The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India, Volume 4

The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India, Volume 4

The plural of caste names and a few common Hindustni words is formed by adding s in the English manner according to ordinary usage, though this is not, of course, the Hindustni plural. Note.The rupee contains 16 annas, and an anna is of the same value as a penny. A pice is a quarter of an anna, or a farthing. Rs. 18 signifies one rupee and eight annas. A lakh is a hundred thousand, and a krore ten million. Kumhr, Kumbhr.The caste of potters, the name being derived from the Sanskrit kumbh, a water-pot. The Kumhrs numbered nearly 120,000 persons in the Central Provinces in 1911 and were most numerous in the northern and eastern or Hindustni-speaking Districts, where earthen vessels have a greater vogue than in the south. The caste is of course an ancient one, vessels of earthenware having probably been in use at a very early period, and the old Hindu scriptures consequently give various accounts of its origin from mixed marriages between the four classical castes. Concerning the traditional parentage of the caste, Sir H. Risley writes,1 there seems to be a wide difference of opinion among the recognised authorities on the subject. Thus the Brahma Vaivrtta Purna says that the Kumbhakr or maker of water-jars (kumbka), is born of a Vaishya woman by a Brhman father; the Parsara Samhita makes the father a Mlkr (gardener) and the mother a Chamr; while the Parsara Padhati holds that the ancestor of the caste was begotten of a Tili woman by a Pattikr or weaver of silk cloth. Sir Monier Williams again, in his Sanskrit Dictionary, describes them as the offspring of a Kshatriya woman by a Brhman. No importance can of course be attached to [4]such statements as the above from the point of view of actual fact, but they are interesting as showing the view taken of the formation of castes by the old Brhman writers, and also the position given to the Kumhr at the time when they wrote. This varies from a moderately respectable to a very humble one according to the different accounts of his lineage. The caste themselves have a legend of the usual Brhmanical type: In the Kritayuga, when Maheshwar (Siva) intended to marry the daughter of Hemvanta, the Devas and Asuras2 assembled at Kails (Heaven). Then a question arose as to who should furnish the vessels required for the ceremony, and one Kullaka, a Brhman, was ordered to make them. Then Kullaka stood before the assembly with folded hands, and prayed that materials might be given to him for making the pots. So Vishnu gave his Sudarsana (discus) to be used as a wheel, and the mountain of Mandra was fixed as a pivot beneath it to hold it up. The scraper was Adi Krma the tortoise, and a rain-cloud was used for the water-tub. So Kullaka made the pots and gave them to Maheshwar for his marriage, and ever since his descendants have been known as Kumbhakr or maker of water-jars. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 20668
Author: Russell, R. V. (Robert Vane)
Release Date: Feb 25, 2007
Format: eBook
Language: English