Indian Antiquary Vol 61

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Charles E A W Oldham, S Krishnaswami Aiyangar, Devadatta Ramkrishna Bhandarka
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 58

THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
| MARCH, 1932
a joint assessor or commissioner with the judge of a court, such as we find in Act IX of the Msichchhakatika.
Let us now see what light inscriptions throw on the Kåyastha problem. In the first place, they teach that the Kayastha caste had been formed only as early as the ninth cen. tury A.D. Two instances will suffice. The Sañjan copper-plate charter of the Rashtrakuta sovereign Amoghavarsha I, dated Saka-samvat 793=871 A.D., we know, was drawn up by Gunadhavala, son of Vatsaraja, who was born in the Valabha Kayastha?lineage and was a Senabhogika, 23 or clerk, in the Dharmadhikarana, or Court of Judicature. We thus see that there was a Kayastha caste of the name of Valabha to which Gunadhavala belonged, and the occupation of this caste seems to have been that of a clerk in a court of law, corresponding no doubt to the function of a Kayastha described in the Vishnu-smriti and the Mrichchha katika. The second evidence of the rise of the Kayastha caste in the ninth century is supplied by the Gurmha plate of Jayadityadeva (II) of the Malayaketu family. The plate is dated V.S. 927=870 A.D., and registers the grant of a village to Kây. astha Kesava, son of Kayastha Dhemuka and grandson of Kayastha Rudra. As the grantee, his father and grandfather are all called Kayastha, it means that they pertained to the Kayastha caste, which was thus in existence in North India in the second half of the ninth century. And what is curious in this connection is that this family, we are told, had the surname (paddhati) of Singha, which is still found as a padavi among the Bengal Kayas. thas. Although we have thus clear proof about the Kayastha caste being formed in the ninth century, there is nothing to show that the Kayasthas were confined to the sole occupation of a karana, or clerk, as is thought at present. This is indicated by the Gurmha epigraph itself, because, although in l. 23 the Kayastha donee Kesava is styled Karanika, another Kayastha is mentioned as the writer of this record, namely, Valadduka, who, though he was a Kayastha, is styled mahákshapatalika, whose office was of course distinct from that of a karanika.
The two inscriptions noted above belong to the ninth century, and it may be contended that things were different three hundred years later and that Kayastha had come to be identical with Karanika. To take one instance, Jalhana, who wrote the grants of the Gahadavala king Govindachandra dated V.S. 1171 and 1172, is described in the first record as Karanik-odgata and Chitragupt-opama and in the second as sri-Våstavyakul-odbhuta-Kayas. tha-thakkura.25 This shows that Kayastha had become synonymous with Karanika in the twelfth century. If a further instance is required, it is supplied by the Ajayagadh rock in. scription of the Chandella king Bhojavarman, which sets forth the exploits of a Vastavya Kayastha family. In the very second verse of this epigraph we are informed that there were thirty-six towns occupied by men devoted to the function of the karana and that the most excellent of these was Takkârika, to which this Kayastha family belonged. This also indicates, it may be argued, that Karanika was but another term for Kåyastha. It is not, however, possible to accept this view as perfectly logical. All that we can legitimately infer from the above evidence is that one Kayastha sub-caste, namely, Våstavya, had adopted the function of the Karanika as its principal occupation, but it does not follow that all Kayasthas had become identified with the Karanikas, or that the term Kayastha did not continue as an office designation. We have thus at least one instance of the writer of a
39 Ibid., Vol. XVIII. p. 26), II. 70.7. Soddhala, author of the Udayasundari Katha (Gack. Or. Series. No. XI. p. 11) was a Valabha Kayastha. He derives Valabha from Valabhi and traces his descent from Kaladitya, brother of Siladitya of the Valabhi family. Valamya rnentioned in a Bhirmal inscr. (B. G. Vol. V. Pt. I, p. 47, 1. 5) seems to be a mistake for V Alabhya.
23 For Senabhogika, see Ep. Ind., Vol. VI. p. 285, n. 7, and p. 294, 1. 81 ; also Vol. V. pp. 231, 233 and 234.
24 JASB., 1900, Pt. I, p. 92, 11. 13-14. 36 Ep. Ind., Vol. VIII. p. 153, I. 21, and Vol. IV. p. 104, ll 26-7. 26 Ibid., Vol. I. p. 333 ff.