Was the Varna system based on birth or based on the character of a person?

 Varna system is always birth based, it was never based on the character or abilities of a person.

In which varna a person will take birth it depends his previous life activities

Proof from Vedic religion scriptures.

Chandyog upanishad 5.10.7

Manusmriti 2.31–2.32 explains how names will be given to New born baby according to his or her varna

These verses describe how a child should be named according to varṇa.

Manusmriti 2.31 – Mentions that the name should be given on the 10th or 12th day after birth (or on an auspicious day).

Manusmriti 2.32 – Specifically talks about naming according to varṇa:

A Brāhmaṇa’s name should express auspiciousness.
A Kṣatriya’s name should express power and protection.
A Vaiśya’s name should express wealth and prosperity.
A Śūdra’s name should express service.

Mahabharata Book 13 anushasan parva section 27 and 28 talk about Rishi matang who was actually chandala by birth because he is born to shudra father and bhraman mother.

Mahabharat book 13 anushasan section 48 explains how child varna depends upon parents varna

All these knowledge are given by bishma before his death after kurukshetra war, bishma given these knowledge to yudhishtir on the the request of Krishna, according to Krishna bishma was very knowledge full person, his knowledge will clear confusion of yudhishthir who was upset because he won war by killing his relatives. you can read this thing in Mahabharata Book 12 Shanti parva section 51 and 52.

Vidur who was minister of kuru kingdom, denied to give high level knowledge when king asked to him, he said iam shudra by birth iam not eligible to give high level knowledge to anyone.

Sanat-sujata Parva

SECTION 51

Dhritarashtra said, 'Dost thou not know what that immortal Rishi will say unto me? O Vidura, do thou say it, if indeed, thou hast that degree of wisdom.'

"Vidura said, 'I am born in the Sudra order and, therefore, do not venture to say more than what I have already said. The understanding, however, of that Rishi leading a life of celibacy, is regarded by me to be infinite. He that is a Brahmana by birth, by discoursing on even the profoundest mysteries, never incureth the censure of the gods. It is for this alone that I do not discourse to thee, upon the subject.

In Bhagavad Gita 1.40 Verse arjun show his tension about varan shankar child ( child born from inter mixing of different varna

Adharmābhibhavāt Kṛṣṇa
Praduṣyanti kula-striyaḥ
Strīṣu duṣṭāsu Vārṣṇeya
Jāyate varṇa-saṅkaraḥ

Meaning:

When irreligion (adharma) prevails, O Krishna, the women of the family become corrupted.
When women are corrupted, O descendant of Vrishni, varna-saṅkara.

Krishna also accept that inter mixing varna is dangerous for human race in bagvath Gita 3.24

Bhagavad Gita 3.24

Transliteration:

Utsīdeyur ime lokā
Na kuryāṁ karma ced aham
Saṅkarasya cha kartā syām
Upahanyām imāḥ prajāḥ

Meaning:

If I did not perform action,
these worlds would perish.
I would be the cause of social disorder (saṅkara),
and I would destroy these beings.

Krishna in bagvath Gita Verse 3.35 and 18.47 said that , it is better do you your down duty even though it is done imperfectly rather than doing others duty perfectly.

In bagvath Gita Verse 18.48 Krishna says you can't leave your duty which is decided by your birth, even though you don't like it

Last but not the least, bagvath Gita Verse 4.13 the most Miss interrupted Verse by many people to prove varna is by quality not by birth.

chātur-varṇyaṁ mayā sṛiṣhṭaṁ guṇa-karma-vibhāgaśhaḥ

tasya kartāram api māṁ viddhyakartāram avyayam

Chatur varnyam - four varna

Maya srishtam - were created by me.

Guna-karma -Vibhagash - divided by nature of work.

Tasya kartaram api - even though iam the creator

Mam viddhiyakartam avvyam - i cant control and it is unchangeable.

Krishna in this verse is saying that four varna were created by me, the sentence is in past perfect it is means a person varna is already decided.

In the next line he is saying that a person varna is decided by nature of work or quality of work which are three types according to Krishna in bagvath gita. We can read about that three types of nature of work in in chapter 14.

In chapter 14 Krishna is saying how the dominance of three types of quality satav, rajo and thama decides a person next birth.

A person who do his duty without expecting any benefit are satvic. For such person duty is first priority, he don't bother about benefits

A person who do his duty expecting benefit are rajo, for such person benefit is first priority, he do his duty expecting benefits.

A person who is lazy and don't his duty is thama.

So according to the dominance of three types nature of work in a person life before his death, he will born into any four varna in his next birth.

