1 300 PANJAB CASTES.
2 The Bunia appears onlj^in the Ludhiaua district^ and is applied to a Sikh t^- 322]
3 Chamiir who has given up leather-work and taken to weaving, and accordingly
4 stands in a higher rank lh;»n the leather-worker.
5 The Bilai is apparently the village messenger of the Dehli division.
6 He is at least as often a Chubra as a Chaniai', and might perhaps better have
7 been classed with the former. But there is a Chamar clan of that name who
8 work chiefly as grooms.
9 The Dosad is a Purbi tribe of Chamars, and has apparently come into the
10 Panjab with the troops^ being returned only in Dehli, Lahore, and Ambala.
11 The Rahtia is said by several of my informants to be a Sikh Chamiir
12 who, like the Biinia, has taken to weaving ; but unfortunately part of my
13 Rahtias ai-e JMusalman. In Sii'sa the word seems to be applied to the members
14 of any low caste, such as Chamar or Chuhra.^
15 606. The Sikh Chamar or Ramdasia. — It will be seen fiom Table VIII A
16 that in the north and centre of the Eastern Plains a very considerable number
17 of Chamars have embraced the Sikh religion. These men are called Riimdasia
18 after Guini lliini Das, though what connection they have with him I have
19 been unable to discover. Perhaps he was the first Guru to admit Chamars to
20 the religion. Many, perhaps most of the Ramdasia Chamars have abandoned
21 leather-work for the loom ; they do not eat can-ion, and they occupy a much
22 higher position than the Hindu Chamars, though they are not admitted to
23 religious equality by the other Sikhs. The Ramdasia are often confused with
24 the Raldiisi oi Rabdasi Chamars. The former are true Sikhs, and take the
25 pdhul. The latter are Hindus, or if Sikhs, only Niinakpanthi Sikhs and do
26 not take the puliul ; and are followers of Bhagat Rav Das or Rab Dus, himself
27 a Chamar. They are apparently as true Hindus as any Chamars can be, and
28 ai'e wrongly called Sikhs by confusion with the Ramdasias , (See fui-ther,
29 paragraph GO 8.)
30 607. The Musalman Chamar or Moehi (Caste No. 19).— The word Mochi
31 is properly the name of an occupation, and signifies the worker in tanned
32 leather as distinguished from the tanner. The Mochi not only makes leather
33 articles, but he alone grains leather and gives it a surface colour or stain, as
34 distinguished froai a colour dyed throughout. In the east of the Panjab the
35 name is usually applied only to the more skilled workmen of the towns. In
36 the west however it is simply used to designate a Mussalman Chamtir ; and the
37 Mochi there is what the Chamar is in the east and belongs to the same caste,
38 though his change of religion improves, though only slightly, his social
39 position. He does not ordinarily weave, though in Hushyarpur the majority
40 of the Mochis are said to be weavers, and he is not admitted to religious
41 or social communion by the other Musalmans. In the west of the Panjab,
42 however, the Chamar or Mochi no longer occupies that important position as an
43 agricultural labom'er that he does in the east. In the west he is merely a
44 tanner and leather-worker, and his numbers are proiJortionally less than when
45 a large part of the field-work is done by him. Moreover, he no longer
46 renders menial service ; and it may be that his improved sojial position is
47 partly due to this fact. Mr. Chi-istie, indeed, says that so soon as a Chamar,
48 whether Hindu or Musalman, abandons menial offices and confines himself to
49 working in leather, he rises in the social Scale and assumes the more res2)ectable
50 ' So I am told. Mr. Wilsou, however, says that he has never heard the word used.