Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c48.s1.11
Indische Paläographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c48.s1.11
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- German
c48.s1.11.1
§ 30. **Writer castes** (2,750,300): The profession of scribe or clerk was in all probability unusually late in establishing itself in India owing to the jealousy with which all instruction was monopolised by the Brāhmans, as well as to the extraordinary development of memory and oral tradition fostered by them. Setting aside the art of inscribing rock and copper, writing as a profession appears in inscriptions of the 8th century A. D., and a few generations later, the caste of the Writer is referred to under the same name as it bears in the present day. It may be gathered from the data available that the calling was in anything but good odour amongst the Brāhmans and that the castes exercising it occupied but a low position. Their chance came when the Muslim conquerors, having established themselves permanently in the country, felt the need of clerical ability to help them through the labours of administration, and were unwilling, on sectarian grounds, to have recourse to the Brāhman. In the writing castes the very material they wanted was at hand. The Khatrī, as mentioned in a former paragraph, furnished several most efficient ministers to the Moghal régime; the principal supply, however, was, as it still is, from the Kāyasth caste, which, from the upper Ganges, was introduced into Gujarāt by the Muslim Viceroys and naturalised there.
c48.s1.11.2
A similar colonisation was begun by the same agency in the Dekkan, but the local Brāhman was there too numerous and too well-established throughout the country to leave room for a rival, and the offshoot from the main Kāyasth branch, under the name of Prabhu, forsook the tableland for the coast, and settled in Bombay and its vicinity. Here they were found so useful by the early British merchants and officials that until a generation or so ago, Prabhu and clerk were synonymous terms in those parts. In the present day the main stronghold of the Kāyasth is in Lower Bengal, into which they were introduced from upper India. Distance, however, as usual in India, has entirely divided the two communities, and there is no intermarriage between the Kāyasth of Bengal and his caste-fellows of Bihār and the north any more than with those of the west coast. Even the local bodies of this caste are much subdivided into smaller endogamous sections, generally territorial. The position of the Kāyasth and other writer castes in the social hierarchy has long been a matter of heated controversy. In what may be called the primary distribution of rank according to function no place could be assigned to a body which was not then recognised as distinct from others. Literary qualifications which may well set off a Brāhman, are, by themselves, of little value as a passport to the esteem of a public deliberately illiterate.
c48.s1.11.3
Distinguished members of the writing class, such as those mentioned above, were duly honoured as individuals, but did not ennoble the community in which they were born. The disproportion between the ability of the writer castes and the value of their work on the one side, and the company they were classed with in private life on the other, grew more apparent as, under the British system of administration, their prosperity and influence increased. It is no wonder, therefore, that efforts have been strenuous and frequent on their part to establish themselves upon a social footing higher than that now recognised by the arbiters in such matters. The line taken as that of least resistance is the usual claim to Kṣatriya lineage. There is not, however, in their case, the probability of racial difference between them and the Indian masses of the north and east which is lent, in the case of the Khatrī and their offshoots, by tradition, physique and locality of origin. In the parts of the country, therefore, where Rājputs are found in strength and Brāhmanic influence is strong, the Kāyasth is a respected caste high up in the middle classes, but nothing more. In Lower Bengal, however, where the Rājput is a casual exotic and the weight of Brāhman opinion is insufficient to appease the jealous ferment of an inchoate social system, the Kāyasth ranks within a place or two of the Brāhman, and practically, though not avowedly, above the warrior.
c48.s1.11.4
In Gujarāt, where the clerical professions are by no means the monopoly of the writing castes, there is, in addition to the small colony of Kāyasth, a still less numerous community called the Brahmakṣatriya, whose appearance and customs confirm their assertion of relationship to the Khatrī of the Panjāb. Their immigration, indeed, occurred as late as the 14th century. They are not only writers, but also holders of considerable landed estates in the most prosperous parts of the province, and their position is in many respects higher than that of their compeers in the north. Another nominal offshoot of the writers of the north is the Karan or Mahant of Orissa. This community is considerably subdivided into endogamous bodies, the more southern of which retain traces of non-Brāhmanic marriage rules. It is very probable, therefore, that those nearer Bengal affiliate themselves to the Kāyasth of that province, whilst the rest remain in closer communion with the corresponding groups of the Telugu country.