More dominance of satvic quality in the life leads to take birth in upper varna like kshatriya or bhraman in next life

More dominance of qualities like thama in the life leads to take birth in lower varna like shudra or even avarna (out side varna) like chandala in next life.

Varna has been decided always by birth.

Will we ever leave our solar system? By what means might we do that?

 The biggest challenges are Time and Energy ! It will take a lot of onboard energy that has to run for centuries !

Total non returnable trip time to nearest solar system (4 light years ) in proposed ship at max speed 4% speed of light , 12,000 km/per/sec. 300 years.

If we built a sufficiently large space ship in earth orbit maybe with internal volume of at least 10,000,000 cubic meters (approx 3 times the size of NASA Vehicle Assembly Building ) and would be constructed of very light composites and super alloys to keep weight down . It will also be fitted with 5 nuclear power stations that can run for 50 years without refuelling (fast breeder reactor type) and 350 years worth of fuel and spare parts totaling 30,000 tons . It will also have a 3D printing workshop where anything can be duplicated including high strength metal components.

Accommodation for 2000 crew and families , plus food for 10 years and a highly efficient recycling system and very large hydroponic growing system . Plus 100,000 tons of water . There would be no shortage of heat as the power plants will put out prodigous quantities of waste heat that will be utilized throughout the ship which will be transported by water .

Everybody on board would work and families would be expected to start having children in a designated time period to replace people that had passed on , pop. limit 2500–3000 people . The ship will have a very large diameter and will spin at approx 1.2 rpm producing normal gravity in the Toroid (main living) and various other gravity gradients through out the rest of the ship . Large area on center line of ship reserved for very low gravity sports .

Nothing could be discarded from the ship in interstellar space , everything will have to be recycled including people that pass on, there will be no such thing as garbage ! Schools/ Universities on board plus a plethora of entertainment possibilities for everyone . Everything that is required to keep people sane for centuries.

Propulsion ? With a large amount of electricity available (40,000 megawatts ) a large number of NASA Evolutionary Xenon Thrusters (NEXT) would be the most viable propulsion engines today using xenon gas as fuel . The ship would need 300,000 tons of Xenon Liquid (102,000 Cubic Meters ) and a total ship weight of 600,000 tons.

Say 35,000 megawatts available to engines would deliver 121,730 kilograms of thrust from the Xenon fueled engines .

It would take 100 years of acceleration to achieve 4% of c and travel just over 1 light year then cruise for 50 years to traverse 2 light years then 100 years of de-acceleration as it approached new star system . Total trip time 300 years , total distance traveled 4 light years to Alpha Centauri Star system .

At this velocity relativistic effects are rather minor. Ship time will be dilated down to 3.9967987189749747 years instead of 4. So the occupants of the ship will be approx 4 minutes younger than those left on earth !

When did caste system become rigid in India?

 Scholars believe that caste system became rigid during the Post Vedic times (1100BCE- 500 BCE)

Literary evidences:

Kautilya (375 BCE - 283BCE) , also known as Chanakya, was the Royal advisor to the Mauryan king Chandragupta Maurya.

Credit : Wikipedia

Kautilya in his political treatise Arthashastra, gives us details of the caste system practiced during his times.

Arthashastra: Book 3 :

Chapter 7 - Distinction Between Sons

[1]

“On the birth of a natural son, Savarna sons shall have one-third of inheritance while asavarṇa sons shall have only food and clothing”

“Sons begotten by Brāhmans or Kshatriya on women of the same caste (anantarāputra) are called savarnas ; but on women of lower castes are called asavarṇas. (Of such asavarṇa sons), the son begotten by a Brāhman on a Vaisya woman is called Ambhaṣṭha; on a Sudra woman is called Nisada or Parasava. The son begotten by a Kshatriya on a Śūdra woman is known as Ugra; the son begotten by a Vaiśya on a Śūdra woman is no other than a Śūdra.”

“Sons begotten by men of impure life of any of the four castes on women of same castes are called Vratsyas. The above kinds of sons are called anuloma, sons begotten, by men of higher on women of lower castes.”

“Sons begotten by a Śūdra on women of higher castes are Ayogava, Kṣatta, and Candala; by a Vaiśya, Magadha, and Vaidehika; and by a Kṣatriya, Suta. But men of the names, Sūta and Māgadha, celebrated in the Puranas , are quite different and of greater merit than either Brāhmans or Kṣatriyas.—The above kinds of sons are Pratiloma, sons begotten by men of lower on women of higher castes, and originate on account of kings violating all Dharma”

“The son begotten by an Ugra on a Niṣāda woman is called Kukkutaka, and the same is called Pulkasa if begotten in the inverse order. The son begotten by an Ambhaṣṭha on a Vaidehaka woman is named Vaina; the same in the reverse order is called Kusilava. An Ugra begets on a Kṣatta woman a Svapaka. These and other sons are of mixed castes (Antarālās).”

