larger unit vis or clan is recorded even among the dasa. It counted in turn,
towards the identity of the tribe or jana. The word jana carries the notion of
people as well as growth and fecundity.
Reciprocity between Higher Varnas The ranking order between
brahmana and kshatriya is ambivalent to begin with, where the former is
dependent on the latter for dana and dakshina and the latter requires that his
power be legitimised by the former. In any case, the two are superior to the
rest of the community, a superiority which is clearly expressed in the formula
that the vaishya and the sudra should be enclosed by the brahmana and the
kshatriya at the sacrifice in order to make the former submissive.
    The redistribution of wealth was therefore, curtailed by the requirement
of reciprocity between the kshatriya and the brahmana, where the reciprocal
relationship enhanced the status of each. The kshatriya provided the
brahmanas with what was essentially a sacrificial fee, disguised as it may
have been in ritual gift-giving. The brahmana not only bestowed legitimation
on the kshatriya, but also gave him access to special skills and knowledge
intermeshed with the ritual, which inevitably augmented the power of the
kshatriya.
Status of Sudras In addition to the first three, the other distinctive unit
included in the overall definition of a caste society was the sudra, associated
with servility in the earlier texts. The sudras were described in the later
Dharma-sastras as including sankirna or mixed jati. Each jati was born out
of a hypergamous (anuloma) or a hypogamous (pratiloma) marriage from
among the three dvija or upper castes or their progeny. The number of jatis
could theoretically increase on each new intercaste marriage, but in effect, the
increase occurred whenever there were major changes in which new social
groups and professions were established. The sudra as a varna was clearly a
category added onto the original structure at a time when artisans and
cultivators had to be accommodated and when alien groups were assimilated
into the caste society and had to be assigned varying statuses. That the
concept of the sankirna-jati was a later attempt at explaining a de facto
situation is evident from the divergence in the texts regarding the particular
combinations of castes producing sudra offspring.
Vratyas and Others Distance between the dvija and the sudra was also