Chapter 9 Various aspects of the Bhangi caste
The unique gotra names of the Bhangi caste
Bhangi gotra names look very different from gotra names of other castes, and do not seem to be related to any known ruling dynasty. For example, Gharu and Dharu, mentioned by Singh, 1990. The Bhangi bhaipa at Chelana belongs to the Gharu gotra. In Marvar, i.e. the old Jodhpur princely state, there were about eight to ten different Bhangi gotras, Tan Dan told. Just like gotras of other castes, they were exogamous units within the endogamous caste, hence, it was only possible to marry persons of different gotras, not two persons from the same gotra.
Some Bhangi gotras have spread over large parts of northern India. For example, Dulgach and Gharu. Tan Dan has met Bhangis of these gotras in Rajasthan, Haryana, Delhi, Punjab and parts of northern Madhya Pradesh such as Joura. Bhangis of these gotras can marry Bhangis of other regions, at least those who belong to these widespread gotras.
Some of Bhangi gotra names might be clan names going back to ancient times. To speculate further, could it be that some of the Bhangi clans of western Rajasthan hail from groups who inhabited the fascinating cities of the Indus civilization some four thousand years ago? For example Kalibangan in northwestern Rajasthan. Could their gotra names be of Dravidian origin, as might also be the case for the language of the Harappan man and his undeciphered script? Could the Bhangis in western Rajasthan be vestiges of defeated warrior clans referred in early Sanskrit hymns?
Tan Dan's explanation of the original purpose nakh names
People of many other low castes have their gotra names associated with the gotra name of the Rajput ruling clan of the area of their origin. Names such as Rathore, Chauhan, Bhatti etc. These names of ruling dynasties are also used as names of the nakh division of many high and low castes in Rajasthan.
Bhangis, though, do not use Rajput gotra names at all, according to Tan Dan. Neither as names for their own gotras nor as nakh names.
Tan Dan told, that in the feudal age the purpose of adding a nakh name to the caste and gotra names of a low or medium caste was to tell with which ruling dynasty the clan in question was associated. The nakh name thus indicated, from which area the clan hailed. For example, a Bhati nakh of a Jat peasant clan living in a Marvar village gave a clue that the Jat clan might hail from Jaisalmer. There a Bhati dynasty ruled.
Kings and castles were in focus of public interest in those days. As people were familiar with the status of these Rajput dynasties in and around Rajasthan, the nakh name of a clan of feudal dependents also influenced the status of that clan.
In the literature it is sometimes stated, that Rajput gotra names of lowcaste groups indicate that these groups earlier were Rajputs, but has fallen in status due to various calamities. That is for example what Ruhela (1968) tells about the Gadolia Lohars. It could be a wrong idea, though. The nakh names of the Gadolia Lohars might only show, that the Gadolia Lohars have been associated to these Rajput dynasties as feudal dependents. It is more likely that Gadolia Lohar caste hail from the Baldia group of castes originating from northwestern India, as well as Sind and Baluchistan.
Brahmin and Baniya castes have no nakh names, Tan Dan told. That way these castes are similar to the Bhangi caste. That is Tan Dan's observation from western Rajasthan.
Bhangis lived closer to their feudal masters than many other marginal castes of western Rajasthan
The lack of nakh names does not mean that the Bhangis lived without any contact with the ruling groups of the society. At Chelana there was a close feudal relationship between Rathores and Bhangis, at least at the end the feudal age, as Tan Dan saw himself. The Bhangi men were used for carrying out unpleasant tasks at the Thikana, and were treated as handy reliable tools by the Rajputs, who exploited their status as weak dependents.
Hence, the Bhangis in western Rajasthan had become a well integrated part of village life in western Rajasthan in comparison to many other caste groups of low status such as Bavri and Shansi.
At least in those villages in Marwar, where there was a feudal elite that used the Bhangis for cleaning toilets and similar tasks by tradition carried out by sweepers. (All Bhangis.) A big part of the Bhangis lived in big cities such as Jodhpur, where there were several bhangi mohallas in various parts of the town. At Jodhpur there lived hundreds of Bhangi families, whereas at big villages there could be a dozen and in small non-jagirdar villages none at all. Such as Jat villages.
Bhangis were also more a part of the closely knit feudal village society in Marvar than the many pastoral groups living on livestock rearing, such as Rebaris and Detha Charans.
At least for Chelana and similar western Rajasthani villages, it is not true that Bhangis in living memory have been excluded from village life, forced to live at some isolated place away from the village. Rather, they had their role in it, suppressed and exploited. Their mohalla was isolated in the outskirt of the village settlement, but they were not treated as a ghost people with whom nobody talked. The Bhangi sweeper women had a lively personal relation to the household members of most castes settled inside the village. They saw their jajman families (client families) every day. In addition, the Bhangi men and women carried out various tasks as feudal menials on the lowest level, mostly of a repulsive kind such as taking away dead animals. (Up to 1952 small animals, after 1952 dead bovines, too.) Some Bhangis also had more pleasant occupations such as making baskets, which they sold at the large cattle fairs of the region.
That untouchables such as the Bhangi Sweepers lived outside the village and lacked social contacts with the touchable Hindus is often taken for granted in the literature. Ambedkar (1948, p.25) writes: "That the Untouchables live outside the village is so notorious a fact that it must be taken to be within the cognizance even of those whose knowledge about them is not very profound." He quotes Manu, the ancient Hindu law-giver, and refers to the shastras in general. Trying to explain why the Untouchables lived outside the villages, Ambedkar writes: "There must have been in Primitive Hindu society, Settled tribes and Broken Men. The Settled tribes founded the village and formed the village community and the Broken Men lived in separate quarters outside the village for the reason that they belonged to a different tribe and, therefore, to different blood. To put it definitely, the Untouchables were originally only Broken Men. It is because they were Broken Men that they lived outside the village." (Ibid. p.31)
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