Gayan
Gayan
This section has been extracted from THE TRIBES and CASTES of BENGAL. Ethnographic Glossary. Printed at the Bengal Secretariat Press. 1891. . |
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(a singer), a class of Muhammadans believed to havc been originally Sha.ndars. They have leamed from their ten.chers the myth that they are descended {Tom Jihad Ga..yan, who accom• panied Shah J ahll in bis conquest of Silhet, alid state that they emigrated from that country in covered canoes, differing in build from those used by other Dediyas.
The Gayan is usually a cultivator, and when he is absent from home his wife watches the crops and tends the cattle. Any relation-ship with other Bediyas is warmly repudiated, for which reason tho Farazi. sect sometimes conced~s to the Gayan the rights and privilegcs or other Mussulmans. This concession has transformed these vag¬rants into rigid Puritans. The Gayan women are secluded, and the oLlieI' Bediyas are reproached for indelicacy in allowing their women to wandel' about unveiled and unprotected.
The Gayan sing Bengali songs in public, to the music of the violins, known as liara1lgi n.nd beMa.
