_Pasi, Passi._ [426]--A Dravidian occupational caste of northern
India, whose hereditary employment is the tapping of the palmyra,
date and other palm trees for their sap. The name is derived from the
Sanskrit _pashika_, 'One who uses a noose,' and the Hindi, _pas_ or
_pasa_, a noose. It is a curious fact that when the first immigrant
Parsis from Persia landed in Gujarat they took to the occupation
of tapping palm trees, and the poorer of them still follow it. The
resemblance in the name, however, can presumably be nothing more than
a coincidence. The total strength of the Pasis in India is about a
million and a half persons, nearly all of whom belong to the United
Provinces and Bihar. In the Central Provinces they number 3500, and
reside principally in the Jubbulpore and Hoshangabad Districts. The
caste is now largely occupational, and is connected with the Bhars,
Arakhs, Khatiks and other Dravidian groups of low status. But in the
past they seem to have been of some importance in Oudh. "All through
Oudh," Mr. Crooke states, "they have traditions that they were lords of
the country, and that their kings reigned in the Districts of Kheri,
Hardoi and Unao. Ramkot, where the town of Bangarmau in Unao now
stands, is said to have been one of their chief strongholds. The last
of the Pasi lords of Ramkot, Raja Santhar, threw off his allegiance
to Kanauj and refused to pay tribute. On this Raja Jaichand gave his
country to the Banaphar heroes Alha and Udal, and they attacked and
destroyed Ramkot, leaving it the shapeless mass of ruins which it now
is." Similar traditions prevail in other parts of Oudh. It is also
recorded that the Rajpasis, the highest division of the caste, claim
descent from Tilokchand, the eponymous hero of the Bais Rajputs. It
would appear then that the Pasis were a Dravidian tribe who held a part
of Oudh before it was conquered by the Rajputs. As the designation
of Pasi is an occupational term and is derived from the Sanskrit,
it would seem that the tribe must formerly have had some other name,
or they may be an occupational offshoot of the Bhars. In favour of this
suggestion it may be noted that the Bhars also have strong traditions
of their former dominance in Oudh. Thus Sir C. Elliott states in his
_Chronicles of Unao_ [427] that after the close of the heroic age,
when Ajodhya was held by the Surajvansi Rajputs under the great Rama,
we find after an interval of historic darkness that Ajodhya has been
destroyed, the Surajvansis utterly banished, and a large extent of
country is being ruled over by aborigines called Cheros in the far
east, Bhars in the centre and Rajpasis in the west. Again, in Kheri
the Pasis always claim kindred with the Bhars, [428] and in Mirzapur
[429] the local Pasis represent the Bhars as merely a subcaste of
their own tribe, though this is denied by the Bhars themselves. It
seems therefore a not improbable hypothesis that the Pasis and perhaps
also the kindred tribe of Arakhs are functional groups formed from the
Bhar tribe. For a discussion of the early history of this important
tribe the reader must be referred to Mr. Crooke's excellent article.