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Kayastha sub-groups
Kayastha Have many sub-groups:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Surahdhwaja subcaste belong to Ballia, Ghazipur
and Bijnor. They claim to be descendns of someone of this name mentioned in the
Mahabharata.
- Karan subcaste belong to Bihar and have 2 local
divisions, the Gayawale from gaya and the Tirhutia from Tirhut.
- 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.
- 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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