But the modern good cultivating castes retain the status of the Vaishyas as the Rajputs retain that of the Kshatriyas.

The case of the Jats and Gujars supports this view.

These two castes are almost certainly derived from Scythian nomad tribes, who entered India long after the Vedic Aryans.

And there is good reason to suppose that a substantial proportion, if not the majority, of the existing Rajput clans were the leaders or aristocracy of the Jats and Gujars.

Thus it is found that in the case of these later tribes the main body were shepherds and cultivators, and their descendants have the status of good cultivating castes at present, while the leaders became the Rajputs, who have the status of the Kshatriyas; and it therefore seems a reasonable inference that the same had previously been the case with the Aryans themselves.