Vaishya
Vaishya is one of the four varnas of the Hindu social order in India. Vaishya's are classed third in the order of caste hierarchy below Kshatriya's who are ranked second below the Bramhin's who are ranked first and are placed the highest above all the four castes.
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The occupation of Vaishya's comprise mainly agriculture, taking care of cattle, trade and other business pursuit. The Shudra's are placed below Vaishya's and comprise of laboring and artisan classes whose main prescribed duty is to serve the upper three castes.
Traditional duties
Hindu religious texts assigned Vaishyas to traditional roles in agriculture and cattle-rearing, but over time they came to be landowners, traders and money-lenders.[1] Therefore making it their responsibility to provide sustenance for those of higher class, since they were of lower class.[2] The Vaishyas, along with members of the Brahmin and Kshatriya varnas, claim dvija status ("twice born", a second or spiritual birth) after sacrament of initiation as in Hindu theology.[3] Indian traders were widely credited for the spread of Indian culture to regions as far as southeast Asia.[4]
Historically, Vaishyas have been involved in roles other than their traditional pastoralism, trade and commerce. According to historian Ram Sharan Sharma, the Gupta Empire was a Vaishya dynasty that "may have appeared as a reaction against oppressive rulers".[5]
References
- Boesche, Roger (1 March 2003). The First Great Political Realist. p. 24. ISBN 978-0-73910-607-5.
- Pollard. E., Roserngerg. C., Tignor, R. L. (2015). Worlds together Worlds Apart Volume 1. New York, NY: W.W. Norton &Company, Inc. p. 142. ISBN 978-0-393-91847-2.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
- Madan, Gurmukh Ram (1979). Western Sociologists on Indian Society: Marx, Spencer, Weber, Durkheim, Pareto. Taylor & Francis. p. 112. ISBN 978-0-71008-782-9.
- Embree, Ainslie Thomas; Gluck, Carol (1 January 1997). Asia in western and world history. M.E. Sharpe. p. 361. ISBN 978-1-56324-265-6.
- Sharma, Ram Sharan (2003) [2001]. Early medieval Indian society: a study in feudalisation. Orient Blackswan. p. 69. ISBN 978-8-12502-523-8. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
External links
Media related to Vaishya at Wikimedia Commons- All India Vaish Federation