SINDURIYA OR KAYASTH BANIYA - सिन्दुरिया या कायस्थ बनिया

SINDURIYA OR KAYASTH BANIYA - सिन्दुरिया या कायस्थ बनिया 

Sinduria’s have history but no place in history. Sinduria’s are known by different names i.e. Sinduria Bania, Kaith Bania, Kaithal Vaisya,Sinduria Kayasth, Shushen Vanshiya Kayasth, Shrivastav Kayasth, Modi, Pansari, etc. If we go in past, there is no foolproof recorded history available about our community. We have gone in depth to search our heredity. Only by hearsay from our elders and ancestors we come to know about our community.

The first theory - Mythological & most accepted

The second theory - kayadesh or writing caste

First conference of Kyasthas

Population

Literacy

Financial Health

Social Status

Political Identity

Establishment of Society

Aims and Objectives of Society

Achievement during last five years

The first theory - Mythological & most accepted

The first theory is the orthodox one, and is hitherto accepted generally by all castes and communities in India, based as it is on the authority of no less than four Puranas ---viz. Padma Puran (Srishti Khand,Patal Khand and Uttar Khand), Bhavishya Purana, Yama Samhita, Mahabharata and Brihad Parashar Smriti.

It is said that Brahma, the Creator, having established the four varnas — Brahmin, Kshatriya, Vaishya and Shudra — ordained Dharamraj ( also called Yamraj, the god of death) to keep record of the deeds — good and evil — of all life-forms born and yet to be born on the earth, in the heavens above and in the lands below. Dharamraj, however, complained, "O Lord, how can I alone keep record of the deeds of the beings born into 84 lakh yonis (life-forms) in the three worlds?"

Brahma then closed his eyes, meditated for a while and lo and behold! there appeared a radiant figure with a quill-pen in one hand and an ink-pot in another. Brahma named him Chitragupta for he was conceived in his cognitive-self (chitta) and he was lying in Him, dormant and secret (gupta). He was born of Brahma’s body (kaya) and so the Lord decreed that his progenies be called Kayasthas. He was assigned to work as a minister, to write and record for Dharamraj. Thus, the fifth varna, the Kayastha, came into existence.

As per common faith, Sinduria’s are lineage of Lord Chitragupt. Heredity of our community was explained by the following chain:

Shree Shribhanu(Srivastava): His Rashi name was Dharamdwaj. Maharaj Chitraguptji sent Shree Shribhanu to establish a Kingdom in the Shrivaas(Srinagar)region in Kashmir and Kandhar. He was married to Nagaraj Vaasuki’s daughter Devi Padmini and two divine sons named Shree Devdatta and Shree Ghanshyam were born. Shree Devdatta got the rulership over Kashmir and Shree Ganshyam got the rulership over the banks of Sindhu river. They were called Srivastava ‘Khare’ born from second wife Kheri. Two divine sons named Shree Dhanvantari and Shree Sarvagya were born. They were called Srivastava ‘Doosre’. By the passage of time the resident of Sindhu State called Sindhuri and later on Sinduria.

THE SECOND THEORY - KAYADESH OR WRITING CASTE 

Residents of Kaya-Desh

The second theory or view may be deemed as the heterodox one. According to this the word Kayastha only meant residents of Kaya-desh or Madhya-desh, which was synonym to Ayodhia. On this view it is possible to hazard a guess that the class or community of Kayasthas may have come into existence by the formation of something like a guild of all those people who, although drawn from educated members of more than one Dwij varanas, (viz. Brahmans, Kshattriyas and even possibly Vaishyas), took to and adopted government service or administration as their hereditary profession or calling from the earliest times in Hindu history.

Writing Caste

Some historians hold the view that during the reign of the Mughals, a number of Hindus who were were educated and endowed with sharp intellect attained administrative positions through rapid adaptation to the Persian language and culture of India’s new rulers. These influential Hindus got together and formed a new caste known as Kayastha. Two other regional communities also lay claim to the name Kayastha. These are the Prabhu Kayasthas of Maharashtra and Bengali Kayasthas of West Bengal. They were also the ‘writing-castes’ in Maharashtra and Bengal, respectively, like the Chitragupta Kayasthas of North India.

FIRST CONFERENCE OF KAYASTHAS 

Kayasthas are not well organised, either politically or socially. The earliest effort to unite them date back to 1887 when Munshi Kali Parshad, the founder of the Kayashta Pathshala in Allahabad (1873), formed the All-India Kayastha Conference (AIKC) which held its first convention in Lucknow in 1887. Now known as the Akhil Bhartiya Kayastha Mahasabha (ABKM), with its objective to uplift its members.

According to second theory when Mughals arrive in India and emerge as new rulers, forced the Brahman to learn Persian language for maintaining all records in place of Sanskrit language. Brahman opposed to learn that. At the same time some educated and intellectual Hindu, who were struggling for social justice due to monopoly of Brahmans over education joined hands and opted to learn Persian language and come closure to administration and gave their community a new name Kayasth. At the same time the all members of all those family were not educated. So everyone was not able to go close to administration.

By the passage of time this group also divided into two groups. The literate group was in service with rulers and they have called themselves LAKARIA kayasth and presently known and considered as Kayasth by various societies in India, while the uneducated group who were surviving their life by doing treatment through ancient ayurvedic medicine from forest as a ayurvedic physician called DHOKARIA kayasth. On later stage they researched on SINDUR for diagnosing skin disease and find most suitable. Due to popularity of this special diagnosis through sindur they become famous by the name of Sinduria Baidya. This trade flourished through out Mughal reign.

