14. Social customs.
The dead are burnt, and the proper offerings are made on the anniversaries, according to the prescribed Hindu ritual. Kāyasth names usually end in Prasād, Singh, Baksh, Sewak, and Lāla in the Central Provinces. Lāla, which is a term of endearment, is often employed as a synonym for the caste. Dāda or uncle is a respectful term of address for Kāyasths. Two names are usually given to a boy, one for ceremonial and the other for ordinary use.
The Kāyasths will take food cooked with water from Brāhmans, and that cooked without water (pakki) from Rājpūts and Banias. Some Hindustāni Brāhmans, as well as Khatris and certain classes of Banias, will take pakki food from Kāyasths. Kāyasths of different subcastes will sometimes also take it from each other. They will give the huqqa with the reed in to members of their own subcaste, and without the reed to any Kāyasth. The caste eat the flesh of goats, sheep, fish, and birds. They were formerly somewhat notorious for drinking freely, but a great reform has been effected in this respect by the community itself through the agency of their caste conference, and many are now total abstainers.
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.