View source for Kayastha

{{short description|Community of India}}
{{pp-protect|small=yes}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}}
{{Infobox caste
|caste_name=Kayastha
|subdivisions={{ubl|[[Bengali Kayastha]], [[Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhu]] and [[Chitraguptavanshi Kayastha]]
|populated_states=[[Uttar Pradesh]], [[Assam]], [[Delhi]], [[Bihar]], [[Jharkhand]], [[West Bengal]], [[Orissa]], [[Madhya Pradesh]], [[Chhattisgarh]], [[Maharashtra]]
|religions= Majority: [[Hinduism]]|
Minority: [[Islam]]<ref>{{cite book |author1=Jahanara |title=Muslim kayasthas of India |date=2005 |publisher=K.K. Publications |location=Allahabad, India |oclc=255708448 |language=English |id=Monographic study of an anthropological investigation of the Muslim Kayasthas with special reference to Uttar Pradesh}}</ref>}}|image=Calcuttakayasth.jpg|caption="Calcutta Kayastha", a late 18th-century depiction by [[Frans Balthazar Solvyns]]|image_size=160px}}

'''Kayastha''' (also referred to as '''Kayasth''') denotes a cluster of disparate [[South Asian ethnic groups|Indian]] communities broadly categorised by the regions of the [[Indian subcontinent]] in which they were traditionally located{{mdash}}the [[Chitraguptavanshi Kayastha]]s of [[North India]], the [[Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhu]]s of [[Maharashtra]], the [[Bengali Kayastha]]s of [[Bengal]] and [[Karan (caste)|Karanas]]<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Das |first=Biswarup |date=1980 |title=KAYASTHAS AND KARANAS IN ORISSA—A STUDY ON INSCRIPTIONS— |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44141924 |journal=Proceedings of the Indian History Congress |volume=41 |pages=940–944 |jstor=44141924 |issn=2249-1937}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Raut |first=L.N. |title=Jati Formation in Early Medieval Orissa: Reflection on Karana (Kayastha Caste) |date=2004 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44144743 |journal=Proceedings of the Indian History Congress |volume=65 |pages=304–308 |jstor=44144743 |issn=2249-1937}}</ref> of [[Odisha]]. All of them were traditionally considered "writing [[caste]]s", who had historically served the ruling powers as administrators, ministers and record-keepers.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Imam|first=Faitma|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/755414244|title=India today : An encyclopedia of life in the republic. Vol. 1, A–K|date=2011|publisher=ABC-CLIO|others=Arnold P. Kaminsky, Roger D. Long|isbn=978-0-313-37463-0|location=Santa Barbara|pages=403–405|oclc=755414244}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Leonard|first=Karen|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/60856154|title=Encyclopedia of India|publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons|year=2006|isbn=0-684-31349-9|editor-last=Wolpert|editor-first=Stanley|location=Detroit|pages=22|oclc=60856154|quote=All three were "writing castes", traditionally serving the ruling powers as administrators and record keepers.}}</ref>

The earliest known reference to the term ''Kayastha'' dates back to the [[Kushan Empire]],<ref name="Visvanat 2014"/> when it evolved into a common name for a writer or [[scribe]].<ref name=":162">{{Cite journal|last=Gupta|first=Chitrarekha|date=1983|title=The writers' class of ancient India—a case study in social mobility|url=http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/001946468302000203|journal=The Indian Economic & Social History Review |language=en |volume=20|issue=2|pages=194|doi=10.1177/001946468302000203 |s2cid=144941948 |quote=The short inscriptions mentioned earlier indicate that from about the first century B.C. the scribes or writers played an important role in society and their profession was regarded as a respectable one ... the first mention of the term Kayastha, which later became the generic name of the writers, was during this phase of Indian history}}</ref> In the [[Sanskrit]] literature and [[Epigraphy|inscriptions]], it was used to denote the holders of a particular category of offices in the government service.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Stout|first=Lucy Carol|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K15KAQAAMAAJ|title=The Hindustani Kayasthas: The Kayastha Pathshala, and the Kayastha Conference, 1873–1914|date=1976|publisher=University of California, Berkeley|pages=18–19|language=en|quote=Such an argument is supported by the manner in which the term "Kayastha" is used in Sanskrit literature and inscriptions—i.e., as a term for the various state officials ... It seems appropriate to suppose that they were originally from one or more than one existing endogamous units and that the term "Kayastha" originally meant an office or the holder of a particular office in the state service.}}</ref> In this context, the term possibly derived from {{lang|und|kaya-}} ('principal, capital, treasury') and -{{lang|und|stha}} ('to stay') and perhaps originally stood for an officer of the royal treasury, or revenue department.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Stout|first=Lucy Carol|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K15KAQAAMAAJ|title=The Hindustani Kayasthas: The Kayastha Pathshala, and the Kayastha Conference, 1873–1914|date=1976|publisher=University of California, Berkeley|page=20|language=en|quote=In this context, a possible derivation o the word "Kayastha" is "from ... ''kaya'' (principal, capital, treasury) and ''stha'', to stay" and perhaps originally stood for an officer of royal treasury, or the revenue department.}}</ref><ref name="Visvanat 2014"/>

Over the centuries, the occupational histories of Kayastha communities largely revolved around [[Scribe|scribal]] services. However, these scribes did not simply take dictation but acted in the range of capacities better indicated by the term "secretary". They used their training in law, literature, court language, accounting, litigation and many other areas to fulfil responsibilities in all these venues.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Davidson|first=Ronald M.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/808346313|title=Tibetan renaissance : Tantric Buddhism in the rebirth of Tibetan culture|publisher=Columbia University Press|year=2005|isbn=978-0-231-50889-6|location=New York|pages=179|oclc=808346313}}</ref><ref name=":02">{{Cite journal|last=Carroll|first=Lucy|date=February 1978|title=Colonial Perceptions of Indian Society and the Emergence of Caste(s) Associations|journal=The Journal of Asian Studies|volume=37|issue=2|pages=233–250|doi=10.2307/2054164|jstor=2054164}}</ref> Kayasthas, along with [[Brahmin]]s, had access to formal education as well as their own system of teaching administration, including accountancy, in the early-medieval India.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Chandra|first=Satish|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/191849214|title=History of medieval India : 800–1700|publisher=Orient Longman|year=2007|isbn=978-81-250-3226-7|location=Hyderabad, India|pages=50|oclc=191849214|quote=There was no idea of mass education at that time. People learnt what they felt was needed for their livelihood. Reading and writing was confined to a small section, mostly Brahmans and some sections of the upper classes, especially Kayasthas ... The Kayasthas had their own system of teaching the system of administration, including accountancy.}}</ref>

Modern scholars list them among Indian communities that were traditionally described as "urban-oriented", "upper caste" and part of the "well-educated" pan-Indian elite, alongside [[Khatri|Punjabi Khatris]], [[Kashmiri Pandit]]s, [[Parsis]], [[Nagar Brahmin]]s of Gujarat, [[Chitpawan]]s and [[Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhu]]s (CKPs) of Maharashtra, South-Indian Brahmins including [[Deshastha Brahmin]]s from Southern parts of India and upper echelons of the [[Muslim]] as well as [[Christian]] communities that made up the [[middle class]] at the time of [[Indian Independence Act 1947|Indian independence]] in 1947.<ref name=":13">{{cite book|author=Pavan K. Varma|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pbgMy8KfD74C&pg=PA28|title=The Great Indian Middle class|publisher=Penguin Books|year=2007|isbn=9780143103257|page=28|quote=its main adherents came from those in government service, qualified professionals such as doctors, engineers and lawyers, business entrepreneurs, teachers in schools in the bigger cities and in the institutes of higher education, journalists [etc] ... The upper castes dominated the Indian middle class. Prominent among its members were Punjabi Khatris, Kashmiri Pandits and South Indian brahmins. Then there were the 'traditional urban-oriented professional castes such as the Nagars of Gujarat, the Chitpawans and the Ckps (Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhus)s of Maharashtra and the Kayasthas of North India. Also included were the old elite groups that emerged during the colonial rule: the Probasi and the Bhadralok Bengalis, the Parsis and the upper crusts of Muslim and Christian communities. Education was a common thread that bound together this pan-Indian elite ... But almost all its members spoke and wrote English and had had some education beyond school}}</ref><ref name=":14">{{cite book|author1=Paul Wallace|title=Region and nation in India|author2=Richard Leonard Park|publisher=Oxford & IBH Pub. Co.|year=1985|quote=During much of the 19th century, Maratha Brahman Desasthas had held a position of such strength throughout South India that their position can only be compared with that of the Kayasthas and Khatris of North India.}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=D. L. Sheth|url=https://www.csds.in/d_l_sheth}}</ref>

