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Russell + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India - Volume IV of IV + Kumhar-Yemkala + +Author: R.V. Russell + +Release Date: February 25, 2007 [EBook #20668] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TRIBES AND CASTES OF INDIA *** + + + + +Produced by Jeroen Hellingman and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net/ (This file was +produced partly from images generously made available by +The Internet Archive/Million Book Project) + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class="front"> +<div class="titlePage"> +<h1 class="docTitle">The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India</h1> +<h2 class="byline">By +<br> +<span class="docAuthor">R.V. Russell</span><br> +Of the Indian Civil Service Superintendent of Ethnography, Central Provinces<br> +Assisted by<br> +<span class="docAuthor">Rai Bahadur Hira Lāl</span><br> +Extra Assistant Commissioner +</h2> +<h2 class="docImprint"><i>Published Under the Orders of the Central Provinces Administration</i> +<br> +In Four Volumes<br> +Vol. IV. +<br> +Macmillan and Co., Limited St. Martin’s Street, London. +<br> +1916 +</h2> +</div><a id="d0e106"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e106">v</a>]</span><div id="d0e107" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Contents of Volume IV</h2> +<h2>Articles on Castes and Tribes of the Central Provinces in Alphabetical Order</h2> +<p><i>The articles which are considered to be of most general interest are shown in capitals</i> + +</p> +<ul> +<li><a href="#d0e1057"><span class="smallcaps">Kumhār</span></a> (<i>Potter</i>) 3 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e1323"><span class="smallcaps">Kunbi</span></a> (<i>Cultivator</i>) 16 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e2065">Kunjra</a> (<i>Greengrocer</i>) 50 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e2128">Kuramwār</a> (<i>Shepherd</i>) 52 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e2166"><span class="smallcaps">Kurmi</span></a> (<i>Cultivator</i>) 55 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e4395">Lakhera</a> (<i>Worker in lac</i>) 104 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e4630">Lodhi</a> (<i>Landowner and cultivator</i>) 112 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e4877">Lohār</a> (<i>Blacksmith</i>) 120 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e5006">Lorha</a> (<i>Growers of</i> san-<i>hemp</i>) 126 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e5059">Mahār</a> (<i>Weaver and labourer</i>) 129 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e5485">Mahli</a> (<i>Forest tribe</i>) 146 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e5528">Majhwar</a> (<i>Forest tribe</i>) 149 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e5687">Māl</a> (<i>Forest tribe</i>) 153 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e5739">Māla</a> (<i>Cotton-weaver and labourer</i>) 156 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e5778"><span class="smallcaps">Māli</span></a> (<i>Gardener and vegetable-grower</i>) 159 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e6161">Mallāh</a> (<i>Boatman and fisherman</i>) 171 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e6189">Māna</a> (<i>Forest tribe, cultivator</i>) 172 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e6233">Mānbhao</a> (<i>Religious mendicant</i>) 176 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e6370">Māng</a> (<i>Labourer and village musician</i>) 184 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e6536">Māng-Garori</a> (<i>Criminal caste</i>) 189 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e6603">Manihār</a> (<i>Pedlar</i>) 193 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e6646">Mannewār</a> (<i>Forest tribe</i>) 195 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e6680"><span class="smallcaps">Marātha</span></a> (<i>Soldier, cultivator and service</i>) 198 +<a id="d0e286"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e286">vi</a>]</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e7136"><span class="smallcaps">Mehtar</span></a> (<i>Sweeper and scavenge</i>) 215 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e7658">Meo</a> (<i>Tribe</i>) 233 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e7706">Mīna or Deswāli</a> (<i>Non-Aryan tribe, cultivator</i>) 235 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e7863">Mirāsi</a> (<i>Bard and genealogist</i>) 242 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e7925"><span class="smallcaps">Mochi</span></a> (<i>Shoemaker</i>) 244 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e8101">Mowār</a> (<i>Cultivator</i>) 250 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e8125">Murha</a> (<i>Digger and navvy</i>) 252 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e8290">Nagasia</a> (<i>Forest tribe</i>) 257 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e8318">Nāhal</a> (<i>Forest tribe</i>) 259 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e8396"><span class="smallcaps">Nai</span></a> (Barber) 262 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e9022">Naoda</a> (<i>Boatman and fisherman</i>) 283 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e9044">Nat</a> (<i>Acrobat</i>) 286 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e9249">Nunia</a> (<i>Salt-refiner; digger and navvy</i>) 294 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e9296">Ojha</a> (<i>Augur and soothsayer</i>) 296 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e9360"><span class="smallcaps">Oraon</span></a> (<i>Forest tribe</i>) 299 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e9971">Pāik</a> (<i>Soldier, cultivator</i>) 321 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e9995">Panka</a> (<i>Labourer and village watchman</i>) 324 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e10157"><span class="smallcaps">Panwār Rājpūt</span></a> (<i>Landowner and cultivator</i>) 330 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e10677">Pardhān</a> (<i>Minstrel and priest</i>) 352 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e10839">Pārdhi</a> (<i>Hunter and fowler</i>) 359 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e11089">Parja</a> (<i>Forest tribe</i>) 371 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e11278">Pāsi</a> (<i>Toddy-drawer and labourer</i>) 380 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e11467">Patwa</a> (<i>Maker of silk braid and thread</i>) 385 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e11506"><span class="smallcaps">Pindāri</span></a> (<i>Freebooter</i>) 388 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e11771">Prabhu</a> (<i>Writer and clerk</i>) 399 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e11861">Rāghuvansi</a> (<i>Cultivator</i>) 403 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e11917">Rājjhar</a> (<i>Agricultural labourer</i>) 405 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e11992"><span class="smallcaps">Rājpūt</span></a> (<i>Soldier and landowner</i>) 410 + +</li> +<li><span class="smallcaps">Rājpūt Clans</span> + +<table> +<tr valign="top"> +<td> +<ul> +<li><a href="#d0e12656">Baghel</a>. + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e12694">Bāgri</a>. + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e12711">Bais</a>. + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e12722">Baksaria</a>. + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e12731">Banāphar</a>. + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e12744">Bhadauria</a>. + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e12768">Bisen</a>. + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e12776">Bundela</a>. + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e12820">Chandel</a>. + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e12891">Chauhān</a>. + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e12931">Dhākar</a>. + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e12946">Gaharwār</a>. + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e12998">Gaur</a>. + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e13023">Haihaya</a>. + +</li> +</ul> +</td> +<td> +<ul> +<li><a href="#d0e13076">Hūna</a>. + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e13091">Kachhwāha</a>. + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e13127">Nāgvansi</a>. + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e13152">Nikumbh</a>. + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e13176">Pāik</a>. + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e13188">Parihār</a>. + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e13227">Rāthor</a>. + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e13285">Sesodia</a>. + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e13348">Solankhi</a>. + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e13371">Somvansi</a>. + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e13384">Sūrajvansi</a>. + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e13397">Tomara</a>. + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e13430">Yādu</a>. + +</li> +</ul> +</td> +</tr> +</table> +<a id="d0e601"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e601">vii</a>]</span></li> +<li><a href="#d0e13448">Rajwār</a> (<i>Forest tribe</i>) 470 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e13463">Rāmosi</a> (<i>Village watchmen and labourers, formerly thieves</i>) 472 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e13565">Rangrez</a> (<i>Dyer</i>) 477 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e13631">Rautia</a> (<i>Forest tribe and cultivators, formerly soldiers</i>) 479 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e13705">Sanaurhia</a> (<i>Criminal thieving caste</i>) 483 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e13802">Sānsia</a> (<i>Vagrant criminal tribe</i>) 488 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e13999">Sānsia (Uria)</a> (<i>Mason and digger</i>) 496 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e14054">Savar</a> (<i>Forest tribe</i>) 500 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e14306">Sonjhara</a> (<i>Gold-washer</i>) 509 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e14451">Sudh</a> (<i>Cultivator</i>) 514 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e14481"><span class="smallcaps">Sunār</span></a> (<i>Goldsmith and silversmith</i>) 517 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e15117">Sundi</a> (<i>Liquor distiller</i>) 534 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e15147">Tamera</a> (<i>Coppersmith</i>) 536 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e15196">Taonla</a> (<i>Soldier and labourer</i>) 539 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e15229"><span class="smallcaps">Teli</span></a> (<i>Oilman</i>) 542 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e15595"><span class="smallcaps">Thug</span></a> (<i>Criminal community of murderers by strangulation</i>) 558 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e16246">Turi</a> (<i>Bamboo-worker</i>) 588 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e16460">Velama</a> (<i>Cultivator</i>) 593 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e16523"><span class="smallcaps">Vidur</span></a> (<i>Village accountant, clerk and writer</i>) 596 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e16655">Wāghya</a> (<i>Religious mendicant</i>) 603 + +</li> +<li><a href="#d0e16728">Yerūkala</a> (<i>Criminal thieving caste</i>) 606 +</li> +</ul><p> +<a id="d0e754"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e754">ix</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Illustrations in Volume IV</h2> +<ul> +<li>97. <a href="#d0e1146">Potter and his wheel</a> 4 + +</li> +<li>98. <a href="#d0e1505">Group of Kunbis</a> 16 + +</li> +<li>99. <a href="#d0e1884">Figures of animals made for Pola festival</a> 40 + +</li> +<li>100. <a href="#d0e1927">Hindu boys on stilts</a> 42 + +</li> +<li>101. <a href="#d0e1997">Throwing stilts into the water at the Pola festival</a> 46 + +</li> +<li>102. <a href="#d0e2039">Carrying out the dead</a> 48 + +</li> +<li>103. <a href="#d0e2519">Pounding rice</a> 60 + +</li> +<li>104. <a href="#d0e2951">Sowing</a> 84 + +</li> +<li>105. <a href="#d0e2994">Threshing</a> 86 + +</li> +<li>106. <a href="#d0e3038">Winnowing</a> 88 + +</li> +<li>107. <a href="#d0e3088">Women grinding wheat and husking rice</a> 90 + +</li> +<li>108. <a href="#d0e3164">Group of women in Hindustāni dress</a> 92 + +</li> +<li>109. <i>Coloured Plate</i>: <a href="#d0e4489">Examples of spangles worn by women on the forehead</a> 106 + +</li> +<li>110. <a href="#d0e5391">Weaving: sizing the warp</a> 142 + +</li> +<li>111. <a href="#d0e5437">Winding thread</a> 144 + +</li> +<li>112. <a href="#d0e6034">Bride and bridegroom with marriage crowns</a> 166 + +</li> +<li>113. <a href="#d0e6129">Bullocks drawing water with <i>mot</i></a> 170 + +</li> +<li>114. <a href="#d0e6440">Māng musicians with drums</a> 186 + +</li> +<li>115. <a href="#d0e6862">Statue of Marātha leader, Bīmbāji Bhonsla, in armour</a> 200 + +</li> +<li>116. <a href="#d0e8030">Image of the god Vishnu as Vithoba</a> 248 + +</li> +<li>117. <a href="#d0e8198">Coolie women with babies slung at the side</a> 256 + +</li> +<li>118. <a href="#d0e8783">Hindu men showing the <i>choti</i> or scalp-lock</a> 272 + +</li> +<li>119. <a href="#d0e9237">Snake-charmer with cobras</a> 292 + +</li> +<li>120. <a href="#d0e10416">Transplanting rice</a> 340 + +</li> +<li>121. <a href="#d0e10742">Group of Pardhāns</a> 352 + +</li> +<li>122. <a href="#d0e11785">Little girls playing</a> 400 +<a id="d0e897"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e897">x</a>]</span></li> +<li>123. <a href="#d0e11834">Gujarati girls doing figures with strings and sticks</a> 402 + +</li> +<li>124. <a href="#d0e14704">Ornaments</a> 524 + +</li> +<li>125. <a href="#d0e15365">Teli’s oil-press</a> 544 + +</li> +<li>126. <a href="#d0e16019">The Goddess Kāli</a> 574 + +</li> +<li>127. <a href="#d0e16676">Wāghya mendicants</a> 604 +</li> +</ul><a id="d0e923"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e923">xi</a>]</span></div> +<div class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Pronunciation</h2> +<p> +</p> +<div class="table"> +<table width="100%"> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top">a, has the sound of </td> +<td valign="top">u in <i>but</i> or <i>murmur</i>. +</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top">ā has the sound of </td> +<td valign="top">a in <i>bath</i> or <i>tar</i>. +</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top">e has the sound of </td> +<td valign="top">é in <i>écarté</i> or ai in <i>maid</i>. +</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top">i has the sound of </td> +<td valign="top">i in <i>bit</i>, or (as a final letter) of y in <i>sulky</i>. +</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top">ī has the sound of </td> +<td valign="top">ee in <i>beet</i>. +</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top">o has the sound of </td> +<td valign="top">o in <i>bore</i> or <i>bowl</i>. +</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top">u has the sound of </td> +<td valign="top">u in <i>put</i> or <i>bull</i>. +</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top">ū has the sound of </td> +<td valign="top">oo in <i>poor</i> or <i>boot</i></td> +</tr> +</table> +</div><p> + +</p> +<p>The plural of caste names and a few common Hindustāni words is formed by adding <i>s</i> in the English manner according to ordinary usage, though this is not, of course, the Hindustāni plural. + +</p> +<p><span class="smallcaps">Note</span>.—The rupee contains 16 annas, and an anna is of the same value as a penny. A pice is a quarter of an anna, or a farthing. +Rs. 1–8 signifies one rupee and eight annas. A lakh is a hundred thousand, and a krore ten million. + +</p> +</div> +</div><div class="body"> +<div class="div0"> +<h2 class="label">Part II</h2> +<h2>Articles on Castes and Tribes</h2> +<h2>Kumhār—Yemkala</h2> +<h2 class="label">Vol. IV</h2><a id="d0e1056"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1056">3</a>]</span><div id="d0e1057" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Kumhār</h2> +<h3>List of Paragraphs</h3> +<ul> +<li><a href="#d0e1119">1. Traditions of origin</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1150">2. Caste sub-divisions</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1179">3. Social Customs</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1188">4. The Kumhār as a village menial</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1204">5. Occupation</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1236">6. Breeding pigs for sacrifices</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1243">7. The goddess Demeter</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1264">8. Estimation of the pig in India</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1281">9. The buffalo as a corn-god</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1291">10. The Dasahra festival</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1302">11. The goddess Devi</a></li> +</ul> +<div class="div2" id="d0e1119"> +<h3>1. Traditions of origin</h3> +<p><b>Kumhār, Kumbhār</b>.—The caste of potters, the name being derived from the Sanskrit <i>kumbh</i>, a water-pot. The Kumhārs numbered nearly 120,000 persons in the Central Provinces in 1911 and were most numerous in the +northern and eastern or Hindustāni-speaking Districts, where earthen vessels have a greater vogue than in the south. The caste +is of course an ancient one, vessels of earthenware having probably been in use at a very early period, and the old Hindu +scriptures consequently give various accounts of its origin from mixed marriages between the four classical castes. “Concerning +the traditional parentage of the caste,” Sir H. Risley writes,<a id="d0e1129src" href="#d0e1129" class="noteref">1</a> “there seems to be a wide difference of opinion among the recognised authorities on the subject. Thus the Brahma Vaivārtta +Purāna says that the Kumbhakār or maker of water-jars (<i>kumbka</i>), is born of a Vaishya woman by a Brāhman father; the Parāsara Samhita makes the father a Mālākār (gardener) and the mother +a Chamār; while the Parāsara Padhati holds that the ancestor of the caste was begotten of a Tili woman by a Pattikār or weaver +of silk cloth.<span id="d0e1137" class="corr" title="Source: ">”</span> Sir Monier Williams again, in his Sanskrit Dictionary, describes them as the offspring of a Kshatriya woman by a Brāhman. +No importance can of course be attached to <a id="d0e1140"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1140">4</a>]</span>such statements as the above from the point of view of actual fact, but they are interesting as showing the view taken of +the formation of castes by the old Brāhman writers, and also the position given to the Kumhār at the time when they wrote. +This varies from a moderately respectable to a very humble one according to the different accounts of his lineage. The caste +themselves have a legend of the usual Brāhmanical type: “In the Kritayuga, when Maheshwar (Siva) intended to marry the daughter +of Hemvanta, the Devas and Asuras<a id="d0e1142src" href="#d0e1142" class="noteref">2</a> assembled at Kailās (Heaven). Then a question arose as to who should furnish the vessels required for the ceremony, and one +Kulālaka, a Brāhman, was ordered to make them. Then Kulālaka stood before the assembly with folded hands, and prayed that +materials might be given to him for making the pots. So Vishnu gave his Sudarsana (discus) to be used as a wheel, and the +mountain of Mandāra was fixed as a pivot beneath it to hold it up. The scraper was Adi Kūrma the tortoise, and a rain-cloud +was used for the water-tub. So Kulālaka made the pots and gave them to Maheshwar for his marriage, and ever since his descendants +have been known as Kumbhakār or maker of water-jars.” + + +</p> +<p></p> +<div id="d0e1146" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p097.jpg" alt="Potter and his wheel" width="720" height="407"><p class="figureHead">Potter and his wheel</p> +</div><p> + + + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e1150"> +<h3>2. Caste sub-divisions</h3> +<p>The Kumhārs have a number of subcastes, many of which, as might be expected, are of the territorial type and indicate the +different localities from which they migrated to the Central Provinces. Such are the Mālwi from Mālwa, the Telenga from the +Telugu country in Hyderābād, the Pardeshi from northern India and the Marātha from the Marātha Districts. Other divisions +are the Lingāyats who belong to the sect of this name, the Gadhewāl or Gadhere who make tiles and carry them about on donkeys +(<i>gadha</i>), the Bardia who use bullocks for transport and the Sungaria who keep pigs (<i>suar</i>). Certain endogamous groups have arisen simply from differences in the method of working. Thus the Hāthgarhia<a id="d0e1161src" href="#d0e1161" class="noteref">3</a> mould vessels with their hands only without using the wheel; the Goria<a id="d0e1169src" href="#d0e1169" class="noteref">4</a> make white or red pots only and not black ones; the Kurere mould their vessels on a stone slab revolving on a stick and not +on a wheel; while the Chakere are Kumhārs who use the wheel (<i>chāk</i>) in <a id="d0e1177"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1177">5</a>]</span>localities where other Kumhārs do not use it. The Chhutakia and Rakhotia are illegitimate sections, being the offspring of +kept women. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e1179"> +<h3>3. Social Customs</h3> +<p>Girls are married at an early age when their parents can afford it, the matches being usually arranged at caste feasts. In +Chānda parents who allow a daughter to become adolescent while still unwed are put out of caste, but elsewhere the rule is +by no means so strict. The ceremony is of the normal type and a Brāhman usually officiates, but in Betūl it is performed by +the Sawāsa or husband of the bride’s paternal aunt. After the wedding the couple are given kneaded flour to hold in their +hands and snatch from each other as an emblem of their trade. In Mandla a bride price of Rs. 50 is paid. + +</p> +<p>The Kumhārs recognise divorce and the remarriage of widows. If an unmarried girl is detected in criminal intimacy with a member +of the caste, she has to give a feast to the caste-fellows and pay a fine of Rs. 1–4 and five locks of her hair are also cut +off by way of purification. The caste usually burn the dead, but the Lingāyat Kumhārs always bury them in accordance with +the practice of their sect. They worship the ordinary Hindu deities and make an offering to the implements of their trade +on the festival of Deothān Igāras. The village Brāhman serves as their priest. In Bālāghāt a Kumhār is put out of caste if +a dead cat is found in his house. At the census of 1901 the Kumhār was ranked with the impure castes, but his status is not +really so low. Sir D. Ibbetson said of him: “He is a true village menial; his social standing is very low, far below that +of the Lohār and not much above the Chamār. His association with that impure beast, the donkey, the animal sacred to Sitala, +the smallpox goddess, pollutes him and also his readiness to carry manure and sweepings.” As already seen there are in the +Central Provinces Sungaria and Gadheria subcastes which keep donkeys and pigs, and these are regarded as impure. But in most +Districts the Kumhār ranks not much below the Barhai and Lohār, that is in what I have designated the grade of village menials +above the impure and below the cultivating castes. In Bengal the Kumhārs have a much higher status and Brāhmans will <a id="d0e1186"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1186">6</a>]</span>take water from their hands. But the gradation of caste in Bengal differs very greatly from that of other parts of India. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e1188"> +<h3>4. The Kumhār as a village menial</h3> +<p>The Kumhār is not now paid regularly by dues from the cultivators like other village menials, as the ordinary system of sale +has no doubt been found more convenient in his case. But he sometimes takes the soiled grass from the stalls of the cattle +and gives pots free to the cultivator in exchange. On Akti day, at the beginning of the agricultural year, the village Kumhār +of Saugor presents five pots with covers on them to each cultivator and receives 2½ lbs. of grain in exchange. One of these +the tenant fills with water and presents to a Brāhman and the rest he reserves for his own purposes. On the occasion of a +wedding also the bridegroom’s party take the bride to the Kumhārin’s house as part of the <i>sohāg</i> ceremony for making the marriage propitious. The Kumhār seats the bride on his wheel and turns it round with her seven times. +The Kumhārin presents her with seven new pots, which are taken back to the house and used at the wedding. They are filled +with water and are supposed to represent the seven seas. If any two of these pots accidentally clash together it is supposed +that the bride and bridegroom will quarrel during their married life. In return for this the Kumhārin receives a present of +clothes. At a funeral also the Kumhār must supply thirteen vessels which are known as <i>ghāts</i>, and must also replace the broken earthenware. Like the other village menials at the harvest he takes a new vessel to the +cultivator in his field and receives a present of grain. These customs appear to indicate his old position as one of the menials +or general servants of the village ranking below the cultivators. Grant-Duff also includes the potter in his list of village +menials in the Marātha villages.<a id="d0e1199src" href="#d0e1199" class="noteref">5</a> + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e1204"> +<h3>5. Occupation</h3> +<p>The potter is not particular as to the clay he uses and does not go far afield for the finer qualities, but digs it from the +nearest place in the neighbourhood where he can get it free of cost. Red and black clay are employed, the former being obtained +near the base of hills or on high-lying land, probably of the laterite formation, and the latter in the beds of tanks or streams. +When the clay is thoroughly kneaded <a id="d0e1209"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1209">7</a>]</span>and ready for use a lump of it is placed on the centre of the wheel. The potter seats himself in front of the wheel and fixes +his stick or <i>chakrait</i> into the slanting hole in its upper surface. With this stick the wheel is made to revolve very rapidly, and sufficient impetus +is given to it to keep it in motion for several minutes. The potter then lays aside the stick and with his hands moulds the +lump of clay into the shape required, stopping every now and then to give the wheel a fresh spin as it loses its momentum. +When satisfied with the shape of his vessel he separates it from the lump with a piece of string, and places it on a bed of +ashes to prevent it sticking to the ground. The wheel is either a circular disc cut out of a single piece of stone about a +yard in diameter, or an ordinary wooden wheel with spokes forming two diameters at right angles. The rim is then thickened +with the addition of a coating of mud strengthened with fibre.<a id="d0e1214src" href="#d0e1214" class="noteref">6</a> The articles made by the potter are ordinary circular vessels or <i>gharas</i> used for storing and collecting water, larger ones for keeping grain, flour and vegetables, and <i>surāhis</i> or amphoras for drinking-water. In the manufacture of these last salt and saltpetre are mixed with the clay to make them +more porous and so increase their cooling capacity. A very useful thing is the small saucer which serves as a lamp, being +filled with oil on which a lighted wick is floated. These saucers resemble those found in the excavations of Roman remains. +Earthen vessels are more commonly used, both for cooking and eating purposes among the people of northern India, and especially +by Muhammadans, than among the Marāthas, and, as already noticed, the Kumhār caste musters strong in the north of the Province. +An earthen vessel is polluted if any one of another caste takes food or drink from it and is at once discarded. On the occasion +of a death all the vessels in the house are thrown away and a new set obtained, and the same measure is adopted at the Holi +festival and on the occasion of an eclipse, and at various other ceremonial purifications, such as that entailed if a member +of the household has had maggots in a wound. On this account cheapness is an indispensable quality in pottery, and there is +<a id="d0e1226"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1226">8</a>]</span>no opening for the Kumhār to improve his art. Another product of the Kumhār’s industry is the <i>chilam</i> or pipe-bowl. This has the usual opening for inhaling the smoke but no stem, an impromptu stem being made by the hands and +the smoke inhaled through it. As the <i>chilam</i> is not touched by the mouth, Hindus of all except the impure castes can smoke it together, passing it round, and Hindus can +also smoke it with Muhammadans. + +</p> +<p>It is a local belief that, if an earthen pot is filled with salt and plastered over, the rains will stop until it is opened. +This device is adopted when the fall is excessive, but, on the other hand, if there is drought, the people sometimes think +that the potter has used it to keep off the rain, because he cannot pursue his calling when the clay is very wet. And on occasions +of a long break in the rains, they have been known to attack his shop and break all his vessels under the influence of this +belief. The potter is sometimes known as Prājapati or the ‘The Creator,’ in accordance with the favourite comparison made +by ancient writers of the moulding of his pots with the creation of human beings, the justice of which will be recognised +by any one who watches the masses of mud on a whirling wheel growing into shapely vessels in the potter’s creating hands. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e1236"> +<h3>6. Breeding pigs for sacrifices</h3> +<p>Certain Kumhārs as well as the Dhīmars make the breeding of pigs a means of subsistence, and they sell these pigs for sacrifices +at prices varying from eight annas (8d.) to a rupee. The pigs are sacrificed by the Gonds to their god Bura Deo and by Hindus +to the deity Bhainsāsur, or the buffalo demon, for the protection of the crops. Bhainsāsur is represented by a stone in the +fields, and when crops are beaten down at night by the wind it is supposed that Bhainsāsur has passed over them and trampled +them down. Hindus, usually of the lower castes, offer pigs to Bhainsāsur to propitiate him and preserve their crops from his +ravages, but they cannot touch the impure pig themselves. What they have to do, therefore, is to pay the Kumhār the price +of the pig and get him to offer it to Bhainsāsur on their behalf. The Kumhār goes to the god and sacrifices the pig and then +takes the body home and eats it, so that his trade is a profitable one, while conversely to sacrifice a pig without partaking +<a id="d0e1241"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1241">9</a>]</span>of its flesh must necessarily be bitter to the frugal Hindu mind, and this indicates the importance of the deity who is to +be propitiated by the offering. The first question which arises in connection with this curious custom is why pigs should +be sacrificed for the preservation of the crops; and the reason appears to be that the wild pig is the animal which, at present, +mainly damages the crops. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e1243"> +<h3>7. The goddess Demeter</h3> +<p>In ancient Greece pigs were offered to Demeter, the corn-goddess, for the protection of the crops, and there is good reason +to suppose that the conceptions of Demeter herself and the lovely Proserpine grew out of the worship of the pig, and that +both goddesses were in the beginning merely the deified pig. The highly instructive passage in which Sir J. G. Frazer advances +this theory is reproduced almost in full<a id="d0e1248src" href="#d0e1248" class="noteref">7</a>: “Passing next to the corn-goddess Demeter, and remembering that in European folklore the pig is a common embodiment of the +corn-spirit, we may now ask whether the pig, which was so closely associated with Demeter, may not originally have been the +goddess herself in animal form? The pig was sacred to her; in art she was portrayed carrying or accompanied by a pig; and +the pig was regularly sacrificed in her mysteries, the reason assigned being that the pig injures the corn and is therefore +an enemy of the goddess. But after an animal has been conceived as a god, or a god as an animal, it sometimes happens, as +we have seen, that the god sloughs off his animal form and becomes purely anthropomorphic; and that then the animal which +at first had been slain in the character of the god, comes to be viewed as a victim offered to the god on the ground of its +hostility to the deity; in short, that the god is sacrificed to himself on the ground that he is his own enemy. This happened +to Dionysus and it may have happened to Demeter also. And in fact the rites of one of her festivals, the Thesmophoria, bear +out the view that originally the pig was an embodiment of the corn-goddess herself, either Demeter or her daughter and double +Proserpine. The Thesmophoria was an autumn festival celebrated by women alone in October, and appears to have represented +with mourning rites the descent of Proserpine (or Demeter) into the lower world, and with joy her return <a id="d0e1253"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1253">10</a>]</span>from the dead. Hence the name Descent or Ascent variously applied to the first, and the name <i>Kalligeneia</i> (fair-born) applied to the third day of the festival. Now from an old scholium on Lucian we learn some details about the +mode of celebrating the Thesmophoria, which shed important light on the part of the festival called the Descent or the Ascent. +The scholiast tells us that it was customary at the Thesmophoria to throw pigs, cakes of dough, and branches of pine-trees +into ‘the chasms of Demeter and Proserpine,’ which appear to have been sacred caverns or vaults. + +</p> +<p>“In these caverns or vaults there were said to be serpents, which guarded the caverns and consumed most of the flesh of the +pigs and dough-cakes which were thrown in. Afterwards—apparently at the next annual festival—the decayed remains of the pigs, +the cakes, and the pine-branches were fetched by women called ‘drawers,’ who, after observing, rules of ceremonial purity +for three days, descended into the caverns, and, frightening away the serpents by clapping their hands, brought up the remains +and placed them on the altar. Whoever got a piece of the decayed flesh and cakes, and sowed it with the seed-corn in his field, +was believed to be sure of a good crop. + +</p> +<p>“To explain this rude and ancient rite the following legend was told. At the moment when Pluto carried off Proserpine, a swineherd +called Eubuleus chanced to be herding his swine on the spot, and his herd was engulfed in the chasm down which Pluto vanished +with Proserpine. Accordingly, at the Thesmophoria pigs were annually thrown into caverns to commemorate the disappearance +of the swine of Eubuleus. It follows from this that the casting of the pigs into the vaults at the Thesmophoria formed part +of the dramatic representation of Proserpine’s descent into the lower world; and as no image of Proserpine appears to have +been thrown in, we may infer that the descent of the pigs was not so much an accompaniment of her descent as the descent itself, +in short, that the pigs were Proserpine. Afterwards, when Proserpine or Demeter (for the two are equivalent) became anthropomorphic, +a reason had to be found for the custom of throwing pigs into caverns at her festival; and this was done by saying that when +Pluto carried off Proserpine, <a id="d0e1262"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1262">11</a>]</span>there happened to be some swine browsing near, which were swallowed up along with her. The story is obviously a forced and +awkward attempt to bridge over the gulf between the old conception of the corn-spirit as a pig and the new conception of her +as an anthropomorphic goddess. A trace of the older conception survived in the legend that when the sad mother was searching +for traces of the vanished Proserpine, the footprints of the lost one were obliterated by the footprints of a pig; originally, +we may conjecture, the footprints of the pig were the footprints of Proserpine and of Demeter herself. A consciousness of +the intimate connection of the pig with the corn lurks in the legend that the swineherd Eubuleus was a brother of Triptolemus, +to whom Demeter first imparted the secret of the corn. Indeed, according to one version of the story, Eubuleus himself received, +jointly with his brother Triptolemus, the gift of the corn from Demeter as a reward for revealing to her the fate of Proserpine. +Further, it is to be noted that at the Thesmophoria the women appear to have eaten swine’s flesh. The meal, if I am right, +must have been a solemn sacrament or communion, the worshippers partaking of the body of the god.” + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e1264"> +<h3>8. Estimation of the pig in India</h3> +<p>We thus see how the pig in ancient Greece was worshipped as a corn-deity because it damaged the crops and subsequently became +an anthropomorphic goddess. It is suggested that pigs are offered to Bhainsāsur by the Hindus for the same reason. But there +is no Hindu deity representing the pig, this animal on the contrary being regarded as impure. It seems doubtful, however, +whether this was always so. In Rājputāna on the stone which the Regent of Kotah set up to commemorate the abolition of forced +taxes were carved the effigies of the sun, the moon, the cow and the hog, with an imprecation on whoever should revoke the +edict.<a id="d0e1269src" href="#d0e1269" class="noteref">8</a> Colonel Tod says that the pig was included as being execrated by all classes, but this seems very doubtful. It would scarcely +occur to any Hindu nowadays to associate the image of the impure pig with those of the sun, moon and cow, the representations +of three of his greatest deities. Rather it gives some reason for <a id="d0e1274"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1274">12</a>]</span>supposing that the pig was once worshipped, and the Rājpūts still do not hold the wild boar impure, as they hunt it and eat +its flesh. Moreover, Vishnu in his fourth incarnation was a boar. The Gonds regularly offer pigs to their great god Bura Deo, +and though they now offer goats as well, this seems to be a later innovation. The principal sacrifice of the early Romans +was the Suovetaurilia or the sacrifice of a pig, a ram and a bull. The order of the words, M. Reinach remarks,<a id="d0e1276src" href="#d0e1276" class="noteref">9</a> is significant as showing the importance formerly attached to the pig or boar. Since the pig was the principal sacrificial +animal of the primitive tribes, the Gonds and Baigas, its connection with the ritual of an alien and at one time hostile religion +may have strengthened the feeling of aversion for it among the Hindus, which would naturally be engendered by its own dirty +habits. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e1281"> +<h3>9. The buffalo as a corn-god</h3> +<p>It seems possible then that the Hindus reverenced the wild boar in the past as one of the strongest and fiercest animals of +the forest and also as a destroyer of the crops. And they still make sacrifices of the pig to guard their fields from his +ravages. These sacrifices, however, are not offered to any deity who can represent a deified pig but to Bhainsāsur, the deified +buffalo. The explanation seems to be that in former times, when forests extended over most of the country, the cultivator +had in the wild buffalo a direr foe than the wild pig. And one can well understand how the peasant, winning a scanty subsistence +from his poor fields near the forest, and seeing his harvest destroyed in a night by the trampling of a herd of these great +brutes against whom his puny weapons were powerless, looked on them as terrible and malignant deities. The sacrifice of a +buffalo would be beyond the means of a single man, and the animal is now more or less sacred as one of the cow tribe. But +the annual joint sacrifice of one or more buffaloes is a regular feature of the Dasahra festival and extends over a great +part of India. In Betūl and other districts the procedure is that on the Dasahra day, or a day before, the Māng and Kotwār, +two of the lowest village menials, take a buffalo bull and bring it to the village proprietor, who makes a cut on its nose +and draws blood. Then it is taken all round the village and to the shrines of <a id="d0e1286"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1286">13</a>]</span>the gods, and in the evening it is killed and the Māng and Kotwār eat the flesh. It is now believed that if the blood of a +buffalo does not fall at Dasahra some epidemic will attack the village, but as there are no longer any wild buffaloes except +in the denser forests of one or two Districts, the original meaning of the rite might naturally have been forgotten.<a id="d0e1288src" href="#d0e1288" class="noteref">10</a> + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e1291"> +<h3>10. The Dasahra festival</h3> +<p>The Dasahra festival probably marks the autumnal equinox and also the time when the sowing of wheat and other spring crops +begins. Many Hindus still postpone sowing the wheat until after Dasahra, even though it might be convenient to begin before, +especially as the festival goes by the lunar month and its date varies in different years by more than a fortnight. The name +signifies the tenth day, and prior to the festival a fast of nine days is observed, when the pots of wheat corresponding to +the gardens of Adonis are sown and quickly sprout up. This is an imitation of the sowing and growth of the real crop and is +meant to ensure its success. During these nine days it is said that the goddess Devi was engaged in mortal combat with the +buffalo demon Mahisāsur or Bhainsāsur, and on the tenth day or the Dasahra she slew him. The fast is explained as being observed +in order to help her to victory, but it is really perhaps a fast in connection with the growing of the crops. A similar nine +daysfast for the crops was observed by the Greeks.<a id="d0e1296src" href="#d0e1296" class="noteref">11</a> + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e1302"> +<h3>11. The goddess Devi</h3> +<p>Devi signifies ‘<i>the</i> goddess’ <i>par excellence</i>. She is often the tutelary goddess of the village and of the family, and is held to have been originally Mother Earth, which +may be supposed to be correct. In tracts where the people of northern and southern India meet she is identified with Anna +Pūrna, the corn-goddess of the Telugu country; and in her form of Gauri or ‘the Yellow One’ she is perhaps herself the yellow +corn. As Gauri she is worshipped at weddings in conjunction with Ganesh or Ganpati, the god of Good Fortune; and it is probably +in honour of the harvest colour that Hindus of the upper castes wear yellow at <a id="d0e1313"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1313">14</a>]</span>their weddings and consider it lucky. A Brahman also prefers to wear yellow when eating his food. It has been seen<a id="d0e1315src" href="#d0e1315" class="noteref">12</a> that red is the lucky colour of the lower castes of Hindus, and the reason probably is that the shrines of their gods are +stained red with the blood of the animals sacrificed. High-caste Hindus no longer make animal sacrifices, and their offerings +to Siva, Vishnu and Devi consist of food, flowers and blades of corn. Thus yellow would be similarly associated with the shrines +of the gods. All Hindu brides have their bodies rubbed with yellow turmeric, and the principal religious flower, the marigold, +is orange-yellow. Yellow is, however, also lucky as being the colour of Vishnu or the Sun, and a yellow flag is waved above +his great temple at Rāmtek on the occasion of the fair. Thus Devi as the corn-goddess perhaps corresponds to Demeter, but +she is not in this form an animal goddess. The Hindus worshipping Mother Earth, as all races do in the early stage of religion, +may by a natural and proper analogy have ascribed the gift of the corn to her from whom it really comes, and have identified +her with the corn-goddess. This is by no means a full explanation of the goddess Devi, who has many forms. As Pārvati, the +hill-maiden, and Durga, the inaccessible one, she is the consort of Siva in his character of the mountain-god of the Himalayas; +as Kāli, the devourer of human flesh, she is perhaps the deified tiger; and she may have assimilated yet more objects of worship +into her wide divinity. But there seems no special reason to hold that she is anywhere believed to be the deified buffalo; +and the probable explanation of the Dasahra rite would therefore seem to be that the buffalo was at first venerated as the +corn-god because, like the pig in Greece, he was most destructive to the crops, and a buffalo was originally slaughtered and +eaten sacramentally as an act of worship. At a later period the divinity attaching to the corn was transferred to Devi, an +anthropomorphic deity of a higher class, and in order to explain the customary slaughter of the buffalo, which had to be retained, +the story became current that the beneficent goddess fought and slew the buffalo-demon which injured the crops, for the benefit +of her worshippers, and the fast was observed and the <a id="d0e1320"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1320">15</a>]</span>buffalo sacrificed in commemoration of this event. It is possible that the sacrifice of the buffalo may have been a non-Aryan +rite, as the Mundas still offer a buffalo to Deswāli, their forest god, in the sacred grove; and the Korwas of Sargūja nave +periodical sacrifices to Kāli in which many buffaloes are slaughtered. In the pictures of her fight with Bhainsāsur, Devi +is shown as riding on a tiger, and the uneducated might imagine the struggle to have resembled that between a tiger and a +buffalo. As the destroyer of buffaloes and deer which graze on the crops the tiger may even be considered the cultivator’s +friend. But in the rural tracts Bhainsāsur himself is still venerated in the guise of a corn-deity, and pig are perhaps offered +to him as the animals which nowadays do most harm to the crops. +<a id="d0e1322"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1322">16</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e1129" href="#d0e1129src" class="noteref">1</a></span> <i>Tribes and Castes of Bengal</i>, art. Kumhār. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e1142" href="#d0e1142src" class="noteref">2</a></span> Gods and demons. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e1161" href="#d0e1161src" class="noteref">3</a></span> <i>Hāth</i>, hand and <i>garhna</i> to make or mould. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e1169" href="#d0e1169src" class="noteref">4</a></span> <i>Gora</i>, white or red, applied to Europeans. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e1199" href="#d0e1199src" class="noteref">5</a></span> <i>History of the Marāthas</i>, edition 1878, vol. i. p. 26. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e1214" href="#d0e1214src" class="noteref">6</a></span> The above description is taken from the Central Provinces <i>Monograph on Pottery and Glassware</i> by Mr. Jowers, p. 4. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e1248" href="#d0e1248src" class="noteref">7</a></span> <i>Golden Bough,</i> ii. pp. 299, 301. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e1269" href="#d0e1269src" class="noteref">8</a></span> <i>Rājasthān</i>, ii. p. 524. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e1276" href="#d0e1276src" class="noteref">9</a></span> <i>Orphèus</i>, p. 152. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e1288" href="#d0e1288src" class="noteref">10</a></span> The sacrifice is now falling into abeyance, as landowners refuse to supply the buffalo. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e1296" href="#d0e1296src" class="noteref">11</a></span> Dr. Jevons, <i>Introduction to the History of Religion</i>, p. 368. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e1315" href="#d0e1315src" class="noteref">12</a></span> <i>Vide</i> article on Lakhera. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e1323" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Kunbi</h2> +<p>[This article is based on the information collected for the District Gazetteers of the Central Provinces, manuscript notes +furnished by Mr. A.K. Smith, C.S., and from papers by Pandit Pyāre Lāl Misra and Munshi Kanhya Lāl. The Kunbis are treated +in the <i>Poona</i> and <i>Khāndesh</i> volumes of the <i>Bombay Gazetteer</i>. The caste has been taken as typical of the Marāthi-speaking Districts, and a fairly full description of the marriage and +other ceremonies has therefore been given, some information on houses, dress and food being also reproduced from the <i>Wardha</i> and <i>Yeotmal District Gazetteers</i>.] + + +</p> +<h3>List of Paragraphs</h3> +<ul> +<li><a href="#d0e1467">1. Distribution of the caste and origin of name</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1509">2. Settlement in the Central Provinces</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1529">3. Subcastes</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1593">4. The cultivating status</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1614">5. Exogamus septs</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1634">6. Restrictions on marriage of relatives</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1647">7. Betrothal and marriage</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1703">8. Polygamy and divorce</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1713">9. Widow-marriage</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1732">10. Customs at birth</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1752">11. Sixth and twelfth day ceremonies</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1759">12. Devices for procuring children</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1792">13. Love charms</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1807">14. Disposal of the dead</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1839">15. Mourning</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1851">16. Religion</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1869">17. The Pola festival</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1888">18. Muhammadan tendencies of Berār Kunbis</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1931">19. Villages and houses</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1953">20. Furniture</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e1966">21. Food</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2001">22. Clothes and ornaments</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2020">23. The Kunbi as cultivator</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2043">24. Social and moral characteristics</a></li> +</ul> +<div class="div2" id="d0e1467"> +<h3>1. Distribution of the caste and origin of name</h3> +<p><b>Kunbi</b>—The great agricultural caste of the Marātha country. In the Central Provinces and Berār the Kunbis numbered nearly 1,400,000 +persons in 1911; they belong to the Nāgpur, Chānda, Bhandāra, Wardha, Nimār and Betūl Districts of the Central Provinces. +In Berār their strength was 800,000, or nearly a third of the total population. Here they form the principal cultivating class +over the whole area except in the jungles of the north and south, but muster most strongly in the Buldāna District to the +west, where in some tāluks nearly half the population <a id="d0e1474"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1474">17</a>]</span>belongs to the Kunbi caste. In the combined Province they are the most numerous caste except the Gonds. The name has various +forms in Bombay, being Kunbi or Kulambi in the Deccan, Kulwādi in the south Konkan, Kanbi in Gujarāt, and Kulbi in Belgaum. +In Sanskrit inscriptions it is given as Kutumbika (householder), and hence it has been derived from <i>kutumba</i>, a family. A chronicle of the eleventh century quoted by Forbes speaks of the Kutumbiks or cultivators of the <i>grāms,</i> or small villages.<a id="d0e1482src" href="#d0e1482" class="noteref">1</a> Another writer describing the early Rājpūt dynasties says:<a id="d0e1487src" href="#d0e1487" class="noteref">2</a> “The villagers were Koutombiks (householders) or husbandmen (Karshuks); the village headmen were Putkeels (patels).” Another +suggested derivation is from a Dravidian root <i>kul</i> a husbandman or labourer; while that favoured by the caste and their neighbours is from <i>kun</i>, a root, or <i>kan</i> grain, and <i>bi</i>, seed; but this is too ingenious to be probable. + + +</p> +<p></p> +<div id="d0e1505" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p098.jpg" alt="Group of Kunbis" width="715" height="547"><p class="figureHead">Group of Kunbis</p> +</div><p> + + + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e1509"> +<h3>2. Settlement in the Central Provinces</h3> +<p>It is stated that the Kunbis entered Khāndesh from Gujarāt in the eleventh century, being forced to leave Gujarāt by the encroachments +of Rājpūt tribes, driven south before the early Muhammadan invaders of northern India.<a id="d0e1514src" href="#d0e1514" class="noteref">3</a> From Khāndesh they probably spread into Berār and the adjoining Nāgpur and Wardha Districts. It seems probable that their +first settlement in Nāgpur and Wardha took place not later than the fourteenth century, because during the subsequent period +of Gond rule we find the offices of Deshmukh and Deshpāndia in existence in this area. The Deshmukh was the manager or headman +of a circle of villages and was responsible for apportioning and collecting the land revenue, while the Deshpāndia was a head +<i>patwari</i> or accountant. The Deshmukhs were usually the leading Kunbis, and the titles are still borne by many families in Wardha and +Nāgpur. These offices<a id="d0e1522src" href="#d0e1522" class="noteref">4</a> belong to the Marātha country, and it seems necessary to suppose that their introduction into Wardha and Berār dates from +a period at least as early as the fourteenth century, when these territories were included in the dominions of the Bahmani +kings of Bījapur. A subsequent large influx of Kunbis into Wardha <a id="d0e1527"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1527">18</a>]</span>and Nāgpur took place in the eighteenth century with the conquest of Raghūji Bhonsla and the establishment of the Marātha +kingdom of Nāgpur. Traces of these separate immigrations survive in the subdivisions of the caste, which will now be mentioned. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e1529"> +<h3>3. Subcastes</h3> +<p>The internal structure of the Kunbi caste in the Central Provinces shows that it is a mixed occupational body recruited from +different classes of the population. The Jhāre or jungly<a id="d0e1534src" href="#d0e1534" class="noteref">5</a> Kunbis are the oldest immigrants and have no doubt an admixture of Gond blood. They do not break their earthen vessels after +a death in the house. With them may be classed the Mānwa Kunbis of the Nāgpur District; these appear to be a group recruited +from the Mānas, a primitive tribe who were dominant in Chānda perhaps even before the advent of the Gonds. The Mānwa Kunbi +women wear their cloths drawn up so as to expose the thigh like the Gonds, and have some other primitive practices. They do +not employ Brāhmans at their marriages, but consult a Mahār Mohtūria or soothsayer to fix the date of the ceremony. Other +Kunbis will not eat with the Mānwas, and the latter retaliate in the usual manner by refusing to accept food from them; and +say that they are superior to other Kunbis because they always use brass vessels for cooking and not earthen ones. Among the +other subcastes in the Central Provinces are the Khaire, who take their name from the <i>khaīr</i><a id="d0e1542src" href="#d0e1542" class="noteref">6</a> or catechu tree, presumably because they formerly prepared catechu; this is a regular occupation of the forest tribes, with +whom it may be supposed that the Khaire have some affinity. The Dhanoje are those who took to the occupation of tending <i>dhan</i><a id="d0e1549src" href="#d0e1549" class="noteref">7</a> or small stock, and they are probably an offshoot of the Dhangar or shepherd caste whose name is similarly derived. Like +the Dhangar women they wear cocoanut-shell bangles, and the Mānwa Kunbis also do this; these bangles are not broken when a +child is born, and hence the Dhanojes and Mānwas are looked down on by the other subcastes, who refuse to remove their leaf-plates +after a feast. The name of the <a id="d0e1557"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1557">19</a>]</span>Khedule subcaste may be derived from <i>kheda</i> a village, while another version given by Mr. Kitts<a id="d0e1562src" href="#d0e1562" class="noteref">8</a> is that it signifies ‘A beardless youth.’ The highest subcaste in the Central Provinces are the Tirole or Tilole, who now +claim to be Rājpūts. They say that their ancestors came from Therol in Rājputāna, and, taking to agriculture, gradually became +merged with the Kunbis. Another more probable derivation of the name is from the <i>til</i> or sesamum plant. The families who held the hereditary office of Deshmukh, which conferred a considerable local position, +were usually members of the Tirole subcaste, and they have now developed into a sort of aristocratic branch of the caste, +and marry among themselves when matches can be arranged. They do not allow the remarriage of widows nor permit their women +to accompany the wedding procession. The Wāndhekars are another group which also includes some Deshmukh families, and ranks +next to the Tiroles in position. Mr. Kitts records a large number of subcastes in Berār.<a id="d0e1570src" href="#d0e1570" class="noteref">9</a> Among them are some groups from northern India, as the Hindustāni, Pardesi, Dholewār, Jaiswār and Singrore; these are probably +Kurmis who have settled in Berār and become amalgamated with the Kunbis. Similarly the Tailanges and Munurwārs appear to be +an offshoot of the great Kāpu caste of cultivators in the Telugu country. The Wanjāri subcaste is a fairly large one and almost +certainly represents a branch of the Banjāra caste of carriers, who have taken to agriculture and been promoted into the Kunbi +community. The Lonhāre take their name from Lonār Mehkar, the well-known bitter lake of the Buldāna District, whose salt they +may formerly have refined. The Ghātole are those who dwelt above the <i>ghāts</i> or passes of the Saihadri range to the south of the Berār plain. The Baone are an important subcaste both in Berār and the +Central Provinces, and take their name from the phrase Bāwan Berār,<a id="d0e1578src" href="#d0e1578" class="noteref">10</a> a term applied to the province by the Mughals because it paid fifty-two lakhs of revenue, as against only eight lakhs realised +from the adjoining Jhādi or hill country in the Central Provinces. In Chhindwāra is found a small local <a id="d0e1583"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1583">20</a>]</span>subcaste called Gādhao because they formerly kept donkeys, though they no longer do so; they are looked down on by the others +who will not even take water from their hands. In Nimār is a group of Gujarāti Kunbis who are considered to have been originally +Gūjars.<a id="d0e1585src" href="#d0e1585" class="noteref">11</a> Their local subdivisions are Leve and Karwa and many of them are also known as Dālia, because they made the <i>dāl</i> or pulse of Burhānpur, which had a great reputation under native rule. It is said that it was formerly despatched daily to +Sindhia’s kitchen. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e1593"> +<h3>4. The cultivating status</h3> +<p>It appears then that a Kunbi has in the past been synonymous with a cultivator, and that large groups from other castes have +taken to agriculture, have been admitted into the community and usually obtained a rise in rank. In many villages Kunbis are +the only ryots, while below them are the village menials and artisans, several of whom perform functions at weddings or on +other occasions denoting their recognition of the Kunbi as their master or employer; and beneath these again are the impure +Mahārs or labourers. Thus at a Kunbi betrothal the services of the barber and washerman must be requisitioned; the barber +washes the feet of the boy and girl and places vermilion on the foreheads of the guests. The washerman spreads a sheet on +the ground on which the boy and girl sit. At the end of the ceremony the barber and washerman take the bride and bridegroom +on their shoulders and dance to music in the marriage-shed; for this they receive small presents. After a death has occurred +at a Kunbi’s house the impurity is not removed until the barber and washerman have eaten in it. At a Kunbi’s wedding the Gurao +or village priest brings the leafy branches of five trees, the mango, <i>jāmun</i><a id="d0e1600src" href="#d0e1600" class="noteref">12</a> <i>umar</i><a id="d0e1607src" href="#d0e1607" class="noteref">13</a> and two others and deposits them at Māroti’s temple, whence they are removed by the parents of the bride. Before a wedding +again a Kunbi bride must go to the potter’s house and be seated on his wheel while it is turned round seven times for good +luck. At seed-time and harvest all the village menials go to the cultivator’s field and present him with a specimen of their +wares or make obeisance to him, receiving in return a small present of <a id="d0e1612"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1612">21</a>]</span>grain. This state of things seems to represent the primitive form of Hindu society from which the present widely ramified +system, of castes may have expanded, and even now the outlines of the original structure may be discernible under all subsequent +accretions. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e1614"> +<h3>5. Exogamus septs</h3> +<p>Each subcaste has a number of exogamous septs or clans which serve as a table of affinities in regulating marriage. The vernacular +term for these is <i>kul</i>. Some of the septs are named after natural objects or animals, others from titles or nicknames borne by the reputed founder +of the group, or from some other caste to which he may have belonged, while others again are derived from the names of villages +which maybe taken to have been the original home of the sept or clan. The following are some septs of the Tirole subcaste: +Kole, jackal; Wānkhede, a village; Kadu, bitter; Jagthāp, famous; Kadam, a tree; Meghe, a cloud; Lohekari, a worker in iron; +Ughde, a child who has been exposed at birth; Shinde, a palm-tree; Hagre, one who suffers from diarrhoea; Aglāwe, an incendiary; +Kalamkār, a writer; Wāni (Bania), a caste; Sutār, a carpenter, and so on, A few of the groups of the Bāone subcaste are:—Kāntode, +one with a torn ear; Dokarmāre, a killer of pigs; Lūte, a plunderer; Titarmāre, a pigeon-killer; and of the Khedule: Patre, +a leaf-plate; Ghoremāre, one who killed a horse; Bāgmare, a tiger-slayer; Gadhe, a donkey; Burāde, one of the Burud or Basor +caste; Nāktode, one with a broken nose, and so on. Each subcaste has a number of septs, a total of 66 being recorded for the +Tiroles alone. The names of the septs confirm the hypothesis arrived at from a scrutiny of the subcastes that the Kunbis are +largely recruited from the pre-Aryan or aboriginal tribes. Conclusions as to the origin of the caste can better be made in +its home in Bombay, but it may be noted that in Canara, according to the accomplished author of <i>A Naturalist on the Prowl</i><a id="d0e1624src" href="#d0e1624" class="noteref">14</a> the Kunbi is quite a primitive forest-dweller, who only a few years back lived by scattering his seed on patches of land +burnt clear of vegetation, collecting myrobalans and other fruits, and snaring and trapping animals exactly like the Gonds +and Baigas of the Central Provinces. Similarly in Nāsik it is stated that a large proportion of the Kunbi <a id="d0e1627"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1627">22</a>]</span>caste are probably derived from the primitive tribes<a id="d0e1629src" href="#d0e1629" class="noteref">15</a>. Yet in the cultivated plains which he has so largely occupied, he is reckoned the equal in rank of the Kurmi and other cultivating +castes of Hindustān, who in theory at any rate are of Aryan origin and of so high a grade of social purity that Brāhmans will +take water from them. The only reasonable explanation of this rise in status appears to be that the Kunbi has taken possession +of the land and has obtained the rank which from time immemorial belongs to the hereditary cultivator as a member and citizen +of the village community. It is interesting to note that the Wanjāri Kunbis of Berār, who, being as already seen Banjāras, +are of Rājpūt descent at any rate, now strenuously disclaim all connection with the Banjāra caste and regard their reception +into the Kunbi community as a gain in status. At the same time the refusal of the Marātha Brāhmans to take water to drink +from Kunbis may perhaps have been due to the recognition of their non-Aryan origin. Most of the Kunbis also eat fowls, which +the cultivating castes of northern India would not usually do. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e1634"> +<h3>6. Restrictions on marriage of relatives</h3> +<p>A man is forbidden to marry within his own sept or <i>kul</i>, or in that of his mother or either of his grandmothers. He may marry his wife’s younger sister but not her elder sister. +Alliances between first and second cousins are also prohibited except that a sister’s son may be married to a brother’s daughter. +Such marriages are also favoured by the Marātha Brāhmans and other castes, and the suitability of the match is expressed in +the saying <i>Ato ghari bhāsi sūn</i>, or ‘At a sister’s house her brother’s daughter is a daughter-in-law.’ The sister claims it as a right and not unfrequently +there are quarrels if the brother decides to give his daughter to somebody else, while the general feeling is so strongly +in favour of these marriages that the caste committee sometimes imposes a fine on fathers who wish to break through the rule. +The fact that in this single case the marriage of near relatives is not only permitted but considered almost as an obligation, +while in all other instances it is strictly prohibited, probably points to the conclusion that the custom is a survival of +the matriarchate, when a brother’s property would pass to his sister’s son. Under such a law of inheritance <a id="d0e1645"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1645">23</a>]</span>he would naturally desire that his heir should be united to his own daughter, and this union might gradually become customary +and at length almost obligatory. The custom in this case may survive when the reasons which justified it have entirely vanished. +And while formerly it was the brother who would have had reason to desire the match for his daughter, it is now the sister +who insists on it for her son, the explanation being that among the Kunbis as with other agricultural castes, to whom a wife’s +labour is a valuable asset, girls are expensive and a considerable price has to be paid for a bride. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e1647"> +<h3>7. Betrothal and marriage</h3> +<p>Girls are usually married between the ages of five and eleven and boys between ten and twenty. The Kunbis still think it a +mark of social distinction to have their daughters married as young as possible. The recognised bride-price is about twenty +rupees, but much larger sums are often paid. The boy’s father goes in search of a girl to be married to his son, and when +the bride-price has been settled and the match arranged the ceremony of Māngni or betrothal takes place. In the first place +the boy’s father proceeds to his future daughter-in-law’s house, where he washes her feet, smears her forehead with red powder +and gives her a present of a rupee and some sweetmeats. All the party then eat together. This is followed by a visit of the +girl’s father to the boy’s house where a similar ceremony is enacted and the boy is presented with a cocoanut, a <i>pagri</i> and cloth, and a silver or gold ring. Again the boy’s relatives go to the girl’s house and give her more valuable presents +of jewellery and clothing. A Brāhman is afterwards consulted to fix the date of the marriage, but the poorer Kunbis dispense +with his services as he charges two or three rupees. Prior to the ceremony the bodies of the bride and bridegroom are well +massaged with vegetable oil and turmeric in their respective houses, partly with a view to enhance their beauty and also perhaps +to protect them during the trying period of the ceremony when maleficent spirits are particularly on the alert. The marriage-shed +is made of eleven poles festooned with leaves, and inside it are placed two posts of the <i>sāleh</i> (<i>Boswellia serrata</i>) or <i>umar</i> (<i>Ficus glomerata</i>) tree, one longer than the other, to represent the bride and bridegroom. Two jars <a id="d0e1667"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1667">24</a>]</span>filled with water are set near the posts, and a small earthen platform called <i>baola</i> is made. The bridegroom wears a yellow or white dress, and has a triangular frame of bamboo covered with tinsel over his +forehead, which is known as <i>bāsing</i> and is a substitute for the <i>maur</i> or marriage-crown of the Hindustāni castes. Over his shoulder he carries a pickaxe as the representative implement of husbandry +with one or two wheaten cakes tied to it. This is placed on the top of the marriage-shed and at the end of the five days’ +ceremonies the members of the families eat the dried cakes with milk, no outsider being allowed to participate. The <i>barāt</i> or wedding procession sets out for the bride’s village, the women of the bridegroom’s family accompanying it except among +the Tirole Kunbis, who forbid the practice in order to demonstrate their higher social position. It is received on the border +of the girl’s village by her father and his friends and relatives, and conducted to the <i>janwāsa</i> or temporary lodging prepared for it, with the exception of the bridegroom, who is left alone before the shrine of Māroti +or Hanumān. The bridegroom’s father goes to the marriage-shed where he washes the bride’s feet and gives her another present +of clothes, and her relatives then proceed to Māroti’s temple where they worship and make offerings, and return bringing the +bridegroom with them. As he arrives at the marriage pavilion he touches it with a stick, on which the bride’s brother who +is seated above the shed pours down some water and is given a present of money by the bridegroom. The bridegroom’s feet are +then washed by his father-in-law and he is given a yellow cloth which he wears. The couple are made to stand on two wooden +planks opposite each other with a curtain between them, the bridegroom facing east and the bride west, holding some Akshata +or rice covered with saffron in their hands. As the sun sets the officiating Brāhman gets on to the roof of the house and +repeats the marriage texts from there. At his signal the couple throw the rice over each other, the curtain between them is +withdrawn, and they change their seats. The assembled party applaud and the marriage proper is over. The Brāhman marks their +foreheads with rice and turmeric and presses them together. He then seats them on the earthen platform or <i>baola</i>, and ties their <a id="d0e1687"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1687">25</a>]</span>clothes together, this being known as the Brahma Gānthi or Brāhman’s knot. The wedding usually takes place on the day after +the arrival of the marriage procession and another two days are consumed in feasting and worshipping the deities. When the +bride and bridegroom return home after the wedding one of the party waves a pot of water round their heads and throws it away +at a little distance on the ground, and after this some grain in the same manner. This is a provision of food and drink to +any evil spirits who may be hovering round the couple, so that they may stop to consume it and refrain from entering the house. +The expenses of the bride’s family may vary from Rs. 60 to Rs. 100 and those of the bridegroom’s from Rs. 160 to Rs. 600. +A wedding carried out on a lavish scale by a well-to-do man is known as Lāl Biāh or a red marriage, but when the parties are +poor the expenses are curtailed and it is then called Safed Biāh or a white marriage. In this case the bridegroom’s mother +does not accompany the wedding procession and the proceedings last only two days. The bride goes back with the wedding procession +for a few days to her husband’s house and then returns home. When she arrives at maturity her parents give a feast to the +caste and send her to her husband’s house, this occasion being known as Bolvan (the calling). The Karwa Kunbis of Nimār have +a peculiar rule for the celebration of marriages. They have a <i>guru</i> or priest in Gujarāt who sends them a notice once in every ten or twelve years, and in this year only marriages can be performed. +It is called <i>Singhast ki sāl</i> and is the year in which the planet Guru (Jupiter) comes into conjunction with the constellation Sinh (Leo). But the Karwas +themselves think that there is a large temple in Gujarāt with a locked door to which there is no key. But once in ten or twelve +years the door unlocks of itself, and in that year their marriages are celebrated. A certain day is fixed and all the weddings +are held on it together. On this occasion children from infants in arms to ten or twelve years are married, and if a match +cannot be arranged for them they will have to wait another ten or twelve years. A girl child who is born on the day fixed +for weddings may, however, be married twelve days afterwards, the twelfth night being called Māndo Rāt, and on this <a id="d0e1695"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1695">26</a>]</span>occasion any other weddings which may have been unavoidably postponed owing to a death or illness in the families may also +be completed. The rule affords a loophole of escape for the victims of any such <i>contretemps</i> and also insures that every girl shall be married before she is fully twelve years old. Rather than not marry their daughter +in the <i>Singhast ki sāl</i> before she is twelve the parents will accept any bridegroom, even though he be very poor or younger than the bride. This +is the same year in which the celebration of marriages is forbidden among the Hindus generally. The other Kunbis have the +general Hindu rule that weddings are forbidden during the four months from the 11th Asārh Sudi (June) to the 11th Kārtik Sudi +(October). This is the period of the rains, when the crops are growing and the gods are said to go to sleep, and it is observed +more or less as a time of abstinence and fasting. The Hindus should properly abstain from eating sugarcane, brinjals, onions, +garlic and other vegetables for the whole four months. On the 12th of Kārtik the marriage of Tulsi or the basil plant with +the Sāligrām or ammonite representing Vishnu is performed and all these vegetables are offered to her and afterwards generally +consumed. Two days afterwards, beginning from the 14th of Kārtik, comes the Diwāli festival. In Betūl the bridal couple are +seated in the centre of a square made of four plough yokes, while a leaf of the pīpal tree and a piece of turmeric are tied +by a string round both their wrists. The untying of the string by the local Brāhman constitutes the essential and binding +portion of the marriage. Among the Lonhāre subcaste a curious ceremony is performed after the wedding. A swing is made, and +a round pestle, which is supposed to represent a child, is placed on it and swung to and fro. It is then taken off and placed +in the lap of the bride, and the effect of performing this symbolical ceremony is supposed to be that she will soon become +a mother. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e1703"> +<h3>8. Polygamy and divorce</h3> +<p>Polygamy is permitted but rarely practised, a second wife being only taken if the first be childless or of bad character, +or destitute of attractions. Divorce is allowed, but in some localities at any rate a divorced woman cannot marry again unless +she is permitted to do so in writing by her first <a id="d0e1708"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1708">27</a>]</span>husband. If a girl be seduced before marriage a fine is imposed on both parties and they are readmitted to social intercourse, +but are not married to each other. Curiously enough, in the Tirole and Wāndhekar, the highest subcastes, the keeping of a +woman is not an offence entailing temporary exclusion from caste, whereas among the lower subcastes it is.<a id="d0e1710src" href="#d0e1710" class="noteref">16</a> + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e1713"> +<h3>9. Widow-marriage</h3> +<p>The Kunbis permit the remarriage of widows, with the exception of the Deshmukh families of the Tirole subcaste who have forbidden +it. If a woman’s husband dies she returns to her father’s house and he arranges her second marriage, which is called <i>choli-pātal,</i> or giving her new clothes. He takes a price for her which may vary from twenty-five to five hundred rupees according to the +age and attractions of the woman. A widow may marry any one outside the family of her deceased husband, but she may not marry +his younger brother. This union, which among the Hindustāni castes is looked upon as most suitable if not obligatory, is strictly +forbidden among the Marātha castes, the reason assigned being that a wife stands in the position of a mother to her husband’s +younger brothers. The contrast is curious. The ceremony of widow-marriage is largely governed by the idea of escaping or placating +the wrath of the first husband’s ghost, and also of its being something to be ashamed of and contrary to orthodox Hinduism. +It always takes place in the dark fortnight of the month and always at night. Sometimes no women are present, and if any do +attend they must be widows, as it would be the worst of omens for a married woman or unmarried girl to witness the ceremony. +This, it is thought, would lead to her shortly becoming a widow herself. The bridegroom goes to the widow’s house with his +male friends and two wooden seats are set side by side. On one of these a betel-nut is placed which represents the deceased +husband of the widow. The new bridegroom advances with a small wooden sword, touches the nut with its tip, and then kicks +it off the seat with his right toe. The barber picks up the nut and burns it. This is supposed to lay the deceased husband’s +spirit and prevent his interference with the new union. <a id="d0e1721"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1721">28</a>]</span>The bridegroom then takes the seat from which the nut has been displaced and the woman sits on the other side to his left. +He puts a necklace of beads round her neck and the couple leave the house in a stealthy fashion and go to the husband’s village. +It is considered unlucky to see them as they go away because the second husband is regarded in the light of a robber. Sometimes +they stop by a stream on the way home, and, taking off the woman’s clothes and bangles, bury them by the side of the stream. +An exorcist may also be called in, who will confine the late husband’s spirit in a horn by putting in some grains of wheat, +and after sealing up the horn deposit it with the clothes. When a widower or widow marries a second time and is afterwards +attacked by illness, it is ascribed to the illwill of their former partner’s spirit. The metal image of the first husband +or wife is then made and worn as an amulet on the arm or round the neck. A bachelor who wishes to marry a widow must first +go through a mock ceremony with an <i>ākra</i> or swallow-wort plant, as the widow-marriage is not considered a real one, and it is inauspicious for any one to die without +having been properly married once. A similar ceremony must be gone through when a man is married for the third time, as it +is held that if he marries a woman for the third time he will quickly die. The <i>ākra</i> or swallow-wort (<i>Calotropis gigantea</i>) is a very common plant growing on waste land with mauve or purple flowers. When cut or broken a copious milky juice exudes +from the stem, and in some places parents are said to poison children whom they do not desire to keep alive by rubbing this +on their lips. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e1732"> +<h3>10. Customs at birth</h3> +<p>During her monthly impurity a woman stays apart and may not cook for herself nor touch anybody nor sleep on a bed made of +cotton thread. As soon as she is in this condition she will untie the cotton threads confining her hair and throw them away, +letting her hair hang down. This is because they have become impure. But if there is no other woman in the house and she must +continue to do the household work herself, she does not throw them away until the last day.<a id="d0e1737src" href="#d0e1737" class="noteref">17</a> Similarly she must not sleep on <a id="d0e1740"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1740">29</a>]</span>a cotton sheet or mattress during this time because she would defile it, but she may sleep on a woollen blanket as wool is +a holy material and is not defiled. At the end of the period she proceeds to a stream and purifies herself by bathing and +washing her head with earth. When a woman is with child for the first time her women friends come and give her new green clothes +and bangles in the seventh month; they then put her into a swing and sing songs. While she is pregnant she is made to work +in the house so as not to be inactive. After the birth of a child the mother remains impure for twelve days. A woman of the +Māng or Mahār caste acts as midwife, and always breaks her bangles and puts on new ones after she has assisted at a birth. +If delivery is prolonged the woman is given hot water and sugar or camphor wrapped in a betel-leaf, or they put a few grains +of gram into her hand and then someone takes and feeds them to a mare, as it is thought that the woman’s pregnancy has been +prolonged by her having walked behind the tethering-ropes of a mare, which is twelve months in foal. Or she is given water +to drink in which a Sulaimāni onyx or a rupee of Akbar’s time has been washed; in the former case the idea is perhaps that +a passage will be made for the child like the hole through the bead, while the virtue of the rupee probably consists in its +being a silver coin and having the image or device of a powerful king like Akbar. Or it may be thought that as the coin has +passed from hand to hand for so long, it will facilitate the passage of the child from the womb. A pregnant woman must not +look on a dead body or her child may be still-born, and she must not see an eclipse or the child may be born maimed. Some +believe that if a child is born during an eclipse it will suffer from lung-disease; so they make a silver model of the moon +while the eclipse lasts and hang it round the child’s neck as a charm. Sometimes when delivery is delayed they take a folded +flower and place it in a pot of water and believe that as its petals unfold so the womb will be opened and the child born; +or they seat the woman on a wooden bench and pour oil on her head, her forehead being afterwards rubbed with it in the belief +that as the oil falls so the child will be born. If a child is a long time before <a id="d0e1742"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1742">30</a>]</span>learning to speak they give it leaves of the pīpal tree to eat, because the leaves of this tree make a noise by rustling in +the wind; or a root which is very light in weight, because they think that the tongue is heavy and the quality of lightness +will thus be communicated to it. Or the mother, when she has kneaded dough and washed her hands afterwards, will pour a drop +or two of the water down the child’s throat. And the water which made her hands clean and smooth will similarly clear the +child’s throat of the obstruction which prevented it from speaking. If a child’s neck is weak and its head rolls about they +make it look at a crow perching on the house and think this will make its neck strong like the crow’s. If he cannot walk they +make a little triangle on wheels with a pole called <i>ghurghuri</i>, and make him walk holding on to the pole. The first teeth of the child are thrown on to the roof of the house, because the +rats, who have especially good and sharp teeth, live there, and it is hoped that the child’s second teeth may grow like theirs. +A few grains of rice are also thrown so that the teeth may be hard and pointed like the rice; the same word, <i>kani</i>, being used for the end of a grain of rice and the tip of a tooth. Or the teeth are placed under a water-pot in the hope +that the child’s second teeth may grow as fast as the grass does under water-pots. If a child is lean some people take it +to a place where asses have lain down and rolled in ashes; they roll the child in the ashes similarly and believe that it +will get fat like the asses are. Or they may lay the child in a pigsty with the same idea. People who want to injure a child +get hold of its coat and lay it out in the sun to dry, in the belief that the child’s body will dry up in a similar manner. +In order to avert the evil eye they burn some turmeric and juāri flour and hold the newly-born child in the smoke. It is also +branded on the stomach with a burning piece of turmeric, perhaps to keep off cold. For the first day or two after birth a +child is given cow’s milk mixed with water or honey and a little castor oil, and after this it is suckled by the mother. But +if she is unable to nourish it a wet-nurse is called in, who may be a woman of low caste or even a Muhammadan. The mother +is given no <a id="d0e1750"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1750">31</a>]</span>regular food for the first two days, but only some sugar and spices. Until the child is six months old its head and body are +oiled every second or third day and the body is well hand-rubbed and bathed. The rubbing is meant to make the limbs supple +and the oil to render the child less susceptible to cold. If a child when sitting soon after birth looks down through its +legs they think it is looking for its companions whom it has left behind and that more children will be born. It is considered +a bad sign if a child bites its upper teeth on its underlip; this is thought to prognosticate illness and the child is prevented +from doing so as far as possible. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e1752"> +<h3>11. Sixth and twelfth day ceremonies</h3> +<p>On the sixth day after birth they believe that Chhathi or Satwai Devi, the Sixth-day Goddess, comes at midnight and writes +on the child’s forehead its fate in life, which writing, it is said, may be seen on a man’s skull when the flesh has come +off it after death. On this night the women of the family stay awake all night singing songs and eating sweetmeats. A picture +of the goddess is drawn with turmeric and vermilion over the mother’s bed. The door of the birth-room is left open, and at +midnight she comes. Sometimes a Sunār is employed to make a small image of Chhathi Devi, for which he is paid Rs. 1–4, and +it is hung round the child’s neck. On this day the mother is given to eat all kinds of grain, and among flesh-eating castes +the soup of fish and meat, because it is thought that every kind of food which the mother eats this day will be easily digested +by the child throughout its life. On this day the mother is given a second bath, the first being on the day of the birth, +and she must not bathe in between. Sometimes after childbirth a woman buys several bottles of liquor and has a bath in it; +the stimulating effect of the spirit is supposed to remedy the distension of the body caused by the birth. If the child is +a boy it is named on the twelfth and if a girl on the thirteenth day. On the twelfth day the mother’s bangles are thrown away +and new ones put on. The Kunbis are very kind to their children, and never harsh or quick-tempered, but this may perhaps be +partly due to their constitutional lethargy. They seldom refuse a child anything, but taking advantage of its innocence will +by dissimulation make it <a id="d0e1757"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1757">32</a>]</span>forget what it wanted. The time arrives when this course of conduct is useless, and then the child learns to mistrust the +word of its parents. Minute quantities of opium are generally administered to children as a narcotic. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e1759"> +<h3>12. Devices for procuring children</h3> +<p>If a woman is barren and has no children one of the remedies prescribed by the Sarodis or wandering soothsayers is that she +should set fire to somebody’s house, going alone and at night to perform the deed. So long as some small part of the house +is burnt it does not matter if the fire be extinguished, but the woman should not give the alarm herself. It is supposed that +the spirit of some insect which is burnt will enter her womb and be born as a child. Perhaps she sets fire to someone else’s +house so as to obtain the spirit of one of the family’s dead children, which may be supposed to have entered the insects dwelling +on the house. Some years ago at Bhāndak in Chānda complaints were made of houses being set on fire. The police officer<a id="d0e1764src" href="#d0e1764" class="noteref">18</a> sent to investigate found that other small fires continued to occur. He searched the roofs of the houses, and on two or three +found little smouldering balls of rolled-up cloth. Knowing of the superstition he called all the childless married women of +the place together and admonished them severely, and the fires stopped. On another occasion the same officer’s wife was ill, +and his little son, having fever, was sent daily to the dispensary for medicine in charge of a maid. One morning he noticed +on one of the soles of the boy’s feet a stain of the juice of the <i>bhilawa</i><a id="d0e1769src" href="#d0e1769" class="noteref">19</a> or marking-nut tree, which raises blisters on the skin. On looking at the other foot he found six similar marks, and on inquiry +he learned that these were made by a childless woman in the expectation that the boy would soon die and be born again as her +child. The boy suffered no harm, but his mother, being in bad health, nearly died of shock on learning of the magic practised +against her son. + +</p> +<p>Another device is to make a <i>pradakshana</i> or pilgrimage round a pīpal tree, going naked at midnight after worshipping Māroti or Hanumān, and holding a necklace of +<i>tulsi</i> beads in the hand. The pīpal is of course a sacred tree, and is the abode of Brahma, the original creator of the world. <a id="d0e1782"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1782">33</a>]</span>Brahma has no consort, and it is believed that while all other trees are both male and female the pīpal is only male, and +is capable of impregnating a woman and rendering her fertile. A variation of this belief is that pīpal trees are inhabited +by the spirits of unmarried Brāhman boys, and hence a woman sometimes takes a piece of new thread and winds it round the tree, +perhaps with the idea of investing the spirit of the boy with the sacred thread. She will then walk round the tree as a symbol +of the wedding ceremony of walking round the sacred post, and hopes that the boy, being thus brought to man’s estate and married, +will cause her to bear a son. But modest women do not go naked round the tree. The Amawas or New Moon day, if it falls on +a Monday, is specially observed by married women. On this day they will walk 108 times round a pīpal tree, and then give 108 +mangoes or other fruits to a Brahman, choosing a different fruit every time. The number 108 means a hundred and a little more +to show there is no stint, ‘Full measure and flowing over,’ like the customary present of Rs. 1–4 instead of a rupee. This +is also no doubt a birth-charm, fruit being given so that the woman may become fruitful. Or a childless woman will pray to +Hanumān or Mahābir. Every morning she will go to his shrine with an offering of fruit or flowers, and every evening will set +a lamp burning there; and morning and evening, prostrating herself, she makes her continuous prayer to the god: ‘<i>Oh, Mahābīr, Mahārāj! hamko ek batcha do, sirf ek batcha do</i>.’<a id="d0e1787src" href="#d0e1787" class="noteref">20</a> Then, after many days, Mahābir, as might be anticipated, appears to her in a dream and promises her a child. It does not +seem that they believe that Mahabir himself directly renders the woman fertile, because similar prayers are made to the River +Nerbudda, a goddess. But perhaps he, being the god of strength, lends virile power to her husband. Another prescription is +to go to the burying-ground, and, after worshipping it, to take some of the bone-ash of a burnt corpse and wear this wrapped +up in an amulet on the body. Occasionally, if a woman can get no children she will go to the father of a large family and +let him beget a child upon her, with or without the connivance of her husband. But only the more immodest women do this. Or +<a id="d0e1790"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1790">34</a>]</span>she cuts a piece off the breast-cloth of a woman who has children, and, after burning incense on it, wears it as an amulet +For a stronger charm she will take a piece of such a woman’s cloth and a lock of her hair and some earth which her feet have +pressed and bury these in a pot before Devi’s shrine, sometimes fashioning an image of the woman out of them. Then, as they +rot away, the child-bearing power of the fertile woman will be transferred to her. If a woman’s first children have died and +she wishes to preserve a later one, she sometimes weighs the child against sugar or copper and distributes the amount in charity. +Or she gives the child a bad name, such as Dagharia (a stone), Kachria (sweepings), Ukandia (a dunghill). + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e1792"> +<h3>13. Love charms</h3> +<p>If a woman’s husband is not in love with her, a prescription of a <i>Mohani</i> or love-charm given by the wise women is that she should kill an owl and serve some of its flesh to her husband as a charm. +“It has not occurred,” Mr. Kipling writes, “to the oriental jester to speak of a boiled owl in connection with intoxication, +but when a husband is abjectly submissive to his wife her friends say that she has given him boiled owl’s flesh to eat.”<a id="d0e1800src" href="#d0e1800" class="noteref">21</a> If a man is in love with some woman and wishes to kindle a similar sentiment in her the following method is given: On a Saturday +night he should go to a graveyard and call out, ‘I am giving a dinner tomorrow night, and I invite you all to attend.’ Then +on the Sunday night he takes cocoanuts, sweetmeats, liquor and flowers to the cemetery and sets them all out, and all the +spirits or Shaitans come and partake. The host chooses a particularly big Shaitan and calls to him to come near and says to +him, ‘Will you go with me and do what I ask you.’ If the spirit assents he follows the man home. Next night the man again +offers cocoanuts and incense to the Shaitan, whom he can see by night but not by day, and tells him to go to the woman’s house +and call her. Then the spirit goes and troubles her heart, so that she falls in love with the man and has no rest till she +goes to him. If the man afterwards gets tired of her he will again secretly worship and call up the Shaitan and order him +to turn the woman’s inclination <a id="d0e1805"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1805">35</a>]</span>away. Another method is to fetch a skull from a graveyard and go to a banyan tree at midnight. There, divesting himself of +his clothes, the operator partially cooks some rice in the skull, and then throws it against the tree; he gathers all the +grains that stick to the trunk in one box and those that fall to the ground in another box, and the first rice given to the +woman to eat will turn her inclination towards him, while the second will turn it away from him. This is a sympathetic charm, +the rice which sticks to the tree having the property of attracting the woman. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e1807"> +<h3>14. Disposal of the dead</h3> +<p>The Kunbis either bury or burn the dead. In Berār sepulture is the more common method of disposal, perhaps in imitation of +the Muhammadans. Here the village has usually a field set apart for the disposal of corpses, which is known as Smashān. Hindus +fill up the earth practically level with the ground after burial and erect no monument, so that after a few years another +corpse can be buried in the same place. When a Kunbi dies the body is washed in warm water and placed on a bier made of bamboos, +with a network of <i>san-</i>hemp.<a id="d0e1815src" href="#d0e1815" class="noteref">22</a> Ordinary rope must not be used. The mourners then take it to the grave, scattering almonds, sandalwood, dates, betel-leaf +and small coins as they go. These are picked up by the menial Mahārs or labourers. Halfway to the grave the corpse is set +down and the bearers change their positions, those behind going in front. Here a little wheat and pulse which have been tied +in the cloth covering the corpse are left by the way. On the journey to the grave the body is covered with a new unwashed +cloth. The grave is dug three or four feet deep, and the corpse is buried naked, lying on its back with the head to the south. +After the burial one of the mourners is sent to get an earthen pot from the Kurnhār; this is filled with water at a river +or stream, and a small piece is broken out of it with a stone; one of the mourners then takes the pot and walks round the +corpse with it, dropping a stream of water all the way. Having done this, he throws the pot behind him over his shoulder without +looking round, and then all the mourners go home without looking behind them. The stone with which the hole has been made +in the earthen pot is held to represent <a id="d0e1820"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1820">36</a>]</span>the spirit of the deceased. It is placed under a tree or on the bank of a stream, and for ten days the mourners come and offer +it <i>pindas</i> or balls of rice, one ball being offered on the first day, two on the second, and so on, up to ten on the tenth. On this +last day a little mound of earth is made, which is considered to represent Mahādeo. Four miniature flags are planted round, +and three cakes of rice are laid on it; and all the mourners sit round the mound until a crow comes and eats some of the cake. +Then they say that the dead man’s spirit has been freed from troubling about his household and mundane affairs and has departed +to the other world. But if no real crow comes to eat the cake, they make a representation of one out of the sacred <i>kusha</i> grass, and touch the cake with it and consider that a crow has eaten it. After this the mourners go to a stream and put a +little cow’s urine on their bodies, and dip ten times in the water or throw it over them. The officiating Brāhman sprinkles +them with holy water in which he has dipped the toe of his right foot, and they present to the Brāhman the vessels in which +the funeral cakes have been cooked and the clothes which the chief mourner has worn for ten days. On coming home they also +give him a stick, umbrella, shoes, a bed and anything else which they think the dead man will want in the next world. On the +thirteenth day they feed the caste-fellows and the head of the caste ties a new <i>pagri</i> on the chief mourner’s head backside foremost; and the chief mourner breaking an areca-nut on the threshold places it in +his mouth and spits it out of the door, signifying the final ejectment of the deceased’s spirit from the house. Finally, the +chief mourner goes to worship at Maroti’s shrine, and the household resumes its ordinary life. The different relatives of +the deceased man usually invite the bereaved family to their house for a day and give them a feast, and if they have many +relations this may go on for a considerable time. The complete procedure as detailed above is observed only in the case of +the head of the household, and for less important members is considerably abbreviated. The position of chief mourner is occupied +by a man’s eldest son, or in the absence of sons by his younger brother, or failing him by the eldest son of an elder brother, +or failing male relations <a id="d0e1831"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1831">37</a>]</span>by the widow. The chief mourner is considered to have a special claim to the property. He has the whole of his head and face +shaved, and the hair is tied up in a corner of the grave-cloth. If the widow is chief mourner a small lock of her hair is +cut off and tied up in the cloth. When the corpse is being carried out for burial the widow breaks her <i>mangalsūtram</i> or marriage necklace, and wipes off the <i>kunku</i> or vermilion from her forehead. This necklace consists of a string of black glass beads with a piece of gold, and is always +placed on the bride’s neck at the wedding. The widow does not break her glass bangles at all, but on the eleventh day changes +them for new ones. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e1839"> +<h3>15. Mourning</h3> +<p>The period of mourning for adults of the family is ten days, and for children three, while in the case of distant relatives +it is sufficient to take a bath as a mark of respect for them. The male mourners shave their heads, the walls of the house +are whitewashed and the floor spread with cowdung. The chief mourner avoids social intercourse and abstains from ordinary +work and from all kinds of amusements. He debars himself from such luxuries as betel-leaf and from visiting his wife. Oblations +are offered to the dead on the third day of the light fortnight of Baisākh (June) and on the last day of Bhādrapad (September). +The Kunbi is a firm believer in the action of ghosts and spirits, and never omits the attentions due to his ancestors. On +the appointed day he diligently calls on the crows, who represent the spirits of ancestors, to come and eat the food which +he places ready for them; and if no crow turns up, he is disturbed at having incurred the displeasure of the dead. He changes +the food and goes on calling until a crow comes, and then concludes that their previous failure to appear was due to the fact +that his ancestors were not pleased with the kind of food he first offered. In future years, therefore, he changes it, and +puts out that which was eaten, until a similar <i>contretemps</i> of the non-appearance of crows again occurs. The belief that the spirits of the dead pass into crows is no doubt connected +with that of the crow’s longevity. Many Hindus think that a crow lives a thousand years, and others that it never dies of +disease, but only when killed by violence. Tennyson’s ‘many-wintered crow’ may indicate some similar <a id="d0e1847"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1847">38</a>]</span>idea in Europe. Similarly if the Gonds find a crow’s nest they give the nestlings to young children to eat, and think that +this will make them long-lived. If a crow perches in the house when a woman’s husband or other relative is away, she says, +‘Fly away, crow; fly away and I will feed you’; and if the crow then flies away she thinks that the absent one will return. +Here the idea is no doubt that if he had been killed his spirit might have come home in the shape of the crow perching on +the house. If a married woman sees two crows breeding it is considered a very bad omen, the effect being that her husband +will soon die. It is probably supposed that his spirit will pass into the young crow which is born as a result of the meeting +which she has seen. + +</p> +<p>Mr. A. K. Smith states that the omen applies to men also, and relates a story of a young advocate who saw two crows thus engaged +on alighting from the train at some station. In order to avert the consequences he ran to the telegraph office and sent messages +to all his relatives and friends announcing his own death, the idea being that this fictitious death would fulfil the omen, +and the real death would thus become unnecessary. In this case the belief would be that the man’s own spirit would pass into +the young crow. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e1851"> +<h3>16. Religion</h3> +<p>The principal deities of the caste are Māroti or Hanumān, Mahādeo or Siva, Devi, Satwai and Khandoba. Māroti is worshipped +principally on Saturdays, so that he may counteract the evil influences exercised by the planet Saturn on that day. When a +new village is founded Māroti must first be brought and placed in the village and worshipped, and after this houses are built. +The name Māroti is derived from Marut, the Vedic god of the wind, and he is considered to be the son of Vāyu, the wind, and +Anjini. Khandoba is an incarnation of Siva as a warrior, and is the favourite deity of the Marāthas. Devi is usually venerated +in her Incarnation of Marhai Māta, the goddess of smallpox and cholera—the most dreaded scourges of the Hindu villager. They +offer goats and fowls to Marhai Devi, cutting the throat of the animal and letting its blood drop over the stone, which represents +the goddess; after this they cut off a leg and hang it to the tree above her shrine, and eat the <a id="d0e1856"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1856">39</a>]</span>remainder. Sometimes also they offer wooden images of human beings, which are buried before the shrine of the goddess and +are obviously substitutes for a human sacrifice; and the lower castes offer pigs. If a man dies of snake-bite they make a +little silver image of a snake, and then kill a real snake, and make a platform outside the village and place the image on +it, which is afterwards regularly worshipped as Nāgoba Deo. They may perhaps think that the spirit of the snake which is killed +passes into the silver image. Somebody afterwards steals the image, but this does not matter. Similarly if a man is killed +by a tiger he is deified and worshipped as Bāghoba Deo, though they cannot kill a tiger as a preliminary. The Kunbis make +images of their ancestors in silver or brass, and keep them in a basket with their other household deities. But when these +get too numerous they take them on a pilgrimage to some sacred river and deposit them in it. A man who has lost both parents +will invite some man and woman on Akshaya Tritiya,<a id="d0e1858src" href="#d0e1858" class="noteref">23</a> and call them by the names of his parents, and give them a feast. Among the mythological stories known to the caste is one +of some interest, explaining how the dark spots came on the face of the moon. They say that once all the gods were going to +a dinner-party, each riding on his favourite animal or <i>vāhan</i> (conveyance). But the <i>vāhan</i> of Ganpati, the fat god with the head of an elephant, was a rat, and the rat naturally could not go as fast as the other +animals, and as it was very far from being up to Ganpati’s weight, it tripped and fell, and Ganpati came off. The moon was +looking on, and laughed so much that Ganpati was enraged, and cursed it, saying, ‘Thy face shall be black for laughing at +me.’ Accordingly the moon turned quite black; but the other gods interfered, and said that the curse was too hard, so Ganpati +agreed that only a part of the moon’s face should be blackened in revenge for the insult. This happened on the fourth day +of the bright fortnight of Bhādon (September), and on that day it is said that nobody should look at the moon, as if he does, +his reputation will probably be lowered by some false charge or <a id="d0e1867"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1867">40</a>]</span>libel being promulgated against him. As already stated, the Kunbi firmly believes in the influence exercised by spirits, and +a proverb has it, ‘Brāhmans die of indigestion, Sunārs from bile, and Kunbis from ghosts’; because the Brāhman is always feasted +as an act of charity and given the best food, so that he over-eats himself, while the Sunār gets bilious from sitting all +day before a furnace. When somebody falls ill his family get a Brāhman’s cast-off sacred thread, and folding it to hold a +little lamp, will wave this to and fro. If it moves in a straight line they say that the patient is possessed by a spirit, +but if in a circle that his illness is due to natural causes. In the former case they promise an offering to the spirit to +induce it to depart from the patient. The Brāhmans, it is said, try to prevent the Kunbis from getting hold of their sacred +threads, because they think that by waving the lamp in them, all the virtue which they have obtained by their repetitions +of the Gāyatri or sacred prayer is transferred to the sick Kunbi. They therefore tear up their cast-off threads or sew them +into clothes. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e1869"> +<h3>17. The Pola festival</h3> +<p>The principal festival of the Kunbis is the Pola, falling at about the middle of the rainy season, when they have a procession +of plough-bullocks. An old bullock goes first, and on his horns is tied the <i>makhar</i>, a wooden frame with pegs to which torches are affixed. They make a rope of mango-leaves stretched between two posts, and +the <i>makhar</i> bullock is made to break this and stampede back to the village, followed by all the other cattle. It is said that the <i>makhar</i> bullock will die within three years. Behind him come the bullocks of the proprietors and then those of the tenants in the +order, not so much of their wealth, but of their standing in the village and of the traditional position held by their families. +A Kunbi feels it very bitterly if he is not given what he considers to be his proper rank in this procession. It has often +been remarked that the feudal feeling of reverence for hereditary rights and position is as strong among the Marātha people +as anywhere in the world. + + +</p> +<p></p> +<div id="d0e1884" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p099.jpg" alt="Figures of animals made for Pola festival" width="720" height="524"><p class="figureHead">Figures of animals made for Pola festival</p> +</div><p> + + + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e1888"> +<h3>18. Muhammadan tendencies of Berār Kunbis</h3> +<p>In Wardha and Berār the customs of the Kunbis show in several respects the influence of Islām, due no doubt to the long period +of Muhammadan dominance in the country. To this may perhaps be attributed the prevalence of burial <a id="d0e1893"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1893">41</a>]</span>of the dead instead of cremation, the more respectable method according to Hindu ideas. The Dhanoje Kunbis commonly revere +Dāwal Mālik, a Muhammadan saint, whose tomb is at Uprai in Amraoti District. An <i>urus</i> or fair is held here on Thursdays, the day commonly sacred to Muhammadan saints, and on this account the Kunbis will not +be shaved on Thursdays. They also make vows of mendicancy at the Muharram festival, and go round begging for rice and pulse; +they give a little of what they obtain to Muhammadan beggars and eat the rest. At the Muharram they tie a red thread on their +necks and dance round the <i>alāwa</i>, a small hole in which fire is kindled in front of the <i>tāsias</i> or tombs of Hussain. At the Muharram<a id="d0e1904src" href="#d0e1904" class="noteref">24</a> they also carry horseshoes of silver or gilt tinsel on the top of a stick decorated with peacock’s feathers. The horseshoe +is a model of that of the horse of Hussain. The men who carry these horseshoes are supposed to be possessed by the spirit +of the saint, and people make prayers to them for anything they want. If one of the horseshoes is dropped the finder will +keep it in his house, and next year if he feels that the spirit moves him will carry it himself. In Wardha the Kunbis worship +Khwāja Sheikh Farīd of Girar, and occasionally Sheikh Farīd appears to a Kunbi in a dream and places him under a vow. Then +he and all his household make little imitation beggars’ wallets of cloth and dye them with red ochre, and little hoes on the +model of those which saises use to drag out horses’ dung, this hoe being the badge of Sheikh Farīd. Then they go round begging +to all the houses in the village, saying, ‘<i>Dam</i>,<a id="d0e1910src" href="#d0e1910" class="noteref">25</a> <i>Sāhib</i>, <i>dam</i>.’ With the alms given them they make cakes of <i>malīda</i>, wheat, sugar and butter, and give them to the priest of the shrine. Sometimes Sheikh Farīd tells the Kunbi in the dream +that he must buy a goat of a certain Dhangar (shepherd), naming the price, while the Dhangar is similarly warned to sell it +at the same price, and the goat is then purchased and sacrificed without any haggling: At the end of the sacrifice the priest +releases the Kunbi from his vow, and he must then shave the whole of his head and distribute liquor to the caste-fellows in +order to <a id="d0e1924"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1924">42</a>]</span>be received back into the community. The water of the well at Sheikh Farīd’s shrine at Girar is considered to preserve the +crops against insects, and for this purpose it is carried to considerable distances to be sprinkled on them. + + +</p> +<p></p> +<div id="d0e1927" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p100.jpg" alt="Hindu boys on stilts" width="720" height="483"><p class="figureHead">Hindu boys on stilts</p> +</div><p> + + + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e1931"> +<h3>19. Villages and houses</h3> +<p>An ordinary Kunbi village<a id="d0e1936src" href="#d0e1936" class="noteref">26</a> contains between 70 and 80 houses or some 400 souls. The village generally lies on a slight eminence near a <i>nullah</i> or stream, and is often nicely planted with tamarind or pīpal trees. The houses are now generally tiled for fear of fire, +and their red roofs may be seen from a distance forming a little cluster on high lying ground, an elevated site being selected +so as to keep the roads fairly dry, as the surface tracks in black-soil country become almost impassable sloughs of mud as +soon as the rains have broken. The better houses stand round an old mud fort, a relic of the Pindāri raids, when, on the first +alarm of the approach of these marauding bands, the whole population hurried within its walls. The village proprietor’s house +is now often built inside the fort. It is an oblong building surrounded by a compound wall of unbaked bricks, and with a gateway +through which a cart can drive. Adjoining the entrance on each side are rooms for the reception of guests, in which constables, +chuprāssies and others are lodged when they stay at night in the village. <i>Kothas</i> or sheds for keeping cattle and grain stand against the walls, and the dwelling-house is at the back. Substantial tenants +have a house like the proprietor’s, of well-laid mud, whitewashed and with tiled roof; but the ordinary cultivator’s house +is one-roomed, with an <i>angan</i> or small yard in front and a little space for a garden behind, in which vegetables are grown during the rains. The walls +are of bamboo matting plastered over with mud. The married couples sleep inside, the room being partitioned off if there are +two or more in the family, and the older persons sleep in the verandahs. In the middle of the village by the biggest temple +will be an old pīpal tree, the trunk encircled by an earthen or stone platform, which answers to the village club. The respectable +inhabitants will meet here while the lower classes go to the liquor-shop nearly every <a id="d0e1948"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1948">43</a>]</span>night to smoke and chat. The blacksmith’s and carpenter’s shops are also places of common resort for the cultivators. Hither +they wend in the morning and evening, often taking with them some implement which has to be mended, and stay to talk. The +blacksmith in particular is said to be a great gossip, and will often waste much of his customer’s time, plying him for news +and retailing it, before he repairs and hands back the tool brought to him. The village is sure to contain two or three little +temples of Māroti or Mahādeo. The stones which do duty for the images are daily oiled with butter or <i>ghī</i>, and a miscellaneous store of offerings will accumulate round the buildings. Outside the village will be a temple of Devi +or Māta Mai (Smallpox Goddess) with a heap of little earthen horses and a string of hens’ feet and feathers hung up on the +wall. The little platforms which are the shrines of the other village gods will be found in the fields or near groves. In +the evening the elders often meet at Māroti’s temple and pay their respects to the deity, bowing or prostrating themselves +before him. A lamp before the temple is fed by contributions of oil from the women, and is kept burning usually up to midnight. +Once a year in the month, of Shrāwan (July) the villagers subscribe and have a feast, the Kunbis eating first and the menial +and labouring castes after them. In this month also all the village deities are worshipped by the Joshi or priest and the +villagers. In summer the cultivators usually live in their fields, where they erect temporary sheds of bamboo matting roofed +with juāri stalks. In these most of the household furniture is stored, while at a little distance in another funnel-shaped +erection of bamboo matting is kept the owner’s grain. This system of camping out is mainly adopted for fear of fire in the +village, when the cultivator’s whole stock of grain and his household goods might be destroyed in a few minutes without possibility +of saving them. The women stay in the village, and the men and boys go there for their midday and evening meals. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e1953"> +<h3>20. Furniture</h3> +<p>Ordinary cultivators have earthen pots for cooking purposes and brass ones for eating from, while the well-to-do have all +their vessels of brass. The furniture consists of a few stools and cots. No Kunbi will lie on the ground, <a id="d0e1958"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1958">44</a>]</span>probably because a dying man is always laid on the ground to breathe his last; and so every one has a cot consisting of a +wooden frame with a bed made of hempen string or of the root-fibres of the <i>palās</i> tree (<i>Butea frondosa</i>). These cots are always too short for a man to lie on them at full length, and are in consequence supremely uncomfortable. +The reason may perhaps be found in the belief that a man should always lie on a bed a little shorter than himself so that +his feet project over the end. Because if the bed is longer than he is, it resembles a bier, and if he lies on a bier once +he may soon die and lie on it a second time. For bathing they make a little enclosure in the compound with mats, and place +two or three flat stones in it. Hot water is generally used and they rub the perspiration off their bodies with a flat stone +called Jhāwar. Most Kunbis bathe daily. On days when they are shaved they plaster the head with soft black earth, and then +wash it off and rub their bodies with a little linseed or sesamum oil, or, if they can afford it, with cocoanut oil. