Ambashtha or Ambastha is a

caste A caste is a Essentialism, fixed social group into which an individual is born within a particular system of social stratification: a caste system. Within such a system, individuals are expected to marry exclusively within the same caste (en ...

or sub-caste or a community of

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

s in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. According to Hindu scriptures, the term Ambastha refers to the offspring of a

Brahmin Brahmin (; ) is a ''Varna (Hinduism), varna'' (theoretical social classes) within Hindu society. The other three varnas are the ''Kshatriya'' (rulers and warriors), ''Vaishya'' (traders, merchants, and farmers), and ''Shudra'' (labourers). Th ...

father and a

Vaishya Vaishya (Sanskrit: वैश्य, ''vaiśya'') is one of the four varnas of the Vedic Hindu social order in India. Vaishyas are classed third in the order of Varna hierarchy. The occupation of Vaishyas consists mainly of agriculture, takin ...

mother, whose traditional occupation was the practice of medicine. The term Ambastha is now used to describe a particular sub-caste within the

Chitraguptavanshi Kayastha 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. In Hindu texts and traditions, they are described to have de ...

community, now found mainly in North-Indian region (

Bihar Bihar ( ) is a states and union territories of India, state in Eastern India. It is the list of states and union territories of India by population, second largest state by population, the List of states and union territories of India by are ...

and

Jharkhand Jharkhand (; ) is a States and union territories of India, state in East India, eastern India. The state shares its border with the states of West Bengal to the east, Chhattisgarh to the west, Uttar Pradesh to the northwest, Bihar to the north ...

Origin

Hindu Scriptures

In the ancient Indian epic

Mahabharata The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; , , ) is one of the two major Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epics of ancient India revered as Smriti texts in Hinduism, the other being the ''Ramayana, Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the events and aftermath of the Kuru ...

, a warrior tribe named Ambastha has been mentioned. During Alexander's invasion, they had 60000 infantry, 6000 horsemen and 500 chariots. They have been described as inhabitants of northwestern part of Indian subcontinent (near Lahore), and they were conquered by Nakula and paid tribute to Yudisthira. They fought in the Kurukhetra war (initially for the Pandavas but later for Drona). They took to different professions like priesthood, farming and medicine, and are assumed to have migrated to eastern India later on. The term Ambastha also get mentioned in Hindu text

Manusmriti The ''Manusmṛti'' (), also known as the ''Mānava-Dharmaśāstra'' or the Laws of Manu, is one of the many legal texts and constitutions among the many ' of Hinduism. Over fifty manuscripts of the ''Manusmriti'' are now known, but the earli ...

as the offspring of a union between Brahmin male and Vaishya female.

Varna status

Ridgeon mentions about the myth related to the origin of the four varnas in the

Rigveda The ''Rigveda'' or ''Rig Veda'' (, , from wikt:ऋच्, ऋच्, "praise" and wikt:वेद, वेद, "knowledge") is an ancient Indian Miscellany, collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns (''sūktas''). It is one of the four sacred canoni ...

, and says that in order to explain "the great number of castes, a theory was developed that unions between men and women of different varnas produced offspring of various castes". Citing the Hindu text ''Parasara'', Leslie mentions that the Ambastha is supposed to treat the Brahmins only, and hence considered as "a clean caste, definitely below the brahman, but certainly well within the twice-born group". This differentiates the Ambasthas from the average Vaidyas, who were considered "unclean" and were denied the status accorded to the Ambastha.

Ambashthas of Bihar

According to

Bindeshwari Prasad Sinha Bindeshwari Prasad Sinha (1919–2002) was an Indian archaeologist and historian specialising in ancient Indian history. Sinha was a professor and head of the Department of History and Archaeology at Patna University. He was the founder of Bihar ...

the ancient Ambasthas migrated to Bihar and created a sub-division of the greater Kayastha caste of this region.

Early medieval Bengal

In the ''Brihaddharma Purana'' the Ambashthas and the

Baidya Baidya or Vaidya is a Bengali Hindu community located in the Bengal region of Indian subcontinent. A caste (''jāti'') of Ayurvedic physicians, the Baidyas have long had pre-eminence in society alongside Brahmins and Kayasthas. In the coloni ...

s/Vaidyas were considered as the same caste in its list of 36 castes but another text, the

Brahma Vaivarta Purana The ''Brahmavaivarta Purana'' (; ) is a voluminous Sanskrit text and one of the major Puranas (''Maha-purana'') of Hinduism. It is an important Vaishnava text. This Purana majorly centers around the Hindu deities Radha and Krishna. Although ...

considered them as two separate sub-castes. Bharatmallik (17th century), the author of the ''Chandraprabha'' and ''Bhattitika'' has introduced himself as both Vaidya and Ambashtha, which indicates both the castes may have been considered as one in early medieval Bengal.Roy, Niharranjan (1993). ''Bangalar Itihas:Adiparba'' (in Bengali), Kolkata:Dey's Publishing, , pp.227,246-7

References

* Ambastha Kayastha (The Evolution of a Family and Its Socio-Cultural Dimensions)/K.N. Sahay. New Delhi, Commonwealth, 2001, xxi, 344 p. 42. {{ISBN, 81-7169-660-0. Kayastha Social groups of Uttar Pradesh Social groups of West Bengal