DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.31218#0148
THE CASTE SYSTEM OF NORTI-IERN INDIA
The Bishnoi is perhaps the most curious of all sectarian
castes. Originally the Bishnois were dis-
5. The Bishnoi ciples of one Jhambaji, who lived between
1450 and 1500 A.D. They were never as-
cetics, in this resembling the Sadhs : indeed one of Jham-
baji’s precepts is ‘baptize your children’. They have eight
endogamous sections—Jat, Baniya, Brahman, Ahir, Sonar,
Chauhan, Kasibi, and Seth (or Shaikh). These, of course,
correspond to the castes to which the members originally
belonged. They observe the rule of gotra exogamy, and
marry into no family so long as any tie of relationship is
remembered. They have a marriage ceremonial of their
own and do not burn, but bury their dead. An account
of their councils has already been given.1 The Bijnor
Bishnois formerly used the title Shaikhji and the Muham-
madan salutation ‘Salam alaikum’, wore Muhammadan
clothes and bore Muhammadan names. This curious cus-
tom is explained by a story that they murdered a Muham-
madan qazi who prevented them from burning a widow,
and compounded for the offence by pretending to adopt
Islam. The custom is now dying out.
1 See Chapter VI.
Principal authorities.—Crooke, Tribes and Castes of the N.-W.P. and
Ondh (1896).
Census Report, U.P., 1911, p. 364 (for Bishnoi).
134
The Bishnoi is perhaps the most curious of all sectarian
castes. Originally the Bishnois were dis-
5. The Bishnoi ciples of one Jhambaji, who lived between
1450 and 1500 A.D. They were never as-
cetics, in this resembling the Sadhs : indeed one of Jham-
baji’s precepts is ‘baptize your children’. They have eight
endogamous sections—Jat, Baniya, Brahman, Ahir, Sonar,
Chauhan, Kasibi, and Seth (or Shaikh). These, of course,
correspond to the castes to which the members originally
belonged. They observe the rule of gotra exogamy, and
marry into no family so long as any tie of relationship is
remembered. They have a marriage ceremonial of their
own and do not burn, but bury their dead. An account
of their councils has already been given.1 The Bijnor
Bishnois formerly used the title Shaikhji and the Muham-
madan salutation ‘Salam alaikum’, wore Muhammadan
clothes and bore Muhammadan names. This curious cus-
tom is explained by a story that they murdered a Muham-
madan qazi who prevented them from burning a widow,
and compounded for the offence by pretending to adopt
Islam. The custom is now dying out.
1 See Chapter VI.
Principal authorities.—Crooke, Tribes and Castes of the N.-W.P. and
Ondh (1896).
Census Report, U.P., 1911, p. 364 (for Bishnoi).
134