Which of the following statement is incorrect in the context of caste system during late vedic period?

Social position was rigidly determined by birth.

The correct answer is Option 1: Social position was rigidly determined by birth.

The late Vedic period was characterised by a relatively flexible varna system. Social divisions were not very elaborate, movement across categories was possible, and social position was not strictly determined by birth. The rigid hereditary caste system emerged later in the post-Vedic period.

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.