The relationship between varna and caste has remained a central subject of debate within scholarship on Indian society, social stratification, and religious traditions. Much of the contemporary discourse frequently treats caste and varna as interchangeable categories, thereby presenting the caste system as a direct extension of Vedic social philosophy. This paper is an extract of a research project titled “Understanding the Discourse of Caste and Race in the Contemporary World (F. No. ICSSR/RPD/MJ/2023-24/G/42)” funded by Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), which critically interrogates above conflation through a historical and genealogical analysis of the evolution of social classification in India. Drawing upon Vedic texts, colonial ethnography, historical accounts, and modern scholarship, the study argues that varna and caste constitute analytically distinct categories despite their historical intersections. While varna emerged within a broader philosophical and ethical framework grounded in guna (qualities), karma (actions), and social obligations, caste gradually evolved as a more rigid system marked by hereditary distinctions, social closure, and exclusionary practices. The paper further examines the role of colonial interventions in transforming fluid social distinctions into codified and administratively fixed identities through census enumeration, racial theorisation, and political categorisation. By tracing the historical trajectory from Vedic social organisation to contemporary caste configurations, the study seeks to contribute to broader debates on caste, coloniality, and the social construction of identities in India.