Sutar, Sutradhara
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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Sutar, Sutradhara
This is a very low caste of carpenters met with in all parts of Bengal, and, according to the census of 1872, numbering 177,755 persons, who chiefly inhabit Mymensingh (21,479), Burdwan (15,973), Dacca (15,907), Silhet (13,097), and Tipperah (11,804). It is essentially a caste of the Delta, and it seems most probable that the boat-building trade attracted them to the chief seats of that industry. There can be little doubt that Sutars belong to an aboriginal, and therefore despised, race, yet they have the effrontery to assert that they are descended from Karna, the son of Kunti, and the Sun-god, as related in the Maha Bharata. Karna was adopted by Adhi-ratha, a charioteer of Anga (Bihar), a Sutar by profession, who consequently became a Sutar himself. It was Balal Sen, however, who humbled them. The story goes that a complaint being lodged against the Brah-mans for not performing religions ceremonies for the caste, until all other castes had been served, the monarch, to prevent further controversy, enrolled them among the Nicha, giving them a Brahman of their own.
1 The Kacharis were converted to Hinduism, and made Chhatris of the Suraj-bansi tribe, about A.D. 1790 ("J.A.S. of Bengal," vol. ix, 831). The Manipuris, again, were converted about the beginning of the eighteenth century by a Mahant of Silhet (Wheeler's "Maha Bharata," p. 421).
The Sutar caste has three subdivisions in Dacca:�
1. Sutar, who makes boats, household furniture, beams, wheels, and ploughs. 2. Chura-Kuti, who parch and husk rice, make wooden necklaces, and burn shells for lime. 3. Kathuria, who make ploughs, tubs, platters, and wooden agricultural implements.
The Sutars claim, and are admitted to have, precedence of the other two divisions. Their name of "thread-holder" is derived from the Sanskrit "Sutra," the thread with which the course of the saw is marked. Sutars are all included in one gotra, the Aliman, and invariably belong to the Vaishnava creed. In the city of Dacca about one hundred and fifty houses are occupied by them. The caste has a Panchait, but no union (Dal), and their headman, styled Paramanik, settles disputes between members. It is derogatory for a Sutar to fell a tree, which is done by a class of Chandals, called "Karanti," from the Sanskrit Kara-pattra, a saw. Turning (Kundi-Kari), however, is the legitimate occupation of a carpenter, and he is permitted to make moulds used by confectioners for preparing fancy sweetmeats, and by plasterers for ornamenting cornices and roofs. Sutars never cultivate the soil, but frequently carry on business as Mahajans, or wholesale traders. Muhammadan carpenters, unknown in. Dacca, are common in Chittagong, where they are employed as shipwrights.
It is estimated that there are four hundred houses occupied by the Chura-Kuti division in the Dacca district, and fifty in Narayanganj alone. The members, however, are gradually relinquishing their ancestral trade, and of late years have taken Muhammadan servants to husk rice, while they themselves act as grocers, selling pulse, grain, and oils, or as writers, servants, and shopkeepers. The only wooden article now made by them is the sandal-wood necklace worn by all Hindus. The Purohit is distinct from the family priest of the other sub-divisions. The headman is styled Pradhan, and the only gotra is Aliman. The Chura-Kuti are all Vaishnavas in creed, the Guru being the Faridabad Gosain. Their principal festivities are the Gandhesvari on the tenth Asin (Sept); and New Year's day, on the first of Baisakh.
The Kathuria subdivision, scattered throughout the Dacca district, is engaged in cultivating the soil, building boats, and manufacturing lime with the fresh water shells dredged from the extensive "Jhils," or marshes, in the interior of Bikrampur, being for this reason often confounded with the Chunari caste, a perfectly distinct community.
The Brahman of this subdivision is an Acharji, who performs the same religions ceremonies as the priests of the other two. The headman is known as Sardar.
The members of these three subdivisions, although intimately related, neither intermarry nor associate together.
