Note 54 — Glossary

Kumrawat,54 Patbina, Dāngur.—A small caste of san-hemp growers and weavers of sacking. They are called Kumrāwat in the northern Districts and Patbina (pat pattī, sacking, and binna, to weave) in Chhattīsgarh. A small colony of hemp-growers in the Betūl District are known as Dāngur, probably from the dāng or wooden steelyard which they use for weighing hemp. Both the Kumrāwats and Dāngurs claim Rājpūt origin, and may be classed together. The caste of Barais or betel-vine growers have a subcaste called Kumrāwat, and the Kumrāwats may be an offshoot of the Barais, who split off from the parent body on taking to the cultivation of hemp. As most Hindu castes have until recently refused to grow hemp, the Kumrāwats are often found concentrated in single villages. Thus a number of Patbinas reside in Darri, a village in the Khujji zamīndāri of Raipur, while the Dāngurs are almost all found in the village of Māsod in Betūl; in Jubbulpore Khāpa is their principal centre, and in Seoni the village of Deori. The three divisions of the caste known by the names given above marry, as a rule, among themselves. For their exogamous groups the Dāngurs have usually the names of different Rājpūt septs, the Kumrāwats have territorial names, and those of the Patbinas are derived from inanimate objects, though they have no totemistic practices.