In the flow of the social cycle, a class is always dominant.
Originally, no well-knit social system had evolved. So we may call this age the proletarian (shu’dra) era. In those days all people survived by their physical labor. Then came the era of the valiant, which we may term the warrior (ks’attriya) era. This was followed by the age of intellectuals (vipra). Finally comes the commercialist or capitalist (vaeshya) era. As a result of the rapacity of the capitalist era, when the warriors and intellectuals are relegated to the level of proletariat, proletariat revolution (shu’dra viplava) occurs. As the proletariat has neither a strongly built society nor sufficient intelligence, the administration of post capitalist society goes into the hands of those who lead the proletariat revolution. These people are brave and courageous, and so they establish the advent of the second warrior era. After the successive order of proletariat-warrior-intellectual-capitalist eras comes revolution, and then the second cycle of similar successive order begins. Thus the rotation of the social cycle (samaja cakra) continues.
Ananda Sutram (1962)
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