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jati

जाति jāti

'Birth-group'; the thousands of endogamous communities that make up caste as actually lived, distinct from the textual fourfold varna.

Where this term appears

  • The caste system: what Hinduism says Essentials

    The second is jati : the thousands of actual birth-groups, tied to occupation and region, into which Indians are in fact born, marry, and live.

  • What is a gotra? Essentials

    A gotra is a Hindu patrilineal clan: a line of descent traced, through fathers, back to one of a small set of ancient sages (rishis). To share a gotra is to claim a…

  • What is Sanatana Dharma? Essentials

    The tradition's social texts also describe varna , a fourfold ordering of society, and from it grew the lived system of jati , the thousands of birth-communities that make up what is called caste.

  • What is Nyaya? Philosophy

    …ames the chala , the quibbles that twist an opponent's words, and the jati , the futile rejoinders that answer a real argument with a false parity — and here the tradition sets a trap for the unwary reader, for…

  • Does karma justify caste? Treatise

    …nction the sources themselves make: the distinction between varna and jati .

  • The four movements Treatise

    …the root of affliction remains, the deposit ripens into three things: jati , the birth or species one takes; ayus , the length of the life; and bhoga , the experiences of pleasure and pain that fill it.

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