Kadera, Kandera, Golandaz, Bandar, Hawaidar.1—A small occupational caste of makers of fireworks. The Kaderas numbered 2200 persons in 1911, and were most numerous in the Narsinghpur District. They consider themselves to have come from Bundelkhand, where the caste is also found, but it is in greatest strength in the Gwalior State. In former times Kaderas were employed to manufacture gunpowder and missiles of iron, and serve cannon in the Indian armies. The term Golandaz or ‘ball-thrower’ was also applied to native artillerymen. The Bandar or ‘rocket-throwers’ were a separate class, who fired rockets containing missiles, the name being derived from van, an arrow. With them may be classed the Deg-andaz or ‘mortar-throwers,’ who used thick earthenware pots filled with powder and having fuses attached, somewhat resembling the modern bomb—missiles which inflicted dreadful wounds.2 Mr. Irvine writes of the Mughal artillery as follows: “The fire was never very rapid. Orme speaks of the artillery firing once in a quarter of an hour. In 1721 the usual rate of fire of heavy guns was once every three hours. Artillery which fired once in two gharis or forty-four minutes was praised for its rapidity of action. The guns were usually posted behind the clay walls of houses; or they might take up a commanding position on the top of a brick-kiln; or a temporary entrenchment might be formed out of the earthen bank and ditch which usually surround a grove of mango-trees.” Hawaidar is a term for a maker of fireworks, while the name Kandera itself may perhaps be derived from kand, an arrow.

In Narsinghpur the Kaderas have three subcastes, Rajput or Dangiwara, Dhunka, and Matwala. The first claim to be Rajputs, but the alternative name of Dangiwara indicates that they are a mixed group, perhaps partly of Rajput descent like the Dangis of Saugor. It is by no means unlikely that the lower classes of Rajputs should have been employed in the avocations of the Kaderas. The term Dhunka signifies a cotton-cleaner, and some of the Kaderas may have taken up this calling, when they could no longer find employment in the native armies. Matwala means a drinker of country liquor, in which members of this group indulge. But with the exception of the Rajput Kaderas in Narsinghpur, other members of the caste also drink it.

They celebrate their marriages by walking round the sacred post. Divorce and the remarriage of widows are permitted. They have a caste committee, with a headman called Chaudhri or Mehtar, and an inferior officer known as Diwan. When a man has been put out of caste the Chaudhri first takes food with him on readmission, and for this is entitled to a fee of a rupee and a turban, while the Diwan receives a smaller cloth. These offices are hereditary. The Kaderas have no purda system, and a wife may speak freely to her father-in-law. They bury the milk-teeth of children below the ghinochi, or stand for water-pots, with the idea probably of preventing heat and inflammation in the gums. A child’s jhala or birth-hair is usually cut for the first time on the occasion of some marriage in the family, and is thrown into the Nerbudda or buried at a temple. Names are given by the Brahman on the day of birth or soon afterwards, and a second pet name is commonly used in the family. If a child sees a lamp on the chhati or sixth day after its birth they think that it will squint.

The caste employ Brahmans for religious ceremonies, but their social position is low, and they rank with castes from whom a Brahman cannot take water. On the tenth day of Jeth (May) they worship Lukman Hakim, a personage whom they believe to have been the inventor of gunpowder. He is popularly identified with Solomon, and is revered with Muhammadan rites in the shop and not in the house. A Fakir is called in who sacrifices a goat, and makes an offering of the head, which becomes his perquisite; sugar-cakes and sweet rice are also offered and given away to children, and the flesh of the goat is eaten by the family of the worshipper. Since the worship is paid only in the shop it would appear that Lukman Hakim is considered a deity foreign to the domestic religion, and is revered as having invented the substance which enables the caste to make their livelihood; and since he is clearly a Muhammadan deity, and is venerated according to the ritual of this religion by the Kaderas, who are otherwise Hindus, a recognition seems to be implied that as far at least as the Kaderas are concerned the introduction of gunpowder into India is attributed to the Muhammadans. It is not stated whether or not the month of May was selected of set purpose for the worship of the inventor of gunpowder, but it is at any rate a most appropriate season in India. At present the Kadera makes his own gunpowder and manufactures fireworks, and in this capacity he is also known as Atashbaz. The ingredients for gunpowder in Narsinghpur are a pound of saltpetre, two ounces of sulphur, and four ounces of charcoal of a light wood, such as saleh3 or the stalks of arhar.4 Water is sprinkled on the charcoal and the ingredients are pounded together in a mortar, a dangerous proceeding which is apt to cause occasional vacancies in the family circle. Arsenic and potash are also used for different fireworks, and sesamum oil is added to prevent smoke. Fireworks form a very popular spectacle in India, and can be obtained of excellent quality even in small towns. Bharbhunjas or grain-parchers now also deal in them.