The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India, Volume 1

Reddi.—A synonym for the Kāpewār or Kāpu caste; a subcaste of Kāpewār and Gandli.

Redka.—A small labouring caste of Sambalpur. They are apparently the result of intermarriages between some members of the Reddi or Kāpu cultivating caste of Telingāna, who came to Sambalpur during the Orissa famine of 1866, with low-class Uriya women. They still speak Telugu among themselves, using Uriya to outsiders. Only one curious feature of the marriage ceremony of the Redkas need be noticed here. This is that the officiating Brāhman actually places a red-hot copper seal on the arms of the bride and bridegroom as a symbol of sealing the marriage bond. In other respects their customs resemble those of low-caste Uriyas.

Rekwār.—Subcaste of Dhīmar.

Rig-Vedi.—Sectarian division of Brāhmans.

Rikhiāsan Mahatwār.—Subcaste of Bhuiya.

Ritha Bīknath.—One who prepares and sells soap-nuts for washing clothes. Subcaste of Jogi.

Rohidāsi.—Honorific term for a Chamār. It signifies a follower of the sect of Rohidās in Northern India. The Chamārs often describe themselves by this name instead of their caste name.

Rohilla.—A Pathan tribe who have settled in Rohilkhand or the Bareilly tract of the United Provinces. They derive their name from Roh, the designation given to the country where the Pushto language is spoken by residents of Hindustān. The word Roh, like Koh, means a mountain, and Rohilla therefore signifies a highlander.484 The Rohilla Pathāns occupied Rohilkhand in the eighteenth century. Their name first attracted attention when Warren Hastings was charged with hiring out British troops for their suppression. The Rohillas say that they are of Coptic origin, and that driven out of Egypt by one of the Pharaohs they wandered westward till they arrived under that part of the mountains of Afghānistān known as Sulaimani Koh.485 Parties of Rohillas visit the Central Provinces bringing woollen cloths and dried fruits for sale. Here they formerly bore a bad character, being accustomed to press the sale of their merchandise on the villagers on credit at exorbitant interest; and when the time for realisation came, to extort their money by threats of violence, or actual assault, or, if this was not practicable, by defiling the graves of their debtors’ ancestors. These practices have now, however, been largely suppressed.

Romya or Haralya.—Subcaste of Chamār.

Ror.—Subcaste of Khatri.

Rora.—Synonym of Arora.

Rūma.—A resident of Bāsim and Gāngra in Amraoti District. Subcaste of Korku.

Ruthia.—A name formed from the noise rut, rut made by the oil-mill in turning. Subcaste of Teli.

Sabara.—Synonym for the Savar tribe. A section of Kawar and Teli.

Sabat.—(From saot, co-wife.) An honorific title of Uriya Brāhmans.

Sadāphal.—(A fruit.) A section of Chandnāhu Kurmi and Sonkar.

Sada-Sohāgal.—A class of Fakīrs or Muhammadan beggars.

Sādhu.—(A religious mendicant.) Synonym for Bairāgis or Gosains.

Sāgar.—Name of one of the ten orders of Gosains.

Sāgunsāle.—A group of illegitimate descent. Subcaste of Koshti.

Sāhadeve.—A clan of Gonds worshipping six gods and paying special reverence to the tiger.

Sahāni.—(From siāhi, ink.) An honorific title of Karan or Mahanti. A subcaste of Pāik.

Sahara.—Synonym for the Savar tribe.

Sahasra Audichya.—(A thousand men of the north.) A subdivision of Gujarāti Brāhmans who are said to have accepted presents from Rāja Mulrāj of Anhalwāra Pātan at a sacrifice, and hence to have suffered some degradation in rank. Audichya probably signifies coming from Oudh.

Sahra.—Synonym of Savar.

Sāhu.—(A trader.) An honorific title of Bania. A synonym for Sunār in Sambalpur. A subdivision of Uriya Brāhmans. A section of Khadra, Kolta, Sundi and Teli.

Sahukār.—Title of Bania. See Sāhu.

Sain.—Synonym for Fakīr.

Saiqalgār.—From Arabic saiqal, a polisher. Synonym for Siklīgar.

