When considering the education and culture of India, the complexity of racial, linguistic, religious and social systems must be taken into account. A versatile culture has come to nourish in Iindia as a result of the immigration of a number of alien races including ancient Indo-Āryans and various European races in modern times. The complexity of India's languages is as astounding to outsiders as is her religious life. Indians are known to be strongly devoted to religions, and Brahmanism and Hinduism in particular still maintain rigid caste systems. The four castes -Brāhmanas (priests), Ksatriyas (nobility), Vai'syas (husbandmen and merchants), and 'Sūdras (the lowest class)-are divided into many subcastes, with strict discrimination in marriage, occupation, association, education and even in habits of daily living, which continued up to present time to cause many obstacles to the dessemination of education. 
    Education of Brahmanism, which is the source of Indian education and culture in general, is described in such old literature as Rg-Vedas, Vedas, Brahmanas, Āranyakas, Upanisads, Sūtras and some other epics of ancient times. According to these documents, the life of an ancient Indo-Aryan consisted of four stages of life or four ā'sramas - Brahmacārin (student of Vedas), Grhastha (householder), Vānaprastha (anchorite), and Parivrājaka or Sannyāsin (the onewho abandoned all the worldly concerns), which a man had to go through in his lifetime. From the viewpoint of history of education, this first period of Brahmacarin is most important, since a Brahmacarin made it a rule to go to the house of his teacher and live with him for a certain period of time before he was allowed to go home. This practice, too, was regulated in various ways by the restrictions of the cast system.
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