The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India, Volume 3

7. Subcastes

The northern India Kāyasths are divided into the following twelve subcastes, which are mainly of a territorial character:

(a) Srivāstab.

(b) Saksena.

(c) Bhatnāgar.

(d) Ambastha or Amisht.

(e) Ashthāna or Aithāna.

(f) Bālmīk or Vālmīki.

(g) Māthur.

(h) Kulsreshtha.

(i) Sūryadhwaja.

(k) Karan.

(l) Gaur.

(m) Nigum.

(a) The Srivāstab subcaste take their name from the old town of Sravāsti, now Sahet-Mahet, in the north of the United Provinces. They are by far the most numerous subcaste both there and here. In these Provinces nearly all the Kāyasths are Srivāstabs except a few Saksenas. They are divided into two sections, Khare and Dūsre, which correspond to the Bīsa and Dasa groups of the Banias. The Khare are those of pure descent, and the Dūsre the offspring of remarried widows or other irregular alliances.

(b) The Saksena are named from the old town of Sankisa, in the Farukhābād District. They also have the Khare and Dūsre groups, and a third section called Kharua, which is said to mean pure, and is perhaps the most aristocratic. A number of Saksena Kāyasths are resident in Seoni District, where their ancestors were settled by Bakht Buland, the Gond Rāja of Deogarh in Chhīndwāra. These constituted hitherto a separate endogamous group, marrying among themselves, but since the opening of the railway negotiations have been initiated with the Saksenas of northern India, with the result that intermarriage is to be resumed between the two sections.

(c) The Bhatnāgar take their name from the old town of Bhātner, near Bikaner. They are divided into the Vaishya or Kadīm, of pure descent, and the Gaur, who are apparently the offspring of intermarriage with the Gaur subcaste.

(d) Ambastha or Amisht. These are said to have settled on the Girnār hill, and to take their name from their worship of the goddess Ambāji or Amba Devi. Mr. Crooke suggests that they may be connected with the old Ambastha caste who were noted for their skill in medicine. The practice of surgery is the occupation of some Kāyasths.456 It is also supposed that the names may come from the Ameth pargana of Oudh. The Ambastha Kāyasths are chiefly found in south Bihār, where they are numerous and influential.457

(e) Ashthāna or Aithāna. This is an Oudh subcaste. They have two groups, the Pūrabi or eastern, who are found in Jaunpur and its neighbourhood, and the Pachhauri or western, who live in or about Lucknow.

(f) Bālmīk or Vālmīki. These are a subcaste of western India. Bālmīk or Vālmīk was the traditional author of the Rāmāyana, but they do not trace their descent from him. The name may have some territorial meaning. The Vālmīki are divided into three endogamous groups according as they live in Bombay, Cutch or Surat.

(g) The Māthur subcaste are named after Mathura or Muttra. They are also split into the local groups Dihlawi of Delhi, Katchi of Cutch and Lachauli of Jodhpur.

(h) The Kulsreshtha or ‘well-born’ Kāyasths belong chiefly to the districts of Agra and Etah. They are divided into the Bārakhhera, or those of twelve villages, and the Chha Khera of six villages.

(i) The Sūryadhwaja subcaste belong to Ballia, Ghāzi-pur and Bijnor. Their origin is obscure. They profess excessive purity, and call themselves Sakadwīpi or Scythian Brāhmans.

(k) The Karan subcaste belong to Bihār, and have two local divisions, the Gayawāle from Gāya, and the Tirhūtia from Tirhūt.

(l) The Gaur Kāyasths, like the Gaur Brāhmans and Rājpūts, apparently take their name from Gaur or Lakhnauti, the old kingdom of Bengal. They have the Khare and Dūsre subdivisions, and also three local groups named after Bengal, Delhi and Budaun.

(m) The Nigum subcaste, whose name is apparently the same as that of the Nikumbh Rājpūts, are divided into two endogamous groups, the Kadīm or old, and the Unāya, or those coming from Unao. Sometimes the Unāya are considered as a separate thirteenth subcaste of mixed descent.