Sais.—The title by which grooms or horse-keepers are usually known. The word Sais, Colonel Temple states,486 is Arabic and signifies a nobleman; it is applied to grooms as an honorific title, in accordance with the common method of address among the lower castes. Other honorific designations for grooms, as given by Colonel Temple, are Bhagat or ‘Saint,’ and Panch, ‘Arbitrator,’ but neither of these is generally used in the Central Provinces. Another name for Saises is Thanwār, which means a person in charge of a stable or place where a horse is kept. Grooms from Northern India are usually of the Jaiswāra division of Chamārs, who take their name from the old town of Jais in Oudh; but they drop the Chamār and give Jaiswāra as their caste. These men are thin and wiry and can run behind their horses for long distances. The grooms indigenous to the Central Provinces are as a rule promoted grass-cutters and are either of the Ghasia (grass-cutter) or the Kori and Mahār (weaver) castes. They cannot usually run at all well. It is believed that both the Jaiswāras and Mahārs who work as grooms have taken to marrying among themselves and tend to form separate endogamous groups, because they consider themselves superior to the remainder of the caste. A Sais will frequently refuse to tie up a dog with a rope or lead him with one because he uses a rope for leading his horses. This taboo is noticed by Sir B. Fuller as follows: “Horses in India are led not by the bridle but by a thick cotton leading-rope which is passed over the headstall, and such a rope is carried by every Indian groom. I asked my groom one day to tie up with his leading rope a dog that would not follow. He absolutely refused, and I discovered that the rope was the fetish of his caste and was formerly adored and propitiated in the course of an annual caste festival. To touch a dog with it would have been sacrilege.”487

Saitwāl.—A subcaste of Jain Banias.

Saiyad.—One of the four Muhammadan tribes, which is supposed to comprise the descendants of the Prophet.

Sakadwīpi.—A tribe of Brāhmans taking their name from Sakadwīpa, the country of the Sakas. The Sakas were a Central Asian tribe who invaded India before the commencement of the Christian era, and Sakadwīpa is said to be the valley of the Kābul river.

Sakarwāl, Sikarwār.—A clan of Rājpūts whose name is said to be derived from Fatehpur Sīkri.

Saksena.—A subcaste of Kāyasth, also called Sukhsena. A subcaste of Bharbhūnja and Kāchhi.

Saktāha.—A synonym for Shākta, a worshipper of Devi in Chhattīsgarh. Saktāha practically means a person who eats flesh, as opposed to a Kabīrpanthi who abstains from it. A subcaste of Panka, who are not Kabīrpanthis.

Sakum.—A sept of Korku. (One who hides behind a teak tree.)

Salam.—(Worshipper of six gods.) A clan of Gond. A section of Dewār.

Sālewār.—A name for Telugu Koshtis. A subcaste of Koshti.

Samaiya.—A sect of Jains.

San.—A subcaste of Bhatra.

Sanādhya.—A subcaste of Brāhmans belonging to the Gaur division.

Sanak-kul.—A section of Komti. They do not use jaiphal or nutmeg.

Sanaurhia.—Subcaste of Brāhman. Synonym for Sanādhya.

Sanbāgh.—(A little tiger.) A section of Bhulia.

Sānd.—(The bull.) A totemistic sept of Kawar. They do not use bullocks for ploughing, or are supposed not to. A section of Khangār. They do not give a present of a bull at weddings. A section of Māli.

Sania.—(A grower of san-hemp.) Subcaste of Kāchhi.

Saniāsi.—Name for a religious mendicant. Synonym for Gosain.

Sanjogi.—A class of Bairāgis or mendicants who marry, also called Grihastha.

Sankrita.—An eponymous section of Kanaujia Brāhmans.

Sānp.—(Snake.) A sept of Gond and Kawar.

Santāl, Saonta, Sonthāl.—An important tribe of Bengal, belonging to the Munda family. The transfer of five of the Chota Nāgpur States has brought more than 10,000 Santāls into the Central Provinces. They belong principally to the Sargūja State and a few are returned from Udaipur State and from the Bilāspur District, but in all those tracts they are known as Saonta and appear to have been cut off from the main tribe for a considerable period. According to Mr. Skrefsrud the name Santāl is a corruption of Saontār and was given to the tribe by the Bengalis because they lived in the country about Saont in Midnāpur. Sir H. Risley held that the tribe might equally well have given its name to the locality, and there was no means of ascertaining which theory was correct. The forms Santāl and Sonthāl are only used by natives who have come into contact with Europeans. Santāls call themselves ‘hārko,’ men, or ‘hārhāpān,’ man-child.488 At the present day when a Santāl is asked to what caste he belongs he will almost invariably reply Mānjhi, which means a village headman, and is the common title of the tribe; if further explanation is demanded, he will add Santāl Mānjhi. Whether the term Santāl was derived from the Saont pargana or not, it is therefore at any rate a name conferred by the Hindus and affords no evidence in favour of a separate origin of the tribe.

