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{{Infobox ethnic group
| group = Bengali Kayastha
| image = Calcuttakayasth.jpg
| caption = A Kayastha of Calcutta, from a 19th century book
| regions = [[Bengal]]
| languages = [[Bengali language|Bengali]]
| religions = [[Hinduism]]
}}
'''Bengali Kayastha''' is a [[Bengali Hindu]] who is a member of the [[Kayastha]] community. The historical caste occupation of Kayasthas throughout India has been that of scribes and administrators;<ref name="IndiaToday">{{cite book|authors=Arnold P. Kaminsky, Roger D. Long|title=India Today: An Encyclopedia of Life in the Republic|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wWDnTWrz4O8C&pg=PA404|access-date=4 March 2012|year=2011|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-0-313-37462-3|page=404}}</ref> the Kayasthas in [[Bengal]] along with [[Bengali Brahmins|Brahmins]] and [[Baidya]]s, are regarded among the three traditional higher castes<ref name="Hutton1961">{{cite book|last=Hutton|first=John Henry| url=https://www.google.co.in/books/edition/Caste_in_India/cuHUAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%22twice%2Bborn%22|title=Caste in India: Its Nature, Function, and Origins|publisher=Indian Branch, Oxford University Press|year=1961|page=65}}</ref><ref name="CasteCulture&Hegemony">{{cite book|first=Sekhar |last=Bandyopadhyay|title=Caste, Culture, and Hegemony: Social Dominance in Colonial Bengal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GPqHAwAAQBAJ&q=kayastha|year=2004|publisher=Sage Publications | isbn=81-7829-316-1 | page=20}}</ref> that comprise the "upper layer of Hindu society."{{sfnp|Wink|1991|p=269|ps=}} In the colonial era, the [[Bhadralok]]s of Bengal were drawn from these three castes, who continue to maintain a collective hegemony in [[West Bengal]].<ref name="Sekhar2004">{{cite book|first=Sekhar |last=Bandyopadhyay|title=Caste, Culture, and Hegemony: Social Dominance in Colonial Bengal|url=https://www.google.co.in/books/edition/Caste_Culture_and_Hegemony/z2SVIflbyHQC?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA25|year=2004|publisher=Sage Publications | isbn=978-0-761-99849-5 | page=25}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Chakrabarti|first=Sumit|date=2017|title=Space of Deprivation: The 19th Century Bengali Kerani in the Bhadrolok Milieu of Calcutta|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44508277|journal=Asian Journal of Social Science|volume=45|issue=1/2|pages=56|issn=1568-4849}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Ghosh|first=Parimal|title=What Happened to the Bhadralok?|publisher=Primus Books|year=2016|isbn=9789384082994|location=Delhi}}</ref>

==History==

Some consider the Bengali Kayastha as an offshoot of the northern Indian [[Chitraguptavanshi Kayastha#12_Sub-Castes_of_Chitraguptavanshi_Kayasthas|Chitraguptavanshi Kayastha]] group who claim descent from the sons of [[Chitragupta]]. They claim lineage from migrants to [[Bengal]] from the ancient city of [[Kannauj]] who came at the request of [[Sena Dynasty]] kings in the 10th century.<ref name="Bellenoit2017">{{cite book|author=Hayden J. 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=PA34|access-date=10 June 2018|date=17 February 2017|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-134-49429-3|page=34}}</ref>

According to [[Tej Ram Sharma]], an Indian historian, the office of Kayastha in Bengal was instituted before the [[Gupta Empire|Gupta period]] ({{circa|320}} to 550 CE), although there is no reference to Kayastha as a caste at that time. He says some scholars have noted that, "originally the professions of Kayastha (scribe) and Vaidya (physician) were not restricted and could be followed by people from different [[Varna (Hinduism)|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."{{sfnp|Sharma|1978|p=115|ps=}}

