The following account of the industries of the vagrant Kanjars was
written by Mr. Nesfield in 1883. In the Central Provinces many of
them are now more civilised, and some are employed in Government
service. Their women also make and retail string-net purses, balls
and other articles.
"Among the arts of the Kanjar are making mats of the sirki reed,
baskets of wattled cane, fans of palm-leaves and rattles of plaited
straw: these last are now sold to Hindu children as toys, though
originally they may have been used by the Kanjars themselves (if we
are to trust to the analogy of other backward races) as sacred and
mysterious implements. From the stalks of the munj grass and from
the roots of the palas [327] tree they make ropes which are sold or
bartered to villagers in exchange for grain and milk. They prepare the
skins of which drums are made and sell them to Hindu musicians; though,
probably, as in the case of the rattle, the drum was originally used
by the Kanjars themselves and worshipped as a fetish; for even the
Aryan tribes, who are said to have been far more advanced than the
indigenous races, sang hymns in honour of the drum or dundubhi as
if it were something sacred. They make plates of broad leaves which
are ingeniously stitched together by their stalks; and plates of
this kind are very widely used by the inferior Indian castes and by
confectioners and sellers of sweetmeats. The mats of sirki reed with
which they cover their own movable leaf huts are models of neatness
and simplicity and many of these are sold to cart-drivers. The toddy
or juice of the palm tree, which they extract and ferment by methods
of their own and partly for their own use, finds a ready sale among
low-caste Hindus in villages and market towns. They are among the
chief stone-cutters in Upper India, especially in the manufacture
of the grinding-mill which is very widely used. This consists of
two circular stones of equal diameter; the upper one, which is the
thicker and heavier, revolves on a wooden pivot fixed in the centre
of the lower one and is propelled by two women, each holding the
same handle. But it is also not less frequent for one woman to grind
alone." It is perhaps not realised what this business of grinding her
own grain instead of buying flour means to the Indian woman. She rises
before daybreak to commence the work, and it takes her perhaps two
or three hours to complete the day's provision. Grain-grinding for
hire is an occupation pursued by poor women. The pisanhari, as she
is called, receives an anna (penny) for grinding 16 lbs. of grain,
and can get through 30 lbs. a day. In several localities temples are
shown supposed to have been built by some pious pisanhari from her
earnings. "The Kanjars," Mr. Nesfield continues, "also gather the
white wool-like fibre which grows in the pods of the semal or Indian
cotton tree and twist it into thread for the use of weavers. [328]
In the manufacture of brushes for the cleaning of cotton-yarn the
Kanjars enjoy almost a complete monopoly. In these brushes a stiff
mass of horsehair is attached to a wooden handle by sinews and strips
of hide; and the workmanship is remarkably neat and durable. [329]
Another complete or almost complete monopoly enjoyed by Kanjars
is the collection and sale of sweet-scented roots of the khas-khas
grass, which are afterward made up by the Chhaparbands and others
into door-screens, and through being continually watered cool the
hot air which passes through them. The roots of this wild grass,
which grows in most abundance on the outskirts of forests or near
the banks of rivers, are dug out of the earth by an instrument
called khunti. This has a handle three feet long, and a blade about
a foot long resembling that of a knife. The same implement serves as
a dagger or short spear for killing wolves or jackals, as a tool for
carving a secret entrance through the clay wall of a villager's hut in
which a burglary is meditated, as a spade or hoe for digging snakes,
field-rats, and lizards out of their holes, and edible roots out of
the earth, and as a hatchet for chopping wood."