The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India,...

We come, finally, to the Kūnchband Kanjars, the most representative section of the caste, who as a body are not criminals, or at any rate less so than the others. The name Kūnchband or Kūchband, by which they are sometimes known, is derived from their trade of making brushes (kūnch) of the roots of khas-khas grass, which are used by weavers for cleaning the threads entangled on the looms. This has given rise to the proverb ‘Kori ka bigāri Kūnchbandhia’ or ‘The Kūnchbandhia must look to the Kori (weaver) as his patron’; the point being that the Kori is himself no better than a casual labourer, and a man who is dependent on him must be in a poor way indeed. The Kūnchbandhias are also known in northern India as Sankat or Patharkat, because they make and sharpen the household grinding-stones, this being the calling of the Tākankār Pārdhis in the Marātha Districts, and as Goher because they catch and eat the goh, the large lizard or iguana.25 Other divisions are the Dhobibans or washerman’s race, the Lakarhār or wood-cutters, and the Untwār or camelmen.