-Low class

-Members of this caste has traditionally been wealthy

-Hopes of becoming twice born

-Vaishyas helped India to expand and become a formidable economic force in its own right

Many Indian temples were constructed with Vaishyas funds

- Priest and teachers

- They study and perform religious ceremonies

- 9 % of the total population

- The cleanest caste

- Vegetarians

- Traditionally: Brahmins served as spiritual guides and teachers of the Kshatriya's princes and warriors

- They don't interact with other castes. The other castes are too dirty

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- Warriors and rulers

- Expected to protect society from invaders

- Expected to be brave and have strong moral principles

- Mainly located in the nothern part of India

- Eat meat and drink alcohol -> less clean than brahmins

- Children are extensively educated in statecraft and history

- Highest cast -> tyrannic ruling -> toppled by the brahmins

- Second highest cast

- Without a caste

- They're also called "dalits"

- Karma has sentenced them to believe that they deserve a bad life because of their actions in their former life.

- About 16,2 % of India's total population (2001)

The strict rules:

- Cannot enter the house of people from higher Varnas.

- Cannot touch people from higher Varnas.

- Not allowed to enter temples.

- Is compelled to sit at a distance from the four Varnas in public occasions

- Prohibition from eating with other caste members

- Provision of separate glasses for Dalits in village tea stall

- Discriminatory seating arrangements and separate utensils in restaurant

- Segregation in seating and food arrangements in village functions and festivals

- Prohibition from wearing sandals or holding umbrellas in front of higher caste members

- Prohibition from riding a bicycle inside the village

- Prohibition from using common village path

Separate burial grounds

- No access to village’s common/public properties and resources (wells, ponds, temples, etc.)

- Segregation (separate seating area) of Dalit children in schools

- Sub-standard wages

- Bonded labour

- Social boycotts by other castes for refusing to perform their "duties"

- The lowest and largest caste

- Occupation: labourers and servants

- They don't have the same rights as higher castes, forced to use different temples and public facilities.

- Their job is to serve all the other castes

- They perform all the manual labour 

- They are limited in their options of occupation, e.g. they aren't allowed to have restaurants.

- They generally eat vegetarian food

- They are not permitted to perform the upanayana --> ceremony where boys begin their formal education at the age of 7