 varna is the term for the four broad ranks into which traditional hindu society is divided. the four varnas are: *the brahmins: priests, teachers and preachers. *the kshatriyas: kings, governors, warriors and soldiers. *the vaishyas: cattle herders, agriculturists, businessmen, artisanswalter hazen, (2003) inside hinduisum (milliken publishing company, st.louis, missouri, u.s.a) p.4  and merchants. *the shudras: labourers and service providers. this quadruple division is the ancient division of society into "principal castes"; it is not to be confused with the much finer caste system in india based on occupation as it emerged in the medieval period.mark juergensmeyer, (2006) the oxford handbook of global religions (oxford handbooks in religion and theology), p. 54 the varna division is alluded to in the late rigvedic purusha sukta. it has been theorised to reflect a much more ancient tripartite society, ultimately cognate with the western "estates of the realm" (viz. division into a priestly class, a warrior class, and a class of commoners or free farmers, apart from a population of unfree serfs excluded from society proper). the relationship between occupation, varna, and social ordering in the rig vedic period was complex. in the varna ordering of society, notions of purity and pollution were central. the phenomenon of the upper classes living on the labour of tribesmen was just emerging, and was not ritualized or ideologically ratified until the purusha sukta. r.s. sharma states that "the rig vedic society was neither organized on the basis of social division of labour nor on that of differences in wealth... [it] was primarily organised on the basis of kin, tribe and lineage."{{cite book|last1=sharma|first1=ram sharan|title=ÅÅ«dras in ancient india: a social history of the lower order down to circa a.d. 600|date=1990|publisher=motilal b
Varnas_in_Hinduism