Vaisya Definition

vīshə, vīshyə
noun
A member of the Hindu business and agricultural caste, next below the Kshatriya.
Webster's New World
adjective
Of or relating to the class of Vaisyas.
American Heritage

Other Word Forms of Vaisya

Noun

Singular:
Vaisya
Plural:
vaisyas

Origin of Vaisya

  • Sanskrit vaiśyaḥ settler, homesteader from viśaḥ house weik-1 in Indo-European roots

    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition

Vaisya Sentence Examples

  • The Vaisya, or trading caste of Manu, has no longer any separate existence; but its place is occupied by several well-marked classes.

  • Though the ranks of the priesthood were for ever firmly closed against intruders, a man of lay birth, a Kshatriya or Vaisya, whose mind revolted against the orthodox creed, and whose heart was stirred by mingled zeal and ambition, might find through these irregular orders an entrance to the career of a religious teacher and reformer.

  • Thus," the prejudice against eating cooked food that has been touched by a man of an inferior caste is so strong that, although the Shastras do not prohibit the eating of food cooked by a Kshatriya or Vaisya, yet the Brahmans, in most parts of the country, would not eat such food.

  • The land being appropriated by the conquerors, husbandry, as the most respectable industrial occupation, became the legitimate calling of the Aryan settler, the Vaisya; whilst handicrafts, gradually multiplying with advancing civilization and menial service, were assigned to the subject race.