Baidya

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Template:For Baidya[1] or Vaidya[2] is a Hindu community of Bengal. A caste/jāti of Ayurvedic physicians, Baidyas have long occupied a place of pre-eminence in society alongside Brahmins and Kayasthas. In the colonial era, the Bhadraloks were drawn from these three castes, who continue to maintain a collective hegemony in West Bengal.

Origins

A wide variety of overlapping and contradictory myths surround their origins in Bengal — local literature apart from two genealogies and Upapuraṇas don't discuss details concerning the origin of Baidyas in an original manner.[3] The details contained therein were referred to and rehashed in medieval literature on society and law. Inscriptions are sparse and does not provide much help either.

The terms Baidya literally means a physician in the Bengali as well as Sanskrit; they were (probably) an occupational group of Ayurveds and drew people from various varnas including Brahmins.[4][5][6][7] Bengal is the only place where they went on to form a caste-group.[8] Kumkum Chatterjee feels that they had (likely) crystallized into a caste-community (jati) long before the Sultanate rule.[9][3] R. C. Majumdar and R. C. Hazra disagree; they note that a karana family used to serve as the royal physicians in 11th and 12th century Bengal.[10]

Upapuraṇas

The Upapuranas played a significant role in the history of Bengal — they propagated and established Brahminic ideals, at a time when , but also accommodated elements of the vernacular culture, to gain acceptance among masses.[11]Template:Efn No other Hindu scriptures mentions the Baidya as a caste group.[10]Template:Efn

Bṛhaddharma Puraṇa (Brh. P.; c. 13th centuryTemplate:Efn) is the earliest document to chronicle a hierarchy of castes in Bengal.[3][12]Template:Efn It would become the standard text based on which further negotiations of caste/jati status would manifest.[13] The Brahma Vaivarta Purana (Bv. P.) — notable for a very late Bengali recension (c. 14/15th c.) — names a hierarchy of castes but varies in details from Brh. P.[14][15][12]

Bṛhaddharma Puraṇa

Brh. P. does not mention Baidyas separately but the Ambasthas, deriving from the Venu-Prthu myth.[12][14]Template:Efn Products of forbidden union among Brahmin fathers and Vaishya mothers, during the reign of Venu, they were classified as Uttama Saṃkaras (highest of mixed classes).[16][14][15]Template:Efn After Venu was deposed by the Gods, Prthu was installed as a Vishnu reincarnate and upon a request to restore dharma, proposed to integrate the Saṃkaras into four varnas.[14]

Ambasthas were brought under Sudras, purposed (and synonymised) to Baidyas (physicians) in light of preexisting capacities, and conferred a solitary right to Ayurveda with help from Ashvin.[14][15]Template:Efn Alongside, they had to undergo a second birth to penance for bearing the Svarnakaras from Vaishya mothers - this rebirth is noted to be their identifying characteristic.[14][15] They were then noted as one of the Satsudras (higher Sudras) and endowed with the right of inviting Srotriya Brahmins for rituals as well as accepting service from lower Sudras; one stanza even notes them to be Saṃkarottama (best of Saṃkaras).[14]

Brahma Vaivarta Puran

Bv. P. treats the Baidyas as separate to Ambasthas but note them to be Satsudras.[7][12]

Ashvin, a Kshatriya had raped a Brahmin pilgrim, and she (along with the illegitimate son) were driven out by her husband.[7][10] This son — who was brought up by Ashvin and trained in Ayurveda — went on to become the progenitor of Baidyas.[10] Here, the Baidyas went on to bear the Vyalagrahins of a Sudra woman; Svarnakaras were granted a different origin-story.[17]

Interpretation

Ryosuke Furui feels that the varṇasaṃkara myth and the subsequent ordaining of Saṃkaras in Brh. P. merely reflected and reinforced the existing social hierarchy of ancient Bengal while allowing the Brahmin authors to understand an alien society and get themselves established at the top — that is, the Ambasthas held a preeminent position in pre-Brahminic Bengal and practiced medicine.[14]Template:EfnTemplate:Efn Ramaprasad Chanda had supported such a reading as early as 1916.[18] Nripendra Kumar Dutt, who had equated the Baidyas to Ambasthas, hypothesized that these Upapuranas were tools for Brahmin law-makers to reify the Parshuram myth and deprive Vaidyas of its mixed-caste privileges (sacred thread etc).[4]

