Bania, Golapūrab
Bania, Golapūrab, Golahre.—This Jain subcaste numbers about 6000 persons in the Central Provinces, and belongs mainly to the Saugor, Damoh and Narsinghpur Districts. Its distribution is nearly the same as that of the Gahois, and it is probably also a Bundelkhand group. The Golapūrabs are practically all Digambari Jains with a small Hindu minority. In some localities they intermarry with Parwār Banias who are also Digambari Jains; and they will take food cooked without water from the Nema subcaste who are Hindus. According to one story the Golapūrabs were the offspring of a Pūrabia, that is probably a Bais Rājpūt, by a kept woman of the Ahīr caste. This fits in very well with the name, as Golak means a bastard, and the termination pūrab would be from Pūrabia; but it is probably the name which has given rise to the story, or at any rate to the supposed descent from a Pūrabia. In the United Provinces a small subcaste of Bania called Golahre exists, belonging to the Jhānsi District, that is the country of the Golapūrabs, and Jain by religion. There is no doubt that this group is the same as the Golapūrabs, and Mr. Crooke derives[1] the name from gola, a grain-mart, which seems more probable than the derivation suggested above. But it is an interesting fact that there is also a caste of cultivators called Golapūrab in the United Provinces, found only in the Agra District. It is suggested that these people are the illegitimate offspring of Sanādhya Brāhmans, with whom they appear to be closely connected. From their sept-names, however, which include those of several Rājpūt clans and also some titular terms of a low-caste type, Mr. Crooke thinks their Brāhmanical origin improbable. It is noticeable that these Golapūrabs though a cultivating caste have, like the Banias, a subcaste called Dasa, comprising persons of irregular descent; they also prohibit the remarriage of widows, and abstain from all flesh and from onions and garlic. Such customs are peculiar in a cultivating caste, and resemble those of Banias. It seems possible that a detailed investigation might give ground for supposing that both the Golahre and Golapūrab subcastes of Banias in the United and Central Provinces respectively are connected with this cultivating caste of Golapūrabs. The latter might have abandoned the Jain religion on taking to cultivation, as a Jain cannot well drive the plough, which involves destruction of animal life; or the Bania section might have adopted Jainism in order to obtain a better social position and differentiate themselves from the cultivators. Unfortunately no detailed information about the Golapūrabs of the Central Provinces is available, from which the probability or otherwise of this hypothesis could be tested.
[1] Tribes and Castes, art. Golahre.
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.