8. Exogamy

Educated Kāyasths now follow the standard rule of exogamy, which prohibits marriage between persons within five degrees of affinity on the female side and seven on the male. That is, persons having a common grandparent on the female side cannot intermarry, while for those related through males the prohibition extends a generation further back. This is believed to be the meaning of the rule but it is not quite clear. In Damoh the Srivāstab Kāyasths still retain exogamous sections which are all named after places in the United Provinces, as Hamīrpur ki baink (section), Lucknowbar, Kāshi ki Pānde (a wise man of Benāres), Partābpūria, Cawnpore-bar, Sultānpuria and so on. They say that the ancestors of these sections were families who came from the above places in northern India, and settled in Damoh; here they came to be known by the places from which they had immigrated, and so founded new exogamous sections. A man cannot marry in his own section, or that of his mother or grandmother. In the Central Provinces a man may marry two sisters, but in northern India this is prohibited.

9. Marriage customs

Marriage may be infant or adult, and, as in many places husbands are difficult to find, girls occasionally remain unmarried till nearly twenty, and may also be mated to boys younger than themselves. In northern India a substantial bridegroom-price is paid, which increases for a well-educated boy, but this custom is not so well established in the Central Provinces. However, in Damoh it is said that a sum of Rs. 200 is paid to the bridegroom’s family. The marriage ceremony is performed according to the proper ritual for the highest or Brahma form of marriage recognised by Manu with Vedic texts. When the bridegroom arrives at the bride’s house he is given sherbet to drink. It is said that he then stands on a pestle, and the bride’s mother throws wheat-flour balls to the four points of the compass, and shows the bridegroom a miniature plough, a grinding pestle, a churning-staff and an arrow, and pulls his nose. The bridegroom’s struggles to prevent his mother-in-law pulling his nose are the cause of much merriment, while the two parties afterwards have a fight for the footstool on which he stands.458 An image of a cow in flour is then brought, and the bridegroom pierces its nostrils with a little stick of gold. Kāyasths do not pierce the nostrils of bullocks themselves, but these rites perhaps recall their dependence on agriculture in their capacity of village accountants.

After the wedding the bridegroom’s father takes various kinds of fruit, as almonds, dates and raisins, and fills the bride’s lap with them four times, finally adding a cocoanut and a rupee. This is a ceremony to induce fertility, and the cocoanut perhaps represents a child.

10. Marriage songs

The following are some specimens of songs sung at weddings. The first is about Rāma’s departure from Ajodhia when he went to the forests:

Now Hari (Rāma) has driven his chariot forth to the jungle.His father and mother are weeping.Kaushilya459 stood up and said, ‘Now, whom shall I call my diamond and my ruby?’Dasrath went to the tower of his palace to see his son;As Rāma’s chariot set forth under the shade of the trees, he wished that he might die.Bharat ran after his brother with naked feet.He said, ‘Oh brother, you are going to the forest, to whom do you give the kingdom of Oudh?’Rāma said, ‘When fourteen years have passed away I shall come back from the jungles. Till then I give the kingdom to you.’

The following is a love dialogue:

Make a beautiful garden for me to see my king.In that garden what flowers shall I set?Lemons, oranges, pomegranates, figs.In that garden what music shall there be?A tambourine, a fiddle, a guitar and a dancing girl.In that garden what attendants shall there be?A writer, a supervisor, a secretary for writing letters.460

The next is a love-song by a woman:

How has your countenance changed, my lord?Why speak you not to your slave?If I were a deer in the forest and you a famous warrior, would you not shoot me with your gun?If I were a fish in the water and you the son of a fisherman, would you not catch me with your drag-net?If I were a cuckoo in the garden and you the gardener’s son, would you not trap me with your liming-stick?

