Caste and Race in India c5.134

c5.134

In parts of the United Provinces the barber often acts as a match-maker and is present at weddings. The Dom at the burning "ghat" in Benares is an important personage. "Some years ago the head of the caste used to be conveyed to the funeral of a wealthy client in his own palanquin." The first five logs of wood for arranging the pyre must be given by a Dom, who has also to lay the foundation of the pyre and to hand a wisp of burning straw to the chief mourner for lighting the wood.¹ In the Central Provinces, as a part of the marriage ceremony, the bridegroom's party takes the bride to the house of the Kumbhar (potter) for making the marriage propitious. The wife of the potter presents her with seven new pots which are to be used at the wedding. In return for this veiled blessing the woman gets a present of clothes.² Both the barber and washerman are prominent in a Kunbi wedding. At a particular stage in the ceremony the barber and washerman take the bride and bridegroom on their shoulders and dance in the marriage-booth, for which services they receive presents.³ In Berar "at the Holi festival the fire of the Mahars is kindled first and that of the Kunbis is set alight from it". Some Telis (oil-pressers), Lohars (blacksmiths), Kunbis and other castes employ a Mahar (one of the untouchables) to fix the date of their weddings. The Mahar also officiates at the slaughter of a buffalo at the Dasahra festival.⁴ The barber acts as the Brahmin's assistant at marriage, and to the lower castes he is even the matrimonial priest.⁵ The officiating priest at the famous temple of Jagannath is a barber, food cooked for the deity by him being acceptable to all but the most orthodox amongst Brahmins. For some of the Vellalas (Tamil cultivators) he even acts as the marriage-priest.⁶ "Some of the most celebrated and exclusive temples are thrown open to the Paraiyan (the Tamil unapproachable) on certain days of the year, and for the time he lords it over the Brahmin.” At some festivals at the temples of Siva or the local goddess he sits by the side of the idol in the procession or ties the badge of marriage round its neck. “When there is a dispute about a boundary, it is a Paraiyan, or in other parts of India, a member of the corresponding caste, who has to walk the line with a pot of water, his own son, or a clod of his native earth, on his head.”¹ These and other occasions, on which some of the groups, which were considered to be low castes, could feel their importance, relieved the monotonous depression of these groups, and gave zest to their life even in their degraded condition.