Jambu Dālia.—(Born in a shed made of jāman branches.) A section of Ghasia.
Jamnabāsi.—(Residing on the banks of the Jumna.) A subcaste of Dhobi.
Jangam.—A caste of Saiva mendicants, who call themselves Vīr Shaiva, and are priests of the Lingāyat sect; a subcaste of Jogi.
Jāngra.—(Perhaps the same as Jharia or jungly.) A subcaste of Lodhi. A section of Dhīmar, Māli and Sunār.
Jāni.—A wise man; an exorciser.
Janta.—(Flour grinding-mill.) A section of Panka, a sept of Kawar.
Janughanta.—Mendicants who tie bells to their thighs; a kind of Jogis.
Jaria.—A totemistic section of Basor, who worship the ber or wild plum tree.
Jasondhi, Dasaundhi.—A caste. A subcaste of Bhāt.
Jasondhi, Karohla.—A small caste of the Narsinghpur District, who were employed at the Gond and Marātha courts to sing the jas or hymns in praise of the chiefs. They may be considered as a branch of the Bhāt caste, and some of them are said to be addicted to petty theft. Some Jasondhis, who are also known as Karohla, now wander about as religious mendicants, singing the praises of Devi. They carry an image of the goddess suspended by a chain round the neck and ask for gifts of tilli (sesamum) or other vegetable oil, which they pour over their heads and over the image. Their clothes and bodies are consequently always saturated with this oil. They also have a little cup of vermilion which they smear on the goddess and on their own bodies after receiving an offering. They call on Devi, saying, ‘Maiji, Maiji Mata meri, kahe ko janam diya’ or ‘Mother, mother, why did you bring me into the world?’ Women who have no children sometimes vow to dedicate their first-born son as a Karohla, and it is said that such children were bound to sacrifice themselves to the goddess on attaining manhood in one of three ways. Either they went to Benāres and were cut in two by a sword, or else to Badrinārāyan, a shrine on the summit of the Himalayas, where they were frozen to death, or to Dhaolagiri, where they threw themselves down from a rock, and one might occasionally escape death. Their melancholy refrain may thus be explained by the fate in store for them. The headquaters of the order is the shrine of the Bindhyachal Devi in the Vindhyan Hills.