The Macrostatus Levels: Newar Hindus, The Core System

In this and the following sections we will introduce all the thar s in the core system that have in themselves a differentiated macrosocial significance and the macrosocial levels into which these thar s are sorted. (In appendix 2 we list all of Bhaktapur's thar s, placed in their respective status levels.) We will also introduce m the following sections the Newar Buddhist groups and those non-Newar groups that are stable components of the city's population and who live within the city. We will return in much more detail to many of these thar s and other social units in later chapters. They are brought together here for a necessary overview of the city's social structure before we lose ourselves in the details and special issues of later discussions.

As we have noted, the list of thar names comes from Bhaktapur civic population records and is presumably complete. Their ranking in status levels is something else. Ranking is in the conception of individual rankers, among whom Brahmans—who represent and legislate the order that the "caste system" represents—have a privileged position. As seems to be true everywhere in complex South Asian social hierarchies, the Brahmans (and other upper-status people) are certain about the upper and lower ordering, but not sure of the details of the position of every one of the great number of middle—that is, for the most part farming—thar s, which are arranged in several middle-level strata. There are two bases for disagreements. One is the relative ranking of status levels—for example, are butchers higher or lower than some neighboring level? The other is the membership of a particular thar at one or another level. Ordering of status levels may be argued about by people in adjacent levels, but in these cases we accept the certainties of

upper-status people. We have rechecked membership in the middle-ranking levels with people of similar status, however, and accepted their disagreements as more "correct" than the Brahmans' disinterested guesses about such cases. There is still some uncertainty in our lists about the membership of some thar s in the farming ranks.

The view of the upper reaches of the system by low-status people is significant in ways that we will discuss later. Thus members of lower-level thar s consistently give certain of the upper-status thar s with priestly functions, such as astrologers and Tantric priests, higher status than they are given by their near peers. Members of lower-level thar s also tended to simplify and collapse some of the status levels.

Middle-level and upper-level thar s appear to agree exactly on the number and ranking of levels, however, and to a very large degree on the membership of each level. In Malla days the thar s were assigned to their proper levels in written documents setting out privileges, restrictions, and sanctions, as we have noted in our discussion of Jayasthiti Malla in chapter 3. The many legalistic written orderings of the status system in Bhaktapur helped stabilize and force agreement on status ordering,^[10] more so than in other South Asian communities where the order is not so anchored.^[11]

We will list the macrostatus levels (numbered by roman numerals) from the top down. In later sections we will discuss the "entailments and markers," that is, the significance of the levels. We will note some of the internal differentiations within the levels when they have some general significance elsewhere in the city organization.

I. Brahmans. These are all members of one endogamous thar ,^[12] the Rajopadhyaya thar . They are sometimes referred to as "Dya: ("God") Brahmans" or "Newar Brahmans" in those contexts where it is necessary to distinguish them from other, "non-Newar," Brahmans in Bhaktapur itself, or from the Indo-Nepalese Brahmans of elsewhere in Nepal. There is also a lower, separate, nonintermarrying section consisting of three or four families, the "Lakhe Brahmans,"^[13] with their own traditional low-status clients. We will discuss the Brahmans, along with Bhaktapur's other priestly practitioners, in chapter 10.

"Brahman"—or one of the Newari variants of the word—refers in Bhaktapur's usage to both the status level and the thar , which is (ignoring the Lakhe, as is usually done) its only member. This is characteristic of all levels with only one member thar . A problem in naming arises for

levels that contain more than one thar . Most of these levels are, in fact, not named, although they are clearly understood. They may be referred to, if necessary, sometimes by the name of one of their leading thar s, sometimes by some characteristic of the level that is relevant to the context of the discussion. The next two status levels (II and III) contain groups of thar s and do have names; these are the Chathar and Pa(n)cthar levels.

