The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India - Volume IV of IV - Kumhar-Yemkala

R. V. (Robert Vane) Russell

Informations

• Publié par: adrie
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 33
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Tribes and Castes of the Central
Provinces of India - Volume IV of IV, by R.V. Russell
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India - Volume IV of IV
Kumhar-Yemkala
Author: R.V. Russell
Release Date: February 25, 2007 [EBook #20668]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TRIBES AND CASTES OF INDIA ***
Produced by Jeroen Hellingman and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net/ (This file was
produced partly from images generously made available by
The Internet Archive/Million Book Project)
The Tribes and Castes of the
Central Provinces of India
By
R.V. Russell
Of the Indian Civil Service Superintendent of
Ethnography, Central Provinces
Assisted by
Rai Bahadur Hira Lāl
Extra Assistant Commissioner
Published Under the Orders of the CentralProvinces Administration
In Four Volumes
Vol. IV.
Macmillan and Co., Limited St. Martin’s
Street, London.
1916
[v]
[Contents]
Contents of Volume IV
Articles on Castes and Tribes of the
Central Provinces in Alphabetical Order
The articles which are considered to be of most general interest are
shown in capitals
KUMHĀR (Potter) 3
KUNBI (Cultivator) 16
Kunjra (Greengrocer) 50
Kuramwār (Shepherd) 52
KURMI (Cultivator) 55
Lakhera (Worker in lac) 104
Lodhi (Landowner and cultivator ) 112
Lohār (Blacksmith) 120
Lorha (Growers of san-hemp) 126
Mahār (Weaver and labourer ) 129
Mahli (Forest tribe) 146
Majhwar (Forest tribe) 149
Māl (Forest tribe) 153
Māla (Cotton-weaver and labourer ) 156
MĀLI (Gardener and vegetable-grower ) 159
Mallāh (Boatman and fisherman) 171
Māna (Forest tribe, cultivator) 172
Mānbhao (Religious mendicant) 176
Māng (Labourer and village musician ) 184
Māng-Garori (Criminal caste) 189
Manihār (Pedlar) 193
Mannewār (Forest tribe) 195
[vi]MARĀTHA (Soldier, cultivator and service) 198
MEHTAR (Sweeper and scavenge) 215
Meo (Tribe) 233
Mīna or Deswāli (Non-Aryan tribe, cultivator) 235
Mirāsi (Bard and genealogist ) 242
MOCHI (Shoemaker) 244Mowār (Cultivator) 250
Murha (Digger and navvy) 252
Nagasia (Forest tribe) 257
Nāhal (Forest tribe) 259
NAI (Barber) 262
Naoda (Boatman and fisherman) 283
Nat (Acrobat) 286
Nunia (Salt-refiner; digger and navvy) 294
Ojha (Augur and soothsayer ) 296
ORAON (Forest tribe) 299
Pāik (Soldier, cultivator) 321
Panka (Labourer and village watchman ) 324
PANWĀR RĀJPŪT (Landowner and cultivator ) 330
Pardhān (Minstrel and priest ) 352
Pārdhi (Hunter and fowler ) 359
Parja (Forest tribe) 371
Pāsi (Toddy-drawer and labourer ) 380
Patwa (Maker of silk braid and thread ) 385
PINDĀRI (Freebooter) 388
Prabhu (Writer and clerk ) 399
Rāghuvansi (Cultivator) 403
Rājjhar (Agricultural labourer) 405
RĀJPŪT (Soldier and landowner ) 410
RĀJPŪT CLANS
Baghel. Hūna.
Bāgri. Kachhwāha.
Bais. Nāgvansi.
Baksaria. Nikumbh.
Banāphar. Pāik.
Bhadauria. Parihār.
Bisen. Rāthor.
Bundela. Sesodia.
Chandel. Solankhi.
Chauhān. Somvansi.
Dhākar. Sūrajvansi.
Gaharwār. Tomara.
Gaur. Yādu.
Haihaya.
[vii]Rajwār (Forest tribe) 470
Rāmosi (Village watchmen and labourers, formerly thieves) 472
Rangrez (Dyer) 477
Rautia (Forest tribe and cultivators, formerly soldiers) 479
Sanaurhia (Criminal thieving caste) 483
Sānsia (Vagrant criminal tribe) 488
Sānsia (Uria) (Mason and digger) 496
Savar (Forest tribe) 500
Sonjhara (Gold-washer) 509
Sudh (Cultivator) 514
SUNĀR (Goldsmith and silversmith) 517
Sundi (Liquor distiller) 534
Tamera (Coppersmith) 536
Taonla (Soldier and labourer ) 539
TELI (Oilman) 542
THUG (Criminal community of murderers by strangulation ) 558
Turi (Bamboo-worker) 588
Velama (Cultivator) 593
VIDUR (Village accountant, clerk and writer ) 596
Wāghya (Religious mendicant) 603
Yerūkala (Criminal thieving caste) 606
[ix][Contents]
Illustrations in Volume IV
97. Potter and his wheel 4
98. Group of Kunbis 16
99. Figures of animals made for Pola festival 40
100. Hindu boys on stilts 42
101. Throwing stilts into the water at the Pola festival 46
102. Carrying out the dead 48
103. Pounding rice 60
104. Sowing 84
105. Threshing 86
106. Winnowing 88
107. Women grinding wheat and husking rice 90
108. Group of women in Hindustāni dress 92
