FORMATION OF KAYASTHAS AS A CASTE IN INDIA
1
Author(s):
DR. KAPOOR SINGH
Vol - 4, Issue- 1 ,
Page(s) : 186 - 190
(2013 )
DOI : https://doi.org/10.32804/CASIRJ
Abstract
The most striking feature of Indian society is Varnasramadharma the classes or varnas and four stages. The aspect of Aryadharma was not conceived as mere conglomeration of four castes, but it was a social synthesis. The four social corporations theoretically existed throughout the country but they were not watertight compartments. New groups were given place in this scheme by ingenuous explanations. As a result several sub-castes came into existence in the period. The Manu Smriti does not mention Kayasthas. Yajnavalkya probably knew them only as writers and accountants. The ample job opportunity to the educated dvijas in governmental offices as a record keepers and clerks or in the office of the feudal lord provided a new social rank popularly known as Kayastha. By the early medieval period, they were consolidated into a caste.
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- Mitakshara commentary on Yajnavalkya.
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- Its name is Nyayakandaili.
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- Ibid., I, pp. 81, 129, 147.
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