Kayastha is a caste or community of Hindus originating in India. Kayasthas are considered
to be members of the literate scribe caste, and have traditionally acted as record-keepers,
keepers of public accounts, writers and administrators of the state.
Kayasthas have historically occupied the highest government offices, serving as ministers and
advisors during early medieval Indian kingdoms and the Mughal Empire, and holding important
administrative positions during the British Raj.
In modern times, Kayasthas have attained success in politics, as well as in the arts and various
professional fields.
Origins According to the Hindu scriptures known as
the Puranas, Kayasthas are descended from Chitragupta, "who was born from the body of
Brahma", and is the deity responsible for recording the deeds of humanity, upholding
the rule of law, and judging whether human beings go to heaven or hell upon death.
Brahmanical religious texts refer to them as a caste of scribes, recruited in the beginning
from the Brahmin, Kshatriya and Vaishya castes, but eventually they formed distinct subcastes
in northern and western India. Kayasthas have therefore also been mentioned as a "mixed
caste", combining Brahman-Sudra and sometimes Kshatriya as well.
In eastern India, Bengali Kayasthas are believed to have evolved from a class of officials
into a caste between the 5th/6th century AD and 11th/12th century AD, its component elements
being putative Kshatriyas and mostly Brahmins. According to Tej Ram Sharma, an Indian historian,
the Kayasthas of Bengal had not yet developed into a distinct caste during the reign of
the Gupta Empire, although the office of the Kayasthas had been instituted before the beginning
of the period, as evidenced from the contemporary Smritis. Sharma further states:
"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 and Vaidya 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."
Varna status
The exact varna status of Kayasthas has been a subject of debate. According to multiple
accounts, they are a literate and educated class of Kshatriyas, and have been referred
to as a twice-born caste "whose claims to Kshatriya status need not be caviled at."
Other sources rank Kayasthas higher than Kshatriyas. Some Kayasthas have claimed Brahmin status,
though this has been challenged by other Brahmin groups.
In Bengal, Kayasthas, alongside Brahmins, are regarded as the "highest Hindu castes"
that comprise the "upper layer of Hindu society." In Maharashtra, the Chandraseniya Kayastha
Prabhu claim Kshatriya status through descent from a Kshatriya king of the Haihaya clan.
In northern India and Pakistan, Muslim Kayasthas are descended from members of the Hindu Kayastha
community that converted to Islam during the 15th-16th centuries.
During the British Raj, British courts classified Kayasthas as Shudras, based largely upon the
theories of Herbert Hope Risley. However, the Kayasthas of Bengal, Bombay and the United
Provinces repeatedly challenged this classification, producing a flood of books, pamphlets, family
histories and journals to support their position of holding Kshatriya status.
History Classical India
Brahmanical religious texts refer to Kayasthas as a caste responsible for writing secular
documents and maintaining records from the 7th century AD onward.
According to the historical chronicle known as the Rajatarangini, written by Kalhana in
the 12th century AD, Kayasthas served as prime ministers and treasury officials under several
Kashmiri kings. Prior to the 13th century AD, during the rule
of Hindu kings, Kayasthas dominated public service and had a near-monopoly on appointments
to government positions. They may also have been described as Karanas, since the two groups
performed similar functions. According to Abu al-Fazl, Emperor Akbar's
prime minister, Kayasthas were rulers of the Pala Empire, one of the major early medieval
Indian kingdoms that originated in Bengal. In Bengal, during the reign of the Gupta Empire
beginning in the 4th century AD, when systematic and large-scale colonization by Aryan Kayasthas
and Brahmins first took place, Kayasthas were brought over by the Guptas to help manage
the affairs of state. Medieval India
Upon the Muslim conquest of India, Kayasthas mastered Persian, which became the official
language of the Mughal courts. Some converted to Islam and formed the Muslim Kayasth community
in northern India. One of the most notable Kayasthas of the Mughal
period was Raja Todar Mal, Emperor Akbar's finance minister and one of the court's nine
Navaratnas, who is credited with establishing the Mughal revenue system. He also translated
the Bhagavata Purana from Sanskrit into Persian. In Bengal, Kayasthas served as governors,
prime ministers and treasury officials under Mughal rule.
As a result of their exalted status amongst Muslim sultans, many Bengali Kayasthas became
zamindars and jagirdars. According to Abu al-Fazl, most of the Hindu zamindars in Bengal
were Kayasthas. Maharaja Pratapaditya, the King of Jessore
who declared independence from Mughal rule in the early 17th century, was a Kayastha.
British India During the British Raj, Kayasthas continued
to proliferate in public administration, qualifying for the highest executive and judicial offices
open to Indians. Bengali Kayasthas took on the role occupied
by merchant castes in other parts of India and profited from business contacts with the
British. In 1911, for example, Kayasthas and Brahmins owned 40% of all the Indian-owned
mills, mines and factories in Bengal. Some of the significant figures of the Indian
independence movement were Kayasthas, including the spiritual leaders Swami Vivekananda and
Sri Aurobindo, and the revolutionary leader Subhas Chandra Bose.
Modern India The Kayastha are found mostly in central,
eastern and northern India, and particularly in Bengal. Today, there are an estimated 800,000
Kayasthas in India. Kayasthas that have risen to prominence since independence include the
country's first president, Rajendra Prasad, and its second prime minister, Lal Bahadur
Shastri. Kayasthas are considered a Forward Caste,
as they do not qualify for any of the reservation benefits alloted to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled
Tribes and Other Backward Classes that are administered by the Government of India.
Notables Some noteworthy people of the Kayastha caste
of India Swami Vivekananda
Subhas Chandra Bose Rajendra Prasad - first President of India
Lal Bahadur Shastri Mahadevi Varma
Ravi Shankar Prasad Sonu Nigam
See also Bengali Kayastha
Muslim Kayasths References
Further reading Maithili Karna Kayasthak Panjik Sarvekshan
by Binod Bihari Verma, A Survey of Panjis of Maithil Karna Kayasthas.
R V Russel and Rai Bahadur Hiralal. The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India:
Volume III. Macmillan and Co. Limited, London. Asok Mitra. The tribes and castes of West
Bengal. Superintendent, Govt. Print. West Bengal Govt. Press. Retrieved 28 April 2011.
Colonial Perceptions of Indian Society and the Emergence of Caste(s) Associations Lucy
Carroll, The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 37, No. 2, pp. 233–250.
Kali Prasad. The Kayastha ethnology, an enquiry into the origin of the Chitraguptavansi and
Chandrasenavansi Kayasthas. American Methodist Mission Press, Lucknow.