Note 51 — Glossary

Khadra,51 Khadura or Kharura.—A small Uriya caste whose occupation is to make brass ornaments. They are immigrants from Cuttack and say that they are called there Sankhāri, so that the Khadras may not improbably be an offshoot of the Sankhāri caste of shell-cutters of Bengal. According to their traditions their original ancestor was created by Viswakarma, the celestial architect, for the business of making a pinnacle for the temple of Jagannāth at Puri, in which eight metals had to be combined. He left two sons, one of whom became the ancestor of the Khadras, and the other of the Kasārs, with whom the Khadras thus claim affinity. They have no subcastes but four gotras or clans called after the Nāg or cobra, the Singh or lion, and Kāsyap and Kachchap, both derived from the tortoise. They also have four bargas or family names, which are Pātra (a term of respect), Dās (slave), Sao (banker) and Mahāranā (artificer). The groups are supposed to be descended from four families who migrated from Curtack. Neither bargas nor gotras are now considered in the arrangement of marriages, which are prohibited between blood relatives for three generations. Marriage is infant, and a girl arriving at puberty while still unwed is permanently expelled from the caste. The Khadras still follow the old rule of writing the lagun or date of the marriage on a palm-leaf, with which they send Rs. 10–4 as a bride-price to the girl’s father, the acceptance of this constituting a confirmation of the betrothal. The marriage ceremony resembles that of the other Uriya castes, and the Khadras have the rite called badapāni or breaking the bachelorhood. A little water brought from seven houses is sprinkled over the bridegroom and his loin-cloth is then snatched away, leaving him naked. In this state he runs towards his own house, but some boys are posted at a little distance who give him a new cloth. Widow-marriage and divorce are permitted, but the hand of a widow must not be sought so long as she remains in her late husband’s house, and does not return to her father. When a bachelor marries a widow he must first perform the regular ceremony with a leaf-cup filled with flowers, after which he can take the widow as his second wife. All important agreements are confirmed by a peculiar custom called heskāni. A deer-skin is spread on the ground before the caste committee, and the person making the agreement bows before it a number of times. To break an agreement made by the heskāni rite is believed to involve terrible calamities. The Khadras eat the flesh of animals and fish but not that of birds, and they do not drink country liquor. When an estate is to be partitioned the eldest son first takes a tenth of the whole in right of primogeniture and the remainder is then divided equally. The Khadras rank as an artisan caste of somewhat low status.