I wonder if Harshoo or any of our Indian subscribers can help with this. The word Sanis or Senis appears as an occupation description on the 1840 census of Serampore for two Hindu men listed with other servants associated with European households. I have not been able to find any likely definition in either Yule's dictionary (Hobson-Jobson) or Ivor Lewis's dictionary. Has anyone got any ideas? Sylvia

----- Original Message ----- From: "Sylvia Murphy" I wonder if Harshoo or any of our Indian subscribers can help with this. The word Sanis or Senis appears as an occupation description on the 1840 census of Serampore for two Hindu men listed with other servants associated with European households. I have not been able to find any likely definition in either Yule's dictionary (Hobson-Jobson) or Ivor Lewis's dictionary. Has anyone got any ideas? ------------------------------- Sylvia, for a second I thought you were referring to the family or surname ''Sainis'' (Su-ee-nees) that's found among us ''Mahrattas''. A variation of which is the surname Sabnis, which in turn may be a shortform of Hasabnis (another surname) -- which itself is a corruption of the term Hishebnis, which, in plain lingo, means an accountant. Men in this occupation from the old Mahratta rulers' days must have started using it as their family name. But you are seeking info on the occupation called Sanis or Senis. A Sani is a person who belongs to the ''Sani'' caste. As will be clear from the extract below, the Sanis are/were traditional malis (gardners/agriculturists/cultivators). Here you are: 1 Snipped from http://muzaffarnagar.nic.in/CHAPTER%20III.HTM [Muzaffarnagar is a fairly major city in the present-day state of Bihar.] *** OTHER HINDU CASTE *** Little need be said regarding the Bhangis, who at the last census numbered 27,279 persons. They are very numerous in all the districts of this division, but occupy a very low place in the social scale and are a purely menial caste. Occasionally they are found as agriculturists, but very seldom as regular tenants, their general work being day-labour in one form or another. They are closely followed in point of numbers by the Sanis, of whom there were 26,261 in this district in 1901. The Sanis are connected with the Malis, but in this district they have come under the influence of the Jaits and are regular cultivators rather than market-gardeners. They are far more numerous in Muzaffarnagar than in any other district of the provinces, although large numbers of them are found in Saharanpur and Bijnor. They occupy a prominent position in the first rank of cultivators, but, unlike their brethren in Saharanpur, hold very little land as proprietors. Nearly half of them are found in the Jansath tahsil, the remainder being chiefly confined to the north of the district. Nearly all the Sanis belong to the Bhagirathi subdivision of the caste. Their kinsmen, the Malis, numbered 6,078 persons, and are almost entirely confined to the Kairana tahsil. 2 More on them in this book_ The Castes and Tribes of H.E.H. the Nizam's Dominions [snippet view only] http://books.google.com/books?id=lYSd-3yL9h0C&pg=PA94&lpg=PA94&dq=old+occupations+in+india+-+Sanis&source=web&ots=aCjkHd09NM&sig=f10SfvD1Hvpmd6fNjJPTHASq-Uk&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=16&ct=result#PPA94,M1 3 Also see - http://nhrc.nic.in/Documents/ReportonTrafficking.pdf Hope this helps. Cheers, --- Harshawardhan_Bosham Nimkhedkar Nagpur, India