in the post Buddhist era kshatriya support for a brahminic revival was very thin, so Pushyamitra Sunga took the radical step, for the first time in history, of a brahmin assuming the kingship himself, and he sought the military support of the nomadic white Huns to take down the Buddhist kingdom, thereby giving birth to what is called the Manuvadi or endogamous caste system (the name of Manu was invoked, according to a standard classical era practice, but the actual text was composed by a court intellectual called Sumit Bhargava)
Posted on: Sat, 19 Apr 2014 22:24:38 +0000