The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India Volume III Part 38

Kasar

1. Distribution and origin of the caste.

Kasar, Kasera, Kansari, Bharewa. [388]--The professional caste of makers and sellers of bra.s.s and copper vessels. In 1911 the Kasars numbered 20,000 persons in the Central Provinces and Berar, and were distributed over all Districts, except in the Jubbulpore division, where they are scarcely found outside Mandla. Their place in the other Districts of this division is taken by the Tameras. In Mandla the Kasars are represented by the inferior Bharewa group. The name of the caste is derived from kansa, a term now applied to bell-metal. The kindred caste of Tameras take their name from tamba, copper, but both castes work in this metal indifferently, and in Saugor, Damoh and Jubbulpore no distinction exists between the Kasars and Tameras, the same caste being known by both names. A similar confusion exists in northern India in the use of the corresponding terms Kasera and Thathera. [389] In Wardha the Kasars are no longer artificers, but only dealers, employing Panchals to make the vessels which they retail in their shops. And the same is the case with the Maratha and Deshkar subcastes in Nagpur. The Kasars are a respectable caste, ranking next to the Sunars among the urban craftsmen.

According to a legend given by Mr. Sadasheo Jairam they trace their origin from Dharampal, the son of Sahasra Arjun or Arjun of the Thousand Arms. Arjun was the greatgrandson of Ekshvaku, who was born in the forests of Kalinga, from the union of a mare and a snake. On this account the Kasars of the Maratha country say that they all belong to the Ahihaya clan (Ahi, a snake; and Haya, a mare). Arjun was killed by Parasurama during the slaughter of the Kshatriyas and Dharampal's mother escaped with three other pregnant women. According to another version all the four women were the wives of the king of the Somvansi Rajputs who stole the sacred cow Kamdhenu. Their four sons on growing up wished to avenge their father and prayed to the G.o.ddess Kali for weapons. But unfortunately in their prayer, instead of saying ban, arrow, they said van, which means pot, and hence bra.s.s pots were given to them instead of arrows. They set out to sell the pots, but got involved in a quarrel with a Raja, who killed three of them, but was defeated by the fourth, to whom he afterwards gave his daughter and half his kingdom; and this hero became the ancestor of the Kasars. In some localities the Kasars say that Dharampal, the Rajput founder of their caste, was the ancestor of the Haihaya Rajput kings of Ratanpur; and it is noticeable that the Thatheras of the United Provinces state that their original home was a place called Ratanpur, in the Deccan. [390] Both Ratanpur and Mandla, which are very old towns, have important bra.s.s and bell-metal industries, their bell-metal wares being especially well known on account of the brilliant polish which is imparted to them. And the story of the Kasars may well indicate, as suggested by Mr. Hira Lal, that Ratanpur was a very early centre of the bra.s.s-working industry, from which it has spread to other localities in this part of India.

2. Internal structure.

The caste have a number of subdivisions, mainly of a territorial nature. Among these are the Maratha Kasars; the Deshkar, who also belong to the Maratha country; the Pardes.h.i.+ or foreigners, the Jhade or residents of the forest country of the Central Provinces, and the Audhia or Ajudhiabasi who are immigrants from Oudh. Another subdivision, the Bharewas, are of a distinctly lower status than the body of the caste, and have non-Aryan customs, such as the eating of pork. They make the heavy bra.s.s ornaments which the Gonds and other tribes wear on their legs, and are probably an occupational offshoot from one of these tribes. In Chanda some of the Bharewas serve as grooms and are looked down upon by the others. They have totemistic septs, named after animals and plants, some of which are Gond words; and among them the bride goes to the bridegroom's house to be married, which is a Gond custom. The Bharewas may more properly be considered as a separate caste of lower status. As previously stated, the Maratha and Deshkar subcastes of the Maratha country no longer make vessels, but only keep them for sale. One subcaste, the Otaris, make vessels from moulds, while the remainder cut and hammer into shape the imported sheets of bra.s.s. Lastly comes a group comprising those members of the caste who are of doubtful or illegitimate descent, and these are known either as Takle ('Thrown out' in Marathi), Bidur, 'b.a.s.t.a.r.d,'

or Laondi Bachcha, 'Issue of a kept wife.' In the Maratha country the Kasars, as already seen, say that they all belong to one gotra, the Ahihaya. They have, however, collections of families distinguished by different surnames, and persons having the same surname are forbidden to marry. In the northern Districts they have the usual collection of exogamous septs, usually named after villages.

