Indian Castes Hey, I've away from Italki for a while. Guess where I was ? In India ! I have learnt so many things there. But everything I've learnt left me with questions. Here's one question about Indian Castes. That guy in India, talked to me about origins of Castes. He said something like some people were born from Brahma's head, others from his shoulders, his hands and his foot. That lead to having 4 distinct castes : the brahmins, the kshatriyas, the vaishyas and the shudras. I'm not so sure about the body parts, have I messed up ? What about the dalit ? Not concerned, by this story ? Then what is the difference between dalit and harijan ? What are the verna and the jatis ? From what I've understood, it's like there are those 4 distincts castes previously mentionned and then divisions into it and then again subdvisions ? Right ? Like Brahmins has Iyengar, Iyer and Palkar. Then Iyengar had Vadakalai and Thenkalai. Is it always like that ? Like with a hierarchy, or precise distinctions ? Because I've also read on the net that castes would also depend on the state of one person. And I found a list of Tamil Nadu's castes with nearly 300 of them !.. But there didn't seem to have any connection in between them, as if it were more clans than subdivisions. Can anyone help me understand it ? Thank you very much Meenu :)