1 4
2 Lahdncb customs,
3 avows all connection with the Masla LabdnaR and has the following
4 gots : —
5 Dagnawat.
6 Udiana.
7 Sukidna.
8 Maji'^wat.
9 Bartia.
10 Balthia.
11 Barn^wat.
12 ■ This group is distinguished by having a fixed bride-price Rs 120
13 beinir paid if the bridegroom is a child, Rs. 140 if he is an adult, to the
14 »irTs father. They practise karewa. A curious custom on the Roll
15 is accounted for in a variant of the Prahidd legend. All are .^ikhs.
16 iii. Tn Bali4vvalpur the caste is thus grouped
17 i. Ramdiiia
18 ii. Ud^na
19 Hypergamous group |
20 jr do not intermarry.
21 iii. Gharn^wat or Gharnot 1
22 IV. Chi hot )
23 In this State the LaMnaa claim to be Rathor. The Ram ana and
24 Uddna are closely allied and hang together in all matters. They have
25 a strong panchdyat system and rarely have recourse to the courts.
26 Guilty persons are fined and the penalty [dand] spent on a ritual feast
27 [kardh far shad) to the brotherhood. The legend about their origin
28 is that a Rathor had a son born with long moustaches and so he was
29 called labdna or “ cricket.”
30 In Si^lkot and Gujrjit the tribe stands much higher, and appears to
31 be intermarrying with other agricultural tribes. Tliis however does
32 not necessarily imply a great rise in the social scale, for in Ferozepur
33 the Baurias are intermarrying with J^ts. Widow remarriage is tolerat-
34 ed, but, in Gujrat, the children of such marriages have a lower status.
35 They are all Sikhs, claiming to have been converted by Guru Govind,
36 and abstain from the flesh of animals slaugliterod in the Muhammadan
37 manner as they consider it hardm, and at the mere mention of lialdVd
38 meat exclaim tcdh guru, wdh guru, deprecating any allusion to such a.
39 subject.*
40 The social ceremonies of the Labdiias vary greatly, not only from
41 district to district but within each district. These divergencies in
42 custom are ascribed, by the Labanas themselves, to the composite
43 origins of the caste.
44 Birth observances.
45 In Sidlkot the three ceremonies observed on tho birth of a child
46 are : —
47 1. The oldest woman of the family does not eat or even tonch
48 anything with her mouth at the time of a birth in the house, she makes
49 * But in both .//i(7(A,a and hnlul'cl flesh may be lawfully eaten, it is said, though
50 i„ 18 also added that Labanas who are sejoafcs of LakluUta never eat ihatka Offerings
51 are made to that Pfr for the safety of cattle at the spring and amLn harves^^^^^^^
52 priest is the Bharai but he gets no chilrma until he has prayed to the Pfr to protect his
53 •ejrafc, and it is also his duty to sacrifice animals in the Lldl form ^
54 jaws' that bito» severely.-