Encyclopedia of World Cultures Volume III SOUTH AsIA ENCYCLOPEDIA OF WORLD CULTURES David Levinson Editor in Chief North America Oceania South Asia Europe (Central, Western, and Southeastern Europe) East and Southeast Asia Soviet Union (Eastern Europe and Russia) and China South America Middle America and the Caribbean Africa and the Middle East Bibliography The Encyclopedia of World Cultures was prepared under the auspices and with the support of the Human Relations Area Files at Yale University. HRAF, the foremost international research organization in the field of cul- tural anthropology, is a not-for-profit consortium of twenty-three sponsor- ing members and 300 participating member institutions in twenty-five coun- tries. The HRAF archive, established in 1949, contains nearly one million pages of information on the cultures of the world. Encyclopedia of World Cultures Volume III SOUTH AsIA Paul Hockings Volume Editor G.K. Hall & Company NEW YORK MEASUREMENT CONVERSIONS 1992 by the Human Relations Area Files, Inc. First published in 1991 by G.K. Hall & Co. 1633 Broadway, New York, NY 10019,6785 All rights reserved. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system without permission in writing from the publisher. 10 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data (Revised for volume 3) Encyclopedia of world cultures. Includes bibliographical references and indexes. Filmography: v. 1, p. 407-415. Contents: v. 1. North America / Timothy J. O'Leary, David Levinson, volume editors v. 3. South Asia / Paul Hockings, volume editor. 1. Ethnology Encyclopedias. I. Levinson, David, 1947- GN307.E53 1991 306'.03 90-49123 ISBN 0-81611-808-6 (alk. paper) ISBN 0-81688-840-X (set : alk. paper) ISBN 0-81611-812-4 (v. 3 : alk. paper) The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials. ANSI Z39.48-1984. aTm MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA When You Know Mufltply By To Find LENGTH Inches 2.54 centimeters feet 30 centimeters yards 0.9 meters miles 1.6 kilometers millimeters 0.04 inches centimeters 0.4 Inches meters 3.3 feet meters 1.1 yards kilometers 0.6 miles AREA square feet 0.09 square meters square yards 0.8 square meters square miles 2.6 square kibmeters acres 0.4 hectares hectares 2.5 acres square meters 1.2 square yards square kilometers 0.4 square miles TEMPERATURE OC - (F - 32) x .555 F- ("Cx 1.8) + 32 Contents Project Staff vi Contributors vii Preface xiii Introduction xix Maps 1. South Asia xxviii 2. Cultural Regions of South Asia xxix 3. Major Languages of South Asia xxx 4. Dominant Religious Groups of South Asia xxxi 5. Cultural Groups of South Asia xxxii Cultures of South Asia 1 Appendix: Additional Castes, Caste Clusters, and Tribes 309 Bibliography 342 Ethnonym Index to Appendix 349 Glossary 363 Filmography 367 Index 372 Bibliography 373 Directory of Distributors 373 Ethnonym Index 375 Project Staff Editorial Board Research Sara J. Dick Jay DiMaggio Alliya S. Elahi Sarwat S. Elahi Nancy E. Gratton LeShon Kimble Saideh Moayed-Sanandaji Hugh R. Page, Jr. Angelito Palma Editorial and Production Elly Dickason Eva Kitsos Abraham Maramba Victoria Crocco Elizabeth Holthaus Ara Salibian Linda A. Bennett Memphis State University Europe Fernando Camara Barbachano Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia, Mexico City Middle America and the Caribbean Norma J. Diamond University of Michigan China Paul Friedrich University of Chicago Soviet Union Terence E. Hays Rhode Island College Oceania Cartography Robert Sullivan Rhode Island College Paul Hockings University of Illinois at Chicago South and Southeast Asia Robert V. Kemper Southern Methodist University Middle America and the Caribbean Kazuko Matsuzawa National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka East Asia John H. Middleton Yale University Africa Timothy J. O'Leary Human Relations Area Files North America Amal Rassam Queens College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York Middle East Johannes Wilbert University of California at Los Angeles South America vi Contributors Akbar S. Ahmed Pathan Faculty of Oriental Studies University of Cambridge Cambridge United Kingdom Brenda Amunsen-Hill Bhutanese; Sikkimese Office of Campus Program University of Illinois at Chicago Chicago, Illinois United States Marcus Banks