The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India Volume I Part 25

_Aithana_.--A subcaste of Kayasth.

_Ajodhia_.--Subcaste of Jadam.

_Ajudhiabasi_.--See Audhia.

_Akali_.--Order of Sikh devotees. See article Sikh.

_Akhadewale_.--A cla.s.s of Bairagis who do not marry. Also known as Nihang.

_Akhroti_.--A subdivision of Pathans. (From _akhrot_, walnut.)

_Akre_.--A b.a.s.t.a.r.d Khatik. t.i.tle of a child a Khatik gets by a woman of another caste.

_Alia_.--A grower of the _al_ plant. A subcaste of Bania and Kachhi, a synonym of Chasa.

_Alia_, _Alkari_.--These terms are derived from the _al_ or Indian mulberry (_Morinda citrifolia_). The Alias are members of the Kachhi caste who formerly grew the _al_ plant in Nimar for sale to the dyers. Its cultivation then yielded a large profit and the Alias devoted themselves solely to it, while they excommunicated any of their members who were guilty of selling or giving away the seed. The imported alizarin has now almost entirely superseded the indigenous dye, and _al_ as a commercial product has been driven from the market. Alkari is a term applied to Banias and others in the Damoh District who were formerly engaged in the cultivation of the _al_ plant. The members of each caste which took to the cultivation of this plant were somewhat looked down upon by the others and hence became a distinct group. The explanation generally given of the distaste for the crop is that in the process of boiling the roots to extract the dye a number of insects have to be killed. A further reason is that the red dye is considered to resemble or be equivalent to blood, the second idea being a necessary consequence of the first in primitive modes of thought, and hence to cause a certain degree of pollution to those who prepare it. A similar objection is held to the purveying of lac-dye as shown in the article on Lakhera. Notwithstanding this, clothes dyed red are considered lucky, and the _al_ dye was far more commonly used by Hindus than any other, prior to the introduction of aniline dyes. Tents were also coloured red with this dye. The tents of the Mughal Emperors and royal princes were of red cloth dyed with the roots of the _al_ plant. [408] Similarly Nadir Shah, the victor of Panipat, had his field headquarters and lived in one small red tent. In these cases the original reason for colouring the tents red may probably have been that it was a lucky colour for battles, and the same belief may have led to the adoption of red as a royal and imperial colour.

_Alkari_.--Synonym for Alia.

_Alua_.--A subcaste of Uriya Brahmans, so named because their forefathers grew the _alu_ or potato.

_Amal_.--A section of Komti. The members of this section do not eat the plantain.

_Ambadar_.--(Mango-branch.) A section of Rawat (Ahir).

_Ambashta_.--A subcaste of Kayasth.

_Amethia_.--(From Amethi, a pargana in Lucknow District.) A sept of Rajputs, who are Chauhans according to Sir H.M. Elliott, but others say they are a branch of the Chamar Gaur.

_Amisht_.--A subcaste of Kayasth.

_Amnait_.--Subcaste of Bhatra.

_Amrite_.--(From Amrit nectar.) A section of Kirar.

_Anapa_.--(Leather-dealers.) Subcaste of Madgi.

_Anavala_.--A subdivision of Gujarati or Khedawal Brahmans. They derive their name from the village Anaval in Baroda. They are otherwise known as Bhatela, Desai or Mastan.

_Andhra_, _Tailanga_.--One of the five orders of the Panch Dravid Brahmans inhabiting the Telugu country.

_Antarvedi_.--A resident of Antarved or the Doab, the tract of land between the Ganges and the Jumna rivers. Subcaste of Chamar.

_Apastambha_.--A Sutra of the Vedas. A subdivision of Brahmans following that Sutra and forming a caste subdivision. But they marry with Rig-Vedis, though the Sutra belongs to the Black Yajur-Vedi.

_Atharvarvedi_, _Antharwarvedi_.--A subcaste of Brahmans who follow the Atharvar-Veda and are very rarely met with.

