Panwar, Puar, Ponwar, Pramar Rajput
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I
A 1914 British account
This article was written in 1916 when conditions were different. Even in Readers will be able to edit existing articles and post new articles directly |
From The Tribes And Castes Of The Central Provinces Of India
By R. V. Russell
Of The Indian Civil Service
Superintendent Of Ethnography, Central Provinces
Assisted By Rai Bahadur Hira Lal, Extra Assistant Commissioner
Macmillan And Co., Limited, London, 1916.
NOTE 1: The 'Central Provinces' have since been renamed Madhya Pradesh.
NOTE 2: While reading please keep in mind that all articles in this series have been scanned from the original book. Therefore, footnotes have got inserted into the main text of the article, interrupting the flow. Readers who spot these footnotes gone astray might like to shift them to their correct place.
Panwar Rajput
Puar, Ponwar, Pramara Rajput
First of the four Agnikuls
The Panwar or Pramara is one of the most ancient and famous of the Rajput clans. It was the first of the four Agnikulas, who were created from the fire-pit on the summit of Mount Abu after the Kshatriyas had been exterminated by Parasiirama the Brahman. " The fire-fountain was kistrated with the waters of the Ganges ; " expiatory rites were performed, and after a protracted debate among the gods it was resolved that Indra should initiate the work of recreation. Having formed an image of dfiba grass he sprinkled it with the water of life and threw it into the fire-fountain.
Thence on pronouncing the sajivani mantra (incantation to give life) a figure slowly emerged from the flame, bearing in the right hand a mace and exclaiming, ' Mm\ Mar ! ' (Slay, slay). He was called Pramar ; and Abu, Dhar and Ujjain were assigned to him as a territory." The four clans known as Agnikula, or born from the fire-pit, were the Panwar, the Chauhan, the Parihar and the Chalukya or Solanki.
- With the exception of the historical reader to Mr. C. E. Low, Deputy
notice, this article is principally based Commissioner of Balaghat. on a paper by Mr. Muhammad Yusuf, - Tod's RdjasthCin, ii. p. 407. 330
Mr. D. R. lihandarkar adduces evidence in support of the opinion that all these were of foreign origin, derived from the Gujars or other Scythian or Hun tribes.^ And it seems therefore not unlikely that the legend of the fire-pit may commemorate the reconstitution of the Kshatriya aristocracy by the admission of these tribes to Hinduism after its partial extinction during their wars of invasion ; the latter event having perhaps been euphemised into the slaughter of the Kshatriyas by Parasurama the Brahman.
The legend of Parasurama
A great number of Indian castes date their origin from the traditional massacre of the Kshatriyas by Parasurama, saying that their ancestors were Rajputs who escaped and took to various occupations ; and it would appear that an event which bulks so largely in popular tradition must have some historical basis.
It is noticeable also that Buddhism, which for some five centuries since the time of Asoka Maurya had been the official and principal religion of northern India, had recently entered on its decline. " The restoration of the Brahmanical religion to popular favour and the associated revival of the Sanskrit language first became noticeable in the second century, were fostered by the satraps of Gujarat and Surashtra during the third, and made a success by the Gupta emperors in the fourth century.
The decline of Buddhism and the diffusion of Sanskrit proceeded side by side with the result that by the end of the Gupta period the force of I^uddhism on Indian soil had been nearly spent ; and India with certain local exceptions had again become the land of the Brahman.^ The Gupta dynasty as an important power ended about A.D. 490 and was overthrown by the Huns, whose leader Toramana was established at Malvva in Central India prior to A.l). 500."'* The revival of Brahmanism and the Hun supremacy were therefore nearly contemporaneous. Moreover one of the Hun leaders, Mihiragula, was a strong supporter of Brahmanism and an opponent of the Buddhists.
Mr. V. A. Smith writes : " The savage invader, who worshipped as his patron deity Siva, the god of destruction, exhibited ferocious hostility against the peaceful Buddhist cult, and remorselessly overthrew the stfipas and monasteries, which he plundered of their treasures." ^ This warrior might therefore well be venerated by the Brahmans as the great restorer of their faith and would easily obtain divine honours.
^ Foreign elements in the Hindu Clarendon Press), 3rd ed., p. 303.
population, /«</. ^;/^. (January 1911), , „., , , 00
ypj J.]
\. y ^ / 3 jij^d^jii^ 2nd ed., p. 2SS.
2 Early History of India (Oxford, * Ibidem^ p. 316.
Huns
The Huns also subdued Rajputana and Central India and were dominant here for a time until their extreme cruelty and oppression led to a concerted rising of the Indian princes by whom they were defeated. The discovery of the Hun or Scythian origin of several of the existing Rajput clans fits in well with the legend. The stories told by many Indian castes of their first ancestors having been Rajputs who escaped from the massacre of Parasurama would then have some historical value as indicating that the existing occupational grouping of castes dates from the period of the revival of the Brahman cult after a long interval of Buddhist supremacy.
It is however an objection to the identification of Parasurama with the Huns that he is the sixth incarnation of "Vishnu, coming before Rama and being mentioned in the Mahabharata, and thus if he was in any way historical his proper date should be long before their time. As to this it may be said that he might have been interpolated or put back in date, as the Brahmans had a strong interest in demonstrating the continuity of the Kshatriya caste from Vedic times and suppressing the Hun episode, which indeed they have succeeded in doing so well that the foreign origin of several of the most prominent Rajput clans has only been established quite recently by modern historical and archaeological research.
The name Parasurama signifies
- Rama with the axe ' and seems to indicate that this hero
came after the original Rama. And the list of the incarnations of Vishnu is not always the same, as in one list the incarnations are nearly all of the animal type and neither Parasurama, Rama nor Krishna appear.
The legend of Parasurama is not altogether opposed to this view in itself.' He was the son of a Brahman Muni or hermit, named Jamadagni, by a lady, Renuka, of the Kshatriya caste. He is therefore not held to have been a Brahman and neither was he a true Kshatriya. This might portray the foreign origin of the Huns. Jamadagni found his wife Renuka to be harbouring thoughts of conjugal infidelity, and commanded his sons, one by one, to slay her.
