caste: [noun] one of the hereditary social classes in Hinduism that restrict the occupation of their members and their association with the members of other castes. That Rajputs were one of the divisions, if not the only division of the first-order, not having further divisions, has already been mentioned. The two former ekdas continued to exist with diminished strength. It is argued that the various welfare programmes of each caste association, such as provision of medical facilities, scholarships and jobs for caste members contribute, in however small a way, to the solution of the nations problems. Typically, a village consists of the sections of various castes, ranging from those with just one household to those with over u hundred. In the second kind of area, indigenous Kolis live side-by-side with immigrant Kolis from an adjoining area. Similarly, the Khedawal Brahmans were divided into Baj and Bhitra, the Nagar Brahmans into Grihastha and Bhikshuk, the Anavils into Desai and Bhathela, and the Kanbis into Kanbi and Patidar. That there was room for flexibility and that the rule of caste endogamy could be violated at the highest level among the Rajputs was pointed out earlier. Literally, ekda meant unit, and gol circle, and both signified an endogamous unit. In the plains, therefore, every village had one or more towns in its vicinity. Usually it consisted of wealthy and powerful lineages, distinguishing themselves by some appellation, such as Patidar among the Leva Kanbi, Desai among the Anavil, and Baj among the Khedawal. The sub- the manner in which the ideas of free marriages and castles society are used by both the old and the young in modern India and how a number of new customs and institutions have evolved to cope with these new ideas is a fascinating subject of study. And how flexibility was normal at the lowest level has just been shown. This was because political authorities were hierarchized from little kingdom to empire and the boundaries of political authorities kept changing. Content Filtrations 6. A large number of priestly, artisan and service castes also lived in both villages and towns: Bramhans, barbers, carpenters, blacksmiths, shoemakers, leather-workers, scavenges, water-carriers, palanquin-bearers, and so on. They were found in almost every village in plains Gujarat and in many villages in Saurashtra and Kachchh. Castes which did not sit together at public feasts, let alone at meals in homes, only 15 or 20 years ago, now freely sit together even at meals in homes. They had an internal hierarchy similar to that of the Leva Kanbis, with tax-farmers and big landlords at the top and small landowners at the bottom. A large proportion, if not the whole, of the population of many of such divisions lived in towns. There would be a wide measure of agreement with him on both these counts. I have done field work in two contiguous parts of Gujarat: central Gujarat (Kheda district and parts of Ahmedabad and Baroda districts) and eastern Gujarat (Panchmahals district). <>/ExtGState<>/ProcSet[/PDF/Text/ImageB/ImageC/ImageI] >>/Annots[ 9 0 R] /MediaBox[ 0 0 612 792] /Contents 4 0 R/Group<>/Tabs/S/StructParents 0>> Frequently, the urban population of such a division performed more specialized functions than did the rural one. The chiefly families constituted a tiny proportion of the total population of any second-order division among the Kolis. To obtain a clear understanding of the second-order divisions with the Koli division, it is necessary first of all to find a way through the maze of their divisional names. Although some of them set up shops in villages they rarely became full-fledged members of the village community. One of the reasons behind underplaying of the principle of division by Dumont as well as by others seems to be the neglect of the study of caste in urban areas (see Dumonts remarks in 1972: 150). To illustrate, among the Khadayata or Modh Vanias, an increasing number of marriages take place between two or more tads within an ekda. Any one small caste may look insignificant in itself but all small castes put together become a large social block and a significant social phenomenon. Which caste is Vaya surname? : r/gujarat - reddit.com To have a meaningful understanding of the system of caste divisions, there is no alternative but to understand the significance of each order of division and particularly the nature of their boundaries and maintenance mechanisms. The decline was further accelerated by the industrial revolution. Use census records and voter lists to . In central Gujarat, for example, one and the same division, freely arranging marriages within it, was known by several names such as Baraiya, Dharala, Khant, Kotwal, Pagi, Patelia, Talapada, Thakarada, and Thakor. There was an emphasis on being different and separate rather than on being higher and lower. We had seen earlier that in the first-order division, such as that of the Rajputs, there were no second-order divisions, and no attempt was made to form small endogamous units: hypergamy had free play, as it were. I have not yet come across an area where Kolis from three or more different areas live together, excepting modern, large towns and cities. Nor were ekdas and tads entirely an urban phenomenon. It will readily be agreed that the sociological study of Indian towns and cities has not made as much progress as has the study of Indian villages. There was also another kind of feast, called bhandaro, where Brahmans belonging to a lesser number of divisions (say, all the few in a small town) were invited. The institutions of both bride and bridegroom price (the latter also called dowry) were rampant in castes with continuous internal hierarchydowry mainly at the upper levels, bride price mainly at the lower levels, and both dowry and bride price among status-seeking middle level families. Almost every village in this area included at least some Leva population, and in many villages they formed a large, if not the largest, proportion of the population. The Kayatias main occupation was to perform a ritual on the eleventh day after death, during which they took away offerings made to ghosts: this was the main cause of their extremely low status among Brahmans. Division and Hierarchy: An Overview of Caste in Gujarat Hypergamy was accompanied by sanskritization of at least a section of the tribal population, their claim to the Kshatriya Varna and their economic and political symbiosis with the caste population. The Hindu population of Gujarat was divided first of all into what I have called caste divisions of the first order. Far from it, I am only suggesting that its role had certain limitations and that the principle of division was also an important and competing principle. In spite of them, however, sociologists and social anthropologists have not filled adequately the void left by the disappearance of caste from the census and the gazetteer. A fundamental difficulty with these paradigms of change, as indicated by the above analysis, is that they are based on a partial conception of the systematic or structural whole in the past partially because it does not cover the urban situation and the complexity of horizontal units. Although the people of one tad would talk about their superiority over those of another tad in an ekda, and the people of one ekda over those of another in a higher-order division, particularly in large towns where two or more tads and ekdas would be found living together, there was no articulate ranking and hypergamy among them. The essential idea in the category was power, and anybody who wielded powereither as king or as dominant group in a rural (even tribal) areacould claim to be Rajput. Gujarat (along with Bombay) has perhaps the largest number of caste associations and they are also more active and wealthy compared to those in other regions. Even the archaeological surveys and studies have indicated that the people of Dholavira, Surkotada. 