Chitraguptavanshi Kayastha

Another Buddha statue from Mathura installed by Kayastha Bhattipriya

The Kayasthas are mentioned as an office (not a caste) as early as the first century C.E.[2][3] As evidenced by literary and epigraphical texts, they emerged in the period between late ancient and early medieval India. Their emergence is explained by modern scholars as a consequence of "growth of state machinery, complication of taxation system and fast-spreading land-grant practice that required professional documenting fixation". Initially, the term Kayastha seems to have referred to an occupational class[4] and not a distinct social group. Gradually, the North Indian branch of Kayasthas consolidated into a distinct caste-like community somewhere around the 11^th- 12^th centuries CE[5] maintaining Chitragupta - the divine scribe as their grand ancestor. [6]

Over the centuries, the occupational histories of Kayasthas largely revolved around scribal services. However, these scribes did not simply take dictation but acted in the range of capacities better indicated by the term “secretary”. They used their training in law, literature, court language, accounting, litigation and many other areas to fulfil responsibilities in all these venues. As indicated by various epigraphic evidences, they acted in the capacity of a medieval office combining duties of both a secretary of war and a secretary of state (Mahāsandhivigrahin).[7][8] Kayasthas were also responsible for writing Indic eulogies, known as prashastis for Hindu kings prior to Turkic invasions of North India.[9]

Apparently, the emergence of Kayasthas challenged the monopoly of Brahmins on intellectual occupations.[10][11]

According to Romila Thapar, Kayastha were a "powerful component of the upper bureaucracy and.... (though ranked lower than Brahmins) were on occasions highly respected as royal biographers and composers of lengthy inscriptions" and "inviting Kayasthas as professional scribes was (another) indicator of an established kingdom" in the early North India.[12] She 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 but not invariably with impressive results." [13]

According to Chitrarekha Gupta, Kayasthas were "highly educated and patronized art and culture" but at the same time "tax-paying common people were much suspicious of the Kayasthas because deceit lurked both in their tongues as well as in their documents". [14] Indeed, Kayasthas had earned some reputation for being deceitful and thus became a target of many works of medieval Indian satire. For example, Kshemendra's 11^th century work Narmamālā narrates the adventures of an ambitious, greedy and ignorant Kayastha who manages to become a minister and as a result ruined the whole country.[15] Kshemendra argues in his work that Kayasthas' invention of a separate script was a method to defraud people so that good kings even though knowing their kayasthas to be "eager to kill, robbers of others' property, rogues and demons" had to befriend them in order to balance the treasury. [16]

According to K. Leonard, "Kayasthas are an example of the social mobility of a caste through association with a ruler, rather than through Sanskrtization (emulation of Brahmin culture) or through military conquest (like Rajputs)". [17] By the early-medieval era, various branches of Chitraguptavanshi Kayasthas had become highly influential in the administration of contemporary kingdoms and started asserting their identities.[18][19] The epigraphic sources reveal that some of these kayastha families even had the status of being feudatories (thakkura); some had earned the title of pandita for their extensive learning while others being financially sound commissioned construction of Hindu temples.[20][21][22] The author of the 11^th century Sanskrit work Udayasundarī Kathā, Soḍḍhala describes himself as a Kayastha and at the same time claims to be Kshatriya. He claims to be Vālabha-Kayastha as he hailed from Vallabhi.[23] The earliest epigraphic mention of Chitragupta having any connection with the Kayasthas also appears around the same period from a royal charter (dated 1115 AD) of Govindachandra of Kannauj written by a Vāstavya-Kayastha Thakkura (i.e. Srivastava branch of Kayastha) named Jalhaṇa.[24] Similar epigraphic records mention Māthuranvaya-Kayastha (Mathur) and Naigama-Kayastha (Nigam) holding important administrative positions under the Chahamana and Paramara dynasties.[25][26][27]