_Barai, [234] Tamboli, Pansari._--The caste of growers and sellers of
the betel-vine leaf. The three terms are used indifferently for the
caste in the Central Provinces, although some shades of variation in
the meaning can be detected even here--Barai signifying especially one
who grows the betel-vine, and Tamboli the seller of the prepared leaf;
while Pansari, though its etymological meaning is also a dealer in
_pan_ or betel-vine leaves, is used rather in the general sense of
a druggist or grocer, and is apparently applied to the Barai caste
because its members commonly follow this occupation. In Bengal,
however, Barai and Tamboli are distinct castes, the occupations
of growing and selling the betel-leaf being there separately
practised. And they have been shown as different castes in the
India Census Tables of 1901, though it is perhaps doubtful whether
the distinction holds good in northern India. [235] In the Central
Provinces and Berar the Barais numbered nearly 60,000 persons in
1911. They reside principally in the Amraoti, Buldana, Nagpur, Wardha,
Saugor and Jubbulpore Districts. The betel-vine is grown principally
in the northern Districts of Saugor, Damoh and Jubbulpore and in
those of Berar and the Nagpur plain. It is noticeable also that the
growers and sellers of the betel-vine numbered only 14,000 in 1911
out of 33,000 actual workers of the Barai caste; so that the majority
of them are now employed in ordinary agriculture, field-labour and
other avocations. No very probable derivation has been obtained for
the word Barai, unless it comes from _bari_, a hedge or enclosure,
and simply means 'gardener.' Another derivation is from _barana,_
to avert hailstorms, a calling which they still practise in northern
India. _Pan_, from the Sanskrit _parna_ (leaf), is _the_ leaf _par
excellence_. Owing to the fact that they produce what is perhaps the
most esteemed luxury in the diet of the higher classes of native
society, the Barais occupy a fairly good social position, and one
legend gives them a Brahman ancestry. This is to the effect that the
first Barai was a Brahman whom God detected in a flagrant case of
lying to his brother. His sacred thread was confiscated and being
planted in the ground grew up into the first betel-vine, which he
was set to tend. Another story of the origin of the vine is given
later in this article. In the Central Provinces its cultivation has
probably only flourished to any appreciable extent for a period of
about three centuries, and the Barai caste would appear to be mainly
a functional one, made up of a number of immigrants from northern
India and of recruits from different classes of the population,
including a large proportion of the non-Aryan element.