Khandait. Khandayat

Select Language Afrikaans Albanian Arabic Armenian Azerbaijani Basque Belarusian Bulgarian Bengali Catalan Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Traditional) Croatian Czech Danish Dutch English Estonian Filipino Finnish French Galician Georgian German Greek Gujarati Haitian Creole Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Icelandic Indonesian Irish Italian Japanese Javanese Kannada Khmer Korean Latvian Lithuanian Macedonian Malay Maltese Marathi Nepali Norwegian Persian Polish Portuguese Punjabi Romanian Russian Serbian Slovak Slovenian Spanish Swahili Swedish Tamil Telugu Thai Turkish Ukrainian Urdu Vietnamese Welsh Yiddish

This article was written in 1916 when conditions were different. Even in 1916 its contents related only to Central India and did not claim to be true of all of India. It has been archived for its historical value as well as for the insights it gives into British colonial writing about the various communities of India. Indpaedia neither agrees nor disagrees with the contents of this article. Readers who wish to add fresh information can create a Part II of this article. The general rule is that if we have nothing nice to say about communities other than our own it is best to say nothing at all. Readers will be able to edit existing articles and post new articles directly on their online archival encyclopædia only after its formal launch. See examples and a tutorial.

From The Tribes And Castes Of The Central Provinces Of India

By R. V. Russell

Of The Indian Civil Service

Superintendent Of Ethnography, Central Provinces

Assisted By Rai Bahadur Hira Lal, Extra Assistant Commissioner

Macmillan And Co., Limited, London, 1916.

NOTE 1: The 'Central Provinces' have since been renamed Madhya Pradesh.

NOTE 2: While reading please keep in mind that all articles in this series have been scanned from the original book. Therefore, footnotes have got inserted into the main text of the article, interrupting the flow. Readers who spot these footnotes gone astray might like to shift them to their correct place.

Khandait

Khandait, Khandayat The military caste of Orissa, the word Khandait meaning ' swordsman,' and being derived [1 Crooke's Tribes and Castes, art. Gazetteer, x. 48 and iii. 310. Khainva. Quoting from Bombay 2 Loc. fit.] from the Uriya khanda, a sword. Sir H. Risley remarks of the Khandaits : * " The caste is for the most part, if not entirely, composed of Bhuiyas, whose true affinities have been disguised under a functional name, while their customs, their religion and in some cases even their complexion and features have been modified by long contact with Hindus of relatively pure Aryan descent.

The ancient Rajas of Orissa kept up large armies and partitioned the land on strictly military tenures. These armies consisted of various castes and races, the upper ranks being officered by men of good Aryan descent, while the lower ones were recruited from the low castes alike of the hills and the plains. In the social system of Orissa, the Sresta or ' best ' Khandaits rank next to the Rajputs, who have not the intimate connection with the land which has helped to raise the Khandaits to their present position." The Khandaits are thus like the Marathas, and the small body of Paiks in the northern Districts, a caste formed from military service ; and though recruited for the most part originally from the Dravidian tribes, they have obtained a considerable rise in status owing to their occupa- tion and the opportunity which has been afforded to many of them to become landholders.

The best Khandaits now aspire to Rajput rank, while the bulk of them have the position of cultivators, from whom Brahmans will take water, or a much higher one than they are entitled to by descent. In 2 the Central Provinces the Khandaits have no subcastes, and only two gotras or clans, named after the Kachhap or tortoise and the Nagas or cobra respectively. These divisions appear, however, to be nominal, and do not regulate marriage, as to which the only rule observed is that persons whose descent can be traced from the same parent should not marry each other. Early marriage is usual, and if a girl arrives at adolescence without a husband having been found for her, she goes through the ceremony of wedlock with an arrow. Polygamy is permitted, but a person resorting to it is looked down on and nicknamed Maipkhia or wife-eater.

The essential portion of the marriage ceremony is the bandan or 1 Tribes and Castes of Bengal, art. 2 The following particulars are from Khandait. In 19 1 1, after the transfer a paper by Mr. Kashinath Bohidar, of Sambalpur, only 18 Khandaits Assistant Settlement Superintendent, remained in the Central Provinces. Sonpur.

tying of the hands of the bride and bridegroom together with kusha grass. The bridegroom must lift up the bride and walk seven times round the marriage altar carrying her. Widow-marriage and divorce are permitted in the Central Provinces, and Brahmans are employed for religious and ceremonial purposes.

Khandait

(From People of India/ National Series Volume VIII. Readers who wish to share additional information/ photographs may please send them as messages to the Facebook community, Indpaedia.com. All information used will be gratefully acknowledged in your name.)

Synonyms: Khandait Paik, Oriya [West Bengal]

Groups/subgroups: Chasa Khandait, Khandait Paik, Ma si Khandait, Orh, Sresta Khandait [West Bengal] Bamra, Banja Khandait, Bar Gohri, Bonai, Chasa, Chh ot Gohri, Das Gharia, Halwaha Kaibartta, Harichanda n, Khandait, Khandait Paik, Mahanaik, Orh Khandait, Pa nchsua Gharia Pandrasau, Gharia, Sresta Khandait [H .H. Risley]

Titles: Raul Roy, Rout Roy, Samant Roy [Orissa] Amaut (in Chota Nagpur), Arha, Bagha (tiger), Bahun aledra, Baraik, Behara, Oakhin Kabat, Gaunjhu, Kotw ar, Mahapatra, Manjhi, Mirdha, Naik, Patra [H.H. Risley ]

Surnames: Baliar, Marathi, Ranasing, Singh [Orissa] Bera, Chowdhury, Ghosh, Mahapatra, Maiti, Mallick, Mudli, Pani, Roy, Suim [West Bengal]

Exogamous units/clans: Nagashwra (snake), Suklaswa [Orissa] Chandkuramachh, Madhyarishi, Nageswar (snake) [West Bengal] Kachhua (tortoise), Kadam, Mor (peacock), Nag (snak e), Sal (fish) [H.H. Risley]

Gotra: Kashyap [Orissa] Kashyap, Sandilya [West Bengal] Bharadwaj, Kaundinya, Nagasa [H.H. Risley]