Kayasth, [423] Kaith, Lala.--The caste of writers and village
accountants. The Kayasths numbered 34,000 persons in 1911 and were
found over the whole Province, but they are most numerous in the
Saugor, Damoh, Jubbulpore and Narsinghpur Districts. In the Maratha
country their place is to some extent taken by the Prabhus, the Maratha
writer caste, and also by the Vidurs. No probable derivation of the
name Kayasth appears to have been suggested. The earliest reference
to Kayasths appears in an inscription in Malwa dated A.D. 738-739. The
inscription is of a Maurya king, and the term Kayasth is used there as
a proper noun to mean a writer. Another dated A.D. 987 is written by
a Kayasth named Kanchana. An inscription on the Delhi Siwalik pillar
dated A.D. 1164 is stated to have been written by a Kayasth named
Sispati, the son of Mahava, by the king's command. The inscription adds
that the Kayasth was of Gauda (Bengal) descent, and the term Kayasth
is here used in the sense of a member of the Kayasth caste and not
simply meaning a writer as in the Malwa inscription. [424] From the
above account it seems possible that the caste was of comparatively
late origin. According to their own legend the first progenitor of
the Kayasths was Chitragupta, who was created by Brahma from his own
body and given to Yama the king of the dead, to record the good and
evil actions of all beings, and produce the result when they arrived
in the kingdom of the dead. Chitragupta was called Kayastha, from
kaya stha, existing in or incorporate in the body, because he was
in the body of Brahma. Chitragupta was born of a dark complexion,
and having a pen and ink-pot in his hand. He married two wives, the
elder being the granddaughter of the sun, who bore him four sons,
while the younger was the daughter of a Brahman Rishi, and by her
he had eight sons. These sons were married to princesses of the
Naga or snake race; the Nagas are supposed to have been the early
nomad invaders from Central Asia, or Scythians. The twelve sons were
entrusted with the government of different parts of India and the
twelve subcastes of Kayasths are named after these localities.