전통적으로, 브라만들은 4개의 사회 계층 중 가장 높은 의식적 지위를 부여받으며,[8] 그들은 정신적인 교사(구루 또는 아차리야)의 역할도 했다. 실제로, 인도 문헌들은 일부 브라만들이 역사적으로 인도 아대륙에서 농부, 전사, 상인이 되었고, 또한 다른 직업들을 가지고 있었다고 암시한다.[7][8][9]
Benjamin Lee Wren (2004). 《Teaching World Civilization with Joy and Enthusiasm》. University Press of America. 77–쪽. ISBN978-0-7618-2747-4. At the top were the Brahmins(priests), then the Kshatriyas(warriors), then the vaishya(the merchant class which only in India had a place of honor in Asia), next were the sudras(farmers), and finally the pariah(untouchables), or those who did the dirty defiling work
Kenneth R. Valpey (2019년 11월 2일). 《Cow Care in Hindu Animal Ethics》. Springer Nature. 169–쪽. ISBN978-3-03-028408-4. The four varnas are the brahmins (brahmanas—priests, teachers); kshatriyas (ksatriyas—administrators, rulers); vaishyas (vaisyas—farmers, bankers, business people); and shudras(laborers, artisans)
Richard Bulliet; Pamela Crossley; Daniel Headrick; Steven Hirsch; Lyman Johnson (2018년 10월 11일). 《The Earth and Its Peoples: A Global History, Volume I》. Cengage Learning. 172–쪽. ISBN978-0-357-15937-8. Varna are the four major social divisions: the Brahmin priest class, the Kshatriya warrior/ administrator class, the Vaishya merchant/farmer class, and the Shudra laborer class.
Akira Iriye (1979). 《The World of Asia》. Forum Press. 106쪽. ISBN978-0-88273-500-9. The four varna groupings in descending order of their importance came to be Brahmin (priests), Kshatriya (warriors and administrators), Vaishya (cultivators and merchants), and Sudra (peasants and menial laborers)