Historians P. C. Choudhuri, K. R. Medhi and [[Kanaklal Barua|K. L. Barua]] state that "the Brahmins noted in the [[Nidhanpur copperplate inscription|Nidhanpur]] and Dubi inscriptions of king [[Bhaskaravarman]]" bore surnames "which are at present used by Kayasthas of Bengal and [[Nagar Brahmins|Nagara Brahmins]] of [[Gujarat]]," and "were either of the [[Alpine race|Alpine]] origin or pre-Vedic [[Indo-Aryan peoples|Aryans]]." Similarly, the Kayasthas and [[Kalita (caste)|Kalitas]] of [[Assam]] "are also supposed to be descendants of extra-Vedic Aryans".<ref name="contemporary1998">{{cite book|author1=S. R. Bakshi |author2=S. R. Sharma |author3=S. Gajrani |title=Contemporary Political Leadership in India|chapter=Land and the People|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L1i51KFUyzIC&pg=PA14|year=1998|publisher=APH Publishing Corporation|isbn=81-7648-008-8|pages=13–14}}</ref>

According to [[André Wink]], 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]]. Between that time and the 11th–12th century, this category of officials or scribes was composed of "putative" [[Kshatriya]]s and, "for the larger majority", [[Bengali Brahmins|Brahmin]]s, who retained their caste identity or became [[Buddhism|Buddhists]]. As in [[South India]], [[Bengal]] had lacked a clearly defined Kshatriya caste. The [[Pala Empire|Pala]], Sena, [[Candra|Chandra]], and [[Varman dynasty|Varman]] dynasties and their descendants, who claimed the status of Kshatriya, "almost imperceptibly merged" with the Kayastha caste and became "the region's surrogate Kshatriya or warrior class". {{sfnp|Wink|1991|p=269|ps=}}

Sekhar Bandyopadhyay also places their emergence as a caste after the Gupta period. Referring to the linkages between class and caste in Bengal, he mentions that the Kayasthas along with the Brahmins and [[Baidya]]s, refrained from physical labour but controlled land, and as such represented "the three traditional higher castes of Bengal".<ref name="CasteCulture&Hegemony" /> Eaton mentions that the Kayasthas continued as the "dominant landholding caste" even after the [[Muslim conquests on the Indian subcontinent]], and absorbed the descendants of the region's old Hindu rulers. {{sfnp|Eaton|1996|p=102|ps=}}

In Bengal, between 1500 and 1850 CE, the Kayasthas were regarded as one of the highest Hindu castes in the region.{{sfnp|Inden|1976|p=1|ps=}}

==Varna status==
A survey of Indian writers and observers suggests that many of those acquainted with the Kayasthas considered them as ''[[Dvija]]'' or twice-born. However, the claims of Bengali Kayasthas of having Dvija status is not supported by many other Indian observers. The Bengali Brahmins were most active in refuting these claims.<ref name="Bellenoit ">{{cite book|author=Hayden J. Bellenoit|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9TElDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA178|title=The Formation of the Colonial State in India: Scribes, Paper and Taxes 1760-1860|publisher=Taylor & Francis|year=2017|isbn=978-1134494293|page=178,176|accessdate=19 April 2021}}</ref>

Professor [[Julius J. Lipner]] mentions that the caste 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 [[Dvija|twice-born]] status."<ref name="Lipner2009">{{cite book|last=Lipner|first=Julius J.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z-Y6QkumxEgC&pg=PA172|title=Debi Chaudhurani, or The Wife Who Came Home|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2009|isbn=978-0-19-973824-3|page=172}}</ref> Of note, traditionally, the Hindu community in Bengal was divided into only two [[Varna (Hinduism)|Varnas]]: Brahmins and Shudras.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Leach|first1=Edmund|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2u88AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA55|title=Elites in South Asia|last2=Mukherjee|first2=S. N.|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1970|pages=55}}</ref> The varna status of Kayastha is considered ambiguous by the scholars like Mathew Sherring, who kept them somewhere between [[Vaishya]] and [[Shudra]] category. [[Henry Thomas Colebrooke]] , on the other hand notes that, majority of Bengali Kayastha use ''Das'' as surname, which he interpreted as "slave". According to Coolbrooke, the word "Kayastha" and "Karana" are interchangeable and the latter means an offspring of a Shudra mother, which according to him was the reason for rejecting the [[Dvija]] status of the Kayasthas. On the other hand, [[Herbert Hope Risley]] identifies Kayasthas as a "highly placed" functional caste group, which is also supported by Wilson, who noticed their long history of involvement in [[Mughal Empire|Mughal]] court as courtiers.<ref name="Bellenoit "/> According to [[John Henry Hutton]], Kayastha is an important caste, ranked next to Brahmin 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".<ref name="Hutton1961" />

