5. The caste an offshoot from Brāhmans.
As regards the origin of the Kāyasths, the most probable hypothesis would seem to be that they were an offshoot of Brāhmans of irregular descent. The reason for this is that the Kāyasths must have learnt reading and writing from some outside source, and the Brāhmans were the only class who could teach it them. The Brāhmans were not disposed to spread the benefits of education, which was the main source of their power, with undue liberality, and when another literate class was required for the performance of duties which they disdained to discharge themselves, it would be natural that they should prefer to educate people closely connected with them and having claims on their support. In this connection the tradition recorded by Sir H. Risley may be noted to the effect that the ancestors of the Bengal Kāyasths were five of the caste who came from Kanauj in attendance on five Brāhmans who had been summoned by the king of Bengal to perform for him certain Vedic ceremonies.[28] It may be noted also that the Vidūrs, another caste admittedly of irregular descent from Brāhmans, occupy the position of patwāris and village accountants in the Marātha districts. The names of their subcastes indicate generally that the home of the Kāyasths is the country of Hindustān, the United Provinces, and part of Bengal. This is also the place of origin of the northern Brāhmans, as shown by the names of their most important groups. The Rājpūts and Banias on the other hand belong mainly to Rājputāna, Gujarāt and Bundelkhand, and in most of this area the Kāyasths are immigrants. It has been seen that they came to Mālwa and Gujarāt with the Muhammadans; the number of Kāyasths returned from Rājputāna at the census was quite small, and it is doubtful whether the Kāyasths are so much as mentioned in Tod’s Rājasthān. The hypothesis therefore of their being derived either from the Rājpūts or Banias appears to be untenable. In the Punjab also the Kāyasths are found only in small numbers and are immigrants. As stated by Sir H. Risley, both the physical type of the Kāyasths and their remarkable intellectual attainments indicate that they possess Aryan blood; similarly Mr. Sherring remarks: “He nevertheless exhibits a family likeness to the Brāhman; you may not know where to place him or how to designate him; but on looking at him and conversing with him you feel quite sure that you are in the presence of a Hindu of no mean order of intellect.”[29] No doubt there was formerly much mixture of blood in the caste; some time ago the Kāyasths were rather noted for keeping women of other castes, and Sir H. Risley gives instances of outsiders being admitted into the caste. Dr. Bhattachārya states[30] that, “There are many Kāyasths in eastern Bengal who are called Ghulāms or slaves. Some of them are still attached as domestic servants to the families of the local Brāhmans, Vaidyas and aristocratic Kāyasths. Some of the Ghulāms have in recent times become rich landholders, and it is said that one of them has got the title of Rai Bahādur from Government. The marriage of a Ghulām generally takes place in his own class, but instances of Ghulāms marrying into aristocratic Kāyasth families are at present not very rare.”
Further, the Dakshina Rārhi Kāyasths affect the greatest veneration for the Brāhmans and profess to believe in the legend that traces their descent from the five menial servants who accompanied the five Brāhmans invited by king Adisur. The Uttara Rārhi Kāyasths or those of northern Burdwān, on the other hand, do not profess the same veneration for Brāhmans as the southerners, and deny the authenticity of the legend. It was this class which held some of the highest offices under the Muhammadan rulers of Bengal, and several leading zamīndārs or landholders at present belong to it.[31] It was probably in this capacity of village accountant that the Kāyasth incurred the traditional hostility of one or two of the lower castes which still subsists in legend.[32] The influence which the patwāri possesses at present, even under the most vigorous and careful supervision and with the liability to severe punishment for any abuse of his position, is a sufficient indication of what his power must have been when supervision and control were almost nominal. On this point Sir Henry Maine remarks in his description of the village community: “There is always a village accountant, an important personage among an unlettered population; so important indeed, and so conspicuous that, according to the reports current in India, the earliest English functionaries engaged in settlements of land were occasionally led, by their assumption that there must be a single proprietor somewhere, to mistake the accountant for the owner of the village, and to record him as such in the official register.[33] In Bihār Sir H. Risley shows that Kāyasths have obtained proprietary right in a large area.