1 2y4 PANJAB CASTES.
2 These various names denote nothing more than a change of religion
3 sometimes aetompanied by a eliange of occupation. Table VIII shows that
4 the Hindu Chuhra, that is to say the Chuhra who follows the original religion
5 of the caste and has been classed by us as Hindu, is found in all the eastern
6 half of the Panjab plains : but that west of Lahore he hardly exists save in
7 the greatcities of Esiwalpindi, Multan and Peshawar. His religion is sketched
8 in Part VIII of the Chapter on Religion. . I may add that since writing that
9 chapter, I have received traditions from distant parts of the Province which
10 leave little doubt that Bala Shah, one of the Chuhra Gurus, is another name
11 for Bal Mik, a hunter of the Karnal district, who was converted by a
12 holy Rishi, and eventually wrote the Ramayana. The Rishi wished to
13 prescribe penance, but reflected that so vile a man would not be able to say
14 RAM RAM. So he set him to say MRA MRA which, if vou say it fast [p 319]
15 enough, comes to much the same thing. Their other guru is Liil Beg ; and
16 they still call their priests Lalgurus. They generally many by phera and
17 bmy their dead face downwards, though they not unseldom follow in these
18 respects the custom of the villagers whom they serve.
19 598. The Sikh Chuhra -Mazbiand Rangreta.— The second and third
20 entries in the table of the last paragraph, viz., JIazbi and Rangreta, denote
21 Chuhras who have become Sikhs. Of course a Mazbi will often have been
22 returned as Chuhra by caste and Sikh by religion ; and the figures of Table
23 VIIIA ai-e the ones to be followed, those given above being intended merely to
24 show how many men returned to me under each of the heads shown I have
25 classed as Chuhras. Sikh Chiiras are almost confined to the district and states
26 immediately east and south-east of Lahore, which form the centre of Sikhism.
27 Mazbi means nothing more than a member of the scavenger class converted to
28 ^'\kh:vim {see further, paye. Lj4). The Mazbis take the pdhul, wear their
29 hair long, and abstain from tobacco, and they apparentlv refuse to touch
30 night-soil, though performing all the other olBces "hereditary to the
31 Chuhra caste. Their great Guru is Teg Bahadur, whose mutilated bodv was
32 brought back from Dehli by Chuhras who were then and there admitted to
33 the faith as a reward for their devotion. But though good Sikhs so far as
34 religious observance is concerned, the taint of hereditary pollution is upon
35 them j and Sikhs of other castes refuse to associate with them even in
36 religious ceremonies. They often intermarry with the Lai Begi or Hindu
37 Chuhra. They make capital soldiers and some of oiu- regiments are wholly
38 composed of Mazbis. The Rangreta are a class of ilazbi apparently found
39 only in Ambala, Ludhiana and the neighbourhood, who consider themselves
40 socially superior to the rest. The origin of their superiority, I am informed, lies
41 m the fact that they were once notorious as highway robbers ! But it appears
42 that the Rangretas have very generally abandoned scavengering for leather
43 work, and this would at once account for their rise in the social scale. In
44 the hills Rangreta is often used as synonymous with Rangrez, or Chhimba
45 or Lilari to denote the cotton dyer and stamper ; and in Sirsa the Sikhs
46 will often call any Chuhra whom they wish to please Rangreta, and a rhyme
47 IS current Rangreta, Guru kd beta, or " the Rangreta is the son of the
48 Guru.'"
49 599.— The Musalman Chuhra— Musalli, Kutana, &c.— Almost all the
50 Chuhras west of Lahore are Musalmans, and they are very commonly called
51 Musalli or Kutana, the two terms being apparently almost synonymous, but
52 Kutana being chiefly used in the south-west and Musalli in the north- west.