Note 130 — Volume II. (continued 2)

Origin and characteristics of the tribes. 1. The word Biâr means “a seed-bed,” and it is suggested that this may be the origin of the name on account of their occupation, which is principally rice cultivation and the construction of tanks and embankments. They may possibly be of aboriginal origin, but the tribe appears to be very mixed, and while they have to a great extent lost the broad nose characteristic of the pure Dravidian races, like the Majhwârs or Korwas, they are not noticeably different in appearance from the Chamârs and other menial Hindu castes which surround them. They may perhaps be connected with the Bhoyars of Betul, “who are said to have come originally from Upper India: they are hard-working and industrious cultivators, thoroughly alive to the advantages of irrigation, and generally expending much labour and capital in the sinking of wells.”130 The idea which at one time prevailed that they were in some way connected with the great Bhar race seems groundless. They consider themselves autochthones of Pargana Barhar, in Mirzapur, and have no traditions of emigration. They are slight, dark, wiry men, noted for their skill in earth-work, and habitually employed on excavations of all kinds: a quiet, rather depressed race, occasionally addicted to petty theft. In Mirzapur they have now formed themselves into two endogamous divisions, the Barhariya, who take their name from Pargana Barhar, north of the river Son, and the Dakkhinâha or “Southerners,” who live south of the river. Those north of the Son have begun to imitate Hindus so far as to start one sub-division or sept (Kuri), the Chamanawa or Chandanawa, who say they are descended from the chandan or sandal tree, and to this is attached one gotra, that of Kâsip. These sub-divisions, however, do not restrict marriage, the rules of exogamy within the two endogamous sub-divisions being of a very elementary kind. They say that when a girl is married into a family they do not permit another alliance with that family for at least three generations. Others say that only the family of the mother’s brother (mâmu) and the father’s sister’s husband (phûpha) are barred. The tendency, however, seems to be to extend the restriction to the orthodox limit fixed in many of these tribes and to include the family of the father’s brother (chacha) and the maternal aunt (mâosi). Other members of the caste, however, name seven septs,—Kanaujiya, Sarwâr, Barwâr, Mahto, Kahto, Kâshi, and Barhar. These are exogamous, and hypergamy is said to prevail to this extent that the Kanaujiya intermarry only with the Barwâr, Sarwâr and Mahto. Three of these are purely local sub-divisions, Kanaujiya (from Kanauj), Kâshi (from Benares), Barhar (from the pargana of that name in Mirzapur). The others are probably all occupational—Sarwâr “archer;” Barwâr, “carrier of loads;” Mahto, “leader;” Kahto, “spokesman.”