Chitraguptavanshi Kayastha

Chitraguptavanshi Kayastha, also referred as North Indian Kayastha, is a subgroup of Hindus of the Kayastha community that are mainly concentrated in the Hindi Belt of North India. In the Puranas, they are described to have descended from the Hindu god Chitragupta. Chitragupta is usually depicted carrying “a flowing notebook, a pen and an inkpot” who is engaged in the “act of writing” and recording human deeds.

They are further divided into twelve subgroups, each of which is claimed to be the progeny of Chitragupta’s two wives.

Etymology

According to Merriam-Webster, the word Kāyastha is probably formed from the Sanskrit kāya (body), and the suffix -stha (standing, being in). The suffix vanshi is derived from the Sanskrit word vansh (वंश) which translates to belonging to a particular family dynasty.

History

Early North India

A temple in the Garhwa Fort complex at Prayagraj commissioned by a Vastavya-Kayastha Thakkura in 1142 CE.

From the eleventh-century onwards, epigraphical texts mention various regional lineages belonging to the North Indian branch of the Kayasthas, which were identified with their common occupational specialization and whose members had become particularly influential in the administration of mediaeval kingdoms. Some Kayasthas even had feudatory status; some had received the title of Pandita for their extensive knowledge, while others, who were financially well-off, commissioned construction of temples. The earliest epigraphic mention of Chitragupta having any connection with the Chitraguptavanshi Kayasthas appears around the same period from a royal charter (dated 1115 AD) written by a Srivastava feudatory of Govindachandra of Kannauj. Similar epigraphic records mention Mathur feudatory of Udayasimha, and members of other Kayastha branches holding important administrative positions under different mediaeval kingdoms. Soḍḍhala, the author of the eleventh-century Sanskrit work Udayasundarī Kathā, called himself a Vālabhya-Kayastha while also claiming to be a Kshatriya (warrior class). The members of this lineage, possibly from Vallabhi, are mentioned as early as ninth-century in the epigraphs of the Rashtrakuta king Amoghavarsha.

Kayasthas, according to Romila Thapar, had become a “powerful component of the upper-bureaucracy” and were on occasion “highly respected as royal biographers” and composers of inscriptions. Inviting them as professional scribes was considered an indicator of an established kingdom. Thapar also notes that “as recipients of office and holders of grants of land, brahmanas, kayasthas, and sreshtins (wealthy merchants)” were moving into a cultural circle which “attempted to diffuse a Sanskritic culture”  According to Chitrarekha Gupta, Kayasthas became “king-makers and the most influential urban elites”.

Indo-Islamic Era

Maharaja Tikait Rai, the Kayastha Diwan of Oudh (d. 1801)

Munshi Hargopal Tafta (d. 1879) – the chief shagird of Mirza Ghalib

The rise of Timuri political power after the sixteenth century had the effect of opening new roles for Kayasthas. The North-Indian Kayasthas were some of the first groups to learn Persian regularly even before it became the court language. Kayasthas were a major demographic block in maktabs (equivalent of primary school) where they acquired skills of copying and writing, which were necessary for working in various Mughal departments. Thus, Kayasthas became conversant with and literate in wider Perso-Arabic fiscal lexicon and started to fulfil requirements of the Mughal administration as qanungos (transl. ”Registrar”) and patwaris (transl. ”Accountant”). Kayasthas, according to Irfan Habib, were the “second layer” of revenue management in Mughal India, dealing with rudiments of revenue collection, land records, and paper management, where their basic Persian literacy and copying skills were put to use.

By the eighteenth century, Kayasthas’ control of the qanungo position had essentially become hereditary.

Some Kayasthas were elevated to high ranking positions, such as Raghunath Ray Kayastha (d. 1664)—the Mughal Empire’s “acting wazir” (transl. ”Prime Minister”) and finance minister, whom Emperor Aurangzeb regarded as the greatest administrator he had ever met, and Chandar Bhan Brahman referred to as the “frontispiece in the book of the men of the pen of Hindustan”. Emperor Akbar’s finance minister, Raja Todar Mal (born in Sitapur, Uttar Pradesh), is often referred to as a Kayastha. In fact, it was under Akbar’s reign and Todar Mal’s encouragement that most Kayasthas learnt Persian and were appointed as qanungos in the first place.

As their participation in Indo-Persian cultural forms grew, so did their interactions with Muslims, and the Kayasthas gradually became loosely integrated into an Indo-Muslim governing community. The North Indian Kayasthas, in contrast to CKPs and Bengali Kayasthas, became known for adopting an Indo-Muslim lifestyle, which was reflected in their attire, mannerism, and a common affinity for sharab (transl. wine) with Muslim aristocracy. To navigate the Indo-Muslim circle of service and literacy, many adopted Perso-Arabic pennames.

