Vaishya
Vaishya is one of the four varnas of the Hindu social order in Nepal and India.
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] Therefore making it their responsibility to provide sustenance for those of higher class, since they were of lower class.[2] The Vaishyas, along with members of the Brahmin and Kshatriya varnas, claim dvija status ("twice born", a second or spiritual birth) after sacrament of initiation as in Hindu theology.[3] Indian and Nepali traders were widely credited for the spread of Hindu culture to regions as far as southeast Asia and Tibet respectively.[4]
Historically, Vaishyas have been involved in roles other than their traditional pastoralism, trade and commerce. According to historian Ram Sharan Sharma, the Gupta Empire was a Vaishya dynasty that "may have appeared as a reaction against oppressive rulers".[5]
Modern communities[edit]
The Vaishya community consist of several jāti or subcastes, including but not limited to the Agrahari,[6] Agrawals,[7] Barnwals, Gahois, Kasuadhans, Khandelwals, Lohanas, Maheshwaris, Oswals, the Arya Vaishyas, the Vaishya Vanis of Konkan and Goa, and the Modh of the west.[citation needed]
References[edit]
- ^ Boesche, Roger (1 March 2003). The First Great Political Realist. p. 24. ISBN 978-0-73910-607-5.
- ^ Pollard. E., Roserngerg. C., Tignor, R. L. (2015). Worlds together Worlds Apart Volume 1. New York, NY: W.W. Norton &Company, Inc. p. 142. ISBN 978-0-393-91847-2.CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)
- ^ Madan, Gurmukh Ram (1979). Western Sociologists on Indian Society: Marx, Spencer, Weber, Durkheim, Pareto. Taylor & Francis. p. 112. ISBN 978-0-71008-782-9.
- ^ Embree, Ainslie Thomas; Gluck, Carol (1 January 1997). Asia in western and world history. p. 361. ISBN 978-1-56324-265-6.
- ^ Sharma, Ram Sharan (2003) [2001]. Early medieval Indian society: a study in feudalisation. Orient Blackswan. p. 69. ISBN 978-8-12502-523-8. Retrieved 26 January 2012.
- ^ Hasan, Amir; Rizvi, Baqr Raza; Das, J. C. (2005). Singh, Kumar Suresh, ed. People of India: Uttar Pradesh , Volume 42, Part ?. Anthropological Survey of India. p. 66. ISBN 978-81-73041-14-3.
- ^ Bhanu, B. V.; Kulkarni, V. S. (2004). Singh, Kumar Suresh, ed. 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 25 April 2012.
External links[edit]
Media related to Vaishya at Wikimedia Commons- All India Vaish Federation