' Early History of India (Oxford, 2 Garrett's Classical Dictionary' of Clarendon Press), 3rd ed., p. 319. Hinduism, s.v. Jamadagni and Rama.
The four elder sons
The four elder ones successively refused, and being cursed by Jamadagni lost all understanding and became as idiots ; but the youngest, Parasurama, at his father's bidding, struck off his mother's head with a blow of his axe. Jamadagni thereupon was very pleased and promised to give Parasurama whatever he might desire. On which Parasurama begged first for the restoration of his mother to life, with forgetfulness of his having slain her and purification from all defilement ; secondly, the return of his brothers to sanity and understanding ; and for himself that he should live long and be invincible in battle ; and all these boons his father bestowed. Here the hermit Jamadagni might represent the Brahman priesthood, and his wife Renuka might be India, unfaithful to the Brahmans and turning towards the Buddhist heresy.
The four elder sons would typify the princes of India refusing to respond to the exhortations of the Brahmans for the suppression of Buddhism, and hence themselves made blind to the true faith and their understandings darkened with Buddhist falsehood.
But Parasurama, the youngest, killed his mother, that is, the Huns devastated India and slaughtered the Buddhists ; in reward for this he was made invincible as the Huns were, and his mother, India, and his brothers, the indigenous princes, regained life and understanding, that is, returned to the true Brahman faith. Afterwards, the legend proceeds, the king Karrtavlrya, the head of the Haihaya tribe of Kshatriyas, stole the calf of the sacred cow Kamdhenu from Jamadagni's hermitage and cut down the trees surrounding it. When Parasurama returned, his father told him what had happened, and he followed Karrtavlrya and killed him in battle.
But in revenge for this the sons of the king, when Parasurama was away, returned to the hermitage and slew the pious and unresisting sage Jamadagni, who called fruitlessly for succour on his valiant son. When Parasurama returned and found his father dead he vowed to extirpate the whole Kshatriya race. ' Thrice times seven did he clear the earth of the Kshatriya caste,' says the Mahabharata. If the first part of the story refers to the Hun conquest of northern
The Panwar dynasty of Dhar and Ujjain
India and the overthrow of the Gupta dynasty, the second may similarly portray their invasion of Rajputana. The theft of the cow and desecration of Jamadagni's hermitage by the Haihaya Rajputs would represent the apostasy of the RajpiJt princes to Buddhist monotheism, the consequent abandonment of the veneration of the cow and the spoliation of the Brahman shrines ; while the Hun invasions of Rajputana and the accompanying slaughter of Rajputs would be Parasurama's terrible revenge.
The Kings of Malwa or Ujjain who reigned at Dhar and flourished from the ninth to the twelfth centuries were of the Panwar clan.
The seventh and ninth kings of this dynasty rendered it famous.^ " Raja Munja, the seventh king (974-995), renowned for his learning and eloquence, was not only a patron of poets, but was himself a poet of no small reputation, the anthologies including various works from his pen. He penetrated in a career of conquest as far as the Godavari, but was finally defeated and executed there by the Chalukya king. His nephew, the famous Bhoja, ascended the throne of Dhara about A.D. 10 18 and reigned gloriously for more than forty years.
Like his uncle he cultivated with equal assiduity the arts of peace and war. Though his fights with neighbouring powers, including one of the Muhammadan armies of Mahmud ot Ghaznl, are now forgotten, his fame as an enlightened patron of learning and a skilled author remains undimmed, and his name has become proverbial as that of the model king according to the Hindu standard. Works on astronomy, architecture, the art of poetry and other subjects are attributed to him. About A.D. 1060 Bhoja was attacked and defeated by the confederate kings of Gujarat and Chedi, and the Panwar kingdom was reduced to a petty local dynasty until the thirteenth century. It was finally superseded by the chiefs of the Tomara and Chauhan clans, who in their turn succumbed to the Muhammadans in 1401." The city of Ujjain was at this time a centre of Indian intellectual life.
1 The following; extract is taken from Mr. V. A. Smith's Early History 0/ India, 3rd ed., pp. 395, 396. The passage has been somewhat abridged in reproduction.
Some celebrated astronomers made it their home, and it was adopted as the basis of the Hindu ineridional [meridional?]system like Greenwich in England. The capital of the state was changed from Ujjain to Dhar or Dharanao-ra by the Raja Bhoja already mentioned;^ and the name of Dhar is better remembered in connection with the Panwars than Ujjain.
A saying about it quoted by Colonel Tod was :
Jalian [jahan?] PuCir ialian Dhar hai;
Aur Dhar jaJidn Ptidr;
Dhar bma [bina?] Picar 7iahinj [nahin?[
Aur fiahin Piidr bina Dhar :
[Please help other readers make sense of the above]
or, " Where the Panwar is there is Dhar, and Dhar is where the Panwar is ; without the Panwars Dhar cannot stand, nor the Panwars without Dhar." It is related that in consequence of one of his merchants having been held to ransom by the ruler of Dhar, the Bhatti Raja of Jaisalmcr made a vow to subdue the town. But as he found the undertaking too great for him, in order to fulfil his vow he had a model of the city made in clay and was about to break it up.
But there were Panwars in his army, and they stood out to defend their mock capital, repeating as their reason the above lines ; and in resisting the Raja were cut to pieces to the number of a hundred and twenty.^ There is little reason to doubt that the incident, if historical, was produced by the belief in sympathetic magic ; the Panwars really thought that by destroying its image the Raja could effect injury to the capital itself,^ just as many primitive races believe that if they make a doll as a model of an enemy and stick pins into or otherwise injure it, the man himself is similarly affected. A kindred belief prevails concerning certain mythical old kings of the Golden Age of India, of whom it is said that to destroy their opponents all they had to do was to collect a bundle of juari stalks and he would go back to Madrid.
