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fourth day of any month will often be given this
name, as Ganesh was born on the 4th Bhādon (August).

Names of Hanuman.

Hanuman itself is a very common name.
Maroti, son of Marut the god of the wind.
Mahāvīra or Mahābīr. The strong one.

Other common sacred names are: Amrit, the divine nectar, and Moreshwar, lord of the peacock, perhaps an epithet of the god Kartikeya. Men are also often named after jewels, as: Hīra Lāl, diamond; Panna Lal, emerald; Ratan Lal, a jewel; Kundan Lal, fine gold. A child born on the day of full moon may be called Puran Chand, which means full moon. There are of course many other male names, but those here given are the commonest. Children are also frequently named after the day or month in which they were born.

Common terminations of male names are: Charan, footprint; Dās, slave; Prasād, food offered to a god; Lal, dear; Datta, gift, commonly used by Maithil Brahmans; Din or Baksh, which also means gift; Nath, lord of; and Dulāre, dear to. These are combined with the names of gods, as: Kālicharan, footprint of Kāli; Rām Prasād or Kishen Prasad, an offering to Rāma or Krishna; Bishen Lāl, dear to Vishnu; Ganesh Datta, a gift from Ganesh ; Ganga Din, a gift from the Ganges; Sheo Dulāre, dear to Siva; Vishwanath, lord of the universe. Boys are sometimes given the names of goddesses with such terminations, as Lachmi or Jānki Prasād, an offering to these goddesses. A child born on the 8th of light Chait (April) will be called Durga Prasad, as this day is sacred to the goddess Durga or Devi.

Women are also frequently named after goddesses, as :

19. Ter

minations

names.

20.

Women's names.

21. Special

bad names.

Parvati, the consort of Siva; Sīta, the wife of Rāma; Jānki, apparently another name for Sita; Lakshmi, the consort of Vishnu, and the goddess of wealth; Saraswati, the goddess of wisdom; Radha, the beloved of Krishna; Dasoda, the foster - mother of Krishna; Dewāki, who is supposed to have been the real mother of Krishna; Durga, another name for Siva's consort; Devi, the same as Durga and the earth-goddess; Rukhmini, the bright or shining one, a consort of Vishnu; and Tulsi, the basil-plant, sacred to Vishnu.

Women are also named after the sacred rivers, as: Ganga, Jamni or Yamuni (Jumna); Gomti, the river on which Lucknow stands; Godha or Gautam, after the Godavari river; and Bhagirathi, another name for the Ganges. The river Nerbudda is commonly found as a man's name, especially in places situated on its banks. Other names of women are: Sona, gold; Puna, born at the full moon ; Manohra, enchanting; Kamala, the lotus; Indumati, a moonlight night; Sumati, well-minded; Sushila, wellintentioned; Srimati, wealthy; Amrita, nectar; Phulwa, a flower; Imlia, the tamarind; Malta, jasmine; and so on.

If a girl is born after four sons she will be called Pancho or fifth, and one born in the unlucky Mul Nakshatra is called Mulia. When a girl is married and goes to her husband's house her name is always changed there. If two girls have been married into the household, they may be called Bari Bohu and Choti Bohu, or the elder and younger daughters-in-law; or a girl may be called after the place from which she comes, as Jabalpurwāli, Raipurwāli, and so on.

The higher castes have two names, one given by the names and Joshi, which is called rāshi-ka-nām or the ceremonial name, rāshi meaning the Nakshatra or moon's daily mansion under which the child was born. This is kept secret and only used in marriage and other ceremonies, though the practice is now tending to decay. The other is the chaltu or current name, and may either be a second ordinary name, such as those already given, or it may be taken from some peculiarity of the child. Names of the latter class are: Bhūra, brown; Putro, a doll, given to a pretty child; Dukāli, born in

II

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279

famine-time; Mahinga, dear or expensive; Chhota, little; Bābu, equivalent to little prince or noble; Pāpa, father; Kakku, born in the cucumber season; Lada, pet; Pattu, a somersault; Judāwan, cooling, and so on. Bad names are also given to avert ill-luck and remove the enmity of the spirits hostile to children, if the mother's previous babies have been lost. Instances of these are Raisa, short in stature; Lūla, having a maimed arm; Ghasīta, dragged along on a board; Damru, bought for a farthing; Khairāti, alms; Dukhi, pain; Kubra, hunch-back; Gudri, rag; Kāna, one-eyed; Birla, thin or lean; Bisāhu, bought or purchased; and Bulāki and Chedi, having a pierced nostril; these names are given to a boy whose nostril has been pierced to make him resemble a girl and thus decrease his value.1 Further instances of such names have been given in other articles.

