Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhu (CKP) is an ethno-religious clan of South Asia. It is part of the broader Kayastha community. Traditionally, the CKPs have been granted the upper caste status, which allowed them to study the Vedas and perform religious rites along with Brahmins.
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The CKPs are today concentrated primarily in western Maharashtra, southern Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh (Indore region). They played an important role in the establishment and administration of the Maratha empire.
Mythology
Ethonology of Kayasth in a nutshell:
There are two famous stories that founds its traces in Puranas and Vedas
1. Chitragupta was came into existence from the body of Brahma. Hence the namme kayastha (kaya : body sth:resident/place). Chitragupta is amongst the fourteen (14) Yamas (who belongs to Kshatriya caste).
2. After the Parsurama exterminate the Kshtriyas 21 times, because of their wrong doings and exploitation of the society. The posthumous sons of Chandrasena who was pregnant, Parsurama let her walked away with her life if and only if she directs the forthcoming generation follow Intellect Practices and leave warrior professions. -Skanda Purana
Medieval History
The name Chandraseniya may be a corruption of the word "Chandrashreniya", meaning from the valley of the Chenab River (also known as "Chandra"). This theory states that the word "Kayastha" originates from the term "Kaya Desha", an ancient name for the region around Ayodhya.
The CKP community became more prominent during the Maratha rule. Several of the Maratha King Shivaji's generals and ministers, such as Murarbaji Deshpande and Baji Prabhu Deshpande, were CKPs.
British Rule
The CKPs have traditionally placed themselves in the Kshatriya varna, next only to the Brahmins, and also followed the Brahmin rituals, like the sacred thread ceremony. The other communities, at times, have contested their upper-caste status. In 1801-1802 CE (1858 Samvat), a Pune-based council of 626 Brahmins from Maharashtra, Karnataka and other areas made a formal declaration that the CKPs are twice-born (upper caste) people who are expected to follow the Kshatriya duties. When the prominent Marathi historian VK Rajwade contested their claimed Kshatriya status in a 1916 essay, the CKP writer Prabodhankar Thackeray wrote a text outlining the identity of the CKP caste, and its contributions to the Maratha empire. In this text, Gramanyachya Sadhyant Itihas, he wrote that the CKPs "provided the cement" for Shivaji's swaraj (self-rule) "with their blood". The CKP community played a significant role in helping Dr. Ambedkar in his struggle for Dalit emancipation in the 1920s and 30s
Surnames
A number of CKP surnames are derived from community members serving as administrators for the Deccan sultanates rulers and later for the Maratha rulers.Most of these surnames have Farsi origin and include the surnames Chitnis,Kotwal,Karnik,Inamdar, Karkhanis,Phadnis, and Potnis. Kulkarni (village record keeper),Deshpande(Pargana level record keeper), and Deshmukh(Pargana chief) are other surnames that denote administrative roles of increasing seniority but are not derived from Farsi language. Other CKP surnames derived from administrative or military service include Gadkari, Dalvi, Patil,Pradhan,and Raje. There are also typical Maharashtrian surnames derive by adding the suffix -Kar to a village name such as Ambegaonkar, Rajapurkar, Mahadkar,Kohochkar, Kharshikar,and Haldankar. Other CKP surnames include Nachane, Bahire, Vaidya, Gupte,Tamhane,Chitre, Sipre, Mokashi, , Karnik', , Pattekar, Adhikari, Sawant, , Bendre, Chaubal,Donde, Jaywant Ghule Likhite Nimak and Dighe.
Culture
The CKPs share many common rituals with the upper-caste communities and the study of Vedas and Sanskrit. Unlike most upper-caste communities however, the CKPs through their interaction with Muslims, have traditionally adopted a diet which includes meat, fish, poultry and eggs. Many CKP clans have Ekvira temple at Karle as their family deity The mother tongue of most of the community is now Marathi, though in Gujarat they also communicate with their neighbours in Gujarati, and use the Gujarati script, while those in Maharashtra speak English and Hindi with outsiders, and use the Devanagari script.