The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India Volume I Part 44

In some localities those members of an impure caste such as the Mahars, who hold the office of village watchman, obtain a certain rise in status on account of the office, and show a tendency to marry among themselves. Similarly persons of the impure Ganda caste, who joined the Kabirpanthi sect and now form a separate and somewhat higher caste under the name of Panka, usually work as village watchmen in preference to the Gandas. Under British rule the kotwar has been retained as a village policeman, and his pay increased and generally fixed in cash. Besides patrolling the village, he has to report all cognisable crime at the nearest police post as well as births and deaths occurring in the village, and must give general a.s.sistance to the regular police in the detection of crime. Kotwar is used in Saugor as a synonym for the Chadar caste. It is also a subcaste of the Kori caste.

_Kowa_.--(A crow.) A section of Tamera and of Gond in Chanda.

_Koya_ A subtribe of Gond in Bastar.

_Koyudu_.--A synonym of Gond in Chanda used by Telugus.

_Kramikul_.--A section of Komti. They do not use the black radish.

_Kshatriya_.--Name of the second Hindu cla.s.sical caste or the warrior caste. Synonym for Rajput.

_Kshirsagar_.--(Ocean of Milk.) A section of Panwar Rajput, and a proper name of Maratha Brahmans.

_Kuch_.--(A weaver's brush.) A section of Raghuvansi Rajputs in Hoshangabad.

_Kuchbandhia_, _Kunchbandhia_.--(A maker of weavers' brushes.) Synonym and subcaste of Beldar in Chhattisgarh.

_Kudaiya_.--(_Kodon_, a small millet.) A section of Ahir.

_Kudappa_.--A sept of Gonds in Raipur and Khairagarh.

_Kudarbohna_.--A Hindu Bhana.

_Kudaria_.--(_Kudali_, a pickaxe.) A section of the Bharia tribe.

_Kukra_.--(A dog.) A totemistic sept of Bhatra Gonds. A section of k.u.mhar.

_Kukuta_.--(c.o.c.k.) A sept of Gonds in Raipur.

_Kulatia_.--A section of Basor. From _kulara_, a somersault, because they perform somersaults at the time of the _maihir_ ceremony, or eating the marriage cakes.

_Kuldip_.--(The lamp of the family.) A section of Panka in Raipur.

_Kuldiya_.--(Those who stop eating if the lamp goes out at supper.) A section of Ghasia.

_Kulin_.--(Of high caste.) A well-known cla.s.s of Bengali Brahmans. A subdivision of Uriya Mahantis. A section of Panka.

_Kulshreshta_.--(Of good family.) A subcaste of Kayasth.

_k.u.man_.--Subcaste of Barai.

_k.u.marrha_ or _k.u.marra_.--(A bird.) A sept of Sahdeve or six-G.o.d Gonds. In Betul the members of this sept do not eat or kill a goat or sheep, and throw away any article smelt by one.

_k.u.marshishta_.--A section of Komti. They do not use _mehndi_ or henna leaves.

_k.u.mbhar_.--(Potter.) Marathi synonym for k.u.mhar. A section of Ganda and Bhulia.

_k.u.mbhoj_.--(Born of a pitcher, a Rishi or saint.) An eponymous section of Agharia.

_k.u.mbhira_.--(Crocodile.) A totemistic sept of Bhulia.

_k.u.mbhwar_.--(_k.u.mbh_, a pot.) A surname of Gandli in Chanda.

_k.u.mharbans_.--(Descended from a potter.) A section of Ghasia.

_k.u.mrayete_.--(_Yete_, a goat.) A sept of the Uika clan of Sahdeve or six-G.o.d Gonds in Betul. They do not eat goats, and are said to have offered human sacrifices in ancient times.

_Kunbi_.--A caste. Subcaste of Dangri, Gondhali and Maratha.

_k.u.mrawat, [461] Patbina, Dangur_.--A small caste of _san_-hemp growers and weavers of sacking. They are called k.u.mrawat in the northern Districts and Patbina (_pat patti_, sacking, and _binna_, to weave) in Chhattisgarh. A small colony of hemp-growers in the Betul District are known as Dangur, probably from the _dang_ or wooden steelyard which they use for weighing hemp. Both the k.u.mrawats and Dangurs claim Rajput origin, and may be cla.s.sed together. The caste of Barais or betel-vine growers have a subcaste called k.u.mrawat, and the k.u.mrawats may be an offshoot of the Barais, who split off from the parent body on taking to the cultivation of hemp. As most Hindu castes have until recently refused to grow hemp, the k.u.mrawats are often found concentrated in single villages. Thus a number of Patbinas reside in Darri, a village in the Khujji zamindari of Raipur, while the Dangurs are almost all found in the village of Masod in Betul; in Jubbulpore Khapa is their princ.i.p.al centre, and in Seoni the village of Deori. The three divisions of the caste known by the names given above marry, as a rule, among themselves. For their exogamous groups the Dangurs have usually the names of different Rajput septs, the k.u.mrawats have territorial names, and those of the Patbinas are derived from inanimate objects, though they have no totemistic practices.