3. Social customs.

The marriages of first cousins are generally forbidden, as well as of members of the same sept. Divorce and the remarriage of widows are permitted. Devi or Bhawani is the princ.i.p.al deity of the caste, as of so many Hindus. At her festival of Mando Amawas or the day of the new moon of Phagun (February), every Kasar must return to the community of which he is a member and celebrate the feast with them. And in default of this he will be expelled from caste until the next Amawas of Phagun comes round. They close their shops and wors.h.i.+p the implements of their trade on this day and also on the Pola day. The Kasars, as already stated, rank next to the Sunars among the artisan castes, and the Audhia Sunars, who make ornaments of bell-metal, form a connecting link between the two groups. The social status of the Kasars varies in different localities. In some places Brahmans take water from them but not in others. Some Kasars now invest boys with the sacred thread at their weddings, and thereafter it is regularly worn.

4. Occupation.

The caste make eating and drinking vessels, ornaments and ornamental figures from bra.s.s, copper and bell-metal. Bra.s.s is the metal most in favour for utensils, and it is usually imported in sheets from Bombay, but in places it is manufactured from a mixture of three parts of copper and two of zinc. This is considered the best bra.s.s, though it is not so hard as the inferior kinds, in which the proportion of zinc is increased. Ornaments of a grey colour, intended to resemble silver, are made from a mixture of four parts of copper with five of zinc. Bell-metal is an alloy of copper and tin, and in Chanda is made of four parts of copper to one part tin or tinfoil, the tin being the more expensive metal. Bells of fairly good size and excellent tone are moulded from this amalgam, and plates or saucers in which anything acid in the way of food is to be kept are also made of it, since acids do not corrode this metal as they do bra.s.s and copper. But bell-metal vessels are fragile and sometimes break when dropped. They cannot also be heated in the fire to clean them, and therefore cannot be lent to persons outside the family; while bra.s.s vessels may be lent to friends of other castes, and on being received back pollution is removed by heating them in the fire or placing hot ashes in them. Brahmans make a small fire of gra.s.s for this purpose and pa.s.s the vessels through the flame. Copper cooking-pots are commonly used by Muhammadans but not by Hindus, as they have to be coated with tin; the Hindus consider that tin is an inferior metal whose application to copper degrades the latter. Pots made of bra.s.s with a copper rim are called 'Ganga Jamni' after the confluence of the dark water of the Jumna with the muddy stream of the Ganges, whose union they are supposed to symbolise. Small figures of the deities or idols are also made of bra.s.s, but some Kasars will not attempt this work, because they are afraid of the displeasure of the G.o.d in case the figure should not be well or symmetrically shaped.

KASBI

List of Paragraphs

1. General notice.

2. Girls dedicated to temples.

3. Music and dancing.

4. Education of courtesans.

5. Caste customs.

6. First pregnancy.

7. Different cla.s.ses of women.

8. Dancing and singing.

1. General notice.

Kasbi, [391] Tawaif, Devadasi.--The caste of dancing-girls and prost.i.tutes. The name Kasbi is derived from the Arabic kasab, prost.i.tution, and signifies rather a profession than a caste. In India practically all female dancers and singers are prost.i.tutes, the Hindus being still in that stage of the development of inters.e.xual relations when it is considered impossible that a woman should perform before the public and yet retain her modesty. It is not so long that this idea has been abandoned by Western nations, and the fas.h.i.+on of employing women actors is perhaps not more than two or three centuries old in England. The gradual disappearance of the distinctive influence of s.e.x in the public and social conduct of women is presumably a sign of advancing civilisation, and is greatest in the West, the old standards retaining more and more vitality as we proceed Eastward. Among the Anglo-Saxon races women are almost entirely emanc.i.p.ated from any handicap due to their s.e.x, and direct their lives with the same freedom and independence as men. Among the Latin races many people still object to girls walking out alone in towns, and in Italy the number of women to be seen in the streets is so small that it must be considered improper for a young and respectable woman to go about alone. Here also survives the mariage de convenance or arrangement of matches by the parents; the underlying reason for this custom, which also partly accounts for the inst.i.tution of infant-marriage, appears to be that it is not considered safe to permit a young girl to frequent the society of unmarried men with sufficient freedom to be able to make her own choice. And, finally, on arrival in Egypt and Turkey we find the seclusion of women still practised, and only now beginning to weaken before the influence of Western ideas. But again in the lowest scale of civilisation, among the Gonds and other primitive tribes, women are found to enjoy great freedom of social intercourse. This is partly no doubt because their lives are too hard and rude to permit of any seclusion of women, but also partly because they do not yet consider it an obligatory feature of the inst.i.tution of marriage that a girl should enter upon it in the condition of a virgin.

