Note 11 — KĀYASTH

It appears then a legitimate conclusion from the evidence that the claim of the Kāyasths to be Kshatriyas is comparatively recent, and that a century ago they occupied a very much lower social position than they do now. We do not find them playing any prominent part in the early or mediæval Hindu kingdoms. There is considerable reason for supposing that their rise to importance took place under the foreign or non-Hindu governments in India. Thus a prominent Kāyasth gentleman says of his own caste:11 “The people of this caste were the first to learn Persian, the language of the Muhammadan invaders of India, and to obtain the posts of accountants and revenue collectors under Muhammadan kings. Their chief occupation is Government service, and if one of the caste adopts any other profession he is degraded in the estimation of his caste-fellows.” Malcolm states:12 “When the Muhammadans invaded Hindustān and conquered its Rājpūt princes, we may conclude that the Brāhmans of that country who possessed knowledge or distinction fled from their intolerance and violence; but the conquerors found in the Kāyastha or Kaith tribe more pliable and better instruments for the conduct of the details of their new Government. This tribe had few religious scruples, as they stand low in the scale of Hindus. They were, according to their own records, which there is no reason to question, qualified by their previous employment in all affairs of state; and to render themselves completely useful had only to add the language of their new masters to those with which they were already acquainted. The Muhammadans carried these Hindus into their southern conquests, and they spread over the countries of Central India and the Deccan; and some families who are Kānungos13 of districts and patwāris of villages trace their settlement in this country from the earliest Muhammadan conquest.” Similarly the Bombay Gazetteer states that under the arrangements made by the Emperor Akbar, the work of collecting the revenues of the twenty-eight Districts subordinate to Surat was entrusted to Kāyasths.14 And the Māthur Kāyasths of Gujarāt came from Mathura in the train of the Mughal viceroys as their clerks and interpreters.15 Under the Muhammadans and for some time after the introduction of English rule, a knowledge of Persian was required in a Government clerk, and in this language most of the Kāyasths were proficient, and some were excellent clerks.16 Kāyasths attained very high positions under the Muhammadan kings of Bengal and were in charge of the revenue department under the Nawābs of Murshīdābād; while Rai Durlao Rām, prime minister of Ali Verdi Khān, was a Kāyasth. The governors of Bihār in the period between the battle of Plassey and the removal of the exchequer to Calcutta were also Kāyasths.17 The Bhatnāgar Kāyasths, it is said, came to Bengal at the time of the Muhammadan conquest.18 Under the Muhammadan kings of Oudh, too, numerous Kāyasths occupied posts of high trust.19 Similarly the Kāyasths entered the service of the Gond kings of the Central Provinces. It is said that when the Gond ruler Bakht Buland of Deogarh in Chhindwāra went to Delhi, he brought a number of Kāyasths back with him and introduced them into the administration. One of these was appointed Bakshi or paymaster to the army of Bakht Buland. His descendant is a leading landholder in the Seoni District with an estate of eighty-four villages. Another Kāyasth landholder of Jubbulpore and Mandla occupied some similar position in the service of the Gond kings of Garha-Mandla.