Caste_System

Caste System The Indian caste system is over 3500 years old. Still today the values of the caste system are held strongly. It has kept a sense of order, and peace among the people. There are five different levels of the system: Brahman, Kshatriya, Shudra, and Harijans. Within each of these categories are sub castes or jatis. They all have their own place among each other and accept that it is the way to keep society from disintegrating to chaos. This system has worked well for Indian people, primarily the Hindu’s, and still has a major role in modern India. The Sanskrit word for caste is ‘varna’ meaning color. When the Aryans moved into northwest India and started the caste system it was originally a color classification. The purpose of the system was to distinguish between the Aryan invaders and the previous occupants. Eventually the origins of the caste system were forgotten and it became an accepted part of society. The original caste system consisted of the first four levels. Later, when the Aryans moved across India from their original position in the northwest, they conquered more people. To fit the newly conquered people into their way of society they created a new caste, system, castes, people, life, stage, shudra, untouchables, one, higher, considered, called, brahmins, believe, vaishyas, through, sub, society, shudras, purity, pure, lower, indian, india, class, being, way, vedas, three, part, means, hindu’s, gandhi, four, even