The number of girls in the caste is usually insufficient, and hence they are married at a very early age. The boy's father, accompanied by a few friends, goes to the girl's father and addresses a proposal for marriage to him in the following terms: "You have planted a tamarind tree which has borne fruit. I don't know whether you will catch the fruit before it falls to the ground if I strike it with my stick." The girl's father, if he approves of the match, says in reply, 'Why should I not catch it?' and the proposal for the marriage is then made. The ceremony follows the customary ritual in the northern Districts. When the family G.o.ds are worshipped, the women sit round a grinding-stone and invite the ancestors of the family by name to attend the wedding, at the same time placing a little cowdung in one of the interstices of the stone. When they have invited all the names they can remember they plaster up the remaining holes, saying, 'We can't recollect any more names.' This appears to be a precaution intended to imprison any spirits which may have been forgotten, and to prevent them from exercising an evil influence on the marriage in revenge for not having been invited. Among the Dangurs the bride and bridegroom go to worship at Hanuman's shrine after the ceremony, and all along the way the bride beats the bridegroom with a tamarind twig. The dead are both buried and burnt, and mourning is observed during a period of ten days for adults and of three days for children. But if another child has been born to the mother after the one who has died, the full period of mourning must be observed for the latter; because it is said that in this case the mother does not tear off her _sari_ or body-cloth to make a winding-sheet for the child as she does when her latest baby dies. The k.u.mrawats both grow and weave hemp, though they have no longer anything like a monopoly of its cultivation. They make the _gons_ or double bags used for carrying grain on bullocks. In Chhattisgarh the status of the Patbinas is low, and no castes except the most debased will take food or water from them. The k.u.mrawats of Jubbulpore occupy a somewhat more respectable position and take rank with Kachhis, though below the good cultivating castes. The Dangurs of Betul will take food from the hands of the Kunbis.

_k.u.mrayete_.--(_Yete_, a goat.) A sept of the Uika clan of Sahdeve or six-G.o.d Gonds in Betul. They do not eat goats, and are said to have offered human sacrifices in ancient times.

_Kunbi_.--A caste. Subcaste of Dangri, Gondhali and Maratha.

_Kundera_.--A caste. A subcaste of the Larhia Beldars.

_Kundera_, _Kharadi_.--A small caste of wood-turners akin to the Barhais or carpenters. In 1911 the caste numbered 120 persons, princ.i.p.ally in Saugor. When asked for the name of their caste they not infrequently say that they are Rajputs; but they allow widows to remarry, and their social customs and position are generally the same as those of the Barhais. Both names of the caste are functional, being derived from the Hindi _kund_, and the Arabic _kharat_, a lathe. Some of them abstain from flesh and liquor, and wear the sacred thread, merely with a view to improve their social position. The Kunderas make toys from the _dudhi_ (_Holarrhena antidysenterica_) and huqqa stems from the wood of the _khair_ or catechu tree. The toys are commonly lacquered, and the surface is smoothed with a dried leaf of the _kevara_ tree. [462] They also make chessmen, wooden flutes and other articles.

_Kundgolakar_.--A subdivision of degraded Maratha Brahmans, the offspring of adulterous connections.

_Kunjam_.--A sept of Solaha in Raipur. A section of Basor and Bhunjia. A sept of Gond and Pardhan.

_Kunnatya_--(Rope-dancer.) A name applied to Nats.

_Kunti_ or _Kunte_.--(_Kunti_, lame.) A subcaste of Kapewar, synonym Bhiksha Kunti or lame beggars.

_Kunwar_.--(Prince.) A t.i.tle of Rajput ruling families. A section of Rajput and Kawar.

_Kura Sasura_.--Husband's elder brother. t.i.tle of Kharia.

_Kurathiya_, _Kuratia_.--(From _kur_, a fowl, which they have given up eating.) A subtribe of Gonds in Khairagarh.

_Kurha_ or _Sethia_.--t.i.tle of the Sonkar caste headman.

_Kurkere_.--One who moulds his vessels on a stone slab revolving on a stick and not on a wheel. Subcaste of k.u.mhar.

_Kurmeta_.--A sept of Gonds in Chanda.

_Kurmgutia_.--(From _kurm_, tortoise.) A section of Mahar.

_Kurmi_.--A caste. A subcaste of Agharia in the Uriya country. A subcaste of Barai. A sept of Pardhan. A section of Mahar.

_Kurochi_.--(_Kur_, hen.) A sept of the Uika clan of Sahdeve or six-G.o.d Gonds in Betul, so named because their priest once stole a hen.

_Kurpachi_.--(_Kur_, hen.) A sept of the Uika clan of Gonds in Betul, so named because their priest offered the contents of a hen's intestines to the G.o.ds.