==Origins==
=== Etymology ===
According to [[Merriam-Webster]], the word ''Kāyastha'' is probably formed from the [[Sanskrit]] ''kāya'' (body), and the suffix ''-stha'' (standing, being in).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Kayasth|title=Kayastha|website=Merriam-Webster.com|access-date=3 March 2020}}</ref>

=== As a class of administrators ===
As evidenced by literary and epigraphical texts, Kayasthas had emerged as a 'class of administrators' between late-ancient and early-mediaeval period of Indian history. Their emergence is explained by modern scholars as a result of growth of state machinery, complication of taxation system and the "rapid expansion of land-grant practice that required professional documenting fixation".<ref name=":42">{{Cite book|last=Vanina|first=Eugenia|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/794922930|title=Medieval Indian mindscapes : space, time, society, man|date=2012|publisher=Primus Books|isbn=978-93-80607-19-1|location=New Delhi|pages=178|oclc=794922930|quote=This group as demonstrated by epigraphical and literary texts, emerged in the period between the late ancient and early medieval times. Modern scholars explained this by the growth of state-machinery, complication of taxation system and fast spreading land-grant practice that required professional documenting fixation...Initially, these term referred only to the appointment of men from various castes, mainly Brahmans, into the Kayastha post. Gradually, the Kayasthas emerged as a caste-like community...}}</ref><ref name="Visvanat 2014">{{Cite journal|last=Visvanathan|first=Meera|title=From the 'lekhaka' to the Kāyastha: Scribes in Early Historic Court and Society (200 BCE–200 CE)|date=2014 |journal=Proceedings of the Indian History Congress|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44158358 |volume=75|pages=34–40|jstor=44158358|issn=2249-1937}}</ref> The term also finds mention in an inscription of the [[Gupta Empire|Gupta]] emperor [[Kumaragupta I]], dated to 442 <small>CE</small>, in which ''prathama-kāyastha'' ({{translation|'chief officer'}}) is used as an administrative designation.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Shah|first=K. K.|year=1993|title=Self Legitimation and Social Primacy: A Case Study of Some Kayastha Inscriptions From Central India|journal=Proceedings of the Indian History Congress|volume=54|page=858|jstor=44143088|issn=2249-1937}}</ref> The [[Yājñavalkya Smṛti]], also from the Gupta era, and the [[Vishnu Smriti]] describe ''kayasthas'' as record-keepers and accountants, but not as {{lang|sa|[[jāti]]}} ([[caste]] or clan).<ref name="bellenoit">{{Cite book|last=Bellenoit|first=Hayden J.|year=2017|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iEMlDgAAQBAJ|title=The Formation of the Colonial State in India: Scribes, Paper and Taxes, 1760–1860|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781134494361|pages=69–70}}</ref> Similarly, the term ''Kayastha'' is used in the works of [[Kshemendra]], [[Kalhana]] and [[Bilhana]] to refer to members of [[bureaucracy]] varying from {{lang|und|Gṛhakṛtyamahattama}} ({{translation|'the chief secretary in the charge of home affairs'}}) to the {{lang|und|Aśvaghāsa-kāyastha}} ({{translation|'officer in charge of the fodder for horses'}}).<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal |last=Ray |first=Sunil Chandra |date=1950 |title=A Note on the Kāyasthas of Early-Mediaeval Kāśmīra |journal=Proceedings of the Indian History Congress |volume=13 |pages=124–126 |issn=2249-1937 |jstor=44140901}}</ref>

According to [[Romila Thapar]], the offices that demanded formal education including that of a ''kayastha'' were generally occupied by the "''[[Brahmin]]s'', revenue collectors, [[treasurer]]s and those concerned with legal matters".<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gupta |first=Chitrarekha |date=1983 |title=The writers' class of ancient India— a case study in social mobility |url=https://doi.org/10.1177/001946468302000203 |journal=The Indian Economic & Social History Review |language=en |volume=20 |issue=2 |pages=191–204 |doi=10.1177/001946468302000203 |s2cid=144941948 |issn=0019-4646 |quote=According to Romila Thapar, the offices which required formal education were usually occupied by the Brahmins, revenue collectors, treasurers and those concerned with legal matters belonged to this category. She says that the same was probably true of the important but less exalted rank of scribes, recorders and accountants.}}</ref>

=== In Buddhist association ===
According to Chitrarekha Gupta, it is possible that [[Buddhist]]s, in their effort to create an educated non-[[Brahmin]] class, strove to popularize the utility of education and fostered those vocations that required a knowledge of writing. This is corroborated in [[Udāna]], where the ''lekha-sippa'' ('craft of writing'), was regarded as the highest of all the crafts. It is also backed by the fact that the earliest epigraphical records mentioning ''lekhaka'' ('writer') or ''kayastha'' have been made in association with [[Buddhism]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gupta |first=Chitrarekha |date=1983 |title=The writers' class of ancient India— a case study in social mobility |url=https://doi.org/10.1177/001946468302000203 |journal=The Indian Economic & Social History Review |volume=20 |issue=2 |pages=193–194 |doi=10.1177/001946468302000203 |s2cid=144941948 |via=SAGE}}</ref>

=== As an independent guild of professionals ===
It is possible that ''kayasthas'' may have started out as a separate profession, similar to [[bank]]ers, [[merchant]]s, and [[artisan]]s. As suggested in certain epigraphs, they had a representative in the district-level  administration, along with those of bankers and merchants. This is also implied in {{lang|sa|[[Mudrarakshasa]]}}, where a ''kayastha'' would work for any man who paid his wages on time. Possibly secular knowledge, like writing, administration, and jurisprudence, was monopolised by a non-Brahmin professional elite that later came be referred as ''kayasthas''.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gupta |first=Chitrarekha |date=1983 |title=The writers' class of ancient India— a case study in social mobility |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/001946468302000203?journalCode=iera |journal=The Indian Economic & Social History Review |volume=20 |issue=2 |pages=195 |doi=10.1177/001946468302000203 |s2cid=144941948 |issn=0019-4646 |quote=They seem to have had guilds of their own and the head of the guild, the prathama-kayastha, represented his class in the administration of the city. The profession of the kàyasthas, like those of the bankers, merchants and the artisans, was an independent one and was not necessarily associated with the king and his court....Thus it may be assumed that while the Brahmanas were engaged in studying religious literature, secular knowledge of document writing, etc., was the monopoly of a professional group, who came to be called Kayasthas.}}</ref>

