_Bari._--A caste of household servants and makers of leaf-plates,
belonging to northern India. The Baris numbered 1200 persons in
the Central Provinces in 1911, residing mainly in Jubbulpore and
Mandla. Sir H. Risley remarks of the caste: [243] "Mr. Nesfield
regards the Bari as merely an offshoot from a semi-savage tribe
known as Banmanush and Musahar. He is said still to associate with
them at times, and if the demand for leaf-plates and cups, owing to
some temporary cause, such as a local fair or an unusual multitude
of marriages, happens to become larger than he can at once supply,
he gets them secretly made by his ruder kinsfolk and retails them at
a higher rate, passing them off as his own production. The strictest
Brahmans, those at least who aspire to imitate the self-denying life
of the ancient Indian hermit, never eat off any other plates than those
made of leaves." "If the above view is correct," Sir H. Risley remarks,
"the Baris are a branch of a non-Aryan tribe who have been given a
fairly respectable position in the social system in consequence of the
demand for leaf-plates, which are largely used by the highest as well
as the lowest castes. Instances of this sort, in which a non-Aryan
or mixed group is promoted on grounds of necessity or convenience to
a higher status than their antecedents would entitle them to claim,
are not unknown in other castes, and must have occurred frequently
in outlying parts of the country, where the Aryan settlements were
scanty and imperfectly supplied with the social apparatus demanded by
the theory of ceremonial purity." There is no reason why the origin
of the Bari from the Banmanush (wild man of the woods) or Musahar
(mouse-eater), a forest tribe, as suggested by Mr. Nesfield from
his observation of their mutual connection, should be questioned. The
making of leaf-plates is an avocation which may be considered naturally
to pertain to the tribes frequenting jungles from which the leaves are
gathered; and in the Central Provinces, though in the north the Nai
or barber ostensibly supplies the leaf-plates, probably buying the
leaves and getting them made up by Gonds and others, in the Maratha
Districts the Gond himself does so, and many Gonds make their living
by this trade. The people of the Maratha country are apparently less
strict than those of northern India, and do not object to eat off
plates avowedly the handiwork of Gonds. The fact that the Bari has
been raised to the position of a pure caste, so that Brahmans will take
water from his hands, is one among several instances of this elevation
of the rank of the serving castes for purposes of convenience. The
caste themselves have the following legend of their origin: Once upon
a time Parmeshwar [244] was offering rice milk to the spirits of his
ancestors. In the course of this ceremony the performer has to present
a gift known as Vikraya Dan, which cannot be accepted by others without
loss of position. Parmeshwar offered the gift to various Brahmans,
but they all refused it. So he made a man of clay, and blew upon the
image and gave it life, and the god then asked the man whom he had
created to accept the gift which the Brahmans had refused. This man,
who was the first Bari, agreed on condition that all men should drink
with him and recognise his purity of caste. Parmeshwar then told him
to bring water in a cup, and drank of it in the presence of all the
castes. And in consequence of this all the Hindus will take water
from the hands of a Bari. They also say that their first ancestor was
named Sundar on account of his personal beauty; but if so, he failed
to bequeath this quality to his descendants. The proper avocation
of the Baris is, as already stated, the manufacture of the leaf-cups
and plates used by all Hindus at festivals. In the Central Provinces
these are made from the large leaves of the _mahul_ creeper (_Bauhinia
Vahlii_), or from the _palas_ (_Butea frondosa_). The caste also act as
personal servants, handing round water, lighting and carrying torches
at marriages and other entertainments and on journeys, and performing
other functions. Some of them have taken to agriculture. Their women
act as maids to high-caste Hindu ladies, and as they are always about
the zenana, are liable to lose their virtue. A curious custom prevails
in Marwar on the birth of an heir to the throne. An impression of the
child's foot is taken by a Bari on cloth covered with saffron, and
is exhibited to the native chiefs, who make him rich presents. [245]
The Baris have the reputation of great fidelity to their employers, and
a saying about them is, 'The Bari will die fighting for his master.'