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e1966"> +<h3>21. Food</h3> +<p>The Kunbis eat three times a day, at about eight in the morning, at midday and after dark. The morning meal is commonly eaten +in the field and the two others at home. At midday the cultivator comes home from work, bathes and takes his meal, having +a rest for about two hours in all. After finishing work he again comes home and has his evening meal, and then, after a rest, +at about ten o’clock he goes again to the fields, if the crops are on the ground, and sleeps on the <i>mara</i> or small elevated platform erected in the field to protect the grain from birds and wild animals; occasionally waking and +emitting long-drawn howls or pulling the strings which connect with clappers in various parts of the field. Thus for nearly +eight months of the year the Kunbi sleeps in his fields, and only during the remaining period at home. Juāri is the staple +food of the caste, and is eaten both raw and cooked. The raw pods of juāri were the provision carried with them on their saddles +by the marauding Marātha horsemen, and the description of Sivaji getting his sustenance from gnawing at one of these as he +rode along is said to have struck fear into the heart of the Nizām. It is a common custom among well-to-do <a id="d0e1974"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1974">45</a>]</span>tenants and proprietors to invite their friends to a picnic in the fields when the crop is ripe to eat <i>hurda</i> or the pods of juāri roasted in hot ashes. For cooking purposes juāri is ground in an ordinary handmill and then passed through +a sieve, which separates the finer from the coarser particles. The finer flour is made into dough with hot water and baked +into thick flat <i>chapātis</i> or cakes, weighing more than half a pound each; while the coarse flour is boiled in water like rice. The boiled pulse of +<i>arhar</i> (<i>Cajanus indicus</i>) is commonly eaten with juāri, and the <i>chapātis</i> are either dipped into cold linseed oil or consumed dry. The sameness of this diet is varied by a number of green vegetables, +generally with very little savour to a European palate. These are usually boiled and then mixed into a salad with linseed +or sesamum oil and flavoured with salt or powdered chillies, these last being the Kunbi’s indispensable condiment. He is also +very fond of onions and garlic, which are either chopped and boiled, or eaten raw. Butter-milk when available is mixed with +the boiled juāri after it is cooked, while wheat and rice, butter and sugar are delicacies reserved for festivals. As a rule +only water is drunk, but the caste indulge in country liquor on festive occasions. Tobacco is commonly chewed after each meal +or smoked in leaf cigarettes, or in <i>chilams</i> or clay pipe-bowls without a stem. Men also take snuff, and a few women chew tobacco and take snuff, though they do not smoke. +It is noticeable that different subdivisions of the caste will commonly take food from each other in Berār, whereas in the +Central Provinces they refuse to do so. The more liberal usage in Berār is possibly another case of Muhammadan influence. +Small children eat with their father and brothers, but the women always wait on the men, and take their own food afterwards. +Among the Dālia Kunbis of Nimār, however, women eat before men at caste feasts in opposition to the usual practice. It is +stated in explanation that on one occasion when the men had finished their meal first and gone home, the women on returning +were waylaid in the dark and robbed of their ornaments. And hence it was decided that they should always eat first and go +home before nightfall. The Kunbi is fairly liberal in the matter of food. He will eat the flesh <a id="d0e1994"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e1994">46</a>]</span>of goats, sheep and deer, all kinds of fish and fowls, and will drink liquor. In Hoshangābād and Nimār the higher subcastes +abstain from flesh and wine. The caste will take food cooked without water from Brāhmans, Banias and Sunārs, and that mixed +with water only from Marātha Brāhmans. All castes except Marātha Brāhmans will take water from the hands of a Kunbi. + + +</p> +<p></p> +<div id="d0e1997" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p101.jpg" alt="Throwing stilts into the water at the Pola festival" width="720" height="417"><p class="figureHead">Throwing stilts into the water at the Pola festival</p> +</div><p> + + + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e2001"> +<h3>22. Clothes and ornaments</h3> +<p>The dress of the ordinary cultivator is most common-place and consists only of a loin-cloth, another cloth thrown over the +shoulders and upper part of the body, which except for this is often bare, and a third rough cloth wound loosely round the +head. All these, originally white, soon assume a very dingy hue. There is thus no colour in a man’s everyday attire, but the +gala dress for holidays consists of a red <i>pagri</i> or turban, a black, coloured or white coat, and a white loin-cloth with red silk borders if he can afford it. The Kunbi is +seldom or never seen with his head bare; this being considered a bad omen because every one bares his head when a death occurs. +Women wear <i>lugras</i>, or a single long cloth of red, blue or black cotton, and under this the <i>choli</i>, or small breast-cloth. They have one silk-bordered cloth for special occasions. A woman having a husband alive must not +wear a white cloth with no colour in it, as this is the dress of widows. A white cloth with a coloured border may be worn. +The men generally wear shoes which are open at the back of the heel, and clatter as they move along. Women do not, as a rule, +wear shoes unless these are necessary for field work, or if they go out just after their confinement. But they have now begun +to do so in towns. Women have the usual collection of ornaments on all parts of the person. The head ornaments should be of +gold when this metal can be afforded. On the finger they have a miniature mirror set in a ring; as a rule not more than one +ring is worn, so that the hands may be free for work. For a similar reason glass bangles, being fragile, are worn only on +the left wrist and metal ones on the right. But the Dhanoje Kunbis, as already stated, have cocoanut shell bangles on both +wrists. They smear a mark of red powder on the forehead or have a spangle there. Girls are generally tattooed in childhood +when the skin is tender, and the <a id="d0e2015"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2015">47</a>]</span>operation is consequently less painful. They usually have a small crescent and circle between the brows, small circles or +dots on each temple and on the nose, cheeks and chin, and five small marks on the back of the hands to represent flies. Some +of the Deshmukh families have now adopted the sacred thread; they also put caste marks on the forehead, and wear the shape +of <i>pagri</i> or turban formerly distinctive of Marātha Brāhmans. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e2020"> +<h3>23. The Kunbi as cultivator</h3> +<p>The Kunbi has the stolidity, conservative instincts, dulness and patience of the typical agriculturist. Sir R. Craddock describes +him as follows<a id="d0e2025src" href="#d0e2025" class="noteref">27</a>: “Of the purely agricultural classes the Kunbis claim first notice. They are divided into several sections or classes, and +are of Marātha origin, the Jhāri Kunbis (the Kunbis of the wild country) being the oldest settlers, and the Deshkar (the Kunbis +from the Deccan) the most recent. The Kunbi is certainly a most plodding, patient mortal, with a cat-like affection for his +land, and the proprietary and cultivating communities, of both of which Kunbis are the most numerous members, are unlikely +to fail so long as he keeps these characteristics. Some of the more intelligent and affluent of the caste, who have risen +to be among the most prosperous members of the community, are as shrewd men of business in their way as any section of the +people, though lacking in education. I remember one of these, a member of the Local Board, who believed that the land revenue +of the country was remitted to England annually to form part of the private purse of the Queen Empress. But of the general +body of the Kunbi caste it is true to say that in the matter of enterprise, capacity to hold their own with the moneylender, +determination to improve their standard of comfort, or their style of agriculture, they lag far behind such cultivating classes +as the Kirār, the Rāghvi and the Lodhi. While, however, the Kunbi yields to these classes in some of the more showy attributes +which lead to success in life, he is much their superior in endurance under adversity, he is more law-abiding, and he commands, +both by reason of his character and his caste, greater social respect among the people at large. The wealthy Kunbi proprietor +is occasionally rather <a id="d0e2030"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2030">48</a>]</span>spoilt by good fortune, or, if he continues a keen cultivator, is apt to be too fond of land-grabbing. But these are the exceptional +cases, and there is generally no such pleasing spectacle as that afforded by a village in which the cultivators and the proprietors +are all Kunbis living in harmony together.” The feeling<a id="d0e2032src" href="#d0e2032" class="noteref">28</a> of the Kunbi towards agricultural improvements has hitherto probably been something the same as that of the Sussex farmer +who said, ‘Our old land, it likes our old ploughs’ to the agent who was vainly trying to demonstrate to him the advantages +of the modern two-horse iron plough over the great wooden local tool; and the emblem ascribed to old Sussex—a pig couchant +with the motto ‘I wun’t be druv’—would suit the Kunbi equally well. But the Kunbi, too, though he could not express it, knows +something of the pleasure of the simple outdoor life, the fresh smell of the soil after rain, the joy of the yearly miracle +when the earth is again carpeted with green from the bursting into life of the seed which he has sown, and the pleasure of +watching the harvest of his labours come to fruition. He, too, as has been seen, feels something corresponding to “That inarticulate +love of the English farmer for his land, his mute enjoyment of the furrow crumbling from the ploughshare or the elastic tread +of his best pastures under his heel, his ever-fresh satisfaction at the sight of the bullocks stretching themselves as they +rise from the soft grass.” + + +</p> +<p></p> +<div id="d0e2039" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p102.jpg" alt="Carrying out the dead" width="720" height="530"><p class="figureHead">Carrying out the dead</p> +</div><p> + + + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e2043"> +<h3>24. Social and moral characteristics</h3> +<p>Some characteristics of the Marātha people are noticed by Sir R. Jenkins as follows<a id="d0e2048src" href="#d0e2048" class="noteref">29</a>: “The most remarkable feature perhaps in the character of the Marāthas of all descriptions is the little regard they pay +to show or ceremony in the common intercourse of life. A peasant or mechanic of the lowest order, appearing before his superiors, +will sit down of his own accord, tell his story without ceremony, and converse more like an equal than an inferior; and if +he has a petition he talks in a loud and boisterous tone and fearlessly sets forth his claims. Both the peasantry and the +better classes are often coarse and indelicate in their <a id="d0e2053"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2053">49</a>]</span>language, and many of the proverbs, which they are fond of introducing into conversation, are extremely gross. In general +the Marāthas, and particularly the cultivators, are not possessed of much activity or energy of character, but they have quick +perception of their own interest, though their ignorance of writing and accounts often renders them the dupes of the artful +Brāhmans.” “The Kunbi,” Mr. Forbes remarks,<a id="d0e2055src" href="#d0e2055" class="noteref">30</a> “though frequently all submission and prostration when he makes his appearance in a revenue office, is sturdy and bold enough +among his own people. He is fond of asserting his independence and the helplessness of others without his aid, on which subject +he has several proverbs, as: ‘Wherever it thunders there the Kunbi is a landholder,’ and ‘Tens of millions are dependent on +the Kunbi, but the Kunbi depends on no man.’” This sense of his own importance, which has also been noticed among the Jāts, +may perhaps be ascribed to the Kunbi’s ancient status as a free and full member of the village community. “The Kunbi and his +bullocks are inseparable, and in speaking of the one it is difficult to dissociate the other. His pride in these animals is +excusable, for they are most admirably suited to the circumstances in which nature has placed them, and possess a very wide-extended +fame. But the Kunbi frequently exhibits his fondness for them in the somewhat peculiar form of unmeasured abuse. ‘May the +Kāthis<a id="d0e2060src" href="#d0e2060" class="noteref">31</a> seize you!’ is his objurgation if in the peninsula of Surat; if in the Idar district or among the mountains it is there ‘May +the tiger kill you!’ and all over Gujarāt, ‘May your master die!’ However, he means by this the animal’s former owner, not +himself; and when more than usually cautious he will word his chiding thus—‘May the fellow that sold you to me perish.’” But +now the Kāthis raid no more and the tiger, though still taking good toll of cattle in the Central Provinces, is not the ever-present +terror that once he was. But the bullock himself is no longer so sacrosanct in the Kunbi’s eyes, and cannot look forward with +the same certainty to an old age of idleness, threatened only by starvation in the hot weather or death by surfeit of the +new <a id="d0e2063"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2063">50</a>]</span>moist grass in the rains; and when therefore the Kunbi’s patience is exhausted by these aggravating animals, his favourite +threat at present is, ‘I will sell you to the Kasais’ (butchers); and not so very infrequently he ends by doing so. It may +be noted that with the development of the cotton industry the Kunbi of Wardha is becoming much sharper and more capable of +protecting his own interests, while with the assistance and teaching which he now receives from the Agricultural Department, +a rapid and decided improvement is taking place in his skill as a cultivator. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e1482" href="#d0e1482src" class="noteref">1</a></span> <i>Rāsmāla</i>, i. p. 100. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e1487" href="#d0e1487src" class="noteref">2</a></span> <i>Ibidem</i>, p. 241. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e1514" href="#d0e1514src" class="noteref">3</a></span> <i>Khāndesh Gazetteer</i>, p. 62. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e1522" href="#d0e1522src" class="noteref">4</a></span> <i>Bombay Gazetteer</i>, vol. i. part ii. p. 34. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e1534" href="#d0e1534src" class="noteref">5</a></span> From <i>jihār</i>, a tree or shrub. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e1542" href="#d0e1542src" class="noteref">6</a></span> <i>Acacia catechu</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e1549" href="#d0e1549src" class="noteref">7</a></span> <i>Dhan</i> properly means wealth, <i>cf.</i> the two meanings of the word stock in English. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e1562" href="#d0e1562src" class="noteref">8</a></span> <i>Berār Census Report</i> (1881), para. 180. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e1570" href="#d0e1570src" class="noteref">9</a></span> <i>Ibidem</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e1578" href="#d0e1578src" class="noteref">10</a></span> <i>Bāwan</i> = fifty-two. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e1585" href="#d0e1585src" class="noteref">11</a></span> <i>Bombay Gazetteer, Hindus of Gujarāt</i> p. 490, App. B, Gūjar. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e1600" href="#d0e1600src" class="noteref">12</a></span> <i>Eugenia jambolana</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e1607" href="#d0e1607src" class="noteref">13</a></span> <i>Ficus glomerata</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e1624" href="#d0e1624src" class="noteref">14</a></span> See the article entitled ‘An Anthropoid.’ +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e1629" href="#d0e1629src" class="noteref">15</a></span> <i>Bombay Gazetteer; Nāsik</i> p. 26. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e1710" href="#d0e1710src" class="noteref">16</a></span> This is the rule in the Nāgpur District. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e1737" href="#d0e1737src" class="noteref">17</a></span> From a note by Mr. A. K. Smith, C.S. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e1764" href="#d0e1764src" class="noteref">18</a></span> Circle Inspector Ganesh Prasād. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e1769" href="#d0e1769src" class="noteref">19</a></span> <i>Semicarpus anacardium</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e1787" href="#d0e1787src" class="noteref">20</a></span> ‘Oh, Lord Mahābīr, give me a child, only one child.’ +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e1800" href="#d0e1800src" class="noteref">21</a></span> <i>Beast and Man in India</i>, p. 44. But, according to the same writer, the Hindus do say, ‘Drunk as an owl’ and also ‘Stupid as an owl.’ +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e1815" href="#d0e1815src" class="noteref">22</a></span> <i>Crotalaria juncea</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e1858" href="#d0e1858src" class="noteref">23</a></span> The 3rd Baisākh (May) Sudi, the commencement of the agricultural year. The name means, ‘The day of immortality.’ +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e1904" href="#d0e1904src" class="noteref">24</a></span> Furnished by Inspector Ganesh Prasād. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e1910" href="#d0e1910src" class="noteref">25</a></span> <i>Dam</i>: breath or life. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e1936" href="#d0e1936src" class="noteref">26</a></span> These paragraphs are largely based on a description of a Wardha village by Mr. A.K. Smith, C.S. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e2025" href="#d0e2025src" class="noteref">27</a></span> <i>Nāgpur Settlement Report</i>, para. 45. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e2032" href="#d0e2032src" class="noteref">28</a></span> The references to English farming in this paragraph are taken from an article in the <i>Saturday Review</i> of 22nd August 1908. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e2048" href="#d0e2048src" class="noteref">29</a></span> <i>Report on the Territories of the Rāja of Nāgpur</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e2055" href="#d0e2055src" class="noteref">30</a></span> <i>Rāsmālā</i>, ii. 242. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e2060" href="#d0e2060src" class="noteref">31</a></span> A freebooting tribe who gave their name to Kāthiawār. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e2065" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Kunjra</h2> +<p><b>Kunjra</b>.<a id="d0e2072src" href="#d0e2072" class="noteref">1</a>—A caste of greengrocers, who sell country vegetables and fruit and are classed as Muhammadans. Mr. Crooke derives the name +from the Sanskrit <i>kunj</i>, ‘a bower or arbour.’ They numbered about 1600 persons in the Central Provinces in 1911, principally in the Jubbulpore Division. +The customs of the Kunjras appear to combine Hindu and Muhammadan rites in an indiscriminate medley. It is reported that marriage +is barred only between real brothers and sisters and foster brothers and sisters, the latter rule being known as <i>Dudh bachāna</i>, or ‘Observing the tie of the milk.’ At their betrothal presents are given to the parties, and after this a powder of henna +leaves is sent to the boy, who rubs it on his fingers and returns it to the girl that she may do the same. As among the Hindus, +the bodies of the bridal couple are anointed with oil and turmeric at their respective houses before the wedding. A marriage-shed +is made and the bridegroom goes to the bride’s house wearing a cotton quilt and riding on a bullock. The barber holds the +umbrella over his head and must be given a present before he will fold it, but the wedding is performed by the Kāzi according +to the Nikāh ceremony by the repetition of verses from the Korān. The wedding is held at four o’clock in the morning, and +as a preliminary to it the bride is presented with some money by the boy’s father, which is known as the Meher or dowry. On +its conclusion a cup of sherbet is given to the bridegroom, of which he drinks <a id="d0e2081"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2081">51</a>]</span>half and hands the remainder to the bride. The gift of the Meher is considered to seal the marriage contract. When a widow +is married the Kāzi is also employed, and he simply recites the Kalama or Muhammadan profession of belief, and the ceremony +is completed by the distribution of dates to the elders of the caste. Divorce is permitted and is known as <i>talāq</i>. The caste observe the Muhammadan festivals, and have some favourite saints of their own to whom they make offerings of <i>gulgula</i> a kind of pudding, with sacrifices of goats and fowls. Participation in these rites is confined to members of the family. +Children are named on the day of their birth, the Muhammadan Kāzi or a Hindu Brāhman being employed indifferently to select +the name. If the parents lose one or more children, in order to preserve the lives of those subsequently born, they will allow +the <i>choti</i> or scalp-lock to grow on their heads in the Hindu fashion, dedicating it to one of their Muhammadan saints. Others will put +a <i>hasli</i> or silver circlet round the neck of the child and add a ring to this every year; a strip of leather is sometimes also tied +round the neck. When the child reaches the age of twelve years the scalp-lock is shaved, the leather band thrown into a river +and the silver necklet sold. Offerings are made to the saints and a feast is given to the friends of the family. The dead +are buried, camphor and attar of roses being applied to the corpse. On the <i>Tīja</i> and <i>Chālisa</i>, or third and fortieth days after a death, a feast is given to the caste-fellows, but no mourning is observed, neither do +the mourners bathe nor perform ceremonies of purification. On the <i>Tīja</i> the Korān is also read and fried grain is distributed to children. For the death of a child the ordinary feasts need not +be given, but prayers are offered for their souls with those of the other dead once a year on the night of Shab-i-Barāt or +the fifteenth day of the month Shabān,<a id="d0e2104src" href="#d0e2104" class="noteref">2</a> which is observed as a vigil with prayer, feasts <a id="d0e2110"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2110">52</a>]</span>and illuminations and offerings to the ancestors. Kunjra men are usually clean-shaven with the exception of the beard, which +is allowed to grow long below the chin. Their women are not tattooed. In the cities, Mr. Crooke remarks,<a id="d0e2112src" href="#d0e2112" class="noteref">3</a> their women have an equivocal reputation, as the better-looking girls who sit in the shops are said to use considerable freedom +of manners to attract customers. They are also very quarrelsome and abusive when bargaining for the sale of their wares or +arguing with each other. This is so much the case that men who become very abusive are said to be behaving like Kunjras; while +in Dacca Sir H. Risley states<a id="d0e2117src" href="#d0e2117" class="noteref">4</a> that the word Kunjra has become a term of abuse, so that the caste are ashamed to be known by it, and call themselves Mewa-farosh, +Sabzi-farosh or Bepāri. When two women are having an altercation, their husbands and other male relatives are forbidden to +interfere on pain of social degradation. The women never sit on the ground, but on small wooden stools or <i>pīrhis</i>. The Kunjras belong chiefly to the north of the Province, and in the south their place is taken by the Marārs and Mālis who +carry their own produce for sale to the markets. The Kunjras sell sugarcane, potatoes, onions and all kinds of vegetables, +and others deal in the dried fruits imported by Kābuli merchants. + +</p> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e2072" href="#d0e2072src" class="noteref">1</a></span> This article is partly based on papers by Nanhe Khān, Sub-Inspector of Police, Khurai, Saugor, and Kesho Rao, Headmaster, +Middle School, Seoni-Chhapāra. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e2104" href="#d0e2104src" class="noteref">2</a></span> Literally ‘The Month of Separatica.’ It is the eighth month of the Muhammadan year and is said to be so called because in +this month the Arabs broke up their encampments and scattered in search of water. On the night of Shab-i-Barāt God registers +all the actions of men which they are to perform during the year; and all the children of men who are to be born and die in +the year are recorded. Though properly a fast, it is generally observed with rejoicings and a display of fireworks. Hughes’ +<i>Dictionary of Islam</i>, p. 570. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e2112" href="#d0e2112src" class="noteref">3</a></span> <i>Tribes and Castes of the N.W.P.,</i> art. Kunjra. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e2117" href="#d0e2117src" class="noteref">4</a></span> <i>Tribes and Castes of Bengal</i>, <i>ibidem</i>. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e2128" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Kuramwār</h2> +<p><b>Kuramwār</b>.<a id="d0e2135src" href="#d0e2135" class="noteref">1</a>—The shepherd caste of southern India, who are identical with the Tamil Kurumba and the Telugu Kuruba. The caste is an important +one in Madras, but in the Central Provinces is confined to the Chānda District where it numbered some 4000 persons in 1911. +The Kuramwārs are considered to be the modern representatives of the ancient Pallava tribe whose kings were powerful in southern +India in the seventh century.<a id="d0e2138src" href="#d0e2138" class="noteref">2</a> + +</p> +<p>The marriage rules of the Kuramwārs are interesting. If a girl reaches adolescence while still single, she is finally expelled +from the caste, her parents being also subjected to a penalty for readmission. Formerly it is said that such a girl was sacrificed +to the river-goddess by being placed in a small hut on the river-bank till a flood came and swept <a id="d0e2145"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2145">53</a>]</span>her away. Now she is taken to the river and kept in a hut, while offerings are made to the river-goddess, and she may then +return and live in the village though she is out of caste. In Madras, as a preliminary to the marriage, the bridegroom’s father +observes certain marks or ‘curls’ on the head or hair of the bride proposed. Some of these are believed to forecast prosperity +and others misery to the family into which she enters. They are therefore very cautious in selecting only such girls as possess +curls (<i>sūli</i>) of good fortune. The writer of the <i>North Arcot Manual</i><a id="d0e2152src" href="#d0e2152" class="noteref">3</a> after recording the above particulars, remarks: “This curious custom obtaining among this primitive tribe is observed by +others only in the case of the purchase of cows, bulls and horses.” In the Central Provinces, however, at least one parallel +instance can be given from the northern Districts where any mark resembling the V on the head of a cobra is considered to +be very inauspicious. And it is told that a girl who married into one well-known family bore it, and to this fact the remarkable +succession of misfortunes which has attended the family is locally attributed. Among the Kuramwārs marriages can be celebrated +only on four days in the year, the fifth day of both fortnights of Phāgun (February), the tenth day of the second fortnight +of the same month and the third day of Baisākh (April). At the marriage the bride and bridegroom are seated together under +the canopy, with the shuttle which is used for weaving blankets between them, and they throw coloured rice at each other. +After this a miniature swing is put up and a doll is placed in it in imitation of a child and swung to and fro. The bride +then takes the doll out and gives it to the bridegroom, saying: ‘Here, take care of it, I am now going to cook food’; while +after a time the boy returns the doll to the girl, saying, ‘I must now weave the blanket and go to tend the flock.’ The proceeding +seems a symbolic enactment of the cares of married life and the joint tending of the baby, this sort of symbolism being particularly +noticeable in the marriage ceremonies of the people of Madras. Divorce is not permitted even though the wife be guilty of +adultery, and if she runs away to her father’s house her husband cannot use force to bring her back if she refuses to <a id="d0e2155"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2155">54</a>]</span>return to him. The Kuramwārs worship the implements of their calling at the festival of Ganesh Chaturthi, and if any family +fails to do this it is put out of caste. They also revere annually Mallana Deva and Mallani Devi who guard their flocks respectively +from attacks of tigers and epidemics of murrain. The shrines of these deities are generally built under a banyan tree and +open to the east. The caste are shepherds and graziers and also make blankets. They are poor and ignorant, and the Abbé Dubois<a id="d0e2157src" href="#d0e2157" class="noteref">4</a> says of them: “Being confined to the society of their woolly charge, they seem to have contracted the stupid nature of the +animal, and from the rudeness of their nature they are as much beneath the other castes of Hindus as the sheep by their simplicity +and imperfect instruction are beneath the other quadrupeds.” Hence the proverbial comparison ‘As stupid as a Kuramwār.’ When +out of doors the Kuramwār retains the most primitive method of eating and drinking; he takes his food in a leaf and licks +it up with his tongue, and sucks up water from a tank or river with his mouth. They justify this custom by saying that on +one occasion their god had taken his food out of the house on a leaf-plate and was proceeding to eat it with his hands when +his sheep ran away and he had to go and fetch them back. In the meantime a crow came and pecked at the food and so spoilt +it. It was therefore ordained that all the caste should eat their food straight off the leaf, in order to do which they would +have to take it from the cooking-pot in small quantities and there would be no chance of leaving any for the crows to spoil. +The story is interesting as showing how very completely the deity of the Kuramwārs is imagined on the principle that god made +man in his own image. Or, as a Frenchman has expressed the idea, ‘<i>Dieu a fait l’homme à son image, mais l’homme le lui a bein rendu.</i>’ The caste are dark in colour and may be distinguished by their caps made from pieces of blankets, and by their wearing a +woollen cord round the waist over the loin-cloth. They speak a dialect of Canarese. +<a id="d0e2165"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2165">55</a>]</span></p> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e2135" href="#d0e2135src" class="noteref">1</a></span> This article is compiled from notes taken by Mr. Hīra Lāl and by Pyāre Lāl Misra, Ethnographic clerk. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e2138" href="#d0e2138src" class="noteref">2</a></span> <i>North Arcot Manual</i>, vol. i. p. 220. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e2152" href="#d0e2152src" class="noteref">3</a></span> Vol. i. p. 224. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e2157" href="#d0e2157src" class="noteref">4</a></span> <i>Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies</i>. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e2166" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Kurmi</h2> +<h3>List of Paragraphs</h3> +<ul> +<li><a href="#d0e2406">1. Numbers and derivation of name</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2439">2. Functional character of the caste</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2451">3. Subcastes</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2499">4. Exogamous groups</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2523">5. Marriage rules. Betrothal</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2542">6. The marriage-shed or pavilion</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2573">7. The marriage-cakes</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2583">8. Customs at the wedding</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2592">9. Walking round the sacred post</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2597">10. Other ceremonies</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2621">11. Polygamy widow-marriage and divorce</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2641">12. Impurity of women</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2662">13. Pregnancy rites</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2685">14. Earth-eating</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2692">15. Customs at birth</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2713">16. Treatment of mother and child</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2735">17. Ceremonies after birth</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2753">18. Suckling children</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2763">19. Beliefs about twins</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2776">20. Disposal of the dead</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2795">21. Funeral rites</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2802">22. Burning the dead</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2829">23. Burial</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2839">24. Return of the soul</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2857">25. Mourning</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2862">26. Shaving, and presents to Brahmans</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2872">27. End of mourning</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2883">28. Anniversaries of the dead</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2890">29. Beliefs in the hereafter</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2900">30. Religion. Village gods</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2912">31. Sowing the <i>Jawaras</i> or Gardens of Adonis</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2957">32. Rites connected with the crops. Customs of cultivation</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e2998">33. Agricultural superstitions</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e3016">34. Houses</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e3042">35. Superstitions about houses</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e3092">36. Furniture</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e3120">37. Clothes</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e3168">38. Women’s clothes</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e3190">39. Bathing</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e3207">40. Food</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e3335">41. Caste-feasts</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e3378">42. Hospitality</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e3388">43. Social customs. Tattooing</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e3409">44. Caste penalties</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e3420">45. The cultivating status</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e3447">46. Occupation</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e3452">Appendix: List of Exogamous Clans</a></li> +</ul> +<div class="div2" id="d0e2406"> +<h3>1. Numbers and derivation of name</h3> +<p><b>Kurmi</b>.<a id="d0e2413src" href="#d0e2413" class="noteref">1</a>—The representative cultivating caste of Hindustān or the country comprised roughly in the United Provinces, Bihār arid the +Central Provinces north of the <a id="d0e2416"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2416">56</a>]</span>Nerbudda. In 1911 the Kurmis numbered about 300,000 persons in the Central Provinces, of whom half belonged to the Chhattīsgarh +Division and a third to the Jubbulpore Division; the Districts in which they were most numerous being Saugor, Damoh, Jubbulpore, +Hoshangābād, Raipur, Bilāspur and Drūg. The name is considered to be derived from the Sanskrit <i>krishi</i>, cultivation, or from <i>kurma</i>, the tortoise incarnation of Vishnu, whether because it is the totem of the caste or because, as suggested by one writer, +the Kurmi supports the population of India as the tortoise supports the earth. It is true that many Kurmis say they belong +to the Kashyap <i>gotra</i>, Kashyap being the name of a Rishi, which seems to have been derived from <i>kachhap</i>, the tortoise; but many other castes also say they belong to the Kashyap <i>gotra</i> or worship the tortoise, and if this has any connection with the name of the caste it is probable that the caste-name suggested +the <i>gotra</i>-name and not the reverse. It is highly improbable that a large occupational caste should be named after an animal, and the +metaphorical similitude can safely be rejected. The name seems therefore either to come from <i>krishi</i>, cultivation, or from some other unknown source. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e2439"> +<h3>2. Functional character of the caste</h3> +<p>There seems little reason to doubt that the Kurmis, like the Kunbis, are a functional caste. In Bihār they show traces of +Aryan blood, and are a fine-looking race. But in Chota Nāgpur Sir H. Risley states: “Short, sturdy and of very dark complexion, +the Kurmis closely resemble in feature the Dravidian tribes around them. It is difficult to distinguish a Kurmi from a Bhumij +or Santāl, and the Santāls will take cooked food from them.”<a id="d0e2444src" href="#d0e2444" class="noteref">2</a> In the Central Provinces they are fairly dark in complexion and of moderate height, and no doubt of very mixed blood. Where +the Kurmis and Kunbis meet the castes sometimes amalgamate, and there is little doubt that various groups of Kurmis settling +in the Marātha country have become Kunbis, and Kunbis migrating to northern India have become Kurmis. Each caste has certain +subdivisions whose names belong to the other. It has been seen in the article on Kunbi that this caste is of very diverse +origin, having assimilated large bodies of persons <a id="d0e2449"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2449">57</a>]</span>from several other castes, and is probably to a considerable extent recruited from the local non-Aryan tribes; if then the +Kurmis mix so readily with the Kunbis, the presumption is that they are of a similar mixed origin, as otherwise they should +consider themselves superior. Mr. Crooke gives several names of subcastes showing the diverse constitution of the Kurmis. +Thus three, Gaharwār, Jādon and Chandel are the names of Rājpūt clans; the Kori subcaste must be a branch of the low weaver +caste of that name; and in the Central Provinces the names of such subcastes as the Agaria or iron-workers, the Lonhāre or +salt-refiners, and the Khaira or catechu-collectors indicate that these Kurmis are derived from low Hindu castes or the aboriginal +tribes. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e2451"> +<h3>3. Subcastes</h3> +<p>The caste has a large number of subdivisions. The Usrete belonged to Bundelkhand, where this name is found in several castes; +they are also known as Havelia, because they live in the rich level tract of the Jubbulpore Haveli, covered like a chessboard +with large embanked wheat-fields. The name Haveli seems to have signified a palace or headquarters of a ruler, and hence was +applied to the tract surrounding it, which was usually of special fertility, and provided for the maintenance of the chief’s +establishment and household troops. Thus in Jubbulpore, Mandia and Betūl we find the forts of the old Gond rulers dominating +an expanse of rich plain-country. The Usrete Kurmis abstain from meat and liquor, and may be considered as one of the highest +subcastes. Their name may be derived from <i>a-sreshtha,</i> or not the best, and its significance would be that formerly they were considered to be of mixed origin, like most castes +in Bundelkhand. The group of Sreshtha or best-born Kurmis has now, however, died out if it ever existed, and the Usretes have +succeeded in establishing themselves in its place. The Chandnāhes of Jubbulpore or Chandnāhus of Chhattīsgarh are another +large subdivision. The name may be derived from the village Chandnoha in Bundelkhand, but the Chandnāhus of Chhattīsgarh say +that three or four centuries ago a Rājpūt general of the Rāja of Ratanpur had been so successful in war that the king allowed +him to appear in Durbār in his uniform with his forehead marked with sandalwood, as a special honour. <a id="d0e2459"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2459">58</a>]</span>When he died his son continued to do the same, and on the king’s attention being drawn to it he forbade him. But the son did +not obey, and hence the king ordered the sandalwood to be rubbed from his forehead in open Durbār. But when this was done +the mark miraculously reappeared through the agency of the goddess Devi, whose favourite he was. Three times the king had +the mark rubbed out and three times it came again. So he was allowed to wear it thereafter, and was called Chandan Singh from +<i>chandan</i>, sandalwood; and his descendants are the Chandnāhu Kurmis. Another derivation is from Chandra, the moon. In Jubbulpore these +Chandnāhes sometimes kill a pig under the palanquin of a newly married bride. In Bilāspur they are prosperous and capable +cultivators, but are generally reputed to be stingy, and therefore are not very popular. Here they are divided into the Ekbahinyas +and Dobahinyas, or those who wear glass bangles on one or both arms respectively. The Chandrāha Kurmis of Raipur are probably +a branch of the Chandnāhus. They sprinkle with water the wood with which they are about to cook their food in order to purify +it, and will eat food only in the <i>chauka</i> or sanctified place in the house. At harvest when they must take meals in the fields, one of them prepares a patch of ground, +cleaning and watering it, and there cooks food for them all. + +</p> +<p>The Singrore Kurmis derive their name from Singror, a place near Allahābād. Singror is said to have once been a very important +town, and the Lodhis and other castes have subdivisions of this name. The Desha Kurmis are a group of the Mungeli tahsīl of +Bilāspur. Desh means one’s native country, but in this case the name probably refers to Bundelkhand. Mr. Gordon states<a id="d0e2469src" href="#d0e2469" class="noteref">3</a> that they do not rear poultry and avoid residing in villages in which their neighbours keep poultry. The Santore Kurmis are +a group found in several Districts, who grow <i>san</i>-hemp,<a id="d0e2477src" href="#d0e2477" class="noteref">4</a> and are hence looked down upon by the remainder of the caste. In Raipur the Mānwa Kurmis will also do this; Māna is a word +sometimes applied to a loom, and the Mānwa Kurmis may be so called because they grow hemp and weave sacking from the fibres. +The <a id="d0e2482"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2482">59</a>]</span>Pataria are an inferior group in Bilāspur, who are similarly despised because they grow hemp and will take their food in the +fields in <i>patris</i> or leaf-plates. The Gohbaiyān are considered to be an illegitimate group; the name is said to signify ‘holding the arm.’ +The Bāhargaiyan, or ‘those who live outside the town,’ are another subcaste to which children born out of wedlock are relegated. +The Palkiha subcaste of Jubbulpore are said to be so named because their ancestors were in the service of a certain Rāja and +spread his bedding for him; hence they are somewhat looked down on by the others. The name may really be derived from <i>palal</i>, a kind of vegetable, and they may originally have been despised for growing this vegetable, and thus placing themselves +on a level with the gardening castes. The Masūria take their name from the <i>masūr</i> or lentil, a common cold-weather crop in the northern Districts, which is, however, grown by all Kurmis and other cultivators; +and the Agaria or iron-workers, the Kharia or catechu-makers, and the Lonhāre or salt-makers, have already been mentioned. +There are also numerous local or territorial subcastes, as the Chaurasia or those living in a Chaurāsi<a id="d0e2493src" href="#d0e2493" class="noteref">5</a> estate of eighty-four villages, the Pardeshi or foreigners, the Bundelkhandi or those who came from Bundelkhand, the Kanaujias +from Oudh, the Gaur from northern India, and the Marāthe and Telenge or Marāthas and Telugus; these are probably Kunbis who +have been taken into the caste. The Gabel are a small subcaste in Sakti State, who now prefer to drop the name Kurmi and call +themselves simply Gabel. The reason apparently is that the other Kurmis about them sow <i>san</i>-hemp, and as they have ceased doing this they try to separate themselves and rank above the rest. But they call the bastard +group of their community Rakhaut Kurmis, and other people speak of all of them as Gabel Kurmis, so that there is no doubt +that they belong to the caste. It is said that formerly they were pack-carriers, but have now abandoned this calling in favour +of cultivation. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e2499"> +<h3>4. Exogamous groups</h3> +<p>Each subcaste has a number of exogamous divisions and these present a large variety of all types. Some groups have <a id="d0e2504"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2504">60</a>]</span>the names of Brāhman saints as Sāndil, Bhāradwaj, Kausil and Kashyap; others are called after Rājpūt septs, as Chauhān, Rāthor, +Panwār and Solanki; other names are of villages, as Khairagarhi from Khairagarh, Pandariha from Pandaria, Bhadaria, and Harkotia +from Harkoti; others are titular, as Sondeha, gold-bodied, Sonkharchi, spender of gold, Bimba Lohir, stick-carrier, Banhpagar, +one wearing a thread on the arm, Bhandāri, a store-keeper, Kumaria, a potter, and Shikaria, a hunter; and a large number are +totemistic, named after plants, animals or natural objects, as Sadāphal, a fruit; Kathail from <i>kath</i> or catechu; Dhorha, from <i>dhor</i>, cattle; Kānsia, the <i>kāns</i> grass; Karaiya, a frying-pan; Sarang, a peacock; Samundha, the ocean; Sindia, the date-palm tree; Dudhua from <i>dudh</i>, milk, and so on. Some sections are subdivided; thus the Tidha section, supposed to be named after a village, is divided +into three subsections named Ghurepake, a mound of cowdung, Dwarparke, door-jamb, and Jangi, a warrior, which are themselves +exogamous. Similarly the Chaudhri section, named after the title of the caste headman, is divided into four subsections, two, +Majhgawān Bamuria, named after villages, and two, Purwa Thok and Pascham Thok, signifying the eastern and western groups. +Presumably when sections get so large as to bar the marriage of persons not really related to each other at all, relief is +obtained by subdividing them in this manner. A list of the sections of certain subcastes so far as they have been obtained +is given at the end of the article. + + +</p> +<p></p> +<div id="d0e2519" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p103.jpg" alt="Pounding rice" width="498" height="720"><p class="figureHead">Pounding rice</p> +</div><p> + + + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e2523"> +<h3>5. Marriage rules. Betrothal</h3> +<p>Marriage is prohibited between members of the same section and between first and second cousins on the mother’s side. But +the Chandnāhe Kurmis permit the wedding of a brother’s daughter to a sister’s son. Most Kurmis forbid a man to marry his wife’s +sister during her lifetime. The Chhattīsgarh Kurmis have the practice of exchanging girls between two families. There is usually +no objection to marriage on account of religious differences within the pale of Hinduism, but the difficulty of a union between +a member of a Vaishnava sect who abstains from flesh and liquor, and a partner who does not, is felt and expressed in the +following saying: +<a id="d0e2528"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2528">61</a>]</span></p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Vaishnava purush avaishnava nāri +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Unt beil ki jot bichāri,</span></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>or ‘A Vaishnava husband with a non-Vaishnava wife is like a camel yoked with a bullock.’ Muhammadans and Christians are not +retained in the caste. Girls are usually wedded between nine and eleven, but well-to-do Kurmis like other agriculturists, +sometimes marry their daughters when only a few months old. The people say that when a Kurmi gets rich he will do three things: +marry his daughters very young and with great display, build a fine house, and buy the best bullocks he can afford. The second +and third methods of spending his money are very sensible, whatever may be thought of the first. No penalty is imposed for +allowing a girl to exceed the age of puberty before marriage. Boys are married between nine and fifteen years, but the tendency +is towards the postponement of the ceremony. The boy’s father goes and asks for a bride and says to the girl’s father, ‘I +have placed my son with you,’ that is, given him in adoption; if the match be acceptable the girl’s father replies, ‘Yes, +I will give my daughter to collect cowdung for you’; to which the boy’s father responds, ‘I will hold her as the apple of +my eye.’ Then the girl’s father sends the barber and the Brāhman to the boy’s house, carrying a rupee and a cocoanut. The +boy’s relatives return the visit and perform the ‘<i>God bharna</i>,’ or ‘Filling the lap of the girl.’ They take some sweetmeats, a rupee and a cocoanut, and place them in the girl’s lap, +this being meant to induce fertility. The ceremony of betrothal succeeds, when the couple are seated together on a wooden +plank and touch the feet of the guests and are blessed by them. The auspicious date of the wedding is fixed by the Brāhman +and intimation is given to the boy’s family through the <i>lagan</i> or formal invitation, which is sent on a paper coloured yellow with powdered rice and turmeric. A bride-price is paid, which +in the case of well-to-do families may amount to as much as Rs. 100 to Rs. 400. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e2542"> +<h3>6. The marriage-shed or pavilion</h3> +<p>Before the wedding the women of the family go out and fetch new earth for making the stoves on which the marriage feast will +be cooked. When about to dig they worship the earth by sprinkling water over it and offering <a id="d0e2547"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2547">62</a>]</span>flowers and rice. The marriage-shed is made of the wood of the <i>sāleh</i> tree,<a id="d0e2552src" href="#d0e2552" class="noteref">6</a> because this wood is considered to be alive. If a pole of <i>sāleh</i> is cut and planted in the ground it takes root and sprouts, though otherwise the wood is quite useless. The wood of the <i>kekar</i> tree has similar properties and may also be used. The shed is covered with leaves of the mango or <i>jāmun</i><a id="d0e2565src" href="#d0e2565" class="noteref">7</a> trees, because these trees are evergreen and hence typify perpetual life. The marriage-post in the centre of the shed is +called Magrohan or Khām; the women go and worship it at the carpenter’s house; two pice, a piece of turmeric and an areca-nut +are buried below it in the earth and a new thread and a <i>toran</i> or string of mango-leaves is wound round it. Oil and turmeric are also rubbed on the marriage-post at the same time as on +the bride and bridegroom. In Saugor the marriage-post is often a four-sided wooden frame or a pillar with four pieces of wood +suspended from it. The larger the marriage-shed is made the greater honour accrues to the host, even though the guests may +be insufficient to fill it. In towns it has often to be made in the street and is an obstacle to traffic. There may be eight +or ten posts besides the centre one. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e2573"> +<h3>7. The marriage-cakes</h3> +<p>Another preliminary ceremony is the family sacrament of the Meher or marriage-cakes. Small balls of wheat-flour are kneaded +and fried in an earthen pan with sesamum oil by the eldest woman of the family. No metal vessel may be used to hold the water, +flour or oil required for these cakes, probably because earthen vessels were employed before metal ones and are therefore +considered more sacred. In measuring the ingredients a quarter of a measure is always taken in excess, such as a seer<a id="d0e2578src" href="#d0e2578" class="noteref">8</a> and a quarter for a seer of wheat, to foreshadow the perpetual increase of the family. When made the cakes are offered to +the Kul Deo or household god. The god is worshipped and the bride and bridegroom then first partake of the cakes and after +them all members of the family and relatives. Married daughters and daughters-in-law may eat of the cakes, but not widows, +who are probably too impure to join in a sacred sacrament Every person admitted to partake of the marriage-cakes is held to +belong to the family, so that all other members of <a id="d0e2581"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2581">63</a>]</span>it have to observe impurity for ten days after a birth or death has occurred in his house and shave their heads for a death. +When the family is so large that this becomes irksome it is cut down by not inviting persons beyond seven degrees of relationship +to the Meher sacrament This exclusion has sometimes led to bitter quarrels and actions for defamation. It seems likely that +the Meher may be a kind of substitute for the sacrificial meal, at which all the members of the clan ate the body of the totem +or divine animal, and some similar significance perhaps once attached to the wedding-cake in England, pieces of which are +sent to relatives unable to be present at the wedding. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e2583"> +<h3>8. Customs at the wedding</h3> +<p>Before the wedding the women of each party go and anoint the village gods with oil and turmeric, worshipping them, and then +similarly anoint the bride and bridegroom at their respective houses for three days. The bridegroom’s head is shaved except +for his scalp-lock; he wears a silver necklet on his neck, puts lamp-black on his eyes, and is dressed in new yellow and white +clothes. Thus attired he goes round and worships all the village gods and visits the houses of his relatives and friends, +who mark his forehead with rice and turmeric and give him a silver piece. A list of the money thus received is made and similar +presents are returned to the donors when they have weddings. The bridegroom goes to the wedding either in a litter or on a +horse, and must not look behind him. After being received at the bride’s village and conducted to his lodging, he proceeds +to the bride’s house and strikes a grass mat hung before the house seven times with a reed-stick. On entering the bride’s +house the bridegroom is taken to worship her family gods, the men of the party usually remaining outside. Then, as he goes +through the room, one of the women who has tied a long thread round her toe gets behind him and measures his height with the +thread without his seeing. She breaks off the thread at his height and doubling it once or twice sews it round the top of +the bride’s skirt, and they think that as long as the bride wears this thread she will be able to make her husband do as she +likes. If the girls wish to have a joke they take one of the bridegroom’s shoes which he has left <a id="d0e2588"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2588">64</a>]</span>outside the house, wrap it up in a piece of cloth, and place it on a shelf or in a cupboard, where the family god would be +kept, with two lamps burning before it. Then they say to the bridegroom, ‘Come and worship our household god’; and if he goes +and does reverence to it they unwrap the cloth and show him his own shoe and laugh at him. But if he has been to one or two +weddings and knows the joke he just gives it a kick. The bride’s younger brother steals the bridegroom’s other shoe and hides +it, and will not give it back without a present of a rupee or two. The bride and bridegroom are seated on wooden seats, and +while the Brāhman recites texts, they make the following promises. The bridegroom covenants to live with his wife and her +children, to support them and tell her all his concerns, consult her, make her a partner of his religious worship and almsgiving, +and be with her on the night following the termination of her monthly impurity. The bride promises to remain faithful to her +husband, to obey his wishes and orders, to perform her household duties as well as she can, and not to go anywhere without +his permission. The last promise of the bridegroom has reference to the general rule among Hindus that a man should always +sleep with his wife on the night following the termination of her menses because at this time she is most likely to conceive +and the prospect of a child being born must not be lost. The Shāstras lay it down that a man should not visit his wife before +going into battle, this being no doubt an instance of the common custom of abstinence from conjugal intercourse prior to some +important business or undertaking; but it is stated that if on such an occasion she should have just completed a period of +impurity and have bathed and should desire him to come in to her, he should do so, even with his armour on, because by refusing, +in the event of his being killed in battle, the chance of a child being born would be finally lost. To Hindu ideas the neglect +to produce life is a sin of the same character, though in a minor degree, as that of destroying life; and it is to be feared +that it will be some time before this ingrained superstition gives way to any considerations of prudential restraint Some +people say that for a man <a id="d0e2590"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2590">65</a>]</span>not to visit his wife at this time is as great a sin as murder. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e2592"> +<h3>9. Walking round the sacred post</h3> +<p>The binding ceremony of the marriage is the walking seven times round the marriage-post in the direction of the sun. The post +probably represents the sun and the walk of the bridal couple round it may be an imitation of the movement of the planets +round the sun. The reverence paid to the marriage-post has already been noticed. During the procession the bride leads and +the bridegroom puts his left hand on her left shoulder. The household pounding-slab is near the post and on it are placed +seven little heaps of rice, turmeric, areca-nut, and a small winnowing-fan. Each time the bride passes the slab the bridegroom +catches her right foot and with it makes her brush one of the little heaps off the slab. These seven heaps represent the seven +Rishis or saints who are the seven large stars of the constellation of the Great Bear. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e2597"> +<h3>10. Other ceremonies</h3> +<p>After the wedding the bride and bridegroom resume their seats and the parents of the bride wash their feet in a brass tray, +marking their foreheads with rice and turmeric. They put some silver in the tray, and other relations and friends do the same. +The presents thus collected go to the bridegroom. The Chandnāhu Kurmis then have a ceremony known as <i>palkachār</i>. The bride’s father provides a bed on which a mattress and quilt are laid and the bride and bridegroom are seated on it, +while their brother and sister sprinkle parched rice round them. This is supposed to typify the consummation of the marriage, +but the ceremony is purely formal as the bridal couple are children. The bridegroom is given two lamps and he has to mix their +flames, probably to symbolise the mixing of the spirits of his wife and himself. He requires a present of a rupee or two before +he consents to do so. During the wedding the bride is bathed in the same water as the bridegroom, the joint use of the sacred +element being perhaps another symbolic mark of their union. At the feasts the bride eats rice and milk with her husband from +one dish, once at her own house and once after she goes to her husband’s house. Subsequently she never eats with her husband +but always after him. She also sits and eats at the wedding-feasts with her husband’s <a id="d0e2605"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2605">66</a>]</span>relations. This is perhaps meant to mark her admission into her husband’s clan. After the wedding the Brāhmans on either side +recite Sanskrit verses, praising their respective families and displaying their own learning. The competition often becomes +bitter and would end in a quarrel, but that the elders of the party interfere and stop it. + +</p> +<p>The expenses of an ordinary wedding on the bridegroom’s side may be Rs. 100 in addition to the bride-price, and on the bride’s +Rs. 200. The bride goes home for a day or two with the bridegroom’s party in Chhattīsgarh but not in the northern Districts, +as women accompany the wedding procession in the former but not in the latter locality. If she is too small to go, her shoes +and marriage-crown are sent to represent her. When she attains maturity the <i>chauk</i> or <i>gauna</i> ceremony is performed, her husband going to fetch her with a few friends. At this time her parents give her clothes, food +and ornaments in a basket called <i>jhanpi</i> or <i>tipara</i> specially prepared for the occasion. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e2621"> +<h3>11. Polygamy widow-marriage and divorce</h3> +<p>A girl who becomes pregnant by a man of the caste before marriage is wedded to him by the rite used for widows. If the man +is an outsider she is expelled from the community. Women are much valued for the sake of their labour in the fields, and the +transgressions of a wife are viewed with a lenient eye. In Damoh it is said that a man readily condones his wife’s adultery +with another Kurmi, and if it becomes known and she is put out of caste, he will give the penalty feasts himself for her admission. +If she is detected in a <i>liaison</i> with an outsider she is usually discarded, but the offence may be condoned should the man be a Brāhman. And one instance +is mentioned of a mālguzār’s wife who had gone wrong with a Gond, and was forgiven and taken back by her husband and the caste. +But the leniency was misplaced as she subsequently eloped with an Ahīr. Polygamy is usual with those who can afford to pay +for several wives, as a wife’s labour is more efficient and she is a more profitable investment than a hired servant. An instance +is on record of a blind Kurmi in Jubbulpore, who had nine wives. A man who is faithful to one wife, and does not visit her +on fast-days, is called a Brahmachari or saint and it is thought that he will go to heaven. The <a id="d0e2629"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2629">67</a>]</span>remarriage of widows is permitted and is usual. The widow goes to a well on some night in the dark fortnight, and leaving +her old clothes there puts on new ones which are given to her by the barber’s wife. She then fills a pitcher with water and +takes it to her new husband’s house. He meets her on the threshold and lifts it from her head, and she goes into the house +and puts bangles on her wrists. The following saying shows that the second marriage of widows is looked upon as quite natural +and normal by the cultivating castes: + +</p> +<p>“If the clouds are like partridge feathers it will rain, and if a widow puts lamp-black on her eyes she will marry again; +these things are certain.”<a id="d0e2633src" href="#d0e2633" class="noteref">9</a> + +</p> +<p>A bachelor marrying a widow must first go through the ceremony with a ring which he thereafter wears on his finger, and if +it is lost he must perform a funeral ceremony as if a wife had died. If a widower marries a girl she must wear round her neck +an image of his first wife. A girl who is twice married by going round the sacred post is called Chandelia and is most unlucky. +She is considered as bad or worse than a widow, and the people sometimes make her live outside the village and forbid her +to show them her face. Divorce is open to either party, to a wife on account of the impotency or ill-treatment of her husband, +and to a husband for the bad character, ill-health or quarrelsome disposition of his wife. A deed of divorce is executed and +delivered before the caste committee. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e2641"> +<h3>12. Impurity of women</h3> +<p>During her periodical impurity, which lasts for four or five days, a woman should not sleep on a cot. She must not walk across +the shadow of any man not her husband, because it is thought that if she does so her next child will be like that man. Formerly +she did not see her husband’s face for all these days, but this rule was too irksome and has been abandoned. She should eat +the same kind of food for the whole period, and therefore must take nothing special on one day which she cannot get on other +days. At this time she will let her hair hang loose, taking out all the cotton strings by which it is tied up.<a id="d0e2646src" href="#d0e2646" class="noteref">10</a> These strings, being cotton, have become <a id="d0e2649"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2649">68</a>]</span>impure, and must be thrown away. But if there is no other woman to do the household work and she has to do it herself, she +will keep her hair tied up for convenience, and only throw away the strings on the last day when she bathes. All cotton things +are rendered impure by her at this time, and any cloth or other article which she touches must be washed before it can be +touched by anybody else; but woollen cloth, being sacred, is not rendered impure, and she can sleep on a woollen blanket without +its thereby becoming a defilement to other persons. When bathing at the end of the period a woman should see no other face +but her husband’s; but as her husband is usually not present, she wears a ring with a tiny mirror and looks at her own face +in this as a substitute. + +</p> +<p>If a woman desires to procure a miscarriage she eats a raw <i>papāya</i> fruit, and drinks a mixture of ginger, sugar, bamboo leaves and milk boiled together. She then has her abdomen well rubbed +by a professional <i>masseuse</i>, who comes at a time when she can escape observation. After a prolonged course of this treatment it is said that a miscarriage +is obtained. It would seem that the rubbing is the only treatment which is directly effective. The <i>papāya</i>, which is a very digestible fruit, can hardly be of assistance, but may be eaten from some magical idea of its resemblance +to a foetus. The mixture drunk is perhaps designed to be a tonic to the stomach against the painful effects of the massage. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e2662"> +<h3>13. Pregnancy rites</h3> +<p>As regards pregnancy Mr. Marten writes as follows:<a id="d0e2667src" href="#d0e2667" class="noteref">11</a> “A woman in pregnancy is in a state of taboo and is peculiarly liable to the influence of magic and in some respects dangerous +to others. She is exempt from the observance of fasts, is allowed any food she fancies, and is fed with sweets and all sorts +of rich food, especially in the fifth month. She should not visit her neighbour’s houses nor sleep in any open place. Her +clothes are kept separate from others. She is subject to a large number of restrictions in her ordinary life with a view of +avoiding everything that might prejudice or retard her delivery. She should eschew all red clothes or red things of any sort, +such as suggest blood, till the third or <a id="d0e2672"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2672">69</a>]</span>fourth month, when conception is certain. She will be careful not to touch the dress of any woman who has had a miscarriage. +She will not cross running water, as it might cause premature delivery, nor go near a she-buffalo or a mare lest delivery +be retarded, since a mare is twelve months in foal. If she does by chance approach these animals she must propitiate them +by offerings of grain. Nor in some cases will she light a lamp, for fear the flame in some way may hurt the child. She should +not finish any sowing, previously begun, during pregnancy, nor should her husband thatch the house or repair his axe. An eclipse +is particularly dangerous to the unborn child and she must not leave the house during its continuance, but must sit still +with a stone pestle in her lap and anoint her womb with cowdung. Under no circumstances must she touch any cutting instrument +as it might cause her child to be born mutilated. + +</p> +<p>“During the fifth month of pregnancy the family gods are worshipped to avoid generally any difficulties in her labour. Towards +the end of that month and sometimes in the seventh month she rubs her body with a preparation of gram-flour, castor-oil and +turmeric, bathes herself, and is clothed with new garments and seated on a wooden stool in a space freshly cleaned and spread +with cowdung. Her lap is then filled with sweets called <i>pakwān</i> made of cocoanut. A similar ceremony called Boha Jewan is sometimes performed in the seventh or eighth month, when a new +<i>sāri</i> is given to her and grain is thrown into her lap. Another special rite is the <i>Pansavan</i> ceremony, performed to remove all defects in the child, give it a male form, increase its size and beauty, give it wisdom +and avert the influence of evil spirits.” + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e2685"> +<h3>14. Earth-eating</h3> +<p>Pregnant women sometimes have a craving for eating earth. They eat the earth which has been mixed with wheat on the threshing-floor, +or the ashes of cowdung cakes which have been used for cooking. They consider it as a sort of medicine which will prevent +them from vomiting. Children also sometimes get the taste for eating earth, licking it up from the floor, or taking pieces +of lime-plaster from the walls. Possibly they may be attracted by the saltish taste, but the result is that they get ill and +their stomachs are distended. The Panwar women of Bālāghāt eat red and <a id="d0e2690"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2690">70</a>]</span>white clay in order that their children may be born with red and white complexions. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e2692"> +<h3>15. Customs at birth</h3> +<p>During the period of labour the barber’s wife watches over the case, but as delivery approaches hands it over to a recognised +midwife, usually the Basorin or Chamārin, who remains in the lying-in room till about the tenth day after delivery. “If delivery +is retarded,” Mr. Marten continues,<a id="d0e2697src" href="#d0e2697" class="noteref">12</a> “pressure and massage are used, but coffee and other herbal decoctions are given, and various means, mostly depending on +sympathetic magic, are employed to avert the adverse spirits and hasten and ease the labour. She may be given water to drink +in which the feet of her husband<a id="d0e2702src" href="#d0e2702" class="noteref">13</a> or her mother-in-law or a young unmarried girl have been dipped, or she is shown the <i>swastik</i> or some other lucky sign, or the <i>chakra-vyuha</i>, a spiral figure showing the arrangement of the armies of the Pāndavas and Kauravas which resembles the intestines with the +exit at the lower end.” + +</p> +<p>The menstrual blood of the mother during child-birth is efficacious as a charm for fertility. The Nāin or Basorin will sometimes +try and dip her big toe into it and go to her house. There she will wash her toe and give the water to a barren woman, who +by drinking it will transfer to herself the fertility of the woman whose blood it is. The women of the family are in the lying-in +room and they watch her carefully, while some of the men stand about outside. If they see the midwife coming out they examine +her, and if they find any blood exclaim, ‘You have eaten of our salt and will you play us this trick’; and they force her +back into the room where the blood is washed off. All the stained clothes are washed in the birth-room, and the water as well +as that in which the mother and child are bathed is poured into a hole dug inside the room, so that none of it may be used +as a charm. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e2713"> +<h3>16. Treatment of mother and child</h3> +<p>The great object of the treatment after birth is to prevent the mother and child from catching cold. They appear to confuse +the symptoms of pneumonia and infantile lockjaw in a disease called <i>sanpāt</i>, to the prevention of which their efforts are directed. A <i>sigri</i> or stove is kept alight under the bed, and in this the seeds of <i>ajwāin</i> or coriander are <a id="d0e2727"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2727">71</a>]</span>burnt. The mother eats the seeds, and the child is waved over the stove in the smoke of the burning <i>ajwāin</i>. Raw asafoetida is put in the woman’s ears wrapped in cotton-wool, and she eats a little half-cooked. A freshly-dried piece +of cowdung is also picked up from the ground and half-burnt and put in water, and some of this water is given to her to drink, +the process being repeated every day for a month. Other details of the treatment of the mother and child after birth are given +in the articles on Mehtar and Kunbi. For the first five days after birth the child is given a little honey and calf’s urine +mixed. If the child coughs it is given <i>bans-lochan</i>, which is said to be some kind of silicate found in bamboos. The mother does not suckle the child for three days, and for +that period she is not washed and nobody goes near her, at least in Mandla. On the third day after the birth of a girl, or +the fourth after that of a boy, the mother is washed and the child is then suckled by her for the first time, at an auspicious +moment pointed out by the astrologer. Generally speaking the whole treatment of child-birth is directed towards the avoidance +of various imaginary magical dangers, while the real sanitary precautions and other assistance which should be given to the +mother are not only totally neglected, but the treatment employed greatly aggravates the ordinary risks which a woman has +to take, especially in the middle and higher castes. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e2735"> +<h3>17. Ceremonies after birth</h3> +<p>When a boy is born the father’s younger brother or one of his friends lets off a gun and beats a brass plate to proclaim the +event The women often announce the birth of a boy by saying that it is a one-eyed girl. This is in case any enemy should hear +the mention of the boy’s birth, and the envy felt by him should injure the child. On the sixth day after the birth the Chhathi +ceremony is performed and the mother is given ordinary food to eat, as described in the article on Kunbi. The twelfth day +is known as Barhon or Chauk. On this day the father is shaved for the first time after the child’s birth. The mother bathes +and cuts the nails of her hands and feet; if she is living by a river she throws them into it, otherwise on to the roof of +the house. The father and mother sit in the <i>chauk</i> or space marked out <a id="d0e2743"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2743">72</a>]</span>for worship with cowdung and flour; the woman is on the man’s left side, a woman being known as Bāmangi or the left limb, +either because the left limb is weak or because woman is supposed to have been made from man’s left side, as in Genesis. The +household god is brought into the <i>chauk</i> and they worship it. The Bua or husband’s sister brings presents to the mother known as <i>bharti</i>, for filling her lap: silver or gold bangles if she can afford them, a coat and cap for the boy; dates, rice and a breast-cloth +for the mother; for the father a rupee and a cocoanut. These things are placed in the mother’s lap as a charm to sustain her +fertility. The father gives his sister back double the value of the presents if he can afford it. He gives her husband a head-cloth +and shoulder-cloth; he waves two or three pice round his wife’s head and gives them to the barber’s wife. The latter and the +midwife take the clothes worn by the mother at child-birth, and the father gives them each a new cloth if he can afford it. +The part of the navel-string which falls off the child’s body is believed to have the power of rendering a barren woman fertile, +and is also intimately connected with the child’s destiny. It is therefore carefully preserved and buried in some auspicious +place, as by the bank of a river. + +</p> +<p>In the sixth month the Pasni ceremony is performed, when the child is given grain for the first time, consisting of rice and +milk. Brāhmans or religious mendicants are invited and fed. The child’s hair and nails are cut for the first time on the Shivrātri +or Akti festival following the birth, and are wrapped up in a ball of dough and thrown into a sacred river. If a child is +born during an eclipse they think that it will suffer from lung disease; so a silver model of the moon is made immediately +during the eclipse, and hung round the child’s neck, and this is supposed to preserve it from harm. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e2753"> +<h3>18. Suckling children</h3> +<p>A Hindu woman will normally suckle her child for two to three years after its birth, and even beyond this up to six years +if it sleeps with her. But they think that the child becomes short of breath if suckled for so long, and advise the mother +to wean it. And if she becomes pregnant again, when she has been three or four months in this condition, <a id="d0e2758"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2758">73</a>]</span>she will wean the child by putting <i>nīm</i> leaves or some other bitter thing on her breasts. A Hindu should not visit his wife for the last six months of her pregnancy +nor until the child has been fed with grain for the first time six months after its birth. During the former period such action +is thought to be a sin, while during the latter it may have the effect of rendering the mother pregnant again too quickly, +and hence may not allow her a sufficiently long period to suckle the first child. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e2763"> +<h3>19. Beliefs about twins</h3> +<p>Twins, Mr. Marten states, are not usually considered to be inauspicious.<a id="d0e2768src" href="#d0e2768" class="noteref">14</a> “It is held that if they are of the same sex they will survive, and if they are of a different sex one of them will die. +Boy twins are called Rāma and Lachhman, a boy and a girl Mahādeo and Pārvati, and two girls Ganga and Jamuni or Sīta and Konda. +They should always be kept separate so as to break the essential connection which exists between them and may cause any misfortune +which happens to the one to extend to the other. Thus the mother always sleeps between them in bed and never carries both +of them nor suckles both at the same time. Again, among some castes in Chhattīsgarh, when the twins are of different sex, +they are considered to be <i>pāp</i> (sinful) and are called Pāpi and Pāpin, an allusion to the horror of a brother and sister sharing the same bed (the mother’s +womb).” Hindus think that if two people comb their hair with the same comb they will lose their affection for each other. +Hence the hair of twins is combed with the same comb to weaken the tie which exists between them, and may cause the illness +or death of either to follow on that of the other. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e2776"> +<h3>20. Disposal of the dead</h3> +<p>The dead are usually burnt with the head to the north. Children whose ears have not been bored and adults who die of smallpox +or leprosy are buried, and members of poor families who cannot afford firewood. If a person has died by hanging or drowning +or from the bite of a snake, his body is burnt without any rites, but in order that his soul may be saved, the <i>hom</i> sacrifice is performed subsequently to the cremation. Those who live near the Nerbudda and Mahānadi sometimes throw the bodies +of the dead into these rivers and think that this will make them go to heaven. <a id="d0e2784"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2784">74</a>]</span>The following account of a funeral ceremony among the middle and higher castes in Saugor is mainly furnished by Major W. D. +Sutherland, I.M.S., with some additions from Mandla, and from material furnished by the Rev. E. M. Gordon:<a id="d0e2786src" href="#d0e2786" class="noteref">15</a> “When a man is near his end, gifts to Brāhmans are made by him, or by his son on his behalf. These, if he is a rich man, +consist of five cows with their calves, marked on the forehead and hoofs with turmeric, and with garlands of flowers round +their necks. Ordinary people give the price of one calf, which is fictitiously taken at Rs. 3–4, Rs. 1–4, ten annas or five +annas according to their means. By holding on to the tail of this calf the dead man will be able to swim across the dreadful +river Vaitarni, the Hindu Styx. This calf is called Bachra Sānkal or ‘the chain-calf,’ as it furnishes a chain across the +river, and it may be given three times, once before the death and twice afterwards. When near his end the dying man is taken +down from his cot and laid on a woollen blanket spread on the ground, perhaps with the idea that he should at death be in +contact with the earth and not suspended in mid-air as a man on a cot is held to be. In his mouth are placed a piece of gold, +some leaves of the <i>tulsi</i> or basil plant, or Ganges water, or rice cooked in Jagannāth’s temple. The dying man keeps on repeating ‘Rām, Rām, Sitārām.’” + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e2795"> +<h3>21. Funeral rites</h3> +<p>As soon as death occurs the corpse is bathed, clothed and smeared with a mixture of powdered sandalwood, camphor and spices. +A bier is constructed of planks, or if this cannot be afforded the man’s cot is turned upside down and the body is carried +out for burial on it in this fashion, with the legs of the cot pointing upwards. Straw is laid on the bier, and the corpse, +covered with fine white cloth, is tied securely on to it, the hands being crossed on the breast, with the thumbs and great +toes tied together. When a married woman dies she is covered with a red cloth which reaches only to the neck, and her face +is left open to the view of everybody, whether she went abroad unveiled in her life or not. It is considered a highly auspicious +thing for a woman to die in the lifetime of her husband and children, and the corpse is sometimes dressed like a bride and +<a id="d0e2800"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2800">75</a>]</span>ornaments put on it. The corpse of a widow or girl is wrapped in a white cloth with the head covered. At the head of the funeral +procession walks the son of the deceased, or other chief mourner, and in his hand he takes smouldering cowdung cakes in an +earthen pot, from which the pyre will be kindled. This fire is brought from the hearth of the house by the barber, and he +sometimes also carries it to the pyre. On the way the mourners change places so that each may assist in bearing the bier, +and once they set the bier on the ground and leave two pice and some grain where it lay, before taking it up again. After +the funeral each person who has helped to carry it takes up a clod of earth and with it touches successively the place on +his shoulder where the bier rested, his waist and his knee, afterwards dropping the clod on the ground. It is believed that +by so doing he removes from his shoulder the weight of the corpse, which would otherwise press on it for some time. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e2802"> +<h3>22. Burning the dead</h3> +<p>At the cremation-ground the corpse is taken from the bier and placed on the pyre. The cloth which covered it and that on which +it lay are given to a sweeper, who is always present to receive this perquisite. To the corpse’s mouth, eyes, ears, nostrils +and throat is applied a mixture of barley-flour, butter, sesamum seeds and powdered sandalwood. Logs of wood and cowdung cakes +are then piled on the body and the pyre is fired by the son, who first holds a burning stick to the mouth of the corpse as +if to inform it that he is about to apply the fire. The pyre of a man is fired at the head and of a woman at the foot. Rich +people burn the corpse with sandalwood, and others have a little of this, and incense and sweet-smelling gum. Nowadays if +the rain comes on and the pyre will not burn they use kerosine oil. When the body is half-consumed the son takes up a piece +of wood and with it strikes the skull seven times, to break it and give exit to the soul. This, however, is not always done. +The son then takes up on his right shoulder an earthen pot full of water, at the bottom of which is a small hole. He walks +round the pyre three times in the direction of the sun’s course and stands facing to the south, and dashes the pot on the +ground, crying out in his grief, ‘Oh, my father.’ While this is going on <i>mantras</i> or <a id="d0e2810"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2810">76</a>]</span>sacred verses are recited by the officiating Brāhman. When the corpse is partly consumed each member of the assembly throws +the <i>Pānch lakariya</i> (five pieces of wood or sprigs of basil) on to the pyre, making obeisance to the deceased and saying, ‘<i>Swarg ko jao</i>,’ or ‘Ascend to heaven.’ Or they may say, ‘Go, become incarnate in some human being.’ They stay by the corpse for 1¼ <i>pahars</i> or watches or some four hours, until either the skull is broken by the chief mourner or breaks of itself with a crack. Then +they bathe and come home and after some hours again return to the corpse, to see that it is properly burnt. If the pyre should +go out and a dog or other animal should get hold of the corpse when it is half-burnt, all the relatives are put out of caste, +and have to give a feast to all the caste, costing for a rich family about Rs. 50 and for a poor one Rs. 10 to Rs. 15. Then +they return home and chew <i>nīm</i> leaves, which are bitter and purifying, and spit them out of their mouth, thus severing their connection with the corpse. +When the mourners have left the deceased’s house the women of the family bathe, the bangles of the widow are broken, the vermilion +on the parting of her hair and the glass ornament (<i>tikli</i>) on her forehead are removed, and she is clad in white clothing of coarse texture to show that henceforth she is only a widow. + +</p> +<p>On the third day the mourners go again and collect the ashes and throw them into the nearest river. The bones are placed in +a silken bag or an earthen pot or a leaf basket, and taken to the Ganges or Nerbudda within ten days if possible, or otherwise +after a longer interval, being buried meantime. Some milk, salt and calfs urine are sprinkled over the place where the corpse +was burnt. These will cool the place, and the soul of the dead will similarly be cooled, and a cow will probably come and +lick up the salt, and this will sanctify the place and also the soul. When the bones are to be taken to a sacred river they +are tied up in a little piece of cloth and carried at the end of a stick by the chief mourner, who is usually accompanied +by several caste-fellows. At night during the journey this stick is planted in the ground, so that the bones may not touch +the earth. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e2829"> +<h3>23. Burial</h3> +<p>Graves are always dug from north to south. Some people say that heaven is to the north, being situated in the <a id="d0e2834"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2834">77</a>]</span>Himalayas, and others that In the Satyug or Golden Age the sun rose to the north. The digging of the grave only commences +on the arrival of the funeral party, so there is of necessity a delay of several hours at the site, and all who attend a funeral +are supposed to help in digging. It is considered to be meritorious to assist at a burial, and there is a saying that a man +who has himself conducted a hundred funerals will become a Rāja in his next birth. When the grave has been filled in and a +mound raised to mark the spot, each person present makes five small balls of earth and places them in a heap at the head of +the grave. This custom is also known as <i>Pānch lakariya</i>, and must therefore be an imitation of the placing of the five sticks on the pyre; its original meaning in the latter case +may have been that the mourners should assist the family by bringing a contribution of wood to the pyre. As adopted in burial +it seems to have no special significance, but somewhat resembles the European custom of the mourners throwing a little dust +into the grave. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e2839"> +<h3>24. Return of the soul</h3> +<p>On the third day the <i>pindas</i> or sacrificial cakes are offered and this goes on till the tenth day. These cakes are not eaten by the priest or Mahā-Brāhman, +but are thrown into a river. On the evening of the third day the son goes, accompanied by a Brāhman and a barber, and carrying +a key to avert evil, to a pīpal<a id="d0e2847src" href="#d0e2847" class="noteref">16</a> tree, on whose branches he hangs two earthen pots: one containing water, which trickles out through a hole in the bottom, +and the other a lamp. On each succeeding night the son replenishes the contents of these pots, which are intended to refresh +the spirit of the deceased and to light it on its way to the lower world. In some localities on the evening of the third day +the ashes of the cooking-place are sifted, and laid out on a tray at night on the spot where the deceased died, or near the +cooking-place. In the morning the layer of ashes is inspected, and if what appears to be a hand- or footprint is seen, it +is held that the spirit of the deceased has visited the house. Some people look for handprints, some for footprints, and some +for both, and the Nais look for the print of a cow’s hoof, which when seen is held to prove that the deceased in consideration +of his singular merits has been reborn a cow. If <a id="d0e2852"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2852">78</a>]</span>a woman has died in child-birth, or after the birth of a child and before the performance of the sixth-day ceremony of purification, +her hands are tied with a cotton thread when she is buried, in order that her spirit may be unable to rise and trouble the +living. It is believed that the souls of such women become evil spirits or <i>Churels</i>. Thorns are also placed over her grave for the same purpose. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e2857"> +<h3>25. Mourning</h3> +<p>During the days of mourning the chief mourner sits apart and does no work. The others do their work but do not touch any one +else, as they are impure. They leave their hair unkempt, do not worship the gods nor sleep on cots, and abjure betel, milk, +butter, curds, meat, the wearing of shoes, new clothes and other luxuries. In these days the friends of the family come and +comfort the mourners with conversation on the shortness and uncertainty of human life and kindred topics. During the period +of mourning when the family go to bathe they march one behind the other in Indian file. And on the last day all the people +of the village accompany them, the men first and after they have returned the women, all marching one behind the other. They +also come back in this manner from the actual funeral, and the idea is perhaps to prevent the dead man’s spirit from following +them. He would probably feel impelled to adopt the same formation and fall in behind the last of the line, and then some means +is devised, such as spreading thorns in the path, for leaving him behind. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e2862"> +<h3>26. Shaving, and presents to Brahmans</h3> +<p>On the ninth, tenth or eleventh day the males of the family have the front of the head from the crown, and the beard and moustaches, +shaved in token of mourning. The Mahā-Brāhman who receives the gifts for the dead is shaved with them. This must be done for +an elder relation, but a man need not be shaved on the death of his wife, sister or children. The day is the end of mourning +and is called Gauri Ganesh, Gauri being Pārvati or the wife of Siva, and Ganesh the god of good fortune. On the occasion the +family give to the Mahā-Brāhman<a id="d0e2867src" href="#d0e2867" class="noteref">17</a> a new cot and bedding with a cloth, an umbrella to shield the spirit from the sun’s rays, a copper vessel full of water to +quench its thirst, a brass lamp to guide it on its journey, and if the family is well-to-do a <a id="d0e2870"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2870">79</a>]</span>horse and a cow, All these things are meant to be for the use of the dead man in the other world. It is also the Brāhman’s +business to eat a quantity of cooked food, which will form the dead man’s food. It is of great spiritual importance to the +dead man’s soul that the Brāhman should finish the dish set before him, and if he does not do so the soul will fare badly. +He takes advantage of this by stopping in the middle of the meal, saying that he has eaten all he is capable of and cannot +go on, so that the relations have to give him large presents to induce him to finish the food. These Mahā-Brāhmans are utterly +despised and looked down on by all other Brāhmans and by the community generally, and are sometimes made to live outside the +village. The regular priest, the Malai or Purohit, can accept no gifts from the time of the death to the end of the period +of mourning. Afterwards he also receives presents in money according to the means of his clients, which it is supposed will +benefit the dead man’s soul in the next world; but no disgrace attaches to the acceptance of these. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e2872"> +<h3>27. End of mourning</h3> +<p>When the mourning is complete on the Gauri-Ganesh day all the relatives take their food at the chief mourner’s house, and +afterwards the <i>panchāyat</i> invest him with a new turban provided by a relative. On the next bazār day the members of the <i>panchāyat</i> take him to the bazār and tell him to take up his regular occupation and earn his livelihood. Thereafter all his relatives +and friends invite him to take food at their houses, probably to mark his accession to the position of head of the family. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e2883"> +<h3>28. Anniversaries of the dead</h3> +<p>Three months, six months and twelve months after the death presents are made to a Brāhman, consisting of Sīdha, or butter, +wheat and rice for a day’s food. The anniversaries of the dead are celebrated during Pitripaksh or the dark fortnight of Kunwār +(September-October). If a man died on the third day of any fortnight in the year, his anniversary is celebrated on the third +day of this fortnight and so on. On that day it is supposed that his spirit will visit his earthly house where his relatives +reside. But the souls of women all return to their homes on the ninth day of the fortnight, and on the thirteenth day come +the souls of all those who have met with a violent death, as by a fall, or have been <a id="d0e2888"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2888">80</a>]</span>killed by wild animals or snakes. The spirits of such persons are supposed, on account of their untimely end, to entertain +a special grudge against the living. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e2890"> +<h3>29. Beliefs in the hereafter</h3> +<p>As regards the belief in the hereafter Mr. Gordon writes:<a id="d0e2895src" href="#d0e2895" class="noteref">18</a> “That they have the idea of hell as a place of punishment may be gathered from the belief that when salt is spilt the one +who does this will in Pātāl or the infernal region have to gather up each grain of salt with his eyelids. Salt is for this +reason handed round with great care, and it is considered unlucky to receive it in the palm of the hand; it is therefore invariably +taken in a cloth or vessel. There is a belief that the spirit of the deceased hovers round familiar scenes and places, and +on this account, whenever possible, a house in which any one has died is destroyed or deserted. After the spirit has wandered +round restlessly for a certain time it is said that it will again become incarnate and take the form either of man or of one +of the lower animals.” In Mandla they think that the soul after death is arraigned and judged before Yama, and is then chained +to a flaming pillar for a longer or shorter period according to its sins. The gifts made to Brāhmans for the dead somewhat +shorten the period. After that time it is born again with a good or bad body and human or animal according to its deserts. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e2900"> +<h3>30. Religion. Village gods</h3> +<p>The caste worship the principal Hindu deities. Either Bhagwān or Parmeshwar is usually referred to as the supreme deity, as +we speak of God. Bhagwān appears to be Vishnu or the Sun, and Parmeshwar is Siva or Mahādeo. There are few temples to Vishnu +in villages, but none are required as the sun is daily visible. Sunday or Raviwār is the day sacred to him, and some people +fast in his honour on Sundays, eating only one meal without salt. A man salutes the sun after he gets up by joining his hands +and looking towards it, again when he has washed his face, and a third time when he has bathed, by throwing a little water +in the sun’s direction. He must not spit in front of the sun nor perform the lower functions of the body in its sight. Others +say that the sun and moon are the eyes of God, and the light of the sun is the effulgence of God, because by its light and +heat all moving and immobile creatures sustain their life and all <a id="d0e2905"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2905">81</a>]</span>corn and other products of the earth grow. In his incarnations of Rāma and Krishna there are temples to Vishnu in large villages +and towns. Khermāta, the mother of the village, is the local form of Devi or the earth-goddess. She has a small hut and an +image of Devi, either black or red. She is worshipped by a priest called Panda, who may be of any caste except the impure +castes. The earth is worshipped in various ways. A man taking medicine for the first time in an illness sprinkles a few drops +on the earth in its honour. Similarly for the first three or four times that a cow is milked after the birth of a calf the +stream is allowed to fall on the ground. A man who is travelling offers a little food to the earth before eating himself. +Devi is sometimes considered to be one of seven sisters, but of the others only two are known, Marhai Devi, the goddess of +cholera, and Sitala Devi, the goddess of smallpox. When an epidemic of cholera breaks out the Panda performs the following +ceremony to avert it. He takes a kid and a small pig or chicken, and some cloth, cakes, glass bangles, vermilion, an earthen +lamp, and some country liquor, which is sprinkled all along the way from where he starts to where he stops. He proceeds in +this manner to the boundary of the village at a place where there are cross-roads, and leaves all the things there. Sometimes +the animals are sacrificed and eaten. While the Panda is doing this every one collects the sweepings of his house in a winnowing-fan +and throws them outside the village boundary, at the same time ringing a bell continuously. The Panda must perform his ceremony +at night and, if possible, on the day of the new moon. He is accompanied by a few other low-caste persons called Gunias. A +Gunia is one who can be possessed by a spirit in the temple of Khermāta. When possessed he shakes his head up and down violently +and foams at the mouth, and sometimes strikes his head on the ground. Another favourite godling is Hardaul, who was the brother +of Jujhār Singh, Rāja of Orchha, and was suspected by Jujhār Singh of loving the latter’s wife, and poisoned in consequence +by his orders. Hardaul has a platform and sometimes a hut with an image of a man on horseback carrying a spear in his hand. +His shrine is outside the village, and two days before a marriage the <a id="d0e2907"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2907">82</a>]</span>women of the family visit his shrine and cook and eat their food there and invite him to the wedding. Clay horses are offered +to him, and he is supposed to be able to keep off rain and storms during the ceremony. Hardaul is perhaps the deified Rājpūt +horseman. Hanumān or Mahābīr is represented by an image of a monkey coloured with vermilion, with a club in his hand and a +slain man beneath his feet. He is principally worshipped on Saturdays so that he may counteract the evil influences exercised +by the planet Saturn on that day. His image is painted with oil mixed with vermilion and has a wreath of flowers of the cotton +tree; and <i>gugal</i> or incense made of resin, sandalwood and other ingredients is burnt before him. He is the deified ape, and is the god of +strength and swiftness, owing to the exploits performed by him during Rāma’s invasion of Ceylon. Dūlha Deo is another godling +whose shrine is in every village. He was a young bridegroom who was carried off by a tiger on his way to his wedding, or, +according to another account, was turned into a stone pillar by a flash of lightning. Before the starting of a wedding procession +the members go to Dūlha Deo and offer a pair of shoes and a miniature post and marriage-crown. On their return they offer +a cocoanut. Dūlha Deo has a stone and platform to the east of the village, or occasionally an image of a man on horseback +like Hardaul. Mirohia is the god of the field boundary. There is no sign of him, but every tenant, when he begins sowing and +cutting the crops, offers a little curds and rice and a cocoanut and lays them on the boundary of the field, saying the name +of Mirohia Deo. It is believed among agriculturists that if this godling is neglected he will flatten the corn by a wind, +or cause the cart to break on its way to the threshing-floor. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e2912"> +<h3>31. Sowing the <i>Jawaras</i> or Gardens of Adonis +</h3> +<p>The sowing of the Jawaras, corresponding to the gardens of Adonis, takes place during the first nine days of the months of +Kunwār and Chait (September and March). The former is a nine days’ fast preceding the Dasahra festival, and it is supposed +that the goddess Devi was during this time employed In fighting the buffalo-demon (Bhainsāsur), whom she slew on the tenth +day. The latter is a nine days’ fast at the new year, preceding <a id="d0e2920"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2920">83</a>]</span>the triumphant entry of Rāma into Ajodhia on the tenth day on his return from Ceylon. The first period comes before the sowing +of the spring crop of wheat and other grains, and the second is at the commencement of the harvest of the same crop. In some +localities the Jawaras are also grown a third time in the rains, probably as a preparation for the juāri sowings,<a id="d0e2922src" href="#d0e2922" class="noteref">19</a> as juāri is planted in the baskets or ‘gardens’ at this time. On the first day a small room is cleared and whitewashed, and +is known as the <i>diwāla</i> or temple. Some earth is brought from the fields and mixed with manure in a basket, and a male member of the family sows +wheat in it, bathing before he does so. The basket is kept in the <i>diwāla</i> and the same man attends on it throughout the nine days, fasting all day and eating only milk and fruit at night. A similar +nine days’ fast was observed by the Eleusinians before the sacramental eating of corn and the worship of the Corn Goddess, +which constituted the Eleusinian mysteries.<a id="d0e2933src" href="#d0e2933" class="noteref">20</a> During the period of nine days, called the Naorātra, the plants are watered, and long stalks spring up. On the eighth day +the <i>hom</i> or fire offering is performed, and the Gunias or devotees are possessed by Devi. On the evening of the ninth day the women, +putting on their best clothes, walk out of the houses with the pots of grain on their heads, singing songs in praise of Devi. +The men accompany them beating drums and cymbals. The devotees pierce their cheeks with long iron needles and walk in the +procession. High-caste women, who cannot go themselves, hire the barber’s or waterman’s wife to go for them. The pots are +taken to a tank and thrown in, the stalks of grain being kept and distributed as a mark of amity. The wheat which is sown +in Kunwār gives a forecast of the spring crops. A plant is pulled out, and the return of the crop will be the same number +of times the seed as it has roots. The woman who gets to the tank first counts the number of plants in her pot, and this gives +the price of wheat in rupees per <i>māni</i>.<a id="d0e2945src" href="#d0e2945" class="noteref">21</a> Sometimes marks of red rust appear on the plants, and this shows that the crop will suffer from rust. The ceremony performed +in Chait is said to be a sort of <a id="d0e2948"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2948">84</a>]</span>harvest thanksgiving. On the ninth day of the autumn ceremony another celebration called ‘Jhinjhia’ or ‘Norta’ takes place +in large villages. A number of young unmarried girls take earthen pots and, making holes in them and placing lamps inside, +carry them on their heads through the village, singing and dancing. They receive presents from the villagers, with which they +hold a feast. At this a small platform is erected and two earthen dolls, male and female, are placed on it; rice and flowers +are offered to them and their marriage is celebrated. + + +</p> +<p></p> +<div id="d0e2951" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p104.jpg" alt="Sowing" width="720" height="405"><p class="figureHead">Sowing</p> +</div><p> + + +</p> +<p>The following observances in connection with the crops are practised by the agricultural castes in Chhattīsgarh: + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e2957"> +<h3>32. Rites connected with the crops. Customs of cultivation</h3> +<p>The agricultural year begins on Akti or the 3rd day of Baisākh (April-May). On that day a cup made of <i>palās</i><a id="d0e2964src" href="#d0e2964" class="noteref">22</a> leaves and filled with rice is offered to Thākur Deo. In some villages the boys sow rice seeds before Thākur Deo’s shrine +with little toy ploughs. The cultivator then goes to his field, and covering his hand with wheat-flour and turmeric, stamps +it five times on the plough. The mālguzār takes five handfuls of the seed consecrated to Thākur Deo and sows it, and each +of the cultivators also sows a little. After this regular cultivation may begin on any day, though Monday and Friday are considered +auspicious days for the commencement of sowing. On the Hareli, or festival of the fresh verdure, which falls on the 15th day +of Shrāwan (July-August), balls of flour mixed with salt are given to the cattle. The plough and all the implements of agriculture +are taken to a tank and washed, and are then set up in the courtyard of the house and plastered with cowdung. The plough is +set facing towards the sun, and butter and sugar are offered to it. An earthen pot is whitewashed and human figures are drawn +on it with charcoal, one upside down. It is then hung over the entrance to the house and is believed to avert the evil eye. +All the holes in the cattle-sheds and courtyards are filled and levelled with gravel. While the rice is growing, holidays +are observed on five Sundays and no work is done. Before harvest Thākur Deo must be propitiated with an offering of a white +goat or a black fowl. Any one who begins to cut his crop before this <a id="d0e2969"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2969">85</a>]</span>offering has been made to Thākur Deo is fined the price of a goat by the village community. Before threshing his corn each +cultivator offers a separate sacrifice to Thākur Deo of a goat, a fowl or a broken cocoanut. Each evening, on the conclusion +of a day’s threshing, a wisp of straw is rubbed on the forehead of each bullock, and a hair is then pulled from its tail, +and the hairs and straw made into a bundle are tied to the pole of the threshing-floor. The cultivator prays, ‘O God of plenty! +enter here full and go out empty.’ Before leaving the threshing-floor for the night some straw is burnt and three circles +are drawn with the ashes, one round the heap of grain and the others round the pole. Outside the circles are drawn pictures +of the sun, the moon, a lion and a monkey, or of a cart and a pair of bullocks. Next morning before sunrise the ashes are +swept away by waving a winnowing-fan over them. This ceremony is called <i>anjan chadhāna</i> or placing lamp-black on the face of the threshing-floor to avert the evil eye, as women put it on their eyes. Before the +grain is measured it must be stacked in the form of a trapezium with the shorter end to the south, and not in that of a square +or oblong heap. The measurer stands facing the east, and having the shorter end of the heap on his left hand. On the larger +side of the heap are laid the <i>kalara</i> or hook, a winnowing-fan, the <i>dauri</i>, a rope by which the bullocks are tied to the threshing-pole, one or three branches of the <i>ber</i> or wild plum tree, and the twisted bundle of straw and hair of the bullocks which had been tied to the pole. On the top of +the heap are placed five balls of cowdung, and the <i>hom</i> or fire sacrifice is offered to it. The first <i>kātha</i><a id="d0e2988src" href="#d0e2988" class="noteref">23</a> of rice measured is also laid by the heap. The measurer never quite empties his measure while the work is going on, as it +is feared that if he does this the god of abundance will leave the threshing-floor. While measuring he should always wear +a turban. It is considered unlucky for any one who has ridden on an elephant to enter the threshing-floor, but a person who +has ridden on a tiger brings luck. Consequently the Gonds and Baigas, if they capture a young tiger and tame it, will take +it round <a id="d0e2991"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e2991">86</a>]</span>the country, and the cultivators pay them a little to give their children a ride on it. To enter a threshing-floor with shod +feet is also unlucky. Grain is not usually measured at noon but in the morning or evening. + + +</p> +<p></p> +<div id="d0e2994" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p105.jpg" alt="Threshing" width="720" height="461"><p class="figureHead">Threshing</p> +</div><p> + + + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e2998"> +<h3>33. Agricultural superstitions</h3> +<p>The cultivators think that each grain should bear a hundredfold, but they do not get this as Kuvera, the treasurer of the +gods, or Bhainsāsur, the buffalo demon who lives in the fields, takes it. Bhainsāsur is worshipped when the rice is coming +into ear, and if they think he is likely to be mischievous they give him a pig, but otherwise a smaller offering. When the +standing corn in the fields is beaten down at night they think that Bhainsāsur has been passing over it. He also steals the +crop while it is being cut and is lying on the ground. Once Bhainsāsur was absent while the particular field in the village +from which he stole his supply of grain was cut and the crop removed, and afterwards he was heard crying that all his provision +for the year had been lost. Sometimes the oldest man in the house cuts the first five bundles of the crop, and they are afterwards +left in the field for the birds to eat. And at the end of harvest the last one or two sheaves are left standing in the field, +and any one who likes can cut and carry them away. In some localities the last stalks are left standing in the field and are +known as <i>barhona</i> or the giver of increase. Then all the labourers rush together at this last patch of corn and tear it up by the roots; everybody +seizes as much as he can and keeps it, the master having no share in this patch. After the <i>barhona</i> has been torn up all the labourers fall on their faces to the ground and worship the field. In other places the <i>barhona</i> is left standing for the birds to eat. This custom, arises from the belief demonstrated by Sir J. G. Frazer in <i>The Golden Bough</i> that the corn-spirit takes refuge in the last patch of grain, and that when it is cut he flies away or his life is extinguished. +And the idea is supported by the fact that the rats and other vermin, who have been living in the field, seek shelter in the +last patch of corn, and when this is cut have to dart out in front of the reapers. In some countries it is thought, as shown +by Sir J. G. Frazer, that the corn-spirit takes refuge in the body of one of these animals. +<a id="d0e3015"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e3015">87</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e3016"> +<h3>34. Houses</h3> +<p>The house of a mālguzār or good tenant stands in a courtyard or <i>angan</i> 45 to 60 feet square and surrounded by a brick or mud wall. The plan of a typical house is shown below:— + + +</p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/fig087.gif" alt="" width="565" height="431"></div><p> + + +</p> +<p>The <i>dālān</i> or hall is for the reception of visitors. One of the living-rooms is set apart for storing grain. Those who keep their women +secluded have a door at the back of the courtyard for their use. Cooking is done in one of the rooms, and there are no chimneys, +the smoke escaping through the tiles. They bathe either in the <i>chauk</i> or central courtyard, or go out and bathe in a tank or river or at a well. The family usually sleep inside the house in the +winter and outside in the hot weather. A poor mālguzār or tenant has only two rooms with a veranda in front, one of which +is used by the family, while cattle are kept in the other; while the small tenants and labourers have only one room in which +both men and cattle reside. The walls are of bamboo matting plastered on both sides with mud, and the roof usually consists +of single small tiles roughly baked in an improvised kiln. The house is surrounded by a mud wall or hedge, and sometimes has +a garden behind in which <a id="d0e3035"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e3035">88</a>]</span>tobacco, maize or vegetables are grown. The interior is dark, for light is admitted only by the low door, and the smoke-stained +ceiling contributes to the gloom. The floor is of beaten earth well plastered with cowdung, the plastering being repeated +weekly. + + +</p> +<p></p> +<div id="d0e3038" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p106.jpg" alt="Winnowing" width="720" height="458"><p class="figureHead">Winnowing</p> +</div><p> + + + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e3042"> +<h3>35. Superstitions about houses</h3> +<p>The following are some superstitious beliefs and customs about houses. A house should face north or east and not south or +west, as the south is the region of Yama, the god of death, who lives in Ceylon, and the west the quarter of the setting sun. +A Muhammadan’s house, on the other hand, should face south or west because Mecca lies to the south-west. A house may have +verandas front and back, or on the front and two sides, but not on all four sides. The front of a house should be lower than +the back, this shape being known as <i>gai-mukh</i> or cow-mouthed, and not higher than the back, which is <i>singh-mukh</i> or tiger-mouthed. The front and back doors should not be in a straight line, which would enable one to look right through +the house. The <i>angan</i> or compound of a house should be a little longer than it is wide, no matter how little. Conversely the building itself should +be a little wider along the front than it is long from front to rear. The kitchen should always be on the right side if there +is a veranda, or else behind. When an astrologer is about to found a house he calculates the direction in which Shesh Nāg, +the snake on whom the world reposes, is holding his head at that time, and plants the first brick or stone to the left of +that direction, because snakes and elephants do not turn to the left but always to the right. Consequently the house will +be more secure and less likely to be shaken down by Shesh Nāg’s movements, which cause the phenomenon known to us as an earthquake. +Below the foundation-stone or brick are buried a pice, an areca-nut and a grain of rice, and it is lucky if the stone be laid +by a man who has been faithful to his wife. There should be no echo in a house, as an echo is considered to be the voice of +evil spirits. The main beam should be placed in position on a lucky day, and the carpenter breaks a cocoanut against it and +receives a present. The width of the rooms along the front of a house should be five cubits each, and if there is a staircase +it must have an uneven <a id="d0e3056"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e3056">89</a>]</span>number of steps. The door should be low so that a man must bend his head on entering and thus show respect to the household +god. The floor of the verandas should be lower than that of the room inside; the Hindus say that the compound should not see +the veranda nor the veranda the house. But this rule has of course also the advantage of keeping the house-floor dry. If the +main beam of a house breaks it is a very bad omen, as also for a vulture or kite to perch on the roof; if this should happen +seven days running the house will inevitably be left empty by sickness or other misfortune. A dog howling in front of the +house is very unlucky, and if, as may occasionally happen, a dog should get on to the roof of the house and bark, the omen +is of the worst kind. Neither the pīpal nor banyan trees should be planted in the yard of a house, because the leavings of +food might fall upon them, and this would be an insult to the deities who inhabit the sacred trees. Neither is it well to +plant the <i>nīm</i> tree, because the <i>nīm</i> is the tree of anchorites, and the frequent contemplation of it will take away from a man the desire of offspring and lead +to the extinction of his family. Bananas should not be grown close to the house, because the sound of this fruit bursting +the pod is said to be audible, and to hear it is most unlucky. It is a good thing to have a <i>gular</i><a id="d0e3066src" href="#d0e3066" class="noteref">24</a> tree in the yard, but at a little distance from the house so that the leavings of food may not fall upon it; this is the +tree of the saint Dattatreya, and will cause wealth to increase in the house. A plant of the sacred <i>tulsi</i> or basil is usually kept in the yard, and every morning the householder pours a vessel of water over it as he bathes, and +in the evening places a lamp beside it. This holy plant sanctifies the air which passes over it to the house. + +</p> +<p>No one should ever sit on the threshold of a house; this is the seat of Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, and to sit on it is +disrespectful to her. A house should never be swept at twilight, because it is then that Lakshmi makes her rounds, and she +would curse it and pass by. At this time a lamp should be lighted, no one should be allowed to sleep, and even if a man is +sick he should sit up on his bed. At <a id="d0e3076"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e3076">90</a>]</span>this time the grinding-mill should not be turned nor grain be husked, but reverence should be paid to ancestors and to the +household deities. No one must sit on the grinding-mill; it is regarded as a mother because it gives out the flour by which +the family is fed. No one must sit on cowdung cakes because they are the seat of Saturn, the Evil One, and their smell is +called <i>Sanīchar ke bās</i>. No one must step on the <i>chūlka</i> or cooking-hearth nor jar it with his foot. At the midday meal, when food is freshly cooked, each man will take a little +fire from the hearth and place it in front of him, and will throw a little of everything he eats on to the fire, and some +<i>ghī</i> as an offering to Agni, the god of fire. And he will also walk round the hearth, taking water in his hand and then throwing +it on the ground as an offering to Agni. A man should not sleep with his feet to the south, because a corpse is always laid +in that direction. He should not sleep with his feet to the east, nor spit out water from his mouth in the direction of the +east. + + +</p> +<p></p> +<div id="d0e3088" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p107.jpg" alt="Women grinding wheat and husking rice" width="720" height="509"><p class="figureHead">Women grinding wheat and husking rice</p> +</div><p> + + + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e3092"> +<h3>36. Furniture</h3> +<p>Of furniture there is very little. Carefully arranged in their places are the brass cooking-pots, water-pots and plates, well +polished with mud and water applied with plenty of elbow-grease by the careful housewife. Poor tenants frequently only have +one or two brass plates and cups and an iron girdle, while all the rest of their vessels are of earthenware. Each house has +several <i>chūlhas</i> or small horseshoe erections of earth for cooking. Each person in the house has a sleeping-cot if the family is comfortably +off, and a spare one is also kept. These must be put out and exposed to the sun at least once a week to clear them of fleas +and bugs. It is said that the Jains cannot adopt this method of disinfecting their beds owing to the sacrifice of insect life +thereby involved; and that there are persons in Calcutta who make it their profession to go round and offer to lie on these +cots for a time; they lie on them for some hours, and the little denizens being surfeited with their blood subsequently allow +the owner of the cot to have a quiet night. A cot should always be shorter than a man’s length, so that his legs project over +the end; if it is so long as to contain his whole length it is like a bier, and it is feared that lying on a cot of this kind +will cause him shortly to lie <a id="d0e3100"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e3100">91</a>]</span>on a bier. Poor tenants do not usually have cots, but sleep on the ground, spreading kodon-straw on it for warmth. They have +no bedding except a <i>gudri</i> or mattress made of old rags and clothes sewn together. In winter they put it over them, and sleep on it in summer. They +will have a wooden log to rest their heads on when sleeping, and this will also serve as a seat for a guest. Mālguzārs have +a <i>razai</i> or quilt, and a <i>doria</i> or thick cloth like those used for covering carts. Clothes and other things are kept in <i>jhāmpis</i> or round bamboo baskets. For sitting on there are <i>machnīs</i> or four-legged stools about a foot high with seats of grass rope or <i>pīrhis</i>, little wooden stools only an inch or two from the ground. For lighting, wicks are set afloat in little earthen saucers filled +with oil. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e3120"> +<h3>37. Clothes</h3> +<p>Landowners usually have a long coat known as <i>angarkha</i> reaching to the knees, with flaps folding over the breasts and tied with strings. The <i>bandi</i> is a short coat like this but coming only to the hips, and is more popular with cultivators. In the cold weather it is frequently +stuffed with cotton and dyed dark green or dark blue so as not to show the dirt. For visits of ceremony a pair of <i>paijāmas</i> are kept, but otherwise the <i>dhoti</i> or loin-cloth is commonly worn. Wearing the <i>dhoti</i> pulled half-way up to the thighs is called ‘cultivator’s fashion.’ A shirt may be worn under the coat; but cultivators usually +have only one garment, nowadays often a sleeveless coat with buttons in front. The proper head-dress is the <i>pagri</i>, a piece of coloured cloth perhaps 30 feet long and a foot wide, twisted tightly into folds, which is lifted on and off the +head and is only rarely undone. Twisting the <i>pagri</i> is an art, and a man is usually hired to do it and paid four annas. The <i>pagris</i> have different shapes in different parts of the country, and a Hindu can tell by the shape of a man’s <i>pagri</i> where he comes from. But nowadays cultivators usually wear a <i>dupatta</i> or short piece of cloth tied, loosely round the head. The tenant arranges his head-cloth with a large projection on one side, +and in it he carries his <i>chilam</i> or pipe-bowl, and also small quantities of vegetables, salt or condiments purchased at the bazār. In case of necessity he +can transform it into a loin-cloth, or tie up a bundle of grass with it, or tie his <i>lota</i> to it to draw water from a well. <a id="d0e3161"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e3161">92</a>]</span>‘What can the washerman do in a village where the people live naked?’ is a Chhattīsgarhi proverb which aptly indicates that +scantiness is the most prominent feature of the local apparel. Here a cloth round the loins, and this usually of meagre dimensions, +constituted, until recently, the full dress of a cultivator. Those who have progressed a stage farther throw a cloth loosely +over one shoulder, covering the chest, and assume an apology for a turban by wrapping another small rag carelessly round the +head, leaving the crown generally bare, as if this part of the person required special sunning and ventilation. Hindus will +not be seen out-of-doors with the head bare, though the Gonds and other tribes only begin to wear head-cloths when they are +adopting Hinduism. The Gondi fashion was formerly prevalent in Chhattīsgarh. Some sanctity attaches to the turban, probably +because it is the covering of the head. To knock off a man’s turban is a great insult, and if it drops off or he lets it fall, +it is a very bad omen. + + +</p> +<p></p> +<div id="d0e3164" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p108.jpg" alt="Group of women in Hindustāni dress" width="720" height="399"><p class="figureHead">Group of women in Hindustāni dress</p> +</div><p> + + + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e3168"> +<h3>38. Women’s clothes</h3> +<p>Women, in the northern Districts wear a skirt made of coarse cloth, usually red or blue, and a shoulder-cloth of the same +material. Hand-woven cloth is still commonly used in the interior. The skirt is sometimes drawn up through the legs behind +so as to give it a divided appearance; this is called <i>kachhota</i>. On the upper part of the body they wear an <i>angia</i> or breast-cloth, that is a short, tight, sleeveless jacket reaching only to below the breasts. The <i>angia</i> is tied behind, while the Marātha <i>choli</i>, which is the same thing, is buttoned or tied in front. High-caste women draw their shoulder-cloth right over the head so +that the face cannot be seen. When a woman goes before a person of position she covers her head, as it is considered immodest +to leave it bare. Women of respectable families wear a sheet of fine white, yellow, or red cloth drawn over the head and reaching +to the ankles when they go on a journey, this being known as <i>pichhora</i>. In Chhattīsgarh all the requirements of fashion among women are satisfied by one cloth from 8 to 12 yards long and about +a yard wide, which envelops the person in one fold from the waist to below the knee, hanging somewhat loosely. It is tied +at the waist, and the remaining half is spread over the breast and drawn across the right shoulder, <a id="d0e3188"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e3188">93</a>]</span>the end covering the head like a sheet and falling over the left shoulder. The simplicity of this solitary garment displays +a graceful figure to advantage, especially on festival days, when those who can afford it are arrayed in tasar silk. When +a girl is married the bridegroom’s family give her expensive clothes to wear at festivals and her own people give her ordinary +clothes, but usually not more than will last a year. Whenever she goes back to her father’s house after her marriage, he gives +her one or two cloths if he can afford it. Women of the middle and lower classes wear ornaments of bell-metal, a mixture of +copper and zinc, which are very popular. Some women wear brass and zinc ornaments, and well-to-do persons have them of silver +or gold. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e3190"> +<h3>39. Bathing</h3> +<p>Hot water is not used for bathing in Saugor, except by invalids, but is customary in Betūl and other Districts. The bathing-place +in the courtyard is usually a large square stone on which the bather sits; he has a big circular brass vessel by him called +<i>gangāl</i>,<a id="d0e3198src" href="#d0e3198" class="noteref">25</a> and from this he takes water either in a cup or with his hands and throws it over himself, rubbing his body. Where there +is a tank or stream people go to bathe in it, and if there is none the poorer classes sometimes bathe at the village well. +Each man or woman has two body-or loin-cloths, and they change the cloth whenever they bathe—going into the water in the one +which they have worn from the previous day, and changing into the other when they come out; long practice enables them to +do this in public without any undue exposure of the body. A good tank or a river is a great amenity to a village, especially +if it has a <i>ghāt</i> or flight of stone steps. Many people will spend an hour or so here daily, disporting themselves in the water or on the bank, +and wedding and funeral parties are held by it, owing to the facilities for ceremonial bathing. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e3207"> +<h3>40. Food</h3> +<p>People who do not cultivate with their own hands have only two daily meals, one at midday and the other at eight or nine in +the evening. Agriculturists require a third meal in the early morning before going out to the fields. Wheat and the millets +juāri and kodon are the staple foods of the cultivating classes in the northern Districts, and rice is kept for festivals. +The millets are made into thick <i>chapātis</i> or <a id="d0e3215"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e3215">94</a>]</span>cakes, their flour not being sufficiently adhesive for thin ones, and are eaten with the pulses, lentils, arhar,<a id="d0e3217src" href="#d0e3217" class="noteref">26</a> mung<a id="d0e3222src" href="#d0e3222" class="noteref">27</a> and urad.<a id="d0e3227src" href="#d0e3227" class="noteref">28</a> The pulses are split into half and boiled in water, and when they get soft, chillies, salt and turmeric are mixed with them. +Pieces of <i>chapāti</i> are broken off and dipped into this mixture. Various vegetables are also eaten. When pulse is not available the <i>chapātis</i> are simply dipped into buttermilk. If <i>chapātis</i> cannot be afforded at both meals, <i>ghorna</i> or the flour of kodon or juār boiled into a paste with water is substituted for them, a smaller quantity of this being sufficient +to allay hunger. Wheat-cakes are fried in <i>ghī</i> (clarified butter) as a luxury, and at other times in sesamum oil. Rice or ground gram boiled in buttermilk are other favourite +foods. + +</p> +<p>In Chhattīsgarh rice is the common food: it is eaten with pulses at midday and with vegetables cooked in <i>ghī</i> in the evening. In the morning they drink a rice-gruel, called <i>bāsi></i> which consists of the previous night’s repast mixed with water and taken cold. On festivals rice is boiled in milk. Milk +is often drunk at night, and there is a saying, “He who drinks water in the morning and milk at night and takes <i>harra</i> before he sleeps will never need a doctor.” A little powdered <i>harra</i> or myrobalan acts as an aperient. The food of landowners and tenants is much the same, except that the former have more butter +and vegetables, according to the saying, ‘<i>Rāja praja ka ekhi khāna</i>’ or ‘The king and peasant eat the same food.’ Those who eat flesh have an occasional change of food, but most Kurmis abstain +from it. Farmservants eat the gruel of rice or kodon boiled in water when they can afford it, and if not they eat mahua flowers. +These are sometimes boiled in water, and the juice is then strained off and mixed with half-ground flour, and they are also +pounded and made into <i>chapātis</i> with flour and water. The leaves of the young gram-plants make a very favourite vegetable and are eaten raw, either moist +or dried. In times of scarcity the poorer classes eat tamarind leaves, the pith of the banyan tree, the seeds of the bamboo, +the bark of the <i>semar</i> tree,<a id="d0e3270src" href="#d0e3270" class="noteref">29</a> the fruit of the <i>babūl</i>,<a id="d0e3278src" href="#d0e3278" class="noteref">30</a> and other articles. A <a id="d0e3283"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e3283">95</a>]</span>cultivator will eat 2 lbs. of grain a day if he can get it, or more in the case of rice. Their stomachs get distended owing +to the large quantities of boiled rice eaten at one time. The leaves of the <i>chirota</i> or <i>chakora</i> a little plant<a id="d0e3291src" href="#d0e3291" class="noteref">31</a> which grows thickly at the commencement of the rains near inhabited sites, are also a favourite vegetable, and a resource +in famine time. The people call it ‘<i>Gaon ka thākur</i>,’ or ‘lord of the village,’ and have a saying: + +</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Amarbel aur kamalgata, +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Gaon ka thākur, gai ka matha, +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Nagar sowāsan, unmen milai, +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Khāj, dād, sehua mīt jāwe.</span></p> +</div> +</div> +<p><i>Amarbel</i> is an endless creeper, with long yellow strings like stalks, which infests and destroys trees; it is called <i>amarbel</i> or the immortal, because it has no visible root. <i>Kamalgata</i> is the seed of the lotus; <i>gai ka matha</i> is buttermilk; <i>nagar sowāsan</i>, ‘the happiness of the town,’ is turmeric, because married women whose husbands are alive put turmeric on their foreheads +every day; <i>khāj, dād</i> and <i>sehua</i> are itch, ringworm and some kind of rash, perhaps measles; and the verse therefore means: + +</p> +<p>“Eat <i>amarbel</i>, lotus seeds, chirota, buttermilk and turmeric mixed together, and you will keep off itch, ringworm and measles.” Chirota +is good for the itch. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e3335"> +<h3>41. Caste-feasts</h3> +<p>At the commencement of a marriage or other ceremonial feast the host must wash the feet of all the guests himself. If he does +not do this they will be dissatisfied, and, though they will eat at his house, will consider they have not been properly welcomed. +He takes a large brass plate and placing the feet of his guest on it, pours water over them and then rubs and dries them; +the water is thrown away and fresh water poured out for the next guest unless they should be brothers. Little flat stools +about three inches high are provided for the guests, and if there are not enough of them a carpet is spread; or <i>baithkis</i> or sitting-mats plaited from five or six large leaves are set out. These serve as a mark of attention, as it would be discourteous +to make a man sit on the ground, and they also prevent the body-cloth <a id="d0e3343"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e3343">96</a>]</span>from getting wet. The guests sit in the <i>chauk</i> or yard of the house inside, or in the <i>angan</i> or outside yard, either in lines or in a circle; members of the same caste sit with their crossed knees actually touching +those of the man on either side of them to emphasise their brotherhood; if a man sat even a few inches apart from his fellows +people would say he was out of caste—and this is how a man who is put out of caste actually does sit. Before each guest may +be set two plates of leaves and eight <i>donas</i> or leaf-cups. On the plates are heaped rice, cakes of wheat fried in butter, and of husked urad pulse cooked with tilli or +sesamum oil, and the pulse of gram and lentils. In the cups will be sugar, <i>ghī</i>, <i>dahi</i> or curded milk, various vegetables, pumpkins, and <i>besin</i> or ground gram cooked with buttermilk. All the male members of the host’s family serve the food and they take it round, heaping +and pouring it into each man’s plates or cups until he says enough; and they continue to give further helpings as required. +All the food is served at once in the different plates and cups, but owing to the number of guests a considerable time elapses +before all are fully served, and the dinner lasts about two hours. The guests eat all the different dishes together with their +fingers, taking a little of each according to their fancy. Each man has his <i>lota</i> or vessel of water by him and drinks as he eats. When the meal is finished large brass plates are brought in, one being given +to about ten guests, and they wash their hands over these, pouring water on them from their vessels. A fresh carpet is then +spread in the yard and the guests sit on it, and betel-leaf and tobacco are distributed. The huqqa is passed round, and <i>chilams</i> and <i>chongis</i> (clay pipe-bowls and leaf-pipes) are provided for those who want them. The women do not appear at the feast but stay inside, +sitting in the <i>angan</i> or inner court, which is behind the <i>purda</i>. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e3378"> +<h3>42. Hospitality</h3> +<p>The people still show great hospitality, and it is the custom of many mālguzārs, at least in Chhattīsgarh, to afford food +and a night’s rest to all travellers who may require it. When a Brāhman comes to the village such mālguzārs will give him +one or two annas, and to a Pandit or learned man as much as a rupee. Formerly it is said that when any stranger came through +the village he was at once offered a <a id="d0e3383"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e3383">97</a>]</span>cup of milk and told to drink it or throw it away. But this custom has died out in Chhattīsgarh, though one has met with it +once or twice in Sambalpur. When District Officers go on tour, well-to-do landowners ask to be allowed to supply free provisions +for the whole camp at least for a day, and it is difficult to refuse them gracefully. In Mandla, Banias and mālguzārs in villages +near the Nerbudda sometimes undertake to give a pound of grain to every <i>parikramawāsi</i> or pilgrim perambulating the Nerbudda. And as the number of these steadily increases in consequence, they often become impoverished +as a result of such indiscriminate charity. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e3388"> +<h3>43. Social customs. Tattooing</h3> +<p>The Kurmis employ Brāhmans for their ceremonies. They have <i>gurus</i> or spiritual preceptors who may be Brāhmans or Bairāgis; the <i>guru</i> is given from 8 annas to Rs. 5 when he initiates a neophyte, as well as his food and a new white cloth. The <i>guru</i> is occasionally consulted on some religious question, but otherwise he does nothing for his disciple except to pay him an +occasional visit, when he is hospitably entertained. The Kurmis of the northern Districts do not as a rule eat meat and also +abstain from alcohol, but in Chhattīsgarh they eat the flesh of clean animals and fish, and also of fowls, and drink country +liquor. Old men often give up flesh and wine as a mark of piety, when they are known as Bhagat or holy. They will take food +cooked with water only from Brāhmans, and that cooked without water from Rājpūts, Banias and Kāyasths as well. Brāhmans and +Rājpūts will take water from Kurmis in the northern Districts though not in Chhattīsgarh. Here the Kurmis do not object to +eating cooked food which has been carried from the house to the fields. This is called <i>rengai roti</i>, and castes which will eat it are considered inferior to those who always take their food in the <i>chauka</i> or purified place in the house. They say ‘Rām, Rām’ to each other in greeting, and the Raipur Kurmis swear by a dog or a +pig. Generally they do not plough on the new or full moon days. Their women are tattooed after marriage with dots on the cheeks, +marks of flies on the fingers, scorpions on the arms, and other devices on the legs. +<a id="d0e3408"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e3408">98</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e3409"> +<h3>44. Caste penalties</h3> +<p>Permanent expulsion from caste is inflicted for a change of religion, taking food or having sexual intercourse with a member +of an impure caste, and for eating beef. For killing a man, a cow, a buffalo, an ass, a horse, a squirrel, a cat or a monkey +a man must purify himself by bathing in the Ganges at Allahābād or Benāres and giving a feast to the caste. It will be seen +that all these are domestic animals except the monkey, who is the god Hanumān. The squirrel is counted as a domestic animal +because it is always about the house, and the souls of children are believed to go into squirrels. One household animal, the +dog, is omitted, and he appears to be less sacred than the others. For getting maggots in a wound the offender must bathe +in a sacred river, such as the Nerbudda or Mahānadi, and give a feast to the caste. For eating or having intercourse with +a member of any caste other than the impure ones, or for a <i>liaison</i> within the caste, or for divorcing a wife or marrying a widow, or in the case of a woman for breaking her bangles in a quarrel +with her husband, a penalty feast must be given. If a man omits to feast the caste after a death in his family a second feast +is imposed, and if he insults the <i>panchāyat</i> he is fined. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e3420"> +<h3>45. The cultivating status</h3> +<p>The social status of the Kurmi appears to be that of the cultivator. He is above the menial and artisan castes of the village +and the impure weaving and labouring castes; he is theoretically equal to the artisan castes of towns, but one or two of these, +such as the Sunār or goldsmith and Kasār or brass-worker, have risen in the world owing to the prosperity or importance of +their members, and now rank above the Kurmi. The Kurmi’s status appears to be that of the cultivator and member of the village +community, but a large proportion of the Kurmis are recruited from the non-Aryan tribes, who have obtained land and been admitted +into the caste, and this tends to lower the status of the caste as a whole. In the Punjab Kurmis apparently do not hold land +and are employed in grass-cutting, weaving, and tending horses, and are even said to keep pigs.<a id="d0e3425src" href="#d0e3425" class="noteref">32</a> Here their status is necessarily very low as they follow the occupations of the impure castes. The reason why the <a id="d0e3430"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e3430">99</a>]</span>Kurmi as cultivator ranks above the village handicraftsmen may perhaps be that industrial pursuits were despised in early +times and left to the impure Sūdras and to the castes of mixed descent; while agriculture and trade were the occupations of +the Vaishya. Further, the village artisans and menials were supported before the general use of current coin by contributions +of grain from the cultivators and by presents of grain at seed-time and harvest; and among the Hindus it is considered very +derogatory to accept a gift, a man who does so being held to admit his social inferiority to the giver. Some exception to +this is made in the case of Brāhmans, though even with them the rule partly applies. Of these two reasons for the cultivator’s +superiority to the menial and artisan castes the former has to a large extent lost its force. The handicrafts are no longer +considered despicable, and, as has been seen, some of the urban tradesmen, as the Sunār and Kasār, now rank above the Kurmi, +or are at least equal to him. Perhaps even in ancient times these urban artificers were not despised like the village menials, +as their skill was held in high repute. But the latter ground is still in full force and effect in the Central Provinces at +least: the village artisans are still paid by contributions from the cultivator and receive presents from him at seed-time +and harvest. The remuneration of the village menials, the blacksmith, carpenter, washerman, tanner, barber and waterman is +paid at the rate of so much grain per plough of land according to the estimated value of the work done by them for the cultivators +during the year. Other village tradesmen, as the potter, oilman and liquor-vendor, are no longer paid in grain, but since +the introduction of currency sell their wares for cash; but there seems no reason to doubt that in former times when no money +circulated in villages they were remunerated in the same manner. They still all receive presents, consisting of a sowing-basketful +of grain at seed-time and one or two sheaves at harvest. The former are known as <i>Bījphuti</i>, or ‘the breaking of the seed,’ and the latter as <i>Khanvār</i>, or ‘that which is left.’ In Bilāspur the Kamias or village menials also receive as much grain as will fill a winnowing-fan +when it has been threshed. When the <a id="d0e3438"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e3438">100</a>]</span>peasant has harvested his grain all come and beg from him. The Dhīmar brings waternut, the Kāchhi or market-gardener some +chillies, the Teli oil and tobacco, the Kalār some liquor if he drinks it, the Bania some sugar, and all receive grain in +excess of the value of their gifts. The village menials come for their customary dues, and the Brāhman, the Nat or acrobat, +the Gosain or religious mendicant, and the Fakīr or Muhammadan beggar solicit alms. On that day the cultivator is like a little +king in his fields, and it is said that sometimes a quarter of the crop may go in this way; but the reference must be only +to the spring crop and not to the whole holding. In former times grain must have been the principal source of wealth, and +this old custom gives us a reason for the status of the cultivator in Hindu society. There is also a saying: + +</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Uttam kheti, madhyam bān, +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Kanisht chākri, bhīk nidān,</span></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>or ‘Cultivation is the best calling, trade is respectable, service is menial, and begging is degraded.’ + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e3447"> +<h3>46. Occupation</h3> +<p>The Kurmi is the typical cultivator. He loves his land, and to lose it is to break the mainspring of his life. His land gives +him a freedom and independence of character which is not found among the English farm-labourers. He is industrious and plodding, +and inured to hardship. In some Districts the excellent tilth of the Kurmi’s fields well portrays the result of his persevering +labour, which he does not grudge to the land because it is his own. His wife is in no way behind him; the proverb says, “Good +is the caste of the Kurmin; with a hoe in her hand she goes to the fields and works with her husband.” The Chandnāhu Kurmi +women are said to be more enterprising than the men, keeping them up to their work, and managing the business of the farm +as well as the household. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e3452"> +<h3>Appendix</h3> +<h3>List of Exogamous Clans</h3> +<p>Sections of the Chandnāhu subcaste: + +</p> +<div class="table"> +<table style="font-size: 80%;" width="100%"> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Chānwar bambar</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Fly fan.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Sandil</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Name of a Rishi.<a id="d0e3474"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e3474">101</a>]</span></td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Gaind</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Ball.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Sadāphal</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">A fruit.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Sondeha</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Gold-bodied.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Sonkharchi</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Spender of gold.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Kathail</i> +</td> +<td valign="top"><i>Kath</i>, wood, or <i>kaththa</i>, catechu. +</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Kāshi</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Benares. The Desha Kurmis are all of this <i>gotra</i>. It may also be a corruption of Kachhap, tortoise. +</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Dhorha</i> +</td> +<td valign="top"><i>Dhor</i>, cattle. +</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Sumer</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">A mountain.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Chatur Midalia</i> +</td> +<td valign="top"><i>Chatur</i>, clever. +</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Bhāradwāj</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">After the Rishi of that name; also a bird.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Kousil</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Name of a Rishi.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Ishwar</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">God.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Samund Karkari</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">A particle in an ocean.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Akālchuwa </i> +</td> +<td valign="top"><i>Akāl</i>, famine. +</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Padel</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Fallow.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Bāghmār</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Tiger-slayer.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Hardūba</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Green grass.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Kānsia</i> +</td> +<td valign="top"><i>Kāns</i>, a kind of grass. +</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Ghiu Sāgar</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Ocean of <i>ghī</i></td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Dharam Dhurandar</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Most charitable.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Singnāha</i> +</td> +<td valign="top"><i>Singh</i>, a lion. +</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Chimangarhia</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Belonging to Chimangarh.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Khairagarhia</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Belonging to Khairagarh.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Gotam</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">A Rishi.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Kāskyap</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">A Rishi.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Pandariha</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">From Pandaria, a village.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Paipakhār</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">One who washes feet.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Bānhpakhār</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">One who washes arms.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Chauria</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Chaurai, a vegetable.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Sānd Sathi</i> +</td> +<td valign="top"><i>Sānd</i>, bullock. +</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Singhi</i> +</td> +<td valign="top"><i>Singh</i>, lion or horn. +</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Agra—Chandan</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Sandalwood.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Tek Sanichar</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Saturday.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Karaiya</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Frying-pan.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Pukharia</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Pond.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Dhubinha</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Dhobi, a caste.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Pāwanbare</i> +</td> +<td valign="top"><i>Pāwan</i>, air. +</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Modganga</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Ganges.</td> +</tr> +</table> +</div><p> + +</p> +<p>Sections of the Gabel subcaste: + +</p> +<div class="table"> +<table style="font-size: 80%;" width="100%"> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Gangajal</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Ganges water.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Bimba Lohir</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Bearer of a <i>lāthi</i> (stick). +</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Sarang</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Peacock.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Rāja Rāwat</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Royal prince.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Singūr</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Beauty.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Bānk pagar</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">With a thread on the arm.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Samundha</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Ocean.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Parasrām,</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Rishi<a id="d0e3830"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e3830">102</a>]</span></td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Katārmal</i> +</td> +<td valign="top"><i>Katār</i>, dagger. +</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Chaultān</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Sept of Rājpūts.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Pātan </i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Village.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Gajmani</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Elephant.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Deori Sumer</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Village.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Lahura Samudra</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Small sea.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Hansbimbraon</i> +</td> +<td valign="top"><i>Hans</i>, goose. +</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Sunwāni</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Purifier.</td> +</tr> +</table> +</div><p> + +</p> +<p>Sections of the Santora subcaste: + +</p> +<div class="table"> +<table style="font-size: 80%;" width="100%"> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Narvaria</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Narwar, a town in Gwalior State.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Mundharia</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Mundhra, a village.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Naigaiyan</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Naogaon, a town in Bundelkhand.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Pipraiya</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Piparia, a village.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Dindoria</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Dindori, a village in Mandla District.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Baheria</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">A village.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Bāndha</i> +</td> +<td valign="top"><i>Bāndh</i>, embankment. +</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Ktmūsar</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Wooden pestle.</td> +</tr> +</table> +</div><p> + +</p> +<p>Sections of the Tirole subcaste: + +</p> +<div class="table"> +<table style="font-size: 80%;" width="100%"> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Baghele</i> +</td> +<td valign="top"><i>Bāgh</i>, tiger, or a sept of Rājpūts. +</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Rāthor</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Clan of Rājpūts.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Panwār</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Clan of Rājpūts.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Solanki</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Clan of Rājpūts.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Aulia</i> +</td> +<td valign="top"><i>Aonla</i>, a fruit-bearing tree. +</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Sindia</i> +</td> +<td valign="top"><i>Sindi</i>, date-palm tree. +</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Khusia</i> +</td> +<td valign="top"><i>Khusi</i>, happiness. +</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Sanoria</i> +</td> +<td valign="top"><i>San</i>, hemp. +</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Gora</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Fair-coloured.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Bhākrya</i> +</td> +<td valign="top"><i>Bhākar</i>, a thick bread. +</td> +</tr> +</table> +</div><p> + +</p> +<p>Sections of the Gaur subcaste: + +</p> +<div class="table"> +<table style="font-size: 80%;" width="100%"> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Bhandāri</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Storekeeper.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Dudhua</i> +</td> +<td valign="top"><i>Dūdh</i>, milk. +</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Patele</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">A headman.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Lonia</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Salt-maker.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Kumaria</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">A potter.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Sionia</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Seoni town.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Chhaparia</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Chhapāra, a town.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Bijoria</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">A tree.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Simra</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">A village.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Ketharia</i> +</td> +<td valign="top"><i>Keth</i>, a fruit. +</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Usarguiyan</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Perhaps a village.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Bhadoria</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Village.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Rurgaiyan</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Village.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Musrele</i> +</td> +<td valign="top"><i>Mūsar</i>, a pestle. +</td> +</tr> +</table> +</div><p> + +</p> +<p>Sections of the Usrete subcaste: + +</p> +<div class="table"> +<table style="font-size: 80%;" width="100%"> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Shikāre</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Hunter.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Nāhar</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Tiger.<a id="d0e4165"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e4165">103</a>]</span></td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Gursaraiyan</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Gursarai, a town.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Bardia</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">A village.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Sandia</i> +</td> +<td valign="top"><i>Sānd</i>, a bull. +</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Sirwaiyan</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Sirwai, a village.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Itguhān</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">A village.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Sengaiyan</i> or <i>Singaiyan</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Sengai, a village.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Harkotia</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Harkoti, a village.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Noria</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Norai, a village.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Larent</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Lareti, a village.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Rabia</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Rabai, a village.</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Lakhauria</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">(Lakori village. It is said that whoever utters the name of this section early in the morning is sure to remain hungry the +whole day, or at least will get into some trouble that day.) +</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Dhandkonya</i> +</td> +<td valign="top"><i>Dhandakna,</i> to roll. +</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Badgaiyan</i> +</td> +<td valign="top"><i>Badagaon</i>, a large village. +</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Kotia</i> +</td> +<td valign="top"><i>Kot</i>, a fort +</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Bilwār</i> +</td> +<td valign="top"><i>Billi</i>, cat +</td> +</tr> +<tr valign="top"> +<td valign="top"><i>Thutha</i> +</td> +<td valign="top">Stump of a tree.</td> +</tr> +</table> +</div><p> + +</p> +<p>Sections of the Kanaujia subcaste: + +</p> +<ul> +<li><i>Tidha</i>.—From Tidha, a village. This section is subdivided into (<i>a</i>) <i>Ghureparke</i> (of the cow-dung hill); (<i>b</i>) <i>Dwārparke</i> (of the door); and (<i>c</i>) <i>Jangi</i> (warrior). + + +</li> +<li><i>Chamania</i>—From Chamyani (village). This is also subdivided into: + + +<ul> +<li>(<i>a</i>) <i>Gomarkya</i> + +</li> +<li>(<i>b</i>) <i>Mathuria</i> (Muttra town). + +</li> +</ul> + + +</li> +<li><i>Chaudhri</i> (caste headman). This is divided as follows: + + +<ul> +<li>(<i>a</i>) <i>Majhgawān</i> A village. + +</li> +<li>(<i>b</i>) <i>Purva thok</i> Eastern group. + +</li> +<li>(<i>c</i>) <i>Pashchim thok</i> Western group. + +</li> +<li>(<i>d</i>) <i>Bamurya</i> A village. + +</li> +</ul> + + +</li> +<li><i>Rāwat</i> Title. + + +</li> +<li><i>Malha</i> Perhaps sailor or wrestler. + + +</li> +<li><i>Chiloliān</i> Chiloli, a village. + + +</li> +<li><i>Dhanuiyan</i> Dhanu Kheda, a village. +</li> +</ul><p> +<a id="d0e4394"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e4394">104</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e2413" href="#d0e2413src" class="noteref">1</a></span> In this article some account of the houses, clothes and food of the Hindus generally of the northern Districts has been inserted, +being mainly reproduced from the District Gazetteers. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e2444" href="#d0e2444src" class="noteref">2</a></span> <i>Tribes and Castes of Bengal</i>, art. Kurmi. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e2469" href="#d0e2469src" class="noteref">3</a></span> <i>Indian Folk Tales</i>, p. 8. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e2477" href="#d0e2477src" class="noteref">4</a></span> <i>Crotalaria juncea</i>. See article on Lorha for a discussion of the Hindus’ prejudice against this crop. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e2493" href="#d0e2493src" class="noteref">5</a></span> There are several Chaurāsis, a grant of an estate of this special size being common under native rule. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e2552" href="#d0e2552src" class="noteref">6</a></span> <i>Boswellia serrata</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e2565" href="#d0e2565src" class="noteref">7</a></span> <i>Eugenia Jambolana</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e2578" href="#d0e2578src" class="noteref">8</a></span> 2 lbs. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e2633" href="#d0e2633src" class="noteref">9</a></span> Elliot, <i>Hoshangābād Settlement Report</i>, p. 115. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e2646" href="#d0e2646src" class="noteref">10</a></span> The custom is pointed out by Mr. A. K. Smith, C.S. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e2667" href="#d0e2667src" class="noteref">11</a></span> <i>Central Provinces Census Report</i> (1911), p. 153. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e2697" href="#d0e2697src" class="noteref">12</a></span> <i>C.P. Census Report</i> (1911), p. 153. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e2702" href="#d0e2702src" class="noteref">13</a></span> Or his big toe. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e2768" href="#d0e2768src" class="noteref">14</a></span> <i>C.P. Census Report</i> (1911), p. 158. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e2786" href="#d0e2786src" class="noteref">15</a></span> In <i>Indian Folk Tales</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e2847" href="#d0e2847src" class="noteref">16</a></span> <i>Ficus R</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e2867" href="#d0e2867src" class="noteref">17</a></span> He is also known as Katia or Kattaha Brāhman and as Mahāpātra. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e2895" href="#d0e2895src" class="noteref">18</a></span> <i>Indian Folk Tales</i>, p. 54. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e2922" href="#d0e2922src" class="noteref">19</a></span> <i>Sorghum vulgare</i>, a large millet. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e2933" href="#d0e2933src" class="noteref">20</a></span> Dr. Jevons, <i>Introduction to the History of Religion</i>, p. 365. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e2945" href="#d0e2945src" class="noteref">21</a></span> A measure of 400 lbs. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e2964" href="#d0e2964src" class="noteref">22</a></span> <i>Butea frondosa</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e2988" href="#d0e2988src" class="noteref">23</a></span> A measure containing 9 lb. 2 oz. of rice. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e3066" href="#d0e3066src" class="noteref">24</a></span> <i>Ficus glomerata</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e3198" href="#d0e3198src" class="noteref">25</a></span> From Ganga, or the Ganges, and <i>āla</i> a pot. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e3217" href="#d0e3217src" class="noteref">26</a></span> <i>Cajanus indicus</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e3222" href="#d0e3222src" class="noteref">27</a></span> <i>Phaseolus mungo</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e3227" href="#d0e3227src" class="noteref">28</a></span> <i>Phaseolus radiatus</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e3270" href="#d0e3270src" class="noteref">29</a></span> <i>Bombax malabaricum</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e3278" href="#d0e3278src" class="noteref">30</a></span> <i>Acacia arabica</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e3291" href="#d0e3291src" class="noteref">31</a></span> <i>Cassia tora</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e3425" href="#d0e3425src" class="noteref">32</a></span> <i>Punjab Census Report</i> (1881), p. 340. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e4395" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Lakhera</h2> +<h3>List of Paragraphs</h3> +<ul> +<li><a href="#d0e4447">1. General notice</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e4462">2. Social customs</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e4470">3. The lac industry</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e4493">4. Lac bangles</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e4500">5. Red, a lucky colour</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e4525">6. Vermilion and spangles</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e4579">7. Red dye on the feet</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e4602">8. Red threads</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e4613">9. Lac toys</a></li> +</ul> +<div class="div2" id="d0e4447"> +<h3>1. General notice</h3> +<p><b>Lakhera, Laheri.</b>—The small caste whose members make bangles and other articles of lac. About 3000 persons were shown as belonging to the caste +in the Central Provinces in 1911, being most numerous in the Jubbulpore, Chhīndwāra and Betūl Districts. From Berār 150 persons +were returned, chiefly from Amraoti. The name is derived from the Sanskrit <i>laksha-kara</i>, a worker in lac. The caste are a mixed functional group closely connected with the Kacheras and Patwas; no distinction being +recognised between the Patwas and Lakheras in some localities of the Central Provinces. Mr. Baillie gives the following notice +of them in the <i>Census Report of the North-Western Provinces</i> (1891): “The accounts given by members of the caste of their origin are very various and sometimes ingenious. One story is +that like the Patwas, with whom they are connected, they were originally Kāyasths. According to another account they were +made from the dirt washed from Pārvati before her marriage with Siva, being created by the god to make bangles for his wife, +and hence called Deobansi. Again, it is stated, they were created by Krishna to make bangles for the Gopis or milkmaids. The +most elaborate account is that they were originally Yāduvansi Rājpūts, who assisted the Kurus to make a fort of lac, in which +the Pāndavas were to be treacherously burned. For this <a id="d0e4460"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e4460">105</a>]</span>traitorous conduct they were degraded and compelled eternally to work in lac or glass.” + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e4462"> +<h3>2. Social customs</h3> +<p>The bulk of these artisan and manufacturing castes tell stories showing that their ancestors were Kāyasths and Rājpūts, but +no importance can be attached to such legends, which are obviously manufactured by the family priests to minister to the harmless +vanity of their clients. To support their claim the Lakheras have divided themselves like the Rājpūts into the Sūrajvansi +and Somvansi subcastes or those who belong to the Solar and Lunar races. Other subdivisions are the Mārwāri or those coming +from Mārwār in Rājpūtana, and the Tarkhera or makers of the large earrings which low-caste women wear. These consist of a +circular piece of wood or fibre, nearly an inch across, which is worked through a large hole in the lobe of the ear. It is +often the stalk of the <i>ambāri</i> fibre, and on the outer end is fixed a slab decorated with little pieces of glass. The exogamous sections of the Lakheras +are generally named after animals, plants and natural objects, and indicate that the caste is recruited from the lower classes +of the population. Their social customs resemble those of the middle and lower Hindustāni castes. Girls are married at an +early age when the parents can afford the expense of the ceremony, but no penalty is incurred if the wedding is postponed +for want of means. The remarriage of widows and divorce are permitted. They eat flesh, but not fowls or pork, and some of +them drink liquor, while others abstain. Rājpūts and Banias will take water from them, but not Brāhmans. In Bombay, however, +they are considered to rank above Kunbis. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e4470"> +<h3>3. The lac industry</h3> +<p>The traditional occupation of the Lakheras is to make and sell bangles and other articles of lac. Lac is regarded with a certain +degree of superstitious repugnance by the Hindus because of its red colour, resembling blood. On this account and also because +of the sin committed in killing them, no Hindu caste will propagate the lac insect, and the calling is practised only by Gonds, +Korkus and other primitive tribes. Even Gonds will often refuse employment in growing lac if they can make their living by +cultivation. Various superstitions attach to the propagation of the insects to a fresh tree. This is done in Kunwār (September) +and <a id="d0e4475"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e4475">106</a>]</span>always by men, the insects being carried in a leaf-cup and placed on a branch of an uninfected tree, usually the <i>kusum</i>.<a id="d0e4480src" href="#d0e4480" class="noteref">1</a> It is said that the work should be done at night and the man should be naked when he places the insects on the tree. The +tree is fenced round and nobody is allowed to touch it, as it is considered that the crop would thus be spoiled. If a woman +has lost her husband and has to sow lac, she takes her son in her arms and places the cup containing the insects on his head; +on arriving at the tree she manages to apply the insects by means of a stick, not touching the cup with her own hands. All +this ritual attaches simply to the infection of the first tree, and afterwards in January or February the insects are propagated +on to other trees without ceremony. The juice of onions is dropped on to them to make them healthy. The stick-lac is collected +by the Gonds and Korkus and sold to the Lakheras; they clear it of wood as far as possible and then place the incrusted twigs +and bark in long cotton bags and heat them before a fire, squeezing out the gum, which is spread out on flat plates so as +to congeal into the shape of a pancake. This is again heated and mixed with white clay and forms the material for the bangles. +They are coloured with <i>chapra</i>, the pure gum prepared like sealing-wax, which is mixed with vermilion, or arsenic and turmeric for a yellow colour. In some +localities at least only the Lakheras and Patwas and no higher caste will sell articles made of lac. + + +</p> +<p></p> +<div id="d0e4489" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p109.jpg" alt="Examples of spangles worn by women on the forehead" width="720" height="402"><p class="figureHead">Examples of spangles worn by women on the forehead</p> +</div><p> + + + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e4493"> +<h3>4. Lac bangles</h3> +<p>The trade in lac bangles has now greatly declined, as they have been supplanted by the more ornamental glass bangles. They +are thick and clumsy and five of them will cover a large part of the space between the elbow and the wrist. They may be observed +on Banjāra women. Lac bangles are also still used by the Hindus, generally on ceremonial occasions, as at a marriage, when +they are presented to and worn by the bride, and during the month of Shrāwan (July), when the Hindus observe a fast on behalf +of the growing crops and the women wear bangles of lac. For these customs Mr. Hīra Lāl suggests the explanation that lac bangles +were at one time generally worn by the <a id="d0e4498"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e4498">107</a>]</span>Hindus, while glass ones are a comparatively recent fashion introduced by the Muhammadans. In support of this it may be urged +that glass bangles are largely made by the Muhammadan Turkāri or Sīsgar, and also that lac bangles must have been worn prior +to glass ones, because if the latter had been known the clumsy and unornamental bracelet made of lac and clay could never +have come into existence. The wearing of lac bangles on the above occasions would therefore be explained according to the +common usage of adhering on religious and ceremonial occasions to the more ancient methods and accessories, which are sanctified +by association and custom. Similarly the Holi pyre is often kindled with fire produced by the friction of wood, and temples +are lighted with vegetable instead of mineral oil. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e4500"> +<h3>5. Red, a lucky colour</h3> +<p>It may be noted, however, that lac bangles are not always worn by the bride at a wedding, the custom being unknown in some +localities. Moreover, it appears that glass was known to the Hindus at a period prior to the Muhammadan invasions, though +bangles may not have been made from it. Another reason for the use of lac bangles on the occasions noticed is that lac, as +already seen, represents blood. Though blood itself is now repugnant to the Hindus, yet red is pre-eminently their lucky colour, +being worn at weddings and generally preferred. It is suggested in the <i>Bombay Gazetteer</i><a id="d0e4507src" href="#d0e4507" class="noteref">2</a> that blood was lucky as having been the first food of primitive man, who learnt to suck the blood of animals before he ate +their flesh. But it does not seem necessary to go back quite so far as this. The earliest form of sacrifice, as shown by Professor +Robertson Smith,<a id="d0e4512src" href="#d0e4512" class="noteref">3</a> was that in which the community of kinsmen ate together the flesh of their divine or totem animal god and drank its blood. +When the god became separated from the animal and was represented by a stone at the place of worship and the people had ceased +to eat raw flesh and drink blood, the blood was poured out over the stone as an offering to the god. This practice still obtains +among the lower castes of Hindus and the primitive tribes, the blood of animals offered to Devi and other village deities +being allowed to drop on to the stones representing them. But the higher <a id="d0e4517"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e4517">108</a>]</span>castes of Hindus have abandoned animal sacrifices, and hence cannot make the blood-offering. In place of it they smear the +stone with vermilion, which seems obviously a substitute for blood, since it is used to colour the stones representing the +deities in exactly the same manner. Even vermilion, however, is not offered to the highest deities of Neo-Hinduism, Siva or +Mahādeo and Vishnu, to whom animal sacrifices would be abhorrent. It is offered to Hanumān, whose image is covered with it, +and to Devi and Bhairon and to the many local and village deities. In past times animal sacrifices were offered to Bhairon, +as they still are to Devi, and though it is not known that they were made to Hanumān, this is highly probable, as he is the +god of strength and a mighty warrior. The Mānbhao mendicants, who abhor all forms of bloodshed like the Jains, never pass +one of these stones painted with vermilion if they can avoid doing so, and if they are aware that there is one on their road +will make a circuit so as not to see it.<a id="d0e4519src" href="#d0e4519" class="noteref">4</a> There seems, therefore, every reason to suppose that vermilion is a substitute for blood in offerings and hence probably +on other occasions. As the places of the gods were thus always coloured red with blood, red would come to be the divine and +therefore the propitious colour among the Hindus and other races. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e4525"> +<h3>6. Vermilion and spangles</h3> +<p>Among the constituents of the Sohāg or lucky <i>trousseau</i> without which no Hindu girl of good caste can be married are <i>sendur</i> or vermilion, <i>kunku</i> or red powder or a spangle (<i>tikli</i>), and <i>mahāwar</i> or red balls of cotton-wool. In Chhattīsgarh and Bengal the principal marriage rite is usually the smearing of vermilion +by the bridegroom on the parting of the bride’s hair, and elsewhere this is commonly done as a subsidiary ceremony. Here also +there is little reason to doubt that vermilion is a substitute for blood; indeed, in some castes in Bengal, as noted by Sir +H. Risley, the blood of the parties is actually mixed.<a id="d0e4545src" href="#d0e4545" class="noteref">5</a> This marking of the bride with blood is a result of the sacrifice and communal feast of kinsmen already described; only those +who could join in the sacrificial meal and eat the flesh of the sacred animal god <a id="d0e4548"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e4548">109</a>]</span>were kin to it and to each other; but in quite early times the custom prevailed of taking wives from outside the clan; and +consequently, to admit the wife into her husband’s kin, it was necessary that she also should drink or be marked with the +blood of the god. The mixing of blood at marriage appears to be a relic of this, and the marking of the forehead with vermilion +is a substitute for the anointing with blood. <i>Kunku</i> is a pink powder made of turmeric, lime-juice and borax, which last is called by the Hindus ‘the milk of Anjini,’ the mother +of Hanumān. It seems to be a more agreeable substitute for vermilion, whose constant use has probably an injurious effect +on the skin and hair. <i>Kunku</i> is used in the Marātha country in the same way as vermilion, and a married woman will smear a little patch on her forehead +every day and never allow her husband to see her without it. She omits it only during the monthly period of impurity. The +<i>tikli</i> or spangle is worn in the Hindustāni Districts and not in the south. It consists of a small piece of lac over which is smeared +vermilion, while above it a piece of mica or thin glass is fixed for ornament. Other adornments may be added, and women from +Rājputāna, such as the Mārwāri Banias and Banjāras, wear large spangles set in gold with a border of jewels if they can afford +it. The spangle is made and sold by Lakheras and Patwas; it is part of the Sohāg at marriages and is affixed to the girl’s +forehead on her wedding and thereafter always worn; as a rule, if a woman has a spangle it is said that she does not smear +vermilion on her forehead, though both may occasionally be seen. The name <i>tikli</i> is simply a corruption of <i>tīka</i>, which means a mark of anointing or initiation on the forehead; as has been seen, the basis of the <i>tikli</i> is vermilion smeared on lac-clay, and it is made by Lakheras; and there is thus good reason to suppose that the spangle is +also a more ornamental substitute for the smear of vermilion, the ancient blood-mark by which a married woman was admitted +into her husband’s clan. At her marriage a bride must always receive the glass bangles and the vermilion, <i>kunku</i>, or spangle from her husband, the other ornaments of the Sohāg being usually given to her by her parents. Unmarried girls +now also sometimes wear small ornamental spangles, and put <i>kunku</i> on their foreheads. <a id="d0e4574"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e4574">110</a>]</span>But before marriage it is optional and afterwards compulsory. A widow may not wear vermilion, <i>kunku</i>, or spangles. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e4579"> +<h3>7. Red dye on the feet</h3> +<p>The Lakheras also sell balls of red cotton-wool known as <i>māhur ki guleli</i> or <i>mahāwar</i>. The cotton-wool is dipped in the melted lac-gum and is rubbed on to the feet of women to colour them red or pink at marriages +and festivals. This is done by the barber’s wife, who will colour the feet of the whole party, at the same time drawing lines +round the outside of the foot and inward from the toes. The <i>mahāwar</i> is also an essential part of the Sohāg of marriage. Instead of lac the Muhammadans use <i>mehndi</i> or henna, the henna-leaves being pounded with catechu and the mixture rubbed on to the feet and hands. After a little time +it is washed off and a red dye remains on the skin. It is supposed that the similar custom which prevailed among the ancient +Greeks is alluded to in the epithet of ‘rosy-fingered Aurora.’ The Hindus use henna dye only in the month Shrāwan (July), +which is a period of fasting; the auspicious <i>kunku</i> and <i>mahāwar</i> are therefore perhaps not considered suitable at such a time, but as special protection is needed against evil spirits, the +necessary red colouring is obtained from henna. When a married woman rubs henna on her hands, if the dye comes out a deep +red tinge, the other women say that her husband is not in love with her; but if of a pale yellowish tinge, that he is very +much in love. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e4602"> +<h3>8. Red threads</h3> +<p>The Lakheras and Patwas also make the <i>kardora</i> or waist-band of red thread. This is worn by Hindu men and women, except Marātha Brāhmans. After he is married, if a man +breaks this thread he must not take food until he has put on a fresh one, and the same rule applies to a woman all her life. +Other threads are the <i>rākhis</i> tied round the wrists for protection against evil spirits on the day of Rakshābandhan, and the necklets of silk or cotton +thread wound round with thin silver wire, which the Hindus put on at Anant Chaudas and frequently retain for the whole year. +The colour of all these threads is generally red in the first place, but they soon get blackened by contact with the skin. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e4613"> +<h3>9. Lac toys</h3> +<p>Toys of lac are especially made during the fast of Shrāwan (July). At this time for five years after her marriage a Hindu +bride receives annually from her husband a <a id="d0e4618"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e4618">111</a>]</span>present called Shrāoni, or that which is given in Shrāwan. It consists of a <i>chakri</i> or reel, to which a string is attached, and the reel is thrown up into the air and wound and unwound on the string; a <i>bhora</i> or wooden top spun by a string; a <i>bansuli</i> or wooden flute; a stick and ball, lac bangles and a spangle, and cloth, usually of red chintz. All these toys are made by +the carpenter and coloured red with lac by the Lakhera, with the exception of the bangles which may be yellow or green. For +five years the bride plays with the toys, and then they are sent to her no longer as her childhood has passed. It is probable +that some, if not all of them, are in a manner connected with the crops, and supposed to have a magical influence, because +during the same period it is the custom for boys to walk on stilts and play at swinging themselves; and in these cases the +original idea is to make the crops grow as high as the stilts or swing. As in the other cases, the red colour appears to have +a protective influence against evil spirits, who are more than usually active at a time of fasting. +<a id="d0e4629"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e4629">112</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e4480" href="#d0e4480src" class="noteref">1</a></span> <i>Schleichera trijuga</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e4507" href="#d0e4507src" class="noteref">2</a></span> <i>Hindus of Gujarat</i>, App., art. Vaghri, footnote. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e4512" href="#d0e4512src" class="noteref">3</a></span> <i>Religion of the Semites</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e4519" href="#d0e4519src" class="noteref">4</a></span> Mackintosh, <i>Report on the Mānbhaos.</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e4545" href="#d0e4545src" class="noteref">5</a></span> See articles on Khairwār and Kewat. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e4630" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Lodhi</h2> +<h3>List of Paragraphs</h3> +<ul> +<li><a href="#d0e4692">1. Origin and traditions</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e4732">2. Position in the central Provinces</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e4752">3. Sub-divisions</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e4769">4. Exogamous groups</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e4777">5. Marriage customs</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e4806">6. The gauna ceremoney. Fertility rites</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e4825">7. Widow-marriage and puberty rite</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e4832">8. Mourning impurity</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e4846">9. Social customs</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e4859">10. Greetings and method of address</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e4872">11. Sacred thread and social status</a></li> +</ul> +<div class="div2" id="d0e4692"> +<h3>1. Origin and traditions</h3> +<p><b>Lodhi, Lodha.</b>—An important agricultural caste residing principally in the Vindhyan Districts and Nerbudda valley, whence they have spread +to the Wainganga valley and the Khairāgarh State of Chhattīsgarh. Their total strength in the Province is 300,000 persons. +The Lodhis are immigrants from the United Provinces, in whose Gazetteers it is stated that they belonged originally to the +Ludhiāna District and took their name from it. Their proper designation is Lodha, but it has become corrupted to Lodhi in +the Central Provinces. A number of persons resident in the Harda tahsīl of Hoshangābād are called Lodha and say that they +are distinct from the Lodhis. There is nothing to support their statement, however, and it is probable that they simply represent +the separate wave of immigration which took place from Central India into the Hoshangābād and Betūl Districts in the fifteenth +century. They spoke a different dialect of the group known as Rajasthāni, and hence perhaps the caste-name did not get corrupted. +The Lodhis of the Jubbulpore Division probably came here at a later date from northern India. The Mandla Lodhis are said to +have been brought to the District by Raja Hirde Sah of the Gond-Rājpūt dynasty of Garha-Mandla in the seventeenth <a id="d0e4699"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e4699">113</a>]</span>century, and they were given large grants of the waste land in the interior in order that they might clear it of forest.<a id="d0e4701src" href="#d0e4701" class="noteref">1</a> The Lodhis are a good instance of a caste who have obtained a great rise in social status on migrating to a new area. In +northern India Mr. Nesfield places them lowest among the agricultural castes and states that they are little better than a +forest tribe. He derives the name from <i>lod</i>, a clod, according to which Lodhi would mean clodhopper.<a id="d0e4710src" href="#d0e4710" class="noteref">2</a> Another suggestion is that the name is derived from the bark of the <i>lodh</i> tree,<a id="d0e4718src" href="#d0e4718" class="noteref">3</a> which is collected by the Lodhas in northern India and sold for use as a dyeing agent. In Bulandshahr they are described +as “Of short stature and uncouth appearance, and from this as well as from their want of a tradition of immigration from other +parts they appear to be a mixed class proceeding from aboriginal and Aryan parents. In the Districts below Agra they are considered +so low that no one drinks water touched by them; but this is not the case in the Districts above Agra.”<a id="d0e4723src" href="#d0e4723" class="noteref">4</a> In Hamīrpur they appear to have some connection with the Kurmis, and a story told of them in Saugor is that the first Lodhi +was created by Mahādeo from a scarecrow in a Kurmi woman’s field and given the vocation of a farmservant But the Lodhis themselves +claim Rājpūt ancestry and say that they are descended from Lava, the eldest of the two sons of Rāja Rāmchandra of Ajodhya. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e4732"> +<h3>2. Position in the central Provinces</h3> +<p>In the Central Provinces they have become landholders and are addressed by the honorific title of Thākur, ranking with the +higher cultivating castes. Several Lodhi landholders in Damoh and Saugor formerly held a quasi-independent position under +the Muhammadans, and subsequently acknowledged the Raja of Panna as their suzerain, who conferred on some families the titles +of Rāja and Diwān. They kept up a certain amount of state, and small contingents of soldiery, attended by whom they went to +pay their respects to the representative of the ruling power. “It would be difficult,” says Grant,<a id="d0e4737src" href="#d0e4737" class="noteref">5</a> “to recognise the descendants of the <a id="d0e4742"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e4742">114</a>]</span>peaceful cultivators of northern India in the strangely accoutred Rājas who support their style and title by a score of ragged +matchlock-men and a ruined mud fort on a hill-side.” Sir B. Fuller’s <i>Damoh Settlement Report</i> says of them: “A considerable number of villages had been for long time past in the possession of certain important families, +who held them by prescription or by a grant from the ruling power, on a right which approximated as nearly to the English +idea of proprietorship as native custom permitted. The most prominent of these families were of the Lodhi caste. They have +developed tastes for sport and freebooting and have become decidedly the most troublesome item in the population. During the +Mutiny the Lodhis as a class were openly disaffected, and one of their proprietors, the Tālukdār of Hindoria, marched on the +District headquarters and looted the treasury.” Similarly the Ramgarh family of Mandla took to arms and lost the large estates +till then held by them. On the other hand the village of Imjhira in Narsinghpur belonging to a Lodhi mālguzār was gallantly +defended against a band of marauding rebels from Saugor. Sir R. Craddock describes them as follows: “They are men of strong +character, but their constant family feuds and love of faction militate against their prosperity. A cluster of Lodhi villages +forms a hotbed of strife and the nearest relations are generally divided by bitter animosities. The Revenue Officer who visits +them is beset by reckless charges and counter-charges and no communities are less amenable to conciliatory compromises. Agrarian +outrages are only too common in some of the Lodhi villages.”<a id="d0e4747src" href="#d0e4747" class="noteref">6</a> The high status of the Lodhi caste in the Central Provinces as compared with their position in the country of their origin +may be simply explained by the fact that they here became landholders and ruling chiefs. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e4752"> +<h3>3. Sub-divisions</h3> +<p>In the northern Districts the landholding Lodhis are divided into a number of exogamous clans who marry with each other in +imitation of the Rājpūts. These are the Mahdele, Kerbania, Dongaria, Narwaria, Bhadoria and others. The name of the Kerbanias +is derived from Kerbana, a village in Damoh, and the Bālākote family of that District are the <a id="d0e4757"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e4757">115</a>]</span>head of the clan. The Mahdeles are the highest clan and have the titles of Rāja and Diwān, while the others hold those of +Rao and Kunwar, the terms Diwān and Kunwar being always applied to the younger brother of the head of the house. These titles +are still occasionally conferred by the Rāja of Panna, whom the Lodhi clans looked on as their suzerain. The name of the Mahdeles +is said to be derived from the <i>mehndi</i> or henna plant. The above clans sometimes practise hypergamy among themselves and also with the other Lodhis, taking daughters +from the latter on receipt of a large bridegroom-price for the honour conferred by the marriage. This custom is now, however, +tending to die out. There are also several endogamous subcastes ranking below the clans, of whom the principal are the Singrore, +Jarha, Jāngra and Mahālodhi. The Singrore take their name from the old town of Singraur or Shrengera in northern India, Singrore, +like Kanaujia, being a common subcaste name among several castes. It is also connected more lately with the Singrām Ghat or +ferry of the Ganges in Allahābād District, and the title of Rāwat is said to have been conferred on the Singrore Lodhis by +the emperor Akbar on a visit there. The Jarha Lodhis belong to Mandla. The name is probably a form of Jharia or jungly, but +since the leading members of the caste have become large landholders they repudiate this derivation. The Jāngra Lodhis are +of Chhattīsgarh, and the Mahālodhis or ‘Great Lodhis’ are an inferior group to which the offspring of irregular unions are +or were relegated. The Mahalodhis are said to condone adultery either by a man or woman on penalty of a feast to the caste. +Other groups are the Hardiha, who grow turmeric (<i>haldi</i>), and the Gwālhare or cowherds. The Lodhas of Hoshangābād may also be considered a separate subcaste. They disclaim connection +with the Lodhis, but the fact that the parent caste in the United Provinces is known as Lodha appears to establish their identity. +They abstain from flesh and liquor, which most Lodhis consume. + +</p> +<p>This division of the superior branch of a caste into large exogamous clans and the lower one into endogamous subcastes is +only found, so far as is known, among the Rājpūts <a id="d0e4767"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e4767">116</a>]</span>and one or two landholding castes who have imitated them. Its origin is discussed in the Introduction. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e4769"> +<h3>4. Exogamous groups</h3> +<p>The subcastes are as usual divided into exogamous groups of the territorial, titular and totemistic classes. Among sections +named after places may be mentioned the Chāndpuria from Chāndpur, the Kharpuria from Kharpur, and the Nāgpuriha, Raipuria, +Dhamonia, Damauha and Shāhgariha from Nāgpur, Raipur, Dhamoni, Damoh and Shāhgarh. Two-thirds of the sections have the names +of towns or villages. Among titular names are Saulākhia, owner of 100 lakhs, Bhainsmār, one who killed a buffalo, Kodonchor, +one who stole kodon,<a id="d0e4774src" href="#d0e4774" class="noteref">7</a> Kumharha perhaps from Kumhār a potter, and Rājbhar and Barhai (carpenter), names of castes. Among totemistic names are Baghela, +tiger, also the name of a Rājpūt sept; Kutria, a dog; Khajūria, the date-palm tree; Mirchaunia, chillies; Andwār, from the +castor-oil plant; Bhainsaiya, a buffalo; and Nāk, the nose. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e4777"> +<h3>5. Marriage customs</h3> +<p>A man must not marry in his own section nor in that of his mother. He may marry two sisters. The exchange of girls between +families is only in force among the Bilāspur Lodhis, who say, ‘Eat with those who have eaten with you and marry with those +who have married with you.’ Girls are usually wedded before puberty, but in the northern Districts the marriage is sometimes +postponed from desire to marry into a good family or from want of funds to pay a bridegroom-price, and girls of twenty or +more may be unmarried. A case is known of a man who had two daughters unmarried at twenty-two and twenty-three years old, +because he had been waiting for good <i>partis</i>, with the result that one of them went and lived with a man and he then married off the other in the Singhast<a id="d0e4785src" href="#d0e4785" class="noteref">8</a> year, which is forbidden among the Lodhis, and was put out of caste. The marriage and other ceremonies of the Lodhis resemble +those of the Kurmis, except in Chhattīsgarh where the Marātha fashion is followed. Here, at the wedding, the bride and bridegroom +hold between them a doll made of dough with 21 cowries inside, and as the priest repeats the marriage texts they pull it apart +like a cracker and see how many cowries each has got. It is <a id="d0e4788"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e4788">117</a>]</span>considered auspicious if the bridegroom has the larger number. The priest is on the roof of the house, and before the wedding +he cries out: + +</p> +<p>‘Are the king and queen here?’ And a man below answers, ‘Yes.’ + +</p> +<p>‘Have they shoes on their feet?’ ‘Yes.’ + +</p> +<p>‘Have they bracelets on their hands?’ ‘Yes.’ + +</p> +<p>‘Have they rings in their ears?’ ‘Yes.’ + +</p> +<p>‘Have they crowns on their heads?’ ‘Yes.’ + +</p> +<p>‘Has she glass beads round her neck?’ ‘Yes.’ + +</p> +<p>‘Have they the doll in their hands?’ ‘Yes.’ + +</p> +<p>And the priest then repeats the marriage texts and beats a brass dish while the doll is pulled apart In the northern Districts +after the wedding the bridegroom must untie one of the festoons of the marriage-shed, and if he refuses to do this, it is +an indelible disgrace on the bride’s party. Before doing so he requires a valuable present, such as a buffalo. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e4806"> +<h3>6. The gauna ceremoney. Fertility rites</h3> +<p>When the girl becomes mature the Gauna or going-away ceremony is performed. In Chhattīsgarh before leaving her home the bride +goes out with her sister and worships a <i>palās</i> tree.<a id="d0e4814src" href="#d0e4814" class="noteref">9</a> Her sister waves a lighted lamp seven times over it, and the bride goes seven times round it in imitation of the marriage +ceremony. At her husband’s house seven pictures of the family gods are drawn on a wall inside the house and the bride worships +these, placing a little sugar and bread on the mouth of each and bowing before them. She is then seated before the family +god while an old woman brings a stone rolling-pin<a id="d0e4819src" href="#d0e4819" class="noteref">10</a> wrapped up in a piece of cloth, which is supposed to be a baby, and the old woman imitates a baby crying. She puts the roller +in the bride’s lap saying, ‘Take this and give it milk.’ The bride is abashed and throws it aside. The old woman picks it +up and shows it to the assembled women saying, ‘The bride has just had a baby,’ amid loud laughter. Then she gives the stone +to the bridegroom who also throws it aside. This ceremony is meant to induce fertility, and it is supposed that by making +believe that the bride has had a baby she will quickly have one. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e4825"> +<h3>7. Widow-marriage and puberty rite</h3> +<p>The higher clans of Lodhis in Damoh and Saugor prohibit <a id="d0e4830"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e4830">118</a>]</span>the remarriage of widows, but instances of it occur. It is said that a man who marries a widow is relegated to the Mahālodhi +subcaste or the Lahuri Sen, an illegitimate group, and the Lodhis of his clan no longer acknowledge his family. But if a girl’s +husband dies before she has lived with him she may marry again. The other Lodhis freely permit widow-marriage and divorce. +When a girl first becomes mature she is secluded, and though she may stay in the house cannot enter the cook-room. At the +end of the period she is dressed in red cloth, and a present of cocoanuts stripped of their shells, sweetmeats, and a little +money, is placed in her lap, while a few women are invited to a feast. This rite is also meant to induce fertility, the kernel +of the cocoanut being held to resemble an unborn baby. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e4832"> +<h3>8. Mourning impurity</h3> +<p>The higher clans consider themselves impure for a period of 12 days after a birth, and if the birth falls in the Mūl asterism +or Nakshatra, for 27 days. After death they observe mourning for 10 days; on the 10th day they offer ten <i>pindas</i> or funeral cakes, and on the 11th day make one large <i>pinda</i> or cake and divide it into eleven parts; on the 12th day they make sixteen <i>pindas</i> and unite the spirit of the dead man with the ancestors; and on the 13th day they give a feast and feed Brāhmans and are +clean. The lower subcastes only observe impurity for three days after a birth and a death. Their funeral rites are the same +as those of the Kurmis. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e4846"> +<h3>9. Social customs</h3> +<p>The caste employ Brāhmans for weddings, but not necessarily for birth and death ceremonies. They eat flesh and fish, and the +bulk of the caste eat fowls and drink liquor, but the landowning section abjures these practices. They will take food cooked +with water from Brāhmans, and that cooked without water also from Rājpūts, Kāyasths and Sunārs. In Narsinghpur they also accept +cooked food from such a low caste as Rājjahrs,<a id="d0e4851src" href="#d0e4851" class="noteref">11</a> probably because the Rājjhars are commonly employed by them as farmservants, and hence have been accustomed to carry their +master’s food. A similar relation has been found to exist between the Panwār Rājpūts and their Gond farmservants. The higher +class Lodhis make an inordinate show of hospitality at their <a id="d0e4854"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e4854">119</a>]</span>weddings. The plates of the guests are piled up profusely with food, and these latter think it a point of honour never to +refuse it or say enough. When melted butter is poured out into their cups the stream must never be broken as it passes from +one guest to the other, or it is said that they will all get up and leave the feast. Apparently a lot of butter must be wasted +on the ground. The higher clans seclude their women, and these when they go out must wear long clothes covering the head and +reaching to the feet. The women are not allowed to wear ornaments of a cheaper metal than silver, except of course their glass +bangles. The Mahālodhis will eat food cooked with water in the cook-room and carried to the fields, which the higher clans +will not do. Their women wear the <i>sāri</i> drawn through the legs and knotted behind according to the Maratha fashion, but whenever they meet their husband’s elder +brother or any other elder of the family they must undo the knot and let the cloth hang down round their legs as a mark of +respect. They wear no breast-cloth. Girls are tattooed before adolescence with dots on the chin and forehead, and marks on +one hand. Before she is tattooed the girl is given sweets to eat, and during the process the operator sings songs in order +that her attention may be diverted and she may not feel the pain. After she has finished the operator mutters a charm to prevent +evil spirits from troubling the girl and causing her pain. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e4859"> +<h3>10. Greetings and method of address</h3> +<p>The caste have some strict taboos on names and on conversation between the sexes. A man will only address his wife, sister, +daughter, paternal aunt or niece directly. If he has occasion to speak to some other woman he will take his daughter or other +female relative with him and do his business through her. He will not speak even to his own women before a crowd. A woman +will similarly only speak to her father, son or nephew, and father-, son- or younger brother-in-law. She will not speak to +her elder brother-in-law, and she will not address her husband in the presence of his father, elder brother or any other relative +whom he reveres. A wife will never call her husband by his name, but always address him as father of her son, and, if she +has no son, will sometimes speak to him through his younger brother. Neither the father nor mother will call their eldest +<a id="d0e4864"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e4864">120</a>]</span>son by his name, but will use some other name. Similarly a daughter-in-law is given a fresh name on coming into the house, +and on her arrival her mother-in-law looks at her for the first time through a <i>guna</i> or ring of baked gram-flour. A man meeting his father or elder brother will touch his feet in silence. One meeting his sister’s +husband, sister’s son or son-in-law, will touch his feet and say, ‘<i>Sāhib, salaam</i>.’ + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e4872"> +<h3>11. Sacred thread and social status</h3> +<p>The higher clans invest boys with the sacred thread either when they are initiated by a Guru or spiritual preceptor, or when +they are married. The thread is made by a Brāhman and has five knots. Recently a large landholder in Mandla, a Jarha Lodhi, +has assumed the sacred thread himself for the first time and sent round a circular to his caste-men enjoining them also to +wear it. His family priest has produced a legend of the usual type showing how the Jarha Lodhis are Rājpūts whose ancestors +threw away their sacred threads in order to escape the vengeance of Parasurāma. Generally in social position the Lodhis may +be considered to rank with, but slightly above, the ordinary cultivating castes, such as the Kurmis. This superiority in no +way arises from their origin, since, as already seen, they are a very low caste in their home in northern India, but from +the fact that they have become large landholders in the Central Provinces and in former times their leaders exercised quasi-sovereign +powers. Many Lodhis are fine-looking men and have still some appearance of having been soldiers. They are passionate and quarrelsome, +especially in the Jubbulpore District. This is put forcibly in the saying that ‘A Lodhi’s temper is as crooked as the stream +of a bullock’s urine.’ They are generally cultivators, but the bulk of them are not very prosperous as they are inclined to +extravagance and display at weddings and on other ceremonial occasions. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e4701" href="#d0e4701src" class="noteref">1</a></span> Colonel Ward’s <i>Mandia Settlement Report</i> p. 29. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e4710" href="#d0e4710src" class="noteref">2</a></span> <i>Brief View of the Caste System</i>, p. 14. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e4718" href="#d0e4718src" class="noteref">3</a></span> <i>Symplocos racemosa</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e4723" href="#d0e4723src" class="noteref">4</a></span> Rāja Lachman Singh’s <i>Bulandshahr Memo,</i> p. 182, quoted in Mr. Crooke’s <i>Tribes and Castes</i>, art. Lodha. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e4737" href="#d0e4737src" class="noteref">5</a></span> <i>Narsinghpur Settlement Report</i> (1866), p. 28. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e4747" href="#d0e4747src" class="noteref">6</a></span> <i>Nagpur Settlement Report</i>, p. 24. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e4774" href="#d0e4774src" class="noteref">7</a></span> A small millet. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e4785" href="#d0e4785src" class="noteref">8</a></span> Every twelfth year when the planet Jupiter is in conjunction with the constellation Sinh (Leo). +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e4814" href="#d0e4814src" class="noteref">9</a></span> <i>Butea Frondosa</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e4819" href="#d0e4819src" class="noteref">10</a></span> This is known as <i>lodha</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e4851" href="#d0e4851src" class="noteref">11</a></span> The Rājjhars are a low caste of farmservants and labourers, probably an offshoot of the Bhar tribe. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e4877" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Lohar</h2> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>1. Legends of the caste</h3> +<p><b>Lohar</b>, <b>Khati</b>, <b>Ghantra</b>, <b>Ghisāri</b>, <b>Panchāl.</b>—The occupational caste of blacksmiths. The name is derived from the Sanskrit <i>Lauha-kara></i>, a worker in iron. In the Central Provinces the Loharhas in the past frequently combined the occupations of carpenter and +blacksmith, and in such a capacity he is known as Khāti. The honorific designations applied to the caste are Karīgar, which +means skilful, and <a id="d0e4902"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e4902">121</a>]</span>Mistri, a corruption of the English ‘Master’ or ‘Mister.’ In 1911 the Lohārs numbered about 180,000 persons in the Central +Provinces and Berār. The Lohār is indispensable to the village economy, and the caste is found over the whole rural area of +the Province. + +</p> +<p>“Practically all the Lohārs,” Mr. Crooke writes<a id="d0e4906src" href="#d0e4906" class="noteref">1</a>, “trace their origin to Visvakarma, who is the later representative of the Vedic Twashtri, the architect and handicraftsman +of the gods, ‘The fashioner of all ornaments, the most eminent of artisans, who formed the celestial chariots of the deities, +on whose craft men subsist, and whom, a great and immortal god, they continually worship,’ One<a id="d0e4911src" href="#d0e4911" class="noteref">2</a> tradition tells that Visvakarma was a Brāhman and married the daughter of an Ahīr, who in her previous birth had been a dancing-girl +of the gods. By her he had nine sons, who became the ancestors of various artisan castes, such as the Lohār, Barhai, Sunār, +and Kasera.” + +</p> +<p>The Lohārs of the Uriya country in the Central Provinces tell a similar story, according to which Kamar, the celestial architect, +had twelve sons. The eldest son was accustomed to propitiate the family god with wine, and one day he drank some of the wine, +thinking that it could not be sinful to do so as it was offered to the deity. But for this act his other brothers refused +to live with him and left their home, adopting various professions; but the eldest brother became a worker in iron and laid +a curse upon the others that they should not be able to practise their calling except with the implements which he had made. +The second brother thus became a woodcutter (Barhai), the third a painter (Mahārana), the fourth learnt the science of vaccination +and medicine and became a vaccinator (Suthiār), the fifth a goldsmith, the sixth a brass-smith, the seventh a coppersmith, +and the eighth a carpenter, while the ninth brother was weak in the head and married his eldest sister, on account of which +fact his descendants are known as Ghantra.<a id="d0e4918src" href="#d0e4918" class="noteref">3</a> The Ghantras are an inferior class of blacksmiths, <a id="d0e4924"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e4924">122</a>]</span>probably an offshoot from some of the forest tribes, who are looked down on by the others. It is said that even to the present +day the Ghantra Lohārs have no objection to eating the leavings of food of their wives, whom they regard as their eldest sisters. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>2. Social position of the Lohar</h3> +<p>The above story is noticeable as indicating that the social position of the Lohār is somewhat below that of the other artisan +castes, or at least of those who work in metals. This fact has been recorded in other localities, and has been explained by +some stigma arising from his occupation, as in the following passage: “His social position is low even for a menial, and he +is classed as an impure caste, in so far that Jāts and others of similar standing will have no social communion with him, +though not as an outcast like the scavenger. His impurity, like that of the barber, washerman and dyer, springs solely from +the nature of his employment; perhaps because it is a dirty one, but more probably because black is a colour of evil omen. +It is not improbable that the necessity under which he labours of using bellows made of cowhide may have something to do with +his impurity,”<a id="d0e4931src" href="#d0e4931" class="noteref">4</a> + +</p> +<p>Mr. Nesfield also says: “It is owing to the ubiquitous industry of the Lohār that the stone knives, arrow-heads and hatchets +of the indigenous tribes of Upper India have been so entirely superseded by iron-ores. The memory of the stone age has not +survived even in tradition. In consequence of the evil associations which Hinduism has attached to the colour of black, the +caste of Lohār has not been able to raise itself to the same social level as the three metallurgic castes which follow.” The +following saying also indicates that the Lohār is of evil omen: + +</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Ar, Dhār, Chuchkār +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>In tinon se bachāwe Kartār.</span></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Here <i>Ar</i> means an iron goad and signifies the Lohār; <i>Dhār</i> represents the sound of the oil falling from the press and means a Teli or oilman; <i>Chuchkār</i> is an imitation of the sound of clothes being beaten against a stone and denotes the Dhobi or washerman; and the phrase thus +runs, ‘My Friend, beware of the Lohār, Teli, and Dhobi, for they <a id="d0e4954"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e4954">123</a>]</span>are of evil omen.’ It is not quite clear why this disrepute should attach to the Lohār, because iron itself is lucky, though +its colour, black, may be of bad omen. But the low status of the Lohār may partly arise from the fact of his being a village +menial and a servant of the cultivators; whereas the trades of the goldsmith, brass-smith and carpenter are of later origin +than the blacksmith’s, and are urban rather than rural industries; and thus these artisans do not commonly occupy the position +of village menials. Another important consideration is that the iron industry is associated with the primitive tribes, who +furnished the whole supply of the metal prior to its importation from Europe: and it is hence probable that the Lohār caste +was originally constituted from these and would thus naturally be looked down upon by the Hindus. In Bengal, where few or +no traces of the village community remain, the Lohār ranks as the equal of Koiris and Kurmis, and Brāhmans will take water +from his hands;<a id="d0e4956src" href="#d0e4956" class="noteref">5</a> and this somewhat favours the argument that his lower status elsewhere is not due to incidents of his occupation. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>3. Caste subdivisions</h3> +<p>The constitution of the Lohār caste is of a heterogeneous nature. In some localities Gonds who work as blacksmiths are considered +to belong to the caste and are known as Gondi Lohārs. But Hindus who work in Gond villages also sometimes bear this designation. +Another subdivision returned consists of the Agarias, also an offshoot of the Gonds, who collect and smelt iron-ore in the +Vindhyan and Satpūra hills. The Panchāls are a class of itinerant smiths in Berār. The Ghantras or inferior blacksmiths of +the Uriya country have already been noticed. The Ghisāris are a similar low class of smiths in the southern Districts who +do rough work only, but sometimes claim Rājpūt origin. Other subcastes are of the usual local or territorial type, as Mahūlia, +from Māhul in Berār; Jhāde or Jhādia, those living in the jungles; Ojha, or those professing a Brāhmanical origin; Marātha, +Kanaujia, Mathuria, and so on. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>4. Marriage and other customs</h3> +<p>Infant-marriage is the custom of the caste, and the ceremony is that prevalent among the agricultural castes of the locality. +The remarriage of widows is permitted, and <a id="d0e4971"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e4971">124</a>]</span>they have the privilege of selecting their own husbands, or at least of refusing to accept any proposed suitor. A widow is +always married from her father’s house, and never from that of her deceased husband. The first husband’s property is taken +by his relatives, if there be any, and they also assume the custody of his children as soon as they are old enough to dispense +with a mother’s care. The dead are both buried and burnt, and in the eastern Districts some water and a tooth-stick are daily +placed at a cross-road for the use of the departed spirit during the customary period of mourning, which extends to ten days. +On the eleventh day the relatives go and bathe, and the chief mourner puts on a new loin-cloth. Some rice is taken and seven +persons pass it from hand to hand. They then pound the rice, and making from it a figure to represent a human being, they +place some grain in its mouth and say to it, ‘Go and become incarnate in some human being,’ and throw the image into the water. +After this the impurity caused by the death is removed, and they go home and feast with their friends. In the evening they +make cakes of rice, and place them seven times on the shoulder of each person who has carried the corpse to the cemetery or +pyre, to remove the impurity contracted from touching it. It is also said that if this be not done the shoulder will feel +the weight of the coffin for a period of six months. The caste endeavour to ascertain whether the spirit of the dead person +returns to join in the funeral feast, and in what shape it will be born again. For this purpose rice-flour is spread on the +floor of the cooking-room and covered with a brass plate. The women retire and sit in an adjoining room while the chief mourner +with a few companions goes outside the village, and sprinkles some more rice-flour on the ground. They call to the deceased +person by name, saying, ‘Come, come,’ and then wait patiently till some worm or insect crawls on to the floor. Some dough +is then applied to this and it is carried home and let loose in the house. The flour under the brass plate is examined, and +it is said that they usually see the footprints of a person or animal, indicating the corporeal entity in which the deceased +soul has found a resting-place. During the period of mourning members of <a id="d0e4973"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e4973">125</a>]</span>the bereaved family do not follow their ordinary business, nor eat flesh, sweets or other delicate food. They may not make +offerings to their deities nor touch any persons outside the family, nor wear head-cloths or shoes. In the eastern Districts +the principal deities of the Lohārs are Dūlha Deo and Somlai or Devi, the former being represented by a knife set in the ground +inside the house, and the latter by the painting of a woman on the wall. Both deities are kept in the cooking-room, and here +the head of the family offers to them rice soaked in milk, with sandal-paste, flowers, vermilion and lamp-black. He burns +some melted butter in an earthen lamp and places incense upon it. If a man has been affected by the evil eye an exorcist will +place some salt on his hand and burn it, muttering spells, and the evil influence is removed. They believe that a spell can +be cast on a man by giving him to eat the bones of an owl, when he will become an idiot. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>5. Occupation</h3> +<p>In the rural area of the Province the Lohār is still a village menial, making and mending the iron implements of agriculture, +such as the ploughshare, axe, sickle, goad and other articles. For doing this he is paid in Saugor a yearly contribution of +twenty pounds of grain per plough of land<a id="d0e4980src" href="#d0e4980" class="noteref">6</a> held by each cultivator, together with a handful of grain at sowing-time and a sheaf at harvest from both the autumn and +spring crops. In Wardha he gets fifty pounds of grain per plough of four bullocks or forty acres. For making new implements +the Lohār is sometimes paid separately and is always supplied with the iron and charcoal. The hand-smelting iron industry +has practically died out in the Province and the imported metal is used for nearly all purposes. The village Lohārs are usually +very poor, their income seldom exceeding that of an unskilled labourer. In the towns, owing to the rapid extension of milling +and factory industries, blacksmiths readily find employment and some of them earn very high wages. In the manufacture of cutlery, +nails and other articles the capital is often found by a Bhātia or Bohra merchant, who acts as the capitalist and employs +the Lohārs as his workmen. The women help their husbands by blowing the bellows and dragging the hot iron <a id="d0e4983"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e4983">126</a>]</span>from the furnace, while the men wield the hammer. The Panchāls of Berār are described as a wandering caste of smiths, living +in grass mat-huts and using as fuel the roots of thorn bushes, which they batter out of the ground with the back of a short-handled +axe peculiar to themselves. They move from place to place with buffaloes, donkeys and ponies to carry their kit.<a id="d0e4985src" href="#d0e4985" class="noteref">7</a> Another class of wandering smiths, the Ghisāris, are described by Mr. Crooke as follows: “Occasional camps of these most +interesting people are to be met with in the Districts of the Meerut Division. They wander about with small carts and pack-animals, +and, being more expert than the ordinary village Lohār, their services are in demand for the making of tools for carpenters, +weavers and other craftsmen. They are known in the Punjab as Gādiya or those who have carts (<i>gādi, gāri</i>). Sir D. Ibbetson<a id="d0e4993src" href="#d0e4993" class="noteref">8</a> says that they come up from Rājputāna and the North-Western Provinces, but their real country is the Deccan. In the Punjab +they travel about with their families and implements in carts from village to village, doing the finer kinds of iron-work, +which are beyond the capacity of the village artisan. In the Deccan<a id="d0e4998src" href="#d0e4998" class="noteref">9</a> this class of wandering blacksmiths are called Saiqalgar, or knife-grinders, or Ghisāra, or grinders (Hindi, <i>ghisāna</i> ‘to rub’). They wander about grinding knives and tools.” + +</p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e4906" href="#d0e4906src" class="noteref">1</a></span> <i>Tribes and Castes of the N.W.P. and Oudh</i>, art. Lohār. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e4911" href="#d0e4911src" class="noteref">2</a></span> Dowson, <i>Classical Dictionary, s.v.</i></p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e4918" href="#d0e4918src" class="noteref">3</a></span> In Uriya the term, <i>Ghantrabela</i> means a person who has illicit intercourse with another. The Ghantra Lohārs are thus probably of bastard origin, like the +groups known as half-castes and others which are frequently found. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e4931" href="#d0e4931src" class="noteref">4</a></span> <i>Punjab Census Report</i> (1881), para. 624. (Ibbetson.) +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e4956" href="#d0e4956src" class="noteref">5</a></span> <i>Tribes and Castes of Bengal,</i> art. Lohār +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e4980" href="#d0e4980src" class="noteref">6</a></span> About 15 acres. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e4985" href="#d0e4985src" class="noteref">7</a></span> <i>Berār Census Report</i>, 1881 (Kitts). +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e4993" href="#d0e4993src" class="noteref">8</a></span> <i>Punjāb Ethnography</i>, para. 624. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e4998" href="#d0e4998src" class="noteref">9</a></span> <i>Bombay Gazetteer</i>, xvi. 82. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e5006" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Lorha</h2> +<p><b>Lorha.</b><a id="d0e5012src" href="#d0e5012" class="noteref">1</a>—A small caste of cultivators in the Hoshangābād and Nimār Districts, whose distinctive occupation is to grow <i>san</i>-hemp (<i>Crotalaria juncea</i>) and to make sacking and gunny-bags from the fibre. A very strong prejudice against this crop exists among the Hindus, and +those who grow it are usually cut off from their parent caste and become a separate community. Thus we have the castes known +as Kumrāwat, Patbīna and Dāngur in different parts of the Province, who are probably offshoots from the Kurmis and Kunbis, +but now rank below them because they grow this crop; and in the Kurmi caste itself a subcaste of Santora (hemp-picking) Kurmis +has grown up. In Bilāspur the <a id="d0e5021"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e5021">127</a>]</span>Pathāria Kurmis will grow <i>san</i>-hemp and ret it, but will not spin or weave the fibre; while the Athāria Kurmis will not grow the crop, but will spin the +fibre and make sacking. The Saugor Kewats grow this fibre, and here Brāhmans and other high castes will not take water from +Kewats, though in the eastern Districts they will do so. The Narsinghpur Mallāhs, a branch of the Kewats, have also adopted +the cultivation of <i>san</i>-hemp as a regular profession. The basis of the prejudice against the <i>san</i>-hemp plant is not altogether clear. The Lorhas themselves say that they are looked down upon because they use wheat-starch +(<i>lapsi</i>) for smoothing the fibre, and that their name is somehow derived from this fact. But the explanation does not seem satisfactory. +Many of the country people appear to think that there is something uncanny about the plant because it grows so quickly, and +they say that on one occasion a cultivator went out to sow hemp in the morning, and his wife was very late in bringing his +dinner to the field. He grew hungry and angry, and at last the shoots of the hemp-seeds which he had sown in the morning began +to appear above the ground. At this he was so enraged that when his wife finally came he said she had kept him waiting so +long that the crop had come up in the meantime, and murdered her. Since then the Hindus have been forbidden to grow <i>san</i>-hemp lest they should lose their tempers in the same manner. This story makes a somewhat excessive demand on the hearer’s +credulity. One probable cause of the taboo seems to be that the process of soaking and retting the stalks of the plant pollutes +the water, and if carried on in a tank or in the pools of a stream might destroy the village supply of drinking-water. In +former times it may have been thought that the desecration of their sacred element was an insult to the deities of rivers +and streams, which would bring down retribution on the offender. It is also the case that the proper separation of the fibres +requires a considerable degree of dexterity which can only be acquired by practice. Owing to the recent increase in the price +of the fibre and the large profits which can now be obtained from hemp cultivation, the prejudice against it is gradually +breaking down, and the Gonds, Korkus and lower Hindu castes have waived their religious scruples <a id="d0e5038"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e5038">128</a>]</span>and are glad to turn an honest penny by sowing hemp either on their own account or for hire. Other partially tabooed crops +are turmeric and <i>āl</i> or Indian madder (<i>Morinda citrifolia</i>), while onions and garlic are generally eschewed by Hindu cultivators. For growing turmeric and <i>āl</i> special subcastes have been formed, as the Alia Kunbis and the Hardia Mālis and Kāchhis (from <i>haldi</i>, turmeric), just as in the case of <i>san</i>-hemp. The objection to these two crops is believed to lie in the fact that the roots which yield the commercial product have +to be boiled, and by this process a number of insects contained in them are destroyed. But the preparation of the hemp-fibre +does not seem to involve any such sacrifice of insect life. The Lorhas appear to be a mixed group, with a certain amount of +Rājpūt blood in them, perhaps an offshoot of the Kirārs, with whose social customs their own are said to be identical. According +to another account, they are a lower or illegitimate branch of the Lodha caste of cultivators, of whose name their own is +said to be a corruption. The Nimār Gūjars have a subcaste named Lorha, and the Lorhas of Hoshangābād may be connected with +these. They live in the Seoni and Harda tahsīls of Hoshangābād, the <i>san</i>-hemp crop being a favourite one in villages adjoining the forests, because it is not subject to the depredations of wild +animals. Cultivators are often glad to sublet their fields for the purpose of having a crop of hemp grown upon them, because +the stalks are left for manure and fertilise the ground. String and sacking are also made from the hemp-fibre by vagrant and +criminal castes like the Banjāras and Bhāmtas, who formerly required the bags for carrying their goods and possessions about +with them. +<a id="d0e5058"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e5058">129</a>]</span></p> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5012" href="#d0e5012src" class="noteref">1</a></span> This article is partly based on papers by Mr. P.B. Telang, Munsiff Seoni-Mālwa, and Mr. Wāman Rao Mandloi, nāib-tahsīldār, +Harda. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e5059" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Mahār</h2> +<h3>List of Paragraphs</h3> +<ul> +<li><a href="#d0e5141">1. General Notice. </a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e5188">2. Length of residence in the Central Provinces</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e5210">3. Legend of origin</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e5220">4. Sub-castes</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e5233">5. Exogamous groups and marriage customs</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e5270">6. Funeral rites</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e5289">7. Childbirth</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e5297">8. Names</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e5310">9. Religion</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e5315">10. Adoption of foreign religions</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e5355">11. Superstitions</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e5370">12. Social rules</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e5395">13. Social subjection</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e5441">14. Their position improving</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e5446">15. Occupation</a></li> +</ul> +<div class="div2" id="d0e5141"> +<h3>1. General Notice. </h3> +<p><b>Mahār, Mehra, Dhed.</b>—The impure caste of menials, labourers and village watchmen of the Marātha country, corresponding to the Chamārs and Koris +of northern India. They numbered nearly 1,200,000 persons in the combined Province in 1911, and are most numerous in the Nāgpur, +Bhandāra, Chānda and Wardha Districts of the Central Provinces, while considerable colonies are also found in Bālāghāt, Chhindwāra +and Betūl. Their distribution thus follows largely that of the Marāthi language and the castes speaking it. Berār contained +400,000, distributed over the four Districts. In the whole Province this caste is third in point of numerical strength. In +India the Mahārs number about three million persons, of whom a half belong to Bombay. I am not aware of any accepted derivation +for the word Mahār, but the balance of opinion seems to be that the native name of Bombay, Mahārāshtra, is derived from that +of the caste, as suggested by Wilson. Another derivation which holds it to be a corruption of Maha Rāstrakūta, and to be so +called after the Rāshtrakūta Rājpūt dynasty of the eighth and ninth centuries, seems less probable because countries are very +seldom named after ruling <a id="d0e5148"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e5148">130</a>]</span>dynasties.<a id="d0e5150src" href="#d0e5150" class="noteref">1</a> Whereas in support of Mahārāshtra as ‘The country of the Mahārs,’ we have Gujarāshtra or Gujarāt, ‘the country of the Gūjars,’ +and Saurāshtra or Surat, ‘the country of the Sauras.’ According to Platts’ Dictionary, however, Mahārāshtra means ‘the great +country,’ and this is what the Marātha Brāhmans themselves say. Mehra appears to be a variant of the name current in the Hindustāni +Districts, while Dheda, or Dhada, is said to be a corruption of Dharadas or billmen.<a id="d0e5153src" href="#d0e5153" class="noteref">2</a> In the Punjab it is said to be a general term of contempt meaning ‘Any low fellow.’<a id="d0e5158src" href="#d0e5158" class="noteref">3</a> + +</p> +<p>Wilson considers the Mahārs to be an aboriginal or pre-Aryan tribe, and all that is known of the caste seems to point to the +correctness of this hypothesis. In the <i>Bombay Gazetteer</i> the writer of the interesting Gujarāt volume suggests that the Mahārs are fallen Rājpūts; but there seems little to support +this opinion except their appearance and countenance, which is of the Hindu rather than the Dravidian type. In Gujarāt they +have also some Rājpūt surnames, as Chauhān, Panwār, Rāthor, Solanki and so on, but these may have been adopted by imitation +or may indicate a mixture of Rājpūt blood. Again, the Mahārs of Gujarāt are the farmservants and serfs of the Kunbis. “Each +family is closely connected with the house of some landholder or <i>pattidār</i> (sharer). For his master he brings in loads from the fields and cleans out the stable, receiving in return daily allowances +of buttermilk and the carcases of any cattle that die. This connection seems to show traces of a form of slavery. Rich <i>pattidārs</i> have always a certain number of Dheda families whom they speak of as ours (<i>hamāra</i>) and when a man dies he distributes along with his lands a certain number of Dheda families to each of his sons. An old tradition +among Dhedas points to some relation between the Kunbis and Dhedas. Two brothers, Leva and Deva, were the ancestors, the former +of the Kunbis, the latter of the Dhedas.” <a id="d0e5178src" href="#d0e5178" class="noteref">4</a> Such a relation as this <a id="d0e5183"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e5183">131</a>]</span>in Hindu society would imply that many Mahār women held the position of concubines to their Kunbi masters, and would therefore +account for the resemblance of the Mahār to Hindus rather than the forest tribes. But if this is to be regarded as evidence +of Rājpūt descent, a similar claim would have to be allowed to many of the Chamārs and sweepers. Others of the lowest castes +also have Rājpūt sept names, as the Pārdhis and Bhīls; but the fact can at most be taken, I venture to think, to indicate +a connection of the ‘Droit de Seigneur’ type. On the other hand, the Mahārs occupy the debased and impure position which was the lot of those non-Aryan tribes who +became subject to the Hindus and lived in their villages; they eat the flesh of dead cattle and this and other customs appear +to point decisively to a non-Aryan origin. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e5188"> +<h3>2. Length of residence in the Central Provinces</h3> +<p>Several circumstances indicate that the Mahār is recognised as the oldest resident of the plain country of Berār and Nāgpur. +In Berār he is a village servant and is the referee on village boundaries and customs, a position implying that his knowledge +of them is the most ancient. At the Holi festival the fire of the Mahārs is kindled first and that of the Kunbis is set alight +from it. The Kāmdār Mahār, who acts as village watchman, also has the right of bringing the <i>toran</i> or rope of leaves which is placed on the marriage-shed of the Kunbis; and for this he receives a present of three annas. +In Bhandrā the Telis, Lohārs, Dhimārs and several other castes employ a Mahār <i>Mohturia</i> or wise man to fix the date of their weddings. And most curious of all, when the Panwār Rājpūts of this tract celebrate the +festival of Nārāyan Deo, they call a Mahār to their house and make him the first partaker of the feast before beginning to +eat themselves. Again in Berār<a id="d0e5199src" href="#d0e5199" class="noteref">5</a> the Mahār officiates at the killing of the buffalo on Dasahra. On the day before the festival the chief Mahār of the village +and his wife with their garments knotted together bring some earth from the jungle and fashioning two images set one on a +clay elephant and the other on a clay bullock. The images are placed on a small platform outside the village site and worshipped; +a young he-buffalo is bathed <a id="d0e5205"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e5205">132</a>]</span>and brought before the images as though for the same object. The Patel wounds the buffalo in the nose with a sword and it +is then marched through the village. In the evening it is killed by the head Mahār, buried in the customary spot, and any +evil that might happen during the coming year is thus deprecated and, it is hoped, averted. The claim to take the leading +part in this ceremony is the occasion of many a quarrel and an occasional affray or riot Such customs tend to show that the +Mahārs were the earliest immigrants from Bombay into the Berār and Nāgpur plain, excluding of course the Gonds and other tribes, +who have practically been ousted from this tract. And if it is supposed that the Panwārs came here in the tenth century, as +seems not improbable,<a id="d0e5207src" href="#d0e5207" class="noteref">6</a> the Mahārs, whom the Panwārs recognise as older residents than themselves, must have been earlier still, and were probably +numbered among the subjects of the old Hindu kingdoms of Bhāndak and Nagardhan. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e5210"> +<h3>3. Legend of origin</h3> +<p>The Mahārs say they are descended from Mahāmuni, who was a foundling picked up by the goddess Pārvati on the banks of the +Ganges. At this time beef had not become a forbidden food; and when the divine cow, Tripād Gayatri, died, the gods determined +to cook and eat her body and Mahāmuni was set to watch the pot boiling. He was as inattentive as King Alfred, and a piece +of flesh fell out of the pot. Not wishing to return the dirty piece to the pot Mahāmuni ate it; but the gods discovered the +delinquency, and doomed him and his descendants to live on the flesh of dead cows.<a id="d0e5215src" href="#d0e5215" class="noteref">7</a> + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e5220"> +<h3>4. Sub-castes</h3> +<p>The caste have a number of subdivisions, generally of a local or territorial type, as Daharia, the residents of Dāhar or the +Jubbulpore country, Baonia (52) of Berār, Nemādya or from Nimar, Khāndeshi from Khāndesh, and so on; the Katia group are probably +derived from that caste, Katīa meaning a spinner; the Bārkias are another group whose name is supposed to mean spinners of +fine thread; while the Lonārias are salt-makers. The highest division are the Somvansis or children of the moon; these claim +to have taken part with the Pāndavas against the Kauravas in the <a id="d0e5225"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e5225">133</a>]</span>war of the Mahābhārata, and subsequently to have settled in Mahārāshtra.<a id="d0e5227src" href="#d0e5227" class="noteref">8</a> But the Somvansi Mahārs consent to groom horses, which the Baone and Kosaria subcastes will not do. Baone and Somvansi Mahārs +will take food together, but will not intermarry. The Ladwān subcaste are supposed to be the offspring of kept women of the +Somvansi Mahārs; and in Wardha the Dhārmik group are also the descendants of illicit unions and their name is satirical, meaning +‘virtuous.’ As has been seen, the caste have a subdivision named Katia, which is the name of a separate Hindustāni caste; +and other subcastes have names belonging to northern India, as the Mahobia, from Mahoba in the United Provinces, the Kosaria +or those from Chhattīsgarh, and the Kanaujia from Kanauj. This may perhaps be taken to indicate that bodies of the Kori and +Katia weaving castes of northern India have been amalgamated with the Mahārs in Districts where they have come together along +the Satpūra Hills and Nerbudda Valley. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e5233"> +<h3>5. Exogamous groups and marriage customs</h3> +<p>The caste have also a large number of exogamous groups, the names of which are usually derived from plants, animals, and natural +objects. A few may be given as examples out of fifty-seven recorded in the Central Provinces, though this is far from representing +the real total; all the common animals have septs named after them, as the tiger, cobra, tortoise, peacock, jackal, lizard, +elephant, lark, scorpion, calf, and so on; while more curious names are—Darpan, a mirror; Khānda Phari, sword and shield; +Undrimāria, a rat-killer; Aglāvi, an incendiary; Andhāre, a blind man; Kutramāria, a dog-killer; Kodu Dūdh, sour milk; Khobragāde, +cocoanut-kernel; Bhājikhai, a vegetable eater, and so on. + +</p> +<p>A man must not marry in his own sept, but may take a wife from his mother’s or grandmother’s. A sister’s son may marry a brother’s +daughter, but not vice versa. A girl who is seduced before marriage by a man of her own caste or any higher one can be married +as if she were a widow, but if she has a child she must first get some other family to take it off her hands. The custom of +<i>Lamjhana</i> or serving for a wife is recognised, and the expectant bridegroom will live with his father-in-law and work for him for a +period <a id="d0e5243"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e5243">134</a>]</span>varying from one to five years. The marriage ceremony follows the customary Hindustāni or Marātha ritual<a id="d0e5245src" href="#d0e5245" class="noteref">9</a> as the case may be. In Wardha the right foot of the bridegroom and the left one of the bride are placed together in a new +basket, while they stand one on each side of the threshold. They throw five handfuls of coloured rice over each other, and +each time, as he throws, the bridegroom presses his toe on the bride’s foot; at the end he catches the girl by the finger +and the marriage is complete. In the Central Provinces the Mohtūria or caste priest officiates at weddings, but in Berār, +Mr. Kitts states<a id="d0e5248src" href="#d0e5248" class="noteref">10</a> the caste employ the Brāhman Joshi or village priest. But as he will not come to their house they hold the wedding on the +day that one takes place among the higher castes, and when the priest gives the signal the dividing cloth (Antarpat) between +the couple is withdrawn, and the garments of the bride and bridegroom are knotted, while the bystanders clap their hands and +pelt the couple with coloured grain. As the priest frequently takes up his position on the roof of the house for a wedding +it is easy for the Mahārs to see him. In Mandla some of the lower class of Brāhmans will officiate at the weddings of Mahārs. +In Chhindwāra the Mahārs seat the bride and bridegroom in the frame of a loom for the ceremony, and they worship the hide +of a cow or bullock filled with water. They drink together ceremoniously, a pot of liquor being placed on a folded cloth and +all the guests sitting round it in a circle. An elder man then lays a new piece of cloth on the pot and worships it. He takes +a cup of the liquor himself and hands round a cupful to every person present. + +</p> +<p>In Mandla at a wedding the barber comes and cuts the bride’s nails, and the cuttings are rolled up in dough and placed in +a little earthen pot beside the marriage-post. The bridegroom’s nails and hair are similarly cut in his own house and placed +in another vessel. A month or two after the wedding the two little pots are taken out and thrown into the Nerbudda. A wedding +costs the bridegroom’s party about Rs. 40 or Rs. 50 and the bride’s about Rs. 25. <a id="d0e5255"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e5255">135</a>]</span>They have no going-away ceremony, but the occasion of a girl’s coming to maturity is known as Bolāwan. She is kept apart for +six days and given new clothes, and the caste-people are invited to a meal. When a woman’s husband dies the barber breaks +her bangles, and her anklets are taken off and given to him as his perquisite. Her brother-in-law or other relative gives +her a new white cloth, and she wears this at first, and afterwards white or coloured clothes at her pleasure. Her hair is +not cut, and she may wear <i>patelas</i> or flat metal bangles on the forearm and armlets above the elbow, but not other ornaments. A widow is under no obligation +to marry her first husband’s younger brother; when she marries a stranger he usually pays a sum of about Rs. 30 to her parents. +When the price has been paid the couple exchange a ring and a bangle respectively in token of the agreement. When the woman +is proceeding to her second husband’s house, her old clothes, necklace and bangles are thrown into a river or stream and she +is given new ones to wear. This is done to lay the first husband’s spirit, which may be supposed to hang about the clothes +she wore as his wife, and when they are thrown away or buried the exorcist mutters spells over them in order to lay the spirit. +No music is allowed at the marriage of a widow except the crooked trumpet called <i>singāra</i>. A bachelor who marries a widow must first go through a mock ceremony with a cotton-plant, a sword or a ring. Divorce must +be effected before the caste <i>panchāyat</i> or committee, and if a divorced woman marries again, her first husband performs funeral and mourning ceremonies as if she +were dead. In Gujarāt the practice is much more lax and “divorce can be obtained almost to an indefinite extent. Before they +finally settle down to wedded life most couples have more than once changed their partners.”<a id="d0e5266src" href="#d0e5266" class="noteref">11</a> But here also, before the change takes place, there must be a formal divorce recognised by the caste. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e5270"> +<h3>6. Funeral rites</h3> +<p>The caste either burn or bury the dead and observe mourning for three days,<a id="d0e5275src" href="#d0e5275" class="noteref">12</a> having their houses whitewashed and their faces shaved. On the tenth day they give a feast <a id="d0e5280"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e5280">136</a>]</span>to the caste-fellows. On the Akshaya Tritia <a id="d0e5282src" href="#d0e5282" class="noteref">13</a> and the 30th day of Kunwār (September) they offer rice and cakes to the crows in the names of their ancestors. In Berār Mr. +Kitts writes:<a id="d0e5285src" href="#d0e5285" class="noteref">14</a> “If a Mahār’s child has died, he will on the third day place bread on the grave; if an infant, milk; if an adult, on the +tenth day, with five pice in one hand and five betel-leaves in the other, he goes into the river, dips himself five times +and throws these things away; he then places five lighted lamps on the tomb, and after these simple ceremonies gets himself +shaved as though he were an orthodox Hindu.” + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e5289"> +<h3>7. Childbirth</h3> +<p>In Mandla the mother is secluded at childbirth in a separate house if one is available, and if not they fence in a part of +the veranda for her use with bamboo screens. After the birth the mother must remain impure until the barber comes and colours +her toe-nails and draws a line round her feet with red <i>mahur</i> powder. This is indispensable, and if the barber is not immediately available she must wait until his services can be obtained. +When the navel-string drops it is buried in the place on which the mother sat while giving birth, and when this has been done +the purification may be effected. The Dhobi is then called to wash the clothes of the household, and their earthen pots are +thrown away. The head of the newborn child is shaved clean, as the birth-hair is considered to be impure, and the hair is +wrapped up in dough and thrown into a river. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e5297"> +<h3>8. Names</h3> +<p>A child is named on the seventh or twelfth day after its birth, the name being chosen by the Mohtūria or caste headman. The +ordinary Hindu names of deities for men and sacred rivers or pious and faithful wives for women are employed; instances of +the latter being Ganga, Godāvari, Jamuna, Sīta, Laxmi and Rādha. Opprobrious names are sometimes given to avert ill-luck, +as Damdya (purchased for eight cowries), Kauria (a cowrie), Bhikāria (a beggar), Ghusia (from <i>ghus</i>, a mallet for stamping earth), Harchatt (refuse), Akāli (born in famine-time), Langra (lame), Lula (having an arm useless); +or the name of another low caste is given, as Bhangi (sweeper), Domari (Dom sweeper), Chamra (tanner), Basori (basket-maker). +Not infrequently children are named <a id="d0e5305"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e5305">137</a>]</span>after the month or day when they were born, as Pusau, born in Pus (December), Chaitu, born in Chait (March), Manglu (born +on Tuesday), Buddhi (born on Wednesday), Sukka (born on Friday), Sanīchra (born on Saturday). One boy was called Mulua or +‘Sold’ (<i>mol-dena</i>). His mother had no other children, so sold him for one pice (farthing) to a Gond woman. After five or six months, as he +did not get fat, his name was changed to Jhuma or ‘lean,’ probably as an additional means of averting ill-luck. Another boy +was named Ghurka, from the noise he made when being suckled. A child born in the absence of its father is called Sonwa, or +one born in an empty house. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e5310"> +<h3>9. Religion</h3> +<p>The great body of the caste worship the ordinary deities Devi, Hanumān, Dūlha Deo, and others, though of course they are not +allowed to enter Hindu temples. They principally observe the Holi and Dasahra festivals and the days of the new and full moon. +On the festival of Nāg-Panchmi they make an image of a snake with flour and sugar and eat it. At the sacred Ambāla tank at +Rāmtek the Mahārs have a special bathing-ghāt set apart for them, and they may enter the citadel and go as far as the lowest +step leading up to the temples; here they worship the god and think that he accepts their offerings. They are thus permitted +to traverse the outer enclosures of the citadel, which are also sacred. In Wardha the Mahārs may not touch the shrines of +Mahādeo, but must stand before them with their hands joined. They may sometimes deposit offerings with their own hands on +those of Bhīmsen, originally a Gond god, and Māta Devi, the goddess of smallpox. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e5315"> +<h3>10. Adoption of foreign religions</h3> +<p>In Berār and Bombay the Mahārs have some curious forms of belief. “Of the confusion which obtains in the Mahār theogony the +names of six of their gods will afford a striking example. While some Mahārs worship Vithoba, the god of Pandharpur, others +revere Varuna’s twin sons, Meghoni and Deghoni, and his four messengers, Gabriel, Azrael, Michael and Anādin, all of whom +they say hail from Pandharpur.”<a id="d0e5320src" href="#d0e5320" class="noteref">15</a> The names of archangels thus mixed up with Hindu deities may most probably have been obtained from the Muhammadans, as they +include Azrael; <a id="d0e5324"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e5324">138</a>]</span>but in Gujarāt their religion appears to have been borrowed from Christianity. “The Karia Dhedas have some rather remarkable +beliefs. In the Satya Yug the Dhedas say they were called Satyas; in the Dvāpar Yug they were called Meghas; in the Treta +Yug, Elias; and in the Kāli Yug, Dhedas. The name Elias came, they say, from a prophet Elia, and of him their religious men +have vague stories; some of them especially about a famine that lasted for three years and a half, easily fitting into the +accounts of Elijah in the Jewish Scriptures. They have also prophecies of a high future in store for their tribe. The king +or leader of the new era, Kuyām Rai by name, will marry a Dheda woman and will raise the caste to the position of Brāhmans. +They hold religious meetings or <i>ochhavas</i>, and at these with great excitement sing songs full of hope of the good things in store for them. When a man wishes to hold +an <i>ochhava</i> he invites the whole caste, and beginning about eight in the evening they often spend the night in singing. Except perhaps +for a few sweetmeats there is no eating or drinking, and the excitement is altogether religious and musical. The singers are +chiefly religious Dhedas or Bhagats, and the people join in a refrain ‘<i>Avore Kuyām Rai Rāja</i>’, ‘Oh! come Kuyām Rai, our king.’”<a id="d0e5335src" href="#d0e5335" class="noteref">16</a> It seems that the attraction which outside faiths exercise on the Mahārs is the hope held out of ameliorating the social +degradation under which they labour, itself an outcome of the Hindu theory of caste. Hence they turn to Islām, or to what +is possibly a degraded version of the Christian story, because these religions do not recognise caste, and hold out a promise +to the Mahār of equality with his co-religionists, and in the case of Christianity of a recompense in the world to come for +the sufferings which he has to endure in this one. Similarly, the Mahārs are the warmest adherents of the Muhammadan saint +Sheikh Farīd, and flock to the fairs held in his honour at Girar in Wardha and Partāpgarh in Bhandāra, where he is supposed +to have slain a couple of giants.<a id="d0e5340src" href="#d0e5340" class="noteref">17</a> <a id="d0e5345"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e5345">139</a>]</span>In Berār<a id="d0e5347src" href="#d0e5347" class="noteref">18</a> also they revere Muhammadan tombs. The remains of the Muhammadan fort and tank on Pimpardol hill in Jalgaon tāluk are now +one of the sacred places of the Mahārs, though to the Muhammadans they have no religious associations. Even at present Mahārs +are inclined to adopt Islām, and a case was recently reported when a body of twenty of them set out to do so, but turned back +on being told that they would not be admitted to the mosque.<a id="d0e5350src" href="#d0e5350" class="noteref">19</a> A large proportion of the Mahārs are also adherents of the Kabīrpanthi sect, one of the main tenets of whose founder was +the abolition of caste. And it is from the same point of view that Christianity appeals to them, enabling European missionaries +to draw a large number of converts from this caste. But even the Hindu attitude towards the Mahārs is not one of unmixed intolerance. +Once in three or four years in the southern Districts, the Panwārs, Mahārs, Pankas and other castes celebrate the worship +of Nārāyan Deo or Vishnu, the officiating priest being a Mahār. Members of all castes come to the Panwār’s house at night +for the ceremony, and a vessel of water is placed at the door in which they wash their feet and hands as they enter; and when +inside they are all considered to be equal, and they sit in a line and eat the same food, and bind wreaths of flowers round +their heads. After the cock crows the equality of status is ended, and no one who goes out of the house can enter again. At +present also many educated Brāhmans recognise fully the social evils resulting from the degraded position of the Mahārs, and +are doing their best to remove the caste prejudices against them. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e5355"> +<h3>11. Superstitions</h3> +<p>They have various spells to cure a man possessed of an evil spirit, or stung by a snake or scorpion, or likely to be in danger +from tigers or wild bears; and in the Morsi tāluk of Berār it is stated that they so greatly fear the effect of an enemy <a id="d0e5360"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e5360">140</a>]</span>writing their name on a piece of paper and tying it to a sweeper’s broom that the threat to do this can be used with great +effect by their creditors.<a id="d0e5362src" href="#d0e5362" class="noteref">20</a> To drive out the evil eye they make a small human image of powdered turmeric and throw it into boiled water, mentioning as +they do so the names of any persons whom they suspect of having cast the evil eye upon them. Then the pot of water is taken +out at midnight of a Wednesday or a Sunday and placed upside down on some cross-roads with a shoe over it, and the sufferer +should be cured. Their belief about the sun and moon is that an old woman had two sons who were invited by the gods to dinner. +Before they left she said to them that as they were going out there would be no one to cook, so they must remember to bring +back something for her. The elder brother forgot what his mother had said and took nothing away with him; but the younger +remembered her and brought back something from the feast. So when they came back the old woman cursed the elder brother and +said that as he had forgotten her he should be the sun and scorch and dry up all vegetation with his beams; but the younger +brother should be the moon and make the world cool and pleasant at night. The story is so puerile that it is only worth reproduction +as a specimen of the level of a Mahār’s intelligence. The belief in evil spirits appears to be on the decline, as a result +of education and accumulated experience. Mr. C. Brown states that in Malkāpur of Berār the Mahārs say that there are no wandering +spirits in the hills by night of such a nature that people need fear them. There are only tiny <i>pari</i> or fairies, small creatures in human form, but with the power of changing their appearance, who do no harm to any one. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e5370"> +<h3>12. Social rules</h3> +<p>When an outsider is to be received into the community all the hair on his face is shaved, being wetted with the urine of a +boy belonging to the group to which he seeks admission. Mahārs will eat all kinds of food including the flesh of crocodiles +and rats, but some of them abstain from beef. There is nothing peculiar in their dress except that the men wear a black woollen +thread round their necks.<a id="d0e5375src" href="#d0e5375" class="noteref">21</a> The women may be recognised by their bold carriage, the <a id="d0e5380"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e5380">141</a>]</span>absence of nose-rings and the large irregular dabs of vermilion on the forehead. Mahār women do not, as a rule, wear the <i>choli</i> or breast-cloth. An unmarried girl does not put on vermilion nor draw her cloth over her head. Women must be tattooed with +dots on the face, representations of scorpions, flowers and snakes on the arms and legs, and some dots to represent flies +on the hands. It is the custom for a girl’s father or mother or father-in-law to have her tattooed in one place on the hand +or arm immediately on her marriage. Then when girls are sitting together they will show this mark and say, ‘My mother or father-in-law +had this done,’ as the case may be. Afterwards if a woman so desires she gets herself tattooed on her other limbs. If an unmarried +girl or widow becomes with child by a man of the Mahār caste or any higher one she is subjected after delivery to a semblance +of the purification by fire known as Agnikāsht. She is taken to the bank of a river and there five stalks of juāri are placed +round her and burnt. Having fasted all day, at night she gives a feast to the caste-men and eats with them. If she offends +with a man of lower caste she is finally expelled. Temporary exclusion from caste is imposed for taking food or drink from +the hands of a Māng or Chamār or for being imprisoned in jail, or on a Mahār man if he lives with a woman of any higher caste; +the penalty being the shaving of a man’s face or cutting off a lock of a woman’s hair, together with a feast to the caste. +In the last case it is said that the man is not readmitted until he has put the woman away. If a man touches a dead dog, cat, +pony or donkey, he has to be shaved and give a feast to the caste. And if a dog or cat dies in his house, or a litter of puppies +or kittens is born, the house is considered to be defiled; all the earthen pots must be thrown away, the whole house washed +and cleaned and a caste feast given. The most solemn oath of a Mahār is by a cat or dog and in Yeotmāl by a black dog.<a id="d0e5385src" href="#d0e5385" class="noteref">22</a> In Berār, the same paper states, the pig is the only animal regarded as unclean, and they must on no account touch it. This +is probably owing to Muhammadan influence. The worst social sin which a Mahār can commit is to get vermin in a wound, which +is <a id="d0e5388"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e5388">142</a>]</span>known as Deogan or being smitten by God. While the affliction continues he is quite ostracised, no one going to his house +or giving him food or water; and when it is cured the Mahārs of ten or twelve surrounding villages assemble and he must give +a feast to the whole community. The reason for this calamity being looked upon with such peculiar abhorrence is obscure, but +the feeling about it is general among Hindus. + + +</p> +<p></p> +<div id="d0e5391" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p110.jpg" alt="Weaving: sizing the warp" width="548" height="674"><p class="figureHead">Weaving: sizing the warp</p> +</div><p> + + + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e5395"> +<h3>13. Social subjection</h3> +<p>The social position of the Mahārs is one of distressing degradation. Their touch is considered to defile and they live in +a quarter by themselves outside the village. They usually have a separate well assigned to them from which to draw water, +and if the village has only one well the Mahārs and Hindus take water from different sides of it. Mahār boys were not until +recently allowed to attend school with Hindu boys, and when they could not be refused admission to Government schools, they +were allotted a small corner of the veranda and separately taught. When Dher boys were first received into the Chānda High +School a mutiny took place and the school was boycotted for some time. The people say, ‘<i>Mahār sarva jātīcha bāhar</i>’ or ‘The Mahār is outside all castes.’ Having a bad name, they are also given unwarrantably a bad character; and ‘<i>Mahār jātīchā</i>’ is a phrase used for a man with no moral or kindly feelings. But in theory at least, as conforming to Hinduism, they were +supposed to be better than Muhammadans and other unbelievers, as shown by the following story from the Rāsmāla:<a id="d0e5406src" href="#d0e5406" class="noteref">23</a> A Muhammadan sovereign asked his Hindu minister which was the lowest caste. The minister begged for leisure to consider his +reply and, having obtained it, went to where the Dhedas lived and said to them: “You have given offence to the Pādishāh. It +is his intention to deprive you of caste and make you Muhammadans.” The Dhedas, in the greatest terror, pushed off in a body +to the sovereign’s palace, and standing at a respectful distance shouted at the top of their lungs: “If we’ve offended your +majesty, punish us in some other way than that. Beat us, fine us, hang us if you like, but don’t make us Muhammadans.” The +Pādishāh smiled, and turning to his minister who sat by him affecting to hear <a id="d0e5409"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e5409">143</a>]</span>nothing, said, ‘So the lowest caste is that to which I belong.’ But of course this cannot be said to represent the general +view of the position of Muhammadans in Hindu eyes; they, like the English, are regarded as distinguished foreigners, who, +if they consented to be proselytised, would probably in time become Brāhmans or at least Rājpūts. A repartee of a Mahār to +a Brāhman abusing him is: The Brāhman, ‘<i>Jāre Mahārya</i>’ or ‘Avaunt, ye Mahār’; the Mahār, ‘<i>Kona dīushi neīn tumchi goburya</i>’ or ‘Some day I shall carry cowdung cakes for you (at his funeral)’; as in the Marātha Districts the Mahār is commonly engaged +for carrying fuel to the funeral pyre. Under native rule the Mahār was subjected to painful degradations. He might not spit +on the ground lest a Hindu should be polluted by touching it with his foot, but had to hang an earthen pot round his neck +to hold his spittle.<a id="d0e5417src" href="#d0e5417" class="noteref">24</a> He was made to drag a thorny branch with him to brush out his footsteps, and when a Brahman came by had to lie at a distance +on his face lest his shadow might fall on the Brāhman. In Gujarāt<a id="d0e5422src" href="#d0e5422" class="noteref">25</a> they were not allowed to tuck up the loin-cloth but had to trail it along the ground. Even quite recently in Bombay a Mahār +was not allowed to talk loudly in the street while a well-to-do Brāhman or his wife was dining in one of the houses. In the +reign of Sidhrāj, the great Solanki Rāja of Gujarāt, the Dheras were for a time at any rate freed from such disabilities by +the sacrifice of one of their number.<a id="d0e5428src" href="#d0e5428" class="noteref">26</a> The great tank at Anhilvāda Pātan in Gujarāt had been built by the Ods (navvies), but Sidhrāj desired Jusma Odni, one of +their wives, and sought to possess her. But the Ods fled with her and when he pursued her she plunged a dagger into her stomach, +cursing Sidhrāj and saying that his tank should never hold water. The Rāja, returning to Anhilvada, found the tank dry, and +asked his minister what should be done that water might remain in the tank. The Pardhān, after consulting the astrologers, +said that if a man’s life were sacrificed the curse might be removed. At that time the Dhers or outcastes were compelled to +live at a distance from <a id="d0e5434"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e5434">144</a>]</span>the towns; they wore untwisted cotton round their heads and a stag’s horn as a mark hanging from their waists so that people +might be able to avoid touching them. The Rāja commanded that a Dher named Māyo should be beheaded in the tank that water +might remain. Māyo died, singing the praises of Vishnu, and the water after that began to remain in the tank. At the time +of his death Māyo had begged as a reward for his sacrifice that the Dhers should not in future be compelled to live at a distance +from the towns nor wear a distinctive dress. The Rāja assented and these privileges were afterwards permitted to the Dhers +for the sake of Māyo. + + +</p> +<p></p> +<div id="d0e5437" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p111.jpg" alt="Winding thread" width="720" height="484"><p class="figureHead">Winding thread</p> +</div><p> + + + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e5441"> +<h3>14. Their position improving</h3> +<p>From the painful state of degradation described above the Mahārs are gradually being rescued by the levelling and liberalising +tendency of British rule, which must be to these depressed classes an untold blessing. With the right of acquiring property +they have begun to assert themselves, and the extension of railways more especially has a great effect in abolishing caste +distinctions. The Brāhman who cannot afford a second-class fare must either not travel or take the risk of rubbing shoulders +with a Mahār in a third-class carriage, and if he chooses to consider himself defiled will have to go hungry and thirsty until +he gets the opportunity of bathing at his journey’s end. The observance of the rules of impurity thus becomes so irksome that +they are gradually falling into abeyance. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e5446"> +<h3>15. Occupation</h3> +<p>The principal occupations of the Mahārs are the weaving of coarse country cloth and general labour. They formerly spun their +own yarn, and their fabrics were preferred by the cultivators for their durability. But practically all thread is now bought +from the mills; and the weaving industry is also in a depressed condition. Many Mahārs have now taken to working in the mills, +and earn better wages than they could at home. In Bombay a number of them are employed as police-constables.<a id="d0e5451src" href="#d0e5451" class="noteref">27</a> They are usually the village watchmen of the Marātha Districts, and in this capacity were remunerated by contributions of +grain from the tenants, the hides and flesh of animals dying in the village, and plots of rent-free land. For these have now +been substituted in <a id="d0e5456"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e5456">145</a>]</span>the Central Provinces a cash payment fixed by Government. In Berār the corresponding official is known as the Kāmdār Mahār. +Mr. Kitts writes of him:<a id="d0e5458src" href="#d0e5458" class="noteref">28</a> As fourth <i>balutedār</i> on the village establishment the Mahār holds a post of great importance to himself and convenience to the village. To the +patel (headman), patwāri and big men of the village, he acts often as a personal servant and errand-runner; for a smaller +cultivator he will also at times carry a torch or act as escort. He had formerly to clean the horses of travellers, and was +also obliged, if required, to carry their baggage.<a id="d0e5466src" href="#d0e5466" class="noteref">29</a> For the services which he thus renders as <i>pāndhewār</i> the Mahār receives from the cultivators certain grain-dues. When the cut juāri is lying in the field the Mahārs go round +and beg for a measure of the ears (<i>bhīk payāli</i>). But the regular payment is made when the grain has been threshed. Another duty performed by the Mahār is the removal of +the carcases of dead animals. The flesh is eaten and the skin retained as wage for the work. The patel and his relatives, +however, usually claim to have the skins of their own animals returned; and in some places where half the agriculturists of +the village claim kinship with the patel, the Mahārs feel and resent the loss. A third duty is the opening of grain-pits, +the noxious gas from which sometimes produces asphyxia. For this the Mahārs receive the tainted grain. They also get the clothes +from a corpse which is laid on the pyre, and the pieces of the burnt wood which remain when the body has been consumed. Recent +observations in the Nāgpur country show that the position of the Mahārs is improving. In Nāgpur it is stated:<a id="d0e5478src" href="#d0e5478" class="noteref">30</a> “Looked down upon as outcastes by the Hindus they are hampered by no sense of dignity or family prejudice. They are fond +of drink, but are also hard workers. They turn their hands to anything and everything, but the great majority are agricultural +labourers. At present the rural Mahār is in the background. If there is only one well in the village he may not use it, but +has to get his water where he can. His sons are consigned to a corner in the village school, and <a id="d0e5483"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e5483">146</a>]</span>the schoolmaster, if not superior to caste prejudices, discourages their attendance. Nevertheless, Mahārs will not remain +for years downtrodden in this fashion, and are already pushing themselves up from this state of degradation. In some places +they have combined to dig wells, and in Nāgpur have opened a school for members of their own community. Occasionally a Mahār +is the most prosperous man in the village. Several of them are moneylenders in a small way, and a few are mālguzārs.” Similarly +in Bhandāra Mr. Napier writes that a new class of small creditors has arisen from the Mahār caste. These people have given +up drinking, and lead an abstemious life, wishing to raise themselves in social estimation. Twenty or more village kotwārs +were found to be carrying on moneylending transactions on a small scale, and in addition many of the Mahārs in towns were +exceedingly well off. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5150" href="#d0e5150src" class="noteref">1</a></span> This derivation is also negatived by the fact that the name Mahāratta was known in the third century B.C., or long before +the Rāstrakūtas became prominent. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5153" href="#d0e5153src" class="noteref">2</a></span> <i>Bombay Gazetteer; Gujarāt Hindus</i>, p. 338. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5158" href="#d0e5158src" class="noteref">3</a></span> Ibbetson, <i>Punjab Census Report</i> (1881). +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5178" href="#d0e5178src" class="noteref">4</a></span> <i>Bombay Gazetteer, l.c.</i> text and footnote by R. v. J. S. Taylor. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5199" href="#d0e5199src" class="noteref">5</a></span> Kitts’ <i>Berār Census Report</i> (1881), p. 143. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5207" href="#d0e5207src" class="noteref">6</a></span> See article on Panwār Rājpūt. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5215" href="#d0e5215src" class="noteref">7</a></span> <i>Berār Census Report</i> (1881), p. 144. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5227" href="#d0e5227src" class="noteref">8</a></span> Kitts’ <i>Berār Census Report</i> p. 144. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5245" href="#d0e5245src" class="noteref">9</a></span> Described in the articles on Kurmi and Kunbi. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5248" href="#d0e5248src" class="noteref">10</a></span> <i>Loc. cit</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5266" href="#d0e5266src" class="noteref">11</a></span> <i>Bombay Gazetteer, Gujarāt Hindus, loc. cit.</i></p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5275" href="#d0e5275src" class="noteref">12</a></span> In Berār for ten days—Kitts’ <i>Berār Census Report, l.c.</i></p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5282" href="#d0e5282src" class="noteref">13</a></span> 3rd Baisākh (April) Sudi, commencement of agricultural year. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5285" href="#d0e5285src" class="noteref">14</a></span> <i>Berār Census Report, l.c.</i></p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5320" href="#d0e5320src" class="noteref">15</a></span> <i>Berār Census Report, l.c.</i></p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5335" href="#d0e5335src" class="noteref">16</a></span> <i>Bombay Gazetteer, Gujarat Hindus</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5340" href="#d0e5340src" class="noteref">17</a></span> It was formerly suggested that the fact of the Mahars being the chief worshippers at the shrines of Sheikh Farīd indicated +that the places themselves had been previously held sacred, and had been annexed by the Muhammadan priests; and the legend +of the giant, who might represent the demonolatry of the aboriginal faith, being slain by the saint might be a parable, so +to say, expressing this process. But in <a id="d0e5342"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e5342">148n</a>]</span>view of the way in which the Mehtars worship Musalmān saints, it seems quite likely that the Mahārs might do so for the same +reason, that is, because Islām partly frees them from the utter degradation imposed by Hinduism. Both views may have some +truth. As regards the legends themselves, it is highly improbable that Sheikh Farid, a well-known saint of northern India, +can ever have been within several hundred miles of either of the places with which they connect him. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5347" href="#d0e5347src" class="noteref">18</a></span> From Mr. C. Brown’s notes. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5350" href="#d0e5350src" class="noteref">19</a></span> <i>C.P. Police Gazette</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5362" href="#d0e5362src" class="noteref">20</a></span> Kitts, <i>l.c.</i></p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5375" href="#d0e5375src" class="noteref">21</a></span> <i>Ibidem</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5385" href="#d0e5385src" class="noteref">22</a></span> Stated by Mr. C. Brown. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5406" href="#d0e5406src" class="noteref">23</a></span> Vol. ii. p. 237. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5417" href="#d0e5417src" class="noteref">24</a></span> <i>Bombay Gazetteer</i>, vol. xii. p. 175. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5422" href="#d0e5422src" class="noteref">25</a></span> Rev. A. Taylor in <i>Bombay Gazetteer, Gujarāt Hindus</i>, p. 341 f. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5428" href="#d0e5428src" class="noteref">26</a></span> The following passage is taken from Forbes, <i>Rāsmāla</i>, i. p. 112. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5451" href="#d0e5451src" class="noteref">27</a></span> <i>Bombay Gazetteer</i>, vol. xi p. 73. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5458" href="#d0e5458src" class="noteref">28</a></span> <i>Bombay Gazetteer</i>, vol. xi. p. 73. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5466" href="#d0e5466src" class="noteref">29</a></span> Grant Duff; <i>History of the Marāthas</i>, vol. i. p. 24. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5478" href="#d0e5478src" class="noteref">30</a></span> <i>Nāgpur Settlement Report</i> (1899), p. 29. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e5485" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Mahli</h2> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>1. Origin of the caste</h3> +<p><b>Mahli, Mahili</b>.<a id="d0e5495src" href="#d0e5495" class="noteref">1</a>—A small caste of labourers, palanquin-bearers and workers in bamboo belonging to Chota Nāgpur. In 1911 about 300 Mahlis were +returned from the Feudatory States in this tract. They are divided into five subcastes: the Bānsphor-Mahli, who make baskets +and do all kinds of bamboo-work; the Pāhar-Mahli, basket-makers and cultivators; the Sulunkhi, cultivators and labourers; +the Tānti who carry litters; and the Mahli-Munda, who belong to Lohardaga. Sir H. Risley states that a comparison of the totemistic +sections of the Mahlis given in the Appendix to his <i>Tribes and Castes</i> with those of the Santāls seems to warrant the conjecture that the main body of the caste are merely a branch of the Santāls. +Four or five septs, Hansda a wild goose, Hemron, Murmu the nilgai, Saren or Sarihin, and perhaps Tudu or Turu are common to +the two tribes. The Mahlis are also closely connected with the Mundas. Seven septs of the main body of the Mahlis, Dumriār +the wild fig, Gundli a kind of grain, Kerketa a bird, Mahukal a bird (long-tail), Tirki, Tunduār and Turu are also Munda septs; +and the three septs given of the Mahli-Munda subcaste, Bhuktuār, Lāng Chenre, and Sānga are all found <a id="d0e5504"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e5504">147</a>]</span>among the Mundas; while four septs, Hansda a wild goose, Induār a kind of eel, as well as Kerketa and Tirki, already mentioned, +are common to the Mahlis and Turis who are also recognised by Sir H. Risley as an offshoot of the Munda tribe with the same +occupation as the Mahlis, of making baskets.<a id="d0e5506src" href="#d0e5506" class="noteref">2</a> The Santāls and Mundas were no doubt originally one tribe, and it seems that the Mahlis are derived from both of them, and +have become a separate caste owing to their having settled in villages more or less of the open country, and worked as labourers, +palanquin-bearers and bamboo-workers much in the same manner as the Turis. Probably they work for hire for Hindus, and hence +their status may have fallen lower than that of the parent tribe, who remained in their own villages in the jungles. Colonel +Dalton notes<a id="d0e5512src" href="#d0e5512" class="noteref">3</a> that the gipsy Berias use Mānjhi and Mahali as titles, and it is possible that some of the Mahlis may have joined the Beria +community. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>2. Social customs</h3> +<p>Only a very few points from Sir H. Risley’s account of the caste need be recorded here, and for further details the reader +may be referred to his article in the <i>Tribes and Castes of Bengal</i>. A bride-price of Rs. 5 is customary, but it varies according to the means of the parties. On the wedding day, before the +usual procession starts to escort the bridegroom to the bride’s house, he is formally married to a mango tree, while the bride +goes through the same ceremony with a mahua. At the entrance to the bride’s house the bridegroom, riding on the shoulders +of some male relation and bearing on his head a vessel of water, is received by the bride’s brother, equipped in similar fashion, +and the two cavaliers sprinkle one another with water. At the wedding the bridegroom touches the bride’s forehead five times +with vermilion and presents her with an iron armlet. The remarriage of widows and divorce are permitted. When a man divorces +his wife he gives her a rupee and takes away the iron armlet which was given her at her wedding. The Mahlis will admit members +of any higher caste into the community. The candidate for admission must pay a small sum to the caste headman, and give a +<a id="d0e5525"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e5525">148</a>]</span>feast to the Mahlis of the neighbourhood, at which he must eat a little of the leavings of food left by each guest on his +leaf-plate. After this humiliating rite he could not, of course, be taken back into his own caste, and is bound to remain +a Mahli. +<a id="d0e5527"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e5527">149</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5495" href="#d0e5495src" class="noteref">1</a></span> This article consists of extracts from Sir H. Risley’s account of the caste in the <i>Tribes and Castes of Bengal</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5506" href="#d0e5506src" class="noteref">2</a></span> See lists of exogamous septs of Mahli, Sandāl, Munda and Puri in Appendix to <i>Tribes and Castes cf Bengal</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5512" href="#d0e5512src" class="noteref">3</a></span> <i>Ethnology of Bengal</i>, p. 326. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e5528" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Majhwār</h2> +<h3>List of Paragraphs</h3> +<ul> +<li><a href="#d0e5570">1. Origin of the tribe</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e5599">2. The Mīrzāpur Majhwārs derived from the Gonds</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e5612">3. Connection with the Kawars</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e5628">4. Exogamy and totemism</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e5652">5. Marriage customs. </a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e5662">6. Birth and funeral rites</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e5667">7. Religious dance</a></li> +</ul> +<div class="div2" id="d0e5570"> +<h3>1. Origin of the tribe</h3> +<p><b>Majhwār, Mānjhi, Mājhia</b>.<a id="d0e5577src" href="#d0e5577" class="noteref">1</a>—A small mixed tribe who have apparently originated from the Gonds, Mundas and Kawars. About 14,000 Majhwārs were returned +in 1911 from the Raigarh, Sargūja and Udaipur States. The word Mānjhi means the headman of a tribal subdivision, being derived +from the Sanskrit <i>madhya</i>, or he who is in the centre.<a id="d0e5586src" href="#d0e5586" class="noteref">2</a> In Bengal Mānjhi has the meaning of the steersman of a boat or a ferryman, and this may have been its original application, +as the steersman might well be he who sat in the centre.<a id="d0e5589src" href="#d0e5589" class="noteref">3</a> When a tribal party makes an expedition by boat, the leader would naturally occupy the position of steersman, and hence it +is easy to see how the term Mānjhi came to be applied to the leader or head of the clan and to be retained as a title for +general use. Sir H. Risley gives it as a title of the Kewats or fishermen and many other castes and tribes in Bengal. But +it is also the name for a village headman among the Santāls, and whether this meaning is derived from the prior signification +of steersman or is of independent origin is, uncertain. In Raigarh Mr. Hīra Lāl states that the Mānjhis or Mājhias are fishermen +and are sometimes classed, with the Kewats. They appear to be Kols who <a id="d0e5594"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e5594">150</a>]</span>have taken to fishing and, being looked down on by the other Kols on this account, took the name of Mājhia or Mānjhi, which +they now derive from Machh, a fish. “The appearance of the Mājhias whom I saw and examined was typically aboriginal and their +language was a curious mixture of Mundāri, Santāl and Korwa, though they stoutly repudiated connection with any of these tribes. +They could count only up to three in their own language, using the Santāl words <i>mit, baria, pia</i>. Most of their terms for parts of the body were derived from Mundāri, but they also used some Santāli and Korwa words. In +their own language they called themselves Hor, which means a man, and is the tribal name of the Mundas.” + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e5599"> +<h3>2. The Mīrzāpur Majhwārs derived from the Gonds</h3> +<p>On the other hand the Majhwārs of Mīrzāpur, of whom Mr. Crooke gives a detailed and interesting account, clearly appear to +be derived from the Gonds. They have five subdivisions, which they say are descended from the five sons of their first Gond +ancestor. These are Poiya, Tekām, Marai, Chika and Oiku. Four of these names are those of Gond clans, and each of the five +subtribes is further divided into a number of exogamous septs, of which a large proportion bear typical Gond names, as Markām, +Netām, Tekām, Mashām, Sindrām and so on. The Majhwārs of Mīrzāpur also, like the Gonds, employ Pathāris or Pardhāns as their +priests, and there can thus be no doubt that they are mainly derived from the Gonds. They would appear to have come to Mīrzāpur +from Sargūja and the Vindhyan and Satpūra hills, as they say that their ancestors ruled from the forts of Mandla, Garha in +Jubbulpore, Sārangarh, Raigarh and other places in the Central Provinces.<a id="d0e5604src" href="#d0e5604" class="noteref">4</a> They worship a deified Ahīr, whose legs were cut off in a fight with some Rāja, since when he has become a troublesome ghost. +“He now lives on the Ahlor hill in Sargūja, where his petrified body may still be seen, and the Mānjhis go there to worship +him. His wife lives on the Jhoba hill in Sargūja. Nobody but a Baiga dares to ascend the hill, and even the Rāja of Sargūja +when he visits the neighbourhood sacrifices a black goat. Mānjhis believe that if these two deities are duly propitiated they +can give anything they need.” The story makes it <a id="d0e5610"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e5610">151</a>]</span>probable that the ancestors of these Mānjhis dwelt in Sargūja. The Mānjhis of Mīrzāpur are not boatmen or fishermen and have +no traditions of having ever been so. They are a backward tribe and practise shifting cultivation on burnt-out patches of +forest. It is possible that they may have abandoned their former aquatic profession on leaving the neighbourhood of the rivers, +or they may have simply adopted the name, especially since it has the meaning of a village headman and is used as a title +by the Santāls and other castes and tribes. Similarly the term Munda, which at first meant the headman of a Kol village, is +now the common name for the Kol tribe in Chota Nāgpur. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e5612"> +<h3>3. Connection with the Kawars</h3> +<p>Again the Mānjhis appear to be connected with the Kawar tribe. Mr. Hīra Lāl states that in Raigarh they will take food with +Kewats, Gonds, Kawars and Rāwats or Ahīrs, but they will not eat rice and pulse, the most important and sacred food, with +any outsiders except Kawars; and this they explain by the statement that their ancestors and those of the Kawars were connected. +In Mirzāpur the Kaurai Ahirs will take food and water from the Majhwārs, and these Ahīrs are not improbably derived from the +Kawars.<a id="d0e5617src" href="#d0e5617" class="noteref">5</a> Here the Majhwārs also hold an oath taken when touching a broadsword as most binding, and the Kawars of the Central Provinces +worship a sword as one of their principal deities.<a id="d0e5623src" href="#d0e5623" class="noteref">6</a> Not improbably the Mānjhis may include some Kewats, as this caste also use Mānjhi for a title; and Mānjhi is both a subcaste +and title of the Khairwārs. The general conclusion from the above evidence appears to be that the caste is a very heterogeneous +group whose most important constituents come from the Gond, Munda, Santāl and Kawar tribes. Whether the original bond of connection +among the various people who call themselves Mānjhi was the common occupation of boating and fishing is a doubtful point. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e5628"> +<h3>4. Exogamy and totemism</h3> +<p>The Mānjhis of Sargūja, like those of Raigarh, appear to be of Munda and Santāl rather than of Gond origin. They have no subdivisions, +but a number of totemistic septs. Those of the Bhainsa or buffalo sept are split into the Lotan and Singhan subsepts, <i>lotan</i> meaning a place where buffaloes <a id="d0e5636"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e5636">152</a>]</span>wallow and <i>singh</i> a horn. The Lotan Bhainsa sept say that their ancestor was born in a place where a buffalo had wallowed, and the Singhan +Bhainsa that their ancestor was born while his mother was holding the horn of a buffalo. These septs consider the buffalo +sacred and will not yoke it to a plough or cart, though they will drink its milk. They think that if one of them killed a +buffalo their clan would become extinct. The Bāghani Majhwārs, named after the <i>bāgh</i> or tiger, think that a tiger will not attack any member of their sept unless he has committed an offence entailing temporary +excommunication from caste. Until this offence has been expiated his relationship with the tiger as head of his sept is in +abeyance and the tiger will eat him as he would any other stranger. If a tiger meets a member of the sept who is free from +sin, he will run away. When the Bāghani sept hear that any Majhwār has killed a tiger they purify their houses by washing +them with cowdung and water. Members of the Khoba or peg sept will not make a peg or drive one into the ground. Those of the +Dūmar<a id="d0e5644src" href="#d0e5644" class="noteref">7</a> or fig-tree sept say that their first ancestor was born under this tree. They consider the tree to be sacred and never eat +its fruit, and worship it once a year. Members of the sept named after the <i>shiroti</i> tree worship the tree every Sunday. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e5652"> +<h3>5. Marriage customs. </h3> +<p>Marriage within the sept is prohibited and for three generations between persons related through females. Marriage is adult, +but matches are arranged by the parents of the parties. At betrothal the elders of the caste must be regaled with <i>cheora</i> or parched rice and liquor. A bride-price of Rs. 10 is paid, but a suitor who cannot afford this may do service to his father-in-law +for one or two years in lieu of it. At the wedding the bridegroom puts a copper ring on the bride’s finger and marks her forehead +with vermilion. The couple walk seven times round the sacred post, and seven little heaps of rice and pieces of turmeric are +arranged so that they may touch one of them with their big toes at each round. The bride’s mother and seven other women place +some rice in the skirts of their cloths and the bridegroom throws this over his shoulder. After this he <a id="d0e5660"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e5660">153</a>]</span>picks up the rice and distributes it to all the women present, and the bride goes through the same ceremony. The rice is no +doubt an emblem of fertility, and its presentation to the women may perhaps be expected to render them fertile. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e5662"> +<h3>6. Birth and funeral rites</h3> +<p>On the birth of a child the navel-string is buried in front of the house. When a man is at the point of death they place a +little cooked rice and curds in his mouth so that he may not go hungry to the other world, in view of the fact that he has +probably eaten very little during his illness. Some cotton and rice are also placed near the head of the corpse in the grave +so that he may have food and clothing in the next world. Mourning is observed for five days, and at the end of this period +the mourners should have their hair cut, but if they cannot get it done on this day, the rite may be performed on the same +day in the following year. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e5667"> +<h3>7. Religious dance</h3> +<p>The tribe worship Dūlha Deo, the bridegroom god, and also make offerings to their ploughs at the time of eating the new rice +and at the Holi and Dasahra festivals. They dance the <i>karma</i> dance in the months of Asārh and Kunwār or at the beginning and end of the rains. When the time has come the Gaontia headman +or the Baiga priest fetches a branch of the <i>karma</i> tree from the forest and sets it up in his yard as a notice and invitation to the village. After sunset all the people, men, +women and children, assemble and dance round the tree, to the accompaniment of a drum known as Māndar. The dancing continues +all night, and in the morning the host plucks up the branch of the <i>karma</i> tree and consigns it to a stream, at the same time regaling the dancers with rice, pulse and a goat. This dance is a religious +rite in honour of Karam Rāja, and is believed to keep sickness from the village and bring it prosperity. The tribe eat flesh, +but abstain from beef and pork. Girls are tattooed on arrival at puberty with representations of the <i>tulsi</i> or basil, four arrow-heads in the form of a cross, and the foot-ornament known as <i>pairi</i>. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5577" href="#d0e5577src" class="noteref">1</a></span> This article is based on papers by Mr. Hīra Lāl and Suraj Baksh Singh, Assistant Superintendent, Udaipur State, with references +to Mr. Crooke’s exhaustive article on the Majhwārs in his <i>Tribes and Castes</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5586" href="#d0e5586src" class="noteref">2</a></span> Crooke, art Majhwār, para. 1. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5589" href="#d0e5589src" class="noteref">3</a></span> <i>Tribes and Castes of Bengal</i>, art. Mānjhi. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5604" href="#d0e5604src" class="noteref">4</a></span> Crooke, <i>Tribes and Castes of Bengal</i>, art. Mānjhi, para. 4. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5617" href="#d0e5617src" class="noteref">5</a></span> Crooke, <i>Tribes and Castes of Bengal,</i> art. Mānjhi, para. 63. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5623" href="#d0e5623src" class="noteref">6</a></span> <i>Ibidem,</i> para. 54. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5644" href="#d0e5644src" class="noteref">7</a></span> <i>Ficus glomerata</i>. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e5687" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Māl</h2> +<p><b>Māl, Māle, Māler, Māl Pahāria.</b><a id="d0e5693src" href="#d0e5693" class="noteref">1</a>—A tribe of the Rājmahal hills, who may be an isolated branch of the <a id="d0e5702"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e5702">154</a>]</span>Savars. In 1911 about 1700 Māls were returned from the Chota Nāgpur Feudatory States recently transferred to the Central Provinces. +The customs of the Māls resemble those of the other hill tribes of Chota Nāgpur. Sir H. Risley states that the average stature +is low, the complexion dark and the figure short and sturdy. The following particulars are reproduced from Colonel Dalton’s +account of the tribe: + +</p> +<p>“The hill lads and lasses are represented as forming very romantic attachments, exhibiting the spectacle of real lovers ‘sighing +like furnaces,’ and the cockney expression of ‘keeping company’ is peculiarly applicable to their courtship. If separated +only for an hour they are miserable, but there are apparently few obstacles to the enjoyment of each other’s society, as they +work together, go to market together, eat together, and sleep together! But if it be found that they have overstepped the +prescribed limits of billing and cooing, the elders declare them to be out of the pale, and the blood of animals must be shed +at their expense to wash away the indiscretion and obtain their readmission into society. + +</p> +<p>“On the day fixed for a marriage the bridegroom with his relations proceeds to the bride’s father’s house, where they are +seated on cots and mats, and after a repast the bride’s father takes his daughter’s hand and places it in that of the bridegroom, +and exhorts him to be loving and kind to the girl that he thus makes over to him. The groom then with the little finger of +his right hand marks the girl on the forehead with vermilion, and then, linking the same finger with the little finger of +her right hand, he leads her away to his own house. + +</p> +<p>“The god of hunting is called Autga, and at the close of every successful expedition a thank-offering is made to him. This +is the favourite pastime, and one of the chief occupations of the Mālers, and they have their game laws, which are strictly +enforced. If a man, losing an animal which he has killed or wounded, seeks for assistance to find it, those who aid are entitled +to one-half of the animal when found. Another person accidentally coming on dead or wounded game and appropriating it, is +subjected to a severe <a id="d0e5710"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e5710">155</a>]</span>fine. The Mānjhi or headman of the village is entitled to a share of all game killed by any of his people. Any one who kills +a hunting dog is fined twelve rupees. Certain parts of an animal are tabooed to females as food, and if they infringe this +law Autga is offended and game becomes scarce. When the hunters are unsuccessful it is often assumed that this is the cause, +and the augur never fails to point out the transgressing female, who must provide a propitiatory offering. The Mālers use +poisoned arrows, and when they kill game the flesh round the wound is cut off and thrown away as unfit for food. Cats are +under the protection of the game laws, and a person found guilty of killing one is made to give a small quantity of salt to +every child in the village. + +</p> +<p>“I nowhere find any description of the dances and songs of the Pahārias. Mr. Atkinson found the Mālers extremely reticent +on the subject, and with difficulty elicited that they had a dancing-place in every village, but it is only when under the +influence of God Bacchus that they indulge in the amusement. All accounts agree in ascribing to the Pahārias an immoderate +devotion to strong drink, and Buchanan tells us that when they are dancing a person goes round with a pitcher of the home-brew +and, without disarranging the performers, who are probably linked together by circling or entwining arms, pours into the mouth +of each, male and female, a refreshing and invigorating draught. The beverage is the universal <i>pachwai</i>, that is, fermented grain. The grain, either maize, rice or <i>janera</i> (<i>Holcus sorghum</i>), is boiled and spread out on a mat to cool. It is then mixed with a ferment of vegetables called <i>takar</i>, and kept in a large earthen vessel for some days; warm water may at any time be mixed with it, and in a few hours it ferments +and is ready for use.” + +</p> +<p>When the attention of English officers was first drawn to them in 1770 the Māles of the Rājmahal hills were a tribe of predatory +freebooters, raiding and terrorising the plain country from the foot of the hills to the Ganges. It was Mr. Augustus Cleveland, +Collector of Bhāgalpur, who reduced them to order by entering into engagements with the chiefs for the prevention and punishment +of offences among their own tribesmen, confirming them in their estates <a id="d0e5728"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e5728">156</a>]</span>and jurisdiction, and enrolling a corps of Māles, which became the Bhāgalpur Hill Rangers, and was not disbanded till the +Mutiny. Mr. Cleveland died at the age of 29, having successfully demonstrated the correct method of dealing with the wild +forest tribes, and the Governor-General in Council erected a tomb and inscription to his memory, which was the original of +that described by Mr. Kipling in <i>The Tomb of his Ancestors</i>, though the character of the first John Chinn in the story was copied from Outram.<a id="d0e5733src" href="#d0e5733" class="noteref">2</a> + +</p> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5693" href="#d0e5693src" class="noteref">1</a></span> Based entirely on Colonel Dalton’s account in the <i>Ethnology of Bengal</i>, and Sir H. Risley’s in the <i>Tribes and Castes of Bengal</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5733" href="#d0e5733src" class="noteref">2</a></span> See <i>The Khāndesh Bhīl Corps</i>, by Mr. A. H. A. Simcox, p. 62. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e5739" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Mala</h2> +<p><b>Mala.</b>—A low Telugu caste of labourers and cotton-weavers. They numbered nearly 14,000 persons in the Central Provinces in 1911, +belonging mainly to the Chānda, Nāgpur, Jubbulpore, and Yeotmāl Districts, and the Bastar State. The Marāthas commonly call +them Telugu Dhers, but they themselves prefer to be known as ‘Telangi Sadar Bhoi,’ which sounds a more respectable designation. +They are also known as Mannepuwār and Netkāni. They are the Pariahs of the Telugu country, and are regarded as impure and +degraded. They may be distinguished by their manner of tying the head-cloth more or less in a square shape, and by their loin-cloths, +which are worn very loose and not knotted. Those who worship Narsinghswāmi, the man-lion incarnation of Vishnu, are called +Namaddār, while the followers of Mahādeo are known as Lingadārs. The former paint their foreheads with vertical lines of sandal-paste, +and the latter with horizontal ones. The Mālas were formerly zealous partisans of the right-handed sect in Madras, and the +description of this curious system of faction given by the Abbé Dubois more than a century ago may be reproduced:<a id="d0e5746src" href="#d0e5746" class="noteref">1</a> + +</p> +<p>“Most castes belong either to the left-hand or right-hand faction. The former comprises the Vaishyas or trading classes, the +Panchālas or artisan classes and some of the low Sūdra castes. It also contains the lowest caste, viz. the Chaklas or leather-workers, +who are looked upon as its chief support. To the right-hand faction belong most of the higher castes of Sūdras. The Pariahs +(Mālas) are also its <a id="d0e5753"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e5753">157</a>]</span>great support, as a proof of which they glory in the title of <i>Valangai Maugattar</i> or Friends of the Right Hand. In the disputes and conflicts which so often take place between the two factions it is always +the Pariahs who make the most disturbance and do the most damage. The Brāhmans, Rājas and several classes of Sūdras are content +to remain neutral and take no part in these quarrels. The opposition between the two factions arises from certain exclusive +privileges to which both lay claim. But as these alleged privileges are nowhere clearly defined and recognised, they result +in confusion and uncertainty, and are with difficulty capable of settlement. When one faction trespasses on the so-called +right of the other, tumults arise which spread gradually over large tracts of territory, afford opportunity for excesses of +all kinds, and generally end in bloody conflicts. The Hindu, ordinarily so timid and gentle in all other circumstances of +life, seems to change his nature completely on occasions like these. There is no danger that he will not brave in maintaining +what he calls his rights, and rather than sacrifice a little of them he will expose himself without fear to the risk of losing +his life. The rights and privileges for which the Hindus are ready to fight such sanguinary battles appear highly ridiculous, +especially to a European. Perhaps the sole cause of the contest is the right to wear slippers or to ride through the streets +in a palanquin or on horseback during marriage festivals. Sometimes it is the privilege of being escorted on certain occasions +by armed retainers, sometimes that of having a trumpet sounded in front of a procession, or of being accompanied by native +musicians at public ceremonies.” The writer of the <i>Madras Census Report</i> of 1871 states:<a id="d0e5761src" href="#d0e5761" class="noteref">2</a> “It is curious that the females of two of the inferior castes should take different sides to their husbands in these disputes. +The wives of the agricultural labourers side with the left hand, while their husbands help in fighting the battles of the +right, and the shoemakers’ wives also take the side opposed to their husbands. During these festival disturbances, the ladies +who hold political views opposed to those of their husbands deny to the latter all the privileges <a id="d0e5764"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e5764">158</a>]</span>of the connubial state.” The same writer states that the right-hand castes claimed the prerogative of riding on horseback +in processions, of appearing with standards bearing certain devices, and of erecting twelve pillars to sustain their marriage +booths; while the left-hand castes might not have more than eleven pillars, nor use the same standards as the right. The quarrels +arising out of these small differences of opinion were so frequent and serious in the seventeenth century that in the town +of Madras it was found necessary to mark the respective boundaries of the right- and left-hand castes, and to forbid the right-hand +castes in their processions from occupying the streets of the left hand and vice versa. These disturbances have gradually +tended to disappear under the influence of education and good government, and no instance of them is known to have occurred +in the Central Provinces. The division appears to have originated among the members of the Sākta sect or the worshippers of +Sakti as the female principle of life in nature. Dr. L. D. Barnett writes:<a id="d0e5766src" href="#d0e5766" class="noteref">3</a>—“The followers of the sect are of two schools. The ‘Walkers in the Right Way’ (<i>Dakshināchāri</i>) pay a service of devotion to the deity in both male and female aspects, and except in their more pronounced tendency to +dwell upon the horrific aspects of the deity (as Kāli, Durga, etc.), they differ little from ordinary Saivas and Vaishnavas. +The ‘Walkers in the Left Way’ (<i>Vāmachāri</i>), on the other hand, concentrate their thought upon the godhead in its sexually maternal aspect, and follow rites of senseless +magic and—theoretically at least—promiscuous debauchery.” As has been seen, the religious differences subsequently gave rise +to political factions. +<a id="d0e5777"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e5777">159</a>]</span></p> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5746" href="#d0e5746src" class="noteref">1</a></span> <i>Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies</i>, ed. 1897, pp. 25, 26. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5761" href="#d0e5761src" class="noteref">2</a></span> Page 130. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5766" href="#d0e5766src" class="noteref">3</a></span> <i>Hinduism</i>, in ‘Religions Ancient and Modern’ Series, p. 26. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e5778" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Māli</h2> +<h3>List of Paragraphs</h3> +<ul> +<li><a href="#d0e5850">1. General notice of the caste, and its social position</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e5913">2. Caste legend</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e5943">3. Flowers offered to the gods</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e5989">4. Custom of wearing garlands</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e6011">5. Sub-castes</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e6038">6. Marriage</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e6068">7. Widow-marriage, divorce and polygamy</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e6079">8. Disposal of the dead</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e6084">9. Religion</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e6094">10. Occupation</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e6135">11. Traits and character</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e6146">12. Other functions of the Māli</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e6156">13. Physical appearance</a></li> +</ul> +<div class="div2" id="d0e5850"> +<h3>1. General notice of the caste, and its social position</h3> +<p><b>Māli, Marār, Marāl</b>.<a id="d0e5857src" href="#d0e5857" class="noteref">1</a>—The functional caste of vegetable and flower-gardeners. The terms Māli and Marār appear to be used indifferently for the +same caste, the former being more common in the west of the Province and the latter in the eastern Satpūra Districts and the +Chhattīsgarh plain. In the Nerbudda valley and on the Vindhyan plateau the place of both Māli and Marār is taken by the Kāchhi +of Upper India.<a id="d0e5863src" href="#d0e5863" class="noteref">2</a> Marār appears to be a Marāthi name, the original term, as pointed out by Mr. Hira Lāl, being Malāl, or one who grows garden-crops +in a field; but the caste is often called Māli in the Marātha country and Marār in the Hindi Districts. The word Māli is derived +from the Sanskrit <i>māla</i>, a garland. In 1911 the Mālis numbered nearly 360,000 persons in the present area of the Central Provinces, and 200,000 in +Berār. A German writer remarks of the caste<a id="d0e5871src" href="#d0e5871" class="noteref">3</a> that: “It cannot be considered to be a very ancient one. Generally speaking, it may be said that flowers have scarcely a +place in the Veda. Wreaths of flowers, of <a id="d0e5880"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e5880">160</a>]</span>course, are used as decorations, but the separate flowers and their beauty are not yet appreciated. That lesson was first +learned later by the Hindus when surrounded by another flora. Amongst the Homeric Greeks, too, in spite of their extensive +gardening and different flowers, not a trace of horticulture is yet to be found.” It seems probable that the first Mālis were +not included among the regular cultivators of the village but were a lower group permitted to take up the small waste plots +of land adjoining the inhabited area and fertilised by its drainage, and the sandy stretches in the beds of rivers, on which +they were able to raise the flowers required for offerings and such vegetables as were known. They still hold a lower rank +than the ordinary cultivator. Sir D. Ibbetson writes<a id="d0e5882src" href="#d0e5882" class="noteref">4</a> of the gardening castes: “The group now to be discussed very generally hold an inferior position among the agricultural community +and seldom if ever occupy the position of the dominant tribe in any considerable tract of country. The cultivation of vegetables +is looked upon as degrading by the agricultural classes, why I know not, unless it be that night-soil is generally used for +their fertilisation; and a Rājpūt would say: ‘What! Do you take me for an Arāin?’ if anything was proposed which he considered +derogatory.” But since most Mālis in the Central Provinces strenuously object to using night-soil as a manure the explanation +that this practice has caused them to rank below the agricultural castes does not seem sufficient. And if the use of night-soil +were the real circumstance which determined their social position, it seems certain that Brāhmans would not take water from +their hands as they do. Elsewhere Sir D. Ibbetson remarks:<a id="d0e5887src" href="#d0e5887" class="noteref">5</a> “The Mālis and Sainis, like all vegetable growers, occupy a very inferior position among the agricultural castes; but of +the two the Sainis are probably the higher, as they more often own land or even whole villages, and are less generally mere +market-gardeners than are the Mālis.” Here is given what may perhaps be the true reason for the status of the Māli caste as +a whole. Again Sir C. Elliot wrote in the <i>Hoshangābād Settlement Report</i>: “Garden crops are considered as a kind of fancy agriculture and the true cultivator, the Kisān, looks on them with <a id="d0e5895"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e5895">161</a>]</span>contempt as little peddling matters; what stirs his ambition is a fine large wheat-field eighty or a hundred acres in extent, +as flat as a billiard-table and as black as a Gond.” Similarly Mr. Low<a id="d0e5897src" href="#d0e5897" class="noteref">6</a> states that in Bālāghāt the Panwārs, the principal agricultural caste, look down on the Marārs as growers of petty crops +like <i>sama</i> and kutki. In Wardha the Dāngris, a small caste of melon and vegetable growers, are an offshoot of the Kunbis; and they will +take food from the Kunbis, though these will not accept it from them, their social status being thus distinctly lower than +that of the parent caste. Again the Kohlis of Bhandāra, who grow sugarcane with irrigation, are probably derived from an aboriginal +tribe, the Kols, and, though they possess a number of villages, rank lower than the regular cultivating castes. It is also +worth noting that they do not admit tenant-right in their villages among their own caste, and allot the sugarcane plots among +the cultivators at pleasure.<a id="d0e5905src" href="#d0e5905" class="noteref">7</a> In Nimār the Mālis rank below the Kunbis and Gūjars, the good agricultural castes, and it is said that they grow the crops +which the cultivators proper do not care to grow. The Kāchhis, the gardening caste of the northern Districts, have a very +low status, markedly inferior to that of the Lodhis and Kurmis and little if any better than the menial Dhīmars. Similarly, +as will be seen later, the Marārs themselves have customs pointing clearly to a non-Aryan origin. The Bhoyars of Betūl, who +grow sugarcane, are probably of mixed origin from Rājpūt fathers and mothers of the indigenous tribes; they eat fowls and +are much addicted to liquor and rank below the cultivating castes. The explanation seems to be that the gardening castes are +not considered as landholders, and have not therefore the position which attaches to the holding of land among all early agricultural +peoples, and which in India consisted in the status of a constituent member of the village community. So far as ceremonial +purity goes there is no difference between the Mālis and the cultivating castes, as Brāhmans will take water from both. It +may be surmised that this privilege has been given to the Mālis because they grow the flowers required for offerings to the +gods, and <a id="d0e5911"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e5911">162</a>]</span>sometimes officiate as village priests and temple servants; and their occupation, though not on a level with regular agriculture, +is still respectable. But the fact that Brāhmans will take water from them does not place the Mālis on an equality with the +cultivating castes, any more than it does the Nais (barbers) and Dhīmars (watermen), the condemned menial servants of the +cultivators, from whom Brāhmans will also take water from motives of convenience. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e5913"> +<h3>2. Caste legend</h3> +<p>The Mālis have a Brāhmanical legend of the usual type indicating that their hereditary calling was conferred and ratified +by divine authority.<a id="d0e5918src" href="#d0e5918" class="noteref">8</a> This is to the effect that the first Māli was a garland-maker attached to the household of Rāja Kānsa of Mathura. One day +he met with Krishna, and, on being asked by him for a chaplet of flowers, at once gave it. On being told to fasten it with +string, he, for want of any other, took off his sacred thread and tied it, on which Krishna most ungenerously rebuked him +for his simplicity in parting with his <i>paīta</i>, and announced that for the future his caste would be ranked among the Sūdras. + +</p> +<p>The above story, combined with the derivation of Māli from <i>māla</i>, a garland, makes it a plausible hypothesis that the calling of the first Mālis was to grow flowers for the adornment of +the gods, and especially for making the garlands with which their images were and still are decorated. Thus the Mālis were +intimately connected with the gods and naturally became priests of the village temples, in which capacity they are often employed. +Mr. Nesfield remarks of the Māli:<a id="d0e5931src" href="#d0e5931" class="noteref">9</a> “To Hindus of all ranks, including even the Brāhmans, he acts as a priest of Mahādeo in places where no Gosain is to be found, +and lays the flower offerings on the <i>lingam</i> by which the deity is symbolised. As the Māli is believed to have some influence with the god to whose temple he is attached, +none objects to his appropriating the fee which is nominally presented to the god himself. In the worship of those village +godlings whom the Brāhmans disdain to recognise and whom the Gosain is not permitted to honour the Māli is sometimes employed +to present the offering. He <a id="d0e5939"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e5939">163</a>]</span>is thus the recognised hereditary priest of the lower and more ignorant classes of the population.” In the Central Provinces +Mālis are commonly employed in the temples of Devi because goats are offered to the goddess and hence the worship cannot be +conducted by Brāhmans. They also work as servants in Jain temples under the priest. They sweep the temple, clean the utensils, +and do other menial business. This service, however, does not affect their religion and they continue to be Hindus. + +</p> +<p>His services in providing flowers for the gods would be remunerated by contributions of grain from the cultivators, the acceptance +of which would place the Māli below them in the rank of a village menial, though higher than most of the class owing to the +purity of his occupation. His status was probably much the same as that of the Guraos or village priests of Mahādeo in the +Marātha country. And though he has now become a cultivator, his position has not improved to the level of other cultivating +castes for the reasons already given. It was probably the necessity of regularly watering his plants in order to obtain a +longer and more constant supply of blooms which first taught the Māli the uses of irrigation. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e5943"> +<h3>3. Flowers offered to the gods</h3> +<p>Flowers are <i>par excellence</i> suited for the offerings and adornment of the gods, and many Hindus have rose or other plants in their houses whose flowers +are destined to the household god. There is little reason to doubt that this was the purpose for which cultivated flowers +were first grown. The marigold, lotus and champak are favourite religious flowers, while the <i>tulsi</i> or basil is itself worshipped as the consort of Vishnu; in this case, however, the scent is perhaps the more valued feature. +In many Hindu households all flowers brought into the house are offered to the household god before being put to any other +use. A Brāhman school-boy to whom I had given some flowers to copy in drawing said that his mother had offered them to the +god Krishna before he used them. When faded or done with they should be consigned to the sacred element, water, in any stream +or river. The statues of the gods are adorned with sculptured garlands or hold them in their hands. A similar state of things +prevailed in classical antiquity: +<a id="d0e5954"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e5954">164</a>]</span></p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Who are these coming to the sacrifice? +</span></p> +<p class="line" style="text-indent: 1em; "><span>To what green altar, O mysterious priest, +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Lead’st thou that heifer lowing at the skies, +</span></p> +<p class="line" style="text-indent: 1em; "><span>And all her silken flanks with garlands drest?</span></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>And, + +</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Fairer than these, though temple thou hast none, +</span></p> +<p class="line" style="text-indent: 1em; "><span>Nor altar decked with flowers, +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Nor virgin choir to make delicious moan +</span></p> +<p class="line" style="text-indent: 1em; "><span>Upon the midnight hours.</span></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>M. Fustel de Coulanges describes the custom of wearing crowns or garlands of flowers in ancient Rome and Greece as follows: +“It is clear that the communal feasts were religious ceremonies. Each guest had a crown on the head; it was an ancient custom +to crown oneself with leaves or flowers for any solemn religious act.” “The more a man is adorned with flowers,” they said, +“the more pleasing he is to the gods; but they turn away from him who wears no crown at his sacrifice.” And again, ‘A crown +is the auspicious herald which announces a prayer to the gods.’<a id="d0e5977src" href="#d0e5977" class="noteref">10</a> + +</p> +<p>Among the Persians the flowers themselves are worshipped:<a id="d0e5984src" href="#d0e5984" class="noteref">11</a> “When a pure Iranian sauntered through (the Victoria Gardens in Bombay) ... he would stand awhile and meditate over every +flower in his path, and always as in a vision; and when at last the vision was fulfilled, and the ideal flower found, he would +spread his mat or carpet before it, and sit before it to the going down of the sun, when he would arise and pray before it, +and then refold his mat or carpet and go home; and the next night, and night after night, until that bright particular flower +faded away, he would return to it, bringing his friends with him in ever-increasing numbers, and sit and sing and play the +guitar or lute before it—and anon they all would arise together and pray before it; and after prayers, still sit on, sipping +sherbet and talking the most hilarious and shocking scandal, late into the moonlight.” + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e5989"> +<h3>4. Custom of wearing garlands</h3> +<p>From the custom of placing garlands on the gods as a mark of honour has no doubt arisen that of garlanding guests. This is +not confined to India but obtained in <a id="d0e5994"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e5994">165</a>]</span>Rome and probably in other countries. The word ‘chaplet’<a id="d0e5996src" href="#d0e5996" class="noteref">12</a> originally meant a garland or wreath to be worn on the head; and a garland of leaves with four flowers at equal distances. +Dryden says, ‘With chaplets green upon their foreheads placed.’ The word <i>māla</i> originally meant a garland, and subsequently a rosary or string of beads. From this it seems a legitimate deduction that +rosaries or strings of beads of a sacred wood were substituted for flower-garlands as ornaments for the gods in view of their +more permanent nature. Having been thus sanctified they may have come to be worn as a mark of holiness by saints or priests +in imitation of the divine images, this being a common or universal fashion of Hindu ascetics. Subsequently they were found +to serve as a useful means of counting the continuous repetition of prayers, whence arose the phrase ‘telling one’s beads.’ +Like the Sanskrit <i>māla</i>, the English word rosary at first meant a garland of roses and subsequently a string of beads, probably made from rose-wood, +on which prayers were counted. From this it may perhaps be concluded that the images of the deities were decorated with garlands +of roses in Europe, and the development of the rosary was the same as the Indian <i>māla</i>. If the rose was a sacred flower we can more easily understand its importance as a badge in the Wars of the Roses. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e6011"> +<h3>5. Sub-castes</h3> +<p>The caste has numerous endogamous groups, varying in different localities. The Phūlmālis, who derive their name from their +occupation of growing and selling flowers (<i>phūl</i>), usually rank as the highest. The Ghāse Mālis are the only subcaste which will grow and prepare turmeric in Wardha; but +they will not sell milk or curds, an occupation to which the Phūlmālis, though the highest subcaste, have no objection. In +Chānda the Kosaria Mālis, who take their name from Kosala, the classical designation of the Chhattīsgarh country, are the +sole growers of turmeric, while in Berār the Halde subcaste, named after the plant, occupy the same position. The Kosaria +or Kosre subcaste abstain from liquor, and their women wear glass bangles only on one hand and silver ones on the other. The +objection entertained to the cultivation of turmeric by Hindus generally is said to be based on the fact that when the roots +are boiled numbers of small insects are necessarily <a id="d0e6019"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e6019">166</a>]</span>destroyed; but the other Mālis relate that one of the ancestors of the caste had a calf called Hardulia, and one day he said +to his daughter, <i>Haldi pakā</i>, or ‘Cook turmeric.’ But the daughter thought that he said ‘cook Hardulia,’ so she killed and roasted the calf, and in consequence +of this her father was expelled from the caste, and his descendants are the Ghāse or Halde subcaste. Ever since this happened +the shape of a calf may be seen in the flower of turmeric. This legend has, however, no real value and the meaning of the +superstition attaching to the plant is obscure. Though the growing of turmeric is tabooed yet it is a sacred plant, and no +Hindu girl, at least in the Central Provinces, can be married without having turmeric powder rubbed on her body. Mr. Gordon +remarks in <i>Indian Folk-Tales</i>: “I was once speaking to a Hindu gardener of the possibility of turmeric and garlic being stolen from his garden. ‘These +two vegetables are never stolen,’ he replied, ‘for we Hindus believe that he who steals turmeric and garlic will appear with +six fingers in the next birth, and this deformity is always considered the birth-mark of a thief.’” The Jīre Mālis are so +named because they were formerly the only subcaste who would grow cumin (<i>jira</i>), but this distinction no longer exists as other Mālis, except perhaps the Phūlmālis, now grow it. Other subcastes have territorial +names, as Baone from Berār, Jaipuria, Kanaujia, and so on. The caste have also exogamous septs or <i>bargas</i>, with designations taken from villages, titles or nicknames or inanimate objects. + + +</p> +<p></p> +<div id="d0e6034" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p112.jpg" alt="Bride and bridegroom with marriage crowns" width="720" height="434"><p class="figureHead">Bride and bridegroom with marriage crowns</p> +</div><p> + + + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e6038"> +<h3>6. Marriage</h3> +<p>Marriage is forbidden between members of the same sept and between first and second cousins. Girls are generally betrothed +in childhood and should be married before maturity. In the Uriya country if no suitable husband can be found for a girl she +is sometimes made to go through the marriage ceremony with a peg of mahua wood driven into the ground and covered over with +a cloth. She is then tied to a tree in the forest and any member of the caste may go and release her, when she becomes his +wife. The Marārs of Bālāghāt and Bhandāra have the <i>lamjhana</i> form of marriage, in which the prospective husband serves for his wife; this is a Dravidian custom and shows their connection +with the forest tribes. The marriage ceremony follows the standard form prevalent in <a id="d0e6046"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e6046">167</a>]</span>the locality. In Betūl the couple go seven times round a slab on which a stone roller is placed, with their clothes knotted +together and holding in their hands a lighted lamp. The slab and roller may be the implements used in powdering turmeric. +“Among the Marārs of Bālāghāt<a id="d0e6048src" href="#d0e6048" class="noteref">13</a> the maternal uncle of the bridegroom goes to the village of the bride and brings back with him the bridal party. The bride’s +party do not at once cross the boundary of the bridegroom’s village, but will stay outside it for a few hours. Word is sent +and the bridegroom’s party will bring out cooked food, which they eat with the bride’s party. This done, they go to the house +of the bridegroom and the bride forthwith walks five times round a pounding-stone. Next day turmeric is applied to the couple, +and the caste people are given a feast. The essential portion of the ceremony consists in the rubbing of vermilion on the +foreheads of the couple under the cover of a cloth. The caste permit the practice of <i>ralla-palla</i> or exchanging sisters in marriage. They are said to have a custom at weddings known as <i>kondia</i>, according to which a young man of the bridegroom’s party, called the <i>Sānd</i> or bull, is shut up in a house at night with all the women of the bride’s party; he is at liberty to seize and have intercourse +with any of them he can catch, while they are allowed to beat him as much as they like. It is said that he seldom has much +cause to congratulate himself.” But the caste have now become ashamed of this custom and it is being abandoned. In Chhattīsgarh +the Marārs, like other castes, have the forms of marriage known as the <i>Badi Shādi</i> and <i>Chhoti Shādi</i> or great and small weddings. The former is an elaborate form of marriage, taking place at the house of the bride. Those who +cannot afford the expense of this have a ‘Small Wedding’ at the house of the bridegroom, at which the rites are curtailed +and the expenditure considerably reduced. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e6068"> +<h3>7. Widow-marriage, divorce and polygamy</h3> +<p>Widow-marriage is permitted. The widower, accompanied by his relatives and a horn-blower, goes to the house of the widow, +and here a space is plastered with cowdung and the couple sit on two wooden boards while their clothes are knotted together. +In Bālāghāt<a id="d0e6073src" href="#d0e6073" class="noteref">14</a> the bridegroom and bride <a id="d0e6077"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e6077">168</a>]</span>bathe in a tank and on emerging the widow throws away her old cloth and puts on a new one. After this they walk five times +round a spear planted in the ground. Divorce is permitted and can be effected by mutual consent of the parties. Like other +castes practising intensive cultivation the Mālis marry several wives when they can afford it, in order to obtain the benefit +of their labour in the vegetable garden; a wife being more industrious and honest than a hired labourer. But this practice +results in large families and household dissensions, leading to excessive subdivision of property, and wealthy members of +the caste are rare. The standard of sexual morality is low, and if an unmarried girl goes wrong her family conceal the fact +and sometimes try to procure an abortion. If these efforts are unsuccessful a feast must be given to the caste and a lock +of the woman’s hair is cut off by way of punishment. A young hard-working wife is never divorced, however bad her character +may be, but an old woman is sometimes abandoned for very little cause. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e6079"> +<h3>8. Disposal of the dead</h3> +<p>The dead may be either buried or burnt; in the former case the corpse is laid with the feet to the north. Mourning is observed +only for three days and propitiatory offerings are made to the spirits of the dead. If a man is killed by a tiger his family +make a wooden image of a tiger and worship it. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e6084"> +<h3>9. Religion</h3> +<p>Devi is the principal deity of the Mālis. Weddings are celebrated before her temple and large numbers of goats are sacrificed +to the favourite goddess at her festival in the month of Māgh (January). Many of the Marārs of Bālāghāt are Kabīrpanthis and +wear the necklace of that sect; but they appear none the less to intermarry freely with their Hindu caste-fellows.<a id="d0e6089src" href="#d0e6089" class="noteref">15</a> After the birth of a child it is stated that all the members of the sept to which the parents belong remain impure for five +days, and no one will take food or water from them. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e6094"> +<h3>10. Occupation</h3> +<p>The Māli combines the callings of a gardener and nurseryman. “In laying out a flower-garden and in arranging beds,” Mr. Shearing +remarks,<a id="d0e6099src" href="#d0e6099" class="noteref">16</a> “the Māli is exceedingly <a id="d0e6104"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e6104">169</a>]</span>expert. His powers in this respect are hardly surpassed by gardeners in England. He lacks of course the excellent botanical +knowledge of many English gardeners, and also the peculiar skill displayed by them in grafting and crossing, and in watching +the habits of plants. Yet in manipulative labour, especially when superintended by a European, he is, though much slower in +execution, almost if not quite equal to gardeners at home.” They are excellent and very laborious cultivators, and show much +skill in intensive cultivation and the use of water. Mālis are the best sugarcane growers of Betūl and their holdings usually +pay a higher rental than those of other castes. “In Bālāghāt,” Mr. Low remarks,<a id="d0e6106src" href="#d0e6106" class="noteref">17</a> “they are great growers of tobacco and sugarcane, favouring the alluvial land on the banks of rivers. They mostly irrigate +by a <i>dhekli</i> or dipping lift, from temporary wells or from water-holes in rivers. The pole of the lift has a weight at one end and a kerosene +tin suspended from the other. Another form of lift is a hollowed tree trunk worked on a fulcrum, but this only raises the +water a foot or two. The Marārs do general cultivation as well; but as a class are not considered skilled agriculturists. +The proverb about their cultivating status is: + +</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Marār, Māli jote tāli +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Tāli margayi, dhare kudāli</span></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>or, ‘The Marār yokes cows; if the cow dies he takes to the pickaxe’; implying that he is not usually rich enough to keep bullocks.” +The saying has also a derogatory sense, as no good Hindu would yoke a cow to the plough. Another form of lift used by the +Kāchhis is the Persian wheel. In this two wheels are fixed above the well or tank and long looped ropes pass over them and +down into the well, between which a line of earthen pots is secured. As the ropes move on the wheels the pots descend into +the well, are filled with water, brought up, and just after they reach the apex of the wheel and turn to descend again, the +water pours out to a hollow open tree-trunk, from which a channel conveys it to the field. The wheel which turns the rope +is worked by a man pedalling, but he cannot do more than about three hours <a id="d0e6120"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e6120">170</a>]</span>a day. The common lift for gardens is the <i>mot</i> or bag made of the hide of a bullock or buffalo. This is usually worked by a pair of bullocks moving forwards down a slope +to raise the <i>mot</i> from the well and backwards up the slope to let it down when empty. + + +</p> +<p></p> +<div id="d0e6129" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p113.jpg" alt="Bullocks drawing water with mot" width="720" height="402"><p class="figureHead">Bullocks drawing water with <i>mot</i></p> +</div><p> + + + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e6135"> +<h3>11. Traits and character</h3> +<p>“It is necessary,” the account continues, “for the Marār’s business for one member at least of his family to go to market +with his vegetables; and the Marārin is a noteworthy feature in all bazārs, sitting with her basket or garment spread on the +ground, full of white onions and garlic, purple brinjals and scarlet chillies, with a few handfuls of strongly flavoured green +stuff. Whether from the publicity which it entails on their women or from whatever cause, the Marārin does not bear the best +of reputations for chastity; and is usually considered rather a bold, coarse creature. The distinctive feature of her attire +is the way in which she ties up her body-cloth so as to leave a tail sticking up behind; whence the proverb shouted after +her by rude little boys: ‘Jump from roof to roof, Monkey. Pull the tail of the Marārin, Monkey,’ She also rejoices in a very +large <i>tikli</i> or spangle on her forehead and in a peculiar kind of <i>angia</i> (waistcoat). The caste are usually considered rather clannish and morose. They live in communities by themselves, and nearly +always inhabit a separate hamlet of the village. The Marārs of a certain place are said to have boycotted a village carpenter +who lost an axe belonging to one of their number, so that he had to leave the neighbourhood for lack of custom.” + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e6146"> +<h3>12. Other functions of the Māli</h3> +<p>Many Mālis live in the towns and keep vegetable- or flower-gardens just outside. They sell flowers, and the Māli girls are +very good flower-sellers, Major Sutherland says, being famous for their coquetry. A saying about them is: “The crow among +birds, the jackal among beasts, the barber among men and the Mālin among women; all these are much too clever.” The Māli also +prepares the <i>maur</i> or marriage-crown, made from the leaves of the date-palm, both for the bride and bridegroom at marriages. In return he gets +a present of a rupee, a piece of cloth and a day’s food. He also makes the garlands which are used for presentation at entertainments, +and supplies the daily bunches of flowers which are required as offerings for <a id="d0e6154"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e6154">171</a>]</span>Mahādeo. The Māli keeps garlands for sale in the bazār, and when a well-to-do person passes he goes up and puts a garland +round his neck and expects a present of a pice or two. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e6156"> +<h3>13. Physical appearance</h3> +<p>“Physically,” Mr. Low states, “the Marār is rather a poor-looking creature, dark and undersized; but the women are often not +bad looking, and dressed up in their best at a wedding, rattling their castanets and waving light-coloured silk handkerchiefs, +give a very graceful dance. The caste are not as a rule celebrated for their cleanliness. A polite way of addressing a Marār +is to call him Patel.” + +</p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5857" href="#d0e5857src" class="noteref">1</a></span> This article is based principally on Mr. Low’s description of the Marārs in the <i>Bālāghāt District Gazetteer</i> and on a paper by Major Sutherland, I.M.S. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5863" href="#d0e5863src" class="noteref">2</a></span> <i>C.P. Census Report</i> (1891), para. 180. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5871" href="#d0e5871src" class="noteref">3</a></span> Schröder, <i>Prehistoric Antiquities</i>, 121, quoted in Crooke’s <i>Tribes and Castes</i>, art. Māli. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5882" href="#d0e5882src" class="noteref">4</a></span> <i>Punjab Census Report</i> (1881), para. 483. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5887" href="#d0e5887src" class="noteref">5</a></span> <i>Ibidem</i>, para. 484. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5897" href="#d0e5897src" class="noteref">6</a></span> <i>Bālāghāt District Gazetteer</i>, para. 59. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5905" href="#d0e5905src" class="noteref">7</a></span> Mr. Napier’s <i>Bhandara Settlement Report</i>, quoted in article on Kohli. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5918" href="#d0e5918src" class="noteref">8</a></span> <i>Tribes and Castes of Bengal</i>, art. Māli. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5931" href="#d0e5931src" class="noteref">9</a></span> <i>Brief View of the Caste System</i>, p. 15. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5977" href="#d0e5977src" class="noteref">10</a></span> <i>La Cité antique</i>, 21st ed., p. 181. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5984" href="#d0e5984src" class="noteref">11</a></span> <i>The Antiquity of Oriental Carpets</i>, Sir G. Birdwood (Society of Arts, 6th November 1908). +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e5996" href="#d0e5996src" class="noteref">12</a></span> The derivations of chaplet and rosary are taken from Ogilvy’s <i>Dictionary</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e6048" href="#d0e6048src" class="noteref">13</a></span> <i>Bālāghāt District Gazetteer</i> (C.E. Low), para. 59. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e6073" href="#d0e6073src" class="noteref">14</a></span> <i>Ibidem, loc. cit.</i></p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e6089" href="#d0e6089src" class="noteref">15</a></span> <i>Bālāghāt District Gazetteer</i>, para. 59. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e6099" href="#d0e6099src" class="noteref">16</a></span> <i>Hindu Castes</i>, vol. i. p. 327. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e6106" href="#d0e6106src" class="noteref">17</a></span> <i>Bālāghāt District Gazetteer, loc. cit.</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e6161" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Mallāh</h2> +<p><b>Mallāh, Malha</b>.<a id="d0e6168src" href="#d0e6168" class="noteref">1</a>—A small caste of boatmen and fishermen in the Jubbulpore and Narsinghpur Districts, which numbered about 5000 persons in +1911. It is scarcely correct to designate the Mallāhs as a distinct caste, as in both these Districts it appears from inquiry +that the term is synonymous with Kewat. Apparently, however, the Mallāhs do form a separate endogamous group, and owing to +many of them having adopted the profession of growing hemp, a crop which respectable Hindu castes usually refuse to cultivate, +it is probable that they would not be allowed to intermarry with the Kewats of other Districts. In the United Provinces Mr. +Crooke states that the Mallāhs, though, as their Arabic name indicates, of recent origin, have matured into a definite social +group, including a number of endogamous tribes. The term Mallāh has nothing to do with the Mulla or Muhammadan priest among +the frontier tribes, but comes from an Arabic word meaning ‘to be salt,’ or, according to another derivation, ‘to move the +wings as a bird.’<a id="d0e6171src" href="#d0e6171" class="noteref">2</a> The Mallāhs of the Central Provinces are also, in spite of their Arabic name, a purely Hindu caste. In Narsinghpur they say +that their original ancestor was one Bali or Balirām, who was a boatman and was so strong that he could carry his boat to +the river and back under his armpit. On one occasion he ferried Rāma across the Ganges in Benāres, and it is said <a id="d0e6177"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e6177">172</a>]</span>that Rāma gave him a horse to show his gratitude; but Balirām was so ignorant that he placed the bridle on the horse’s tail +instead of the head. And from this act of Balirām’s arose the custom of having the rudder of a boat at the stern instead of +at the bow. The Mallāhs in the Central Provinces appear from their family names to be immigrants from Bundelkhand. Their customs +resemble those of lower-class Hindus. Girls are usually married under the age of twelve years, and the remarriage of widows +is permitted, while divorce may be effected in the presence of the <i>panchāyat</i> or caste committee by the husband and wife breaking a straw between them. They are scantily clothed and are generally poor. +A proverb about them says: + +</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Jahān bethen Malao +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Tahan lage alao,</span></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>or, ‘Where Mallāhs sit, there is always a fire.’ This refers to their custom of kindling fires on the river-bank to protect +themselves from cold. In Narsinghpur the Mallāhs have found a profitable opening in the cultivation of hemp, a crop which +other Hindu castes until recently tabooed on account probably of the dirty nature of the process of cleaning out the fibre +and the pollution necessarily caused to the water-supply. They sow and cut hemp on Sundays and Wednesdays, which are regarded +as auspicious days. They also grow melons, and will not enter a melon-field with their shoes on or allow a woman during her +periodical impurity to approach it. The Mallāhs are poor and illiterate, but rank with Dhīmars and Kewats, and Brāhmans will +take water from their hands. + +</p> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e6168" href="#d0e6168src" class="noteref">1</a></span> This article is based on papers by Mr. Shyāmācharan, B.A., B.L., Pleader, Narsinghpur, and Pyāre Lāl Misra, Ethnographic clerk. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e6171" href="#d0e6171src" class="noteref">2</a></span> Crooke’s <i>Tribes and Castes of the N. W. P. and Oudh</i>, art. Mallāh. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e6189" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Māna</h2> +<p><b>Māna</b>.<a id="d0e6196src" href="#d0e6196" class="noteref">1</a>—A Dravidian caste of cultivators and labourers belonging to the Chānda District, from which they have spread to Nāgpur, Bhandāra +and Bālāghāt. In 1911 they numbered nearly 50,000 persons, of whom 34,000 belonged to Chānda. The origin of the caste is obscure. +In the <i>Chānda Settlement Report</i> of 1869 Major Lucie Smith wrote of them: “Tradition asserts that prior to the Gond <a id="d0e6202"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e6202">173</a>]</span>conquest the Mānas reigned over the country, having their strongholds at Surajgarh in Ahiri and at Mānikgarh in the Mānikgarh +hills, now of Hyderābād, and that after a troubled rule of two hundred years they fell before the Gonds. In appearance they +are of the Gond type, and are strongly and stoutly made; while in character they are hardy, industrious and truthful. Many +warlike traditions still linger among them, and doubtless in days gone by they did their duty as good soldiers, but they have +long since hung up sword and shield and now rank among the best cultivators of rice in Chānda.” Another local tradition states +that a line of Māna princes ruled at Wairāgarh. The names of three princes are remembered: Kurumpruhoda, the founder of the +line; Surjāt Badwāik, who fortified Surjāgarh; and Gahilu, who built Mānikgarh. As regards the name Mānikgarh, it may be mentioned +that the tutelary deity of the Nāgvansi kings of Bastar, who ruled there before the accession of the present Rāj-Gond dynasty +in the fourteenth century, was Mānikya Devi, and it is possible that the chiefs of Wairāgarh were connected with the Bastar +kings. Some of the Mānas say that they, as well as the Gowāris, are offshoots of the Gond tribe; and a local saying to the +effect that ‘The Gond, the Gowāri and the Māna eat boiled juāri or beans on leaf-plates’ shows that they are associated together +in the popular mind. Hislop states that the Ojhas, or soothsayers and minstrels of the Gonds, have a subdivision of Māna Ojhas, +who lay claim to special sanctity, refusing to take food from any other caste.<a id="d0e6204src" href="#d0e6204" class="noteref">2</a> The Gonds have a subdivision called Mannewār, and as <i>wār</i> is only a Telugu suffix for the plural, the proper name Manne closely resembles Māna. It is shown in the article on the Parja +tribe that the Parjas were a class of Gonds or a tribe akin to them, who were dominant in Bastar prior to the later immigration +under the ancestors of the present Bastar dynasty. And the most plausible hypothesis as to the past history of the Mānas is +that they were also the rulers of some tracts of Chānda, and were displaced like the Parjas by a Gond invasion from the south. + +</p> +<p>In Bhandāra, where the Mānas hold land, it is related <a id="d0e6214"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e6214">174</a>]</span>that in former times a gigantic kite lived on the hill of Ghurkundi, near Sākoli, and devoured the crops of the surrounding +country by whole fields at a time. The king of Chānda proclaimed that whoever killed the kite would be granted the adjoining +lands. A Māna shot the kite with an arrow and its remains were taken to Chānda in eight carts, and as his reward he received +the grant of a zamīndāri. In appearance the Mānas, or at least some of them, are rather fine men, nor do their complexion +and features show more noticeable traces of aboriginal descent than those of the local Hindus. But their neighbours in Chānda +and Bastar, the Māria Gonds, are also taller and of a better physical type than the average Dravidian, so that their physical +appearance need not militate against the above hypothesis. They retained their taste for fighting until within quite recent +times, and in Kātol and other towns below the Satpūra hills, Mānas were regularly enlisted as a town guard for repelling the +Pindāri raids. Their descendants still retain the ancestral matchlocks, and several of them make good use of these as professional +<i>shikāris</i> or hunters. Many of them are employed as servants by landowners and moneylenders for the collection of debts or the protection +of crops, and others are proprietors, cultivators and labourers, while a few even lend money on their own account. Mānas hold +three zamīndāri estates in Bhandāra and a few villages in Chānda; here they are considered to be good cultivators, but have +the reputation as a caste of being very miserly, and though possessed of plenty, living only on the poorest and coarsest food.<a id="d0e6219src" href="#d0e6219" class="noteref">3</a> The Māna women are proverbial for the assistance which they render to their husbands in the work of cultivation. + +</p> +<p>Owing to their general adoption of Marātha customs, the Mānas are now commonly regarded as a caste and not a forest tribe, +and this view may be accepted. They have two subcastes, the Badwāik Mānas, or soldiers, and the Khād Mānas, who live in the +plains and are considered to be of impure descent. Badwāik or ‘The Great Ones’ is a titular term applied to a person carrying +arms, and assumed by certain Rājpūts and also by some of the lower castes. <a id="d0e6227"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e6227">175</a>]</span>A third group of Mānas are now amalgamated with the Kunbis as a regular subdivision of that caste, though they are regarded +as somewhat lower than the others. They have also a number of exogamous septs of the usual titular and totemistic types, the +few recognisable names being Marāthi. It is worth noticing that several pairs of these septs, as Jamāre and Gazbe, Narnari +and Chudri, Wāgh and Rāwat, and others are prohibited from intermarriage. And this may be a relic of some wider scheme of +division of the type common among the Australian aborigines. The social customs of the Mānas are the same as those of the +other lower Marātha castes, as described in the articles on Kunbi, Kohli and Mahār. A bride-price of Rs. 12–8 is usually paid, +and if the bridegroom’s father has the money, he takes it with him on going to arrange for the match. Only one married woman +of the bridegroom’s family accompanies him to the wedding, and she throws rice over him five times. Four days in the year +are appointed for the celebration of weddings, the festivals of Shivrātri and of Akhātij, and a day each in the months of +Māgh (January) and Phāgun (February). This rule, however, is not universal. Brāhmans do not usually officiate at their ceremonies, +but they employ a Brāhman to prepare the rice which is thrown over the couples. Marriage within the sept is forbidden, as +well as the union of the children of two sisters. But the practice of marrying a brother’s daughter to a sister’s son is a +very favourite one, being known as Māhunchār, and in this respect the Mānas resemble the Gonds. When a widow is to be remarried, +she stops on the way by the bank of a stream as she is proceeding to her new husband’s house, and here her clothes are taken +off and buried by an exorcist with a view to laying the first husband’s spirit and preventing it from troubling the new household. +If a woman goes wrong with a man of another caste she is not finally cast out, but if she has a child she must first dispose +of it to somebody else after it is weaned. She may then be re-admitted into caste by having her hair shaved off and giving +three feasts; the first is prepared by the caste and eaten outside her house, the second is prepared by her relatives and +eaten within her house, and at the third the caste <a id="d0e6229"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e6229">176</a>]</span>reinstate her by partaking of food cooked by herself. The dead are either buried or burnt; in the former case a feast is given +immediately after the burial and no further mourning is observed; in the latter the period of mourning is three days. As among +the Gonds, the dead are laid with feet to the north. A woman is impure for seven days after child-birth. + +</p> +<p>The Mānas have Bhāts or genealogists of their own caste, a separate one being appointed for each sept. The Bhāt of any sept +can only accept gifts from members of that sept, though he may take food from any one of the caste. The Bhāts are in the position +of beggars, and the other Mānas will not take food from them. Every man must have a Bhāt for his family under penalty of being +temporarily put out of caste. It is said that the Bhāts formerly had books showing the pedigrees of the different families, +but that once in a spirit of arrogance they placed their shoes upon the books; and the other Mānas, not brooking this insolence, +burnt the books. The gravity of such an act may be realised when it is stated that if anybody even threatens to hit a Māna +with a shoe, the indignity put upon him is so great that he is temporarily excluded from caste and penalised for readmission. +Since this incident the Bhāts have to address the Mānas as ‘Brahma,’ to show their respect, the Māna replying ‘Rām, Rām.’ +Their women wear short loin-cloths, exposing part of the thigh, like the Gonds. They eat pork and drink liquor, but will take +cooked food only from Brāhmans. + +</p> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e6196" href="#d0e6196src" class="noteref">1</a></span> This article is based on papers by Mr. Hīra Lāl and G. Padaya Naidu of the Gazetteer Office. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e6204" href="#d0e6204src" class="noteref">2</a></span> <i>Papers on the Aboriginal Tribes of the Central Provinces</i>, p. 6. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e6219" href="#d0e6219src" class="noteref">3</a></span> Rev. A. Wood in <i>Chānda District Gazetteer</i>, para. 96. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e6233" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Mānbhao</h2> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>1. History and nature of the sect</h3> +<p><b>Mānbhao</b>.<a id="d0e6243src" href="#d0e6243" class="noteref">1</a>—A religious sect or order, which has now become a caste, belonging to the Marātha Districts of the Central Provinces and +to Berār. Their total strength in India in 1911 was 10,000 persons, of whom the Central Provinces and Berār contained 4000. +The name would appear to have some such meaning as ‘The reverend brothers.’ The Mānbhaos are stated to be a Vaishnavite <a id="d0e6252"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e6252">177</a>]</span>order founded in Berār some two centuries ago.<a id="d0e6254src" href="#d0e6254" class="noteref">2</a> They themselves say that their order is a thousand years old and that it was founded by one Arjun Bhat, who lived at Domegaon, +near Ahmadnagar. He was a great Sanskrit scholar and a devotee of Krishna, and preached his doctrines to all except the Impure +castes. Ridhpur, in Berār, is the present headquarters of the order, and contains a monastery and three temples, dedicated +to Krishna and Dattātreya,<a id="d0e6259src" href="#d0e6259" class="noteref">3</a> the only deities recognised by the Mānbhaos. Each temple is named after a village, and is presided over by a Mahant elected +from the celibate Mānbhaos. There are other Mahants, also known after the names of villages or towns in which the monasteries +over which they preside are located. Among these are Sheone, from the village near Chāndur in Amraoti District; Akulne, a +village near Ahmadnagar; Lāsorkar, from Lāsor, near Aurangābād; Mehkarkar, from Mehkar in Buldāna; and others. The order thus +belongs to Berār and the adjoining parts of India. Colonel Mackenzie describes Ridhpur as follows: “The name is said to be +derived from <i>ridh</i>, meaning blood, a Rākshas or demon having been killed there by Parasurāma, and it owes its sanctity to the fact that the +god lived there. Black stones innumerable scattered about the town show where the god’s footsteps became visible. At Ridhpur +Krishna is represented by an ever-open, sleeplessly watching eye, and some Mānbhaos carry about a small black stone disk with +an eye painted on it as an amulet.” Frequently their shrines contain no images, but are simply <i>chabutras</i> or platforms built over the place where Krishna or Dattātreya left marks of their footprints. Over the platform is a small +veranda, which the Mānbhaos kiss, calling upon the name of the god. Sukli, in Bhandāra, is also a headquarters of the caste, +and contains many Mānbhao tombs. Here they burn camphor in honour of Dattātreya and make offerings of cocoanuts. They make +pilgrimages to the different shrines at the full moons of Chait (March) and Kārtik (October). They pay reverence to no deities +except Krishna and Dattātreya, and observe <a id="d0e6268"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e6268">178</a>]</span>the festivals of Gokul Ashtami in August and Datta-Jayantri in December. They consider the month of Aghan (November) as holy, +because Krishna called it so in the Bhāgavat-Gīta. This is their sacred book, and they reject the other Hindu scriptures. +Their conception of Krishna is based on his description of himself to Arjun in the Bhāgavat-Gīta as follows: “‘Behold things +wonderful, never seen before, behold in this my body the whole world, animate and inanimate. But as thou art unable to see +with these thy natural eyes, I will give thee a heavenly eye, with which behold my divine connection.’ + +</p> +<p>“The son of Pandu then beheld within the body of the god of gods standing together the whole universe divided forth into its +vast variety. He was overwhelmed with wonder and every hair was raised on end. ‘But I am not to be seen as thou hast seen +me even by the assistance of the Vedas, by mortification, by sacrifices, by charitable gifts: but I am to be seen, to be known +in truth, and to be obtained by that worship which is offered up to me alone: and he goeth unto me whose works are done for +me: who esteemeth me supreme: who is my servant only: who hath abandoned all consequences, and who liveth amongst all men +without hatred.’” + +</p> +<p>Again: “He my servant is dear to me who is free from enmity, the friend of all nature, merciful, exempt from all pride and +selfishness, the same in pain and in pleasure, patient of wrong, contented, constantly devout, of subdued passions and firm +resolves, and whose mind and understanding are fixed on me alone.” + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>2. Divisions of the order</h3> +<p>The Mānbhaos are now divided into three classes: the Brahmachāri; the Gharbāri; and the Bhope. The Brahmachāri are the ascetic +members of the sect who subsist by begging and devote their lives to meditation, prayer and spiritual instruction. The Gharbāri +are those who, while leading a mendicant life, wearing the distinctive black dress of the order and having their heads shaved, +are permitted to get married with the permission of their Mahant or <i>guru</i>. The ceremony is performed in strict privacy inside a temple. A man sometimes signifies his choice of a spouse by putting +his <i>jholi</i> or beggar’s wallet upon hers; if she lets it remain <a id="d0e6285"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e6285">179</a>]</span>there, the betrothal is complete. A woman may show her preference for a man by bringing a pair of garlands and placing one +on his head and the other on that of the image of Krishna. The marriage is celebrated according to the custom of the Kunbis, +but without feasting or music. Widows are permitted to marry again. Married women do not wear bangles nor toe-rings nor the +customary necklace of beads; they put on no jewellery, and have no <i>choli</i> or bodice. The Bhope or Bhoall, the third division of the caste, are wholly secular and wear no distinctive dress, except +sometimes a black head-cloth. They may engage in any occupation that pleases them, and sometimes act as servants in the temples +of the caste. In Berār they are divided into thirteen <i>bas</i> or orders, named after the disciples of Arjun Bhat, who founded the various shrines. The Mānbhaos are recruited by initiation +of both men and women from any except the impure castes. Young children who have been vowed by their parents to a religious +life or are left without relations, are taken into the order. Women usually join it either as children or late in life. The +celibate members, male or female, live separately in companies like monks and nuns. They do not travel together, and hold +services in their temples at different times. A woman admitted into the order is henceforward the disciple of the woman who +initiated her by whispering the <i>guru mantra</i> or sacred verse into her ear. She addresses her preceptress as mother and the other women as sisters. The Mānbhaos are intelligent +and generally literate, and they lead a simple and pure life. They are respectable and are respected by the people, and a +<i>guru</i> or spiritual teacher is often taken from them in place of a Brāhman or Gosain. They often act as priests or <i>gurus</i> to the Mahārs, for whom Brāhmans will not perform these services. Their honesty and humility are proverbial among the Kunbis, +and are in pleasing contrast to the character of many of the Hindu mendicant orders. They consider it essential that all their +converts should be able to read the Bhāgavat-Gīta or a commentary on it, and for this purpose teach them to read and write +during the rainy season when they are assembled at one of their monasteries. +<a id="d0e6302"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e6302">180</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>3. Religious observances and customs</h3> +<p>One of the leading tenets of the Mānbhaos is a respect for all forms of animal and even vegetable life, much on a par with +that of the Jains. They strain water through a cloth before drinking it, and then delicately wipe the cloth to preserve any +insects that may be upon it. They should not drink water in, and hence cannot reside in, any village where animal sacrifices +are offered to a deity. They will not cut down a tree nor break off a branch, or even a blade of grass, nor pluck a fruit +or an ear of corn. Some, it is said, will not even bathe in tanks for fear of destroying insect-life. For this reason also +they readily accept cooked food as alms, so that they may avoid the risk of the destruction of life involved in cooking. The +Mānbhaos dislike the din and noise of towns, and live generally in secluded places, coming into the towns only to beg. Except +in the rains they wander about from place to place. They beg in the morning, and then return home and, after bathing and taking +their food, read their religious books. They must always worship Krishna before taking food, and for this purpose when travelling +they carry an image of the deity about with them. They will take food and water from the higher castes, but they must not +do so from persons of low caste on pain of temporary excommunication. They neither smoke nor chew tobacco. Both men and women +shave the head clean, and men also the face. This is first done on initiation by the village barber. But the <i>sendhi</i> or scalp-lock and moustaches of the novice must be cut off by his <i>guru</i>, this being the special mark of his renunciation of the world. The scalp-locks of the various candidates are preserved until +a sufficient quantity of hair has been collected, when ropes are made of it, which they fasten round their loins. This may +be because Hindus attach a special efficacy to the scalp-lock, perhaps as being the seat of a man’s strength or power. The +nuns also shave their heads, and generally eschew every kind of personal adornment. Both monks and nuns usually dress in black +or ashen-grey clothes as a mark of humility, though some have discarded black in favour of the usual Hindu mendicant colour +of red ochre. The black colour is in keeping with the complexion of Krishna, their chief god. They dye their cloths with <a id="d0e6314"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e6314">181</a>]</span>lamp-black mixed with a little water and oil. They usually sleep on the ground, with the exception of those who are Mahants, +and they sometimes have no metal vessels, but use bags made of strong cloth for holding food and water. Men’s names have the +suffix <i>Boa</i>, as Datto Boa, Kesho Boa, while those of boys end in <i>da</i>, as Manoda, Raojīda, and those of women in <i>Bai</i>, as Gopa Bai, Som Bai. The dead are buried, not in the common burial-grounds, but in some waste place. The corpse is laid +on its side, facing the east, with head to the north and feet to the south. A piece of silk or other valuable cloth is placed +on it, on which salt is sprinkled, and the earth is then filled in and the ground levelled so as to leave no trace of the +grave. No memorial is erected over a Mānbhao tomb, and no mourning nor ceremony of purification is observed, nor are oblations +offered to the spirits of the dead. If the dead man leaves any property, it is expended on feeding the brotherhood for ten +days; and if not, the Mahant of his order usually does this in his name. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>4. Hostility between Mānbhaos and Brāhmans</h3> +<p>The Mānbhaos are dissenters from orthodox Hinduism, and have thus naturally incurred the hostility of the Brāhmans. Mr. Kitts +remarks of them:<a id="d0e6330src" href="#d0e6330" class="noteref">4</a> “The Brāhmans hate the Mānbhaos, who have not only thrown off the Brāhmanical yoke themselves, but do much to oppose the +influence of Brāhmans among the agriculturists. The Brāhmans represent them as descended from one Krishna Bhat, a Brāhman +who was outcasted for keeping a beautiful Māng woman as his mistress. His four sons were called the <i>Māng-bhaos</i> or Māng brothers.” This is an excellent instance of the Brāhman talent for pressing etymology into their service as an argument, +in which respect they resemble the Jesuits. By asserting that the Mānbhaos are descended from a Māng woman, one of the most +despised castes, they attempt to dispose of these enemies of a Brāhman hegemony without further ado. + +</p> +<p>Another story about their wearing black or ashen-coloured clothes related by Colonel Mackenzie is that Krishna Bhat’s followers, +refusing to believe the aspersions cast on their leader by the Brāhmans, but knowing that <a id="d0e6340"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e6340">182</a>]</span>some one among them had been guilty of the sin imputed to him, determined to decide the matter by the ordeal of fire. Having +made a fire, they cast into it their own clothes and those of their <i>guru</i>, each man having previously written his name on his garments. The sacred fire made short work of all the clothes except those +of Krishna Bhat, which it rejected and refused to burn, thereby forcing the unwilling disciples to believe that the finger +of God pointed to their revered <i>guru</i> as the sinner. In spite of the shock of thus discovering that their idol had feet of very human clay, they still continued +to regard Krishna Bhat’s precepts as good and worthy of being followed, only stipulating that for all time Mānbhaos should +wear clothes the colour of ashes, in memory of the sacred fire which had disclosed to them their <i>guru’s</i> sin. + +</p> +<p>Captain Mackintosh also relates that “About A.D. 1780, a Brāhman named Anand Rishi, an inhabitant of Paithan on the Godāvari, +maltreated a Mānbhao, who came to ask for alms at his door. This Mānbhao, after being beaten, proceeded to his friends in +the vicinity, and they collected a large number of brethren and went to the Brāhman to demand satisfaction; Anand Rishi assembled +a number of Gosains and his friends, and pursued and attacked the Mānbhaos, who fled and asked Ahalya Bai, Rāni of Indore, +to protect them; she endeavoured to pacify Anand Rishi by telling him that the Mānbhaos were her <i>gurus</i>; he said that they were Māngs, but declared that if they agreed to his proposals he would forgive them; one of them was that +they were not to go to a Brāhman’s house to ask for alms, and another that if any Brāhman repeated Anand Rishi’s name and +drew a line across the road when a Mānbhao was advancing, the Mānbhao, without saying a word, must return the road he came. +Notwithstanding this attempt to prevent their approaching a Brāhman’s house, they continue to ask alms of the Brāhmans, and +some Brāhmans make a point of supplying them with provisions.” + +</p> +<p>This story endeavours to explain a superstition still observed by the caste. This is that when a Mānbhao is proceeding along +a road, if any one draws a line across the road with a stick in front of him the Mānbhao will wait <a id="d0e6358"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e6358">183</a>]</span>without passing the line until some one else comes up and crosses it before him. In reality this is probably a primitive superstition +similar to that which makes a man stop when a snake has crossed the road in front of him and efface its track before proceeding. +It is said that the members of the order also carry their sticks upside down, and a saying is repeated about them: + +</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Mānbhao hokar kāle kapre dārhi mūchi mundhāta hai, +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Ulti lakri hāth men pakri woh kya Sāhib milta hai;</span></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>or, “The Mānbhao wears black clothes, shaves his face and holds his stick upside down, and thinks he will find God that way.” + +</p> +<p>This saying is attributed to Kabīr. +<a id="d0e6369"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e6369">184</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e6243" href="#d0e6243src" class="noteref">1</a></span> This article is compiled from notes on the caste drawn up by Colonel Mackenzie and contributed to the <i>Pioneer</i> newspaper by Mrs. Horsburgh; Captain Mackintosh’s <i>Account of the Manbhaos</i> (India Office Tracts); and a paper by Pyāre Lāl Misra, Ethnographic clerk. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e6254" href="#d0e6254src" class="noteref">2</a></span> <i>Berār Census Report</i> (1881), p. 62. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e6259" href="#d0e6259src" class="noteref">3</a></span> Dattātreya was a celebrated Sivite devotee who has been deified as an incarnation of Siva. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e6330" href="#d0e6330src" class="noteref">4</a></span> <i>Berār Census Report</i> (1881), p. 62. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e6370" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Māng</h2> +<h3>List of Paragraphs</h3> +<ul> +<li><a href="#d0e6412">1. Origin and traditions</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e6429">2. Subdivisions</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e6444">3. Marriage</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e6459">4. Widow marriage</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e6464">5. Burial</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e6475">6. Occupation</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e6493">7. Religion and social status</a></li> +</ul> +<div class="div2" id="d0e6412"> +<h3>1. Origin and traditions</h3> +<p><b>Māng.</b><a id="d0e6418src" href="#d0e6418" class="noteref">1</a>—A low impure caste of the Marātha Districts, who act as village musicians and castrate bullocks, while their women serve +as midwives. The Māngs are also sometimes known as Vājantri or musician. They numbered more than 90,000 persons in 1911, of +whom 30,000 belonged to the Nāgpur and Nerbudda Divisions of the Central Provinces, and 60,000 to Berār. The real origin of +the Māngs is obscure, but they probably originated from the subject tribes and became a caste through the adoption of the +menial services which constitute their profession. In a Marātha book called the Shūdra Kamlākar<a id="d0e6421src" href="#d0e6421" class="noteref">2</a>, it is stated that the Māng was the offspring of the union of a Vaideh man and an Ambashtha woman. A Vaideh was the illegitimate +child of a Vaishya father and a Brāhman mother, and an Ambashtha of a Brāhman father and a Vaishya mother. The business of +the Māng was to play on the flute and to make known the wishes of the Rāja to his subjects by beat of drum. He was to live +in the forest or outside the village, and was not to enter it except with the Rāja’s permission. He was to remove the dead +bodies of strangers, to hang criminals, and to take away and appropriate the clothes and bedding of the dead. The Māngs themselves +relate the following legend of their origin as given by Mr. Sāthe: Long ago before cattle were used for <a id="d0e6424"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e6424">185</a>]</span>ploughing, there was so terrible a famine upon the earth that all the grain was eaten up, and there was none left for seed. +Mahādeo took pity on the few men who were left alive, and gave them some grain for sowing. In those days men used to drag +the plough through the earth themselves. But when a Kunbi, to whom Mahādeo had given some seed, went to try and sow it, he +and his family were so emaciated by hunger that they were unable, in spite of their united efforts, to get the plough through +the ground. In this pitiable case the Kunbi besought Mahādeo to give him some further assistance, and Mahādeo then appeared, +and, bringing with him the bull Nandi, upon which he rode, told the Kunbi to yoke it to the plough. This was done, and so +long as Mahādeo remained present, Nandi dragged the plough peaceably and successfully. But as soon as the god disappeared, +the bull became restive and refused to work any longer. The Kunbi being helpless, again complained to Mahādeo, when the god +appeared, and in his wrath at the conduct of the bull, great drops of perspiration stood upon his brow. One of these fell +to the ground, and immediately a coal-black man sprang up and stood ready to do Mahādeo’s bidding. He was ordered to bring +the bull to reason, and he went and castrated it, after which it worked well and quietly; and since then the Kunbis have always +used bullocks for ploughing, and the descendants of the man, who was the first Māng, are employed in the office for which +he was created. It is further related that Nandi, the bull, cursed the Māng in his pain, saying that he and his descendants +should never derive any profit from ploughing with cattle. And the Māngs say that to this day none of them prosper by taking +to cultivation, and quote the following proverb: ‘<i>Keli kheti, Zhāli mati</i>,’ or, ‘If a Māng sows grain he will only reap dust.’ + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e6429"> +<h3>2. Subdivisions</h3> +<p>The caste is divided into the following subcastes: Dakhne, Khāndeshe and Berārya, or those belonging to the Deccan, Khāndesh +and Berār; Ghodke, those who tend horses; Dafle, tom-tom players; Uchle, pickpockets; Pindāri, descendants of the old freebooters; +Kakarkādhe, stone-diggers; Holer, hide-curers; and Garori. The Garoris<a id="d0e6434src" href="#d0e6434" class="noteref">3</a> <a id="d0e6437"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e6437">186</a>]</span>are a sept of vagrant snake-charmers and jugglers. Many are professional criminals. + + +</p> +<p></p> +<div id="d0e6440" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p114.jpg" alt="Māng musicians with drums" width="720" height="401"><p class="figureHead">Māng musicians with drums</p> +</div><p> + + + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e6444"> +<h3>3. Marriage</h3> +<p>The caste is divided into exogamous family groups named after animals or other objects, or of a titular nature. One or two +have the names of other castes. Members of the same group may not intermarry. Those who are well-to-do marry their daughters +very young for the sake of social estimation, but there is no compulsion in this matter. In families which are particularly +friendly, Mr. Sāthe remarks, children may be betrothed before birth if the two mothers are with child together. Betel is distributed, +and a definite contract is made, on the supposition that a boy and girl will be born. Sometimes the abdomen of each woman +is marked with red vermilion. A grown-up girl should not be allowed to see her husband’s face before marriage. The wedding +is held at the bride’s house, but if it is more convenient that it should be in the bridegroom’s village, a temporary house +is found for the bride’s party, and the marriage-shed is built in front of it. The bride must wear a yellow bodice and cloth, +yellow and red being generally considered among Hindus as the auspicious colours for weddings. When she leaves for her husband’s +house she puts on another or going-away dress, which should be as fine as the family can afford, and thereafter she may wear +any colour except white. The distinguishing marks of a married woman are the <i>mangal-sūtram</i> or holy thread, which her husband ties on her neck at marriage; the <i>garsoli</i> or string of black beads round the neck; the silver toe-rings and glass bangles. If any one of these is lost, it must be +replaced at once, or she is likely soon to be a widow. The food served at the wedding-feast consists of rice and pulse, but +more essential than these is an ample provision of liquor. It is a necessary feature of a Māng wedding that the bridegroom +should go to it riding on a horse. The Mahārs, another low caste of the Marātha Districts, worship the horse, and between +them and the Māngs there exists a long-standing feud, so that they do not, if they can help it, drink of the same well. The +sight of a Māng riding on a horse is thus gall and wormwood to the Mahārs, who consider it a terrible degradation to the noble +animal, and this fact <a id="d0e6455"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e6455">187</a>]</span>inflaming their natural enmity, formerly led to riots between the castes. Under native rule the Māngs were public executioners, +and it was said to be the proudest moment of Māng’s life when he could perform his office on a Mahār. + +</p> +<p>The bride proceeds to her husband’s house for a short visit immediately after the marriage, and then goes home again. Thereafter, +till such time as she finally goes to live with him, she makes brief visits for festivals or on other social occasions, or +to help her mother-in-law, if her assistance is required. If the mother-in-law is ill and requires somebody to wait on her, +or if she is a shrew and wants some one to bully, or if she has strict ideas of discipline and wishes personally to conduct +the bride’s training for married life, she makes the girl come more frequently and stay longer. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e6459"> +<h3>4. Widow marriage</h3> +<p>The remarriage of widows is permitted, and a widow may marry any one except persons of her own family group or her husband’s +elder brother, who stands to her in the light of a father. She is permitted, but not obliged, to marry her husband’s younger +brother, but if he has performed the dead man’s obsequies, she may not marry him, as this act has placed him in the relation +of a son to her deceased husband. More usually the widow marries some one in another village, because the remarriage is always +held in some slight disrepute, and she prefers to be at a distance from her first husband’s family. Divorce is said to be +permitted only for persistent misconduct on the part of the wife. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e6464"> +<h3>5. Burial</h3> +<p>The caste always bury the dead and observe mourning only for three days. On returning from a burial they all get drunk, and +then go to the house of the deceased and chew the bitter leaves of the <i>nīm</i> tree (<i>Melia indica</i>). These they then spit out of their mouths to indicate their complete severance from the dead man. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e6475"> +<h3>6. Occupation</h3> +<p>The caste beat drums at village festivals, and castrate cattle, and they also make brooms and mats of date-palm and keep leeches +for blood-letting. Some of them are village watchmen and their women act as midwives. As soon as a baby is born, the midwife +blows into its mouth, <a id="d0e6480"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e6480">188</a>]</span>ears and nose in order to clear them of any impediments. When a man is initiated by a <i>guru</i> or spiritual preceptor, the latter blows into his ear, and the Māngs therefore say that on account of this act of the midwife +they are the <i>gurus</i> of all Hindus. During an eclipse the Māngs beg, because the demons Rāhu and Ketu, who are believed to swallow the sun and +moon on such occasions, were both Māngs, and devout Hindus give alms to their fellow-castemen in order to appease them. Those +of them who are thieves are said not to steal from the persons of a woman, a bangle-seller, a Lingāyat Māli or another Māng.<a id="d0e6488src" href="#d0e6488" class="noteref">4</a> In Marātha villages they sometimes take the place of Chamārs, and work in leather, and one writer says of them: “The Māng +is a village menial in the Marātha villages, making all leather ropes, thongs and whips, which are used by the cultivators; +he frequently acts as watchman; he is by profession a thief and executioner; he readily hires himself as an assassin, and +when he commits a robbery he also frequently murders.” In his menial capacity he receives presents at seed-time and harvest, +and it is said that the Kunbi will never send the Māng empty away, because he represents the wrath of Mahādeo, being made +from the god’s sweat when he was angry. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e6493"> +<h3>7. Religion and social status</h3> +<p>The caste especially venerate the goddess Devi. They apparently identify Devi with Sāraswati, the goddess of wisdom, and they +have a story to the effect that once Brahma wished to ravish his daughter Sāraswati. She fled from him and went to all the +gods, but none of them would protect her for fear of Brahma. At last in despair she came to a Māng’s house, and the Māng stood +in the door and kept off Brahma with a wooden club. In return for this Sāraswati blessed him and said that he and his descendants +should never lack for food. They also revere Mahādeo, and on every Monday they worship the cow, placing vermilion on her forehead +and washing her feet. The cat is regarded as a sacred animal, and a Māng’s most solemn oath is sworn on a cat. A house is +defiled if a cat or a dog dies or a cat has kittens in it, and all the earthen pots must be broken. If a man accidentally +kills a cat or a dog a heavy penance is <a id="d0e6498"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e6498">189</a>]</span>exacted, and two feasts must be given to the caste. To kill an ass or a monkey is a sin only less heinous. A man is also put +out of caste if kicked or beaten with a shoe by any one of another caste, even a Brāhman, or if he is struck with the <i>kathri</i> or mattress made of rags which the villagers put on their sleeping-cots. Mr. Gayer remarks<a id="d0e6503src" href="#d0e6503" class="noteref">5</a> that “The Māngs show great respect for the bamboo; and at a marriage the bridal couple are made to stand in a bamboo basket. +They also reverence the <i>nīm</i> tree, and the Māngs of Sholapur spread <i>hariāli</i><a id="d0e6513src" href="#d0e6513" class="noteref">6</a> grass and <i>nīm</i> leaves on the spot where one of their caste dies.” The social status of the Māngs is of the lowest. They usually live in +a separate quarter of the village and have a well for their own use. They may not enter temples. It is recorded that under +native rule the Mahārs and Māngs were not allowed within the gates of Poona between 3 P.M. and 9 A.M., because before nine +and after three their bodies cast too long a shadow; and whenever their shadow fell upon a Brāhman it polluted him, so that +he dare not taste food or water until he had bathed and washed the impurity away. So also no low-caste man was allowed to +live in a walled town; cattle and dogs could freely enter and remain but not the Mahār or Māng.<a id="d0e6521src" href="#d0e6521" class="noteref">7</a> The caste will eat the flesh of pigs, rats, crocodiles and jackals and the leavings of others, and some of them will eat +beef. Men may be distinguished by the <i>senai</i> flute which they carry and by a large ring of gold or brass worn in the lobe of the ear. A Māng’s sign-manual is a representation +of his <i>bhall-singāra</i> or castration-knife. Women are tattooed before marriage, with dots on the forehead, nose, cheeks and chin, and with figures +of a date-palm on the forearm, a scorpion on the palm of the hand, and flies on the fingers. The caste do not bear a good +character, and it is said of a cruel man, ‘<i>Māng-Nirdayi</i>,’ or ‘Hardhearted as a Māng.’ + +</p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e6418" href="#d0e6418src" class="noteref">1</a></span> This article is based partly on a paper by Mr. Achyut Sitārām Sāthe, Extra Assistant Commissioner. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e6421" href="#d0e6421src" class="noteref">2</a></span> P. 389. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e6434" href="#d0e6434src" class="noteref">3</a></span> See also separate article Māng-Garori. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e6488" href="#d0e6488src" class="noteref">4</a></span> <i>Berār Census Report</i> (1881), p. 147. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e6503" href="#d0e6503src" class="noteref">5</a></span> <i>Lectures on the Criminal Tribes of the Central Provinces</i>, p. 79. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e6513" href="#d0e6513src" class="noteref">6</a></span> <i>Cynodon dactylon</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e6521" href="#d0e6521src" class="noteref">7</a></span> Dr, Murray Mitchell’s <i>Great Religions of India</i>, p. 63. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e6536" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Māng-Garori</h2> +<p><b>Māng-Garori.</b>—This is a criminal subdivision of the Māng caste, residing principally in Berār. They were not <a id="d0e6543"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e6543">190</a>]</span>separately recorded at the census. The name Garori appears to be a corruption of Garūdi, and signifies a snake-charmer.<a id="d0e6545src" href="#d0e6545" class="noteref">1</a> Garūda, the Brahminy kite, the bird on which Vishnu rides, was the great subduer of snakes, and hence probably snake-charmers +are called Garūdi. Some of the Māng-Garoris are snake-charmers, and this may have been the original occupation of the caste, +though the bulk of them now appear to live by dealing in cattle and thieving. The following notice of them is abstracted from +Major Gunthorpe’s <i>Notes on Criminal Tribes</i>.<a id="d0e6551src" href="#d0e6551" class="noteref">2</a> They usually travel about with small <i>pāls</i> or tents, taking their wives, children, buffaloes and dogs with them. The men are well set up and tall. Their costume is +something like that worn by professional gymnasts, consisting of light and short reddish-brown drawers (<i>chaddi</i>), a waistband with fringe at either end (<i>katchhe</i>), and a sheet thrown over the shoulders. The Nāik or headman of the camp may be recognised by his wearing some red woollen +cloth about his person or a red shawl over his shoulders. The women have short <i>sāris</i> (body-cloths), usually of blue, and tied in the Telugu fashion. They are generally very violent when any attempt is made +to search an encampment, especially if there is stolen property concealed in it. Instances have been known of their seizing +their infants by the ankles and swinging them round their heads, declaring they would continue doing so till the children +died, if the police did not leave the camp. Sometimes also the women of a gang have been known to throw off all their clothing +and appear in a perfect state of nudity, declaring they would charge the police with violating their modesty. Men of this +tribe are expert cattle-lifters, but confine themselves chiefly to buffaloes, which they steal while out grazing and very +dexterously disguise by trimming the horns and firing, so as to avoid recognition by their rightful owners. To steal goats +and sheep is also one of their favourite occupations, and they will either carry the animals off from their pens at night +or kill them while out grazing, in the following manner: having marked a sheep or goat which is feeding farthest away from +the flock, the thief awaits his opportunity till the shepherd’s back is turned, <a id="d0e6566"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e6566">191</a>]</span>when the animal is quickly captured. Placing his foot on the back of the neck near the head, and seizing it under the chin +with his right hand, the thief breaks the animal’s neck by a sudden jerk; he then throws the body into a bush or in some dip +in the ground to hide it, and walks away, watching from a distance. The shepherd, ignorant of the loss of one of his animals, +goes on leisurely driving his flock before him, and when he is well out of sight the Māng-Garori removes the captured carcase +to his encampment. Great care is taken that the skin, horns and hoofs should be immediately burnt so as to avoid detection. +Their ostensible occupation is to trade in barren half-starved buffaloes and buffalo calves, or in country ponies. They also +purchase from Gaoli herdsmen barren buffaloes, which they profess to be able to make fertile; if successful they return them +for double the purchase-money, but if not, having obtained if possible some earnest-money, they abscond and sell the animals +at a distance.<a id="d0e6568src" href="#d0e6568" class="noteref">3</a> Like the Bhāmtas, the Māng-Garoris, Major Gunthorpe states, make it a rule not to give a girl in marriage until the intended +husband has proved himself an efficient thief. Mr. Gayer<a id="d0e6574src" href="#d0e6574" class="noteref">4</a> writes as follows of the caste: “I do not think Major Gunthorpe lays sufficient emphasis on the part taken by the women in +crimes, for they apparently do by far the major part of the thieving, Sherring says the men never commit house-breaking and +very seldom rob on the highway: he calls them ‘wanderers, showmen, jugglers and conjurors,’ and describes them as robbers +who get their information by performing before the houses of rich bankers and others. Māng-Gārori<a id="d0e6579src" href="#d0e6579" class="noteref">5</a> women steal in markets and other places of public resort. They wait to see somebody put down his clothes or bag of rupees +and watch till his attention is attracted elsewhere, when, walking up quietly between the article and its owner, they drop +their petticoat either over or by it, and manage to transfer the stolen property into their basket while picking up the petticoat. +If an unfavourable omen occurs on the way when the women set out to pilfer they place a stone on the ground and dash <a id="d0e6582"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e6582">192</a>]</span>another on to it saying, ‘If the obstacle is removed, break’; if the stone struck is broken, they consider that the obstacle +portended by the unfavourable omen is removed from their path, and proceed on their way; but if not, they return. Stolen articles +are often bartered at liquor-shops for drink, and the Kalārs act as receivers of stolen property for the Māng-Gāroris.” + +</p> +<p>The following are some particulars taken from an old account of the criminal Māngs;<a id="d0e6586src" href="#d0e6586" class="noteref">6</a> Their leader or headman was called the <i>nāik</i> and was elected by a majority of votes, though considerable regard was paid to heredity. The <i>nāik’s</i> person and property were alike inviolable; after a successful foray each of the gang contributed a quarter of his share to +the <i>nāik</i>, and from the fund thus made up were defrayed the expenses of preparation, religious offerings and the triumphal feast. A +pair of shoes were usually given to a Brāhman and alms to the poor. To each band was attached an informer, who was also receiver +of the stolen goods. These persons were usually bangle- or perfume-sellers or jewellers. In this capacity they were admitted +into the women’s apartments and so enabled to form a correct notion of the topography of a house and a shrewd guess as to +the wealth of its inmates. Like all barbarous tribes and all persons addicted to criminal practices the Māngs were extremely +superstitious. They never set out on an expedition on a Friday. After the birth of a child the mother and another woman stood +on opposite sides of the cradle, and the former tossed her child to the other, commending it to the mercy of Jai Gopāl, and +waited to receive it back in like manner in the name of Jai Govind. Both Gopāl and Govind are names of Krishna, The Māngs +usually married young in life. If a girl happened to hang heavy on hand she was married at the age of puberty to the deity. +In other words, she was attached as a prostitute to the temple of the god Khandoba or the goddess Yellama. Those belonging +to the service of the latter were wont in the month of February to parade the streets in a state of utter nudity. When a bachelor +wished to marry a widow <a id="d0e6601"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e6601">193</a>]</span>he was first united to a swallow-wort plant, and this was immediately dug up and transplanted, and withering away left him +at liberty to marry the widow. If a lady survived the sorrow caused by the death of two or three husbands she could not again +enter the holy state unless she consented to be married with a fowl under her armpit; the unfortunate bird being afterwards +killed to appease the manes of her former consorts. + +</p> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e6545" href="#d0e6545src" class="noteref">1</a></span> From a note by Mr. Hīra Lāl. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e6551" href="#d0e6551src" class="noteref">2</a></span> Times Press, Bombay, 1882. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e6568" href="#d0e6568src" class="noteref">3</a></span> Kennedy, <i>Criminal Classes of the Bombay Presidency</i>, p. 122. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e6574" href="#d0e6574src" class="noteref">4</a></span> <i>Lectures on some Criminal Tribes of India</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e6579" href="#d0e6579src" class="noteref">5</a></span> This passage is quoted by Mr. Gayer from the Supplement to the Central Provinces Police Gazette of 24th January 1905. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e6586" href="#d0e6586src" class="noteref">6</a></span> Hutton’s <i>Thugs, Dacoits and Gang-robbers of India</i> (1857), pp. 164–168, quoting an account by Captain Barr. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e6603" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Manihār</h2> +<p><b>Manihār.</b><a id="d0e6609src" href="#d0e6609" class="noteref">1</a>—A small caste of pedlars and hawkers. In northern India the Manihārs are makers of glass bangles, and correspond to the Kachera +caste of the Central Provinces. Mr. Nesfield remarks<a id="d0e6612src" href="#d0e6612" class="noteref">2</a> that the special industry of the Manihārs of the United Provinces is the making of glass bangles or bracelets. These are +an indispensable adjunct to the domestic life of the Hindu woman; for the glass bangle is not worn for personal ornament, +but as the badge of the matrimonial state, like the wedding-ring in Europe. But in the Central Provinces glass bangles are +made by the Kacheras and the Muhammadan Turkāris or Sīsgars, and the Manihārs are petty hawkers of stationery and articles +for the toilet, such as miniature looking-glasses, boxes, stockings, needles and thread, spangles, and imitation jewellery; +and Hindu Jogis and others who take to this occupation are accustomed to give their caste as Manihār. In 1911 nearly 700 persons +belonging to the caste were returned from the northern Districts of the Central Provinces. The Manihārs are nominally Muhammadans, +but they retain many Hindu customs. At their weddings they erect a marriage-tent, anoint the couple with oil and turmeric +and make them wear a <i>kankan</i> or wrist-band, to which is attached a small purse containing a little mustard-seed and a silver ring. The mustard is intended +to scare away the evil spirits. When the marriage procession reaches the bride’s village it is met by her people, one of whom +holds a bamboo in his hands and bars the advance of the procession. The bridegroom’s father thereupon makes a present of a +rupee <a id="d0e6620"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e6620">194</a>]</span>to the village <i>panchāyat</i>, and his people are allowed to proceed. When the bridegroom reaches the bride’s house he finds her younger sister carrying +a <i>kalās</i> or pot of water on her head; he drops a rupee into it and enters the house. The bride’s sister then comes holding above her +head a small frame like a <i>tāzia</i><a id="d0e6630src" href="#d0e6630" class="noteref">3</a> with a cocoanut core hanging inside. She raises the frame as high as she can to prevent the bridegroom from plucking out +the cocoanut core, which, however, he succeeds in doing in the end. The girl applies powdered <i>mehndi</i> or henna to the little finger of the boy’s right hand, in return for which she receives a rupee and a piece of cloth. The +Kāzi then recites verses from the Korān which the bridegroom repeats after him, and the bride does the same in her turn. This +is the Nikāh or marriage proper, and before it takes place the bridegroom’s father must present a nose-ring to the bride. +The parents also fix the Meher or dowry, which, however, is not a dowry proper, but a stipulation that if the bridegroom should +put away his wife after marriage he will pay her a certain agreed sum. After the Nikāh the bridegroom is given some spices, +which he grinds on a slab with a roller. He must do the grinding very slowly and gently so as to make no noise, or it is believed +that the married life of the couple will be broken by quarrels. A widow is permitted to marry the younger brother of her deceased +husband, but not his elder brother. The caste bury their dead with the head to the north. The corpse is first bathed and wrapped +in a new white sheet, with another sheet over it, and is then laid on a cot or in a <i>janāza</i> or coffin. While it is being carried to the cemetery the bearers are changed every few steps, so that every man who accompanies +the funeral may carry the corpse for a short distance. When it is lowered into the grave the sheet is taken off and given +to a Fakīr or beggar. When the body is covered with earth the priest reads the funeral verses at a distance of forty steps +from the grave. Feasts are given to the caste-fellows on the third, tenth, twentieth and fortieth days after the death. The +Manihārs observe the Shabrāt festival by distributing to the caste-fellows <a id="d0e6642"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e6642">195</a>]</span><i>halua</i> or a mixture of melted butter and flour. The Shabrāt is the middle night of the month Shabān, and Muhammad declared that +on this night God registers the actions which every man will perform during the following year, and all those who are fated +to die and the children who are to be born. Like Hindu widows the Manihār women break their bangles when their husband’s corpse +is removed to the burial-ground. The Manihārs eat flesh, but not beef or pork; and they also abstain from alcoholic liquor. +If a girl is seduced and made pregnant before marriage either by a man of the caste or an outsider, she remains in her father’s +house until her child has been born, and may then be married either to her paramour or any other man of the caste by the simple +repetition of the Nikāh or marriage verses, omitting all other ceremonies. The Manihārs will admit into their community converted +Hindus belonging even to the lowest castes. + +</p> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e6609" href="#d0e6609src" class="noteref">1</a></span> This article is based on papers by Rai Sāhib Nānakchand, B.A., Headmaster, Saugor High School, and Munshi Pyāre Lāl Misra +of the Gazetteer office. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e6612" href="#d0e6612src" class="noteref">2</a></span> <i>Brief View</i>, p. 30. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e6630" href="#d0e6630src" class="noteref">3</a></span> The <i>tāzias</i> are ornamental representations of the tomb of Hussain, which the Muhammadans make at the Muharram festival. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e6646" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Mannewār</h2> +<p><b>Mannewār.</b><a id="d0e6652src" href="#d0e6652" class="noteref">1</a>—A small tribe belonging to the south or Telugu-speaking portion of the Chānda District, where they mustered about 1600 persons +in 1911. The home of the tribe is the Hyderābād State, where it numbers 22,000 persons, and the Mannewārs are said to have +once been dominant over a part of that territory. The name is derived from a Telugu word <i>mannem</i>, meaning forest, while <i>wār</i> is the plural termination in Telugu, Mannewār thus signifying ‘the people of the forest.’ The tribe appear to be the inferior +branch of the Koya Gonds, and they are commonly called Mannewār Koyas as opposed to the Koya Doras or the superior branch, +Dora meaning ‘lord’ or master. The Koya Doras thus correspond to the Rāj-Gonds of the north of the Province and the Mannewār +Koyas to the Dhur or ‘dust’ Gonds.<a id="d0e6661src" href="#d0e6661" class="noteref">2</a> The tribe is divided into three exogamous groups: the Nalugu Velpulu worshipping four gods, the Ayidu Velpulu worshipping +five, and the Anu Velpulu six. A man must marry a woman of one of the divisions worshipping a different number of gods from +his <a id="d0e6664"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e6664">196</a>]</span>own, but the Mannewārs do not appear to know the names of these gods, and consequently no veneration can be paid to them at +present, and they survive solely for the purpose of regulating marriage. When a betrothal is made a day is fixed for taking +an omen. In the early morning the boy who is to be married has his face washed and turmeric smeared on his feet, and is seated +on a wooden seat inside the house. The elders of the village then proceed outside it towards the rising sun and watch for +any omen given by an animal or bird crossing their path. If this is good the marriage is celebrated, and if bad the match +is broken off. In the former case five of the elders take their food on returning from the search for the omen and immediately +proceed to the bride’s village. Here they are met by the Pesāmuda or village priest, and stay for three days, when the amount +of the dowry is settled and a date fixed for the wedding. The marriage ceremony resembles that of the low Telugu castes. The +couple are seated on a plough-yoke, and coloured rice is thrown on to their heads, and the bridegroom ties the <i>mangalya</i> or bead necklace, which is the sign of marriage, round the neck of the bride. If a girl is deformed, or has some other drawback +which prevents her from being sought in marriage, she is given away with her sister to a first cousin<a id="d0e6669src" href="#d0e6669" class="noteref">3</a> or some other near relative, the two sisters being married to him together. A widow may marry any man of the tribe except +her first husband’s brothers. If a man takes a widow to his house without marrying her he is fined three rupees, while for +adultery with a married woman the penalty is twenty rupees. A divorce can always be obtained, but if the husband demands it +he is mulcted of twenty rupees by the caste committee, while a wife who seeks a divorce must pay ten rupees. The Mannewārs +make an offering of a fowl and some liquor to the ploughshare on the festival of Ganesh Chaturthi. After the picking of the +flowers of the mahua<a id="d0e6672src" href="#d0e6672" class="noteref">4</a> they worship that tree, offering to it some of the liquor distilled from the new flowers, with a fowl and a goat. This is +known as the Burri festival. At the Holi feast the Mannewārs make two human figures to represent Kāmi and Rati, or the god +of <a id="d0e6677"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e6677">197</a>]</span>love and his wife. The male figure is then thrown on to the Holi fire with a live chicken or an egg. This may be a reminiscence +of a former human sacrifice, which was a common custom in many parts of the world at the spring festival. The caste usually +bury the dead, but are beginning to adopt cremation. They do not employ Brāhmans for their ceremonies and eat all kinds of +food, including the flesh of pigs, fowls and crocodiles, but in view of their having nominally adopted Hinduism, they abstain +from beef. +<a id="d0e6679"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e6679">198</a>]</span></p> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e6652" href="#d0e6652src" class="noteref">1</a></span> This article is based on a note furnished by Mr. M. Aziz, Officiating Nāib-Tahsīldār, Sironcha. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e6661" href="#d0e6661src" class="noteref">2</a></span> From a glossary published by Mr. Gupta, Assistant Director of Ethnology for India. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e6669" href="#d0e6669src" class="noteref">3</a></span> Generally the paternal aunt’s son. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e6672" href="#d0e6672src" class="noteref">4</a></span> <i>Bassia latifolia</i>. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e6680" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Marātha</h2> +<h3>List of Paragraphs</h3> +<ul> +<li><a href="#d0e6767">1. Numerical statistics</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e6774">2. Double meaning of the term Marātha</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e6803">3. Origin and position of the caste</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e6873">4. Exogamous clans</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e6914">5. Other subdivisions</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e6931">6. Social customs</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e6952">7. Religion</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e6988">8. Present position of the caste</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e7013">9. Nature of the Marātha insurrection</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e7021">10. Marātha women in past times</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e7029">11. The Marātha horseman</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e7037">12. Cavalry in the field</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e7071">13. Military administration</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e7101">14. Sitting Dharna</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e7110">15. The infantry</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e7115">16. Character of the Marātha armies</a></li> +</ul> +<div class="div2" id="d0e6767"> +<h3>1. Numerical statistics</h3> +<p><b>Marātha, Mahrātta.</b>—The military caste of southern India which manned the armies of Sivaji, and of the Peshwa and other princes of the Marātha +confederacy. In the Central Provinces the Marāthas numbered 34,000 persons in 1911, of whom Nāgpur contained 9000 and Wardha +8000, while the remainder were distributed over Raipur, Hoshangābād and Nimār. In Berār their strength was 60,000 persons, +the total for the combined province being thus 94,000. The caste is found in large numbers in Bombay and Hyderābād, and in +1901 the India Census tables show a total of not less than five million persons belonging to it. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e6774"> +<h3>2. Double meaning of the term Marātha</h3> +<p>It is difficult to avoid confusion in the use of the term Marātha, which signifies both an inhabitant of the area in which +the Marāthi language is spoken, and a member of the caste to which the general name has in view of their historical importance +been specifically applied. The native name for the Marāthi-speaking country is Mahārāshtra, which has been variously interpreted +as ‘The great country’ or ‘The country of the Mahārs.’<a id="d0e6779src" href="#d0e6779" class="noteref">1</a> A third explanation of the name <a id="d0e6785"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e6785">199</a>]</span>is from the Rāshtrakūta dynasty which was dominant in this area for some centuries after A.D. 750. The name Rāshtrakūta was +contracted into Rattha, and with the prefix of Mahā or Great might evolve into the term Marātha. The Rāshtrakūtas have been +conjecturally identified with the Rāthor Rājpūts. The <i>Nāsik Gazetteer</i><a id="d0e6789src" href="#d0e6789" class="noteref">2</a> states that in 246 B.C. Mahāratta is mentioned as one of the places to which Asoka sent an embassy, and Mahārashtraka is +recorded in a Chālukyan inscription of A.D. 580 as including three provinces and 99,000 villages. Several other references +are given in Sir J. Campbell’s erudite note, and the name is therefore without doubt ancient. But the Marāthas as a people +do not seem to be mentioned before the thirteenth or fourteenth century.<a id="d0e6792src" href="#d0e6792" class="noteref">3</a> The antiquity of the name would appear to militate against the derivation from the Rāshtrakūta dynasty, which did not become +prominent till much later, and the most probable meaning of Mahārāshtra would therefore seem to be ‘The country of the Mahārs.’ +Mahāratta and Marātha are presumably derivatives from Mahārāshtra. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e6803"> +<h3>3. Origin and position of the caste</h3> +<p>The Marāthas are a caste formed from military service, and it seems probable that they sprang mainly from the peasant population +of Kunbis, though at what period they were formed into a separate caste has not yet been determined. Grant-Duff mentions several +of their leading families as holding offices under the Muhammadan rulers of Bījapur and Ahmadnagar in the fifteenth and sixteenth +centuries, as the Nimbhālkar, Ghārpure and Bhonsla;<a id="d0e6808src" href="#d0e6808" class="noteref">4</a> and presumably their clansmen served in the armies of those states. But whether or no the designation of Marātha had been +previously used by them, it first became prominent during the period of Sivaji’s guerilla warfare against Aurāngzeb. The Marāthas +claim a Rājpūt origin, and several of their clans have the names of Rājpūt tribes, as Chauhān, Panwār, Solanki and Suryavansi. +In 1836 Mr. Enthoven states,<a id="d0e6811src" href="#d0e6811" class="noteref">5</a> the Sesodia Rāna of Udaipur, the head of the purest Rājpūt house, was satisfied from inquiries conducted by an <a id="d0e6816"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e6816">200</a>]</span>agent that the Bhonslas and certain other families had a right to be recognised as Rājpūts. Colonel Tod states that Sivaji +was descended from a Rājpūt prince Sujunsi, who was expelled from Mewār to avoid a dispute about the succession about A.D. +1300. Sivaji is shown as 13th in descent from Sujunsi. Similarly the Bhonslas of Nāgpur were said to derive their origin from +one Bunbir, who was expelled from Udaipur about 1541, having attempted to usurp the kingdom.<a id="d0e6818src" href="#d0e6818" class="noteref">6</a> As Rājpūt dynasties ruled in the Deccan for some centuries before the Muhammadan conquest, it seems reasonable to suppose +that a Rājpūt aristocracy may have taken root there. This was Colonel Tod’s opinion, who wrote: “These kingdoms of the south +as well as the north were held by Rājpūt sovereigns, whose offspring, blending with the original population, produced that +mixed race of Marāthas inheriting with the names the warlike propensities of their ancestors, but who assume the names of +their abodes as titles, as the Nimalkars, the Phalkias, the Patunkars, instead of their tribes of Jādon, Tüār, Püār, etc.”<a id="d0e6823src" href="#d0e6823" class="noteref">7</a> This statement would, however, apply only to the leading houses and not to the bulk of the Marātha caste, who appear to be +mainly derived from the Kunbis. In Sholāpur the Marāthas and Kunbis eat together, and the Kunbis are said to be bastard Marāthas.<a id="d0e6828src" href="#d0e6828" class="noteref">8</a> In Satāra the Kunbis have the same division into 96 clans as the Marāthas have, and many of the same surnames.<a id="d0e6833src" href="#d0e6833" class="noteref">9</a> The writer of the <i>Satara Gazetteer</i> says:<a id="d0e6841src" href="#d0e6841" class="noteref">10</a> “The census of 1851 included the Marāthas with the Kunbis, from whom they do not form a separate caste. Some Marātha families +may have a larger strain of northern or Rājpūt blood than the Kunbis, but this is not always the case. The distinction between +Kunbis and Marāthas is almost entirely social, the Marāthas as a rule being better off, and preferring even service as a constable +or messenger to husbandry.” Exactly the same state of affairs prevails in the Central Provinces and Berār, where the body +of the caste are commonly known as Marātha Kunbis. In Bombay the Marāthas will take daughters from the Kunbis in marriage +for their sons, though they will not give their daughters <a id="d0e6846"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e6846">201</a>]</span>in return. But a Kunbi who has got on in the world and become wealthy may by sufficient payment get his sons married into +Marātha families, and even be adopted as a member of the caste.<a id="d0e6848src" href="#d0e6848" class="noteref">11</a> In 1798 Colonel Tone, who commanded a regiment of the Peshwa’s army, wrote<a id="d0e6856src" href="#d0e6856" class="noteref">12</a> of the Marāthas: “The three great tribes which compose the Marātha caste are the Kunbi or farmer, the Dhangar or shepherd, +and the Goāla or cowherd; to this original cause may perhaps be ascribed that great simplicity of manner which distinguishes +the Marātha people.” + + +</p> +<p></p> +<div id="d0e6862" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p115.jpg" alt="Statue of Marātha leader, Bīmbāji Bhonsla, in armour" width="480" height="720"><p class="figureHead">Statue of Marātha leader, Bīmbāji Bhonsla, in armour</p> +</div><p> + + +</p> +<p>It seems then most probable that, as already stated, the Marātha caste was of purely military origin, constituted from the +various castes of Mahārāshtra who adopted military service, though some of the leading families may have had Rājpūts for their +ancestors. Sir D. Ibbetson thought that a similar relation existed in past times between the Rājpūts and Jāts, the landed +aristocracy of the Jāt caste being gradually admitted to Rājpūt rank. The Khandaits or swordsmen of Orissa are a caste formed +in the same manner from military service. In the <i>Imperial Gazetteer</i> Sir H. Risley suggests that the Marātha people were of Scythian origin: + +</p> +<p>“The physical type of the people of this region accords fairly well with this theory, while the arguments derived from language +and religion do not seem to conflict with it.... On this view the wide-ranging forays of the Marāthas, their guerilla methods +of warfare, their unscrupulous dealings with friend and foe, their genius for intrigue and their consequent failure to build +up an enduring dominion, might well be regarded as inherited from their Scythian ancestors.” + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e6873"> +<h3>4. Exogamous clans</h3> +<p>In the Central Provinces the Marāthas are divided into 96 exogamous clans, known as the Chhānava Kule, which marry with one +another. During the period when the Bhonsla family were rulers of Nāgpur they constituted a sort of inner circle, consisting +of seven of the leading clans, with whom alone they intermarried; these are known as the Sātghare or Seven Houses, and consist +of the Bhonsla, Gūjar, Ahirrao, Mahādik, Sirke, Palke and Mohte clans. <a id="d0e6878"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e6878">202</a>]</span>These houses at one time formed an endogamous group, marrying only among themselves, but recently the restriction has been +relaxed, and they have arranged marriages with other Marātha families. It may be noted that the present representatives of +the Bhonsla family are of the Gūjar clan to which the last Rāja of Nāgpur, Raghūji III., belonged prior to his adoption. Several +of the clans, as already noted, have Rājpūt sept names; and some are considered to be derived from those of former ruling +dynasties; as Chālke, from the Chālukya Rājpūt kings of the Deccan and Carnatic; More, who may represent a branch of the great +Maurya dynasty of northern India; Sālunke, perhaps derived from the Solanki kings of Gujarāt; and Yādav, the name of the kings +of Deogiri or Daulatābād.<a id="d0e6880src" href="#d0e6880" class="noteref">13</a> Others appear to be named after animals or natural objects, as Sinde from <i>sindi</i> the date-palm tree, Ghorpade from <i>ghorpad</i> the iguana; or to be of a titular nature, as Kāle black, Pāndhre white, Bhāgore a renegade, Jagthāp renowned, and so on. +The More, Nimbhālkar, Ghātge, Māne, Ghorpade, Dafle, Jādav and Bhonsla clans are the oldest, and held prominent positions +in the old Muhammadan kingdoms of Bījapur and Ahmadnagar. The Nimbhālkar family were formerly Panwār Rājpūts, and took the +name of Nimbhālkar from their ancestral village Nimbālik. The Ghorpade family are an offshoot of the Bhonslas, and obtained +their present name from the exploit of one of their ancestors, who scaled a fort in the Konkan, previously deemed impregnable, +by passing a cord round the body of a <i>ghorpad</i> or iguana.<a id="d0e6894src" href="#d0e6894" class="noteref">14</a> A noticeable trait of these Marātha houses is the fondness with which they clung to the small estates or villages in the +Deccan in which they had originally held the office of a patel or village headman as a <i>watan</i> or hereditary right, even after they had carved out for themselves principalities and states in other parts of India. The +present Bhonsla Rāja takes his title from the village of Deor in the Poona country. In former times we read of the Rāja of +Satāra clinging to the <i>watans</i> he had inherited from Sivaji after he had lost his crown in all but the name; Sindhia was always termed <a id="d0e6903"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e6903">203</a>]</span>patel or village headman in the revenue accounts of the villages he acquired in Nimār; while it is said that Holkar and the +Panwār of Dhār fought desperately after the British conquest to recover the <i>pateli</i> rights of Deccan villages which had belonged to their ancestors.<a id="d0e6908src" href="#d0e6908" class="noteref">15</a> + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e6914"> +<h3>5. Other subdivisions</h3> +<p>Besides the 96 clans there are now in the Central Provinces some local subcastes who occupy a lower position and do not intermarry +with the Marāthas proper. Among these are the Deshkar or ‘Residents of the country’; the Waindesha or those of Berār and Khāndesh; +the Gangthade or those dwelling on the banks of the Godāvari and Wainganga; and the Ghātmāthe or residents of the Mahādeo +plateau in Berār. It is also stated that the Marāthas are divided into the <i>Khāsi</i> or ‘pure’ and the <i>Kharchi</i> or the descendants of handmaids. In Bombay the latter are known as the Akarmāshes or 11 <i>māshas</i>, meaning that as twelve <i>māshas</i> make a tola, a twelfth part of them is alloy. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e6931"> +<h3>6. Social customs</h3> +<p>A man must not marry in his own clan or that of his mother. A sister’s son may be married to a brother’s daughter, but not +vice versa. Girls are commonly married between five and twelve years of age, and the ceremony resembles that of the Kunbis. +The bridegroom goes to the bride’s house riding on horseback and covered with a black blanket When a girl first becomes mature, +usually after marriage, the Marathas perform the Shāntik ceremony. The girl is secluded for four days, after which she is +bathed and puts on new clothes and dresses her hair and a feast is given to the caste-fellows. Sometimes the bridegroom comes +and is asked whether he has visited his wife before she became mature, and if he confesses that he has done so a small fine +is imposed on him. Such cases are, however, believed to be rare. The Marāthas proper forbid widow-marriage, but the lower +groups allow it. If a maiden is seduced by one of the caste she may be married to him as if she were a widow, a fine being +imposed on her family; but if she goes wrong with an outsider she is finally expelled. Divorce is not ostensibly allowed but +may be concluded by agreement between the parties. A wife who commits adultery is cast off and expelled from the caste. The +caste burn their <a id="d0e6936"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e6936">204</a>]</span>dead when they can afford it and perform the <i>shrāddh</i> ceremony in the month of <i>Kunwār</i> (September), when oblations are offered to the dead and a feast is given to the caste-fellows. Sometimes a tomb is erected +as a memorial to the dead, but without his name, and is surmounted usually by an image of Mahādeo. The caste eat the flesh +of clean animals and of fowls and wild pig, and drink liquor. Their rules about food are liberal like those of the Rājpūts, +a too great stringency being no doubt in both cases incompatible with the exigencies of military service. They make no difference +between food cooked with or without water, and will accept either from a Brāhman, Rājpūt, Tirole Kunbi, Lingāyat Bania or +Phūlmāli. + +</p> +<p>The Marāthas proper observe the <i>parda</i> system with regard to their women, and will go to the well and draw water themselves rather than permit their wives to do +so. The women wear ornaments only of gold or glass and not of silver or any baser metal. They are not permitted to spin cotton +as being an occupation of the lower classes. The women are tattooed in the centre of the forehead with a device resembling +a trident. The men commonly wear a turban made of many folds of cloth twisted into a narrow rope and large gold rings with +pearls in the upper part of the ear. Like the Rājpūts they often have their hair long and wear beards and whiskers. They assume +the sacred thread and invest a boy with it when he is seven or eight years old or on his marriage. Till then they let the +hair grow on the front of his head, and when the thread ceremony is performed they cut this off and let the <i>choti</i> or scalp-lock grow at the back. In appearance the men are often tall and well-built and of a light wheat-coloured complexion. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e6952"> +<h3>7. Religion</h3> +<p>The principal deity of the Marāthas is Khandoba, a warrior incarnation of Mahādeo. He is supposed to have been born in a field +of millet near Poona and to have led the people against the Muhammadans in early times. He had a watch-dog who warned him +of the approach of his enemies, and he is named after the <i>khanda</i> or sword which he always carried. In Bombay<a id="d0e6960src" href="#d0e6960" class="noteref">16</a> he is represented on horseback with <a id="d0e6965"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e6965">205</a>]</span>two women, one of the Bania caste, his wedded wife, in front of him, and another, a Dhangarin, his kept mistress, behind. +He is considered the tutelary deity of the Marātha country, and his symbol is a bag of turmeric powder known as <i>bhandār</i>. The caste worship Khandoba on Sundays with rice, flowers and incense, and also on the 21st day of Māgh (January), which +is called <i>Champa Sashthi</i> and is his special festival. On this day they will catch hold of any dog, and after adorning him with flowers and turmeric +give him a good feed and let him go again. The Marāthas are generally kind to dogs and will not injure them. At the Dasahra +festival the caste worship their horses and swords and go out into the field to see a blue-jay in memory of the fact that +the Marātha marauding expeditions started on Dasahra. On coming back they distribute to each other leaves of the <i>shami</i> tree (<i>Bauhinia racemosa</i>) as a substitute for gold. It was formerly held to be fitting among the Hindus that the warrior should ride a horse (geldings +being unknown) and the zamīndār or landowner a mare, as more suitable to a man of peace. The warriors celebrated their Dasahra, +and worshipped their horses on the tenth day of the light fortnight of <i>Kunwār</i> (September), while the cultivators held their festival and worshipped their mares on the ninth day. It is recorded that the +great Rāghuji Bhonsla, the first Rāja of Nāgpur, held his Dasahra on the ninth day, in order to proclaim the fact that he +was by family an agriculturist and only incidentally a man of arms.<a id="d0e6982src" href="#d0e6982" class="noteref">17</a> + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e6988"> +<h3>8. Present position of the caste</h3> +<p>The Marāthas present the somewhat melancholy spectacle of an impoverished aristocratic class attempting to maintain some semblance +of their former position, though they no longer have the means to do so. They flourished during two or three centuries of +almost continuous war, and became a wealthy and powerful caste, but they find a difficulty in turning their hands to the arts +of peace. Sir R. Craddock writes of them in Nāgpur: + +</p> +<p>“Among the Marāthas a large number represent connections of the Bhonsla family, related by marriage or by illegitimate descent +to that house. A considerable proportion of the Government political pensioners are Marāthas. <a id="d0e6995"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e6995">206</a>]</span>Many of them own villages or hold tenant land, but as a rule they are extravagant in their living; and several of the old +Marātha nobility have fallen very much in the world. Pensions diminish with each generation, but the expenditure shows no +corresponding decrease. The sons are brought up to no employment and the daughters are married with lavish pomp and show. +The native army does not much attract them, and but few are educated well enough for the dignified posts in the civil employ +of Government. It is a question whether their pride of race will give way before the necessity of earning their livelihood +soon enough for them to maintain or regain some of their former position. Otherwise those with the largest landed estates +may be saved by the intervention of Government, but the rest must gradually deteriorate till the dignities of their class +have become a mere memory. The humbler members of the caste find their employment as petty contractors or traders, private +servants, Government peons, <i>sowārs</i> and hangers-on in the retinue of the more important families. + +</p> +<p>“What<a id="d0e7002src" href="#d0e7002" class="noteref">18</a> little display his means afford a Marātha still tries to maintain. Though he may be clad in rags at home, he has a spare +dress which he himself washes and keeps with great care and puts on when he goes to pay a visit. He will hire a boy to attend +him with a lantern at night, or to take care of his shoes when he goes to a friend’s house and hold them before him when he +comes out. Well-to-do Marāthas have usually in their service a Brāhman clerk known as <i>divānji</i> or minister, who often takes advantage of his master’s want of education to defraud him. A Marātha seldom rises early or +goes out in the morning. He will get up at seven or eight o’clock, a late hour for a Hindu, and attend to business if he has +any or simply idle about chewing or smoking tobacco and talking till ten o’clock. He will then bathe and dress in a freshly-washed +cloth and bow before the family gods which the priest has already worshipped. He will dine, chew betel and smoke tobacco and +enjoy a short midday rest. Rising at three, he will play cards, dice or chess, and in the evening will go out walking or riding +or <a id="d0e7011"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e7011">207</a>]</span>pay a visit to a friend. He will come back at eight or nine and go to bed at ten or eleven. But Marāthas who have estates +to manage lead regular, fairly busy lives.” + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e7013"> +<h3>9. Nature of the Marātha insurrection</h3> +<p>Sir D. Ibbetson drew attention to the fact that the rising of the Marāthas against the Muhammadans was almost the only instance +in Indian history of what might correctly be called a really national movement. In other cases, as that of the Sikhs, though +the essential motive was perhaps of the same nature, it was obscured by the fact that its ostensible tendency was religious. +The <i>gurus</i> of the Sikhs did not call on their followers to fight for their country but for a new religion. This was only in accordance +with the Hindu intellect, to which the idea of nationality has hitherto been foreign, while its protests against both alien +and domestic tyrannies tend to take the shape of a religious revolt. A similar tendency is observable even in the case of +the Marāthas, for the rising was from its inception largely engineered by the Marātha Brāhmans, who on its success hastened +to annex for themselves a leading position in the new Poona state. And it has been recorded that in calling his countrymen +to arms, Sivaji did not ask them to defend their hearths and homes or wives and children, but to rally for the protection +of the sacred persons of Brāhmans and cows. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e7021"> +<h3>10. Marātha women in past times</h3> +<p>Although the Marāthas have now in imitation of the Rājpūts and Muhammadans adopted the <i>parda</i> system, this is not a native custom, and women have played quite an important part in their history. The women of the household +have also exercised a considerable influence and their opinions are treated with respect by the men. Several instances occur +in which women of high rank have successfully acted as governors and administrators. In the Bhonsla family the Princess Bāka +Bāi, widow of Raghūji II., is a conspicuous instance, while the famous or notorious Rāni of Jhānsi is another case of a Marātha +lady who led her troops in person, and was called the best man on the native side in the Mutiny. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e7029"> +<h3>11. The Marātha horseman</h3> +<p>This article may conclude with one or two extracts to give an idea of the way in which the Marātha soldiery took the field. +Grant Duff describes the troopers as follows: +<a id="d0e7034"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e7034">208</a>]</span></p> +<p>“The Marātha horsemen are commonly dressed in a pair of light breeches covering the knee, a turban which many of them fasten +by passing a fold of it under the chin, a frock of quilted cotton, and a cloth round the waist, with which they generally +gird on their swords in preference to securing them with their belts. The horseman is armed with a sword and shield; a proportion +in each body carry matchlocks, but the great national weapon is the spear, in the use of which and the management of their +horse they evince both grace and dexterity. The spearmen have generally a sword, and sometimes a shield; but the latter is +unwieldy and only carried in case the spear should be broken. The trained spearmen may always be known by their riding very +long, the ball of the toe touching the stirrup; some of the matchlockmen and most of the Brāhmans ride very short and ungracefully. +The bridle consists of a single headstall of cotton-rope, with a small but very severe flexible bit” + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e7037"> +<h3>12. Cavalry in the field</h3> +<p>The following account of the Marātha cavalry is given in General Hislop’s <i>Summary of the Marātha and Pindāri Campaigns</i> of 1817–1819: + +</p> +<p>“The Marāthas possess extraordinary skill in horsemanship, and so intimate an acquaintance with their horses, that they can +make their animals do anything, even in full speed, in halting, wheeling, etc.; they likewise use the spear with remarkable +dexterity, sometimes in full gallop, grasping their spears short and quickly sticking the point in the ground; still holding +the handles, they turn their horse suddenly round it, thus performing on the point of a spear as on a pivot the same circle +round and round again. Their horses likewise never leave the particular class or body to which they belong; so that if the +rider should be knocked off, away gallops the animal after its fellows, never separating itself from the main body. Every +Marātha brings his own horse and his own arms with him to the field, and possibly in the interest they possess in this private +equipment we shall find their usual shyness to expose themselves or even to make a bold vigorous attack. But if armies or +troops could be frightened by appearances these horses of the Marāthas would dishearten the bravest, actually darkening the +plains with their numbers and clouding the horizon with <a id="d0e7047"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e7047">209</a>]</span>dust for miles and miles around. A little fighting, however, goes a great way with them, as with most others of the native +powers in India.” + +</p> +<p>On this account the Marāthas were called <i>razāh-bazān</i> or lance-wielders. One Muhammadan historian says: “They so use the lance that no cavalry can cope with them. Some 20,000 +or 30,000 lances are held up against their enemy so close together as not to leave a span between their heads. If horsemen +try to ride them down the points of the spears are levelled at the assailants and they are unhorsed. While cavalry are charging +them they strike their lances against each other and the noise so frightens the horses of the enemy that they turn round and +bolt.”<a id="d0e7054src" href="#d0e7054" class="noteref">19</a> The battle-cries of the Marāthas were, ‘<i>Har, Har Mahādeo</i>,’ and ‘<i>Gopāl, Gopāl</i>.’<a id="d0e7066src" href="#d0e7066" class="noteref">20</a> + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e7071"> +<h3>13. Military administration</h3> +<p>An interesting description of the internal administration of the Marātha cavalry is contained in the letter on the Marāthas +by Colonel Tone already quoted. But his account must refer to a period of declining efficiency and cannot represent the military +system at its best: + +</p> +<p>“In the great scale of rank and eminence which is one peculiar feature of Hindu institutions the Marātha holds a very inferior +situation, being just removed one degree above those castes which are considered absolutely unclean. He is happily free from +the rigorous observances as regards food which fetter the actions of the higher castes. He can eat of all kinds of food with +the exception of beef; can dress his meal at all times and seasons; can partake of all victuals dressed by any caste superior +to his own; washing and praying are not indispensable in his order and may be practised or omitted at pleasure. The three +great tribes which compose the Marātha caste are the Kunbi or farmer, the Dhangar or shepherd and the Goāla or cowherd; to +this original cause may perhaps be ascribed that great simplicity of manner which distinguishes the Marātha people. Homer +mentions princesses going in person to the fountain to wash their household linen. I can affirm having seen the daughters +of a prince who was able to bring an army into the field much larger than the whole Greek confederacy, <a id="d0e7078"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e7078">210</a>]</span>making bread with their own hands and otherwise employed in the ordinary business of domestic housewifery. I have seen one +of the most powerful chiefs of the Empire, after a day of action, assisting in kindling a fire to keep himself warm during +the night, and sitting on the ground on a spread saddle-cloth dictating to his secretaries. + +</p> +<p>“The chief military force of the Marāthas consists in their cavalry, which may be divided into four distinct classes: First +the Khāsi Pagah or household forces of the prince; these are always a fine well-appointed body, the horses excellent, being +the property of the Sirkār, who gives a monthly allowance to each trooper of the value of about eight rupees. The second class +are the cavalry furnished by the Sillādārs,<a id="d0e7082src" href="#d0e7082" class="noteref">21</a> who contract to supply a certain number of horse on specified terms, generally about Rs. 35 a month, including the trooper’s +pay. The third and most numerous description are volunteers, who join the camp bringing with them their own horse and accoutrements; +their pay is generally from Rs. 40 to Rs. 50 a month in proportion to the value of their horse. There is a fourth kind of +native cavalry called Pindāris, who are mere marauders, serve without any pay and subsist but by plunder, a fourth part of +which they give to the Sirkār; but these are so very licentious a body that they are not employed but in one or two of the +Marātha services. + +</p> +<p>“The troops collected in this manner are under no discipline whatever and engage for no specific period, but quit the army +whenever they please; with the exception of furnishing a picquet while in camp, they do no duty but in the day of battle. + +</p> +<p>“The Marātha cavalry is always irregularly and badly paid; the household troops scarcely ever receive money, but are furnished +with a daily allowance of coarse flour and some other ingredients from the bazār which just enable them to exist. The Sillādār +is very nearly as badly <a id="d0e7092"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e7092">211</a>]</span>situated. In his arrangements with the State he has allotted to him a certain proportion of jungle where he pastures his cattle; +here he and his family reside, and his sole occupation when not on actual service is increasing his Pagah or troop by breeding +out of his mares, of which the Marātha cavalry almost entirely consist. There are no people in the world who understand the +method of rearing and multiplying the breed of cattle equal to the Marāthas. It is by no means uncommon for a Sillādār to +enter a service with one mare and in a few years be able to muster a very respectable Pagah. They have many methods of rendering +the animal prolific; they back their colts much earlier than we do and they are consequently more valuable as they come sooner +on the effective strength. + +</p> +<p>“When called upon for actual service the Sillādār is obliged to give muster. Upon this occasion it is always necessary that +the Brāhman who takes it should have a bribe; and indeed the Hāzri, as the muster is termed, is of such a nature that it could +not pass by any fair or honourable means. Not only any despicable <i>tattus</i> are substituted in the place of horses but animals are borrowed to fill up the complement. Heel-ropes and grain-bags are +produced as belonging to cattle supposed to be at grass; in short every mode is practised to impose on the Sirkār, which in +turn reimburses itself by irregular and bad payments; for it is always considered if the Sillādārs receive six months’ arrears +out of the year that they are exceedingly well paid. The Volunteers who join the camp are still worse situated, as they have +no collective force, and money is very seldom given in a Marātha State without being extorted. In one word, the native cavalry +are the worst-paid body of troops in the world. But there is another grand error in this mode of raising troops which is productive +of the worst effects. Every man in a Marātha camp is totally independent; he is the proprietor of the horse he rides, which +he is never inclined to risk, since without it he can get no service. This single circumstance destroys all enterprise and +spirit in the soldier, whose sole business, instead of being desirous of distinguishing himself, is to keep out of the way +of danger; for notwithstanding <a id="d0e7099"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e7099">212</a>]</span>every horseman on entering a service has a certain value put upon his horse, yet should he lose it even in action he never +receives any compensation or at least none proportioned to his loss. If at any time a Sillādār is disgusted with the service +he can go away without meeting any molestation even though in the face of an enemy. In fact the pay is in general so shamefully +irregular that a man is justified in resorting to any measure, however apparently unbecoming, to attain it. It is also another +very curious circumstance attending this service that many great Sillādārs have troops in the pay of two or three chiefs at +the same time, who are frequently at open war with each other. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e7101"> +<h3>14. Sitting Dharna</h3> +<p>“To recover an arrear of pay there is but one known mode which is universally adopted in all native services, the Mughal as +well as the Marātha; this is called Dharna,<a id="d0e7106src" href="#d0e7106" class="noteref">22</a> which consists in putting the debtor, be he who he will, into a state of restraint or imprisonment, until satisfaction be +given or the money actually obtained. Any person in the Sirkār’s service has a right to demand his pay of the Prince or his +minister, and to sit in Dharna if it be not given; nor will he meet with the least hindrance in doing so; for none would obey +an order that interfered with the Dharna, as it is a common cause; nor does the soldier incur the slightest charge of mutiny +for his conduct, or suffer in the smallest manner in the opinion of his Chief, so universal is the custom. The Dharna is sometimes +carried to very violent lengths and may either be executed on the Prince or his minister indifferently, with the same effect; +as the Chief always makes it a point of honour not to eat or drink while his Diwān is in duress; sometimes the Dharna lasts +for many days, during which time the party upon whom it is exercised is not suffered to eat or drink or wash or pray, or in +short is not permitted to move from the spot where he sits, which is frequently bare-headed in the sun, until the money or +security be given; so general is this mode of recovery that I suppose the Marātha Chiefs may be said to be nearly one-half +of their time in a state of Dharna. +<a id="d0e7109"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e7109">213</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e7110"> +<h3>15. The infantry</h3> +<p>“In the various Marātha services there are very little more than a bare majority who are Marāthas by caste, and very few instances +occur of their ever entering into the infantry at all. The sepoys in the pay of the different princes are recruited in Hindustān, +and principally of the Rājpūt and Pūrbia caste; these are perhaps the finest race of men in the world for figure and appearance; +of lofty stature, strong, graceful and athletic; of acute feelings, high military pride, quick, apprehensive, brave, prudent +and economic; at the same time it must be confessed they are impatient of discipline, and naturally inclined to mutiny. They +are mere soldiers of fortune and serve only for their pay. There are also a great number of Musalmāns who serve in the different +Marātha armies, some of whom have very great commands. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e7115"> +<h3>16. Character of the Marātha armies</h3> +<p>“The Marātha cavalry at times make very long and rapid marches, in which they do not suffer themselves to be interrupted by +the monsoon or any violence of weather. In very pressing exigencies it is incredible the fatigue a Marātha horseman will endure; +frequently many days pass without his enjoying one regular meal, but he depends entirely for subsistence on the different +corn-fields through which the army passes: a few heads of juāri, which he chafes in his hands while on horseback, will serve +him for the day; his horse subsists on the same fare, and with the addition of opium, which the Marāthas frequently administer +to their cattle, is enabled to perform incredible marches.” + +</p> +<p>The above analysis of the Marātha troops indicates that their real character was that of freebooting cavalry, largely of the +same type as, though no doubt greatly superior in tone and discipline to the Pindāris. Like them they lived by plundering +the country. “The Marāthas,” Elphinstone remarked, “are excellent foragers. Every morning at daybreak long lines of men on +small horses and ponies are seen issuing from their camps in all directions, who return before night loaded with fodder for +the cattle, with firewood torn down from houses, and grain dug up from the pits where it had been concealed by the villagers; +while other detachments go to a distance for some days and collect proportionately <a id="d0e7122"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e7122">214</a>]</span>larger supplies of the same kind.”<a id="d0e7124src" href="#d0e7124" class="noteref">23</a> They could thus dispense with a commissariat, and being nearly all mounted were able to make extraordinarily long marches, +and consequently to carry out effectively surprise attacks and when repulsed to escape injury in the retreat. Even at Pānīpat +where their largest regular force took the field under Sadāsheo Rao Bhao, he had 70,000 regular and irregular cavalry and +only 15,000 infantry, of whom 9000 were hired sepoys under a Muhammadan leader. The Marāthas were at their best in attacking +the slow-moving and effeminate Mughal armies, while during their period of national ascendancy under the Peshwa there was +no strong military power in India which could oppose their forays. When they were by the skill of their opponents at length +brought to a set battle, their fighting qualities usually proved to be distinctly poor. At Pānīpat they lost the day by a +sudden panic and flight after Ibrahīm Khān Gārdi had obtained for them a decided advantage; while at Argaon and Assaye their +performances were contemptible. After the recovery from Pānīpat and the rise of the independent Marātha states, the assistance +of European officers was invoked to discipline and train the soldiery.<a id="d0e7130src" href="#d0e7130" class="noteref">24</a> +<a id="d0e7135"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e7135">215</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e6779" href="#d0e6779src" class="noteref">1</a></span> Sir H. Risley’s <i>India Census Report</i> (1901), Ethnographic Appendices, p. 93. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e6789" href="#d0e6789src" class="noteref">2</a></span> P. 48, footnote. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e6792" href="#d0e6792src" class="noteref">3</a></span> <i>Nāsik Gazetteer</i>, <i>ibidem</i>. Elphinstone’s <i>History</i>, p. 246. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e6808" href="#d0e6808src" class="noteref">4</a></span> The proper spelling is Bhosle, but Bhonsla is adopted in deference to established usage. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e6811" href="#d0e6811src" class="noteref">5</a></span> <i>Bombay Census Report</i> (1901), pp. 184–185. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e6818" href="#d0e6818src" class="noteref">6</a></span> <i>Rājasthān</i>, i. 269. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e6823" href="#d0e6823src" class="noteref">7</a></span> <i>Ibidem</i>, ii. 420. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e6828" href="#d0e6828src" class="noteref">8</a></span> <i>Sholapur Gazetteer</i>, p. 87. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e6833" href="#d0e6833src" class="noteref">9</a></span> <i>Satāra Gazetteer</i>, p. 64. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e6841" href="#d0e6841src" class="noteref">10</a></span> <i>Ibidem</i>, p. 75. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e6848" href="#d0e6848src" class="noteref">11</a></span> <i>Bombay Census Report</i> (1907), <i>ibidem</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e6856" href="#d0e6856src" class="noteref">12</a></span> <i>Letter on the Marāthas</i> (India Office Tracts). +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e6880" href="#d0e6880src" class="noteref">13</a></span> <i>Satāra Gazetteer</i>, p. 75. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e6894" href="#d0e6894src" class="noteref">14</a></span> Grant-Duff, 4th edition (1878), vol. i. pp. 70–72. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e6908" href="#d0e6908src" class="noteref">15</a></span> Forsyth, <i>Nimār Settlement Report</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e6960" href="#d0e6960src" class="noteref">16</a></span> <i>Bombay Gazetteer</i>, vol. xviii. part i. pp. 413–414. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e6982" href="#d0e6982src" class="noteref">17</a></span> Elliott, <i>Hoshangābād Settlement Report</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7002" href="#d0e7002src" class="noteref">18</a></span> The following description is taken from the Ethnographic Appendices to Sir H.H. Risley’s <i>India Census Report</i> of 1901. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7054" href="#d0e7054src" class="noteref">19</a></span> Irvine’s <i>Army of the Mughals</i>, p. 82. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7066" href="#d0e7066src" class="noteref">20</a></span> <i>Ibidem</i>, p. 232. Gopāl is a name of Krishna. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7082" href="#d0e7082src" class="noteref">21</a></span> Lit. armour-bearers. Colonel Tone writes: “I apprehend from the meaning of this term that it was formerly the custom of this +nation, as was the case in Europe, to appear in armour. I have frequently seen a kind of coat-of-mail worn by the Marātha +horsemen, known as a <i>beuta</i>, which resembles our ancient hauberk; it is made of chain work, interlinked throughout, fits close to the body and adapts +itself to all its motions.” +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7106" href="#d0e7106src" class="noteref">22</a></span> In order to obtain redress by Dharna the creditor or injured person would sit starving himself outside his debtor’s door, +and if he died the latter would be held to have committed a mortal sin and would be haunted by his ghost; see also article +on Bhāt. The account here given must be exaggerated. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7124" href="#d0e7124src" class="noteref">23</a></span> Elphinstone’s <i>History</i>, 7th ed. p. 748. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7130" href="#d0e7130src" class="noteref">24</a></span> <i>Ibidem</i>, p. 753. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e7136" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Mehtar</h2> +<p>[<i>Bibliography</i>: Mr. R. Greeven’s <i>Knights of the Broom, Benāres</i> 1894 (pamphlet); Mr. Crooke’s <i>Tribes and Castes</i>, art. Bhangi; Sir H. Risley’s <i>Tribes and Castes</i>, art. Hari; Sir E. Maclagan’s <i>Punjab Census Report</i>, 1891 (Sweeper Sects); Sir D. Ibbetson’s <i>Punjab Census Report</i>, 1881 (art. Chuhra); <i>Bombay Gazetteer, Hindus of Gujarāt</i>, Mr. Bhimbhai Kirparam.] + +</p> +<h3>List of Paragraphs</h3> +<ul> +<li><a href="#d0e7264">1. Introductory notice</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e7302">2. Caste subdivisions</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e7315">3. Social organisation</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e7325">4. Caste punishments</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e7332">5. Admission of outsiders</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e7339">6. Marriage customs</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e7357">7. Disposal of the dead</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e7374">8. Devices for procuring children</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e7384">9. Divination of sex</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e7389">10. Childbirth</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e7396">11. Treatment of the mother</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e7437">12. Protecting the lives of children</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e7447">13. Infantile diseases</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e7461">14. Religion. Vālmīki</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e7480">15. Lālbeg</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e7499">16. Adoption of foreign religions</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e7520">17. Social status</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e7556">18. Occupation</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e7619">19. Occupation (continued)</a></li> +</ul> +<div class="div2" id="d0e7264"> +<h3>1. Introductory notice</h3> +<p><b>Mehtar, Bhangi, Hari,<a id="d0e7270src" href="#d0e7270" class="noteref">1</a> Dom, Lālbegi.</b>—The caste of sweepers and scavengers. In 1911 persons returning themselves as Mehtar, Bhangi and Dom were separately classified, +and the total of all three was only 30,000. In this Province they generally confine themselves to their hereditary occupation +of scavenging, and are rarely met with outside the towns and large villages. In most localities the supply of sweepers does +not meet the demand. The case is quite different in northern India, where the sweeper castes—the Chuhra in the Punjab, the +Bhangi in the United Provinces and the Dom in Bengal—are all of them of great numerical strength. With these castes only a +small proportion are employed on scavengers’ work and the rest are labourers <a id="d0e7274"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e7274">216</a>]</span>like the Chamārs and Mahārs of the Central Provinces. The present sweeper caste is made up of diverse elements, and the name +Mehtar, generally applied to it, is a title meaning a prince or leader. Its application to the caste, the most abject and +despised in the Hindu community, is perhaps partly ironical; but all the low castes have honorific titles, which are used +as a method of address either from ordinary politeness or by those requiring some service, on the principle, as the Hindus +say, that you may call an ass your uncle if you want him to do something for you. The regular caste of sweepers in northern +India are the Bhangis, whose name is derived by Mr. Crooke from the Sanskrit <i>bhanga,</i> hemp, in allusion to the drunken habits of the caste. In support of this derivation he advances the Beria custom of calling +their leaders Bhangi or hemp-drinker as a title of honour.<a id="d0e7279src" href="#d0e7279" class="noteref">2</a> In Mr. Greeven’s account also, Lālbeg, the patron saint of the sweepers, is described as intoxicated with the hemp drug on +two occasions.<a id="d0e7282src" href="#d0e7282" class="noteref">3</a> Mr. Bhīmbhai Kirpārām suggests<a id="d0e7285src" href="#d0e7285" class="noteref">4</a> that Bhangia means broken, and is applied to the sweepers because they split bamboos. In Kaira, he states, the regular trade +of the Bhangias is the plaiting of baskets and other articles of split bamboo, and in that part of Gujarāt if a Koli is asked +to split a bamboo he will say, ‘Am I to do Bhangia’s work?’ The derivation from the hemp-plant is, however, the more probable. +In the Punjab, sweepers are known as Chuhra, and this, name has been derived from their business of collecting and sweeping +up scraps (<i>chūra-jhārna</i>) Similarly, in Bombay they are known as Olganas or scrap-eaters. The Bengal name Hāri is supposed to come from <i>haddi</i>, a bone; the Hāri is the bone-gatherer, and was familiar to early settlers of Calcutta under the quaint designation of the +‘harry-wench,’<a id="d0e7294src" href="#d0e7294" class="noteref">5</a> In the Central Provinces sections of the Ghasia, Mahār and Dom castes will do sweepers’ work, and are therefore amalgamated +with the Mehtars. The caste is thus of mixed constitution, and also forms a refuge for persons expelled from their own societies +for social offences. But though called by different names, <a id="d0e7300"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e7300">217</a>]</span>the sweeper community in most provinces appears to have the same stock of traditions and legends. The name of Mehtar is now +generally employed, and has therefore been taken as the designation of the caste. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e7302"> +<h3>2. Caste subdivisions</h3> +<p>Mr. Greeven gives seven main subdivisions, of which the Lālbegis or the followers of Lālbeg, the patron saint of sweepers, +are the most important. The Rāwats appear to be an aristocratic subdivision of the Lālbegis, their name being a corruption +of the Sanskrit Rājpūtra, a prince. The Shaikh Mehtars are the only real Muhammadan branch, for though the Lālbegis worship +a Musalmān saint they remain Hindus. The Hāris or bone-gatherers, as already stated, are the sweepers of Bengal. The Helas +may either be those who carry baskets of sweepings, or may derive their name from <i>hela</i>, a cry; and in that case they are so called as performing the office of town-criers, a function which the Bhangi usually +still discharges in northern India<a id="d0e7310src" href="#d0e7310" class="noteref">6</a>. The other subcastes in his list are the Dhānuks or bowmen and the Bānsphors or cleavers of bamboos. In the Central Provinces +the Shaikh Mehtars belong principally to Nāgpur, and another subcaste, the Makhia, is also found in the Marātha Districts +and in Berar; those branches of the Ghasia and Dom castes who consent to do scavengers’ work now form separate subcastes of +Mehtars in the same locality, and another group are called Narnolia, being said to take their name from a place called Narnol +in the Punjab. The Lālbegis are often considered here as Muhammadans rather than Hindus, and bury their dead. In Saugor the +sweepers are said to be divided into Lālbegis or Muhammadans and Doms or Hindus. The Lālbegi, Dom or Dumar and the Hela are +the principal subcastes of the north of the Province, and Chuhra Mehtars are found in Chhattīsgarh. Each subcaste is divided +into a number of exogamous sections named after plants and animals. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e7315"> +<h3>3. Social organisation</h3> +<p>In Benāres each subdivision, Mr. Greeven states, has an elaborate and quasi-military organisation. Thus the Lālbegi sweepers +have eight companies or <i>berhas</i>, consisting of the sweepers working in different localities; these are the Sadar, or those employed by private residents +in cantonments; <a id="d0e7323"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e7323">218</a>]</span>the Kāli Paltan, who serve the Bengal Infantry; the Lāl Kurti, or Red-coats, who are employed by the British Infantry; the +Teshan (station), or those engaged at the three railway stations of the town; the Shahar, or those of the city; the Rāmnagar, +taking their name from the residence of the Mahārāja of Benāres, whom they serve; the Kothīwāl, or Bungalow men, who belong +to residents in the civil lines; and lastly the Genereli, who are the descendants of sweepers employed at the military headquarters +when Benāres was commanded by a General of Division. This special organisation is obviously copied from that of the garrison +and is not found in other localities, but deserves mention for its own interest. All the eight companies are commanded by +a Brigadier, the local head of the caste, whose office is now almost hereditary; his principal duty is to give two dinners +to the whole caste on election, with sweetmeats to the value of fourteen rupees. Each company has four officers—a Jamādār +or president, a Munsif or spokesman, a Chaudhari or treasurer and a Nāib or summoner. These offices are also practically hereditary, +if the candidate entitled by birth can afford to give a dinner to the whole subcaste and a turban to each President of a company. +All the other members of the company are designated as Sipāhis or soldiers. A caste dispute is first considered by the inferior +officers of each company, who report their view to the President; he confers with the other Presidents, and when an agreement +has been reached the sentence is formally confirmed by the Brigadier. When any dispute arises, the aggrieved party, depositing +a process-fee of a rupee and a quarter, addresses the officers of his company. Unless the question is so trivial that it can +be settled without caste punishments, the President fixes a time and place, of which notice is given to the messengers of +the other companies; each of these receives a fee of one and a quarter annas and informs all the Sipāhis in his company. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e7325"> +<h3>4. Caste punishments</h3> +<p>Only worthy members of the caste, Mr. Greeven continues, are allowed to sit on the tribal matting and smoke the tribal pipe +(huqqa). The proceedings begin with the outspreading (usually symbolic) of a carpet and the smoking of <a id="d0e7330"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e7330">219</a>]</span>a water-pipe handed in turn to each clansman. For this purpose the members sit on the carpet in three lines, the officers +in front and the private soldiers behind. The parties and their witnesses are heard and examined, and a decision is pronounced. +The punishments imposed consist of fines, compulsory dinners and expulsion from the caste; expulsion being inflicted for failure +to comply with an order of fine or entertainment. The formal method of outcasting consists in seating the culprit on the ground +and drawing the tribal mat over his head, from which the turban is removed; after this the messengers of the eight companies +inflict a few taps with slippers and birch brooms. It is alleged that unfaithful women were formerly tied naked to trees and +flogged with birch brooms, but that owing to the fatal results that occasionally followed such punishment, as in the case +of the five kicks among Chamārs (tanners) and the scourging with the clothes line which used to prevail among Dhobis (washer +men), the caste has now found it expedient to abandon these practices. When an outcaste is readmitted on submission, whether +by paying a fine or giving a dinner, he is seated apart from the tribal mat and does penance by holding his ears with his +hands and confessing his offence. A new huqqa, which he supplies, is carried round by the messenger, and a few whiffs are +taken by all the officers and Sipāhis in turn. The messenger repeats to the culprit the council’s order, and informs him that +should he again offend his punishment will be doubled. With this warning he hands him the water-pipe, and after smoking this +the offender is admitted to the carpet and all is forgotten in a banquet at his expense. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e7332"> +<h3>5. Admission of outsiders</h3> +<p>The sweepers will freely admit outsiders into their community, and the caste forms a refuge for persons expelled from their +own societies for sexual or moral offences. Various methods are employed for the initiation of a neophyte; in some places +he, or more frequently she, is beaten with a broom made of wood taken from a bier, and has to give a feast to the caste; in +others a slight wound is made in his body and the blood of another sweeper is allowed to flow on to it so that they mix; and +a glass of sherbet and sugar, known as the cup of nectar, is prepared <a id="d0e7337"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e7337">220</a>]</span>by the priest and all the members of the committee put their fingers into it, after which it is given to the candidate to +drink; or he has to drink water mixed with cowdung into which the caste-people have dipped their little fingers, and a lock +of his hair is cut off. Or he fasts all day at the shrine of Lālbeg and in the evening drinks sherbet after burning incense +at the shrine; and gives three feasts, the first on the bank of a tank, the second in his courtyard and the third in his house, +representing his gradual purification for membership; at this last he puts a little water into every man’s cup and receives +from him a piece of bread, and so becomes a fully qualified caste-man. Owing to this reinforcement from higher castes, and +perhaps also to their flesh diet, the sweepers are not infrequently taller and stronger as well as lighter in colour than +the average Hindu. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e7339"> +<h3>6. Marriage customs</h3> +<p>The marriage ceremony in the Central Provinces follows the ordinary Hindu ritual. The <i>lagan</i> or paper fixing the date of the wedding is written by a Brāhman, who seats himself at some distance from the sweeper’s house +and composes the letter. This paper must not be seen by the bride or bridegroom, nor may its contents be read to them, as +it is believed that to do so would cause them to fall ill during the ceremony. Before the bridegroom starts for the wedding +his mother waves a wooden pestle five times over his head, passing it between his legs and shoulders. After this the bridegroom +breaks two lamp-saucers with his right foot, steps over the rice-pounder and departs for the bride’s house without looking +behind him. The <i>sawāsas</i> or relatives of the parties usually officiate at the ceremony, but the well-to-do sometimes engage a Brāhman, who sits at +a distance from the house and calls out his instructions. When a man wishes to marry a widow he must pay six rupees to the +caste committee and give a feast to the community. Divorce is permitted for incompatibility of temper, or immorality on the +part of the wife, or if the husband suffers from leprosy or impotence. Among the Lālbegis, when a man wishes to get rid of +his wife he assembles the brethren and in their presence says to her, ‘You are as my sister,’ and she answers, ‘You are as +my father and brother.’<a id="d0e7350src" href="#d0e7350" class="noteref">7</a> +<a id="d0e7356"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e7356">221</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e7357"> +<h3>7. Disposal of the dead</h3> +<p>The dead are usually buried, but the well-to-do sometimes cremate them. In Benāres the face or hand of the corpse is scorched +with fire to symbolise cremation and it is then buried. In the Punjab the ghosts of sweepers are considered to be malevolent +and are much dreaded; and their bodies are therefore always buried or burnt face downwards to prevent the spirit escaping; +and riots have taken place and the magistrates have been appealed to to prevent a Chuhra from being buried face upwards.<a id="d0e7362src" href="#d0e7362" class="noteref">8</a> In Benāres as the body is lowered into the grave the sheet is withdrawn for a moment from the features of the departed to +afford him one last glimpse of the heavens, while with Muhammadans the face is turned towards Mecca. Each clansman flings +a handful of dust over the corpse, and after the earth is filled in crumbles a little bread and sugar-cake and sprinkles water +upon the grave. A provision of bread, sweetmeats and water is also left upon it for the soul of the departed.<a id="d0e7368src" href="#d0e7368" class="noteref">9</a> In the Central Provinces the body of a man is covered with a white winding-sheet and that of a woman with a red one. If the +death occurs during the lunar conjunction known as Panchak, four human images of flour are made and buried with the dead man, +as they think that if this is not done four more deaths will occur in the family. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e7374"> +<h3>8. Devices for procuring children</h3> +<p>If a woman greatly desires a child she will go to a shrine and lay a stone on it which she calls the <i>dharna</i> or deposit or pledge. Then she thinks that she has put the god under an obligation to give her a child. She vows that if +she becomes pregnant within a certain period, six or nine months, she will make an offering of a certain value. If the pregnancy +comes she goes to the temple, makes the offering and removes the stone. If the desired result does not happen, however, she +considers that the god has broken his obligation and ceases to worship him. If a barren woman desires a child she should steal +on a Sunday or a Wednesday a strip from the body-cloth of a fertile woman when it is hung out to dry; or she may steal a piece +of rope from the bed in which a woman has been delivered of a child, or a piece of the baby’s soiled swaddling clothes or +a <a id="d0e7382"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e7382">222</a>]</span>piece of cloth stained with the blood of a fertile woman. This last she will take and bury in a cemetery and the others wear +round her waist; then she will become fertile and the fertile woman will become barren. Another device is to obtain from the +midwife a piece of the navel-string of a newborn child and swallow it. For this reason the navel-string is always carefully +guarded and its disposal seen to. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e7384"> +<h3>9. Divination of sex</h3> +<p>If a pregnant woman is thin and ailing they think a boy will be born; but if fat and well that it will be a girl. In order +to divine the sex of a coming child they pour a little oil on the stomach of the woman; if the oil flows straight down it +is thought that a boy will be born and if crooked a girl. Similarly if the hair on the front of her body grows straight they +think the child will be a boy, but if crooked a girl; and if the swelling of pregnancy is more apparent on the right side +a boy is portended, but if on the left side a girl. If delivery is retarded they go to a gunmaker and obtain from him a gun +which has been discharged and the soiling of the barrel left uncleaned; some water is put into the barrel and shaken up and +then poured into a vessel and given to the woman to drink, and it is thought that the quality of swift movement appertaining +to the bullet which soiled the barrel will be communicated to the woman and cause the swift expulsion of the child from her +womb. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e7389"> +<h3>10. Childbirth</h3> +<p>When a woman is in labour she squats down with her legs apart holding to the bed in front of her, while the midwife rubs her +back. If delivery is retarded the midwife gets a broom and sitting behind the woman presses it on her stomach, at the same +time drawing back the upper part of her body. By this means they think the child will be forced from the womb. Or the mother +of the woman in labour will take a grinding-stone and stand holding it on her head so long as the child is not born. She says +to her daughter, ‘Take my name,’ and the daughter repeats her mother’s name aloud. Here the idea is apparently that the mother +takes on herself some of the pain which has to be endured by the daughter, and the repetition of her name by the daughter +will cause the goddess of childbirth to hasten the period of delivery in order to terminate the unjust sufferings of the mother +for which the goddess has <a id="d0e7394"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e7394">223</a>]</span>become responsible. The mother’s name exerts pressure or influence on the goddess who is at the time occupied with the daughter +or perhaps sojourning in her body. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e7396"> +<h3>11. Treatment of the mother</h3> +<p>If a child is born in the morning they will give the mother a little sugar and cocoanut to eat in the evening, but if it is +born in the evening they will give her nothing till next morning. Milk is given only sparingly as it is supposed to produce +coughing. The main idea of treatment in childbirth is to prevent either the mother or child from taking cold or chill, this +being the principal danger to which they are thought to be exposed. The door of the birth chamber is therefore kept shut and +a fire is continually burning in it night and day. The woman is not bathed for several days, and the atmosphere and general +insanitary conditions can better be imagined than described. With the same end of preventing cold they feed the mother on +a hot liquid produced by cooking thirty-six ingredients together. Most of these are considered to have the quality of producing +heat or warmth in the body, and the following are a few of them: Pepper, ginger, <i>azgan</i> (a condiment), turmeric, nutmeg, <i>ajwāin</i> (aniseed), dates, almonds, raisins, cocoanut, wild <i>singāra</i> or water-nut, cumin, <i>chironji</i>,<a id="d0e7413src" href="#d0e7413" class="noteref">10</a> the gum of the <i>babūl</i><a id="d0e7424src" href="#d0e7424" class="noteref">11</a> or <i>khair</i>,<a id="d0e7432src" href="#d0e7432" class="noteref">12</a> asafoetida, borax, saffron, clarified butter and sugar. The mixture cannot be prepared for less than two rupees and the woman +is fed on it for five days beginning from the second day after birth, if the family can afford the expense. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e7437"> +<h3>12. Protecting the lives of children</h3> +<p>If the mother’s milk runs dry, they use the dried bodies of the little fish caught in the shallow water of fields and tanks, +and sometimes supposed to have fallen down with the rain. They are boiled in a little water and the fish and water are given +to the woman to consume. Here the idea is apparently that as the fish has the quality of liquidness because it lives in water, +so by eating it this will be communicated to the breasts and the milk will flow again. If a woman’s children die, then the +next time she is in labour they bring a goat all of one colour. When the birth of the child takes place and it falls from +the womb on to the <a id="d0e7442"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e7442">224</a>]</span>ground no one must touch it, but the goat, which should if possible be of the same sex as the child, is taken and passed over +the child twenty-one times. Then they take the goat and the after-birth to a cemetery and here cut the goat’s throat by the +<i>halāl</i> rite and bury it with the after-birth. The idea is thus that the goat’s life is a substitute for that of the child. By being +passed over the child it takes the child’s evil destiny upon itself, and the burial in a cemetery causes the goat to resemble +a human being, while the after-birth communicates to it some part of the life of the child. If a mother is afraid her child +will die, she sells it for a few cowries to another woman. Of course the sale is only nominal, but the woman who has purchased +the child takes a special interest in it, and at the naming or other ceremony she will give it a jewel or such other present +as she can afford. Thus she considers that the fictitious sale has had some effect and that she has acquired a certain interest +in the child. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e7447"> +<h3>13. Infantile diseases</h3> +<p>If a baby, especially a girl, has much hair on its body, they make a cake of gram-flour and rub it with sesamum oil all over +the body, and this is supposed to remove the hair. + +</p> +<p>If a child’s skin dries up and it pines away, they think that an owl has taken away a cloth stained by the child when it was +hung out to dry. The remedy is to obtain the liver of an owl and hang it round the child’s neck. + +</p> +<p>For jaundice they get the flesh of a yellow snake which appears in the rains, and of the <i>rohu</i> fish which has yellowish scales, and hang them to its neck; or they get a verse of the Korān written out by a Maulvi or Muhammadan +priest and use this as an amulet; or they catch a small frog alive, tie it up in a yellow cloth and hang it to the child’s +neck by a blue thread until it dies. For tetanus the jaws are branded outside and a little musk is placed on the mother’s +breast so that the child may drink it with the milk. When the child begins to cut its teeth they put honey on the gums and +think that this will make the teeth slip out early as the honey is smooth and slippery. But as the child licks the gums when +the honey is on them they fear that this may cause the teeth to grow broad and crooked like the tongue. Another device is +to pass a piece of gold <a id="d0e7459"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e7459">225</a>]</span>round the child’s gums. If they want the child to have pretty teeth its maternal uncle threads a number of grains of rice +on a piece of string and hangs them round its neck, so that the teeth may grow like the rice. If the child’s navel is swollen, +the maternal uncle will go out for a walk and on his return place his turban over the navel. For averting the evil eye the +liver of the Indian badger is worn in an amulet, this badger being supposed to haunt cemeteries and feed on corpses; some +hairs of a bear also form a very favourite amulet, or a tiger’s claws set in silver, or the tail of a lizard enclosed in lac +and made into a ring. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e7461"> +<h3>14. Religion. Vālmīki</h3> +<p>The religion of the sweepers has been described at length by Mr. Greeven and Mr. Crooke. It centres round the worship of two +saints, Lālbeg or Bale Shāh and Bālnek or Bālmīk, who is really the huntsman Vālmīki, the reputed author of the Rāmāyana. +Bālmīk was originally a low-caste hunter called Ratnakār, and when he could not get game he was accustomed to rob and kill +travellers. But one day he met Brahma and wished to kill him; but he could not raise his club against Brahma, and the god +spoke and convinced him of his sins, directing him to repeat the name of Rāma until he should be purified of them. But the +hunter’s heart was so evil that he could not pronounce the divine name, and instead he repeated ‘<i>Māra, Māra</i>’ (<i>struck, struck</i>), but in the end by repetition this came to the same thing. Mr. Greeven’s account continues: “As a small spark of fire burneth +up a heap of cotton, so the word Rāma cleaneth a man of all his sins. So the words ‘Rām, Rām,’ were taught unto Ratnakār who +ever repeated them for sixty thousand years at the self-same spot with a heart sincere. All his skin was eaten up by the white +ants. Only the skeleton remained. Mud had been heaped over the body and grass had grown up, yet within the mound of mud the +saint was still repeating the name of Rāma. After sixty thousand years Brahma returned. No man could he see, yet he heard +the voice of Rām, Rām, rising from the mound of mud. Then Brahma bethought him that the saint was beneath. He besought Indra +to pour down rain and to wash away the mud. Indra complied with his request and the rain washed away the mud. The saint came +forth. Nought save <a id="d0e7472"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e7472">226</a>]</span>bones remained. Brahma called aloud to the saint. When the saint beheld him he prostrated himself and spake: ‘Thou hast taught +me the words “Rām, Rām,” which have cleansed away all my sins.’ Then spake Brahma: ‘Hitherto thou wast Ratnakār. From to-day +thy name shall be Vālmīki (from <i>valmīk</i>, an ant-hill). Now do thou compose a Rāmāyana in seven parts, containing the deeds and exploits of Rāma.’” Vālmīki had been +or afterwards became a sweeper and was known as ‘cooker of dog’s food’ (Swapach), a name applied to sweepers<a id="d0e7477src" href="#d0e7477" class="noteref">13</a>, who have adopted him as their eponymous ancestor and patron saint. