Nuniya/Nunia
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(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.)
Nuniya/Nunia
Synonyms: Luniyar, Noniar, Nunia [Bihar and/or Jharkhand] Chauhan [West Bengal]
Groups/subgroups: Awadhia, Beend, Kharaout, Maghaiya [Bihar and/or Jharkhand] Bind (Madhya Pradesh and/or Chhattisgarh) [West Bengal]
Groups/subgroups (khon): Audhia, Bachgotra Chauhan, Beldar, Kharbat [West Bengal]
Subcastes: Awadhia or Ayodhiabasi, Bhojpuria, Chaubhan in Behar, Khaaout, Maghaya, Orh, Pachainya or Chauhan, Semarwar [H.H. Risley]
Titles: Chaudhary, Chauhan, Mahto [Bihar and/or Jharkhand] Beldar in Behar [H.H. Risley]
Surnames: Chauhan, Mahto [Bihar and/or Jharkhand] Chauhan [Madhya Pradesh and/or Chhattisgarh] Mahato, Rai [West Bengal]
Exogamous units/clans: Bamniha, Bijlapuri (Madhya Pradesh and/or Chhattisgarh), Sankh Hardia [Bihar and/or Jharkhand]
Gotra: Bharadwaj, Jata, Kashyap, Nag, Nageswar, Naha, Nilkantha, Sandilya, Vasistha [Bihar and/or Jharkhand] Kashyap [Madhya Pradesh and/or Chhattisgarh]
"Sections: Andhigot, Bachgotra, Baghgot in Behar [H.H. Risley]
Notes
A few members of this Bihar caste come to Dacca in search of employment, and are remarkable for their well-proportioned figures, and handsome features. Mr. Magrath regards them as a Hinduized offshoot of the Bhuiyas; but other authorities link them with the Binds and Beldars. Like the Kurmi, the Nuniyas maintain a peculiar and ill-defined relationship with higher castes, a relationship rendered the more inexplicable by their present low position in the social scale.
In Bengal Nuniyas readily obtain service with Goalas, or other clean Sudras, but refuse to work as labourers or domestic servants with low caste families.