There seems good reason to hold that the Santāls are only a branch of the Kols or Mundas, who have been given a distinct designation by their Hindu neighbours, while their customs and traditions have been modified either by long separation from the Mundas of Chota Nāgpur or by contact with Hindu influences. Sir G. Grierson’s account of the two dialects Santāli and Mundāri shows that they closely resemble each other and differ only in minor particulars. The difference is mainly to be found in the vocabulary borrowed from Aryan neighbours, and in the grammatical modifications occasioned by the neighbouring Aryan forms of speech.489 Of Mundāri he says: “Aspirated letters are used as in Santāli, the semi-consonants are apparently pronounced in the same way as in Santāli; genders and numbers are the same, the personal pronouns are the same, the inflexion of verbs is mainly the same.”490 Some points of difference are mentioned by Sir G. Grierson, but they appear to be of minor importance. The Mundas, like the Santāls, call themselves hārā-ko or men. In the vocabulary of common words of Mundāri and Santāli given by Colonel Dalton491 a large proportion of the words are the same. Similarly in the list of sept-names of the tribes given by Sir H. Risley492 several coincide. Among the 15 names of main septs of the Santāls, Besra, a hawk, Murmu nilgai, or stag, and Aind, eel, are also the names of Munda septs. The Santāl sept Hansda, a wild goose, is nearly identical with the Munda sept Hansa, a swan; the Santāl septs Kisku and Tudu are sept-names of the Hos, a branch of the Mundas; and in one or two other names there is a great resemblance. The principal deity of the Santāls, Marang Buru, is a Munda god. In the inheritance of property both tribes have the same rule of the exclusion of daughters. In his article on Ho, Sir H. Risley indeed states that the Santāls, Hos and Mundas are local branches of the same tribe.

The Saontas of Sargūja and Bilāspur appear to have been separated from the parent tribe for some generations and to have assimilated some of the customs of the Gonds. They have some Gond sept-names, as Markām and Dhurwa. Those of Pendra zamīndāri have no traditions of their origin beyond saying that the adjoining Kenda zamīndāri was their original home. They profess to revere only the sun, fire and water. In order to worship the Jal-deota or water-god they pour water round the fire and then throw a little butter on the fire in his name. Mr. C.U. Wills, Settlement Officer, records of them the following curious custom: When a man is at the point of death or actually dead, they sometimes set fire to the hut in which his body is lying and run away, no doubt to save themselves from being haunted and troubled by his spirit, to the attainment of which end so large a part of funeral ritual is everywhere directed.

The following short account of them by Colonel Dalton may be reproduced for reference:493

“The name Saont or Saonta directs us to the Santāl branch of the Kols, and, as I have already noticed, there is in Sargūja a small tribe so called. They are the sole inhabitants of the magnificent tableland forming the southern barrier of Sargūja, called the Mainpāt or more correctly perhaps the Manipāt. They are a small tribe living scattered over the vast area of the plateau in about a dozen hamlets, and they are strong in the belief that they were especially created to dwell there, or that they and the plateau somehow sprang into existence together, and cannot be separated. I saw a number of them when I was last in Sargūja, and from their features I should be inclined to class them as Kols, but they have some customs and notions which they must have derived from the Dravidian Gonds. They acknowledge Dūlha Deo as a household god, and follow the customs of the Gonds and other southerners in their marriage ceremonies.

“They worship the sun as Bhāgwan, and like the Kharias offer sacrifices to that luminary in an open place with an ant-hill for an altar. The Mainpāt is their Mārang Buru, and as it is 16 miles long, 12 miles broad, and rises 3850 feet above the sea-level, it is not unworthy of the name, but they do not use that or any other Kol term. The great Mainpāt is their fatherland and their god. They have it all to themselves except during the summer months, when it becomes a vast grazing field for the cattle of Mīrzapur and Bihār.

“The Saonts are armed like the Korwas with bows and arrows, and the peculiar battle-axe of the country, but it is against the beasts of the forest that these weapons are used. Formerly the Mainpāt was a magnificent hunting field, especially noted for its herds of antelope and gaur. The late Mahārāja of Sargūja strictly preserved it, but on his death it fell into the hands of his widow, a very money-loving old lady, who allowed it to become one of the great grazing tracts, and the pasturage alone gives her an income of £250 a year; but the wild animals have in consequence withdrawn from it.

