A Bengali Kayastha is a
Bengali Hindu
Bengali Hindus ( bn, বাঙ্গালী হিন্দু/বাঙালি হিন্দু, translit=Bāṅgālī Hindu/Bāṅāli Hindu) are an ethnoreligious population who make up the majority in the Indian states of West Ben ...
who is a member of the
Kayastha community. The historical caste occupation of Kayasthas throughout India has been that of scribes, administrators, ministers and record-keepers;
the Kayasthas in
Bengal
Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...
, along with
Brahmins
Brahmin (; sa, ब्राह्मण, brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within Hindu society. The Brahmins are designated as the priestly class as they serve as priests ( purohit, pandit, or pujari) and religious teachers (guru ...
and
Baidya
Baidya or Vaidya is a Hindu community located in Bengal. Baidyas, a caste (''jāti'') of Ayurvedic physicians, have long had pre-eminence in society alongside Brahmins and Kayasthas. In the colonial era, the Bhadraloks were drawn primarily, b ...
s, are regarded among the three traditional higher castes
that comprise the "upper layer of Hindu society." During the
British Raj
The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent;
*
* it is also called Crown rule in India,
*
*
*
*
or Direct rule in India,
* Quote: "Mill, who was himsel ...
, the
Bhadralok
Bhadralok (, literally 'gentleman', or 'well-mannered person') is Bengali for the new class of 'gentlefolk' who arose during British rule in India in the Bengal region in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent.
Caste and class makeup
Accordi ...
s of Bengal were drawn primarily, but not exclusively, from these three castes, who continue to maintain a collective hegemony in
West Bengal
West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...
.
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
The Ganges ( ) (in India: Ganga ( ); in Bangladesh: Padma ( )). "The Ganges Basin, known in India as the Ganga and in Bangladesh as the Padma, is an international river to which India, Bangladesh, Nepal and China are the riparian states." is ...
and
Yamuna
The Yamuna (Hindustani language, Hindustani: ), also spelt Jumna, is the second-largest tributary river of the Ganges by discharge and the longest tributary in List of major rivers of India, India. Originating from the Yamunotri Glacier at a ...
rivers, remained insulated from the full impact of
Brahminical orthodoxy for many centuries, and the impact of Buddhism remained strong there. During the reign of the
Gupta Empire
The Gupta Empire was an ancient Indian empire which existed from the early 4th century CE to late 6th century CE. At its zenith, from approximately 319 to 467 CE, it covered much of the Indian subcontinent. This period is considered as the Gold ...
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. But the influence of Buddhism continued under the Buddhist rulers of the
Pala dynasty from the eighth through the eleventh century CE. Of note, the Kayasthas had not yet crystallised into a caste, and represented a professional group.
According to
Tej Ram Sharma, an Indian historian, the office of Kayastha in Bengal was instituted before the Gupta period ( to 550 CE), although there is no reference to Kayastha as a caste at that time. He says that
Sharma also mentions that
D. R. Bhandarkar
Devadatta Ramakrishna Bhandarkar ( mr, देवदत्त रामकृष्ण भांडारकर; 19 November 1875 – 13 May 1950) was an Indian archaeologist and epigraphist who worked with the Archaeological Survey of India (AS ...
"has pointed out that identical surnames are used by the
Nagara-brahmanas".
Referring to some medieval literature, Rabindra Nath Chakraborty mentions that according to such medieval texts, "the Kayasthas were descended from Nagara Brahmin who had a large settlement in Bengal in the eighth century AD".
According to
André Wink
André Wink is an emeritus professor of history at University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is known for his studies on India and the Indian Ocean area, particularly over the medieval and early modern age (700 to 1800 CE). He is the author of a series ...
, 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
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 subcont ...
