Narzary Mahari
Bodo
At a glance
- Called a
- Mahari
- Community
- Bodo
- Found in
- Assam, West Bengal
About
Narzary is a Bodo mahari, or clan, of Assam: the jute folk, named from narzi, dried jute leaves. Endle wrote in 1911 that the clan held jute in special honour and had to chew it at the great religious ceremonies, and Bodo writers today describe it as the clan that supplies the dried jute leaves chewed at a cremation. The name is carried as a surname. The Bodo are a Scheduled Tribe with their own traditional religion, Bathou; the clan is not a gotra or a Hindu caste.
What “Mahari” means for the Bodo
Mahari (also written mahary) is the Bodo word for a clan in Hargouri Narzary's study of Bodo myths (2018). A family's clan name is its surname, and most end in -ary or -ari, 'folk'; Endle (1911) wrote the ending ároi and called these groups sub-tribes. It is a Bodo clan in its own system, not a gotra.
Every mahari of the Bodo, with how the clan system works: the Bodo page.
Name and Origin
The name joins narzi, the dried and stored leaves of the jute plant (narzi gwran), with the Bodo ending for 'folk'. Endle wrote it Nárze-ároi (nárze, jute) and translated it 'the jute folk'. Hargouri Narzary notes that in parts of West Bengal the same clan is called Narzinary.
Historical Journey
Endle listed the Nárze-ároi seventh among the Kachari sub-tribes in 1911. He wrote that the names of most sub-tribes, apart from the first two, seemed to record the occupation, probably hereditary, by which their members had lived; of this one, that it held jute in special honour, and that on occasions of great religious ceremonies its members were bound to chew a certain quantity of jute. Narzary is one of the twelve clans counted as original in the list Hargouri Narzary gives from Bhaben Narzi (2006). In the Bodo myth of the clans as Hargouri Narzary records it, the Narzary are qualified to sprinkle holy water at religious and social ceremonies and are entrusted with growing and supplying narzi gwran for the cremation rites. Wikipedia's article on the Bodo, citing Kameswar Brahma (1998), calls it the clan associated with the cultivation and supply of jute.
How the Mahari Is Kept
Hargouri Narzary records that everyone who attends a Bodo cremation chews a little narzi gwran after a ritual bath, and again at the saradu, the rite after the cremation, in the belief that it cuts their ties with the dead; it is the Narzary's duty to supply it. The sources read do not say how widely the duty is kept today or how it differs between villages. Sources differ on the old marriage rule: Endle believed the sub-tribes had once married only within themselves, while Gurdon, editing his book, doubted it. Wikipedia's account of Kalicharan Brahma (1860 to 1938) says that followers of his Brahma reform movement came to be known as Brahmas, a surname now common among Bodo families.
Presence Across Regions
West Bengal
Tribal - Bodo
Hargouri Narzary notes that in parts of West Bengal this clan is known as Narzinary.
Stories and Legends
Jute at the great rites
Sidney Endle, writing in 1911, recorded that the jute folk held jute in special honour, and that at the great religious ceremonies its members were bound to chew a certain quantity of it. A century later, Hargouri Narzary records that at every Bodo cremation the mourners chew dried jute leaves, narzi gwran, to cut their ties with the dead, and that the Narzary are the clan entrusted with supplying them.