Khangar
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From The Tribes And Castes Of The Central Provinces Of India
By R. V. Russell
Of The Indian Civil Service
Superintendent Of Ethnography, Central Provinces
Assisted By Rai Bahadur Hira Lal, Extra Assistant Commissioner
Macmillan And Co., Limited, London, 1916.
NOTE 1: The 'Central Provinces' have since been renamed Madhya Pradesh.
NOTE 2: While reading please keep in mind that all articles in this series have been scanned from the original book. Therefore, footnotes have got inserted into the main text of the article, interrupting the flow. Readers who spot these footnotes gone astray might like to shift them to their correct place.
Khangar
A low caste of village watchmen and field- ^r" ditions labourers belonging to Bundelkhand, and found in the Saugor, Damoh, Narsinghpur and Jubbulpore Districts. They numbered nearly 13,000 in 191 I. The Khangars are also numerous in the United Provinces. Hindu ingenuity has evolved various explanations of the word Khangar, such as ' kliand' a pit, and l gar,' maker, digger, because the Khangar digs holes in other people's houses for the purposes of theft.
The caste is, however, almost certainly of non- Aryan origin, and there is little doubt also that Bundelkhand was its original home. It may be noted that the Munda tribe have a division called Khangar with which the caste may have some connection. The Khangars themselves relate the following story of their origin. Their ancestors were formerly the rulers of the fort and territory of Kurar in 'Bundelkhand, when a Bundela Rajput came and settled there. The Bundela had a very pretty daughter whom the Khangar Raja demanded in marriage.
The Bundela did not wish to give his daughter to, the Khangar, but could not refuse the Raja outright, so he said that he would consent if all the Khangars would agree to adopt Bundela practices. This the Khangars readily agreed to do, and the Bundela thereupon invited them all to a wedding feast, and having 1 Compiled principally from a paper by Kanhyii Lai, clerk in the Gazetteer Office.
summoned his companions and plied the Khangars with liquor until they were dead drunk, cut them all to pieces. One pregnant woman only escaped by hiding in a field of kusutn or safflower, 1 and on this account the Khangars still venerate the kusutn and will not wear cloths dyed with saffron. She fled to the house of a Muhammadan eunuch or Fakir, who gave her shelter and afterwards placed her with a Dangi landowner. The Bundelas followed her up and came to the house of the Dangi, who denied that the Khangar woman was with him.
The Bundelas then asked him to make all the women in his house eat together to prove that none of them was the Khangarin, on which the Dangi five times distributed the maihar, a sacrificial cake which is only given to relations, to all the women of the household including the Khangarin, and thus convinced the Bundelas that she was not in the house. The woman who was thus saved became the ancestor of the whole Khangar caste, and in memory of this act the Khangars and Nadia Dangis are still each bidden to eat the maihar cake at the weddings of the other, or at least so it is said ; while the Fakirs, in honour of this great occasion when one of their number acted as giver rather than receiver, do not beg for alms at the wedding of a Khangar, but on the contrary bring presents.
The basis of the story, that the Khangars were the indigenous inhabitants of Bundelkhand and were driven out and slaughtered by the immigrant Bundelas, may not improbably be historically correct. It is also said that no Khangar is even now allowed to enter the fort of Kurar, and that the spirit of the murdered chief still haunts it ; so that if a bed is placed there in the evening with a tooth-stick, the tooth-stick will be split in the morning as after use, and the bed will appear as if it had been slept in. 2 2. Caste The caste has four subdivisions, named Rai, Mirdha or Naklb, Karbal and Dahat.
The Rai or royal Khangars are the highest group and practise hypergamy with families of the Mirdha and Karbal groups, taking daughters from them in marriage but not giving their daughters to them. 1 Carthamas tinctorius. slightly different version of the story is given by Captain Luard. The Dangis, 2 In the Ethnographic Appendices it must be remembered, are a high to the India Census Report of 1901 a caste ranking just below Rajputs. sub- divisions.
