1 RELIGIOUS, PROFESSIONAL AND OTHER CASTES. 243
2 excepting even the frontier where Kirai- is the more usual term ; and it is just
3 possible that in some cases other mercantile castes have been included in the
4 figures. This however cannot have happened to any consideral)le extent,
5 or the figures for the sub-divisions of each caste would at once show what
6 had happened. Of the Banyas of the Panjab about 92 per cent, are Hindus.
7 Only 0-84 per cent, are Sikhs, most of whom are to he found in Patiala,
8 Nabha and Rawalpindi. The Jains constitute 7 per cent, of the whole,
9 and are confined to the Delili division, Hissar, and Rohtak, or the tract
10 bordering upon Rajputana, the great stronghold of Western Jainism. It is
11 curious that the proportion of Jain Banyas should not be larger in Sirsa.
12 Only some 500 souls are returned as Musalmans, and these may perhaps be
13 Banyas by occiipation rather than by caste.
14 It is sometimes said that Banya is no true caste at all, but merely an
15 occupational term equivalent to " shop-keeper," and that the great divisions
16 of the Banyas, the Ag-garwals, Oswals, and the like, really occupy the position
17 of castes ; and this is in a sense trae. The great sections do not intermaiTy,
18 and very possilily represent stocks of different origin ; and if caste is used in
19 the same sense as tribe, these sections are doubtless sejiarate castes. But if
20 the word is used in its purely Brahrainical sense, I do not think the Aggarwal
21 and Oswal Banyas are separate castes any more than are the Gam- and Siirsiit
22 Briihmans. The two cases seem to me analagous. In all the non-agricultural
23 castes who are found distributed widely among the population, anything
24 con-esponding with compact tril>al divisions, such as we find among Rajputs,
25 Pathans, or Jats, is impossible. They do not move into and occupy a large
26 tract of country ; they rather spread fi-om centres of origin, diffusing them-
27 selves among and accompanying the agricultural tribes in their movements.
28 But the great divisions of the Banya caste occupy identical social and
29 religious positions, and recognise each other, whether rightly or wrongly, as
30 of common origin distinct from that of the Khatris and other enstes whose
31 avocations are the same as their own ; and, save in the sense in which such
32 caste names as Chamar and Chuhra are only occupational terms, I think
33 that the term Banya must be taken to describe| a trae caste of supposed
34 common blood, and not a collection of tribes of distinct descent united only by
35 identity of occupation (see fui-ther section 351 supra) .
36 533. The divisions of the Banya Caste.— The divisions of the Banya caste with which
37 we are coucerued in the Panjab are shown in the margin.
38 The AggarwalS oi- north-eastern division of Banyas include
39 the immense majority of the caste in every district throughout
40 the Province. They have, according to Slierring, a tradition of
41 of a far distant origin on the hanks of Godavery. Buc the
42 place to which all Aggarwals refer the origin of the section,
43 and from which they take their name, is Agroha in the Hissar
44 district, once the capital of a Vaisya Raja of the name of
45 Agar Sen, and whence they are said to have spread over
46 Hindi'istan after the taking of that place by Shahab-ul-din
47 Ghori in 1195; and Elliott points out that the fact that
48 throughout the North-Western Provinces the Aggarwal Banyas
49 are supposed to be specially bound to make offerings to Giiga
50 Pfr, the great saint from the neighbourhood of Agroha, bears
51 testimony to the truth of the tradition. The eigliteen sons of
52 Agar Sen are said to have married the eighteen snake-daughters of Raja Basak, and Guga Pir ia
53 the greatest of the snake-gods. The Aggarwals are often Jain, especially in Dehli and among
54 the more wealthy classes of the cities ; and when Jains, are generally of the Digambara sects (see
55 section 259, Chapter IV). But the great mass of them are Hindus, and almost invariably of the
56 Vaishnava sect.
57 Banta
58 SECTION
59 s.
60 Aggarwal
61 364,355
62 Oswal
63 3,863
64 M.ahesri . . .
65 5,755
66 Saralia ...
67 11,899
68 llasa
69 2,473
70 Total
71 388,345
72 Others and un?
73 pecified
74 49,599
75 Total
76 437,944