150 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
That this name Parwari is a very ancient name is proved by the fact that it occurs in Ptolemy’s. He uses the word ‘Pauravardi’ which probably is a misspelling or mispronounciation of the word Parwari*. What does the word Parvari mean ? It is, of course, a difficult question to answer. For all that one knows it means dependence which is the root meaning of the word ‘Pariwar’ of which ‘ Parwari’ appears to be corruption. The broken tribes even undoubtedly dependent for their means of livelihood upon the village community and the village community might very appropriately designated by the descriptive name ‘Parwari’ those broken tribe men who were strangers to the community but were dependent upon it. It might be mentioned here that the term ‘Parwari’ which was in vogue was not confined to what is known as the Mahar community. It was used in a general sense. As there is documentary evidence to show that at any rate it included also the community which is now known as the Mang community. The term ‘ Parwari’, therefore, seems to have been applied to all men who came and settled as strangers to the village community. Not only the term ‘Parwari’ is a composite term but the term Mahar is also a composite term and does not connote a common origin. The Mahar community appears to be composite community and includes within it a strata which is high in origin and a strata which is low in origin. This is indicated by the different ‘Kuls’ of the Mahars. Those whose ‘Kuls’ fall within the 96 belong to the higher strata, those whose ‘Kuls’ do not fall within them fall in the lower strata. But a common name Mahar which has been in existence for the last so many hundred years has produced in them a consciousness of kind which has destroyed any notions of high or low. But it is just as well for students of ethnology that what is now known as Mahar community is in its origin a conglomeration of broken parts of different tribes who had nothing in common except that they were the ‘Parwaris’, that is, the dependents of the village community.
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*The word ‘Parwari’ has been used in a Government letter of state of Baroda also. For the same see Appendix No. VII on Page No. 472 in Part 1 of this Volume.—Editors.