Vaishya

Vaishya is the traditional merchant, trading and agricultural varna of the Hindu caste hierarchy, historically associated with commerce, craft production and land cultivation, ranked below the priestly Brahmin and warrior Kshatriya categories but above the Shudra labor category in the classical fourfold varna scheme. Vaishya identity is claimed today by numerous regionally distinct communities across India, including several prominent business and trading communities, and, as with the other varna categories, the historical fourfold scheme is understood by scholars as a normative classical ideal that never mapped cleanly onto the much larger number of actual regional jatis (sub-castes). This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/