TRIBAL NOMENCLATURE.
[Territorial titles.] The question of the origin of tribal nomenclature
is a very interesting one, but too wide for detailed analysis at
present. The broad features of it are plain enough. We have, to begin
with, the territorial title. Such abound in various forms all through
the tribal lists, and the preference shown for special places, raises
many curious considerations. To attempt a rough classification of this
kind of title, we have first those of the most general kind, such as
Desi, “of the land,” and Pardesi, “from beyond the land.” Then come
Pûrabi, “Eastern,” Dakkhinâha, “Southern,” Pachhiwâha, “Western,” and
Uttarâha “Northern,” which are arranged in the order of their
popularity. We have next names indicating geographical areas, such as
Madhesiya, “residents of Madhyadesa,” “the middleland,” roughly
speaking, bounded by the Himâlayas on the north, the Vindhyas on the
south and along the Ganges Plain from the Panjâb frontiers to
Allahâbâd. Similar to this is Antarvedi, or “those resident in the
Lower Ganges-Jumna-Duâb,” from about Etâwah to the junction at
Allahâbâd; and Banaudhiya, or those of South Oudh, with parts of
Azamgarh, Jaunpur and Benares.
[Names derived from rivers.] 2. Next we have names taken from the
position of tribes and clans in relation to the great rivers—Gangapâri,
“those beyond the Ganges,” Jumnapâri, “those beyond the Jumna,” and,
most popular of all, Sarwariya, or Sarjupâri, “those beyond the Sarju.”
[Names derived from famous cities.] 3. Then we have a set of names
derived from famous cities which have long sunk into decay, such as
Kanaujiya, “those of Kanauj;” Srivastâvya, corrupted into Sibâstav or
Bâtham, from Srâvasti, in North Oudh, now represented by Sahet-Mahet.
Another of these ruined cities is Sankisa, in the Farrukhâbâd District,
which gives its name to the Saksena Kâyasths, and to many other tribal
sections. If Dhusiya is a corruption of Jhusiya it embodies the name of
the old town of Jhûsi, on the Ganges, the capital of King Harbong, who
is famous in folklore as the hero of many tales of the “Wise men of
Gotham” type. Why Jais, now a petty town in the Râê Bareli District,
gave its name to the numerous Jaiswâr sections, no one can tell, except
on the supposition that it was a much more important place than it is
now. The ruins and ancient mounds at Ahâr and Baran prove their former
greatness. The name of the ancient kingdom of Magadha survives in that
of the Magahiya Doms and many other tribal sections.
[Names derived from religious sites.] 4. The famous religious sites
throughout the Province have naturally left their trace on the caste
nomenclature—such are Ajudhya, the land of Braj, Mathura and Brindâban,
Gokul and Hardwâr, Chunâr and Rajghât, which are all represented; but
it is curious how little trace there is of Prayâga or Allahâbâd, and
Kâshi or Benares, while places like Bindhâchal, Badarinâth, Bithûr and
Batesar are not found at all.
[Names derived from other towns.] 5. Among existing towns and cities
within the Province, Amethi, Azamgarh, Bahrâich, Ghâzipur, Gorakhpur,
Hamîrpur, Jalesar, Mainpuri (in connection with its Chauhâns),
Partâbgarh, Râjpur, Râmnagar, Râmpur, Fatehpur, Sikri (if the theory be
correct that the name of the Sakarwâr sect is derived from it), Jaunpur
(in remembrance of its Sharqi Kings), give their name to many sections.
But the great capitals like Delhi and Agra, probably owing to their
comparatively recent origin, have left little trace, and Lucknow is not
found at all; while Cawnpur (Kânhpur) gives its name to an important
Râjput sept, and many sections of less important tribes.
[Names derived from places outside the province.] 6. Many of these
local names are taken from places outside the Province. From Bengal we
have Baksar, Bhojpur, Gaur (if the old Bengal capital has anything to
say to the many tribes and sections of the name), Hâjipur, Patna; from
the Panjâb, Panjâbi, Lâhauri and Multâni; from the North, Naipâli,
Janakpuri, Kashmîri; from the far West, Bhatner, Gujarât, Indaur,
Jaypur, Jodhpur, Mârwâr, Osi, and Pâli are all found; from Madras we
have Karnâtak; from Persia, Shirâzi.