1 Malcolm, i. p. 26. his capital, on pledging his parole that 2 Rajasthan, ii. p. 215.
But the delights of liberty and Pans were too much for honour ; and while heb wavered a hint was thrown out similar
3 A similar instance in Europe is related by Colonel Tod, concerning the origin of the Madrid Restaurant in to that of destroying the clay city. A the Bois de Boulogne at Paris. After mock Madrid arose in the Bois de Francis I. had been captured by the Boulogne, to which Francis retired. Spaniards he was allowed to return to (Rajasthan, ii. p. 428.)
cut off the heads, when the heads of their enemies flew off in unison. [Where does this sentence belong?]
Nine castles
The Panwars were held to have ruled from nine castles over the Marusthali or ' Region of death,' the name given to the great desert of Rajputana, which extends from Sind to the Aravalli mountains and from the great salt lake to the flat skirting the Garah.
The principal of these castles were Abu, Nundore, Umarkot, Arore, and Lodorva.^ And, ' The world is the Pramara's,' was another saying expressive of the resplendent position of Dharanagra or Ujjain at this epoch. The siege and capture of the town by the Muhammadans and consequent expulsion of the Panwars are still a well -remembered tradition, and certain castes of the Central Provinces, as the Bhoyars and Korkus, say that their ancestors formed part of the garrison and fled to the Satpura hills after the fall of Dharanagra. Mr. Crooke ^ states that the expulsion of the Panwars from Ujjain under their leader Mitra Sen is ascribed to the attack of the Muhammadans under Shahab-ud-din Ghori about A.D. I190.
4. Dif. After this they spread to various places in northern fusion of India, and to the Central Provinces and Bombay. The the Pan wars over modern state of Dhar is or was recently still held by a India. Panwar family, who had attained high rank under the Marathas and received it as a grant from the Peshwa. Malcolm considered them to be the descendants of Rajput emigrants to the Deccan. He wrote of them :
"In the early period of Maratha history the family of Puar appears to have been one of the most distinguished. They were of the Rajput tribe, numbers of which had been settled in Malvva at a remote era ; from whence this branch had migrated to the Deccan. Sivaji Puar, the first of the family that can be traced in the latter country, was a landholder ; and his grandsons, Sambaji and Kaloji, were military commanders in the service of the celebrated Sivaji. Anand Rao Puar was vested with authority to collect the Maratha share of the revenue of Mahva and Gujarat in 1734, and he soon afterwards settled at Dhar, which province, with the adjoining districts and the tributes of some neighbouring Rajput chiefs, was assigned for the support of himself and his adherents.
' Rajasthdn, ii. pp. 264, 265. - Tribes and Castes, art. Panwar. •' Memoir 0/ Central India, \. 96.
It is a curious coincidence that the success of the Marathas should, by making Dhar tiie capital of Anand Rao and his descendants, restore the sovereignty of a race who had seven centuries before been expelled from the government of that city and territory. But the present family, though of the same tribe (Puar), claim no descent from the ancient Hindu princes of Malwa. They have, like all the Kshatriya tribes who became incorporated with the Marathas, adopted even in their modes of thinking the habits of that people.
The heads of the family, with feelings more suited to chiefs of that nation than Rajput princes, have purchased the office of patel or headman in some villages in the Ueccan ; and their descendants continue to attach value to their ancient, though humble, right! of village officers in that quarter. Notwithstanding that these usages and the connections they formed have amalgamated this family with the Marathas, they still claim, both on account of their high birth and of being officers of the Raja of Satara (not of the Peshwa), rank and precedence over the houses of Sindhia and Holkar ; and these claims, even when their fortunes were at the lowest ebb, were always admitted as far as related to points of form and ceremony." The great Maratha house of Nimbhalkar is believed to have originated from ancestors of the Panwar Rajput clan.
While one branch of the Panwars went to the Dcccan after the fall of Dhar and marrying with the people there became a leading military family of the Marathas, the destiny of another group who migrated to northern India was less distinguished. Here they split into two, and the inferior section is described by Mr. Crooke as follows :
Inferior branches
^ " The Khidmatia, Barwar or Chobdar are said to be an inferior branch of the Panwars, descended from a low-caste woman. No high-caste Hindu eats food or drinks water touched by them." According to the Ain-i-Akbari " a thousand men of the sept guarded the environs of the palace of Akbar, and Abul Fazl says of them : " The caste to which they belong was notorious for highway robbery, and former rulers were not able to keep them in check. The effective orders of His Majesty have led them to honesty; they are now famous for their trustworthiness. They were formerly called Mdwis. Their chief has received the title of Khidmat Rao. Being near the person of His Majesty he lives in affluence. His men are called Khidmatias." Thus another body of Panwars went north and sold their swords to the Mughal Emperor, who formed them into a bodyguard.
' Tribes and Castes, art. Panwar. 2 Blockmann, i. 252, quoted by Crooke. VOL. IV Z
Their case is exactly analogous to that of the Scotch and
Swiss Guards of the French kings. In both cases the
monarch preferred to entrust the care of his person to
foreigners, on whose fidelity he could the better rely, as
their only means of support and advancement lay in his
personal favour, and they had no local sympathies which
could be used as a lever to undermine their loyalty.
Buchanan states that a Panwar dynasty ruled for a considerable
period over the territory of Shahabad in Bengal.
And Jagdeo Panwar was the trusted minister of Sidhraj, the great Solanki Raja of Gujarat. The story of the adventures of Jagdeo and his wife when they set out together to seek their fortune is an interesting episode in the Rasmala. In the Punjab the Panwars are found settled up the whole course of the Sutlej and along the lower Indus, and have also spread up the Bias into Jalandhar and Gurdaspur.^
Nagpur
5. The While the above extracts have been given to show how Panwars. the Panwars migrated from Dhar to different parts of India in search of fortune, this article is mainly concerned with a branch of the clan who came to Nagpur, and subsequently settled in the rice country of the Wainganga Valley.