2. Girls dedicated to temples.

In the Deccan girls dedicated to temples are called Devadasis or 'Hand-maidens of the G.o.ds.' They are thus described by Marco Polo: "In this country," he says, "there are certain abbeys in which are G.o.ds and G.o.ddesses, and here fathers and mothers often consecrate their daughters to the service of the deity. When the priests desire to feast their G.o.d they send for those damsels, who serve the G.o.d with meats and other goods, and then sing and dance before him for about as long as a great baron would be eating his dinner. Then they say that the G.o.d has devoured the essence of the food, and fall to and eat it themselves." [392] Mr. Francis writes of the Devadasis as follows:1 "It is one of the many inconsistences of the Hindu religion that though their profession is repeatedly and vehemently condemned by the Shastras it has always received the countenance of the church. The rise of the caste and its euphemistic name seem both of them to date from the ninth and tenth centuries of our era, during which much activity prevailed in southern India in the matter of building temples and elaborating the services held in them. The dancing-girls' duties then as now were to fan the idol with chamaras or Thibetan ox-tails, to hold the sacred light called k.u.mbarti and to sing and dance before the G.o.d when he was carried in procession. Inscriptions show that in A.D. 1004 the great temple of the Chola king Rajaraja at Tanjore had attached to it 400 women of the temple who lived in free quarters in the surrounding streets, and were given a grant of land from the endowment. Other temples had similar arrangements. At the beginning of last century there were a hundred dancing-girls attached to the temple at Conjeeveram, and at Madura, Conjeeveram and Tanjore there are still numbers of them who receive allowances from the endowments of the big temples at those places. In former days the profession was countenanced not only by the church but by the state. Abdur Razak, a Turkish amba.s.sador to the court of Vijayanagar in the fifteenth century, describes women of this cla.s.s as living in state-controlled inst.i.tutions, the revenue of which went towards the upkeep of the police."

The dedication of girls to temples and religious prost.i.tution was by no means confined to India but is a common feature of ancient civilisation. The subject has been mentioned by Dr. Westermarck in The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas, and fully discussed by Sir James Frazer in Attis, Adonis, Osiris. The best known and most peculiar instance is that of the temple of Istar in Babylonia. "Herodotus says that every woman born in that country was obliged once in her life to go and sit down in the precinct of Aphrodite and there consort with a stranger. A woman who had once taken her seat was not allowed to return home till one of the strangers threw a silver coin into her lap and took her with him beyond the holy ground. The silver coin could not be refused because, since once thrown, it was sacred. The woman went with the first man who threw her money, rejecting no one. When she had gone with him and so satisfied the G.o.ddess, she returned home, and from that time forth no gift, however great, would prevail with her. In the Canaanitish cults there were women called kedeshoth, who were consecrated to the deity with whose temple they were a.s.sociated, and who at the same time acted as prost.i.tutes." [393] Other instances are given from Africa, Egypt and ancient Greece. The princ.i.p.al explanation of these practices was that the act of intercourse, according to the principle of sympathetic magic, produced fertility, usually of the crops, though in the Babylonian case, Dr. Westermarck thinks, of the woman herself. Several instances have been recorded of people who perform the s.e.xual act as a preliminary or accompaniment to sowing the crops, [394] and there seems little doubt that this explanation is correct. A secondary idea of religious prost.i.tution may have been to afford to the G.o.d the same s.e.xual pleasures as delighted an earthly king. Thus the Skanda Purana relates that Kartikeya, the Hindu G.o.d of war, was sent by his father to frustrate the sacrifice of Daksha, and at the instigation of the latter was delayed on his way by beautiful damsels, who entertained him with song and dance. Hence it is the practice still for dancing-girls who serve in the paG.o.das to be betrothed and married to him, after which they may prost.i.tute themselves but cannot marry a man. [395] Similarly the Murlis or dancing-girls in Maratha temples are married to Khandoba, the Maratha G.o.d of war. Sometimes the practice of prost.i.tution might begin by the priests of the temple as representatives of the G.o.d having intercourse with the women. This is stated to have been the custom at the temple of Jagannath in Orissa, where the officiating Brahmans had adulterous connection with the women who danced and sang before the G.o.d. [396]

