Caste Systems Of Acient India

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Caste system: Advantages and disadvantages Reflection of Indian society In the early Indian society, people separated themselves into intricate categories called caste systems. There were advantages and disadvantages of having such a system, but they all reflected Indian society in different ways For starts the main advantage to having a caste system in early Indian society was that it created structure. When the caste system was first created it was originally used to separate the early Aryans from the native Indians. Caste and Varna literally meant “heredity” and “color”, classifying who was a native Indian and who was Aryan by the difference in their skin. This would be an advantage because the early Indians were able to categorize themselves as separate people from the Aryans. This would also be useful if they wanted to disperse the Aryans from their community one day. As time past, however, this difference faded due to intermarriage and the caste system took on new meaning. Now the people of the early Indian society categorized themselves by Varna. Varna consist of the types of jobs a person has in that society which consist of Brahmins (priest), kshatriyas ( warriors and aristocrats), vaishyas (cultivators, artisans, and merchants), and shudras (landless peasants and serfs). Later the category of untouchables was added. The priest took care of all the religious affairs which benefited the rest of the society, warriors won land and defended homes, also benefiting society, while the aristocrats made for attractive figure heads, possibly used for good will missions to other nobles of different lands. The people of the vaishyas provided early Indian civilization with means of preserving and spreading their culture, providing food and trading throughout the nations. The in the lower classes of society were the shudras, peasants and serfs who served the
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