Prajapati

Clans and Kinship

The community is divided into endogamous sub-castes. William Crooke (1896) recorded the Bardhiya, Chakbais, Gadhere, Gola, Kanaujiya, Mahar and Mathuriya in the North-Western Provinces, with the Kasgar as a mostly Muslim branch, and Russell and Hira Lal (1916) found territorial sub-castes in the Central Provinces, such as the Malwi, Telenga, Pardeshi and Maratha, and a Lingayat division. In Rajasthan Wikipedia names the Mathera, Kheteri, Marwara, Timria and Mawalia. In the east of the North-Western Provinces, Crooke writes, marriage was barred in the lines of the father's and mother's brothers and sisters (chachera, mamera, phuphera, mausera) as long as a relationship was remembered; he found no exogamous sections there. Wikipedia notes clan exogamy among the Kumhars of Punjab and Rajasthan.

No list is given: Crooke (1896) found no exogamous sections among the Kumhars of the North-Western Provinces, and Russell and Hira Lal (1916) name sub-castes but no exogamous groups. Wikipedia notes clan exogamy among the Kumhars of Punjab and Rajasthan without naming the clans.

In the Official Lists

• Other Backward Class (central list)

  Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Odisha

  In Rajasthan the entry sets Kumhar and Kumawat in the same row, and in Gujarat the Kumhars are listed with Prajapati groups; the exact wording of each entry was not checked.

The states are those for which Wikipedia cites the central list of the National Commission for Backward Classes (Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh) or copies of it (Gujarat and Odisha). Wikipedia also says the Kumhars of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are OBCs, without citing a list. The NCBC list could not be opened for this check, and each state keeps its own list; confirm the current entries.

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

Kumhar comes from the Sanskrit kumbhakara, a maker of water-jars (William Crooke, 1896; Russell and Hira Lal, 1916). Wikipedia records a Kumhar legend of the name Prajapati: Brahma shared out sugarcane among his sons, and the one who was absorbed in his work and kept his piece found that it had taken root and grown into a whole plant, which he gave to Brahma, who honoured him with the title. Crooke found the potter's wheel revered as a form of Krishna or of Prajapati, and recorded Kopa Bhagat, a saint said to have lived at Jagannath, as the community's ancestor in the North-Western Provinces. In the Central Provinces Russell and Hira Lal recorded the legend of Kulalaka, who made the vessels for Shiva's wedding with Vishnu's discus as his wheel.

History

Crooke counted 773 sub-divisions of the Hindu branch and 52 of the Muslim branch at the 1891 census of the North-Western Provinces, and Russell and Hira Lal nearly 120,000 Kumhars in the Central Provinces in 1911, most of them in the northern and eastern districts. The Sirsa settlement report of 1879 and the Ferozepur gazetteer of 1915, as summarised on Wikipedia, describe Kumhars of the Punjab, known as Bagri or Maru Kumhars, who owned and farmed whole villages around Abohar. At Nepal's 2011 census 62,399 people were recorded as Kumhar, most of them in Madhesh Province.

Faith and Worship

Most of the community is Hindu, with Muslim and Sikh families. Crooke (1896) found Kopa Bhagat worshipped in many places as Bare Parukh, the great old man, mostly by women, and Sitala honoured in the month of Chait. Russell and Hira Lal (1916) record that the Lingayat Kumhars of the Central Provinces bury their dead in the practice of their sect.

Customs

In the Central Provinces, Russell and Hira Lal write, matches were usually arranged at caste feasts and a Brahman officiated at the wedding, though in Betul the husband of the bride's paternal aunt performed it; divorce and widow remarriage were allowed. Crooke records the full rite, the dola and a simpler rite for widows in the North-Western Provinces, with separation decided before the caste council.