==History==
=== From classical to early-medieval India ===
The Kayasthas, at least as an office, played an important role in administering the [[Indo-Gangetic Plain|Gangetic plains]] from the Gupta period. The earliest evidence comes from a [[Mathura]] inscription of [[Vasudeva I]], composed by a Kayastha [[Śramaṇa]].<ref name="Visvanat 2014"/> From this point we find, the term ''kayastha'' occurring in the inscription of the Gupta Emperor [[Kumaragupta I]] as ''prathama-kāyastha,<ref name=":23">{{Cite journal |last=Shah |first=K. K. |year=1993 |title=Self Legitimation and Social Primacy: A Case Study of Some Kayastha Inscriptions From Central India |journal=Proceedings of the Indian History Congress |volume=54 |page=858 |issn=2249-1937 |jstor=44143088}}</ref>'' as ''karaṇa-kāyastha'' in [[Vainyagupta|Vainayagupta]]’s inscription,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Majumdar |first=R. C. (Ramesh Chandra), 1888-1980. Pusalker, A. D. Majumdar, A. K. Munshi, Kanaiyalal Maneklal |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/643663693 |title=The History and Culture of the Indian People |date=1990 |publisher=Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan |volume=4 |pages=395 |oclc=643663693}}</ref> and as ''gauḍa-kāyastha'' in an Apshadha inscription dated 672 <small>CE</small>.<ref name="Mazumdar 1960">{{Cite book |last=Mazumdar |first=Bhakat Prasad |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FFJKAAAAMAAJ |title=Socio-economic history of northern India (1030-1194 A.D.)|date=1960 |publisher=Firma K. L. Mukhopadhyay |pages=99, 104|oclc=614029099 |language=en |quote=As we have got reference to the Gauda Kayasthas in the Apshad inscription, dated 672 AD...}}</ref>{{rp|104}} The occasional references to individuals of the ''Karaṇa'' caste occupying high government offices are made in inscriptions and literary works too.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Majumdar |first=Ramesh Chandra, 1888-1980. Pusalker, A. D. Majumdar, A. K. Munshi, Kanaiyalal Maneklal |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/643663693 |title=The history and culture of the Indian people |date=1990 |publisher=Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan |volume=4 |pages=374 |oclc=643663693}}</ref> Razia Banu has suggested that Brahmin and Kayastha migrants were brought to [[Bengal]] during the reign of the [[Gupta Empire]] to help manage the state affairs.<ref name="Banu 1992">{{cite book |last=Banu |first=U. A. B. Razia Akter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XyzqATEDPSgC |title=Islam in Bangladesh |publisher=Brill Academic Publishers |year=1992 |isbn=978-90-04-09497-0}}</ref>{{rp|5–6}} According to a legend, a [[Bengalis|Bengali]] King named ''Adisur'' had invited Brahmins accompanied by Kayasthas from [[Kannauj]] who became an elite sub-group described as [[Kulin Kayastha|Kulin]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Luca |first1=Pagani |last2=Bose |first2=Sarmila |last3=Ayub |first3=Qasim |date=2017 |title=Kayasthas of Bengal |url=https://www.epw.in/journal/2017/47/special-articles/kayasthas-bengal.html |journal=Economic and Political Weekly |language=en |volume=52 |issue=47 |pages=44 |quote=...which claimed that the Bengali King Adisur had invited five Brahmins from Kannauj, an ancient city in the northern Gangetic plains located in the present Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, to migrate to Bengal, in eastern India. According to legend, these five Brahmins from Kannauj were accompanied by five Kayasthas, who became an "elite" subgroup described as "kulin" among the Kayasthas of Bengal...}}</ref> However, such claims are disputable and even rejected by some scholars.<ref name="Mazumdar 1960"/>{{rp|99}}

From the ninth-century and perhaps even earlier, Kayasthas had started to consolidate into a distinct caste.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Majumdar |first=R.C. |url=http://archive.org/details/struggleforempir05bhar |title=History and Culture of the Indian People |date=2001 |publisher=Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan |others=Public Resource |editor-last=Ramakrishnan |editor-first=S. |volume=5 |pages=477 |quote=We have seen that the Kayasthas as a caste (as distinguished from the profession called by that name) can be traced back with the help of literary and epigraphic records to the latter half of the ninth century.}}</ref> This is evident from a epigraphic record dated 871 <small>CE</small> of the King [[Amoghavarsha]] that mentions a branch of Kayasthas referred to as ''vālabhya-kāyastha''. The author of the [[Sanskrit]] work ''Udayasundarī-kathā'' also referred to himself as ''vālabhya-kayāstha'' and characterized Kayasthas as 'ornaments of the [[Kshatriya|Kṣatriyas]]'.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Ghosh |first1=Jogendra Chandra |last2=Ghosh |first2=Jogesh Chandra |date=1931 |title=GLEANINGS FROM THE UDAYASUNDARĪ-KATHĀ |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41688244 |journal=Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute |volume=13 |issue=3/4 |pages=197–205 |issn=0378-1143 |jstor=41688244 |quote=The earliest mention of Kayastha as a caste-name that we have hitherto been able to find, is in the Saojan copper-plate grant of the Rastrakuta king Amoghavarsa I, dated 871 A.D. It was written by Dharmadhikarana-senabhogika Gunadhavala of the Valabha-Kayastha-vamsa, i.e. the very Kayastha family to which our poet belonged. |via=JSTOR}}</ref>

==== In Soḍḍhala’s account ====
According to Soḍḍhala'','' who claimed to be a Kayastha himself, Kayasthas traced their descent to a younger brother of the [[Maitraka dynasty|Maitrika]] king, identified as ''Śilāditya VI or VII'', referred to as ''Kalāditya''. He narrates that ''Kalāditya'' had besieged Dharmapala of the [[Pala Empire|Pala Dynasty]] that led to the victory of his elder brother. Subsequently, he was entrusted by Śilāditya to administer his kingdom at the advice of the Goddess ''Rāja Lakśmī.'' Kalāditya has been further described as an incarnation of a ''gaṇa'' ({{translation|'attendant'}}) of [[Shiva]] called ''Kayastha''.<ref name=":25"/>

==== Late medieval India ====
In Bengal, during the reign of the [[Gupta Empire]] beginning in the 4th century, when systematic and large-scale colonisation by [[Indo-Aryans|Indo-Aryan]] Kayasthas and Brahmins first took place, Kayasthas were brought over by the Guptas to help manage the affairs of state.<ref name="Banu 1992"/>{{rp|5–6}}

After the [[Muslim conquests in the Indian subcontinent|Muslim conquest of India]], they mastered [[Persian language|Persian]], which became the official language of the Mughal courts.<ref>{{cite book |last=Ballbanlilar |first=Lisa |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7PS6PrH3rtkC&pg=PA59 |title=Imperial Identity in Mughal Empire: Memory and Dynastic Politics in Early Modern Central Asia |publisher=I.B. Taurus & Co., Ltd. |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-84885-726-1 |page=59}}</ref> Some converted to [[Islam]] and formed the [[Muslim Kayasths|Muslim Kayasth]] community in [[North India|northern India]].

Bengali Kayasthas had been the dominant landholding caste prior to the Muslim conquest, and continued this role under Muslim rule. Indeed, Muslim rulers had from a very early time confirmed the Kayasthas in their ancient role as landholders and political intermediaries.<ref name="RiseofIslam" />

Bengali Kayasthas served as treasury officials and ''[[Vizier|wazirs]]'' (government ministers) under Mughal rule. Political scientist U. A. B. Razia Akter Banu writes that, partly because of [[List of rulers of Bengal#Muslim rule|Muslim sultans]]' satisfaction with them as technocrats, many Bengali Kayasthas in the administration became ''[[zamindar]]s'' and ''[[jagirdar]]s''. According to Abu al-Fazl<!--- not the redirect to the foremost Bahá'í scholar --->, most of the Hindu ''zamindars'' in Bengal were Kayasthas.<ref name="Banu 1992"/>{{rp|24–25}}

[[Pratapaditya|Maharaja Pratapaditya]], the king of Jessore who declared independence from Mughal rule in the early 17th century, was a Bengali Kayastha.<ref>{{cite book |last=Chakrabarty |first=Dipesh |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AMEECgAAQBAJ&pg=PA139 |title=The Calling of History: Sir Jadunath Sarkar and His Empire of Truth |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=2015 |isbn=978-0-226-10045-6 |page=139}}</ref>

