History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v1.c8.s1.22

v1.c8.s1.22

Mr. Bhandarkar's fourth argument is still more strange and based on wrong information and wrong inference. (Padihāra is the usual Prākrit form of प्रतिहार and yet Mr. Bhandarkar takes the opposite line and says that Pratihara is the Sanskritzed form of पाडिहार. Why again we ask should Sanskrit change पाडिहार into Pratihara? But this is by the bye) An inscription from Jodhpur gives the origin of Padihars as follows. There was a Brahmin who married two wives a Brahmin woman and a Kshatriya woman. The descendants of the Brahmin woman are called Brahmin Padihars while the descendants of the Kshatriya woman are called Kshatriya Padihars. "The marriage of a Brahmin" says Mr. Bhandarker, "with a Kshatriya woman with the result as related in this inscription is curious and can only be accounted for as being of foreign importation. How this inference follows from the first premise will be a puzzle to many. Moreover the marriage of a Brahmin with a Kshatriya woman is not curious. It is provided for in Smritis and it once was a living practice in the fourth, fifth and sixth centuries as many inscriptions (see Corp In III) as stated further on show. And the result was exactly as stated here; the sons of the Brahmin women became Brahmins and of the Kshatriya women became Kshatriyas. As Brahmins and Kshatriyas ate the same food even up to the 7th century such marriages were not offensive. The history of the development of the caste system in India may be given here in a nutshell. The race being the same, caste in ancient times among the Aryans was merely occupational. Hence Brahmins often married Kshatriya wives. In oldest times their progeny was treated as of the Brahmin caste. By degrees, however, caste became rigid and the progeny of such marriages was treated as intermediate between Brahmins and Kshatriyas. In further process of rigidification of caste the progeny followed the caste of the mothers. Such was the case in about the 6th century A. D. Lastly from about the 8th or 9th century onward marriage was restricted to the same caste only. This history is easily deducible from a comparison of the Smritis and from inscriptions. As this is not the place to discuss the subject, we stop here. But what has been said here is enough to show that the progeny of a Brahmin man and a Kshatriya woman being treated as Kshatriya is not curious (see Manu स्त्रीष्वनन्तरजातासु द्विजैरुत्पादितान् सुतान् । सदृशानैव तानाहुर्मातृदोषविगर्हितान् ॥ VI. 10). But supposing it was so, the curiosity is not great, nor does it follow that therefore the Padihars were foreigners.