“A Vainya becomes a Rathakara, chariot-maker, by profession. Members of this caste shall marry among themselves. Both in customs and avocations they shall follow their ancestors. They may either become sudra , if they are not born as Candalas.”

“The king who guides his subjects in accordance with the above rules will attain to heaven; otherwise he will fall into the hell.”

“Offsprings of mixed castes (Antarālās) shall have equal divisions of inheritance.”

---

What can be inferred from above ?

1. Mixed caste marriages happened, but the sons begotten through mixed castes were discriminated.
2. A son who was born of an union between same caste groups was called “Natural born “
3. Those who are born of mixed origins - don’t inherit the property
4. Kautilya mentions that a Vainya should marry only among their castes. First step towards segregation.

---

Book 3, Chapter 6 :

With regard to sons of many wives:

[2]

• Of sons of two wives of whom only one woman has gone through all the necessary religious ceremonials, or one of whom has been married as a maiden, and the other not as a maiden, or one of whom has brought forth twins, it is by birth that primogenitureship is decided.
• In the case of sons such as Suta, Magadha, Vratya, and Rathakara, inheritance will go to the capable; and the rest will depend upon him for subsistence.In the absence of the capable, all will have equal shares.
• Of sons begotten by a Brāhman in the four castes, the son of a Brāhman woman shall take four shares; the son of a Ksatriya woman three shares; the son of a Vaisya woman two shares; and the son of a sudra woman one share.

---

Note : Brahman can marry four wives - he can take Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaisya and Sudra wives, but the Brahman wife’s son gets the highest share. A Sudra can’t marry an upper caste woman.

---

Punishments based on Castes :

Book 4 : Chapter 13 - Punishment for Violating Justice

[3]

“He who causes a Brahman to partake of whatever food or drink is prohibited shall be punished with the highest amercement. He who causes a Kshatriya to do the same shall be punished with the middlemost amercement; a vaisya, with the first amercement; and a Sudra, with a fine of 54 pandas.”

“A Kṣatriya who commits adultery with an unguarded Brāhman woman shall be punished with the highest amercement; a Vaiśya doing the same shall be deprived of the whole of his property; and a Śūdra shall be burnt alive wound round in mats.“

“A man who commits adultery with a woman of low caste shall be banished, with prescribed mark branded on his forehead, or shall be degraded to the same caste.”

A Śūdra or a Svapaka who commits adultery with a woman of low caste shall be put to death, while the woman shall have her ears and nose cut off.

Points to be noted :

1. If the victim is a Brahmana, the punishments are usually severe
2. If the victim is a Shudra - punishments are mild.
3. If the offender is Shudra - he gets the severe punishment. In the above case, if he commits adultery with a Brahmana woman - he will be burnt alive.
4. There seems to be no punishment for a Brahmana committing adultery with a Brahmana woman.
5. Adultery with a low caste woman - will result in loss of caste.

Fun fact :

Whoever commits adultery with the queen of the land shall be burnt alive in a vessel (kumbhīpāka).

That includes all castes.

---

All the above examples show how the system of discrimination existed even during Mauryan times. The system got even worse during medieval times.

Footnotes

[1] 

Distinction Between Sons [Chapter 7]

[2] 

Special Shares in Inheritance [Chapter 6]

[3] 

Punishment for Violating Justice [Chapter 13]

What is the largest thing in the solar system?

 

It's not Sun.

It's the magnetic field of Jupiter.

See, jupiter is a big planet, but looks puny against its magnetic field.

Charged particles in the solar winds stretch the field away from Sun, like a comet's tail.

It stretches 7 million km towards the Sun, and over a billion km in the opposite direction— Saturn orbits inside it sometimes.

If you could see the field from Earth, it would appear 5 times larger than a full moon.

Jupiter's magnetic field is roughly 20,000 times stronger than Earth's. What generates it?

Deep beneath the clouds, the pressure is so high that hydrogen is crushed to a metallic liquid, and conducts electricity.

This conductive ocean rotates around the core at high speeds. It generates electricity like a dynamo.

Jupiter's magnetosphere also creates stunning auroras. They're not larger than earth’s auroras, but larger than Earth.

What’s the coldest thing in the solar system?

 

Neptune’s moon Triton.

It gets as cold as -235°C. But that isn't what makes it so weird.

Neptune has 14 moons. With the exception of Titan, all the moons are very small, and come in two varieties— regular and irregular.

The regular ones orbit close to the planet, and irregular ones are generally farther from Neptune, with all sorts of crazy orbits..

