1 VAGRANT, MENIAL, AND ARTISAN CASTES. 269
2 " lowpst cltsEes received Sikh baptsim {paTinV) and became SitliR. They gave Tip their mean
3 " occupation and took to other means of livelihood. They also changed their name and gave
4 " np as mnch social interconrse mth the nnconverted members of their tribe as they pos-
5 " sibly could. Thus the Chamars on their convei'sion to Sikhism took the name of Ravi
6 ''Das, the .first Bhagat of their tribe, to show that they followed his example. Ravdasia is
7 "the correct form of the word. But it was soon confounded with the name of Ram Das,
8 ''the 4th Sikh Guru, and pronounced Ramdasia.' The word is still pronounced a; Ravdasia
9 " bv most of the Sikhs. Similarly Chhi'mba Sikhs call themselves Namahansis from Nam
10 " Deo.
11 "The Chilhras on becoming Sikhs took the names of Mazhahi ((.iust as that of Dindar
12 " on conversion to Islam) and Rangreta. No one of the Rangretas follows the occupation of a
13 " Chiihra, but they have been rightly classed with Chilhras. Similarly if the Rsradasias do
14 " not follow the occupation of Chamars, it is no reason to separate them from that caste.
15 " So if a Ramdasia is Julaha, that is a weaver, and if he is a ' Bazzaz ' that is a draper,
16 "his caste remains unchanged. If a Chamar, a leather-worker hccouies a Sikh and receives
17 "the ' pahul ' to-day, he at once joins the Ramdasias. The Ramdasias do rei eivc the
18 "daughters .'n maiTJage of ordinary Chamars, but give them 'pa7«(/ ' before associating with
19 "them. A Ramdasia would not drink water from the hands of an ordinary Chamar nn-
20 "less he becomes a Sikh. The Jlazbi Sikhs also keep themselves aloof from tlie Chiihras,
21 " in exactly the same manner as Ramdasias do from Chamars."
22 It is quite true, as the Sardar points out, that the Ramdiisi is still
23 a Chaniar and the Rangreta still a Chuhra. The change has been re-
24 cent and is still in progress. But how long will they remain so ? Their
25 origin is already hotly disputed and often indignantly denied, though
26 the fact of new admissions still taking place puts it beyond the possibility
27 of doubt. But there can be little doul)t that they will in time grow
28 into separate castes of a standing superior to those from which they
29 sprang ; or more probaldy perhaps, that they will grow to be included
30 under the generic name of the caste whose hereditary occupation they
31 have adopted, but will form distinct sections of those castes and be
32 known by separate sectional names, even after the tradition of their origin
33 has faded from the memory of the caste. And there can, I tliink, be
34 as little doubt that some of the sections which now fomi integral parts
35 of tlicse lower occupational castes would, if we could trace back their history,
36 be found to have been formed in a precisely similar manner. The tradi-
37 tion of inferior origin and status has survived, and the other sections,
38 perhaps themselves derived from the same stock Ijut at a more remote
39 date, will hold no communion with them ; but the precise reason for
40 the distinction has been forgotten. The absence of the hereditary theory
41 of occupation among the people of the frontier and its effect by ex-
42 ample upon those of the Western Plains, have already been discussed in
43 sections H'i and 34-8.
44 568. Growth of sections among the menial castes. — But if these occu-
45 pational castes are recruited by new sections coming up from below,
46 they also receive additions from above. The weavers especially may be
47 said to form a sort of debateable land between the higher and the lower
48 artisan castes, for a man of decent caste who from poverty or other
49 circumstances sinks in the scale often takes to weaving, though he per-
50 haps rarely falls lower than this. The barber, carpenter, and blacksmith
51 classes have in Sirsa been recruited from the agricultural castes within
52 il do not think this is quite correct. The Rabdasi or Raidasi Chamars are Hindus
53 and the Ramdasi are Sikhs. But it may be that the Ravdasi arc analogous with the Nanak-
54 panthi Sikhs who are commonly reckoned as Hindus, while the Ramdiisi correspond with
55 the Singhi or Goviudi Sikhs proper. As the Sardar points out presently, the Ramdasis re-
56 ceive the pdhul, an institution of Guru Govind; while the Eabdasis do not. (See further
57 section 606 infra.)