| A | B |
|---|
| indigenous | native |
| Vedas | ancient sacred writings of South Asia |
| Sanskrit | ancient language of the Aryans that became the written language of India |
| jati | a Hindu caste or distinctive social group of which there are thousands throughout India |
| varna | each of the four Hindu castes, Brahman, Kshatriya, Vaishya, and Shudra |
| caste system | a class structure that is determined by birth |
| Dalit | excluded from the fourfold varna of the caste hierarchy and were seen as forming a fifth varna, also known by the name of Panchama |
| Aryan | name originally given to a people who were said to speak an Indo-European language |
| oral tradition | sharing ideas, stories, and traditions through the spoken word |
| cattle | animals that include cows, buffalo, and bison, that are often kept for their milk or meat |
| language family | a group of languages related through descent from a common ancestral language or parental language |
| migrate | to move from one place or region to another place or region |