The Mirdhas or Naklbs are so called because they act as mace-bearers and form the bodyguard of princes. Very few, if any, are to be found in the Central Provinces. The Karbal are supposed to be especially valorous. The Dahats have developed into a separate caste called Dahait, and are looked down on by all the other divisions as they keep pigs. The caste is also divided into numerous exogamous septs, all of which are totemistic ; and the members of the sept usually show veneration to the object from which the sept takes its name.
Some of the names of septs are as follows : Bachhiya from bachhra a calf; Barha from barah a pig, this sept worshipping the pig ; Belgotia from the bel tree ; Chandan from the sandalwood tree ; Chirai from chiriya a bird, this sept revering sparrows ; Ghurgotia from gJwra a horse (members of this sept touch the feet of a horse before mounting it and do not ride on a horse in wedding pro- cessions) ; Guae from the iguana ; Hanuman from the monkey god ; Hathi from the elephant ; Kasgotia from kansa bell-metal (members of this sept do not use vessels of bell-metal on ceremonial occasions nor sell them); Mahiyar from maihar fried cakes (members of this sept do not use ghl at their weddings and may not sell ghi by weight though they may sell it by measure) ; San after san-hemp (members of this sept place pieces of hemp near their family god) ; Sandgotia from sand a bullock ; Tambagotia from tamba copper ; and Vishnu from the god of that name, whom the sept worship.
The names of 3 1 septs in all are reported and there are probably others. The fact that two or three septs are named after Hindu deities may be noticed as peculiar. The marriage of members of the same sept is prohibited 3 . Mar- and also that of first cousins. Girls are usually married at nage- about ten years of age, the parents of the girl having to undertake the duty of finding a husband. The ceremonial in vogue in the northern Districts is followed throughout, an astrologer being consulted to ascertain that the horoscopes of the pair are favourable, and a Brahman employed to draw up the lagan or auspicious paper fixing the date of the marriage. The bridegroom is dressed in a yellow gown and over-cloth, with trousers of red chintz, red shoes, and a
marriage-crown of date-palm leaves. He has the silver ornaments usually worn by women on his neck, as the khangwari or silver ring, and the hamel or necklace of rupees. In order to avert the evil eye he carries a dagger or nutcracker, and a smudge of lampblack is made on his forehead to disfigure him and thus avert the evil eye, which it is thought would otherwise be too probably attracted by his exquisitely beautiful appearance in his wedding garments.
The binding portion of the ceremony is the bhanwar or walking round the sacred post of the munga tree {Moringa pterygospermd). This is done six times by the couple, the bridegroom leading, and they then make a seventh turn round the bedi or sacrificial fire. If the bride is a child this seventh round is omitted at the marriage and performed at the Dusarta or going-away ceremony. After the marriage the haldi ceremony takes place, the father of the bridegroom being dressed in women's clothes ; he then dances with the mother of the bride, while they throw turmeric mixed with water over each other. Widow-marriage is allowed, and the widow may marry anybody in the caste ; the ceremony consists in the placing of bangles on her wrist, and is always performed at night, a Wednesday being usually selected. A feast must afterwards be given to the caste-fellows. Divorce is also permitted, and may be effected at the instance of either party in the presence of the caste panchayat or committee.
When a husband divorces his wife he must give a feast. The Khangars worship the usual Hindu deities and especially venerate Dulha Deo, a favourite household godling in the northern Districts. Pachgara Deo is a deity who seems to have been created to commemorate the occasion when the Dangi distributed the marriage cakes five times to the fugitive ancestress of the caste. His cult is now on the decline, but some still consider him the most important deity of all, and it is said that no Khangar will tell an untruth after having sworn by this god. Children dying unmarried and persons dying of leprosy or smallpox are buried, while others are buried or burnt according as the family can afford the more expensive rite of cremation or not. As among other castes a corpse must not be burnt between sunset and gion.
sunrise, as it is believed that this would cause the soul to be born blind in the next birth. Nor must the corpse be wrapped in stitched clothes, as in that case the child in which it is reincarnated would be born with its arms and legs entangled. The corpse is laid on its back and some ghi, til, barley cakes and sandalwood, if available, are placed on the body. The soul of the deceased is believed to haunt the house for three days, and each night a lamp and a little water in an earthen pot are placed ready for it. When cremation takes place the ashes are collected on the third day and the burning ground is cleaned with cowdung and sprinkled with milk, mustard and salt, in order that a cow may lick over the place and the soul of the deceased may thus find more easy admission into Baikunth or heaven.
