11 Dikhit; Dikhshit (Sans. dikhshita, "initiated, consecrated"), a functional division of Brâhmans." The priest specially employed to initiate a Hindu boy into the performance of his religious duties, and to give him the second birth is called a Dikhshit. The word is simply a corruption of Dikhshitri, "one who initiates." It is only boys of the upper castes, that is those who are called "the twiceborn" (dvija) who are entitled to the privilege of Diksha. But Brâhmanism has for the last thousand years and more been steadily descending into lower and lower strata of the population, absorbing one indigenous tribe after another; and hence the possession of this privilege cannot now be considered a mark of twice-born ancestry. The orthodox age for undergoing the rite of diksha is on the completion of the seventh year. The Hindu book of ceremonies, known as Karam Kand, calls it the eighth, but the figure is raised to eight by counting the nine months preceding birth as an additional year. At the present day the orthodox age is not always observed, and a boy can be initiated a year or two after if it suits the convenience of the parents to postpone incurring the expenditure which these rites entail. A boy, whatever his parentage may be, is not a full Hindu until the diksha has been performed. Up till then he is little better than a Sûdra or unregenerated person. But on and after that day he incurs the religious responsibilities to which his parents have all along intended to dedicate him, as a Christian boy does by the double rite of baptism and confirmation. Girls are never initiated as boys are; and thus a high caste woman who marries a man of the Sûdra rank cannot but become a Sûdra herself. This, I suspect, is the real explanation of the abhorrence felt by Hindus to a woman being married into a caste lower than her own. The same abhorrence has never been felt to a "twice-born" man marrying or cohabiting with a Sûdra woman; for the woman can rise to the rank of her husband, but as she has never been initiated she cannot raise the husband to her own. Thus in Manu's Code a Brâhman was allowed to take a Sûdra woman into his house; but if a Sûdra man married a Brâhman woman, the son became a Chandâla, a sinful and abominable wretch. 2. "The entire ceremony of diksha lasts some eight or nine days. Throughout those days the boy is put upon a very strict diet, and undergoes a vigorous course of ablutions. He is bathed regularly at certain hours; after the bath mustard and oil are rubbed all over his body, and he then undergoes a second bath to VOL. II. U wash them all off again. All this time he should wear nothing, day or night, but a string of the sacred grass called kusa, which is tied round his waist and to which a narrow cloth, called langoti, is attached, fastened between the legs before and behind. Meanwhile the usual homa offerings are thrown on the sacred fire by priests of the Hotri class, who have been summoned for this purpose. When the last and the greatest of the homa offerings has been made, the sacred thread (upavíta, janeú) is thrown over the left shoulder of the boy by the Dikshit, and the first act of the initiation is completed. The Dikshit then throws a cloth over his own and the boy's head, and under cover of this cloth he instils into his ear (in the undertone so that no profane ears may catch what he says) the Gâyatri and all the other sacred verses which a Hindu should utter on stated occasions every day of his life. The repetition of all these verses, and especially the Gâyatri, which is repeated first, constitutes the closing ceremony by which the boy is formally initiated into the rites of Hinduism. The boy must have heard and seen something of these rites beforehand through living with his parents; but until he has been formally initiated, and this by a Brâhman competent to discharge the office, he is a mere heathen. For some weeks after the conclusion of the ceremony the Dikshit remains with the novitiate so as to help him to perform the several daily rites and make him sufficiently perfect to be left to himself and after leaving him he continues to be his spiritual adviser for the rest of his life whenever such advice may be required." The rite is obviously analogous to the similar initiatory ceremonies which prevail among various primitive races.2 Dikhit; Dikhshit (Sans. dikhshita, "initiated, consecrated "), a powerful sept of Râjputs.-The traditions of the septs relate that they are descended from the Sûrajbansi Râjas who for fiftyone generations ruled over Ajudhya. In the fifty-first generation from Ikshwâku, Râja Durgavâhu left Ajudhya and emigrated to Gujarât, where his descendants took the title of Durgbans after their founder. In the twenty-fourth generation from him Kalyân Sâh Durgbans went to pay homage to Râja Vikramaditya, the great King of Ujjain, the supreme monarch of India. From him 1 Nesfield, Calcutta Review, CLXVII, 266; Monier Williams, Brahmanism and Hinduism, 360. 