The Protectors

Rāmāyaṇa is indeed the story of the historic encounter between the ārya and the vaḍukar, the inhabitants of the Deccan peninsula. But what becomes obvious from the story of Rāma is that in this encounter the kshatriya functioned as the shield and the sword - the protector - of the brāmhaṇa; it was for this, perhaps, that the kshatriya was given a full entry into the ārya fold. In the Purāṇas and Epics one finds several instances of a seamless transmigration of kshatriya into brāmhaṇa, and vice versa.