Julāha, Momin.--A low Muhammadan caste of weavers resident mainly in Saugor and Burhanpur. They numbered about 4000 persons in 1911. In Nagpur District the Muhammadan weavers generally call themselves Momin, a word meaning 'orthodox.' In northern India and Bengal Julāhas are very numerous and the bulk of them are probably converted Hindus. Mr. (Sir Denzil) Ibbetson remarks: "We find Koli-Julāhas, Chamār-Julāhas, MorhiJulāhas, Ramdasi-Julāhas, and so forth; and it is probable that after a few generations these men will drop the prefix which denotes their low origin and become Julāhas pure and simple." The Julāhas claim Adam as the founder of their craft, inasmuch as when Satan made him realise his nakedness he taught the art of weaving to his sons. And they say that their ancestors came from Arabia. In Nimār the Julāhas or Momins assert that they do not permit outsiders to be admitted as members of the caste, but the accuracy of this is doubtful, while in Saugor any Muhammadan who wishes to do so may become a Julāha. They follow the Muhammadan laws of marriage and inheritance. Unions between relatives are favoured, but a man may not marry

2

1 Some of these names and also some of the women's names have been taken from Colonel Temple's Proper

Names of the Punjābis.

2 Punjab Ethnography, para. 612.

his sister, niece, aunt or foster-sister. The Julāha or Momin women observe no purda, and are said to be almost unique among Muhammadans in this respect.

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1 The Musalmān weaver or Julāha," Sir G. Grierson writes, "is the proverbial fool of Hindu stories and proverbs. He swims in the moonlight across fields of flowering linseed, thinking the blue colour to be caused by water. He hears his family priest reading the Korān, and bursts into tears to the gratification of the reader. When pressed to tell what part affected him most, he says it was not that, but that the wagging beard of the old gentleman so much reminded him of a favourite goat of his which had died. When forming one of a company of twelve he tries to count them and finding himself missing wants to perform his own funeral obsequies. He finds the rear peg of a plough and wants to set up farming on the strength of it. He gets into a boat at night and forgets to pull up the anchor. After rowing till dawn he finds himself where he started, and concludes that the only explanation is that his native village could not bear to lose him and has followed him. If there are eight weavers and nine huqqas, they fight for the odd one. Once on a time a crow carried off to the roof of the house some bread which a weaver had given his child. Before giving the child any more he took the precaution of removing the ladder. Like the English fool he always gets unmerited blows. For instance, he once went to see a ram-fight and got butted himself, as the saying

runs:

Karigah chhor tamāsa jay
Nahak chot Julāha khay.

'He left his loom to see the fun and for no reason got a bruising.' Another story (told by Fallon) is that being told by a soothsayer that it was written in his fate that his nose would be cut off with an axe, the weaver was incredulous and taking up an axe, kept flourishing it, saying

Yon karba ta gor kātbon

Yon karba ta hath katbon
Aur
yon karba tab nã-

1 This passage is taken from Sir G. Grierson's Peasant Life in Bihār,

p. 64.

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KACHERA

281

'If I do so I cut off my leg, if I do so I cut off my hand, but
unless I do so my no-
and his nose was off. Another
proverb Julaha jänathi jo katai, 'Does a weaver know how
to cut barley,' refers to a story (in Fallon) that a weaver
unable to pay his debt was set to cut barley by his creditor,
who thought to repay himself in this way. But instead of
reaping, the stupid fellow kept trying to untwist the tangled
barley stems. Other proverbs at his expense are: 'The
Julāha went out to cut the grass at sunset, when even the
crows were going home.' 'The Julāha's brains are in his
backside.' His wife bears an equally bad character, as in
the proverb: 'A wilful Julāhin will pull her own father's
beard.'"

of the

Kachera,1 Kachāra (from ķānch, glass).—The functional 1. Origin caste of makers of glass bangles. The Kacheras numbered caste. 2800 persons in the Central Provinces in 1911, of whom 1800 were found in the Jubbulpore District. The caste say that in former times glass bangles were made only by Turk or Muhammadan Kacheras. The present name of Turkāri is probably derived from Turk. But when Gauri Pārvati was to be married to Mahādeo, she refused to wear the bangles made by a Turkāri. So Mahadeo constructed a vedi or furnace, and from this sprang the first Hindu Kachera, who was employed to make bangles for Pārvati. A later variant of the legend, having a sufficiently obvious deduction, is that Mahadeo did not create a man, but caught hold of a Kshatriya who happened to be present and ordered him to make the bangles. His descendants followed the new profession and thus came to be known as Kacheras. It is a possible conclusion from the story that the art of making glass bangles was introduced by the Muhammadans and, as suggested in the article on Lakhera, it may be the case that Hindu women formerly wore ornaments made of lac.

groups.

The exogamous sections of the Kacheras show that the 2. Exocaste is of very mixed origin. Several of them are named gamous Pottery and Glassware, by Mr. Jowers, and some information collected by Mr. Hira Lal.

1 This article is based on a paper by Mr. Pancham Lāl, naib-tahsildar, Murwāra, with extracts from the Central Provinces Monograph

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