Jain Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology University of Oxford Oxford United Kingdom N. G. Barrier Sikh Department of History University of Missouri Columbia, Missouri United States Helene Basu Sidi Institut ffir Ethnologie Berlin Germany Joseph C. Berland Kanjar; Qalandar Berland House Oxford United Kingdom Gerald D. Berreman Pahari Department of Anthropology University of California Berkeley, California United States Peter J. Bertocci Bengali Department of Sociology and Anthropology Oakland University Rochester, Michigan United States vii viii Contributors Nurit Bird-David Department of Sociology and Anthropology Tel Aviv University Tel Aviv Israel S. K. Biswas Indian Statistical Institute Calcutta, West Bengal India James Brow Department of Anthropology University of Texas at Austin Austin, Texas United States Marine Carrin-Bouez Laboratoire d'Ethnologie et de Sociologie Comparative University de Paris X-Nanterre Nanterre France Thomas Hylland Eriksen International Peace Research Institute Oslo Norway James F. Fisher Department of Anthropology Carleton College Northfield, Minnesota United States Stephen Fuchs Institute of Indian Culture Bombay, Maharashtra India Kamala Ganesh Bombay, Maharashtra India B. B. Goswami Anthropological Survey of India Calcutta, West Bengal India John T. Hitchcock Department of Anthropology University of Wisconsin Madison, Wisconsin United States Paul Hockings Department of Anthropology University of Illinois at Chicago Chicago, Illinois United States Brahman and Chhetri of Nepal Gond Veliala Mito Magar Anglo-Indian; Aryan; Badaga; Bihari; Brahman; Chinese of South Asia; Dard; Europeans in South Asia; Hill Tribes; Hindu; Indian Christian; Kalasha; Kanarese; Kashmiri; Kohistani; Kshatriya; Malayali; Muslim; Neo-Buddhist; Refugees in South Asia; Sched- uled Castes and Scheduled Tribes; Sudra; Thug; Un- touchables; Vaisya Nayaka Bhuiya Vedda Santal Mauritian -ofnlTIVULOTiS Shigeru lijima Thakali Department of Humanities and Social Sciences Tokyo Institute of Technology Tokyo Japan Hiroshi Ishii Newar Institute for the Study of Languages and Cultures of Asia and Africa Tokyo University of Foreign Studies Tokyo Japan K. Ishwaran Lingayat Department of Sociology York University North York, Ontario Canada George Kurian Syrian Christian of Kerala Department of Sociology University of Calgary Calgary, Alberta Canada Murray Leaf Punjabi University of Texas at Dallas Dallas, Texas United States Frederic K. Lehman Chin Department of Anthropology University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Urbana, Illinois United States Nancy E. Levine Nyinba Department of Anthropology University of California at Los Angeles Los Angeles, California United States Owen M. Lynch Jata, Department of Anthropology New York University New York, New York United States June McDaniel Baul; Bengali Shakta; Bengali Vaishnawa Department of Religious Studies College of Charleston Charleston, South Carolina United States Emestine McHugh Gurung Department of Anthropology University of California at San Diego La Jolla, California United States LX x Contributors Triloki Nath Madan Institute of Economic Growth University of Delhi Delhi India L. K. Mahapatra Sambalpur University Sambalpur, Orissa India Clarence Maloney Louis Berger, International, Inc. New Delhi India Joan P. Mencher Department of Anthropology Herbert H. Lehman College City University of New York Bronx, New York United States W. D. Merchant Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences South Suburban College South Holland, Illinois United States Promode Kumar Misra Department of Anthropology North-Eastern Hill University Shillong, Meghalaya India Brian Morris Department of Social Anthropology Goldsmiths' College University of London London United Kingdom Nils Finn Munch-Petersen Louis Berger, International, Inc. New Delhi India Serena Nanda Department of Anthropology John Jay College of Criminal Justice City University of New York New York, New York United States William A. Noble Department of Geography University of Missouri Columbia, Missouri United States Pandit of Kashmir Oriya Divehi; Tamil Nambudiri Brahman; Nayar Bania; Castes, Hindu; Maratha; Parsi Peripatetics Hill Pandaram Divehi Hijra IruLa [...]