At the end of the eleventh century Nagpur appears to have been held by a Panwar ruler as an appanage of the kingdom of Malwa."^ It has already been seen how the kings of Malwa penetrated to Berar and the Godavari, and Nagpur may well also have fallen to them. Mr. Muhammad Yusuf quotes an inscription as existing at Bhandak in Chanda of the year A.D. 1326, in which it is mentioned that the Panwar of Dhar repaired a statue of Jag Narayan in that place.^
Nothing
more is heard of them in Nagpur, and their rule probably
came to an end with the subversion of the kingdom of Miihva
in the thirteenth century. But there remain in Nagpur and
in the districts of Bhandara, Brdfighat and Seoni to the north
and east of it a large number of Panvvars, who have now
developed into an agricultural caste. It may be surmised
that the ancestors of these people settled in the country at
the time when Nagpur was held by their clan, and a second
influx may have taken place after the fall of Dhar.
According to their own account, they first came to Nagardhan, an older town than Nagpur, and once the headquarters of the locality. One of their legends is that the men who first came had no wives, and were therefore allowed to take widows of other castes into their houses. It seems reasonable to suppose that something of this kind happened, though they probably did not restrict themselves to widows.
The existing family names of the caste show that it is of mixed ancestry, but the original Rajput strain is still perfectly apparent in their fair complexions, high foreheads and in many cases grey eyes. The Panwars have still the habit of keeping women of lower castes to a greater degree than the ordinary, and this has been found to be a trait of other castes of mixed origin, and they are sometimes known as Dhakar, a name having the sense of illegitimacy.
Though they have lived for centuries among a Marathi- speaking people, the Panwars retain a dialect of their own, the basis of which is Bagheli or eastern Hindi. When the Marathas established themselves at Nagpur in the eighteenth century some of the Panwars took military service under them and accompanied a general of the Bhonsla ruling family on an expedition to Cuttack.
In return for this they were rewarded with grants of the waste and forest lands in the valley of the Wainganga river, and here they developed great skill in the construction ^ The inscription is said to be in one ruler of Dhar, was the third repairer of of the temples in Winj Basini, near the statue.
"Consecration of Jagnarilyan (the serpent of the world).
The image was carved by Bhandak, in the Devanagri character Gopinath Pandit, inhabitant of Lonar in Marathi, and to run as follows: Mehkar. Let this shrine be the pride of all the citizens, and let this religious Daji'anashnaku [???], act be notified to the chief and other the son of Chogneka, he it was who officers." consecrated the god. The Panwar, the [??] of tanks and the irrigation of rice land, and are the best agricultural caste in this part of the country. Their customs have many points of interest, and, as is natural, they have abandoned many of the caste observances of the Rajputs. It is to this group of Panwars ^ settled in the Maratha rice country of the VVainganga Valley that the remainder of this article is devoted.
They number about 150,000 persons, and include many village proprietors and substantial cultivators. The quotations already given have shown how this virile clan of Rajputs travelled to the north, south and east from their own country in search of a livelihood. Everywhere they made their mark so that they live in history, but they paid no regard to the purity of their Rajput blood and took to themselves wives from the women of the country as they could get them. The Panwars of the Wainganga Valley have developed into a caste marrying among themselves.
Subdivisions
They have no subcastes but thirty-six exogamous sections. Some of these have the names of Rajput clans, while others are derived from villages, titles or names of offices, or from other castes. Among the titular names are Chaudhri (headman), Patlia (patel or chief officer of a village) and Sonwania (one who purifies offenders among the Gonds and other tribes). Among the names of other castes are Bopcha or Korku, Bhoyar (a caste of cultivators), Pardhi (hunter), Kohli (a local cultivating caste) and Sahria (from the Saonr tribe).
These names indicate how freely they have intermarried. It is noticeable that the Bhoyars and Korkus of Betul both say that their ancestors were Panwars of Dhar, and the occurrence of both names among the Panwars of Balaghat may indicate that these castes also have some Panwar blood. Three names, Rahmat (kind), Turukh or Turk, and Farld (a well-known saint), are of Muhammadan origin, and indicate intermarriage in that quarter.
Marriage customs
Girls are usually, but not necessarily, wedded before adolescence. Occasionally a Panwar boy who cannot afford a regular marriage will enter his prospective father-in-law's house and serve him for a year or more, when he will obtain a daughter in marriage. And sometimes a girl will contract a liking for some man or boy of the caste and will go to his house, leaving her home. In such cases the parents accept the accomplished fact, and the couple are married. If the boy's parents refuse their consent they are temporarily put out of caste, and subsequently the neighbours will not pay them the customary visits on the occasions of family joys and griefs. Even if a girl has lived with a man of another caste, as long as she has not borne a child, she may be readmitted to the community on payment of such penalty as the elders may determine.
' A few Panwar Rajputs are found in the Saugor [Sagar?] district, but they are quite distinct from those of the Marallia country, and marry with the Bundelas. They are mentioned in the article on tliat clan.
If her own parents will not take
her back, a man of the same gotra or section is appointed as
her guardian and she can be married from his house.
The ceremonies of a Panwar marriage are elaborate.
Marriage-sheds are erected at the houses both of the bride
and bridegroom in accordance with the usual practice, and
just before the marriage, parties are given at both houses ;
the village watchman brings the toraji or string of mangoleaves,
which is hung round the marriage-shed in the manner
of a triumphal arch, and in the evening the party assembles,
the men sitting at one side of the shed and the women at the
other. Presents of clothes are made to the child who is to
be married, and the following song is sung :
The mother of the bride grew angry and went away to the mango grove. Come soon, come quickly. Mother, it is tlie time for giving clothes. The father of the bridegroom has sent the bride a fold of cloth from his house,
The fold of it is like the curve of the winnowing-fan, and there is a bodice decked with coral and pearls. Before the actual wedding the father of the bridegroom goes to the bride's house and gives her clothes and other presents, and the following is a specimen given by Mr.
Muhammad Yusuf of the songs sung on this occasion :
Five years old to-day is Bfija Bai the bride ;
Send word to the mother of the bridegroom ;
Her dress is too short, send for the Koshta, Husband ;
The Koshta came and wove a border to the dress.
