Berua

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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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Berua

Patra-Berua, a small cultivating and fishing caste of Eastern Bengal, probably an offshoot of the Chandal tribe, with the members of which they still eat and drink, but do not intermarry. Their name is derived from berd, a weir of bamboos or reeds used for catching mullet. It is the well-known habit of this fish to jump over any obstacle it meets with in water. The Beruas at full tide throw a weir across a creek, and on the surface of the water below it they moor a broad raft. AE, soon as the mullet encounters the weir and finds no opening, it leaps over and is caught on the raft. The fish are sold in the market, but no Berua will cast a net or earn a livelihood as the Kaibarttas do.

The whole of the Berua caste belongs to the Kasyapa gotra and they therefore practise exogamy only in name. Their headman is called Patra. 'The intimacy of their connexion with the Challdals is attested by the fact that the same purohits officiate for both.

Notes

The Berua, or Patr-Berua, caste is an offshot of the Chandal tribe, with the members of which they still eat and drink, but do not intermarry. Their name is derived from the Hindi Bera, a raft of bamboos or reeds, used for catching mullet. It is the well known habit of this fish to jump over any obstacle it meets with in water. The Beruas at full tide throw a screen across a creek, and on the surface of the water below it they moor another. As soon as the mullet encounters the first and finds no opening, it leaps over and is caught on the second.

The fish are sold in the market, but no Berua will cast a net, or earn a livelihood as the Kaibarttas do.In Dacca the Beruas occupy about five hundred houses, and are generally cultivators. The headman is called Patr,1 and the whole caste belongs to one gotra, the Kasyapa. The connection with the Chandal tribe is so intimate that the same Purohit officiates for both.