Bengali Kayastha

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

Bengali Kayastha (

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]

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

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

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

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

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]

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

References

Citations

  1. ISBN 978-0-313-37462-3
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  2. ^ a b Hutton, John Henry (1961). Caste in India: Its Nature, Function, and Origins. Indian Branch, Oxford University Press. p. 65.
  3. ^
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  4. ^ a b Wink (1991), p. 269
  5. ISBN 978-0-761-99849-5
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  6. JSTOR 44508277
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  7. ISBN 978-93-84082-99-4
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  8. ^ a b Hopkins (1989), pp. 35–36
  9. ^ a b Sharma (1978), p. 115
  10. ISBN 9788188658626
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  11. ISBN 9788120810242
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  12. ^ Chakraborty, Rabindra Nath (1985). National Integration in Historical Perspective: A Cultural Regeneration in Eastern India. Mittal Publications. p. 124.
  13. ^ a b Eaton (1996), p. 102
  14. ISBN 978-0-8364-0633-7
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  15. ^ a b c MAJUMDAR, R. C. (1971). HISTORY OF ANCIENT BENGAL. G. BHARADWAJ , CALCUTTA. p. 433.
  16. S2CID 163001574
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  17. ISBN 978-0-19-508118-3
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  19. ^ a b c Inden (1976), p. 1
  20. ^ Leach, Edmund; Mukherjee, S. N. (1970). Elites in South Asia. Cambridge University Press. p. 55.
  21. ISBN 978-1-134-49429-3
    . Retrieved 19 April 2021.
  22. ^ Sircar, Jawhar(2016).THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE HINDU IDENTITY IN MEDIEVAL WESTERN BENGAL.Institute Of Development Studies Kolkata. pp.68
  23. JSTOR 26697893
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  24. ^
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  25. ISBN 978-0-19-973824-3
    .
  26. ISBN 978-1-4384-1258-0
    . there being no Kshatriya or Vaishya element in the indigenous population of Bengal. Ritually, the rank of the Baidya and the Kayasthas is the same as those of the Nabasakhs with whom they constitute the upper strata of the Bengali Sudras known as satsudra [sat meaning clean]. They are also referred to as jalacharaniya Sudras because of their right to offer drinking water to the clean Brahmans who can minister to them without defilement. However, in the secular context the Baidyas and Kayasthas, who were mostly landholders and professionals, occupy a much higher rank than the nabhasakshs, who are mostly traders, manufacturers, and agriculturists. It is due to this reason that Brahmans, Baidyas, and Kayasthas are usually combined together and referred to as uchchajati, i.e. higher castes
  27. ISBN 978-0-226-73137-7
    . And Ronald Inden confirms, after spending 1964 and part of 1965 in Bengal preparing a dissertation on Kayasthas, that intermarriage is becoming increasingly frequent among the urban sections of the Kayasthas, Brahmans, and Vaidyas, that is, among those Western-ized and educated twice-born castes dominating the modern, better-paying, and more prestigious occupations of metropolitan Calcutta and constituting perhaps half of the city's population
  28. ^ a b Inden (1976), p. 34
  29. ^ Inden (1976), p. 1–2
  30. ISBN 978-1-134-49429-3
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  31. ^ Sengupta (2001), p. 25
  32. ^ Gupta (2009), pp. 103–104
  33. ^ "Dutta Chaudhuri Ancestry". 14 February 2021.
  34. ^ Inden (1976), pp. 55–56
  35. OCLC 258335
    . Aurobindo's father, Dr Krishnadhan Ghose, came from a Kayastha family associated with the village of Konnagar in Hooghly District near Calcutta, Dr. Ghose had his medical training in Edinburgh...
  36. S2CID 210540783
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  37. ^ Gosling (2007). Science and the Indian Tradition: When Einstein Met Tagore.
  38. ISBN 978-07-6580-186-9
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  39. ^ "Kancha Ilaiah Shepherd: Unusual Autobiography Of A Shudra Intellectual| Countercurrents". 21 December 2018. Retrieved 27 August 2021.
  40. ^ Chakravorty, Reshmi (13 December 2016). "Professor Debapratim Purkayastha: The case study expert". Deccan Chronicle. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
  41. ^ "Dr. Debapratim Purkayastha: Best Selling Case Author". Open The Magazine. 8 November 2019. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
  42. ISBN 978-1-86151-490-5
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  43. ISBN 978-0-670-88158-1
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  44. ISBN 978-81-7156-291-6
    . Retrieved 5 July 2012.
  45. ^ Sananda Lal Ghosh,(1980), Mejda, Self-Realization Fellowship, p.3

Bibliography

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