Kulanjis

A form of literature endemic to Bengal, Kulanjis served multiple functions in society — not only were they genealogical registers but also texts in flux, that reflected contemporary society and served to establish hierarchy in society vis à vis others.[3]Template:Efn

Among the only two extant pre-modern Baidya genealogies, Chandraprabha (CP; c. late 17th century) constructs a descent from the semi-legendary Ambasthas.[6] These claims of equivalence were not present in the slightly older Sadvaidyakulapnjika (SV).[12]Template:Efn It is doubtful if the Ambasthas — mostly held to be of a Kshatriya origin in Hindu scripturesTemplate:Efn — had any connection with the Baidyas of Bengal (or even the Vaidyas of South India).[7]Template:Efn Both the genealogies claim Adi Sura and Ballāla Sena as their own; this is agreed upon by some Brahmin genealogies but rejected by Kayastha ones.[10][9][19] The particulars of appropriation vary — CP claimed that the Baidyas had gained Kulin status for their sadachara (good conduct) while SV reiterated the popular myth of Ballāla Sena conferring kulin status.[2][7]

Inscriptions

The Gunaighar inscriptions — dated to Vainyagupta (507 C.E.) — mention of demarcated agricultural tracts owned by Baidyas (profession).[13]Template:Efn The Bhatera Copper Plates mention the ākṣapaṭalika of King Isandeva (c. 1050) to be of Baidya vamsa (lineage), on whose advice a parcel of land was granted towards the family of a dead prince.[13]Template:EfnTemplate:Efn

Outside Bengal, the earliest reference to Vaidya occurs in three South Indian inscriptions of Nedunjeliyan I: a Vaidya chief served in the dual roles of War-General and Prime Minister and the Vaidya-kula (translatable to Vaidya clan or Vaidya family) was famed for expertise in music and Sastras.Template:Efn They were classed as Brahmins.[10] It is plausible that these people had some link with the Baidyas of Bengal; inscriptions of the Senas mentions migrations from Karnat etc.[7]

History

Overview

Located far away from North India, Bengal exhibits a convoluted caste-hierarchy where discrimination persists but the praxis of varna significantly deviates from Brahminical theory. The Baidyas, despite being classed as Satsudras across a vast spectrum of pre-modern literature from BengalTemplate:Efn, have been a part of the elites since long. Over the course of centuries, they staked claim to Brahmin status and successfully mobilized its way up the ladder of social hierarchy to occupy a place right below Brahmins. Projit Bihari Mukharji (2017) notes that a detailed history of Baidyas' upward mobility is yet to be produced.[3]

Medieval Bengal

In medieval Bengal, Baidyas often branched out into fields other than medicine and composed a significant percentage of the elites in Sultanate, Mughal, and Nawabi Bengal.[9][20][21] They were very reputed for their proficiency in Sanskrit, courtesy the need to read treatises of medicine.[9] By the end of sixteenth century, Baidyas probably occupied the second tier in the local social hierarchy alongside Brahmins and Kayasthas of Bengal; marriages with Bengali Kayasthas were commonplace.[9][3][22][6]

Around the late fifteenth century, Baidyas became intricately associated with the Caitanya Cult alongside Brahmins.[3] Murari Gupta, a childhood friend of Caitanya was a famed physician of Navadwip by profession and went on to composed his oldest extant biography in Sanskrit (Krsna Caitanya Caritamrta).[23] Narahari Sarkara, another among his closest devotees composed Krsna Bhajanamrta, a theological commentary.[23] Sivananda Sena, an immensely wealthy Baidya, used to organize the annual trip of Caitanya devotees to Puri, and his son had written several Sanskrit works of the devotional genre.[23][24] As the cult shunned doctrines of equality after Caitanya's death, these associated Baidyas began enjoying a quasi-Brahminic status as Gaudiya Vasihnava gurus.[3]Template:Efn

Multiple Baidya authors partook in the Mangalkavya tradition — Bijaya Gupta (late 15th c.) being the foremost among them.[25]Template:Efn In 1653 C.E., Ramakanta Dasa Kavikantahara wrote the oldest available Baidya kulanji — Sadvaidyakulapnjika.[7][26] Around the same time, Bharatamallika (c. 1650) — a physician by profession but also instructor of a tol — wrote numerous commentaries on Sanskrit texts like Amarakosha, and produced miscellaneous works on grammar and lexicography.[26]Template:Efn He would also write Chandraprabha (1675 C.E.), a commissioned kulanji of the Baidyas and Ratnaprabha, a summary of the former.[26]Template:Efn

