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Jalia Kaibarta (or Jaliya Kaibartta), is a Hindu caste or community, traditionally engaged in the occupation of fishing and originally belongs to the Indian states of Odisha, West Bengal, Assam and eastern Bihar. The Kaibartas were initially considered a single tribe or caste divided into two groups, Jaliya and Haliya. Jaliya Kaibartas are categorized as a Scheduled Caste, though the Haliya Kaibartas or Mahishyas are not.
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Legendary origin
Writing in 1892, Herbert Hope Risley noted:
Concerning the etymology of the name Kaibartta there has been considerable difference of opinion. Some derive it from ka, water, and vartta, livelihood; but Lassen says* that the use of ka in this sense is extremely unusual in early Sanskrit, and that the true derivation is Kivarta, a corruption of Kimparta, meaning a person following a low or degrading occupation. This, he adds, would be in keeping with the pedigree assigned to the caste in Manu, where the Kaibarta, also known as Márgava or Dása, is said to have been begotten by a Nisháda father and an Ayogavi mother, and to subsist by his labour in boats. On the other hand, the Brahma-Yaívartta Purána gives the Kaibartta a Kshatriya father and a Vaishya mother, a far more distinguished parentage ; for the Ayogavi, being born from a Shudra father and a Vaishya mother, is classed as pratiloma, begotten against the hair, or in the inverse order of the precedence of the castes.
History
The Kaibarttas of Bengal were initially considered a single tribe or caste. However, the Haliya or Chasi Kaibarttas (farmers) eventually broke away from the Jaliya or Jele Kaibarttas (fishermen) and "succeeded in getting recognition as a separate caste under the name of Mahishya". The Mahishyas formed a tight-knit social group; the movement to gain recognition as a caste separate from the Kaibarttas gained momentum in 1897, when the Mahishyas formed the Jati Nirdharani Samiti (Caste Assignment Forum).