What do Hindu texts say about varna and jati (caste)?

Rig Veda (Purusha Sukta)

The oldest text on varna is a hymn of the Rig Veda that describes the world as made from a cosmic person (purusha). It says that the Brahmana was his mouth, the Rajanya (the Kshatriya) was made of his arms, the Vaishya came from his thighs, and the Shudra was born from his feet (10.90.12). The law book of Manu takes up the same picture (1.87; see Dharmashastra below).

Sources for this reading

• Rig Veda 10.90.12, in R. T. H. Griffith (tr.), The Hymns of the Rigveda, 2nd ed., vol. 2 (Benares: E. J. Lazarus, 1897). Griffith died 1906: public domain. Summarised in our words. (Book X, Hymn XC, stanza 12, p. 519 (leaf n529), checked on the page image: “The Brâhman was his mouth, of both his arms was the Râjanya made. His thighs became the Vaiśya, from his feet the Śûdra was produced.”)

The Bhagavad Gita (the text)

The Gita links varna to qualities (guna) and action (karma): “The fourfold division of castes was created by me according to the apportionment of qualities and duties” (4.13, Telang). In 18.41–44 it lists the natural duties of each varna, and in 18.45–46 it says each person reaches perfection by worshipping the Lord through their own work. In 9.32 it names women, Vaishyas and Shudras among those who reach the highest goal by taking refuge in the Lord; the verse also speaks of people “of sinful birth”, and commentators such as Shankara and Shridhara disagree about whom those words mean.

Sources for this reading

• The Bhagavadgîtâ with the Sanatsugâtîya and the Anugîtâ, translated by Kâshinâth Trimbak Telang (The Sacred Books of the East, vol. VIII, ed. F. Max Müller) (Bhagavad Gita 4.13 (SBE 8, p. 59, leaf n72), 18.41–46 (pp. 126–127, leaves n139–n140) and 9.32 with Telang's note on Shankara and Shridhara (p. 85, leaf n98); checked on the page images)
• The Bhagavad Gîtâ, or The Lord's Song, translated by Annie Besant (4.13 (p. 51, leaf n57): “The four castes emanated from Me, by the different distribution of energies and actions”; checked on the page image)
• Bhagavad Gita, 4.13
• Bhagavad Gita, 1.43

Dharmashastra (Manu)

The law books treat varna as given by birth. The Laws of Manu say the creator “assigned separate (duties and) occupations to those who sprang from his mouth, arms, thighs, and feet” (1.87). They give the Brahmana teaching and sacrifice, the Kshatriya protection of the people, the Vaishya trade and farming, and the Shudra the service of the other three (1.88–91). Manu explains the many jatis as born of unions between men and women of different varnas (chapter 10). The same book also gives one short dharma for all four: non-harm, truthfulness, not stealing, purity and self-control (10.63).

Sources for this reading

• G. Bühler (tr.), The Laws of Manu (Sacred Books of the East, vol. 25, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1886). Bühler died 1898: public domain. 1.87 quoted verbatim; 1.88–91, chapter 10 and 10.63 summarised. (1.87–91 (p. 24, leaf n169); chapter 10, running head “Mixed Castes” (from p. 401, leaf n546); 10.63 (p. 416, leaf n561); checked on the page images)

Advaita (Shankara)

On Gita 4.13, Shankara explains the four varnas by the three gunas: sattva is strongest in the Brahmana, rajas in the Kshatriya, and so on. He adds that the Lord is their author only from the standpoint of maya, and in truth is no doer. In his Brahma Sutra commentary (1.3.34–38) he holds that those born Shudra may not study the Veda. He also says that knowledge gained by other means, as by Vidura in the Mahabharata, still bears its fruit, and that the epics and Puranas are open to all four varnas.

Sources for this reading

• The Bhagavad-Gita, with the commentary of Sri Sankaracharya, translated by A. Mahadeva Sastri (2nd ed., Mysore: G. T. A. Printing Works, 1901) (commentary on 4.13, pp. 110–111 (leaves n137–n138), checked on the page images)
• Brahma Sutra 1.3.34–38, Shankara's commentary, in George Thibaut (tr.), The Vedânta-Sûtras with the Commentary by Sankarâkârya, Part I (Sacred Books of the East, vol. 34, Oxford, 1890). Thibaut died 1914: public domain. Summarised in our words. (pp. 223–229 (leaves n352–n358); Vidura, and the itihasas and puranas open to all four castes, pp. 228–229; checked on the page images)

Vishishtadvaita (Ramanuja)

On Gita 4.13, Ramanuja says that all beings are ordered into four classes by their qualities and occupations, and that each being's state comes from its own deeds, so the Lord is not answerable for it. His tradition also honours poet-saints from many communities, the Alvars. One of them, Tiruppan Alvar, is remembered in the traditional lives of the saints as born into a community treated as untouchable, though a modern historian argues that his Panar community never was; the story told of him is that Vishnu himself had a temple priest carry him into the temple on his shoulders.

