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The Predecessors of The 24th Jina
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the stem ‘kshad' to kill, to carve meat, to divide, to distribute food and also means charioteer, driver of the harness. The word ‘kshatra' signifies strength, might, power, domination. Is it not proper to conclude from this that the head of each communefamily group was known sometime by the name of kshatri? It is possible that this designation already existed during the stage of hunting economy; amongst the shepherds' patriarchal tribes, those males of the tribe who headed the family-kin (tribal) groups were precisely called kshatri.
It is also possible that not only the heads of these groups but all the males of the tribes in general, each of whom can potentially head the family-kin group were called kshatri. Probably all these kshatris were not always and necessarily converted into members of the kshatriya soldier caste. Growth of the settled way of life, development of agriculture and trade, division of traders-all this required specialisation of economic activity and at this stage, from the pre-vedic kshatri not only the warrior-caste was formed but also other groups of population, out of which later, in the developed class society, caste of kshatriya-traders, kshatriya-farmers, kshatriya-handicraftsmen etc., were also formed. In those times, the word 'kshatri' must have stood as a synonym of the name Arya of Aryan, since kshatriya martial caste did not exist in the period when Aryan tribes were roaming from place to place in the near Caspian regions and in Central Asia. The kshatri was that social environment, out of which a military apex grew. This apex was the future military aristocracy, that kshatriya caste, which is very widely known in the Indian history. It was the caste of agriculturists, trainers and handicraftsmen, who were the male kshatriyas of preclass society in the epoch of further division of work.
The first Aryan colonisers who were isolated from the main mass of their own people and who had left from the caste were compelled to adopt themselves to that culture and that ethnical environment in which they found themselves. These original conditions, which were taking shape in the eastern part of the Gangetic plains were the most important factor, ensuring extensive development of new religious teachings, in particular of Jainism and Buddhism, in the middle of the first millennium B. C.
The republic Janapadas of the eastern regions, as also the republics, which were existing in other regions of India are widely