[Names derived from ancient tribes.] 7. It is a curious fact that so
few of the tribes mentioned in the Mahâbhârata and in mediæval lists,
such as those of the Vishnu Purâna, have left their trace in the tribal
nomenclature. Panchâla, the great kingdom which extended north and west
of Delhi, and from the Himâlaya to the Chambal, has disappeared. The
Abhîras, in name at least, are represented by the Ahîrs: the Ambashthas
by one very doubtful legend with the Amethiya Râjputs: the Gahvaras or
Girigavaras with the Gaharwâr Râjputs: the Haihayas with the Hayobans:
the Kambojas with the Kambohs: the Kaivartas with the Kewats: the
Khasakas or Khasikas with the Khasiya Râjputs: the Kulindas possibly
with the Kunets: the Mâlavas with the Mâlavis: the Malas with the Mals:
the Nishâdas with the Nikhâd section: the Takkas with the Tânk Râjputs:
the Tomaras with the Tomars: the Yâdavas with the Jâdons. But of the
Angas of Bhâgalpur, the Aparakâshis near Benares, the Bahlîkas, the
Bahîkas, the Bahayas, the Bhojas, the Kûrus, the Mekâlas, the Sâkas,
Salwas, Surasenas, Yamunas, there is perhaps no trace in the existing
caste lists. The fact seems to be that these were nations or tribes,
and it was on the break up of their tribal organization that the
existing castes arose. As Dr. Robertson Smith showed, the same state of
things existed in early Arabian History. [28]
[Eponymous titles.] 8. Next to these names derived from the local areas
occupied by tribes, septs, and sections, we have the eponymous titles
derived from the worthies of the ancient days. Thus Vatsa seems to give
his name to the Bachgoti, Râja Vena to the Benbans: the Rishi
Bhâradwaja constantly appears, while Vasishtha is absent. Râja Durga is
represented in the Durgbansis; and we meet constantly with Garga,
Gautama, Parâsara, Raghu, and Sandila. Later in history come saints and
holy men like Kabîr, Lâlbeg, Madâr, Malûkdâs, and Nânak. Akbar, Humâyun
and Shâhjahân have disappeared, and perhaps the only monarchs of the
Delhi line who have survived in the caste names are Shêr Shâh and Salîm
Shâh, who give their name to two divisions of the Bhathiyâras. A
sub-caste of the Chhîpis take their name from Todar Mal, the famous
minister of Akbar.
[Names derived from Râjput septs.] 9. Much of the caste nomenclature is
taken from that of the famous Râjput septs who employed or protected
the menial peoples. No names recur more often among the sections of the
inferior castes than Chauhân, Gaharwâr, Gahlot, Bargûjar, Râthaur,
Kachhwâha, Jâdon and Tomar, which possibly represent the serfs and
helots attached to them.
[Occupational titles.] 10. Next comes the great mass of occupational
titles, the Bardhiya, “ox-men;” Bedbâf, “cane twisters;” Bâzigar,
“acrobats;” Beldâr, “spademen;” Bhainsaha, “buffalo-men;” Bhusiya,
“chaff men;” Chiryamâr, “fowlers;” Chobdâr, “mace-bearers;” Dhâlgar,
“shield makers;” Dhankûta, “grinders of paddy;” Dhânuk, “bowmen;”
Dharkâr, “rope twisters;” Dhelphor, “clod breakers;” Dhenkuliya, “those
who work the water lever;” Dhobi, “the washermen;” Dholi, “drummers;”
Gadariya, “shepherds;” Ghosi, “those that shout after the cattle;”
Guâla, “cow-keepers;” Hardiya, “turmeric growers;” Jauhari,
“jewellers;” Jonkâha, “leech men;” Julâha, “thread makers;” Kamângar,
“makers of bows;” Khâlranga, “dyers of hides;” Kingriya, “violin
players;” Kisân and Koeri, “ploughmen;” Kûnchhand, “makers of weavers’
brushes;” Kuppêsâz, “leather vessel moulders;” Lakarhâr, “the workers
in wood;” Lohiya, “the dealers in iron;” Luniya, “the saltmen,” and
Labâna, “the salt carriers;” Machhimâra, “the fish-killer;” Manihâr,
“the jeweller;” Pahlwân, “the wrestler;” Pattharâha, “the stone
workers;” Pâwariya, “the singer on a mat;” Piyâzi, “the growers of
onions;” Singiwâla, “the cupper;” and Sirkiband, “the people who live
under a thatch.”
