Gupta Bengal (c. 400 C.E. - 550 C.E.) Sedentary agrarian societies had formed in western regions of Bengal by c. 1000 BCE. The growth of states were roughly simultaneous with the rise of the
Gupta Empire and by then, cultural contacts with North India were gradually flourishing. Written records predating the Guptas do not survive. Copper Plate Inscriptions from the Gupta Era point to a complex society with different professional classes having little socioeconomic homogeneity. Many of these classes had their own hierarchies corresponding to differential geospatial levels or economic conditions but there exists no evidence of inter-class hierarchy; rather, there were frequent collaborations at the local levels in bureaucratic affairs. It does not appear that
varna played any role in the society — the
Brahmins were the only group to be referred to by their caste-identity and were revered but still classed as one among the peasant landholder class. They were reputed for their proficiency in Sanskrit, which they needed to read treatises of medicine.
Sivananda Sena, an immensely wealthy Baidya, organize the annual trip of Caitanya devotees to Puri, and his son wrote several devotional Sanskrit works. As the Caitanya cult shunned doctrines of equality after his death, the associated Baidyas began enjoying a quasi-Brahminic status as Gaudiya Vasihnava
gurus. Multiple Baidya authors partook in the
Mangalkavya tradition, the foremost being
Bijaya Gupta (late 15th c.). Besides, two Chandi Mangalkavyas were penned by Jaynnarayana Sen (c. 1750) and Muktarama Sen (1774), two Manasa Mangalkavyas by Sasthibara Datta (late 17th c.) and one by Dbarik Das.
Colonial Bengal During the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries, acrimonious debates about the caste status of Baidyas proliferated. Around 1750,
Raja Rajballabh wished to have Brahmins officiate at his rituals; he sought Vaishya status and claimed a right of wearing sacred thread for the Baidyas of his own samaj. At the same time, they invested efforts to prevent lower rank caste from infiltrating into their ranks and emphasize on their social purity; in the
smallpox epidemic of the 1840s in
Dhaka, Baidyas would refuse to inoculate the masses and relegate such menial tasks to lower-ranked barbers and garland makers. Beginning in 1822, Brahmin and Baidya scholars produced a series of polemical pamphlets against one another and in 1831, the Baidya Samaj (Baidya Society) was formed by
Khudiram Bisharad, a teacher at the Native Medical Institution, to defend class interests. In 1901, colonial ethnographer
Herbert Hope Risley noted the Baidyas to be above Sudras but below Brahmins. Baidya social historians like
Umesh Chandra Gupta and
Dinesh Chandra Sen supported Risley's observation of non-Shudra status with measured skepticism and went on to produce illustrious histories of the community, deriving from
kulanjis. In the early twentieth century,
Gananath Sen, the first dean of the Faculty of Ayurveda at
Banaras Hindu University, opened a "Baidya Brahman Samiti" in
Calcutta; now, the Baidyas were not merely equal to Brahmins but identical. Notwithstanding these contestations of scriptural rank, the material dominance of Baidyas continued unabated into colonial rule when they proactively took to Western forms of education and held a disproportionate share of government jobs, elite professions, and landholding. Baidyas were unquestionably established as among the "upper castes" by the mid-nineteenth century; they would go on to comprise the
Bhadralok Samaj—the highest "secular rank" in contemporary Bengal—along with Brahmins and Kayasthas, and serve as the eyes and ears of the British Government. The Bhadraloks were instrumental in demanding democratic reforms during the early twentieth century; a majority of "revolutionary terrorists" from Bengal who partook in the
Indian independence movement came from this class.
Modern Bengal In modern Bengal, Baidyas' place in caste-hierarchy follows Brahmins — they wear the sacred thread, and have access to scriptures, but cannot conduct priestly services. Their ritual rank — whether Sudras or not — is debated and claims to Brahmin status persist. However, their socioeconomic status rivals that of Brahmins. As of 1960, inter-marriages between the Brahmins, Baidyas and Kayasthas were common and increasing. Baidyas wield considerable socio-economic power in contemporary Bengal as part of Bhadraloks; though in absence of rigorous data, the precise extent is difficult to determine. == Notable people ==