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Vaishya is one of the four varnas of the Hindu social order.
Traditional duties
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. The Vaishyas, along with members of the Brahmin and Kshatriya varnas, claim "twice born" (dvija) status in Hindu theology. Indian traders were widely credited for the spread of Indian culture to regions as far as southeast Asia.
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". A.S. Altekar, a historian and archaeologist, who has written several books on Gupta coinage, 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
The Vaisya community consist of several jāti or subcastes, notably the Agrawals, Barnwals, Gahois, Kasuadhans, Khandelwals, Lohanas and Maheshwaris of the north; Oswals, Roniaurs, the Arya Vaishyas of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, Vanika Vaishyas of Kerala, Cenkuntar 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
References
- 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) . Early medieval Indian society: a study in feudalisation. Orient Blackswan. p. 69. Retrieved 2012-01-26.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|1=(help) - List of Altekar's publications in the Open Library.
- Bhanu, B. V.; Kulkarni, V. S. (2004). Singh, Kumar Suresh (ed.). People of India: Maharashtra, Part One. Vol. 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