History of Mediaeval Hindu India (being a History of India from 600 to 1200 A.D.) v3.c41.7

v3.c41.7

This long extract will show to us that this description of Hindu castes is not as accurate as that given in Volume II from previous Arab writers. The splitting of Kshatriyas into ruling Kshatriyas and cultivating Kshatriyas spoken of by Ibn Khordadba (Vol. II p. 179) is not even mentioned here. Probably in 1040 A. D. Rajputs had been so decimated and perhaps had fallen so low that they did not impress Al-Beruni separately. The statement in the Gāhadavāla inscription quoted before (p. 221) seems thus to be true of the condition of things at this time, that the Kshatriya ruling clans had almost been destroyed at least in the Panjab and U. P. and the recitation of the Veda had almost stopped when Chandra Gāhadavāla rehabilitated both. Secondly, Al-Beruni speaks somewhat from the books and not from actual observation and further says nothing about marriage. Ibn Khordadba stated that the Brahmins and Rajputs married from the lower caste of Kshatriyas and we have the historical mention of Rājaśekhara marrying a Chauhan lady. Probably in Al-Beruni's time (or later when castes were consolidated) such marriages had altogether stopped. Thirdly, Al-Beruni does not speak of intermediate castes which must have been many, nor of any subdivisions of the principal castes which probably had not yet arisen.