Pdewan: /* Manihar */

2014-02-17T19:19:18Z

‎Manihar

Pdewan: Created page with " {| class="wikitable" |- |colspan="0"|
This article was written in 1916 when conditions were different. Even in
1916 its contents related only ..."

2014-02-17T19:04:09Z

Created page with " {| class="wikitable" |- |colspan="0"|<div style="font-size:100%"> This article was written in 1916 when conditions were different. Even in<br/>1916 its contents related only ..."

New page

{| class="wikitable"
|-
|colspan="0"|<div style="font-size:100%">
This article was written in 1916 when conditions were different. Even in<br/>1916 its contents related only to Central India and did not claim to be true <br />of all of India. It has been archived for its historical value as well as for<br/>the insights it gives into British colonial writing about the various communities<br/>of India. Indpaedia neither agrees nor disagrees with the contents of this <br/> article. Readers who wish to add fresh information can create a Part II of this <br/> article. The general rule is that if we have nothing nice to say about <br/> communities other than our own it is best to say nothing at all. <br/>

Readers will be able to edit existing articles and post new articles directly <br/> on their online archival encyclopædia only after its formal launch.

See [[examples]] and a tutorial.</div>
|}

[[Category:India|M]]
[[Category:Communities|M]]
[[Category:Name|Alphabet]]
[[Category:Name|Alphabet]]
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.

=Manihar=

A small caste of pedlars and hawkers. In
northern India the Manihars are makers of glass bangles,
and correspond to the Kachera caste of the Central Provinces.
Mr, Nesfield remarks " that the special industry of the
Manihars of the United Provinces is the making of glass
bangles or bracelets. These arc an indispensable adjunct to
the domestic life of the Hindu woman ; for the glass bangle
is not worn for personal ornament, but as the badge of the
matrimonial state, like the wedding-ring in Europe.

But
in the Central Provinces glass bangles are made by the
Kacheras and the Muhammadan Turkaris or Sisgars, and
the Manihars are petty hawkers of stationery and articles
for the toilet, such as miniature looking-glasses, boxes,
stockings, needles and thread, spangles, and imitation
jewellery ; and Hindu Jogis and others who take to this
occupation are accustomed to give their caste as Manihar.

In 191 1 nearly 700 persons belonging to the caste were
returned from the northern Districts of the Central Provinces.
The Manihars are nominally Muhammadans, but they retain
many Hindu customs. At their weddings they erect a
marriage-tent, anoint the couple with oil and turmeric and
make them wear a kankan or wrist-band, to which is attached
a small purse containing a little mustard-seed and a silver
ring.

The mustard is intended to scare away the evil
spirits. When the marriage procession reaches the bride's
village it is met by her people, one of whom holds a bamboo
in his hands and bars the advance of the procession. The
bridegroom's father thereupon makes a present of a rupee
1 This article is based on papers by Munshi I'yare Lai Misra of the Gazet-
Rai Sahib Nanakchand, 15. A., Head- teer office,
master, Saugor High School, and ^ Brief View, p. 30.

part
to the village panchdyat, and his people are allowed to
proceed. When the bridegroom reaches the bride's house
he finds her younger sister carrying a kalds or pot of water
on her head ; he drops a rupee into it and enters the house.
The bride's sister then comes holding above her head a
small frame like a tdzia ^ with a cocoanut core hanging
inside. She raises the frame as high as she can to prevent
the bridegroom from plucking out the cocoanut core, which,
however, he succeeds in doing in the end. The girl applies
powdered ineJindi or henna to the little finger of the
boy's right hand, in return for which she receives a rupee
and a piece of cloth. The Kazi then recites verses from the
Koran which the bridegroom repeats after him, and the
bride does the same in her turn.

This is the Nikah or
marriage proper, and before it takes place the bridegroom's
father must present a nose-ring to the bride. The parents
also fix the Meher or dowry, which, however, is not a dowry
proper, but a stipulation that if the bridegroom should put
away his wife after marriage he will pay her a certain agreed
sum. After the Nikah the bridegroom is given some spices,
which he grinds on a slab with a roller. He must do the
grinding very slowly and gently so as to make no noise, or
it is believed that the married life of the couple will be
broken by quarrels. A widow is permitted to marry the
younger brother of her deceased husband, but not his elder
brother.

The caste bury their dead with the head to the
north. The corpse is first bathed and wrapped in a new
white sheet, with another sheet over it, and is then laid on
a cot or in a jandza or coffin. While it is being carried to
the cemetery the bearers are changed every few steps, so that
every man who accompanies the funeral may carry the corpse
for a short distance. When it is lowered into the grave
the sheet is taken off and given to a Fakir or beggar.

When
the body is covered with earth the priest reads the funeral
verses at a distance of forty steps from the grave. Feasts
are given to the caste-fellows on the third, tenth, twentieth
and fortieth days after the death. The Manihars observe
the Shabrat festival by distributing to the caste -fellows
' The tdzias are ornamental reprc- which the Muhammadans make at the
sentations of the tomb of llussain, Muharram festival.

Juilua or a mixtuie of melted butter and flour. The Shabrat
is the middle night of the month Shaban, and Muhammad
declared that on this night God registers the actions which
every man will perform during the following year, and all
those who are fated to die and the children who are to be
born. Like Hindu widows the Manihar women break their
bangles when their husband's corpse is removed to the
burial-ground.

The Manihars eat flesh, but not beef or pork ;
and they also abstain from alcoholic liquor. If a girl is
seduced and made pregnant before marriage either by a
man of the caste or an outsider, she remains in her father's
house until her child has been born, and may then be
married either to her paramour or any other man of the
caste by the simple repetition of the Nikah or marriage
verses, omitting all other ceremonies. The Manihars will
admit into their community converted Hindus belonging
even to the lowest castes.

@@ Line 70: / Line 70: @@
 master, Saugor High School, and ^ Brief View, p. 30.
-  part
+part
 to the village panchdyat, and his people are allowed to
 proceed. When the bridegroom reaches the bride's house

Manihar - Revision history

Pdewan: /* Manihar */

Pdewan: Created page with " {| class="wikitable" |- |colspan="0"| This article was written in 1916 when conditions were different. Even in1916 its contents related only ..."

Pdewan: Created page with " {| class="wikitable" |- |colspan="0"|
This article was written in 1916 when conditions were different. Even in
1916 its contents related only ..."