The caste are generally weavers, producing coarse country cloth, and a
number of them serve as village watchmen, while others are cultivators
and labourers. They will not grow _san_-hemp nor breed tasar silk
cocoons. They are somewhat poorly esteemed by their neighbours, who say
of them, 'Where a Panka can get a little boiled rice and a pumpkin,
he will stay for ever,' meaning that he is satisfied with this and
will not work to get more. Another saying is, 'The Panka felt brave
and thought he would go to war; but he set out to fight a frog and was
beaten'; and another, 'Every man tells one lie a day; but the Ahir
tells sixteen, the Chamar twenty, and the lies of the Panka cannot
be counted.' Such gibes, however, do not really mean much. Owing to
the abstinence of the Pankas from flesh and liquor they rank above
the Gandas and other impure castes. In Bilaspur they are generally
held to be quiet and industrious. [368] In Chhattisgarh the Pankas
are considered above the average in intelligence and sometimes act
as spokesmen for the village people and as advisers to zamindars and
village proprietors. Some of them become religious mendicants and
act as _gurus_ or preceptors to Kabirpanthis. [369]