=== In Sanskrit literature ===
The ''Kayastha'' appears as a figure in Act IX of the {{lang|sa|[[Mṛcchakatika]]}}, where a ''sreṣṭhin'' and ''kāyastha'' are shown accompanying a judge (''adhikaraṇika'') and assisting him. In Act V there is mention that "Moreover, O friend, a courtesan, an elephant, a ''Kayastha'', a mendicant, a spy and a donkey—where these dwell, there not even villains can flourish."<ref name="Visvanat 2014"/> In {{lang|sa|[[Mudrarakshasa]]}}, a Kayastha named ''Śakaṭadāsa'' is a crucial character and one of the trusted men of the Prime Minister of the [[Nanda Empire|Nanda]] King. According to Chitrarekha Gupta, the title ''Ārya'' added to the name of ''Śakaṭadāsa'' implies that he was a member of the nobility.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gupta |first=Chitrarekha |date=1983 |title=The writers' class of ancient India— a case study in social mobility |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/001946468302000203 |journal=The Indian Economic & Social History Review |volume=20 |issue=2 |pages=196 |doi=10.1177/001946468302000203 |s2cid=144941948 |issn=0019-4646}}</ref> Another Kayastha called ''Acala'' is the scribe of [[Chanakya]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Deshpande |first=R. R. |url=http://archive.org/details/dli.csl.8864 |title=Visakhadattaʼs Mudraraksasa |date=1948 |publisher=Popular book Store, Surat |pages=ii}}</ref>

In early-mediaeval Kashmir too, the term ''kayastha'' denoted an occupational class whose principal duty, besides carrying on the general administration of the state, consisted in the collection of revenue and taxes. [[Kshemendra|Kshemendra’s]] ''Narmamālā'' composed during the reign of [[Ananta (king)|Ananta]] (1028-1063 <small>CE</small>) gives a list of contemporary Kayastha officers that included ''Gṛhakṛtyadhipati,'' ''Paripālaka'', ''Mārgapati'', ''Gañja-divira'', ''Āsthāna-divira'', ''Nagara-divira'', ''Lekhakopādhya'' and ''Niyogi''. Kalhana’s [[Rajatarangini|Rājataraṃgiṇī]] ('The River of Kings') and [[Bilhana]]'s ''Vikramāṅkadevacarita'' ('Life of King Vikramaditya') also mention Kayasthas.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ray |first=Sunil Chandra |date=1950 |title=A NOTE ON THE KĀYASTHAS OF EARLY-MEDIAEVAL KĀŚMĪRA |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44140901 |journal=Proceedings of the Indian History Congress |volume=13 |pages=124–126 |jstor=44140901 |issn=2249-1937}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Kalhana |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KzxTkI9iAxkC |title=Kalhana's Rajatarangini: A Chronicle of the Kings of Kashmir |publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publishers |year=1989 |isbn=978-81-20-80370-1 |editor-last=Stein |editor-first=Sir Marc Aurel |pages=8, 39, 45}}</ref> It is also mentioned that father of [[Lalitaditya Muktapida]] of the [[Karkota dynasty|Karkota Dynasty]], Durlabhavardhan, had held the post of ''Aśvaghāsa-kāyastha.''<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ray |first=Sunil Chandra |date=1957 |title=ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEM IN EARLY KĀŚMĪRA |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44082819 |journal=Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute |volume=38 |issue=3/4 |pages=176 |jstor=44082819 |issn=0378-1143 |quote=He also mentions the names of a few of the minor offices which had come into existence in the meantime. One of these was the office of the avaghasa-kayąstha, (fodderer for the horses) a position held for sometime by Durlabhavardhana.}}</ref>

Kayasthas have been authors of several [[Sanskrit]] texts too.
{| class="wikitable"
|+Table 1. Some important Sanskrit works authored by the ''Kayasthas''
!Work(s)
!Genre(s)
!Author
!Author's lineage
!Date
|-
|[[Ramacharitam|''Rāmacarita'']]
|Biography
|Sandhyākaranandin
|[[Karan Kayastha|Karana]]<ref name=":21">{{Cite book |last=Thapar |first=Romila |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/859536567 |title=The past before us : historical traditions of early north India |date=2013 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn=978-0-674-72651-2 |location=Cambridge, Massachusetts |pages=498 |oclc=859536567 |quote=He states that he comes from a family of scribes, his caste being karana (kāyastha).}}</ref>
|12th c.
|-
|''Udayasundarī Kathā''
|''[[Champu]]''
|Soḍḍhala
|Vālabhya<ref name=":25">{{Cite journal |last1=Ghosh |first1=Jogendra Chandra |last2=Ghosh |first2=Jogesh Chandra |date=1931 |title=GLEANINGS FROM THE UDAYASUNDARĪ-KATHĀ |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41688244 |journal=Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute |volume=13 |issue=3/4 |pages=197–205 |jstor=41688244 |issn=0378-1143}}</ref>
|11th c.
|-
|''Rasa Saṅketa Kalikā, Varṇanighaṇṭu''
|Medicine, ''[[Tantra]]''
|Kāyastha Cāmuṇḍa
|[[Nigam|Naigama]]<ref name=":20">{{Cite journal |last=O’Hanlon |first=Rosalind |date=2010 |title=The social worth of scribes |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/001946461004700406 |journal=The Indian Economic & Social History Review |volume=47 |issue=4 |pages=583 |doi=10.1177/001946461004700406 |s2cid=145071541 |issn=0019-4646 |quote=..Kayastha Camunda, a kayastha of the Naigama community, son of Kumbha and protégé of king Rajamalla of Mewad..}}</ref>
|15th c.
|-
|''Kṛtyakalpataru''
|Administration
|Lakṣmīdhara
|[[Srivastava|Vāstavya]]<ref name=":22">{{Cite book |last=H T Colebrooke |url=http://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.142316 |title=A Digest Of Hindu Law On Contracts And Successions Vol-I |date=1898 |pages=xvii |quote=Lachmidhara composed a treatise on administrative justice by command of Govindachandra a king of Casi, sprung from the Vastava race of Cayasthas...}}</ref>
|12th c.
|}

=== In Brahmanical literature ===
Kayasthas have been recorded as a separate caste responsible for writing secular documents and maintaining records in [[Brahmin|Brahmanical]] religious writings dating back to the seventh-century.<ref name="IT20112">{{cite book |last=Imam |first=Fatima A. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wWDnTWrz4O8C&pg=PA405 |title=India Today: An Encyclopedia of Life in the Republic : L-Z, Volume 2 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2011 |isbn=9780313374623 |editor1-last=Kaminsky |editor1-first=Arnold P. |pages=404–405 |editor2-last=Long |editor2-first=Roger D.}}</ref> In these texts, some described Kayasthas as [[Kshatriya]]s, while others often described them as a 'mixed-origin' caste with [[Brahmin]] and [[Shudra]] components. This was probably an attempt by the Brahmins to rationalize their rank in the traditional caste hierarchy and perhaps a later invention rather than a historical fact.<ref name=":24">{{Cite web |last= |first= |date= |title=India - The Rajputs |url=https://www.britannica.com/place/India |url-status=live |archive-url= |archive-date= |access-date=2021-01-23 |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |language=en |quote=A number of new castes, such as the Kayasthas...According to the Brahmanic sources, they originated from intercaste marriages, but this is clearly an attempt at rationalizing their rank in the hierarchy.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Thapar |first=Romila |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/753563817 |title=A History of India |date=1998 |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-0-14-194976-5 |volume=1 |location=New Delhi |pages=99 |oclc=753563817 |quote=Some described them as kshatriyas , others ascribed their origin to a brahman-shudra combination. The mixed-caste origin ascribed to them may well have been a later invention of those who had to fit them into a caste hierarchy.}}</ref>

