==============+========
Districts. | Number.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~~
Dehra Dûn | 8
Sahâranpur | 33
Muzaffarnagar | 21
Meerut | 395
Bulandshahr | 11
Aligarh | 148
Mathura | 956
Agra | 316
Farrukhâbâd | 28
Mainpuri | 106
Etâwah | 247
Etah | 3
Budâun | 13
Morâdâbâd | 258
Shâhjahânpur | 4
Cawnpur | 495
Fatehpur | 860
Bânda | 470
Hamîrpur | 535
Allahâbâd | 69
Jhânsi | 4,020
Jâlaun | 121
Lalitpur | 696
Benares | 75
Mirzapur | 212
Jaunpur | 703
Ghâzipur | 24
Gorakhpur | 19
Basti | 373
Lucknow | 864
Sîtapur | 31
Kheri | 1
Faizâbâd | 30
Gonda | 37
Bahrâich | 36
Sultânpur | 260
Partâbgarh | 1
+~~~~~~~
Total |12,497
==============+=======
Dikhit; Dikhshit (Sans. dikhshita, “initiated, consecrated”), a
functional division of Brâhmans.—“The priest specially employed to
initiate a Hindu boy into the performance of his religious duties, and
to give him the second birth is called a Dikhshit. The word is simply a
corruption of Dikhshitri, “one who initiates.” It is only boys of the
upper castes, that is those who are called “the twice-born” (dvija) who
are entitled to the privilege of Diksha. But Brâhmanism has for the
last thousand years and more been steadily descending into lower and
lower strata of the population, absorbing one indigenous tribe after
another; and hence the possession of this privilege cannot now be
considered a mark of twice-born ancestry. The orthodox age for
undergoing the rite of diksha is on the completion of the seventh year.
The Hindu book of ceremonies, known as Karam Kand, calls it the eighth,
but the figure is raised to eight by counting the nine months preceding
birth as an additional year. At the present day the orthodox age is not
always observed, and a boy can be initiated a year or two after if it
suits the convenience of the parents to postpone incurring the
expenditure which these rites entail. A boy, whatever his parentage may
be, is not a full Hindu until the diksha has been performed. Up till
then he is little better than a Sûdra or unregenerated person. But on
and after that day he incurs the religious responsibilities to which
his parents have all along intended to dedicate him, as a Christian boy
does by the double rite of baptism and confirmation. Girls are never
initiated as boys are; and thus a high caste woman who marries a man of
the Sûdra rank cannot but become a Sûdra herself. This, I suspect, is
the real explanation of the abhorrence felt by Hindus to a woman being
married into a caste lower than her own. The same abhorrence has never
been felt to a “twice-born” man marrying or cohabiting with a Sûdra
woman; for the woman can rise to the rank of her husband, but as she
has never been initiated she cannot raise the husband to her own. Thus
in Manu’s Code a Brâhman was allowed to take a Sûdra woman into his
house; but if a Sûdra man married a Brâhman woman, the son became a
Chandâla, a sinful and abominable wretch.
2. “The entire ceremony of diksha lasts some eight or nine days.
Throughout those days the boy is put upon a very strict diet, and
undergoes a vigorous course of ablutions. He is bathed regularly at
certain hours; after the bath mustard and oil are rubbed all over his
body, and he then undergoes a second bath to wash them all off again.
