CASTE SYSTEM OF BRAHMANICAL PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

In India, the caste system is regarded as an integral part of the society in an official and in an unofficial manner. The Indian Caste System is considered a closed system of stratification, which means that a person’s social status is obligated to which caste they were born into. There are limits on interaction and behavior with people from another social status (Sekhon, 39).Caste may be defined “as a small and named group of persons characterized by endogamy, hereditary membership, and a specific style of life which sometimes includes the pursuit by tradition of a particular occupation and usually associated with a more or less distinct ritual status in a hierarchical system” (Béteille 1965, p. 46). Berreman (1967, p. 70) has defined the caste system as a “system of birth-ascribed stratification, of socio-cultural pluralism, and of hierarchical interaction”. The caste machine strains its origins in India which had social groupings regionally known as the “varnas.”: The skin color was an important factor in the caste system. The meaning of the word "Varna" is not class or status but skin color. Between the outcasts and the three Aryan Varnas there is the Sudra Varna who are the simple workers of the society.