The Social Organisation in North-East India in Buddha's Time c10.10

c10.10

If now even in our eyes, the khattiyas of the Pali texts have a caste-like character, on account of their consciousness of their high status and their attaching great value to purity of blood, we should not be surprised if they were looked upon by the authors of the Buddhistic canon as a “caste.” Too much influenced by the Brahmanical theory, too much inclined by virtue of their being Indians to schematise, with the result that they made distinctions between class, caste, common status and profession, they saw in the Khattiyas as much a caste as in the Brâhmaṇas. Consequently, everywhere in the Pali texts, khattiyas are spoken of as a “caste”; along with the Brâhmaṇas, Vessas and Suddas, they are mentioned and mentioned as the first in the caste-series.