CKP
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| India | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Languages | |
| konkani, Marathi and Gujarati(In some cases). | |
| Religion | |
| Hinduism |
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.
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.
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.
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".
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