5. Former occupations: door-keeper and mace-bearer.
In past times the Dahāits were the personal attendants on the king. They fanned him with the chaur or yak-tail whisk when he sat in state on the royal cushion. This implement is held sacred and is also used by Brāhmans to fan the deities. On ordinary occasions the Rāja was fanned by a pankha made of khaskhas grass and wetted, but not so that the water fell on his head. They also acted as gate-keepers of the palace, and had the title of Darwān. The gate-keeper’s post was a responsible one, as it lay on him to see that no one with evil intentions or carrying secret arms was admitted to the palace. Whenever a chief or noble came to visit the king he deposited his arms with the porter or door-keeper. The necessity of a faithful door-keeper is shown in the proverb: “With these five you must never quarrel: your Guru, your wife, your gate-keeper, your doctor and your cook.” The reasons for the inclusion of the others are fairly clear. On the other hand the gate-porter had usually to be propitiated before access was obtained to his master, like the modern chuprāssie; and the resentment felt at his rapacity is shown in the proverb: “The broker, the octroi moharrir, the door-keeper and the bard: these four will surely go to hell.” The Darwān or door-keeper would be given the right to collect dues, equivalent to those of a village watchman, from forty or fifty villages. The Dahāits also carried the chob or silver mace before the king. This was about five feet long with a knob at the upper end as thick as a man’s wrist. The mace-bearer was known as Chobdār, and it was his duty to carry messages and announce visitors; this latter function he performed with a degree of pomposity truly Asiatic, dwelling with open mouth very audibly on some of the most sounding and emphatic syllables in a way that appeared to strangers almost ludicrous,[7] as shown in the following instance: “On advancing, the Chobdārs or heralds proclaimed the titles of this princely cow-keeper in the usual hyperbolical style. One of the most insignificant-looking men I ever saw then became the destroyer of nations, the leveller of mountains, the exhauster of the ocean. After commanding every inferior mortal to make way for this exalted prince, the heralds called aloud to the animal creation, ‘Retire, ye serpents; fly, ye locusts; approach not, iguanas, lizards and reptiles, while your lord and master condescends to set his foot on the earth.’”[8] The Dahāits ran before the Rāja’s chariot or litter to clear the way for him and announce his coming; and it was also a principal business of the caste to carry the royal umbrella above the head of the king.