Napit
Contents |
Napit
This section has been extracted from THE TRIBES and CASTES of BENGAL. Ethnographic Glossary. Printed at the Bengal Secretariat Press. 1891. . |
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Origin
The barber caste of Bengal, descended, according to one opinion, from a Kshatriya father and Sudra mother, and according to Parasara from a Kuvpri father and a Pattikar mother. Some, again, ascribe the origin of the caste to an act of special creation on the part of Siva, undertaken to provide for the cutting of his wife's nails. Several different versions of this myth are current, all of which are too childish to be worth quoting here. The caste is clearly a functional group, formed in all probability from the members of respectable castes who in different parts of the country adopted the profession of barbers.
Internal structure
Napits are divided into the following sixteen sub-castes:¬ Anarpuria, Bamanbane, Barendra, Uttarrarhi, Dakshin-rarhi, Paschim-rarhi, Mah¬mudabaz, Saptagram, Satgharia, Khotta. There are two sub• castes in NoakMli-Bhulua-Napit and Sundipa-Napit, while in the 24-Parganas there are four-Haldar-Paramanik, Koliii-Para¬manik, Hansadaha-Paramanik, and Mujganji-Paramank. No trustworthy tradition seems 1 to be extant regarding the origin of these groups, but their names appear to indicate that they are based upon territorial distinctions, and refer to the early settlements of certain main divisions of the caste. The Uttar-rarhi claim to be of higher rank than the Dakshin and Pasohim-rarbi, and support their claim by the foolish tale that one of their ancestors was so skilful an operator that he used to shave the Raja of Nadiya without waking him. In recognition of his services he received a large grant of land, with the injunction that neither he nor his descendants should touch the feet of a woman or of a man of low caste. The three Rarhi sub-castes have Kulios and Mauliks among them; but these divisions are not strictly hypergamous, and a Maulik man may marry a Kulin woman, an arrangement wbolly impossible among the castes which regularly practise Kulinism. Rnarpuria Napits do not practise the profession of the caste, but make their living by trade, medicine, and all kinds of clerioal work. Many of them are employed as ndibs and muilal'l'il's in the management of landed property. The sections, which are shown in Appendix I, have for the most part been borrowed from the Brahmans; and the exceptions to this rule observed among Mahmudabaz Napits throw no light upon the origin of the oaste as a whole. The theory is that a man may not marry a woman of his own gotm; but this prohibition appears not to be very strictly observed, and marriage is regulated for the most part by counting prohibited degrees.
Marriage
Girls are married as infants between the ages of from six to ten years. A professional matohmaker (ghatak) belonging to the Napit caste, or one of the friends of the bridegroom's family, finds out a suitable match and carries on the preliminary negotiations. A formal visit is then paid by the bridegroom's people for the purpose of seeing the bride and settling the important question of bride-price (pan), the amount of which is supposed ntlver to be less than Rs. 100 , while it may rise as high as Rs. 200 or Rs. 250. The guardians of the bride also visit and inspect the bridegroom. On these occasions small presents of betel-leaves, area nuts, fresh fish, milk, etc., are exchanged. '1'he amount of pan having been agreed to, the guardians of the bridegroom bestow their blessing (dsirbad) on the bride and present her with some article of jewellery. Her people do the same for the bridegroom and give him a few rupees. The date of the wedding is then fixed, and an instalmpnt of the pan is paid. Two days before the bridegroom himself, and the bride through her guardialls, perform nandimuklt sl'Uddh for the propitiation of their ancestors. This is followed on the next day by adhibds, when the bridegroom. copiously anointed with turmeric and mustard oil, wear¬ing new clothes, and having his right wrist bound round with cotton and blades of grass, sits on a wooden seat, while a basket containing 1 Some authorities regard the Madhnnapit as Ii suh-caste of barbers. This opinion, however, rests merE.'ly 00 an obscure tradition, and I have preferred to treat them as a separate caste. five saucers (pl'adip) for burning oil, five lumps of coloured earth, a looking-glilss, a small wooden box (kotua), some vermilion, turmeric, paddy, and grass is carried seven times round him by a married woman whose husband is alive. The basket, with the things in it, is carefully kept that it may be taken next day to the bride's house. On the wedding day the bridegroom is seven times rubbed with mustard oil and turmeric, and after bathing is dressed in a red silk wrapper. Towards evening he is taken in a palanquin with much discordant music to the bride's house, where the women of the family receive him and carry the basket already referred to round him seven times, touching him with it on the forehead at each turn, and crying ulu ulu for good luck. The bride and bridegroom, both dressed in red silk, are then conducted to the chhaya-mandap or ceremonial canopy, which is set up in the courtyard. A sketch plan of this, showing approximately the relative positions of the chief parties to the ceremony, is given below;¬
a. Vessels of water covered with mango boughs. b. Tall shoots of bflmboo drawn together at the top, so as to meet over the central water vessel. c-c. Lines of cotton thread joining the bamboos at about five feet from the ground. . ",. Plantain stems fixed in the ground. d. The bridegroom, facing east. e. The bride, facmg west. f. The bride's father, facing north. g. The priest. IL The barber, facing the bride and pronouncing the Gaur-vachana discourse. The leading persons boing placed. as shown abo\'e, the priest dictates certain mantras or sacred texts, which are repeated by the bridegroom, the bride, and her father in turn, while the bride place her hands, palm downward, on the palms of the bridegroom, where a silver coin or some small fruit has been previously placed. This joining of the hands completes the ceremony, and it remains only for the barber to repeat to the wedded pair Gam'-vachana, an admonitory discourse about the marriage of Siva and Parvati, having for its moral the duty of submitting to one another and of bearing with each other's infirmities of temper. The bride and bridegroom are thon taken to the basarghal',l a room in the house where they spend the night in the company of a number of young married women, friends of the family, who enjoy the privilege of tormenting the bridegroom with all manner of mall wittioisms and practical jokes. Early next morning the bride is taken in procession to the bridep'room's house, where she stays for a week and consummation usually takes place. At the end of that time she returns to her father's house and stays there until finally fetched by the bridegroom a year or so afterwards. Polygamy is permitted, and there seems to be no theoretical limit to the number of wives a man may have. In practice, however, most people content themselves with one. Divorce is allowed on the ground of unchastity with the sanction of the panchayat, a powerful and well-organized body, who summon both husband and wife before them and inquire into the facts. If the panchayat decline to grant a divorce their orders are enforced, and the husband compelled to take his wife back by the penalty of excommunication.
