Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Shudra or Shoodra [1] (Sanskrit: ... Kshatriya, Vaishya – may acquire knowledge from Shudra teachers, and the yajna sacrifices may be performed by Shudras. ...
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 forming the mouth, arms, thighs and feet at the sacrifice of the primordial Purusha, respectively ...
Kshatriya (Sanskrit: क्षत्रिय, romanized: Kṣatriya) (from Sanskrit kṣatra, "rule, authority"; also called Rajanya) [1] is one of the four varnas (social orders) of Hindu society and is associated with the warrior aristocracy. [2]
The Shudras did not form a separate Varna. They ranked as part of the Kshatriya Varna in the Indo-Aryan society. There was a continuous feud between the Shudra kings and the Brahmins in which the Brahmins were subjected to many tyrannies and indignities.
The Malayali Brahmins formed the priestly class, and they considered all other castes to be either shudra or avarna (those outside the varna system). The exception to this were the military elites among the Samantha Kshatriyas and the Nairs, who were ritually promoted to the status of Kshatriya by means of the Hiranyagarbha ceremony.
This action by the All India Kushwaha Kshatriya Mahasabha (AIKKM) reflected the general trend for social uplift by communities that had traditionally been classified as Shudra. The process, which M. N. Srinivas called sanskritisation , [ 65 ] was a feature of late nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century caste politics.
These Rajput groups (khasa) of Kumaon, Uttarakhand today were formally classified Shudra but had successfully converted to Rajput status during the rule of Chand Rajas (that ended in 1790). [28] Similarly, the Rajputs of Gharwal were originally of low ritual status and did not wear the sacred thread until the 20th century. [29]
The social structure of caste-origin Hill Hindu or Khas groups is simple compared to the other two societies, reflecting only three groups in hierarchy, with the distinct absence of the Vaishya and Shudra varnas. Much of the previously animist/tribal Khas population of the western Nepal region acquired the 'Chhetri' status in the 1850s with the ...