[[Ronald Inden]], an [[anthropologist]], after spending part of 1964-'65 in Bengal, mentions in his dissertation on Kayasthas that inter-caste marriages are increasing among the urban educated "twice-born castes", Kayasthas, Brahmins, and Baidyas.<ref name="RudolphRudolph1984">{{cite book|author1=Lloyd I. Rudolph|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7guY1ut-0lwC&pg=PA124|title=The Modernity of Tradition: Political Development in India|author2=Susanne Hoeber Rudolph|date=15 July 1984|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0-226-73137-7|pages=124–|quote=And Ronald Inden confirms, after spending 1964 and part of 1965 in Bengal preparing a dissertation on Kayasthas, that intermarriage is becoming increasingly frequent among the urban sections of the Kayasthas, Brahmans, and Vaidyas, that is, among those Western-ized and educated twice-born castes dominating the modern, better-paying, and more prestigious occupations of metropolitan Calcutta and constituting perhaps half of the city's population}}</ref>

==Subcastes==

===Kulin Kayastha and Maulika Kayastha===
According to Inden, "many of the higher castes of India have historically been organised into ranked [[Clan|clans]] or lineages".{{sfnp|Inden|1976|p=1|ps=}} The Bengali Kayastha was organised into smaller [[Sub-caste|sub-castes]] and even smaller ranked grades of clans (''kulas''{{sfnp|Inden|1976|p=34|ps=}}) around 1500 CE.{{sfnp|Inden|1976|p=1–2|ps=}} 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"){{sfnp|Inden|1976|p=1|ps=}} and ''[[Maulika Kayastha|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.{{sfnp|Inden|1976|p=34|ps=}}

===Origin myths===
[[Kulin Kayastha]]s have an associated myth of origin stating that five Kayasthas accompanied the Brahmins from [[Kannauj]] 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]] lacking historical authenticity.{{sfnp|Sengupta|2001|p=25|ps=}} According to Swarupa Gupta this legend was {{quote|... fitted into a quasi-historical, sociological narrative of Bengal and deployed to explain the realities of caste and sub-caste origins and connections during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.{{sfnp|Gupta|2009|pp=103–104|ps=}}}} According to this legend, the five original Kayastha clans are [[Bose (surname)|Bose/Basu]], [[Ghosh]], [[Mitra (surname)|Mitra]], [[Guha (surname)|Guha]], and [[Dutta (surname)|Datta]],<ref> https://archive.org/stream/dcc_20210214_202102#page/16/mode/2up </ref> the first four of whom became Kulin Kayasthas.{{sfnp|Inden|1976|pp=55–56|ps=}}{{sfnp|Hopkins|1989|pp=35–36|ps=}}

==Notable people==
* [[Maharaja Pratapaditya]], the king of Jessore who declared independence from Mughal rule in the early 17th century, was a Bengali Kayastha.

