The Political Institutions and Theories of the Hindus: A Study in Comparative Politics c15.s5.11

c15.s5.11

Further, the theory of national service on the question of castes is explicitly stated in the *Śukra-nîti*. According to this treatise caste is to play no part in the consideration of a person's qualifications for officership. No officer in the army hierarchy from *âjutika* (general in command of ten thousand troops) down to the *gaulmika* (head of thirty) and *pattipâla* (head of five or six) is to be selected from any privileged class, tribe or race. Only such persons as are well up in *nîti-śâstras*, in the use of arms and ammunitions, the manipulation of battle arrays, and in the art of management and discipline, as are not too young but of middle age, as are brave, self-controlled, able-bodied, always mindful of their own duties, as are devoted to their superiors and hate their enemies should be made commanders and soldiers, no matter whether they are Śûdras, Kṣatriyas, or Vaiśyas or even descended from *Mlechchhas* (or unclean barbarians).¹