In the literature on the Newar social and economic system these two groups are collectively referred to as srestha^[*] or sesya :.^[14] These two terms are not used in Bhaktapur, where they are thought of as Kathmandu usages. The two groups of thar s are sometimes referred to as "Newars" (by themselves, by Brahmans, and by Jyapu s), and sometimes, particularly by the lower levels emphasizing their most visible economic function, as sahu or shopkeepers. Occasionally the lower thar s (who tend to separate out the two thar s with religious vocations in these two levels and to ascribe higher status to them) refer to the remaining secular thar s as girastha . That term, used in both Nepali and Newari, is derived from the Sanskrit term "grhastha^[*] ," "householder," one of the traditional stages of life of classical Hinduism, upper-status people who had not yet renounced the life of the household.^[15]

These two groups of thar s were traditionally the patron thar s who employed the Rajopadhyaya Brahmans as purohit s or family priests. They include the descendants of the Malla kings and the families of their advisors and administrators and also of the suppliers of various commodities required by the old court. All these families were traditionally landowners (with Jyapus as tenants before the land reforms), and many had members who worked as government functionaries, sometimes at high Royal Palace levels in Kathmandu during the Saha and Rana periods. These families now include most of Bhaktapur's shop owners and shopkeepers and people in various trading and business enterprises and provide many of the present-day members of the government bureaucracy in Kathmandu (to which they commute each day) as well as schoolteachers and other learned professionals. The two groups also include within them two thars with religious functions, astrologers, Josi (found at each of the two levels) and Tantric priests, Acaju, at the Pa(n)cthar level.

There are important contrasts between the two groups. Upper-level informants say that the term "Srestha^[*] " used elsewhere would properly apply only to the Chathariya.^[16] The Chathariya are thought to be "Ksatriya^[*] " in origin; the Pa[n]cthariya are thought to be "Vaisya^[*] "^[17]

and to have close connections in religious practices and origins with the farming thar s.

II. Chathar. The general term "chathar " for the group that now includes thirty-one thar s means the "six thar s," and is of unknown origin to present informants. The group includes, as has been noted, descendants of the Malla kings and families closely involved with the Malla court as officials and to some limited extent as Royal provisioners and is said to be of Ksatriya^[*] origin. One segment of the Josi or astrologers, are also included.^[18] There are also several thar s who are said originally to have belonged to level III—Pa(n)cthar—but who rose into the Chathar category at various times after the fall of the Mallas.

III. Pa(n)cthar. This is a group of thirty-five thar s that seems to have had as a core group a set of thar s that provided services and provisions to the Malla courts. They include one important group of auxiliary priests, the Acajus, who specialize in Tantric procedures (chaps. 10 and 11). They also include a thar , Josi, whose specialty was astrology, which is also (and mostly) represented in the Chathar, and a thar whose name (Baidhya) indicates that its members were, traditionally, Ayurvedic physicians. Within the Pa(n)cthar level there are thirteen thar s (called the "Carthar," the "four thar s") who claim to be at a higher level within the Pa(n)cthar group, and there is some restriction of marriage between these two internal levels. As we have noted, upper-status informants say that the Pa(n)cthar is of Vaisya^[*] origin, and that their religious customs are closer to those of the Jyapus than to those of the Chathar. This suggests a different origin for levels II and III. The Pa(n)cthar may have been derived in part from some earlier upper stratum of Newar society, while the Chathar may have shared with the Malla kings a more recent North Indian origin.

Brahmans, Chathariya, and Pa[n]cthariya are considered together, in some contexts, as the dominant high "castes" or levels of Bhaktapur society. The next large status-level cluster below them are the Jyapus or farmers. Between the high-status groups and the groups of farmers is another level, the Tini. This is one of several groups of priestly specialists scattered throughout the status hierarchy (chap. 11).

IV. Tini. This level consists of one thar , with the thar name Sivacarya, whose members have special priestly functions during the ritual

sequence following death for middle-level and higher-level groups. They are also auxiliary priests in an important rite of passage for girls, the mock-marriage or Ihi (app. 6). The Tini also serve as family priests, purohita , for one of the marginally clean thar s at level XIII, the Bha.

Male members of groups I to IV and of one anomalous thar of priests, the Jyapu Acaju, situated in the highest segment of farmers, have the exclusive right to wear the sacred thread upon initiation into their thar s, and, of very much greater importance in Bhaktapur's religious life, exclusive rights to Tantric initiation. Their families have special lineage gods, Aga(n) Gods. These rights place them in a special aristocratic sector of the city's Hindu religious life (chap. 9).

