Indic Social Categories

The Indic social model does not begin with abstract individuals alone. It recognizes that social life is organized through multiple categories of belonging, duty and relationship. Varṇa, Āśrama, Jāti, Kula, Gotra, Sampradāya and Janapada represent different social categories, each functioning at a distinct level. They cannot be reduced to one another or treated as a single hierarchical structure. Some organize occupation, others life stages, lineage, family, knowledge traditions, religious affiliation or territory. Together, they created a decentralized social order in which identity was relational and layered rather than singular. Understanding Indic society requires recovering these categories on their own terms.