Relationship between dominant caste and jajmani system in india
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The Concept:
Jajmani system is a system of traditional occupational obligations. Castes in early India were economically interdependent on one another. The traditional specialised occupation of a villager followed the specialisation assigned to his caste. The specialisation of occupation led to exchange of services in village society. This relationship between the ‘servicing’ and the ‘served’ castes was not contractual, individual, impersonal, temporary or limited but it was caste-oriented, long-termed and broadly supportive. This system with the durable relation between a landowning family and the landless families that supply them with goods and services is called the jajmani system.
Harold Gould has described the jajmani system as inter-familial, inter-caste relationship pertaining to the patterning of superordinate-subordinate relations between patrons and suppliers of services. The patrons are the families of ‘clean’ castes while the suppliers of services are the families of lower and ‘unclean’ castes.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
It could be said that the jajmani system is a system of distribution whereby landowning families of high castes are provided services and products by various lower castes such as carpenters (Khati), barbers (Nai), potters (Kumhar), blacksmiths (Lobar), washer men (Dhobi), sweepers (Chuhra), etc. The servicing castes are called kamins while the castes served are called jajmans. For the services rendered, the servicing castes are paid in cash or in kind (grains, fodder, clothes, and animal products like milk, butter, etc.).
Yogendra Singh (1973:186) describes jajmani system as a system governed by relationship based on reciprocity in inter-caste relations in villages. Ishwaran, referring to jajmani system (called ‘aya’ in Mysore in South India), has said that it is a system in which each caste has a role to play in a community life as a whole. This role consists of economic, social and moral functions.
The term ‘jajman’ originally referred to the client for whom a Brahmin priest performed rituals, but later on it came to be referred to the patron or recipient of specialised services. Beidelman (1959:6-7) has pointed out that for the providers of goods and services, besides the term kamin, other terms like, purjan, pardhan, etc., are also used in different regions.
Jajmani Relations:
Sometimes, the relations between two or more castes based on supplying a few things may only be contractual but not jajmani. For example, the weaver who is paid in cash for what he makes and sells is not entitled to customary share of the harvest. He is not a kamin and the purchaser is not his jajman.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Further, even in jajmani relations, there may be some products or services that may be contracted and paid for separately. For example, the rope-makers in a village may supply farmers, under arrangements, all necessary ropes except the rope used in wells which is especially long and thick and for which special payment has to be made.
The jajmani relations entail ritual matters and social support as well as economic exchanges. The servicing castes perform the ritual and ceremonial duties at the jajman’s house on occasions like birth, marriage and death. D.N. Majumdar (1958) has given the example of a Thakur family (of Rajput caste) in a village in Lucknow district in Uttar Pradesh which is served by as many as families of ten castes for the lifecycle rites.
For example, at the birth-feast of a child. Brahmin presides over the ceremony of ‘Nam-Sanskaran’ (giving a name), Sunar (goldsmith) provides the gold ornament for the new born, Dhobi (washerman) washes soiled clothes, Nai (barber) carries messages, Khati (carpenter) provides a wooden stool ipatta) on which the child is seated for the ceremony, Lohar (blacksmith) provides kara (iron bangle), Kumhar (potter) provides kulhar Qugs) for keeping cooked vegetables and drinking water, Pasi provides patal (leaf- plates) for taking food, and Bhangi (scavenger) cleans the place after the feast. All people who help, receive gifts of food, money and clothes depending partly on custom, partly on jajman’s affluence, and partly on the recipient’s entreaty.
The kamins (lower castes) who provide specialised skills and services to their jajmans higher castes) themselves need goods and services of others. According to Harold Gould, these lower castes make their own jajmani arrangements either through direct exchange of labour or by paying in cash or kind. The middle castes also, like the lower castes, either subscribe to each other’s services in return for compensations and payments or exchange services with one another
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I hope it helps you
here is your answer :-
__________________
_____________________,
The Concept:
Jajmani system is a system of traditional occupational obligations. Castes in early India were economically interdependent on one another. The traditional specialised occupation of a villager followed the specialisation assigned to his caste. The specialisation of occupation led to exchange of services in village society. This relationship between the ‘servicing’ and the ‘served’ castes was not contractual, individual, impersonal, temporary or limited but it was caste-oriented, long-termed and broadly supportive. This system with the durable relation between a landowning family and the landless families that supply them with goods and services is called the jajmani system.
Harold Gould has described the jajmani system as inter-familial, inter-caste relationship pertaining to the patterning of superordinate-subordinate relations between patrons and suppliers of services. The patrons are the families of ‘clean’ castes while the suppliers of services are the families of lower and ‘unclean’ castes.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
It could be said that the jajmani system is a system of distribution whereby landowning families of high castes are provided services and products by various lower castes such as carpenters (Khati), barbers (Nai), potters (Kumhar), blacksmiths (Lobar), washer men (Dhobi), sweepers (Chuhra), etc. The servicing castes are called kamins while the castes served are called jajmans. For the services rendered, the servicing castes are paid in cash or in kind (grains, fodder, clothes, and animal products like milk, butter, etc.).
Yogendra Singh (1973:186) describes jajmani system as a system governed by relationship based on reciprocity in inter-caste relations in villages. Ishwaran, referring to jajmani system (called ‘aya’ in Mysore in South India), has said that it is a system in which each caste has a role to play in a community life as a whole. This role consists of economic, social and moral functions.
The term ‘jajman’ originally referred to the client for whom a Brahmin priest performed rituals, but later on it came to be referred to the patron or recipient of specialised services. Beidelman (1959:6-7) has pointed out that for the providers of goods and services, besides the term kamin, other terms like, purjan, pardhan, etc., are also used in different regions.
Jajmani Relations:
Sometimes, the relations between two or more castes based on supplying a few things may only be contractual but not jajmani. For example, the weaver who is paid in cash for what he makes and sells is not entitled to customary share of the harvest. He is not a kamin and the purchaser is not his jajman.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Further, even in jajmani relations, there may be some products or services that may be contracted and paid for separately. For example, the rope-makers in a village may supply farmers, under arrangements, all necessary ropes except the rope used in wells which is especially long and thick and for which special payment has to be made.
The jajmani relations entail ritual matters and social support as well as economic exchanges. The servicing castes perform the ritual and ceremonial duties at the jajman’s house on occasions like birth, marriage and death. D.N. Majumdar (1958) has given the example of a Thakur family (of Rajput caste) in a village in Lucknow district in Uttar Pradesh which is served by as many as families of ten castes for the lifecycle rites.
For example, at the birth-feast of a child. Brahmin presides over the ceremony of ‘Nam-Sanskaran’ (giving a name), Sunar (goldsmith) provides the gold ornament for the new born, Dhobi (washerman) washes soiled clothes, Nai (barber) carries messages, Khati (carpenter) provides a wooden stool ipatta) on which the child is seated for the ceremony, Lohar (blacksmith) provides kara (iron bangle), Kumhar (potter) provides kulhar Qugs) for keeping cooked vegetables and drinking water, Pasi provides patal (leaf- plates) for taking food, and Bhangi (scavenger) cleans the place after the feast. All people who help, receive gifts of food, money and clothes depending partly on custom, partly on jajman’s affluence, and partly on the recipient’s entreaty.
The kamins (lower castes) who provide specialised skills and services to their jajmans higher castes) themselves need goods and services of others. According to Harold Gould, these lower castes make their own jajmani arrangements either through direct exchange of labour or by paying in cash or kind. The middle castes also, like the lower castes, either subscribe to each other’s services in return for compensations and payments or exchange services with one another
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I hope it helps you
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