109. Coloured Plate: Examples of spangles worn by women on the
forehead 106
110. Weaving: sizing the warp 142
111. Winding thread 144
112. Bride and bridegroom with marriage crowns 166
113. Bullocks drawing water with mot 170
114. Māng musicians with drums 186
115. Statue of Marātha leader, Bīmbāji Bhonsla, in armour 200
116. Image of the god Vishnu as Vithoba 248
117. Coolie women with babies slung at the side 256
118. Hindu men showing the choti or scalp-lock 272
119. Snake-charmer with cobras 292
120. Transplanting rice 340
121. Group of Pardhāns 352
[x]122. Little girls playing 400
123. Gujarati girls doing figures with strings and sticks 402
124. Ornaments 524
125. Teli’s oil-press 544
126. The Goddess Kāli 574
127. Wāghya mendicants 604
[xi]
[Contents]
Pronunciation
a, has the sound of u in but or murmur.
ā has the sound of a in bath or tar.
e has the sound of é in écarté or ai in maid.
i has the sound of i in bit, or (as a final letter) of y in sulky.
ī has the sound of ee in beet.
o has the sound of o in bore or bowl.
u has the sound of u in put or bull.
ū has the sound of oo in poor or boot
The plural of caste names and a few common Hindustāni words is formed
by adding s in the English manner according to ordinary usage, though this
is not, of course, the Hindustāni plural.
NOTE.—The rupee contains 16 annas, and an anna is of the same value as
a penny. A pice is a quarter of an anna, or a farthing. Rs. 1–8 signifies one
rupee and eight annas. A lakh is a hundred thousand, and a krore ten
million.Part II
Articles on Castes and Tribes
Kumhār—Yemkala
Vol. IV
[3]
[Contents]
Kumhār
List of Paragraphs
1. Traditions of origin
2. Caste sub-divisions
3. Social Customs
4. The Kumhār as a village menial
5. Occupation
6. Breeding pigs for sacrifices
7. The goddess Demeter
8. Estimation of the pig in India
9. The buffalo as a corn-god
10. The Dasahra festival
11. The goddess Devi
1. Traditions of origin
Kumhār, Kumbhār.—The caste of potters, the name being derived from
the Sanskrit kumbh, a water-pot. The Kumhārs numbered nearly 120,000
persons in the Central Provinces in 1911 and were most numerous in the
northern and eastern or Hindustāni-speaking Districts, where earthen
vessels have a greater vogue than in the south. The caste is of course an
ancient one, vessels of earthenware having probably been in use at a very
early period, and the old Hindu scriptures consequently give various
accounts of its origin from mixed marriages between the four classical
castes. “Concerning the traditional parentage of the caste,” Sir H. Risley
1writes, “there seems to be a wide difference of opinion among the
recognised authorities on the subject. Thus the Brahma Vaivārtta Purāna
says that the Kumbhakār or maker of water-jars (kumbka), is born of a
Vaishya woman by a Brāhman father; the Parāsara Samhita makes the
father a Mālākār (gardener) and the mother a Chamār; while the Parāsara
Padhati holds that the ancestor of the caste was begotten of a Tili woman
by a Pattikār or weaver of silk cloth.” Sir Monier Williams again, in his
Sanskrit Dictionary, describes them as the offspring of a Kshatriya woman
[4]by a Brāhman. No importance can of course be attached to such statements
as the above from the point of view of actual fact, but they are interesting
as showing the view taken of the formation of castes by the old Brāhman
writers, and also the position given to the Kumhār at the time when theywrote. This varies from a moderately respectable to a very humble one
according to the different accounts of his lineage. The caste themselves
have a legend of the usual Brāhmanical type: “In the Kritayuga, when
Maheshwar (Siva) intended to marry the daughter of Hemvanta, the Devas
2and Asuras assembled at Kailās (Heaven). Then a question arose as to
who should furnish the vessels required for the ceremony, and one
Kulālaka, a Brāhman, was ordered to make them. Then Kulālaka stood
before the assembly with folded hands, and prayed that materials might be
given to him for making the pots. So Vishnu gave his Sudarsana (discus) to
be used as a wheel, and the mountain of Mandāra was fixed as a pivot
beneath it to hold it up. The scraper was Adi Kūrma the tortoise, and a
rain-cloud was used for the water-tub. So Kulālaka made the pots and gave
them to Maheshwar for his marriage, and ever since his descendants have
been known as Kumbhakār or maker of water-ja