Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c48.s2.17.1

c48.s2.17.1

§ 37. **Specialised cultivators** (5,968,700). The majority of the castes coming into this category are branches of the great agricultural bodies, separated from them, as stated above, in view of the inferiority in rural esteem of the produce they cultivate as compared with cereals and other crops grown on a large scale. Thus, the Arāīn are of the same stock as the Kambō; the Mālī, Kāchī and Murāō, are all derived from the Kurmī, and the Saiṇī belongs to the Mālī. In contradistinction to the growth of roots and vegetables, the care of the bitel-vine has no disgrace attached to it. This may be partly due to the use of vegetable manure only, and partly, no doubt, to the consideration that the presentation of a little packet of the leaf with areca nut is an important formality in social intercourse. In the greater part of India the bitel-vine is grown by a special caste called Barāī, Bāruī or Bārī. The last title, however, is only used south of the Vindhya, and in the north is applied to a lower caste of different occupation. Apart from linguistic distinctions, the Barāī is much subdivided into endogamous sections, and most of them hold a good position in society. In the Dekkan and Karnatic there is a small caste of Brāhmans, the Tirgūḷ, who have taken to growing the bitel-vine, and the Bārī are said to be immigrant from Central India.