TIL

Pali Dictionary

by U Kyaw Tun, et. al.

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Contents of this file: khattiya |

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hkat

khattiya

{hkat~ti.ya.}

UMK-USL p31
n. 1. one belonging to the ruling class.
    There were four classes:
    1. brāhmana -- priestly class
    2. khattiya -- ruling class
    3. vessa -- tradesman
    4. sudda -- servants
2. one duly consecrated king; king of royal blood

khattiya Sk. kṣatriya -- a member of one of the clans or tribes recognised as Aryan descent. (UKT: the word "Aryan" is no longer used in North America because of the Nazi connotation, and has been substituted with Indo-European). To be such was to belong to the highest social rank. -- PTS p232

UKT: There was intense rivalry between the brāmana and khattiya in the days of Gautama Buddha. The brāmanas insisting that one becomes a member of a class by birth, while Buddha insisted that a person becomes a member of a class by his conduct and livelihood. Eventually, the brāmanas won giving rise to the present-day caste system in India.
   This fact is the key to deciding what language Buddha spoke. Buddha evidently spoke the language of the local people known as māgadi after the name of the area now in present-day Nepal where Buddha was born. The Pali is the sanskritised form of māgadi. See PTS Pali Dictionary Foreword.
   In Myanmar, khattiya -- is interpreted as the "ruling class" -- not a caste. The following is from: Democracy in Ancient India, by Steve Muhlberger, Associate Professor of History, Nipissing University, Canada. Originally posted February 8, 1998.  http://www.nipissingu.ca/department/history/muhlberger/histdem/indiadem.htm
   " Brahmanical literature gives kingship a central place in political life, and seldom hints that anything else is possible. For moral philosophers and legislators such as Manu (reputed author of the Manu-Smrti between 200 B.C.-A.D. 200), the king was a key figure in a social order based on caste (varna ). Caste divided society into functional classes: the Brahmans had magical powers and priestly duties, the ksatriyas were the rulers and warriors, the vaisyas cultivators, and the sudras the lowest part of society, subservient to the other three. Moral law or dharma depended on the observance of these divisions, and the king was the guarantor of dharma , and in particular the privileges of the Brahmans. note03 Another tradition is best exemplified by the Arthasastra of Kautilya (c. 300 B.C.), which alloted the king a more independent role but likewise emphasized his responsibility for peace, justice and stability. note04"
   The article by S. Muhlberger is to be read with his notes:
"note03. A.S. Altekar, State and Government in Ancient India, 3rd edn. rev. and enlarged (Delhi, 1958; first ed. 1949), p. 1; the Manu-Smrti translated by G. Bühler as The Laws of Manu, vol. 25 of Sacred Books of the East, hereafter SBE] ed. F. Max Müller (Oxford, 1886). note03b
" note04. Kautilya's Arthasastra, trans. by R. Shamasastry, 4th ed. (Mysore, 1951; first ed. 1915). note04b. "

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