Rauniar
Contents |
Rauniar
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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Raunia, Noniar a sub-casle of Baniyas l in Behar. Writing of the membere of this group in the North-West Provinoes, Mr. Nesfield says ;-" Raunia, more fully written Ravaniya, is from ?'aVlln, which means the crying or hawking of wares for ale." In another place he adds ;-" The Raunia (which means literally e. crier) moves in a circle of some eight or ten villages surrounding his own; and if he cannot getc cash for his grain, he barters it for spices, sugar, condensed treacle, etc. In these days he is seldom able to live by trade alone, and in the intervals of business he raises his own crops. But trade, and trade only, was his original function."
Internal structure
The Rauniars of Behar profess to have come from the North¬ West Provinces, and their allegation is likely enough to be correot. They are divided into exogamous sections (muls or gotrr(8) , but the only seotion-names I have been able to ascertain are Ekadas i and Ekassi, referring possibly to the number of families comprised, or supposed to be oomprised, in each section. Then: titles are Sahu and Mod i, which are common to them and to many other trading groups. In Champaran they have broken up into two endogamous groups¬Chhatri and Samr i, the former of whom claim to be Rajputs from the North-West Provinoes who were degraded for intermarrying with women of the Baniya caste.
Marriages
Rauniars profess to marry their daughters as infants, but I am informed. that cases of girls being married after puberty are not uncommon where the parents are poor or for any special reason there has been difficulty in finding a husband. It is clear therefore that the caste does not take the extreme sacerdotal view of the necessity of infant-marriage which prevails among Hindus of the higher clases, espesially in Benaal l'roper. Their marriage ceremony is of the standard type, and 0 a price (tilak) is paid to the parents of the bridegroom. Polygamy is allowed, but is rarely resorted to in practice, except when the first wife proves barren. Widows are allowed to remarry by the sagai form, of whioh sindul'dan is the binding portion. The widow is under no obligation to marry her deceased husband's younger brother. Divorce is not generally recognized; but in Champaran it appears to be the practice to bring cases of unchastity before a panchayat, which makes an order of divorce; and if the offence has been committed with a member of the oaste, the woman is allowed to marry again by sagai.
Religion
In their religious and ceremonial observanoes the Rauniars are orthodox Hindus and employ Brahmans, whose social poition is in no way affected by serving them. Rauniars are not conspicuous for adhesion to any partioular sect, but in some parts of the country they are said to regard I I have treated the Rauniar as a sub-caste of Baniy:!, instead of as a separate caste, in order to avoid doing violence to popular usage. Both Natives and EUlJpeans speak of the Baniya caste, and ignore the fact that the expression denotes a group comprising several distinct castes, which cannot now be traced to any common stock. 'l'he subject is discussed at greater length in the article on Baniya. Mahadeva as their tutelary deity. Like the Agarwals, they pay special reverence to Lakhsmi, and celebrate the DiwliJi festival with great pomp. They also worship Bandi, Goraiya, Sokha, and Mu.habirji as household or village gods.
Occupation
Trading in grain, cloth, etc., and lending money, are their special functions, but of late years some of them have taken to agrlculture, and a ew ave risen, probably as a consequence of money-lending transactions, to be zemindars. In Champaran Rauniyars are found as occupancy raiyats, but such oases are rare.