All this time he should wear nothing, day or night, but a string of the
sacred grass called kusa, which is tied round his waist and to which a
narrow cloth, called langoti, is attached, fastened between the legs
before and behind. Meanwhile the usual homa offerings are thrown on the
sacred fire by priests of the Hotri class, who have been summoned for
this purpose. When the last and the greatest of the homa offerings has
been made, the sacred thread (upavîta, janeû) is thrown over the left
shoulder of the boy by the Dikshit, and the first act of the initiation
is completed. The Dikshit then throws a cloth over his own and the
boy’s head, and under cover of this cloth he instils into his ear (in
the undertone so that no profane ears may catch what he says) the
Gâyatri and all the other sacred verses which a Hindu should utter on
stated occasions every day of his life. The repetition of all these
verses, and especially the Gâyatri, which is repeated first,
constitutes the closing ceremony by which the boy is formally initiated
into the rites of Hinduism. The boy must have heard and seen something
of these rites beforehand through living with his parents; but until he
has been formally initiated, and this by a Brâhman competent to
discharge the office, he is a mere heathen. For some weeks after the
conclusion of the ceremony the Dikshit remains with the novitiate so as
to help him to perform the several daily rites and make him
sufficiently perfect to be left to himself; and after leaving him he
continues to be his spiritual adviser for the rest of his life whenever
such advice may be required.” [333] The rite is obviously analogous to
the similar initiatory ceremonies which prevail among various primitive
races. [334]
Dikhit; Dikhshit (Sans. dikhshita, “initiated, consecrated”), a
powerful sept of Râjputs.—The traditions of the sept [335] relate that
they are descended from the Sûrajbansi Râjas who for fifty-one
generations ruled over Ajudhya. In the fifty-first generation from
Ikshwâku, Râja Durgavâhu left Ajudhya and emigrated to Gujarât, where
his descendants took the title of Durgbans after their founder. In the
twenty-fourth generation from him Kalyân Sâh Durgbans went to pay
homage to Râja Vikramaditya, the great King of Ujjain, the supreme
monarch of India. From him (about 50 B.C.) he received the title of
Dikhit, which his descendants bore instead of Durgbans. For many years
they remained stationary in Gujarât, and at the time when the kingdom
of Kanauj was at its zenith Balbhadra Dikhit took service with the
Râthaur Râja, and his grandson Jaswant saw the death of the Râja of
Kanauj and the destruction of the power and family of his benefactor.
The name of Balbhadra’s father was Samapradhân, which is a singular
name for a Râjput, and suggests a reason why the Dikhits do not rank so
high in the precedence table as they ought to do if their tradition was
correct. Pradhân was the old name for a Registrar (Qânûngo), which
office was only given to Kâyasths. There may be some intermixture of
Kâyasth blood which spoils the purity of their Sûrajbans descent. It is
curious that in the two sets of villages bordering on old Dikhtiyâna
and now held by Dikhits, there are traditions that the land once
belonged to Kâyasths, who, when hard pressed by their enemies, obtained
help from the Dikhits by ceding part of their villages to them. If the
above hypothesis be true, the Kâyasths in this case only called in
their own distant kindred. Jaswant Sinh had four sons, the eldest of
whom remained in Samoni, and his descendants possess the estate to this
day. The second, Udhaybhân, migrated into Oudh and colonized the
district of Dikhtiyâna. The third, Banwâri, went still further north,
crossing the Ghâgra and Râpti, and, choosing a safe retreat in the
sub-Himalayan forests, founded there the great Sirnet Râj of Bânsi. The
fourth, Khairâj, migrated to the east, and, settling down in the
district of Partâbgarh, took the town of Bilkhar, whence his
descendants are known as Bilkhariyas. The further fortunes of the sept
are given in great detail by Sir C. Elliott.
2. The Dikhtiyâna territory is said to have extended from the borders
of Baiswâra on the east, to Sandi Pâli on the west, and from the Gomati
to the Ganges, including fourteen parganas. Whatever be their claim to
an extensive dominion in the west, there can be no doubt that during
this period the Dikhit Râja held a very high position in the country,
and that this was the time when Dikhtiyâna became famous as a
geographical expression. The list of marriages preserved by the bard
proves this, containing, as it does, the names of the daughters of the
Jângra Râja of Dhaurahra, the Bachgoti of Korar, the Gautam of Argal,
the Bandhalgoti of Garh Amethi, and the Bisen of Mânikpur. With an Oudh
Râjput it is always an object of ambition to marry his daughters into a
family of a higher rank and position than his own, whatever the
attendant expense may be. The chiefs of Eastern Oudh make it their
ambition to marry their daughters only into the great Kachhwâha and
Chauhân clans of Mainpuri and Etâwah; that they should have chosen the
Râja of Dikhtiyâna for their son-in-law is a proof that at that time
his rank and influence were as great as those of the older Western
Râjas are now.
[The Dikhits of the North-west Provinces.] 3. The sept in pargana
Pachotar of Ghâzipur [336] is called from the country they occupy
Pachtoriya. They claim to be Sûrajbansis of Ajudhya, whence they
emigrated to Gujarât. The Ghâzipur branch say that they came from
Bulandshahr about twenty generations ago, and now occupy nearly the
whole of the Pachotar pargana. In Azamgarh [337] they have been
dispossessed of most of their property by the Birwârs. There is another
Azamgarh sept known as Dikhitwâr, who are probably their kindred. They
say that their ancestors came from somewhere in the west and occupied
untenanted land, where the sept now resides. According to Sir H. M.