* [[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>
* [[Jagadish Chandra Bose]], Indian scientist<ref>{{cite book | title = Science and the Indian Tradition: When Einstein Met Tagore | year = 2007 | author=Gosling}}</ref>
* [[Subhas Chandra Bose]], popularly known as ''Netaji'' ("Respected Leader")<ref>{{cite book|author=A. Pelinka, R. 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&q=kayastha&pg=PA32|isbn=978-07-6580-186-9}}</ref>
* [[A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada]], founder of the [[International Society for Krishna Consciousness|Hare Krishna Movement-ISKCON]]<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://bvml.org/contemporary/sankarsan.html|title=Interview with Srila Prabhupada's Grand-Nephew - Sankarsan Prabhu|website=bvml.org|access-date=11 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170727173533/http://bvml.org/contemporary/sankarsan.html|archive-date=27 July 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref>
* [[Debapratim Purkayastha]], Indian educator and bestselling author<ref>{{Cite web|last=Chakravorty|first=Reshmi|date=2016-12-13|title=Professor Debapratim Purkayastha: The case study expert|url=https://www.deccanchronicle.com/lifestyle/viral-and-trending/131216/professor-debapratim-purkayastha-the-case-study-expert.html|access-date=2020-08-21|website=Deccan Chronicle|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2019-11-08|title=Dr. Debapratim Purkayastha: Best Selling Case Author|url=https://openthemagazine.com/open-avenues/dr-debapratim-purkayastha/|access-date=2020-08-21|website=Open The Magazine|language=en-GB}}</ref>
*[[Satyendra Prasanna Sinha, 1st Baron Sinha]]<ref>{{cite book |title=An Indian In The House: The lives and times of the four trailblazers who first brought India to the British Parliament |date=2019 |publisher=Mereo Books |isbn=978-1-86151-490-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fpWDDwAAQBAJ&q=Satyendra+Prasanna+Sinha,+1st+Baron+Sinha+kayastha&pg=PA274 |access-date=4 April 2020 |language=en}}</ref>
*[[Swami Vivekananda]] (b. Narendranath Datta)<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><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|access-date=5 July 2012}}</ref>
* [[Paramahansa Yogananda]], author of ‘[[Autobiography of a Yogi]]’.<ref name="mejda">Sananda Lal Ghosh,(1980), Mejda, Self-Realization Fellowship, p.3</ref>

==References==
'''Citations'''
{{Reflist|2}}

'''Bibliography'''
{{refbegin}}
* {{citation |last=Eaton |first=Richard Maxwell |year=1996 |title=The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, 1204–1760 |publisher=University of California Press| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gKhChF3yAOUC |isbn=978-0-520-20507-9}}
*{{citation |last=Gupta |first=Swarupa |title=Notions of Nationhood in Bengal: Perspectives on Samaj, C. 1867–1905 |publisher=Brill |year=2009 |isbn=978-90-04-17614-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AGSuVgPH9T4C&pg=PA103}}
*{{citation |title=Krishna consciousness in the West |editor1-first=David G. |editor1-last=Bromley |editor2-first=Larry D. |editor2-last=Shinn |first=Thomas J. |last=Hopkins |chapter=The Social and Religious Background for Transmission of Gaudiya Vaisnavism to the West |publisher=Bucknell University Press |year=1989 |isbn=978-0-8387-5144-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F-EuD3M2QYoC}}
* {{citation |last=Inden |first=Ronald B. |author-link=Ronald Inden |year=1976 |title=Marriage and Rank in Bengali Culture: A History of Caste and Clan in Middle Period Bengal |publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-02569-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=P8b9A7J_v-UC}}
*{{citation |last=Sengupta |first=Nitish K. |title=History of the Bengali-Speaking People |publisher=UBS Publishers' Distributors |year=2001 |isbn=81-7476-355-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6eYsAAAAMAAJ}}
*{{citation |last=Sharma |first=Tej Ram |title=Personal and Geographical Names in the Gupta Inscriptions |year=1978 |publisher=Concept Publishing Company |location=New Delhi |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WcnnB-Lx2MAC}}
* {{citation |last=Wink |first=Andre |year=1991 |title=Al-Hind, the Making of the Indo-Islamic World, Volume 1 |publisher=Brill Academic Publishers |isbn=978-90-04-09509-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bCVyhH5VDjAC}}
{{refend}}
{{Bengali Hindu people}}
[[Category:Bengali Hindu surnames]]
[[Category:Bengali Hindu castes]]
[[Category:Kayastha]]

Bengali Kayastha - Revision history

imported>Ekdalian at 06:12, 3 September 2021