Mirasi
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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.
Mirasi
A Muhammadan caste of singers, minstrels and genealogists, of which a few members are found in the Central Provinces, General Cunningham says that they are the bards and singers of the Meos or Mewatis at all their marriages and festivals.-^ Mr. Crooke is of opinion that they are undoubtedly an offshoot of the great Dom caste who are little better than sweepers.-
The word Mirasi is derived from the Arabic inirds, inheritance, and its signification is supposed to be that the Mirasis are the hereditary bards and singers 1 Archaeological Reports, vol. xx. Tribes and Castes of the Northp, 26. Western Provinces, vol. iii. p. 496.
of the lower castes, as the Bhat is of the Rajputs. Mints as a word may, however, be used of any hereditary right, as that of the village headman or Karnam, or even those of the village watchman or temple dancing-girl, all of whom may have a viirdsi right to fees or perquisites or plots of land held as remuneration for service.^ The Mirasis are also known as Pakhawaji, from the pakJiaivaj or timbrel which they play ; as Kawwal or one who speaks fluently, that is a professional story-teller ; and as Kalawant or one possessed of art or skill.
The Mirasis are most numerous in the Punjab, where they number a quarter of a million. Sir D. Ibbetson says of them : - " The social position of the Mirasi as of all minstrel castes is exceedingly low, but he attends at weddings and similar occasions to recite genealogies. Moreover there are grades even among Mirasis. The outcaste tribes have their Mirasis, who though they do not eat with their clients and merely render their professional services are considered impure by the Mirasis of the higher castes.
The Mirasi is generally a hereditary servant like the Bhat, and is notorious for his exactions, which he makes under the threat of lampooning the ancestors of him from whom he demands fees. The Mirasi is almost always a Muhammadan." They are said to have been converted to Islam in response to the request of the poet Amir Khusru, who lived in the reign of Ala-ud-dln Khilji (a.d. 1295). The Mirasi has two functions, the men being musicians, storytellers and genealogists, while the women dance and sing, but only before the ladies of the zenana. Mr. Nesfield ^ says that they are sometimes regularly entertained as jesters to help these ladies to kill time and reconcile them to their domestic prisons.
As they do not dance before men they are reputed to be chaste, as no woman who is not a prostitute will dance in the presence of men, though singing and playing are not equally condemned. The implements of the Mirasis are generally the small drum (dholak), the cj'mbals {majlra) and the gourd lute [kingri)} ^ Baden Powell's Land Systems of ^ Brief Viezv, p. 43. British India, vol. iii. p. 1 1 6. 2 Punjab Ethnography, p. 289. * Crooke, loc. cit.
Mirasi
(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: Miriasi [Bihar and/or Jharkhand] Pakhawaji [Madhya Pradesh and/or Chhattisgarh]
