Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c48.s3.3

c48.s3.3

In this respect they fall into line with the Cāraṇ, a bard and genealogist of a lower type, whose range lies between Kach and Rājputāna. The name seems to connect the caste with grazing, and it is by cattle-breeding and transport by pack-bullock that the Cāraṇ mainly now gets his living. There is an old and long obsolete connection between the Cāraṇ and the Kumbhār, or potter caste, the link being said to have been the joint trade of ass-breeding, but the relations have now passed into the stage of violent but unexplained hostility. It is possible, of course, that this misty tradition may account to some extent for the inferior position which the Cāraṇ, even when he is exclusively a bard or genealogist, occupies with reference to the Bhāṭ. The Cāraṇ caste is subdivided into geographical sections with numerous exogamous sub-sections. The families in permanent employ as genealogists intermarry with each other only, not as a matter of caste, but, as amongst the Jāṭs of the Panjāb, on purely social considerations. They have thus acquired a physical appearance far superior to that of the cultivating and cattle-breeding sections of their community. The profession, however, as among the Bhāṭ, has gone down, and only a minority now live by it. Most of the western, or Kach, Cāraṇ live by transport on pack-bullocks. Here again their trade has suffered by the extension of railways across the desert tracts, but many of them have adapted their operations to the new order and ply along the main feeder roads to the chief stations. The Cāraṇ who are thus engaged bear a striking resemblance to the Banjārā of upper India and the Dekkan in appearance, dress and customs. The Banjārā of the north have, in fact, a large subdivision called Cāraṇ, and it is possible that there was of old some tribal connection between them and the Cāraṇ of the west, lost through the migration of the latter.