It appears then a legitimate conclusion from the evidence that the
claim of the Kayasths to be Kshatriyas is comparatively recent, and
that a century ago they occupied a very much lower social position
than they do now. We do not find them playing any prominent part in
the early or mediæval Hindu kingdoms. There is considerable reason for
supposing that their rise to importance took place under the foreign
or non-Hindu governments in India. Thus a prominent Kayasth gentleman
says of his own caste: [433] "The people of this caste were the first
to learn Persian, the language of the Muhammadan invaders of India,
and to obtain the posts of accountants and revenue collectors under
Muhammadan kings. Their chief occupation is Government service,
and if one of the caste adopts any other profession he is degraded
in the estimation of his caste-fellows." Malcolm states: [434] "When
the Muhammadans invaded Hindustan and conquered its Rajput princes,
we may conclude that the Brahmans of that country who possessed
knowledge or distinction fled from their intolerance and violence;
but the conquerors found in the Kayastha or Kaith tribe more pliable
and better instruments for the conduct of the details of their new
Government. This tribe had few religious scruples, as they stand low in
the scale of Hindus. They were, according to their own records, which
there is no reason to question, qualified by their previous employment
in all affairs of state; and to render themselves completely useful
had only to add the language of their new masters to those with which
they were already acquainted. The Muhammadans carried these Hindus
into their southern conquests, and they spread over the countries
of Central India and the Deccan; and some families who are Kanungos
[435] of districts and patwaris of villages trace their settlement
in this country from the earliest Muhammadan conquest." Similarly
the Bombay Gazetteer states that under the arrangements made by the
Emperor Akbar, the work of collecting the revenues of the twenty-eight
Districts subordinate to Surat was entrusted to Kayasths. [436]
And the Mathur Kayasths of Gujarat came from Mathura in the train
of the Mughal viceroys as their clerks and interpreters. [437] Under
the Muhammadans and for some time after the introduction of English
rule, a knowledge of Persian was required in a Government clerk, and
in this language most of the Kayasths were proficient, and some were
excellent clerks. [438] Kayasths attained very high positions under
the Muhammadan kings of Bengal and were in charge of the revenue
department under the Nawabs of Murshidabad; while Rai Durlao Ram,
prime minister of Ali Verdi Khan, was a Kayasth. The governors of
Bihar in the period between the battle of Plassey and the removal of
the exchequer to Calcutta were also Kayasths. [439] The Bhatnagar
Kayasths, it is said, came to Bengal at the time of the Muhammadan
conquest. [440] Under the Muhammadan kings of Oudh, too, numerous
Kayasths occupied posts of high trust. [441] Similarly the Kayasths
entered the service of the Gond kings of the Central Provinces. It is
said that when the Gond ruler Bakht Buland of Deogarh in Chhindwara
went to Delhi, he brought a number of Kayasths back with him and
introduced them into the administration. One of these was appointed
Bakshi or paymaster to the army of Bakht Buland. His descendant is a
leading landholder in the Seoni District with an estate of eighty-four
villages. Another Kayasth landholder of Jubbulpore and Mandla occupied
some similar position in the service of the Gond kings of Garha-Mandla.
Finally in the English administration the Kayasths at first monopolised
the ministerial service. In the United Provinces, Bengal and Bihar,
it is stated that the number of Kayasths may perhaps even now exceed
that of all other castes taken together. [442] And in Gujarat the
Kayasths have lost in recent years the monopoly they once enjoyed as
Government clerks. [443] The Mathura Kayasths of Gujarat are said to be
declining in prosperity on account of the present keen competition for
Government service, [444] of which it would thus appear they formerly
had as large a share as they desired. The Prabhus, the writer-caste
of western India corresponding to the Kayasths, were from the time of
the earliest European settlements much trusted by English merchants,
and when the British first became supreme in Gujarat they had almost
a monopoly of the Government service as English writers. To such
an extent was this the case that the word Prabhu or Purvu was the
general term for a clerk who could write English, whether he was
a Brahman, Sunar, Prabhu, Portuguese or of English descent. [445]
Similarly the word Cranny was a name applied to a clerk writing
English, and thence vulgarly applied in general to the East Indians
or half-caste class from among whom English copyists were afterwards
chiefly recruited. The original is the Hindi karani, kirani, which
Wilson derives from the Sanskrit karan, a doer. Karana is also the
name of the Orissa writer-caste, who are writers and accountants. It
is probable that the name is derived from this caste, that is the
Uriya Kayasths, who may have been chiefly employed as clerks before
any considerable Eurasian community had come into existence. Writers'
Buildings at Calcutta were recently still known to the natives as
Karani ki Barik, and this supports the derivation from the Karans or
Uriya Kayasths, the case thus being an exact parallel to that of the
Prabhus in Bombay. [446]