The next seven sections (levels V to XI) include the four separate levels of Jyapu or farming thar s (levels V, VIII, IX, and XI).^[19] Mixed with the farming thar s, sometimes at the same status level, sometimes at separate levels, are a number of "clean" craft thar s. These Jyapu and craft levels constitute the middle range of the ranked macrostatus system. The group as a whole are often referred to collectively as "Jyapu," although the term may be used in more restricted ways.^[20]

V. Jyapu (level 1) . A group of seventy-four farming thar s.

VI. Tama . This level has only one thar , with the thar name "Tamrakar." These are metalworkers in brass and bronze, makers of metal dishes, pots, small bells, and cast-metal god images and other equipment for rituals. As is the case with all thar s in the levels V to XII, some individuals also farm.

VII. Kumha: and Awa :. This section contains two thar s who are considered at the same level and who intermarry. They are the Kumha: or hereditary potters (whose thar name is Prajapati), and the Awa: or Awal, whose hereditary profession is masonry and tile roofing.

VIII. Jyapu (level 2) . This is a group of about 146 mostly farming thar s, but includes two thar s with occupational specialties who intermarry with other thar s at this level. One of the occupational groups is Kami (thar name Silpakar) who were traditionally wood carvers, one of the Newar high arts and now make furniture and do woodwork in the construction and repair of houses. The other is Loha(n)kami, or stone carvers.

IX. Jyapu (level 3) . This is a group of fourteen intermarrying farming thar s.

X. Chipi . This is a group of about six thar s, one of which uses the high-status name "Srestha^[*] ." They are shopkeepers, in government service, and farmers.^[21] There are two other thar s considered to be at the same level that are not usually included with the Chipi, and who form a separate section at this level.

XI. Cyo (or Cya) . A farming thar , with the thar name Phusikawa[n], which has some ritual functions during the death ceremonies of upper-level thar s.

XII. Dwi(n) . This level has one thar , Dwi(n). They farm and operate small shops and foodstalls. Their low status is now manifested in a thar duty to clean the courtyard of the Taleju temple.^[22]

Levels I to XII are those levels that are, in ways that will be specified later, "clean" levels. Although all the hierarchical differences between status levels are associated with relative differences in purity, manifested focally in regulations regarding the consumption of boiled rice, starting with level XIII, which we call the "borderline clean thar s," another issue, that of classes and degrees of "absolute impurity," associated with increasingly extensive avoidances and prohibitions, becomes salient. These groups can be designated not only as "less clean" than some other but also, in one or another degree and sense, as "unclean." Starting with this level whose "uncleanliness" is the concern of only Brahmans and the most orthodox individuals—that is, those who attempt to mimic Brahmans' ways of life—in the upper-status thar s, each successively lower level is progressively more contaminating, in relation to the extent of the upper levels who are vulnerable to them, to the conditions under which they become polluting, and to the "quantities" of pollution that they can transmit.

XIII. The borderline-clean thar s. This group contains ten (or in some listings eleven) thar s who perform personal services or who engage in crafts or in "ritual"^[23] activities that render them contaminating to high-status people. The thar s at this level do not intermarry or interdine together. Each group tends to marry members of the same thar in

other Valley towns. Each thar within the level tends to consider itself higher than the other thar s in the group. For Brahmans and for many or most individuals in the upper three or four levels, water touched by members at this level (and below) was considered polluting. in the last twenty or so years for less strict individuals in these upper levels, water-unacceptability has begun at level XV, the Jugi.

Many of the families and individuals in these thar s now make their living primarily from farming, small shops and business enterprises, and government jobs, but we will list the traditionally thar -ascribed occupations still practiced by some or many individuals in each group. Gatha are performers of the major ritual dance cycle, the Nine Durgas cycle, during which they incarnate a particular set of deities (see chap. 15). They are also growers of flowers for religious use. Bha perform actions in the course of upper-status death ceremonies to help assure a human form for the spirit of the dead person (chap. 10, app. 6). Kata: women cut umbilical cords and dispose of placentas following birth. Cala(n) lead funeral processions to clear the route and prevent inauspicious cross traffic at crossroads. Kusa: are litter or palanquin bearers. Nau are barbers, who do both cosmetic shaving and haircuts and are essential for major "ritual" purification (chaps. 10 and 11). Kau are ironworkers and blacksmiths. Pu(n) are painters of religious objects and makers of masks used in religious ceremonies. Sa:mi are pressers of mustard seed for the production of a commonly used kind of oil.^[24] Chipa are dyers of cloth. A few remaining families m a thar called "Pasi" are now considered to be at this level. Some members of the Pasi thar traditionally had the duty on the tenth day following a death to wash contaminated clothes worn during the ten-day mourning period by the chief mourner in upper-status thar s (app. 6). This thar probably once had a considerably lower status.^[25]

