Kachhi (caste)


The Kachhi are a caste group with origins in India. The Kachhi caste are part of a wider community that claims a common descent. This community is known as the Kushwaha.

Lineage

The Kachhi claim descent from Kusha, a son of the mythological Rama, who is considered to be an avatar of Vishnu. This enables their claim to be of the Suryavansh - or Solar - dynasty but this is a myth developed in the twentieth century. Earlier, the branches that form the Kushwaha community - the Mauryas, Kachhis, Kachwahas and Koeris - favoured a connection with Shiva and Shakta. Ganga Prasad Gupta claimed in the 1920s that Kushwaha families worshiped Hanuman - described by Pinch as "the embodiment of true devotion to Ram and Sita" - during Kartika, a month in the Hindu lunar calendar.
In Uttar Pradesh, Kachhis are vegetable-cultivators who traditionally cultivate on their comparatively smaller landholdings without aid of animals.