How Did The Caste System Differ From Ancient India

The similarities and differences between the social categories each society created was the importance of each person in the society. In the Early Vedic Era the Early Aryans depended on a pastoral economy. Slowly they started to settle into permanent societies, losing their tribal political organization and forming a more formal political organization, which led to the creation of the Caste system. “The Aryans used the term Varna, a sanskrit word meaning “color” to refer to many social classes.”(Bentley, 81) The creation of Varna meant the start of how each person was going to be distinguished in the society. “Around about 1000 B.C.E, the Aryans increasingly recognized four main varnas:Brahmins(priests); kshatriyas(warriors and Aristocrats); Vaishyas(cultivators, artisans, and merchants); and Shudras(landless peasants and serfs). Some centuries later, around the end of the Vedic Age, they added the category of the untouchables-people who performed dirty work or unpleasant tasks, such as butchering animals or handling dead bodies, and who theoretically

One similarity between China and India was social mobility. In the Vedic Age, the Caste system was not completely inflexible to change. “More often, however, social mobility came about as the result of group rather than individual efforts, as members of the jati improved their conditions collectively.”( Bentley, pg82) During the Vedic Period people worked together as a coherent group and could move up with effort, but at the same time could move down the Varnas. In turn giving people a chance to move up a Varna. After the Vedic age, the Qin and Han dynasty also had an increase in social mobility. If during the Qin and Han dynasty you provided for the state/kingdom you could move in social and economic classes. All of my evidence implicates that social mobility benefited both India and China by giving people the opportunity to become wealthier or more respected