The last is a dialogue between Rādha and Krishna. Rādha with her maidens was bathing in the river when Krishna stole all their clothes and climbed up a tree with them. Girdhāri is a name of Krishna:

R. You and I cannot be friends, Girdhāri; I am wearing a silk-embroidered cloth and you a black blanket.You are the son of old Nānd, the shepherd, and I am a princess of Mathura.You have taken my clothes and climbed up a kadamb tree. I am naked in the river.K. I will not give you your clothes till you come out of the water.R. If I come out of the water the people will laugh and clap at me.All my companions seeing your beauty say, ‘You have vanquished us; we are overcome.’

11. Social rules

Polygamy is permitted but is seldom resorted to, except for the sake of offspring. Neither widow-marriage nor divorce are recognised, and either a girl or married woman is expelled from the caste if detected in a liaison. A man may keep a woman of another caste if he does not eat from her hand nor permit her to eat in the chauk or purified place where he and his family take their meals. The practice of keeping women was formerly common but has now been largely suppressed. Women of all castes were kept except Brāhmans and Kāyasths. Illegitimate children were known as Dogle or Surāit and called Kāyasths, ranking as an inferior group of the caste. And it is not unlikely that in the past the descendants of such irregular unions have been admitted to the Dūsre or lower branch of the different subcastes.

12. Birth customs

During the seventh month of a woman’s pregnancy a dinner is given to the caste-fellows and songs are sung. After this occasion the woman must not go outside her own village, nor can she go to draw water from a well or to bathe in a tank. She can only go into the street or to another house in her own village.

On the sixth day after a birth a dinner is given to the caste and songs are sung. The women bring small silver coins or rupees and place them in the mother’s lap. The occasion of the first appearance of the signs of maturity in a girl is not observed at all if she is in her father’s house. But if she has gone to her father-in-law’s house, she is dressed in new clothes, her hair after being washed is tied up, and she is seated in the chauk or purified space, while the women come and sing songs.

13. Religion

The Kāyasths venerate the ordinary Hindu deities. They worship Chitragupta, their divine ancestor, at weddings and at the Holi and Diwāli festivals. Twice a year they venerate the pen and ink, the implements of their profession, to which they owe their great success. The patwāris in Hoshangābād formerly received small fees, known as diwāt pūja, from the cultivators for worshipping the ink-bottle on their behalf, presumably owing to the idea that, if neglected, it might make a malicious mistake in the record of their rights.

14. Social customs

The dead are burnt, and the proper offerings are made on the anniversaries, according to the prescribed Hindu ritual. Kāyasth names usually end in Prasād, Singh, Baksh, Sewak, and Lāla in the Central Provinces. Lāla, which is a term of endearment, is often employed as a synonym for the caste. Dāda or uncle is a respectful term of address for Kāyasths. Two names are usually given to a boy, one for ceremonial and the other for ordinary use.

The Kāyasths will take food cooked with water from Brāhmans, and that cooked without water (pakki) from Rājpūts and Banias. Some Hindustāni Brāhmans, as well as Khatris and certain classes of Banias, will take pakki food from Kāyasths. Kāyasths of different subcastes will sometimes also take it from each other. They will give the huqqa with the reed in to members of their own subcaste, and without the reed to any Kāyasth. The caste eat the flesh of goats, sheep, fish, and birds. They were formerly somewhat notorious for drinking freely, but a great reform has been effected in this respect by the community itself through the agency of their caste conference, and many are now total abstainers.

15. Occupation

The occupations of the Kāyasths have been treated in discussing the origin of the caste. They set the greatest store by their profession of writing and say that the son of a Kāyasth should be either literate or dead. The following is the definition of a Lekhak or writer, a term said to be used for the Kāyasths in Purānic literature:

“In all courts of justice he who is acquainted with the languages of all countries and conversant with all the Shāstras, who can arrange his letters in writing in even and parallel lines, who is possessed of presence of mind, who knows the art of how and what to speak in order to carry out an object in view, who is well versed in all the Shāstras, who can express much thought in short and pithy sentences, who is apt to understand the mind of one when one begins to speak, who knows the different divisions of countries and of time,461 who is not a slave to his passions, and who is faithful to the king deserves the name and rank of a Lekhak or writer.”462

