_Bania, Agarwala, Agarwal._--This is generally considered to be
the highest and most important subdivision of the Banias. They
numbered about 25,000 persons in the Central Provinces in 1911,
being principally found in Jubbulpore and Nagpur. The name is probably
derived from Agroha, a small town in the Hissar District of the Punjab,
which was formerly of some commercial importance. Buchanan records that
when any firm failed in the city each of the others contributed a brick
and five rupees, which formed a stock sufficient for the merchant to
recommence trade with advantage. The Agarwalas trace their descent
from a Raja Agar Sen, whose seventeen sons married the seventeen
daughters of Basuki, the king of the Nagas or snakes. Elliot considers
that the snakes were really the Scythian or barbarian immigrants,
the Yueh-chi or Kushans, from whom several of the Rajpat clans as the
Tak, Haihayas and others, who also have the legend of snake ancestry,
were probably derived. Elliot also remarks that Raja Agar Sen, being a
king, must have been a Kshatriya, and thus according to the legend the
Agarwalas would have Rajput ancestry on both sides. Their appearance,
Mr. Crooke states, indicates good race and breeding, and would lend
colour to the theory of a Rajput origin. Raja Agar Sen is said to have
ruled over both Agra and Agroha, and it seems possible that the name
of the Agarwalas may also be connected with Agra, which is a much
more important place than Agroha. The country round Agra and Delhi
is their home, and the shrine of the tutelary goddess of some of the
Agarwalas in the Central Provinces is near Delhi. The memory of the
Naga princess who was their ancestor is still, Sir H. Risley states,
held in honour by the Agarwalas, and they say, 'Our mother's house is
of the race of the snake.' [135] No Agarwala, whether Hindu or Jain,
will kill or molest a snake, and the Vaishnava Agarwalas of Delhi
paint pictures of snakes on either side of the outside doors of their
houses, and make offerings of fruit and flowers before them.
In the Central Provinces, like other Bania subcastes, they are
divided into the Bisa and Dasa or twenty and ten subdivisions,
which marry among themselves. The Bisa rank higher than the Dasa,
the latter being considered to have some flaw in their pedigree,
such as descent from a remarried widow. The Dasas are sometimes
said to be the descendants of the maidservants who accompanied the
seventeen Naga or snake princesses on their marriages to the sons of
Raja Agar Sen. A third division has now come into existence in the
Central Provinces, known as the Pacha or fives; these are apparently
of still more doubtful origin than the Dasas. The divisions tend to
be endogamous, but if a man of the Bisa or Dasa cannot obtain a wife
from his own group he will sometimes marry in a lower group.
The Agarwalas are divided into seventeen and a half _gotras_ or
exogamous sections, which are supposed to be descended from the
seventeen sons of Raja Agar Sen. The extra half _gotra_ is accounted
for by a legend, but it probably has in reality also something to
do with illegitimate descent. Some of the _gotras_, as given by
Mr. Crooke, are as a matter of fact named after Brahmanical saints
like those of the Brahmans; instances of these are Garga, Gautama,
Kaushika, Kasyapa and Vasishtha; the others appear to be territorial
or titular names. The prohibitions on marriage between relations are
far-reaching among the Agarwalas. The detailed rules are given in
the article on Bania, and the effect is that persons descended from
a common ancestor cannot intermarry for five generations. When the
wedding procession is about to start the Kumhar brings his donkey
and the bridegroom has to touch it with his foot, or, according to
one version, ride upon it. The origin of this custom is obscure, but
the people now say that it is meant to emphasise the fact that the
bridegroom is going to do a foolish thing. The remarriage of widows
is prohibited, and divorce is not recognised. Most of the Agarwalas
are Vaishnava by religion, but a few are Jains. Intermarriage between
members of the two religions is permitted in some localities, and
the wife adopts that of her husband. The Jain Agarwalas observe the
Hindu festivals and employ Brahmans for their ceremonies. In Nimar
the caste have some curious taboos. It is said that a married woman
may not eat wheat until a child has been born to her, but only juari;
and if she has no child she may not eat wheat all her life. If a son
is born to her she must go to Mahaur, a village near Delhi where the
tutelary goddess of the caste has her shrine. This goddess is called
Mohna Devi, and she is the deified spirit of a woman who burnt herself
with her husband. After this the woman may eat wheat; but if a second
son is born she must stop eating wheat until she has been to the shrine
again. But if she has a daughter she may at once and always eat wheat
without visiting the shrine. These rules, as well as the veneration
of a snake, from which they believe themselves to be descended on the
mother's side, may perhaps, as suggested by Sir H. Risley, be a relic
of the system of matriarchal descent. It is said that when Raja Agar
Sen or his sons married the Naga princesses, he obtained permission
as a special favour from the goddess Lakshmi that the children should
bear their father's name and not their mother's. [136]
In Nimar some Agarwalas worship Goba Pir, the god of the sweepers. He
is represented by a pole some 30 feet long on which are hung a cloth
and cocoanuts. The sweepers carry this through the city almost daily
during the month of Shrawan (July), and people offer cocoanuts, tying
them on to the pole. Some Agarwalas offer vermilion to the god in token
of worship, and a few invite it to the compounds of their houses and
keep it there all night for the same purpose. When a feast is given in
the caste the Agarwalas do not take their own brass vessels according
to the usual practice, but the host gives them little earthen pots
to drink from which are afterwards broken, and leaf-plates for their
food. The Agarwalas will take food cooked without water (_pakki_) from
Oswal, Maheshri and Khandelwal Banias. The Agarwalas of the Central
Provinces hold some substantial estates in Chhattisgarh; these were
obtained at the first settlements during 1860-70, when considerable
depression existed, and many of the village headmen were unwilling to
accept the revenue assessed on their villages. The more enterprising
Banias stepped in and took them, and have profited enormously owing to
the increase in the value of land. Akbar's great minister, Todar Mal,
who first introduced an assessment of the land-revenue based on the
measurement and survey of the land, is said to have been an Agarwala.