Poundra (caste)

Poundra, earlier known as Pod, is a Hindu community originating from Bengal.^[1] Traditionally located outside the four-tier ritual varna system, the Poundras have been historically subject to acute discrimination — including untouchability — and remain a marginal group in modern Bengal.^[1][2] As of 2011, their population was around two and a half million;^[3] they are classed as a Scheduled Caste in West Bengal.^[1]

History

Medieval Bengal

No mention of the Pods is found in the Bṛhaddharma Upapuraṇa (c. 13th century^[a]), which is the earliest known document to chronicle a hierarchy of castes in Bengal.^[4][b] The Brahma Vaivarta Purana, notable for a very late Bengali recension c. 14/15th century, records "Paundrakas" to be the son of a Vaisya father and Sundini mother but it is unknown if the groups are connected.^[5] Mentions are scarce in medieval vernacular literature.

Colonial Bengal

In his 1891 survey of castes, Herbert Hope Risley documented the Pods to be a branch of the Chandala; they were subject to untouchability by the Brahmins as well as the Navasakhas.^[1] A majority were peasants though some had become traders, and even zamindars.^[1]

In the late nineteenth century, two influential members of the Pod community — Benimadhab Halder and Srimanta Naskar — produced numerous tracts of caste history, as was a common feature of that time. Arguing a descent from the "Poundras" — mentioned across a spectrum of Brahminical literature — they sought to establish the Pods as

The Poundras remain vulnerable to casteist discrimination in 21st century Bengal.[6]

Notes

References