It can be said that a society divided into castes is more rigid than a society divided into classes, being a brake in the path of economical, technological, social changes.
However, many companies have formed groups like castes. For example, in feudal society, upper classes (aristocracy, clergy) were distinguished by isolation and relevant lifestyles only to their classes, producing impermeability and lack of social mobility channels.
The castes division was codified by the Brahmin, around 1000 BC.In the top of hierarchy, was Brahmin caste, which was dedicated to religious and intellectual life, fulfilling the ritual sacrifices, transmitting and commenting on the teachings of the Vedas. They were identified with the sacred and represented priests caste. It was the second caste of warriors, kshatriya, which had the primary duty to fight and lead armies. After two elite ruling castes, vaishya caste resulted, consisting of large and small landowners, merchants, etc. Last caste, Shudra, was composed of peasants and craftsmen.
Social class is a form of stratification in which the affilliation to different social groups and relationships between them, are determined primarily by economic criteria. This type of stratification, typical of modern societies, is not involving the automatic transmission of hereditary privilege.
Other forms of stratification works on the basis of religion (caste system) or according to some hierarchy of prestige (pre-modern systems structured on group status), both systems being formally institutionalized and governed by hereditary transmission of social positions (together with all powers they imply).
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