“The position of the Saonts is altogether very curious, and though they now speak no language but a rude Hindi, the evidence is, on the whole, favourable to their being a remnant of the ancient Kol aborigines of Sargūja, cut off from connection with those people by successive inroads of other races or tribes. Their substitution of a Hindi dialect for their own language seems to indicate that they were first subjugated by Aryans. The Gond chiefs only count about twenty-four generations in Sargūja, and they have all adopted the Hindi language.”

Dāsari religious mendicant with discus and conch-shell of Vishnu

Sanyāsi.—(A religious recluse.) Synonym for Gosain.

Sao.—(For sāhu, a banker, a rich man.) A subcaste of Kalār and Teli. An honorific title of Chhīpa or Rangāri. A sept of Gond.

Saojin.—(From sao, a banker.) Subcaste of Banjāra.

Saonr.—Synonym of Savar.

Saonta.—Name by which the Santāl tribe is known in Bilāspur. A subcaste of Dhanwār.

Sapera.—(A snake-charmer.) Name of a clan of Nats, who exhibit snakes. A section of Basor and Khatik.

Sarāf.—(A money-changer and tester.) A synonym of Sunār.

Saraia (Angler.) From sarai, a bamboo fishing-rod. Subcaste of Dhimār.

Sarangarhia.—(From Sārangarh.) A subtribe of Gonds in Khairagarh. A subcaste of Dewār.

Saraogi.—A name by which Jain laymen are known. Subcaste of Bania.

Sāras.—(A large crane.) A section of Chamār.

Sāraswat.—One of the five orders of Pānch Gaur Brāhmans inhabiting the country of the river Sāraswati. One of the ten orders of Gosains.

Sarati.—A sept of Gond and Pardhān.

Sariyām.—A subsept of the Dhurwa clan of Gonds in Betūl, said to be so called because the road to the place of the gods was swept by their priests.

Sarolia or Sarwaria.—(Inferior or mixed.) Subcaste of Agharia.

Saroti.—A sept of Pardhāns said to be named after sarra, a whip, because their priest once struck a man with a whip.

Sarsatia.—(From the Sāraswati river.) Subcaste of Bahna.

Satani.494—A Telugu caste of priests and mendicants of which 900 persons were returned, principally from the Chānda District, in 1911. In the Central Provinces, Ayāwar, Sātani and Dāsari have been taken as one caste, but elsewhere they are considered as distinct. Ayāwar is a term of respect analogous to the Hindustāni Mahārāj, and is applied to the Sātanis and other religious orders. The Sātanis and Dāsaris are distinguished in Madras; Sātani is stated495 to be a corruption of Sāttādavan, which means ‘One who does not wear’ (e.g. the sacred thread and scalp-lock). It is a mixed religious order recruited from any caste except the Pariahs, leather-workers and Muhammadans. The Dāsaris496 are said to be the reputed descendants of a wealthy Sūdra of one of the northern Districts, who, being childless, vowed that if offspring should be granted to him he would devote a son to the service of the god. After this he had several children, one of whom he consecrated to the deity, calling him Dāsan (the obedient servant). Dāsan and his offspring made their livelihood by begging. This order, like that of the Sātanis, is reinforced by idle members of the lower Sūdra castes, who become Dāsaris by being branded by the Guru of Tirupatti and other shrines. In the Central Provinces the Dāsaris are stated to be recruited from the impure Māla caste of the Telugu country, and hence to rank below the Sātanis. Many of the Madrāsi servants in European households call themselves Dāsaris. Members of the agricultural castes are usually admitted into the Sātani order and its status is almost equal to theirs. The caste, in spite of its small numbers, has several subdivisions, as the Sāle Sātanis, who are weavers, the Bukkas, who are sellers of kunku or red powder, and five other subdivisions who are all beggars. Some of these eat together but do not intermarry. They have exogamous family groups, usually named after sacred places in Madras or celebrated Gurus (spiritual preceptors) or deities, as Tirupatti, Rāmanujamwār, Shāligrāmwār and so on. The caste marry in the ordinary way and do not observe celibacy. Widow-marriage is allowed, but a widow must marry a widower, and the officiating priest at the ceremony must also be a widower. The Sātanis principally revere Vishnu, whom they worship on Fridays. Their priests are taken from their own order and form a separate subcaste under the name of Parmastwār. A novice, on being initiated to the order, is branded with the figures of a Sankha (conch-shell) and Chakra (discus). They both burn and bury the dead, and the spirits of female as well as of male ancestors are propitiated. This is done by calling a married woman by the name of the dead female, putting red powder on her forehead and worshipping her. Among the Sātanis a widow accompanies the corpse of her husband to the grave. They officiate at funerals, and a Sātani priest applies the caste-mark to the body of the corpse and also to that of the four persons who are to carry it. He receives presents in the name of the dead man, and takes the red cloth with which the corpse is covered. At the funeral feast the Sātani offers cooked food, including flesh and also liquor, to the god, and the assembled guests then partake of them. The Sātani drinks liquor only and does not eat the food, and since he must stay to the end of the feast he sometimes becomes intoxicated. The Sātanis are priests and mendicants. Though they do not wear the sacred thread themselves, the manufacture of it is one of their hereditary occupations. They collect alms in a lota or brass vessel, on which representations of the conch and discus are drawn. The Dāsaris wander about, singing hymns to a monotonous accompaniment upon a leather instrument called tappai (perhaps a tabor). They are engaged by some Sūdra castes to sing their chants in front of the corpse at funerals. Others exhibit what is called the Panda sewai, that is, they become possessed by the deity and beat themselves over the body with a flaming torch. A few train young bulls to perform tricks and travel about exhibiting them. Some have become masons and goldsmiths. Men have the mark of the trident on the forehead, the two outer lines being white and the middle one red or yellow. They shave the head and face clean, not retaining the scalp-lock. Women have a vertical streak on the forehead and do not wear glass bangles nor the necklace of black beads. Neither men nor women are tattooed. The Sātanis have a fairly good social position and the lower castes will take food from them.

