Rangrez
This article was written in 1916 when conditions were different. Even in Readers will be able to edit existing articles and post new articles directly |
From The Tribes And Castes Of The Central Provinces Of India
By R. V. Russell
Of The Indian Civil Service
Superintendent Of Ethnography, Central Provinces
Assisted By Rai Bahadur Hira Lal, Extra Assistant Commissioner
Macmillan And Co., Limited, London, 1916.
NOTE 1: The 'Central Provinces' have since been renamed Madhya Pradesh.
NOTE 2: While reading please keep in mind that all articles in this series have been scanned from a book. During scanning some errors are bound to occur. Some letters get garbled. Footnotes get inserted into the main text of the article, interrupting the flow. Readers who spot errors might like to correct them, and shift footnotes gone astray to their rightful place.
Rangrez
The Muhammadan caste of dyers. The caste is found generally in the northern Districts, and in 1 90 1 its members were included with the Chhipas, from whom, however, they should be distinguished as having a different religion and also because they practise a separate branch of the dyeing industry. The strength of the caste in the Central Provinces does not exceed a few hundred persons. The Rangrez is nominally a Muhammadan of the Sunni sect, but the community forms an endogamous group after the Hindu fashion, marrying only among themselves. Good-class Muhammadans will neither intermarry with nor even take food from members of the Rangrez community.
In Sohagpur town of Hoshangabad this is divided into two branches, the Kheralawalas or immigrants from Kherala in Malwa and the local Rangrezes. These two groups will take food together but will not intermarry. Kheralawala women commonly wear a skirt like Hindu women and not Muhammadan pyjamas. In Jubbulpore the Rangrez community employ Brahmans to conduct their marriage and other ceremonies. Long association with Hindus has as usual caused the Rangrez to conform to their religious practices and the caste might almost be described as a Hindu community with Muhammadan customs.
The bulk of them no doubt were originally converted Hindus, but as their ancestors probably immigrated from northern India their present leaning to that religion would perhaps be not so much an obstinate retention of pre-Islamic ritual as a subsequent lapse following on another change of environment. In northern India Mr. Crooke records them as being governed mainly by Muhammadan rules. There ^ they hold themselves to be the descendants of one Khwaja Bali, a very pious man, about whom the following verse is current
KJiwclja Bali Rangrez Rajjge Khitda ki sez : ' Khwaja Bali dyes the bed of God.' The name is derived from rang, colour, and rcz, rekhtdfi, to pour. In Bihar, Sir G. Grierson states " the word Rangrez is often con- ' Tribes and Castes, art. Rangrez. 2 Peasant Life in Bihar, p. loi, footnote.
founded with ' Angrezi ' or ' English '
- and the English are
sometimes nicknamed facetiously Rangrez or ' dyers.' The saying, ' Were I a dyer I would dye my own beard first,' in reference to the Muhammadan custom of dyeing the beard, has the meaning of ' Charity begins at home.' ^
The art of the Rangrez differs considerably from that of
the Chhipa or Rangari, the Hindu dyer, and he produces a
much greater variety of colours. His principal agents were
formerly the safflower {CartJiamus tinctorius), turmeric and
myrobalans. The fact that the brilliant red dye of safflower
was as a rule only used by Muhammadan dyers, gives some
ground for the supposition that it may have been introduced
by them to India. This would account for the existence of
a separate caste of Muhammadan dyers, and in support of it
may be adduced the fact that the variety of colours is much
greater in the dress of the residents of northern India and
Rajputana than in those of the Maratha Districts.
The former patronise many different shades, more especially for head-cloths, while the latter as a rule do not travel beyond red, black or blue. The Rangrez obtains his red shades from safflower, yellow from Jialdi or turmeric, green from a mixture of indigo and turmeric, purple from indigo and safflower, khaki or dust-colour from myrobalans and iron filings, orange from turmeric and safflower, and baddmi or almond-colour from turmeric and two wild plants kachora and ndgarviothi, the former of which gives a scent.
Cloths dyed in the baddmi shades are affected, when they can afford it, by Gosains and other religious mendicants, who thus dwell literally in the odour of sanctity. Muhammadans generally patronise the shades of green or purple, the latter being often used as a lining for white coats.
Fakirs or Muhammadan beggars wear light green. Marwari Banias and others from Rajputana like the light yellow, pink or orange shades. A green or black head-cloth is with them a sign of mourning. Cloths dyed in yellow or scarlet are bought by Brahmans and other castes of Hindus for their marriages. Blue is not a lucky colour among the Hindus and is considered as on a level with black. It may be worn on ordinary occasions, but not at festivals or at auspicious ' Temple and Fallon's Hindustani Proverbs.
periods. Muhammadans rather affect black and do not consider it an unlucky colour. I have seen a Rangrez dye a piece of cloth in about twenty colours in the course of two or tiiree hours, but several of these dyes are fugitive and will not stand washing.
The trade of the Rangrez is being undermined by the competition of cheap chemical dyes imported from Germany and sold in the form of powders ; the process of dyeing with these is absolutely simple and can be carried out by any one. They are far cheaper than safflower, and this agent has consequently been almost driven from the market.
People buy a little dyeing powder from the bazar and dye their own cloths. But men will only wear cloths dyed in this manner, and known as katcJia kapra, on their heads and not on their bodies ; women sometimes wear them also on their bodies. The decay in the indigenous art of dyeing must be a matter for regret.
Notes
Dyeing is considered onee of the most respectable trades in Dacca, the dyer being usually called Cafi, pure, or clean, while Khalifa and Ustad are honorary titles among them. The Rangrez rarely marries out of his own class, and will have nothing to do with the Kuti, Chamra-farosh, or other low grades of his co-religionists.
Dyeing is still in its infancy in Bengal, and the colours given to cloth are most unstable. The chief dye is safflower, from which are derived two colours, "Gulabi," or damask, and "Gul-nar," or scarlet, tints in great demand for colouring bridal dresses and turbans. By mixing safflower and turmeric, "Basanti," a colour worn by Krishna,1 is produced. With indigo and Gulabi, a colour known as "Kasni" is made, and with indigo and turmeric a green dye, called "Sabzi".
A purple dye, Baigani, obtained from Sappan wood, is a favourite colour for dyeing silk garments much fancied by young Brahmans, and others. As these defective dyes disappear in a shower of rain, clothes have to be frequently returned to the Rangrez, who, in consequence, is one of the busiest of workmen.
In former days each season had its particular coloured turbans, and the rich vied with one another in the showiness of their head-dresses. Basanti was, of course, the fashionable tint for spring, green being the orthodox colour for Muhammadans during the month of Muharram, as yellow is for the strict Hindus on the Jamashtami, or birthday of Krishna.
In dyeing portions of a pattern, or imitating in colours the outlines of plants and animals, the Rangrez sews on different shaped pieces of cloth, but when a wavy stripe on a coloured ground is required he merely stitches the cloth into folds. This mode of dyeing is called "Chunri."
1 Hence the common epithet Pitambara, clad in yellow, in the same way as Balarama is called Nilambara, from wearing blue garments.
