Indische Palaographie von circa 350 a. Chr. – circa 1300 p. Chr. c48.s5.4

c48.s5.4

§ 72. **Knife-Grinders etc.** (37,000). There are a few small castes which may be fairly termed travelling artisans rather than gipsies, since there is no stigma attached to them personally nor is their calling held to be a mere cover for criminal means of gain. The Ṣaiqalgar, or Sikligar, for example, is a Muslim caste which travels throughout the open season grinding knives and scissors, and at other times plies in the cities. A subdivision undertakes the care of razors. In old times the Ṣaiqalgar was the armourer and polisher of weapons, but he is now in sadly reduced circumstances. The Ghisāḍī is a small Brāhmanic caste of the Dekkan, corresponding to the Ṣaiqalgar but of lower origin, probably from Gujarāt. The Khūmrā is another small Muslim caste of upper India the function of which is to quarry and sell the querns or millstones for domestic use. They are hewn at the quarry and hawked about on pack-animals. The roughening of the face of the stone after it has been in use a long time is in Central India and the Dekkan, the work of another caste, the Ṭākārī or Ṭākankar, Brāhmanist by faith and nomad by habit. The Khūmrā's conduct is above reproach, but the Ṭākārī is said to utilise the time he spends squatting on the premises where he is employed in scrutinising the extent and disposition of the moveable property of the household, with a view to a further visit by night, for its removal. The caste is affiliated to the great tribe of wandering hunters, called Bāvarī or Vāghrī, to be mentioned later, and seems to have entered the Dekkan from Gujarāt or Central India, as its members keep aloof from the Pārdhī, or hunting tribes of the south, and speak a dialect resembling Gujarātī.