Traditional Indian society was modeled around a collection
of endogamous subgroups known as jatis ("birth").
These were endogamous subgroups (i.e., groupings in which
marriages happened exclusively between members of the same group).
The group's hereditary occupation, over which each group held
a monopoly, was how these jatis were structured (and how their social rank was
decided).
Although it may seem strange, this specialization applied to
all jobs, and there were hereditary occupational groupings dedicated to stealing
and banditry.
Tirumangai (9th century), by far the most picturesque of the
Alvars, a group of twelve poet-saints who lived in southern India during the
seventh and tenth centuries, was the most renowned of them.
