History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c8.24

v1.c8.24

We will now pass on to the Kshatriyas and the first thing to remark is that they too formed then one caste only throughout India. As the ten subdivisions of Brahmins into five Gaudas, and five Dravidas had not yet arisen, the Kshatriyas too had not yet divided themselves into Rajputs and Khatris. In fact in modern times the word Khatri has come to denote a lower grade than the word Rajput. These Kshatriyas again had not yet been divided into 36 families only, considered to be of pure descent and restricting marriage to themselves alone. None of the names even of these 36 families had yet come into existence. The Chauhans and the Solankhis, the Sisodiyas and the Rathods had yet to be born and the Kshatriyas of India then formed one undivided caste without probably any restriction of marriage to particular families. Caste was, in fact, somewhat loose then as the Kshatriyas freely married Vaiśya wives from great families which had raised themselves to the kingly status. The instance of the Maukhari Grahavarmā marrying Harsha’s sister given by Bāṇa and that of the Valabhi king Dhruvabhata marrying Harsha’s daughter, mentioned by Hiuen Tsang will suffice to prove this practice. But such marriages were not common and the intermixture of castes or rather races was strictly prevented by pious Hindu kings as may be gathered from the epithet "Varnavyavasthāpanapara" usually applied in epigraphic records to great kings showing the earnest solicitude of the people to preserve the purity of Varna or race. Instances of pratiloma marriages, or marriages above the grade do not occur and hence the old law of the Manusmriti was apparently still in force. When therefore Hiuen Tsang says that a particular king was a Kshatriya, Vaiśya or Śūdra, he mentions a distinction which was strictly maintained inspite of the tendency of Buddhism to overthrow caste.