G. S. Ghurye occupies a central position in the sociological understanding of caste and kinship in India. His viewpoint is rooted in an Indological and historical approach, drawing heavily on Sanskrit texts, ethnographic observations, and comparative analysis. Ghurye saw caste and kinship not as isolated institutions but as deeply interconnected social systems that shaped Indian society across centuries. For him, caste was not merely a rigid hierarchy but a complex social reality sustained through kinship networks, marriage rules, ritual practices, and everyday social interactions. Ghurye defined caste as a segmental division of society characterized by hierarchy, endogamy, restrictions on commensality, occupational specialization, and the notion of purity and pollution. He emphasized that caste was fundamentally a social institution rather than a purely economic or political one. According to him, caste groups, or jatis, were real and functioning social units, while varna represented an idealized and textual classification. Ghurye argued that much confusion in understanding caste arose from equating varna with caste, whereas in practice Indian society functioned through thousands of jatis, each with its own customs, rules, and kinship patterns. A key element of Ghurye’s analysis was his emphasis on endogamy as the core feature of caste. He considered endogamy to be the defining characteristic that distinguished caste from other forms of social stratification. The strict regulation of marriage within the caste ensured the continuity of caste boundaries across generations. Ghurye linked this directly to kinship, as marriage rules determined descent, inheritance, and social belonging. Through endogamy, caste maintained its purity, status, and internal cohesion. He also noted that practices such as hypergamy, particularly