Religious, Professional, Mercantile,and Miscellaneous Castes (in Punjab)

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This article is an extract from PANJAB CASTES SIR DENZIL CHARLES JELF IBBETSON, K.C. S.I. Being a reprint of the chapter on The Races, Castes and Tribes of the People in the Report on the Census of the Panjab published in 1883 by the late Sir Denzil Ibbetson, KCSI Lahore : Printed by the Superintendent, Government Printing, Punjab, 1916. Indpaedia is an archive. It neither agrees nor disagrees with the contents of this article.

General and Introductory

The classes discussed in this part of the chapter form an exceedingly heterogeneous collection. They are in fact all those that are left after separating the landowning and agricultural castes on the one hand, and the vagrant, artisan, and menial classes on the other. They include some of the highest and some of the lowest castes in the Province, yet there is a connection between the priestly Brahman and the serai-priestly Nai, between the merchant Khatri and the pedlar Maniar.

I have divided the castes now to be considered into six groups. The first includes the priestly castes such as the Brahman and Saiyad ; the second the various ascetic, religious, and mendicant orders oi faqirs ; the third the minor professional castes such as the Nai, the Mirasi, and the Bhat ; the fourth the great mercantile castes such as the Khatri and Arora ; the fifth the earners and pedlars such as the Banjara and Maniar ; while in the sixth are included those miscellaneous castes, such as the Kashmiri and Kayath, for whom I have been unable to find a place else where. The line between the merchants and shop-keepers on the one hand and the carriers and pedlars on the other is exceedingly ill-defined, both in the figures and in the facts. The groups are too diverse in their character for any general discussion of them to be profitable ; and I shall consider each under its separate heading, where also will be found the figures showing their distri bution throughout the Panjab.