State and Government in Ancient India c13.33

c13.33

There is sufficient evidence to show that in the Gaṇa states the non-Kshatriyas were sharply distinguished from the ruling aristocracy. This distinction was so well established that special terms were devised to indicate it. Thus in the Mālava and Kshudraka Gaṇa states, the terms Mālava and Kshudraka denoted only the members of the privileged Kshatriya order; those, who were neither the Kshatriyas nor the Brāhmaṇas, were called, not Mālavas or Kshudrakas, but Mālavyas and Kshudrakyas respectively. It seems that the Brāhmaṇas could get exemption from being designated as Mālavyas and Kshudrakyas under certain circumstances, which, however, are not quite clear.²