[1] North Arcot Manual, i. p. 216.

[2] Indian Antiquary (1879), p. 216.

Vidur

List of Paragraphs

1. Origin and traditions

Vidur,[1] Bidur.—A Marātha caste numbering 21,000 persons in the Central Provinces in 1911, and found in the Nāgpur Division and Berār. They are also returned from Hyderābād and Bombay. Vidur means a wise or intelligent man, and was the name of the younger brother of Pāndu, the father of the Pāndava brothers. The Vidurs are a caste of mixed descent, principally formed from the offspring of Brāhman fathers with women of other castes. But the descendants of Panchāls, Kunbis, Mālis and others from women of lower caste are also known as Vidurs and are considered as different subcastes. Each of these groups follow the customs and usually adopt the occupation of the castes to which their fathers belonged. They are known as Kharchi or Khāltātya, meaning ‘Below the plate’ or ‘Below the salt,’ as they are not admitted to dine with the proper Vidurs. But the rule varies in different places, and sometimes after the death of their mother such persons become full members of the caste, and with each succeeding generation the status of their descendants improves. In Poona the name Vidur is restricted to the descendants of Brāhman fathers, and they are also known as Brāhmanja or ‘Born from Brāhmans.’ Elsewhere the Brāhman Vidurs are designated especially as Krishnapakshi, which means ‘One born during the dark fortnight,’ The term Krishnapakshi is or was also used in Bengal, and Buchanan defined it as follows: “Men of the Rājpūt, Khatri and Kāyasth tribes, but no others, openly keep women slaves of any pure tribe, and the children are of the same caste with their father, but are called Krishnapakshis and can only marry with each other.”[2] In Bastar a considerable class of persons of similar illegitimate descent also exist, being the offspring of the unions of immigrant Hindus with women of the Gond, Halba and other tribes. The name applied to them, however, is Dhākar, and as their status and customs are quite different from those of the Marātha Vidurs they are treated in a short separate article.

2. The Purads, Golaks and Borals

Another small group related to the Vidurs are the Purāds of Nāgpur; they say that their ancestor was a Brāhman who was carried away in a flooded river and lost his sacred thread. He could not put on a new thread afterwards because the sacred thread must be changed without swallowing the spittle in the interval. Hence he was put out of caste and his descendants are the Purāds, the name being derived from pūr, a flood. These people are mainly shopkeepers. In Berār two other groups are found, the Golaks and Borals. The Golaks are the illegitimate offspring of a Brāhman widow; if after her husband’s decease she did not shave her head, her illegitimate children are known as Rand[3] Golaks; if her head was shaved, they are called Mund (shaven) Golaks; and if their father be unknown, they are named Kund Golaks. The Golaks are found in Malkāpur and Bālāpur and number about 400 persons. A large proportion of them are beggars. A Boral is said to be the child of a father of any caste and a mother of one of those in which widows shave their heads. As a matter of fact widows, except among Brāhmans, rarely shave their heads in the Central Provinces, and it would therefore appear, if Mr. Kitts’ definition is correct, that the Borals are the offspring of women by fathers of lower caste than themselves; a most revolting union to Hindu ideas. As, however, the Borals are mostly grocers and shopkeepers, it is possible that they may be the same class as the Purāds. In 1881 they numbered only 163 persons and were found in Dārhwa, Mehkar and Chikhli tāluks.