Our textbooks teach us that Hindu society is divided into four groups: Brahmin, Kshatriyas, Vaishya, Shudras, consisting of priests, landed aristocrats, merchants and servants. This is the Vedic varna system. However, this is a highly simplistic division, which doesn’t take into account that there are over 5,000 communities (jati) in India, which can be classified in various ways across these four categories. This is best understood by studying the subdivisions of the Brahmin division.

In Vedic times, Brahmins were classified as Hotrs who chanted Rig Vedic hymns, Udgatrs who sang Sama Vedic hymns, Adhvaryus who performed Yajur Vedic rituals and mumbled Yajur Vedic hymns. Then there were the Atharva Vedic Brahmins linked to spells outside the yagna ritual world. These different groups became the many shakhas or branches of Vedic Brahmanism.