>I can surely understand why some of my ancestors - who first started going to India in the 18th century - were both confused and captivated <g>

:) Yes, we have a very intricate caste and creed system, of course a lot of faults it may have, but every person was segregated as per works and responsibilities. But like all old system it got corrupted and misused (mostly by politicians I feel to keep the ballot boxes full by separating and introducing vehemence, he called you this or that but you are from such and such caste/creed).

For eg. Vaniya I mentioned previously is the trader community, Bhramin you may have heard of are the religious (related) community, probably Lohanas are the warriors. Patidars are Patels (I just looked at wikipedia) the agriculturalists and so on.