2 Frazer, Golden Bough, II, 342, sqq. 3 Elliott, Chronicles of Undo, 34, sqq. ; (about 50 B.C.) he received the title of Dikhit, which his descendants bore instead of Durgbans. For many years they remained stationary in Gujarât, and at the time when the kingdom of Kanauj was at its zenith Balbhadra Dikhit took service with the Râthaur Râja, and his grandson Jaswant saw the death of the Râja of Kanauj and the destruction of the power and family of his benefactor. The name of Balbhadra's father was Samapradhân, which is a singular name for a Râjput, and suggests a reason why the Dikhits do not rank so high in the precedence table as they ought to do if their tradition was correct. Pradhân was the old name for a Registrar (Qânûngo), which office was only given to Kâyasths. There may be some intermixture of Kâyasth blood which spoils the purity of their Sûrajbans descent. It is curious that in the two sets of villages bordering on old Dikhtiyâna and now held by Dikhits, there are traditions that the land once belonged to Kâyasths, who, when hard pressed by their enemies, obtained help from the Dikhits by ceding part of their villages to them. If the above hypothesis be true, the Kâyasths in this case only called in their own distant kindred. Jaswant Sinh had four sons, the eldest of whom remained in Samoni, and his descendants possess the estate to this day. The second, Udhaybhân, migrated into Oudh and colonized the district of Dikhtiyâna. The third, Banwâri, went still further north, crossing the Ghagra and Râpti, and, choosing a safe retreat in the sub-Himalayan forests, founded there the great Sirnet Râj of Bânsi. The fourth, Khairâj, migrated to the east, and, settling down in the district of Partâbgarh, took the town of Bilkhar, whence his descendants are known as Bilkhariyas. The further fortunes of the sept are given in great detail by Sir C. Elliott. 2. The Dikhtiyâna territory is said to have extended from the borders of Baiswâra on the east, to Sandi Pâli on the west, and from the Gomati to the Ganges, including fourteen parganas. Whatever be their claim to an extensive dominion in the west, there can be no doubt that during this period the Dikhit Râja held a very high position in the country, and that this was the time when Dikhtiyâna became famous as a geographical expression. The list of marriages preserved by the bard proves this, containing, as it does, the names of the daughters of the Jângra Râja of Dhaurahra, the Bachgoti of Korar, the Gautam of Argal, the Bandhalgoti of Garh Amethi, and the Bisen of Mânikpur. With an Oudh Rajput it is always an object of ambition to marry his daugh VOL. II. U 2 ters into a family of a higher rank and position than his own, whatever the attendant expense may be. The chiefs of Eastern Oudh make it their ambition to marry their daughters only into the great Kachhwâha and Chauhân clans of Mainpuri and Etâwah; that they should have chosen the Râja of Dikhtiyâna for their son-in-law is a proof that at that time his rank and influence were as great as those of the older Western Râjas are now. 3. The sept in pargana Pachotar of Ghâzipur is called from the country they occupy Pachtoriya. They The Dikhits of the North-west Provinces. claim to be Sûrajbansis of Ajudhya, whence they emigrated to Gujarât. The Ghâzipur branch say that they came from Bulandshahr about twenty generations ago, and now occupy nearly the whole of the Pachotar pargana. In Azamgarh3 they have been dispossessed of most of their property by the Birwârs. There is another Azamgarh sept known as Dikhitwâr, who are probably their kindred. They say that their ancestors came from somewhere in the west and occupied untenanted land, where the sept now resides. According to Sir H. M. Elliot, they give their daughters in marriage to the Sombansi, Raghubansi, Gaharwâr, and Bais, and take brides from the Sengar, Donwâr, and Kausik septs. In Oudh they have recently been allied only with neighbouring clans-Sengar, Sakarwâr, Raikwâr, Janwâr, etc., and infanticide used to be the general rule of the sept. Marriage connections. 4. In Unâo the Dikhits generally give brides to the Chauhân, Bhadauriya, Kachhwâha, Sengar, and Râthaur septs beyond the Ganges, and occasionally to the Panwâr they generally marry their sons in the Janwâr, Bisen, Mahror, Gautam or Chauhân septs of the district, Sombansi, Raghubansi, Amethiya, Gaharwâr, Kath, Bais, Gahlot, Panwâr, or Solankhi septs. Distribution of the Dikhit Rajputs according to the Census |