Afterwards the girl's father goes and makes similar presents to the bridegroom. After many preliminary ceremonies the marriage procession proper sets forth, consisting of men only. Before the boy starts his mother places her breast in his mouth ; the maid-servants stand before him with vessels of water, and he puts a pice in each. During the journey songs are sung, of which the following is a specimen :
The linseed and gram are in flower in Chait.^
O ! the boy bridegroom is going to another country ;
O Mother ! how may he go to another country ?
Make payment before he enters another country ;
O Mother ! how may he cross the border of another country ?
Make payment before he crosses the border of another country ;
O Mother ! how may he touch another's bower .
Make payment before he touches another's bower ;
O Mother ! how shall he bathe with strange water ?
Make payment before he bathes with strange water ;
O Mother ! how may he eat another's baiiwat ?
Make payment before he eats another's banwat ;
O Mother ! how shall he marry another woman ?
He shall wed her holding the little finger of her left hand.
The bridegroom's party are always driven to the wedding in bullock-carts, and when they approach the bride's village her people also come to meet them in carts.
All the party then turn and race to the village, and the winner obtains much distinction. The cartmen afterwards go to the bridegroom's father and he has to make them a present of from one to forty rupees. On arriving at the village the bridegroom is carried to Devi's shrine in a man's arms, while four other men hold a canopy over him, a.nd from there to the marriageshed. He touches a bamboo of this, and a man seated on the top pours turmeric and water over his head.
Five men of the groom's party go to the bride's house carrying salt, and here their feet are washed and the tika or mark of anointing is made on their foreheads. Afterwards they carry rice in the same manner and with this is the wedding-rice, coloured yellow with turmeric and known as the Lagun-gath. Before sunset the bridegroom goes to the bride's house for the wedding. Two baskets are hung before Dulha Deo's shrine inside the house, and the couple are seated in these with a cloth between them. The ends of their clothes are knotted, each places the right foot on the left foot of the other and holds the other's ear with the hand. Meanwhile a Brahman has climbed on to the roof of the house, and after saying the names of the bride and bridegroom shouts loudly, * Riivi nazvara, Slta nawari^ SaodJianl or ' Ram, the* Bridegroom, and Sita, the Bride, pay heed.' The people inside the house repeat these words and someone beats on a brass plate ; the wedding-rice is poured over the heads of the couple, and a quid of betel is placed first in the mouth of one and then of the other. The bridegroom's party dance in the marriageshed and their feet are washed. Two plough-yokes are brought in and a cloth spread over them, and the couple are seated on them face to face.
'March. - Rice boiled with milk and sugar.
A string of twisted grass is drawn round their necks and a thread is tied round their marriage-crowns. The bride's dowry is given and her relatives make presents to lier. This property is known as kJiamora, and is retained by a wife for her own use, her husband having no control over it. It is customary also in the caste for the parents to supply clothes to a married daughter as long as they live, and during this period a wife will not accept any clothes from her husband.
On the following day the maid-servants bring a present of gulal or red powder to the fathers of the bride and bridegroom, who sprinkle it over each other. The bridegroom's father makes them a present of from one to twenty rupees according to his means, and also gives suitable fees to the barber, the washerman, the Barai or betel-leaf seller and the Bhat or bard.
The maidservants then bring vessels of water and throw it over each other in sport. After the evening meal, the party go back, the bride and bridegroom riding in the same cart. As they start the women sing :
Let us go to the basket-maker
And buy a costly pair of fans ;
Fans worth a lot of money ;
Let us praise the mother of the bride.
After a few days at her husband's house the bride 8. widow- returns home, and though she pays short visits to his family "^^'"'"'^s^- from lime to time, she does not go to live with her husband until she is adolescent, when the \xsw7\\ patJioni or going-away ceremony is performed to celebrate the event. The people repeat a set of verses containing advice which the bride's mother is supposed to give her on this occasion, in which the desire imputed to the caste to make money out of their daughters is satirised.
They are no doubt libellous as being a gross exaggeration, but may contain some substratum of truth. The gist of them is as follows : " Girl, if you are my daughter, heed what I say. I will make you many sweetmeats and speak words of wisdom. Always treat your husband better than his parents. Increase your private money {kJiajnord) by selling rice and sugar ; abuse your sisters-in-law to your husband's mother and become her favourite. Get influence over your husband and make him come wdth you to live with us. If you cannot persuade him, abandon your modesty and make quarrels in the household. Do not fear the village officers, but go to the houses of the patel ^ and Pandia ^ and ask them to arrange your quarrel."
It is not intended to imply that Panwar women behave in this manner, but the passage is interesting as a sidelight on the joint family system.
It concludes by advising the girl, if she cannot detach her husband from his family, to poison him and return as a widow. This last counsel is a gibe at the custom which the caste have of taking large sums of money for a widow on her second marriage. As such a woman is usually adult, and able at once to perform the duties of a wife and to work in the fields, she is highly valued, and her price ranges from Rs. 25 to Rs. 1000. In former times, it is stated, the disposal of widows did not rest with their parents but with the Sendia or headman of the caste.
The last of them was Karun Panwar of Tumsar, who was empowered by the Bhonsla Raja of Nagpur to act in this manner, and was accustomed to receive an average sum of Rs. 25 for each widow or divorced woman whom he gave away in marriage. His power extended even to the reinstatement of women expelled from the caste, whom he could subsequently make over to any one who would pay for them. At the end of his life he lost his authority among the people by keeping a Dhlmar woman as a mistress, and he had no successor. A Panwar widow must not marry again until the expiry of six months after her husband's death. The stool on which a widow sits for her second marria^c;e is afterwards stolen by her husband's friends. After the wedding when she reaches the boundary of his village the axle of her cart is removed, and a new one made of teitdn wood is substituted for it. The discarded axle and the shoes worn by the husband at the ceremony are thrown away, and the stolen stool is buried in a field.
' Village headman. ^ Patwari or village accountant.
