{{short description|One of the four classes of the Hindu varna system}} {{Use Indian English|date=July 2016}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2025}} {{Hinduism small}}
'''Vaishya''' (Sanskrit: वैश्य, ''vaiśya'') is one of the four varnas of the Vedic Hindu social order in India. Vaishyas are classed third in the order of Varna hierarchy.
The occupation of Vaishyas consists mainly of agriculture, taking care of cattle, trade and other business pursuits as mentioned in the Bhagavad Gita.
==Traditional duties== 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.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K85NA7Rg67wC&pg=PA24 |page=24 |title=The First Great Political Realist|author-link=Roger Boesche |first=Roger |last=Boesche|isbn=978-0-73910-607-5 |date=1 March 2003 }}</ref> They ranked third in the varna system below Brahmins and Kshatriyas and traditionally had the responsibility to provide sustenance or patronage for the higher varnas.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Worlds together Worlds Apart Volume 1|last=Pollard. E., Roserngerg. C., Tignor, R. L.|publisher=W.W. Norton &Company, Inc.|year=2015|isbn=978-0-393-91847-2|location=New York, NY|pages=142}}</ref> The Vaishyas, along with members of the Brahmin and Kshatriya varnas, claim ''dvija'' status ("twice born", a second or spiritual birth) after sacrament of initiation as in Hindu theology.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n84OAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA112 |page=112 |title=Western Sociologists on Indian Society: Marx, Spencer, Weber, Durkheim, Pareto |first=Gurmukh Ram |last=Madan |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=1979 |isbn=978-0-71008-782-9}}</ref> Indian traders were widely credited for the spread of Indian culture to regions as far as southeast Asia.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/asiainwesternwor00ains |url-access=registration |page=[https://archive.org/details/asiainwesternwor00ains/page/361 361] |title=Asia in western and world history |publisher=M.E. Sharpe |first1=Ainslie Thomas |last1=Embree | author-link1 = Ainslie Embree|first2=Carol |last2=Gluck | author-link2 = Carol Gluck|isbn=978-1-56324-265-6 |date=1 January 1997 }}</ref>
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".<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i_sIE1sO5kwC&pg=PA69 |title=Early medieval Indian society: a study in feudalisation |first=Ram Sharan |last=Sharma |author-link=Ram Sharan Sharma |publisher=Orient Blackswan |year=2003 |orig-year=2001 |page=69 |access-date=26 January 2012|isbn=978-8-12502-523-8 }}</ref>
Many Vaishyas are vegetarian due to the influence of Jainism and Buddhism which preaches the concept of ahimsa which forbade killing of animals for food.<ref>{{ cite book | url= https://www.researchgate.net/publication/304870850 | title = Civilizing Tastes: From Caste to Class in South Indian Foodways| date = 2013 | first = James | last = Staples}}</ref>
== See also ==
* Bania (caste) * Agrahari * Lohana
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{commons category-inline}} * [http://www.vaishfederation.in All India Vaish Federation] {{Hindudharma}}
Category:Vaishya community Category:Varnas in Hinduism