... the cultures of Europe East and Southeast Asia covers the cultures of Japan, Korea, mainland and insular Southeast Asia, and Taiwan Soviet Union (Eastern Europe and Russia) and China covers the cultures of Mongolia, the People's Republic of China, and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics South America covers the cultures of South America Middle America and the Caribbean covers the cultures of Central... lists of the cultures of the world, their alternate names, and a bibliography of selected publications pertaining to those groups North America covers the cultures of Canada, Greenland, and the United States of America Oceania covers the cultures of Australia, New Zealand, Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia South Asia covers the cultures of Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and other South Asian... historical information (although not for its out -of- date economic data) is Watt (1908), which is a one -volume abridgment of A Dictionary of the Economic Products ofIndia that he wrote in 188 5-1 893 A modem encyclopedia that covers much the same subject matter is The Wealth of India (194 8-) Two excellent guidebooks to the historical monuments of South Asia, equally useful to the tourist and the scholar,... covers the cultures of Madagascar and sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa, the Middle East, and south- central Asia Format of the Volumes Each volume contains this preface, an introductory essay by the volume editor, the cultural summaries ranging from a few lines to several pages each, maps pinpointing the location of the cultures, a filmography, an ethnonym index of alternate names for the cultures, and... news every day and young people who are growing up in this complex cultural world For all of these people-which means all of us-there is a pressing need for information on the cultures of the world This encyclopedia provides this information in two ways First, its descriptions ofthe traditional ways of life of the world' s cultures can serve as a baseline against which cultural change can be measured... international educa- This project began in 1987 with the goal of assembling a basic reference source that provides accurate, clear, and concise descriptions of the cultures of the world We wanted to be as comprehensive and authoritative as possible: comprehensive, by providing descriptions of all the cultures of each region of the world or by describing a representative sample of cultures for regions... of the world they will be visiting Format of the Encyclopedia The encyclopedia comprises ten volumes, ordered by geographical regions of the world The order of publication is not meant to represent any sort of priority Volumes 1 through 9 contain a total of about fifteen hundred summaries along with maps, glossaries, and indexes of alternate names for the cultural groups The tenth and final volume. .. providing accurate descriptions of the cultures for both the past and the present The publication of the Encyclopedia of World Cultures in the last decade of the twentieth century is especially timely The political, economic, and social changes of the past fifty years have produced a world more complex and fluid than at any time in human history Three sweeping transformations of the worldwide cultural landscape... are described in the Southeast Asia volume, but the refugee communities in the United States and Canada are covered only in the general summaries on Southeast Asians in those two countries in the North America volume Although it would be ideal to provide descriptions of all the immigrant cultures or communities of the world, that is an undertaking well beyond the scope of this encyclopedia, for there... for all of these acts of desperation was no doubt the shocking assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in 1948, an event that showed extremists of all sorts that if a person were willing to die, he or she could probably take a major national leader along with him This was still just as true in 1991 The Nations of South Asia Although the focus of this volume is the distinct cultural groups of South Asia, it . Encyclopedia of World Cultures Volume III SOUTH AsIA ENCYCLOPEDIA OF WORLD CULTURES David Levinson Editor in Chief North America Oceania South Asia Europe (Central, Western, and Southeastern