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

Mutrāsi, Mutrāsa, Muthrāsi, Mutrācha.—(From the Dravidian roots mudi, old, and rāchā, a king, or from Mutu Rāja, a sovereign of some part of the Telugu country.)65 A caste which is numerous in Hyderābād and Madras, and of which a few persons are found in the Chānda District of the Central Provinces. The Mutrāsis are the village watchmen proper of Telingāna or the Telugu country.66 They were employed by the Vijayanagar kings to defend the frontier of their country, and were honoured with the title of Pāligar. Their usual honorific titles at present are Dora (Sāhib or Lord) and Naidu. As servants they are considered very faithful and courageous. Some of them have taken to masonry in Chānda, and are considered good stone-carvers. They are a comparatively low caste, and eat fowls and drink liquor, but they do not eat beef or pork. It is compulsory among them to marry a girl before she arrives at adolescence, and if this is not done her parents are put out of caste, and only readmitted on payment of a penalty.

Nāg, Nagesh.—(Cobra.) A sept of the Ahīr or Rāwat, Binjhāl, Bhātia, Chasa, Hatwa, Halba, Khadāl, Kawar, Khangār, Karan, Katia, Kolta, Lohār, Mahār, Māli, Mowār, Parja, Redka, Sulia, Sundi and Taonla castes. Most of these castes belong to Chhattīsgarh and the Uriya country.

Nagārchi.—The Nagārchis appear to be a class of Gonds, whose special business was to beat the nakkāra or kettledrums at the gates of forts and palaces. In some Districts they now form a special community, marrying among themselves, and numbered about 6000 persons in 1911. The nagāra or nakkāra is known in Persia as well as in India. Here the drum is made of earthenware, of a tapering shape covered at both ends with camel-hide for the zīr or treble, and with cowhide for the bam or bass. It is beaten at the broader end. In Persia the drums were played from the Nakkāra-khāna or gateway, which still exists as an appanage of royalty in the chief cities of Iran. They were beaten to greet the rising and to usher out the setting sun. During the months of mourning, Safar and Muharram, they were silent.67 In India the nagāra were a pair of large kettledrums bound with iron hoops and twice as large as those used in Europe. They were a mark of royalty and were carried on one of the state elephants, the royal animal, in the prince’s sowāri or cavalcade, immediately preceding him on the line of march. The right of displaying a banner and beating kettledrums was one of the highest marks of distinction which could be conferred on a Rājpūt noble. When the titular Marātha Rāja had retired to Satāra and any of the Marātha princes entered his territory, all marks of royalty were laid aside by the latter and his nagāra or great drum of empire ceased to be beaten.68

The stick with which the kettledrum was struck was called danka, and the king’s jurisdiction was metaphorically held to extend so far as his kettledrums were beaten. Angrezi rāj ka danka bajta hai or ‘Where the English drum is beaten,’ means ‘So far as the English empire extends.’ In Egypt the kettledrums were carried on camels.69

Nahonia.—A clan of Dāngi in Damoh and Saugor. They were formerly Kachhwāha Rājpūts from Narwar, but being cut off from their own domicile they married with Dāngis. Rājpūts accept daughters from them but do not give their daughters to Nahonias.