_Bania, Kasaundhan._--This subcaste numbers about 5500 persons in the
Central Provinces and is returned principally from the Bilaspur, Raipur
and Jubbulpore Districts. The name is derived [151] by Mr. Crooke from
_kansa_, bell-metal, and _dhana_, wealth, and it would appear that the
Kasaundhans like the Kasarwanis are an occupational group, made up of
shopkeepers who dealt in metal vessels. Like them also the Kasaundhans
may have originally been constituted from the metal-working castes,
and indeed they may be only a local branch of the Kasarwanis, though no
information is available which would decide this point. In the United
Provinces both the Kasarwanis and Kasaundhans are divided into the
Purbia or eastern and Pachhaiyan or western subcastes. Dharam Das,
the great disciple of Kabir, who founded the Kabirpanthi sect in the
Central Provinces, was a Kasaundhan Bania, and the Kabirpanthi Mahants
or high-priests of Kawardha are of this caste. It is probable that a
good many of the Kasaundhan Banias in Bilaspur and Raipur belong to
the Kabirpanthi sect. The remainder are ordinary Hindus.