Transliteration: rigs bzhi
I. <phrase> "The four families", in reference to the four families surrounding the central family of a maṇḍala.II. <phrase> "The four castes" of ancient India. The Hindu spiritual tradition of ancient India defines four castes of humans in accordance with the four parts of Brahma's body mentioned in their sacred writings, the Vedas. Each caste has its place very clearly defined in Hindu society. Each caste had to maintain its own place and was not allowed to assume the actions, status, etc. of the higher castes. The castes were defined by birth. In other words, each person's caste was determined by their parent's caste. The four castes are: 1) བྲམ་ཟེ་རིགས་ brahmans, who performed priestly functions; 2) རྒྱལ་རིགས་ warriors who performed royal functions; 3) རྗེའུ་རིགས་ aristocracy, who performed other upper class functions; and 4) དམངས་རིགས་ commoners who performed all lower class functions. See also མི་བཅུ་བཞི་ the fourteen humans which gives subdivisions of each of the four castes. The commoners class had a further sub-division of གདོལ་པའི་རིགས་ "the outcastes" who were the very lowest of the common caste.