[Personal or contemptuous titles.] 11. Then we have names derived from
personal peculiarities or used in a contemptuous sense. The sweeper is
Mehtar or “prince,” and Bhangi, “the rascal who intoxicates himself
with hemp:” in the same range are Barpagwa, “he that wears the broad
turban;” Kabûtari, “she that flirts like the pigeon;” Kâlkamaliya,
“they that wear black blankets;” Kâmchor, “the loafer;” Kanphata, “he
with the torn ears;” Kodokhânê, “they who eat the kodo millet;” and
Maskhân, “the eaters of flesh.” Like these are the titles of Khalîfa
for a cook or tailor, Jamadâr for a sweeper, and so on. [29]
[Totemistic titles.] 12. Incidentally some reference has been elsewhere
made to totemism in connection with the origin of exogamy. From the
details which are given in the following pages, and need not be
repeated here, it will be seen that there are undoubted survivals of
totemism among some of the Dravidian and menial tribes. These take the
form of section names obviously derived from those of animals, plants,
trees, and the like, the destruction, eating or even touching of which
by members of the section whose names are thus derived is prohibited by
a rigid tribal sanction. Though the evidence for the existence of
totemism among at least one part of the population of this part of
India seems sufficient, it will be seen that it now-a-days lurks only
among the most primitive tribes. The fact seems to be that, like so
many usages of the kind, it has been carried away by the flood of
Brâhmanism which has overflowed the land. There is a constant tendency
for tribes as they rise in the social scale to adopt the Brâhmanical
gotras, because it is a respectable fact to belong to one of them. Thus
all the stricter Hindu castes, like Banyas, Khatris, and even Kâyasths,
recognise the gotra. The fiction of common descent from the eponymous
ancestor naturally disappears, and among such people the gotra has no
higher significance than the pedigree worked up to order in the
Herald’s College, which ranks the novus homo through the use of a
common crest and coat-of-arms with the great houses of Cavendish,
Russel, or Howard.
[The family and the sept.] 13. We have seen that it is in the groups or
camps of the vagrant tribes like the Beriya, Hâbûra and Sânsiya, that
we must look to find what is perhaps the most primitive form of human
association, and that the family was almost certainly not the primitive
unit, but the sept. The family, in short, arose out of the sept when
the stage arrived at which paternity and the incidents connected with
it came to be recognised. But of the real tribal form of caste in which
the association is based on actual or assumed community of blood
through a common ancestor, we find little or no trace, except as Mr.
Ibbetson [30] showed to be the case among the Pathâns and Bilûches of
the western frontier, who are foreigners in this part of India. But
even here the fiction of common descent is being gradually weakened by
the wholesale admission of outsiders into the fraternity, who do not
even pretend to be able to establish a genealogical connection with the
original founder of the sept. Here, too, the differentiation of
industries is leading to a distinction, even among the members of the
association linked together in theory by the bond of blood. In theory
any Pathân, Mughal or Sayyid may marry any girl of his tribe; but if he
falls in social position or adopts any degrading occupation his
difficulty in marrying into a respectable family is as difficult as it
would be in Germany or even in some grades of English society for a
parvenu to marry into a family whose claims to rank are undisputed.
[Distinctions of the occupational type.] 14. To return to the
occupational type of caste, there is here, as Mr Ibbetson [31] has
already pointed out, a further distinction. There is the true
occupational caste like the Nâi, Chamâr, or Bhangi, and there is the
trade-guild association, which is much more flexible than the former,
and is generally found in towns, and bears a Muhammadan name, like the
Darzi, Âtishbâz, or Nâlband. This form is most unstable at the present
day, and one of the main difficulties of the classification of caste
statistics lies in the fact that from one decennial period to another
new groups are constantly organizing themselves by a process of fission
from other groups. Thus the Bâghbân, or gardener, is an offshoot of the
Kâchhi, the Sangtarâsh or stone-cutter, from the Gonr, or others who
engage in similar industries, the Mewafarosh, or fruit-seller, and the
Sabzifarosh, or seller of herbs, from the Kunjra or greengrocer. Here,
in fact, we can stand and watch the creation of new so-called castes
before our eyes. And the process is facilitated by the creation of new
religious groups, which base their association on the common belief in
the teaching of some saint or reformer. Most of these sects are
connected with the Vaishnava side of Hinduism, and are devoted to the
solution of much the same religious questions which beset the searcher
after truth in western lands. All naturally aim at the abolition of the
privileges and pretensions of the dominant Brâhman Levite, and the
establishment of a purer and more intellectual form of public worship.