These things, Mr. Hlra Lai points out, arc regarded as defiled, because they have been accessories in an unlucky ceremony, that of the marriage of a widow. On this point Dr. Jevons writes ' that the peculiar characteristic of taboo is this transmissibility of its infection or contagion. In ancient Greece the offerings used for the purification of the murderer became themselves polluted during the process and had to be buried.
A similar reasoning applies to the articles employed in the marriage of a widow. The wood of the tetidti or ebony tree " is chosen for the substituted axle, because it has the valuable property of keeping off spirits and ghosts. When a child is born a plank of this wood is laid along the door of the room to keep the spirits from troubling the mother and the newborn infant. In the same way, no doubt, this wood keeps the ghost of the first husband from entering with the widow into her second husband's village.
The reason for the ebony-wood being a spirit-scarer seems to lie in its property of giving out sparks when burnt. " The burning wood gives out showers of sparks, and it is a common amusement to put pieces in a camp fire in order to see the column of sparks ascend." ^ The sparks would have a powerful effect on the primitive mind and probably impart a sacred character to the tree, and as they would scare away wild animals, the property of averting spirits might come to attach to the wood.
The Panwars .seldom resort to divorce, except in the case of open and flagrant immorality on the part of a wife. " They are not strict," Mr. Low writes,* " in the matter of sexual offences within the caste, though they bitterly resent and if able heavily avenge any attempt on the virtue of their women by an outsider. The men of the caste are on the other hand somewhat notorious for the freedom with which they enter into relations with the women of other castes." They not infrequently have Gond and Ahir girls from the families of their farmservants as members of their households.
' Introduction to the History of ^ Gamble, Manual of Indian Religion, p. 59. Timbers, p. 461. 2 Diospyros tomentosa. * Balaghat District Gazetteer.
Religion
The caste worship the ordinary Hindu divinities, and their ^'°"' household god is Dulha Deo, the deified bridegroom.
He is represented by a nut and a date, which are wrapped in a cloth and hung on a peg in the wall of the house above the platform erected to him. Every year, or at the time of a marriage or the birth of a first child, a goat is offered to Dulha Deo. The animal is brought to the platform and given some rice to eat. A dedicatory mark of red ochre is made on its forehead and water is poured over the body, and as soon as it shivers it is killed. The shivering is considered to be an indication from the deity that the sacrifice is acceptable. The flesh is cooked and eaten by the family inside the house, and the skin and bones are buried below the floor.
Narayan Deo or Vishnu or the Sun is represented by a bunch of peacock's feathers. He is generally kept in the house of a Mahar, and when his worship is to be celebrated he is brought thence in a gourd to the Panwar's house, and a black goat, rice and cakes are offered to him by the head of the household. While the offering is being made the Mahar sings and dances, and when the flesh of the goat is eaten he is permitted to sit inside the Panwar's house and begin the feast, the Panwars eating after him. On ordinary occasions a Mahar is not allowed to come inside the house, and any Panwar who took food with him would be put out of caste ; and this rite is no doubt a recognition of the position of the Mahars as the earlier residents of the country before the Panwars came to it.
The Turukh or Turk sept of Panwars pay a similar worship to liaba Farld [Baba Farid?], the Muhammadan saint of Girar. He is also represented by a bundle of peacock's feathers, and when a goat is sacrificed to him a Muhammadan kills it and is the first to partake of its flesh.
Worship of the spirits of those dying ??? [violent death?]
When a man has been killed by a tiger {birgh) [baagh?] he is deified and worshipped as Bagh Deo. A hut is made in the yard of the house, and an image of a tiger is placed inside [and?] worshipped on the anniversary of the man's death.
The members of the household will not afterwards kill a tiger, as they think the animal has become a member of the family. A man who is bitten by a cobra {niig) and dies is similarly worshipped as Nag Deo. The image of a snake made of silver or iron is venerated, and the family will not kill a snake.
If a man is killed by some other animal, or by drowning or a fall from a tree, his spirit is worshipped as Ban Deo or the forest god with similar rites, being represented by a little lump of rice and red lead. In all these cases it is supposed, as pointed out by Sir James Frazer, that the ghost of the man who has come to such an untimely end is especially malignant, and will bring trouble upon the survivors unless appeased with sacrifices and offerings.
A good instance of the same belief is given by him in Psyche^s Task ^ as found among the Karens of Burma :
" They put red, yellow and white rice in a basket and leave it in the forest, saying : Ghosts of such as died by falling from a tree, ghosts of such as died of hunger or thirst, ghosts of such as died by the tiger's tooth or the serpent's fang, ghosts of the murdered dead, ghosts of such as died by smallpox or cholera, ghosts of dead lepers, oh ill-treat us not, seize not upon our persons, do us no harm ! Oh stay here in this wood ! We will bring hither red rice, yellow rice, and white rice for your subsistence."
That the same superstition is generally prevalent in the Central Provinces appears to be shown by the fact that among castes who practise cremation, the bodies of men who come to a violent end or die of smallpox or leprosy are buried, though whether burial is considered as more likely to prevent the ghost from walking than cremation, is not clear. Possibly, however, it may be considered that the bodies are too impure to be committed to the sacred fire.
Cremation/ death ceremonies
Cremation of the dead is the rule, but the bodies of n. Funeral those who have not died a natural death are buried, as also of persons who are believed to have been possessed of the goddess Devi in their lifetime. The bodies of small children are buried when the Khir Chatai ceremony has not been performed.
' P. 62, quoting from Bringand, Missions Catholicpics, xx. (1888), Les Karens de la Birinanie, I.cs p. 208.
This takes place when a child is about two years old : he is invited to the house of some member of the same section on the Diwali day and given to eat some Khir or a mess of new rice with milk and sugar, and thus apparently is held to become a proper member of the caste, as boys do in other castes on having their ears pierced.
When a corpse is to be burnt a heap of cowdung cakes is made, on which it is laid, while others are spread over it, together with butter, sugar and linseed. The fire with which the pyre is kindled is carried by the son or other chief mourner in an earthen pot at the head of the corpse.
