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

Mīrdha.—A small caste found only in the Narsinghpur District. They are a branch of the Khangār or Dahāit caste of Saugor and Damoh. The names of their exogamous sections tally with those of the Khangārs, and they have the same story of their ancestors having been massacred at a fort in Orchha State and of one pregnant woman escaping and hiding under a kusum tree (Schleichera trijuga), which consequently they revere. Like Khangārs they regard Muhammadan eunuchs and Fakīrs (beggars) with special friendship, on the ground that it was a Fakīr who sheltered their ancestress when the rest of the caste were massacred by Rājpūts, and Fakīrs do not beg at their weddings. One explanation of the name is that this section of the caste were born from a Muhammadan father and a Dahāit woman, and hence were called Mir-Dahāits or Mīrdāha, Mir being a Muhammadan title. Mirdha is, however, as noted by Mr. Hira Lāl, the name of the head of the caste committee among the Dahāits; and in Hoshangābād he is a servant of the village proprietor and acts as assistant to the Kotwār or village watchman; he realises the rents from the tenants, and sometimes works as a night guard. In Gujarāt the name is said to be a corruption of mir-deh or ‘mason of the village.’62 Here it is said that the Mīrdhas are held to be of part foreign, part Rājpūt origin, and were originally official spies of the Gujarāt sultans. They are now employed as messengers and constables, and therefore seem to be analogous to the same class of persons in the Central Provinces.

Mukeri.—Or Kasai, a small Muhammadan caste of traders in cattle and butchers. In 1891 more than 900 were returned from the Saugor District. Their former occupation was to trade in cattle like the Banjāras, but they have now adopted the more profitable trade of slaughtering them for the export of meat; and as this occupation is not considered very reputable, they have perhaps thought it desirable to abandon their caste name. The derivation of the term Mukeri is uncertain. According to one account they are a class of Banjāras, and derive their name from Mecca, on the ground that one of their Nāiks or headmen was camping in the neighbourhood of this town, at the time when Abrāham was building it, and assisted him in the work. When they emigrated from Mecca their illustrious name of Makkāi was corrupted into Mukeri.63 A variant of this story is that their ancestor was one Makka Banjāra, who also assisted in the building of Mecca, and that they came to India with the early Muhammadan invaders.64 The Mukeris form a caste and marry among themselves. In their marriage ceremony they have adopted some Hindu observances, such as the anointing of the bride and bridegroom with turmeric and the erection of a marriage-shed. They take food from the higher Hindu castes, but will not eat with a Kāyasth, though there is no objection to this on the score of their religion. They will admit an outsider, if he becomes a Muhammadan, but will not give their daughters to him in marriage, at any rate until he has been for some years a member of the caste. In other matters they follow Muhammadan law.