Birth customs. 2. When a woman is in the eighth month of pregnancy the Athmâsa ceremony is performed. Two or three days before it commences the women sing songs. On the day of the ceremony the Pandit makes a square in the courtyard, in which the husband and his wife are seated with their clothes knotted together. The Pandit makes them worship Gauri and Ganesa, and sweetmeats are sent to the houses of the clansmen. In the evening a feast is given to the clansmen. When the child is born, what is called the Nandi mukh srâddha is performed, and then the Chamârin midwife is called in to cut the navel cord. She attends the mother only on the first day. Then follow the usual sixth and twelfth day ceremonies (chhathi, barahi), when the mother bathes, the house is purified, and she returns to her household duties. When the child is one or three years old comes the shaving (mûnran). All the women of the family and their friends go to the temple of some goddess and worship her; then they worship the barber’s razor, and offer a rupee to it, which is the perquisite of the barber. Then he shaves the boy’s head, and the mother receives the hair on a cake made of unbaked dough. But more generally this is done by the sister or father’s sister of the boy. The boy and his mother then put on yellow garments and return home. A feast is given, and some small sums distributed to Brâhmans. In some families the ceremony of ear-boring (kanchhedan) is done at the same time as the mûnran; sometimes it is deferred till the boy is five years old. The boring is done by a Sunâr, and the friends are entertained. When the boy is six months old the anna-prâsana ceremony is performed. The mother cooks some rice milk (khîr), and the eldest member of the family puts some of it on a rupee and makes the child lick it. The function ends with the distribution of betel and cardamoms among the guests.
Occupation. 3. The Baranwâls are bâzâr traders of the ordinary type, and deal in grain and various kinds of merchandise. [[184]]
Distribution of the Baranwâl Banyas according to the Census of 1891.
| District. | Number. |
| Agra | 26 |
| Etah | 28 |
| Budâun | 439 |
| Morâdâbâd | 1,825 |
| Cawnpur | 80 |
| Bânda | 1 |
| Benares | 776 |
| Mirzapur | 590 |
| Jaunpur | 2,140 |
| Ghâzipur | 1,337 |
| Gorakhpur | 466 |
| Basti | 1,880 |
| Azamgarh | 5,206 |
| Râê Bareli | 46 |
| Faizâbâd | 173 |
| Partâbgarh | 131 |
| Grand Total | 15,144 |
Bargâh, Bargâha, Bargâhi.—(Probably connected with Bâri, q.v.)—A caste of personal servants and makers of leaf platters (dauna). To the east of the province they trace their origin to Kanauj, and say that they emigrated with the Gaharwâr Râjputs. Their women act as wet-nurses to the Gaharwârs, and their men pass round betel at entertainments, and do other kinds of higher domestic service. They claim kinship with the Guâl Ahîrs. Thus, in Gorakhpur, Dr. Buchanan[88] says:—“The Râjput chiefs have certain families of the Ahîrs, the women of which serve as wet-nurses to their children, and the men attend to their persons. These families are called Bargâha; they have received, of course, great favours, and several of them are very rich; but others look down upon them as having admitted their women to too great familiarity with their chiefs.”
2. They marry in their own tribe; but they have no sections, and their rule of exogamy is not to marry in a family with which they have been once connected in marriage as long as any recollection of relationship exists. The marriage customs are of the usual type. In Mirzapur they practise adult marriage. The ceremony occupies three days—the sil, main, and bârât. On the day of the sil the grindstone and rice pounder (sil batta) are placed in the courtyard, and a Brâhman worships Gauri. The clansmen are fed on rice and pulse. On the main day the mâtri pûja and worship of [[185]]deceased ancestors is performed, and a second feast is given. On the third day, the bârât, the procession, goes to the house of the bride. The pair are seated in a shed (mânro); the bride’s father worships the feet of the bridegroom and presents him with fruits, etc., the garments of the pair are knotted, and they revolve seven times round the shed. The bride’s father then marks the forehead of the bridegroom with turmeric and rice, and takes him and the bride into the retiring room (kohabar), a relic of the custom of immediately consummating the marriage. There the women of the family make the bridegroom join the lights of two lighted wicks as a sign of lasting affection between the pair. The girl is then sent off at once with her husband. They do not allow widow marriage or the levirate. Their death customs are of the usual orthodox type.
3. The Bargâhs are all Hindus, and appear chiefly to worship Mahâbîr, the Pânchonpîr and the Dih, or the collective body of the village godlings.
4. They live principally by domestic service, and are known to be courageous and faithful. Many of them take to agriculture. In Chota Nâgpur, according to Mr. Risley,[89] they claim to be Râjputs and act as domestic servants to the local Râjas.
Distribution of the Bargâhs according to the Census of 1891.
| District. | Number. |
| Hamîrpur | 392 |
| Mirzapur | 383 |
| Basti | 243 |
| Total | 1,018 |