Stations and Stages of Life (Varṇa & Āśrama)
Four orders of society and four seasons of a life, each with its own appointed duty.
Classical Hindu texts organize social and personal life through two interlocking schemes: varṇa, four broad orders of society, each with characteristic duties; and āśrama, four successive stages of a life — the celibate student, the married householder, the retired forest-dweller, and the renunciant who has left all worldly ties to seek liberation. The framework is a normative ideal from the law-books; its relationship to the lived realities of caste over history is complex and much debated by scholars.
Key passages(12)
Agriculture, cattle-rearing and trade are the duties of the Vaishyas, born of (their own) nature; and action consisting of service is the duty of the Sudras, born of (their own) nature.
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Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad · Vedic Revelation (śruti)
There are then this Brahman, Kshatra, Vis, and Sudra. Among the Devas that Brahman existed as Agni (fire) only, among men as Brahmana, as Kshatriya through the (divine) Kshatriya, as Vaisya through th
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Vivekacūḍāmaṇi · Śaṅkara (traditionally ascribed; authorship doubted)
He going to Gautama Hâridrumata said to him, 'I wish to become a Brahmakârin with you, Sir. May I come to you, Sir?'
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'Those who know this (even though they still be grihasthas, householders) and those who in the forest follow faith and austerities (the vânaprasthas, and of the parivrâgakas those who do not yet know
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