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e7480"> +<h3>15. Lālbeg</h3> +<p>Lālbeg, who is still more widely venerated, is considered to have been Ghāzi Miyān, the nephew of Sultān Muhammad of Ghazni, +and a saint much worshipped in the Punjab. Many legends are told of Lālbeg, and his worship is described by Mr. Greeven as +follows:<a id="d0e7485src" href="#d0e7485" class="noteref">14</a> “The ritual of Lālbeg is conducted in the presence of the whole brotherhood, as a rule at the festival of the Diwāli and +on other occasions when special business arises. The time for worship is after sunset and if possible at midnight. His shrine +consists of a mud platform surrounded by steps, with four little turrets at the corners and a spire in the centre, in which +is placed a lamp filled with clarified butter and containing a wick of twisted tow. Incense is thrown into the flame and offerings +of cakes and sweetmeats are made. A lighted huqqa is placed before the altar and as soon as the smoke rises it is understood +that a whiff has been drawn by the hero.” A cock is offered to Lālbeg at the Dasahra festival. When a man is believed to have +been affected by the evil eye they wave a broom in front of the sufferer muttering the name of the saint. In the Damoh District +the <i>guru</i> or priest who is the successor of Lālbeg comes from the Punjab every year or two. He is richly clad and is followed by a +sweeper carrying an umbrella. Other Hindus say that his teaching is that no one who is not a Lālbegi can go to heaven, but +those on whom the dust raised by a Lālbegi sweeping settles acquire some modicum of virtue. Similarly Mr. Greeven <a id="d0e7491"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e7491">227</a>]</span>remarks:<a id="d0e7493src" href="#d0e7493" class="noteref">15</a> “Sweepers by no means endorse the humble opinion entertained with respect to them; for they allude to castes such as Kunbis +and Chamārs as petty (<i>chhota</i>), while a common anecdote is related to the effect that a Lālbegi, when asked whether Muhammadans could obtain salvation, +replied: ‘I never heard of it, but perhaps they might slip in behind Lālbeg.’” + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e7499"> +<h3>16. Adoption of foreign religions</h3> +<p>On the whole the religion of the Lālbegis appears to be monotheistic and of a sufficiently elevated character, resembling +that of the Kabīrpanthis and other reforming sects. Its claim to the exclusive possession of the way of salvation is a method +of revolt against the menial and debased position of the caste. Similarly many sweepers have become Muhammadans and Sikhs +with the same end in view, as stated by Mr. Greeven:<a id="d0e7504src" href="#d0e7504" class="noteref">16</a> “As may be readily imagined, the scavengers are merely in name the disciples of Nānak Shāh, professing in fact to be his +followers just as they are prepared at a moment’s notice to become Christians or Muhammadans. Their object is, of course, +merely to acquire a status which may elevate them above the utter degradation of their caste. The acquaintance of most of +them with the doctrines of Nānak Shāh is at zero. They know little and care less about his rules of life, habitually disregarding, +for instance, the prohibitions against smoking and hair-cutting. In fact, a scavenger at Benāres no more becomes a Sikh by +taking Nānak Shāh’s motto than he becomes a Christian by wearing a round hat and a pair of trousers.” It was probably with +a similar leaning towards the more liberal religion that the Lālbegis, though themselves Hindus, adopted a Muhammadan for +their tutelary saint. In the Punjab Muhammadan sweepers who have given up eating carrion and refuse to remove night-soil rank +higher than the others, and are known as Musalli.<a id="d0e7507src" href="#d0e7507" class="noteref">17</a> And in Saugor the Muhammadans allow the sweepers to come into a mosque and to stand at the back, whereas, of course, they +cannot approach a Hindu temple. Again in Bengal it is stated, “The Dom is regarded with both disgust and fear by all classes +of Hindus, not only on <a id="d0e7512"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e7512">228</a>]</span>account of his habits being abhorrent and abominable, but also because he is believed to have no humane or kindly feelings”; +and further, “It is universally believed that Doms do not bury or burn their dead, but dismember the corpse at night like +the inhabitants of Thibet, placing the fragments in a pot and sinking them in the nearest river or reservoir. This horrid +idea probably originated from the old Hindu law, which compelled the Doms to bury their dead at night.”<a id="d0e7514src" href="#d0e7514" class="noteref">18</a> It is not astonishing that the sweepers prefer a religion whose followers will treat them somewhat more kindly. Another Muhammadan +saint revered by the sweepers of Saugor is one Zāhir Pīr. At the fasts in Chait and Kunwār (March and September) they tie +cocoanuts wrapped in cloth to the top of a long bamboo, and marching to the tomb of Zāhir Pīr make offerings of cakes and +sweetmeats. Before starting for his day’s work the sweeper does obeisance to his basket and broom. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e7520"> +<h3>17. Social status</h3> +<p>The sweeper stands at the very bottom of the social ladder of Hinduism. He is considered to be the representative of the Chandāla +of Manu,<a id="d0e7525src" href="#d0e7525" class="noteref">19</a> who was said to be descended of a Sūdra father and a Brāhman woman. “It was ordained that the Chandāla should live without +the town; his sole wealth should be dogs and asses; his clothes should consist of the cerecloths of the dead; his dishes should +be broken pots and his ornaments rusty iron. No one who regarded his duties should hold intercourse with the Chandālas and +they should marry only among themselves. By day they might roam about for the purposes of work, but should be distinguished +by the badges of the Rāja, and should carry out the corpse of any one who died without kindred. They should always be employed +to slay those who by the law were sentenced to be put to death, and they might take the clothes of the slain, their beds and +their ornaments.” Elsewhere the Chandāla is said to rank in impurity with the town boar, the dog, a woman during her monthly +illness and a eunuch, none of whom must a Brāhman allow to see him when eating.<a id="d0e7530src" href="#d0e7530" class="noteref">20</a> Like the Chandāla, the sweeper cannot be touched, and he <a id="d0e7535"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e7535">229</a>]</span>himself acquiesces in this and walks apart. In large towns he sometimes carries a kite’s wing in his turban to show his caste, +or goes aloof saying <i>pois</i>, which is equivalent to a warning. When the sweeper is in company he will efface himself as far as possible behind other +people. He is known by his basket and broom, and men of other castes will not carry these articles lest they should be mistaken +for a sweeper. The sweeper’s broom is made of bamboo, whereas the ordinary house-broom is made of date-palm leaves. The house-broom +is considered sacred as the implement of <span id="d0e7540" class="corr" title="Source: Lakshhmi">Lakshmi</span> used in cleaning the house. No one should tread upon or touch it with his foot. The sweeper’s broom is a powerful agent for +curing the evil eye, and mothers get him to come and wave it up and down in front of a sick child for this purpose. Nevertheless +it is lucky to see a sweeper in the morning, especially if he has his basket with him. In Gujarāt Mr. Bhīmbhai Kirpārām writes +of him: “Though he is held to be lower and more unclean, the Bhangia is viewed with kindlier feelings than the Dhed (Mahār). +To meet the basket-bearing Bhangia is lucky, and the Bhangia’s blessing is valued. Even now if a Government officer goes into +a Bhangia hamlet the men with hands raised in blessing say: ‘May your rule last for ever.’” A sweeper will eat the leavings +of other people, but he will not eat in their houses; he will take the food away to his own house. It is related that on one +occasion a sweeper accompanied a marriage party of Lodhis (cultivators), and the Lodhi who was the host was anxious that all +should share his hospitality and asked the sweeper to eat in his house;<a id="d0e7543src" href="#d0e7543" class="noteref">21</a> but he repeatedly refused, until finally the Lodhi gave him a she-buffalo to induce him to eat, so that it might not be said +that any one had declined to share in his feast. No other caste, of course, will accept food or water from a sweeper, and +only a Chamār (tanner) will take a <i>chilam</i> or clay pipe-bowl from his hand. The sweeper will eat carrion and the flesh of almost all animals, including snakes, lizards, +crocodiles and tigers, and also the leavings of food of almost any caste. Mr. Greeven remarks:<a id="d0e7549src" href="#d0e7549" class="noteref">22</a> “Only <a id="d0e7554"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e7554">230</a>]</span>Lālbegis and Rāwats eat food left by Europeans, but all eat food left either by Hindus or Muhammadans; the Sheikh Mehtars +as Muhammadans alone are circumcised and reject pig’s flesh. Each subcaste eats uncooked food with all the others, but cooked +food alone.” From Betūl it is reported that the Mehtars there will not accept food, water or tobacco from a Kāyasth, and will +not allow one to enter their houses. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e7556"> +<h3>18. Occupation</h3> +<p>Sweeping and scavenging in the streets and in private houses are the traditional occupations of the caste, but they have others. +In Bombay they serve as night watchmen, town-criers, drummers, trumpeters and hangmen. Formerly the office of hangman was +confined to sweepers, but now many low-caste prisoners are willing to undertake it for the sake of the privilege of smoking +tobacco in jail which it confers. In Mīrzāpur when a Dom hangman is tying a rope round the neck of a criminal he shouts out, +‘<i>Dohai Mahārāni, Dohai Sarkār, Dohai Judge Sāhib</i>,’ or ‘Hail Great Queen! Hail Government! Hail Judge Sahib!’ in order to shelter himself under their authority and escape +any guilt attaching to the death.<a id="d0e7564src" href="#d0e7564" class="noteref">23</a> In the Central Provinces the hangman was accompanied by four or five other sweepers of the caste <i>panchāyat</i> the idea being perhaps that his act should be condoned by their presence and approval and he should escape guilt. In order +to free the executioner from blame the prisoner would also say: “<i>Dohai Sarkar ke, Dohai Kampani ke; jaisa maine khūn kiya waisa apne khūn ko pahunchha</i>” or “Hail to the Government and the Company; since I caused the death of another, now I am come to my own death”; and all +the <i>Panches</i> said, ‘<i>Rām, Rām</i>.’ The hangman received ten rupees as his fee, and of this five rupees were given to the caste for a feast and an offering +to Lālbeg to expiate his sin. In Bundelkhand sweepers are employed as grooms by the Lodhis, and may put everything on to the +horse except a saddle-cloth. They are also the village musicians, and some of them play on the rustic flute called <i>shahnai</i> at weddings, and receive their food all the time that the ceremony lasts. Sweepers are, as a rule, to be found only in large +villages, as in small ones <a id="d0e7585"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e7585">231</a>]</span>there is no work for them. The caste is none too numerous in the Central Provinces, and in villages the sweeper is often not +available when wanted for cleaning the streets. The Chamārs of Bundelkhand will not remove the corpses of a cat or a dog or +a squirrel, and a sweeper must be obtained for the purpose. These three animals are in a manner holy, and it is considered +a sin to kill any one of them. But their corpses are unclean. A Chamār also refuses to touch the corpse of a donkey, but a +Kumhār (potter) will sometimes do this; if he declines a sweeper must be fetched. When a sweeper has to enter a house in order +to take out the body of an animal, it is cleaned and whitewashed after he has been in. In Hoshangābād an objection appears +to be felt to the entry of a sweeper by the door, as it is stated that a ladder is placed for him, so that he presumably climbs +through a window. Or where there are no windows it is possible that the ladder may protect the sacred threshold from contact +with his feet. The sweeper also attends at funerals and assists to prepare the pyre; he receives the winding-sheet when this +is not burnt or buried with the corpse, and the copper coins which are left on the ground as purchase-money for the site of +the grave. In Bombay in rich families the winding-sheet is often a worked shawl costing from fifty to a hundred rupees.<a id="d0e7587src" href="#d0e7587" class="noteref">24</a> When a Hindu widow breaks her bangles after her husband’s death, she gives them, including one or two whole ones, to a Bhangia +woman.<a id="d0e7594src" href="#d0e7594" class="noteref">25</a> A letter announcing a death is always carried by a sweeper.<a id="d0e7599src" href="#d0e7599" class="noteref">26</a> In Bengal a funeral could not be held without the presence of a Dom, whose functions are described by Mr. Sherring<a id="d0e7609src" href="#d0e7609" class="noteref">27</a> as follows: “On the arrival of the dead body at the place of cremation, which in Benāres is at the basis of one of the steep +stairs or <i>ghāts</i>, called the Burning-Ghāt, leading down from the streets above to the bed of the river Ganges, the Dom supplies five logs +of wood, which he lays in order upon the ground, the rest of the wood being given by the family of the deceased. When the +pile is ready for burning a handful of lighted straw is brought by <a id="d0e7617"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e7617">232</a>]</span>the Dom, and is taken from him and applied by one of the chief members of the family to the wood. The Dom is the only person +who can furnish the light for the purpose; and if for any reason no Dom is available, great delay and inconvenience are apt +to arise. The Dom exacts his fee for three things, namely, first for the five logs, secondly for the bunch of straw, and thirdly +for the light.” + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e7619"> +<h3>19. Occupation (continued)</h3> +<p>During an eclipse the sweepers reap a good harvest; for it is believed that Rāhu, the demon who devours the sun and moon and +thus causes an eclipse, was either a sweeper or the deity of the sweepers, and alms given to them at this time will appease +him and cause him to let the luminaries go. Or, according to another account, the sun and moon are in Rāhu’s debt, and he +comes and duns them, and this is the eclipse; and the alms given to sweepers are a means of paying the debt. In Gujarāt as +soon as the darkening sets in the Bhangis go about shouting, ‘<i>Garhandān, Vastradān, Rupādān</i>,’ or ‘Gifts for the eclipse, gifts of clothes, gifts of silver.’<a id="d0e7627src" href="#d0e7627" class="noteref">28</a> The sweepers are no doubt derived from the primitive or Dravidian tribes, and, as has been seen, they also practise the art +of making bamboo mats and baskets, being known as Bānsphor in Bombay on this account. In the Punjab the Chuhras are a very +numerous caste, being exceeded only by the Jāts, Rājpūts and Brāhmans. Only a small proportion of them naturally find employment +as scavengers, and the remainder are agricultural labourers, and together with the vagrants and gipsies are the hereditary +workers in grass and reeds.<a id="d0e7634src" href="#d0e7634" class="noteref">29</a> They are closely connected with the Dhānuks, a caste of hunters, fowlers and village watchmen, being of nearly the same status.<a id="d0e7640src" href="#d0e7640" class="noteref">30</a> And Dhānuk, again, is in some localities a complimentary term for a Basor or bamboo-worker. It has been seen that Vālmīki, +the patron saint of the sweepers, was a low-caste hunter, and this gives some reason for the supposition that the primary +occupations of the Chūhras and Bhangis were hunting and working in grass and bamboo. In one of the legends of the sweeper +saint Bālmīk or Vālmīki given by Mr. Greeven,<a id="d0e7645src" href="#d0e7645" class="noteref">31</a> Bālmīk was the youngest of the five Pāndava brothers, and <a id="d0e7650"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e7650">233</a>]</span>was persuaded by the others to remove the body of a calf which had died in their courtyard. But after he had done so they +refused to touch him, so he went into the wilderness with the body; and when he did not know how to feed himself the carcase +started into life and gave him milk until he was full grown, when it died again of its own accord. Bālmīk burst into tears, +not knowing how he was to live henceforward, but a voice cried from heaven saying, “Of the sinews (of the calf’s body) do +thou tie winnows (<i>sūp</i>), and of the caul do thou plait sieves (<i>chalni</i>).” Bālmīk obeyed, and by his handiwork gained the name of Sūpaj or the maker of winnowing-fans. These are natural occupations +of the non-Aryan forest tribes, and are now practised by the Gonds. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7270" href="#d0e7270src" class="noteref">1</a></span> Some information has been obtained from a paper by Mr. Harbans Rai, Clerk of Court, Damoh. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7279" href="#d0e7279src" class="noteref">2</a></span> Rājendrā Lāl Mitra, quoted in art. on Beria. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7282" href="#d0e7282src" class="noteref">3</a></span> Greeven, op. cit. pp. 29, 33. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7285" href="#d0e7285src" class="noteref">4</a></span> Op. cit p. 334. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7294" href="#d0e7294src" class="noteref">5</a></span> Greeven, p. 66, quoting from <i>Echoes of Old Calcutta</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7310" href="#d0e7310src" class="noteref">6</a></span> Crooke, <i>op. cit.</i></p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7350" href="#d0e7350src" class="noteref">7</a></span> Crooke, <i>op. cit.</i> para. 52. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7362" href="#d0e7362src" class="noteref">8</a></span> Ibbetson, <i>op. cit.</i> para. 227. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7368" href="#d0e7368src" class="noteref">9</a></span> Greeven, <i>op. cit.</i> p. 21. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7413" href="#d0e7413src" class="noteref">10</a></span> The fruit of the <i>achār</i> (<i>Buchanamia latifolia</i>). +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7424" href="#d0e7424src" class="noteref">11</a></span> <i>Acacia arabica</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7432" href="#d0e7432src" class="noteref">12</a></span> <i>Acacia catechu</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7477" href="#d0e7477src" class="noteref">13</a></span> Some writers consider that Bālmik, the sweeper-saint, and Vālmīki, the author of the Rāmāyana, are not identical. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7485" href="#d0e7485src" class="noteref">14</a></span> Page 38. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7493" href="#d0e7493src" class="noteref">15</a></span> Page 8. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7504" href="#d0e7504src" class="noteref">16</a></span> Page 54. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7507" href="#d0e7507src" class="noteref">17</a></span> <i>Punjab Census Report</i> (1881), para. 599. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7514" href="#d0e7514src" class="noteref">18</a></span> Sir H. Risley, <i>l.c.</i>, art. Dom. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7525" href="#d0e7525src" class="noteref">19</a></span> <i>Institutes</i>, x. 12–29–30. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7530" href="#d0e7530src" class="noteref">20</a></span> <i>Ibidem</i>, iv. 239, quoted by Mr. Crooke, art. Dom. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7543" href="#d0e7543src" class="noteref">21</a></span> Probably not within the house but in the veranda or courtyard. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7549" href="#d0e7549src" class="noteref">22</a></span> <i>Ibidem</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7564" href="#d0e7564src" class="noteref">23</a></span> Crooke, <i>Tribes and Castes</i>, art. Dom, para. 34. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7587" href="#d0e7587src" class="noteref">24</a></span> <i>Bombay Gazetteer</i>, <i>l.c.</i></p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7594" href="#d0e7594src" class="noteref">25</a></span> <i>Ibidem</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7599" href="#d0e7599src" class="noteref">26</a></span> <i>Punjab Census Report</i> (1881), and <i>Bombay Gazetteer</i>, <i>l.c.</i></p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7609" href="#d0e7609src" class="noteref">27</a></span> <i>Hindu Tribes and Castes</i>, quoted by Sir H. Risley, art. Dom. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7627" href="#d0e7627src" class="noteref">28</a></span> <i>Bombay Gazetteer</i>, <i>l.c.</i></p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7634" href="#d0e7634src" class="noteref">29</a></span> Ibbetson, <i>l.c.</i> para. 596. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7640" href="#d0e7640src" class="noteref">30</a></span> <i>Ibidem</i>, para. 601. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7645" href="#d0e7645src" class="noteref">31</a></span> <i>L.c.</i> pp. 25, 26. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e7658" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Meo</h2> +<p><b>Meo, Mewāti.</b>—The Muhammadan branch of the Mīna tribe belonging to the country of Mewāt in Rājputāna which is comprised in the Alwar, Bharatpur +and Jaipur States and the British District of Gurgaon. A few Meos were returned from the Hoshangābād and Nimār Districts in +1911, but it is doubtful whether any are settled here, as they may be wandering criminals. The origin of the Meo is discussed +in the article on the Mīna tribe, but some interesting remarks on them by Mr. Channing and Major Powlett in the <i>Rājputāna Gazetteer</i> may be reproduced here. Mr. Channing writes:<a id="d0e7668src" href="#d0e7668" class="noteref">1</a> + +</p> +<p>“The tribe, which has been known in Hindustān according to the Kutub Tawārīkh for 850 years, was originally Hindu and became +Muhammadan. Their origin is obscure. They themselves claim descent from the Rājpūt races of Jādon, Kachhwāha and Tuar, and +they may possibly have some Rājpūt blood in their veins; but they are probably, like many other similar tribes, a combination +from ruling and other various stocks and sources, and there is reason to believe them very nearly allied with the Mīnas, who +are certainly a tribe of the same structure and species. The Meos have twelve clans or <i>pāls</i>, the first six of which are identical in name and claim the same descent as the first six clans of the Mīnas. Intermarriage +between them both was <a id="d0e7678"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e7678">234</a>]</span>the rule until the time of Akbar, when owing to an affray at the marriage of a Meo with a Mīna the custom was discontinued. +Finally, their mode of life is or was similar, as both tribes were once notoriously predatory. It is probable that the original +Meos were supplemented by converts to Islām from other castes. It is said that the tribe were conquered and converted in the +eleventh century by Māsūd, son of Amīr Sālār and grandson of Sultān Mahmūd Subaktagin on the mother’s side, the general of +the forces of Mahmūd of Ghazni. Māsūd is still venerated by the Meos, and they swear by his name. They have a mixture of Hindu +and Muhammadan customs. They practise circumcision, <i>nikāh</i><a id="d0e7682src" href="#d0e7682" class="noteref">2</a> and the burial of the dead. They make pilgrimages to the tomb of Māsūd in Bahraich in Oudh, and consider the oath taken on +his banner the most binding. They also make pilgrimages to Muhammadan shrines in India, but never perform the <i>Haj</i>. Of Hindu customs they observe the Holi or Diwāli; their marriages are never arranged in the same <i>got</i> or sept; and they permit daughters to inherit. They call their children indiscriminately by both Muhammadan and Hindu names. +They are almost entirely uneducated, but have bards and musicians to whom they make large presents. These sing songs known +as Rātwai, which are commonly on pastoral and agricultural subjects. The Meos are given to the use of intoxicating drinks, +and are very superstitious and have great faith in omens. The dress of the men and women resembles that of the Hindus. Infanticide +was formerly common among them, but it is said to have entirely died out. They were also formerly robbers by avocation; and +though they have improved they are still noted cattle-lifters.” + +</p> +<p>In another description of them by Major Powlett it is stated that, besides worshipping Hindu gods and keeping Hindu festivals, +they employ a Brāhman to write the Pīli Chhitthi or yellow note fixing the date of a marriage. They call themselves by Hindu +names with the exception of Rām; and Singh is a frequent affix, though not so common as Khān. On the Amāwas or monthly conjunction +of the sun and moon, Meos, in common with Hindu Ahīrs and Gūjars, cease from labour; and when they make a well the first proceeding +<a id="d0e7693"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e7693">235</a>]</span>is to erect a <i>chabūtra</i> (platform) to Bhaironji or Hanumān. However, when plunder was to be obtained they have often shown little respect for Hindu +shrines and temples; and when the sanctity of a threatened place has been urged, the retort has been, ‘<i>Tum to Deo, Ham Meo</i>’ or ‘You may be a Deo (God), but I am a Meo.’ + +</p> +<p>Meos do not marry in their <i>pāl</i> or clan, but they are lax about forming connections with women of other castes, whose children they receive into the community. +As already stated, Brāhmans take part in the formalities preceding a marriage, but the ceremony itself is performed by a Kāzi. +As agriculturists Meos are inferior to their Hindu neighbours. The point in which they chiefly fail is in working their wells, +for which they lack patience. Their women, whom they do not confine, will, it is said, do more field-work than the men; indeed, +one often finds women at work in the crops when the men are lying down. Like the women of low Hindu castes they tattoo their +bodies, a practice disapproved by Musalmāns in general. Abul Fazl writes that the Meos were in his time famous runners, and +one thousand of them were employed by Akbar as carriers of the post. + +</p> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7668" href="#d0e7668src" class="noteref">1</a></span> <i>Rājputāna Gazetteer</i>, vol. i. p. 165. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7682" href="#d0e7682src" class="noteref">2</a></span> A Muhammadan form of marriage. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e7706" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Mīna</h2> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>1. The Mīnas locally termed Deswā</h3> +<p><b>Mīna, Deswāli, Maina.</b>—A well-known caste of Rājputāna which is found in the Central Provinces in the Hoshangābād, Nimār and Saugor Districts. About +8000 persons of the caste were returned in 1911. The proper name for them is Mīna, but here they are generally known as Deswāli, +a term which they probably prefer, as that of Mīna is too notorious. A large part of the population of the northern Districts +is recruited from Bundelkhand and Mārwār, and these tracts are therefore often known among them as ‘Desh’ or native country. +The term Deswāli is applied to groups of many castes coming from Bundelkhand, and has apparently been specially appropriated +as an <i>alias</i> by the Mīnas. The caste are sometimes known in Hoshangābād as Maina, which Colonel Tod states to be the name of the highest +division of the Mīnas. The designation of Pardeshi or ‘foreigner’ is also given to them in some localities. The Deswālis came +to Harda about A.D. 1750, being invited by the Marātha Amīl or governor, who gave one family a grant of three <a id="d0e7719"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e7719">236</a>]</span>villages. They thus gained a position of some dignity, and this reaching the ears of their brothers in Jaipur they also came +and settled all over the District.<a id="d0e7721src" href="#d0e7721" class="noteref">1</a> In view of the history and character of the Mīnas, of which some account will be given, it should be first stated that under +the <i>régime</i> of British law and order most of the Deswālis of Hoshangābād have settled down into steady and honest agriculturists. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>2. Historical notice of the Mīna tribe</h3> +<p>The Mīnas were a famous robber tribe of the country of Mewāt in Rājputāna, comprised in the Alwar and Bharatpur States and +the British District of Gurgaon.<a id="d0e7735src" href="#d0e7735" class="noteref">2</a> They are also found in large numbers in Jaipur State, which was formerly held by them. The Meos and Mīnas are now considered +to be branches of one tribe, the former being at least nominally Muhammadans by religion and the latter Hindus. A favourite +story for recitation at their feasts is that of Darya Khān Meo and Sasibādani Mīni, a pair of lovers whose marriage led to +a quarrel between the tribes to which they belonged, in the time of Akbar. This dispute caused the cessation of the practice +of intermarriage between Meos and Mīnas which had formerly obtained. Both the Meos and Mīnas are divided into twelve large +clans called <i>pāl</i>, the word <i>pāl</i> meaning, according to Colonel Tod, ‘a defile in a valley suitable for cultivation or defence.’ In a sandy desert like Rājputāna +the valleys of streams might be expected to be the only favourable tracts for settlement, and the name perhaps therefore is +a record of the process by which the colonies of Mīnas in these isolated patches of culturable land developed into exogamous +clans marrying with each other. The Meos have similarly twelve <i>pāls</i>, and the names of six of these are identical with those of the Mīnas.<a id="d0e7750src" href="#d0e7750" class="noteref">3</a> The names of the <i>pāls</i> are taken from those of Rājpūt clans,<a id="d0e7758src" href="#d0e7758" class="noteref">4</a> but the recorded lists differ, and there are now many other <i>gots</i> or septs outside the <i>pāls</i>. The Mīnas seem originally to have been an aboriginal or pre-Aryan tribe of Rājputāna, where they <a id="d0e7770"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e7770">237</a>]</span>are still found in considerable numbers. The Rāja of Jaipur was formerly marked on the forehead with blood taken from the +great toe of a Mīna on the occasion of his installation. Colonel Tod records that the Amber or Jaipur State was founded by +one Dholesai in A.D. 967 after he had slaughtered large numbers of the Mīnas by treachery. And in his time the Mīnas still +possessed large immunities and privileges in the Jaipur State. When the Rājpūts settled in force in Rājputāna, reducing the +Mīnas to subjection, illicit connections would naturally arise on a large scale between the invaders and the women of the +conquered country. For even when the Rājpūts only came as small isolated parties of adventurers, as into the Central Provinces, +we find traces of such connections in the survival of castes or subcastes of mixed descent from them and the indigenous tribes. +It follows therefore that where they occupied the country and settled on the soil the process would be still more common. +Accordingly it is generally recognised that the Mīnas are a caste of the most mixed and impure descent, and it has sometimes +been supposed that they were themselves a branch of the Rājpūts. In the Punjab when one woman accuses another of illicit intercourse +she is said ‘<i>Mīna dena</i>,’ or to designate her as a Mīna.<a id="d0e7775src" href="#d0e7775" class="noteref">5</a> Further it is stated<a id="d0e7781src" href="#d0e7781" class="noteref">6</a> that “The Mīnas are of two classes, the Zamīndāri or agricultural and the Chaukīdāri or watchmen. These Chaukīdāri Mīnas +are the famous marauders.” The office of village watchman was commonly held by members of the aboriginal tribes, and these +too furnished the criminal classes. Another piece of evidence of the Dravidian origin of the tribe is the fact that there +exists even now a group of Dhedia or impure Mīnas who do not refuse to eat cow’s flesh. The Chaukīdāri Mīnas, dispossessed +of their land, resorted to the hills, and here they developed into a community of thieves and bandits recruited from all the +outcastes of society. Sir A. Lyall wrote<a id="d0e7787src" href="#d0e7787" class="noteref">7</a> of the caste as “a Cave of Adullam which has stood open for centuries. With them a captured woman is solemnly admitted by +a form of adoption <a id="d0e7792"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e7792">238</a>]</span>into one circle of affinity, in order that she may be lawfully married into another.” With the conquest of northern India +by the Muhammadans, many of the Mīnas, being bound by no ties to Hinduism, might be expected to embrace the new and actively +proselytising religion, while their robber bands would receive fugitive Muhammadans as recruits as well as Hindus. Thus probably +arose a Musalmān branch of the community, who afterwards became separately designated as the Meos. As already seen, the Meos +and Mīnas intermarried for a time, but subsequently ceased to do so. As might be expected, the form of Islām professed by +the Meos is of a very bastard order, and Major Powlett’s account of it is reproduced in a short separate notice of that tribe. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>3. Their robberies</h3> +<p>The crimes and daring of the Mīnas have obtained for them a considerable place in history. A Muhammadan historian, Zia-ud-dīn +Bāmi, wrote of the tribe:<a id="d0e7799src" href="#d0e7799" class="noteref">8</a> “At night they were accustomed to come prowling into the city of Delhi, giving all kinds of trouble and depriving people +of their rest, and they plundered the country houses in the neighbourhood of the city. Their daring was carried to such an +extent that the western gates of the city were shut at afternoon prayer and no one dared to leave it after that hour, whether +he travelled as a pilgrim or with the display of a king. At afternoon prayer they would often come to the Sarhouy, and assaulting +the water-carriers and girls who were fetching water they would strip them and carry off their clothes. In turn they were +treated by the Muhammadan rulers with the most merciless cruelty. Some were thrown under the feet of elephants, others were +cut in halves with knives, and others again were flayed alive from head to foot.” Regular campaigns against them were undertaken +by the Muhammadans,<a id="d0e7805src" href="#d0e7805" class="noteref">9</a> as in later times British forces had to be despatched to subdue the Pindāris. Bābar on his arrival at Agra described the +Mewāti leader Rāja Hasan Khān as ‘the chief agitator in all these confusions and insurrections’; and Firishta mentions two +terrible slaughters of Mewātis in <a id="d0e7814"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e7814">239</a>]</span>A.D. 1259 and 1265. In 1857 Major Powlett records that in Alwar they assembled and burnt the State ricks and carried off cattle, +though they did not succeed in plundering any towns or villages there. In British territory they sacked Firozpur and other +villages, and when a British force came to restore order many were hanged. Sir D. Ibbetson wrote of them in the Punjab:<a id="d0e7816src" href="#d0e7816" class="noteref">10</a> + +</p> +<p>“The Mīnas are the boldest of our criminal classes. Their headquarters so far as the Punjab is concerned are in the village +of Shāhjahānpur, attached to the Gurgaon District but surrounded on all sides by Rājputāna territory. There they until lately +defied our police and even resisted them with armed force. Their enterprises are on a large scale, and they are always prepared +to use violence if necessary. In Mārwār they are armed with small bows which do considerable execution. They travel great +distances in gangs of from twelve to twenty men, practising robbery and dacoity even as far as the Deccan. The gangs usually +start off immediately after the Diwāli feast and often remain absent the whole year. They have agents in all the large cities +of Rājputāna and the Deccan who give them information, and they are in league with the carrying castes of Mārwār. After a +successful foray they offer one-tenth of the proceeds at the shrine of Kāli Devi.” + +</p> +<p>Like other criminals they were very superstitious, and Colonel Tod records that the partridge and the <i>maloli</i> or wagtail were their chief birds of omen. A partridge clamouring on the left when he commenced a foray was a certain presage +of success to a Mīna. Similarly, Mr. Kennedy notes that the finding of a dried goatskin, either whole or in pieces, among +the effects of a suspected criminal is said to be an infallible indication of his identity as a Mīna, the flesh of the goat’s +tongue being indispensable in connection with the taking of omens. In Jaipur the Mīnas were employed as guards, as a method +of protection against their fellows, for whose misdeeds they were held responsible. Rent-free lands were given to them, and +they were always employed to escort treasure. Here they became the most faithful and trusted of the Rāja’s servants. It is +related <a id="d0e7828"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e7828">240</a>]</span>that on one occasion a Mīna sentinel at the palace had received charge of a basket of oranges. A friend of the same tribe +came to him and asked to be shown the palace, which he had never seen. The sentinel agreed and took him over the palace, but +when his back was turned the friend stole one orange from the basket. Subsequently the sentinel counted the oranges and found +one short; on this he ran after his friend and taxed him with the theft, which being admitted, the Mīna said that he had been +made to betray his trust and had become dishonoured, and drawing his sword cut off his friend’s head. The ancient treasure +of Jaipur or Amber was, according to tradition, kept in a secret cave in the hills under a body of Mīna guards who alone knew +the hiding-place, and would only permit any part of it to be withdrawn for a great emergency. Nor would they accept the orders +of the Rāja alone, but required the consent of the heads of the twelve principal noble families of Amber, branches of the +royal house, before they would give up any part of the treasure. The criminal Mīnas are said to inhabit a tract of country +about sixty-five miles long and forty broad, stretching from Shāhpur forty miles north of Jaipur to Guraora in Gurgaon on +the Rohtak border. The popular idea of the Mīna, Mr. Crooke remarks,<a id="d0e7830src" href="#d0e7830" class="noteref">11</a> is quite in accordance with his historical character; his niggardliness is shown in the saying, ‘The Meo will not give his +daughter in marriage till he gets a mortar full of silver’; his pugnacity is expressed in, ‘The Meo’s son begins to avenge +his feuds when he is twelve years old’; and his toughness in, ‘Never be sure that a Meo is dead till you see the third-day +funeral ceremony performed.’ + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>4. The Deswālis of the Central Provinces</h3> +<p>As already stated, the Deswālis of the Central Provinces have abandoned the wild life of their ancestors and settled down +as respectable cultivators. Only a few particulars about them need be recorded. Girls are usually married before they are +twelve years old and boys at sixteen to twenty. A sum of Rs. 24 is commonly paid for the bride, and a higher amount up to +Rs. 71 may be given, but this is the maximum, and if the father of the girl takes more he will be fined by the caste and made +to refund the <a id="d0e7840"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e7840">241</a>]</span>balance. A triangle with some wooden models of birds is placed on the marriage-shed and the bridegroom strikes at these with +a stick; formerly he fired a gun at them to indicate that he was a hunter by profession. A Brāhman is employed to celebrate +the marriage. A widow is usually taken by her late husband’s younger brother, but if there be none the elder brother may marry +her, contrary to the general rule among Hindus. The object is to keep the woman in the family, as wives are costly. If she +is unwilling to marry her brother-in-law, however, no compulsion is exercised and she may wed another man. Divorce is allowed, +and in Rājputāna is very simply effected. If tempers do not assimilate or other causes prompt them to part, the husband tears +a shred from his turban which he gives to his wife, and with this simple bill of divorce, placing two jars of water on her +head, she takes whatever path she pleases, and the first man who chooses to ease her of her load becomes her future lord. +‘<i>Jehur nikāla</i>,’ ‘Took the jar and went forth,’ is a common saying among the mountaineers of Merwara.<a id="d0e7845src" href="#d0e7845" class="noteref">12</a> + +</p> +<p>The dead are cremated, the corpse of a man being wrapped in a white and that of a woman in a coloured cloth. They have no +<i>shrāddh</i> ceremony, but mourn for the dead only on the last day of Kārtik (October), when they offer water and burn incense. Deswālis +employ the Parsai or village Brāhman to officiate at their ceremonies, but owing to their mixed origin they rank below the +cultivating castes, and Brāhmans will not take water from them. In Jaipur, however, Major Powlett says, their position is +higher. They are, as already seen, the trusted guards of the palace and treasury, and Rājpūts will accept food and water from +their hands. This concession is no doubt due to the familiarity induced by living together for a long period, and parallel +instances of it can be given, as that of the Panwārs and Gonds in the Central Provinces. The Deswālis eat flesh and drink +liquor, but abstain from fowls and pork. When they are invited to a feast they do not take their own brass vessels with them, +but drink out of earthen pots supplied by the host, having the liquor <a id="d0e7855"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e7855">242</a>]</span>poured on to their hands held to the mouth to avoid actual contact with the vessel. This is a Mārwāri custom and the Jāts +also have it. Before the commencement of the feast the guests wait until food has been given to as many beggars as like to +attend. In Saugor the food served consists only of rice and pulse without vegetables or other dishes. It is said that a Mīna +will not eat salt in the house of another man, because he considers that to do so would establish the bond of <i>Nimak-khai</i> or salt-eating between them, and he would be debarred for ever from robbing that man or breaking into his house. The guests +need not sit down together as among other Hindus, but may take their food in batches; so that the necessity of awaiting the +arrival of every guest before commencing the feast is avoided. The Deswālis will not kill a black-buck nor eat the flesh of +one, but they assign no reason for this and do not now worship the animal. The rule is probably, however, a totemistic survival. +The men may be known by their manly gait and harsh tone of voice, as well as by a peculiar method of tying the turban; the +women have a special ornament called <i>rākhdi</i> on the forehead and do not wear spangles or toe-rings. They are said also to despise ornaments of the baser metals as brass +and pewter. They are tattooed with dots on the face to set off the fair-coloured skin by contrast, in the same manner as patches +were carried on the face in Europe in the eighteenth century. A tattoo dot on a fair face is likened by a Hindu poet to a +bee sitting on a half-opened mango. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7721" href="#d0e7721src" class="noteref">1</a></span> Elliott’s <i>Hoshangābād Settlement Report</i>, p. 63. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7735" href="#d0e7735src" class="noteref">2</a></span> Cunningham’s <i>Archaeological Survey Reports</i>, xx. p. 24. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7750" href="#d0e7750src" class="noteref">3</a></span> <i>Ibidem</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7758" href="#d0e7758src" class="noteref">4</a></span> General Cunningham’s enumeration of the <i>pāls</i> is as follows: Five Jādon clans—Chhirkilta, Dalāt, Dermot, Nai, Pundelot; five Tuar clans—Balot, Darwār, Kalesa, Lundāvat, +Rattāwat; one Kachhwāha clan—Dingāl; one Bargjūar clan—Singāl. Besides these there is one miscellaneous or half-blood clan, +Palakra, making up the common total of 12½ clans. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7775" href="#d0e7775src" class="noteref">5</a></span> Ibbetson’s <i>Punjab Census Report</i>, para. 582. Sir D. Ibbetson considered it doubtful, however, whether the expression referred to the Mīna caste. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7781" href="#d0e7781src" class="noteref">6</a></span> Major Powlett, <i>Gazetteer of Alwar</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7787" href="#d0e7787src" class="noteref">7</a></span> <i>Asiatic Studies</i>, vol. i. p. 162. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7799" href="#d0e7799src" class="noteref">8</a></span> Quoted in Dowson’s <i>Elliott’s History of India</i>, iii. p. 103. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7805" href="#d0e7805src" class="noteref">9</a></span> Dowson’s <i>Elliott</i>, iv. pp. 60, 75, 283, quoted in Crooke’s <i>Tribes and Castes</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7816" href="#d0e7816src" class="noteref">10</a></span> <i>Census Report</i> (1881), para. 582. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7830" href="#d0e7830src" class="noteref">11</a></span> <i>Tribes and Castes of the N.W.P.</i> art. Meo. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7845" href="#d0e7845src" class="noteref">12</a></span> <i>Rājasthān</i>, i. p. 589. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e7863" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Mirāsi</h2> +<p><b>Mirāsi.</b>—A Muhammadan caste of singers, minstrels and genealogists, of which a few members are found in the Central Provinces. General +Cunningham says that they are the bards and singers of the Meos or Mewātis at all their marriages and festivals.<a id="d0e7870src" href="#d0e7870" class="noteref">1</a> Mr. Crooke is of opinion that they are undoubtedly an offshoot of the great Dom caste who are little better than sweepers.<a id="d0e7875src" href="#d0e7875" class="noteref">2</a> The word Mirāsi is derived from the Arabic <i>mirās</i>, inheritance, and its signification is supposed to be that the Mirāsis are the hereditary bards and singers <a id="d0e7883"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e7883">243</a>]</span>of the lower castes, as the Bhāt is of the Rājpūts. <i>Mirās</i> as a word may, however, be used of any hereditary right, as that of the village headman or Karnam, or even those of the village +watchman or temple dancing-girl, all of whom may have a <i>mirāsi</i> right to fees or perquisites or plots of land held as remuneration for service.<a id="d0e7891src" href="#d0e7891" class="noteref">3</a> The Mirāsis are also known as Pakhāwaji, from the <i>pakhāwaj</i> or timbrel which they play; as Kawwāl or one who speaks fluently, that is a professional, story-teller; and as Kalāwant or +one possessed of art or skill. The Mirāsis are most numerous in the Punjab, where they number a quarter of a million. Sir +D. Ibbetson says of them:<a id="d0e7900src" href="#d0e7900" class="noteref">4</a> “The social position of the Mirāsi as of all minstrel castes is exceedingly low, but he attends at weddings and similar occasions +to recite genealogies. Moreover there are grades even among Mirāsis. The outcaste tribes have their Mirāsis, who though they +do not eat with their clients and merely render their professional services are considered impure by the Mirāsis of the higher +castes. The Mirāsi is generally a hereditary servant like the Bhāt, and is notorious for his exactions, which he makes under +the threat of lampooning the ancestors of him from whom he demands fees. The Mirāsi is almost always a Muhammadan.” They are +said to have been converted to Islām in response to the request of the poet Amīr Khusru, who lived in the reign of Ala-ud-dīn +Khilji (A.D. 1295). The Mirāsi has two functions, the men being musicians, storytellers and genealogists, while the women +dance and sing, but only before the ladies of the zenāna. Mr. Nesfield<a id="d0e7905src" href="#d0e7905" class="noteref">5</a> says that they are sometimes regularly entertained as jesters to help these ladies to kill time and reconcile them to their +domestic prisons. As they do not dance before men they are reputed to be chaste, as no woman who is not a prostitute will +dance in the presence of men, though singing and playing are not equally condemned. The implements of the Mirāsis are generally +the small drum (<i>dholak</i>), the cymbals (<i>majīra</i>) and the gourd lute (<i>kingri</i>).<a id="d0e7919src" href="#d0e7919" class="noteref">6</a> +<a id="d0e7924"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e7924">244</a>]</span></p> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7870" href="#d0e7870src" class="noteref">1</a></span> <i>Archaeological Reports</i>. vol. xx. p. 26. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7875" href="#d0e7875src" class="noteref">2</a></span> <i>Tribes and Castes of the North-Western Provinces</i>, vol. iii. p. 496. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7891" href="#d0e7891src" class="noteref">3</a></span> Baden Powell’s <i>Land Systems of British India</i>, vol. iii. p. 116. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7900" href="#d0e7900src" class="noteref">4</a></span> <i>Punjab Ethnography</i>, p. 289. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7905" href="#d0e7905src" class="noteref">5</a></span> <i>Brief View</i>, p. 43. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7919" href="#d0e7919src" class="noteref">6</a></span> Crooke, <i>loc. cit.</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e7925" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Mochi<a id="d0e7928src" href="#d0e7928" class="noteref">1</a></h2> +<h3>List of Paragraphs</h3> +<ul> +<li><a href="#d0e7969">1. General notice</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e8000">2. Legends of origin</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e8015">3. Art among the Hindus</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e8036">4. Antagonism of Mochis and Chamārs</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e8044">5. Exogamous groups</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e8069">6. Social customs</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e8083">7. Shoes</a></li> +</ul> +<div class="div2" id="d0e7969"> +<h3>1. General notice</h3> +<p><b>Mochi, Muchi, Jīngar, Jirayat, Jīldgar, Chitrakār, Chitevari, Musabir.</b>—The occupational caste of saddlers and cobblers. In 1911 about 4000 Mochis and 2000 Jīngars were returned from the Central +Provinces and Berār, the former residing principally in the Hindustāni and the latter in the Marāthi-speaking Districts. The +name is derived from the Sanskrit <i>mochika</i> and the Hindustāni <i>mojna</i>, to fold, and the common name <i>mojah</i> for socks and stockings is from the same root (Platts). By origin the Mochis are no doubt an offshoot of the Chamār caste, +but they now generally disclaim the connection. Mr. Nesfield observes<a id="d0e7985src" href="#d0e7985" class="noteref">2</a> that, “The industry of tanning is preparatory to and lower than that of cobblery, and hence the caste of Chamār ranks decidedly +below that of Mochi. The ordinary Hindu does not consider the touch of a Mochi so impure as that of the Chamār, and there +is a Hindu proverb to the effect that ‘Dried or prepared hide is the same thing as cloth,’ whereas the touch of the raw hide +before it has been tanned by the Chamār is considered a pollution. The Mochi does not eat carrion like the Chamār, nor does +he eat swine’s flesh; nor does his wife ever practise the much-loathed art of midwifery.” In the Central Provinces, as in +northern India, the caste may be considered to <a id="d0e7990"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e7990">245</a>]</span>have two branches, the lower one consisting of the Mochis who make and cobble shoes and are admittedly descended from Chamārs; +while the better-class men either make saddles and harness, when they are known as Jīngar; or bind books, when they are called +Jīldgar; or paint and make clay idols, when they are given the designation either of Chitrakār, Chitevari or Murtikār. In +Berār some Jīngars have taken up the finer kinds of iron-work, such as mending guns, and are known as Jirāyat. All these are +at great pains to dissociate themselves from the Chamār caste. They call themselves Thākur or Rājpūt and have exogamous sections +the names of which are identical with those of the Rājpūt septs. The same people have assumed the name of Rishi in Bengal, +and, according to a story related by Sir H. Risley, claim to be debased Brāhmans; while in the United Provinces Mr. Crooke +considers them to be connected with the Srivāstab Kāyasths, with whom they intermarry and agree in manners and customs. The +fact that in the three Provinces these workers in leather claim descent from three separate high castes is an interesting +instance of the trouble which the lower-class Hindus will take to obtain a slight increase in social consideration; but the +very diversity of the accounts given induces the belief that all Mochis were originally sprung from the Chamārs. In Bombay, +again, Mr. Enthoven<a id="d0e7992src" href="#d0e7992" class="noteref">3</a> writes that the caste prefers to style itself Arya Somavansi Kshatriya or Aryan Kshatriyas of the Moon division; while they +have all the regular Brāhmanical <i>gotras</i> as Bhāradwāja, Vasishtha, Gautam and so on. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e8000"> +<h3>2. Legends of origin</h3> +<p>The following interesting legends as to the origin of the caste adduced by them in support of their Brāhmanical descent are +related<a id="d0e8005src" href="#d0e8005" class="noteref">4</a> by Sir H. Risley: “One of the Prajā-pati, or mind-born sons of Brahma, was in the habit of providing the flesh of cows and +clarified butter as a burnt-offering (<i>Ahuti</i>) to the gods. It was then the custom to eat a portion of the sacrifice, restore the victim to life, and drive it into the +forest. On one occasion the Prajā-pati failed to resuscitate the sacrificial animal, owing to his wife, who was pregnant at +the time, having clandestinely made away with a portion. <a id="d0e8013"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e8013">246</a>]</span>Alarmed at this he summoned all the other Prajā-patis, and they sought by divination to discover the cause of the failure. +At last they ascertained what had occurred, and as a punishment the wife was cursed and expelled from their society. The child +which she bore was the first Mochi or tanner, and from that time forth, mankind being deprived of the power of reanimating +cattle slaughtered for food, the pious abandoned the practice of killing kine altogether. Another story is that Muchirām, +the ancestor of the caste, was born from the sweat of Brahma while dancing. He chanced to offend the irritable sage Durvāsa, +who sent a pretty Brāhman widow to allure him into a breach of chastity. Muchirām accosted the widow as mother, and refused +to have anything to do with her; but Durvāsa used the miraculous power he had acquired by penance to render the widow pregnant +so that the innocent Muchirām was made an outcaste on suspicion. From her two sons are descended the two main branches of +the caste in Bengal.” + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e8015"> +<h3>3. Art among the Hindus</h3> +<p>In the Central Provinces the term Mochi is often used for the whole caste in the northern Districts, and Jīngar in the Marātha +country; while the Chitrakārs or painters form a separate group. Though the trades of cobbler and book-binder are now widely +separated in civilised countries, the connection between them is apparent since both work in leather. It is not at first sight +clear why the painter should be of the same caste, but the reason is perhaps that his brushes are made of the hair of animals, +and this is also regarded as impure, as being a part of the hide. If such be the case a senseless caste rule of ceremonial +impurity has prevented the art of painting from being cultivated by the Hindus; and the comparatively poor development of +their music may perhaps be ascribed to the same cause, since the use of the sinews of animals for stringed instruments would +also prevent the educated classes from learning to play them. Thus no stringed instruments are permitted to be used in temples, +but only the gong, cymbal, horn and conch-shell. And this rule would greatly discourage the cultivation of music, which art, +like all the others, has usually served in its early period as an appanage to religious services. It has been held that instruments +were originally employed at temples <a id="d0e8020"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e8020">247</a>]</span>and shrines in order to scare away evil spirits by their noise while the god was being fed or worshipped, and not for the +purpose of calling the worshippers together; since noise is a recognised means of driving away spirits, probably in consequence +of its effect in frightening wild animals. It is for the same end that music is essential at weddings, especially during the +night when the spirits are more potent; and this is the primary object of the continuous discordant din which the Hindus consider +a necessary accompaniment to a wedding. + +</p> +<p>Except for this ceremonial strictness Hinduism should have been favourable to the development of both painting and sculpture, +as being a polytheistic religion. In the early stages of society religion and art are intimately connected, as is shown by +the fact that images and paintings are at first nearly always of deities or sacred persons or animals, and it is only after +a considerable period of development that secular subjects are treated. Similarly architecture is in its commencement found +to be applied solely to sacred buildings, as temples and churches, and is only gradually diverted to secular buildings. The +figures sculptured by the Mochis are usually images for temples, and those who practise this art are called Murtikar, from +<i>murti</i>, an image or idol; and the pictures of the Chitrakārs were until recently all of deities or divine animals, though secular +paintings may now occasionally be met with. And the uneducated believers in a polytheistic religion regularly take the image +for the deity himself, at first scarcely conceiving of the one apart from the other. Thus some Bharewas or brass-workers say +that they dare not make metal images of the gods, because they are afraid that the badness of their handiwork might arouse +the wrath of the gods and move them to take revenge. The surmise might in fact be almost justifiable that the end to which +figures of men and animals were first drawn or painted, or modelled in clay or metal was that they might be worshipped as +images of the deities, the savage mind not distinguishing at all between an image of the god and the god himself. For this +reason monotheistic religions would be severely antagonistic to the arts, and such is in fact the case. Thus the Muhammadan +commentary, the Hadith, has a verse: “Woe to him <a id="d0e8027"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e8027">248</a>]</span>who has painted a living creature! At the day of the last judgment the persons represented by him will come out of the tomb +and join themselves to him to demand of him a soul. Then that man, unable to give life to his work, will burn in eternal flames.” +And in Judaism the familiar prohibition of the Second Commandment appears to be directed to the same end. + + +</p> +<p></p> +<div id="d0e8030" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p116.jpg" alt="Image of the god Vishnu as Vithoba" width="407" height="720"><p class="figureHead">Image of the god Vishnu as Vithoba</p> +</div><p> + + +</p> +<p>Hindu sculpture has indeed been fairly prolific, but is not generally considered to have attained to any degree of artistic +merit. Since sculpture is mainly concerned with the human form it seems clear that an appreciation of the beauty of muscular +strength and the symmetrical development of the limbs is an essential preliminary to success in this art; and such a feeling +can only arise among a people who set much store on feats of bodily strength and agility. This has never been the character +of the Hindus, whose religion encourages asceticism and mortification of the body, and points to mental self-absorption and +detachment from worldly cares and exercises as the highest type of virtue. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e8036"> +<h3>4. Antagonism of Mochis and Chamārs</h3> +<p>As a natural result of the pretensions to nobility made by the Mochis, there is no love lost between them and the Chamārs; +and the latter allege that the Mochis have stolen their <i>rāmpi</i>, the knife with which they cut leather. On this account the Chamārs will neither take water to drink from the Mochis nor +mend their shoes, and will not even permit them to try on a new pair of shoes until they have paid the price set on them; +for they say that the Mochis are half-bred Chamārs and therefore cannot be permitted to defile the shoes of a true Chamār +by trying them on; but when they have been paid for, the maker has severed connection with them, and the use to which they +may be put no longer affects him. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e8044"> +<h3>5. Exogamous groups</h3> +<p>In the Central Provinces the Mochis are said to have forty exogamous sections or <i>gotras</i>, of which the bulk are named after all the well-known Rājpūt clans, while two agree with those of the Chamārs. And they have +also an equal number of <i>kheras</i> or groups named after villages. The limits of the two groups seem to be identical; thus members of the sept named after the +Kachhwāha Rājpūts say that their <i>khera</i> or village name is Mungāvali in Gwālior; those of <a id="d0e8058"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e8058">249</a>]</span>the Ghangere sept give Chanderi as their <i>khera</i>, the Sitāwat sept Dhāmoni in Saugor, the Didoria Chhatarpur, the Narele Narwar, and so on. The names of the village groups +have now been generally forgotten and they are said to have no influence on marriage, which is regulated by the Rājpūt sept +names; but it seems probable that the <i>kheras</i> were the original divisions and the Rājpūt <i>gotras</i> have been more recently adopted in support of the claims already noticed. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e8069"> +<h3>6. Social customs</h3> +<p>The Mochis have adopted the customs of the higher Hindu castes. A man may not take a wife from his own <i>gotra</i>, his mother’s <i>gotra</i> or from a family into which a girl from his own family has married. They usually marry their daughters in childhood and employ +Brāhmans in their ceremonies, and no degradation attaches to these latter for serving as their priests. In minor domestic +ceremonies for which the Brāhman is not engaged his place is taken by a relative, who is called <i>sawāsa</i>, and is either the sister’s husband, daughter’s husband, or father’s sister’s husband, of the head of the family. They permit +widow-remarriage and divorce, and in the southern Districts effect a divorce by laying a pestle between the wife and husband. +They burn their dead and observe mourning for the usual period. After a death they will not again put on a coloured head-cloth +until some relative sets it on their heads for the first time on the expiry of the period of mourning. They revere the ordinary +Hindu deities, and like the Chamārs they have a family god, known as Mair, whose representation in the shape of a lump of +clay is enshrined within the house and worshipped at marriages and deaths. In Saugor he is said to be the collective representative +of the spirits of their ancestors. In some localities they eat flesh and drink liquor, but in others abstain from both. Among +the Hindus the Mochis rank considerably higher than the Chamārs; their touch does not defile and they are permitted to enter +temples and take part in religious ceremonies. The name of a Saugor Mochi is remembered who became a good drawer and painter +and was held in much esteem at the Peshwa’s court. In northern India about half the Mochis are Muhammadans, but in the Central +Provinces they are all Hindus. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e8083"> +<h3>7. Shoes</h3> +<p>In view of the fact that many of the Mochis were <a id="d0e8088"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e8088">250</a>]</span>Muhammadans and that slippers are mainly a Muhammadan article of attire Buchanan thought it probable that they were brought +into India by the invaders, the Hindus having previously been content with sandals and wooden shoes. He wrote: “Many Hindus +now use leather slippers, but some adhere to the proper custom of wearing sandals, which have wooden soles, a strap of leather +to pass over the instep, and a wooden or horn peg with a button on its top. The foot is passed through the strap and the peg +is placed between two of the toes.”<a id="d0e8090src" href="#d0e8090" class="noteref">5</a> It is certain, however, that leather shoes and slippers were known to the Hindus from a fairly early period: “The episode +related in the Rāmāyana of Bhārata placing on the vacant throne of Ajodhya a pair of Rāma’s slippers, which he worshipped +during the latter’s protracted exile, shows that shoes were important articles of wear and worthy of attention. In Manu and +the Mahābhārata slippers are also mentioned and the time and mode of putting them on pointed out. The Vishnu Purāna enjoins +all who wish to protect their persons never to be without leather shoes. Manu in one place expresses great repugnance to stepping +into another’s shoes and peremptorily forbids it, and the Purānas recommend the use of shoes when walking out of the house, +particularly in thorny places and on hot sand.”<a id="d0e8095src" href="#d0e8095" class="noteref">6</a> Thus shoes were certainly worn by the Hindus before Muhammadan times, though loose slippers may have been brought into fashion +by the latter. And it seems possible that the Mochis may have adopted Islām, partly to obtain the patronage of the followers +of the new religion, and also to escape from the degraded position to which their profession of leather-working was relegated +by Hinduism and to dissociate themselves from the Chamārs. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7928" href="#d0e7928src" class="noteref">1</a></span> This article is partly based on papers by Mr. Gopal Parmanand, Deputy Inspector of Schools, Saugor, and Mr. Shamsuddīn, Sub-Inspector, +City Police, Saugor. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7985" href="#d0e7985src" class="noteref">2</a></span> <i>Brief View</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e7992" href="#d0e7992src" class="noteref">3</a></span> <i>Bombay Ethnographic Survey Draft Monograph on Jīngar</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8005" href="#d0e8005src" class="noteref">4</a></span> <i>Tribes and Castes of Bengal</i>, art. Mochi. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8090" href="#d0e8090src" class="noteref">5</a></span> <i>Eastern India</i>, vol. iii. p. 105. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8095" href="#d0e8095src" class="noteref">6</a></span> Rājendra Lāl Mitra, <i>Indo-Aryans</i>, vol. i. pp. 222, 223. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e8101" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Mowār</h2> +<p><b>Mowār.</b>—A small caste of cultivators found in the Chhattīsgarh country, in the Raipur and Bilāspur Districts and the Raigarh State. +They numbered 2500 persons in 1901. The derivation of the name is obscure, but they themselves say that it is derived from +Mow or Mowagarh, <a id="d0e8108"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e8108">251</a>]</span>a town in the Jhānsi District of the United Provinces, and they also call themselves Mahuwār or the inhabitants of Mow. They +say that the Rāja of Mowagarh, under whom they were serving, desired to marry the daughter of one of their Sirdārs (headmen), +because she was extremely beautiful, but her father refused, and when the Rāja persisted in his desire they left the place +in a body and came to Ratanpur in the time of Rāja Bīmbaji, in A.D. 1770. A Bilāspur writer states that the Mowārs are an +offshoot from the Rajwār Rājpūts of Sargūja State. Colonel Dalton writes<a id="d0e8110src" href="#d0e8110" class="noteref">1</a> of the Rajwār Rājpūts of Sargūja and other adjoining States that they are peaceably disposed cultivators, who declare themselves +to be fallen Kshatriyas; but he remarks later that they are probably aborigines, as they do not conform to Hindu customs, +and they are skilled in a dance called Chailo, which he considers to be of Dravidian origin. In another place he remarks that +the Rajwārs of Bengal admit that they are derived from the miscegenation of Kurmis and Kols. The fact that the Mowārs of Sārangarh +make a representation of a bow and arrow on their documents, instead of signing their names, affords some support to the theory +that they are probably a branch of one of the aboriginal tribes. The name may be derived from <i>mowa</i>, a radish, as the Mowārs of Bilāspur are engaged principally in garden cultivation. + +</p> +<p>The Mowārs have no subcastes, but are divided into a number of exogamous groups, principally of a totemistic nature. Those +of the Sūrajha or sun sept throw away their earthen pots on the occasion of an eclipse, and those of the Hataia or elephant +sept will not ride on an elephant and worship that animal at the Dasahra festival. Members of other septs named after the +cobra, the crow, the monkey and the tiger will not kill their totem animal, and when they see the dead body of one of its +species they throw away their earthen cooking-pots as a sign of mourning. The marriage of persons belonging to the same sept +and also that of first cousins is prohibited. If an unmarried girl is seduced by a man of the caste she becomes his wife and +is not expelled, but the caste will not eat food cooked by her. But a girl going wrong with an outsider is finally cast <a id="d0e8120"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e8120">252</a>]</span>out. The marriage and other social customs resemble those of the Kurmis. The caste employ Brāhmans at their ceremonies and +have a great regard for them. Their <i>gurus</i> or spiritual preceptors are Bairāgis and Gosains. They eat the flesh of clean animals and a few drink liquor, but most of +them abstain from it. Their women are tattooed on the arms and hands with figures intended to represent deer, flies and other +animals and insects. The caste say that they were formerly employed as soldiers under the native chiefs, but they are now +all cultivators. They grow all kinds of grain and vegetables, except turmeric and onions. A few of them are landowners, and +the majority tenants. Very few are constrained to labour for hire. In appearance the men are generally strong and healthy, +and of a dark complexion. + +</p> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8110" href="#d0e8110src" class="noteref">1</a></span> <i>Ethnology of Bengal</i>, p. 326. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e8125" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Murha</h2> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>1. Origin of the caste</h3> +<p><b>Murha.</b>—A Dravidian, caste of navvies and labourers found in Jubbulpore and the adjoining Districts, to the number of about 1500 +persons. The name Murha has been held to show that the caste are connected with the Munda tribe. The Murhas, however, call +themselves also Khare Bind Kewat and Lunia or Nunia (salt-maker), and in Jubbulpore they give these two names as subdivisions +of the caste. And these names indicate that the caste are an offshoot of the large Bind tribe of Bengal and northern India, +though in parts of the Central Provinces they have probably been recruited from the Kols or Mundas. Sir H. Risley<a id="d0e8135src" href="#d0e8135" class="noteref">1</a> records a story related by the Binds to the effect that they and the Nunias were formerly one, and that the existing Nunias +are descended from a Bind who consented to dig a grave for a Muhammadan king and was put out of caste for doing so. And he +remarks that the Binds may be a true primitive tribe and the Nunias a functional group differentiated from them by taking +to the manufacture of earth salt. This explanation of the relationship of the Binds and Nunias seems almost certainly correct. +In the United Provinces the Binds are divided into the Khare and Dhusia or first and second subcastes, and the Khare Binds +also call themselves Kewat.<a id="d0e8140src" href="#d0e8140" class="noteref">2</a> And the Murhas of <a id="d0e8146"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e8146">253</a>]</span>Narsinghpur call themselves Khare Bind Kewats, though the other Kewats repudiate all connection with them. There seems thus +to be no doubt that the Murhas of these Provinces are another offshoot of the Bind tribe like the Nunias, who have taken up +the profession of navvies and earthworkers and thus become a separate caste. Mr. Hīra Lāl notes that the Narsinghpur District +contains a village Nonia, which is inhabited solely by Murhas who call themselves Khare Bind Kewat. As the village is no doubt +named Nonia or Nunia after them, we thus have an instance of all the three designations being applied to the same set of persons. +The Murhas say that they came into Narsinghpur from Rewah, and they still speak the Bagheli dialect, though the current vernacular +of the locality is Bundeli. The Binds themselves derive their name from the Vindhya (Bindhya) hills.<a id="d0e8148src" href="#d0e8148" class="noteref">3</a> They relate that a traveller passing by the Vindhya hills heard a strange flute-like sound coming out of a clump of bamboos. +He cut a shoot and took from it a fleshy substance, which afterwards grew into a man, the supposed ancestor of the Binds. +In Mandla the Murhas say that the difference between themselves and the Nunias is that the latter make field-embankments and +other earthwork, while the Murhas work in stone and build bridges. According to their own story they were brought to Mandla +from their home in Eastern Oudh more than ten generations ago by a Gond king of the Garha-Mandla dynasty for the purpose of +building his fort or castle. He gave them two villages for their maintenance which they have now lost. The caste has, however, +probably received some local accretions and in Mandla some Murhas appear to be Kols; members of this tribe are generally above +the average in bodily strength and are in considerable request for employment on earth- and stone-work. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>2. Marriage customs</h3> +<p>In Narsinghpur the Murhas appear to have no regular exogamous divisions. Some of them remember the names of their <i>kheros</i> or ancestral villages and do not marry with families belonging to the same <i>khero</i>, but this is not a regular rule of the caste. Generally speaking, persons descended through males from a common ancestor +do not intermarry so long as they remember the relationship. In Mandla they <a id="d0e8166"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e8166">254</a>]</span>have five divisions, of which the highest is Pūrbia. The name Pūrbia (Eastern) is commonly applied in the Central Provinces +to persons coming from Oudh, and in this case the Pūrbia Murhas are probably the latest immigrants from home and have a superior +status on this account. Up till recently they practised hypergamy with the other groups, taking daughters from them in marriage, +but not giving their daughters to them. This rule is now, however, breaking down on account of the difficulty they find in +getting their daughters married. The children of brothers and sisters may marry in some places, but in others neither they +nor their children may marry with each other. Anta Sānta or the exchange of girls between two families is permitted. The bridegroom’s +father has to pay from five to twenty rupees as a <i>chari</i> or bride-price to the girl’s father, which sum is regarded as the remuneration of the latter for having brought up his daughter. +In the case of the daughter of a headman the bride-price is sometimes as high as Rs. 150. In Damoh a curious survival of marriage +by capture remains. The bridegroom’s party give a ram or he-goat to the bride’s party and these take it to their shed, cut +its head off and hang it by the side of the <i>khām</i> or marriage-pole. The brother-in-law of the bridegroom or of his father then sallies forth to bring back the head of the +animal, but is opposed by the women of the bride’s party, who belabour him and his friends with sticks, brooms and rolling-pins. +But in the end the head is always taken away. The binding portion of the marriage is the <i>bhānwar</i> or walking round the sacred post. When the bride is leaving for her husband’s house the women of her party take seven balls +of flour with burning wicks thrust into them, and place them in a winnowing-fan. They wave this round the bride’s head and +then throw the balls and after them the fan over the litter in which the bride is seated. The bridegroom’s party must catch +the fan, and if they let it fall to the ground they are much laughed at for their clumsiness. When the pair arrive at the +bridegroom’s house, the fan is again waved over their heads; and a cloth is spread before the house, on which seven burning +wicks are placed like the previous ones. The bride walks quickly over the cloth to the house and the <a id="d0e8177"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e8177">255</a>]</span>bridegroom must keep pace with her, picking up the burning flour balls as he goes. When the pair arrive at the house the bridegroom’s +sister shuts the door and will not open it until she is given a present. Divorce and the remarriage of widows are permitted. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>3. Funeral rites</h3> +<p>The caste worship the ordinary Hindu deities. Well-to-do members burn their dead and the poorer ones bury them. The corpse +is usually placed with the head to the south as is the custom among the primitive tribes, but in some localities the Hindu +fashion of laying the head to the north has been adopted. Two pice are thrown down by the grave or burning-<i>ghāt</i> to buy the site, and these are taken by the sweeper. The ashes are collected on the third day and thrown into a river. The +usual period of mourning is only three days, but it is sometimes extended to nine days when the chief mourner is unable to +feed the caste-fellows on the third day, and the feast may in case of necessity be postponed to any time within six months +of the death. The chief mourner puts on a new white cloth and eats nothing but rice and pulse without salt. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>4. Occupation</h3> +<p>The caste are employed on all kinds of earthwork, such as building walls, excavating trenches, and making embankments in fields. +Their trade implements consist of a pickaxe, a basket, and a thin wooden hod to fill the earth into the basket. The Murha +invokes these as follows: “Oh! my lord the basket, my lord the pickaxe shaped like a snake, and my lady the hod, come and +eat up those who do not pay me for my work!” The Murhas are strict in their rules about food and will not accept cooked food +even from a Brāhman, but notwithstanding this, their social position is so low that not even a sweeper would take food from +them. The caste eat flesh and drink liquor, but abstain from fowls, pork and beef. They engage Brāhmans on the occasion of +births and marriages, but not usually for funerals. The women tattoo their bodies after marriage, and the charge for this +should always be paid by the maternal uncle’s wife, the paternal aunt, or some other similar relation of the girl. The fact +that among most Hindus a girl must be tattooed before leaving for her husband’s house, and that the cost of the operation +must always be paid for by her own family, seems <a id="d0e8192"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e8192">256</a>]</span>to indicate that tattooing was formerly a rite of puberty for the female sex. A wife must not mention the name of her husband +or of any person who stands in the relation of father, mother, uncle or aunt to him. Parents do not call their eldest son +by his proper name, but by some pet name. Women are impure for five days during menstruation and are not allowed to cook for +that period. The Murhas have a caste <i>panchāyat</i> or committee, the head of which is known as Patel or Mukhia, the office being hereditary. He receives a part of all fines +levied for the commission of social offences. In appearance the caste are dark and short of stature, and have some resemblance +to the Kols. + + +</p> +<p></p> +<div id="d0e8198" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p117.jpg" alt="Coolie women with babies slung at the side" width="720" height="403"><p class="figureHead">Coolie women with babies slung at the side</p> +</div><p> + + + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>5. Women’s song</h3> +<p>In conclusion, I reproduce one of the songs which the women sing as they are carrying the basketfuls of earth or stones at +their work; in the original each line consists of two parts, the last words of which sometimes rhyme with each other: + +</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Our mother Nerbudda is very kind; blow, wind, we are hot with labour. +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>He said to the Maina: Go, carry my message to my love. +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>The red ants climb up the mango-tree; and the daughter follows her mother’s way. +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>I have no money to give her even lime and tobacco; I am poor, so how can I tell her of my love. +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>The boat has gone down on the flood of the Nerbudda; the fisherwoman is weeping for her husband. +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>She has no bangles on her arm nor necklace on her neck; she has no beauty, but seeks her lovers throughout the village. +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Bread from the girdle, curry from the <i>lota</i>; let us go, beloved, the moon is shining. +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>The leaves of gram have been plucked from the plants; I think much on Dadaria, but she does not come. +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>The love of a stranger is as a dream; think not of him, beloved, he cannot be yours. +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Twelve has struck and it is thirteen time (past the time of labour); oh, overseer, let your poor labourers go. +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>The betel-leaf is pressed in the mouth (and gives pleasure); attractive eyes delight the heart. +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Catechu, areca and black cloves; my heart’s secret troubles me in my dreams. +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>The Nerbudda came and swept away the rubbish (from the works); fly away, bees, do not perch on my cloth. +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>The colour does not come on the wheat; her youth is passing, but she cannot yet drape her cloth on her body. +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Like the sight of rain-drops splashing on the ground; so beautiful is she to look upon. +<a id="d0e8241"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e8241">257</a>]</span></span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>It rains and the hidden streams in the woodland are filled (and come to view); hide as long as you may, some day you must +be seen. +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>The mahua flowers are falling from the trees on the hill; leave me your cloth so that I may know you will return. +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>He went to the bazār and brought back a cocoanut; it is green without, but insects are eating the core. +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>He went to the hill and cut strings of bamboo; you cannot drape your cloth, you have wound it round your body. +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>The coral necklace hangs on the peg; if you become the second wife of my husband I shall give you clothes. +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>She put on her clothes and went to the forest; she met her lover and said you are welcome to me. +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>He went to the bazār and bought potatoes; but if he had loved me he would have brought me liquor. +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>The fish in the river are on the look-out; the Brāhman’s daughter is bathing with her hair down. +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>The arhar-stumps stand in the field; I loved one of another caste, but must give him up. +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>He ate betel and coloured his teeth; his beloved came from without and knew him. +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>The ploughmen are gone to the field; my clever writer is gone to the court-house. +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>The Nerbudda flows like a bent bow; a beautiful youth is standing in court.<a id="d0e8266src" href="#d0e8266" class="noteref">4</a> +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>The broken areca-nuts lie in the forest; when a man comes to misfortune no one will help him. +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>The broken areca-nuts cannot be mended; and two hearts which are sundered cannot be joined. +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Ask me for five rupees and I will give you twenty-five; but I will not give my lover for the whole world. +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>I will put bangles on my arm; when the other wife sees me she will die of jealousy. +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Break the bangles which your husband gave you; and put others on your wrists in my name. +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>O my lover, give me bangles; make me armlets, for I am content with you. +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>My lover went to the bazār at Lakhanpur; but he has not brought me even a <i>choli</i><a id="d0e8285src" href="#d0e8285" class="noteref">5</a> that I liked. +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>I had gone to the bazār and bought fish; she is so ugly that the flies would not settle on her.</span></p> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8135" href="#d0e8135src" class="noteref">1</a></span> <i>Tribes and Castes of Bengal</i>, art. Bind. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8140" href="#d0e8140src" class="noteref">2</a></span> Crooke’s <i>Tribes and Castes</i>, art. Bind. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8148" href="#d0e8148src" class="noteref">3</a></span> <i>Tribes and Castes of Bengal</i>, <i>loc. cit.</i></p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8266" href="#d0e8266src" class="noteref">4</a></span> The clever writer referred to in the preceding line. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8285" href="#d0e8285src" class="noteref">5</a></span> Breast-cloth. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e8290" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Nagasia</h2> +<p><b>Nagasia, Naksia.</b>—A primitive tribe found principally in the Chota Nāgpur States. They now number 16,000 persons in the Central Provinces, +being returned almost entirely from Jashpur and Sargūja. The census returns are, however, liable to be inaccurate as the Nagasias +frequently call themselves Kisān, a term which is also applied to the <a id="d0e8297"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e8297">258</a>]</span>Oraons. The Nagasias say that they are the true Kisāns whereas the Oraons are only so by occupation. The Oraons, on the other +hand, call the Nagasias Kisāda. The tribe derive their name from the Nāg or cobra, and they say that somebody left an infant +in the forest of Setambu and a cobra came and spread its hood over the child to protect him from the rays of the sun. Some +Mundas happened to pass by and on seeing this curious sight they thought the child must be destined to greatness, so they +took him home and made him their king, calling him Nagasia, and from him the tribe are descended. The episode of the snake +is, of course, a stock legend related by many tribes, but the story appears to indicate that the Nagasias are an offshoot +of the Mundas; and this hypothesis is strengthened by the fact that Nāgbasia is often used as an alternative name for the +Mundas by their Hindu neighbours. The term Nāgbasia is supposed to mean the original settlers (<i>basia</i>) in Nāg (Chota Nāgpur). + +</p> +<p>The tribe are divided into the Telha, Dhuria and Senduria groups. The Telhas are so called because at the marriage ceremony +they mark the forehead of the bride with <i>tel</i> (oil), while the Dhurias instead of oil use dust (<i>dhur</i>) taken from the sole of the bridegroom’s foot, and the Sendurias like most Hindu castes employ vermilion (<i>sendur</i>) for this purpose. The Telhas and Dhurias marry with each other, but not with the Sendūrias, who consider themselves to be +superior to the others and use the term Nāgbansia or ‘Descendants of the Snake’ as their tribal name. The Telha and Dhuria +women do not wear glass bangles on their arms but only bracelets of brass, while the Sendurias wear glass bangles and also +armlets above the elbow. Telha women do not wear nose-rings or tattoo their bodies, while the Sendūrias do both. The Telhas +say that the tattooing needle and vermilion, which they formerly employed in their marriages, were stolen from them by Wāgdeo +or the tiger god. So they hit upon sesamum oil as a substitute, which must be pressed for ceremonial purposes in a bamboo +basket by unmarried boys using a plough-yoke. This is probably, Mr. Hīra Lāl remarks, merely the primitive method of extracting +oil, prior to the invention of the Teli’s <i>ghāni</i> or oil-press; and the practice is an instance of the common <a id="d0e8316"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e8316">259</a>]</span>rule that articles employed in ceremonial and religious rites should be prepared by the ancient and primitive methods which +for ordinary purposes have been superseded by more recent labour-saving inventions. + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e8318" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Nāhal</h2> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>1. The tribe and its subdivisions</h3> +<p><b>Nāhal, Nihāl.</b><a id="d0e8327src" href="#d0e8327" class="noteref">1</a>—A forest tribe who are probably a mixture of Bhīls and Korkus. In 1911 they numbered 12,000 persons, of whom 8000 belonged +to the Hoshangābād, Nimār and Betūl Districts, and nearly 4000 to Berār. They were classed at the census as a subtribe of +Korkus. According to one story they are descended from a Bhīl father and a Korku mother, and the writer of the <i>Khāndesh Gazetteer</i> calls them the most savage of the Bhīls. But in the Central Provinces their family or sept names are the same as those of +the Korkus, and they speak the Korku language. Mr. Kitts<a id="d0e8333src" href="#d0e8333" class="noteref">2</a> says that the Korkus who first went to Berār found the Nāhals in possession of the Melghāt hills. Gradually the latter caste +lost their power and became the village drudges of the former. He adds that the Nāhals were fast losing their language, and +the younger generation spoke only Korku. The two tribes were very friendly, and the Nāhals acknowledged the superior position +of the Korkus. This, if it accurately represents the state of things prevailing for a long period, and was not merely an incidental +feature of their relative position at the time Mr. Kitts’ observations were made, would tend to show that the Nāhals were +the older tribe and had been subjected by the Korkus, just as the Korkus themselves and the Baigas have given way to the Gonds. +Mr. Crosthwaite also states that the Nāhal is the drudge of the Korku and belongs to a race which is supposed to have been +glorious before the Korku star arose, and which is now fast dying out. In any case there is no doubt that the Nāhals are a +very mixed tribe, as they will even now admit into the community Gonds, Korkus and nearly all the Hindu castes, though in +some localities they will not eat from the other tribes and the lower Hindu castes and therefore refuse to admit them. There +are, moreover, <a id="d0e8338"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e8338">260</a>]</span>two subdivisions of the caste called Korku and Marāthi Nāhals respectively. The latter are more Hinduised than the former +and disclaim any connection with the Korkus. The Nāhals have totemistic exogamous septs. Those of the Kāsa sept worship a +tortoise and also a bell-metal plate, which is their family god. They never eat off a bell-metal plate except on one day in +the month of Māgh (January), when they worship it. The members of the Nāgbel sept worship the betel-vine or ‘snake-creeper,’ +and refrain from chewing betel-leaves, and they also worship the Nāg or cobra and do not kill it, thus having a sort of double +totem. The Bhawaria sept, named after the <i>bhaunr</i> or black bee, do not eat honey, and if they see a person taking the honey-comb from a nest they will run away. The Khadia +sept worship the spirits of their ancestors enshrined in a heap of stones (<i>khad</i>), or according to another account they worship a snake which sits on a heap of pebbles. The Surja sept worship Sūrya or the +sun by offering him a fowl in the month of Pūs (December-January), and some members of the sept keep a fast every Sunday. +The Saoner sept worship the <i>san</i> or flax plant. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>2. Marriage</h3> +<p>Marriage is prohibited between members of the same sept, but there are no other restrictions and first cousins may marry. +Both sexes usually marry when adult, and sexual license before wedlock is tolerated. A Brāhman is employed only for fixing +the date of the ceremony. The principal part of the marriage is the knotting together of the bride’s and bridegroom’s clothes +on two successive days. They also gamble with tamarind seeds, and it is considered a lucky union if the bridegroom wins. A +bride-price is usually paid consisting of Rs. 1–4 to Rs. 5 in cash, some grain and a piece of cloth for the bride’s mother. +The remarriage of widows is allowed, and the couple go five times round a bamboo stick which is held up to represent a spear, +the ceremony being called <i>barchhi se bhānwar phirna</i> or the marriage of the spear. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>3. Religion</h3> +<p>The Nāhals worship the forest god called Jhārkhandi in the month of Chait, and until this rite has been performed they do +not use the leaves or fruits of the <i>palās</i>,<a id="d0e8365src" href="#d0e8365" class="noteref">3</a> <i>aonlā</i><a id="d0e8372src" href="#d0e8372" class="noteref">4</a> or <a id="d0e8377"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e8377">261</a>]</span>mango trees. When the god is worshipped they collect branches and leaves of these trees and offer cooked food to them and +thereafter commence using the new leaves, and the fruit and timber. They also worship the ordinary village godlings. The dead +are buried, except in the case of members of the Surja or sun sept, whose corpses are burnt. Cooked food is offered at the +grave for four days after the death. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>4. Occupation</h3> +<p>The Nāhals were formerly a community of hill-robbers, ‘Nāhal, Bhīl, Koli’ being the phrase generally used in old documents +to designate the marauding bands of the western Satpūra hills. The Rāja of Jītgarh and Mohkot in Nimār has a long account +in his genealogy of a treacherous massacre of a whole tribe of Nāhals by his ancestor in Akbar’s time, in recognition of which +the Jītgarh pargana was granted to the family. Mr. Kitts speaks of the Nāhals of Berār as having once been much addicted to +cattle-lifting, and this propensity still exists in a minor degree in the Central Provinces, accentuated probably by the fact +that a considerable number of Nāhals follow the occupation of graziers. Some of them are also village watchmen, and another +special avocation of theirs is the collection of the oil of the marking-nut tree (<i>Semecarpus anacardium</i>). This is to some extent a dangerous trade, as the oil causes swellings on the body, besides staining the skin and leaving +a peculiar odour. The workers wrap a fourfold layer of cloth round their fingers with ashes between each fold, while the rest +of the body is also protected by cloth when gathering the nuts and pounding them to extract the oil. At the end of the day’s +work powdered tamarind and <i>ghī</i> are rubbed on the whole body. The oil is a stimulant, and is given to women after delivery and to persons suffering from +rheumatism. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>5. Social status</h3> +<p>The social status of the Nāhals is very low and they eat the flesh of almost all animals, while those who graze cattle eat +beef. Cow-killing is not regarded as an offence. They are also dirty and do not bathe for weeks together. To get maggots in +a wound is, however, regarded as a grave offence, and the sufferer is put out of the village and has to live alone until he +recovers. +<a id="d0e8395"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e8395">262</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8327" href="#d0e8327src" class="noteref">1</a></span> This article is mainly compiled from papers by Mr. Hīra Lāl and Bābu Gulāb Singh, Superintendent of Land Records, Betūl. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8333" href="#d0e8333src" class="noteref">2</a></span> <i>Berār Census Report</i> (1881), p. 158. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8365" href="#d0e8365src" class="noteref">3</a></span> <i>Butea frondosa</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8372" href="#d0e8372src" class="noteref">4</a></span> <i>Phyllanthus emiblica</i>. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e8396" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Nai</h2> +<h3>List of Paragraphs</h3> +<ul> +<li><a href="#d0e8492">1. Structure of the caste</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e8519">2. Marriage and other customs</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e8532">3. Occupation</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e8555">4. Other services</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e8563">5. Duties at weddings</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e8579">6. The barber-surgeon</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e8594">7. A barber at the court of Oudh</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e8632">8. Character and position of the barber</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e8669">9. Beliefs about hair</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e8798">10. Hair of kings and priests</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e8842">11. The beard</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e8858">12. Significance of removal of the hair and shaving the head</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e8891">13. Shaving the head by mourners</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e8909">14. Hair offerings</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e8919">15. Keeping hair unshorn during a vow</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e8941">16. Disposal of cut hair and nails</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e8980">17. Superstitions about shaving the hair</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e9000">18. Reasons why the hair was considered the source of strength</a></li> +</ul> +<div class="div2" id="d0e8492"> +<h3>1. Structure of the caste</h3> +<p><b>Nai, Nao, Mhāli, Hajjām, Bhanāri, Mangala</b>.<a id="d0e8499src" href="#d0e8499" class="noteref">1</a>—The occupational caste of barbers. The name is said to be derived from the Sanskrit <i>nāpita</i> according to some a corruption of <i>snāpitri</i>, one who bathes. In Bundelkhand he is also known as Khawās, which was a title for the attendant on a grandee; and Birtiya, +or ‘He that gets his maintenance (<i>vritti</i>) from his constituents.’<a id="d0e8511src" href="#d0e8511" class="noteref">2</a> Mhāli is the Marāthi name for the caste, Bhandāri the Uriya name and Mangala the Telugu name. The caste numbered nearly 190,000 +persons in the Central Provinces in 1911, being distributed over all Districts. Various legends of the usual type are related +of its origin, but, as Sir. H. Risley observes, it is no doubt wholly of a functional character. The subcastes in the Central +Provinces entirely bear out this view, as they are <a id="d0e8517"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e8517">263</a>]</span>very numerous and principally of the territorial type: Telange of the Telugu country, Marāthe, Pardeshi or northerners, Jhāria +or those of the forest country of the Wainganga Valley, Bandhaiya or those of Bāndhogarh, Barāde of Berār, Bundelkhandi, Mārwāri, +Mathuria from Mathura, Gadhwarīa from Garha near Jubbulpore, Lānjia from Lānji in Bālāghāt, Mālwi from Mālwa, Nimāri from +Nimār, Deccane, Gujarāti, and so on. Twenty-six divisions in all are given. The exogamous groups are also of different types, +some of them being named after Brāhman saints, as Gautam, Kashyap, Kosil, Sandil and Bhāradwāj; others after Rājpūt clans +as Sūrajvansi, Jāduvansi, Solanki and Panwār; while others are titular or totemistic, as Nāik, leader; Seth, banker; Rāwat, +chief; Nāgesh, cobra; Bāgh, a tiger; Bhādrawa, a fish. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e8519"> +<h3>2. Marriage and other customs</h3> +<p>The exogamous groups are known as <i>khero</i> or <i>kul</i>, and marriage between members of the same group is prohibited. Girls are usually wedded between the ages of eight and twelve +and boys between fifteen and twenty. A girl who goes wrong before marriage is finally expelled from the caste. The wedding +ceremony follows the ritual prevalent in the locality as described in the articles on Kurmi and Kunbi. At an ordinary wedding +the expenses on the girl’s side amount to about Rs. 150, and on the boy’s to Rs. 200. The remarriage of widows is permitted. +In the northern Districts the widow may wed the younger brother of her deceased husband, but in the Marātha country she may +not be married to any of his relatives. Divorce may be effected at the instance of the husband before the caste committee, +and a divorced woman is at liberty to marry again. The Nais worship all the ordinary Hindu deities. On the Dasahra and Diwāli +festivals they wash and revere their implements, the razor, scissors and nail-pruners. They pay regard to omens. It is unpropitious +to sneeze or hear the report of a gun when about to commence any business; and when a man is starting on a journey, if a cat, +a squirrel, a hare or a snake should cross the road in front of him he will give it up and return home. The bodies of the +dead are usually burnt. In Chhattīsgarh the poor throw the corpses of their dead into the Mahānadi, and the bodies of children +<a id="d0e8530"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e8530">264</a>]</span>dying under one year of age were until recently buried in the courtyard of the house. The period of mourning for adults is +ten days and for children three days. The chief mourner must take only one meal a day, which he cooks himself until the ceremony +of the tenth day is performed. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e8532"> +<h3>3. Occupation</h3> +<p>“The barber’s trade,” Mr. Crooke states,<a id="d0e8537src" href="#d0e8537" class="noteref">3</a> “is undoubtedly of great antiquity. In the Veda we read, ‘Sharpen us like the razor in the hands of the barber’; and again, +‘Driven by the wind, Agni shaves the hair of the earth like the barber shaving a beard.’” In early times they must have enjoyed +considerable dignity; Upali the barber was the first propounder of the law of the Buddhist church. The village barber’s leather +bag contains a small mirror (<i>ārsi</i>), a pair of iron pincers (<i>chimta</i>), a leather strap, a comb (<i>kanghi</i>), a piece of cloth about a yard square and some oil in a phial. He shaves the faces, heads and armpits of his customers, +and cuts the nails of both their hands and feet. He uses cold water in summer and hot in winter, but no soap, though this +has now been introduced in towns. For the poorer cultivators he does a rapid scrape, and this process is called ‘<i>asūdhal</i>’ or a ‘tearful shave,’ because the person undergoing it is often constrained to weep. The barber acquires the knowledge of +his art by practice on the more obliging of his customers, hence the proverb, ‘The barber’s son learns his trade on the heads +of fools.’ The village barber is usually paid by a contribution of grain from the cultivators, calculated in some cases according +to the number of ploughs of land possessed by each, in others according to the number of adult males in the family. In Saugor +he receives 20 lbs. of grain annually for each adult male or 22½ lbs. per plough of land, besides presents of a basket of +grain at seed-time and a sheaf at harvest. Cultivators are usually shaved about once a fortnight. In towns the barber’s fee +may vary from a pice to two annas for a shave, which is, as has been seen, a much more protracted operation with a Hindu than +with a European. It is said that Berār is now so rich that even ordinary cultivators can afford to pay the barber two annas +(2d.) for a single shave, or the same price as in the suburbs of London. +<a id="d0e8554"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e8554">265</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e8555"> +<h3>4. Other services</h3> +<p>After he has shaved a client the barber pinches and rubs his arms, presses his fingers together and cracks the joints of each +finger, this last action being perhaps meant to avert evil spirits. He also does massage, a very favourite method of treatment +in India, and also inexpensive as compared with Europe. For one rupee a month in towns the barber will come and rub a man’s +legs five or ten minutes every day. Cultivators have their legs rubbed in the sowing season, when the labour is intensely +hard owing to the necessity of sowing all the land in a short period. If a man is well-to-do he may have his whole head and +body rubbed with scented oil. Landowners have often a barber as a family servant, the office descending from father to son. +Such a man will light his master’s <i>chilam</i> (pipe-bowl) or huqqa (water-pipe), clean and light lamps, prepare his bed, tell his master stories to send him to sleep, +act as escort for the women of the family when they go on a journey and arrange matches for the children. The barber’s wife +attends on women in child-birth after the days of pollution are over, and rubs oil on the bodies of her clients, pares their +nails and paints their feet with red dye at marriages and on other festival occasions. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e8563"> +<h3>5. Duties at weddings</h3> +<p>The barber has also numerous and important duties<a id="d0e8568src" href="#d0e8568" class="noteref">4</a> in connection with marriages and other festival occasions. He acts as the Brāhman’s assistant, and to the lower castes, who +cannot employ a Brāhman, he is himself the matrimonial priest. The important part which he plays in marriage ceremonies has +led to his becoming the matchmaker among all respectable castes. He searches for a suitable bride or bridegroom, and is often +sent to inspect the other party to a match and report his or her defects to his clients. He may arrange the price or dowry, +distribute the invitations and carry the presents from one house to the other. He supplies the leaf-plates and cups which +are used at weddings, as the family’s stock of metal vessels is usually quite inadequate for the number of guests. The price +of these is about 4 annas (4d.) a hundred. He also provides the <i>torans</i> or strings of leaves which are hung over the door of <a id="d0e8577"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e8577">266</a>]</span>the house and round the marriage-shed. At the feast the barber is present to hand to the guests water, betel-leaf and pipes +as they may desire. He also partakes of the food, seated at a short distance from the guests, in the intervals of his service. +He lights the lamps and carries the torches during the ceremony. Hence he was known as Masālchi or torch-bearer, a name now +applied by Europeans to a menial servant who lights and cleans the lamps and washes the plates after meals. The barber and +his wife act as prompters to the bride and bridegroom, and guide them through the complicated ritual of the wedding ceremony, +taking the couple on their knees if they are children, and otherwise sitting behind them. The barber has a prescriptive right +to receive the clothes in which the bridegroom goes to the bride’s house, as on the latter’s arrival he is always presented +with new clothes by the bride’s father. As the bridegroom’s clothes may be an ancestral heirloom, a compact is often made +to buy them back from the barber, and he may receive as much as Rs. 50 in lieu of them. When the first son is born in a family +the barber takes a long bamboo stick, wraps it round with cloth and puts an earthen pot over it and carries this round to +the relatives, telling them the good news. He receives a small present from each household. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e8579"> +<h3>6. The barber-surgeon</h3> +<p>The barber also cleans the ears of his clients and cuts their nails, and is the village surgeon in a small way. He cups and +bleeds his patients, applies leeches, takes out teeth and lances boils. In this capacity he is the counterpart of the barber-surgeon +of mediaeval Europe. The Hindu physicians are called Baid, and are, as a rule, a class of Brāhmans. They derive their knowledge +from ancient Sanskrit treatises on medicine, which are considered to have divine authority. Consequently they think it unnecessary +to acquire fresh knowledge by experiment and observation, as they suppose the perfect science of medicine to be contained +in their sacred books. As these books probably do not describe surgical operations, of which little or nothing was known at +the time when they were written, and as surgery involves contact with blood and other impure substances, the Baids do not +practise it, and the villagers <a id="d0e8584"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e8584">267</a>]</span>are left to get on as best they can with the ministrations of the barber. It is interesting to note that a similar state of +things appears to have prevailed in Europe. The monks were the early practitioners of medicine and were forbidden to practise +surgery, which was thus left to the barber-chirurgeon. The status of the surgeon was thus for long much below that of the +physician.<a id="d0e8586src" href="#d0e8586" class="noteref">5</a> The mediaeval barber of Europe kept a bottle of blood in his window, to indicate that he undertook bleeding and the application +of leeches, and the coloured bottles in the chemist’s window may have been derived from this. It is also said that the barber’s +pole originally served as a support for the patient to lean on while he was being bled, and those barbers who did the work +of bleeding patients painted their poles in variegated red and white stripes to show it. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e8594"> +<h3>7. A barber at the court of Oudh</h3> +<p>Perhaps the most successful barber known to Indian history was not a Hindu at all, but a Peninsular and Oriental Company’s +cabin-boy, who became the barber of one of the last kings of Oudh, Nasīr-ud-Dīn, in the early part of the nineteenth century, +and rose to the position of a favourite courtier. He was entrusted with the supply of every European article used at court, +and by degrees became a regular guest at the royal table, and sat down to take dinner with the king as a matter of right; +nor would his majesty taste a bottle of wine opened by any other hands than the barber’s.<a id="d0e8599src" href="#d0e8599" class="noteref">6</a> This was, however, a wise precaution as it turned out, since after he had finally been forced to part with the barber the +king was poisoned by his own relatives. The barber was also made keeper of the royal menagerie, for which he supplied the +animals and their food, and made enormous profits. The following is an account of the presentation of the barber’s monthly +bill of expenses:<a id="d0e8604src" href="#d0e8604" class="noteref">7</a> “It was after tiffin, or lunch, when we usually retired from the palace until dinner-time at nine o’clock, that the favourite +entered with a roll of paper in his hand. In India, long documents, legal and commercial, are usually written, not in books +or on successive sheets, but on a long roll, strip <a id="d0e8609"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e8609">268</a>]</span>being joined to strip for that purpose, and the whole rolled up like a map. + +</p> +<p>“‘Ha, Khan!’ said the king, observing him; ‘the monthly bill, is it?’ + +</p> +<p>“‘It is, your majesty,’ was the smiling reply. + +</p> +<p>“‘Come, out with it; let us see the extent. <span id="d0e8617" class="corr" title="Source: Unrol">Unroll</span> it, Khan.’ + +</p> +<p>“The king was in a playful humour; and the barber was always in the same mood as the king. He held the end of the roll in +his hand, and threw the rest along the floor, allowing it to <span id="d0e8622" class="corr" title="Source: unrol">unroll</span> itself as it retreated. It reached to the other side of the long apartment—a goodly array of items and figures, closely written +too. The king wanted it measured. A measure was brought and the bill was found to be four yards and a half long. I glanced +at the amount; it was upwards of Rs. 90,000, or £9000!” + +</p> +<p>The barber, however, encouraged the king in every form of dissipation and excess, until the state of the Oudh court became +such a scandal that the king was forced by the British Government to dismiss him.<a id="d0e8627src" href="#d0e8627" class="noteref">8</a> He retired, it was said, with a fortune of £240,000. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e8632"> +<h3>8. Character and position of the barber</h3> +<p>The barber is also, Mr. Low writes,<a id="d0e8637src" href="#d0e8637" class="noteref">9</a> the scandal-bearer and gossip-monger of the village. His cunning is proverbial, and he is known as <i>Chhattīsa</i> from the saying— + +</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Nai hai chhattīsa +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Khai an ka pīsa,</span></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>or ‘A barber has thirty-six talents by which he eats at the expense of others.’ His loquacity is shown in the proverb, ‘As +the crow among birds so the barber among men.’ The barber and the professional Brāhman are considered to be jealous of their +perquisites and unwilling to share with their caste-fellows, and this is exemplified in the proverb, “The barber, the dog +and the Brāhman, these three snarl at meeting one of their own kind.” The joint association of the Brāhman priest and the +barber with marriages and other ceremonies has led to the saying, “As there are <a id="d0e8653"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e8653">269</a>]</span>always reeds in a river so there is always a barber with a Brāhman.” The barber’s astuteness is alluded to in the saying, +‘Nine barbers are equal to seventy-two tailors.’ The fact that it is the barber’s duty to carry the lights in marriage processions +has led to the proverb, “At the barber’s wedding all are gentlemen and it is awkward to have to ask somebody to carry the +torch.” The point of this is clear, though no English equivalent occurs to the mind. And a similar idea is expressed by ‘The +barber washes the feet of others but is ashamed to wash his own.’ It would appear from these proverbs that the Nai is considered +to enjoy a social position somewhat above his deserts. Owing to the nature of his duties, which make him a familiar inmate +of the household and bring him into contact with the persons of his high-caste clients, the caste of the Nai is necessarily +considered to be a pure one and Brāhmans will take water from his hands. But, on the other hand, his calling is that of a +village menial and has also some elements of impurity, as in cupping which involves contact with blood, and in cutting the +nails and hair of the corpse before cremation. He is thus looked down upon as a menial and also considered as to some extent +impure. No member of a cultivating caste would salute a barber first or look upon him as an equal, though Brāhmans put them +on the same level of ceremonial purity by taking water from both. The barber’s loquacity and assurance have been made famous +by the <i>Arabian Nights</i>, but they have perhaps been affected by the more strenuous character of life, and his conversation does not flow so freely +as it did. Often he now confines himself to approving and adding emphasis to any remarks of the patron and greeting any of +his little witticisms with bursts of obsequious laughter. In Madras, Mr. Pandiān states, the village barber, like the washerman, +is known as the son of the village. If a customer does not pay him his dues, he lies low, and when he has begun to shave the +defaulter<span id="d0e8658" class="corr" title="Source: ">,</span> engages him in a dispute and says something to excite his anger. The latter will then become abusive to the barber, whom +he regards as a menial, and perhaps strike him, and this gives the barber an opportunity to stop shaving him and rush off +to lay a complaint at the village court-house, <a id="d0e8661"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e8661">270</a>]</span>leaving his enemy to proceed home with half his head shaved and thus exposed to general ridicule.<a id="d0e8663src" href="#d0e8663" class="noteref">10</a> + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e8669"> +<h3>9. Beliefs about hair</h3> +<p>Numerous customs appear to indicate that the hair was regarded as the special seat of bodily strength. The Rājpūt warriors +formerly wore their hair long and never cut it, but trained it in locks over their shoulders. Similarly the Marātha soldiers +wore their hair long. The Hatkars, a class of Marātha spearmen, might never cut their hair while engaged on military service. +A Sikh writer states of Guru Govind, the founder of the militant Sikh confederacy: “He appeared as the tenth Avatār (incarnation +of Vishnu). He established the Khālsa, his own sect, and by exhibiting singular energy, leaving the hair on his head, and +seizing the scimitar, he smote every wicked person.”<a id="d0e8674src" href="#d0e8674" class="noteref">11</a> As is well known, no Sikh may cut his hair, and one of the five marks of the Sikh is the <i>kanga</i> or comb, which he must always carry in order to keep his hair in proper order. A proverb states that ‘The origin of a Sikh +is in his hair.’<a id="d0e8683src" href="#d0e8683" class="noteref">12</a> The following story, related by Sir J. Malcolm, shows the vital importance attached by the Sikh to his hair and beard: “Three +inferior agents of Sikh chiefs were one day in my tent. I was laughing and joking with one of them, a Khālsa Sikh, who said +he had been ordered to attend me to Calcutta. Among other subjects of our mirth I rallied him on trusting himself so much +in my power. ‘Why, what is the worst,’ he said, ‘that you can do to me?’ I passed my hand across my chin, imitating the act +of shaving. The man’s face was in an instant distorted with rage and his sword half-drawn. ‘You are ignorant,’ he said to +me, ‘of the offence you have given; I cannot strike you who are above me, and the friend of my master and the state; but no +power,’ he added, indicating the Khālsa Sikhs, ‘shall save these fellows who dared to smile at your action.’ It was with the +greatest difficulty and only by the good offices of some Sikh Chiefs that I was able to pacify his wounded honour.”<a id="d0e8689src" href="#d0e8689" class="noteref">13</a> These instances appear to show <a id="d0e8697"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e8697">271</a>]</span>clearly that the Sikhs considered their hair of vital importance; and as fighting was their object in life, it seems most +probable that they thought their strength in war was bound up in it. Similarly when the ancient Spartans were on a military +expedition purple garments were worn and their hair was carefully decked with wreaths, a thing which was never done at home.