The Bhoyars are divided into the Panwari, Dholewar, Chaurasia and
Daharia subcastes. The Panwars are the most numerous and the highest,
as claiming to be directly descended from Panwar Rajputs. They
sometimes called themselves Jagdeo Panwars, Jagdeo being the name
of the king under whom they served in Dharanagri. The Dholewars
take their name from Dhola, a place in Malwa, or from _dhol_, a
drum. They are the lowest subcaste, and some of them keep pigs. It
is probable that these subcastes immigrated with the Malwa Rajas in
the fifteenth century, the Dholewars being the earlier arrivals,
and having from the first intermarried with the local Dravidian
tribes. The Daharias take their name from Dahar, the old name of
the Jubbulpore country, and may be a relic of the domination of
the Chedi kings of Tewar. The name of the Chaurasias is probably
derived from the Chaurasi or tract of eighty-four villages formerly
held by the Betul Korku family of Chandu. The last two subdivisions
are numerically unimportant. The Bhoyars have over a hundred _kuls_
or exogamous sections. The names of most of these are titular, but
some are territorial and a few totemistic. Instances of such names
are Onkar (the god Siva), Deshmukh and Chaudhari, headman, Hazari (a
leader of 1000 horse), Gore (fair-coloured), Dongardiya (a lamp on a
hill), Pinjara (a cotton-cleaner), Gadria (a shepherd), Khaparia (a
tyler), Khawasi (a barber), Chiknya (a sycophant), Kinkar (a slave),
Dukhi (penurious), Suplya toplya (a basket and fan maker), Kasai (a
butcher), Gohattya (a cow-killer), and Kalebhut (black devil). Among
the territorial sections may be mentioned Sonpuria, from Sonpur,
and Patharia, from the hill country. The name Badnagrya is also
really territorial, being derived from the town of Badnagar, but
the members of the section connect it with the _bad_ or banyan tree,
the leaves of which they refrain from eating. Two other totemistic
gotras are the Baranga and Baignya, derived from the _barang_ plant
(_Kydia calycina_) and from the brinjal respectively. Some sections
have the names of Rajput septs, as Chauhan, Parihar and Panwar. This
curiously mixed list of family names appears to indicate that the
Bhoyars originate from a small band of Rajputs who must have settled
in the District about the fifteenth century as military colonists,
and taken their wives from the people of the country. They may have
subsequently been recruited by fresh bands of immigrants who have
preserved a slightly higher status. They have abandoned their old high
position, and now rank below the ordinary cultivating castes like
Kunbis and Kurmis who arrived later; while the caste has probably
in times past also been recruited to a considerable extent by the
admission of families of outsiders.