Note 1 — Sānsia

Sānsia.1—A small caste of wandering criminals of northern India, who live by begging and dealing in cattle. They also steal and commit dacoities, house-breaking and thefts on railway trains. The name Sānsia is borne as well by the Uriya or Od masons of the Uriya country, but these are believed to be quite a distinct group from the criminal Sānsias of Central India and are noticed in another short article. Separate statistics of the two groups were not obtained at the census. The Sānsias are closely connected with the Berias, and say that their ancestors were two brothers Sains Mūl and Sānsi, and that the Berias are descended from the former and the Sānsias from the latter. They were the bards of the Jāt caste, and it was their custom to chronicle the names of the Jāts and their ancestors, and when they begged from Jāt families to recite their praises. The Sānsias, Colonel Sleeman states, had particular families (of the Jāts) allotted to them, from whom they had not only the privilege of begging, but received certain dues; some had fifty, some a hundred houses appointed to them, and they received yearly from the head of each house one rupee and a quarter and one day’s food. When the Jāts celebrated their marriages they were accustomed to invite the Sānsias, who as their minstrels recited the praises of the ancestors of the Jāts, tracing them up to the time of Punya Jāt; and for this they received presents, according to the means of the parties, of cows, ponies or buffaloes. Should any Jāt demur to paying the customary dues the Sānsias would dress up a cloth figure of his father and parade with it before the house, when the sum demanded was generally given; for if the figure were fastened on a bamboo and placed over the house the family would lose caste and no one would smoke or drink water with them.2