3. Music and dancing.

Both music and dancing, like others of the arts, probably originated as part of a religious or magical service or ritual, and hence would come to be practised by the women attached to temples. And it would soon be realised what potent attractions these arts possessed when displayed by women, and in course of time they would be valued as accomplishments in themselves, and either acquired independently by other courtesans or divorced from a sole application to religious ritual. In this manner music, singing and dancing may have grown to be considered as the regular attractions of the courtesan and hence immoral in themselves, and not suitable for display by respectable women. The Emperor Shah Jahan is said to have delighted in the performances of the Tawaif or Muhammadan singing and dancing girls, who at that time lived in bands and occupied mansions as large as palaces. [397] Aurangzeb ordered them all to be married or banished from his dominions, but they did not submit without a protest; and one morning as the Emperor was going to the mosque he saw a vast crowd of mourners marching in file behind a bier, and filling the air with screams and lamentations. He asked what it meant, and was told that they were going to bury Music; their mother had been executed, and they were weeping over her loss. 'Bury her deep,' the Emperor cried, 'she must never rise again.'

4. Education of courtesans.

The possession of these attractions naturally gave the courtesan an advantage over ordinary women who lacked them, and her society was much sought after, as shown in the following description of a native court: [398] "Nor is the courtesan excluded, she of the smart saying, famed for the much-valued cleverness which is gained in 'the world,'

who when the learned fail is ever ready to cut the Gordian knot of solemn question with the sharp blade of her repartee, for--The sight of foreign lands; the possession of a Pandit for a friend; a courtesan; access to the royal court; patient study of the Shastras; the roots of cleverness are these five." Mr. Crooke also remarks on the tolerance extended to this cla.s.s of women: "The curious point about Indian prost.i.tutes is the tolerance with which they are received into even respectable houses, and the absence of that strong social disfavour in which this cla.s.s is held in European countries. This feeling has prevailed for a lengthened period. We read in the Buddhist histories of Ambapata, the famous courtesan, and the price of her favours fixed at two thousand masurans. The same feeling appears in the folk-tales and early records of Indian courts." [399] It may be remarked, however, that the social ostracism of such women has not always been the rule in Europe, while as regards conjugal morality Indian society would probably appear to great advantage beside that of Europe in the Middle Ages. But when the courtesan is alone possessed of the feminine accomplishments, and also sees much of society and can converse with point and intelligence on public affairs, her company must necessarily be more attractive than that of the women of the family, secluded and uneducated, and able to talk about nothing but the petty details of household management. Education so far as women were concerned was to a large extent confined to courtesans, who were taught all the feminine attainments on account of the large return to be obtained in the practice of their profession. This is well brought out in the following pa.s.sage from a Hindu work in which the mother speaks: [400]

"Worthy Sir, this daughter of mine would make it appear that I am to blame, but indeed I have done my duty, and have carefully prepared her for that profession for which by birth she was intended. From earliest childhood I have bestowed the greatest care upon her, doing everything in my power to promote her health and beauty. As soon as she was old enough I had her carefully instructed in the arts of dancing, acting, playing on musical instruments, singing, painting, preparing perfumes and flowers, in writing and conversation, and even to some extent in grammar, logic and philosophy. She was taught to play various games with skill and dexterity, how to dress well and show herself off to the greatest advantage in public; yet after all the time, trouble and money which I have spent upon her, just when I was beginning to reap the fruit of my labours, the ungrateful girl has fallen in love with a stranger, a young Brahman without property, and wishes to marry him and give up her profession (of a prost.i.tute), notwithstanding all my entreaties and representations of the poverty and distress to which all her family will be reduced if she persists in her purpose; and because I oppose this marriage, she declares that she will renounce the world and become a devotee." Similarly the education of another dancing-girl is thus described: [401] "Gauhar Jan did her duty by the child according to her lights. She engaged the best 'Gawayyas'

