In West Bengal, Kayasthas make up between 9–13% of the total population. Across India, their total number is estimated to be between 9 million and 10 million. Of these, the largest concentration is in West Bengal, numbering around 7–9 million. The rest are found in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Assam, Tripura, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Delhi, Odisha, Gujarat, and some southern Indian states.
Among Indian Hindus, there are four varnas: Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya, and Shudra. There is no separate varna called “Kayastha” within this system.
At different times, this group has been described by some as Kshatriya and by others as Shudra. One popular story says that when Parashurama was engaged in his campaign of killing Kshatriyas, a Kshatriya king abandoned his Kshatriya identity and became a Kayastha.
Now let us look at what the true varna of the Kayasthas really is, meaning what kind of work they have historically done. According to historical evidence, the first mention of Kayasthas in India is found in the court of the Nanda kings, where it referred to a position rather than a caste. They were mainly scribes, accountants, or state officials connected with revenue collection. Later, from around 100 CE and during the Gupta period, the term “Kayastha” appears again in records.
In India, Kayasthas are divided into four groups, though all performed similar kinds of work:
1) Chitraguptavanshi, who lives in Hindi-speaking regions such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, and Delhi.
2) Chitraseni, who live in Bengal, Assam, Tripura, and Odisha.
3) Chandraseni, who lives in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, and Gujarat.
4) Karanam, who lives in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, the Karunagiri region of Tamil Nadu, and even in Kerala, such as among Nairs and Menons.
In ancient India, Shudras had no association with formal education. Therefore, by no measure can Kayasthas be considered Shudras. In society, after Brahmins, they were the second group most closely associated with learning.
Although Kayasthas are an ancient community in India, they make up less than 1% of the total population. The main reason is that they traditionally did not marry outside their group. In other words, they were determined to preserve their lineage, status, and especially their caste identity. Such practices are usually seen among elite classes, as was the case with the Ptolemies of Egypt.
What were the rights tied to that identity that they preserved for centuries? First, language, and second, the right to specific kinds of work. Through this occupational authority, Kayasthas managed India’s revenue and economy for the past two thousand years and became ministers, advisors, and even war strategists. They were pillars of pre-Sultanate India, the Sultanate period in India and Bengal, the Mughal era, and the post-Mughal British administration. Through this rise, some even became kings and zamindars. They became so influential in Indian society that they established what was effectively a fifth varna outside the traditional four.
In Romania and its surrounding regions, tax collectors who worked in royal courts were called Kenezi. This was a hereditary title, passed down through generations along with the associated work. The title existed even before Roman control of the Balkan region. Roughly from the second century BCE to the early first century CE, the Romans took full control of the Balkans. Among the people of Romania, nearly half belonged to a Balkan group known as the Thracians. The name Thrace is not unfamiliar, as Spartacus, the leader of the Roman slave revolt, was a Thracian.
The Romans destroyed this region completely, as happened to many civilizations in Europe. For example, the Mycenaean Greeks were completely wiped out by an attack from a so-called “Sea People.”
Because of Roman oppression, some people may have fled from the Balkans to India. Others may have come along with Alexander during revenue-collection efforts in the regions he conquered. In the second century BCE, the Seleucid Empire existed. After the fall of various Greek and Balkan regions, some Balkan Greeks moved to Egypt, while others moved eastward. After the Seleucid Empire, the Indo-Greek Kingdom was formed in India. Later, during the Kushan Empire, the name “Kayastha” appears in historical records for the first time. Both events occur around the same period, meaning the fall of Greece and the emergence of the name Kayastha in India.
Can anyone say that the word “Kayastha” did not originate from “Kenezi”? References to Kayasthas in India begin around the same time as the fall of the Balkans and northern Greece. If Kayasthas were truly an ancient indigenous group of India, there should be earlier evidence, especially since they were involved in writing, revenue collection, and administrative work.
Many things change over time, but generally three things do not when societies and groups strictly control marriage over generations: language, surnames, cooking traditions, and culture. A striking fact is that in Greek and Balkan cultures, people address their father as “baba” and their mother as “mama.” In most parts of India, fathers are called pita, bapu, bapuji, or papa, but the use of “baba” is found mainly among Bengalis. It is easy to assume that the word “ma” originated from “mama.”
There are curious similarities between Bengali food and Greek food that are not found among other Indian communities. For example, sliced and fried eggplant, shukto, and various stuffed dishes made with different spices. Fish dishes and the use of similar ingredients such as eggplant, lemon, ginger, rice, spices, and yogurt. One could write several novels just about Bengalis’ love for yogurt.
Like the Greeks, Kayasthas are a community associated with intellectual heritage. They have led for generations in writing, poetry, theater, and cinema.
There are many similarities in language and even in physical features. German archaeologists were the first to notice similarities between the Hellenic features of Egyptians and Bengalis. Why do children in many Kayastha families have golden hair in childhood? Why do some have brown-colored eyes?
The way surnames are formed among Bengalis and Greeks is also remarkably similar. Both communities have created surnames based on geography and types of occupation.
People from Greece and the Balkans have been coming to Bengal since ancient times, just as ancient Bengalis once crossed the seas and reached Greek ports. There are even stories of Bengali sailor-warriors in the Balkans who worked as mercenaries. Alexander’s army withdrew from western India and never came close to the east. Yet, despite thousands of miles between them, a sailor drew a map of Bengal during Alexander’s time. So, the friendship that developed two thousand years ago may explain why Kayasthas left Greece and the Balkans and came to Bengal, even though vast lands of India lay in between.
Bengal’s Kayasthas may indeed be Greek in origin, and other Kayasthas may also be Greek, though I have already mentioned the four types of Kayasthas. Among the three, groups such as the Karanik class later rose into the Kayastha varna. To reach any conclusion about the others, more research is needed.
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