===British India===
[[File:Ramanand_Kayastha_in_1901_at_Govindgarh,_Rewa.jpg|thumb|276x276px|A Kayastha employee of the political agent of the [[Bagelkhand Agency]] 1901. ]]
During the British Raj, Kayasthas continued to proliferate in public administration, qualifying for the highest executive and judicial offices open to Indians.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HEQwAQAAIAAJ&q=kayastha+under+british+raj|title=Origin and development of class and caste in India|last=Srivastava |first=Kamal Shankar |year=1998}}</ref>{{page needed|date=April 2020}}

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, Bengali Kayasthas and Bengali Brahmins owned 40% of all the Indian-owned mills, mines and factories in Bengal.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Raymond Lee |last1=Owens |first2=Ashis |last2=Nandy|title=The New Vaisyas|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CqUcAAAAMAAJ|year=1978|publisher=Carolina Academic Press|isbn=978-0-89089-057-8|page=81}}</ref>

===Modern India===
The Chitraguptavanshi Kayasthas, Bengali Kayasthas and CKPs were among the Indian communities in 1947, at the time of [[Independence of India|Indian independence]], that constituted the middle class and were traditionally "urban and professional" (following professions like doctors, lawyers, teachers, engineers, etc.) According to P. K. Varma, "education was a common thread that bound together this pan Indian elite" and almost all the members of these communities could read and write English and were educated beyond school.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Great Indian Middle class|page=28|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pbgMy8KfD74C&pg=PA28|first=Pavan K. |last=Varma|publisher=Penguin Books|isbn=9780143103257|year=2007}}</ref>

The Kayasthas today mostly inhabit central, eastern, northern India, and particularly Bengal.<ref>{{cite book|first=Surinder Mohan |last=Bhardwaj|title=Hindu Places of Pilgrimage in India: A Study in Cultural Geography|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D6XJFokSJzEC&pg=PA231|year=1983|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-04951-2|page=231}}</ref> They are considered a [[Forward Caste]], as they do not qualify for any of the [[Reservation in India|reservation benefits]] allotted to [[Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes]] and [[Other Backward Class]]es that are administered by the [[Government of India]].<ref>{{cite journal|first1=K.|last1=Srinivasan|first2=Sanjay|last2=Kumar|title=Economic and Caste Criteria in Definition of Backwardness|journal=Economic and Political Weekly|volume=34|issue=42/43|jstor=4408536|date=16–23 October 1999|page=3052}}</ref> This classification has increasingly led to feelings of unease and resentment among the Kayasthas, who believe that the communities that benefit from reservation are gaining political power and employment opportunities at their expense. Thus, particularly since the 1990 report of the [[Mandal Commission]] on reservation, Kayastha organisations have been active in areas such as Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Bengal and Orissa. These groups are aligning themselves with various political parties to gain political and economic advantages; by 2009 they were demanding 33 percent reservation in government jobs.<ref name="IT2011">{{cite book|editor1-first=Arnold P. |editor1-last=Kaminsky |editor2-first=Roger D. |editor2-last=Long|first=Fatima A. |last=Imam|title=India Today: An Encyclopedia of Life in the Republic : L-Z, Volume 2|year=2011|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=9780313374623|pages=404–405|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wWDnTWrz4O8C&pg=PA405}}</ref>

==Sub-groups==
===Chitraguptavanshi Kayasthas===
{{Main|Chitraguptavanshi Kayastha}}The Chitraguptavanshi Kayasthas of Northern India are named thus because they have a [[myth of origin]] that says they descend from the 12 sons of the Hindu god [[Chitragupta]], the product of his marriages to Devi Shobhavati and Devi Nandini.<ref name="bellenoit"/> The suffix ''-vanshi'' is [[Sanskrit]] and translates as ''belonging to a particular family dynasty''.<ref>{{Cite web|title=vaMza|url=http://spokensanskrit.org/index.php?tran_input=vaMza&direct=se&script=hk&link=yes&mode=3|website=Spokensanskrit.org|access-date=2020-04-21}}</ref>

At least some Chitraguptavanshi subcastes seem to have formed by the 11th or 12th centuries, evidenced by various names being used to describe them in inscriptions.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Shah|first=K. K.|year=1993|title=Self Legitimation and Social Primacy: A Case Study of Some Kayastha Inscriptions From Central India|journal=Proceedings of the Indian History Congress|volume=54|pages=859|jstor=44143088|issn=2249-1937}}</ref> Although at that time, prior to the [[Muslim conquests in the Indian subcontinent]], they were generally outnumbered by [[Brahmin]]s in the Hindu royal courts of northern India, some among these Kayasthas wrote eulogies for the kings. Of the various regional Kayastha communities it was those of north India who remained most aligned to their role of scribes, whereas in other areas there became more emphasis on commerce.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9TElDwAAQBAJ|title=The Formation of the Colonial State in India: Scribes, Paper and Taxes, 1760–1860|last=Bellenoit|first=Hayden J.|year=2017|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-134-49429-3|page=34}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Kumar|first=Saurabh|year=2015|title=Rural Society and Rural Economy in the Ganga Valley during the Gahadavalas|journal=Social Scientist|volume=43|issue=5/6|pages=29–45|jstor=24642345|issn=0970-0293|quote=One thing is clear that by this time, Kayasthas had come to acquire prominent places in the court and officialdom and some were financially well-off to commission the construction of temples, while others were well-versed in the requisite fields of Vedic lore to earn the title of pandita for themselves. In our study, the epigraphic sources do not indicate the oppressive nature of Kayastha officials.}}</ref>

The group of [[Bhatnagar]], [[Srivastava]], [[Ambashtha]] and [[Saxena]] of [[Doab]] were classified by various [[Indian people|Indian]], [[British Raj|British]] and missionary observers to be the most learned and dominant of the "service castes".<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bellenoit|first=Hayden J.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/973222959|title=The formation of the colonial state in India: Scribes, paper and taxes, 1760–1860|year=2017|isbn=978-1-134-49429-3|location=Milton Park, Abingdon, UK |page=155 |chapter=Kayasthas, 'caste' and administration under the Raj, c. 1860–1900 |oclc=973222959|quote=And while these Bhatnagar, Ambastha, Srivastava and Saxena families were important for the colonial state by the 1860s, they were also beneficiaries  of British success and power in India. They shaped the materiality of administration and populated the ranks of the Raj's intermediary enforcement.....by 1900 they were broadly considered by various Indian , British and missionary observers to the most educated and influential of the service castes.}}</ref>

=== Bengali Kayasthas ===
{{Main|Bengali Kayastha}}

In eastern India, Bengali Kayasthas are believed to have evolved from a class of officials into a caste between the 5th-6th centuries and 11th-12th centuries, its component elements being putative Kshatriyas and mostly Brahmins. They most likely gained the characteristics of a caste under the [[Sena dynasty]].<ref name="AlHind">{{cite book|author=Andre Wink|title=Al-Hind, the Making of the Indo-Islamic World, Volume 1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bCVyhH5VDjAC|access-date=3 September 2011|year=1991|publisher=Brill Academic Publishers|isbn=978-90-04-09509-0|page=269}}</ref> 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 Kayastha (scribe) had been instituted before the beginning of the period, as evidenced from the contemporary ''[[Smriti]]s''. Sharma further states:{{blockquote|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.<ref>{{cite book|last=Sharma|first=Tej Ram|title=Personal and Geographical Names in the Gupta Empire|year=1978|publisher=Concept Publishing Company|location=New Delhi |page=115 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WcnnB-Lx2MAC}}</ref>}}

=== Chandraseniya Prabhu Kayasthas ===
{{Main|Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhu}}
In Maharashtra, [[Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhu]]s (CKP) claim descent from the warrior Chandrasen.<ref name="Hebalkar2001">{{cite book|author=Sharad Hebalkar|title=Ancient Indian Ports: With Special Reference to Maharashtra|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3ontAAAAMAAJ|year=2001|publisher=Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers|isbn=978-81-215-0858-2}}</ref> Historically they produced prominent warriors and also held positions such as [[Deshpande]]s and [[Gadkari]]s (fort holder, an office similar to that of a [[castellan]].<ref>{{cite book | title = Nineteenth Century History of Maharashtra: 1818–1857|page=121|first = B. R. |last=Sunthankar |year= 1988|quote=The [Chandraseniya] Kayastha Prabhus, though small in number, were another caste of importance in Maharashtra. They formed one of the elite castes of Maharashtra. They also held the position of Deshpandes and Gadkaris and produced some of the best warriors in the Maratha history}}</ref> Traditionally, the CKPs have the [[upanayana]] (thread ceremony) and have been granted the rights to study the [[vedas]] and perform [[vedic]] rituals along with the Brahmins.<ref name="MiltonWagle">{{cite book|title=Religion and Society in Maharashtra|editor=Milton Israel and N. K. Wagle|publisher=Center for South Asian Studies, University of Toronto, Canada|year= 1987|pages=147–170}}</ref>

==Varna status==
As the Kayasthas are a non-cohesive group with regional differences rather than a single caste, their position in the Hindu varna system of ritual classification has not been uniform.

