HIST 9A Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Vaishya, Artha, Manu Smriti
Document Summary
The work of creation is being differentiated further. Each caste was associated with an occupation: brahmans were the priests. Preside over marriage and other parts of life: kshatryas are warriors. The top three castes are called the twice born. Other view is that it is a way of forming occupations and nothing in early text that suggests that brahmans are superior to other groups. Brahmans were never adequately compensated for their work because. Can they eat/marry/etc? spiritually they were compensated: manusmriti. If a brahman is walking down a street and sudra, the sudra must let him know that he is coming so he does not get contaminated. In modern india, thousands of encounters take place between sudra and brahmans. Varna is understanding of castes under textbook view. Jati is how these relationships are on the ground: orientalism comes in when you take texts from thousand years ago and how they hold true today.
