purification. In many cases exogamous clans are named
after other castes or subcastes. Many low castes have adopted the
names of the Rajput clans, either from simple vanity as people may
take an aristocratic surname, or because they were in the service of
Rajputs, and have adopted the names of their masters or are partly
descended from them. Other names of castes found among exogamous
groups probably indicate that an ancestor belonging to that caste was
taken into the one in which the group is found. The Bhaina tribe have
clans named after the Dhobi, Ahir, Gond, Mali and Panka castes. The
members of such clans pay respect to any man belonging to the caste
after which they are named and avoid picking a quarrel with him;
they also worship the family gods of the caste.

Territorial names are very common, and are taken from that of some
town or village in which the ancestor of the clan or the members of the
clan themselves resided. [90] The names are frequently distorted, and
it seems probable that the majority of the large number of clan names
for which no meaning can be discovered were those of villages. These
unknown names are probably more numerous than the total of all those
classes of names to which a meaning can be assigned.

49. Totemistic clans.

The last class of exogamous divisions are those called totemistic,
when the clan is named after a plant or animal or other natural
object. These are almost universal among the non-Aryan or primitive
tribes, but occur also in most Hindu castes, including some of the
highest. The commonest totem names are those of the prominent animals,
including several which are held sacred by the Hindus, as _bagh_
or _nahar_, the tiger; _bachas_, the calf; _morkuria_, the peacock;
_kachhwaha_ or _limuan_, the tortoise; _nagas_, the cobra; _hasti_, the
elephant; _bandar_, the monkey; _bhainsa_, the buffalo; _richharia_,
the bear; _kuliha_, the jackal; _kukura_, the dog; _karsayal_,
the deer; _heran_, the black-buck, and so on. The utmost variety
of names is found, and numerous trees, as well as rice, kodon and
other crops, salt, sandalwood, cucumber, pepper, and some household
implements, such as the pestle and rolling-slab, serve as names of
clans. Names which may be held to have a totemistic origin occur
even in the highest castes. Thus among the names of eponymous Rishis
or saints, Bharadwaj means a lark, Kaushik may be from the _kusha_
grass, Agastya from the _agasti_ flower,