Vaisya

Vaishya is one of the four varnas of the Hindu social order in Nepal and India.

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 / Bahun and Kshatriya / Chhetri varnas, claim dvija status ("twice born", a second or spiritual birth) after sacrament of initiation as in Hindu theology. Indian and Nepali traders were widely credited for the spread of Hindu culture to regions as far as southeast Asia and Tibet respectively.

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".

The Vaishya community consists of several jāti or subcastes, notably the Agrahari,Agrawals,Barnwals, Gahois, Kasuadhans,Maheshwaris, Khandelwals, Mahawars , Lohanas, Oswals, Roniaurs, the Arya Vaishyas, the Vaishya Vanis of Konkan and Goa, and the Modh of the west.

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