This was reflected in Raj era court rulings. Hayden Bellenoit gives details of various Raj era law cases and concludes the varna Kayastha was resolved in those cases by taking into account regional differences and customs followed by the specific community under consideration. Bellenoit disagrees with Rowe, showing that Risley's theories were in fact used ultimately to classify them as Kshatriyas by the British courts. The first case began in 1860 in [[Jaunpur district|Jaunpur]], [[Uttar Pradesh]] with a property dispute where the [[plaintiff]] was considered an "illegitimate child" by the defendants, a north-Indian Kayastha family. The British court denied inheritance to the child, citing that Kayasthas are Dvija, "twice-born" or "upper-caste" and that the illegitimate children of Dwijas have no rights to inheritance. In the next case in 1875 in the [[Allahabad High Court]], a north Indian Kayastha widow was denied adoption rights as she was an upper-caste i.e. Dwija woman. However, the aforementioned 1884 adoption case and the 1916 property dispute saw the [[Calcutta High Court]] rule that the Bengali Kayasthas were shudras. The Allahabad High Court ruled in 1890 that Kayasthas were Kshatriyas.<ref name="bellenoit174"/><ref name="ashwani">{{cite book |first=Ashwani |last=Kumar |title=Community Warriors: State, Peasants and Caste Armies in Bihar |publisher=Anthem Press |year=2008 |page=195}}</ref> Hayden Bellenoit concludes from an analysis of those that {{blockquote|in the suits originating in the Bihari and Doabi heartlands rulings that Kayasthas were of [[twice-born]] status were more likely. Closer to Bengal country, though, the legal rulings tended to assign a [[shudra]] status.}} Even where the shudra designation was adjudged, the Raj courts appear to have sometimes recognised that the Bengali Kayasthas were degraded from an earlier [[kshatriya]] status due to intermarrying with both shudras and slaves ('dasa') which resulted in the common Bengali Kayastha surname of 'Das'.<ref name="bellenoit174">{{cite book|first=Hayden J. |last=Bellenoit|title=The Formation of the Colonial State in India: Scribes, Paper and Taxes, 1760–1860|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9TElDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA174|year=2017|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-134-49429-3|pages= 173–176}}</ref> The last completed [[census of India prior to independence|census of the British Raj]] (1931) classified them as an "upper caste", i.e. [[Dwija]],<ref name="ashwani"/> and the final British Raj law case involving their varna in 1926 determined them to be Kshatriya.<ref name="bellenoit174" />

Earlier, in Bihar, in 1811–1812, botanist and zoologist [[Francis Buchanan-Hamilton|Francis Buchanan]] had recorded the Kayastha of that region as "pure shudra" and accordingly kept them at the par with other producer caste groups like goldsmiths, [[Ahir]]s, [[Kurmi]]s and the [[Koeri]]s. William Pinch, in his study of [[Ramanandi Sampradaya]] in the north describes the emergence of the concept of "pure Shudra" in growing need of physical contact with some of the low caste groups who were producer and seller of essential commodities or were the provider of services without which the self sufficiency  of rural society couldn't persist. However, many of these adopted Vaishnavism in the aim to become Kshatriya. In 1901 Bihar census, Kayasthas of the area were classified along with Brahmins and Rajputs in Bihar as "other castes of twice-born rank"<ref name="William Pinch ">{{cite book |title=Peasants and monks in British India |first=William R. |last=Pinch |publisher=University of California Press |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-520-20061-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B7cwDwAAQBAJ&q=pesant+and+monk|pages=73–75, 82–83|quote=(index)108. Buchanan, Bihar and Patna, 1811–1812, 1:329–39; (pg)Bhagvan Prasad's ministrations reflected his own personal interpretation of the social mandate implicit in the religious message of Ramanand. However, Ramanandi ambivalence toward caste emerged in discussions about the prescribed stages of a sadhu's entry into the sampraday. In his biography of Bhagvan Prasad, Sahay expressed the view that originally anyone (including untouchables) could have become Ramanandi sadhus, but that by his time (the early 1900s), "Ramanandis bring disciples from only those jatis from whom water can be taken.”[107] For those designated shudra by the elite, this phrase, “from whom water can be taken," was a common enough euphemism for a person of "pure shudra" status, with whom restricted physical contact could be made. From the elite perspective, such physical contact would have occurred in the course of consuming goods and services common in everyday life; the designation "pure shudra" implied a substantial body of "impure"—hence untouchable—people with whom physical contact was both unnecessary and improper. Buchanan, in the early nineteenth century, had included in the term "pure shudra" the well-known designations of Kayasth, Koiri, Kurmi, Kahar, Goala, Dhanuk (archers, cultivators, palanquin bearers), Halwai (sweet vendors), Mali (flower gardener), Barai (cultivator and vendor of betel leaves), Sonar (goldsmith), Kandu (grain parchers), and Gareri (blanket weavers and shepherds). As a result of their very public campaign for kshatriya status in the last quarter of the century, not to mention their substantial economic and political clout, Kayasths were classified along with "Babhans" and Rajputs as "other castes of twice-born rank" in the 1901 census hierarchy for Bihar.}}</ref> According to Arun Sinha, there was a strong current since the end of the 19th century among [[Shudra]]s of Bihar to change their status in caste hierarchy and break the monopoly of bipolar elite of  [[Brahmin]]s and [[Rajput]]s of having "dvija" status. The education and economic advancement made by some of the former Shudra castes enabled them to seek the higher prestige and ''[[Varna (Hinduism)|varna]]'' status. The Kayastha along with the [[Bhumihar]]s were first among the shudras to attain the recognition as "upper caste" leaving the other aspirational castes to aspire for the same.<ref>{{cite book | last=Sinha | first=A. | title=Nitish Kumar and the Rise of Bihar | page=93 |publisher=Viking | year=2011 | isbn=978-0-670-08459-3 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rT2xWp_iTCYC&pg=PA93 | access-date=7 April 2015}}</ref>
 
