Question

Caste system stood for different connotations in different time periods. Do you agree with the given statement? Give reasons for your answer.

Answer 1

In its earliest phase, in the late Vedic period roughly between 900 - 500 BC, the caste system was really a varna system and consisted of only four major divisions. These divisions were not very elaborate or very rigid, and they were not determined by birth. Movement across the categories seems to have been not only possible but quite common. It is only in the post Vedic period that caste became the rigid institution that is familiar to us from well known definitions.