History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v2.c28.s1.63

v2.c28.s1.63

The Brahmins had not turned Buddhists in any great numbers and had not lost touch with the Vedas and the Vedic sanskāras or practices. The other two varṇas on the other hand had become Buddhists in thousands and had lost all touch with the Vedic religion. When, Buddhism being overthrown, these came back to Hinduism, most of them had forgotten their gotras and had no knowledge of the gāyatri and they were naturally looked upon as Śūdras. They still adhered to certain practices of their own and kept their distinctness as Kshatriyas and Vaiśyas. The bigoted Brahmins could not assign to the descendants of Pulakeśin and others who had performed the most orthodox Vedic sacrifices, the status of Kshatriyas in the newly constituted Hindu society and gradually the opinion gained strength that in the Kali age there remained only two varṇas the Brahmins and the Śūdras, and found expression in the Purāṇic text कलावाद्यन्तयोः स्थितिः. When this happened is not quite clear but that it is an interpolation of a date later than the 10th century A. D. and that it arose in the south or the east cannot be gainsaid. The existence of Kshatriyas in the south was never disputed in the 1st century A. D. as may be seen from the expression खतिय दपमान दमनस्स in one of the Nasik cave inscriptions of Gotamīputra (Ind. Ant. p. 37) which means “who crushed the pride of Kshatriyas.” It is wrongly stated here that “these Kshatriyas are the native Indian princes of Rājputāna, Gujarat and Central India.” These parts were never invaded by Gotamīputra. What the epithet means is that Gotamīputra Śātakarṇi who was a Śūdra and who came from Dhanakaṭaka had humbled the pride of the Kshatriyas, of course, of the Deccan itself. There were Kshatriyas in the Deccan itself at that time viz., the Rāṣṭrakūṭas and others and one need not go to Rājputāna of the modern day to find Kshatriyas in the 1st century A. D. Then again we know that there were Kshatriyas in the Deccan and the South in the 7th century A. D. Not only Hiuen Tsang describes the Pallavas of Kāñchi and the Chālukyas of Badāmi as Kshatriyas, but the stone and copper records of these families distinctly state that they had performed Aśvamedha and other Vedic sacrifices and that they claimed to be Kshatriyas e. g. in the epithet क्षत्रचूडामणिः inscribed on the walls of a temple at Madurā. It seems, therefore, certain that the theory that there were no Kshatriyas in the Kali age had not arisen till the seventh century A. D.