The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India, Volume 2

by R. V. Russell

Bania, Asāthi

Bania, Asāthi.—This subcaste numbers about 2500 persons in the Central Provinces, belonging principally to the Damoh and Jubbulpore Districts. They say that their original home was the Tīkamgarh State in Bundelkhand. They do not rank very high, and are sometimes said to be the descendants of an Ahīr who became a Bania. The great bulk are Hindus and a small minority Jains. It is told of the Asāthis that they first bury their dead, in accordance presumably with a former practice, and then exhume and burn the bodies; and there is a saying—

Ārdha jale, ārdha gare

Jinka nām Asāthi pare,

or, ‘He who is an Asāthi is half buried and half burnt.’ But this practice, if it ever really existed, has now been abandoned.