Sources for this reading

• Sri Bhagavad-Gita with Sri Ramanujacharya's Visishtadvaita commentary, translated by A. Govindacharya (Madras, 1898) (commentary on 4.13 and on the half-verse he numbers 13½ (“Works soil Me not”, the start of 4.14), where beings are “created by their own deeds of merit and demerit” and the Lord is “not answerable” for their conditions; pp. 145–146 (leaves n155–n156), checked on the page images)
• A. Govindâchârya, The Holy Lives of the Azhvârs, or the Drâvida Saints (Mysore: G. T. A. Press, 1902): the Azhvârs “born among all grades of men, — high-caste and low-caste” (introduction); life of Tiru-ppân-Azhvâr: born among the Pânars, a community kept apart from the townsmen (p. 136); Loka-Sâranga, “a Brahmana and servant of Sri Ranga's Fane”, told by the Lord to carry him into the shrine on his shoulders (pp. 140–143). Read in the OCR of the scan; summarised in our words. (introduction; pp. 136–143)
• Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Tiruppan” (one of the Alvars; the legend of his birth into a group that had become an “untouchable” caste, and of Vishnu commanding a Brahmin to carry him into the temple on his shoulders). Read in the Wayback Machine copy (snapshot July 27, 2025). Background; cited, not copied.
• Wikipedia, “Tiruppan Alvar” (revision 1376722945, read October 15, 2026): later traditional legends and the hagiographies treat the Panar community as untouchable, while the article, citing the historian Palaniappan, says the community was historically never untouchable; the legend of Loka Saranga. Background; cited, not copied.

Mahabharata (conduct over birth)

Several passages of the Mahabharata put conduct first. Yudhishthira tells the serpent Nahusha that “a Sudra is not a Sudra by birth alone,—nor a Brahmana, a Brahmana by birth alone”, and that “character is the chief requisite”. The sage Bhrigu says: “There is really no distinction between the different orders. The whole world at first consisted of Brahmanas”, and people came to be divided “in consequence of their acts”.

Sources for this reading

• The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, translated into English prose (K. M. Ganguli), published by Protap Chandra Roy: Sabha Parva and Vana Parva (Calcutta: Bharata Press, 1884) (Vana Parva, Section CLXXX (Ajagara Parva; Yudhishthira and the serpent), pp. 531–532 (leaves n776–n777); quoted verbatim from the page images of this 1884 printing; the colophon reads “the hundred and eightieth Section”. Ganguli died 1908: public domain in the US; India status not yet confirmed.)
• Ganguli (tr.), The Mahabharata, Project Gutenberg transcription, vol. 1: the same passage as section CLXXIX. Its wording differs from the 1884 printing (“nor a Brahmana is Brahmana by birth alone”, “the chief essential requisite”), so it is not quoted here. (Vana Parva, section CLXXIX in the Gutenberg numbering)
• Kisari Mohan Ganguli (tr.), The Mahabharata of Krishna-Dwaipayana Vyasa, Çanti Parva, vol. II (Calcutta: Bharata Press, published by Pratapa Chandra Ray, 1891; title page leaf n4), Mokshadharma Parva, Section CLXXXVIII (Bhrigu and Bharadwaja). Quoted verbatim from the page image (diacritics dropped: the print has “Brāhmanas”); the Project Gutenberg transcription (ebook 15476, the same section number) reads the same. Public domain in the US; India status listed as still to confirm. (p. 48 (leaf n59))

Reformers and Indian law

From the nineteenth century on, many Hindu teachers and reformers worked against caste discrimination. Narayana Guru in Kerala opened temples and schools to people of every caste and taught that humans form one caste. Gandhi campaigned against untouchability. B. R. Ambedkar, born into a Dalit family, argued in Annihilation of Caste (1936) that caste must end; he later chaired the committee that drafted India's Constitution, and in 1956 he left Hinduism for Buddhism. The Constitution says: “The State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex, place of birth or any of them” (Article 15(1)), and “‘Untouchability’ is abolished and its practice in any form is forbidden” (Article 17).

Sources for this reading

• Constitution of India, Article 15 (prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth), text as given by the Centre for Law and Policy Research. Quoted verbatim.
• Constitution of India, Article 17 (abolition of untouchability). Quoted verbatim.
• Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Narayana Guru” (a movement against the caste system; all people “belong to just one caste”; schools and temples open to people of all castes). Read in the Wayback Machine copy (snapshot May 7, 2026). Cited, not copied.
• Encyclopaedia Britannica, “untouchable” (also called Dalit): Gandhi “long worked for their emancipation”; the term and its social disabilities declared illegal in the constitution of 1949. Read in the Wayback Machine copy (snapshot August 2, 2023). Cited, not copied.
• Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar” (“Born of a Dalit Mahar family”; chaired the Constituent Assembly's drafting committee; converted to Buddhism in October 1956). Read in the Wayback Machine copy (snapshot September 1, 2026). Cited, not copied.
• B. R. Ambedkar, Annihilation of Caste, with a Reply to Mahatma Gandhi (first edition 1936; this scan is the third edition, Amritsar: The Ambedkar School of Thoughts, 1945). Ambedkar died 1956: cited for its argument, not quoted. (title page (leaf n1); “First Edition 1936” (leaf n2); the essay's plan for the abolition of caste, e.g. p. 57 (leaf n63); checked on the page images)

Sources

• Encyclopaedia Britannica, “jati” (jati as “a limited regional endogamous group of families”, distinct from varna as “a universal all-Indian model of social class”). Read in the Wayback Machine copy (snapshot October 31, 2025). Cited, not copied.
• The Bhagavadgîtâ with the Sanatsugâtîya and the Anugîtâ, translated by Kâshinâth Trimbak Telang (The Sacred Books of the East, vol. VIII, ed. F. Max Müller) (Bhagavad Gita 4.13 (SBE 8, p. 59, leaf n72))
• G. Bühler (tr.), The Laws of Manu (SBE 25, 1886), chapter 10, “Mixed Castes”: the many castes explained as born of unions between the varnas. Public domain. Summarised. (chapter 10, from p. 401 (leaf n546))

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