The Bhats are the bards, heralds and genealogists of India and include groups of very varying status.

The Bhats who act as genealogists of the cultivating and other castes and accept cooked food from their clients may perhaps be held to rank with or even below them.

But the high-class Bhats are undoubtedly derived from Brahmans and Rajputs, and rank just below those castes.

The bard or herald had a sacred character, and his person was inviolable like that of the herald elsewhere, and this has given a special status to the whole caste.

[46] The Kayasths are the writer caste of Hindustan, and the Karans and Prabhus are the corresponding castes of Orissa and Bombay.