Pdewan: Created page with "=Khatik= {| class="wikitable" |- |colspan="0"|
This article is an extract from
THE CASTES AND TRIBES
OF
H. E. H. THE NIZAM'S D..."

2015-12-14T21:12:03Z

Created page with "=Khatik= {| class="wikitable" |- |colspan="0"|<div style="font-size:100%"> This article is an extract from THE CASTES AND TRIBES OF H. E. H. THE NIZAM'S D..."

New page

=Khatik=
{| class="wikitable"
|-
|colspan="0"|<div style="font-size:100%">
This article is an extract from 

THE CASTES AND TRIBES 

OF 

H. E. H. THE NIZAM'S DOMINIONS 

BY 

SYED SIRAJ UL HASSAN 

Of Merton College, Oxford, Trinity College, Dublin, and 

Middle Temple, London. 

One of the Judges of H. E. H. the Nizam's High Court 

of Judicature : Lately Director of Public Instruction. 

BOMBAY 

THE TlMES PRESS 

1920 
***** 
''Indpaedia is an archive. It neither agrees nor disagrees '' 
''with the contents of this article.'' 
''Secondly, this has been scanned from a book. You can help by '' 
''sending the corrected version/ additional information to '' 
the Facebook page, [http://www.facebook.com/Indpaedia Indpaedia.com]. ''All information used will be duly acknowledged.''
</div>
|}
[[Category:India|K]]
[[Category:Communities|K]]
Khatik, Sultankar, Alitkar — the tanner caste, supposed to have
come from Nagar in Marwar more than t\^o hundred years ago.
According to the traditions current among the people, they are des-
cended from Dharmaraja, the eldest of the Pandav brothers. The
members of the caste are tall, strong, with an alert expression, and
speak Hindustani with a mixture of Marwari. They have no endo-
gamous divisions. They say they have got eighty-four exogamous
sections, but only a few of these are known, as shown below —
[[File: kaya.PNG ||frame|500px]]
A man is forbidden to marry a woman belonging to his own
section. No other section is a bar to marriage, provided that he does
not marry any of his first cousins. This rule of exogamy is further
supplemented by prohibited degrees, calculated to three generations
in the descending line.

==Marriage==

Both adult and infant marriage are recognised by
the caste, but the latter is deemed the more respectable. The
marriage ceremony is of the orthodox type. On the wedding day,
the bridegroom goes to the bride's house where, on arrival, he is con-
ducted to a seat under a wedding canopy or mandap. There the
bride joins him and is seated on his left hand. A sacred fire is
kindled before them by the priest and the bride's maternal uncle puts
her left hand into the bridegroom's right hand. After the clothes
of the bridal pair have been knotted together by the officiating
Brahman, they walk seven times round the milk post (mani khamh).
This is followed by Kanyadan, or the giving away of the bride by
her parents and the bridegroom's acceptance of her. The seven
circuits, taken by the bridal pair round the milk post and the sacred
fire, are deemed to be the binding portion of the ceremony. Poly-
gamy is permitted and there is no positive rule fixing any limit to the
number of wives a man may have. Most Khatiks, however, are too
poor to keep more than one wife, and a man only takes a second wife
when the first is barren. A widow may marry again, but she is not
required to marry her late husband's younger brother. Divorce is
permitted with the sanction of the Pancha\)at and divorced wives may
marry again by the form in use at the remaniage of widows.

==Religion==

By religion, the Khatiks are orthodox Hindus and
employ Maratha Brahmans for religious and ceremonial purposes.
Their chief deities are Bhairoba of Nagar, in Marwar, and Amba
Bhavani of Tuljapur, who are worshipped at their weddings. A goat
is sacrificed in the name of Bhavani on the Dassera, or the tenth of the
light half of Aswin (September). If smallpox breaks out in the
family, they appease the goddess Sitala with offerings of goats and
fowls. The dead are usually burnt, but recourse is had to burial
if the deceased is an unmarried person. When the body is burned,
the ashes are collected on the third day after death and thrown into
a river. Smdha is performed on the tenth day when pmdas, or balls
of rice, are offered for the benefit of the soul of the deceased. On
the eleventh day, the chief mourner shaves and becomes purified.
The funeral ceremony is closed by a feast to the members of the caste.

==Occupation==

The characteristic occupation of the caste is the
tanning of leather. They buy hides from the neighbouring villages
and sell them, after dressing, to Chammars and Bohoras. In tan-
ning, they use the red lac dye, math (a kind of bean), salt, and the
bark of the taroar {Cassia amiculata). Socially, the Khatiks rank
very low. They will eat fish and fowl and the flesh of hare, deer
and goat, but abstain from beef and pork. They indulge freely m
spirituous and fermented liquors.

Khatik: Deccan - Revision history

Pdewan: Created page with "=Khatik= {| class="wikitable" |- |colspan="0"| This article is an extract from THE CASTES AND TRIBES OF H. E. H. THE NIZAM'S D..."

Pdewan: Created page with "=Khatik= {| class="wikitable" |- |colspan="0"|
This article is an extract from
THE CASTES AND TRIBES
OF
H. E. H. THE NIZAM'S D..."