1 312 PANJAB CASTES.
2 scavenger. His impurity, like that of the barber, washerman, and dyer,
3 springs solely from the nature of his employment ; perhaps because it is a dirty
4 one, but more probably because black is a colour of evil omen, though on the
5 other hand iron has powerful vhtue as a charm against the evil eye. It is not
6 impossible that the necessity under which he labours of using bellows made of
7 cowhide may have something to do with his impm-ity.' He appears to follow
8 ver}' generally the religion of the neighbourhood and some 34 per cent, of the
9 Lohars are Hindi;, about 8 per cent. Sikh, and 58 per cent. Musalmau. Most [P. 328]
10 of the men shown as Lohars in our tables have returned themselves as such,
11 though some few were recorded as Ahngar, the Persian for blacksmith, and as
12 Nalband or farrier. In the north of Sirsa, and probably in the Central States
13 of the Eastern Plains, the Lobar or blacksmith and the Khati or carpenter are
14 undistinguishable, the same men doing both kinds of work ; and in many, per-
15 haps in most parts of the Panjilb the two intermarry. In Hushyai'pur they
16 are said to form a single caste called Lohar-Tarkhan, and the son of a black-
17 smith will often take to carpentry and vice versa ; but it appears that the
18 castes were originally separate, for the joint caste is still divided into two sec-
19 tions who will not intermarry or even eat or smoke together, the Dhaman, from
20 dhamna " to blow," and the Khatti from Jchdt " wood." In Gujranwala the
21 same two sections exist ; and they are the two great Tarkhan tribes also (see sec-
22 tion G27). In Karnal a sort of connection seems to be admitted, but the castes
23 are now distinct. In Sirsa the Lohars may be divided into three main sections ;
24 the first, men of undoubted and recent Jat and even Rajput origin who have,
25 generally by reason of poverty, taken to work as blacksmiths ; secondly the
26 Suthar Lohiir or members of the Suthar trilie of carpenters who have similarly
27 changed their original occupation ; and thirdly, the Gadiya Lobar, a class of
28 wandering blacksmiths not uncommon throughout the east and south-east of
29 the Province, who come up from liajputana and the North-West Provinces
30 and travel about with their families and implements in carts from village to
31 village, doing the finer sorts of iron work which are beyond the capacity of the
32 village artisan. The tradition runs that the Suthar Lohars, who are now
33 Musalman, were orign ally Hindu Tarkhans of the Suthai* tribe (see sec-
34 tion 627) ; and that Akbar took 12,000 of them fi-om Jodhjmr to Dehli, for-
35 cibly circumcised them, and obliged them to work in iron instead of wood.
36 The story is admitted by a section of the Lohars themselves, and probably has
37 some substratum of tnith. These men came to Sirsa fi'om the direction of
38 Sindh, where they say they formerly held land, and are commonly known as
39 Multani Lohai's. The Jat and Suthar Lohiirs stand highest in rank, and the
40 Gadiya lowest. Similar- distinctions doubless exist in other parts of the
41 Panjab, but imfortunately I have no information regarding them. Our tables
42 show very few Lobar tribes of any size, the only one at all numerous being the
43 Dhaman found in Karnal and its neighbourhood, where it is also a carj)enter
44 tribe.
45 The Lobar of the hills is described in section 651 (see also Tarkhan, sec-
46 tion 627).
47 625. The SiqUgar (Caste No. 157).— The word Siqh'gar is the name of a
48 pure occupation, and denotes an armom-er or bui-nisher of metal. They are
49 shown chiefly for the large towns and cantonments ; but many of them "pro-
50 bably returned themselves as Lohars.
51 I Colebrooke say 3 that the Karmakara or blacksmith is classed in the Purans as one of the
52 poUut«ii tribes.