The caste have a peculiar aversion to Kayasths and will not take food
or water from them nor touch a Kayasth's bedding or clothing. They
say that they would not serve a Kayasth as horse-keeper, but if by
any chance one of them was reduced to doing so, he at any rate would
not hold his master's stirrup for him to mount. To account for this
hereditary enmity they tell the following story:
On one occasion the son of the Kayasth minister of the Raja of Ratanpur
went out for a ride followed by a Ghasia sais (groom). The boy was
wearing costly ornaments, and the Ghasia's cupidity being excited,
he attacked and murdered the child, stripped him of his ornaments and
threw the body down a well. The murder was discovered and in revenge
the minister killed every Ghasia, man, woman or child that he could
lay his hands on. The only ones who escaped were two pregnant women
who took refuge in the hut of a Ganda and were sheltered by him. To
them were born a boy and a girl and the present Ghasias are descended
from the pair. Therefore a Ghasia will eat even the leavings of a
Ganda but will accept nothing from the hands of a Kayasth.
This story is an instance of the process which has been called the
transplantation of myth. Sir H. Risley tells a similar legend of the
Ghasias of Orissa, [29] but in their case it was a young Kayasth
bridegroom who was killed, and before dying he got leave from his
murderers to write a letter to his relatives informing them of his
death, on condition that he said nothing as to its manner. But in the
letter he disclosed the murder, and the Ghasias, who could not read,
were duly brought to justice. In the Ratanpur story as reported from
Bilaspur it was stated that "Somehow, even from down the well, the
minister's son managed to get a letter sent to his father telling him
of the murder." And this sentence seems sufficient to establish the
fact that the Central Provinces story has merely been imported from
Orissa and slightly altered to give it local colour. The real reason
for the traditional aversion felt by the Ghasias and other low castes
for the Kayasths will be discussed in the article on that caste.