Bengali Kayastha

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Bengali Kayastha
Calcuttakayasth.jpg
A Kayastha of Calcutta, from a 19th century book
Regions with significant populations
Bengal
Languages
Bengali
Religion
Hinduism

Bengali Kayastha (Bengali : বাঙালি কায়স্থ), is a Bengali Hindu caste originated from the Bengal region of Indian subcontinent, and is one of the main subgroups of the Kayastha community. The historical caste occupation of Kayasthas throughout India has been that of scribes, administrators, ministers and record-keepers; [1] the Kayasthas in Bengal, along with Brahmins and Baidyas, are regarded among the three traditional higher castes [2] [3] that comprise the "upper layer of Hindu society." [4] During the British Raj, the Bhadraloks of Bengal were drawn primarily, but not exclusively, from these three castes, who continue to maintain a collective hegemony in West Bengal. [5] [6] [7]

Contents

History

The social and religious patterns of Bengal had historically been distinctively different from those in the orthodox Hindu heartland of North India and this impacted on how the caste system developed there. Bengal, being located east of the traditional Aryavarta (Aryan) region between the Ganges and Yamuna rivers, remained insulated from the full impact of Brahminical orthodoxy for many centuries. The influence of Buddhism remained strong there, continuing under the Buddhist rulers of the Pala dynasty from the eighth through the eleventh century CE. [8]

During the Gupta period, Kayastha had not crystallised into a caste, and represented a professional group. Kayasthas frequently appear in the Gupta inscriptions mostly as professional writers or scribes. [9] The importance of the lekhaka or writer seems to have increased during the Gupta period; the term 'Kayastha' was a part of the Gupta administrative terminology. A number of inscriptions during this period mention the office of Prathama-Kayastha, meaning chief scribe in the administrative office, and represented "probably the Chief Secretary to the administrative Board". [10] [11]

According to Tej Ram Sharma, an Indian historian, the office of Kayastha in Bengal was instituted before the Gupta period (c.320 to 550 CE), although there is no reference to Kayastha as a caste at that time. He says that

The names of brahmanas occurring in our inscriptions sometimes end in a non-brahmanic cognomen such as Bhatta, Datta and Kunda, etc., which are available in the inscriptions of Bengal. Surnames like Datta, Dama, Palita, Pala, Kunda (Kundu), Dasa, Naga and Nandin are now confined to Kayasthas of Bengal but not to brahmanas. Noticing brahmanic names with a large number of modern Bengali Kayastha cognomens in several early epigraphs discovered in Bengal, some scholars have suggested that there is a considerable brahmana element in the present day Kayastha community of Bengal. Originally the professions of Kayastha (scribe) and Vaidya (physician) were not restricted and could be followed by people of different varnas including the brahmanas. So there is every probability that a number of brahmana families were mixed up with members of other varnas in forming the present Kayastha and Vaidya communities of Bengal.

Sharma also mentions that D. R. Bhandarkar "has pointed out that identical surnames are used by the Nagara-brahmanas". [9] Referring to Naishadha Charita and Usanas-samhita smriti, Rabindra Nath Chakraborty mentions that according to these two medieval texts, "the Kayasthas were descended from Nagara Brahmin who had a large settlement in Bengal in the eighth century AD". [12]

According to André Wink, another historian, the caste is first referred to around the 5th–6th century CE, and may well have become so identified during the period of the Sena dynasty. Between that time and the 11th–12th century, this category of officials or scribes was composed of "putative" Kshatriyas and, "for the larger majority", Brahmins, who retained their caste identity or became Buddhists. As in South India, Bengal had lacked a clearly defined Kshatriya caste. The Pala, Sena, Chandra, and Varman dynasties and their descendants, who claimed the status of Kshatriya, "almost imperceptibly merged" with the Kayastha caste, "which also ranked as shudras". However, Richard M. Eaton opines that, after absorption of remnants of these dynasties, Kayastha became "the region's surrogate Kshatriya or warrior class". [4] [13]

