Varnashrama-Dharma System
| debt to / focus on: | Rishis | Fathers | Gods | Humans | Atman | Brahman | ||
| study Veda, serve Guru | produce offspring | offer sacrifices | offer hospitality | free from social bonds and dharma | renounce everything | |||
| Purusha | Varna | student / brahmacharya | householder
grihastha |
forest dweller / vanaprastha | renouncer
Sannyasa | |||
| Twice -
born
(dvija) |
mouth | Brahmin / Priest | study and teach Vedas, receive and give gifts, sacrifice for self and others | |||||
| arms | Kshatriya / Warrior | protect people, bestow gifts, offer sacrifices, study Vedas | ||||||
| thighs
------- |
Vaishya /
commoner
---------- |
tend cattle, bestow gifts, offer sacrifices, trade, lend money, cultivate land
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| feet | Shudra / servants | serve meekly other castes | ||||||
| ------- | ------- |
---------- |
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| Outcastes | no dharma | |||||||