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

Sikligar, Bardhia, Saiqalgar.95—A small caste of armourers and knife-grinders. The name Saiqalgar comes from the Arabic saiqal, a polisher, and Bardhia is from bārdh, the term for the edge of a weapon. They number only about 450 persons in the Central Provinces and Berār, and reside mainly in the large towns, as Jubbulpore and Nāgpur. The caste is partly Hindu and partly Muhammadan, but very few members of it in the Central Provinces profess the latter religion. In Bombay96 the Muhammadan Sikligars are said to be Ghisāris or tinkers who were forcibly converted by Aurāngzeb. The writer of the Belgaum Gazetteer97 says that they are scarcely more than Muhammadans in name, as they practically never go to the mosque, keep Hindu gods in their houses, eschew beef, and observe no special Muhammadan rites other than circumcision. The Hindu Sikligars claim to be Rājpūts and have Rājpūt sept names, and it is not unlikely that in old times the armourer’s calling should have been adopted by the lower classes of Rājpūts. The headquarters of the caste is in Gwālior, where there is probably still some scope for their ancient trade. But in British territory the Sikligar has degenerated into a needy knife-grinder. Mr. Crooke98 describes him as “A trader of no worth. His whole stock-in-trade is a circular whetstone worked by a strap between two posts fixed in the ground. He sharpens knives, razors, scissors and sometimes swords.”

Solaha.99—A very small caste numbering less than a hundred persons in the Raipur District. The caste only deserves mention as affording an instance of an attempt to rise in the social scale. The Solahas are certainly of Gond origin. Their name appears to be a corruption of Tolaha, from tol, which means leather in Gondi or Telugu. Their exogamous sections, as Markam, Warai, Wika, Sori, Kunjām, are also Gond names, and like the Agarias they are an occupational offshoot of that great tribe, who have taken to the special profession of leather-curing and primitive carpentry. But they claim to belong to the Barhai caste and say that their ancestors immigrated from Benāres at the time of a great famine there. In pursuance of the claim some of them employ inferior Brāhmans as their priests. They also say that they accept food only from Brāhmans and Rājpūts, though they eat fowls, pork and even rats. Women of any other caste can be admitted into the community, but not men. The fact that they are not Barhais is sufficiently shown by their ignorance of carpentering tools. They do not even know the use of a rope for turning the drill and do it by hand with a pointed nail. They have no planes, and smooth wood with a chisel. Their business is to make musical instruments for the Gonds, which consist of hollow pieces of wood covered with skin to act as single or double drums. They use sheep and goat-skins, and after letting them dry scrape off the hair and rub them with a paste of boiled rice and powdered iron filings and glass.

Sonkar.—A small caste found in the Chhattīsgarh country, and also in Saugor and Damoh. The name Sonkar is said to be a corruption of Chūnkar or lime-dealer, and the Sonkars of Saugor make their living by carrying clay and lime on donkeys for building and whitewashing walls. In Saugor they are also known as Beldār (navvy) and Gadhera (donkey-driver), and occupy a despised position. Possibly on this account a few of them in the northern Districts and the whole community in Chhattīsgarh have abandoned their traditional calling, and have taken to growing vegetables like the Mālis and Marārs. Here their status is better, and they rank as a gardening caste. Their customs resemble those of the lower castes of Chhattīsgarh. They obtain auspicious dates for their marriages and different ceremonies from Brāhmans, but otherwise these are not employed, and the caste headman, known as Kurha or Sethia, officiates as priest. At their weddings the sacred post round which the couple walk must consist of a forked bough of the mahua tree divided in a V shape, and they take much trouble to find and cut a suitable bough. They will not take cooked food from the hands of any other caste, even from Brāhmans.

Sonwāni.—(Sona-pāni, gold-water.) This is a common sept among the primitive tribes and castes derived from them. The members of this sept occupy a quasi-priestly position, and readmit offenders into caste by giving them water to drink in which gold has been dipped. They also purify those who have got vermin in a wound by sprinkling this water over them. A section of Ahīr and of Rāwat or Chhattīsgarhi Ahīr; a sept of Dhoba, Dhanwār, Gond and Kawar; a section of Kalanga, Kumhār, Panka and Teli.