And then there's Triton. It was discovered by amateur astronomer William Lassell, who, in 1846, spotted the moon a mere 17 days after the discovery of Neptune itself.

There are many reasons that make it strange.

For one, Triton is big. The 7th largest moon of Solar System. It’s over 200 times bigger than all the other moons of Neptune combined.

Second, it's one of the irregular moons, for it orbits the wrong way. It orbits backwards relative to Neptune’s spin, and orbit is almost perpendicular to its parent planet.

Third, it looks like a cantaloupe.Covered in bumpy, wrinkly features nicknamed cantaloupe terrain.

Fourth, it's actually no mere moon, but instead a victim of an interplanetary kidnapping.

Triton is likely a Kuiper belt object, like Pluto and Eris. Long ago, it fell into the vicinity of Neptune and got captured by the planet’s gravity.

Either Triton just got unlucky and had the exact wrong orbit to land itself near Neptune, or it suffered some collision with one of Neptune's own moons and losed enough energy to remain in orbit.

Sadly, it's future isn’t bright either. Due to tidal forces Triton’s orbit is decaying, and it's slowly spiralling into its doom. It’ll either crash into Neptune or will be ripped apart into a spectacular ring system— more dazzling than Saturn's..

Which is the biggest planet and smallest planet of our solar system?

 The largest planet in the solar system is Jupiter, and the smallest is Mercury.

…

Hah, you think I am just going to write some super short answer? Please, that’s just is not my style.

So, let’s start off with the smallest, and one of the coolest planets in my opinion:

Mercury!

Ahh, good ol’ Mercury.

Mercury is the smallest, and innermost planet of our solar system. It is quite similar to our very own Moon, both in looks and surface features. In fact, I like to look at Mercury as the inverted color version of the Moon, because the higher areas of Mercury are darker, and the deep craters are brighter (opposite of our Moon.) Some of these craters, in fact, are so deep, sunlight never reaches parts of those craters. And, in some of those craters, there is actually water ice, just hanging out. This is quite amazing, since the day time temperature on Mercury can reach several hundred degrees Fahrenheit.

Another really cool thing about Mercury is that it has an unusually large iron and nickel core for its size. Scientists think that the core makes up 85% of the planets entire radius. This also makes it the second densest planet, only behind the Earth. Scientists have two different theories as to why the core of Mercury is very large.

The first, and older theory is that Mercury had a collision with another planet when it was first forming, and this blew off most of the silicates and lighter stuff off of baby Mercury and the other planetoid, while also merging the two cores of the planets, making one smaller planet, but with a huge core.

The second, and more exciting theory is that Mercury, a long time ago, used to be a gas giant. But, as it got closer and closer to the sun, more and more of the gas was stripped away from the intense solar winds, until all that was left was a small, metallic core that most gas Giants have. This theory is really cool because it would make our solar system seem a bit more normal, since many other stars have gas giants that orbit really close in to its parent star, but ours does not. It is also a nice feeling to think Mercury used to be a giant once upon a time.

Now, for the largest planet in the Solar System:

Jupiter!

Jupiter is a lot different from Mercury, in almost every way imaginable. First of all, Jupiter is HUGE. Jupiter has a radius of 43,441 miles, compared to tiny Mercury, which only has a radius of 1,516 miles. This means that you could place 28 Mercury-sized planets next to each other, stretch them in a straight line above Jupiter, and Jupiter would still have a larger diameter. Jupiter also has a very thick hydrogen atmosphere, with a cloud layer 30 miles thick, before you reach a point inside Jupiter that is very bizarre.

Once you get past that cloud layer, the hydrogen is so dense now that it takes on a liquid form. But, this isn’t a cold liquid, but is extremely hot, like the molten parts of our planet, only made of hydrogen gas. Past this layer, the hydrogen continues to become more dense to the point it acts like a superheated metal. At this point, anything inside would be burnt beyond recovery, but if you were to send something down there, this is as far as you could get. Below the metallic layer of hydrogen, you have a small rock and ice core (similar to Mercury, actually).

Jupiter has the most moons in the solar system as well, counting 67 so far. Most of these moons are small asteroids that were caught by Jupiter’s immense gravity, but 4 of them, the Galilean moons, are quite unique. The closest one in is Io, which is one of the most volcanically active objects in our solar system, and its surface has a weird mix of colors. Europa has a huge water ocean underneath its thick icy crust, and it is a possible contender to support life because of that. Callisto has one of the oldest surfaces in the solar system, and Ganymede is the largest moon in the solar system, and is bigger than Mercury.

So, there you have it, the largest planet in our solar system, and the smallest, along with some cool details and theories about them. And no, Pluto doesn’t count, it’s classified as a dwarf planet, so leave it at that.