File:The tribes and castes of the Central Provinces of India (1916) (14763480032).jpg

Identifier: tribescastesofce04russ (find matches)
Title: The tribes and castes of the Central Provinces of India
Year: 1916 (1910s)
Authors: Russell, R. V. (Robert Vane), 1873-1915
Subjects: Ethnology -- India Madhya Pradesh Caste -- India Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (India) -- Religion
Publisher: London : Macmillan and Co., limited
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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potsand cooking vessels and a small bath in German silvercosting Rs. 300 to Rs. 400 ; and a set of brass vessels.-^General The Prabhus wear the sacred thread. In Bombay boys receive it a short time before their marriage without theceremonies which form part of the regular Brahman in-vestiture. On the fifth day after the birth of a child, thesword and also pens, paper and ink are worshipped, thesword being the symbol of their Kshatriya origin and thepens, paper and ink of their present occupation of clerks,The funeral ceremonies, Mr. Enthoven writes, are performedduring the first thirteen days after death. Oblations of riceare offered every day, in consequence of which the soul ofthe dead attains a spiritual body, limb by limb, till on thethirteenth day it is enabled to start on its journey. Intwelve months the journey ends, and a shrdddh ceremonyis performed on an extensive scale on the anniversary of ^ A Prabhu Marriage, pp. 26-27.^ Boiidtay Ethnographic Stn-vey, art. Prabhu. customs
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II RAGHUVANSI 403 the death. Most of the Prabhus are in Government serviceand others are landowners. In the l^ombay Presidency^they had at first almost a monopoly of Government serviceas English writers, and the term Prabhu was commonlyemployed to denote a clerk of any caste who could writeEnglish. Both men and women of the caste arc generallyof a fair complexion, resembling the Maratha Brahmans.The taste of the women in dress is proverbial, and when aSunar, Sutar or Kasar woman has dressed herself in herbest for some family festival, she will ask her friends, Prabhttin distol or Do I look like a Prabhu ? Raghuvansi, Raghvi.—A class of Rajputs of impure i- Histori-desccnt, who have now developed in the Central Provincesinto a caste of cultivators, marrying among themselves.Their first settlement here was in the Nerbudda Valley, andSir C. Elliott wrote of them : They are a queer class, allprofessing to be Rajputs from Ajodhia, though on cross-examination thej^ are obliged to confess

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