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

u in but or murmur. a has the sound of a in bath or
tar. e has the sound of é in écarté or ai in maid. i 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