The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India - Volume IV | Page 2

has the sound of i in bit, or (as a final letter) of y in sulky. i has the sound of ee in beet. o has the sound of o in bore or bowl. u has the sound of u in put or bull. u has the sound of oo in poor or boot
The plural of caste names and a few common Hindustani words is formed by adding s in the English manner according to ordinary usage, though this is not, of course, the Hindustani 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. 1-8 signifies one rupee and eight annas. A lakh is a hundred thousand, and a krore ten million.


PART II
ARTICLES ON CASTES AND TRIBES
KUMHAR--YEMKALA
VOL. IV

Kumhar

List of Paragraphs
1. Traditions of origin. 2. Caste subdivisions. 3. Social Customs. 4. The Kumhar as a village menial. 5. Occupation. 6. Breeding pigs for sacrifices. 7. The goddess Demeter. 8. Estimation of the pig in India. 9. The buffalo as a corn-god. 10. The Dasahra festival. 11. The goddess Devi.

1. Traditions of origin
Kumhar, Kumbhar.--The caste of potters, the name being derived from the Sanskrit kumbh, a water-pot. The Kumhars numbered nearly 120,000 persons in the Central Provinces in 1911 and were most numerous in the northern and eastern or Hindustani-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 Vaivartta Purana says that the Kumbhakar or maker of water-jars (kumbka), is born of a Vaishya woman by a Brahman father; the Parasara Samhita makes the father a Malakar (gardener) and the mother a Chamar; while the Parasara Padhati holds that the ancestor of the caste was begotten of a Tili woman by a Pattikar or weaver of silk cloth." Sir Monier Williams again, in his Sanskrit Dictionary, describes them as the offspring of a Kshatriya woman by a Brahman. No importance can of course be attached to 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 Brahman writers, and also the position given to the Kumhar 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 Brahmanical type: "In the Kritayuga, when Maheshwar (Siva) intended to marry the daughter of Hemvanta, the Devas and Asuras [2] assembled at Kailas (Heaven). Then a question arose as to who should furnish the vessels required for the ceremony, and one Kulalaka, a Brahman, was ordered to make them. Then Kulalaka 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 Mandara was fixed as a pivot beneath it to hold it up. The scraper was Adi Kurma the tortoise, and a rain-cloud was used for the water-tub. So Kulalaka made the pots and gave them to Maheshwar for his marriage, and ever since his descendants have been known as Kumbhakar or maker of water-jars."

2. Caste sub-divisions
The Kumhars have a number of subcastes, many of which, as might be expected, are of the territorial type and indicate the different localities from which they migrated to the Central Provinces. Such are the Malwi from Malwa, the Telenga from the Telugu country in Hyderabad, the Pardeshi from northern India and the Maratha from the Maratha Districts. Other divisions are the Lingayats who belong to the sect of this name, the Gadhewal or Gadhere who make tiles and carry them about on donkeys (gadha), the Bardia who use bullocks for transport and the Sungaria who keep pigs (suar). Certain endogamous groups have arisen simply from differences in the method of working. Thus the Hathgarhia [3] mould vessels with their hands only without using the wheel; the Goria [4] make white or red pots only and not black ones; the Kurere mould their vessels on a stone slab revolving on a stick and not on a wheel; while the Chakere are Kumhars who use the wheel (chak) in localities where other Kumhars do not use it. The Chhutakia and Rakhotia are illegitimate sections, being the