Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c48.s1.8
Indische Paläographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c48.s1.8
- Language
- German
c48.s1.8.1
The figures given against the several subdivisions of the general heading of Banyā are much below the reality, owing to the omission in many, if not most, cases to enter the subcaste, and to the substitution of some such indefinite designation as Mārwāḍī, S'rāvak, Vais', and so on. This is markedly the case in Bengal, where, with the exception of the subdivisions dealing with specific products, which find place in a later paragraph, nearly the whole trading community appears as a single item. The Subarṇabaṇik, it is true, has distinguished itself from its neighbours, probably because it claims a rank above that accorded it by public opinion. It is an immigrant body from upper India, and as a considerable number of its members are still engaged as assayers and money changers and it employs Brāhmans recruited from its own ranks, it seems possible that it is an offshoot of the Sōnār caste which elsewhere in India makes similar claims and is not unfrequently returned as a Daivajña or Vis'vakarman Brāhman, an assumption not yet accepted beyond its own members. Other artisan castes in the South make the same claim, but as the Subarṇabaṇik is prosperous and fairly well educated, it will not improbably end, if not where it desires, at all events considerably above its present rank. In the Dravidian country, the trading castes differ from those above described in being almost entirely indigenous to the locality they serve.
c48.s1.8.2
The movements which are reported to have taken place have been to comparatively short distances, such as those from the uplands of the Telugu country to the rich and thickly-peopled tracts of the south-east. There is this further difference between these castes and the traders of the north, that in most cases the former are intimately connected with, and probably sprang from, one or other of the great agricultural communities amongst whom they live, and from whom they are still distinguished by little else than function. One result of this relationship, and not an unhealthy one, has been observed viz, that where the business of lending money is carried on by people of the same class as the borrower, the dealings are on a less formal and more elastic footing than where, as in other parts of the country, the usurer has simply come to the village from a strange country to make his fortune out of the necessities of the natives. Considering that what with weddings and other ceremonies, every peasant is at some time or other a borrower, the above feature is not unimportant from a political as well as from an economical point of view. There is the usual tendency among those who prosper to adopt the ceremonial and customs of the local Brāhmans or to grow more scrupulous in their observance, and, amongst the Telugu traders, to assert in due course a Vais'ya origin, a pretension which their form of caste-subdivision and their more intimate domestic practices flagrantly contradict.
c48.s1.8.3
The Kōmaṭi, for instance, wear the sacred thread and are divided into three territorial endogamous subdivisions, following the modern Brāhmanic, not the Vedic, ritual. Their exogamous groups, however, of which there are a great number, are not Brāhmanic but totemistic, derived from trees, plants or articles of food, the use of which is prohibited respectively to the group to which it belongs. Their marriage rules are those peculiar to the South and the ceremony is incomplete without the formal presentation of the friendly and symbolic betel-nut and leaf to a member of the impure leather-working caste, with whom the traders share a common tutelary deity. It is a good example of the growing refinement of modern times, that in order to mitigate the crudity of the above-mentioned act of social intimacy without breaking away from a possibly prophylactic tradition, it is now the habit for the bride's father to send a pair of shoes to be mended a few days before the wedding, and on the day of the ceremony to pay the cobbler with a betel-nut thrown in to the amount of the bill. The largest trading community of the Telugu country is the Balija, which is widely spread over the Tamil districts also, and there called Vaḍugan, or Northerners, or Kavarai, from the caste goddess. They have a great number of subdivisions, which are not, however, endogamous, as a rule, possibly owing to the practice of receiving into the caste refugees from outside who are in disgrace with their own kinsfolk.
c48.s1.8.4
One division of the Balija, however, keeps itself apart, being descended from the Nāyak Chiefs of Madura. Though it wears no sacred thread, it claims to be Kṣatriya. As a whole, the Balija are probably an outgrowth of the great agricultural body of the Kāpu or Reḍḍi. Like the Kōmaṭi, they are in curiously close relations with the impure leather-workers and village menials of the locality. It might be inferred from this fact that the latter belong to a race preceding the present occupants of the soil, and like the Dasyu of the north, dispossessed of their heritage, but acknowledged to be influential with the gods of the village. The Banjiga is the Karnatic trader, and has no connection with his namesake the Baniyā. Generally speaking, the Banjiga, though much subdivided, is of the same stock as the Kanarese peasantry, whose proclivities towards the Lingāyat faith it largely shares. In the Tamil country the trader is usually a Ceṭṭi a title which is nearly as comprehensive as that of Baniyā. It covers several large and a vast number of small subdivisions. In most cases the marriage rules resemble in important particulars those of the surrounding peasantry of the better class. They worship the local goddesses and call in a carpenter by caste to bestow his blessing upon the bride and bridegroom, thus generally testifying to their local origin.
c48.s1.8.5
Their main subdivision, the Nāṭṭukōṭṭai, shares the reputation of the Bhāṭiā for unwonted enterprise and success in foreign trade and travel.