Well-to-do persons take the bones of the dead to the Ganges, a few from the different parts of the body being selected and tied round the bearer's neck. Mourning is usually only observed for three days. The Khangars do not admit outsiders into the caste, s- Social except children born of a Khangar father and a mother belonging to one of the highest castes. A woman going wrong with a man of another caste is finally expelled, but liaisons within the caste may be atoned for by the usual penalty of a feast. The caste eat flesh and drink liquor but abjure fowls, pork and beef. They will take food cooked without water from Banias, Sunars and Tameras, but katcJii roti only from the Brahmans who act as their priests. Such Brahmans are received on terms of equality by others of the caste. Khangars bathe daily, and their women take off then- outer cloth to eat food, because this is not washed every day.
Food cooked with water must be consumed in the chanka or place where it is prepared, and not carried outside the house. Men of the caste often have the suffix Singh after their names in imitation of the Rajputs. Although their social observances are thus in some respects strict, the status of the caste is low, and Brahmans do not take water from them. The Khangars say that their ancestors were soldiers, but 6. Occupa- at present they are generally tenants, field-labourers and tl0n ' village watchmen. They were formerly noted thieves, and
several proverbs remain in testimony to this. " The Khangar is strong only when he possesses a klmnta (a pointed iron rod to break through the wall of a house)." ' The Sunar and the Khangar only flourish together ' ; because the Sunar acts as a receiver of the property stolen by the Khangar. They are said to have had different ways of breaking into a house', those who got through the roof being called cJihappartor, while others who dug through the side walls were known as khonpdphor. They have now, however, generally relinquished their criminal practices and settled down to live as respectable citizens.
Khangar
(From People of India/ National Series Volume VIII. Readers who wish to share additional information/ photographs may please send them as messages to the Facebook community, Indpaedia.com. All information used will be gratefully acknowledged in your name.)
Synonyms: Mandal [Bihar and/or Jharkhand] Kanera, Khara, Kharwal, Khengar, Mirdha, Rawat [Mad hya Pradesh and/or Chhattisgarh] Groups/subgroups: Khangar, Pauakhangar [Bihar and/or Jharkhand] Khangar, Mirdha, Raj [Madhya Pradesh and/or Chhatti sgarh] * Sub-divisions: Dahat, Karbal, Mirdha or Nakib, Rai [Russell & Hiralal] Titles: Thakur [Madhya Pradesh and/or Chhattisgarh] Surnames: Biswas, Das, Mandal, Parasar, Ram, Sharma, Singh [Bihar and/or Jharkhand] Khangar, Singh, Thakur (new) [Madhya Pradesh and/or Chhattisgarh]
- Exogamous septs: Bachhiya, Barha, Belgotia, Chand
an, Chirai, Ghurgotia, Guae, Hanuman, Hathi, Kasgot ia, Mahiyar, Sah, Sandgotia, Tambagotia, Vishnu [Russell& Hiralal] Exogamous units/clans: Bachotia, Bamnia, Barcha, Bi nekia, Ghore, Golia, Gujre, Gutha, Harle, Kanaria, San, Sunor, Tare [Madhya Pradesh and/or Chhattisgarh] Bargotiya, Bharda, Bharta, Bijaniya, Bilgotiya, Bisora, Chhachhundar, Gajgoti, Ghorgotiya, Hathgotiya, Hirangot, Kuraiya, Kushmgotiya, Maitiya, Naggodya, Nahargotiya, Pipariya, Sardu [W. Crooke] Gotra: Kashyap [Bihar and/or Jharkhand] Exogamous units/lineages (vans, khandan): [Bihar an d/or Jharkhand]
