Biskarma, (Viswakarma)

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This article is an extract from

THE TRIBES and CASTES of BENGAL. By H.H. RISLEY, INDIAN CIVIL SERVICE, OFFICIER D'ACADÉMIE FRANÇAISE. Ethnographic Glossary. CALCUTTA: Printed at the Bengal Secretariat Press. 1891. .

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Biskarma, (Viswakarma)

A gotra or section of the Kanaujia Lohars in Behar. This designation has been borrowed from the Brahmanical system in comparatively recent times; and, as the sub-caste has only one other section (Kasyapa) of the same type, operates only to a limited extent as a bar to intermarriage. In fact, no systematic use appears to be made of these Brahmanical exogamous designations; for the sub-caste has no less than 360 sections (muls and dihs) of the ancestral or local type. The adoption of the tutelary god of the caste as the eponym of a section is an instance of a prac¬tice noticed by Professor W. Robertson Smith as common among the early Arabs. A gotra bearing the name Viswakarma is also found among the Maghaya Barhis of Behar.