Hindu Administrative Institutions c6.s4.16

c6.s4.16

Again when thieves abound in large numbers, and when respect to authority wanes and the intermixture of caste results, all the classes are entitled to take up arms in defence.³ A Brahman can take up arms on three occasions : for self-defence, for protection from dangerous and wicked men, and when he is robbed of his property.⁴ Also it is said, ‘ He who would serve as the shore on the shoreless place and as a boat in the boatless place is always entitled to respect whether he be a Śūdra or any other.’⁵ The idea contained herein shows that the ancients did not attach much importance to the so-called superiority of certain castes. Here the position accorded to the Śūdra must make one concede how catholic and how elastic the social system was as it was worked in ancient India.