Elliot, they give their daughters in marriage to the Sombansi,
Raghubansi, Gaharwâr, and Bais, and take brides from the Sengar,
Donwâr, and Kausik septs. In Oudh they have recently been allied only
with neighbouring clans—Sengar, Sakarwâr, Raikwâr, Janwâr, etc., and
infanticide used to be the general rule of the sept.
[Marriage connections.] 4. In Unâo the Dikhits generally give brides to
the Chauhân, Bhadauriya, Kachhwâha, Sengar, and Râthaur septs beyond
the Ganges, and occasionally to the Panwâr: they generally marry their
sons in the Janwâr, Bisen, Mahror, Gautam or Chauhân septs of the
district, Sombansi, Raghubansi, Amethiya, Gaharwâr, Kath, Bais, Gahlot,
Panwâr, or Solankhi septs.
DISTRIBUTION OF THE DIKHIT RÂJPUTS ACCORDING
TO THE CENSUS OF 1891.
==============+========
Districts. | Number.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~+~~~~~~~~
Sahâranpur | 12
Bulandshahr | 2
Mathura | 7
Agra | 9
Farrukhâbâd | 7
Mainpuri | 32
Etâwah | 117
Etah | 2
Bareilly | 36
Budâun | 30
Morâdâbâd | 219
Shâhjahânpur | 14
Cawnpur | 868
Fatehpur | 5,560
Bânda | 8,159
Hamîrpur | 3,546
Allahâbâd | 813
Jhânsi | 369
Jâlaun | 55
Lalitpur | 4
Benares | 532
Mirzapur | 162
Jaunpur | 799
Ghâzipur |15,176
Ballia | 1,090
Gorakhpur | 3,613
Azamgarh | 5,158
Lucknow | 984
Unâo | 9,024
Râê Bareli | 2,099
Sîtapur | 299
Hardoi | 284
Kheri | 222
Faizâbâd | 13
Gonda | 5
Bahrâich | 69
Sultânpur | 364
Partâbgarh | 593
Bârabanki | 410
+~~~~~~
Total |60,727
==============+======
Diwâna, “those possessed of an evil spirit (dev, div), mad”,—a term
applied in these Provinces to an order of Muhammadan faqîrs, who have
not been separately enumerated in the returns of the last Census.
In the Panjâb they are Hindus, wear uncut hair, a necklace of shells,
and a large feather in their turbans. There is a considerable colony of
them in connection with the shrine of the saint Qâsim Sulaimâni, near
the fort of Chunâr, in the Mirzapur district.
2. Those at Chunâr call themselves the disciples of one Jamâl Diwâna.
Boys are usually initiated into the order at the age of twelve. His
friends take the candidate to the head faqîr of the order, who
says,—“Are you ready to drink of my cup (piyâla) and obey me in all
things?” If he agrees five articles of dress of an ochre colour are
prepared for him, viz., a head covering (pheta), a robe (kafani), a
neck handkerchief (guluband), and waist cloths (lung, langot). A barber
is sent for and his head completely shaved; he is bathed and invested
with the garments of the order. Then the Murshid or preceptor sits
facing the north, and the Murîd or disciple opposite him. An earthen
cup containing one and-a-quarter sers of sharbat made of sugar and
water is brought. First the Murshid recites the Dârûd or benediction
and drinks a little. Then he passes it to the Murîd, who drinks, and
while doing so keeps his eyes fixed on the Murshid. During this part of
the rite he must not even wink. The Murshid then says to him,—“I am now
responsible for your sins. Take care and fix your attention on me. Do
not close your eyes.” When he has drank the draught the Murshid gives
him a necklace made of jaitun wood or of earth from Makka known as khâk
safa or of the seed of the Canna Indica (‘aqîq’ l-bahr), a handkerchief
of ochre-coloured cloth, a thin walking stick made of the wood of the
peach tree (âru), and a wooden begging bowl (kajkol). With this he begs
from all the company. He also receives a wooden scraper (phâora), which
he ties to his waist. This over, he salutes the other members of the
order present in the word Miyân; and they reply Haqq Miyân. When he is
thus initiated he gets a station (takya), and the Sajjâda-nashin or
Abbot gives him daily for his food two cakes in the morning and three
in the evening with some pulse. If the disciple does not care to live
in the Dargâh or head-quarters of the order, he can remain with his
friends by leave of the Murshid. Those who live in the Dargâh remain
celibate; if they live with their friends they can marry.