Bharata had claimed a mixed-caste/Vaishya status for the Baidyas.[2][7] However, in the Caitanya Caritāmṛta of Krishnadasa Kaviraja, a Baidya himself, one Candrasekhara is variably referred to as a Baidya and a Sudra.[27]Template:Efn The Vallal Charita of Ānanda BhaṭṭaTemplate:Efn classed the Baidyas among Satsudras, of whom Kayasthas were held to be the highest. The Chandimangal of Mukundaram Chakrabarti (c. mid 16th century CE) places the Baidyas — famed for their medicines and interpretation of relevant texts — below Vaisyas, possibly indicating a Sudra status (but above Kayasthas).[16][28]Template:EfnTemplate:Efn Works by Raghunandana (c. mid 16th century) hold Baidyas to be Sudras too.[6]

Colonial Bengal

The eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries would witness acrimonious debates about their caste status.[3][26][29] C. 1750, Raja Rajballabh wished to have Brahmins officiate at his rituals; he sought Vaishya status for the Baidyas and claimed a right of wearing sacred thread.[6][30][31][32] On facing opposition from other Baidya zamindars (who thought this to be an attempt at gaining trans-samaj acceptance as a Baidya leader) and Brahmin scholars of Vikrampur, he invited 131 Brahmins from Benaras, Kanauj, Navadwip and other regions with expertise in Nyaya Shastra.[30][31] All of them adjudicated in his favor.[30][31]

However, with more lower castes infiltrating into the order of Vaishyas, Baidyas now sought equality with the Brahmins and claimed themselves to be "Gauna (secondary) Brahmins" leveraging the recently conferred right to upanayana.[6][9][3]Template:Efn Beginning 1822, Brahmin and Baidya scholars produced a series of polemical pamphlets against one another and in 1831, the Baidya Samaj was formed by Khudiram Bisharad, a teacher at the Native Medical Institution to defend class interests.[3] Gangadhar Ray produced voluminous literature to put forward partisan claims on Baidyas descending from Brahmins.[3] Soon, Binodlal Sen would publish Bharatamallika's genealogies in print.[3][26] A rivalry with the Kayasthas (who are considered as inferior since these times) would now be an integral part of this discourse and matrimonial alliances were discouraged, fomenting the rise of a rigid endogamous caste-group.[6][7]Template:Efn

In 1893, Jnanendramohan Sengupta wrote Baidyajatir Baisista in an attempt to prove that the Ambasthas had scriptural sanction of being ordained into sannyasa — Sengupta would remain a prolific author for the Baidya cause across the first quarter of twentieth century.[33] In 1901, colonial ethnographer Herbert Hope Risley noted the Baidyas to be above Sudras but below the Brahmins.[34] Baidya social historians like Umesh Chandra Gupta and Dinesh Chandra Sen would support Risley's observation with a measured skepticism and forge a glorious Baidya past, in their quest of writing a history of Bengal from kulanjis — Gupta, in particular, rebuked the Kayasthas for fabricating evidence to malign the Vaidyas as a low caste.[35]Template:Efn

In early twentieth century, Gananath Sen, the first dean of the Faculty of Ayurveda at the Banaras Hindu University opened a "Baidya Brahman Samiti" in Kolkata; the Baidyas were not merely equal to Brahmins but identical.[3] It was also suggested that all Baidyas change their surnames to Sharma, a Brahmin patronymic.[3] In 1915/16, Kuladakinkara Ray published Vaidyakulapanjika to advocate that not only were the Baidyas same as Brahmins but the highest of them.[26]Template:Efn In 1922, Basantakumar Sen wrote Baidya Jatir Itihas on the same themes.[33] Pascale Haag notes that these efforts to gain mobility won't have succeeded (in parts) without acceptance by the Brahmin society, whose responses remain yet to be studied.[26]

Notwithstanding these contestations, the dominance of Baidyas continued unabated into the colonial rule when they took to Western forms of education proactively and held a disproportionate share of government jobs, elite professions, and landholding.[3]Template:Efn A letter by William Jones c. 1785 noted of one Ramalocana Kanthavarna to be "a perfect grammarian and excellent moralist" who also ran a tol but being a Baidya, lacked the "priestly pride" of his Brahmin students.[36]Template:Efn In the smallpox epidemic of 1840s in Dhaka, Baidyas had refused to inoculate the masses and relegated such menial tasks to lower-ranked barbers and garland makers.[37]

