View source for Biskarma, (Viswakarma)

This article is an extract from
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'''THE TRIBES and CASTES of BENGAL.''' <br/> 
By H.H. RISLEY,<br/> 
INDIAN CIVIL SERVICE, OFFICIER D'ACADÉMIE FRANÇAISE. <br/> 

Ethnographic Glossary. <br/> 

CALCUTTA: <br/> ''Printed at the Bengal Secretariat Press.''<br/> 1891. .</div>
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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.