Census of India, 1901 Volume 15 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1902 Excerpt: ...the sweepers (mehters), the barbers (hajams), the butchers (kasayis), the washermen (dhobis), the bone-setters (jerrahs) (but not the hakims or physicians), the wrestlers and acrobats (pailwans), and the shoemakers (muchis). These occupational groups, however, are apparently not castes in the ordinary sense of the word, as they seem to intermarry among one another, and do not necessarily retain the functional name to which they were born. The son of a darzi, for instance, is not called a darzi unless he follows tailoring as a profession. The customs followed by the foreign Musalman tribes in this Presidency are described in much detail in the book Qanoon-c-Islam edited by Dr. Herklots, and the Mappillas have also attracted considerable attention, but the ways of the other mixed races have never apparently been fully described. Time has not permitted of any personal enquiries into these, and the information at my disposal is too incomplete to be worth putting down. 31. The main points in which Madras Musalmans HinCc"tt5oms W9en Musalman of all classes differ from Hindus may, however, be shortly sketched. The various tribes may not intermarry, but within the tribes there are no endogamous, exogamous or sectarian restrictions against intermarriage. There is no bar to the members of one tribe eating with those of another except that which is founded on social distinctions. There is no regular priestly class amongst them, though the Shiahs have priests of their own tribe, called Imams, who are intermediaries between them and Heaven and so stand in much the same relation to their congregations as Roman Catholic priests do to theirs. There are also a few Pirs, or holy7 men, to whom reverence is paid. The priests who officiate at the mosques are drawn from no ...