Baqqal (Arabic)

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This article is an extract from

THE TRIBES and CASTES of BENGAL. By H.H. RISLEY, INDIAN CIVIL SERVICE, OFFICIER D'ACADÉMIE FRANÇAISE. Ethnographic Glossary. CALCUTTA: Printed at the Bengal Secretariat Press. 1891. .

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Baqqal (Arabic)

A grocer, chandler, grain-merchant, cloth. dealer, also generally a shopkeeper; a title of Baniyas which ordinarily has no bearing upon questions of caste.

In Eastern Bengal the term denotes a small sub-caste of Chandals who neither eat nor intermarry with the parent stock, although'their Brahman is the same. The Baqqals are wandering traders, who retail turmeric, bay-leaves, rice, ginger, and other condiments in inland villages and markets. They are numerous in the Ja'farganj and Manikganj parganas of Dacca: 'They will not cultivate the soil, but, possessing cargo-boats of their' own, navIgate them without any hired servants, A.ll belong to one gotm, the Kasyapa, and the majority follow the Krishna. Mantra.: In the belief that by engaging in hade they have attainted a hIgher and more respectable position than the Chandals, they have renounced the drinking of spirits and the eating of pork.

Notes

This Arabic name for a grain merchant is a title assumed by a few Chandals, who neither eat nor intermarry with the parent stock, although their Brahman is the same. The Baqqals are wandering traders who retail turmeric, bay-leaves, rice, ginger, and other condiments in inland villages and markets. They are chiefly met with in the Ja'farganj and Manikganj parganas of Dacca. They will not cultivate the soil, but, possessing cargo boats of their own, navigate them without any hired servants. All belong to one gotra, the Kasyapa, and the majority follow the Krishna Mantra.

Having assumed a higher and more respectable position than the Chandals, they have renounced the drinking of spirits and the eating of pork.