Pdewan: /* Caste No. 20 */

2014-04-30T09:40:34Z

‎Caste No. 20

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This article is an extract from
PANJAB CASTES
SIR DENZIL CHARLES JELF IBBETSON, K.C. S.I.
2014-04-30T09:39:36Z

Created page with " {| class="wikitable" |- |colspan="0"|<div style="font-size:100%"> This article is an extract from PANJAB CASTES SIR DENZIL CHARLES JELF IBBETSON, K.C. S.I. <br..."

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This article is an extract from 

PANJAB CASTES 

SIR DENZIL CHARLES JELF IBBETSON, K.C. S.I. 

Being a reprint of the chapter on 
The Races, Castes and Tribes of 
the People in the Report on the 
Census of the Panjab published 
in ''' 1883 ''' by the late Sir Denzil 
Ibbetson, KCSI 

Lahore : 

Printed by the Superintendent, Government Printing, Punjab, 

1916. 
''Indpaedia is an archive. It neither agrees nor disagrees '' 
''with the contents of this article.''
</div>
|}
[[Category:India|K]]
[[Category:Communities|K]]

=Caste No. 20=

The Kanets are the low-caste cultivat
ing class of all the eastern Himalayas of the Panjab and the hills at their
base, as far west as Kulu and the eastern portion of the Kangra district,
throughout which tract they form a very large proportion of the total popula
tion. Beyond this tract, in Kangra proper, their place is filled by Ghiraths.
The country they inhabit is held or governed by Hill Rajputs of prehistoric
ancestry, the greater part of whom are far too proud to cultivate with their
own hands, and who employ the Kanets as husbandmen. The Kanets claim
to be of impure Rajput origin, but there is little doubt that they are really of
aboriginal stock. At the same time it is most difficult to separate them from
Rathis {q. v., page 251 1), and in Chamba both have been included under the
latter head. The whole question of their origin is elaborately discussed by
General Cunningham at pages 135 to 135 of Vol. XIV of his Arehaeological

Reports. He identifies them with the Kunindas or Kulindas of the Sanskrit
classics and of Ptolemy, and is of opinion that they belong to that great
Khasa race which, before the Aryan invasion, occupied the whole Sub
Himalayan tract from the Indus to the Brahmaputra, and which, driven up
into the hills by the advancing wave of immigration, now separates the
Ai-yans of India from the Turanians of Tibet. But the Kanets are divided
into two great tribes, the Khasia and the Rao, and it is probable that the
Khasias are really descendedfromintercom-se between the Aryan immigrants
and the women of the hills. The process by which the great Khas tribe of
Nepal thus grew up is admirably described by Mr. Hodgson in his Essay in
the Military tribes of that country, which is quoted at some length by
General Cunningham, and, less fully, by me at page 236* mpra. The *P. 131,
distinction between Khasia and Rao is still sufficiently well marked. A
Khasia observes the period of impurity after the death of a relation prescribed
for a twice-born man ; the Rao that prescribed for an outcast. The Khasia
wears the janeo or sacred thread, while the Rao does not. But the dis
tinction is apparently breaking down, at least in Kulu where the two
tribes freely eat together and intermarry, though the Khasia, if asked, will
deny the fact.

==Mr. Lyall thus describes the Kanets of Kulu ==

The Kanets are often classed by other Hindus as on a par with the Rathis of Kangra. Just
as the fiat his claim to be Rajputs who have lost grade by taking to the plough, or the offspring
of Rajputs by Sudra women, so the Kanets say that they are the children of women of the hills
by Rajputs who came up from the plains. By one story both Kanets and Dagis were originally
of the same stock. Two sons of the demi-god, Bhim Sen pandab, had each a son by the
daughter of a Kulu rakhas or demon, One of these sons married a Bhotanti, or woman of Tibet,
who fed him with yak's flesh, so he and his children by her became Dagis. The other son was
''ancestor of the Kanets.