92. Castes having continuous internal hierarchy and lacking effective small endogamous units, such as Rajputs, Leva Kanbis, Anavils and Khedawals, do not have active associations for lower-order divisions. Usually, it was a small population. The Mehta family name was found in the USA, and the UK between 1891 and 1920. Since after expansion of British textile markets and decline of Indian textile industry Vankars suffered a lot. While some hypergamous and hierarchical tendency, however weak, did exist between tads within an ekda and between ekdas within a second- order division, it was practically non-existent among the forty or so second-order divisions, such as Modh, Porwad, Shrimali, Khadayata and so on, among the Vanias. Sindhollu, Chindollu. The indigenous Kolis in the highland area of Pal in eastern Gujarat were called Palia, but there was another smaller population of KoUs, who were locally called Baria but were actually Talapada immigrants from central Gujarat. Moreover, the king himself belonged to some caste (not just to the Kshatriya Varna) and frequently a number of kings belonged to the same caste (e.g., Rajput). After the commercial revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries, Gujarat had a large number of tradition towns on its long sea-coast. Sometimes a division corresponding to a division among Brahmans and Vanias was found in a third first-order division also. The most Mehta families were found in USA in 1920. stream Frequently, a division among Vanias corresponded to a division among Brahmans. Division and Hierarchy: An Overview of Caste in Gujarat! Then there were a number of urban divisions of specialized artisans, craftsmen and servants, as for example, Sonis (gold and silver smiths), Kansaras (copper and bronze smiths), Salvis (silk weavers), Bhavsars (weavers, dyers and printers), Malis (florists), Kharadis (skilled carpenters and wood carvers), Kachhias (vegetable sellers), Darjis (tailors), Dabgars (makers of drums, saddles and such other goods involving leather), Ghanchis (oil pressers), Golas ferain and spice pounders and domestic servants), Dhobis (washermen), Chudgars (banglemakers), and Tambolis (sellers of area nuts, betel leaves, etc.). The Brahmans and Vanias seem to have had the largest number of divisions as mentioned earlier, about eighty in the former and about forty in the latter. The Rajput hierarchy had many levels below the level of the royal families of the large and powerful kingdoms: lineages of owners of large and small fiefs variously called jagir, giras, thakarat,thikana, taluka, and wanted-, lineages of substantial landowners under various land tenures having special rights and privileges; and lineages of small landowners. Since these were all status categories rather than clear- cut divisions, I have not considered them as constituting third-order divisions. Until recently, sociologists and anthropologists described Indian society as though it had no urban component in the past. First, since the tads were formed relatively recently, it is easier to get information about their formation than about the formation of ekdas. In no other nation has something as basic as one's clothing or an act as simple as spinning cotton become so intertwined with a national movement. The guiding ideas were samaj sudharo (social reform) and samaj seva (social service). The co-residence of people belonging to two or more divisions of a lower order within a division of a higher order has been a prominent feature of caste in towns and cities. The name, Talapada, meaning mdigenous, commonly used in the 19th century, is most clear, since it is clearly distinguished from the other division called Pardeshi, meaning foreign, who during the last one or two centuries immigrated here from the area around Patan in north Gujarat and were, therefore, also called Patan- wadias. Each unit was ranked in relation to others, and many members of the lower units married their daughters into the higher units, so that almost every unit became loose in the course of time. A block printed and resist-dyed fabric, whose origin is from Gujarat was found in the tombs of Fostat, Egypt. In effect, the Vania population in a large town like Ahmedabad could have a considerable number of small endogamous units of the third or the fourth order, each with its entire population living and marrying within the town itself. There was also a third category called Pancha, derived from the word punch (meaning 5) and denoting extremely low Vania. Third, although two or more new endogamous units came into existence and marriage between them was forbidden thereafter, a number of pre-existing kinship and affinal relationships continued to be operative between them. Tapodhans were priests in Shiva temples. For example, among the Vanias the most general rule was that a marriage of a boy could be arranged with any girl who was bhane khapati, i.e., with whom he was permitted to have commensal relations (roti vyavahar). Roughly, while in the plains area villages are nucleated settlements, populated by numerous castes, in the highland area villages are dispersed settlements, populated by tribes and castes of tribal origin. ADVERTISEMENTS: Division and Hierarchy: An Overview of Caste in Gujarat! As a consequence, the continuities of social institutions and the potentiality of endogenous elements for bringing about change are overlooked (for a discussion of some other difficulties with these paradigms, see Lynch 1977). It was also an extreme example of a division having a highly differentiated internal hierarchy and practising hypergamy as an accepted norm. In fact, inter-tad marriages have increased so much that the tads have more or less lost their identity and such marriages are no longer considered as violating the rule of tad endogamy. And even when a Brahman name corresponded with a Vania name, the former did not necessarily work as priests of the latter.The total number of second-divisions in a first-order division differed from one first-order division to another. The handloom weavers of Gujarat, Maharastra and Bengal produced and exported some of the world's most desirable fabrics. The village was a small community divided into a relatively small number of castes; the population of each caste was also small, sometimes only one or two households, with little possibility of existence of subdivisions; and there were intensive relationships of various kinds between the castes.