The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India Volume III Part 42

(g) Mathur.

(h) Kulsreshtha.

(i) Suryadhwaja.

(k) Karan.

(l) Gaur.

(m) Nigum.

(a) The Srivastab subcaste take their name from the old town of Sravasti, 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 Kayasths are Srivastabs except a few Saksenas. They are divided into two sections, Khare and Dusre, which correspond to the Bisa and Dasa groups of the Banias. The Khare are those of pure descent, and the Dusre the offspring of remarried widows or other irregular alliances.

(b) The Saksena are named from the old town of Sankisa, in the Farukhabad District. They also have the Khare and Dusre groups, and a third section called Kharua, which is said to mean pure, and is perhaps the most aristocratic. A number of Saksena Kayasths are resident in Seoni District, where their ancestors were settled by Bakht Buland, the Gond Raja of Deogarh in Chhindwara. These const.i.tuted 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 Bhatnagar take their name from the old town of Bhatner, near Bikaner. They are divided into the Vaishya or Kadim, 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 Girnar hill, and to take their name from their wors.h.i.+p of the G.o.ddess Ambaji 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 Kayasths. [457] It is also supposed that the names may come from the Ameth pargana of Oudh. The Ambastha Kayasths are chiefly found in south Bihar, where they are numerous and influential. [458]

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

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

(g) The Mathur 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' Kayasths belong chiefly to the districts of Agra and Etah. They are divided into the Barakhhera, or those of twelve villages, and the Chha Khera of six villages.

(i) The Suryadhwaja subcaste belong to Ballia, Ghazi-pur and Bijnor. Their origin is obscure. They profess excessive purity, and call themselves Sakadwipi or Scythian Brahmans.

(k) The Karan subcaste belong to Bihar, and have two local divisions, the Gayawale from Gaya, and the Tirhutia from Tirhut.

(l) The Gaur Kayasths, like the Gaur Brahmans and Rajputs, apparently take their name from Gaur or Lakhnauti, the old kingdom of Bengal. They have the Khare and Dusre 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 Nik.u.mbh Rajputs, are divided into two endogamous groups, the Kadim or old, and the Unaya, or those coming from Unao. Sometimes the Unaya are considered as a separate thirteenth subcaste of mixed descent.

8. Exogamy.

Educated Kayasths 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 Srivastab Kayasths still retain exogamous sections which are all named after places in the United Provinces, as Hamirpur ki baink (section), Lucknowbar, Kas.h.i.+ ki Pande (a wise man of Benares), Partabpuria, Cawnpore-bar, Sultanpuria 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 b.a.l.l.s to the four points of the compa.s.s, 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. [459] An image of a cow in flour is then brought, and the bridegroom pierces its nostrils with a little stick of gold. Kayasths 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 Rama's departure from Ajodhia when he went to the forests:

Now Hari (Rama) has driven his chariot forth to the jungle.

His father and mother are weeping.

Kaus.h.i.+lya [460] 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 Rama'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?'

Rama said, 'When fourteen years have pa.s.sed 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. [461]

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 Radha and Krishna. Radha with her maidens was bathing in the river when Krishna stole all their clothes and climbed up a tree with them. Girdhari is a name of Krishna:

R. You and I cannot be friends, Girdhari; I am wearing a silk-embroidered cloth and you a black blanket.

You are the son of old Nand, 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.'