_Arab_.--This designation is sometimes returned by the descendants of the Arab mercenaries of the Bhonsla kings. These were at one time largely employed by the different rulers of southern India and made the best of soldiers. In the Maratha armies [409] their rate of pay was Rs. 12 a month, while the ordinary infantry received only Rs. 5. General Hislop stated their character as follows: [410]

"There are perhaps no troops in the world that will make a stouter or more determined stand at their posts than the Arabs. They are entirely unacquainted with military evolutions, and undisciplined; but every Arab has a pride and heart of his own that never forsakes him as long as he has legs to stand on. They are naturally brave and possess the greatest coolness and quickness of sight: hardy and fierce through habit, and bred to the use of the matchlock from their boyhood: and they attain a precision and skill in the use of it that would almost exceed belief, bringing down or wounding the smallest object at a considerable distance, and not unfrequently birds with a single bullet. They are generally armed with a matchlock, a couple of swords, with three or four small daggers stuck in front of their belts, and a s.h.i.+eld. On common occasions of attack and defence they fire but one bullet, but when hard pressed at the breach they drop in two, three, and four at a time, from their mouths, always carrying in them from eight to ten bullets, which are of a small size. We may calculate the whole number of Arabs in the service of the Peshwa and the Berar Raja at 6000 men, a loose and undisciplined body, but every man of them a tough and hardy soldier. It was to the Arabs alone those Provinces looked, and placed their dependence on. Their own troops fled and abandoned them, seldom or never daring to meet our smallest detachment. Nothing can exceed the horror and atarm with which some of our native troops view the Arab. At Nagpur in November 1817 the Arabs alone attacked us on the defence and reduced us to the last extremity, when we were saved by Captain Fitzgerald's charge. The Arabs attacked us at Koregaon and would have certainly destroyed us had not the Peshwa withdrawn his troops on General Smith's approach. The Arabs kept General Doveton at bay with his whole army at Nagpur for several days, repulsing our attack at the breach, and they gained their fullest terms. The Arabs worsted us for a month at Malegaon and saved their credit. They terrified the Surat authorities by their fame alone. They gained their terms of money from Sir John Malcolm at Asirgarh. They maintained to the last for their prince their post at Alamner and n.o.bly refused to be bought over there. They attacked us bravely, but unfortunately at Talner. They attacked Captain Spark's detachment on the defence and destroyed it. They attacked a battalion of the 14th Madras Infantry with 26-pounders and compelled them to seek shelter in a village; and they gave us a furious wind-up at Asirgarh. Yet the whole of these Arabs were not 6000."

There is no doubt that the Arabs are one of the finest fighting races of the world. Their ancestors were the Saracens who gained a great empire in Europe and Asia. Their hardihood and powers of endurance are brought to the highest pitch by the rigours of desert life, while owing to their lack of nervous sensibility the shock and pain of wounds affect them less than civilised troops. And in addition their religion teaches that all who die in battle against the infidel are transported straight to a paradise teeming with material and sensual delights. Arab troops are still employed in Hyderabad State. Mr. Stevens notices them as follows in his book _In India_: "A gang of half-a-dozen, brilliantly dishevelled, a f.a.ggot of daggers with an antique pistol or two in each belt, and a six-foot matchlock on each shoulder. They serve as irregular troops there, and it must be owned that if irregularity is what you want, no man on earth can supply it better. The Arab irregulars are brought over to serve their time and then sent back to Arabia; there is one at this moment, who is a subaltern in Hyderabad, but as soon as he crosses the British border gets a salute of nine guns; he is a Sheikh in his own country near Aden."

The Arabs who have been long resident here have adopted the ways and manners of other Musalmans. Their marriages are in the Nikah form and are marked by only one [411] dinner, following the example of the Prophet, who gave a dinner at the marriage of his daughter the Lady Fatimah and Ali. In obedience to the order of the Prophet a death is followed by no signs of mourning. Arabs marry freely with other Sunni Muhammadans and have no special social or religious organisation. The battle-cry of the Arabs at Sitabaldi and Nagpur was '_Din, Din, Muhammad_.'

_Arakh_.--A caste. A subcaste of Dahait, Gond and Pasi.

_Aranya_.--Name of one of the ten orders of Gosains.

