Baoti
This article is an extract from
THE TRIBES and CASTES of BENGAL. Ethnographic Glossary. Printed at the Bengal Secretariat Press. 1891. . |
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Baoti
A synonym for Baiti; a section of Muhesris.
Notes
In Bengal this small caste is usually called Chunari, or Chuniya, from being engaged in the manufacture of lime (Chuna), and is chiefly found on the borders of the large marshes in Bikrampur. In the census rolls the Baiti are returned along with the beggar and vagabond classes, and it is probable they are the same as the "Baori," a vagrant tribe in the Gangetic delta and west of Delhi, who subsist chiefly by stealing.1
In Dacca they all belong to one gotra, the Aliman, but in the Farridpur district there is an outcaste Magi subdivision.
The Purohit is a Patit Brahman, and the caste is mainly a Vaishnava one. The only titles met with are Rai, Bhuya, and Sen.
The Baoti do not gather shells, but Bediyas occasionally do, and fishermen from the Murshidabad district come annually in March and April to collect them. The common swamp shells are almost useless, while a small univalve, called "Mojia," formerly found in abundance, and repaying the cost of burning, has become so scarce that it is now never sought after.
The best fishing ground is the Kamarganga river in Farridpur, and the only shells calcined by the Baoti are the "Ghongha," "Sipi," and Shamuk, the molluscs (gita) being extracted by an iron hook. A "man" (80 lbs) of shells, costing from fourteen to twenty anas, produces, when calcined, about four "mans" of lime, which sells for about an ana a seer (2 lbs). The Kathuria Sutars are the only other class of Bengalis engaged in lime burning.
Although the Baoti is one of the most impure of Bengali castes, their water vessels defiling any pure Hindu, no one will refuse to chew lime moistened with water from these very same vessels.
Kabirajs purchase unslaked lime (Gura-chuna) from the Baoti for medicinal purposes, while the finest and most expensive lime for chewing, "Panka-Chuna," is prepared with the ashes of tamarind wood.
The Sudra barber and washerman work for the Baoti, but the Bhuinmali, owing to some party grudge, will not, and the Muhammanan Beldar has to be engaged whenever the Baoti has a house to build, or a ditch to dig.1
1 Wilson's "Glossary," p. 61.
