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Throughout South Asia, individual castes and subcastes are referred to as Játi , an Indo-Aryan word meaning a category of related persons thought to be of the same physical and moral substance, though the word can also mean genus, species, or race and other allegedly natural types. Caste, meaning the systematic basis upon which individual játis are organized, has never perfectly conformed to either popular or scholarly models; not only do the customs and practices of játi hierarchies vary from region to region, they also are commonly interpreted in different ways even within a single village. The caste system in India is an important part of ancient Hindu tradition and dates back to 1200 BCE. The term caste was first used by Portuguese travelers who came to India in the 16th century. Caste comes from the Spanish and Portuguese word “Casta” which means “race”, “breed”, or “lineage,” but many Indians use the term “jati”. There are 3,000 castes and 25,000 sub-castes in India , each rela