Varna (Hinduism)

Varna (वर्ण) is a Sanskrit word which means type, order, or class. The term refers to social classes in Brahminical books like the Manusmriti. These and other Hindu literature classified the society in principle into four varnas:

This quadruple division is a form of social stratification not to be confused with the much more nuanced Jāti or the European term "caste".

The varna system is discussed in Hindu texts, and understood as idealised human callings. The concept is generally traced to the Purusha Sukta verse of the Rig Veda. However modern scholarship believes that this verse was inserted at a later date, possibly to create a charter myth.

The commentary on the Varna system in the Manusmriti is oft-cited. Counter to these textual classifications, many Hindu texts and doctrines question and disagree with the Varna system of social classification.

Varna is a Sanskrit term varṇa (वर्ण). It is derived from the root , meaning "to cover, to envelop, count, classify consider, describe or choose" (compare vṛtra).

The word appears in the Rigveda, where it means "colour, outward appearance, exterior, form, figure or shape". The word 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.

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), which has the Brahman, Rajanya (instead of Kshatriya), Vaishya and Shudra classes emerging from the mouth, arms, thighs and feet at the sacrifice of the primordial Purusha, respectively:

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