_Are_.--A cultivating caste of the Chanda District, where they numbered 2000 persons in 1911. The caste are also found in Madras and Bombay, where they commonly return themselves under the name of Marathi; this name is apparently used in the south as a generic term for immigrants from the north, just as in the Central Provinces people coming from northern India are called Pardes.h.i.+. Mr. (Sir H.) Stuart says [412]

that Are is a synonym for Arya, and is used as an equivalent of a Maratha and sometimes in a still wider sense, apparently to designate an immigrant Aryan into the Dravidian country of the south. The Ares of the Central Provinces appear to be Kunbis who have migrated into the Telugu country. The names of their subcastes are those of the Kunbis, as Khaire, Tirelle, a form of Tirole, and Dhanoj for Dhanoje. Other subdivisions are called Kayat and Kattri, and these seem to be the descendants of Kayasth and Khatri ancestors. The caste admit Brahmans, Banias, and Komtis into the community and seem to be, as shown by Mr. Stuart, a mixed group of immigrants from Maharashtra into the Telugu country. Some of them wear the sacred thread and others do not. Some of their family names are taken from those of animals and plants, and they bury persons who die unmarried, placing their feet towards the north like the forest tribes.

_Arka_.--A sept of Gonds in Chanda who wors.h.i.+p the saras crane.

_Armachi_.--(The _dhaura_ tree.) A totemistic sept of Gonds.

_Arora_, _Rora_.--An important trading and mercantile caste of the Punjab, of which a few persons were returned from the Nimar District in 1901. Sir D. Ibbetson was of opinion that the Aroras were the Khatris of Aror, the ancient capital of Scinde, represented by the modern Rori. He described the Arora as follows: [413] "Like the Khatri and unlike the Bania he is no mere trader; but his social position is far inferior to theirs, partly no doubt because he is looked down upon simply as being a Hindu in the portions of the Province which are his special habitat. He is commonly known as a Kirar, a word almost synonymous with coward, and even more contemptuous than is the name Bania in the east of the province. The Arora is active and enterprising, industrious and thrifty.... 'When an Arora girds up his loins he makes it only two miles from Jhang to Lah.o.r.e.' He will turn his hand to any work, he makes a most admirable cultivator, and a large proportion of the Aroras of the lower Chenab are purely agricultural in their avocations. He is found throughout Afghanistan and even Turkistan and is the Hindu trader of those countries; while in the western Punjab he will sew clothes, weave matting and baskets, make vessels of bra.s.s and copper and do goldsmith's work. But he is a terrible coward, and is so branded in the proverbs of the countryside: The thieves were four and we eighty-four; the thieves came on and we ran away; and again: To meet a Rathi armed with a hoe makes a company of nine Kirars (Aroras) feel alone. Yet the peasant has a wholesome dread of the Kirar when in his proper place: Vex not the Jat in his jungle, nor the Kirar at his shop, nor the boatman at his ferry; for if you do they will break your head. Again: Trust not a crow, a dog or a Kirar, even when asleep. So again: You can't make a friend of a Kirar any more than a _sati_ of a prost.i.tute."

_Asathi_.--A subcaste of Bania. They are both Jains and Hindus.

_Ashram_.--Name of one of the ten orders of Gosains.

_Ashthana_.--A subcaste of Kayasth.

_Atharadesia_.--(A man of eighteen districts.) Subcaste of Banjara.

_Athbhaiya_.--(Eight brothers.) A subdivision of Saraswat Brahman in Hoshangabad. An Athbhaiya cannot take a wife from the Chaubhaiya subdivision, to whom the former give their daughters in marriage.

_Athia_.--A subcaste of Chadar, so named because they wors.h.i.+p their G.o.ddess Devi on the 8th day (Athain) of Kunwar (September), and correspond to the Brahmanical Sakta sect, as opposed to the other Chadar subcaste Parmasuria, who correspond to the Vaishnavas.

_Audhalia_.--Synonym for Audhelia.

_Audhia_, _Ajudhiabasi_.--A resident of Oudh. Subcaste of Bania and of Kasar and Sunar.

_Audichya_.--A subcaste of Brahmans coming from Oudh.

_Aughad_.--A subdivision of Jogi. They resemble the Aghoris with the difference that they may not eat human flesh.

_Aughar_.--A subdivision of Jogi.

_Aukule_.--A subcaste of Koshtis. They are also called Vidurs, being of mixed descent from Koshtas and other castes.

_Aulia_.--(A favourite of G.o.d.) t.i.tle of Muhammadan saints.

_Baba_.--Synonym of Gosain.

_Babhan_.--Synonym for Bhuinhar, being the name of a landholding caste in Bengal. Used as a t.i.tle by Bhuiyas.