tes of towns, but one or two of these, such as the Sunar
or goldsmith and Kasar or brass-worker, have risen in the world owing
to the prosperity or importance of their members, and now rank above
the Kurmi. The Kurmi's status appears to be that of the cultivator
and member of the village community, but a large proportion of the
Kurmis are recruited from the non-Aryan tribes, who have obtained
land and been admitted into the caste, and this tends to lower the
status of the caste as a whole. In the Punjab Kurmis apparently do
not hold land and are employed in grass-cutting, weaving, and tending
horses, and are even said to keep pigs. [83] Here their status is
necessarily very low as they follow the occupations of the impure
castes. The reason why the Kurmi as cultivator ranks above the village
handicraftsmen may perhaps be that industrial pursuits were despised
in early times and left to the impure Sudras and to the castes of
mixed descent; while agriculture and trade were the occupations of
the Vaishya. Further, the village artisans and menials were supported
before the general use of current coin by contributions of grain from
the cultivators and by presents of grain at seed-time and harvest;
and among the Hindus it is considered very derogatory to accept a
gift, a man who does so being held to admit his social inferiority to
the giver. Some exception to this is made in the case of Brahmans,
though even with them the rule partly applies. Of these two reasons
for the cultivator's superiority to the menial and artisan castes
the former has to a large extent lost its force. The handicrafts are
no longer considered despicable, and, as has been seen, some of the
urban tradesmen, as the Sunar and Kasar, now rank above the Kurmi, or
are at least equal to him. Perhaps even in ancient times these urban
artificers were not despised like the village menials, as their skill
was held in high repute. But the latter ground is still in full force
and effect in the Central Provinces at least: the village artisans are
still paid by contributions from the cultivator and receive presents
from him at seed-time and harvest. The remuneration of the village
menials, the blacksmith, carpenter, washerman, tanner, barber and
waterman is paid at the rate of so much grain per plough of land
according to the estimated value of the work done by them for the
cultivators during the year. Other village tradesmen, as the potter,
oilman and liquor-vendor,