Bania, Kasarwāni
Bania, Kasarwāni.[1]—This Hindu subcaste numbers about 6500 persons in the Central Provinces, who belong mainly to Saugor, Jubbulpore and the three Chhattīsgarh Districts. The name is probably derived from kānsa, bell-metal, as these Banias retail brass and bell-metal vessels. The Kasarwānis may therefore not improbably be an occupational group formed from persons who engaged in the trade, and in that case they may be wholly or partly derived from the Kasārs and Tameras, the castes which work in brass, copper and bell-metal. The Kasarwānis are numerous in Allahābād and Mīrzāpur, and they may have come to Chhattīsgarh from Mīrzāpur, attracted by the bell-metal industries in Ratanpur and Drūg. In Saugor and also in the United Provinces they say that they came from Kara Mānikpur several generations ago. If the selling of metal vessels was their original calling, many, or the majority of them, have now abandoned it, and deal in grain and groceries, and lend money like other Banias. The Kasarwānis do not observe the same standard of strictness as the good Bania subcastes in their social rules. They eat the flesh of goats, sheep, birds and fish, though they abstain from liquor. They permit the remarriage of widows and divorce; and women who have been divorced can marry again in the caste by the same rite as widows. They also allow the exchange of girls in marriage between two families. They do not as a rule wear the sacred thread. Their priests are Sarwaria Brāhmans, and these Brāhmans and a few Bania subcastes, such as the Agarwālas, Umres and Gahois, can take food cooked without water from them, but other Brāhmans and Rājpūts will not take any kind of food. Matches are arranged in the presence of the head of the caste panchāyat, who is known as Chaudhri. The parents on each side give their consent, and in pledge of it six pice (farthings) are taken from both of them, mixed together and given to their family priests and barbers, four pice to the priests and two to the barbers. The following is a local derivation of the name; the word kasar means more or the increase, and bhata means less; and Hamāra kya kasar bhata? means ‘How does my account stand?’ Hence Kasarbāni is one who keeps accounts, that is a Bania.
[1] The above notice is partly based on a paper by Mr. Sant Prasād, schoolmaster, Nāndgaon.