To look at India as a changeless society is as old as the time of James Mill' and the institution of caste is cited as witness to its static quality. Studies on various aspects of the caste system of India are therefore necessary to historians who try to interpret society. I have taken as my subject of research the origin and evolution of the writers' class of ancient India which ultimately led to the formation of the Kayastha caste. Prima facie, this by itself is an example of the non-static character of Indian society. A caste which was non-existent made its way through gradual evolutionary processes and ultimately secured a very high position in society. The broad classification of Indian people under the chaturvarna system provided only a theoretical framework for the elitist upholders of society, who had to absorb from time to time various jana-goshthis with their own norms of life, into the fold of Brahmanical frame of society. The absorbtion of these peoples is indicative of the elasticity of relationship that existed. Only a dynamic society, having its eyes open to its needs is capable of such a process.
The study on the writers shows how this class was created by a society which was bubbling with dynamism and which took part in the second urban revolution. The socio-religious protests of that time were expressions issuing from that dynamism which cut at the roots of static norms of life. The writers were fostered by such a society and gradually their need in administration, in trade and various other social transactions came to be recognized.
Centuries passed on, and with the end of the so-called Golden Age' of the Guptas, symptoms of decadence became prominent.
The temporal authority failed to care for ordinary people. Kings patronised only those in regal proximity and only those coteries of royal favourites began to derive greatest advantage from the changed socio-political situation. Under the changed circumstance the writers gradually emerged as a caste with a position of prominence and dominance in administration and consequently in society also. The purpose of the present study is to understand the structure of ancient Indian society as viewed through the role of the writers or the Kayasthas in the changing social situations.
No full-fledged work has so far been done on this problem, though sections on the Kayasthas may be found in many works dealing with history of specified periods. These are usually collation of materials without proper analysis and these do not lead us anywhere.
As early as 1938-39 P. V. Kane wrote A Note on the Kayasthas, which was perhaps the first serious attempt to deal with this important caste-group.
In part one of the second volume of Kane's History of the Dharmasastras a detailed reference to the caste in the early medieval Dharmasastras could be obtained. The reactions of the law-makers about this class invoked historical query about the origin and activities of the Kayasthas.
P. V. Kane suggested that the word Kayastha might have been derived from some foreign word for an officer or could be a Sanskrit approximation of the same. In the pages of the same journal where Kane's view was first expressed scholars entered into historical debates on this problem. B. Kakati compared the word with various Austric parallels and concluded that 'an approximation to the sound and sense of Kayastha in all these languages of the Austric group may not be altogether fortuitous, and Kayastha may well be a Sanskritisation of a non-Aryan formation like Kaiathoh', meaning 'entry in writing'. V. Raghavan did not agree with any of these views. He tried to derive the name from the Sanskrit word Kaya, which according to him, could be as elastic as its English equivalent 'body'. So, his conclusion was that the word Kayastha meaning a clerk or an accountant or any other government official could very well refer to a person 'staying in the body, i.e. 'one belonging to the department of the administration'. D.C.Sircar revived the question and discussed the problem in the light of literary and epigraphic documents. The analysis showed that 'the Kayastha served the kings, feudatory chiefs, petty landlords, rulers of provinces or districts, judges etc. in various capacities. So far as the derivation of the name is concerned Sircar also tried to connect it with the word Kaya and suggested that the Kayasthra was one that stayed or dwelt in 'the body, e.g. the Supreme Spirit'. An official who usually sat beside his master in discharging his duties and was often the chief intermediary between his master and the latter's clients or subjects', according to Sircar, could 'naturally be called Kayastha in the sense of Kayasthaiva, as if staying in the person of his master', by reason of his intimacy with or influence on the master...
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