Vaishya
Vaishya is one of the four varnas of the Hindu social order.
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Traditional duties [edit]
Hindu religious texts assigned Vaishyas to traditional roles in agriculture and cattle-rearing but over time they came to be landowners, traders and money-lenders.[1] The Vaishyas, along with members of the Brahmin and Kshatriya varnas, claim "twice born" (dvija) status in Hindu theology.[2] Indian traders were widely credited for the spread of Indian culture to regions as far as southeast Asia.[3]
Historically, Vaishyas have been involved in roles other than their traditional pastoralism, trade and commerce. According to Ram Sharan Sharma, a historian, the Gupta Empire was a Vaishya dynasty that "may have appeared as a reaction against oppressive rulers".[4] A.S. Altekar, a historian and archaeologist, who has written several books on Gupta coinage,[5] also regarded the caste of the Guptas as Vaishya on the basis of the ancient Indian texts on law, which prescribe the name-ending with Gupta for a member of the Vaishya caste.
Modern communities [edit]
The Vaisya community consist of several jāti or subcastes, notably the Agrawals,[6] the Barnwals, Roniaurs, Gahois, Kasuadhans, Khandelwals, Oswals, Lohanas and Maheshwaris of the north; the Arya Vaishyas of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, Vanika Vaishyas of Kerala, Cenkuntar[7] of Tamil Nadu, the Vaishya Vanis of Konkan and Goa, Ladshakhiy Wani in North and Western Maharashtra and the Modh and Patidars of the west.
See also [edit]
References [edit]
- ^ Boesche, Roger. The First Great Political Realist. p. 24.
- ^ Madan, Gurmukh Ram (1979). Western Sociologists on Indian Society: Marx, Spencer, Weber, Durkheim, Pareto. Taylor & Francis. p. 112. ISBN 9780710087829.
- ^ Embree, Ainslie Thomas; Gluck, Carol. Asia in western and world history. p. 361.
- ^ Sharma, Ram Sharan (2003) [2001]. Early medieval Indian society: a study in feudalisation. Orient Blackswan. p. 69. Retrieved 2012-01-26.
- ^ List of Altekar's publications in the Open Library.
- ^ Bhanu, B. V.; Kulkarni, V. S. (2004). In Singh, Kumar Suresh. People of India: Maharashtra, Part One XXX. Mumbai: Popular Prakashan, for Anthropological Survey of India. p. 46. ISBN 81-7991-100-4. OCLC 58037479. Retrieved 2012-04-25.
- ^ The New Wind: Changing Identities in South Asia - Google Books
External links [edit]
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