Page "Puruṣārtha" Paragraph 7

There is a popular correspondence between the four puruṣārthas or stages of life ( Skt.

: āśrama: Brahmacharya life, Grihastha life, Vanaprastha life and Sannyasa ) and the four primary castes or strata of society ( Skt.

: varna: Brahmana, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra labourer ).

This, however, has not been traced to any primary source in early Sanskrit literature.