Both of these stories perhaps point to the conclusion that the Kanets and Dagis are of mixed
Mughal and Hindu race. General Cunningham says as much of the Kanets of Kanawar, and
connects the caste name with the word Karana, wlnch implies mixed blood. The Kanets are
divided into Kassiyas and Raos. The Raos say that the origin of this division was that a Raja
of Kulu ordered the Kanets to reform their loose practices, and conform altogether to Hinduism ;
those wlio obeyed were called Kassiyas, and those who stuck to their old ways Raos. It is a fact
that at the present day the former are more Hindu in all observances than the latter, and the story
is otherwise probable, as one can see that the foreign priests round the Rajas were always
striving to make the Kulu people more orthodox Hindus, greater respecters of Brahmins, and
less devoted to the worship of their local divinities. The Kassiyas wear the janeo, and pretend
to some superiority, which, however, is not admitted by the Raos. They intermarry and eat
and drink together out of the same cooking pot, but not oi^t of the same dish or plate.

He adds that they are not tall,, but strong and active, and generally have
handsome figures. Some are hardly darker than Spaniards in complexion,
with a ruddy colour showing in their cheeks ; others are as dark as the ordi
nary Panjabi. Of the so called Kanets of Lahul he writes that they are
a mixed race, but the Mongolian element predominates over the Indian.
Many of those who live in the lower valley are no doubt descendants of
Kanet settlers from Kulu and Bangahal ; the rest are pure Tibetan, or nearly
so.In Lahul the Kanets, like all other classes of the peojile, will eat cows
and bullocks which have died a natural death. They never wear the sacred
thread. The social status of the Kanet appears to be very low. A Sunar
will marry a Kanet woman, but he will not give his daughter to a Kanet,
nor will he eat from the hand of a Kanet, though his Avife will do so. In
Lahul even a Brahman or Thakar will take a Kanet woman as a second-class
wife, and the offspring of the latter, who are known as Gam, will in a few
generations rank as Thakar. Those of the former however can never rise to full

equality with the pure Brahman, though they are commonly known as
Brahmans. The fathers will not eat from the hands of sons begotten in this
manner, but will smoke with them.

General Cunningham says that the Kanets have three principal clans —
Mangal, Chauhan, and Rao. The Chauhan will almost certainly be Khasia.
With respect to the Mangal I have no information, nor do I find it in my

papers, unless Pangalana be a
misreading for Mangalana
or Mangal. The principal
Kanet divisions returned in
our papers are shown in the
margin. More than half the
Kasib are in Bashahr. The
name belongs to a Brahmini
cal gotra, and is probably
no tribe at all and only returned because the heading of the schedule was
misunderstood. The Chauhan are principally returned from Mandi, Suket,
Nahan, Keonthal, and Jubbal ; the Khasia from Bashahr and Kangra ; the
Pangalana from Suket; and the Punwar from Nahan. General Cunning
ham assigns the upper valley of the Pabar to the Chauhan, the lower Pabar_,
the Rnpin, and the Tons valleys to the Rao and the tract west of the Pabar
basin to the Mangal. Mr. Anderson notes that the Khasia are more common
in Kulu proper, and the Rao in Seoraj.

@@ Line 42: / Line 42: @@
 latter head. The whole question of their origin is elaborately discussed by
 General Cunningham at pages 135 to 135 of Vol. XIV of his Arehaeological
 Reports. He identifies them with the Kunindas or Kulindas of the Sanskrit
 classics and of Ptolemy, and is of opinion that they belong to that great
@@ Line 52: / Line 47: @@
 Himalayan tract from the Indus to the Brahmaputra, and which, driven up
 into the hills by the advancing wave of immigration, now separates the
-Ai-yans of India from the Turanians of Tibet. But the Kanets are divided
+Ai-yans of India from the Turanians of Tibet.
 into two great tribes, the Khasia and the Rao, and it is probable that the
 Khasias are really descendedfromintercom-se between the Aryan immigrants
@@ Line 68: / Line 65: @@
 ==Mr. Lyall thus describes the Kanets of Kulu ==
 The Kanets are often classed by other Hindus as on a par with the Rathis of Kangra. Just
 as the fiat his claim to be Rajputs who have lost grade by taking to the plough, or the offspring
@@ Line 107: / Line 103: @@
 generations rank as Thakar. Those of the former however can never rise to full
 equality with the pure Brahman, though they are commonly known as
 Brahmans. The fathers will not eat from the hands of sons begotten in this

The Kanet - Revision history

Pdewan: /* Caste No. 20 */