1 234 PANJAB CASTES.
2 is often retained in addition, who takes the place of the Bhat on sneh occa-
3 sions. The status of the Bhat is high ; and in Rajputana they are said to
4 possess great influence. The Bhat is almost always Hindu, even where his
5 clients have become Mahomedans. A few ai-e Sikhs, and still fewer Musalnians ;
6 and it is doubtful whether these last are not really Mirasis. There are said to
7 be Musalman iShats in Sialkot who have migrated from the Jhang uplands
8 and are much addicted to thieving- ; but I much doubt whether they belono- to
9 the Bhat caste. I have said that the Bhats are of undoubted Brahman origin,
10 and this is true of the Jaga and Charan, who are ordinarily called Bhjits!
11 Whether it is true of the Madho Bhats also I am not so certain. TheMadhos
12 would appear to be named after Madho, the founder of the Madhavi sect of
13 minstrel mendicants ; and the Bh^tra, who however claims Brahman origin, is
14 called Madho in Rawalpindi. Besides the 217 persons mentioned above who
15 returned their caste as Madho, a very considerable number of those who have
16 given their caste as Bhats show Madho as their tribe.
17 527. The Dum and Mirasi (Caste No. 25).— Under this head have been
18 included both Dum and Mirasi, the former being the Hindu and Indian and
19 the latter the Musalman and Arabic name, and the whole class being commonly
20 called Diim-Mirasi by the people. It fact no one of my divisional offices
21 separated the two entries, and the two words are used throughout the Province
22 as absolutely synonymous. The Dums, however, must be carefully distinguish-
23 ed from the Dom or Domra, the executioner and corpsebumer of Hindustan,
24 and the type of all uncleanliness to a Hindu; as also from the Dum of the
25 Hill States, whom I have classed as Dumna and not as Mirasi, as I understand
26 that the word Dum is there applied to workers in bamboo. The class is
27 distributed throughout the Province, but is most numerous in the Amritsar,
28 Lahore, Rawalpindi, and Multan divisions, and in Bahawalpiu- and the other
29 States which march with them. On the lower Indus many of them would
30 seem to have returned themselves as Jats — see Abstract No. 72,* page 224. * P. 106-
31 Theword Mirasi is derived fro)u the Arabic fttirds or inheritance; and the ^'^^■
32 jMirasi is to the inferior agricultural cases and the outcast tribes what the
33 Bhat is to the Rajputs. Even Jats employ Mirasis, though the hereditary
34 genealogist of many of the Jat tribes is the Sansi ; and, as just stated,
35 Rajputs often employ ^Iirasis in addition to Bhats. But the IMirasi is more
36 than a genealogist ; he is also a musician and minstrel ; and most of the men
37 who play the musical instruments of the Panjiib are either ^Mirasis, Joo-is, or
38 faqm. " The Dum does not make a good servant, nor a fiddle-bow a°good
39 weapon."
40 The social position of the 3Iirasi, as of all the minstrel castes, is exceed-
41 ingly low, but he attends at weddings and on similar occasions to recite
42 genealogies. Moreover there ai-e grades even among Mirasis. The outcast
43 tribes have their Mirasis who, though they do not eat with their clients and
44 merely render them professional service, are considered impure by the Mirasis
45 of the higher castes. The Mirasi is generally a hereditary servant like the
46 Bhat; and is notorious for his exactions, which he makes under the threat
47 of lampooning the ancestors of him from whom he demands fees. " These
48 " four were not born on giving day ; the MuUa, the Bhat, the Brahman, andf?- 290]
49 "the Dum." The Mirasi is almost always a Musalman. The few Hindus
50 returned fi-om the hilly and sub-montane districts are very possiblv Dumnas
51 returned as Dums. I have included under the head of Mirasi the' following
52 schedule entries ; Dhadhi, .37 in Ambala, 478 in Multan, and 77 in the