The Raj era rulings were based largely upon the theories of [[Herbert Hope Risley]], who had conducted extensive studies on castes and tribes of the [[Bengal Presidency]]. According to William Rowe, the Kayasthas of Bengal, [[Bombay Presidency|Bombay]] and the [[United Provinces of Agra and Oudh|United Provinces]] repeatedly challenged this classification by producing a flood of books, pamphlets, family histories and journals to pressurise the government to recognise them as kshatriya and to reform the caste practices in the directions of [[sanskritisation]] and [[westernisation]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Structure and Change in India Society |edition=Reprinted |publisher=Transaction Publishers |year=2007 |orig-year=1968 |chapter=Mobility in the Nineteenth-century Caste System |first=William L. |last=Rowe |editor1-first=Milton |editor1-last=Singer |editor2-first=Bernard S. |editor2-last=Cohn |isbn=978-0-202-36138-3 |page=202 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_g-_r-9Oa_sC&pg=PA202}}</ref>{{clarify|reason=I find it hard to believe they pressurised the govt to reform their caste practises - surely the caste do that, not the govt|date=April 2020}}
Rowe's opinion has been challenged, with arguments that it is based on "factual and interpretative errors", and criticised for making "unquestioned assumptions" about the Kayastha Sanskritisation and westernisation movement.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Roberts |first1=Michael |title=Caste conflict and elite formation: The rise of a Karāva elite in Sri Lanka, 1500-1931 |date=1982 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=978-0521052856 |pages=187 |chapter=Casteism in South Asian politics during British times: Emergent cultural typifications or elite fictions?|quote=Lucy Carroll has revealed how one cannot identify a temporal evolution from Sanskritist sacred goals to Westernised secular aims because the strategies of caste associations were mixed [...] She indicates that several of the apparently Sanskritist ascetic reforms advocated by caste associations derived from the influence of Victorian puritanism and other Western values [...] In three articles: 1975, 1977 and 1978. In these essays she also pinpoints factual and interpretative errors in William L. Rowe's presentation of the Kayastha movement. |id=[Chapter 7: pp. 180-224]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | title =The Hindustani Kayasthas: The Kayastha Pathshala, and the Kayastha Conference, 1873–1914|first = Lucy Carol |last=Stout|publisher = University of California, Berkeley|year=1976}}</ref>

In post-Raj assessments, the Bengali Kayasthas, alongside [[Bengali Brahmins]], have been described as the "highest Hindu castes".<ref>{{cite book|first=Ronald B. |last=Inden|author-link=Ronald Inden|title=Marriage and Rank in Bengali Culture: A History of Caste and Clan in Middle Period Bengal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P8b9A7J_v-UC&pg=PA1|year=1976|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-02569-1|page=1}}</ref> After the Muslim conquest of India, they absorbed remnants of Bengal's old Hindu ruling dynasties{{mdash}}including the [[Sena dynasty|Sena]], [[Pala Empire|Pala]], [[Candra|Chandra]], and [[Varman dynasty|Varman]]{{mdash}}and, in this way, became the region's surrogate kshatriya or "warrior" class. During British rule, the Bengali Kayasthas, the Bengali Brahmins and the [[Baidya]]s considered themselves to be ''Bhadralok'', a term coined in Bengal for the [[gentry]] or respectable people. This was based on their perceived refined culture, prestige and education.<ref name="RiseofIslam">{{cite book|first=Richard Maxwell |last=Eaton|title=The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, 1204–1760|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gKhChF3yAOUC|year=1996|publisher=University of California Press|pages=102–103|isbn=978-0-52020-507-9}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title= Tamil Brahmans: The making of a middle caste|page=212|first1=C. J. |last1=Fuller |first2=Haripriya|last2=Narasimhan|publisher =University of Chicago Press|year=2014|isbn=9780226152882|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=r7KjBAAAQBAJ&pg=PA212|quote=In Bengal, the new middle class emergent under the British rule styled itself 'bhadralok', the gentry or "respectable people", and its principal constituents were the three Bengali high castes, Brahmans, Baidyas, and Kayasthas. Moreover, for the Bhadralok, a prestigious, refined culture based on education literacy and artistic skills, and the mastery of the Bengali language, counted for more than caste status itself for their social dominance in Bengal.}}</ref>

According to Christian Novetzke, in medieval India, Kayastha in certain parts were considered either as Brahmins or equal to Brahmins.<ref>{{cite book|first=Christian Lee|last= Novetzke |title=The Quotidian Revolution: Vernacularization, Religion, and the Premodern Public Sphere in India|year=2016|publisher=Columbia University Press|page=159|isbn=9780231175807}}</ref> Several religious councils and institutions have subsequently stated the varna status of CKPs as Kshatriya.<ref name="chib161">{{cite book | title = The Castes, Tribes and Culture of India | author = K. P. Bahadur, Sukhdev Singh Chib | page= 161| publisher=ESS Publications|year=1981| quote= The [Chandraseniya] Kayastha Prabhus ... They performed three of the vedic duties or karmas, studying the Vedas adhyayan, sacrificing yajna and giving alms or dana ... The creed mostly accepted by them is that of the advaita school of Shankaracharya, though they also worship Vishnu, Ganapati and other gods.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|publisher=Houghton Mifflin| editor= Harry M. Lindquist|author= Harold Robert Isaacs| title =  Education: readings in the processes of cultural transmission| year = 1970| page = 88}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Society and Politics in India: Essays in a Comparative Perspective|author= André Béteille|year= 1992|isbn=0195630661|publisher=Oxford University Press|page=48}}</ref>

==Notable people==
{{More citations needed section|date=December 2021}}
This is a list of notable people from all the subgroups of Kayasthas.
<!-- please make sure to only add names of people that already have an article on Wikipedia, and make sure that their article mentions their Kayastha membership and provides a reliable source to support it. In the case of the Bachchan family, they have specifically rejected membership of castes & therefore should not be included here, e.g.: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-07-28/news-interviews/29821192_1_caste-aarakshan-amitabh-bachchan -->
<!---♦♦♦ Only add a person to this list if they already have their own article on the English Wikipedia ♦♦♦---> 
<!---♦♦♦ Please keep the list in alphabetical order by LAST NAME ♦♦♦--->
=== [[List of presidents of India|President of India]] ===
*[[Rajendra Prasad]]

=== [[List of prime ministers of India|Prime Minister of India]] ===
*[[Lal Bahadur Shastri]]

=== [[List of current Indian chief ministers|Chief Ministers]] ===
* [[Krishna Ballabh Sahay]]
* [[Mahamaya Prasad Sinha]]
* [[Uddhav Thackeray]]
* [[Shiv Charan Mathur]]
* [[Nabakrushna Choudhuri]]
* [[Biju Patnaik]]
* [[Biren Mitra]]
* [[Janaki Ballabh Patnaik]]
* [[Naveen Patnaik]]
* [[Sampurnanand]]
* [[Jyoti Basu]]

