Which of the following best describes the nature of social stratification during the late Vedic period?

Society was broadly divided into varnas, and movement between these varnas was comparatively more flexible than in later periods.

The correct answer is Option 1: Society was broadly divided into varnas, and movement between these varnas was comparatively more flexible than in later periods.

Option 1: Society was broadly divided into varnas, and movement between these varnas was comparatively more flexible than in later periods. Correct. The social structure during the late Vedic period was based primarily on the varna system. Although divisions existed, they were comparatively more flexible than the rigid caste hierarchy that developed later.

Option 2: The caste system had already acquired its rigid hereditary form with little scope for movement between castes. Incorrect. The rigid and hereditary caste system evolved gradually over time. During the late Vedic period, the social organisation was comparatively more flexible and had not yet acquired all the characteristics of the later caste system.

Option 3: The principles of purity and pollution had completely replaced the varna system as the basis of social organisation. Incorrect. The late Vedic social order was primarily organised around the varna system. The elaborate caste hierarchy based on ritual purity and pollution became more prominent in later periods.

Option 4: The distinction between varna and caste had disappeared, making both systems identical. Incorrect. Varna and caste are related but distinct concepts. During the late Vedic period, the varna system remained the principal basis of social organisation, and the later caste system had not yet fully developed into its rigid form.

NCERT: The 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.