Sekhar Bandyopadhyay also places their emergence as a caste after the Gupta period. In the eleventh century, Bengal was in the grip of Brahminism. The Kayastha evolved into a caste (from a professional group) in the 10th-11th century CE. Ancient scripts and inscriptions record a class of royal officials of writers or accountants, denoted as Karana or Kayastha. [14] [15] Lexicographer Vaijayanti (11th century CE) appears to consider Kayastha and Karana as being synonymous and depicts them as scribes. [15] Two early scriptures of Bengal also note a caste group called Karana. Some scholars consider Karana and Kayastha castes as identical or equivalent. [16] [17] [18] Majumder claims that the Karana and Kayastha castes eventually fused to form a single caste in Bengal like other parts of India. [15] Referring to the linkages between class and caste in Bengal, Bandyopadhyay mentions that the Kayasthas along with the Brahmins and Baidyas, refrained from physical labour but controlled land, and as such represented "the three traditional higher castes of Bengal". [3] Eaton mentions that the Kayasthas continued as the "dominant landholding caste" even after the Muslim conquests on the Indian subcontinent, and absorbed the descendants of the region's old Hindu rulers. [13]

In Bengal, between 1500 and 1850 CE, the Kayasthas were regarded as one of the highest Hindu castes in the region. [19]

Varna status

The Hindu community in Bengal was divided into only two varnas: Brahmins and Shudras. Hence, although the Bengali Kayasthas and Baidyas had a high social status along with Brahmins, their ritual status was low, according to Edmund Leach, S. N. Mukherjee, [20] though it seems their ritual status is a subject of dispute as per other historians.

Colonial era

A survey of Indian writers and observers suggests that many of those acquainted with the Kayasthas considered them as Dvija or twice-born. Bellenoit gives the examples of Rabindranath Tagore and Abdul Halim Sharar to illustrate this point. According to Bellenoit, "although Tagore had Bengal specifically in mind, he argued that the Dutts, Ghoshs and Guhas were of Kshatriya origin, again citing their 'respectability and prominence in administration and overall rates of literacy'". Abdul Sharar, who was well acquainted with them also supported their claims of twice-born (Kshatriya and Vaishya origin) citing their high literacy rate which a Shudra caste could not have achieved. However, the claims of Bengali Kayasthas of having Dvija status was not supported by Indian observers like Jogendra Nath Bhattacharya who cited their rituals to refute their claims. [21] The Report of the 1931 census of Bengal noted that, the 'better-placed' Kayastha community claimed Kshatriya status. [22]

Modern views

Some scholars note that "Hindu communities labelled 'Kayastha' are found all over northern India, but historically, their social ranking was not uniform. At different times and in different places, those labelled Kayastha were accorded the same status as Brahmins, Kshatriyas or Sudras, and there was even a claim that they formed a fifth varna within the Hindu caste structure". [23] Bengali Kayastha individuals are not uniformly from the northern region of India; however, they form a district genetic cluster. [24]

Professor Julius J. Lipner mentions that the varna status of the Bengali Kayasthas is disputed, and says that while some authorities consider that they "do not belong to the twice-born orders, being placed high up among the Shudras; for other authorities they are on a level with Kshatriyas, and are accorded twice-born status." [25] According to John Henry Hutton, Kayastha is an important caste, which in Bengal "ranks next to Brahman"; the caste is now "commonly regarded as 'twice-born', and itself claims to be Kshatriya, though it was perhaps more often regarded as clean Sudra a hundred years ago". [2] Sanyal mentions that due to the lack of Vaishya and Kshatriya categories in Bengal, all non-Brahmin castes of Bengal, including the "higher castes" are considered as Shudras; the Bengali Kayasthas are considered among the three uchchajatis or higher castes as their social standing has been high. [26] Lloyd Rudolph and Susanne Rudolph mention that Ronald Inden (an anthropologist), after spending part of 1964-'65 in Bengal, states in his dissertation on Kayasthas that inter-caste marriages are increasing among the urban educated "twice-born castes", Kayasthas, Brahmins, and Baidyas. [27]

Subcastes

Kulin Kayastha and Maulika Kayastha

According to Inden, "many of the higher castes of India have historically been organised into ranked clans or lineages". [19] The Bengali Kayastha was organised into smaller sub-castes and even smaller ranked grades of clans (kulas [28] ) around 1500 CE. [29] The four major subcastes were Daksina-radhi, Vangaja, Uttara-radhi and Varendra. The Daksina-radhi and Vangaja subcastes were further divided into Kulina or Kulin ("high clan rank") [19] and Maulika or Maulik, the lower clan rank. The Maulika had four further "ranked grades". The Uttara-radhi and Varendra used the terms "Siddha", "Sadhya", "Kasta" and "Amulaja" to designate the grades in their subcastes. [28]