<!---♦♦♦ Only add a person to this list if they already have their own article on the English Wikipedia♦♦♦---><!---♦♦♦ Please keep the list in alphabetical order by LAST NAME ♦♦♦--->
=== Others ===
* [[Sri Aurobindo]], Indian philosopher, yogi and nationalist<ref>{{cite conference|last=Aall|first=Ingrid|year=1971|editor2=Mary Jane Beech|location=East Lansing|publisher=Asian Studies Center, Michigan State University|page=32|oclc=258335|quote=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...|editor1=Robert Paul Beech|book-title=Bengal: change and continuity, Issues 16–20}}</ref>
* [[Nagendranath Basu]], historian and editor<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Chakravarty|first=Ishita|date=2019-10-01|title=Owners, creditors and traders: Women in late colonial Calcutta|journal=The Indian Economic & Social History Review|language=en|volume=56|issue=4|pages=427–456|doi=10.1177/0019464619873800|s2cid=210540783|issn=0019-4646}}</ref>
*[[Shankar Abaji Bhise]] (1867–1935), scientist and inventor with 200 inventions and 40 patents. The American scientific community referred to him as the "Indian Edison".<ref>{{cite journal |journal=Economic and Political Weekly |volume=45 |issue=42 |date=16 October 2010 |pages=67–74 |jstor=20787477 |last=Dhimatkar |first=Abhidha |title=The Indian Edison}}</ref>
* [[Jagadish Chandra Bose]], Indian scientist<ref>{{cite book | title = Science and the Indian Tradition: When Einstein Met Tagore | year = 2007 | author=Gosling}}</ref>{{full citation needed|date=May 2020}}
* [[Subhas Chandra Bose]]<ref>{{cite book|first1=A. |last1=Pelinka |first2=R. |last2=Schell|title=Democracy Indian Style: Subhas Chandra Bose and the Creation of India's Political Culture|publisher=Transaction Publishers| year=2003| page=32 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M6gLpMf5-jwC&pg=PA32|isbn=978-07-6580-186-9}}</ref>
*[[Mahadev Bhaskar Chaubal]] (1857–1933), Indian origin British era Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court. Member of Executive Council of Governor of Bombay in 1912 and Member of Royal Commission on Public Services in India.<ref>{{cite book | title = Indian Travels of Thevenot and Careri: Being the Third Part of the Travels of M. de Thevenot into the Levant and the Third Part of a Voyage Round the World by Dr. John Francis Gemelli Careri|first=Surendra Nath |last=Sen| year =1949|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=1gluAAAAMAAJ&q=mahadev%20chaubal}}</ref>
* [[Har Dayal]], Indian revolutionary and intellectual of the [[Ghadar party]] in the USA<ref>{{cite book|last=Sareen|first=Tilakraj|title=Select Documents on the Ghadr Party |year=1994|publisher=Mounto Publishing House|page=20}}</ref>
*[[C. D. Deshmukh]] (1896–1982), first recipient of the [[Jagannath Sankarseth|Jagannath Shankarseth Sanskrit Scholarship]], topper of [[Indian Civil Service (British India)|ICS Examination]], first Indian Governor of [[Reserve Bank of India|RBI]], first finance Minister of independent India and tenth vice chancellor of the [[University of Delhi]]<ref>{{cite book |title=South Asian intellectuals and social change: a study of the role of vernacular-speaking intelligentsia |first=Yogendra K. |last=Malik |page=63 |publisher=Heritage |year=1981}}</ref>
*[[Baji Prabhu Deshpande]] (1615–1660), commander of [[Shivaji Maharaj]]'s forces who along with his brother died defending [[Vishalgad]] in 1660<ref name="kantak">{{cite journal |last=Kantak |first=M. R.|title=The Political Role of Different Hindu Castes and Communities in Maharashtra in the Foundation of the Shivaji Maharaj's Swarajya |journal=Bulletin of the Deccan College Research Institute |date=1978 |volume=38 |issue=1 |pages=40–56|jstor=42931051}}</ref>
*[[Murarbaji|Murarbaji Deshpande]] (?–1665), commander of Shivaji Maharaj's forces who died defending the fort of [[Purandar fort|Purandar]] against the Mughals in 1665<ref name="kantak" />
*[[Jayaprakash Narayan]] (1902 -1979) - freedom fighter, social reformer and anti-corruption campaigner<ref name="Das2005">{{cite book|first=Sandip |last=Das|title=Jayaprakash Narayan: A Centenary Volume|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U9U0LiT3dtMC&pg=PA109|year=2005|publisher=Mittal Publications|isbn=978-81-8324-001-7|page=109}}</ref>
*[[Bipin Chandra Pal]], Indian nationalist, writer, orator, social reformer and Indian independence movement activist of [[Lal Bal Pal]] triumvirate<ref>{{cite book|title=Encyclopedia of Indian War of Independence (1857–1947)|quote=Bipin Chandra Pal (1858–1932) a patriot, nationalist politician, renowned orator, journalist, and writer. Bipin Chandra Pal was born on 7 November 1858 in Sylhet in a wealthy Hindu Kayastha family|first=M. K. |last=Singh|year=2009|page=130|publisher= Anmol Publications}}</ref>
*[[Aba Parasnis|Vithal Sakharam Parasnis]] (17xx-18xx)- Sanskrit, Vedic and Persian scholar; consultant to British Historian [[James Grant Duff]]; author of the Sanskrit "karma kalpadrum"(manual for Hindu rituals); first head of the school opened by Pratapsimha to teach Sanskrit to the boys of the Maratha caste<ref>{{cite book|title=Religion and Society in Maharashtra|editor1-first=Milton |editor1-last=Israel |editor2-first=N. K. |editor2-last=Wagle|publisher=Center for South Asian Studies, University of Toronto, Canada|year= 1987|page=166}}</ref>
* [[Devdutt Pattanaik]]<ref>{{cite news |title=Devdutt Pattanaik: Descendants of Chitragupta |url=https://www.mid-day.com/articles/devdutt-pattanaik-descendants-of-chitragupta/19083152 |access-date=17 March 2020 |work=mid-day |date=18 February 2018 |language=en}}</ref>
*[[Premchand]] (1880–1936) – author in Hindi language<ref>{{cite book|last = Gupta|first = Prakash Chandra|title=Makers of Indian Literature: Prem Chand|year = 1998|publisher=Sahitya Akademi|isbn=978-81-260-0428-7|page=7}}</ref>
*[[Sachchidananda Sinha]], lawyer prominent in the movement for establishing the state of [[Bihar]]<ref>{{cite book |last1=Kumar |first1=Ashwani |title=Community Warriors: State, Peasants and Caste Armies in Bihar |date=2008 |publisher=Anthem Press |isbn=978-1-84331-709-8 |page=33 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=num2I4NFGqIC&pg=PA33}}</ref>
*[[Mahadevi Varma]]<ref>{{cite book |last=Schomer |first=Karine |year=1998 |title=Mahadevi Varma and the Chhayavad Age of Modern Hindi Poetry |location=New Delhi |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-564450-6}}</ref>
*[[Bhagwati Charan Verma]]<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0140276637|title=In the Afternoon of Time: An Autobiography|last=Bachchan|first=Harivansh Rai|publisher=Penguin Books|year=1998|isbn=9780670881581|location=India}}</ref>
*[[Swami Vivekananda]]<ref>{{cite book|last=Banhatti|first=G. S.|title=Life and Philosophy of Swami Vivekananda|publisher=Atlantic Publishers & Distributors| year=1995| page=1 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jK5862eV7_EC|isbn=978-81-7156-291-6}}</ref>
* [[Paramahansa Yogananda]], author of ''Autobiography of a Yogi''<ref>Sananda Lal Ghosh,(1980), Mejda, Self-Realization Fellowship, p. 3</ref>
<!---♦♦♦ Only add a person to this list if they already have their own article on the English Wikipedia♦♦♦---><!---♦♦♦ Please keep the list in alphabetical order by LAST NAME ♦♦♦--->
==See also==
* [[Karan Kayastha]]

==References==
{{reflist}}
{{notelist}}

==Further reading==
* {{cite book|first=Asok |last=Mitra (Indian Civil Service, Superintendent of Census Operations)|title=The tribes and castes of West Bengal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2bTUAAAAMAAJ|year=1953|publisher=Superintendent, Govt. Print. West Bengal Govt. Press}}
* {{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=32aMey7k-IYC|title=Social History of an Indian Caste: The Kayasths of Hyderabad|last=Leonard|first=Karen Isaksen|year=1994|publisher=Orient BlackSwan|isbn=978-81-250-0032-7}}<!--These 3 refs are to be nested into another ref [Roberts (1982)] when I can work out how
* Carroll, Lucy (1975) 'Caste, social change and the social scientist: a note on the ahistorical approach to Indian social history', ''The Journal of Asian Studies'', vol. '''xxxv''', November 1975, pp. 63-84. 
* Carroll, Lucy (Winter 1977) '"Sanskritization", "Westernization", and "Social mobility"; a reappraisal of the relevance of anthropological concepts to the social historian of modern India', ''The Journal of Anthropological Research'', '''33''':4, pp. 355-71. 
* Carroll, Lucy (February 1978) "Colonial perceptions of Indian society and the emergence of caste(s) associations", ''The Journal of Asian Studies'', vol. '''xxxv'''(2), pp. 233-50.-->

==External links==
*{{Commons category-inline}}

{{Bengali Hindu people}}

[[Category:Kayastha| ]]
[[Category:Social groups of Uttar Pradesh]]
[[Category:Social groups of Bihar]]
[[Category:Social groups of West Bengal]]
[[Category:Bengali Hindu castes]]
[[Category:Social groups of Madhya Pradesh]]
[[Category:Social groups of Jharkhand]]