<a id="d0e8699src" href="#d0e8699" class="noteref">14</a> And when Leonidas and his three hundred were holding the pass of Thermopylae, and Xerxes sent scouts to ascertain what the +Greeks were doing in their camp, the report was that some of them were engaged in gymnastics and warlike exercises, while +others were merely sitting and combing their long hair. If the hypothesis already suggested is correct, the Spartan youths +so engaged were perhaps not merely adorning themselves for death, but, as they thought, obtaining their full strength for +battle. “The custom of keeping the hair unshorn during a dangerous expedition appears to have been observed, at least occasionally, +by the Romans. Achilles kept unshorn his yellow hair, because his father had vowed to offer it to the river Sperchius if ever +his son came home from the wars beyond the sea.”<a id="d0e8705src" href="#d0e8705" class="noteref">15</a> + +</p> +<p>When the Bhīls turned out to fight they let down their long hair prior to beginning the conflict with their bows and arrows.<a id="d0e8712src" href="#d0e8712" class="noteref">16</a> The pirates of Surat, before boarding a ship, drank <i>bhāng</i> and hemp-liquor, and when they wore their long hair loose they gave no quarter.<a id="d0e8724src" href="#d0e8724" class="noteref">17</a> The Mundas appear to have formerly worn their hair long and some still do. Those who are converted to Christianity must cut +their hair, but a non-Christian Munda must always keep the <i>chundi</i> or pigtail. If the <i>chundi</i> is very long it is sometimes tied up in a knot.<a id="d0e8738src" href="#d0e8738" class="noteref">18</a> Similarly the Oraons wore their hair long like women, gathered in a knot behind, with a wooden or iron comb in it. Those +who are Christians can be recognised by the fact that they have cut off their pigtails. A man of the low Pārdhi caste of hunters +must never have his hair touched by a razor after he has once killed a deer. As already seen, every orthodox Hindu wore till +recently a <a id="d0e8744"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e8744">272</a>]</span><i>choti</i> or scalp-lock, which should theoretically be as long as a cow’s tail. Perhaps the idea was that for those who were not warriors +it was sufficient to retain this and have the rest of the head shaved. The <i>choti</i> was never shaved off in mourning for any one but a father. The lower castes of Muhammadans, if they have lost several children, +will allow the scalp-lock to grow on the heads of those subsequently born, dedicating it to one of their Muhammadan saints. +The Kanjars relate of their heroic ancestor Māna that after he had plunged a bow so deeply into the ground that no one could +withdraw it, he was set by the Emperor of Delhi to wrestle against the two most famous Imperial wrestlers. These could not +overcome him fairly, so they made a stratagem, and while one provoked him in front the other secretly took hold of his <i>choti</i> behind. When Māna started forward his <i>choti</i> was thus left in the wrestler’s hands, and though he conquered the other wrestler, showing him the sky as it is said, the +loss of his <i>choti</i> deprived him for ever after of his virtue as a Hindu and in no small degree of his renown as an ancestor.<a id="d0e8760src" href="#d0e8760" class="noteref">19</a> Thus it seems clear that a special virtue attaches to the <i>choti</i>. Before every warlike expedition the people of Minahassa in Celebes used to take the locks of hair of a slain foe and dabble +them in boiling water to extract the courage; this infusion of bravery was then drunk by the warriors.<a id="d0e8769src" href="#d0e8769" class="noteref">20</a> In a modern Greek folk-tale a man’s strength lies in three golden hairs on his head. When his mother plucks them out, he +grows weak and timid and is slain by his enemies.<a id="d0e8774src" href="#d0e8774" class="noteref">21</a> The Red Indian custom of taking the scalp, of a slain enemy and sometimes wearing the scalps at the waist-belt may be due +to the same relief. + + +</p> +<p></p> +<div id="d0e8783" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p118.jpg" alt="Hindu men showing the choti or scalp-lock" width="720" height="513"><p class="figureHead">Hindu men showing the <i>choti</i> or scalp-lock +</p> +</div><p> + + +</p> +<p>In Ceram the hair might not be cut because it was the seat of a man’s strength; and the Gaboon negroes for the same reason +would not allow any of their hair to pass into the possession of a stranger.<a id="d0e8792src" href="#d0e8792" class="noteref">22</a> + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e8798"> +<h3>10. Hair of kings and priests</h3> +<p>If the hair was considered to be the special source of strength and hence frequently of life, that of the kings and priests, +in whose existence the primitive tribe believed its <a id="d0e8803"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e8803">273</a>]</span>own communal life to be bound up, would naturally be a matter of peculiar concern. That it was so has been shown in the <i>Golden Bough</i>. Two hundred years ago the hair and nails of the Mikādo of Japan could only be cut when he was asleep.<a id="d0e8808src" href="#d0e8808" class="noteref">23</a> The hair of the Flamen Dialis at Rome could be cut only by a freeman and with a bronze knife, and his hair and nails when +cut had to be buried under a lucky tree.<a id="d0e8813src" href="#d0e8813" class="noteref">24</a> The Frankish kings were never allowed to crop their hair; from their childhood upwards they had to keep it unshorn. The hair +of the Aztec priests hung down to their hams so that the weight of it became very troublesome; for they might never crop it +so long as they lived, or at least till they had been relieved from their office on the score of old age.<a id="d0e8818src" href="#d0e8818" class="noteref">25</a> In the Māle Pahāria tribe from the time that any one devoted himself to the profession of priest and augur his hair was allowed +to grow like that of a Nazarite; his power of divination entirely disappeared if he cut it.<a id="d0e8823src" href="#d0e8823" class="noteref">26</a> Among the Bawarias of India the Bhuva or priest of Devi may not cut or shave his hair under penalty of a fine of Rs. 10. +A Parsi priest or Mobed must never be bare-headed and never shave his head or face.<a id="d0e8829src" href="#d0e8829" class="noteref">27</a> Professor Robertson Smith states: “As a diadem is in its origin nothing more than a fillet to confine hair that is worn long, +I apprehend that in old times the hair of Hebrew princes like that of a Maori chief, was taboo, and that Absalom’s long locks +(2 Sam. xiv. 26) were the mark of his political pretensions and not of his vanity. When the hair of a Maori chief was cut, +it was collected and buried in a sacred place or hung on a tree; and it is noteworthy that Absalom’s hair was cut annually +at the end of the year, in the sacred season of pilgrimage, and that it was collected and weighed.”<a id="d0e8837src" href="#d0e8837" class="noteref">28</a> + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e8842"> +<h3>11. The beard</h3> +<p>The importance attached by other races to the hair of the head seems among the Muhammadans to have been concentrated specially +in the beard. The veneration displayed for the beard in this community is well known. The Prophet ordained that the minimum +length of the beard should be <a id="d0e8847"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e8847">274</a>]</span>the breadth of five fingers. When the beard is turning grey they usually dye it with henna and sometimes with indigo; it may +be thought that a grey beard is a sign of weakness. The Prophet said, ‘Change the whiteness of your hair, but not with anything +black.’ It is not clear why black was prohibited. It is said that the first Caliph Abu Bakar was accustomed to dye his beard +red with henna, and hence this practice has been adopted by Muhammadans.<a id="d0e8849src" href="#d0e8849" class="noteref">29</a> The custom of shaving the chin is now being adopted by young Muhammadans, but as they get older they still let the beard +grow. A very favourite Muhammadan oath is, ‘By the beard of the Prophet’; and in Persia if a man thinks another is mocking +him he says, ‘Do you laugh at my beard?’ Neither Hindus nor Muhammadans have any objection to becoming bald, as the head is +always covered by the turban in society. But when a man wishes to grow a beard it is a serious drawback if he is unable to +do it; and he will then sometimes pluck the young wheat-ears and rub the juice over his cheeks and chin so that he may grow +bearded like the wheat. Among the Hindus, Rājpūts and Marāthas, as well as the Sikhs, commonly wore beards, all of these being +military castes. Both the beard and hair were considered to impart an aspect of ferocity to the countenance, and when the +Rājpūts and Muhammadans were going into battle they combed the hair and trained the beard to project sideways from the face. +When a Muhammadan wears a beard he must have hair in the centre of his chin, whereas a Hindu shaves this part. A Muhammadan +must have his moustache short so that it may not touch and defile food entering the mouth. It is related that a certain Kāzī +had a small head and a very long beard; and he had a dream that a man with a small head and a long beard must be a fool. When +he woke up he thought this was applicable to himself. As he could not make his head larger he decided to make his beard smaller, +and looked for scissors to cut part of it off. But he could not find any scissors, and being in a hurry to shorten his beard +he decided to burn away part of it, and set it alight. But the fire consumed the whole of his beard before he could put it +out, and he then realised the truth of the dream. +<a id="d0e8857"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e8857">275</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e8858"> +<h3>12. Significance of removal of the hair and shaving the head</h3> +<p>If the hair was considered to be the source of a man’s strength and vigour, the removal of it would involve the loss of this +and might be considered especially to debar him from fighting or governing. The instances given from the <i>Golden Bough</i> have shown the fear felt by many people of the consequences of the removal of their hair. The custom of shaving the head +might also betoken the renunciation of the world and of the pursuit of arms. This may be the reason why monks shaved the head, +a practice which was followed by Buddhist as well as Christian monks. A very clear case is also given by Sir James Frazer: +“When the wicked brothers Clotaire and Childebert coveted the kingdom of their dead brother Clodomir, they inveigled into +their power their little nephews, the two sons of Clodomir; and having done so, they sent a messenger bearing scissors and +a naked sword to the children’s grandmother, Queen Clotilde, at Paris. The envoy showed the scissors and the sword to Clotilde, +and bade her choose whether the children should be shorn and live, or remain unshorn and die. The proud queen replied that +if her grandchildren were not to come to the throne she would rather see them dead than shorn. And murdered they were by their +ruthless uncle Clotaire with his own hand.”<a id="d0e8866src" href="#d0e8866" class="noteref">30</a> In this case it appears that if their hair was shorn the children could not come to the throne but would be destined to become +monks. Similarly, in speaking of the Georgians, Marco Polo remarks that they cut their hair short like churchmen.<a id="d0e8871src" href="#d0e8871" class="noteref">31</a> When a member of the religious order of the Mānbhaos is initiated his head is shaved clean by the village barber, and the +scalp-lock and moustache must be cut off by his <i>guru</i> or preceptor, this being perhaps the special mark of his renunciation of the world. The scalp-locks are preserved and made +into ropes which some of them fasten round their loins. Members of the Hindu orders generally shave their scalp-locks and +the head on initiation, probably for the same reason as the Mānbhaos. But afterwards they often let the whole of their hair +grow long. These men imagine that by the force of their austerities they will obtain divine power, so <a id="d0e8883"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e8883">276</a>]</span>their religious character appears to be of a different order from monasticism. Perhaps, therefore, they wear their hair long +in order to increase their spiritual potency. They themselves now say that they do it in imitation of the god Siva and the +ancient ascetics who had long matted locks. The common Hindu practice of shaving the heads of widows may thus be interpreted +as a symbol of their complete renunciation of the world and of any idea of remarriage. It was accompanied by numerous other +rules designed to make a widow’s life a continual penance. This barbarous custom was formerly fairly general, at least among +the higher castes, but is rapidly being abandoned except by one or two of the stricter sections of Brāhmans. Shaving the head +might also be imposed as a punishment. Thus in the time of the reign of the Emperor Chandraguptra Maurya in the fourth century +B.C. it is stated that ordinary wounding by mutilation was punished by the corresponding mutilation of the offender, in addition +to the amputation of his hand. The crime of giving false evidence was visited with mutilation of the extremities; and in certain +unspecified cases, serious offences were punished by the shaving of the offender’s hair, a penalty regarded as specially infamous.<a id="d0e8885src" href="#d0e8885" class="noteref">32</a> The cutting off of some or all of the hair is at the present time a common punishment for caste offences. Among the Korkus +a man and woman caught in adultery have each a lock of hair cut off. If a Chamār man and woman are detected in the same offence, +the heads of both are shaved clean of hair. A Dhīmar girl who goes wrong before marriage has a lock of her hair cut off as +a penalty, the same being done in several other castes. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e8891"> +<h3>13. Shaving the head by mourners</h3> +<p>The exact significance which is to be attached to the removal by mourners of their hair after a death is perhaps doubtful. +Sir James Frazer shows that the Australian aborigines are accustomed to let their own blood flow on to the corpse of a dead +kinsman and to place their cut hair on the corpse. He suggests that in both cases the object is to strengthen the feeble spirit +within the corpse and sustain its life, in order that it may be born again. As a development <a id="d0e8896"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e8896">277</a>]</span>of such a rite the hair might have become an offering to the dead, and later still its removal might become a sacrifice and +indication of grief. In this manner the common custom of tearing the hair in token of grief and mourning for the dead would +be accounted for. Whether the Hindu custom of shaving the heads of mourners was also originally a sacrifice and offering appears +to be uncertain. Professor Robertson Smith considered<a id="d0e8898src" href="#d0e8898" class="noteref">33</a> that in this case the hair is shaved off as a means of removing impurity, and quotes instances from the Bible where lepers +and persons defiled by contact with the dead are purified by shaving the hair.<a id="d0e8903src" href="#d0e8903" class="noteref">34</a> As the father of a child is also shaved after its birth, and the shaving must here apparently be a rite of purification, +it probably has the same significance in the case of mourners; it is not clear whether any element of sacrifice is also involved. +The degree to which the Hindu mourner parts with his hair varies to some extent with the nearness of the relationship, and +for females or distant relatives they do not always shave. The mourners are shaved on the last day of the impurity, when presents +are given to the Mahā-Brāhman, and the latter, representing the dead man, is also shaved with them. When a Hindu is at the +point of death, before he makes the gifts for the good of his soul the head is shaved with the exception of his <i>choti</i> or scalp-lock, the chin and upper lip. Often the corpse is also shaved after death. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e8909"> +<h3>14. Hair offerings</h3> +<p>Another case of the hair offering is that made in fulfilment of a vow or at a temple. In this case the hair appears to be +a gift-offering which is made to the god as representing the life and strength of the donor; owing to the importance attached +to the hair as the source of life and strength, it was a very precious sacrifice. Sir James Frazer also suggests that the +hair so given would impart life and strength to the god, of which he stood in need, just as he needed food to nourish him. +Among the Hindus it is a common practice to take a child to some well-known temple to have its hair cut for the first time, +and to offer the clippings of hair to the deity. If they cannot go to the temple to have the hair cut they have it cut at +home, <a id="d0e8914"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e8914">278</a>]</span>and either preserve the whole hair or a lock of it, until an opportunity occurs to offer it at the temple. In some castes +a Brāhman is invited at the first cutting of a child’s hair, and he repeats texts and blesses the child; the first lock of +hair is then cut by the child’s maternal uncle, and its head is shaved by the barber. A child’s hair is cut in the first, +third or fifth year after birth, but not in the second or fourth year. Among the Muhammadans when a child’s hair is cut for +the first time, or at least on one occasion in its life, the hair should be weighed against silver or gold and the amount +distributed in charity. In these cases also it would appear that the hair as a valuable part of the child is offered to the +god to obtain his protection for the life of the child. If a woman has no child and desires one, or if she has had children +and lost them, she will vow her next child’s hair to some god or temple. A small patch known as <i>chench</i> is then left unshorn on the child’s head until it can be taken to the temple. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e8919"> +<h3>15. Keeping hair unshorn during a vow</h3> +<p>It was also the custom to keep the hair unshorn during the performance of a vow. “While his vow lasted a Nazarite might not +have his hair cut: ‘All the days of the vow of his separation there shall no razor come upon his head.’<a id="d0e8924src" href="#d0e8924" class="noteref">35</a> The Egyptians on a journey kept their hair uncut till they returned home.<a id="d0e8929src" href="#d0e8929" class="noteref">36</a> Among the Chatti tribe of the ancient Germans the young warriors never clipped their hair or their beard till they had slain +an enemy. Six thousand Saxons once swore that they would not clip their hair nor shave their beards until they had taken vengeance +on their enemies.”<a id="d0e8934src" href="#d0e8934" class="noteref">37</a> Similarly, Hindu religious mendicants keep their hair long while they are journeying on a pilgrimage, and when they arrive +at the temple which is their goal they shave it all off and offer it to the god. In this case, as the hair is vowed as an +offering, it clearly cannot be cut during the performance of the vow, but must be preserved intact. When the task to be accomplished +for the fulfilment of a vow is a journey or the slaying of enemies, the retention of the hair is probably also <a id="d0e8939"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e8939">279</a>]</span>meant to support and increase the wearer’s strength for the accomplishment of his purpose. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e8941"> +<h3>16. Disposal of cut hair and nails</h3> +<p>If the hair contained a part of the wearer’s life and strength its disposal would be a matter of great importance, because, +according to primitive belief, these qualities would remain in it after it had been severed. Hence, if an enemy obtained it, +by destroying the hair or some analogous action he might injure or destroy the life and strength of the person to whom it +belonged. The Hindus usually wrap up a child’s first hair in a ball of dough and throw it into a running stream, with the +cuttings of his nails. Well-to-do people also place a rupee in the ball, so that it is now regarded as an offering. The same +course is sometimes followed with the hair and nails cut ceremoniously at a wedding, and possibly on one or two other occasions, +such as the investiture with the sacred thread; but the belief is decaying, and ordinarily no care is taken of the shorn hair. +In Berār when the Hindus cut a child’s hair for the first time they sometimes bury it under a water-pot where the ground is +damp, perhaps with the idea that the child’s hair will grow thickly and plentifully like grass in a damp place. It is a common +belief that if a barren woman gets hold of a child’s first hair and wears it round her waist the fertility of the child’s +mother will be transferred to her. The Sarwaria Brāhmans shave a child’s hair in its third year. A small silver razor is made +specially for the occasion, costing a rupee and a quarter, and the barber first touches the child’s hair with this and then +shaves it ceremoniously with his own razor.<a id="d0e8946src" href="#d0e8946" class="noteref">38</a> The Halbas think that the severed clippings of hair are of no use for magic, but if a witch can cut a lock of hair from a +man’s head she can use it to work magic on him. In making an image of a person with intent to injure or destroy him, it was +customary to put a little of his hair into the image, by which means his life and strength were conveyed to it. A few years +ago a London newspaper mentioned the case of an Essex man entering a hairdresser’s and requesting the barber to procure for +him a piece of a certain customer’s hair. When asked the reason for this curious demand, he <a id="d0e8952"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e8952">280</a>]</span>stated that the customer had injured him and he wished to ‘work a spell’ against him.<a id="d0e8954src" href="#d0e8954" class="noteref">39</a> In the Pārsi Zend-Avesta it is stated that if the clippings of hair or nails are allowed to fall in the ground or ditches, +evil spirits spring up from them and devour grain and clothing in the house. It was therefore ordained for the Pārsis through +their prophet Zarathustra that the cuttings of hair or nails should be buried in a deep hole ten paces from a dwelling, twenty +paces from fire, and fifty paces from the sacred bundles called <i>baresmān</i>. Texts should be said over them and the hole filled in. Many Pārsis still bury their cut hair and nails four inches under +ground, and an extracted tooth is disposed of in the same manner.<a id="d0e8962src" href="#d0e8962" class="noteref">40</a> Some Hindus think that the nail-parings should always be thrown into a frequented place, where they will be destroyed by +the traffic. If they are thrown on to damp earth they will grow into a plant which will ruin the person from whose body they +came. It is said that about twenty years ago a man in Nāgpur was ruined by the growth of a piece of finger-nail, which had +accidentally dropped into a flower-pot in his house. Apparently in this case the nail is supposed to contain a portion of +the life and strength of the person to whom it belonged, and if the nail grows it gradually absorbs more and more of his life +and strength, and he consequently becomes weaker and weaker through being deprived of it. The Hindu superstition against shaving +the head appears to find a parallel regarding the nails in the old English saying: + +</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Cut no horn +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>On the Sabbath morn.</span></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Among some Hindus it is said that the toe-nails should not be cut at all until a child is married, when they are cut ceremoniously +by the barber. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e8980"> +<h3>17. Superstitions about shaving the hair</h3> +<p>Since the removal of the hair is held to involve a certain loss of strength and power, it should only be effected at certain +seasons and not on auspicious days. A man who has male children should not have his head shaved on Monday, as this may cause +his children to die. On the <a id="d0e8985"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e8985">281</a>]</span>other hand, a man who has no children will fast on Sunday in the hope of getting them, and therefore he will neither shave +his head nor visit his wife on that day. A Hindu must not be shaved on Thursday, because this is the day of the planet Jupiter, +which is also known as Guru, and his act would be disrespectful to his own <i>guru</i> or preceptor. Tuesday is Devi’s day, and a man will not get shaved on that day; nor on Saturday, because it is Hanumān’s +day.<a id="d0e8990src" href="#d0e8990" class="noteref">41</a> On Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays he may be shaved, but not if the day happens to be the new moon, full moon, or the Ashtami +or Ekadashi, that is the eighth or eleventh day of the fortnight. He should not shave on the day that he is going on a journey. +If all these rules were strictly observed there would be very few days on which one could get shaved, but many of them are +necessarily more honoured in the breach. Wednesdays and Fridays are the best days for shaving, and by shaving on these days +a man will see old age. Debtors are shaved on Wednesdays, as they think that this will help them to pay off their debts. Some +Brāhmans are not shaved during the month of Shrāwan (July), when the crops are growing, nor during the nine days of the months +of Kunwār (September) and Chait (March), when a fast is observed and the <i>jawaras</i><a id="d0e8995src" href="#d0e8995" class="noteref">42</a> are sown. After they have been shaved high-caste Hindus consider themselves impure till they have bathed. They touch no person +or thing in the house, and sometimes have the water thrown on them by a servant so as to avoid contact with the vessels. They +will also neither eat, drink nor smoke until they have bathed. Sometimes they throw so much water over the head in order to +purify themselves as to catch a bad cold. In this case, apparently, the impurity accrues from the loss of the hair, and the +man feels that virtue has gone out of him. Women never shave their hair with a razor, as they think that to do so would make +the body so heavy after death that it could not be carried to the place of cremation. They carefully pluck out the hair under +the armpits and the pubic hair with a pair of pincers. A <a id="d0e8998"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e8998">282</a>]</span>girl’s hair may be cut with scissors, but not after she is ten years old or is married. Sometimes a girl’s hair is not cut +at all, but her father will take a pearl and entwine it into her hair, where it is left until she is married. It is considered +very auspicious to give away a girl in marriage with hair which has never been cut, and a pearl in it. After marriage she +will take out the pearl and wear it in an ornament. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e9000"> +<h3>18. Reasons why the hair was considered the source of strength</h3> +<p>The above evidence appears to indicate that the belief of a man’s strength and vigour being contained in his hair is by no +means confined to the legend of Samson, but is spread all over the world. This has been pointed out by Professor Robertson +Smith,<a id="d0e9005src" href="#d0e9005" class="noteref">43</a> Professor Wilken and others. Sir J.G. Frazer also adduces several instances in the <i>Golden Bough</i> to show that the life or soul was believed to be contained in the hair. This may well have been the case, but the hair was +also specialised, so to speak, as the seat of bodily vigour and strength. The same idea appears to have applied in a minor +measure to the nails and teeth. The rules for disposing of the cut hair usually apply to the parings of nails, and the first +teeth are also deposited in a rat’s hole or on the roof of the house. As suggested by Professor Robertson Smith it seems likely +that the strength and vigour of the body was believed to be located in the hair, and also to a less extent in the nails and +teeth, because they grew more visibly and quickly than the body and continued to do so after it had attained to maturity. +The hair and nails continue to grow all through life, and though the teeth do not grow when fully formed, the second teeth +appear when the body is considerably developed and the wisdom teeth after it is fully developed. The hair grows much more +palpably and vigorously than the nails and teeth, and hence might be considered especially the source of strength. Other considerations +which might confirm the idea are that men have more hair on their bodies than women, and strongly built men often have a large +quantity of hair. Some of the stronger wild animals have long hair, as the lion, bear and wild boar; and the horse, often +considered the embodiment of strength, has a <a id="d0e9013"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e9013">283</a>]</span>long mane. And when anger is excited the hair sometimes appears to rise, as it were, from the skin. The nails and teeth were +formerly used on occasion as weapons of offence, and hence might be considered to contain part of the strength and vigour +of the body. + +</p> +<p>Finally, it may be suggested as a possibility that the Roundheads cut their hair short as a protest against the superstition +that a soldier’s hair must be long, which originated in the idea that strength is located in the hair and may have still been +current in their time. We know that the Puritans strove vainly against the veneration of the Maypole as the spirit of the +new vegetation,<a id="d0e9017src" href="#d0e9017" class="noteref">44</a> and against the old nature-rites observed at Christmas, the veneration of fire as the preserver of life against cold, and +the veneration of the evergreen plants, the fir tree, the holly, and the mistletoe, which retained their foliage through the +long night of the northern winter, and were thus a pledge to man of the return of warmth and the renewal of vegetation in +the spring. And it therefore seems not altogether improbable that the Puritans may have similarly contended against the superstition +as to the wearing of long hair. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8499" href="#d0e8499src" class="noteref">1</a></span> This article is compiled from papers by Mr. Chatterji, retired E.A.C., Jubbulpore; Professor Sadāshiva Jairām, M.A., Hislop +College, Nagpur; and Mr. C. Shrinivas Naidu, First Assistant Master, Sironcha, Chānda; and from the Central Provinces District +Gazetteers. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8511" href="#d0e8511src" class="noteref">2</a></span> Mr. Crooke’s <i>Tribes and Castes,</i> art. Nai. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8537" href="#d0e8537src" class="noteref">3</a></span> <i>Tribes and Castes</i>, art. Nai, para. 5. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8568" href="#d0e8568src" class="noteref">4</a></span> The following account is largely taken from Mr. Nesfield’s <i>Brief View of the Caste System</i>, pp. 42, 43. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8586" href="#d0e8586src" class="noteref">5</a></span> <i>Eighteenth Century Middle-Class Life</i>, by C.S. Torres, in the <i>Nineteenth Century and After</i>, Sept. 1910. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8599" href="#d0e8599src" class="noteref">6</a></span> <i>Private Life of an Eastern King</i>, p. 17. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8604" href="#d0e8604src" class="noteref">7</a></span> <i>Ibidem</i>, p. 107. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8627" href="#d0e8627src" class="noteref">8</a></span> <i>Private Life of an Eastern King</i>, p. 330. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8637" href="#d0e8637src" class="noteref">9</a></span> In the <i>Bālāghāt District Gazetteer</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8663" href="#d0e8663src" class="noteref">10</a></span> D.B. Pandiān, <i>Indian Village Life</i>, under Barber. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8674" href="#d0e8674src" class="noteref">11</a></span> Quoted in Malcolm’s <i>Sketch of the Sikhs, Asiatic Researches</i>, vol. xi., 1810, p. 289. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8683" href="#d0e8683src" class="noteref">12</a></span> Quoted in Sir D. Ibbetson’s account of the Sikhs in <i>Punjab Census Report</i> (1881). +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8689" href="#d0e8689src" class="noteref">13</a></span> <i>Sketch of the Sikhs</i>, <i>ibidem</i>, pp. 284, 285. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8699" href="#d0e8699src" class="noteref">14</a></span> Professor Blümners, <i>Home Life of the Ancient Greeks</i>, translation, p. 455. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8705" href="#d0e8705src" class="noteref">15</a></span> <i>Golden Bough</i>, 2nd ed. vol. iii. p. 370. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8712" href="#d0e8712src" class="noteref">16</a></span> Hendley, <i>Account of the Bhīls</i>, <i>J.A.S.B.</i> vol. xxxiv., 1875, p. 360. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8724" href="#d0e8724src" class="noteref">17</a></span> <i>Bombay Gazetteer</i>, <i>Hindus of Gujarāt</i>, p. 528. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8738" href="#d0e8738src" class="noteref">18</a></span> S.C. Roy, <i>The Mundas and their Country</i>, p. 369. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8760" href="#d0e8760src" class="noteref">19</a></span> W. Kirkpatrick in <i>J.A.S.B.</i>, July 1911, p. 438. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8769" href="#d0e8769src" class="noteref">20</a></span> <i>Golden Bough</i>, 3rd ed. vol. viii. p. 153. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8774" href="#d0e8774src" class="noteref">21</a></span> <i>G.B.</i>, 3rd ed., <i>Balder the Beautiful</i>, vol. ii. p. 103. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8792" href="#d0e8792src" class="noteref">22</a></span> Dr. Jevons, <i>Introduction to the History of Religion</i>, p. 45. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8808" href="#d0e8808src" class="noteref">23</a></span> <i>Golden Bough</i>, 2nd ed. vol. i. p. 234. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8813" href="#d0e8813src" class="noteref">24</a></span> <i>Ibidem</i>, vol. i. p. 242. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8818" href="#d0e8818src" class="noteref">25</a></span> <i>Ibidem</i>, vol. i. pp. 368, 369. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8823" href="#d0e8823src" class="noteref">26</a></span> Dalton, <i>Ethnology of Bengal</i>, p. 270. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8829" href="#d0e8829src" class="noteref">27</a></span> <i>Bombay Gazetteer</i>, <i>Parsis of Gujarāt</i>, p. 226. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8837" href="#d0e8837src" class="noteref">28</a></span> <i>Religion of the Semites</i>, note i. pp. 483, 484. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8849" href="#d0e8849src" class="noteref">29</a></span> <i>Bombay Gazetteer</i>, <i>Muhammadans of Gujarāt</i>, p. 52. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8866" href="#d0e8866src" class="noteref">30</a></span> <i>Golden Bough</i>, 2nd ed. vol. i. p. 368. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8871" href="#d0e8871src" class="noteref">31</a></span> Yule’s ed. i. 50, quoted in <i>Bombay Gazetteer</i>, <i>Hindus of Gujarāt</i>, p. 470. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8885" href="#d0e8885src" class="noteref">32</a></span> Mr. V.A. Smith, <i>Early History of India</i>, 2nd ed. p. 128. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8898" href="#d0e8898src" class="noteref">33</a></span> <i>Religion of the Semites</i>, p. 33. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8903" href="#d0e8903src" class="noteref">34</a></span> Lev. xiv. 9 and Deut. xxi. 12. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8924" href="#d0e8924src" class="noteref">35</a></span> <i>Golden Bough</i>, 2nd ed. vol. i. p. 371. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8929" href="#d0e8929src" class="noteref">36</a></span> <i>Ibidem</i>, 2nd ed. vol. i. p. 370. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8934" href="#d0e8934src" class="noteref">37</a></span> <i>Ibidem</i>, 2nd ed. vol. i. p. 371. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8946" href="#d0e8946src" class="noteref">38</a></span> Mr. Crooke’s <i>Tribes and Castes</i>, art. Sarwaria. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8954" href="#d0e8954src" class="noteref">39</a></span> <i>Occult Review</i>, October 1909. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8962" href="#d0e8962src" class="noteref">40</a></span> <i>Orpheus</i>, p. 99, and <i>Bombay Gazetteer</i>, <i>Pārsis of Gujarāt</i>; p. 220. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8990" href="#d0e8990src" class="noteref">41</a></span> Hanumān is worshipped on this day in order to counteract the evil influence of the planet Saturn, whose day it really is. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e8995" href="#d0e8995src" class="noteref">42</a></span> Pots in which wheat-stalks are sown and tended for nine days, corresponding to the Gardens of Adonis. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e9005" href="#d0e9005src" class="noteref">43</a></span> <i>Religion of the Semites</i> p. 324. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e9017" href="#d0e9017src" class="noteref">44</a></span> <i>Golden Bough</i>, 2nd ed. vol. i. p. 203. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e9022" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Naoda</h2> +<p><b>Naoda.</b><a id="d0e9028src" href="#d0e9028" class="noteref">1</a>—A small caste found in the Nimār District and in Central India. The name means a rower and is derived from <i>nao</i>, a boat. The caste are closely connected with the Mallāhs or Kewats, but have a slightly distinctive position, as they are +employed to row pilgrims over the Nerbudda at the great fair held at Siva’s temple on the island of Mandhāta. They say that +their ancestors were Rājpūts, and some of their family names, as Solanki, Rāwat and Mori, are derived from those of Rājpūt +septs. But these have probably been adopted in imitation of their Kshatriya overlords. The caste is an occupational one. They +have a tradition that in former times a Naoda boatman recovered the corpse of a king’s daughter, who had drowned <a id="d0e9034"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e9034">284</a>]</span>herself in the river wearing costly jewels, and the king as a reward granted them the right of ferrying pilgrims at Mandhāta, +which they still continue to enjoy, keeping their earnings for themselves. They have a division of impure blood called the +Gāte or bastard Naodas, who marry among themselves, and any girl who reaches the age of puberty without being married is relegated +to this. In the case of a caste whose numbers are so small, irregular connections with outsiders must probably be not infrequent. +Another report states that adult unmarried girls are not expelled but are married to a pīpal tree. But girls are sought after, +and it is customary to pay a bride-price, the average amount of which is Rs. 25. Before the bridegroom starts for his wedding +his mother takes and passes in front of him, successively from his head to his feet, a pestle, some stalks of <i>rūsa</i> grass, a churning rod and a winnowing-fan. This is done with the object of keeping off evil spirits, and it is said that +by her action she threatens to pound the spirits with the pestle, to tie them up with the grass, to churn and mash them with +the churning-rod, and to scatter them to the winds with the winnowing-fan. When a man wishes to divorce his wife he simply +turns her out of the house in the presence of four or five respectable men of the caste. The marriage of a widow is celebrated +on a Sunday or Tuesday, the clothes of the couple being tied together by another widow at night. The following day they spend +together in a garden, and in the evening are escorted home by their relatives with torches and music. Next morning the woman +goes to the well and draws water, and her husband, accompanying her, helps her to lift the water-pots on to her shoulder. + +</p> +<p>The caste worship the ordinary Hindu deities and especially Bhairon, the guardian of the gate of Mahādeo’s temple. They have +a nail driven into the bow of their boat which is called ‘Bhairon’s nail,’ and at the Dasahra festival they offer to this +a white pumpkin with cocoanuts, vermilion, incense and liquor. The caste hold in special reverence the cow, the dog and the +tamarind tree. The dog is sacred as being the animal on which Bhairava rides, and their most solemn oaths are sworn by a dog +or a cow. <a id="d0e9041"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e9041">285</a>]</span>They will on no account cut or burn the tamarind tree, and the women veil their faces before it. They cannot explain this +sentiment, which is probably due to some forgotten belief of the nature of totemism. To kill a cow or a cat intentionally +involves permanent exclusion from the caste, while the slaughter of a squirrel, dog, horse, buffalo or monkey is punished +by temporary exclusion, it being equally sinful to allow any of these animals to die with a rope round its neck. The Naodas +eat the flesh of pigs and fowls, but they occupy a fairly good social position and Brāhmans will take water from their hands. +<a id="d0e9043"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e9043">286</a>]</span></p> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e9028" href="#d0e9028src" class="noteref">1</a></span> In 1911 the Naodas numbered 700 persons in the Central Provinces. About 1000 were returned in Central India in 1891, but in +1901 they were amalgamated with the Mallāhs or Kewats. This article is based on a paper by Mr. P.R. Kaipitia, Forest Ranger. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e9044" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Nat</h2> +<h3>List of Paragraphs</h3> +<ul> +<li><a href="#d0e9084">1. The Nats not a proper caste</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e9132">2. Muhammadan Nats</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e9142">3. Social customs of the Nats. Their low status</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e9158">4. Acrobatic performances</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e9174">5. Sliding or walking on ropes as a charm for the crops</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e9207">6. Snake-charmers</a></li> +</ul> +<div class="div2" id="d0e9084"> +<h3>1. The Nats not a proper caste</h3> +<p><b>Nat,<a id="d0e9090src" href="#d0e9090" class="noteref">1</a> Bādi, Dang-Charha, Karnati, Bāzigar, Sapera.</b>—The term Nat (Sanskrit Nata—a dancer) appears to be applied indefinitely to a number of groups of vagrant acrobats and showmen, +especially those who make it their business to do feats on the tight-rope or with poles, and those who train and exhibit snakes. +Bādi and Bāzigar mean a rope-walker, Dang-Charha a rope-climber, and Sapera a snake-charmer. In the Central Provinces the +Garūdis or snake-charmers, and the Kolhātis, a class of gipsy acrobats akin to the Berias, are also known as Nat, and these +are treated in separate articles. It is almost certain that a considerable section, if not the majority, of the Nats really +belong to the Kanjar or Beria gipsy castes, who themselves maybe sprung from the Doms.<a id="d0e9094src" href="#d0e9094" class="noteref">2</a> Sir D. Ibbetson says: “They wander about with their families, settling for a few days or weeks at a time in the vicinity +of large villages or towns, and constructing temporary shelters of grass. In addition to practising acrobatic feats and conjuring +of a low class, they make articles of grass, straw and reeds for sale; and in the centre of the Punjab are said to act as +Mirāsis, though this is perhaps doubtful. They often practise surgery and physic in a small way and <a id="d0e9097"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e9097">287</a>]</span>are not free from suspicion of sorcery.”<a id="d0e9099src" href="#d0e9099" class="noteref">3</a> This account would just as well apply to the Kanjar gipsies, and the Nat women sometimes do tattooing like Kanjar or Beria +women. In Jubbulpore also the caste is known as Nat Beria, indicating that the Nats there are probably derived from the Beria +caste. Similarly Sir H. Risley gives Bāzigar and Kabūtari as groups of the Berias of Bengal, and states that these are closely +akin to the Nats and Kanjars of Hindustān.<a id="d0e9104src" href="#d0e9104" class="noteref">4</a> An old account of the Nats or Bāzigars<a id="d0e9109src" href="#d0e9109" class="noteref">5</a> would equally well apply to the Kanjars; and in Mr. Crooke’s detailed article on the Nats several connecting links are noticed. +The Nat women are sometimes known as Kabūtari or pigeon, either because their acrobatic feats are like the flight of the tumbler +pigeon, or on account of the flirting manner with which they attract their male customers.<a id="d0e9114src" href="#d0e9114" class="noteref">6</a> In the Central Provinces the women of the small Gopāl caste of acrobats are called Kabūtari, and this further supports the +hypothesis that Nat is rather an occupational term than the name of a distinct caste, though it is quite likely that there +may be Nats who have no other caste. The Bādi or rope-dancer group again is an offshoot of the Gond tribe, at least in the +tracts adjoining the Central Provinces. They have Gond septs as Marai, Netām, Wīka,<a id="d0e9119src" href="#d0e9119" class="noteref">7</a> and they have the <i>damru</i> or drum used by the Gaurias or snake-charmers and jugglers of Chhattīsgarh, who are also derived from the Gonds. The Chhattīsgarhi +Dang-Charhas are Gonds who say they formerly belonged to Panna State and were supported by Rāja Amān Singh of Panna, a great +patron of their art. They sing a song lamenting his death in the flower of his youth. The Karnatis or Karnataks are a class +of Nats who are supposed to have come from the Carnatic. Mr. Crooke notes that they will eat the leavings of all high castes, +and are hence known as Khushhāliya or ‘Those in prosperous circumstances.’<a id="d0e9128src" href="#d0e9128" class="noteref">8</a> + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e9132"> +<h3>2. Muhammadan Nats</h3> +<p>One division of the Nats are Muhammadans and seem to <a id="d0e9137"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e9137">288</a>]</span>be to some extent a distinctive group. They have seven <i>gotras</i>—Chicharia, Damaria, Dhalbalki, Pūrbia, Dhondabalki, Karimki and Kalasia. They worship two Birs or spirits, Halaila Bir and +Sheikh Saddu, to whom they sacrifice fowls in the months of Bhādon (August) and Baisākh (April). Hindus of any caste are freely +admitted into their community, and they can marry Hindu girls. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e9142"> +<h3>3. Social customs of the Nats. Their low status</h3> +<p>Generally the customs of the Nats show them to be the dregs of the population. There is no offence which entails permanent +expulsion from caste. They will eat any kind of food including snakes, crocodiles and rats, and also take food from the hands +of any caste, even it is said from sweepers. It is not reported that they prostitute their women, but there is little doubt +that this is the case; in the Punjab<a id="d0e9147src" href="#d0e9147" class="noteref">9</a> when a Nat woman marries, the first child is either given to the grandmother as compensation for the loss of the mother’s +gains as a prostitute, or is redeemed by a payment of Rs. 30. Among the Chhattīsgarhi Dang-Charhas a bride-price of Rs. 40 +is paid, of which the girl’s father only keeps ten, and the remaining sum of Rs. 30 is expended on a feast to the caste. Some +of the Nats have taken to cultivation and become much more respectable, eschewing the flesh of unclean animals. Another group +of the caste keep trained dogs and hunt the wild pig with spears like the Kolhātis of Berār. The villagers readily pay for +their services in order to get the pig destroyed, and they sell the flesh to the Gonds and lower castes of Hindus. Others +hunt jackals with dogs in the same manner. They eat the flesh of the jackals and dispose of any surplus to the Gonds, who +also eat it. The Nats worship Devi and also Hanumān, the monkey god, on account of the acrobatic powers of monkeys. But in +Bombay they say that their favourite and only living gods are their bread-winners and averters of hunger, the drum, the rope +and the balancing-pole.<a id="d0e9153src" href="#d0e9153" class="noteref">10</a> + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e9158"> +<h3>4. Acrobatic performances</h3> +<p>The tight-rope is stretched between two pairs of bamboos, each pair being fixed obliquely in the ground and crossing each +other at the top so as to form a socket over which the <a id="d0e9163"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e9163">289</a>]</span>rope passes. The ends of the rope are taken over the crossed bamboos and firmly secured to the ground by heavy pegs. The performer +takes another balancing-pole in his hands and walks along the rope between the poles which are about 12 feet high. Another +man beats a drum, and a third stands under the rope singing the performer’s praises and giving him encouragement. After this +the performer ties two sets of cow or buffalo horns to his feet, which are secured to the back of the skulls so that the flat +front between the horns rests on the rope, and with these he walks over the rope, holding the balancing-rod in his hands and +descends again. Finally he takes a brass plate and a cloth and again ascends the rope. He places the plate on the rope and +folds the cloth over it to make a pad. He then stands on his head on the pad with his feet in the air and holds the balancing-rod +in his hands; two strings are tied to the end of this rod and the other ends of the strings are held by the man underneath. +With the assistance of the balancing-rod the performer then jerks the plate along the rope with his head, his feet being in +the air, until he arrives at the end and finally descends again. This usually concludes the performance, which demands a high +degree of skill. Women occasionally, though rarely, do the same feats. Another class of Nats walk on high stilts and the women +show their confidence by dancing and singing under them. A saying about the Nats is: <i>Nat ka bachcha to kalābazi hi karega</i>; or ‘The rope-dancer’s son is always turning somersaults.’<a id="d0e9168src" href="#d0e9168" class="noteref">11</a> + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e9174"> +<h3>5. Sliding or walking on ropes as a charm for the crops</h3> +<p>The feats of the Nats as tight-rope walkers used apparently to make a considerable impression on the minds of the people, +as it is not uncommon to find a deified Nat, called Nat Bāba or Father Nat, as a village god. A Natni or Nat woman is also +sometimes worshipped, and where two sharp peaks of hills are situated close to each other, it is related that in former times +there was a Natni, very skilful on the tight-rope, who performed before the king; and he promised her that if she would stretch +a rope from the peak of one hill to that of the other and walk across it he would marry her and make her wealthy. Accordingly +the rope was stretched, but the queen from jealousy went and cut it <a id="d0e9179"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e9179">290</a>]</span>half through in the night, and when the Natni started to walk the rope broke and she fell down and was killed. She was therefore +deified and worshipped. It is probable that this legend recalls some rite in which the Nat was employed to walk on a tight-rope +for the benefit of the crops, and, if he failed, was killed as a sacrifice; for the following passage taken from Traill’s +account of Kumaon<a id="d0e9181src" href="#d0e9181" class="noteref">12</a> seems clearly to refer to some such rite: + +</p> +<p>“Drought, want of fertility in the soil, murrain in cattle, and other calamities incident to husbandry are here invariably +ascribed to the wrath of particular gods, to appease which recourse is had to various ceremonies. In the Kumaon District offerings +and singing and dancing are resorted to on such occasions. In Garhwāl the measures pursued with the same view are of a peculiar +nature, deserving of more particular notice. In villages dedicated to the protection of Mahādeva propitiatory festivals are +held in his honour. At these Bādis or rope-dancers are engaged to perform on the tight-rope, and slide down an inclined rope +stretched from the summit of a cliff to the valley beneath and made fast to posts driven into the ground. The Bādi sits astride +on a wooden saddle, to which he is tied by thongs; the saddle is similarly secured to the <i>bast</i> or sliding cable, along which it runs, by means of a deep groove; sandbags are tied to the Bādi’s feet sufficient to secure +his balance, and he is then, after various ceremonies and the sacrifice of a kid, started off; the velocity of his descent +is very great, and the saddle, however well greased, emits a volume of smoke throughout the greater part of his progress. +The length and inclination of the <i>bast</i> necessarily vary with the nature of the cliff, but as the Bādi is remunerated at the rate of a rupee for every hundred cubits, +hence termed a tola, a correct measurement always takes place; the longest <i>bast</i> which has fallen within my observation has been twenty-one tolas, or 2100 cubits in length. From the precautions taken as +above mentioned the only danger to be apprehended by the Bādi is from breaking of the rope, to provide against which the latter, +commonly from one and a half to two inches in diameter, is made wholly by his own hand; the material used is the <a id="d0e9197"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e9197">291</a>]</span><i>bhābar</i> grass. Formerly, if a Bādi fell to the ground in his course, he was immediately despatched with a sword by the surrounding +spectators, but this practice is now, of course, prohibited. No fatal accident has occurred from the performance of this ceremony +since 1815, though it is probably celebrated at not less than fifty villages in each year. After the completion of the sliding, +the <i>bast</i> or rope is cut up and distributed among the inhabitants of the village, who hang the pieces as charms on the eaves of their +houses. The hair of the Bādi is also taken and preserved as possessing similar virtues. He being thus made the organ to obtain +fertility for the lands of others, the Bādi is supposed to entail sterility on his own; and it is firmly believed that no +grain sown with his hand can ever vegetate. Each District has its hereditary Bādi, who is supported by annual contributions +of grain from the inhabitants.” It is not improbable that the performance of the Nat is a reminiscence of a period when human +victims were sacrificed for the crops, this being a common practice among primitive peoples, as shown by Sir J.G. Frazer in +<i>Attis, Adonis, Osiris</i>. Similarly the spirits of Nats which are revered in the Central Provinces may really be those of victims killed during the +performance of some charm for the good of the crops, akin to that still prevalent in the Himalayas. The custom of making the +Nat slide down a rope is of the same character as that of swinging a man in the air by a hook secured in his flesh, which +was formerly common in these Provinces. But in both cases the meaning of the rite is obscure. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e9207"> +<h3>6. Snake-charmers</h3> +<p>The groups who practise snake-charming are known as Sapera or Garūdi and in the Marātha Districts as Madāri. Another name +for them is Nāg-Nathi, or one who seizes a cobra. They keep cobras, pythons, scorpions, and the iguana or large lizard, which +they consider to be poisonous. Some of them when engaged with their snakes wear two pieces of tiger-skin on their back and +chest, and a cap of tiger-skin in which they fix the eyes of various birds. They have a hollow gourd on which they produce +a kind of music and this is supposed to charm the snakes. When catching a cobra they pin its head to the ground with a stick +and then seize it in a cleft bamboo and prick out the poison-fangs <a id="d0e9212"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e9212">292</a>]</span>with a large needle. They think that the teeth of the iguana are also poisonous and they knock them out with a stick, and +if fresh teeth afterwards grow they believe them not to contain poison. The python is called Ajgar, which is said to mean +eater of goats. In captivity the pythons will not eat of themselves, and the snake-charmers chop up pieces of meat and fowls +and placing the food in the reptile’s mouth massage it down the body. They feed the pythons only once in four or five days. +They have antidotes for snake-bite, the root of a creeper called <i>kalipār</i> and the bark of the <i>karheya</i> tree. When a patient is brought to them they give him a little pepper, and if he tastes the pungent flavour they think that +he has not been affected by snake-poison, but if it seems tasteless that he has been bitten. Then they give him small pieces +of the two antidotes already mentioned with tobacco and 2½ leaves of the <i>nīm</i> tree<a id="d0e9223src" href="#d0e9223" class="noteref">13</a> which is sacred to Devi. On the festival of Nāg-Panchmi (Cobra’s Fifth) they worship their cobras and give them milk to drink +and then take them round the town or village and the people also worship and feed the snakes and give a present of a few annas +to the Sapera. In towns much frequented by cobras, a special adoration is paid to them. Thus in Hatta in the Damoh District +a stone image of a snake, known as Nāg-Bāba or Father Cobra is worshipped for a month before the festival of Nāg-Panchmi. +During this period one man from every house in the village must go to Nāg-Bāba’s shrine outside and take food there and come +back. And on Nāg-Panchmi the whole town goes out in a body to pay him reverence, and it is thought that if any one is absent +the cobras will harass him for the whole year. But others say that cobras will only bite men of low caste. The Saperas will +not kill a snake as a rule, but occasionally it is said that they kill one and cut off the head and eat the body, this being +possibly an instance of eating the divine animal at a sacrificial meal. The following is an old account of the performances +of snake-charmers in Bengal:<a id="d0e9228src" href="#d0e9228" class="noteref">14</a> + + +</p> +<p></p> +<div id="d0e9237" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p119.jpg" alt="Snake-charmer with cobras" width="540" height="720"><p class="figureHead">Snake-charmer with cobras</p> +</div><p> + + +</p> +<p>“Hence, on many occasions throughout the year, the <a id="d0e9243"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e9243">293</a>]</span>dread Manasa Devi, the queen of snakes, is propitiated by presents, vows and religious rites. In the month of Shrābana the +worship of the snake goddess is celebrated with great éclat. An image of the goddess, seated on a water-lily, encircled with +serpents, or a branch of the snake-tree (a species of Euphorbia), or a pot of water, with images of serpents made of clay, +forms the object of worship. Men, women and children, all offer presents to avert from themselves the wrath of the terrific +deity. The Māls or snake-catchers signalise themselves on this occasion. Temporary scaffolds of bamboo work are set up in +the presence of the goddess. Vessels filled with all sorts of snakes are brought in. The Māls, often reeling with intoxication, +mount the scaffolds, take out serpents from the vessels, and allow them to bite their arms. Bite after bite succeeds; the +arms run with blood; and the Māls go on with their pranks, amid the deafening plaudits of the spectators. Now and then they +fall off from the scaffold and pretend to feel the effects of poison, and cure themselves by their incantations. But all is +mere pretence. The serpents displayed on the occasion and challenged to do their worst, have passed through a preparatory +state. Their fangs have been carefully extracted from their jaws. But most of the vulgar spectators easily persuade themselves +to believe that the Māls are the chosen servants of Siva and the favourites of Manasa. Although their supernatural pretensions +are ridiculous, yet it must be confessed that the Māls have made snakes the subject of their peculiar study. They are thoroughly +acquainted with their qualities, their dispositions, and their habits. They will run down a snake into its hole, and bring +it out thence by main force. Even the terrible cobra is cowed down by the controlling influence of a Māl. When in the act +of bringing out snakes from their subterranean holes, the Māls are in the habit of muttering charms, in which the names of +Manasa and Mahādeva frequently occur; superstition alone can clothe these unmeaning words with supernatural potency. But it +is not inconsistent with the soundest philosophy to suppose that there may be some plants whose roots are disagreeable to +serpents, and from which they instinctively turn away. All snake-catchers of Bengal are provided with <a id="d0e9245"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e9245">294</a>]</span>a bundle of the roots of some plant which they carefully carry along with them, when they set out on their serpent-hunting +expeditions. When a serpent, disturbed in its hole, comes out furiously hissing with rage, with its body coiled, and its head +lifted up, the Māl has only to present before it the bundle of roots above alluded to, at the sight of which it becomes spiritless +as an eel. This we have ourselves witnessed more than once.” + +</p> +<p>These Māls appear to have been members of the aboriginal Māle or Māle Pahāria tribe of Bengal. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e9090" href="#d0e9090src" class="noteref">1</a></span> This article is partly compiled from notes furnished by Mr. Adurām Chaudhri and Mr. Jagannāth Prasad, Naib-Tahsīldārs. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e9094" href="#d0e9094src" class="noteref">2</a></span> See art. Kanjar. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e9099" href="#d0e9099src" class="noteref">3</a></span> <i>Punjab Census Report</i> (1881), para. 588. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e9104" href="#d0e9104src" class="noteref">4</a></span> <i>Tribes and Castes of Bengal</i>, art. Beria. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e9109" href="#d0e9109src" class="noteref">5</a></span> <i>Asiatic Researches</i>, vol. vii., 1803, by Captain Richardson. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e9114" href="#d0e9114src" class="noteref">6</a></span> <i>Tribes and Castes</i>, art. Nat. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e9119" href="#d0e9119src" class="noteref">7</a></span> Crooke, <i>l.c.</i>, art. Nat. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e9128" href="#d0e9128src" class="noteref">8</a></span> <i>Ibidem.</i></p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e9147" href="#d0e9147src" class="noteref">9</a></span> Ibbetson, <i>Punjab Census Report</i> (1886), para. 588. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e9153" href="#d0e9153src" class="noteref">10</a></span> <i>Bombay Gazetteer</i>, vol. xx. p. 186, quoted in Mr. Crooke’s article. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e9168" href="#d0e9168src" class="noteref">11</a></span> Temple and Fallon’s <i>Hindustāni Proverbs</i>, p. 171. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e9181" href="#d0e9181src" class="noteref">12</a></span> <i>As. Res.</i> vol. xvi., 1828, p. 213. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e9223" href="#d0e9223src" class="noteref">13</a></span> <i>Melia indica</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e9228" href="#d0e9228src" class="noteref">14</a></span> <i>Bengali Festivals and Holidays</i>, by the Rev. Bihāri Lāl De, <i>Calcutta Review</i>, vol. v. pp. 59, 60. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e9249" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Nunia</h2> +<p><b>Nunia, Lunia.</b><a id="d0e9255src" href="#d0e9255" class="noteref">1</a>—A mixed occupational caste of salt-makers and earth-workers, made up of recruits from the different non-Aryan tribes of northern +India. The word <i>non</i> means salt, and is a corruption of the Sanskrit <i>lavana</i>, ‘the moist,’ which first occurs as a name for sea-salt in the Atharva Veda.<a id="d0e9264src" href="#d0e9264" class="noteref">2</a> In the oldest prose writings salt is known as Saindhava or ‘that which is brought from the Indus,’ this perhaps being Punjab +rock-salt. The Nunias are a fairly large caste in Bengal and northern India, numbering 800,000 persons, but the Central Provinces +and Berār contain only 3000, who are immigrants from Upper India. Here they are navvies and masons, a calling which they have +generally adopted since the Government monopoly has interfered with their proper business of salt-refining. The mixed origin +of the caste is shown by the list of their subdivisions in the United Provinces, which includes the names Mallāh, Kewat, Kūchbandhia, +Bind, Musahār, Bhuinhār and Lodha, all of which are distinct castes, besides a number of territorial subcastes. A list of +nearly thirty subcastes is given by Mr. Crooke, and this is an instance of the tendency of migratory castes to split up into +small groups for the purpose of arranging marriages, owing to the difficulty of ascertaining the status and respectability +of each other’s families, and the unwillingness to contract alliances with those whose social position may turn out to be +not wholly satisfactory. “The internal structure of the caste,” Mr. Crooke remarks, “is far from clear; it would appear that +<a id="d0e9270"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e9270">295</a>]</span>they are still in a state of transition, and the different endogamous subcastes are not as yet fully recognised.” In Bilāspur +the Nunias have three local subcastes, the Bandhaiya, the Ratanpuria and the Kharodhia. The two last, deriving their names +from the towns of Ratanpur and Kharod in Bilāspur, are said to have been employed in former times in the construction of the +temples and other buildings which abound in these localities, and have thus acquired a considerable degree of professional +skill in masonry work; while the Bandhaiya, who take their name from Bāndhogarh, confine themselves to the excavation of tanks +and wells. The exogamous divisions of the caste are also by no means clearly defined; in Mīrzāpur they have a system of local +subdivisions called <i>dīh</i>, each subdivision being named after the village which is supposed to be its home. The word <i>dīh</i> itself means a site or village. Those who have a common <i>dīh</i> do not intermarry.<a id="d0e9281src" href="#d0e9281" class="noteref">3</a> This fact is interesting as being an instance of the direct derivation of the exogamous clan from residence in a parent village +and not from any heroic or supposititious ancestor. + +</p> +<p>The caste have a legend which shows their mixed origin. Some centuries ago, they say, a marriage procession consisting of +Brāhmans, Rājpūts, Banias and Gosains went to a place near Ajodhya. After the ceremony was over the bride, on being taken +to the bridegroom’s lodging, scraped up a little earth with her fingers and put it in her mouth. She found it had a saltish +taste, and spat it out on the ground, and this enraged the tutelary goddess of the village, who considered herself insulted, +and swore that all the bride’s descendants should excavate salt in atonement; and thus the caste arose. + +</p> +<p>In Bilāspur the caste permit a girl to be married to a boy younger than herself. A price of five rupees has to be paid for +the bride, unless her family give a girl in exchange. The bridegroom is taken to the wedding in a palanquin borne by Mahārs. +After its conclusion the couple are carried back in the litter for some distance, after which the bridegroom gets out and +walks or rides. When he goes to fetch his wife on her coming of age the bridegroom wears <a id="d0e9291"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e9291">296</a>]</span>white clothes, which is rather peculiar, as white is not a lucky colour among the Hindus. The Nunias employ Brāhmans at their +ceremonies, and they have a caste <i>panchāyat</i> or committee, whose headman is known as Kurha. The Bilāspur section of the caste has two Kurhas. Here Brāhmans take water +from them, but not in all places. They consider their traditional occupation to have been the extraction of salt and saltpetre +from saline earth. At present they are generally employed in the excavation of tanks and the embankment of fields, and they +also sink wells, build and erect houses, and undertake all kinds of agricultural labour. + +</p> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e9255" href="#d0e9255src" class="noteref">1</a></span> Based on papers by Munshi Kanhya Lāl of the Gazetteer Office, and Mr. Mīr Patcha, Tahsīldār, Bilāspur. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e9264" href="#d0e9264src" class="noteref">2</a></span> Mr. Crooke’s <i>Tribes and Castes</i>, art. Lunia. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e9281" href="#d0e9281src" class="noteref">3</a></span> Mr. Crooke’s <i>Tribes and Castes</i>, art. Lunia. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e9296" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Ojha</h2> +<p><b>Ojha.</b>—The community of soothsayers and minstrels of the Gonds. The Ojhas may now be considered a distinct subtribe, as they are +looked down upon by the Gonds and marry among themselves. They derive their name from the word <i>ojh</i> meaning ‘entrail,’ their original duty having been, like that of the Roman augurs, to examine the entrails of the victim +immediately after it had been slain as an offering to the gods. In 1911 the Ojhas numbered about 5000 persons distributed +over all Districts of the Central Provinces. At present the bulk of the community subsist by beggary. The word Ojha is of +Sanskrit and not of Gond origin and is applied by the Hindus to the seers or magicians of several of the primitive tribes, +while there is also a class of Ojha Brāhmans who practise magic and divination. The Gond Ojhas, who are the subject of this +article, originally served the Gonds and begged from them alone, but in some parts of the western Satpūras they are also the +minstrels of the Korkus. Those who beg from the Korkus play on a kind of drum called <i>dhānk</i> while the Gond Ojhas use the <i>kingri</i> or lyre. Some of them also catch birds and are therefore known as Moghia. Mr. Hislop<a id="d0e9312src" href="#d0e9312" class="noteref">1</a> remarks of them: “The Ojhas follow the two occupations of bard and fowler. They lead a wandering life and when passing through +villages they sing from house to house the praises of their heroes, dancing with castanets in their hands, bells at their +ankles and long feathers of jungle birds in their turbans. They sell live <a id="d0e9317"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e9317">297</a>]</span>quails and the skins of a species of Buceros named Dhan-chīria; these are used for making caps and for hanging up in houses +in order to secure wealth (<i>dhan</i>), while the thigh-bones of the same bird when fastened round the waists of children are deemed an infallible preservative +against the assaults of devils and other such calamities. Their wives tattoo the arms of Hindu and Gond women. Among them +there is a subdivision known as the Māna Ojhas, who rank higher than the others. Laying claim to unusual sanctity, they refuse +to eat with any one, Gonds, Rājpūts or even Brāhmans, and devote themselves to the manufacture of rings and bells which are +in request among their own race, and even of <i>lingas</i> (phallic emblems) and <i>nandis</i> (bull images), which they sell to all ranks of the Hindu community. Their wives are distinguished by wearing the cloth of +the upper part of the body over the right shoulder, whereas those of the common Ojhas and of all the other Gonds wear it over +the left.” + +</p> +<p>Mr. Tawney wrote of the Ojhas as follows:<a id="d0e9330src" href="#d0e9330" class="noteref">2</a> “The Ojha women do not dance. It is only men who do so, and when thus engaged they put on special attire and wear anklets +with bells. The Ojhas like the Gonds are divided into six or seven god <i>gots</i> (classes or septs), and those with the same number of gods cannot intermarry. They worship at the same Deokhala (god’s threshing-floor) +as the Gonds, but being regarded as an inferior caste they are not allowed so near the sacred presence. Like the Gonds they +incorporate the spirits of the dead with the gods, but their manner of doing so is somewhat different, as they make an image +of brass to represent the soul of the deceased and keep this with the household gods. As with the Gonds, if a household god +makes himself too objectionable he is quietly buried to keep him out of mischief and a new god is introduced into the family. +The latter should properly bear the same name as his degraded predecessor, but very often does not. The Ojhas are too poor +to indulge in the luxury of burning their deceased friends and therefore invariably bury them.” + +</p> +<p>The customs of the Ojhas resemble those of the Gonds. <a id="d0e9341"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e9341">298</a>]</span>They take the bride to the bridegroom’s house to be married, and a widow among them is expected, though not obliged, to wed +her late husband’s younger brother. They eat the flesh of fowls, pigs, and even oxen, but abstain from that of monkeys, crocodiles +and jackals. They will not touch an ass, a cat or a dog, and consider it sinful to kill animals which bark or bray. + +</p> +<p>They will take food from the hands of all except the most impure castes, and will admit into the community any man who has +taken an Ojha woman to live with him, even though he be a sweeper, provided that he will submit to the prescribed test of +begging from the houses of five Gonds and eating the leavings of food of the other Ojhas. They will pardon the transgression +of one of their women with an outsider of any caste whatever, if she is able and willing to provide the usual penalty feast. +They have no <i>sūtak</i> or period of impurity after a death, but merely take a mouthful of liquor and consider themselves clean. In physical appearance +the Ojhas resemble the Gonds but are less robust. They rank below the Gonds and are considered as impure by the Hindu castes. +In 1865, an Ojha held a village in Hoshangābād District which he had obtained as follows:<a id="d0e9348src" href="#d0e9348" class="noteref">3</a> “He was singing and dancing before Rāja Rāghuji, when the Rāja said he would give a rent-free village to any one who would +pick up and chew a quid of betel-leaf which he (the Rāja) had had in his mouth and had spat out. The Ojha did this and got +the village.” + +</p> +<p>The Maithil or Tirhūt Brāhmans who are especially learned in Tāntric magic are also sometimes known as Ojha, and a family +bearing this title were formerly in the service of the Gond kings of Mandla. They do not now admit that they acted as augurs +or soothsayers, but state that their business was to pray continuously for the king’s success when he was engaged in any battle, +and to sit outside the rooms of sick persons repeating the sacred Gāyatri verse for their recovery. This is often repeated +ten times, counting by a special method on the joints of the fingers and is then known as <i>Jap</i>. When it is repeated a larger number of times, as 54 or 108, a rosary is used. +<a id="d0e9359"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e9359">299</a>]</span></p> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e9312" href="#d0e9312src" class="noteref">1</a></span> <i>Papers relating to the Aboriginal Tribes of the C.P.</i>, p. 6. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e9330" href="#d0e9330src" class="noteref">2</a></span> Note by Mr. Tawney as Deputy Commissioner of Chhindwāra, quoted in <i>Central Provinces Census Report</i> of 1881 (Mr. Drysdale). +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e9348" href="#d0e9348src" class="noteref">3</a></span> Sir C.A. Elliott’s <i>Hoshangābād Settlement Report</i>, p. 70. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e9360" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Oraon</h2> +<p>[<i>Authorities</i>: The most complete account of the Oraons is a monograph entitled, <i>The Religion and Customs of the Oraons</i>, by the late Rev. Father P. Dehon, published in 1906 in the <i>Memoirs of the Asiatic Society of Bengal</i>, vol. i. No. 9. The tribe is also described at length by Colonel Dalton in <i>The Ethnography of Bengal</i>, and an article on it is included in Mr. (Sir H.) Risley’s <i>Tribes and Castes of Bengal</i>. References to the Oraons are contained in Mr. Bradley-Birt’s <i>Chota Nāgpur</i>, and Mr. Ball’s <i>Jungle Life in India</i>. The Kurukh language is treated by Dr. Grierson in the volume of the Linguistic Survey on <i>Munda and Dravidian Languages</i>. The following article is principally made up of extracts from the accounts of Father Dehon and Colonel Dalton. Papers have +also been received from Mr. Hīra Lāl, Mr. Balārām Nand, Deputy Inspector of Schools, Sambalpur, Mr. Jeorākhan Lāl, Deputy +Inspector of Schools, Bilāspur, and Munshi Kanhya Lāl of the Gazetteer Office.] + +</p> +<h3>List of Paragraphs</h3> +<ul> +<li><a href="#d0e9544">1. General notice</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e9584">2. Settlement in Chota Nāgpur</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e9605">3. Subdivisions</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e9611">4. Pre-nuptial licence</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e9631">5. Betrothal</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e9653">6. Marriage ceremony</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e9662">7. Special Customs</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e9679">8. Widow-remarriage and divorce</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e9686">9. Customs at birth</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e9694">10. Naming a child</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e9700">11. Branding and tattooing</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e9710">12. Dormitory discipline</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e9715">13. Disposal of the dead</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e9729">14. Worship of ancestors</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e9739">15. Religion. The supreme deity</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e9764">16. Minor godlings</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e9796">17. Human sacrifice</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e9802">18. Christianity</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e9807">19. Festivals. The Karma or May-day</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e9831">20. The <i>sāl</i> flower festival</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e9856">21. The harvest festival</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e9863">22. Fast for the crops</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e9871">23. Physical appearance and costume of the Oraons</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e9887">24. Dress of women</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e9897">25. Dances</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e9916">26. Social customs</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e9949">27. Social rules</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e9959">28. Character</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e9966">29. Language</a></li> +</ul> +<div class="div2" id="d0e9544"> +<h3>1. General notice</h3> +<p><b>Oraon, Uraon, Kurukh, Dhangar, Kūda, Kisān.</b>—The Oraons are an important Dravidian tribe of the Chota Nāgpur plateau, numbering altogether about 750,000 persons, of whom +85,000 now belong to the Central Provinces, being residents of the Jashpur and Sargūja States and the neighbouring <a id="d0e9551"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e9551">300</a>]</span>tracts. They are commonly known in the Central Provinces as Dhāngar or Dhāngar-Oraon. In Chota Nāgpur the word Dhāngar means +a farmservant engaged according to a special customary contract, and it has come to be applied to the Oraons, who are commonly +employed in this capacity. Kūda means a digger or navvy in Uriya, and enquiries made by Mr. B.C. Mazumdar and Mr. Hīra Lāl +have demonstrated that the 18,000 persons returned under this designation from Raigarh and Sambalpur in 1901 were really Oraons. +The same remark applies to 33,000 persons returned from Sambalpur as Kisān or cultivator, these also being members of the +tribe. The name by which the Oraons know themselves is Kurukh or Kurunkh, and the designation of Oraon or Orao has been applied +to them by outsiders. The meaning of both names is obscure. Dr. Halm<a id="d0e9553src" href="#d0e9553" class="noteref">1</a> was of opinion that the word <i>kurukh</i> might be identified with the Kolarian <i>horo</i>, man, and explained the term Oraon as the totem of one of the septs into which the Kurukhs were divided. According to him +Oraon was a name coined by the Hindus, its base being <i>orgorān</i>, hawk or cunny bird, used as the name of a totemistic sept. Sir G. Grierson, however, suggested a connection with the Kaikāri, +<i>urūpai</i>, man; Burgandi <i>urāpo</i>, man; <i>urāng</i>, men. The Kaikāris are a Telugu caste, and as the Oraons are believed to have come from the south of India, this derivation +sounds plausible. In a similar way Sir. G. Grierson states, Kurukh may be connected with Tamil <i>kurūgu</i>, an eagle, and be the name of a totemistic clan. Compare also names, such as Korava, Kurru, a dialect of Tamil, and Kudāgu. +In the Nerbudda valley the farmservant who pours the seed through the tube of the sowing-plough is known as Oraya; this word +is probably derived from the verb <i>ūrna</i> to pour, and means ‘one who pours.’ Since the principal characteristic of the Oraons among the Hindus is their universal +employment as farmservants and labourers, it may be suggested that the name is derived from this term. Of the other names +by which they are known to outsiders Dhāngar means a farmservant, Kūda a digger, and Kisān a cultivator. The name Oraon and +its variant Orao is very close to Oraya, which, as already seen, means a farmservant. The nasal seems to <a id="d0e9582"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e9582">301</a>]</span>be often added or omitted in this part of the country, as Kurukh or Kurunkh. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e9584"> +<h3>2. Settlement in Chota Nāgpur</h3> +<p>According to their own traditions, Mr. Gait writes,<a id="d0e9589src" href="#d0e9589" class="noteref">2</a> “The Kurukh tribe originally lived in the Carnatic, whence they went up the Nerbudda river and settled in Bihār on the banks +of the Son. Driven out by the Muhammadans, the tribe split into two divisions, one of which followed the course of the Ganges +and finally settled in the Rājmahāl hills: while the other went up the Son and occupied the north-western portion of the Chota +Nāgpur plateau, where many of the villages they occupy are still known by Mundāri names. The latter were the ancestors of +the Oraons or Kurukhs, while the former were the progenitors of the Māle or Saonria as they often call themselves.” Towards +Lohardaga the Oraons found themselves among the Mundas or Kols, who probably retired by degrees and left them in possession +of the country. “The Oraons,” Father Dehon states, “are an exceedingly prolific tribe and soon become the preponderant element, +while the Mundas, being conservative and averse to living among strangers, emigrate towards another jungle. The Mundas hate +zamīndārs, and whenever they can do so, prefer to live in a retired corner in full possession of their small holding; and +it is not at all improbable that, as the zamīndārs took possession of the newly-formed villages, they retired towards the +east, while the Oraons, being good beasts of burden and more accustomed to subjection, remained.” In view of the fine physique +and martial character of the Larka or Fighting Kols or Mundas, Dalton was sceptical of the theory that they could ever have +retired before the Oraons; but in addition to the fact that many villages in which Oraons now live have Mundāri names, it +may be noted that the headman of an Oraon village is termed Munda and is considered to be descended from its founder, while +for the Pāhan or priest of the village gods, the Oraons always employ a Munda if available, and it is one of the Pāhan’s duties +to point out the boundary of the village in cases of dispute; this is a function regularly assigned to the earliest residents, +and seems to be strong evidence that <a id="d0e9594"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e9594">302</a>]</span>the Oraons found the Mundas settled in Chota Nāgpur when they arrived there. It is not necessary to suppose that any conquest +or forcible expropriation took place; and it is probable that, as the country was opened up, the Mundas by preference retired +to the wilder forest tracts, just as in the Central Provinces the Korkus and Baigas gave way to the Gonds, and the Gonds themselves +relinquished the open country to the Hindus. None of the writers quoted notice the name Munda as applied to the headman of +an Oraon village, but it can hardly be doubted that it is connected with that of the tribe; and it would be interesting also +to know whether the Pāhan or village priest takes his name from the Pāns or Gandas. Dalton says that the Pāns are domesticated +as essential constituents of every Ho or Kol village community, but does not allude to their presence among the Oraons. The +custom in the Central Provinces, by which in Gond villages the village priest is always known as Baiga, because in some localities +members of the Baiga tribe are commonly employed in the office, suggests the hypothesis of a similar usage here. In villages +first settled by Oraons, the population, Father Dehon states, is divided into three <i>khūnts</i> or branches, named after the Munda, Pahan and Mahto, the founders of the three branches being held to have been sons of the +first settler. Members of each branch belong therefore to the same sept or <i>got</i>. Each <i>khūnt</i> has a share of the village lands. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e9605"> +<h3>3. Subdivisions</h3> +<p>The Oraons have no proper subcastes in the Central Provinces, but the Kudas and Kisans, having a distinctive name and occupation, +sometimes regard themselves as separate bodies and decline intermarriage with other Oraons. In Bengal Sir H. Risley gives +five divisions, Barga, Dhānka, Kharia, Khendro and Munda; of these Kharia and Munda are the names of other tribes, and Dhānka +may be a variant for Dhāngar. The names show that as usual with the tribes of this part of the country the law of endogamy +is by no means strict. The tribe have also a large number of exogamous septs of the totemistic type, named after plants and +animals. Members of any sept commonly abstain from killing or eating their sept totem. A man must not marry a member of his +own sept nor a first cousin on the mother’s side. +<a id="d0e9610"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e9610">303</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e9611"> +<h3>4. Pre-nuptial licence</h3> +<p>Marriage is adult and pre-nuptial unchastity appears to be tacitly recognised. Oraon villages have the institution of the +Dhūmkuria or Bachelors’ dormitory, which Dalton describes as follows:<a id="d0e9616src" href="#d0e9616" class="noteref">3</a> “In all the older Oraon villages when there is any conservation of ancient customs, there is a house called the Dhūmkuria +in which all the bachelors of the village must sleep under penalty of a fine. The huts of the Oraons have insufficient accommodation +for a family, so that separate quarters for the young men are a necessity. The same remark applies to the young unmarried +women, and it is a fact that they do not sleep in the house with their parents. They are generally frank enough when questioned +about their habits, but on this subject there is always a certain amount of reticence, and I have seen girls quietly withdraw +when it was mooted. I am told that in some villages a separate building is provided for them like the Dhūmkuria, in which +they consort under the guardianship of an elderly duenna, but I believe the more common practice is to distribute them among +the houses of the widows, and this is what the girls themselves assert, if they answer at all when the question is asked; +but however billeted, it is well known that they often find their way to the bachelors’ hall, and in some villages actually +sleep there. I not long ago saw a Dhūmkuria in a Sargūja village in which the boys and girls all slept every night.” Colonel +Dalton considered it uncertain that the practice led to actual immorality, but the fact can hardly be doubted. Sexual intercourse +before marriage, Sir H. Risley says, is tacitly recognised, and is so generally practised that in the opinion of the best +observers no Oraon girl is a virgin at the time of her marriage. “To call this state of things immoral is to apply a modern +conception to primitive habits of life. Within the tribe, indeed, the idea of sexual morality seems hardly to exist, and the +unmarried Oraons are not far removed from the condition of modified promiscuity which prevails among many of the Australian +tribes. Provided that the exogamous circle defined by the totem is respected, an unmarried woman may bestow her favours on +whom she will. If, however, she becomes pregnant, arrangements are made to get her married without delay, <a id="d0e9621"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e9621">304</a>]</span>and she is then expected to lead a virtuous life.”<a id="d0e9623src" href="#d0e9623" class="noteref">4</a> According to Dalton, however, <i>liaisons</i> between boys and girls of the same village seldom end in marriage, as it is considered more respectable to bring home a bride +from a distance. This appears to arise from the primitive rule of exogamy that marriage should not be allowed between those +who have been brought up together. The young men can choose for themselves, and at dances, festivals and other social gatherings +they freely woo their sweethearts, giving them flowers for the hair and presents of grilled field-mice, which the Oraons consider +to be the most delicate of food. Father Dehon, however, states that matches are arranged by the parents, and the bride and +bridegroom have nothing to say in the matter. Boys are usually married at sixteen and girls at fourteen or fifteen. The girls +thus have only about two years of preliminary flirtation or Dhūmkuria life before they are settled. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e9631"> +<h3>5. Betrothal</h3> +<p>The first ceremony for a marriage is known as <i>pān bandhi</i> or the settling of the price; for which the boy’s father, accompanied by some men of his village to represent <i>the panch</i> or elders, goes to the girl’s house. Father Dehon states that the bride-price is five rupees and four maunds of grain. When +this has been settled the rejoicings begin. “All the people of the village are invited; two boys come and anoint the visitors +with oil. From every house of the village that can afford it a <i>handia</i> or pot of rice-beer is brought, and they drink together and make merry. All this time the girl has been kept inside, but +now she suddenly sallies forth carrying a <i>handia</i> on her head. A murmur of admiration greets her when stepping through the crowd she comes and stands in front of her future +father-in-law, who at once takes the <i>handia</i> from her head, embraces her, and gives her one rupee. From that time during the whole of the feast the girl remains sitting +at the feet of her father-in-law. The whole party meanwhile continue drinking and talking; and voices rise so high that they +cannot hear one another. As a diversion the old women of the village all come tumbling in, very drunk and wearing fantastic +hats made of leaves, gesticulating like devils and carrying a straw manikin representing the <a id="d0e9651"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e9651">305</a>]</span>bridegroom. They all look like old witches, and in their drunken state are very mischievous.” + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e9653"> +<h3>6. Marriage ceremony</h3> +<p>The marriage takes place after about two years, visits being exchanged twice a year in the meantime. When the day comes the +bridegroom proceeds with a large party of his friends, male and female, to the bride’s house. Most of the males have warlike +weapons, real or sham, and as they approach the village of the bride’s family the young men from thence emerge, also armed, +as if to repel the invasion, and a mimic fight ensues, which like a dissolving view blends pleasantly into a dance. In this +the bride and bridegroom join, each riding on the hips of one of their friends. After this they have a feast till late in +the night. Next morning bread cooked by the bride’s mother is taken to the <i>dari</i> or village spring, where all the women partake of it. When they have finished they bring a vessel of water with some leaves +of the mango tree in it. Meanwhile the bride and bridegroom are in the house, being anointed with oil and turmeric by their +respective sisters. When everybody has gathered under the marriage-bower the boy and girl are brought out of the house and +a heap is made of a plough-yoke, a bundle of thatching-grass and a curry-stone. The bride and bridegroom are made to stand +on the curry-stone, the boy touching the heels of the bride with his toes, and a long piece of cloth is put round them to +screen them from the public. Only their heads and feet can be seen. A goblet full of vermilion is presented to the boy, who +dips his finger in it and makes three lines on the forehead of the girl; and the girl does the same to the boy, but as she +has to reach him over her shoulder and cannot see him, the boy gets it anywhere, on his face, which never fails to provoke +hearty bursts of laughter. “When this is complete,” Dalton states, “a gun is fired and then by some arrangement vessels full +of water, placed over the bower, are upset, and the young couple and those near them receive a drenching shower-bath, the +women shouting, ‘The marriage is done, the marriage is done.’ They now retire into an apartment prepared for them, ostensibly +to change their clothes, but they do not emerge for some time, and when they do appear they are saluted as man and wife.” +<a id="d0e9661"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e9661">306</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e9662"> +<h3>7. Special Customs</h3> +<p>Meanwhile the guests sit round drinking <i>handias</i> or earthen pots full of rice-beer. The bride and bridegroom come out and retire a second time and are called out for the +following rite. A vessel of beer is brought and the bride carries a cupful of it to the bridegroom’s brother, but instead +of giving it into his hand she deposits it on the ground in front of him. This is to seal a kind of tacit agreement that from +that time the bridegroom’s brother will not touch his sister-in-law, and was probably instituted to mark the abolition of +the former system of fraternal polyandry, customs of an analogous nature being found among the Khonds and Korkus. “Then,” +Father Dehon continues, “comes the last ceremony, which is called <i>khirītengna handia</i> or the <i>handia</i> of the story, and is considered by the Oraons to be the true form of marriage which has been handed down to them by their +forefathers. The boy and girl sit together before the people, and one of the elder men present rises and addressing the boy +says: ‘If your wife goes to fetch <i>sāg</i> and falls from a tree and breaks her leg, do not say that she is disfigured or crippled. You will have to keep and feed her.’ +Then turning to the girl: ‘When your husband goes hunting, if his arm or leg is broken, do not say, “He is a cripple, I won’t +live with him.” Do not say that, for you have to remain with him. If you prepare meat, give two shares to him and keep only +one for yourself. If you prepare vegetables, give him two parts and keep only one part for yourself. If he gets sick and cannot +go out, do not say that he is dirty, but clean his mat and wash him.’ A feast follows, and at night the girl is brought to +the boy by her mother, who says to him, ‘Now this my child is yours; I do not give her for a few days but for ever; take care +of her and love her well.’ A companion of the bridegroom’s then seizes the girl in his arms and carries her inside the house.” + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e9679"> +<h3>8. Widow-remarriage and divorce</h3> +<p>It is uncommon for a man to have two wives. Divorce is permitted, and is usually effected by the boy or girl running away +to the Duārs or Assam. Widow-remarriage is a regular practice. The first time a widow marries again, Father Dehon states, +the bridegroom must pay Rs. 3–8 for her; if successive husbands die her price goes down by a <a id="d0e9684"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e9684">307</a>]</span>rupee on each fresh marriage, so that a fifth husband would pay only eight annas. Cases of adultery are comparatively rare. +When offenders are caught a heavy fine is imposed if they are well-to-do, and if they are not, a smaller fine and a beating. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e9686"> +<h3>9. Customs at birth</h3> +<p>“The Oraons,” Father Dehon continues, “are a very prolific race, and whenever they are allowed to live without being too much +oppressed they increase prodigiously. What strikes you when you come to an Oraon village is the number of small dirty children +playing everywhere, while you can scarcely meet a woman that does not carry a baby on her back. The women seem, to a great +extent, to have been exempted from the curse of our first mother: ‘Thou shalt bring forth, etc.’ They seem to give birth to +their children with the greatest ease. There is no period of uncleanness, and the very day after giving birth to a child, +you will see the mother with her baby tied up in a cloth on her back and a pitcher on her head going, as if nothing had happened, +to the village spring.” This practice, it may be remarked in parenthesis, may arise from the former observance of the Couvade, +the peculiar custom prevailing among several primitive races, by which, when a child is born, the father lies in the house +and pretends to be ill, while the mother gets up immediately and goes about her work. The custom has been reported as existing +among the Oraons by one observer from Bilāspur,<a id="d0e9691src" href="#d0e9691" class="noteref">5</a> but so far without confirmation. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e9694"> +<h3>10. Naming a child</h3> +<p>“A child is named eight or ten days after birth, and on this day some men of the village and the members of the family assemble +at the parents’ house. Two leaf-cups are brought, one full of water and the other of rice. After a preliminary formula grains +of rice are let fall into the cup, first in the name of the child and then successively in those of his ancestors in the following +order: paternal grandfather, paternal great-grandfather, father, paternal uncle, maternal grandfather, other relatives. When +the grain dropped in the name of any relative meets the first one dropped to represent the child, he is given the name of +that relative and is probably considered to be a reincarnation of him.” +<a id="d0e9699"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e9699">308</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e9700"> +<h3>11. Branding and tattooing</h3> +<p>“When a boy is six or seven years old it is time for him to become a member of the Dhūmkuria or common dormitory. The eldest +boys catch hold of his left arm and, with burning cloth, burn out five deep marks on the lower part of his arm. This is done +so that he may be recognised as an Oraon at his death when he goes into the other world.” The ceremony was probably the initiation +to manhood on arrival at puberty, and resembled those prevalent among the Australian tribes. With this exception men are not +tattooed, but this decoration is profusely resorted to by women. They have three parallel vertical lines on the forehead which +form a distinctive mark, and other patterns on the arms, chest, knees and ankles. These usually consist of lines vertical +and horizontal as shown below: + + +</p> +<p></p> +<div class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/fig308.gif" alt="" width="172" height="170"></div><p> + + +</p> +<p>The marks on the knees are considered to be steps by which the wearer will ascend to heaven after her death. If a baby cries +much it is also tattooed on the nose and chin. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e9710"> +<h3>12. Dormitory discipline</h3> +<p>The Dhūmkuria fraternity, Colonel Dalton remarks, are, under the severest penalties, bound down to secrecy in regard to all +that takes place in their dormitory; and even girls are punished if they dare to tell tales. They are not allowed to join +in the dances till the offence is condoned. They have a regular system of fagging in this curious institution. The small boys +serve those of larger growth, shampoo their limbs, comb their hair, and so on, and they are sometimes subjected to severe +discipline to make men of them. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e9715"> +<h3>13. Disposal of the dead</h3> +<p>The Oraons either bury or burn the dead. As the corpse is carried to the grave, beginning from the first crossroads, they +sprinkle a line of rice as far as the grave or pyre. <a id="d0e9720"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e9720">309</a>]</span>This is done so that the soul of the deceased may find its way back to the house. Before the burial or cremation cooked food +and some small pieces of money are placed in the mouth of the corpse. They are subsequently, however, removed or recovered +from the ashes and taken by the musicians as their fee. Some clothes belonging to the deceased and a vessel with some rice +are either burnt with the corpse or placed in the grave. As the grave is being filled in they place a stalk of <i>orai</i><a id="d0e9724src" href="#d0e9724" class="noteref">6</a> grass vertically on the head of the corpse and gradually draw it upwards as the earth is piled on the grave. They say that +this is done in order to leave a passage for the air to pass to the nostrils of the deceased. This is the grass from which +reed pens are made, and the stalk is hard and hollow. Afterwards they plant a root of the same grass where the stalk is standing +over the head of the corpse. On the tenth day they sacrifice a pig and fowl and bury the legs, tail, ears and nose of the +pig in a hole with seven balls of iron dross. They then proceed to the grave scattering a little parched rice all the way +along the path. Cooked rice is offered at the grave. If the corpse has been burnt they pick up the bones and place them in +a pot, which is brought home and hung up behind the dead man’s house. At night-time a relative sits inside the house watching +a burning lamp, while some friends go outside the village and make a miniature hut with sticks and grass and set fire to it. +They then call out to the dead man, ‘Come, your house is being burnt,’ and walk home striking a mattock and sickle together. +On coming to the house they kick down the matting which covers the doorway; the man inside says, ‘Who are you?’ and they answer, +‘It is we.’ They watch the lamp and when the flame wavers they believe it to show that the spirit of the deceased has followed +them and has also entered the house. Next day the bones are thrown into a river and the earthen pot broken against a stone. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e9729"> +<h3>14. Worship of ancestors</h3> +<p>The <i>pitras</i> or ancestors are worshipped at every festival, and when the new rice is reaped a hen is offered to them. They pray to their +dead parents to accept the offering and then place a few grains of rice before the hen. If she eats them, it is a sign that +the ancestors have accepted <a id="d0e9737"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e9737">310</a>]</span>the offering and a man kills the hen by crushing its head with his closed fist. This is probably, as remarked by Father Dehon, +in recollection of the method employed before the introduction of knives, and the same explanation may be given of the barbaric +method of the Baigas of crushing a pig to death by a beam of wood used as a see-saw across its body, and of the Gond bride +and bridegroom killing a fowl by treading on it when they first enter their house after the wedding. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e9739"> +<h3>15. Religion. The supreme deity</h3> +<p>The following account of the tribal religion is abridged from Father Dehon’s full and interesting description: + +</p> +<p>“The Oraons worship a supreme god who is known as Dharmes; him they invoke in their greatest difficulties when recourse to +the village priests and magicians has proved useless. Then they turn to Dharmes and say, ‘Now we have tried everything, but +we have still you who can help us.’ They sacrifice to him a white cock. They think that god is too good to punish them, and +that they are not answerable to him in any way for their conduct; they believe that everybody will be treated in the same +way in the other world. There is no hell for them or place of punishment, but everybody will go to <i>merkha</i> or heaven. The Red Indians speak of the happy hunting-grounds and the Oraons imagine something like the happy ploughing-grounds, +where everybody will have plenty of land, plenty of bullocks to plough it with, and plenty of rice-beer to drink after his +labour. They look on god as a big zamīndār or landowner, who does nothing himself, but keeps a <i>chaprāsi</i> as an agent or debt-collector; and they conceive the latter as having all the defects so common to his profession. Baranda, +the <i>chaprāsi</i>, exacts tribute from them mercilessly, not exactly out of zeal for the service of his master, but out of greed for his <i>talbāna</i> or perquisites. When making a sacrifice to Dharmes they pray: ‘O god, from to-day do not send any more your <i>chaprāsi</i> to punish us. You see we have paid our respects to you, and we are going to give him his <i>dastūri</i> (tip).’ + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e9764"> +<h3>16. Minor godlings</h3> +<p>“But in the concerns of this world, to obtain good crops and freedom from sickness, a host of minor deities have to be propitiated. +These consist of <i>bhūts</i> or spirits of the <a id="d0e9772"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e9772">311</a>]</span>household, the sept, the village, and common deities, such as the earth and sun. Chola Pācho or the lady of the grove lives +in the <i>sarna</i> or sacred grove, which has been left standing when the forest was cleared. She is credited with the power of giving rain +and consequently good crops. Churel is the shade of a woman who has died while pregnant or in childbirth. She hovers over +her burial-place and is an object of horror and fright to every passer-by. It is her nature to look out for a companion, and +she is said always to choose that member of a family whom she liked best during her lifetime. She will then come at night +and embrace him and tickle him under the arms, making him laugh till he dies. Bhūla or the wanderers are the shades of persons +who have died an unnatural death, either having been murdered, hanged, or killed by a tiger. They all keep the scars of their +respective wounds and one can imagine what a weird-looking lot they are. They are always on the move, and are, as it were, +the mendicant portion of the invisible community. They are not very powerful and are responsible only for small ailments, +like nightmares and slight indispositions. When an Ojha or spirit-raiser discovers that a Bhūla has appeared in the light +of his lamp he shows a disappointed face, and says: ‘Pshaw, only Bhūla!’ No sacrifice is offered to him, but the Ojha then +and there takes a few grains of rice, rubs them in charcoal and throws them at the flame of his lamp, saying, ‘Take this, +Bhūla, and go away.’ Mūrkuri is the thumping <i>bhūt</i>. Europeans to show their kindness and familiarity thump people on the back. If this is followed by fever or any kind of sickness +it will be ascribed to the passing of Mūrkuri from the body of the European into the body of the native. + +</p> +<p>“<i>Chordewa</i> is a witch rather than a <i>bhūt</i>. It is believed that some women have the power to change their soul into a black cat, who then goes about in the houses where +there are sick people. Such a cat has a peculiar way of mewing, quite different from its brethren, and is easily recognised. +It steals quietly into the house, licks the lips of the sick man and eats the food which has been prepared for him. The sick +man soon gets worse and dies. They say it is very difficult to catch the cat, as it has all the nimbleness of its <a id="d0e9788"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e9788">312</a>]</span>nature and the cleverness of a <i>bhūt</i>. However, they sometimes succeed, and then something wonderful happens. The woman out of whom the cat has come remains insensible, +as it were in a state of temporary death, until the cat re-enters her body. Any wound inflicted on the cat will be inflicted +on her; if they cut its ears or break its legs or put out its eyes the woman will suffer the same mutilation. The Oraons say +that formerly they used to burn any woman who was suspected of being a <i>Chordewa</i>. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e9796"> +<h3>17. Human sacrifice</h3> +<p>“There is also Anna Kuāri or Mahādhani, who is in our estimation the most cruel and repulsive deity of all, as she requires +human sacrifice. Those savage people, who put good crops above everything, look upon her in a different light. She can give +good crops and make a man rich, and this covers a multitude of sins. People may be sceptical about it and say that it is impossible +that in any part of India under the British Government there should still be human sacrifices. Well, in spite of all the vigilance +of the authorities, there are still human sacrifices in Chota Nāgpur. As the vigilance of the authorities increases, so also +does the carefulness of the Urkas or Otongas increase. They choose for their victims poor waifs or strangers, whose disappearance +no one will notice. April and May are the months in which the Urkas are at work. Doīsa, Panāri, Kūkra and Sargūja have a very +bad reputation. During these months no strangers will go about the country alone and during that time nowhere will boys and +girls be allowed to go to the jungle and graze the cattle for fear of the Urkas. When an Urka has found a victim he cuts his +throat and carries away the upper part of the ring finger and the nose. Anna Kuāri finds votaries not only among the Oraons, +but especially among the big zamīndārs and Rājas of the Native States. When a man has offered a sacrifice to Anna Kuāri she +goes and lives in his house in the form of a small child. From that time his fields yield double harvest, and when he brings +in his paddy he takes Anna Kuāri and rolls her over the heap to double its size. But she soon becomes restless and is only +pacified by new human sacrifices. At last after some years she cannot bear remaining in the same house any more and kills +every one.” +<a id="d0e9801"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e9801">313</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e9802"> +<h3>18. Christianity</h3> +<p>In Jashpur State where the Oraons number 47,000 about half the total number have become Christians. The non-Christians call +themselves Sansār, and the principal difference between them is that the Christians have cut off the pigtail, while the Sansār +retain it. In some families the father may be a Sansār and the son a Kiristān, and they live together without any distinction. +The Christians belong to the Roman Catholic and Lutheran Missions, but though they all know their Church, they naturally have +little or no idea of the distinctions of doctrine. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e9807"> +<h3>19. Festivals. The Karma or May-day</h3> +<p>The principal festivals are the Sārhūl, celebrated when the <i>sāl</i> tree<a id="d0e9815src" href="#d0e9815" class="noteref">7</a> flowers, the Karma or May-day when the rice is ready for planting out, and the Kanihāri or harvest celebration. + +</p> +<p>“At the Karma festival a party of young people of both sexes,” says Colonel Dalton, “proceed to the forest and cut a young +<i>karma</i> tree (<i>Nauclea parvifolia</i>) or the branch of one; they bear this home in triumph and plant it in the centre of the Akhāra or wrestling ground. Next +morning all may be seen at an early hour in holiday array, the elders in groups under the fine old tamarind trees that surround +the Akhāra, and the youth of both sexes, arm-linked in a huge circle, dancing round the <i>karma</i> tree, which, festooned with garlands, decorated with strips of coloured cloth and sham bracelets and necklets of plaited +straw, and with the bright faces and merry laughter of the young people encircling it, reminds one of the gift-bearing tree +so often introduced at our own great festival.” The tree, however, probably corresponds to the English Maypole, and the festival +celebrates the renewal of vegetation. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e9831"> +<h3>20. The <i>sāl</i> flower festival +</h3> +<p>At the Sārhūl festival the marriage of the sun-god and earth-mother is celebrated, and this cannot be done till the <i>sāl</i> tree gives the flowers for the ceremony. It takes place about the beginning of April on any day when the tree is in flower. +A white cock is taken to represent the sun and a black hen the earth; their marriage is celebrated by marking them with vermilion, +and they are sacrificed. The villagers then accompany the Pāhan or Baiga, the village priest, to the <i>sarna</i> or sacred grove, a remnant of the old <i>sāl</i> forest in <a id="d0e9848"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e9848">314</a>]</span>which is located Sarna Burhi or ‘The old women of the grove.’ “To this dryad,” writes Colonel Dalton, “who is supposed to +have great influence over the rain (a superstition not improbably founded on the importance of trees as cloud-compellers), +the party offer five fowls, which are afterwards eaten, and the remainder of the day is spent in feasting. They return laden +with the flowers of the <i>sāl</i> tree, and next morning with the Baiga pay a visit to every house, carrying the flowers. The women of the village all stand +on the threshold of their houses, each holding two leaf-cups; one empty to receive the holy water; the other with rice-beer +for the Baiga. His reverence stops at each house, and places flowers over it and in the hair of the women. He sprinkles the +holy water on the seeds that have been kept for the new year and showers blessings on every house, saying, ‘May your rooms +and granary be filled with paddy that the Baiga’s name may be great.’ When this is accomplished the woman throws a vessel +of water over his venerable person, heartily dousing the man whom the moment before they were treating with such profound +respect. This is no doubt a rain-charm, and is a familiar process. The Baiga is prevented from catching cold by being given +the cup of rice-beer and is generally gloriously drunk before he completes his round. There is now a general feast, and afterwards +the youth of both sexes, gaily decked with the <i>sāl</i> blossoms, the pale cream-white flowers of which make the most becoming of ornaments against their dusky skins and coal-black +hair, proceed to the Akhāra and dance all night.” + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e9856"> +<h3>21. The harvest festival</h3> +<p>The Kanihāri, as described by Father Dehon, is held previous to the threshing of the rice, and none is allowed to prepare +his threshing-floor until it has been celebrated. It can only take place on a Tuesday. A fowl is sacrificed and its blood +sprinkled on the new rice. In the evening a common feast is held at which the Baiga presides, and when this is over they go +to the place where Mahādeo is worshipped and the Baiga pours milk over the stone that represents him. The people then dance. +Plenty of rice-beer is brought, and a scene of debauchery takes place in which all restraint is put aside. They sing the most +obscene <a id="d0e9861"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e9861">315</a>]</span>songs and give vent to all their passions. On that day no one is responsible for any breach of morality. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e9863"> +<h3>22. Fast for the crops</h3> +<p>Like other primitive races, and the Hindus generally, the Oraons observe the Lenten fast, as explained by Sir J.G. Frazer, +after sowing their crops. Having committed his seed with every propitiatory rite to the bosom of Mother Earth, the savage +waits with anxious expectation to see whether she will once again perform on his behalf the yearly miracle of the renewal +of vegetation, and the growth of the corn-plants from the seed which the Greeks typified by the descent of Proserpine into +Hades for a season of the year and her triumphant re-emergence to the upper air. Meanwhile he fasts and atones for any sin +or shortcoming of his which may possibly have offended the goddess and cause her to hold her hand. From the beginning of <i>Asārh</i> (June) the Oraons cease to shave, abstain from eating turmeric, and make no leaf-plates for their food, but eat it straight +from the cooking-vessel. This they now say is to prevent the field-mice from consuming the seeds of the rice. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e9871"> +<h3>23. Physical appearance and costume of the Oraons</h3> +<p>“The colour of most Oraons,” Sir H. Risley states, “is the darkest brown approaching to black; the hair being jet-black, coarse +and rather inclined to be frizzy. Projecting jaws and teeth, thick lips, low narrow foreheads, and broad flat noses are the +features characteristic of the tribe. The eyes are often bright and full, and no obliquity is observable in the opening of +the eyelids.” + +</p> +<p>“The Oraon youths,” Dalton states, “though with features very far from being in accordance with the statutes of beauty, are +of a singularly pleasing class, their faces beaming with animation and good humour. They are a small race, averaging 4 feet +5 inches, but there is perfect proportion in all parts of their form, and their supple, pliant, lithe figures are often models +of symmetry. There is about the young Oraon a jaunty air and mirthful expression that distinguishes him from the Munda or +Ho, who has more of the dignified gravity that is said to characterise the North American Indian. The Oraon is particular +about his personal appearance only so long as he is unmarried, but he is in no hurry to withdraw from the Dhūmkuria community, +and generally <a id="d0e9878"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e9878">316</a>]</span>his first youth is passed before he resigns his decorative propensities. + +</p> +<p>“He wears his hair long like a woman, gathered in a knot behind, supporting, when he is in gala costume, a red or white turban. +In the knot are wooden combs and other instruments useful and ornamental, with numerous ornaments of brass.<a id="d0e9882src" href="#d0e9882" class="noteref">8</a> At the very extremity of the roll of hair gleams a small circular mirror set in brass, from which, and also from his ears, +bright brass chains with spiky pendants dangle, and as he moves with the springy elastic step of youth and tosses his head +like a high-mettled steed in the buoyancy of his animal spirits, he sets all his glittering ornaments in motion and displays +as he laughs a row of teeth, round, white and regular, that give light and animation to his dusky features. He wears nothing +in the form of a coat; his decorated neck and chest are undraped, displaying how the latter tapers to the waist, which the +young dandies compress within the smallest compass. In addition to the cloth, there is always round the waist a girdle of +cords made of tasar-silk or of cane. This is now a superfluity, but it is no doubt the remnant of a more primitive costume, +perhaps the support of the antique fig-leaves. + +</p> +<p>“Out of the age of ornamentation nothing can be more untidy or more unprepossessing than the appearance of the Oraon. The +ornaments are nearly all discarded, hair utterly neglected, and for raiment any rags are used. This applies both to males +and females of middle age. