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), where the Brahman, Rajanya (instead of Kshatriya), Vaishya and Shudra classes are described as forming the mouth, arms, thighs and feet at the sacrifice of the primordial Purusha, respectively:
Scholarly interpretation Some modern indologists believe the Purusha Sukta to be a later addition, possibly as a charter myth. 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 :
The Upanishads The Chandogya Upanishad indicates that a person's varna is determined on the basis of their actions in their previous life.
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).
The Epics
Mahabharata 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, Kshatriyas 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. 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."
Narrative examples within the epic, such as Vidura holding the position of chief minister in the kingdom of Hastinapura, despite being born to a Brahmin father and a Shudra woman, illustrate that actual societal structures permitted functional flexibility regarding varna hierarchies
Bhagavad Gita The Bhagavad Gita describes the professions, duties and qualities of members of different varnas.
Puranas The Brahma Purana states that acting against both varna and ashrama (stage), which together guide one's dharma, leads to hell. The Brahmanda Purana calls associations between low and high varnas signs of the Kali Yuga, the age of immorality and decline.
The Dharmasastras
The varna system is extensively discussed in the Dharma-shastras. 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. Barbarians and those who are unrighteous or unethical are also considered outcastes.
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. 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. 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.
Olivelle states:
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.
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. 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". 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.
Buddhist texts
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.
While the Hindu texts claimed that Brahmins were supreme in the Varna hierarchical order, Buddhist texts denied this, asserting that the Kshatriyas hold the highest status. During the Buddha period, some Kshatriyas elevated themselves as the first Varna. Buddhist literature includes stories reflecting this belief, King Arindama called a priest's 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.
Digha Nikaya provides a discussion between Gotama Buddha and a Hindu Brahmin named Sonadanda who was very learned in the Vedas. 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]".