Caṇḍālas are said to have served as perimeter guardians of the army of the famed king Jayāpīḍa, as attested in Kalhaṇa's _Rājataraṅgiṇī_ (at RT 4.516).
Not all who would have fought were kṣatriya-s.
John
From: INDOLOGY [indology-bounces@list.indology.info] on behalf of Nagaraj Paturi [nagarajpaturi@gmail.com]
Sent: Friday, October 14, 2016 10:59 PM
To: Paolo Eugenio Rosati
Cc: Indology List
Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] R: warriors v soldiers
Sent: Friday, October 14, 2016 10:59 PM
To: Paolo Eugenio Rosati
Cc: Indology List
Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] R: warriors v soldiers
Patrick,
I was able to see the table due to your offline help. I expected a community-wise classification in the table.
In any case, it is common place knowledge among Indologists who studied varNa and caste systems that varNa is, to a large extent, textual and what is real is in fact caste. Kshatriya is a varNa category drawn from older Sanskritic texts and used to attribute
to individuals of several different tribes and castes who took over roles similar to the ones enlisted as the dharma of the Kshatriyas in the Sanskrit texts. The roles that these tribes and castes took over range from the foot soldier to the emperor. In other
words, most of the kings, emperors, soldiers, military officials of all ranks hailed from not the Kshatriya varNa but several different tribes and castes.
Kshatriyization of tribes and castes, its role in the upward mobility of tribes and castes, the concept of Sachchhudras floated during medieval times to 'explain' the Brahma-Kshatriya behaviour and the Kshatriya roles of different 'S'udra' communities,
etc. are all beaten track among the Indology and Indian history discussions.
I shall provide you specific examples and references, depending on your purpose and question.
Since it is such a beaten track, many other members of the list may also be able to help you.
On Sat, Oct 15, 2016 at 1:41 AM, Paolo Eugenio Rosati
<paoloe.rosati@gmail.com> wrote:
Patrick, I can say that Pallava and Cola rulers probably used Tribal people as soldiers as testified by some sculptural reliefs of "victorious Durga", where two worshippers at her sides are represented with somatic traits of Tribals---and self-cutting their heads or flesh from their thigh. I think your question is interesting.
Paolo
Paolo E. Rosati
Oriental Archaeologist
PhD candidate in Civilisations of Asia & Africa
Section: South Asia
Dep. Italian Institute of Oriental Studies (ISO)
'Sapienza' University of Rome
paoloe.rosati@uniroma1.it
paoloe.rosati@gmail.com
Mobile: (+39) 3387383472
Skype: paoloe.rosati
Da: patrick mccartney
Inviato: 14/10/2016 03:30
A: Indology List
Oggetto: [INDOLOGY] warriors v soldiers
Dear Friends,
Please forgive the possibly naive nature of this question, but was it the case that all warriors were considered to be of the same kṣatriya class? Or, was it possible that the 'officers' were kṣatriyas and the 'foot soldiers' were perhaps of a different caste, i.e. enslaved śudras forced to fight? Is there any discussion of the militiary organisation according to ranks, size and hierarchy similar to the table below?
Thanks in advance.
All the best,
Patrick McCartney, PhDFellowSchool of Culture, History & Language
College of the Asia-Pacific
The Australian National University
Canberra, Australia, 0200
Skype - psdmccartneyPhone + Whatsapp: +61 414 954 748Twitter - @psdmccartney
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Nagaraj Paturi
Hyderabad, Telangana, INDIA.
Former Senior Professor of Cultural Studies
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