. Between that time and the 11th–12th century, this category of officials or scribes was composed of "putative"
Kshatriya
Kshatriya ( hi, क्षत्रिय) (from Sanskrit ''kṣatra'', "rule, authority") is one of the four varna (social orders) of Hindu society, associated with warrior aristocracy. The Sanskrit term ''kṣatriyaḥ'' is used in the con ...
s and, "for the larger majority",
Brahmin
Brahmin (; sa, ब्राह्मण, brāhmaṇa) is a varna as well as a caste within Hindu society. The Brahmins are designated as the priestly class as they serve as priests (purohit, pandit, or pujari) and religious teachers (guru ...
s, who retained their caste identity or became
Buddhists
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...
. As in
South India
South India, also known as Dakshina Bharata or Peninsular India, consists of the peninsular southern part of India. It encompasses the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Telangana, as well as the union territo ...
,
Bengal
Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...
had lacked a clearly defined Kshatriya caste. The
Pala Pala may refer to:
Places
Chad
*Pala, Chad, the capital of the region of Mayo-Kebbi Ouest
Estonia
* Pala, Kose Parish, village in Kose Parish, Harju County
* Pala, Kuusalu Parish, village in Kuusalu Parish, Harju County
*Pala, Järva County, vi ...
,
Sena,
Chandra
Chandra ( sa, चन्द्र, Candra, shining' or 'moon), also known as Soma ( sa, सोम), is the Hindu god of the Moon, and is associated with the night, plants and vegetation. He is one of the Navagraha (nine planets of Hinduism) a ...
, 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".
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.
Lexicographer Vaijayanti (11th century CE) appears to consider Kayastha and Karana as being synonymous and depicts them as scribes.
Two early scriptures of Bengal also note a caste group called Karana. Some scholars consider Karana and Kayastha castes as identical or equivalent. Other scholars claim that the Karana and Kayastha castes eventually fused to form a single caste in Bengal like other parts of India.
Referring to the linkages between class and caste in Bengal, Bandyopadhyay mentions that the Kayasthas along with the Brahmins and
Baidya
Baidya or Vaidya is a Hindu community located in Bengal. Baidyas, a caste (''jāti'') of Ayurvedic physicians, have long had pre-eminence in society alongside Brahmins and Kayasthas. In the colonial era, the Bhadraloks were drawn primarily, b ...
s, refrained from physical labour but controlled land, and as such represented "the three traditional higher castes of Bengal".
Eaton mentions that the Kayasthas continued as the "dominant landholding caste" even after the
Muslim conquests on the Indian subcontinent
The Muslim conquests in the Indian subcontinent mainly took place from the 13th to 17th centuries. Earlier Muslim conquests include the invasions into what is now modern-day Pakistan and the Umayyad campaigns in India in eighth century and res ...
, and absorbed the descendants of the region's old Hindu rulers.
In Bengal, between 1500 and 1850 CE, the Kayasthas were regarded as one of the highest Hindu castes in the region.
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, 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
Dvija (Sanskrit: द्विज) means "twice-born" in ancient Indian Sanskrit. The concept is premised on the belief that a person is first born physically and at a later date is born for a second time spiritually, usually when he undergoes the ...
'' or twice-born. According to Bellenoit,
Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...
supported the claims of Kshatriya origin, because of 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 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.
The Report of the 1931 census of Bengal noted that, the 'better-placed' Kayastha community claimed Kshatriya status.
Modern views
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
Dvija (Sanskrit: द्विज) means "twice-born" in ancient Indian Sanskrit. The concept is premised on the belief that a person is first born physically and at a later date is born for a second time spiritually, usually when he undergoes the ...
status."
According to
John Henry Hutton
John Henry Hutton FRAI (27 June 1885 – 23 May 1968) was an English-born anthropologist and an administrator in the Indian Civil Service (ICS) during the period of the British Raj. The period that he spent with the ICS in Assam evoked an interes ...
, Kayastha is an important caste in Bengal, 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".
Sanyal mentions that due to the lack of Vaishya and Kshatriya categories in Bengal, all non-Brahmin castes of Bengal, including the so-called "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.
Lloyd Rudolph and
Susanne Rudolph mention that
Ronald Inden
__NOTOC__
Ronald B. Inden is a professor emeritus in the Departments of History and of South Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago and is a major scholar in South Asian and post-colonial studies. Inden has been a lifelong ...