[Domestic rites.] The non-celibate members of the order marry according
to the regular Musalmân formula. The dowry (mahr) is generally fixed at
fifty-one thousand rupees. Women in child-birth are secluded for forty
days; a fire is kept lighting in the room—and she is watched by her
female friends, a custom known as Qâzi Sâhib ki chauki. In their death
customs they conform to the usual Muhammadan ritual.
4. The Diwânas are a useless set of beggars and not held in much
estimation by any one.
Dogar,—a Panjâbi tribe who have emigrated in small numbers into the
western districts of these Provinces. Of them Mr. Brandreth writes in
his Fîrozpur Settlement Report [338]:—
“The Dogars are supposed to be converted Chauhân Râjputs from the
neighbourhood of Delhi. They migrated first to the neighbourhood of Pâk
Pattan, whence they spread gradually along the banks of the Sutlej, and
entered the Fîrozpur district about one hundred years ago. The Fîrozpur
Dogars are all descended from a common ancestor named Bahlol, but they
are called Mâhu Dogars, from Mâhu, the grandfather of Bahlol. Bahlol
had three sons, Bambu, Langar, and Sammu. The Dogars of Fîrozpur and
Mullanwâla are the descendants of Bambu; those of Khai the descendants
of Langar; the descendants of Sammu live in the Qasûr territory. There
are many other sub-castes of the Dogars in other districts along the
banks of the Sutlej, as the Parchat, the Topara, the Chopara, etc. The
Chopara Dogars occupy Mandot. The Fîrozpur Dogars consider themselves
superior in rank and descent to the other sub-castes. They are very
particular to whom they give their daughters in marriage, though they
take wives from all the other families. At one time infanticide is said
to have prevailed among them, but I do not think there is much trace of
it at the present day.
2. Sir H. Lawrence, who knew the Dogars well, writes of them that they
are “tall, handsome, and sinewy, and are remarkable for having almost
without exception, large, aquiline noses; they are fanciful and
violent, and tenacious of what they consider their rights, though
susceptible to kindness, and not wanting in courage, they appear to
have been always troublesome subjects, and too fond of their own free
form of life to willingly take service as soldiers. The Jewish face
which is found among the Dogars, and in which they resemble the
Afghâns, is very remarkable, and makes it probable that there is very
little Chauhân blood in their veins, notwithstanding the fondness with
which they attempt to trace their connection with that ancient family
of Râjputs. Like the Gûjars and Naipâlis they are great thieves, and
prefer pasturing cattle to cultivating. Their favourite crime is
cattle-stealing. There are, however, some respectable persons among
them, especially in the Fîrozpur Ilâqa. It is only within the last few
years that the principal Dogars have begun to wear any covering for the
head; formerly the whole population, as is the case with the poor
classes still, wore their long hair over their shoulders without any
covering either of sheet or turban. Notwithstanding the difference of
physiognomy, however, the Dogars preserve evident traces of some
connection with the Hindus in most of their family customs, in which
they resemble the Hindus much more than the orthodox Muhammadans.”
3. Mr. Ibbetson adds:—“The Râjput origin of the Dogars is probably very
doubtful, and is strenuously denied by their Râjput neighbours, though
I believe that Dogar or perhaps Doghar (doghla, probably Persian
daghol, dagh, “a stain”) is used in some parts of the Province to
denote one of mixed blood. Another derivation of the name is doghgar or
“milkman.” The Dogars seem to be originally a pastoral rather than an
agricultural tribe, and still to retain a strong liking for cattle,
whether their own or other people’s. They are often classed with
Gûjars, whom they much resemble in their habits. In Lahore and Fîrozpur
they are notorious cattle thieves, but further north they seem to have
settled down and become peaceful husbandmen. They are not good
cultivators. Their social standing seems to be about that of a low
class Râjput; they are practically all Musalmâns. Their chief clans in
the Panjâb are Mattar; China; Tagra; Mâhu, and Chokra.” In these
Provinces they are all Musalmâns.