Kawar

Clans and Kinship

Russell and Hira Lal (1916) describe eight endogamous divisions: Tanwar or Umrao, the zamindars' group; Kamalbansi, 'stock of the lotus'; Paikara, by far the largest; Dudh-Kawar; Rathia, from the Rath tract of Raigarh; Chanti; Cherwa; and Rautia. Each is divided into exogamous septs, 117 of which had been recorded, generally named after an animal, plant or object. Members of a sept named after a living thing usually think themselves descended from it, do not harm it, and break an earthen pot as if in mourning when they hear of the death of one; at a Paikara wedding each party shows a little figure of its sept animal made of flour. Marriage within the sept and between the children of a brother and a sister is forbidden. The Odisha research institute (2017) calls these lineages gotiar or gotra and records patrilineal descent and patrilocal residence.

Septs first as Russell and Hira Lal (1916, vol. 3, pp. 392-393) list them, a selection of the 117 then recorded, with their meanings, followed by four named elsewhere in the article; then a few more from the list in the Odisha SC and ST Research and Training Institute's booklet The Kawar (2017), which repeats most of Russell's names. Russell's spellings are kept.

In the Official Lists

• Scheduled Tribe

  Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Odisha, Bihar

  Listed as: Kawar, Kanwar, Kaur, Cherwa, Rathia, Tanwar, Chattri

  That is the entry in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra; in Jharkhand 'Kawar', in Odisha 'Kawar, Kanwar', in Bihar 'Kanwar' in the compilation and 'Kawar' in the 2011 census table.

Checked against the 2011 census table of each state and Wikipedia's compilation of the order; amendments after 2011 were not checked. The long entry names several of the tribe's own divisions (Cherwa, Rathia, Tanwar), so the census count includes them.

Checked on 2026-11-07 against the sources below. The lists are amended from time to time and can differ by district; for a certificate, the current order or the state's list is what counts.

Name and Origin

The Kawar trace their descent from the Kauravas of the Mahabharata. In the story Russell and Hira Lal (1916) record, only two pregnant women survived the great battle and fled to the hills of central India, where they sheltered in the houses of a Rawat and a Dhobi, and the boy and girl born to them were the first Kawars; Russell treats the descent as a legend drawn from the likeness of the names, and notes the tribe's old ties with the Rawats. The Odisha research institute's booklet (2017) repeats the Kaurava story and records that the Kawar of Odisha say they came from Ranchi district.

History

Russell and Hira Lal (1916), working from Hira Lal's own inquiries, place the Kawar in the hill country of the northern zamindari estates of Bilaspur and the states of Jashpur, Udaipur, Sarguja, Chang Bhakar and Korea, a tract sometimes called the Kawaran after them, with a total of nearly 200,000. Eight Bilaspur zamindars were Kawars. The Paikara division takes its name from paik, foot-soldier, and Russell records that its men had served in the armies of the Haihayavanshi kings of Ratanpur. The zamindar families, of the Tanwar division, had begun to call themselves Tomara Rajputs. In Odisha the tribe lives in Sundargarh, Jharsuguda and Nuapada districts (SCSTRTI, 2017).

Faith and Worship

Russell and Hira Lal (1916) record a supreme being, Bhagwan, identified with the sun, and many local deities: the Jhagra Khand, a two-edged sword that the Paikara worship at Dasahra; Bagharra Deo, the tiger, worshipped in every village to protect the cattle; Thakur Deo, god of agriculture, to whom the whole village offers rice at the start of the rains; the Sat Bahini, seven sister goddesses of the rivers; and hill goddesses such as Mandwa Rani of the Mandwa hill in Korba. Russell found that Kawar weddings followed Hindu ritual in most respects but without Brahman priests.

Deities named in the sources: Thakur Deo, Bagharra Deo, Mandwa Rani

Customs

Russell and Hira Lal (1916) note that among the Kawar the proposal of marriage always comes from the boy's father, and that a girl's family signals its acceptance by cooking pej, rice-water, for the boy's messengers; the bride-price, suk, is a fixed amount of cash, rice, pulses and oil that differs by division. The wedding follows Hindu ritual without Brahman priests. The Odisha booklet (2017) records that men and women dance the Karma together at festivals and weddings.

Festivals

Stories and Legends