Also, all these maneuvers at attaining mobility were enmeshed with another nineteenth-century Baidya project of modernizing Ayurveda.[3] Binodlal Sen had declared the genealogical works to be free for anyone who purchased above a certain value of medications and Baidya medicine distributors were frequently found to sell revisionist caste-histories.[3] Elements of colonial modernity — Western notions of physiology and medical instruments — were "braided" with Ayurveda to aid in their mobility.[38]

Unquestionably established as among the "upper castes" by mid nineteenth century, they would be the building block of Bhadralok Samaj (alongside Brahmins and Kayasthas), and serve as the eyes and ears of the British Government.[1][39][40][41]Template:Efn The Bhadraloks would be eventually instrumental in demanding democratic reforms across the early twentieth century; a majority of "revolutionary terrorists" from Bengal who partook in the Indian independence movement came from this class.[40][42][43]

Modern Bengal

A report produced by the Government of West Bengal for the 1951 census found Baidyas' claims of Brahmin origin to lay on "slender" grounds.[34] These claims continue to persist in the twenty first century.[44] Their current place in social hierarchy comes right after BrahminsTemplate:Efn — Baidyas wear the sacred thread, have access to scriptures and use the surname of Sharma (among others) but cannot conduct priestly services.[45][46] As of 1960, inter-marriages between Brahmins, Baidyas and Kayasthas were quite common and increasing.[47]

Baidyas continue to wield immense socio-economic power in modern Bengal as part of Bhadraloks — in absence of rigorous data, the precise extents are difficult to determine.[48] Parimal Ghosh notes this hegemony to be so complete, that Bengali and Bhadralok eventually became synonymous disenfranchising the rest of Bengal.[49]

