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TheGreatOneSea t1_j4cv5ds wrote

Reply to comment by Shehvar in Simple/Short/Silly History Questions Saturday! by AutoModerator

The Kshatriya, the warrior part of the caste system.

It might feel like an overly simple answer, but what being a knight or samurai actually meant would also change massively over the centuries, and the common definition of 'minor landed nobility' often doesn't fit, so we need to be that broad to be accurate.

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boluroru t1_j4dkgz1 wrote

Eh, Ksatriyas weren't ( or aren't I guess) all warriors. They were supposed to be warriors or at least rulers and administrators in theory but in practice not so much

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TheGreatOneSea t1_j4e06s5 wrote

That's true, but also the problem: the same thing eventually happened with the Samurai, and knights varied by region, with some Spanish knights being administrators involved with commerce, where French knights would be explicitly banned from such a thing.

The only thing really in common is the expectation that such a class will provide something of value to a war when needed, and that they're supposed to be able to fight, even if they really can't.

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boluroru t1_j4eta3e wrote

Ok I wasn't aware that there were samurai and knights that didn't fight in wars

I would say though that ksatriyas were/are a much broader social class and included many sub castes and communities most members of which never even touched a weapon in their lives

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