A mashk or mashq (

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

: मश्क,

Urdu Urdu (; , , ) is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the Languages of Pakistan, national language and ''lingua franca'' of Pakistan. In India, it is an Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of Indi ...

: مَشْکَ;

ISO The International Organization for Standardization (ISO ; ; ) is an independent, non-governmental, international standard development organization composed of representatives from the national standards organizations of member countries. Me ...

: ''Maśka'') is a traditional water-carrying bag, usually made of waterproofed goat-skin, from

North India North India is a geographical region, loosely defined as a cultural region comprising the northern part of India (or historically, the Indian subcontinent) wherein Indo-Aryans (speaking Indo-Aryan languages) form the prominent majority populati ...

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

and

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

. ''Mashqs'' can vary in size, from a hand-held bag, which was often used to carry liquids such as

alcohol Alcohol may refer to: Common uses * Alcohol (chemistry), a class of compounds * Ethanol, one of several alcohols, commonly known as alcohol in everyday life ** Alcohol (drug), intoxicant found in alcoholic beverages ** Alcoholic beverage, an alco ...

, to a large sized bag that comes with shoulder strap. They usually have only one narrowed opening. A person who is carrying a large ''mashk'' is called a ''māshqi'' (माश्की, ماشْکِی). Traditionally, in the northern part of the

South Asia South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...

, the larger ''mashq'' was associated with the ''

Bhishti The Bhishti or Bahishti are a Muslim tribe or found in North India, Pakistan and Nepal. They are also known as Abbasi, Bahishti Abbasi, Sheikh Abbasi and Saqqa. They often use the surnames Abbasi or Sheikh Abbasi. Bhistis traditionally se ...

'' (भिश्ती, بهِشْتِی)

subcaste A caste is a fixed social group into which an individual is born within a particular system of social stratification: a caste system. Within such a system, individuals are expected to marry exclusively within the same caste (endogamy), foll ...

who were employed as water-carriers by all other sections of society and often seen dispensing water (for a fee) in public places, gardens and construction sites. Since water came as a great relief to people and plants during the hot summer in the northern Indian plains, the term ''Bhishti'' derives from the

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

root word ''bahishti'', meaning ''heavenly''.

References

{{reflist Containers Culture of India Culture of Pakistan

See also

References