Identifier: nativesofnorther00croo (find matches)
Title: Natives of northern India
Year: 1907 (1900s)
Authors: Crooke, William, 1848-1923
Subjects: Ethnology -- India India -- Social conditions India -- Description and travel
Publisher: London : A. Constable and Company, ltd.
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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eat once abandoned by its timid owners if they areseized with any fear of molestation or sickness. Per-manency does not distinguish these villages, at anyrate as regards site, though a similar collection of hutswill be erected elsewhere, leaving the total number ofoccupied villages as it was. In the settled tracts theaverage village community has not changed materiallyfrom the old-fashioned, stereotyped body of people, in-cluding just the necessary classes to make it self-supplying in every economic aspect. The agriculturalKurmi, the Gadaria herdsman, the village priest ofBrahman caste, the local Bania who supplies food andlends money, the Chamar who skins the dead animals,the menial Balai who runs messages and acts aswatchmen, form the ordinary members of a villagecommunity. In the plains this primitive arrangement has in agreat measure passed away. Theoretically the villageconsists of a body of clansmen who divide the arableland and share jointly in the cultivable waste. They No. 15
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?^ < VILLAGE INDUSTRIES 129 should have a head-man to control their affairs, andcollect the rent owed to the State. But our systemencourages the growth of private rights of pro-perty, and the old village system is gradually fallinginto decay. There are still, however, certain artisansattached to the village who receive doles at harvest inreturn for their services. The number and duties ofthese menials differ in various parts. Thus to the eastof the United Provinces the servants entitled to thesedoles are the barber, who besides his ordinary dutiesappears at weddings, and often acts as a match-maker;the washerman; the carpenter and blacksmith, whosupply the wood and iron work for the simple imple-ments and furniture; the cowherd, who grazes thevillage flocks. Doles on a smaller scale are grantedto the astrologer, who fixes the auspicious times forfield-work ; to the Kahar, or bearer, who attends onstrangers; to the Kumhar, or potter, who providesearthenware ; to the exorcist, who ke

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