After the cremation the ashes of the body are thrown into water, but the bones are kept by the chief mourner ; his head and face are then shaved by the barber, and the hair is thrown into the water with most of the bones ; he may retain a few to carry them to the Nerbudda at a convenient season, burying them meanwhile under a mango or pipal tree. A present of a rupee or a cow may be made to the barber. After the removal of a dead body the house is swept, and the rubbish with the broom and dustpan are thrown away outside the village. Before the body is taken away the widow of the dead man places her hands on his breast and forehead, and her bangles are broken by another widow.
The shrdddh ceremony is performed every year in the month of Kunwar (September) on the same day of the fortnight as that on which the death took place. On the day before the ceremony the head of the household goes to the houses of those whom he wishes to invite, and sticks some grains of rice on their foreheads. The guests must then fast up to the ceremony. On the following day, when they arrive at noon, the host, wearing a sacred thread of twisted grass, washes their feet with water in which the sacred kiisa grass has been mixed, and marks their foreheads with sandalpaste and rice. The leaf-plates of the guests are set out inside the house, and a very small quantity of cooked rice is placed in each. The host then gathers up all this rice and throws it on to the roof of the house while his wife throws up some water, calling aloud the name of the dead man whose shraddJi ceremony is being performed, and after this the whole party take their dinner.
Caste ???
As has been shown, the Panwars have abandoned most of the distinctive Rajput customs. They do not wear the sacred thread and they permit the remarriage of widows. They eat the flesh of goats, fowls, wild pig, game-birds and fish, but abstain from Hquor except on such ceremonial occasions as the worship of Narayan Deo, when every one must partake of it. Mr. Low states that the injurious habit of smoking Diadak [???] (a preparation of opium) is growing in the caste. They will take water to drink from a Gond's hand and in some localities even cooked food.
This is the outcome of their close association in agriculture, the Gonds having been commonly employed as farmservants by Panwar cultivators. A Brahman usually officiates at their ceremonies, but his presence is not essential and his duties may be performed by a member of the caste. Every Panwar male or female has a guru or spiritual preceptor, who is either a Brahman, a Gosain or a Bairagi. From time to time the guru comes to visit his cliela or disciple, and on such occasions the cJiauk or sacred place is prepared with lines of wheat-flour. Two wooden stools are set within it and the guru and his diela take their seats on these.
Their heads are covered with a new piece of cloth and the guru whispers some text into the ear of the disciple. Sweetmeats and other delicacies are then offered to the guru, and the disciple makes him a present of one to five rupees. When a Panwar is put out of caste two feasts have to be given on reinstatement, known as the Maili and Chokhi Roti (impure and pure food). The former is held in the morning on the bank of a tank or river and is attended by men only.
A goat is killed and served with rice to the caste-fellows, and in serious cases the offender's head and face are shaved, and he prays,
- God forgive me the sin, it will never be repeated.' The
Chokhi Roti is held in the evening at the offender's house, the elders and women as well as men of the caste being present. The Sendia or leader of the caste eats first, and he will not begin his meal unless he finds a douceur of from one to five rupees deposited beneath his leaf-plate. The whole cost of the ceremony of readmission is from fifteen to fifty rupees.
Social customs
The Panwar women wear their clothes tied in the Hindustani and not in the Maratha fashion. They are tattooed on the legs, hands and face, the face being usually decorated with single dots which are supposed to enhance its beauty, much after the same fashion as patches in England. Padmakar, the Saugor poet, Mr. Hira Lai remarks, compared the dot on a woman's chin to a black bee buried in a half-ripe mango.
The women, Mr. Low says, are addicted to dances, plays and charades, the first being especially graceful performances. They are skilful with their fingers and make pretty grass mats and screens for the house, and are also very good cooks and appreciate variety in food. The Panwars do not eat off the ground, but place their dishes on little iron stands, sitting themselves on low wooden stools. The housewife is a very important person, and the husband will not give anything to eat or drink out of the house without her concurrence. Mr. Low writes on the character and abilities of the Panwars as follows :
" The Panwar is to Balaghat what the Kunbi is to Berar or the Gujar to Hoshangabad, but at the same time he is less entirely attached to the soil and its cultivation, and much more intelligent and cosmopolitan than either. One of the most intelligent officials in the Agricultural Department is a Panwar, and several members of the caste have made large. sums as forest and railway contractors in this District
Panwar shikaris are also not uncommon.
They are generally
averse to sedentary occupations, and though quite ready to
avail themselves of the advantages of primary education,
they do not, as a rule, care to carry their studies to a point
that would ensure their admission to the higher ranks of
Government service. Very (qw of them are to be found as
patwaris, constables or peons. They are a handsome race,
with intelligent faces, unusually fair, with high foreheads,
and often grey eyes.
They are not, as a rule, above middle height, but they are active and hard-working and by no means deficient in courage and animal spirits, or a sense of humour. They are clannish in the extreme, and to elucidate a criminal case in which no one but Panwars are concerned, and in a Panwar village, is usually a harder task than the average local police officer can tackle. At times they are apt to affect, in conversation with Government officials, a
whining and unpleasant tone, especially when pleading their claim to some concession or other ; and they are by no means lacking in astuteness and are good hands at a bargain. But they are a pleasant, intelligent and plucky race, not easily cast down by misfortune and always read)' to attempt new enterprises in almost any direction save those indicated by the Agricultural Department.
" In the art of rice cultivation they are past masters. They are skilled tank-builders, though perhaps hardly equal to the Kohlis of Chanda. But they excel especially in the mending and levelling of their fields, in neat transplantation, and in the choice and adaptation of the different varieties of rice to land of varying qualities. They are by no means specially efficient as labourers, though they and their wives do their fair share of field work ; but they are well able to control the labour of others, especially of aborigines, through whom most of their tank and other works are executed."