Notes

Template:Notelist

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Caste, Culture and Hegemony: Social Dominance in Colonial Bengal{{#if:Bandyopādhyāẏa|, Bandyopādhyāẏa}. SAGE(2004). ISBN 978-0-76199-849-5
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Origin and growth of caste in India, Volume 2{{#if:Dutt|, Dutt}. Firma K. L. Mukhopadhyay(1968)
  3. ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 3.14 3.15 3.16 3.17 Doctoring Traditions: Ayurveda, Small Technologies, and Braided Sciences{{#if:Mukharji|, Mukharji}. University of Chicago Press(2016-10-14). ISBN 978-0-226-38182-4
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Origin and Growth of Caste in India: Vol. II: Castes in Bengal{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Firma K. L. Mukhopadhyay(1965)
  5. ↑ Personal and Geographical Names in the Gupta Empire{{#if:Sharma|, Sharma}. Concept Publishing Company(1978)
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 Studies in the Society and Administration of Ancient and Medieval India{{#if:Sircar|, Sircar}. Firma KLM(1959)
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 7.7 7.8 The People And Culture Of Bengal: A Study In Origins{{#if:Chattopadhyaya|, Chattopadhyaya}. Firma KLM(1960)
  8. ↑ Glossary. Cambridge University Press(1968).
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 Scribal elites in Sultanate and Mughal Bengal. The Indian Economic & Social History Review({Template:Date).
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 History Of Bengal{{#if:Majumdar|, Majumdar}. The University of Dacca(1943)
  11. ↑ Mutating Goddesses: Bengal's Laukika Hinduism and Gender Rights{{#if:Sengupta|, Sengupta}. Oxford University Press(2021)
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 12.4 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named :10
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named :02
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 14.5 14.6 14.7 Revisiting Early India: Essays in Honour of D. C. Sircar{{#if:Furui|, Furui}. R. N. Bhattacharya(2013)
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 From the Margins of Hindu Marriage: Essays on Gender, Religion, and Culture{{#if:Nicholas|, Nicholas}. Oxford University Press(1995)
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 Continuities of Social Mobility in Traditional and Modern Society in India: Two Case Studies of Caste Mobility in Bengal. The Journal of Asian Studies({Template:Date).
  17. ↑ Mixed Castes in the Brahmavaivartapurāṇa. Journal of the American Oriental Society({Template:Date).
  18. ↑ Indo-Aryan races: a study of the origin of Indo-Aryan people and institutions{{#if:Chanda|, Chanda}. Varendra Research Society(1916)
  19. ↑ Communities, Kings and Chronicles: The Kulagranthas of Bengal. Studies in History({Template:Date).
  20. ↑ Marriage and Rank in Bengali Culture: A History of Caste and Clan in Middle Period Bengal{{#if:Inden|, Inden}. University of California Press(1976). ISBN 978-0-52002-569-1
  21. ↑ Elites in South Asia{{#if:Mukherjee|, Mukherjee}. Cambridge University Press(1970)
  22. ↑ The Dynamics of a Rural Society{{#if:Mukherjee|, Mukherjee}. Popular Prakashan(1957). ISBN 978-81-7155-215-3
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 23.2 Caitanya Caritamrta of Krsnadasa Kaviraja: A Translation and Commentary{{#if:Dimock|, Dimock}
  24. ↑ A Vaisnava Poet in Early Modern Bengal: Kavikarnapura's Splendour of Speech{{#if:Lutjeharms|, Lutjeharms}. Oxford University Press(2018). ISBN 9780198827108
  25. ↑ The One-eyed Goddess: A Study of the Manasā Maṅgal{{#if:Smith|, Smith}. Almqvist & Wiksell International(1980). ISBN 978-91-22-00408-0
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 26.2 26.3 26.4 26.5 26.6 Sanskrit Sadhuta: Goodness of Sanskrit : Studies in Honour of Professor Ashok Aklujkar{{#if:Haag|, Haag}. DK Printworld(2012). ISBN 9788124606315
  27. ↑ Caitanya Caritamrta of Krsnadasa Kaviraja: A Translation and Commentary{{#if:Dimock|, Dimock}
  28. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named :Yazijian
  29. ↑ Seductive Orientalism: English Education and Modern Science in Colonial India. Social Scientist({Template:Date).
  30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 30.2 Maharaja Krishnachandra: Religion, Caste and Polity in Eighteenth Century Bengal. Indian Historical Review({Template:Date).
  31. ↑ 31.0 31.1 31.2 Scholar Networks and the Manuscript Economy in Nyāya-śāstra in Early Colonial Bengal. Journal of Indian Philosophy({Template:Date).
  32. ↑ Poetry and History: Bengali Maṅgal-kābya and Social Change in Precolonial Bengal{{#if:Curley|, Curley}. CEDAR, University of Washington(2008)
  33. ↑ 33.0 33.1 Castes in Bengal: Some Bengali Publications: 1840 - 1940{{#if:Basu|, Basu}. Basu Research and Documentation Service(2004)
  34. ↑ 34.0 34.1 Template:Cite report
  35. ↑ Template:Cite thesis
  36. ↑ EMPIRE AND ENLIGHTENMENT IN THREE LETTERS FROM SIR WILLIAM JONES TO GOVERNOR-GENERAL JOHN MACPHERSON. The Historical Journal({Template:Date).
  37. ↑ The Goddess Śītalā and Epidemic Smallpox in Bengal. The Journal of Asian Studies({Template:Date).
  38. ↑ Review of Doctoring Traditions: Ayurveda, Small Technologies and Braided Sciences, MukharjiProjit Bihari. Social Scientist({Template:Date).
  39. ↑ Partition and the mysterious disappearance of caste in Bengal{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Routledge India(2015-09-25). ISBN 978-1-315-68631-8
  40. ↑ 40.0 40.1 BEYOND BENGAL: GENDER, EDUCATION, AND THE WRITING OF COLONIAL INDIAN HISTORY. Victorian Literature and Culture({Template:Date).
  41. ↑ Space of Deprivation: The 19th Century Bengali Kerani in the Bhadrolok Milieu of Calcutta. Asian Journal of Social Science({Template:Date).
  42. ↑ The return of caste to Bengal. The Indian Express(2021-04-01). Retrieved 2021-07-25.
  43. ↑ Revolutionary Terrorism in British Bengal. John Wiley & Sons, Ltd(2009).
  44. ↑ Hindus: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices{{#if:Lipner|, Lipner}. Routledge(2012-10-02). ISBN 978-1-135-24061-5
  45. ↑ Western University, Indian Nationalisms. Springer(2017).
  46. ↑ Multiculturalism: Public Policy and Problem Areas in Canada and India{{#if:Ray|, Ray}. Manak Publications(2009)
  47. ↑ The Modernity of Tradition: Political Development in India{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. University of Chicago Press(15 July 1984). ISBN 978-0-226-73137-7
  48. ↑ The Politics of Caste in West Bengal{{#if:Chatterjee|, Chatterjee}. Routledge(2015)
  49. ↑ What Happened to the Bhadralok?{{#if:Ghosh|, Ghosh}. Primus Books(2016). ISBN 9789384082994

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