Chitraguptavanshi Kayastha

Chitraguptavanshi Kayastha, also referred to 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 Hindu texts and traditions, they are described to have descended from the Hindu god Chitragupta who is usually depicted carrying “a flowing notebook, a pen and an inkpot” engaged in writing down human deeds. They are further divided into twelve § Subgroups, each of which is claimed to be the progeny of Chitragupta’s two consorts.

The earliest recorded history of these groups goes to the early medieval period of Indian history, while the word “Kayastha” itself dates to the third-century CE. The North Indian Kayasthas were powerful components of the upper-bureaucracy and made highly influential urban elites under Hindu kings. They are mentioned in several Sanskrit literary, religious and epigraphical texts.

Following Islamic invasions of India, they became some of the first Indian groups to learn Persian regularly and eventually became integrated into an Indo-Muslim governing community gaining hereditary control over the position of Qanungo (transl. ”Registrar”) but rarely converting to Islam.

Under the colonial rule, many Kayastha families became early beneficiaries of the British power and success in the subcontinent. In 1919, Kayasthas accounted for two-thirds of all Indian Government law members across north India, with most of them in the United Provinces.

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

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 CE) 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”.

Subdivisions: Srivastava, Mathur, Saxena, Nigam, Kulshreshtha, Bhatnagar, Ambashtha, Asthana, Suryadhwaj, Gaur, Karna, Valmik.