Singrore.—Subcaste of Kunbi and Lodhi.
Sikligar, Bardhia, Saiqalgar.[95]—A small caste of armourers and knife-grinders. The name Saiqalgar comes from the Arabic saiqal, a polisher, and Bardhia is from bārdh, the term for the edge of a weapon. They number only about 450 persons in the Central Provinces and Berār, and reside mainly in the large towns, as Jubbulpore and Nāgpur. The caste is partly Hindu and partly Muhammadan, but very few members of it in the Central Provinces profess the latter religion. In Bombay[96] the Muhammadan Sikligars are said to be Ghisāris or tinkers who were forcibly converted by Aurāngzeb. The writer of the Belgaum Gazetteer[97] says that they are scarcely more than Muhammadans in name, as they practically never go to the mosque, keep Hindu gods in their houses, eschew beef, and observe no special Muhammadan rites other than circumcision. The Hindu Sikligars claim to be Rājpūts and have Rājpūt sept names, and it is not unlikely that in old times the armourer’s calling should have been adopted by the lower classes of Rājpūts. The headquarters of the caste is in Gwālior, where there is probably still some scope for their ancient trade. But in British territory the Sikligar has degenerated into a needy knife-grinder. Mr. Crooke[98] describes him as “A trader of no worth. His whole stock-in-trade is a circular whetstone worked by a strap between two posts fixed in the ground. He sharpens knives, razors, scissors and sometimes swords.”
Sirdār.—Title of the Kawar caste.
Siriswār.—(From siris, a tree.) A section of Gadaria.
Sirnet.—A clan of Rājpūts.
Sirwa.—(A resident of the ancient city of Sravāsti in Gonda district.) Subcaste of Teli.
Sita Pādri.—Title of Vaishnava mendicants.
Sithira.—Synonym of Sidhira.
Solaha.[99]—A very small caste numbering less than a hundred persons in the Raipur District. The caste only deserves mention as affording an instance of an attempt to rise in the social scale. The Solahas are certainly of Gond origin. Their name appears to be a corruption of Tolaha, from tol, which means leather in Gondi or Telugu. Their exogamous sections, as Markam, Warai, Wika, Sori, Kunjām, are also Gond names, and like the Agarias they are an occupational offshoot of that great tribe, who have taken to the special profession of leather-curing and primitive carpentry. But they claim to belong to the Barhai caste and say that their ancestors immigrated from Benāres at the time of a great famine there. In pursuance of the claim some of them employ inferior Brāhmans as their priests. They also say that they accept food only from Brāhmans and Rājpūts, though they eat fowls, pork and even rats. Women of any other caste can be admitted into the community, but not men. The fact that they are not Barhais is sufficiently shown by their ignorance of carpentering tools. They do not even know the use of a rope for turning the drill and do it by hand with a pointed nail. They have no planes, and smooth wood with a chisel. Their business is to make musical instruments for the Gonds, which consist of hollow pieces of wood covered with skin to act as single or double drums. They use sheep and goat-skins, and after letting them dry scrape off the hair and rub them with a paste of boiled rice and powdered iron filings and glass.
Solanki, Solankhi.—A well-known clan of Rājpūts, also called Chalukya. The name is perhaps derived from Sulakshana, one bearing an auspicious mark. A section of Pārdhi and Gūjar.