Castes and Tribes of Southern India/Dhōbi

by Edgar Thurston

Dhōbi.— A name used for washerman by Anglo-Indians all over India. The word is said to be derived from dhōha, Sanskrit, dhāv, to wash. A whitish grey sandy efflorescence, found in many places, from which, by boiling and the addition of quicklime, an alkali of considerable strength is obtained, is called Dhōbi's earth.*^[1] "The expression dhobie itch," Manson writes,†^[2] "although applied to any itching ringworm-like affection of any part of the skin, most commonly refers to some form of epiphytic disease of the crutch or axilla (armpit)." The disease is very generally supposed to be communicated by clothes from the wash, but Manson is of opinion that the belief that it is contracted from clothes which have been contaminated by the washerman is probably not very well founded.

Dhōbi is the name, by which the washerman caste of the Oriyas is known. "They are said,"Mr. Francis writes,‡^[3] "to have come originally from Orissa. Girls are generally married before maturity, and, if this is not possible, they have to be married to a sword or a tree, before they can be wedded to a man. Their ordinary marriage ceremonies are as follows. The bridal pair bathe in water brought from seven different houses. The bridegroom puts a bangle on the bride's arm (this is the binding part of the ceremony); the left and right wrists of the bride and bridegroom are tied together; betel leaf and nut are tied in a corner of the bride's cloth, and a myrabolam (Terminalia fruit) in that of the bridegroom; and finally the people present in the pandal (booth) throw rice and saffron (turmeric) over them. Widows and divorced women may marry again. They are Vaishnavites, but some of them also worship Kāli or Durga. They employ Bairāgis, and occasionally Brāhmans, as their priests. They burn their dead, and perform srāddha (annual memorial ceremony). Their titles are Chetti (or Mahā Chetti) and Bēhara." The custom of the bridal pair bathing in water from seven different houses obtains among many Oriya castes, including Brāhmans. It is known by the name of pāni-tula. The water is brought by married girls, who have not reached puberty, on the night preceding the wedding day, and the bride and bridegroom wash in it before dawn. This bath is called koili pāni snāno, or cuckoo water-bath. The koil is the Indian koel or cuckoo (Eudynamis honorata), whose crescendo cry ku-il, ku-il, is trying to the nerves during the hot season.

The following proverbs * ^[4]relating to washermen may be quoted: —

Get a new washerman, and an old barber.

The washerman knows the defects of the village (i.e., he learns a good deal about the private affairs of the various families, when receiving and delivering the clothes).

When a washerman gets sick, his sickness must leave him at the stone. The stone referred to is the large stone, on which the washerman cleans cloths, and the proverb denotes that,

however sick a washerman may be, his work must be done.

1. * Yule and Burnell, Hobson-Jobson.
2. † Tropical Diseases,
3. ‡ Madras Census Report, 1901.
4. * Rev. II. Jensen. Classified Collection of Tamil Proverbs, 1897.