The marital alliances of the royal families forming part of the Maratha confederacy, and of the royal families of Mysore in south India and of Kashmir and Nepal in the north with the royal families of Gujarat and Rajasthan show, among other things, how there was room for flexibility and how the rule of caste endogamy could be violated in an acceptable manner at the highest level. In the case of some of them the small population was so dispersed that a division such as that of barbers, blacksmiths, or carpenters, would be represented by only one or two households in each village and by a significant number of households in towns. Hypergamy tended to be associated with this hierarchy. So far we have considered first-order divisions with large and widely spread populations. Similarly, in Saurashtra, the Talapadas were distinguished from the Chumvalias, immigrants from the Chumval tract in north Gujarat. The highest stratum among the Leva Kanbi tried to maintain its position by practising polygyny and female infanticide, among other customs and institutions, as did the highest stratum among the Rajput. It was also an extreme example of a division having a highly differentiated internal hierarchy and practising hypergamy as an accepted norm. And how flexibility was normal at the lowest level has just been shown. There was also another kind of feast, called bhandaro, where Brahmans belonging to a lesser number of divisions (say, all the few in a small town) were invited. Each unit was ranked in relation to others, and many members of the lower units married their daughters into the higher units, so that almost every unit became loose in the course of time. Almost every village in this area included at least some Leva population, and in many villages they formed a large, if not the largest, proportion of the population. How many sub-divisions existed in the various divisions of the various orders is a matter of empirical investigation. (Frequently, such models are constructed a priori rather than based on historical evidence, but that is another story). //]]>. This bulk also was characterized by hierarchy, with the relatively advanced population living in the plains at one end and the backward population living along with the tribal population in the highlands at the other end. For example, there were two ekdas, each with a large section resident in a large town and small sections resident in two or three neighbouring small towns. The Mehta family name was found in the USA, and the UK between 1891 and 1920. ADVERTISEMENTS: Division and Hierarchy: An Overview of Caste in Gujarat! No sooner had the village studies begun that their limitations and the need for studying caste in its horizontal dimension were realized. The fact that Mahatma Gandhi came from a small third-order division in the Modh Vania division in a town in Saurashtra does not seem to be an accident. In the village strict prohibition of inter-division marriage as well as the rules of purity and pollution and other mechanisms, of which the students of Indian village communities are well aware since the 1950s, maintained the boundaries of these divisions. In effect, the Vania population in a large town like Ahmedabad could have a considerable number of small endogamous units of the third or the fourth order, each with its entire population living and marrying within the town itself. The primarily urban castes linked one town with another; the primarily rural linked one village with another; and the rural-cum-urban linked towns with villages in addition to linking both among themselves. It is possible that there were a few divisions each confined to just one large city and, therefore, not having the horizontal dimension at all. To whichever of the four orders a caste division belonged, its horizontal spread rarely, if ever, coincided with that of another. Once the claim was accepted at either level, hypergamous marriage was possible. It seems the highland Bhils (and possibly also other tribes) provided brides to lower Rajputs in Gujarat. Similarly, the Khedawal Brahmans were divided into Baj and Bhitra, the Nagar Brahmans into Grihastha and Bhikshuk, the Anavils into Desai and Bhathela, and the Kanbis into Kanbi and Patidar. They worked not only as high priests but also as bureaucrats. Hence started farming and small scale business in the British Raj to thrive better conditions ahead to maintain their livelihood. Fortunately, they have now started writing about it (see Rao 1974). He does not give importance to this possibility probably because, as he goes on to state, what is sought here is a universal formula, a rule without exceptions (ibid.). Tirgaar, Tirbanda. Real Estate Software Dubai > blog > manvar surname caste in gujarat. Another clearly visible change in caste in Gujarat is the emergence of caste associations. Gujarati migrations to the nearby metropolis of Bombay the first new centre of administration, industry, commerce, education, and western culture, followed the same links. So instead of a great exporter of finished products, India became an importer of British, while its share of world export fell from 27% to two percent. For example, the Khadayata Brahmans worked as priests at important rituals among Khadayata Vanias. A first-order division could be further divided into two or more second-order divisions. In all there were about eighty such divisions. Almost all the myths about the latter are enshrined in the puranas (for an analysis of a few of them, see Das 1968 and 1977). 