Question

what are jatis in medival period?

Answer 1

Jāti (in Devanagari: जाति, Bengali: জাতি, Telugu:జాతి, Kannada:ಜಾತಿ, Malayalam: ജാതി, Tamil:ஜாதி, literally "birth") is a group of clans, tribes, communities and sub-communities, and religions in India. Each jāti typically has an association with a traditional job function or tribe. Religious beliefs (e.g. Sri Vaishnavism or Veera Shaivism) or linguistic groupings may define some jatis.[citation needed] Among the Muslims, the equivalent category is Qom or Biradri.

A person's surname typically reflects a community (jati) association: thus Gandhi = perfume seller, Dhobi = washerman, Srivastava = military scribe, etc.[citation nee

Answer 2

the small-scale perspective represented by local village societies—that most scholars have in mind when they write about the caste system of India. Jatis and relations among them have been accessible to observers from ancient times to the present. Empirically, the caste system is one of regional or local jatis, each with a history of its own, whether this be Kashmir or Tamil Nadu, Bengal or Gujarat. History may differ, but the form of social organization does not. Everywhere castes have traditionally been endogamous. Each jati was associated with one or more hereditary occupations, but certain occupations (for example, agriculture or nontraditional civil service) were caste-neutral, and there were jati-specific restrictions on what and with whom one could eat and drink. Everywhere castes were ranked vertically, with the Brahmans at the top by virtue of their inherent condition of ritual purity and the Shudras at the bottom.