Europe) East and Southeast Asia Soviet Union (Eastern Europe and Russia) and China South America Middle America and the Caribbean Africa and the Middle East Bibliography The Encyclopedia of World Cultures was prepared under the auspices and with the support of the Human Relations Area Files at Yale University. HRAF, the foremost international research organization in the field of cul- tural anthropology, is a not-for-profit consortium of twenty-three sponsor- ing members and 300 participating member institutions in twenty-five coun- tries. The HRAF archive, established in 1949, contains nearly one million pages of information on the cultures of the world. Encyclopedia of World Cultures Volume III SOUTH AsIA Paul Hockings Volume Editor G.K. Hall & Company NEW YORK MEASUREMENT CONVERSIONS 1992 by the Human Relations Area Files, Inc. First published in 1991 by G.K. Hall & Co. 1633 Broadway, New York, NY 10019,6785 All rights reserved. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system without permission in writing from the publisher. 10 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data (Revised for volume 3) Encyclopedia of world cultures. Includes bibliographical references and indexes. Filmography: v. 1, p. 40 7-4 15. Contents: v. 1. North America / Timothy J. O'Leary, David Levinson, volume editors . Encyclopedias. I. Levinson, David, 194 7- GN307.E53 1991 306'.03 9 0-4 9123 ISBN 0-8 161 1-8 0 8-6 (alk. paper) ISBN 0-8 168 8-8 40-X (set : alk. paper) ISBN 0-8 161 1-8 1 2-4 (v. 3 : alk. paper) The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials. ANSI Z39.4 8-1 984. aTm MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA When You Know Mufltply By To Find LENGTH Inches 2.54 centimeters feet 30 centimeters yards 0.9 meters miles 1.6 kilometers millimeters 0.04 inches centimeters 0.4 Inches meters 3.3 feet meters 1.1 yards kilometers 0.6 miles AREA square feet 0.09 square meters square yards 0.8 square meters square miles 2.6 square kibmeters acres 0.4 hectares hectares 2.5 acres square meters 1.2 square yards square kilometers 0.4 square miles TEMPERATURE OC - (F - 32) x .555 F- ("Cx 1.8) + 32 Contents Project Staff vi Contributors vii Preface xiii Introduction xix Maps 1. South Asia xxviii 2. Cultural Regions of South Asia xxix 3. Major Languages of South Asia xxx 4. Dominant Religious Groups of South Asia xxxi 5. Cultural Groups of South Asia xxxii Cultures of South Asia 1 Appendix: Additional Castes, Caste Clusters, and Tribes 309 Bibliography 342 Ethnonym Index to Appendix 349 Glossary 363 Filmography 367 Index 372 Bibliography 373 Directory of Distributors 373 Ethnonym Index 375 Project Staff Editorial Board Research Sara J. Dick Jay DiMaggio Alliya S. Elahi Sarwat S. Elahi Nancy E. Gratton LeShon Kimble Saideh Moayed-Sanandaji Hugh R. Page, Jr. Angelito Palma Editorial and Production Elly Dickason Eva Kitsos Abraham Maramba Victoria Crocco Elizabeth Holthaus Ara Salibian Linda A. Bennett Memphis State University Europe Fernando Camara Barbachano Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia, Mexico City Middle America and the Caribbean Norma J. Diamond University of Michigan China Paul Friedrich University of Chicago Soviet Union Terence E. Hays Rhode Island College Oceania Cartography Robert Sullivan Rhode Island College Paul Hockings University of Illinois at Chicago South and Southeast Asia Robert V. Kemper Southern Methodist University Middle America and the Caribbean Kazuko Matsuzawa National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka East Asia John H. Middleton Yale University Africa Timothy J. O'Leary Human Relations Area Files North America Amal Rassam Queens College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York Middle East Johannes Wilbert University of California at Los Angeles South America vi Contributors Akbar S. Ahmed Pathan Faculty of Oriental Studies University of Cambridge Cambridge United Kingdom Brenda Amunsen-Hill Bhutanese; Sikkimese Office of Campus Program University of Illinois at Chicago Chicago, Illinois United States Marcus Banks Jain Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology University of Oxford Oxford United Kingdom N Encyclopedia of World Cultures Volume III SOUTH AsIA ENCYCLOPEDIA OF WORLD CULTURES David Levinson Editor in Chief North