We call this group (level XIII) "borderline unclean" in that there is now an optional response to them by higher-status people as water-unacceptable and they are not considered by middle-ranked groups to be unclean. Their marginality is reflected in their treatment in previous descriptions and records of Newar status levels.^[26] In contrast to the groups still lower than they are, they participate along with the clean thar s in one of the most significantly Newar rites of passage, the mock-marriage, or Ihi (app. 6).

Starting with the next group, the Nae, we enter the clearly contaminating segments of the status system.

XIV. Nae . There is one thar at this level, the Nae, who use various thar names. These are hereditary butchers who slaughter water buffaloes and sell their meat.^[27]

Below this level there are some five or six (depending on whether the Halahulu are to be considered as a "macrostatus level") of the city's lowest ranks. Only two of these, Jugi and Po(n), now have more than a very few members, but those two are of major significance in the status system in both the services they perform and their use in giving intellectual representation and emotional significance to the low end of the status system (chaps. 10 and 11).

XV. Jugi . Members of this group use three thar names, Darsandhari^[*] , Kapali, and Kusle. There is another thar , Danya, which is ranked with the Jugis by others, but that the Jugis and the Danyas themselves consider an inferior thar , performing pollution-accumulating services for the Jugis in the Jugis' death ceremonies. The Jugis are musicians, hereditary performers on the mwali , a double-reed instrument, and also on certain kinds of drums (Hoerburger 1975, 71-74). They have important functions during the course of death ceremonies (chap. 10, app. 6).

XVI. Do(n) . Members of this thar play a kind of trumpet, used during funeral processions of high-status people.^[28]

XVII. Kulu . The members of this thar were traditionally drummakers, whose use of animal skins for drum heads accounted for their low status.

The next levels are the true "untouchables," whose functions and prescribed way of life follows traditional South Asian patterns. For Bhaktapur the focal and most clearly defined untouchables are the Po(n)s. The other two categories are ambiguous.

XVIII. Po(n) or Pore .^[29] The members of this level are one thar , whose thar name is Matangi^[*] . These are sweepers, cleaners of latrines, fishermen, and makers of certain kinds of baskets. They have important "ritual" functions as accumulators of pollution (in relation to death and more generally) and of "bad luck" (chaps. 10, 11). They must live just

outside the city boundaries, and thus help define those boundaries and the meaning of city space (chap. 7).

XIX. Cyamakhala :. The Po(n)'s function as transporters of fecal material may have been one of the occupations ascribed in earlier periods to a still lower thar , the Cyamakhala:. Nineteenth-century accounts give the traditional occupations of the Po(n)s such as fishermen, executioners, dog killers, and basket-makers (Oldfield [1880] 1974; Hamilton [1819] 1971; Earle 1901 [cited in Chattopadhyay 1923]; Hodgson n.d.), but specify that they will not remove "night soil" which is said to be the function of the still lower Cyamakhala: (Chattopadhyay 1923, 546, 558). One account (Hamilton) described the Cyamakhala: as "dressers of leather" and "shoemakers," which is what the Sanskrit origin of the name (Manandhar 1975, 123) means. There is one household in Bhaktapur that is still designated as Cyamakhala:. Some of its members have subordinate "ritual" relations to the Po(n)s, accepting polluting offerings during death rituals.

XXI. Halahulu . This is a miscellaneous category of true outcastes—drifters and beggars, Newars, and others, who have been excluded from the status system for one reason or another, but are sometimes listed as a lowest social category. There were none in Bhaktapur at the time of this study, but they were said to exist in Kathmandu.^[30] They are inferior to the Po(n)s (as well as the Cyamakhalas:) and, it is said, sometimes perform polluting ritual functions for them.