1 VAGRANT, MENIAL, AND ARTISAN CASTES. 3l5
2 said to be almost always Tarkbiin. Tbe Raj is retiu-neJ only for tbe
3 eastern and central districts, and seems to be generally Miisalman save
4 in Dehli, Giu-gaon and Kangra. Under Raj I Lave included Batabra,
5 of whom 66 are returned from the Jalandhar and 20 from the Amritsar
6 division. But I am not sure that this is right ; for in Chamba at any rale the
7 Batabra seems to be a true caste, working generally as stone-masons, occasion-
8 ally as carpenters, and not unfrequently cultivating land. In Kulu, however,
9 the Batabra is said to be a Koli by caste who has taken to slate quarrying.
10 631. The Khumra (Caste No, 171}.— The Khumra is a caste of
11 Hindustan, and is found only in the eastern parts of the Punjab. His
12 trade is dealing in and chipping the stones of the band-mills used in each
13 family to grind flour ; work which is, I believe, generally done by Tarkbans in
14 the Panjab proper. Every year these men may be seen travelling up tbe
15 Grand Trunk Road, driving buffaloes which drag behind them millstones
16 loosely cemented together for convenience of carriage. The millstones are
17 brought from the neighbourhood of Agra, and the men deal in a small way in
18 buffaloes. They are almost all Musalman.
19 632. The Kumhar (Caste No. 13).— The Kumhar, or, as he is more often
20 called in the Panjali, Gumiiir, is the jxjtter and brick-burner of the country.
21 He is most numerous in Hissiir and Sirsa where he is often a husbandman, and
22 in the sub-montane and central districts. On tbe lower Indus he has retiu-ned
23 *P. 106- himself in some numbers as Jat — (see Abstract No. 72, page 224*). He is a
24 true village menial, receiving customary dues, in exchange for which he
25 supplies all earthen vessels needed for household use, and the earthenware pots
26 used on the Persian wheel wherever that form of well gear Is in vogue. He
27 also, alone of all Panjab castes, keeps donkeys ; and it is his business to carry
28 grain within the village area, and to bring to tLe village grain bought else-
29 where by his clients for seed or food. But he will not carry grain out of the
30 village without payment. He is the petty can-ier of the villages and towns,
31 in which latter he is employed to carry dust, manure, fuel, bricks, and the like.
32 His religion appears to follow that of the neighbourhood in which he lives.
33 His social standing is very low, far below that of the Lobar and not very
34 much above that of the Cbamar ; for his hereditary association with that
35 impure beast the donkey, the animal sacred to Sitala the small-pox goddess,
36 pollutes him ; as also his readiness to can-y manm-e and sweepings. He is
37 also the brick-burner of the Panjab, as he alone understands the working of
38 kilns ; and it is in the burning of pots and bricks that he comes into contact
39 with manure, which constitutes his fuel. I believe that he makes bricks also
40 when they are moulded ; but the ordinary village brick of sun-dried earth is
41 generally made by the coolie or Chamar. The Kumhar is called Pazawagar or
42 kiln-burner, and Kuzagar (vulg. Kujgar) or potter, the latter term being
43 generally used for those only who make the finer sorts of pottery. On tbe
44 frontier be appears to be known as Gilgo.
45 The divisions of Kumhars are very numerous, and as a rule not very
46 large. I show a few of the largest
47 KuMHAB Divisioxs. iu the margin. The first two are
48 4 Dbodi ... 3,786 found in the Dehli and Hissar, the
49 5. Khokhar ... 15,039 ' ii,'„l • ii, a -i it i
50 third in the Amritsar and Lahore,
51 and the last two in the Lahore,
52 1. Gola ... 20,059
53 2. Mah^r ... 12,649
54 3. Dol ... 6,777
55 Rawalpindi, and Multan divisions. In Peshawar more than two-thirds of the
56 Kumliars have returned themselves as Hindki.