1. The nature and origin of the caste
Pāsi, Passi.[1]—A Dravidian occupational caste of northern India, whose hereditary employment is the tapping of the palmyra, date and other palm trees for their sap. The name is derived from the Sanskrit pāshika, ‘One who uses a noose,’ and the Hindi, pās or pāsa, a noose. It is a curious fact that when the first immigrant Parsis from Persia landed in Gujarāt they took to the occupation of tapping palm trees, and the poorer of them still follow it. The resemblance in the name, however, can presumably be nothing more than a coincidence. The total strength of the Pāsis in India is about a million and a half persons, nearly all of whom belong to the United Provinces and Bihār. In the Central Provinces they number 3500, and reside principally in the Jubbulpore and Hoshangābād Districts. The caste is now largely occupational, and is connected with the Bhars, Arakhs, Khatīks and other Dravidian groups of low status. But in the past they seem to have been of some importance in Oudh. “All through Oudh,” Mr. Crooke states, “they have traditions that they were lords of the country, and that their kings reigned in the Districts of Kheri, Hardoi and Unao. Rāmkot, where the town of Bāngarmau in Unao now stands, is said to have been one of their chief strongholds. The last of the Pāsi lords of Rāmkot, Rāja Santhar, threw off his allegiance to Kanauj and refused to pay tribute. On this Rāja Jaichand gave his country to the Banāphar heroes Alha and Udal, and they attacked and destroyed Rāmkot, leaving it the shapeless mass of ruins which it now is.” Similar traditions prevail in other parts of Oudh. It is also recorded that the Rājpāsis, the highest division of the caste, claim descent from Tilokchand, the eponymous hero of the Bais Rājpūts. It would appear then that the Pāsis were a Dravidian tribe who held a part of Oudh before it was conquered by the Rājpūts. As the designation of Pāsi is an occupational term and is derived from the Sanskrit, it would seem that the tribe must formerly have had some other name, or they may be an occupational offshoot of the Bhars. In favour of this suggestion it may be noted that the Bhars also have strong traditions of their former dominance in Oudh. Thus Sir C. Elliott states in his Chronicles of Unao[2] that after the close of the heroic age, when Ajodhya was held by the Sūrajvansi Rājpūts under the great Rāma, we find after an interval of historic darkness that Ajodhya has been destroyed, the Sūrajvansis utterly banished, and a large extent of country is being ruled over by aborigines called Cheros in the far east, Bhars in the centre and Rājpāsis in the west. Again, in Kheri the Pāsis always claim kindred with the Bhars,[3] and in Mīrzāpur[4] the local Pāsis represent the Bhars as merely a subcaste of their own tribe, though this is denied by the Bhars themselves. It seems therefore a not improbable hypothesis that the Pāsis and perhaps also the kindred tribe of Arakhs are functional groups formed from the Bhar tribe. For a discussion of the early history of this important tribe the reader must be referred to Mr. Crooke’s excellent article.