Kayastha Have many sub-groups:
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Srivastava, take their name from the old town of Sravasti, now Sahet-Mahet, in the north of the United Province. They are by far the most numerous subcaste both there and in MP. In these provinces nearly all the Kayasths are Srivastavs except for a few Saksenas. They are divided into 2 sections, Khare and Dusre, which correspond too the Bisa and Dasa groups of the Banias. The Khare are those of pure descent and the Dusre the offspring of remarried widows or other irregular alliances.
Saksena (Saxena) are named from the old town of Sankisa in the Farukhabad District. They also have the Khare and Dusre groups, and a third section called Kharua, which is said to mean pure and is perhaps the most aristocratic. A number of Saksena Kayasthas are resident in Seoni District, where there ancestors were settled by Bakht Buland, the Gond Raja of Deogarh in Chhindwara. These constituted hitherto a separate endogamous group, marrying among themselves, but since the opening of the railway negotiations have been initiated with the Saksenas of northern India, with the result that intermariage is to resumed between the 2 sections.
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Bhatnagar take their name from the old town of Bhatner, near Bikaner. They are divided into the Vaishya or Kadim, of pure descent, and the Gaur, who are apperently the offspring of intermarriage with the Gaur subcaste.
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Amistha are said to have settled in the Girnar hill and to take their name from the goddess Am(b)a Devi. They are chiefly found in south Bihar, where they are numerous and influential.
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Asthana or Aithana is an Oudh subcaste. They have 2 groups, the Purabi or eastern, who are found in Jaunpur and its neighbourhodd and the Pachchauri or western, who live in or about Lucknow.
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Balnik: This is a subcaste of western India. The name may have some territorial meaning, they do not trace descent from the author of the Ramayana as the name might suggest.
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Mathur subcaste are named after mathura or Mutra. They are also split into the local groups Dihlawi of Delhi, Katchi of Cutch and Lachauli of Jodhpur.
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Kulshreshtha or "well-born" Kayasth belong chiefly to the districts of Agra and Etah. They are divided into the Barakhhera or those of the 12 vilages and the Chha Khera of 6 villages.
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Surahdhwaja subcaste belong to Ballia, Ghazipur and Bijnor. They claim to be descendns of someone of this name mentioned in the Mahabharata.
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Karan subcaste belong to Bihar and have 2 local divisions, the Gayawale from gaya and the Tirhutia from Tirhut.
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Gaur Kayasths, like the Brahmans and rajputs of this name derive their name from Gaur or Lakhnauti, the old kingdom of Bengal. They have the Khare and Dusre divisions and also 3 local groups named after Bengal, Delhi and Budaun.
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Nigam are divided into the Kadim or old and the Unaya or those coming from Unao, which is sometimes given as a 13th group.
In Bengal they use the names: Bag, Bagchi, Basu, Basuray, Basuraychoudhuri, Biswas, Chanda, Chandaray, Chandra, Das, Datta, De, Ghosh, Guha, Kunda, Majumdar, Mitra, Niyogi, Pal, Ray, Sarkar, Sen, Sinha, Sinharay etc.
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