Origin myths

Bellenoit states that the Bengali Kayasthas are "largely seen as an offshoot of the main north Indian Kayasthas, they claim lineage from migrations into Bengal from the ancient capital of Kanauj at the request of Hindu Kings (900s) to settle the countryside. These Kayasthas took on the well known names of Ghosh, Mitra and Dutt. Over time they fashioned themselves as a Gaur subdivision of a broader Kayastha group, who claimed north Indian origins". [30]

Kulin Kayasthas, a subcaste of Bengali Kayasthas have an associated myth of origin stating that five Kayasthas accompanied the Brahmins from Kannauj who had been invited to Bengal by the mythological king Adisur. Multiple versions of this legend exist, all considered by historians to be myth or folklore lacking historical authenticity. [31] According to Swarupa Gupta this legend was

... fitted into a quasi-historical, sociological narrative of Bengal and deployed to explain the realities of caste and sub-caste origins and connections during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. [32]

According to this legend, the five original Kayastha clans are Bose/Basu, Ghosh, Mitra, Guha, and Datta, [33] the first four of whom became Kulin Kayasthas; [34] [8] the legend talks about the migration of Brahmins with the five Kayasthas, from Kannauj to Bengal, forming a caste considered to be of high status. [24]

A modern genetic study evaluating this myth found that "individuals belonging to some of the Kayastha lineages, whether termed Kulin or Moulik in later times, show genetic relatedness with present-day populations in Uttar Pradesh (Bose, Pal), while others show a significant genomic contribution from South India, or do not yield any informative signal on the basis of available Indian populations for comparisons (Nandi)." [24]

Notable people

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kshatriya</span> Ruling and warrior class of the Hindu varna system

Kshatriya is one of the four varnas of Hindu society and is associated with the warrior aristocracy. The Sanskrit term kṣatriyaḥ is used in the context of later Vedic society wherein members were organised into four classes: brahmin, kshatriya, vaishya, and shudra.

Shudra or Shoodra is one of the four varnas of the Hindu varna system and social order in ancient India. Some sources translate it into English as a caste, or alternatively as a social class. Theoretically, Shudras constituted a class like employees.

Varṇa, in the context of Hinduism, refers to a social class within a hierarchical traditional Hindu society. The ideology is epitomized in texts like Manusmriti, which describes and ranks four varnas, and prescribes their occupations, requirements and duties, or Dharma.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kayastha</span> Community of India

Kayastha or Kayasth denotes a cluster of disparate Indian communities broadly categorised by the regions of the Indian subcontinent in which they were traditionally located—the Chitraguptavanshi Kayasthas of North India, the Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhus of Maharashtra, the Bengali Kayasthas of Bengal and Karanas of Odisha. All of them were traditionally considered "writing castes", who had historically served the ruling powers as administrators, ministers and record-keepers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sena dynasty</span> Hindu dynasty of Bengal region, ruled 10th to 12th century

The Sena dynasty was a Hindu dynasty during the early medieval period on the Indian subcontinent, that ruled from Bengal through the 11th and 12th centuries. The empire at its peak covered much of the north-eastern region of the Indian subcontinent. The rulers of the Sena Dynasty traced their origin to the south Indian region of Karnataka.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bengali Brahmin</span> Hindu caste originating from the Bengal region of the Indian subcontinent

Bengali Brahmins are the community of Hindu Brahmins, who traditionally reside in the Bengal region of the Indian subcontinent, currently comprising the Indian state of West Bengal and the country of Bangladesh.

Srivastava, also spelled variously as Shrivastava, Shrivastav or Srivastav, is a common surname found amongst the Chitraguptavanshi Kayastha community of upper caste Hindus particularly in the Hindi-speaking regions of India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mahishya</span> Bengali Hindu predominantly agrarian caste

Mahishya, also spelled Mahisya, is a Bengali Hindu traditionally agrarian caste, and formed the largest caste in undivided Bengal. Mahisyas were, and are, extremely diverse Bengali caste counting among themselves all possible classes in terms of material conditions and ranks.

Dasgupta is a common Bengali Hindu last name or surname that is used by the Bengalis of West Bengal, Assam, Tripura and Bangladesh. The surname is found among the members of the Baidya caste of Bengal.