America Oceania South Asia Europe (Central, Western, and Southeastern Europe) East and Southeast Asia Soviet Union (Eastern Europe and Russia) and China South America Middle America and the Caribbean Africa and the Middle East Bibliography The Encyclopedia of World Cultures was prepared under the auspices and with the support of the Human Relations Area Files at Yale University. HRAF, the foremost international research organization in the field of cul- tural anthropology, is a not-for-profit consortium of twenty-three sponsor- ing members and 300 participating member institutions in twenty-five coun- tries. The HRAF archive, established in 1949, contains nearly one million pages of information on the cultures of the world. Encyclopedia of World Cultures Volume III SOUTH AsIA Paul Hockings Volume Editor G.K. Hall & Company NEW YORK MEASUREMENT CONVERSIONS 1992 by the Human Relations Area Files, Inc. First published in 1991 by G.K. Hall & Co. 1633 Broadway, New York, NY 10019,6785 All rights reserved. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system without permission in writing from the publisher. 10 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data (Revised for volume 3) Encyclopedia of world cultures. Includes bibliographical references and indexes. Filmography: v. 1, p. 40 7-4 15. Contents: v. 1. North America / Timothy J. O'Leary, David Levinson, volume editors v. 3. South Asia / Paul Hockings, volume editor. 1. Ethnology Encyclopedias. I. Levinson, David, 194 7- GN307.E53 1991 306'.03 9 0-4 9123 ISBN 0-8 161 1-8 0 8-6 (alk. paper) ISBN 0-8 168 8-8 40-X (set : alk. paper) ISBN 0-8 161 1-8 1 2-4 (v. 3 : alk. paper) The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials. ANSI Z39.4 8-1 984. aTm MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA When You Know Mufltply By To Find LENGTH Inches 2.54 centimeters feet 30 centimeters yards 0.9 meters miles 1.6 kilometers millimeters 0.04 inches centimeters 0.4 Inches meters 3.3 feet meters 1.1 yards kilometers 0.6 miles AREA square feet 0.09 square meters square yards 0.8 square meters square miles 2.6 square kibmeters acres 0.4 hectares hectares 2.5 acres square meters 1.2 square yards square kilometers 0.4 square miles TEMPERATURE OC - (F - 32) x .555 F- ("Cx 1.8) + 32 Contents Project Staff vi Contributors vii Preface xiii Introduction xix Maps 1. South Asia xxviii 2. Cultural Regions of South Asia xxix 3. Major Languages of South Asia xxx 4. Dominant Religious Groups of South Asia xxxi 5. Cultural Groups of South Asia xxxii Cultures of South Asia 1 Appendix: Additional Castes, Caste Clusters, and Tribes 309 Bibliography 342 Ethnonym Index to Appendix 349 Glossary 363 Filmography 367 Index 372 Bibliography 373 Directory of Distributors 373 Ethnonym Index 375 Project Staff Editorial Board Research Sara J. Dick Jay DiMaggio Alliya S. Elahi Sarwat S. Elahi Nancy E. Gratton LeShon Kimble Saideh Moayed-Sanandaji Hugh R. Page, Jr. Angelito Palma Editorial and Production Elly Dickason Eva Kitsos Abraham Maramba Victoria Crocco Elizabeth Holthaus Ara Salibian Linda A. Bennett Memphis State University Europe Fernando Camara Barbachano Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia, Mexico City Middle America and the Caribbean Norma J. Diamond University of Michigan China Paul Friedrich University of Chicago Soviet Union Terence E. Hays Rhode Island College Oceania Cartography Robert Sullivan Rhode Island College Paul Hockings University of Illinois at Chicago South and Southeast Asia Robert V. Kemper Southern Methodist University Middle America and the Caribbean Kazuko Matsuzawa National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka East Asia John H. Middleton Yale University Africa Timothy J. O'Leary Human Relations Area Files North America Amal Rassam Queens College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York Middle East Johannes Wilbert University of California at Los Angeles South America vi Contributors Akbar S. Ahmed Pathan Faculty of Oriental Studies University of Cambridge Cambridge United Kingdom Brenda Amunsen-Hill Bhutanese; Sikkimese Office of Campus Program University of Illinois at Chicago Chicago, Illinois United States Marcus Banks Jain Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology University of Oxford Oxford United Kingdom N.