Kewat

1. General notice

Kewat, Khewat, Kaibartta.463—A caste of fishermen, boatmen, grain-parchers, and cultivators, chiefly found in the Chhattīsgarh Districts of Drūg, Raipur, and Bilāspur. They numbered 170,000 persons in 1911. The Kewats or Kaibarttas, as they are called in Bengal, are the modern representatives of the Kaivartas, a caste mentioned in Hindu classical literature. Sir H. Risley explains the origin of the name as follows:464 “Concerning the origin of the name Kaibartta there has been considerable difference of opinion. Some derive it from ka, water, and vartta, livelihood; but Lassen says that the use of ka in this sense is extremely unusual in early Sanskrit, and that the true derivation is Kivarta, a corruption of Kimvarta, meaning a person following a low or degrading occupation. This, he adds, would be in keeping with the pedigree assigned to the caste in Manu, where the Kaivarta, also known as Mārgava or Dāsa, is said to have been begotten by a Nishāda father and an Ayogavi mother, and to subsist by his labour in boats. On the other hand, the Brāhma-Vaivarta Purāna gives the Kaibartta a Kshatriya father and a Vaishya mother, a far more distinguished parentage; for the Ayogavi having been born from a Sūdra father and a Vaishya mother is classed as pratiloma, begotten against the hair, or in the inverse order of the precedence of the castes.” The Kewats are a mixed caste. Mr. Crooke says that they merge on one side into the Mallāhs and on the other into the Binds. In the Central Provinces their two principal subdivisions are the Laria and Uriya, or the residents of the Chhattīsgarh and Sambalpur plains respectively. The Larias are further split up into the Larias proper, the Kosbonwas, who grow kosa or tasar silk cocoons, and the Binjhwārs and Dhuris (grain-parchers). The Binjhwārs are a Hinduised group of the Baiga tribe, and in Bhandāra they have become a separate Hindu caste, dropping the first letter of the name, and being known as Injhwār. The Binjhwār Kewats are a group of the same nature. The Dhuris are grain-parchers, and there is a separate Dhuri caste; but as grain-parching is also a traditional occupation of the Kewats, the Dhuris may be an offshoot from them. The Kewats are so closely connected with the Dhīmars that it is difficult to make any distinction; in Chhattīsgarh it is said that the Dhīmars will not act as ferrymen, while the Kewats will not grow or sell singāra or water-nut. The Dhīmars worship their fishing-nets on the Akti day, which the Kewats will not do. Both the Kewats and Dhīmars are almost certainly derived from the primitive tribes. The Kewats say that formerly the Hindus would not take water from them; but on one occasion during his exile Rāma came to them and asked them to ferry him across a river; before doing so they washed his feet and drank the water, and since that time the Hindus have considered them pure and take water from their hands. This story has no doubt been invented to explain the fact that Brāhmans will take water from the non-Aryan Kewats, the custom having in reality been adopted as a convenience on account of their employment as palanquin-bearers and indoor servants. But in Saugor, where they are not employed as servants, and also grow san-hemp, their position is distinctly lower and no high caste will take water from them.

2. Exogamous divisions and marriage

The caste have also a number of exogamous groups, generally named after plants or animals, or bearing some nickname given to the reputed founder. Instances of the first class are Tūma, a gourd, Karsāyal, a deer, Bhalwa, a bear, Ghughu, an owl, and so on. Members of such a sept abstain from injuring the animal after which the sept is named or eating its flesh; those of the Tūma sept worship a gourd with offerings of milk and a cocoanut at the Holi festival. Instances of titular names are Garhtod, one who destroyed a fort, Jhagarha quarrelsome, Dehri priest, Kāla black, and so on. One sept is named Rāwat, its founder having probably belonged to the grazier caste. Members of this sept must not visit the temple of Mahādeo at Rājim during the annual fair, but give no explanation of the prohibition. Others are the Ahira, also from the Ahīr (herdsman) caste; the Rautele, which is the name of a subdivision of Kols and other tribes; and the Sonwāni or ‘gold water’ sept, which is often found among the primitive tribes. In some localities these three have now developed into separate subcastes, marrying among themselves; and if any of their members become Kabīrpanthis, the others refuse to eat and intermarry with them. The marriage of members of the same sept is prohibited, and also the union of first cousins. Girls are generally married under ten years of age, but if a suitable husband cannot be found for a daughter, the parents will make her over to any member of the caste who offers himself on condition that he bears the expenses of the marriage. In Sambalpur she is married to a flower. Sir H. Risley notes465 the curious fact that in Bihār it is deemed less material that the bridegroom should be older than the bride than that he should be taller. “This point is of the first importance, and is ascertained by actual measurement. If the boy shorter than the girl, or if his height is exactly the same as hers, it is believed that the union of the two would bring ill-luck, and the match is at once broken off.” The marriage is celebrated in the customary manner by walking round the sacred pole, after which the bridegroom marks the forehead of the bride seven times with vermilion, parts her hair with a comb, and then draws her cloth over her head. The last act signifies that the bride has become a married woman, as a girl never covers her head. In Bengal466 a drop of blood is drawn from the fingers of the bride and bridegroom and mixed with rice, and each eats the rice containing the blood of the other. The anointing with vermilion is probably a substitute for this. Widow-remarriage and divorce are permitted. In Sambalpur a girl who is left a widow under ten years of age is remarried with full rites as a virgin.

3. Social customs

The Kewats worship the ordinary Hindu deities and believe that a special goddess, Chaurāsi Devi, dwells in their boats and keeps them from sinking. She is propitiated at the beginning of the rains and in times of flood, and an image of her is painted on their boats. They bury the dead, laying the corpse with the feet to the south, while some clothes, cotton, til and salt are placed in the grave, apparently as a provision for the dead man’s soul. They worship their ancestors at intervals on a Monday or a Saturday with an offering of a fowl. As is usual in Chhattīsgarh, their rules as to food are very lax, and they will eat both fowls and pork. Nevertheless Brāhmans will take water at their hands and eat the rice and gram which they have parched. The caste consider fishing to have been their original occupation, and tell a story to the effect that their ancestors saved the deity in their boat on the occasion of the Deluge, and in return were given the power of catching three or four times as many fish as ordinary persons in the same space of time. Some of them parch gram and rice, and others act as coolies and banghy-bearers.467 Kewats are usually in poor circumstances, but they boast that the town of Bilāspur is named after Bilāsa Keotin, a woman of their caste. She was married, but was sought after by the king of the country, so she held out her cloth to the sun, calling on him to set it on fire, and was burnt alive, preserving her virtue. Her husband burnt himself with her, and the pair ascended to heaven.

Khairwār

[Authorities: Colonel Dalton’s Ethnology of Bengal; Sir H. Risley’s Tribes and Castes of Bengal; Mr. Crooke’s Tribes and Castes of the N.-W.P. and Oudh.]

1. Historical notice of the tribe

Khairwār, Kharwār, Khaira, Khairwa.468—A primitive tribe of the Chota Nāgpur plateau and Bihār. Nearly 20,000 Khairwārs are now under the jurisdiction of the Central Provinces, of whom two-thirds belong to the recently acquired Sargūja State, and the remainder to the adjoining States and the Bilāspur District. A few hundred Khairwārs or Khairwas are also returned from the Damoh District in the Bundelkhand country. Colonel Dalton considers the Khairwārs to be closely connected with the Cheros. He relates that the Cheros, once dominant in Gorakhpur and Shāhābād, were expelled from these tracts many centuries ago by the Gorkhas and other tribes, and came into Palāmau. “It is said that the Palāmau population then consisted of Kharwārs, Gonds, Mārs, Korwas, Parheyas and Kisāns. Of these the Kharwārs were the people of most consideration. The Cheros conciliated them and allowed them to remain in peaceful possession of the hill tracts bordering on Sargūja; all the Cheros of note who assisted in the expedition obtained military service grants of land, which they still retain. It is popularly asserted that at the commencement of the Chero rule in Palāmau they numbered twelve thousand families and the Kharwārs eighteen thousand, and if an individual of one or the other is asked to what tribe he belongs, he will say not that he is a Chero or a Kharwār, but that he belongs to the twelve thousand or the eighteen thousand, as the case may be. Intermarriages between Chero and Kharwār families have taken place. A relative of the Palāmau Rāja married a sister of Manināth Singh, Rāja of Rāmgarh, and this is among themselves an admission of identity of origin, as both claiming to be Rājpūts they could not intermarry till it was proved to the satisfaction of the family priest that the parties belonged to the same class.... The Rājas of Rāmgarh and Jashpur are members of this tribe, who have nearly succeeded in obliterating their Turanian traits by successive intermarriages with Aryan families. The Jashpur Rāja is wedded to a lady of pure Rājpūt blood, and by liberal dowries has succeeded in obtaining a similar union for three of his daughters. It is a costly ambition, but there is no doubt that the liberal infusion of fresh blood greatly improves the Kharwār physique.”469 This passage demonstrates the existence of a close connection between the Cheros and Khairwārs. Elsewhere Colonel Dalton connects the Santāls with the Khairwārs as follows:470 “A wild goose coming from the great ocean alighted at Ahiri Pipri and there laid two eggs. From these two eggs a male and female were produced, who were the parents of the Santāl race. From Ahiri Pipri our (Santāl) ancestors migrated to Hara Dutti, and there they greatly increased and multiplied and were called Kharwār.” This also affords some reason for supposing that the Khairwārs are an offshoot of the Cheros and Santāls. Mr. Crooke remarks, “That in Mīrzāpur the people themselves derive their name either from their occupation as makers of catechu (khair) or on account of their emigration from some place called Khairāgarh, regarding which there is a great difference of opinion. If the Santāl tradition is to be accepted, Khairāgarh is the place of that name in the Hazāribāgh District; but the Mīrzāpur tradition seems to point to some locality in the south or west, in which case Khairāgarh may be identified with the most important of the Chhattīsgarh Feudatory States, or with the pargana of that name in the Allahābād District.”471 According to their own traditions in Chota Nāgpur, Sir H. Risley states that,472 “The Kharwārs declare their original seat to have been the fort of Rohtās, so called as having been the chosen abode of Rohitāswa, son of Harīschandra, of the family of the Sun. From this ancient house they also claim descent, calling themselves Sūrajvansis, and wearing the Janeo or caste thread distinguishing the Rājpūts. A less flattering tradition makes them out to be the offspring of a marriage between a Kshatriya man and a Bhar woman contracted in the days of King Ben, when distinctions of caste were abolished and men might marry whom they would.” A somewhat similar story of themselves is told by the tribe in the Bāmra State. Here they say that their original ancestors were the Sun and a daughter of Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, who lived in the town of Sara. She was very beautiful and the Sun desired her, and began blowing into a conch-shell to express his passion. While the girl was gaping at the sight and sound, a drop of the spittle fell into her mouth and impregnated her. Subsequently a son was born from her arm and a daughter from her thigh, who were known as Bhujbalrai and Janghrai.473 Bhujbalrai was given great strength by the Sun, and he fought with the people of the country, and became king of Rāthgarh. But in consequence of this he and his family grew proud, and Lakshmi determined to test them whether they were worthy of the riches she had given them. So she came in the guise of a beggar to the door, but was driven away without alms. On this she cursed them, and said that their descendants, the Khairwārs, should always be poor, and should eke out a scanty subsistence from the forests. And in consequence the Khairwārs have ever since been engaged in boiling wood for catechu. Mr. Hīra Lāl identifies the Rāthgarh of this story with the tract of Rāth in the north of the Raigarh State and the town of Sara, where Lakshmi’s daughter lived and her children were born, with Saria in Sārangarh.