Religion
Most Napits are Vaishnavas, and comparatively few Saktas or Saivas are found among the caste. They Employ Brahmans as priests, w 0 are receive on equal terms by other members of the sacred order. The dead are burned, and sl'addh performed in the orthodox fashion on the thirty-fir t day -after death.
Social status
The social standing of the caste is high. They are included Social status. in the standard couplet of Pan\sara deuning the Nabasakh group, and Brahmans will take water from their hands. Their own rules regarding diet are the same as are followed by most respectable Hindus. Vaishnava Napits do not eat flesh, but as a rule allow themselves fish, except the nanen, glianuL pangtmi, bagfuir, and gaj(t1'. Some, however, affect special purity by abstaining from all kinds of animal food. Saktas, on the other hand, may take mutton and the flesh of goats which have been sacrificed. Indulgence in spirituous or fermented liquors is supposed to be prohibited, but in practice this question seems to depend more upon individual tastes than upon any general rule.
Occupation
In Bengal, as elsewhere in India, the barber is an indispensable member of the village community, and the office often descend from father to son, carrying with it in some cases a small allotment of service land, held rent free 1 For a description of a typical scene in the Basarahar, see pp. 95 IT of Bengal Feasant Life by the Rev. Lal.Behari Day. 0 or at a low quit-rent. In large towns they work independently, and there is no regulation against their following their occupation wherever they like. As a rule, the working classes only shave every eight days, but the higher ranks do so every four, sometimes every second day. For shaving every four days, eight annas a month is usually charged, and for a single shave one paisa, which also includes the charge for ear-cleaning, nailparing, shampooing, and crackino¬each joint of the body. In the houses of the rich the barbership i~ often a hereditary post, as is that of the purhit, dhoba. and dM, while he, like them, has free access to all parts of the house during the day . The barber pares the nails of Hindu females as well as males, and his presence is required at all domestic occurrences. The day a child is born he pares the mother's nails, and returns on the ninth and thirtieth days to repeat the operation. At the houses of Muhamadans he is only present on the sixth day, the chhathi. For these services he is given pulse, rice, oil, salt, turmeric, and two paisa, the rich generally adding a piece of cloth and a rupee. At marriages, as has been mentioned above, his presence is essential, and for some castes he performs the functions of a priest. His wife, unlike the Hajjamin of Behar and Upper India, has usually no occupation in Bengal, but the women of the Saptagrami sub-caste are employed as female barbers. In addition to all these vocations, the barber, like his European namesake of the seventeenth century, practises surgery, opening boils and abscesses, inoculating for small-pox, and prescribing in all forms of venereal disease. Often he is also an exorciser of devils, and is called in to cure convulsions in newly-born children by Jl~arna¬phunkna, or muttering spells and making passes with a nim branch. When a member of the Napit caste wishes to study medicine, he is associated with a Kablraj, who is then called Adhyapaka, or tutor. The pupil is not bound as an apprentice, but he must obey his master as implioitly as the disciple his guru. He compounds salves and simples, and daily receives instruction from his teacher. The Napits who practise inoculation for small-pox are generally most reckless, spreading the disease without the slightest consideration for the unprotected. They possess a text-book, Vasanta-~ika, but few study it. Napits have the reputation of being thrifty and very acute, and many plying their trade in one of the large towns hold land in the country, which is sublet to others. Those who practise medicine often amass considerable wealth and attain great influence in rural society. Others, again, make a living by trade ; some few have found their way in Government service and the legal profession; while many devote themselves to agriculture as tenure-holders or occu¬pancy raiyats, rising in rare cases to the position of zamindars.
A Napit, however, will on no account till the soil with his own hands or earn his living by fishing, nor will he, like the Hajjam of Behar, accept domestic service in the houses of low-caste men. In Eastern Bengal he poses as a clean Sudra, condescending to shave Europeans and Muhamadans, but refusing to have anything to do with the Chandal, BhUinmalf, and castes of similar stanoing. He will shave a Sum'i, but will not pare his nails, and will not attend at the weding of any but the clean Sudras. Although the Bengal Napits, unlike the barber-smgeon of the Middle Ages in Europe, does his work more or less in the open air, and has no shop where idlers lounge and the plethoric are bled, he enjoys much the same reputation for loquaoity and spreading scan¬dal. constant observation of his neighbours gives him remarkable insight into the character of all ranks in Hindu society. His expe¬rience takes a wider range than that of the average villager, and renders him by comparison a man of the world, full of anecdote and repartee, and often gifted with a talent for debate which enables him to take a prominent part in the affairs of the community. The secrets of many households are known to him, and, if rumour is to be believed, he lays the go•between in many an intrigue. Napits are very clannish, and an insult received by one is resented by the whole body; while melanoholy indeed is the fate of a Hindu who offends his barber. The whole dal or union of the village will refuse to shave him, and at last, driven to desperation. he is glad, by the payment of an exorbitant fee, to be restored to their good graces. The following statement shows the number and distribution of Napits in 1872 and 1881 :¬