to teach her music, the best 'Kathaks' to teach her dancing, the best 'Ustads' to teach her elocution and deportment, and the best of Muns.h.i.+s to ground her in Urdu and Persian belles lettres; so that when Imtiazan reached her fifteenth year her accomplishments were noised abroad in the bazar." It is still said to be the custom for the Hindus in large towns, as among the Greeks of the time of Pericles, to frequent the society of courtesans for the charm of their witty and pointed conversation. Betel-nut is provided at such receptions, and at the time of departure each person is expected to deposit a rupee in the tray. Of course it is in no way meant to a.s.sert that the custom is at all generally prevalent among educated men, as this would be quite untrue.

The a.s.sociation of all feminine charms and intellectual attainments with public women led to the belief that they were incompatible with feminine modesty; and this was even extended to certain ornamental articles of clothing such as shoes. The Abbe Dubois remarks: [402]

"The courtesans are the only women in India who enjoy the privilege of learning to read, to dance and to sing. A well-bred respectable woman would for this reason blush to acquire any one of these accomplishments." Buchanan says: [403] "The higher cla.s.ses of Hindu women consider every approach to wearing shoes as quite indecent; so that their use is confined to Muhammadans, camp trulls and Europeans, and most of the Muhammadans have adopted the Hindu notion on this subject; women of low rank wear sandals." And again: [404] "A woman who appears clean in public on ordinary occasions may pretty confidently be taken for a prost.i.tute; such care of her person would indeed be considered by her husband as totally incompatible with modesty." And as regards accomplishments: [405] "It is considered very disgraceful for a modest woman to sing or play on any musical instrument; the only time when such a practice is permitted is among the Muhammadans at the Muharram, when women are allowed to join in the praises of Fatima and her son." And a current saying is: "A woman who sings in the house as she goes about her work and one who is fond of music can never be a Sati"; a term which is here used as an equivalent for a virtuous woman. Buchanan wrote a hundred years ago, and things have no doubt improved since his time, but this feeling appears to be princ.i.p.ally responsible for much of the prejudice against female education, which has. .h.i.therto been so strong even among the literate cla.s.ses of Hindus; and is only now beginning to break down as the highly cultivated young men of the present day have learned to appreciate and demand a greater measure of intelligence from their wives.

5. Caste customs.

Among the better cla.s.s of Kasbis a certain caste feeling and organisation exists. When a girl attains adolescence her mother makes a bargain with some rich man to be her first consort. Oil and turmeric are rubbed on her body for five days as in the case of a bride. A feast is given to the caste and the girl is married to a dagger, walking seven times round the sacred post with it. Her human consort then marks her forehead with vermilion and covers her head with her head-cloth seven times. In the evening she goes to live with him for as long as he likes to maintain her, and afterwards takes up the practice of her profession. In this case it is necessary that the man should be an outsider and not a member of the Kasbi caste, because the quasi-marriage is the formal commencement on the part of the woman of her hereditary trade. As already seen, the feeling of shame and degradation attaching to this profession in Europe appears to be somewhat attenuated in India, and it is counterbalanced by that acquiescence in and attachment to the caste-calling which is the princ.i.p.al feature of Hindu society. And no doubt the life of the dancing-girl has, at any rate during youth, its attractions as compared with that of a respectable married woman. Tavernier tells the story [406] of a Shah of Persia who, desiring to punish a dancing-girl for having boxed the ears of one of her companions within his hearing (it being clearly not the effect of the operation on the patient which annoyed his majesty) made an order that she should be married. And a more curious instance still is the following from a recent review: [407] "The natives of India are by instinct and custom the most conservative race in the world. When I was stationed at Aurangabad--fifty years ago it is true, but that is but a week in regard to this question--a case occurred within my own knowledge which shows the strength of hereditary feeling. An elderly wealthy native adopted two baby girls, whose mother and family had died during a local famine. The children grew up with his own girls and were in all respects satisfactory, and apparently quite happy until they arrived at the usual age for marriage. They then asked to see their papa by adoption, and said to him, 'We are very grateful to you for your care of us, but we are now grown up. We are told our mother was a Kasbi (prost.i.tute), and we must insist on our rights, go out into the world, and do as our mother did.'"