The ulama, Muslim aristocracy, and Persian poets, on the other hand, looked down on Kayasthas for wielding influence, labelling them “disloyal, cruel, cheats, and extortionists”. According to Ayesha Jalal, unless it was a full-fledged conversion some Muslims kept Hindus ‘at a figurative and literal arm’s length’. One Muslim commentator noted that the Hindu pensman who spoke Persian was a ‘neo-Muslim, but still retained the smell of kufr  and discord in his heart’. The Muslim reformer Shah Waliullah once complained that ‘all accountants and clerks Hindus…they control the country’s wealth’. Kayasthas had to try and convince Muslims that they did not represent infidelity in Islam, as ulama claimed. Many Kayasthas left their sacred thread (suta) at home when Emperor Aurangzeb made it illegal to wear it at court.

Most Kayasthas remained pragmatic and vocationally oriented towards their Persian language skills, probably with the exception of Munshi Hargopal Tufta (d. 1879), the chief shagird (transl. ”disciple”) of Mirza Ghalib. They also remained largely reluctant and rarely converted to Islam which, according to H. Bellenoit, limited their “administrative worth”. Those who did convert maintained traditions of accountancy and paper-management, and are known as Muslim Kayasthas, a numerically small community of northern India.

Under Nawabs of Awadh

The Kayastha’s association with the Nawab’s began early with Nawal Ray (d. 1750), a Saksena Kayastha from Etawah. In 1748, Safdar Jang made him deputy governor over Allahabad and he was awarded the title of first Raja and then of Maharaja. Nawal died on the field fighting against Pathans on behalf of Safdar  Under the reign of Asaf-ud-Daula, the Kayastha Raja Tikait Rai who served as a Diwan (transl. ”Finance Minister”) became an important figure in the region’s administration.

After them a number of Kayastha administrators such as Raja Jhau Lal, Raja Gulab Rai, Munshi Hardayal, Trilok Chand Bakshi, Raja Jiya Lal and several others made important contributions in administration and cultural activities of Awadh. In some areas, Kayasthas were more willing to embrace outward signs of a spiritual orientation that was almost Islamic. Many were active members of Sufi shrines and frequently attended in Shia spiritual months of Muharram and Ashura.

In 1780s Lucknow, thousands of Kayastha worked as calligraphers who had mastered the Persian works of Hafez and Sadi. Shiva Dasa ‘Lakhnavi’, a Kayastha from Awadh, authored his monumental work Shahnama Munawar Kalam in Persian, which provides account of events, political upheavals and factional struggles from the time of Emperor Farrukhsiyar (1712 CE) to Emperor Muhammad Shah’s fourth regnal year (1723 CE).

Bhakti movement

The Kayasthas also became a part of the larger Bhakti movement in northern India.

Dhruvadasa (d. 1643), a Kayastha from Deoband (Uttar Pradesh), whose family served as government servants, is considered one of the Radhavallabh sect’s foremost poets. Another Kayastha Ghanananda (d. 1739), who served as the Mughal Emperor Muhammad Shah’s Mir Munshi (transl. ”Chief Scribe”), renounced his worldly life and remained in Vrindavan until he was killed by soldiers of Ahmad Shah Abdali. He is regarded as one of the finest Braj Bhasha poets. The most important contribution came from Lalach Kavi, a Kayastha from Raebareli, who in 1530 CE wrote the first ever Hindi vernacular adaptation of the Sanskrit text Bhagavata Purana’s “Dasam Skandha”.

British Raj

With Jonathan Duncan’s settlement of Benares in the late 1780s, the role of literate scribes and ‘pensmen’ grew in importance and became firmly stitched into the early stage of the East India Company. By the 1820s, the company’s agrarian taxation had built upon a network of paper-managers that reached back into the Late Mughal era. The registrars and accountants provided important information on “rents, assessments and methods of negotiating rent rates”. The British had little understanding of the dynamics of taxation in the Doab until the 1840s, so they relied largely on scribes to help them expand their fiscal might and bureaucratic state upcountry from Bengal.

In the Great rebellion triggered by the annexation of Awadh in 1856, many old Nawabi fiscal records were destroyed and lost in the fighting in Lucknow and Faizabad. In such a scenario, the Kayastha qanungos and scribes proved to be of great help in achieving fiscal consolidation and integration of the region into north Indian administration. And in this sense, Kayasthas became well-known in the colonial officialdom and it was observed that:

Hindoos of the Kyut caste are always to be preferred for this duty…generally speaking are respectable, well-dressed and intelligent, and carry much weight with them on entering a village, assuming great consequence, and summoning the village authorities to attend with a great deal of parade and show…he never appears without a bearer holding a chattah (umbrella) over his head.

