Kinship

Abstract: Traditional Indian social organization developed under very specific historical circumstances. The Brahmanic ideology of Dharma dominated the social and even economic life of the Hindus and cre-ated a system capable of maintaining stability through the unique structure of "caste order". However, caste as described in many Western scholarly publications bears only a faint resemblance to this institution of Hindu society.

Indian social structure is composed of a great diversity of elements with kinship categories being its essence. Specific characteristics of caste - such as endogamy, profession, a particular kind of religious worship and marriage rules - manifest themselves at the level of kin groups and birādarīs, of which the broadest and dominant of these being jāti. The institution of jāti is rooted in prehistoric tribal concepts and usages. In Hindu society, jāti acts as a real agent that manages all the tasks and aims inherent in, and regarded as important by, Hindu society. Thus, jāti is a basic "structural unit" of Hindu society.