The Dum and Mirasi
This article is an extract from PANJAB CASTES SIR DENZIL CHARLES JELF IBBETSON, K.C. S.I. Being a reprint of the chapter on Lahore: Printed by the Superintendent, Government Printing, Punjab, 1916. Indpaedia is an archive. It neither agrees nor disagrees |
The Dum and Mirasi
Caste No. 25
Under this head have been included both Dum and Mirasi, the former being the Hindu and Indian and the latter the Musalman and Arabic name, and the whole class being commonly called Dum-Mirasi by the people. It fact no one of my divisional offices separated the two entries, and the two words are used throughout the Province as absolutely synonymous. The Dums, however, must be carefully distinguish ed from the Dom or Domra, the executioner and corpseburner of Hindustan, and the type of all uncleanliness to a Hindu ; as also from the Dum of the Hill States, whom I have classed as Dumna and not as Mirasi, as I understand that the word Dum is there applied to workers in bamboo. The class is distributed throughout the Province, but is most numerous in the Amritsar, Lahore, Rawalpindi, and Multan divisions, and in Bahawalpur and the other States which mareh with them. On the lower Indus many of them would seem to have returned themselves as Jats — see Abstract No. 72 The word Mirasi is derived from the Arabic mirds or inheritance ; and the Mirasi is to the inferior agricultural cases and the outcast tribes what the Bhat is to the Rajputs. Even Jats employ Mirasis, though the hereditary genealogist of many of the Jat tribes is the Sansi ; and, as just stated, Rajputs often employ Mirasis in addition to Bhats. But the Mirasi is more than a genealogist ; he is also a musician and minstrel ; and most of the men who play the musical instruments of the Panjab are either ]Mirasis, Jogis, or faqirs. The Dum does not make a good servant, nor a fiddle-bow a good weapon.^'
The social position of the Mirasi, as of all the minstrel castes, is exceed ingly low, but he attends at weddings and on similar occasions to recite genealogies. Moreover there are grades even among Mirasis. The outcast tribes have their Mirasis who, though they do not eat with their clients and merely render them professional service, are considered impure by the Mirasis of the higher castes. The Mirasi is generally a hereditary servant like the Bhnt ; and is notorious for his exactions, which he makes under the threat of lampOoning the ancestors of him from whom he demands fees.
These four were not born on giving day ; the Mulla, the Bhat, the Brdhman, the Dum.'The Mirasi is almost always a Musalman. The few Hindus returned from the hilly and sub-montane districts are very possibly Dumnas returned as Dums. I have included under the head of Mirasi the following schedule entries j Dhadhi, 37 in Ambala, 478 in Multan, and 77 in the Derajdt ; Kbarialaj 37 1, and Sarnai, 3 in Jalandhar ; Rababi, 109 in Labore. Besides tbcse numbers the above terms, as well as Naqarehi, bave all been included witb Mirasi in the offices of one or more divisions. The last three are simply words meaning players upon the flageolet, the flute, and the kettle drum. The Dhadhi appears only to sing and not to play any instrument, and in the Derajat at least is said not to intermarry with the Dum, so probably he should not have been included. The Khariala is said to be a sort of Mirasi, but I have no further information concerning him. The two largest tribes returned for Mirasis seem to be the Chunhar with 13,493, and the Kalet with 4,897 persons. The detailed tables of clans will, when publish ed, give complete information on the subject.
