Vaishya
Vaishya is one of the four varnas of the Hindu social order.
Duties of Vaishyas
According to the Hindu texts, the duties of a Vaishyas included cattle rearing and other pastoral tasks, productive labor, agriculture and trade. The Vaisyas, along with the Brahmins and Kshatriyas, claim to be of the "twice born" (dvija) castes of the classical theory. Indian traders were widely credited for the spread of Indian culture to regions as far as southeast Asia.
Historically, Vaisyas have played a much larger role in Indian affairs apart from trade and commerce. According to Ram Sharan Sharma, a historian, the Gupta Empire was a Vaishya dynasty that "may have appeared as a reaction against oppressive rulers". A.S. Altekar, a historian and archaeologist, who has written several books on Gupta coinage, also regarded the caste of the Guptas as Vaishya on the basis of the ancient Indian texts on law, which prescribe the name-ending with Gupta for a member of the Vaishya caste. Modern communities
The Vaisya community consist of several jāti or subcaste, notably the Agrawals, the Barnwals,the Roniaurs or the Rouniyars by Er. Sumit Sagar ],the Gahois, the Kasuadhans, the Patwa, the Khandelwals, the Oswals, Rastogis, Lohanas and the Maheshwaris of the north; the Arya Vaishyas of Andhra pradesh, Vanika Vaishyas of the Kerala, Cenkuntar of Tamil Nadu, the Vaishya Vanis of Konkan and Goa, Ladshakhiy Wani in North and Western Maharashtra and the Modh, Beesa Neema, Dasa Neema, Dasore, Parekhs and Patidars of the west.