II
Gotr and patron deity
Gotr – Vashishth
Ved – Yajur Ved
Kuldevi – Sinchimaay Mata, Durga in North India, Kali in Ujjain (Kutch Itihas Parisad)
The branches
Parmar/ Pramar/ Panwar/ Pambubar are said to have 35 branches. Since a complete list of the 35 was not available anywhere, Indpaedia volunteers consulted authoritative sites like Khariya Sodha, Kutch Itihas Parisad and My Swadesh to arrive at the list below, which exceeds 35. Perhaps sub-clans have been included.
Comments on this list and any other additional information/ photographs relating to this great ruling clan may please be sent as messages to the Facebook community, Indpaedia.com. All information used will be gratefully acknowledged in your name.
Arjunvarma
Badhel
Baharia
Balhar
Bharsuria
Bholpuria
Bhuller
Chawda
Daddha
Dheek
Dhudi: most of the clans trace their genealogy to this clan. Raja Bikarmajeet and Raja Bhoj are from this clan.
Dhundia
Doda
Harir
Jaivarma
Jhumana
Kaba/ KabaBeedh
Kaleja
Khair
Khechar
Kohil
Maipawat
Mairawat
Mori—This clan includes Chandragupta, and the princes of Chittor prior to the Gahlots.
Omata
Orgatia
Pachawara
Pawar
Remar
Sankla
Sodha—Sogdi of Alexander, the princes of Dhat in the Indian desert.
Sortla
Sounthia
Sumda/ Sumra
Ujjjainia: King Umrav Singh, Jaiprakash Singh, Babusahab Jada Singh (and his son Kunwarsingh Mahaveer ) belonged to this branch.
Umra
Varah
Yashoverma
Branches in Maharashtra
Bagwe
Bane
Chandane
Ichare
Jagdhane
Khairnar
Landage
Malwade
Pawar
Rasal
Renuse
Rokade
Wagaje
Princely states ruled by Puar/Pawar/Panwar
Panwar\Parmar\Pawar Rajput Associan gives us the following list of princely states ruled by Puar/Pawar/Panwar/Ponwar/Parmar and its branches.
Additional information/ disagreement with the information below may please be sent as messages to the Facebook community, Indpaedia.com. All information used will be gratefully acknowledged in your name.
Bihar
Chougain Ujjaini (Bihar)
Dumraon Ujjaini (Bihar)
Jagdishpur (Ujjaini) (Bihar)
Gujarat
Danta Parmar (Gujarat)
Jambugodha Parmar (Gujarat)
Muli State Sodha (Gujarat)
Ranasan Rehavar (Gujarat)
Santrampur Parmar (Gujarat)
Sudasna Parmar (Gujarat)
Himachal Pradesh
Baghal Panwar (Arki) (Himachal Pradesh)
Balsan Parmar (Himachal Pradesh)
Bhagat Panwar (Himachal Pradesh)
Madhya Pradesh
Bakthgarh Maifawat (Madhya Pradesh)
Beri Parmar (Madhya Pradesh)
Chattarpur Ponwar (Madhya Pradesh)
Dewar Jr. Pawar Maratha (Madhya Pradesh)
Dewas Sr. Pawar Maratha (Madhya Pradesh)
Dhar Pawar Maratha (Madhya Pradesh)
Dhuwankheri (Madhya Pradesh.)
Narsingarh Ummat (Madhya Pradesh)
Rajgarh Ummat (Madhya Pradesh)
Maharashtra
Phaltan Naik Nibalkar (Maharashtra)
Surgana Pawar (Maharashtra)
Wadagam Puar (Maharashtra)
Orissa
Pal Lahara Parmar (Orissa)
Rajgangpur Parmar (Orissa)
Pakistan
Amarkot Sodha (Pakistan)
Rajasthan
Bijolion Thikana Parmar (Rajasthan)
Lava Sardargarh Dodia (Rajasthan)
Uttar Pradesh
Ittunja (Near Lucknow) Puar (Uttar Pradesh)
Mahgaon Panwar (Uttar Pradesh)
Nilgaon Panwar (Uttar Pradesh)
Saraura Panwar (Uttar Pradesh)
Uttarakhand
Garhwal Panwar (Uttarakhand)
Forts built by the clan
From Panwar\Parmar\Pawar Rajput Associan
The fort of Siwana in Barmer (Rajasthan was built by Panwars, ) (Barmer was named after Raja Barhdev Parmar)
The Jalore fort in Jalore district was built by Parmars,
Chittorgarh was also built by Chitragand Morya,
Garh Gagron was built by Parmars in Jhalawar
Famous Panwar\ Parmar\ Pawar Rajputs
Their names are followed by institutions named after them
Jamboji, Great Guru of Bisnois Guru Jambeswar University, Hisar, Haryana.
Raja Bhoj, The Great King of Malwa Raja Bhoj Open University, Bhopal
Raja Vikramaditya, Started the Vikram Samvat Calender of Hindus Vikram university , Ujjain.
Raja Bharthari, Famous Saint and Sanskrit poet of North India
The Great King Munj (Malwa)
Veer Kunwar Singh Parmar (Ujjaini) Bhojpur Bihar (Freedom Fighter 1857) Veer Kunwar Singh University, Arrah, Bihar, His ancestors gave the name Bhojpuri to local language in Bihar and eastern UP.
Veer Amar Singh , Younger Brother of Veer Kunwar Singh, Freedom Fighter.
Raja Digvijay Singh of Lucknow (Bakshi ka talab), Freedom Fighter
Hadbu ji Shankla, Saint in Rajasthan
Veer Ratan Singh Sodha, Amarkot, (Pakistan) Freedom Fighter against the British
Chain Singh Parmar of Sihore (Bhopal, NarSinghgarh),
Dharrao Pawar (Maharashtra),
Yashwant Singh Parmar (H.P) Father of Modern Himachal Pradesh. Dr.Yashwant Singh Parmar university of Horticulture and Forestry named after him.
Jagdev Parmar (Agra)
Maharaja Chain Singh ji Panwar (Freedom Fighter against British) in Sihore (Madhya Pradesh)
Prince Mahendra of Amarkot Pakistan Hero of the Mahendra-Moomal love story of Rajasthan and Thar.
The above is from Panwar\Parmar\Pawar Rajput Associan
