Bania: Dosar, Dusra
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Latest revision as of 13:01, 16 February 2014
This article was written in 1916 when conditions were different. Even in Readers will be able to edit existing articles and post new articles directly |
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.
[edit] Bania, Dosar, Dusra
This subcaste numbers about 600 persons. The original name is Dusra or second, and the Dosar or Dusra are a section of the Ummar Banias, who were so called because they permit widows to make a second marriage. Their home is the Ganges -Jumna Doab and Oudh, and in the United Provinces they are classed as an inferior subcaste of the Ummars. Here they say that the Ummars are their elder brothers. In the Central Provinces they are said to be forming three local endogamous groups according as their homes were in the Doab, Oudh or the Allahabad country ; and members of each of these marry among themselves.
The Dosars say that they all belong to the Kashyap " gotra or clan, but for the purpose of marriage they have territorial or titular exogamous sections ; instances of these are Gangapari, a native of Oudh ; Sagarah, a resident of Saugor ; Makraha, a seller of makka or maize, and Tamakhuha, a tobacco -seller. They pay a bridegroom- price, the full recognised amount of which is Rs. 211, either in cash or brass cooking-vessels.
Those who cannot afford this sum give half of it or Rs. 105, and the poorest classes pay anything they can afford. The Dosars are Vaishnava Hindus and employ Sanadhya Brahmans as their priests. These Brahmans will take food without water from their clients, but they are an inferior class and are looked down upon by other Brahmans. The caste are mainly shop- keepers, and they deal in gold and silver ornaments, as well as grain, tobacco and all kinds of groceries.
