A historian argues that the caste system of the late Vedic period should not automatically be equated with the caste system of later centuries. Which of the following observations most strongly supports this argument?

Movement between social categories appears to have been relatively common in the earlier period.

The correct answer is Option 3: Movement between social categories appears to have been relatively common in the earlier period.

To show that the caste system of the late Vedic period was different from the caste system of later centuries, we need evidence of a major structural difference between the two. The possibility of movement across social categories indicates a relatively flexible system, whereas the later caste system became increasingly rigid and birth-based. This difference directly supports the historian's argument that the two should not be treated as identical.

NCERT: "Opinions also differ on the exact age of the caste system. It is generally agreed though, that the four varna classification is roughly three thousand years old. However, the ‘caste system’ stood for different things in different time periods, so that it is misleading to think of the same system continuing for three thousand years. In its earliest phase, in the late Vedic period roughly between 900 — 500 BC, the caste system was really a varna system and consisted of only four major divisions. These divisions were not very elaborate or very rigid, and they were not determined by birth. Movement across the categories seems to have been not only possible but quite common. It is only in the post Vedic period that caste became the rigid institution that is familiar to us from well known definitions. ".