The caste trace their origin from Raja Benu or Venu who ruled at
Singorgarh in Damoh. It is related of him that he was so pious that
he raised no taxes from his subjects, but earned his livelihood by
making and selling bamboo fans. He could of course keep no army,
but he knew magic, and when he broke his fan the army of the enemy
broke up in unison. Venu is a Sanskrit word meaning bamboo. But a
mythological Sanskrit king called Vena is mentioned in the Puranas,
from whom for his sins was born the first Nishada, the lowest of human
beings, and Manu [250] states that the bamboo-worker is the issue of
a Nishada or Chandal father and a Vaideha [251] mother. So that the
local story may be a corruption of the Brahmanical tradition. Another
legend relates that in the beginning there were no bamboos, and
the first Basor took the serpent which Siva wore round his neck and
going to a hill planted it with its head in the ground. A bamboo at
once sprang up on the spot, and from this the Basor made the first
winnowing fan. And the snake-like root of the bamboo, which no doubt
suggested the story to its composer, is now adduced in proof of it.