116 SOCIAL SCIENTIST. 18. King considers the 'Kaithi' to be a variant of the Devnagari script because of its style of writing. In fact, there have been several scripts in circulation in India in different periods of time and although there might exist some similarities in these different scripts, it is difficult to agree that these scripts have one origin. It is difficult to find evidence to say that Kaithi or Mahajani scripts are variants of the Devnagari. What is certain is that Sanskrit was written in the Devnagari script from an early time, but as Indian society was hierarchical by nature, this script probably distinguished a caste. Some modern-day commentators have associated scripts with particular castes or occupational groups. Grierson thinks that Kaithi was used by the Kayasthas and therefore it was also called 'Kayastni7. Kuar Lachman Singh writes that the Devnagari script was brought into use by the Nagar Brahmans of Gujrat. He adds that the Kayasthas cannot be treated onf par with the other higher castes because they were forbidden the use of the Nagari script. The Kayasthas, according to him, should be treated as the Sudras because they wrote in the Kaithi script. See Kuar Lachman Singh: Historical and Statistical Memoir of Zila Bulandshahar, Allahabad, 1874, p. 150 (for Nagar Brahman and pp. 178-179 for the Kayasthas). However, it is a fact that Kaithi was a popular script in the rural north India up to the nineteenth century. It was because of this that Sher Shah Suri issued all his Persian declarations accompanied with a translation in the Kaithi script. Kaithi was apparently used in matters related with the villages. Literature was however composed in the Persian script. Most of the manu"; scripts that were put together by the Search Committee set up by the Nagari Prachami Sabha were found to have been written in the Persian script. 19. Malaviya's ideas on language are contained in his book. Court Characters and Primary Education in N.W.P.'and Oudh, Allahabad, 1897. Madan Mohan Malaviya's biases become clear from his conversations with Harcourt Butler, then governor of the United Provinces ofAgra and Oudh. In 1918, Butler reported that Malaviya came to visit him 'and suggested that the Muslims might attempt to reconquer India from the British. He warned Butler that he must safeguard the territories of British India from the Afgans. See Butler Papers (Microfilm), Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi.