The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India Part 41

_Karwar_.--(An oar.) A section of Dangi in Damoh. A section of Kawar.

_Kasai_.--A caste of butchers. Name applied to Banjaras.

_Kasar_.--A caste. A subdivision of Audhia Sunar. A section of Kewat.

_Kasarwani_.--A subcaste of Bania.

_Kasaundhan_.--A subcaste of Bania.

_Kasda_.--(One who hides himself in the bed of the river.) A sept of Korku; a man of this sept has the privilege of directing the ceremony for the readmission of an outcaste.

_Kasdhonia_.--A subcaste of Dhimar. They wash the sand in the sacred rivers for coins thrown there by pilgrims, and dive into water to find lost ornaments or gold.

_Kasera_.--Synonym of Kasar.

_Kashi_.--(Benares.) A section of Agharia, Ahir, Dhuri, Kewat, Kurmi and Mali.

_Kashyap_.--Name of a famous Rishi or saint. The name may perhaps be really derived from _kachhap_, a tortoise. One of the common eponymous sections of Brahmans. Also a section of Barai, Bari, Beldar, Bharbhunja, Bhulia, Binjhwar, Chandnahu Kurmi, Gond, Jangam, Joshi, Kalar, Kasar, Kasarwani Bania, Khangar, Nai, Rajput, Sunar. Some castes say that they are all of the Kashyap _gotra_ or section, the tortoise being considered a common ancestor of mankind, because it supports the world.

_Kasia_.--(Kansa, or bell-metal.) A section of Chamar. They draw a picture of a bell-metal dish at their weddings.

_Kasondhi_.--A subcaste of Bania.

_Ka.s.sab, Ka.s.sia_.--(A butcher.) Synonym of Kasai.

_Kast_.--A small caste found in the Maratha Districts and Bombay, who appear to be a separate or inferior group of the Kayasths. In Chanda they work as patwaris and clerks to moneylenders, while some are merchants and landholders. Like the Kayasths, they wash their pens and inkstands on the Dasahra festival and worship them. Their princ.i.p.al deity is the G.o.d Venkatesh, a Maratha incarnation of Vishnu. In Bombay the Kasts claim to be Yajur-Vedi Brahmans, dress like them and keep the regular Brahman ceremonies. [454] But they are considered to be half Marathas and half Brahmans, and strict Deshasth and Kokanasth Brahmans hold their touch unclean. [455]

_Katare_.--(_Katar_, dagger.) A surname of Sanadhya Brahmans in Saugor. A section of Agarwal and Oswal Bania, Chhattisgarhi Ahir or Rawat, Chadar and Basor. The Katare sept of Basors worship a dagger.

_Katharia_.--(From Kathibar, the old name of eastern Rohilkhand.) A section of Gadaria and Kasar.

_Kathbhaina_;--Subcaste of Baiga in Bilaspur.

_Kathi_.--A Rajput clan included in the thirty-six royal races of Rajputs. Originally an indigenous tribe of Gujarat, who gave their name to Kathiawar.

_Kathia_.--Name of an Akhara or school of Bairagi religious mendicants. See Bairagi.

_Kathotia_.--(_Kathotia_, a wooden bowl.) A section of Darzi.

_Kati_ or _Khatti_.--Subcaste of Bhuiya.

_Katia_.--A cast of spinners. A subcaste of Balahi and Mahar.

_Kattri_.--Subcaste of Are.

_Katwa_.--(From _Katna_, to cut.) Synonym of Katia and Chamar.

_Kaur_.--Synonym of Kawar.

_Kaushalya_.--(From Koshal, the name of a famous Rishi or saint.) A section of Agarwal Bania, Darzi, Lodhi and Khatri Sunar.

_Kaushik_.--The name of a Rishi or saint. An eponymous section of Brahmans. A section of Ahir, Dhobi, Rajput, Sunar and other castes.

_Kaviraj_.--t.i.tle of a Bhat who has the qualification of literacy, and can therefore read the old Sanskrit medical works. A physician.

_Kayasth Patwa_.--A subcaste of Patwa in Hoshangabad and Saugor.

_Kekre_.--Subcaste of Gujar.

_Kesaria_.--(From _kesar_, saffron.) A section of Ahir and Gadaria.

_Kewat_.--A caste. A subcaste of Dhimar and Mallah.

_Khad_.--Subcaste of Mana.

_Khadal_.--A caste of palanquin-carriers.

