Castes and Tribes of Southern India/Mehtar

by Edgar Thurston

Mehtar.— A few Mehtars are returned, in the Madras Census Report, 1901, as a Central Provinces caste of scavengers. " This name," Yule and Burnell write, §^[1] " is usual in Bengal, especially for the domestic servant of this class. The word is Pers., comp. mihtar (Lat. major), a great personage, a prince, and has been applied to the class in question in irony, or rather in consolation. But the name has so completely adhered in this application, that all sense of either irony or consolation has perished. Mehtar is a sweeper, and nought else. His wife is the Matranee. It is not unusual to hear two Mehtars hailing each other as Mahārāj! "

1. § Hobson-Jobson.