The Rashtrakutas and their Times c21.63

c21.63

Let us now proceed to consider the position of the Kshatriyas. Those among them who were actual rulers or their relatives enjoyed the highest status in the land, as has been shown already. It is probably these, and not all the ordinary Kshatriyas, who enjoyed immunity from the capital punishment as reported by Alberuni.(47) This privilege is not extended to the Kshatriyas by the Dharmaśāstra literature, but since it is mentioned by Alberuni, who was a fairly close student of Sanskrit literature, we may presume that it was actually claimed by and conceded to the elite among the Kshatriyas. It may be further noted that according to the testimony of Alberuni, a Kshatriya guilty of theft, was merely maimed in the right hand and left foot and not blinded in addition like the Brahmana. It would thus follow that in actual practice the privileges of the Kshatriya were by no means less than those of the Brahmana, though they do not all of them figure in the Smriti literature.