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

Bānka.—A small caste found principally in the Kālāhandī State which now forms part of Bengal. The caste was formed from military service like the Khandaits, Pāiks and Marāthas, and some families bear the names of different castes, as Brāhman Bānka, Kumhār Bānka, and so on. They were formerly notorious freebooters, but have now settled down to cultivation. Each man, however, still carries a sword or knife on his person, and in Kālāhandī they are permitted to do this without taking out a licence.

Baone or Baonia.—From the phrase Bāwan Berār, a term applied to the Province by the Mughals, because it paid fifty-two lakhs of revenue, as against only eight lakhs realised from the adjoining Jhādi or hilly country in the Central Provinces. Subcaste of Kunbi, Mahār and Māli.

Bargāh,11Bargāha, Barghāt.—A small caste of cultivators belonging principally to the Bilāspur District. They appear to be immigrants from Rewah, where the caste is numerically strong, and they are also found in the adjacent Districts of the United Provinces and Bengal. In the United Provinces they are employed as higher domestic servants and make leaf-plates, while their women act as midwives.12 Here they claim kinship with the Goāla Ahīrs, but in the Central Provinces and Bengal they advance pretensions to be Rājpūts. They have a story, however, which shows their connection with the Ahīrs, to the effect that on one occasion Brahma stole Krishna’s cows and cowherds. Krishna created new ones to replace them, exactly similar to those lost, but Brahma subsequently returned the originals, and the Bargāhas are the descendants of the artificial cowherds created by Krishna. In Sargūja, Bargāha is used as a title by Ahīrs, while in Rewah the Bargāhs are looked on as the bastard offspring of Baghel Rājpūts. Dr. Buchanan writes of them as follows:13 “In Gorakhpur the Rājpūt chiefs have certain families of Ahīrs, the women of which act as wet-nurses to their children, while the men attend to their persons. These families are called Bargāha; they have received, of course, great favours and many of them are very rich, but others look down upon them as having admitted their women to too great familiarity with their chiefs.”

In the United Provinces they also claim to be Rājpūts, as they returned themselves as a clan of Rājpūts in 1881.14 Their position as described by Buchanan is precisely the same as that of the Dauwa Ahīrs, who are the household servants of Bundela Rājpūts in Bundelkhand, and the facts set forth above leave little or no doubt that the Bargāhs are a mixed caste, arising from the connection of Rājpūts with the Ahīr women who were their personal servants. In the Central Provinces no subdivisions of the caste exist at present, but a separate and inferior subcaste is in process of formation from those who have been turned out of caste. They are divided for the purpose of marriage into exogamous gotras or clans, the names of which correspond to those of Rājpūts, as Kaunsil, Chandel, Rāna, Bundela, Rāthor, Baghel, Chauhān and others. Marriage between members of the same clan and also between first cousins is prohibited. The custom of gurānwat or exchanging girls in marriage between families is very prevalent, and as there is a scarcity of girls in the caste, a man who has not got a daughter must pay Rs. 100 to Rs. 200 to obtain a bride for his son. On the arrival of the marriage procession the bridegroom touches with a dagger a grass mat hung in front of the marriage-shed. During the marriage the bridegroom’s father presents him with a grass ring, which he places on his wrist. The hands of the bridegroom and bride are tied one over the other with a piece of thread, and the bride’s parents catching the hands say to the bridegroom, ‘We have given you our daughter; protect her.’

The couple then walk seven times round a sacrificial fire and a pestle and slab containing seven pieces of turmeric, nuts and heaps of coloured rice, the bride leading and kicking over a heap of rice from the slab at each turn. The other common ceremonies are also performed. The Bargāhs do not tolerate sexual offences and expel a girl or married woman who goes wrong. The Bargāhs are usually cultivators in the Central Provinces, but they consider it beneath their dignity to touch the plough with their own hands. Many of them are mlguzrs or village proprietors. They take food cooked without water from a Brāhman, and water only from a Rājpūt. Rājpūts take water from their hands, and their social position is fairly high.