Spiral, well done!
Nicely supported proof of the use of the term for 'lower caste', thank you for the clarification. It would appear then that the term does in fact carry that connotation. It would be great at this point to find someone with knowledge of the many dialects in these northern regions to help with etymology.
Berkley, you're welcome. It seems that this term is applied rather loosely to varying forms of dagger and as far as SE India, and apparantly may have more to do with the anecdote applying to Lord Egerton.
Best regards,
Jim