1 0 obj For example, the Patanwadia population was spread continuously from the Patan area to central Gujarat, and the Talapada population from central Gujarat to Pal. This was about 22% of all the recorded Mehta's in USA. The population of certain first-order divisions lived mainly in villages. It is noteworthy that many of their names were based on names of places (region, town, or village): for example, Shrimali and Mewada on the Shrimal and Mewar regions in Rajasthan, Modh on Modhera town in north Gujarat, and Khedawal on Kheda town in central Gujarat. This surname is most commonly held in India, where it is held by 2,496 people, or 1 in 307,318. Also, the horizontal spread of a caste rarely coincided with the territorial boundaries of a political authority. As could be expected, there were marriages between fairly close kin, resulting in many overlapping relationships, in such an endogamous unit. History. [CDATA[ Content Filtrations 6. Although the name of a Brahman or Vania division might be based on a place name, the division was not territorial in nature. Most associations continue to retain their non-political character. What I am trying to point out, however, is that greater emphasis on division (Pococks difference, Dumonts separation. One important first-order division, namely, Rajput, does not seem to have had any second-order division at all. Frequently, social divisions were neatly expressed in street names. So in this way, the Maharashtra caste list is given to all cast Aarakshan belonging to the Scheduled Castes category for the state of MH. The unit might possess some other corporate characteristics also. This was because political authorities were hierarchized from little kingdom to empire and the boundaries of political authorities kept changing. In the past the dispersal over a wide area of population of an ekda or tad was uncommon; only modern communications have made residential dispersal as well as functional integration possible. Leva Kanbis, numbering 400,000 to 500,000 m 1931, were the traditional agricultural caste of central Gujarat. This last name is predominantly found in Asia, where 93 percent of Limbachiya reside; 92 percent reside in South Asia and 92 percent reside in Indo-South Asia. r/ahmedabad From Mumbai. The main reason was that Anavils did not practise priesthood as a traditional occupation, nor were they involved in traditional Sanskrit learning. Reference to weaving and spinning materials is found in the Vedic Literature. In contrast, there were horizontal units, the internal hierarchy and hypergamy of which were restricted to some extent by the formation of small endogamous units and which had discernible boundaries at the lowest level. It reflects, on the one hand, the political aspirations of Kolis guided by the importance of their numerical strength in electoral politics and on the other hand, the Rajputs attempt to regain power after the loss of their princely states and estates. In an area of the first kind there are no immigrant Kolis from elsewhere, and therefore, there is no question of their having second-order divisions. The Kayasthas and Brahma-Kshatriyas, the so- called writer castes, employed mainly in the bureaucracy, and the Vahivancha Barots, genealogists and mythographers, were almost exclusively urban castes. I have discussed above caste divisions in Gujarat mainly in the past, roughly in the middle of the 19th century. Simultaneously, there is gradual decline in the strength of the principle of hierarchy, particularly of ritual hierarchy expressed in purity and pollution. The understanding of changes in caste is not likely to be advanced by clubbing such diverse groups together under the rubric of ethnic group. I have not yet come across an area where Kolis from three or more different areas live together, excepting modern, large towns and cities. Although my knowledge is fragmentary, I thought it was worthwhile to put together the bits and pieces for the region as a whole. While some hypergamous and hierarchical tendency, however weak, did exist between tads within an ekda and between ekdas within a second- order division, it was practically non-existent among the forty or so second-order divisions, such as Modh, Porwad, Shrimali, Khadayata and so on, among the Vanias. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Category:Social_groups_of_Gujarat&oldid=1080951156, Social groups of India by state or union territory, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 4 April 2022, at 12:36. Indeed, a major achievement of Indian sociology during the last thirty years or so has been deeper understanding of caste in the village context in particular and of its hierarchical dimension in general. All of this information supports the point emerging from the above analysis, that frequently there was relatively little concern for ritual status between the second-order divisions within a first- order division than there was between the first-order divisions. stream The small town sections therefore separated themselves from the respective large town sections and formed a new ekda. Sometimes castes are described as becoming ethnic groups in modern India, particularly in urban India. For example, among the Khadayata Vanias there are all-Khadayata associations as well as associations for the various ekdas and sometimes even for their tads (see Shah, Ragini 1978). I do not, however, have sufficient knowledge of the latter and shall, therefore, confine myself mainly to Rajputs in Gujarat. This does not solve the problem if there are four orders of divisions of the kind found in Gujarat. Typically, a village consists of the sections of various castes, ranging from those with just one household to those with over u hundred. Some of the other such divisions were Kathi, Dubla, Rabari, Bharwad, Mer (see Trivedi 1961), Vaghri, Machhi, Senwa, Vanzara, and Kharwa. Their origin myth enshrined in their caste purana also showed them to be originally non-Brahman. We will now analyze the internal structure of a few first-order divisions, each of which was split into divisions going down to the fourth order. In other words, it did not involve a big jump from one place to another distant