Satbhuiyān or Utār.—Subcaste of Khond.

Satdeve.—A clan of Gonds worshipping seven gods and paying special reverence to the porcupine.

Satghare.—(Seven houses.) A division of the Marātha caste, consisting of seven of the highest clans who marry among themselves and sometimes take daughters from the other ninety-six clans.

Satnāmi.—A religious sect, which now practically forms a subcaste of Chamār.

Satputia.—(Having seven sons.) A section of Lonare Māli.

Satyanāth. A subcaste of Jogi or Nāth.

Savar, Savara.—A tribe.

Sawalākh.—(1¼ lakhs.) A section of Dhobi.

Sawara.—Synonym for Savar. Subcaste of Kol.

Segidi,497 Shegadi.—The Telugu caste of toddy-drawers and distillers, of which a few representatives were returned from the Nāgpur District in 1901. They will draw tāri or palm-juice only from the sindi palm (Phoenix sylvestris) and not from the palmyra palm (Borassics flabelliformis). This is the occupation of a separate caste, the Yātas, from whom the Segidis will not even take water. At a Segidi marriage the bride is shown the polar star, which is believed to be the wife of Rishi Vasishtha, the model of conjugal excellence. She is then made to step on to a stone slab to remind her how Ahalya, the beautiful wife of Rishi Gautama, was turned to a stone for committing adultery. Widow-marriage is permitted, and, by a very curious exception to the ordinary rule, a widow may marry her deceased husband’s elder brother but not his younger one. The usual prohibition on a widow marrying her husband’s elder brother is based on the ground that he is looked on as her father; the Segidis say, on the other hand, that his younger brother is as her son. If an unmarried adult male dies, the ceremony of marriage is performed between the corpse and a plantain tree; and if an unmarried woman dies she is married to a sword. A corpse is always buried with the head to the east and the feet to the west. This peculiar practice may be a reminiscence of Vedic times, when the west was considered to be the abode of the departed, the sun being the first mortal who died and went to the west as recorded in the Rig-Veda. The Segidis are also cultivators, traders or soldiers. They have a method of divining a boy’s proper calling in his infancy. When his mouth is touched with grain as food for the first time, they put a sword, a pen, a book, food and other articles, being the symbols of different professions, on the ground and place the child in front of them. And his vocation in life is held to be determined by the article which he touches first.

Senapati.—(General.) Honorific title of Sundi.

Sendia.—Title of caste headman of Panwār Rājpūt.

Sendur.—A section of Ahīr or Rāwat.

Senduria.—Subcaste of Nagasia. They mark the forehead of the bride with vermilion (sendur).

Sengar.—A clan of Rājpūts belonging to Saugor and Jubbulpore.

Sesodia.—A famous clan of Rājpūts.

Seth.—(Banker or moneylender.) A title of Bania.