Ever since the shúdras⁽¹⁾ took shelter under the kśatriyas, the Kśatriya Era began in human society, but the Kśatriya Era did not come overnight. A multitude of fragmented shúdra societies gradually accepted the authority of the kśatriyas, resulting in a process of integration under them. In other words, each kśatriya, under whom a new social system was founded with the union of many shúdra societies, became the symbol of shúdra unity. This acceptance of a kśatriya as the symbol of shúdra unity came as the result of socio-psychic transmutation and was the first evolution in human history.

Different groups came into being in human society, each under a representative kśatriya. To preserve the purity of blood and the identity of each group, brave and spirited women were recognized as gośt́hii mátá [clan mothers] in this primary stage. Every man and woman in a clan used to bear the name of the clan mother as their lineal identity. The value of a separate identity for a father or a mother was not realized in those days as both the father and the mother belonged to the same clan. After the death of the clan mother the necessity of determining the identity of a mother arose only when, as per convention, the clan divided into subclans at the time of the selection of a new clan mother. In other words, initially kśatriya society was matriarchal. The clan system of the Kśatriya Era was the first stage in the evolution of a social system.

The fight for prestige and supremacy raged between different clans during the Kśatriya Era, and so in the kśatriya order love and affection for the respective clans was more in evidence than it was in the Shúdra Era. The spiritedness and self-conceit of the kśatriyas not only inspired the crude materialistic intelligence of the people to unite and form a society, but their sense of prestige and sentiment also greatly helped in consolidating these kśatriya groups. That is to say, although the struggle for self-existence was the main issue, the fight for prestige was in no way secondary. This sentiment and sense of prestige of the Kśatriya Era gave and still gives the human race ample inspiration in its conquest over matter.

The shúdras fought solely for self-preservation, whereas the kśatriyas fought for their survival as well as for the establishment of their supremacy. The aim of the shúdras was to gather food and ensure their own security, whereas the kśatriyas were in pursuit of conquest and dignity. This sense of prestige in the kśatriyas developed a subtler intelligence in them, awakened their conscience and stimulated their power of judgement. To slay the disarmed, to slaughter women, children or old people, to murder those who had surrendered or to kill those running away for their lives from a fight went against the grain of kśatriya conscience. In essence, the valour of the kśatriyas was instrumental in their surpassing the animal stratum as they learnt to understand human values. It was this sense of values that raised conjugal and domestic life to human standard to a great extent. Instead of conjugal relations being limited to the status of enjoyer and the enjoyed, they began to contain a sense of duty. With the establishment of conjugal relationships a sense of duty awakened in the father towards his children. Consequently, as soon as the responsibilities of mothers lessened to some extent, women became dependent on men for their food and clothes, particularly during the period of pregnancy and during the post-delivery period. As a result, married couples, though belonging to the same group, began to emerge in previously male-centred households. As families were male-centred, male-dominated groups became evident and clan mothers lost their previous authority.

In these kśatriya societies of ancient times, men and women came to be recognized as husband and wife, although there was no strong binding in their conjugal relations. Society was male-dominated even in the latter half of the Kśatriya Era, and men used to have many wives, reminiscent of the Shúdra Era. The only difference between the polygamous nature of the two eras was that the wives of the Shúdra Era had no social ties with their husbands, but the husbands and wives of the latter half of the Kśatriya Era did have socially recognized marital ties. Although the kśatriya society of the latter half of the Kśatriya Era was better disciplined and better constructed than that of the first half, the stability of conjugal and group relationships depended more on the physical ability and bravery of the group leaders and members than on pure humanism and a sense of discipline. The slogan of this Kśatriya Era was, “This world belongs to the valiant”.

Human beings are emotional beings. Needless to say, in the later half of the Kśatriya Era, with the awakening of a sense of responsibility and affection for their children by parents, children, too, became conscious to some extent of a sense of duty towards their parents. These duty-conscious children were also vigilant and kept up their fathers’ prestige, heroism and tradition, so the fathers wanted their children to be the heirs and successors of their manliness, heroism and heritage. Thus, as the relationship between them grew closer and closer, stronger ties and more compactness developed in the society. The preservation of family heroism and tradition necessitated the careful selection of suitable brides and grooms for marriage, and it was because of this that socially recognized matrimony gradually evolved in the Kśatriya Era, replacing unrecognized and unauthorized relationships between men and women.

Footnotes

(1) Shúdra and kśatriya are social classes, reflecting labourer and warrior mentalities, respectively. Their respective eras refer to the periods in history when those mental types dominated the society. –Trans.