At the same time all Dhokaria’s taken a major decision to allow re-marriage to a widow, which was strictly prohibited in Lakaria’s. This instance draw a line between Lakaria’s and Dhokaria’s and broken all relations.

When Britishers take over the administration from Mughal, they brought allopathic medicine for diagnosing the deasease. The mass population preferred this diagnosis and medicine because of getting quick relief. This was very difficult times for sinduria. During this period they tried to get connected with lakaria kayasth but due to their illiteracy, starvation and decision to allow re-marriage to widow, they refused to keep any connection. This was very bad time. Sinduria’s were struggling for their livelihood.

Their traditional ayurvedic system of diagnosing was neglected by mass population. Now they forced to start some other business. Beacause they had a very good rapport in the society and very good network was there due to diagnosis heredity. The capital base of this community was very poor. Initially they start supplying spices and other cosmetics to their known neighbor by hiding his personality in the open market for their livelihood. As the days gone they started this business in the open market. For want of capital they start this business as street howker and involve their entire family in their trade. Gradually they started various retail trade in various commodities at various places to survive their life. Due to adoption to various profession at various places, they have been called by various titles at various places according to their business/ profession like Sinduria Kayasth, Sinduria Bania, Sinduria Srivastav, Modi, Pansari etc.

In the begning of 20th century some of the fundamentalist sinduria brought a new story that Sinduria’s are migrant of Kaithal province of Haryana and hence they should be known by its origine and started using Kaithal Vaisya (Bania) due to profession. Due to illiteracy in common people started using the word Kathbania.

Gotra is the Sanskrit term for a much older system of tribal clans.The Sanskrit term "Gotra" was initially used by the Vedic people for the identification of the lineages. Generally, these lineages mean patrilineal descent from the sages or rishis in Brahmins, warriors and administrators in Kshatriyas and ancestral trademen in Vaisyas.

There is difference of opinion among Sindurias about their cast name but there is no question about their Gotra. Everyone tells you KASYAP Gotra, which is coming from Vedas and mostly adopted by some section of Vaisya and Kayasth both. It indicates that all belongs to this Gotra was basically Vaisya (Bania).

POPULATION 

Sinduria’s population are approximately Thirty million around the Globe. Majority of them resides in India. In India sinduria’s spread out in more then twenty two States. Their main presence are in Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, West Bengal and Orissa. Till today there are no individual census carried to count their actual numbers. Now efforts are going on by the Akhil Sinduria samaj Seva Society to do this exercise. Now the whole hearted active support is required from community members to complete this exercise.

LITERACY 

Sinduria’s always kept themselves far away from education because of low profile living status. Literacy percentage is hardly Two to Three. The main reason behind this was lack of proper guidance, greed of taking over hereditary business and financial scarcity and insecurity feeling. The majority of this community people always felt that earn money with full family support for livelihood by ignoring children education and social status. Intoxicating and drinking habits supported this ideology. Its very unfortunate that till today not even a single member become successful in Indian Administrative Service, Indian Police Service or any administrative Civil Services.

FINANCIAL HEALTH 

Sinduria’s are living very low profile life. They are financially backward. They are mostly in retail trade, Street hocker, low profile ayurvedic physician and lower class services. A very few who can be counted on fingertips are financially sound but they never thought about the community development. None of them had taken any initiative to uplift the standard of living of their community people. They are far away from Industry. They are far away from any managerial position in any corporate sector.

SOCIAL STATUS 

Due to illiteracy, financial backwardness and lack of coordination sinduria have no social status. They are scattered. They only thought upto their livelihood not beyond that. In society they are neglected because of their backwardness in the area of education, wealth and unity. They had been always used and misguided by different strong community

POLITICAL IDENTITY 

Political identity of the sinduria community is zero. Its very unfortunate that till today there is not even a single representative of this community find a place in any Assembly or Parliament irrespective of a huge population domiciled in India. All political parties have used their right but non of them had taken any initiative to uplift this community. Recently due to some initiative by Govt. of Bihar and Jharkhand, when they brought this community (by the name Sinduria Bania) under Annexure 1, some of them find a place in representing Panchayat, Block and District Council. But so far State and National politics are concerned, their participation and position is still zero.

ESTABLISHMENT OF SOCIETY 

AKHIL SINDURIA SAMAJ SEVA SOCIETY was established on 2nd October 2004 by group of intellectual people of Sinduria (Sinduria Kayasth, Sinduria Bania, Sinduria srivastav, Kaithal Vaisya, Kathbania, Sinduria Modi , Sinduria Pansari etc.) community residing in Delhi. The first and formost objective was to coordinate and bring together all Sinduria’s residing in Delhi, NCR, various States of India and abroad. With the passage of time and co-operation by the various group of people objectives and scope of the Society widened in many fold. With the passage of time, society got positive response from all section of this community and from all parts of India and globe to bring this community people closure and closure. Since beginning till now the society has managed to celebrate Annual Function on 2nd October 2005, 12th November 2006, 8th &9th December 2007 and 15&16 December 2008. In all the annual function community members from atleast 10 States of India participated. Efforts are going on to make this a single plate form to bring all sinduria united and work for upliftment of our community. The day is not far away when we will have proud to be born in SINDURIA COMMUNITY.