In the true sense, Saathvika guna represented the pious and educated religious person who has to follow all the teaching of the faith and perform duties without attachment and follow the yogas properly. They follow truthfulness [sathyam], vegetarianism, nonviolence [ahimsa] and follow the proper dharma of their birth and status. They represent the pious, educated and religious people, but not necessarily according to one's "varna". The kings, as they ruled several segments of the country, fighting with each other, allowed Rajasika guna as acceptable for their community that works to preserve the land and its people for administrative and military purpose. They enjoyed certain amount of worldly pleasures and could not follow all the dharma of the sathvic person. Ahimsa and Sathyam were sacrificed by this group to gain power of the land. The group of people with Tamasika guna were left out with no knowledge or power. They had to make a living at the bottom of the ladder working for others as they could not afford to have the luxury of following high principles and demand what they want and what they will eat. They had no other choice except to get best out of what was available to them. Some of them still remained saathvic in spite of the sufferings but others had to give up most of the dharma for their living and were Tamasic.

Vedas described three Gunas in every person, Saathva, Rajas and Tamas. They considered Saathva guna as superior and more acceptable. Based on these Gunas and the four varnas explained in Purusha Sooktha, the community got divided for following their vocations as a simple way of division of labor. The theories of karma and reincarnation were introduced to justify the injustices to hold on to the corrupted practices of family oriented job preferences. Even the families at the lower end of the ladder wanted to remain stuck to this system, more than the ones in the upper end because of the fear of effects of karma. The pious ones, in spite of their castes of their birth, remained very religious. In the older times, they could move across the varna barrier through individual aspirations, desires, education, ambition, personal achievement and marriage. In the medieval times, struggle for existence led to tight walls across these lines.