_Khadal_ [456] (honorific t.i.tles _Nayak_ and _Behera_).--A small Dravidian caste of labourers in the Uriya country. In 1901 they numbered 1200 persons and resided princ.i.p.ally in the Patna and Sonpur States now transferred to Bengal. The Khadals are probably an offshoot of the great Bauri caste of Bengal, with which the members of the caste in Patna admitted their ident.i.ty, though elsewhere they deny it. Their traditional occupations of palanquin-bearing and field labour are identical with those of the Bauris, as stated by Sir H. Risley. [457] The name Khadal is a functional one, denoting persons who work with a hoe. The Khadals have totemistic exogamous groups, the Kilasi sept worshipping a tree, the Julsi and Kandualsi sept a snake-hole, and Balunasi a stone and others the sun. Each sept salutes the revered object or totem on seeing it, and those who worship trees will not burn them or stand in their shade. When a marriage takes place they worship the totem and offer to it flowers, sandalwood, vermilion, uncooked rice, and the new clothes and ornaments intended for the bride, which she may not wear until this ceremony has been performed. Another curious custom adopted by the Khadals in imitation of the Hindus is that of marrying adult boys and girls, for whom a partner has not been found, to a tree. But this does not occur when they arrive at p.u.b.erty as among Hindu castes, but when a boy still unmarried becomes thirty years old and a girl twenty. In such a case he or she is married to a mango, cotton or _jamun_ tree, and after this no second ceremony need be performed on subsequent union with a wife or husband. A widower must pay Rs. 10, or double the usual price, for a second wife, owing to the risk of her death being caused by the machinations of the first wife's spirit. When a corpse has been buried or burnt the mourners each take a twig of mango and beat about in the gra.s.s to start a gra.s.shopper. Having captured one they wrap it in a piece of new cloth, and coming home place it beside the family G.o.d. This they call bringing back the life of the soul, and consider that the ceremony procures salvation for the dead. The Khadals are usually considered as impure, but those of Sonpur have attained a somewhat higher status.

_Khadia_.--(A kind of snake.) A section of Ahir and Raghuvansi. A sept of Nahal.

_Khadra_, [458] _Khadura_ or _Kharura_.--A small Uriya caste whose occupation is to make bra.s.s ornaments. They are immigrants from Cuttack and say that they are called there Sankhari, so that the Khadras may not improbably be an offshoot of the Sankhari caste of sh.e.l.l-cutters of Bengal. According to their traditions their original ancestor was created by Viswakarma, the celestial architect, for the business of making a pinnacle for the temple of Jagannath at Puri, in which eight metals had to be combined. He left two sons, one of whom became the ancestor of the Khadras, and the other of the Kasars, with whom the Khadras thus claim affinity. They have no subcastes but four _gotras_ or clans called after the Nag or cobra, the Singh or lion, and Kasyap and Kachchap, both derived from the tortoise. They also have four _bargas_ or family names, which are Patra (a term of respect), Das (slave), Sao (banker) and Maharana (artificer). The groups are supposed to be descended from four families who migrated from Curtack. Neither _bargas_ nor _gotras_ are now considered in the arrangement of marriages, which are prohibited between blood relatives for three generations. Marriage is infant, and a girl arriving at p.u.b.erty while still unwed is permanently expelled from the caste. The Khadras still follow the old rule of writing the _lagun_ or date of the marriage on a palm-leaf, with which they send Rs. 10-4 as a bride-price to the girl's father, the acceptance of this const.i.tuting a confirmation of the betrothal. The marriage ceremony resembles that of the other Uriya castes, and the Khadras have the rite called _badapani_ or breaking the bachelorhood. A little water brought from seven houses is sprinkled over the bridegroom and his loin-cloth is then s.n.a.t.c.hed away, leaving him naked. In this state he runs towards his own house, but some boys are posted at a little distance who give him a new cloth. Widow-marriage and divorce are permitted, but the hand of a widow must not be sought so long as she remains in her late husband's house, and does not return to her father. When a bachelor marries a widow he must first perform the regular ceremony with a leaf-cup filled with flowers, after which he can take the widow as his second wife. All important agreements are confirmed by a peculiar custom called _heskani_. A deer-skin is spread on the ground before the caste committee, and the person making the agreement bows before it a number of times. To break an agreement made by the _heskani_ rite is believed to involve terrible calamities. The Khadras eat the flesh of animals and fish but not that of birds, and they do not drink country liquor. When an estate is to be part.i.tioned the eldest son first takes a tenth of the whole in right of primogeniture and the remainder is then divided equally. The Khadras rank as an artisan caste of somewhat low status.

_Khadura_.--Synonym of Khadra.

_Khaijraha_.--(A resident of Khaira, a town in Central India.) Subcaste of Chamar.

_Khair, Khaira_.--(From _khair_, catechu or the catechu tree. A maker of catechu.) Synonym for Khairwar.

_Khairchura_.--(Carechu preparer.) A subcaste of Khairwar.

_Khaire_.--A subcaste of Are (Gondhali), Kanbi and Oraon.

_Khairwar_.--A catechu-making caste. A section of Chamar.

_Khaiyaware_.--(_Khai_, ditch; owing to their houses having been originally built on the ditch of Hatta fort.) A section of Beldar Sonkars in Damoh.

_Khaki_.--(From _khak_, ashes.) A cla.s.s of Bairagi, or religious mendicants.

_Khalifa_.--(Lord.) An honorific t.i.tle for Darzis or tailors, and Muhammadan barbers.

_Khaltaha_.--Subcaste of Ghasia.

_Khaltati_.--(Illegitimate.) Subcaste of Andh.

_Khaltia_.--Subcaste of Basdewa.

_Khamari_.--(Farmservant.) A section of Kolta.