(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.
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". The Bengali Kayastha was organised into smaller
sub-castes and even smaller ranked grades of clans (''kulas'') around 1500 CE. 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") 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.
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".
Kulin Kayastha
Kulin Kayasthas are a sub-caste of the Kayastha caste in West Bengal, India. They are also known as the Kulina Kayasthas.
The Kayasthas are regarded in Bengal, along with the Bengali Brahmins, Brahmins and Baidyas, as being the "highest Hindu ca ...
s, a subcaste of Bengali Kayasthas have an associated myth of origin stating that five Kayasthas accompanied the Brahmins from
Kannauj
Kannauj ( Hindustani pronunciation: ənːɔːd͡ʒ is a city, administrative headquarters and a municipal board or Nagar Palika Parishad in Kannauj district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The city's name is a corrupted form of the class ...
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
Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...
lacking historical authenticity. According to Swarupa Gupta this legend was According to this legend, the five original Kayastha clans are
Bose/Basu,
Ghosh
Ghosh (or Ghose) is an Indian and Bangladeshi surname found among Bengali Hindus.
Ghoshes mostly belong to Kayastha caste in Bengal. The Bengali Kayasthas evolved as a caste from a category of officials or scribes, between the 5th/6th century AD ...
,
Mitra,
Guha, and
Datta, the first four of whom became Kulin Kayasthas.
Notable people
*
Pratapaditya
Pratapaditya was a Mughal vassal of Jessore and a powerful Zamindar of lower Bengal, before being crushed by the Mughal Empire. He was eulogized, in an ahistorical manner, by 20th century Bengali nationalists as a Hindu liberator from foreign (Is ...
, the king of Jessore who declared independence from Mughal rule in the early 17th century,
*
Kirtinarayan Basu
Kirtinarayan Basu ( bn, কীর্তিনারায়ণ বসু; r. 1668), also spelt Kirti Narayan Basu, was the fifth ''raja'' of medieval Chandradwip, a ''zamindari'' which covered much of the Barisal Division of present-day Bangladesh ...
, 17th-century Raja of Chandradwip who converted to Islam
*
Sri Aurobindo, Indian philosopher, yogi and nationalist.
*
Nagendranath Basu
Nagendranath Basu ( bn, নগেন্দ্রনাথ বসু; 6 July 1866 – 11 October 1938) was an archaeologist, encyclopaedist and a nationalist social historian of Bengal.
Early life
Nagendranath was born in the village of Mahesh ...
, historian and editor
*
Jagadish Chandra Bose, Indian scientist
*
Subhas Chandra Bose, popularly known as ''Netaji'' ("Respected Leader")
*
Debapratim Purkayastha
Debapratim Purkayastha (Bengali: দেবপ্রতিম পুরকায়স্থ; born 1976) was a professor of strategy, academic leader and case method expert.
Early life and education
Purkayastha was born in Hailakandi, Assam, t ...
, Indian educator and bestselling author
*
Satyendra Prasanna Sinha, 1st Baron Sinha
*
Swami Vivekananda (b. Narendranath Datta)
*
Paramahansa Yogananda
Paramahansa Yogananda (born Mukunda Lal Ghosh; January 5, 1893March 7, 1952) was an Indian Hindu monk, yogi and guru who introduced millions to the teachings of meditation and Kriya Yoga through his organization Self-Realization Fellowsh ...
, author of ‘
Autobiography of a Yogi
''Autobiography of a Yogi'' is an autobiography of Paramahansa Yogananda (5 January 1893 – 7 March 1952) first published in 1946.
Paramahansa Yogananda was born as Mukunda Lal Ghosh in Gorakhpur, India, into a Bengali Hindu family. ...
’.
[Sananda Lal Ghosh,(1980), Mejda, Self-Realization Fellowship, p.3]
References
Citations
Bibliography
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{{Bengali Hindu people
Bengali Hindu surnames
Bengali Hindu castes
Kayastha