Just like in the Western world, there were classes that a person belonged to in the ancient Hindu
world by birth. These classes were the basis of the definition of the roles that a person had to accomplish
in the society. The organization of the society into castes is indicative of the need that the Indians felt to
differentiate themselves into castes or classes that a person could find him in at the end. In most of the
cases, the castes defined what was necessary and what was not so significant in the society (Narayan
2000). In order for a person to belong to a certain caste, the aspects of the personality that the person had
did not wield any significance in the determination of the caste. It made it imperative that a person had a
predestined class or caste that he or she belonged to in the society. The classes defined the role of
different people in the society. This paper will look at the roles that the castes in the society carried out
according to Mahabharata. Despite the changes in the society that come because of modernization, the
importance of the caste system is still upheld by the Hindu society.
Roles of women in the society depended on the stage of the development that the woman is at.
The cycle of women in the society has tended to be different from the roles that men fulfilled in the
society. In the classical sense, the women followed three stages that defined the roles that they took to the
particular stage (Narayan 2000). The changing society has had an impact on the roles that women carry
out with the advent of globalization and western civilization. The roles of the women in the modern
society have increasingly resembled the roles conducted by the Modern males. However, at the time of
publication of Mahabharata the roles of the women still followed the roles defined by the caste system
developed by the ancient Indians
The early stage of development was under the watch of the parents. The main stage was concerned
with the protection of the virginity (Narayan 2000). The girl was pure in the traditions of the Hindus , and
she lacked the power to give life. The marriage of the girl made her turn to be impure in that she lost the
virginity. However, the loss of virginity came with the gain of the power to give life. Therefore, she was
auspicious. The main cause of the impurity was the engaging in sexual intercourse and menstruation. The
