Kulin Kayastha
Languages | |
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Bengali |
Kulin Kayastha (
The Kayasthas are regarded in Bengal, along with the
Origin
The social and religious patterns of Bengal had historically been distinctively different from those in the orthodox Hindu heartland of North India and this impacted on how the
It is traditionally believed that at this point, after the decline of the Pala dynasty, a Hindu king,
The four
History
During the Gupta Empire, the Kayasthas had not developed into a distinct caste, although the office of the Kayasthas (scribes) had been instituted before the beginning of the period, as evidenced from the contemporary smritis. Tej Ram Sharma, an Indian historian, says that
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.[6]
A period of rule by various Muslim dynasties began in Bengal from the thirteenth century and lasted until 1765, when the British gained control. Many of the population converted to Islam and the lack of a Hindu king as a focal point caused the isolation of those Hindu communities which remained. The Kulin communities suffered particularly badly because their ritual role was to serve a Hindu king via appointments to high state and religious offices, which were denied to them by Muslim rule. Those Hindus, including some Kulins, who did assist, co-operate or mingle with the Muslim rulers were often shunned by the increasingly conservative Hindu community, which was intent on self-preservation and withdrew into its own cultural norms in order to achieve that. Thomas J. Hopkins has said that
In relations with Muslims, it was clear that high-caste Hindus played a zero-sum game in which the degree of involvement with non-Hindu rulers meant a corresponding loss in Hindu social ranking.[7]
Similarly, the Kulin castes generally ignored the British who came into the area and eventually took it over. The British were non-Hindu and so they, like the Muslims before them, were unable to satisfy the Kulin need for roles befitting their ritual status. Other Hindu communities, however, did co-operate with the British and by the early years of the nineteenth century some had become substantial landowners and wealthy people as a consequence. These non-Kulin communities also were the first to take steps towards Westernisation, in part because they realised that alignment with Western ideas would provide a route by which they could advance their social status, and that was something which could never occur under the Hindu ritual system as they would always be ranked lower than the Kulins.[8]
A survey of Indian writers and observers suggests that many of those acquainted with the Kayasthas considered them as Dvija or twice-born.[9] However, the claims of Kayasthas of Bengal of having Dvija status is not supported by many other Indian observers. The Bengali Brahmins were most active in refuting these claims.[9]
See also
External links
- Journey of the Dutta - Kannauj to Bengal [1]
References
- ISBN 978-0-520-02569-1. Retrieved 2011-10-31.
- ^ ISBN 978-0-8387-5144-2. Retrieved 2011-10-31.
- ISBN 81-7476-355-4.
- ^ ISBN 978-90-04-17614-0.
- ISBN 978-1-4331-0820-4.
- ^ Sharma, Tej Ram (1978). Personal and Geographical Names in the Gupta Empire. New Delhi: Concept Publishing Company. p. 115.
- ISBN 978-0-8387-5144-2. Retrieved 2011-10-31.
- ISBN 978-0-8387-5144-2. Retrieved 2011-10-31.
- ^ ISBN 978-1134494293. Retrieved 19 April 2021.