Baranwar
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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Baranwar
Baranwat, Banwar, a sub-caste of Baniyas in Behar, divided into the following sections :-Alchfmi, Barbigahia, Baria, Bhawania, Dhekh, Mirchaia, Malhan, Tilia. A man may not marry a woman of his own section or of the section to which his mother belonged bel ore her marriage. As a woman changes her section on marriage, this rule is usually expressed by saying that the section of the maternal grandfather is excluded. Beyond the opera¬tion of the rule of exogamy, prohibited degrees are reokoned by the usual formula. Baranwars marry their daughters as infants, forbid widows to marry again, and do not recognise divorce.
Their marriage ceremony is of the standard type, with this peculiarity that pani-gmhan, or the formal gift of the bride to the bridegroom, is omitted when, owing to the poverty of the bride's parents, the wedding takes place in the bridegroom's house. They are orthodox Hindus, usually of the Vaishnava sect, and affect to employ only Gaur Brahmans as their priests. If, however, these are not to be had, they will content themselves with members of the Maithil and Srotri groups. Baran¬wars are mostly shopkeepers, and only a small proportion of them have taken to agriculture.
