Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c48.s2.24

c48.s2.24

f) **Brass and copper workers** (206,800). The manufacture and provision of these articles are in the hands of the Kasēra and Thaṭhērā castes in upper India, and in those of the cognate bodies called Kāsār, Kansārā and Tāmbaṭ, in the west, and Bogār or Kanṉān in the south. In the Karnatic the Caturtha and Pañcama Jains have a good deal of this trade in their hands. In the north they hold a better position than in the south, having traditions of Banyā origin. In the sub-Himālayan tract, however, they belong to the earlier and darker tribes. They seem to be, on the whole, more homogeneous than most castes, possibly because their trade has fewer ramifications, and they do not deal, as a rule, in the articles they make, but dispose of them to special traders for sale to the public. At the periodical gatherings at the great centres of pilgrimage, the booths of the brass and copper vendors are well to the fore in the fair which is always held as a subsidiary attraction on such occasions, and as the wares are conveniently portable, the business is brisk. The mason, which is the last craftsman to be dealt with under this group, does not, in most parts of upper India constitute a real caste, but belongs to a functional group recruited either from the carpenter and lower menial castes, or occasionally from others, whose members have been driven to manual labour, and selected the branch which is least associated with impure materials. There are, however, true castes of this trade, such as the Gauṇḍi and Kaḍiō of the Dekkan and Gujarāt, who have lived down their probably pre-Āryan descent. The stoneworkers of the south and some of the masons, largely consist of members of the salt-working castes whose occupation, since the manufacture of salt was undertaken by the State, has been seriously restricted. In Gujarāt, the caste has been formed by separation from the agricultural labourer, and in parts of the Gangetic valley, from the lime-burners and manufacturers of saltpetre. The making of bricks, owing to the impurity of the material used for the kiln, rests with the Kumbhār, or Potter caste, which comes into a later group.