15. Occupation.
The occupations of the Kāyasths have been treated in discussing the origin of the caste. They set the greatest store by their profession of writing and say that the son of a Kāyasth should be either literate or dead. The following is the definition of a Lekhak or writer, a term said to be used for the Kāyasths in Purānic literature:
“In all courts of justice he who is acquainted with the languages of all countries and conversant with all the Shāstras, who can arrange his letters in writing in even and parallel lines, who is possessed of presence of mind, who knows the art of how and what to speak in order to carry out an object in view, who is well versed in all the Shāstras, who can express much thought in short and pithy sentences, who is apt to understand the mind of one when one begins to speak, who knows the different divisions of countries and of time,[40] who is not a slave to his passions, and who is faithful to the king deserves the name and rank of a Lekhak or writer.”[41]
[1] This article is based partly on papers by Mūnshi Kanhya Lāl of the Gazetteer office, Mr. Sundar Lāl, Extra Assistant Commissioner, Saugor, and Mr. J. N. Sil, Pleader, Seoni.
[2] Hindus of Gujarāt, p. 59, quoting from Ind. Ant. vi. 192–193.
[3] Hindu Castes and Sects, p. 175.
[4] Eastern India, i. p. 162.
[5] Ibidem, ii. p. 466.
[6] Ibidem, ii. p. 736.
[7] Ibidem, ii. p. 122.
[8] Essays, vol. ii. p. 182.
[9] Ethnology of Bengal, pp. 312, 313.
[10] United Provinces Census Report (1901), pp. 222–223.
[11] Lāla Jwāla Prasād, Extra Assistant Commissioner, in Sir E. A. Maclagan’s Punjab Census Report for 1891.
[12] Memoir of Central India, vol. ii. pp. 165–166.
[13] The Kānungo maintains the statistical registers of land-revenue, rent, cultivation, cropping, etc., for the District as a whole which are compiled from those prepared by the patwāris for each village.
[14] Hindus of Gujarāt, p. 60.
[15] Ibidem, p. 64.
[16] Ibidem, p. 61.
[17] Bhattachārya, Hindu Castes and Sects, p. 177. It is true that Dr. Bhattachārya states that the Kāyasths were also largely employed under the Hindu kings of Bengal, but he gives no authority for this. The Gaur Kāyasths also claim that the Sena kings of Bengal were of their caste, but considering that these kings were looked on as spiritual heads of the country and one of them laid down rules for the structure and intermarriage of the Brāhman caste, it is practically impossible that they could have been Kāyasths. The Muhammadan conquest of Bengal took place at an early period, and very little detail is known about the preceding Hindu dynasties.
[18] Risley, Tribes and Castes of Bengal, art. Bihār Kāyasth.
[19] Sherring, Tribes and Castes, vol. iii. pp. 253–254.
[20] Bhattachārya, Hindu Castes and Tribes, p. 177.
[21] Hindus of Gujarāt, p. 81.
[22] Ibidem, p. 67.
[23] Ibidem, p. 68, and Mackintosh, Report in the Rāmosis, India Office Tracts, p. 77.
[24] Hobson-Jobson, s.v. Cranny.
[25] Hobson-Jobson, p. 167.
[26] Memoir of Central India, loc. cit.
[27] Hindus of Gujarāt, p. 60.
[28] Tribes and Castes of Bengal, art. Bengal Kāyasth. The Kāyasths deny the story that the five Kāyasths were servants of the five Brāhmans, and say that they were Kshatriyas sent on a mission from the king of Kanauj to the king of Bengal. This, however, is improbable in view of the evidence already given as to the historical status of the Kāyasths.
[29] Tribes and Castes, ibidem.
[30] Hindu Castes and Sects, p. 155.
[31] Ibidem, pp. 375, 380.
[32] See articles on Ghasia and Dhobi.
[33] Village Communities, p. 125.
[34] Hindu Castes and Sects, ibidem, p. 177.
[35] Tribes and Castes, art. Kāyasth.
[36] Bhattachārya, loc. cit., p. 188.
[37] Hindus of Gujarāt, p. 72.
[38] Dasrath and Kaushilya were the father and mother of Rāma.
[39] These are the occupations of the Kāyasths.
[40] Geography and Astronomy.
[41] Quoted from the Matsapūrān in a criticism by Babu Krishna Nāg Verma.