place. These coastal towns were involved in trade among themselves, with other towns on the rest of the Indian sea coast, and with many foreign lands. so roamed around clueless. We have analyzed the internal structure of two first-order divisions, Rajput and Anavil, which did not have any second-order divisions, and of several second-order divisionsTalapada and Pardeshi Koli, Khedawal Brahman, and Leva Kanbiwhich did not have any third-order divisions. In all there were thirty to forty such divisions. They were found in almost every village in plains Gujarat and in many villages in Saurashtra and Kachchh. Report a Violation, Caste Stratification: Changing Rural Caste Stratification, Caste in Rural India: Specificities of Caste in Rural Society. This meant that he could marry a girl of any subdivision within the Vania division. Frequently, marriages were arranged in contravention of a particular rule after obtaining the permission of the council of leaders and paying a penalty in advance. The error is further compounded whenalthough this is less commonthe partial, rural model of traditional caste is compared with the present urban situation, and conclusions are drawn about overall change. Thus, while each second-order Koli division maintained its boundaries vis-a-vis other such divisions, each was linked with the Rajputs. Usually it consisted of wealthy and powerful lineages, distinguishing themselves by some appellation, such as Patidar among the Leva Kanbi, Desai among the Anavil, and Baj among the Khedawal. We shall return to the Rajput-Koli relationship when we consider the Kolis in detail. The decline was further accelerated by the industrial revolution. [1], People of India Gujarat Volume XXI Part Three edited by R.B Lal, P.B.S.V Padmanabham, G Krishnan & M Azeez Mohideen pages 1126-1129, Last edited on 14 November 2022, at 23:04, Learn how and when to remove this template message, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Vankar&oldid=1121933086, This page was last edited on 14 November 2022, at 23:04. The Kolis seem to have had only two divisions in every part of Gujarat: for example, Talapada (indigenous) and Pardeshi (foreign) in central Gujarat and Palia and Baria in eastern Gujarat (significantly, one considered indigenous and the other outsider). The social relations between and within a large number of such segregated castes should be seen in the context of the overall urban environment, characterized as it was by co-existence of local Hindu castes with immigrant Hindu castes and with the non-Hindu groups such as Jains, Muslims, Parsis and Christians, a higher degree of monetization, a higher degree of contractual and market relations (conversely, a lesser degree of jajmani-type relations), existence of trade guilds, and so on. Created Date: It is easy to understand that the pattern of change would be different in those first-order divisions (such as Rajput) or second-order divisions (such as Leva Kanbi) which did not have within them subdivisions of lower orders and which practised hypergamy extensively. There was an emphasis on being different and separate rather than on being higher and lower. The Kayatias main occupation was to perform a ritual on the eleventh day after death, during which they took away offerings made to ghosts: this was the main cause of their extremely low status among Brahmans. Radhvanaj Rajputs were clearly distinguished from, and ranked much above local Kolis. All Brahman divisions did not, however, have a corresponding Vania division. While the Rajputs, Leva Patidars, Anavils and Khedawals have been notorious for high dowries, and the Kolis have been looked down upon for their practice of bride price, the Vanias have been paying neither. The urban centres in both the areas, it is hardly necessary to mention, are nucleated settlements populated by numerous caste and religious groups. They were thus not of the same status as most other second-order divisions among Brahmans. The Rajput hierarchy had many levels below the level of the royal families of the large and powerful kingdoms: lineages of owners of large and small fiefs variously called jagir, giras, thakarat,thikana, taluka, and wanted-, lineages of substantial landowners under various land tenures having special rights and privileges; and lineages of small landowners. The division had an elaborate internal hierarchy, with wealthy and powerful landlords and tax-farmers at the top and small landholders, tenants and labourers at the bottom. They have been grouped in Vaishya category of Varna system. They took away offerings made to Shiva, which was considered extremely degrading. Prohibited Content 3. x[? -E$nvU 4V6_}\]}/yOu__}ww7oz[_z~?=|nNT=|qq{\//]/Ft>_tV}gjjn#TfOus_?~>/GbKc.>^\eu{[GE_>'x?M5i16|B;=}-)$G&w5uvb~o:3r3v GL3or}|Y~?3s_hO?qWWpn|1>9WS3^:wTU3bN{tz;T_}so/R95iLc_6Oo_'W7y; Visited Ahmedabad for the weekend to meet a friend but her family had a medical emergency. Although it has been experiencing stresses and strains and has had ups and downs on account of the enormous diversity between the royal and the tribal ends, it has shown remarkable solidarity in recent years. A few examples are: Brahman (priest), Vania (trader), Rajput (warrior and ruler), Kanbi (peasant), Koli (peasant), Kathi (peasant), Soni goldsmith), Suthar (carpenter), Valand (barber), Chamar (leatherworker), Dhed (weaver) and Bhangi (scavenger). The emphasis on being different and separate rather than on being higher and lower was even more marked in the relationship among the forty or so second-order divisions. I should hasten to add, however, that the open-minded scholar that he is, he does not rule out completely the possibility of separation existing as independent principle. Britain's Industrial Revolution was built on the de-industrialisation of India - the destruction of Indian textiles and their replacement