The early colonial administration, thus, came to be shaped by influential Kayastha families who became early beneficiaries of the British power and success. In the 1880s, Allan Octavian Hume called for the colonial government to,

tax the… Kayasths… who, while growing rich by the pen, oust their betters from their ancestral holdings, and then are too great cowards to wield a sword either to protect their own acquisitions or to aid the Government which has fostered their success.
— Allan Octavian Hume, founder of the Indian National Congress

Modern India

Modern scholars categorise them among Indian communities that were traditionally described as “urban-oriented”, “upper caste” and part of the “well-educated” pan-Indian elite, alongside Khatris, Kashmiri Pandits, Parsis, Nagar Brahmins of Gujarat, South-Indian Brahmins, Deshastha Brahmins, Chitpavan Brahmin, Prabhu Kayasthas, Bhadralok Bengalis and upper echelons of the Muslim and Christian communities that made up the middle class at the time of Indian independence in 1947.

Varna status

The functionality of the Kayasthas, who identified themselves with “Chitragupta and paper-oriented service”, was more significant before the 1870s, and historically, their caste status have been ambiguous. Kayasthas of northern India regard themselves as a de-facto varna that arose to keep records of the four varnas that came before them. Traditions and occupations associated with them, and their belief in the mythical roles assigned to Chitragupta, their progenitor, partly support this claim.

Social status

By 1900, the Kayasthas became so dominant as a ‘service caste’ that “their ability to mould north India’s governance led to numerous calls from British officialdom to cut their numbers down”. The late-nineteenth-century ethnographers and observers unanimously agreed on the Kayasthas’ high social status in the Hindu society.

They are recognized as a Forward Caste, as they do not qualify for any of the reservation benefits allotted to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes that are administered by the Government of India.

Subgroups and culture

Chitraguptavanshi Kayasthas are primarily divided into twelve subgroups. These subgroups have traditionally practiced endogamy within their subgroup. H. Bellenoit has shown that these subgroups tended to reside in certain geographic areas of Hindustan and Bihar.

Subgroups

Writing system

Kaithi is a historical Brahmic script that was used widely in parts of Northern India. It was the most widely used script of North India west of Bengal. The script derives its name from the word Kayastha. Documents in Kaithi are traceable to at least the 16th century. The script was widely used during the Mughal period. During the British Raj, the script was recognised as the official script of the law courts in some provinces. John Nesfield in Oudh, George Campbell of Inverneill in Bihar and a committee in Bengal all advocated for the use of Kaithi script in education.

Women

Traditionally, the North Indian Kayastha women were allowed to attend school and receive education, but were kept in “far more seclusion than the Rajput women,” according to a census report. Many patriarchs of the caste also seemed to have kept concubines.

In folklore

The ethnographer William Crooke and Ram Gharib Chaube in their Folktales from North India narrate the story of a Kayastha clerk who has started a quarrel with a soldier (sipahi) and reveals the Kayastha’s preferred method of resolving conflict: vicarious, passive aggression through pen:

The soldier badgered and threatened the humble Kayastha clerk: ‘I will knock out your teeth’. The protocol for dispensing pay included establishing a physical description of each soldier. So the un-amused Kayastha military paymaster (mir bakshi) inserted in the margins ‘two teeth missing’. When the verbally abusive soldier returned to collect his pay, the Kayastha refused, pointing out that his appearance did not match the form’s requirements. Frustratingly, the soldier was only able to collect his pay after he smashed out his own two teeth.

Notables

Prominent Kayastha Figures

(From Left to Right)Lal Bahadur Shastri, Rajendra Prasad, Premchand, Lala Har Dayal, Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar

Politicians and revolutionaries

• Yashwant Sinha
• Krishna Ballabh Sahay
• Mahamaya Prasad Sinha
• Sachchidananda Sinha
• Subodh Kant Sahay
• Jayaprakash Narayan
• Rajendra Prasad
• Shyam Nandan Sahay
• Shailendra Nath Shrivastava
• Lal Bahadur Shastri
• Shiv Charan Mathur
• Ravi Shankar Prasad
• Nitin Nabin
• Jayant Sinha
• Har Dayal

Literature

• Premchand
• Harivansh Rai Bachchan
• Firaq Gorakhpuri
• Mahadevi Varma
• Bhagwati Charan Verma
• Dharamvir Bharati
• Ramkumar Verma
• Nirad C. Chaudhuri
• Saumitra Saxena

Science and Technology

• Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar
• Vinod Dham

Actors and Artists

• Mukesh (singer)
• Sonu Nigam
• Siddharth Nigam
• Shatrughan Sinha
• Raju Srivastav
• Sonali Khare
• Amitabh Bachchan
• Mini Mathur

See also