Pal, alternative form "Paul", is a common surname found in India and Bangladesh. It is traditionally believed that 'Pal' originated from the Sanskrit pala meaning protector or keeper. It is also occasionally found in other countries.

Ambashtha or Ambastha is a caste or sub-caste or a community of Hindus in India. According to Hindu scriptures, the term Ambastha refers to the offspring of a Brahmin father and a Vaishya mother, whose traditional occupation was the practice of medicine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kalita (caste)</span> Indian Hindu caste in Assam

Kalita is an ethnic group or a caste of Assamese Hindus belonging to the state of Assam in North East India. Kalita is a forward caste and belongs to General or Unreserved category. Kalita represents a category in the tribe-caste continuum of Assamese society that is placed between the Keot on one side and Ganak and Brahmin on the other. According to historians like S.L.Barua, Kalitas started migrating from North and East India to Assam during the 11th century rule of Dharmapal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kulin Kayastha</span> Sub-caste of the Kayastha caste in West Bengal, India

Kulin Kayastha is a sub-caste of the Bengali Kayastha caste in Bengal region of Indian subcontinent. They are also known as the Kulina Kayasthas.

Baidya or Vaidya is a Hindu community located in Bengal. A caste (jāti) of Ayurvedic physicians, the Baidyas have long had pre-eminence in society alongside Brahmins and Kayasthas. In the colonial era, the Bhadraloks were drawn primarily, but not exclusively, from these three upper castes, who continue to maintain a collective hegemony in West Bengal.

Maulika Kayastha, is a sub-caste of Bengali Kayasthas originated from the Bengal region of Indian subcontinent. The Bengali Kayasthas are subdivided into different classes or ranks and also divided in terms of their geographical locations. According to legend, the Bengali Hindu King Ballal Sen started the ranking system of Brahmins, Kayasthas and Baidyas in Bengal. The highest ranked Brahmins and Kayasthas are known as Kulin Brahmins and Kulin Kayasthas, respectively, and those Kayasthas not considered to be Kulins are designated Maulikas, Mauliks, Mouliks or Moulikas.

Karan Kayastha is a community of Kayasthas that inhabit Orissa and the Mithila region, a region now divided between India and Nepal.

Suvarna Banik, popularly called Bene, is a Bengali mercantile caste dealing in gold and silver. During the late eighteenth century, merchants of the Suvarnabanik caste became prominent in trade. Despite their depressed status, they were the most well known trading caste in Bengal region as per the 1951 Census of India.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chitraguptavanshi Kayastha</span> North Indian branch of Kayastha caste

Chitraguptavanshi Kayastha, also referred to as North-Indian Kayastha, is a subgroup of Hindus of the Kayastha community that are mainly concentrated in the Hindi Belt of North India.

Kulinism or Kulin Pratha is a practice that envisages an elite position within the varna/jati configuration, derived from spiritual and ritual purity. Upper castes in Bengal were divided into exogamous classes, with ritual status determined by lineage purity and family marital history, with Kulins having the highest status. The Kulagranthas or Kulapanjikas are the foundational narrative of kulinism in Bengal, detailing its development over centuries and focusing on kulina lineages and social interaction norms. The Kulapanjikas state that King Ballal Sena initiated Kulinism, which conferred titles of nobility upon the Brahmanas, Kayasthas, and Vaidyas in Bengal. According to texts, King Adisura invited Brahmins to settle in the region from Kanauj and designated them higher in social status. The texts further state that King Ballal Sena introduced kulinism, designating certain lineages of Brahmins and Kayasthas with higher social status due to superior virtues and practices; This system further extended to Baidya jatis, not associated with Kanauj migration. It appears to have started among the Baidyas with attributes like riches, education, good actions, etc., which were standardised by Samajapatis, Kulapanjikaras, and Ghatakus, as suggested by Sircar. Lakshmana Sena, the son and heir of Ballala Sena, is said to have made additional changes and controls to the establishment of kulinism. It is worth noting that the accounts of Kulpanjis in connection to kulinism are viewed with suspicion and have largely been accepted as unhistorical by scholars.

Kundu is a common Bengali Hindu surname found among the Bengali Kayastha, Teli and some other communities of India and Bangladesh.

References

Citations

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Bibliography