No, the rigid birth-based caste system is a social distortion, not a religious mandate. The original Vedic concept of varna was based on individual qualities and profession, not birth. The Bhagavad Gita (4.13) explicitly states that the four categories were created based on guna (qualities) and karma (actions).
The Mahabharata contains numerous examples of individuals changing their varnas through their actions and learning. Sage Valmiki was a hunter who became a great rishi. The current birth-based hierarchy emerged much later as a social construct and was wrongly justified using religious texts.
Modern Hindu scholars and reformers like Swami Vivekananda have strongly condemned birth-based discrimination, emphasizing that spiritual evolution is open to all regardless of birth circumstances. The ancient texts support merit-based social mobility, not rigid hereditary divisions.
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