1 214 PANJAB CASTES,
2 PART v.— RELIGIOUS, PROFESSIONAL, MERCANTILE, [p-
3 AND MISCELLANEOUS CASTES.
4 510. General and Introductory.— The classes discussed in this part of the i
5 chapter form an exceedingly heterogeneous collection. They are in fact all \
6 those that are left after separating the landowning and agricultural castes on '
7 the one hand, and the vagrant, artisan, and menial classes on the other. They ;
8 include some of the highest and some of the lowest castes in the Province, yet i
9 there is a connection between the priestly Brahman and the semi-priestly Nai, j
10 between the merchant Khatri and the pedlar iManiar. I have divided the castes I
11 now to be considered into six groups. The first includes the priestly castes 1
12 such as the Brahman and Saiyad ; the second the various ascetic, religious, and [
13 mendicant orders of fnqirs ; the third the minor professional castes such as the
14 N^i, the Mirasi, and the Bhat ; the fourth the great mercantile castes such as
15 the Khatri and Arora ; the fifth the caii'iers and pedlars such as the Banjara |
16 and Maniar ; while in the sixth are included those miscellaneous castes, such as j
17 the Kashmiri and Kayath, for whom I have been unable to find a place else-
18 where. The line between the merchants and shop-keepers on the one hand
19 and the carriers and pedlars on the other is exceedingly ill-defined, both in the j
20 figiu-es and in the facts. The groups are too diverse in their character for any I
21 general discussion of them to be profitable ; and I shall consider each under i
22 its separate heading, where also will be found the figures showing their distri- |
23 bution throughout the Panjab. \
24 PRIESTLY CLASSES. '
25 511. Priestly castes. — The group of castes which I am about to discuss,
26 and of which the figm-es are given in Abstract No. 88 on the next page,* may •?. -
27 be divided into three classes, Hindu priests, Muhammadan priests, and /aqirs. '7.
28 The last I give in this abstract so as to complete the group ; but they will be
29 discussed further on, and I shall confine my remarks at jjresent to the priestly 1
30 and religious castes, as distinct from orders. The Brahmans are of course the
31 very type of a Hindu caste, while the pujaris of our tables probably belong for
32 the most part to what is now a real caste, though the word itself is merely the
33 name for an occupation. But the Muhammadan group is not so homogeneous.
34 The title of a Saiyad should be, but notoriously is not, confined to the descen-
35 dants of a common ancestor ; while the Ulama are professedly a miscellaneous
36 collection of persons retui-ned under entiies most of which should never have
37 appeared at all in the caste column. 'J'he Chishtis again probably include both
38 spiritual and carnal descendants of their Chief, as is the case with so many of
39 the religious orders next to be discussed ; while the Bodlas are almost
40 certainly a clan of Rajputs who have acquii'ed a character for sanctity. Theore-
41 tically, the two groups should occupy very different positions among the fol-
42 lowers of their respective faiths. The Brahman is a priest, and entitled as such
43 to reverence and supjiort by the ordinances of the Hindu religion : the Saiyad
44 merely claims respect in virtue of his descent from the sou-in-lavv of the Pro-
45 phet, and the jMuhammadan religion as such has no organised priesthood. But
46 it has already been pointed out in the Chapter on Religion that there is really