by manufacturing in England, using Indian raw materials and exporting the finished products back to India and even the rest of the world. The Rajputs in Radhvanaj, the village I have studied in central Gujarat, had no great difficulty in establishing their claim to being Rajputs: they owned substantial amounts of land under a traditional Rajput tenure, dominated village politics and possessed certain other traditional Rajput symbols. manvar surname caste in gujarat. New Jersey had the highest population of Mehta families in 1920. The weavers were forced into selling exclusively to the British at extremely low rates, pushing them into poverty. Today majority of these community members are not engaged in their ancestral weaving occupation still some population of these community contribute themselves in traditional handloom weaving of famous Patola of Patan, Kachchh shawl of Bhujodi in Kutch, Gharchola and Crotchet of Jamnagar, Zari of Surat, Mashroo of Patan and Mandvi in Kutch, Bandhani of Jamnagar, Anjar and Bhuj, Motif, Leheria, Dhamakda and Ajrak, Nagri sari, Tangaliya Shawl, Dhurrie, Kediyu, Heer Bharat, Abhala, Phento and art of Gudri. I describe here three prominent units of the latter type, namely, Anavil, Leva Kanbi, and Khedawal Brahman. Most of the other eighty or so second-order divisions among Brahmans, however, seem to be subdivided the way the Vania second-order divisions were subdivided into third-order and fourth-order divisions. While we can find historical information about the formation of ekdas and tads there are only myths about the formation of the numerous second-order divisions. Far from it, I am only suggesting that its role had certain limitations and that the principle of division was also an important and competing principle. The essential idea in the category was power, and anybody who wielded powereither as king or as dominant group in a rural (even tribal) areacould claim to be Rajput. But there was also another process. Even if we assume, for a moment, that the basic nature of a structure or institution was the same, we need to know its urban form or variant. Hindu society is usually described as divided into a number of castes the boundaries of which are maintained by the rule of caste endogamy. I hope to show that the integration of the study of caste in urban areas with that of rural areas is essential to a comprehensive understanding of caste and its implications for Indian society and culture. Srinivas has called the unity of the village manifested in these interrelations the vertical unity of the village (1952: 31f. Both were recognized as Brahman but as degraded ones. It will readily be agreed that the sociological study of Indian towns and cities has not made as much progress as has the study of Indian villages. For example, there were Khedawal Brahmans but not Khedawal Vanias, and Lad Vanias but no Lad Brahmans. Sometimes a division could even be a self-contained endogamous unit. The prohibition of inter-division marriage was much more important than the rules of purity and pollution in the maintenance of boundaries between the lower-order divisions. Bougies repulsion) rather than on hierarchy was a feature of caste in certain contexts and situations in traditional India, and increasing emphasis on division in urban Indian in modern times is an accentuation of what existed in the past. 4 0 obj This was unlike the situation among the Rajputs who did not make any attempt to form small endogamous units. Dowry not only continues to be a symbol of status in the new hierarchy but is gradually replacing bride price wherever it existed, and dowry amounts are now reaching astronomical heights. I am not suggesting that the principle of hierarchy was insignificant in the inter- or intra-caste relations in urban centres. As regards the rest of Gujarat, I have used various sources: my work on the caste of genealogists and mythographys and on the early 19th century village records; the available ethnographic, historical and other literature; and observations made while living m Gujarat. Data need to be collected over large areas by methods other than those used in village studies, castes need to be compared in the regional setting, and a new general approach, analytical framework, and conceptual apparatus need to be developed. In most parts of Gujarat it merged into the various second-order divisions of the Koli division and possible also into the widespread tribe of Bhils. The primarily rural and lower castes were the last to form associations and that too mainly after independence (1947). Use census records and voter lists to . In spite of them, however, sociologists and social anthropologists have not filled adequately the void left by the disappearance of caste from the census and the gazetteer. A block printed and resist-dyed fabric, whose origin is from Gujarat was found in the tombs of Fostat, Egypt. Ideally, castes as horizontal units should he discussed with the help of population figures. A block printed and resist-dyed fabric, whose origin is from Gujarat was found in the tombs of Fostat, Egypt. The co-residence of people belonging to two or more divisions of the lower orders within a division of a higher order has been a prominent feature of caste in towns and cities. For example, if they belonged to two different second-order divisions, such as Shrimali and Modh, the punishment would be greater than if they belonged to two different ekdas within the Shrimali or the Modh division. Copyright 10. professor melissa murray. As for the size of other castes, I shall make mainly relative statements. There was another kind of ambiguity about the Brahman status or two other divisionsKayatia and Tapodhan. Here, usually, what mattered was the first-order division, as for example Brahman, Vania, Rajput, Kanbi, carpenter, barber, leather-worker, and so on. //