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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 It has been archived for its historical value as well as for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/>

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[[Category:India|R]]
[[Category:Communities|R]]
[[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.

=Raghuvansi=

==Raghvi==
A class of Rajputs of impure i- Historidesccnt,
who have now developed in the Central Provinces
into a caste of cultivators, marrying among themselves.
Their first settlement here was in the Nerbudda Valley, and
Sir C. Elliott wrote of them : "' " They are a queer class, all
professing to be Rajputs from Ajodhia, though on crossexamination
thej^ are obliged to confess that they did not
come here straight from Ajodhia, but stopped in Bundelkhand
and the Gwalior territory by the way.

They are
obviously of impure blood as they marry only among themselves
; but when they get wealthy and influential they
assume the sacred thread, stop all familiarity with Gujars
and Kirars (with whom they are accustomed to smoke the
huqqa and to take water) and profess to be very high-caste
Rajputs indeed." From Hoshangabad they have spread to
Betul, Chhindwara and Nagpur and now number 24,000
persons in all in the Central Provinces.

Chhindwara, on the
Satpura plateau, is supposed to have been founded by one
Ratan Raghuvansi, who built the first house on the site,
burying a goat alive under the foundations. The goat is
still worshipped as the tutelary deity of the town. The
name Raghuvansi is derived from Raja Raghu, king of
Ajodhia and ancestor of the great Rama, the hero of the
Ramayana. In Nagpur the name has been shortened to
Raghvi, and the branch of the caste settled here is somewhat
looked down upon by their fellows in Hoshangabad.

^ Bombay Gazetteer, ix. p. 68, footnotes.
^ Hoshangabad Settlement Report {iZo"]), p. 60.
customs

Sir R. Craddock ^ states that their reh"gion is unorthodox
and they have gurus or priests of their own caste, discarding
Brahmans. Their names end in Deo. Their origin, however,
is still plainly discernible in their height, strength of
body and fair complexion. The notice continues :
' Whatever
may happen to other classes the Raghvi will never give
way to the moneylender. Though he is fond of comfort he
combines a good deal of thrift with it, and the clannish
spirit of the caste would prevent any oppression of Raghvi
tenants by a landlord or moneylender of their own body."
In Chhindwara, Mr. Montgomerie states," they rank among
the best cultivators, and formerly lived in clans, holding
villages on bhaiacJidri or communal tenure.

As malguzars
or village proprietors, they are very prone to, absorb tenant
land into their home-farms.
Social The Raghuvansis have now a set of exogamous groups
of the usual low-caste type, designated after titles, nicknames
or natural objects. They sometimes invest their sons with
the sacred thread at the time of marriage instead of performing
the proper thread ceremony. Some discard the cord after
the wedding is over.

At a marriage the Raghuvansis of
Chhindwara and Nagpur combine the Hindustani custom of
walking round the sacred pole with the Maratha one of
throwing coloured rice on the bridal couple. Sometimes
they have what is known as a gdnkar wedding. At this,
flour, sugar and ghl'^ are the only kinds of food permissible,
large cakes of flour and sugar being boiled in pitchers full
of ghi^ and everybody being given as much of this as he
'
can eat. The guests generally over-eat themselves, and as
weddings are celebrated in the hot weather, one or two may
occasionally die of repletion.

The neighbours of Raghuvansis
say that the host considers such an occurrence as
evidence of the complete success of his party, but this is
probably a libel. Such a wedding feast may cost two or
three thousand rupees. After the wedding the women of
the bride's party attack those of the bridegroom's with
bamboo sticks, while these retaliate by throwing red powder
on them. The remarriage of widows is freely permitted, but
' Nagpur Settlancnt Keporl. - Setllcmcitl Report.
•* Preserved butler.

a widow must be taken from the house of her own parents
or relatives, and not from that of her first husband or his
parents. In fact, if any members of the dead husband's
family meet the second husband on the night of the wedding
they will attack him and a serious affray may follow. On
reaching her new house the woman enters it by a back door,
after bathing and changing all her clothes.

The old clothes
are given away to a barber or washerman, and the presentation
of new clothes by the second husband is the only essential
ceremony. No wife will look on a widow's face on the
night of her second marriage, for fear lest by doing so she
should come to the same position. The majority of the
caste abstain from liquor, and they eat flesh in some
localities, but not in others.

The men commonly wear
beards divided by a shaven patch in the centre of the chin ;
and the women have two body-cloths, one worn like a skirt
according to the northern custom. Mr. Crooke states ^ that
" in northern India a tradition exists among them that the
cultivation of sugar is fatal to the farmer, and that the tiling
of a house brings down divine displeasure upon the owner ;
hence to this day no sugar is grown and not a tiled house
is to be seen in their estates." These superstitions do not
appear to be known at all in the Central Provinces.

Raghuvansi - Revision history

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 ..."