Myths of the World

Kayastha  or  Kayasth  denotes a cluster of disparate  Indian  communities broadly categorised by the regions of the  Indian subcontinent  in which they were traditionally located — the  Chitraguptavanshi Kayasthas  of  North India , the  Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhus  of  Maharashtra , the  Bengali Kayasthas  of  Bengal  and  Karanas   of  Odisha . All of them were traditionally considered "writing  castes ", who had historically served the ruling powers as administrators, ministers and record-keepers.  The earliest known reference to the term   Kayastha   dates back to the   Kushan Empire ,   when it evolved into a common name for a writer or   scribe .   In the   Sanskrit   literature and   inscriptions , it was used to denote the holders of a particular category of offices in the government service.   In this context, the term possibly derived from   kaya-   ('principal, capital, treasury') and - stha   ('to stay') and perhaps originally stood for an offi