Caste system in India

Not by birth does one become an outcaste, not by birth does one become a brahman. By one's action one becomes an outcaste, by one's action one becomes a brahman.

— Caste system in India

Tribal endogamy explains the Hindu caste system. As Vedic society, an advanced and differentiated society characterized by class (varna) hierarchy, expanded from the Northwest into India's interior, it absorbed ever more tribes but allowed them their distinctive traditions and first of all their defining tradition, viz. their endogamy. This way, endogamous self-contained units or tribes became endogamous segments of Hindu society, or castes.

— Caste system in India

The early Indo-Aryans could no more have thought in modern terms of the race prejudice than they could have invented the airplane.

— Caste system in India

'It would be a mistake to suppose that Buddhism and Jainism were directed from the outset consciously in opposition to the caste system. Caste, in fact, at the time of the rise of Buddhism was only beginning to develop; and in later days, when Buddhism commenced its missionary careers, it took caste with it into regions where upto that time the institution had not penetrated.'

— Caste system in India

It is needless to ask of a saint the caste to which he belongs;Even Raidas was a seeker after God.

— Caste system in India

Ordinarily, the propagation of Hinduism occurs in approximately the following way. ... Native deities are rebaptized with the names of Hindu gods and goddesses. ... Some Brahman is requested to provide and take charge of ritual concerns and thereby also to convince himself and provide testimony to the fact that they—the rulers of the tribe—were of ancient, only temporarily forgotten, knightly (Kshatriya) blood.

— Caste system in India

Bhisma advised Yudhishthira that a king should have a Council of Ministers which should include "four Brahmins...; eight Kshtriyas...; twenty-one wealthy Vaishyas and four Shudras of blameless character and inner self-control".

— Caste system in India