The katha of Kayasthas
By P. Lal

WHO are Kayasthas and what is their origin? Just as the Kshatriyas worship their arms and weapons on the occasion of Dasehra and the Vaishyas take out their bahis (cash-books) and khatas (ledgers) and venerate them on Divali, the Kayasthas, too, reverently place a pen and an ink-pot before their founder and patron deity Chitragupta on dooj (the 2nd day in the phase of the waxing moon), after Divali. They invoke his blessings to give them strength through the pen, considered mightier than the sword.

But where do the Kayasthas or the writing caste fit in in the four-fold varna system of the Hindus?

It is said that Brahma, the Creator, having established the four varnas — Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra — ordained Dharamraj ( also called Yamraj, the god of death) to keep record of the deeds — good and evil — of all life-forms born and yet to be born on the earth, in the heavens above and in the lands below. Dharamraj, however, complained, "O Lord, how can I alone keep record of the deeds of the beings born into 84 lakh yonis (life-forms) in the three worlds?"

Brahma then closed his eyes, meditated for a while and lo and behold! there appeared a radiant figure with a quill-pen in one hand and an ink-pot in another. Brahma named him Chittagupta for he was conceived in his cognitive-self (chitta) and he was lying in Him, dormant and secret (gupta). He was born of Brahma’s body (kaya) and so the Lord decreed that his progenies be called Kayasthas. He was assigned to work as a minister, to write and record for Dharamraj. Thus, the fifth varna, the Kayastha, came into existence.

Sanskrit texts of yore tell us that Chittagupta married Irawati and Nandini. The 12 Kayastha sub-castes are traced to his 12 sons, eight by Irawati and four by Nandini. Mathurs, Gaurs, Bhatnagars, Saxenas, Ambhasths, Nigams, Karns and Kulshreshths became the descendants of the eight sons by Irawati, whereas Srivastavas, Suryadhwajs, Asthanas and Valmiks became the descendants of the four sons by Nandini. As time passed, the name Chittagupta got transformed into Chitragupta.

Some historians hold the view that during the reign of the Mughals, a number of Hindus who were were educated and endowed with sharp intellect attained administrative positions through rapid adaptation to the Persian language and culture of India’s new rulers. These influential Hindus got together and formed a new caste known as Kayastha.

Ancient Sanskrit texts dating back to the pre-Mughal period, though, have references to Kayasthas and Chitragupta. The Smriti of Yajnavalkya describes the Kayasthas as writers, scribes and village accountants. The Vishnu and Parashara Smritis have also similar references to them, describing them as magistrates, judges and chief executive officers.

In the Garud Puran, Chitragupta has been described as the giver of the script (Chitraguptaya namastubhyam veda aksharadatre — salutation to Chitragupta, the giver of the script). The Rig Veda enjoins a salutation to Chitragupta before offering sacrifice — Sri Chitraguptaya vai namah.

The 12 sub-castes of the Kayasthas are not only endogamous subdivisions, but they also have exogamous divisions based on als. An al would refer to a distinguished ancestor or the place of origin or it could refer to a characteristic acquired during migration. Members of the same al are prohibited to inter-marry and hence als perform the same function that gotras do in other castes. Mathurs are divided into 197 als, Bhatnagars into 95, Saxenas into 121, Nigams into 42 and Srivastavas into 43.

Two other regional communities also lay claim to the name Kayastha. These are the Prabhu Kayasthas of Maharashtra and Bengali Kayasthas of West Bengal. They were also the ‘writing-castes’ in Maharashtra and Bengal, respectively, like the Chitragupta Kayasthas of North India.

Kayasthas mostly belong to the Hindi-speaking states of U.P., Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi. However, no firm figures are available of their population in India.

Kayasthas also migrated to various other parts of the country. Most of the Kayasthas who shifted to Hyderabad from Delhi and U.P. in the middle of the eighteenth century got employment in the court of the Nizam. In 1820, out of the 400 North Indian mansabdars, 60 were Kayasthas.

With the passing of time, the Kayasthas have surged ahead. They have broken new grounds in vocations other than those relating to writing and record-keeping, and excelled in them. Thus, in public life, Dr Rajendra Prasad rose to become the first President of the Republic of India, whereas Lal Bahadur Shastri succeeded Jawaharlal Nehru as the Prime Minister. Dr Sampuranand was the Chief Minister of U.P. and Governor of Rajasthan, besides being a literary figure. Jaya Prakash Narain brought down Indira Gandhi, Subhas Chandra Bose fought the British rule militarily. Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar, and Jagdish Chandra Bose were eminent scientists. Munshi Prem Chand, Harivansh Rai Bachchan, Raghupat Sahai "Firaque" Gorakhpuri, Dr Vrindavan Lal Verma, Dr Ram Kumar Verma and Dr Dharm Vir Bharti have been men of letters. Swami Vivekanand was a philosopher and a true Indian. Amitabh Bachchan and Shatrughan Sinha have excelled in the celluloid world, Mukesh and Sonu Nigam in the world of music, and Ramanand Sagar on the small screen. Not many Kayasthas have, however, been industrialists or businessmen.

Why are the Kayasthas generally not rich? It is believed that a goddess once appeared before a poor peasant and offered him a boon. He wanted the riches for himself but he thought of consulting his blind mother and barren wife, and asked the goddess to give him a day to decide. The mother wanted the sight for herself, and the wife, a child. While the three thus sat mulling over the matter, in walked a neighbour, a Kayastha, and as per his advice, when the goddess appeared the next night before the peasant, he said, "I want my mother to see her grandson eat from a gold bowl." The boon (three-in-one) was granted, but the goddess asked the peasant to disclose whose idea it was. Upon hearing that the advice came from a Kayastha, she cursed, "Kayasthas shall have brains but not wealth".

Kayasthas are not well organised, either politically or socially. The earliest effort to unite them date back to 1887 when Munshi Kali Parshad, the founder of the Kayashta Pathshala in Allahabad (1873), formed the All-India Kayastha Conference (AIKC) which held its first convention in Lucknow in 1887. Now known as the Akhil Bhartiya Kayastha Mahasabha (ABKM), with its objective to uplift its members, it holds biannual conventions at various places in the country. Many of the cities in the Hindi -speaking states with sizeable population of Kayasthas have, however, their own Kayastha sabhas.