Caste is best understood not through a single definition but through a cluster of interlocking features that reinforce one another. Each feature — hierarchy, endogamy, hereditary occupation, notions of purity and pollution, and rules of commensality — could in principle exist alone, but their combination produces the peculiar rigidity of the traditional system. Understanding these attributes, and the distinction between the ideal-typical varna scheme and the lived reality of jati, is essential for any answer on the structure of Indian society. Equally important is recognising that these features are not frozen; each has been reworked under the pressures of modernity.
Hierarchy
The foundational feature is hierarchy: castes are ranked in a graded order of superiority and subordination. The ranking has traditionally been justified in ritual terms, with the Brahmin at the apex and the so-called untouchable groups placed outside or beneath the fourfold scheme. Hierarchy is cumulative in the classical model — ritual, economic and political advantages tend to reinforce one another at the top. As Dumont argued, this ranking rests ultimately on the opposition of the pure and the impure, which lends caste hierarchy its distinctive ideological quality compared with class-based systems elsewhere.
Endogamy
Endogamy — marriage within the caste or sub-caste — is often described as the very essence of caste, since it is the mechanism that reproduces the boundary across generations. Marriage rules are usually enforced by the jati, with elaborate distinctions of gotra and sub-caste governing who may marry whom. Endogamy preserves both the ritual purity of the group and the concentration of property and occupation within it. Its persistence, visible even today in matrimonial advertisements, makes it perhaps the most resilient of all caste features.
Hereditary occupation
Traditionally, occupation was ascribed by birth: the potter, the weaver, the barber and the scavenger inherited their callings, and the jajmani system tied these service castes to landholding patrons through customary, non-market exchange. This division of labour bound castes into a functional whole while denying individuals occupational choice. Ghurye listed this restriction on occupation as a defining trait. In practice occupational rigidity was never total, but the ideal firmly linked birth, work and rank.
Purity and pollution
The idiom of purity and pollution suffuses the entire system. Substances, bodily states, foods and occupations are graded as pure or impure, and contact across the line is polluting. Occupations involving death, dirt or bodily waste are considered degrading, which is why the groups performing them were relegated to the bottom. Pollution can be permanent, attaching to a whole caste, or temporary, arising from birth, death or menstruation. This ritual logic is what most sharply distinguishes caste from secular stratification.
Commensality and jati–varna
Rules of commensality govern the giving and taking of food and water: with whom one may dine, whose water one may accept, and in what order food may pass. These restrictions on feeding and social intercourse operationalise the purity code in daily life. Underlying all these features is the distinction between varna and jati. Varna is the classical, all-India fourfold scheme — Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, Shudra — plus those outside it; it is a pan-Indian model of ideal ranks. Jati, by contrast, refers to the thousands of localised, endogamous birth-groups that people actually belong to. Varna offers the vocabulary of legitimation; jati is the unit of lived social organisation. Srinivas showed how a jati could rise within the varna frame through sanskritisation without disturbing the frame itself.
Changes in caste today
None of these features survives unaltered. Constitutional abolition of untouchability, reservation, urbanisation, industrial employment and the secular labour market have loosened the tie between birth and occupation. Commensal restrictions weaken in the anonymity of cities, hostels and workplaces, even as endogamy endures. Politically, caste has been transformed into an instrument of mobilisation and vote-bank aggregation — a process some scholars term the substantialisation or politicisation of caste, where castes act as competing interest blocs rather than as a ritual hierarchy. Caste associations, competitive sanskritisation and demands for reservation show the institution adapting rather than disappearing. The hierarchy of the ritual order coexists uneasily with the egalitarian promise of the Constitution.
How to use this in the exam
Treat the features as an interlocking system, not a disconnected list — show the examiner how endogamy, occupation and purity reinforce hierarchy. Always distinguish clearly between varna as an ideal pan-Indian model and jati as the empirical unit, since confusing the two is a common weakness. Devote a strong closing section to change, because questions increasingly ask whether caste is dying or merely transforming; the safe, evidenced answer is that its ritual features weaken while its political and endogamous features persist. Support each claim with a named concept such as sanskritisation, the jajmani system or the substantialisation of caste to give the answer analytical weight.