History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v2.c28.s1.74

v2.c28.s1.74

Whatever the explanation of this wrong statement of the Mitākṣarā, there is no doubt about its being wrong and of the fact that Kshatriyas and Rajputs from centuries preceding the Mitākṣarā had gotras of their own, gotras which indicated descent. In fact even now the Rajputs of Rajputana and elsewhere have gotras which are different from the gotras of their Purohitas as ascertained from inquiries specially made on the subject, the result of which is embodied in the note attached hereto. The question may here be asked, how it is that Kshatriyas and Brahmins and even Vaiśyas have the same gotras. How is it that Kshatriyas of the solar and lunar lines could have Brahmin Ṛishis for their ancestors? We will discuss this question also in detail in our note, but it is necessary to indicate here the answer to this question. It will be a revelation to many persons that in ancient times down to the period at which we have arrived, caste in India was not hard-bound as it is to-day, especially in the three higher castes which formed the Aryan element in the population. Not only Brahmins and Kshatriyas married from one another's caste but even changed their caste easily. Thus many Vedic and Puranic legends show how Kshatriyas became Brahmins and Brahmins became Kshatriyas. The Ṛishis of Pravaras and even of gotras it will be a revelation to many are both Kshatriyas and Brahmins indiscriminately, that is to say, in the Pravara Ṛishis of many Brahmins there are Kshatriya kings as ancestors and in the Pravara Ṛishis of Kshatriyas there are Brahmin Ṛishis also. It is indeed a really unsectarian affair viz., the Pravara system as it has been laid down from the Vedic age; though some attempt is made in the Śrauta Sūtras to differentiate between Brahmins and Kshatriyas it is only the beginning of the cleavage between the two; but in actual practice through all the intervening centuries down to this day the gotras and Pravaras are the same for Brahmins and Rajputs and even for Vaiśyas, the three classes of the Aryan race. Consequently we may be sure that the Rajput claim to Aryan descent, to descent from the Kshatriyas of the Vedic times is not at all ill-founded but is founded on long tradition extending back to thousands of years before the Christian era. When and why these Vedic Aryans migrated into Rajputana we shall try to discover in the next chapter from legend as well as from history.