Page 172 - DSOC201_SOCIAL_STRUCTURE_AND_SOCIAL_CHANGE_ENGLISH

Unit 7: Jajmani System

Jajmani system or Yajmani system was a Indian social caste system and its interaction between Notes
upper castes and lower castes. It was an economic system where lower castes performed various
functions for upper castes and received grain in return.
According to the Jajmani System there is exchange of goods and services between landowing higher
castes and landless service castes. The service castes are traditionally weavers, leather workers,
blacksmiths, goldsmiths, barbers, washermen and so far constituting a group of artisans serving the
community. The landed higher castes jajman or the patron and the service castes are jajman. The
jajmani system is based on agricultural system of production and distribution of goods and services.
It is the link between the landowing high caste groups and occupational castes.
Oscar Lewis mentions that each caste groups within a village is traditionally bound to give certain
standardized services to the families of other castes. While the landowning high caste families receive
services from lower castes and in return members of the low castes receive grains.
Jajmani System as a term was introduced into Indian social anthropology and sociology by William
Wiser. In his contribution based on his study in a village in Uttar Pradesh he described how different
castes interacted with one another in the production and exchange of goods and services. With
variations this system existed throughout the country.

The term jajman originally referred to the client for whom a Brahmin priest performed
rituals, but later on it came to be referred to the patron or recipient of specialized
services.

Beidelman (1959: 6-7) has pointed out that for the providers of goods and services, besides the term
kamin other terms like purjan, pardhan, etc. are also used in different regions.
7.1 The Concept of Jajmani System

Jajmani system is a system of traditional occupational obligations. Castes in early India were
economically interdependent on one another. The traditional specialized occupation of a villager
followed the specialization assigned to his caste. The specialization of occupation led to the exchange
of services in the village society. This relationship between the ‘servicing’ and the ‘served’ castes was
not contractual, individual, impersonal, temporary, or limited but it was caste-oriented, long-termed
and broadly supportive. This system in which the durable relation between a landowning family
and the landless families that supply them with goods and services is called the jajmani system.
Yogendra Singh (1973: 186) describes jajmani system as a system governed by relationship based on
reciprocity in inter-caste relations in villages. Ishwaran (1966: 41) referring to jajmani system (called
aya in Mysore in South India) has said that it is a system in which each caste has a role to play in a
community life as a whole. This role consists of economic, social and moral functions.
Definition of Jajman and Kameen
According to Webster’s Dictionary jajman is “a person by whom a Brahmin is hired to perform religious
services, hence a patron, a client.”
Etymologically, the word jajman is derived from the Sanskrit word Yajman which means a person
who performs a Yajna and for the purpose of performance of yajna one has to hire the services of a
Brahmin. Gradually, this word came to be applied to everyone who hired services or to whom some
service was given. As N.S. Reddy observes, the farmer who engages carpenter or ironsmith for
manufacture or repair of his tools is Jajman and the carpenter and the ironsmith are kameen or
parjan. Between Jajman and Parjan the relationship is hereditary and is based on tradition. Jajmans
get a variety of jobs done by parjans, as for example, the barber dresses the hair and shaves the beard:
Kahar brings water from the well or river as the case may be, sweeper does sanitary jobs. For these
services parjans are paid something. In a majority of cases farmers in Indian villages give grains for

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