The Search for the Jugi Caste in Pre-Colonial Bengal

Colonial records reveal that the Jugis formed a numerous endogamous caste in the eastern parts of undivided Bengal. Even today, this Bengali-speaking community, now known as the Nāths, is present in southern Assam, Tripura, and northern Bangladesh. Scholars believe that the Jugi caste has been present in Bengal for many centuries, probably since the Pāla dynasty. However, textual sources (both in Sanskrit and Bengali) produced in medieval Bengal do not refer to this caste anywhere. I argue that the Jugis came to Bengal from somewhere in the west of India during the seventeenth century, amid economic development in the easternmost part of the Mughal Empire that fueled demand for weavers, the main occupation of the Jugis in Bengal until the nineteenth century

BENGAL · Caste · Colonialism · Endogamy · Hinduism · West bengal · Anthropological Studies and Insights · South Asian Studies and Conflicts · South Asian Studies and Diaspora