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e9887"> +<h3>24. Dress of women</h3> +<p>“The dress of the women consists of one cloth, six yards long, gracefully adjusted so as to form a shawl and a petticoat. +The upper end is thrown over the left shoulder and falls with its fringe and ornamented border prettily over the back of the +figure. Vast quantities of red beads and a large, heavy brass ornament shaped like a <i>torque</i> are worn round the neck. On the left hand are rings of copper, as many as can be induced on each finger up to the first joint, +on the right hand a smaller quantity; rings on the second toe only of brass or bell-metal, and anklets and bracelets of the +same material are also worn.” The women wear only <a id="d0e9895"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e9895">317</a>]</span>metal and not glass bangles, and this with the three vertical tattoo-marks on the forehead and the fact that the head and +right arm are uncovered enables them to be easily recognised. “The hair is made tolerably smooth and amenable by much lubrication, +and false hair or some other substance is used to give size to the mass into which it is gathered not immediately behind, +but more or less on one side, so that it lies on the neck just behind and touching the right ear; and flowers are arranged +in a receptacle made for them between the roll of hair and the head.” Rings are worn in the lobes of the ear, but not other +ornaments. “When in dancing costume on grand occasions they add to their head-dress plumes of heron feathers, and a gay bordered +scarf is tightly bound round the upper part of the body.” + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e9897"> +<h3>25. Dances</h3> +<p>“The tribe I am treating of are seen to best advantage at the great national dance meetings called Jātras, which are held +once a year at convenient centres, generally large mango groves in the vicinity of old villages. As a signal to the country +round, the flags of each village are brought out on the day fixed and set upon the road that leads to the place of meeting. +This incites the young men and maidens to hurry through their morning’s work and look up their <i>jātra</i> dresses, which are by no means ordinary attire. Those who have some miles to go put up their finery in a bundle to keep it +fresh and clean, and proceed to some tank or stream in the vicinity of the tryst grove; and about two o’clock in the afternoon +may be seen all around groups of girls laughingly making their toilets in the open air, and young men in separate parties +similarly employed. When they are ready the drums are beaten, huge horns are blown, and thus summoned the group from each +village forms its procession. In front are young men with swords and shields or other weapons, the village standard-bearers +with their flags, and boys waving yaks’ tails or bearing poles with fantastic arrangements of garlands and wreaths intended +to represent umbrellas of dignity. Sometimes a man riding on a wooden horse is carried, horse and all, by his friends as the +Rāja, and others assume the form of or paint themselves up to represent certain beasts of prey. Behind this motley group the +main body <a id="d0e9905"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e9905">318</a>]</span>form compactly together as a close column of dancers in alternate ranks of boys and girls, and thus they enter the grove, +where the meeting is held in a cheery dashing style, wheeling and countermarching and forming lines, circles and columns with +grace and precision. The dance with these movements is called <i>kharia</i>, and it is considered to be an Oraon rather than a Munda dance, though Munda girls join in it. When they enter the grove +the different groups join and dance the <i>kharia</i> together, forming one vast procession and then a monstrous circle. The drums and musical instruments are laid aside, and +it is by the voices alone that the time is given; but as many hundreds, nay, thousands, join, the effect is imposing. In serried +ranks, so closed up that they appear jammed, they circle round in file, all keeping perfect step, but at regular intervals +the strain is terminated by a <i>hurūru</i>, which reminds one of Paddy’s ‘huroosh’ as he ‘welts the floor,’ and at the same moment they all face inwards and simultaneously +jumping up come down on the ground with a resounding stamp that makes the finale of the movements, but only for a momentary +pause. One voice with a startling yell takes up the strain again, a fresh start is made, and after gyrating thus till they +tire of it the ring breaks up, and separating into village groups they perform other dances independently till near sunset, +and then go dancing home.” + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e9916"> +<h3>26. Social customs</h3> +<p>But more often they go on all night. Mr. Ball mentions their dance as follows:<a id="d0e9921src" href="#d0e9921" class="noteref">9</a> “The Oraon dance was distinct from any I had seen by the Santāls or other races. The girls, carefully arranged in lines by +sizes, with the tallest at one end and the smallest at the other, firmly grasp one another’s hands, and the whole movements +are so perfectly in concert that they spring about with as much agility as could a single individual.” Father Dehon gives +the following interesting notice of their social customs: “The Oraons are very sociable beings, and like to enjoy life together. +They are paying visits or <i>pahis</i> to one another nearly the whole year round. In these the <i>handia</i> (beer-jar) always plays a great part. Any man who would presume to receive visitors without offering them a <i>handia</i> would be <a id="d0e9935"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e9935">319</a>]</span>hooted and insulted by his guests, who would find a sympathising echo from all the people of the village. One may say that +from the time of the new rice at the end of September to the end of the marriage feast or till March there is a continual +coming and going of visitors. For a marriage feast forty <i>handias</i> are prepared by the groom’s father, and all the people of the village who can afford it supply one also. Each <i>handia</i> gives about three gallons of rice-beer, so that in one day and a half, in a village of thirty houses, about 200 gallons of +rice-beer are despatched. The Oraons are famous for their dances. They delight in spending the whole night from sunset till +morning in this most exciting amusement, and in the dancing season they go from village to village. They get, as it were, +intoxicated with the music, and there is never any slackening of the pace. On the contrary, the evolutions seem to increase +till very early in the morning, and it sometimes happens that one of the dancers shoots off rapidly from the gyrating group, +and speeds away like a spent top, and, whirlwind-like, disappears through paddy-fields and ditches till he falls entirely +exhausted. Of course it is the devil who has taken possession of him. One can well imagine in what state the dancers are at +the first crow of the cock, and when ‘<i>L’aurore avec ses doigts de rose entr’ouvre les portes de l’orient,</i>’ she finds the girls straggling home one by one, dishevelled, <i>traînant l’aile</i>, too tired even to enjoy the company of the boys, who remain behind in small groups, still sounding their tom-toms at intervals +as if sorry that the performance was so soon over. And, wonderful to say and incredible to witness, they will go straight +to the stalls, yoke their bullocks, and work the whole morning with the same spirit and cheerfulness as if they had spent +the whole night in refreshing sleep. At eleven o’clock they come home, eat their meal, and stretched out in the verandah sleep +like logs until two, when poked and kicked about unmercifully by the people of the house, they reluctantly get up with heavy +eyes and weary limbs to resume their work.” + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e9949"> +<h3>27. Social rules</h3> +<p>The Oraons do not now admit outsiders into the tribe. There is no offence for which a man is permanently put out of caste, +but a woman living with any man other than an <a id="d0e9954"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e9954">320</a>]</span>Oraon is so expelled. Temporary expulsion is awarded for the usual offences. The head of the caste <i>panchāyat</i> is called Panua, and when an offender is reinstated, the Panua first drinks water from his hand, and takes upon himself the +burden of the erring one’s transgression. For this he usually receives a fee of five rupees, and in some States the appointment +is in the hands of the Rāja, who exacts a fine of a hundred rupees or more from a new candidate. The Oraons eat almost all +kinds of food, including pork, fowls and crocodiles, but abstain from beef. Their status is very low among the Hindus; they +are usually made to live in a separate corner of the village, and are sometimes not allowed to draw water from the village +well. As already stated, the dress of the men consists only of a narrow wisp of cloth round the loins. Some of them say, like +the Gonds, that they are descended from the subjects of Rāwan, the demon king of Ceylon; this ancestry having no doubt in +the first instance been imputed to them by the Hindus. And they explain that when Hanumān in the shape of a giant monkey came +to the assistance of Rāma, their king Rāwan tried to destroy Hanumān by taking all the loin-cloths of his subjects and tying +them soaked in oil to the monkey’s tail with a view to setting them on fire and burning him to death. The device was unsuccessful +and Hanumān escaped, but since then the subjects of Rāwan and their descendants have never had a sufficient allowance of cloth +to cover them properly. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e9959"> +<h3>28. Character</h3> +<p>“The Oraons,” Colonel Dalton says, “if not the most virtuous, are the most cheerful of the human race. Their lot is not a +particularly happy one. They submit to be told that they are especially created as a labouring class, and they have had this +so often dinned into their ears that they believe and admit it. I believe they relish work if the taskmaster be not over-exacting. +Oraons sentenced to imprisonment without labour, as sometimes happens, for offences against the excise laws, insist on joining +the working gangs, and wherever employed, if kindly treated, they work as if they felt an interest in their task. In cold +weather or hot, rain or sun, they go cheerfully about it, and after some nine or ten hours of toil (seasoned with a little +play and chaff among themselves) they return blithely home <a id="d0e9964"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e9964">321</a>]</span>in flower-decked groups holding each other by the hand or round the waist and singing.” + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e9966"> +<h3>29. Language</h3> +<p>The Kurukh language, Dr. Grierson states, has no written character, but the gospels have been printed in it in the Devanāgri +type. The translation is due to the Rev. F. Halm, who has also published a Biblical history, a catechism and other small books +in Kurukh. More than five-sixths of the Oraons are still returned as speaking their own language. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e9553" href="#d0e9553src" class="noteref">1</a></span> <i>Linguistic Survey</i>, vol. iv. p. 406. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e9589" href="#d0e9589src" class="noteref">2</a></span> <i>Bengal Census Report</i> (1901). +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e9616" href="#d0e9616src" class="noteref">3</a></span> <i>Ethnography</i>, p. 248. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e9623" href="#d0e9623src" class="noteref">4</a></span> <i>Tribes and Castes</i>, vol. ii. p. 141. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e9691" href="#d0e9691src" class="noteref">5</a></span> Panna Lāl, Revenue Inspector. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e9724" href="#d0e9724src" class="noteref">6</a></span> <i>Sorghum halepense</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e9815" href="#d0e9815src" class="noteref">7</a></span> <i>Shorea robusta</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e9882" href="#d0e9882src" class="noteref">8</a></span> In Bilāspur the men have an iron comb in the hair with a circular end and two prongs like a fork. Women do not wear this. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e9921" href="#d0e9921src" class="noteref">9</a></span> <i>Jungle Life in India</i>, p. 134. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e9971" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Pāik</h2> +<p><b>Pāik.</b>—A small caste of the Uriya country formed from military service, the term <i>pāik</i> meaning ‘a foot-soldier.’ In 1901 the Pāiks numbered 19,000 persons in the Kālāhandi and Patna States and the Raipur District, +but since the transfer of the Uriya States to Bengal less than 3000 remain in the Central Provinces. In Kālāhandi, where the +bulk of them reside, they are called Nalia Sipāhis from the fact that they were formerly armed with <i>nalis</i> or matchlocks by the State. After the Khond rising of 1882 in Kālāhandi these were confiscated and bows and arrows given +in lieu of them. The Pāiks say that they were the followers of two warriors, Kālmīr and Jaimīr, who conquered the Kālāhandi +and Jaipur States from the Khonds about a thousand years ago. There is no doubt that they formed the rough militia of the +Uriya Rājas, a sort of rabble half military and half police, like the Khandaits. But the Khandaits were probably the leaders +and officers, and, as a consequence, though originally only a mixed occupational group, have acquired a higher status than +the Pāiks and in Orissa rank next to the Rājpūts. The Pāiks were the rank and file, mainly recruited from the forest tribes, +and they are counted as a comparatively low caste, though to strangers they profess to be Rājpūts. In Sambalpur it is said +that Rājpūts, Sudhs, Bhuiyas and Gonds are called Pāiks. In Kālāhandi they wear the sacred thread, being invested with it +by a Brāhman at the time of their marriage, and they say that this privilege was conferred on them by the Rāja. It is reported, +however, that social distinctions may be purchased in some of the Uriya States for comparatively small sums. A Bhatra or member +of a forest tribe was <a id="d0e9984"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e9984">322</a>]</span>observed wearing the sacred thread, and, on being questioned, stated that his grandfather had purchased the right from the +Rāja for Rs. 50. The privileges of wearing gold ear ornaments, carrying an umbrella, and riding on horseback were obtainable +in a similar manner. It is also related that when one Rāja imported the first pair of boots seen in his State, the local landholders +were allowed to wear them in turn for a few minutes on payment of five rupees each, as a token of their right thereafter to +procure and wear boots of their own. In Damoh and Jubbulpore another set of Pāiks is to be found who also claim to be Rājpūts, +and are commonly so called, though true Rājpūts will not eat or intermarry with them. These are quite distinct from the Sambalpur +Pāiks, but have probably been formed into a caste in exactly the same manner. The sept or family names of the Uriya Pāiks +sufficiently indicate their mixed descent. Some of them are as follows: Dube (a Brāhman title), Chālak Bansi (of the Chalukya +royal family), Chhit Karan (belonging to the Karans or Uriya Kāyasths), Sahāni (a sais or groom), Sudh (the name of an Uriya +caste), Benet Uriya (a subdivision of the Uriya or Od mason caste), and so on. It is clear that members of different castes +who became Pāiks founded separate families, which in time developed into exogamous septs. Some of the septs will not eat food +cooked with water in company with the rest of the caste, though they do not object to intermarrying with them. After her marriage +a girl may not take food cooked by her parents nor will they accept it from her. And at a marriage party each guest is supplied +with grain and cooks it himself, but everybody will eat with the bride and bridegroom as a special concession to their position. +Besides the exogamous clans the Pāiks have totemistic <i>gots</i> or groups named after plants and animals, as Harin (a deer), Kadamb (a tree), and so on. But these have no bearing on marriage, +and the bulk of the caste have the Nāgesh or cobra as their sept name. It is said that anybody who does not know his sept +considers himself to be a Nāgesh, and if he does not know his clan, he calls himself a Mahanti. Each family among the Pāiks +has also a Sainga or title, of a high-sounding nature, as Nāik (lord), Pujāri (worshipper), Baidya <a id="d0e9989"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e9989">323</a>]</span>(physician), Raut (noble), and so on. Marriages are generally celebrated in early youth, but no penalty is incurred for a +breach of this rule. If the signs of adolescence appear in a girl for the first time on a Tuesday, Saturday or Sunday, it +is considered a bad omen, and she is sometimes married to a tree to avert the consequences. Widow-marriage and divorce are +freely permitted. The caste burn their dead and perform the <i>shrāddh</i> ceremony. The women are tattooed, and men sometimes tattoo their arms with figures of the sun and moon in the belief that +this will protect them from snake-bite. The Pāiks eat flesh and fish, but abstain from fowls and other unclean animals and +from liquor. Brāhmans will not take water from them, but other castes generally do so. Some of them are still employed as +armed retainers and are remunerated by free grants of land. +<a id="d0e9994"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e9994">324</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div id="d0e9995" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Panka</h2> +<h3>List of Paragraphs</h3> +<ul> +<li><a href="#d0e10036">1. Origin of the caste</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e10057">2. Caste subdivisions</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e10062">3. Endogamous divisions</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e10069">4. Marriage</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e10094">5. Religion</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e10130">6. Other customs</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e10137">7. Occupation</a></li> +</ul> +<div class="div2" id="d0e10036"> +<h3>1. Origin of the caste</h3> +<p><b>Panka.</b><a id="d0e10042src" href="#d0e10042" class="noteref">1</a>—A Dravidian caste of weavers and labourers found in Mandla, Raipur and Bilāspur, and numbering 215,000 persons in 1911. The +name is a variant on that of the Pān tribe of Orissa and Chota Nāgpur, who are also known as Panika, Chīk, Gānda and by various +other designations. In the Central Provinces it has, however, a peculiar application; for while the Pan tribe proper is called +Gānda in Chhattīsgarh and the Uriya country, the Pankas form a separate division of the Gāndas, consisting of those who have +become members of the Kabīrpanthi sect. In this way the name has been found very convenient, for since Kabīr, the founder +of the sect, was discovered by a weaver woman lying on the lotus leaves of a tank, like Moses in the bulrushes, and as a newly +initiated convert is purified with water, so the Pankas hold that their name Is <i>pāni ka</i> or ‘from water.’ As far as possible then they disown their connection with the Gāndas, one of the most despised castes, and +say that they are a separate caste consisting of the disciples of Kabīr. This has given rise to the following doggerel rhyme +about them: + +</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Pāni se Panka bhae, bundan rāche sharīr, +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Age age Panka bhae, pāchhe Dās Kabīr.</span></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Which may be rendered, ‘The Panka indeed is born of <a id="d0e10055"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e10055">325</a>]</span>water, and his body is made of drops of water, but there were Pankas before Kabīr.’ Or another rendering of the second line +is, ‘First he was a Panka, and afterwards he became a disciple of Kabīr,’ Nevertheless the Pankas have been successful in +obtaining a somewhat higher position than the Gāndas, in that their touch is not considered to convey impurity. This is therefore +an instance of a body of persons from a low caste embracing a new religion and thereby forming themselves into a separate +caste and obtaining an advance in social position. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e10057"> +<h3>2. Caste subdivisions</h3> +<p>Of the whole caste 84 per cent are Kabīrpanthis and these form one subcaste; but there are a few others. The Mānikpuria say +that their ancestors came from Mānikpur in Darbhanga State about three centuries ago; the Saktaha are those who profess to +belong to the Sakta sect, which simply means that they eat flesh and drink liquor, being unwilling to submit to the restrictions +imposed on Kabīrpanthis; the Bajania are those who play on musical instruments, an occupation which tends to lower them in +Hindu eyes; and the Dom Pankas are probably a section of the Dom or sweeper caste who have somehow managed to become Pankas. +The main distinction is however between the Kabirha, who have abjured flesh and liquor, and the Saktaha, who indulge in them; +and the Saktaha group is naturally recruited from backsliding Kabīrpanthis. Properly the Kabirha and Saktaha do not intermarry, +but if a girl from either section goes to a man of the other she will be admitted into the community and recognised as his +wife, though the regular ceremony is not performed. The Saktaha worship all the ordinary village deities, but some of the +Kabirha at any rate entirely refrain from doing so, and have no religious rites except when a priest of their sect comes round, +when he gives them a discourse and they sing religious songs. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e10062"> +<h3>3. Endogamous divisions</h3> +<p>The caste have a number of exogamous septs, many of which are named after plants and animals: as Tandia an earthen pot, Chhura +a razor, Neora the mongoose, Parewa the wild pigeon, and others. Other septs are Panaria the bringer of betel-leaf, Kuldīp +the lamp-lighter, Pandwār the washer of feet, Ghughua one who eats the leavings of the <a id="d0e10067"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e10067">326</a>]</span>assembly, and Khetgarhia, one who watches the fields during religious worship. The Sonwānia or ‘Gold-water’ sept has among +the Pankas, as with several of the primitive tribes, the duty of readmitting persons temporarily put out of caste; while the +Naurang or nine-coloured sept may be the offspring of some illegitimate unions. The Sati sept apparently commemorate by their +name an ancestress who distinguished herself by self-immolation, naturally a very rare occurrence in so low a caste as the +Pankas. Each sept has its own Bhāt or genealogist who begs only from members of the sept and takes food from them. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e10069"> +<h3>4. Marriage</h3> +<p>Marriage is prohibited between members of the same sept and also between first cousins, and a second sister may not be married +during the lifetime of the first. Girls are usually wedded under twelve years of age. In Mandla the father of the boy and +his relatives go to discuss the match, and if this is arranged each of them kisses the girl and gives her a piece of small +silver. When a Saktaha is going to look for a wife he makes a fire offering to Dūlha Deo, the young bridegroom god, whose +shrine is in the cook-room, and prays to him saying, ‘I am going to such and such a village to ask for a wife; give me good +fortune.’ The father of the girl at first refuses his consent as a matter of etiquette, but finally agrees to let the marriage +take place within a year. The boy pays Rs. 9, which is spent on the feast, and makes a present of clothes and jewels to the +bride. In Chānda a <i>chauka</i> or consecrated space spread with cowdung with a pattern of lines of flour is prepared and the fathers of the parties stand +inside this, while a member of the Pandwār sept cries out the names of the <i>gotras</i> of the bride and bridegroom and says that the everlasting knot is to be tied between them with the consent of five caste-people +and the sun and moon as witnesses. Before the wedding the betrothed couple worship Mahādeo and Pārvati under the direction +of a Brāhman, who also fixes the date of the wedding. This is the only purpose for which a Brāhman is employed by the caste. +Between this date and that of the marriage neither the boy nor girl should be allowed to go to a tank or cross a river, as +it is considered dangerous to their lives. The superstition has apparently <a id="d0e10080"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e10080">327</a>]</span>some connection with the belief that the Pankas are sprung from water, but its exact meaning cannot be determined. If a girl +goes wrong before marriage with a man of the caste, she is given to him <span id="d0e10082" class="corr" title="Source: to">as</span> wife without any ceremony. Before the marriage seven small pitchers full of water are placed in a bamboo basket and shaken +over the bride’s head so that the water may fall on her. The principal ceremony consists in walking round the sacred pole +called <i>magrohan</i>, the skirts of the pair being knotted together. In some localities this is done twice, a first set of perambulations being +called the Kunwāri (maiden) Bhānwar, and the second one of seven, the Byāhi (married) Bhānwar. After the wedding the bride +and her relations return with the bridegroom to his house, their party being known as Chauthia. The couple are taken to a +river and throw their tinsel wedding ornaments into the water. The bride then returns home if she is a minor, and when she +subsequently goes to live with her husband the <i>gauna</i> ceremony is performed. Widow-marriage is permitted, and divorce may be effected for bad conduct on the part of the wife, +the husband giving a sort of funeral feast, called <i>Marti jīti ka bhāt</i>, to the castefellows. Usually a man gives several warnings to his wife to amend her bad conduct before he finally casts her +off. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e10094"> +<h3>5. Religion</h3> +<p>The Pankas worship only Kabīr. They prepare a <i>chauka</i> and, sitting in it, sing songs in his praise, and a cocoanut is afterwards broken and distributed to those who are present. +The assembly is presided over by a Mahant or priest and the <i>chauka</i> is prepared by his subordinate called the Dīwān. The offices of Mahant and Dīwān are hereditary, and they officiate for a +collection of ten or fifteen villages. Otherwise the caste perform no special worship, but observe the full moon days of Māgh +(January), Phāgun (February) and Kārtik (October) as fasts in honour of Kabīr. Some of the Kabirhas observe the Hindu festivals, +and the Saktahas, as already stated, have the same religious practices as other Hindus. They admit into the community members +of most castes except the impure ones. In Chhattīsgarh a new convert is shaved and the other Pankas wash their feet over him +in order to purify him. He then breaks a stick in token of having given up his former caste and is <a id="d0e10105"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e10105">328</a>]</span>invested with a necklace of <i>tulsi</i><a id="d0e10109src" href="#d0e10109" class="noteref">2</a> beads. A woman of any such caste who has gone wrong with a man of the Panka caste may be admitted after she has lived with +him for a certain period on probation, during which her conduct must be satisfactory, her paramour also being put out of caste +for the same time. Both are then shaved and invested with the necklaces of <i>tulsi</i> beads. In Mandla a new convert must clean and whitewash his house and then vacate it with his family while the Panch or caste +committee come and stay there for some time in order to purify it. While they are there neither the owner nor any member of +his family may enter the house. The Panch then proceed to the riverside and cook food, after driving the new convert across +the river by pelting him with cowdung. Here he changes his clothes and puts on new ones, and coming back again across the +stream is made to stand in the <i>chauk</i> and sip the urine of a calf. The <i>chauk</i> is then washed out and a fresh one made with lines of flour, and standing in this the convert receives to drink the <i>dal</i>, that is, water in which a little betel, raw sugar and black pepper have been mixed and a piece of gold dipped. In the evening +the Panch again take their food in the convert’s house, while he eats outside it at a distance. Then he again sips the <i>dal</i>, and the Mahant or priest takes him on his lap and a cloth is put over them both; the Mahant whispers the <i>mantra</i> or sacred verse into his ear, and he is finally considered to have become a full Kabirha Panka and admitted to eat with the +Panch. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e10130"> +<h3>6. Other customs</h3> +<p>The Pankas are strict vegetarians and do not drink liquor. A Kabirha Panka is put out of caste for eating flesh meat. Both +men and women generally wear white clothes, and men have the garland of beads round the neck. The dead are buried, being laid +on the back with the head pointing to the north. After a funeral the mourners bathe and then break a cocoanut over the grave +and distribute it among themselves. On the tenth day they go again and break a cocoanut and each man buries a little piece +of it in the earth over the grave. A little cup made of flour containing a lamp is placed on the grave for three days afterwards, +and some food and water are put in a leaf cup outside <a id="d0e10135"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e10135">329</a>]</span>the house for the same period. During these days the family do not cook for themselves but are supplied with food by their +friends. After childbirth a mother is supposed not to eat food during the time that the midwife attends on her, on account +of the impurity caused by this woman’s presence in the room. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e10137"> +<h3>7. Occupation</h3> +<p>The caste are generally weavers, producing coarse country cloth, and a number of them serve as village watchmen, while others +are cultivators and labourers. They will not grow <i>sān</i>-hemp nor breed tasar silk cocoons. They are somewhat poorly esteemed by their neighbours, who say of them, ‘Where a Panka +can get a little boiled rice and a pumpkin, he will stay for ever,’ meaning that he is satisfied with this and will not work +to get more. Another saying is, ‘The Panka felt brave and thought he would go to war; but he set out to fight a frog and was +beaten’; and another, ‘Every man tells one lie a day; but the Ahīr tells sixteen, the Chamār twenty, and the lies of the Panka +cannot be counted.’ Such gibes, however, do not really mean much. Owing to the abstinence of the Pankas from flesh and liquor +they rank above the Gāndas and other impure castes. In Bilāspur they are generally held to be quiet and industrious.<a id="d0e10145src" href="#d0e10145" class="noteref">3</a> In Chhattīsgarh the Pankas are considered above the average in intelligence and sometimes act as spokesmen for the village +people and as advisers to zamīndārs and village proprietors. Some of them become religious mendicants and act as <i>gurus</i> or preceptors to Kabīrpanthis.<a id="d0e10153src" href="#d0e10153" class="noteref">4</a> + + +<a id="d0e10156"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e10156">330</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e10042" href="#d0e10042src" class="noteref">1</a></span> This article is compiled from papers by Pyāre Lāl Misra, Ethnographic clerk, and Hazari Lāl, Manager, Court of Wards, Chānda. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e10109" href="#d0e10109src" class="noteref">2</a></span> The basil plant. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e10145" href="#d0e10145src" class="noteref">3</a></span> <i>Bilaspur Settlement Report</i> (1868), p. 49. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e10153" href="#d0e10153src" class="noteref">4</a></span> From a note by Mr. Gauri Shankar, Manager, Court of Wards, Drūg. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e10157" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Panwār Rājpūt</h2> +<h3>List of Paragraphs</h3> +<ul> +<li><a href="#d0e10229">1. Historical notice. The Agnikula clans and the slaughter of the Kshatriyas by Parasurāma</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e10298">2. The legend of Parasurāma</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e10315">3. The Panwār dynasty of Dhār and Ujjain</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e10369">4. Diffusion of the Panwārs over India</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e10397">5. The Nāgpur Panwārs</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e10420">6. Subdivisions</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e10425">7. Marriage customs</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e10530">8. Widow-marriage</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e10582">9. Religion</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e10587">10. Worship of the spirits of those dying a violent death</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e10610">11. Funeral rites</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e10627">12. Caste discipline</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e10662">13. Social customs</a></li> +</ul> +<div class="div2" id="d0e10229"> +<h3>1. Historical notice. The Agnikula clans and the slaughter of the Kshatriyas by Parasurāma</h3> +<p><b>Panwār</b>,<a id="d0e10236src" href="#d0e10236" class="noteref">1</a> <b>Puar</b>, <b>Ponwār</b>, <b>Prāmara Rājpūt</b>.—The Panwār or Pramāra is one of the most ancient and famous of the Rājpūt clans. It was the first of the four Agnikulas, +who were created from the fire-pit on the summit of Mount Abu after the Kshatriyas had been exterminated by Parasurāma the +Brāhman. “The fire-fountain was lustrated with the waters of the Ganges;<a id="d0e10248src" href="#d0e10248" class="noteref">2</a> expiatory rites were performed, and after a protracted debate among the gods it was resolved that Indra should initiate the +work of recreation. Having formed an image of <i>dūba</i> grass he sprinkled it with the water of life and threw it into the fire-fountain. Thence on pronouncing the <i>sajīvan mantra</i> (incantation to give life) a figure slowly emerged from the flame, bearing in the right hand a mace and exclaiming, ‘<i>Mār, Mār!</i>’ (Slay, slay). He was called Pramār; and Abu, Dhār, and Ujjain were assigned to him as a territory.” + +</p> +<p>The four clans known as Agnikula, or born from the fire-pit, were the Panwār, the Chauhān, the Parihār and <a id="d0e10265"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e10265">331</a>]</span>the Chalukya or Solanki. Mr. D.R. Bhandarkar adduces evidence in support of the opinion that all these were of foreign origin, +derived from the Gūjars or other Scythian or Hun tribes.<a id="d0e10267src" href="#d0e10267" class="noteref">3</a> And it seems therefore not unlikely that the legend of the fire-pit may commemorate the reconstitution of the Kshatriya aristocracy +by the admission of these tribes to Hinduism after its partial extinction during their wars of invasion; the latter event +having perhaps been euphemised into the slaughter of the Kshatriyas by Parasurāma the Brāhman. A great number of Indian castes +date their origin from the traditional massacre of the Kshatriyas by Parasurāma, saying that their ancestors were Rājpūts +who escaped and took to various occupations; and it would appear that an event which bulks so largely in popular tradition +must have some historical basis. It is noticeable also that Buddhism, which for some five centuries since the time of Asoka +Maurya had been the official and principal religion of northern India, had recently entered on its decline. “The restoration +of the Brāhmanical religion to popular favour and the associated revival of the Sanskrit language first became noticeable +in the second century, were fostered by the satraps of Gujarāt and Surāshtra during the third, and made a success by the Gupta +emperors in the fourth century.<a id="d0e10273src" href="#d0e10273" class="noteref">4</a> The decline of Buddhism and the diffusion of Sanskrit proceeded side by side with the result that by the end of the Gupta +period the force of Buddhism on Indian soil had been nearly spent; and India with certain local exceptions had again become +the land of the Brāhman.<a id="d0e10278src" href="#d0e10278" class="noteref">5</a> The Gupta dynasty as an important power ended about A.D. 490 and was overthrown by the Huns, whose leader Toramāna was established +at Mālwa in Central India prior to A.D. 500.”<a id="d0e10283src" href="#d0e10283" class="noteref">6</a> The revival of Brāhmanism and the Hun supremacy were therefore nearly contemporaneous. Moreover one of the Hun leaders, Mihiragula, +was a strong supporter of Brāhmanism and an opponent of the Buddhists. Mr. V.A. Smith writes: “The savage invader, who worshipped +as his patron deity Siva, the god of destruction, exhibited ferocious hostility <a id="d0e10288"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e10288">332</a>]</span>against the peaceful Buddhist cult, and remorselessly overthrew the <i>stūpas</i> and monasteries, which he plundered of their treasures.”<a id="d0e10293src" href="#d0e10293" class="noteref">7</a> This warrior might therefore well be venerated by the Brāhmans as the great restorer of their faith and would easily obtain +divine honours. The Huns also subdued Rājputāna and Central India and were dominant here for a time until their extreme cruelty +and oppression led to a concerted rising of the Indian princes by whom they were defeated. The discovery of the Hun or Scythian +origin of several of the existing Rājpūt clans fits in well with the legend. The stories told by many Indian castes of their +first ancestors having been Rājpūts who escaped from the massacre of Parasurāma would then have some historical value as indicating +that the existing occupational grouping of castes dates from the period of the revival of the Brāhman cult after a long interval +of Buddhist supremacy. It is however an objection to the identification of Parasurāma with the Huns that he is the sixth incarnation +of Vishnu, coming before Rāma and being mentioned in the Mahābhārata, and thus if he was in any way historical his proper +date should be long before their time. As to this it may be said that he might have been interpolated or put back in date, +as the Brāhmans had a strong interest in demonstrating the continuity of the Kshatriya caste from Vedic times and suppressing +the Hun episode, which indeed they have succeeded in doing so well that the foreign origin of several of the most prominent +Rājpūt clans has only been established quite recently by modern historical and archaeological research. The name Parasurāma +signifies ‘Rāma with the axe’ and seems to indicate that this hero came after the original Rāma. And the list of the incarnations +of Vishnu is not always the same, as in one list the incarnations are nearly all of the animal type and neither Parasurāma, +Rāma nor Krishna appear. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e10298"> +<h3>2. The legend of Parasurāma</h3> +<p>The legend of Parasurāma is not altogether opposed to this view in itself.<a id="d0e10303src" href="#d0e10303" class="noteref">8</a> He was the son of a Brāhman Muni or hermit, named Jamadagni, by a lady, Renuka, of the Kshatriya caste. He is therefore not +held to have been a Brāhman and neither was he a true Kshatriya. This might <a id="d0e10311"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e10311">333</a>]</span>portray the foreign origin of the Huns. Jamadagni found his wife Renuka to be harbouring thoughts of conjugal infidelity, +and commanded his sons, one by one, to slay her. The four elder ones successively refused, and being cursed by Jamadagni lost +all understanding and became as idiots; but the youngest, Parasurāma, at his father’s bidding, struck off his mother’s head +with a blow of his axe. Jamadagni thereupon was very pleased and promised to give Parasurāma whatever he might desire. On +which Parasurāma begged first for the restoration of his mother to life, with forgetfulness of his having slain her and purification +from all defilement; secondly, the return of his brothers to sanity and understanding; and for himself that he should live +long and be invincible in battle; and all these boons his father bestowed. Here the hermit Jamadagni might represent the Brāhman +priesthood, and his wife Renuka might be India, unfaithful to the Brāhmans and turning towards the Buddhist heresy. The four +elder sons would typify the princes of India refusing to respond to the exhortations of the Brāhmans for the suppression of +Buddhism, and hence themselves made blind to the true faith and their understandings darkened with Buddhist falsehood. But +Parasurāma, the youngest, killed his mother, that is, the Huns devastated India and slaughtered the Buddhists; in reward for +this he was made invincible as the Huns were, and his mother, India, and his brothers, the indigenous princes, regained life +and understanding, that is, returned to the true Brāhman faith. Afterwards, the legend proceeds, the king Kārrtavīrya, the +head of the Haihaya tribe of Kshatriyas, stole the calf of the sacred cow Kamdhenu from Jamadagni’s hermitage and cut down +the trees surrounding it. When Parasurāma returned, his father told him what had happened, and he followed Kārrtavīrya and +killed him in battle. But in revenge for this the sons of the king, when Parasurāma was away, returned to the hermitage and +slew the pious and unresisting sage Jamadagni, who called fruitlessly for succour on his valiant son. When Parasurāma returned +and found his father dead he vowed to extirpate the whole Kshatriya race. ‘Thrice times seven did he clear the earth of the +Kshatriya caste,’ says the Mahābhārata. If the first part of the story refers to the Hun conquest of northern <a id="d0e10313"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e10313">334</a>]</span>India and the overthrow of the Gupta dynasty, the second may similarly portray their invasion of Rājputāna. The theft of the +cow and desecration of Jamadagni’s hermitage by the Haihaya Rājpūts would represent the apostasy of the Rājpūt princes to +Buddhist monotheism, the consequent abandonment of the veneration of the cow and the spoliation of the Brāhman shrines; while +the Hun invasions of Rājputāna and the accompanying slaughter of Rājpūts would be Parasurāma’s terrible revenge. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e10315"> +<h3>3. The Panwār dynasty of Dhār and Ujjain</h3> +<p>The Kings of Mālwa or Ujjain who reigned at Dhār and flourished from the ninth to the twelfth centuries were of the Panwār +clan. The seventh and ninth kings of this dynasty rendered it famous.<a id="d0e10320src" href="#d0e10320" class="noteref">9</a> “Rāja Munja, the seventh king (974–995), renowned for his learning and eloquence, was not only a patron of poets, but was +himself a poet of no small reputation, the anthologies including various works from his pen. He penetrated in a career of +conquest as far as the Godāvari, but was finally defeated and executed there by the Chalukya king. His nephew, the famous +Bhoja, ascended the throne of Dhāra about A.D. 1018 and reigned gloriously for more than forty years. Like his uncle he cultivated +with equal assiduity the arts of peace and war. Though his fights with neighbouring powers, including one of the Muhammadan +armies of Mahmūd of Ghaznī, are now forgotten, his fame as an enlightened patron of learning and a skilled author remains +undimmed, and his name has become proverbial as that of the model king according to the Hindu standard. Works on astronomy, +architecture, the art of poetry and other subjects are attributed to him. About A.D. 1060 Bhoja was attacked and defeated +by the confederate kings of Gujarāt and Chedi, and the Panwār kingdom was reduced to a petty local dynasty until the thirteenth +century. It was finally superseded by the chiefs of the Tomara and Chauhān clans, who in their turn succumbed to the Muhammadans +in 1401.” The city of Ujjain was at this time a centre of Indian intellectual life. Some celebrated astronomers made it <a id="d0e10326"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e10326">335</a>]</span>their home, and it was adopted as the basis of the Hindu meridional system like Greenwich in England. The capital of the state +was changed from Ujjain to Dhār or Dhāranāgra by the Rāja Bhoja already mentioned;<a id="d0e10328src" href="#d0e10328" class="noteref">10</a> and the name of Dhār is better remembered in connection with the Panwārs than Ujjain. + +</p> +<p>A saying about it quoted by Colonel Tod was: + +</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Jahān Puār tahān Dhār hai; +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Aur Dhār jahān Puār; +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Dhār bina Puār nahin; +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Aur nahin Puār bina Dhār:</span></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>or, “Where the Panwār is there is Dhār, and Dhār is where the Panwār is; without the Panwārs Dhār cannot stand, nor the Panwārs +without Dhār.” It is related that in consequence of one of his merchants having been held to ransom by the ruler of Dhār, +the Bhatti Rāja of Jaisalmer made a vow to subdue the town. But as he found the undertaking too great for him, in order to +fulfil his vow he had a model of the city made in clay and was about to break it up. But there were Panwārs in his army, and +they stood out to defend their mock capital, repeating as their reason the above lines; and in resisting the Rāja were cut +to pieces to the number of a hundred and twenty.<a id="d0e10344src" href="#d0e10344" class="noteref">11</a> There is little reason to doubt that the incident, if historical, was produced by the belief in sympathetic magic; the Panwārs +really thought that by destroying its image the Raja could effect injury to the capital itself,<a id="d0e10349src" href="#d0e10349" class="noteref">12</a> just as many primitive races believe that if they make a doll as a model of an enemy and stick pins into or otherwise injure +it, the man himself is similarly affected. A kindred belief prevails concerning certain mythical old kings of the Golden Age +of India, of whom it is said that to destroy their opponents all they had to do was to collect a bundle of juāri stalks and +<a id="d0e10355"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e10355">336</a>]</span>cut off the heads, when the heads of their enemies flew off in unison. + +</p> +<p>The Panwārs were held to have ruled from nine castles over the Marusthali or ‘Region of death,’ the name given to the great +desert of Rājputāna, which extends from Sind to the Aravalli mountains and from the great salt lake to the flat skirting the +Garah. The principal of these castles were Abu, Nundore, Umarkot, Arore, and Lodorva.<a id="d0e10359src" href="#d0e10359" class="noteref">13</a> And, ‘The world is the Prāmara’s,’ was another saying expressive of the resplendent position of Dhāranāgra or Ujjain at this +epoch. The siege and capture of the town by the Muhammadans and consequent expulsion of the Panwārs are still a well-remembered +tradition, and certain castes of the Central Provinces, as the Bhoyars and Korkus, say that their ancestors formed part of +the garrison and fled to the Satpūra hills after the fall of Dhāranāgra. Mr. Crooke<a id="d0e10364src" href="#d0e10364" class="noteref">14</a> states that the expulsion of the Panwārs from Ujjain under their leader Mitra Sen is ascribed to the attack of the Muhammadans +under Shāhab-ud-dīn Ghori about A.D. 1190. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e10369"> +<h3>4. Diffusion of the Panwārs over India</h3> +<p>After this they spread to various places in northern India, and to the Central Provinces and Bombay. The modern state of Dhār +is or was recently still held by a Panwār family, who had attained high rank under the Marāthas and received it as a grant +from the Peshwa. Malcolm considered them to be the descendants of Rājpūt emigrants to the Deccan. He wrote of them:<a id="d0e10374src" href="#d0e10374" class="noteref">15</a> “In the early period of Marātha history the family of Puār appears to have been one of the most distinguished. They were +of the Rājpūt tribe, numbers of which had been settled in Mālwa at a remote era; from whence this branch had migrated to the +Deccan. Sivaji Puār, the first of the family that can be traced in the latter country, was a landholder; and his grandsons, +Sambaji and Kāloji, were military commanders in the service of the celebrated Sivaji. Anand Rao Puār was vested with authority +to collect the Marātha share of the revenue of Mālwa and Gujarāt in 1734, and he soon afterwards settled at Dhār, which province, +<a id="d0e10379"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e10379">337</a>]</span>with the adjoining districts and the tributes of some neighbouring Rājpūt chiefs, was assigned for the support of himself +and his adherents. It is a curious coincidence that the success of the Marāthas should, by making Dhār the capital of Anand +Rāo and his descendants, restore the sovereignty of a race who had seven centuries before been expelled from the government +of that city and territory. But the present family, though of the same tribe (Puār), claim no descent from the ancient Hindu +princes of Mālwa. They have, like all the Kshatriya tribes who became incorporated with the Marāthas, adopted even in their +modes of thinking the habits of that people. The heads of the family, with feelings more suited to chiefs of that nation than +Rājpūt princes, have purchased the office of patel or headman in some villages in the Deccan; and their descendants continue +to attach value to their ancient, though humble, rights of village officers in that quarter. Notwithstanding that these usages +and the connections they formed have amalgamated this family with the Marāthas, they still claim, both on account of their +high birth and of being officers of the Rāja of Satāra (not of the Peshwa), rank and precedence over the houses of Sindhia +and Holkar; and these claims, even when their fortunes were at the lowest ebb, were always admitted as far as related to points +of form and ceremony.” The great Marātha house of Nimbhālkar is believed to have originated from ancestors of the Panwār Rājpūt +clan. While one branch of the Panwārs went to the Deccan after the fall of Dhār and marrying with the people there became +a leading military family of the Marāthas, the destiny of another group who migrated to northern India was less distinguished. +Here they split into two, and the inferior section is described by Mr. Crooke as follows:<a id="d0e10381src" href="#d0e10381" class="noteref">16</a> “The Khidmatiā, Barwār or Chobdār are said to be an inferior branch of the Panwārs, descended from a low-caste woman. No +high-caste Hindu eats food or drinks water touched by them.” According to the Ain-i-Akbari<a id="d0e10386src" href="#d0e10386" class="noteref">17</a> a thousand men of the sept guarded the environs of the palace of Akbar, and Abul Fazl says of them: “The caste to which they +<a id="d0e10389"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e10389">338</a>]</span>belong was notorious for highway robbery, and former rulers were not able to keep them in check. The effective orders of His +Majesty have led them to honesty; they are now famous for their trustworthiness. They were formerly called <i>Māwis</i>. Their chief has received the title of Khidmat Rao. Being near the person of His Majesty he lives in affluence. His men are +called Khidmatias.” Thus another body of Panwārs went north and sold their swords to the Mughal Emperor, who formed them into +a bodyguard. Their case is exactly analogous to that of the Scotch and Swiss Guards of the French kings. In both cases the +monarch preferred to entrust the care of his person to foreigners, on whose fidelity he could the better rely, as their only +means of support and advancement lay in his personal favour, and they had no local sympathies which could be used as a lever +to undermine their loyalty. Buchanan states that a Panwār dynasty ruled for a considerable period over the territory of Shāhabād +in Bengal. And Jagdeo Panwār was the trusted minister of Sidhrāj, the great Solanki Rāja of Gujarāt. The story of the adventures +of Jagdeo and his wife when they set out together to seek their fortune is an interesting episode in the Rāsmāla. In the Punjab +the Panwārs are found settled up the whole course of the Sutlej and along the lower Indus, and have also spread up the Biās +into Jalandhar and Gurdāspur.<a id="d0e10394src" href="#d0e10394" class="noteref">18</a> + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e10397"> +<h3>5. The Nāgpur Panwārs</h3> +<p>While the above extracts have been given to show how the Panwārs migrated from Dhār to different parts of India in search +of fortune, this article is mainly concerned with a branch of the clan who came to Nāgpur, and subsequently settled in the +rice country of the Wainganga Valley. At the end of the eleventh century Nāgpur appears to have been held by a Panwār ruler +as an appanage of the kingdom of Mālwa.<a id="d0e10402src" href="#d0e10402" class="noteref">19</a> It has already been seen how the kings of Mālwa penetrated to Berār and the Godāvari, and Nāgpur may well also have fallen +to them. Mr. Muhammad Yūsuf quotes an inscription as existing at Bhāndak in Chānda of the year A.D. 1326, in which it is mentioned +that the Panwār of Dhār <a id="d0e10405"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e10405">339</a>]</span>repaired a statue of Jag Nārāyan in that place.<a id="d0e10407src" href="#d0e10407" class="noteref">20</a> Nothing more is heard of them in Nāgpur, and their rule probably came to an end with the subversion of the kingdom of Mālwa +in the thirteenth century. But there remain in Nāgpur and in the districts of Bhandāra, Bālāghāt and Seoni to the north and +east of it a large number of Panwārs, who have now developed into an agricultural caste. It may be surmised that the ancestors +of these people settled in the country at the time when Nāgpur was held by their clan, and a second influx may have taken +place after the fall of Dhār. According to their own account, they first came to Nagardhan, an older town than Nāgpur, and +once the headquarters of the locality. One of their legends is that the men who first came had no wives, and were therefore +allowed to take widows of other castes into their houses. It seems reasonable to suppose that something of this kind happened, +though they probably did not restrict themselves to widows. The existing family names of the caste show that it is of mixed +ancestry, but the original Rājpūt strain is still perfectly apparent in their fair complexions, high foreheads and in many +cases grey eyes. The Panwārs have still the habit of keeping women of lower castes to a greater degree than the ordinary, +and this has been found to be a trait of other castes of mixed origin, and they are sometimes known as Dhākar, a name having +the sense of illegitimacy. Though they have lived for centuries among a Marāthi-speaking people, the Panwārs retain a dialect +of their own, the basis of which is Bagheli or eastern Hindi. When the Marāthas established themselves at Nāgpur in the eighteenth +century some of the Panwārs took military service under them and accompanied a general of the Bhonsla ruling family on an +expedition to Cuttack. In return for this they were rewarded with grants of the waste and forest lands in the valley of the +Wainganga river, and here they developed great skill in the construction <a id="d0e10410"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e10410">340</a>]</span>of tanks and the irrigation of rice land, and are the best agricultural caste in this part of the country. Their customs have +many points of interest, and, as is natural, they have abandoned many of the caste observances of the Rājpūts. It is to this +group of Panwārs<a id="d0e10412src" href="#d0e10412" class="noteref">21</a> settled in the Marātha rice country of the Wainganga Valley that the remainder of this article is devoted. + + +</p> +<p></p> +<div id="d0e10416" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p120.jpg" alt="Transplanting rice" width="720" height="405"><p class="figureHead">Transplanting rice</p> +</div><p> + + + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e10420"> +<h3>6. Subdivisions</h3> +<p>They number about 150,000 persons, and include many village proprietors and substantial cultivators. The quotations already +given have shown how this virile clan of Rājpūts travelled to the north, south and east from their own country in search of +a livelihood. Everywhere they made their mark so that they live in history, but they paid no regard to the purity of their +Rājpūt blood and took to themselves wives from the women of the country as they could get them. The Panwārs of the Wainganga +Valley have developed into a caste marrying among themselves. They have no subcastes but thirty-six exogamous sections. Some +of these have the names of Rājpūt clans, while others are derived from villages, titles or names of offices, or from other +castes. Among the titular names are Chaudhri (headman), Patlia (patel or chief officer of a village) and Sonwānia (one who +purifies offenders among the Gonds and other tribes). Among the names of other castes are Bopcha or Korku, Bhoyar (a caste +of cultivators), Pārdhi (hunter), Kohli (a local cultivating caste) and Sahria (from the Saonr tribe). These names indicate +how freely they have intermarried. It is noticeable that the Bhoyars and Korkus of Betūl both say that their ancestors were +Panwārs of Dhār, and the occurrence of both names among the Panwārs of Bālāghāt may indicate that these castes also have some +Panwār blood. Three names, Rahmat (kind), Turukh or Turk, and Farīd (a well-known saint), are of Muhammadan origin, and indicate +intermarriage in that quarter. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e10425"> +<h3>7. Marriage customs</h3> +<p>Girls are usually, but not necessarily, wedded before adolescence. Occasionally a Panwār boy who cannot afford a regular marriage +will enter his prospective father-in-law’s <a id="d0e10430"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e10430">341</a>]</span>house and serve him for a year or more, when he will obtain a daughter in marriage. And sometimes a girl will contract a liking +for some man or boy of the caste and will go to his house, leaving her home. In such cases the parents accept the accomplished +fact, and the couple are married. If the boy’s parents refuse their consent they are temporarily put out of caste, and subsequently +the neighbours will not pay them the customary visits on the occasions of family joys and griefs. Even if a girl has lived +with a man of another caste, as long as she has not borne a child, she may be re-admitted to the community on payment of such +penalty as the elders may determine. If her own parents will not take her back, a man of the same <i>gotra</i> or section is appointed as her guardian and she can be married from his house. + +</p> +<p>The ceremonies of a Panwār marriage are elaborate. Marriage-sheds are erected at the houses both of the bride and bridegroom +in accordance with the usual practice, and just before the marriage, parties are given at both houses; the village watchman +brings the <i>toran</i> or string of mango-leaves, which is hung round the marriage-shed in the manner of a triumphal arch, and in the evening the +party assembles, the men sitting at one side of the shed and the women at the other. Presents of clothes are made to the child +who is to be married, and the following song is sung: + +</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="line" style=""><span>The mother of the bride grew angry and went away to the mango grove. +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Come soon, come quickly, Mother, it is the time for giving clothes. +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>The father of the bridegroom has sent the bride a fold of cloth from his house, +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>The fold of it is like the curve of the winnowing-fan, and there is a bodice decked with coral and pearls.</span></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Before the actual wedding the father of the bridegroom goes to the bride’s house and gives her clothes and other presents, +and the following is a specimen given by Mr. Muhammad Yūsuf of the songs sung on this occasion: + +</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Five years old to-day is Bāja Bai the bride; +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Send word to the mother of the bridegroom; +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Her dress is too short, send for the Koshta, Husband; +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>The Koshta came and wove a border to the dress.</span></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Afterwards the girl’s father goes and makes similar presents to the bridegroom. After many preliminary ceremonies <a id="d0e10462"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e10462">342</a>]</span>the marriage procession proper sets forth, consisting of men only. Before the boy starts his mother places her breast in his +mouth; the maid-servants stand before him with vessels of water, and he puts a pice in each. During the journey songs are +sung, of which the following is a specimen: + +</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="line" style=""><span>The linseed and gram are in flower in Chait.<a id="d0e10467src" href="#d0e10467" class="noteref">22</a> +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>O! the boy bridegroom is going to another country; +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>O Mother! how may he go to another country? +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Make payment before he enters another country; +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>O Mother! how may he cross the border of another country? +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Make payment before he crosses the border of another country; +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>O Mother! how may he touch another’s bower? +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Make payment before he touches another’s bower; +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>O Mother! how shall he bathe with strange water? +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Make payment before he bathes with strange water; +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>O Mother! how may he eat another’s <i>banwat</i>?<a id="d0e10493src" href="#d0e10493" class="noteref">23</a> +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Make payment before he eats another’s <i>banwat</i>; +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>O Mother! how shall he marry another woman? +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>He shall wed her holding the little finger of her left hand.</span></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>The bridegroom’s party are always driven to the wedding in bullock-carts, and when they approach the bride’s village her people +also come to meet them in carts. All the party then turn and race to the village, and the winner obtains much distinction. +The cartmen afterwards go to the bridegroom’s father and he has to make them a present of from one to forty rupees. On arriving +at the village the bridegroom is carried to Devi’s shrine in a man’s arms, while four other men hold a canopy over him, and +from there to the marriage-shed. He touches a bamboo of this, and a man seated on the top pours turmeric and water over his +head. Five men of the groom’s party go to the bride’s house carrying salt, and here their feet are washed and the <i>tīka</i> or mark of anointing is made on their foreheads. Afterwards they carry rice in the same manner and with this is the wedding-rice, +coloured yellow with turmeric and known as the Lagun-gāth. Before sunset the bridegroom goes to the bride’s house for the +wedding. Two baskets are hung before Dulha Deo’s shrine inside the house, and the couple are seated in these with a cloth +between them. The ends of their clothes are knotted, <a id="d0e10510"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e10510">343</a>]</span>each places the right foot on the left foot of the other and holds the other’s ear with the hand. Meanwhile a Brāhman has +climbed on to the roof of the house, and after saying the names of the bride and bridegroom shouts loudly, ‘<i>Rām nawara, Sīta nawari, Saodhān</i>,’ or ‘Rām, the Bridegroom, and Sīta, the Bride, pay heed,’ The people inside the house repeat these words and someone beats +on a brass plate; the wedding-rice is poured over the heads of the couple, and a quid of betel is placed first in the mouth +of one and then of the other. The bridegroom’s party dance in the marriage-shed and their feet are washed. Two plough-yokes +are brought in and a cloth spread over them, and the couple are seated on them face to face. A string of twisted grass is +drawn round their necks and a thread is tied round their marriage-crowns. The bride’s dowry is given and her relatives make +presents to her. This property is known as <i>khamora</i>, and is retained by a wife for her own use, her husband having no control over it. It is customary also in the caste for +the parents to supply clothes to a married daughter as long as they live, and during this period a wife will not accept any +clothes from her husband. On the following day the maid-servants bring a present of <i>gulāl</i> or red powder to the fathers of the bride and bridegroom, who sprinkle it over each other. The bridegroom’s father makes +them a present of from one to twenty rupees according to his means, and also gives suitable fees to the barber, the washerman, +the Barai or betel-leaf seller and the Bhāt or bard. The maid-servants then bring vessels of water and throw it over each +other in sport. After the evening meal, the party go back, the bride and bridegroom riding in the same cart. As they start +the women sing: + +</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="line" style="text-indent: 1em; "><span>Let us go to the basket-maker +</span></p> +<p class="line" style="text-indent: 1em; "><span>And buy a costly pair of fans; +</span></p> +<p class="line" style="text-indent: 1em; "><span>Fans worth a lot of money; +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Let us praise the mother of the bride.</span></p> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e10530"> +<h3>8. Widow-marriage</h3> +<p>After a few days at her husband’s house the bride returns home, and though she pays short visits to his family from time to +time, she does not go to live with her husband until she is adolescent, when the usual <i>pathoni</i> or going-away <a id="d0e10538"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e10538">344</a>]</span>ceremony is performed to celebrate the event. The people repeat a set of verses containing advice which the bride’s mother +is supposed to give her on this occasion, in which the desire imputed to the caste to make money out of their daughters is +satirised. They are no doubt libellous as being a gross exaggeration, but may contain some substratum of truth. The gist of +them is as follows: “Girl, if you are my daughter, heed what I say. I will make you many sweetmeats and speak words of wisdom. +Always treat your husband better than his parents. Increase your private money (<i>khamora</i>) by selling rice and sugar; abuse your sisters-in-law to your husband’s mother and become her favourite. Get influence over +your husband and make him come with you to live with us. If you cannot persuade him, abandon your modesty and make quarrels +in the household. Do not fear the village officers, but go to the houses of the patel<a id="d0e10543src" href="#d0e10543" class="noteref">24</a> and Pāndia<a id="d0e10546src" href="#d0e10546" class="noteref">25</a> and ask them to arrange your quarrel.” + +</p> +<p>It is not intended to imply that Panwār women behave in this manner, but the passage is interesting as a sidelight on the +joint family system. It concludes by advising the girl, if she cannot detach her husband from his family, to poison him and +return as a widow. This last counsel is a gibe at the custom which the caste have of taking large sums of money for a widow +on her second marriage. As such a woman is usually adult, and able at once to perform the duties of a wife and to work in +the fields, she is highly valued, and her price ranges from Rs. 25 to Rs. 1000. In former times, it is stated, the disposal +of widows did not rest with their parents but with the Sendia or headman of the caste. The last of them was Karūn Panwār of +Tumsar, who was empowered by the Bhonsla Rāja of Nāgpur to act in this manner, and was accustomed to receive an average sum +of Rs. 25 for each widow or divorced woman whom he gave away in marriage. His power extended even to the reinstatement of +women expelled from the caste, whom he could subsequently make over to any one who would pay for them. At the end of his life +he lost his authority among the people by keeping a Dhīmar woman as a mistress, and he had no successor. A Panwār widow must +not marry again <a id="d0e10551"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e10551">345</a>]</span>until the expiry of six months after her husband’s death. The stool on which a widow sits for her second marriage is afterwards +stolen by her husband’s friends. After the wedding when she reaches the boundary of his village the axle of her cart is removed, +and a new one made of <i>tendu</i> wood is substituted for it. The discarded axle and the shoes worn by the husband at the ceremony are thrown away, and the +stolen stool is buried in a field. These things, Mr. Hīra Lāl points out, are regarded as defiled, because they have been +accessories in an unlucky ceremony, that of the marriage of a widow. On this point Dr. Jevons writes<a id="d0e10556src" href="#d0e10556" class="noteref">26</a> that the peculiar characteristic of taboo is this transmissibility of its infection or contagion. In ancient Greece the offerings +used for the purification of the murderer became themselves polluted during the process and had to be buried. A similar reasoning +applies to the articles employed in the marriage of a widow. The wood of the <i>tendu</i> or ebony tree<a id="d0e10564src" href="#d0e10564" class="noteref">27</a> is chosen for the substituted axle, because it has the valuable property of keeping off spirits and ghosts. When a child +is born a plank of this wood is laid along the door of the room to keep the spirits from troubling the mother and the newborn +infant. In the same way, no doubt, this wood keeps the ghost of the first husband from entering with the widow into her second +husband’s village. The reason for the ebony-wood being a spirit-scarer seems to lie in its property of giving out sparks when +burnt. “The burning wood gives out showers of sparks, and it is a common amusement to put pieces in a camp fire in order to +see the column of sparks ascend.”<a id="d0e10569src" href="#d0e10569" class="noteref">28</a> The sparks would have a powerful effect on the primitive mind and probably impart a sacred character to the tree, and as +they would scare away wild animals, the property of averting spirits might come to attach to the wood. The Panwārs seldom +resort to divorce, except in the case of open and flagrant immorality on the part of a wife. “They are not strict,” Mr. Low +writes,<a id="d0e10575src" href="#d0e10575" class="noteref">29</a> “in the matter of sexual offences within the caste, though they bitterly resent and if able heavily avenge any attempt on +the virtue of their women by an outsider. The men of the caste are on the <a id="d0e10580"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e10580">346</a>]</span>other hand somewhat notorious for the freedom with which they enter into relations with the women of other castes.” They not +infrequently have Gond and Ahīr girls from the families of their farmservants as members of their households. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e10582"> +<h3>9. Religion</h3> +<p>The caste worship the ordinary Hindu divinities, and their household god is Dūlha Deo, the deified bridegroom. He is represented +by a nut and a date, which are wrapped in a cloth and hung on a peg in the wall of the house above the platform erected to +him. Every year, or at the time of a marriage or the birth of a first child, a goat is offered to Dūlha Deo. The animal is +brought to the platform and given some rice to eat. A dedicatory mark of red ochre is made on its forehead and water is poured +over the body, and as soon as it shivers it is killed. The shivering is considered to be an indication from the deity that +the sacrifice is acceptable. The flesh is cooked and eaten by the family inside the house, and the skin and bones are buried +below the floor. Nārāyan Deo or Vishnu or the Sun is represented by a bunch of peacock’s feathers. He is generally kept in +the house of a Mahār, and when his worship is to be celebrated he is brought thence in a gourd to the Panwār’s house, and +a black goat, rice and cakes are offered to him by the head of the household. While the offering is being made the Mahār sings +and dances, and when the flesh of the goat is eaten he is permitted to sit inside the Panwār’s house and begin the feast, +the Panwārs eating after him. On ordinary occasions a Mahār is not allowed to come inside the house, and any Panwār who took +food with him would be put out of caste; and this rite is no doubt a recognition of the position of the Mahārs as the earlier +residents of the country before the Panwārs came to it. The Turukh or Turk sept of Panwārs pay a similar worship to Bāba Farīd, +the Muhammadan saint of Girar. He is also represented by a bundle of peacock’s feathers, and when a goat is sacrificed to +him a Muhammadan kills it and is the first to partake of its flesh. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e10587"> +<h3>10. Worship of the spirits of those dying a violent death</h3> +<p>When a man has been killed by a tiger (<i>bāgh</i>) he is deified and worshipped as Bāgh Deo. A hut is made in the yard of the house, and an image of a tiger is placed inside +and worshipped on the anniversary of the man’s death. <a id="d0e10595"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e10595">347</a>]</span>The members of the household will not afterwards kill a tiger, as they think the animal has become a member of the family. +A man who is bitten by a cobra (<i>nāg</i>) and dies is similarly worshipped as Nāg Deo. The image of a snake made of silver or iron is venerated, and the family will +not kill a snake. If a man is killed by some other animal, or by drowning or a fall from a tree, his spirit is worshipped +as Ban Deo or the forest god with similar rites, being represented by a little lump of rice and red lead. In all these cases +it is supposed, as pointed out by Sir James Frazer, that the ghost of the man who has come to such an untimely end is especially +malignant, and will bring trouble upon the survivors unless appeased with sacrifices and offerings. A good instance of the +same belief is given by him in <i>Psyche’s Task</i><a id="d0e10602src" href="#d0e10602" class="noteref">30</a> as found among the Karens of Burma: “They put red, yellow and white rice in a basket and leave it in the forest, saying: +Ghosts of such as died by falling from a tree, ghosts of such as died of hunger or thirst, ghosts of such as died by the tiger’s +tooth or the serpent’s fang, ghosts of the murdered dead, ghosts of such as died by smallpox or cholera, ghosts of dead lepers, +oh ill-treat us not, seize not upon our persons, do us no harm! Oh stay here in this wood! We will bring hither red rice, +yellow rice, and white rice for your subsistence.” + +</p> +<p>That the same superstition is generally prevalent in the Central Provinces appears to be shown by the fact that among castes +who practise cremation, the bodies of men who come to a violent end or die of smallpox or leprosy are buried, though whether +burial is considered as more likely to prevent the ghost from walking than cremation, is not clear. Possibly, however, it +may be considered that the bodies are too impure to be committed to the sacred fire. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e10610"> +<h3>11. Funeral rites</h3> +<p>Cremation of the dead is the rule, but the bodies of those who have not died a natural death are buried, as also of persons +who are believed to have been possessed of the goddess Devi in their lifetime. The bodies of small children are buried when +the Khīr Chatai ceremony has not <a id="d0e10615"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e10615">348</a>]</span>been performed. This takes place when a child is about two years old: he is invited to the house of some member of the same +section on the Diwāli day and given to eat some Khīr or a mess of new rice with milk and sugar, and thus apparently is held +to become a proper member of the caste, as boys do in other castes on having their ears pierced. When a corpse is to be burnt +a heap of cowdung cakes is made, on which it is laid, while others are spread over it, together with butter, sugar and linseed. +The fire with which the pyre is kindled is carried by the son or other chief mourner in an earthen pot at the head of the +corpse. After the cremation the ashes of the body are thrown into water, but the bones are kept by the chief mourner; his +head and face are then shaved by the barber, and the hair is thrown into the water with most of the bones; he may retain a +few to carry them to the Nerbudda at a convenient season, burying them meanwhile under a mango or pīpal tree. A present of +a rupee or a cow may be made to the barber. After the removal of a dead body the house is swept, and the rubbish with the +broom and dustpan are thrown away outside the village. Before the body is taken away the widow of the dead man places her +hands on his breast and forehead, and her bangles are broken by another widow. The <i>shrāddh</i> ceremony is performed every year in the month of Kunwār (September) on the same day of the fortnight as that on which the +death took place. On the day before the ceremony the head of the household goes to the houses of those whom he wishes to invite, +and sticks some grains of rice on their foreheads. The guests must then fast up to the ceremony. On the following day, when +they arrive at noon, the host, wearing a sacred thread of twisted grass, washes their feet with water in which the sacred +<i>kusa</i> grass has been mixed, and marks their foreheads with sandal-paste and rice. The leaf-plates of the guests are set out inside +the house, and a very small quantity of cooked rice is placed in each. The host then gathers up all this rice and throws it +on to the roof of the house while his wife throws up some water, calling aloud the name of the dead man whose <i>shrāddh</i> ceremony is being performed, and after this the whole party take their dinner. +<a id="d0e10626"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e10626">349</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e10627"> +<h3>12. Caste discipline</h3> +<p>As has been shown, the Panwārs have abandoned most of the distinctive Rājpūt customs. They do not wear the sacred thread and +they permit the remarriage of widows. They eat the flesh of goats, fowls, wild pig, game-birds and fish, but abstain from +liquor except on such ceremonial occasions as the worship of Nārāyan Deo, when every one must partake of it. Mr. Low states +that the injurious habit of smoking <i>madak</i> (a preparation of opium) is growing in the caste. They will take water to drink from a Gond’s hand and in some localities +even cooked food. This is the outcome of their close association in agriculture, the Gonds having been commonly employed as +farmservants by Panwār cultivators. A Brāhman usually officiates at their ceremonies, but his presence is not essential and +his duties may be performed by a member of the caste. Every Panwār male or female has a <i>guru</i> or spiritual preceptor, who is either a Brāhman, a Gosain or a Bairāgi. From time to time the <i>guru</i> comes to visit his <i>chela</i> or disciple, and on such occasions the <i>chauk</i> or sacred place is prepared with lines of wheat-flour. Two wooden stools are set within it and the <i>guru</i> and his <i>chela</i> take their seats on these. Their heads are covered with a new piece of cloth and the <i>guru</i> whispers some text into the ear of the disciple. Sweetmeats and other delicacies are then offered to the <i>guru</i>, and the disciple makes him a present of one to five rupees. When a Panwār is put out of caste two feasts have to be given +on reinstatement, known as the Maili and Chokhi Roti (impure and pure food). The former is held in the morning on the bank +of a tank or river and is attended by men only. A goat is killed and served with rice to the caste-fellows, and in serious +cases the offender’s head and face are shaved, and he prays, ‘God forgive me the sin, it will never be repeated.’ The Chokhi +Roti is held in the evening at the offender’s house, the elders and women as well as men of the caste being present. The Sendia +or leader of the caste eats first, and he will not begin his meal unless he finds a <i>douceur</i> of from one to five rupees deposited beneath his leaf-plate. The whole cost of the ceremony of readmission is from fifteen +to fifty rupees. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e10662"> +<h3>13. Social customs</h3> +<p>The Panwār women wear their clothes tied in the <a id="d0e10667"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e10667">350</a>]</span>Hindustāni and not in the Marātha fashion. They are tattooed on the legs, hands and face, the face being usually decorated +with single dots which are supposed to enhance its beauty, much after the same fashion as patches in England. Padmākar, the +Saugor poet, Mr. Hīra Lāl remarks, compared the dot on a woman’s chin to a black bee buried in a half-ripe mango. The women, +Mr. Low says, are addicted to dances, plays and charades, the first being especially graceful performances. They are skilful +with their fingers and make pretty grass mats and screens for the house, and are also very good cooks and appreciate variety +in food. The Panwārs do not eat off the ground, but place their dishes on little iron stands, sitting themselves on low wooden +stools. The housewife is a very important person, and the husband will not give anything to eat or drink out of the house +without her concurrence. Mr. Low writes on the character and abilities of the Panwārs as follows: “The Panwār is to Bālāghāt +what the Kunbi is to Berār or the Gūjar to Hoshangābād, but at the same time he is less entirely attached to the soil and +its cultivation, and much more intelligent and cosmopolitan than either. One of the most intelligent officials in the Agricultural +Department is a Panwār, and several members of the caste have made large sums as forest and railway contractors in this District; +Panwār <i>shikāris</i> are also not uncommon. They are generally averse to sedentary occupations, and though quite ready to avail themselves of +the advantages of primary education, they do not, as a rule, care to carry their studies to a point that would ensure their +admission to the higher ranks of Government service. Very few of them are to be found as patwāris, constables or peons. They +are a handsome race, with intelligent faces, unusually fair, with high foreheads, and often grey eyes. They are not, as a +rule, above middle height, but they are active and hard-working and by no means deficient in courage and animal spirits, or +a sense of humour. They are clannish in the extreme, and to elucidate a criminal case in which no one but Panwārs are concerned, +and in a Panwār village, is usually a harder task than the average local police officer can tackle. At times they are apt +to affect, in conversation with Government officials, a <a id="d0e10672"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e10672">351</a>]</span>whining and unpleasant tone, especially when pleading their claim to some concession or other; and they are by no means lacking +in astuteness and are good hands at a bargain. But they are a pleasant, intelligent and plucky race, not easily cast down +by misfortune and always ready to attempt new enterprises in almost any direction save those indicated by the Agricultural +Department. + +</p> +<p>“In the art of rice cultivation they are past masters. They are skilled tank-builders, though perhaps hardly equal to the +Kohlis of Chānda. But they excel especially in the mending and levelling of their fields, in neat transplantation, and in +the choice and adaptation of the different varieties of rice to land of varying qualities. They are by no means specially +efficient as labourers, though they and their wives do their fair share of field work; but they are well able to control the +labour of others, especially of aborigines, through whom most of their tank and other works are executed.” +<a id="d0e10676"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e10676">352</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e10236" href="#d0e10236src" class="noteref">1</a></span> With the exception of the historical notice, this article is principally based on a paper by Mr. Muhammad Yusuf, reader to +Mr. C.E. Low, Deputy Commissioner of Bālāghāt. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e10248" href="#d0e10248src" class="noteref">2</a></span> Tod’s <i>Rājasthān</i>, ii. p. 407. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e10267" href="#d0e10267src" class="noteref">3</a></span> Foreign elements in the Hindu population, <i>Ind. Ant.</i> (January 1911), vol. xl. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e10273" href="#d0e10273src" class="noteref">4</a></span> <i>Early History of India</i> (Oxford, Clarendon Press), 3rd ed., p. 303. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e10278" href="#d0e10278src" class="noteref">5</a></span> <i>Ibidem</i>, 2nd ed., p. 288. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e10283" href="#d0e10283src" class="noteref">6</a></span> <i>Ibidem</i>, p. 316. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e10293" href="#d0e10293src" class="noteref">7</a></span> <i>Early History of India</i> (Oxford, Clarendon Press), 3rd ed., p. 319. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e10303" href="#d0e10303src" class="noteref">8</a></span> <i>Garret’s Classical Dictionary of Hinduism</i>, <i>s.v.</i> Jamadagni and Rāma. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e10320" href="#d0e10320src" class="noteref">9</a></span> The following extract is taken from Mr. V.A. Smith’s <i>Early History of India</i>, 3rd ed. pp. 395, 396. The passage has been somewhat abridged in reproduction. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e10328" href="#d0e10328src" class="noteref">10</a></span> Malcolm, i. p. 26. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e10344" href="#d0e10344src" class="noteref">11</a></span> <i>Rājasthān</i>, ii. p. 215. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e10349" href="#d0e10349src" class="noteref">12</a></span> A similar instance in Europe is related by Colonel Tod, concerning the origin of the Madrid Restaurant in the Bois de Boulogne +at Paris. After Francis I had been captured by the Spaniards he was allowed to return to his capital, on pledging his parole +that he would go back to Madrid. But the delights of liberty and Paris were too much for honour; and while he wavered a hint +was thrown out similar to that of destroying the clay city. A mock Madrid arose in the Bois de Boulogne, to which Francis +retired. (<i>Rājasthān</i>, ii. p. 428.) +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e10359" href="#d0e10359src" class="noteref">13</a></span> <i>Rājasthān</i>, ii. pp. 264, 265. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e10364" href="#d0e10364src" class="noteref">14</a></span> <i>Tribes and Castes</i>, art. Panwār. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e10374" href="#d0e10374src" class="noteref">15</a></span> <i>Memoir of Central India</i>, i. 96. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e10381" href="#d0e10381src" class="noteref">16</a></span> <i>Tribes and Castes</i>, art. Panwār. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e10386" href="#d0e10386src" class="noteref">17</a></span> Blockmann, i. 252, quoted by Crooke. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e10394" href="#d0e10394src" class="noteref">18</a></span> Ibbetson, P.C.R., para. 448. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e10402" href="#d0e10402src" class="noteref">19</a></span> His name, Lakshma Deva, is given in a stone inscription dated A.D. 1104–1105. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e10407" href="#d0e10407src" class="noteref">20</a></span> The inscription is said to be in one of the temples in Winj Bāsini, near Bhāndak, in the Devanāgri character in Marāthi, and +to run as follows: “Consecration of Jagnārāyan (the serpent of the world). Dajíanashnaku, the son of Chogneka, he it was who +consecrated the god. The Panwār, the ruler of Dhār, was the third repairer of the statue. The image was carved by Gopināth +Pandit, inhabitant of Lonār Mehkar. Let this shrine be the pride of all the citizens, and let this religious act be notified +to the chief and other officers.” +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e10412" href="#d0e10412src" class="noteref">21</a></span> A few Panwār Rājpūts are found in the Saugor District, but they are quite distinct from those of the Marātha country, and +marry with the Bundelas. They are mentioned in the article on that clan. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e10467" href="#d0e10467src" class="noteref">22</a></span> March. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e10493" href="#d0e10493src" class="noteref">23</a></span> Rice boiled with milk and sugar. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e10543" href="#d0e10543src" class="noteref">24</a></span> Village headman. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e10546" href="#d0e10546src" class="noteref">25</a></span> Patwāri or village accountant. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e10556" href="#d0e10556src" class="noteref">26</a></span> <i>Introduction to the History of Religion</i>, p. 59. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e10564" href="#d0e10564src" class="noteref">27</a></span> <i>Diospyros tomentosa</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e10569" href="#d0e10569src" class="noteref">28</a></span> Gamble, <i>Manual of Indian Timbers</i>, p. 461. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e10575" href="#d0e10575src" class="noteref">29</a></span> <i>Bālāghāt District Gazetteer</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e10602" href="#d0e10602src" class="noteref">30</a></span> P. 62, quoting from Bringand, <i>Les Karens de la Birmanie, Les Missions Catholiques</i>, xx. (1888), p. 208. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e10677" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Pardhān</h2> +<h3>List of Paragraphs</h3> +<ul> +<li><a href="#d0e10719">1. General notice</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e10746">2. Tribal Subdivisions</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e10757">3. Marriage</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e10764">4. Religion</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e10775">5. Social Customs</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e10787">6. Methods of cheating among Pathāris</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e10822">7. Musicians and priests</a></li> +</ul> +<div class="div2" id="d0e10719"> +<h3>1. General notice</h3> +<p><b>Pardhān, Pathāri, Panāl.</b>—An inferior branch of the Gond tribe whose occupation is to act as the priests and minstrels of the Gonds. In 1911 the Pardhāns +numbered nearly 120,000 persons in the Central Provinces and Berār. The only other locality where they are found is Hyderābād, +which returned 8000. The name Pardhān is of Sanskrit origin and signifies a minister or agent. It is the regular designation +of the principal minister of a Rājpūt State, who often fulfils the functions of a Mayor of the Palace. That it was applied +to the tribe in this sense is shown by the fact that they are also known as Diwān, which has the same meaning. There is a +tradition that the Gond kings employed Pardhāns as their ministers, and as the Pardhāns acted as genealogists they may have +been more intelligent than the Gonds, though they are in no degree less illiterate. To themselves and their Gond relations +the Pardhāns are frequently not known by that name, which has been given to them by the Hindus, but as Panāl. Other names +for the tribe are Parganiha, Desai and Pathāri. Parganiha is a title signifying the head of a <i>pargana</i>, and is now applied by courtesy to some families in Chhattīsgarh. Desai has the same signification, being a variant of Deshmukh +or the Marātha revenue officer in charge of a circle of villages. Pathāri means a bard or genealogist, or according to another +derivation a hillman. On the Satpūra plateau and <a id="d0e10729"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e10729">353</a>]</span>in Chhattīsgarh the tribe is known as Pardhān Pathāria. In Bālāghāt they are also called Mokāsi. The Gonds themselves look +down on the Pardhāns and say that the word Pathāria means inferior, and they relate that Bura Deo, their god, had seven sons. +These were talking together one day as they dined and they said that every caste had an inferior branch to do it homage, but +they had none; and they therefore agreed that the youngest brother and his descendants should be inferior to the others and +make obeisance to them, while the others promised to treat him almost as their equal and give him a share in all the offerings +to the dead. The Pardhāns or Pathārias are the descendants of the youngest brother and they accost the Gonds with the greeting +‘Bābu Johār,’ or ‘Good luck, sir.’ The Gonds return the greeting by saying ‘Pathāri Johār,’ or ‘How do you do, Pathāri.’ Curiously +enough Johār is also the salutation sent by a Rājpūt chief to an inferior landholder,<a id="d0e10731src" href="#d0e10731" class="noteref">1</a> and the custom must apparently have been imitated by the Gonds. A variant of the story is that one day the seven Gond brothers +were worshipping their god, but he did not make his appearance; so the youngest of them made a musical instrument out of a +string and a piece of wood and played on it. The god was pleased with the music and came down to be worshipped, and hence +the Pardhāns as the descendants of the youngest brother continue to play on the <i>kingri</i> or lyre, which is their distinctive instrument. The above stories have been invented to account for the social inferiority +of the Pardhāns to the Gonds, but their position merely accords with the general rule that the bards and genealogists of any +caste are a degraded section. The fact is somewhat contrary to preconceived ideas, but the explanation given of it is that +such persons make their living by begging from the remainder of the caste and hence are naturally looked down upon by them; +and further, that in pursuit of their calling they wander about to attend at wedding feasts all over the country, and consequently +take food with many people of doubtful social position. This seems a reasonable interpretation of the rule of the inferiority +<a id="d0e10739"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e10739">354</a>]</span>of the bard, which at any rate obtains generally among the Hindu castes. + + +</p> +<p></p> +<div id="d0e10742" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p121.jpg" alt="Group of Pardhāns" width="541" height="720"><p class="figureHead">Group of Pardhāns</p> +</div><p> + + + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e10746"> +<h3>2. Tribal Subdivisions</h3> +<p>The tribe have several endogamous divisions, of which the principal are the Rāj Pardhāns, the Gānda Pardhāns and the Thothia +Pardhāns. The Rāj Pardhāns appear to be the descendants of alliances between Raj Gonds and Pardhān women. They say that formerly +the priests of Bura Deo lived a celibate life, and both men and women attended to worship the god; but on one occasion the +priests ran away with some women and after this the Gonds did not know who should be appointed to serve the deity. While they +were thus perplexed, a <i>kingri</i> (or rude wooden lyre) fell from heaven on to the lap of one of them, and, in accordance with this plain indication of the +divine will, he became the priest, and was the ancestor of the Rāj Pardhāns; and since this <i>contretemps</i> the priests are permitted to marry, while women are no longer allowed to attend the worship of Bura Deo. The Thothia subtribe +are said to be the descendants of illicit unions, the word Thothia meaning ‘maimed’; while the Gāndas are the offspring of +intermarriages between the Pardhāns and members of that degraded caste. Other groups are the Mādes or those of the Mād country +in Chānda and Bastar, the Khalotias or those of the Chhattīsgarh plain, and the Deogarhias of Deogarh in Chhindwāra; and there +are also some occupational divisions, as the Kandres or bamboo-workers, the Gaitas who act as priests in Chhattīsgarh, and +the Arakhs who engage in service and sell old clothes. A curious grouping is found in Chānda, where the tribe are divided +into the Gond Pathāris and Chor or ‘Thief’ Pathāris. The latter have obtained their name from their criminal propensities, +but they are said to be proud of it and to refuse to intermarry with any families not having the designation of Chor Pathāri. +In Raipur the Pathāris are said to be the offspring of Gonds by women of other castes, and the descendants of such unions. +The exogamous divisions of the Pardhāns are the same as those of the Gonds, and like them they are split up into groups worshipping +different numbers of gods whose members may not marry with one another. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e10757"> +<h3>3. Marriage</h3> +<p>A Pardhān wedding is usually held in the bridegroom’s <a id="d0e10762"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e10762">355</a>]</span>village in some public place, such as the market or cross-roads. The boy wears a blanket and carries a dagger in his hand. +The couple walk five times round in a circle, after which the boy catches hold of the girl’s hand. He tries to open her fist +which she keeps closed, and when he succeeds in this he places an iron ring on her little finger and puts his right toe over +that of the girl’s. The officiating priest then ties the ends of their clothes together and five chickens are killed. The +customary bride-price is Rs. 12, but it varies in different localities. A widower taking a girl bride has, as a rule, to pay +a double price. A widow is usually taken in marriage by her deceased husband’s younger brother. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e10764"> +<h3>4. Religion</h3> +<p>As the priests of the Gonds, the Pardhāns are employed to conduct the ceremonial worship of their great god Bura Deo, which +takes place on the third day of the bright fortnight of Baisākh (April). Many goats or pigs are then offered to him with liquor, +cocoanuts, betel-leaves, flowers, lemons and rice. Bura Deo is always enshrined under a tree outside the village, either of +the mahua or <i>sāj</i> (<i>Terminalia tomentosa</i>) varieties. In Chhattīsgarh the Gonds say that the origin of Bura Deo was from a child born of an illicit union between a +Gond and a Rāwat woman. The father murdered the child by strangling it, and its spirit then began to haunt and annoy the man +and all his relations, and gradually extended its attentions to all the Gonds of the surrounding country. It finally consented +to be appeased by a promise of adoration from the whole tribe, and since then has been installed as the principal deity of +the Gonds. The story is interesting as showing how completely devoid of any supernatural majesty or power is the Gond conception +of their principal deity. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e10775"> +<h3>5. Social Customs</h3> +<p>Like the Gonds, the Pardhāns will eat almost any kind of food, including beef, pork and the flesh of rats and mice, but they +will not eat the leavings of others. They will take food from the hands of Gonds, but the Gonds do not return the compliment. +Among the Hindus generally the Pardhāns are much despised, and their touch conveys impurity while that of a Gond does not. +Every Pardhān has tattooed on his left arm near the inside of the elbow a dotted figure which represents his totem or the +animal, plant or other <a id="d0e10780"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e10780">356</a>]</span>natural object after which his sept is named. Many of them have a better type of countenance than the Gonds, which is perhaps +due to an infusion of Hindu blood. They are also generally more intelligent and cunning. They have criminal propensities, +and the Pathārias of Chhattīsgarh are especially noted for cattle-lifting and thieving. Writing forty years ago Captain Thomson<a id="d0e10782src" href="#d0e10782" class="noteref">2</a> described the Pardhāns of Seoni as bearing the very worst of characters, many of them being regular cattle-lifters and gang +robbers. In some parts of Seoni they had become the terror of the village proprietors, whose houses and granaries they fired +if they were in any way reported on or molested. Since that time the Pardhāns have become quite peaceable, but they still +have a bad reputation for petty thieving. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e10787"> +<h3>6. Methods of cheating among Pathāris</h3> +<p>In Chhattīsgarh one subdivision is said to be known as Sonthaga (<i>sona</i>, gold, and <i>thag</i>, a cheat), because they cheat people by passing counterfeit gold. Their methods were described as follows in 1872 by Captain +McNeill, District Superintendent of Police:<a id="d0e10798src" href="#d0e10798" class="noteref">3</a> “They procure a quantity of the dry bark of the pīpal,<a id="d0e10801src" href="#d0e10801" class="noteref">4</a> mahua,<a id="d0e10805src" href="#d0e10805" class="noteref">5</a> tamarind or <i>gular</i><a id="d0e10812src" href="#d0e10812" class="noteref">6</a> trees and set it on fire; when it has become red-hot it is raked into a small hole and a piece of well-polished brass is +deposited among the glowing embers. It is constantly moved and turned about and in ten or fifteen minutes has taken a deep +orange colour resembling gold. It is then placed in a small heap of wood-ashes and after a few minutes taken out again and +carefully wrapped in cotton-wool. The peculiar orange colour results from the sulphur and resin in the bark being rendered +volatile. They then proceed to dispose of the gold, sometimes going to a fair and buying cattle. On concluding a bargain they +suddenly find they have no money, and after some hesitation reluctantly produce the gold, and say they are willing to part +with it at a disadvantage, thereby usually inducing the belief that it has been stolen. The cupidity of the owner of the cattle +is aroused, and he accepts the gold at a rate which would be very advantageous if it were genuine. <a id="d0e10817"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e10817">357</a>]</span>At other times they join a party of pilgrims, to which some of their confederates have already obtained admission in disguise, +and offer to sell their gold as being in great want of money. A piece is first sold to the confederates on very cheap terms +and the other pilgrims eagerly participate.” It would appear that the Pathāris have not much to learn from the owners of buried +treasure or the confidence or three-card trick performers of London, and their methods are in striking contrast to the guileless +simplicity usually supposed to be a characteristic of the primitive tribes. Mr. White states that “All the property acquired +is taken back to the village and there distributed by a <i>panchāyat</i> or committee, whose head is known as Mokāsi. The Mokāsi is elected by the community and may also be deposed by it, though +he usually holds office for life; to be a successful candidate for the position of Mokāsi one should have wealth and experience +and it is not a disadvantage to have been in jail. The Mokāsi superintends the internal affairs of the community and maintains +good relations with the proprietor and village watchman by means of gifts.” + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e10822"> +<h3>7. Musicians and priests</h3> +<p>The Pardhāns and Pathāris are also, as already stated, village musicians, and their distinctive instrument the <i>kingri</i> or <i>kingadi</i> is described by Mr. White as consisting of a stick passed through a gourd. A string or wire is stretched over this and the +instrument is played with the fingers. Another kind possesses three strings of woven horse-hair and is played with the help +of a bow. The women of the Gānda Pardhān subtribe act as midwives. Mr. Tawney wrote of the Pardhāns of Chhindwāra:<a id="d0e10833src" href="#d0e10833" class="noteref">7</a> “The Rāj-Pardhāns are the bards of the Gonds and they can also officiate as priests, but the Bhumka generally acts in the +latter capacity and the Pardhāns confine themselves to singing the praises of the god. At every public worship in the Deo-khalla +or dwelling-place of the gods, there should, if possible, be a Pardhān, and great men use them on less important occasions. +They cannot even worship their household gods or be married without the Pardhāns. The Rāj-Pardhāns are looked down on by the +Gonds, and considered as somewhat inferior, seeing that they take the <a id="d0e10836"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e10836">358</a>]</span>offerings at religious ceremonies and the clothes of the dear departed at funerals. This has never been the business of a +true Gond, who seems never happier than when wandering in the jungle, and who above all things loves his axe, and next to +that a tree to chop at. There is nothing in the ceremonies or religion of the Pardhāns to distinguish them from the Gonds.” +<a id="d0e10838"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e10838">359</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e10731" href="#d0e10731src" class="noteref">1</a></span> <i>Tod’s Rājasthān</i>, i. p. 165. But Johār is a common term of salutation among the Hindus. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e10782" href="#d0e10782src" class="noteref">2</a></span> <i>Seoni Settlement Report</i> (1867), p. 43. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e10798" href="#d0e10798src" class="noteref">3</a></span> From a collection of notes on Pathāris by various police officers. The passage is somewhat abridged in reproduction. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e10801" href="#d0e10801src" class="noteref">4</a></span> <i>Ficus R.</i></p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e10805" href="#d0e10805src" class="noteref">5</a></span> <i>Bassia latifolia</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e10812" href="#d0e10812src" class="noteref">6</a></span> <i>Ficus glomerata</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e10833" href="#d0e10833src" class="noteref">7</a></span> Note already quoted. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e10839" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Pārdhi</h2> +<h3>List of Paragraphs</h3> +<ul> +<li><a href="#d0e10906">1. General notice of the caste</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e10930">2. Subdivisions</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e10935">3. Marriage and funeral customs</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e10945">4. Religion</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e10962">5. Dress, food and social customs</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e10982">6. Ordeals</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e10989">7. Methods of catching birds</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e11015">8. Hunting with leopards</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e11044">9. Decoy stags</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e11056">10. Hawks</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e11068">11. Crocodile fishing</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e11073">12. Other occupations and criminal practices</a></li> +</ul> +<div class="div2" id="d0e10906"> +<h3>1. General notice of the caste</h3> +<p><b>Pārdhi,<a id="d0e10912src" href="#d0e10912" class="noteref">1</a> Bahelia, Mīrshikār, Moghia, Shikāri, Tākankar.</b>—A low caste of wandering fowlers and hunters. They numbered about 15,000 persons in the Central Provinces and Berār in 1911, +and are found scattered over several Districts. These figures include about 2000 Bahelias. The word Pārdhi is derived from +the Marāthi <i>paradh</i>, hunting. Shikāri, the common term for a native hunter, is an alternative name for the caste, but particularly applied to +those who use firearms, which most Pārdhis refuse to do. Moghia is the Hindustāni word for fowler, and Tākankar is the name +of a small occupational offshoot of the Pārdhis in Berār, who travel from village to village and roughen the household grinding-mills +when they have worn smooth. The word is derived from <i>tākna</i>, to tap or chisel. The caste appears to be a mixed group made up of Bāwarias or other Rājpūt outcastes, Gonds and social +derelicts from all sources. The Pārdhis perhaps belong more especially to the Marātha country, as they are numerous in Khāndesh, +and many of them talk a dialect of Gujarāti. In the <a id="d0e10928"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e10928">360</a>]</span>northern Districts their speech is a mixture of Mārwāri and Hindi, while they often know Marāthi or Urdu as well. The name +for the similar class of people in northern India is Bahelia, and in the Central Provinces the Bahelias and Pārdhis merge +into one another and are not recognisable as distinct groups. The caste is recruited from the most diverse elements, and women +of any except the impure castes can be admitted into the community; and on this account their customs differ greatly in different +localities. According to their own legends the first ancestor of the Pārdhis was a Gond, to whom Mahādeo taught the art of +snaring game so that he might avoid the sin of shooting it; and hence the ordinary Pārdhis never use a gun. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e10930"> +<h3>2. Subdivisions</h3> +<p>Like other wandering castes the Pārdhis have a large number of endogamous groups, varying lists being often given in different +areas. The principal subcastes appear to be the Shikāri or Bhīl Pārdhis, who use firearms; the Phānse Pārdhis, who hunt with +traps and snares; the Langoti Pārdhis, so called because they wear only a narrow strip of cloth round the loins; and the Tākankars. +Both the Tākankars and Langotis have strong criminal tendencies. Several other groups are recorded in different Districts, +as the Chitewāle, who hunt with a tame leopard; the Gāyake, who stalk their prey behind a bullock; the Gosain Pārdhis, who +dress like religious mendicants in ochre-coloured clothes and do not kill deer, but only hares, jackals and foxes; the Shīshi +ke Telwāle, who sell crocodile’s oil; and the Bandarwāle who go about with performing monkeys. The Bahelias have a subcaste +known as Kārijāt, the members of which only kill birds of a black colour. Their exogamous groups are nearly all those of Rājpūt +tribes, as Sesodia, Panwār, Solanki, Chauhān, Rāthor, and soon; it is probable that these have been adopted through imitation +by vagrant Bāwarias and others sojourning in Rājputāna. There are also a few groups with titular or other names, and it is +stated that members of clans bearing Rājpūt names will take daughters from the others in marriage, but will not give their +daughters to them. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e10935"> +<h3>3. Marriage and funeral customs</h3> +<p>Girls appear to be somewhat scarce in the caste and a bride-price is usually paid, which is given as Rs. 9 in <a id="d0e10940"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e10940">361</a>]</span>Chānda, Rs. 35 in Bilāspur, and Rs. 60 or more in Hoshangābād and Saugor. If a girl should be seduced by a man of the caste +she would be united to him by the ceremony of a widow’s marriage: but her family will require a bride from her husband’s family +in exchange for the girl whose value he has destroyed. Even if led astray by an outsider a girl may be readmitted into the +caste; and in the extreme case of her being debauched by her brother, she may still be married to one of the community, but +no one will take food from her hands during her lifetime, though her children will be recognised as proper Pārdhis. A special +fine of Rs. 100 is imposed on a brother who commits this crime. The ceremony of marriage varies according to the locality +in which they reside; usually the couple walk seven times round a <i>tānda</i> or collection of their small mat tents. In Berār a cloth is held up by four poles as a canopy over them and they are preceded +by a married woman carrying five pitchers of water. Divorce and the marriage of widows are freely permitted. The caste commonly +bury their dead, placing the head to the north. They do not shave their heads in token of mourning. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e10945"> +<h3>4. Religion</h3> +<p>In Berār their principal deity is the goddess Devi, who is known by different names. Every family of Langoti Pārdhis has, +Mr. Gayer states,<a id="d0e10950src" href="#d0e10950" class="noteref">2</a> its image in silver of the goddess, and because of this no Langoti Pārdhi woman will wear silver below the waist or hang +her <i>sāri</i> on a peg, as it must never be put on the same level as the goddess. They also sometimes refuse to wear red or coloured clothes, +one explanation for this being that the image of the goddess is placed on a bed of red cloth. In Hoshangābād their principal +deity is called Guraiya Deo, and his image, consisting of a human figure embossed in silver, is kept in a leather bag on the +west side of their tents; and for this reason women going out of the encampment for a necessary purpose always proceed to +the east. They also sleep with their feet to the east. Goats are offered to Guraiya Deo and their horns are placed in his +leather bag. In Hoshangābād they sacrifice a fowl to the ropes of their tents at the Dasahra and Diwāli festivals, and on +the former <a id="d0e10958"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e10958">362</a>]</span>occasion clean their hunting implements and make offerings to them of turmeric and rice. They are reported to believe that +the sun and moon die and are reborn daily. The hunter’s calling is one largely dependent on luck or chance, and, as might +be expected, the Pārdhis are firm believers in omens, and observe various rules by which they think their fortune will be +affected. A favourite omen is the simple device of taking some rice or juāri in the hand and counting the grains. Contrary +to the usual rule, even numbers are considered lucky and odd ones unlucky. If the first result is unsatisfactory a second +or third trial may be made. If a winnowing basket or millstone be let fall and drop to the right hand it is a lucky omen, +and similarly if a flower from Devi’s garland should fall to the right side. The bellowing of cows, the mewing of a cat, the +howling of a jackal and sneezing are other unlucky omens. If a snake passes from left to right it is a bad omen and if from +right to left a good one. A man must not sleep with his head on the threshold of a house or in the doorway of a tent under +penalty of a fine of Rs. 2–8; the only explanation given of this rule is that such a position is unlucky because a corpse +is carried out across the threshold. A similar penalty is imposed if he falls down before his wife even by accident. A Pārdhi, +with the exception of members of the Sesodia clan, must never sleep on a cot, a fine of five rupees being imposed for a breach +of this rule. A man who has once caught a deer must not again have the hair of his head touched by a razor, and thus the Pārdhis +may be recognised by their long and unkempt locks. A breach of this rule is punished with a fine of fifteen rupees, but it +is not observed everywhere. A woman must never step across the rope or peg of a tent, nor upon the place where the blood of +a deer has flowed on to the ground. During her monthly period of impurity a woman must not cross a river nor sit in a boat. +A Pārdhi will never kill or sell a dog and they will not hunt wild dogs even if money is offered to them. This is probably +because they look upon the wild dog as a fellow-hunter, and consider that to do him injury would bring ill-luck upon themselves. +A Pārdhi has also theoretically a care for the preservation of game. When he has caught a number of birds in his <a id="d0e10960"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e10960">363</a>]</span>trap, he will let a pair of them loose so that they may go on breeding. Women are not permitted to take any part in the work +of hunting, but are confined strictly to their household duties. A woman who kicks her husband’s stick is fined Rs. 2–8. The +butt end of the stick is employed for mixing vegetables and other purposes, but the meaning of the rule is not clear unless +one of its uses is for the enforcement of conjugal discipline. A Pārdhi may not swear by a dog, a cat or a squirrel. Their +most solemn oath is in the name of their deity Guraiya Deo, and it is believed that any one who falsely takes this oath will +become a leper. The Phāns Pārdhis may not travel in a railway train, and some of them are forbidden even to use a cart or +other conveyance. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e10962"> +<h3>5. Dress, food and social customs</h3> +<p>In dress and appearance the Pārdhis are disreputable and dirty. Their features are dark and their hair matted and unkempt. +They never wear shoes and say that they are protected by a special promise of the goddess Devi to their first ancestor that +no insect or reptile in the forests should injure them. The truth is, no doubt, that shoes would make it impossible for them +to approach their game without disturbing it, and from long practice the soles of their feet become impervious to thorns and +minor injuries. Similarly the Langoti Pārdhis are so called because they wear only a narrow strip of cloth round the loins, +the reason probably being that a long one would impede them by flapping and catching in the brushwood. But the explanation +which they themselves give,<a id="d0e10967src" href="#d0e10967" class="noteref">3</a> a somewhat curious one in view of their appearance, is that an ordinary <i>dhoti</i> or loin-cloth if worn might become soiled and therefore unlucky. Their women do not have their noses pierced and never wear +spangles or other marks on the forehead. The Pārdhis still obtain fire by igniting a piece of cotton with flint and iron. +Mr. Sewell notes that their women eat at the same time as the men, instead of after them as among most Hindus. They explain +this custom by saying that on one occasion a woman tried to poison her husband and it was therefore adopted as a precaution +against similar attempts; but no doubt it has always prevailed, and the more orthodox <a id="d0e10975"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e10975">364</a>]</span>practice would be almost incompatible with their gipsy life. Similar reasons of convenience account for their custom of celebrating +marriages all the year round and neglecting the Hindu close season of the four months of the rains. They travel about with +little huts made of matting, which can be rolled up and carried off in a few minutes. If rain comes on they seek shelter in +the nearest village.<a id="d0e10977src" href="#d0e10977" class="noteref">4</a> In some localities the caste eat no food cooked with butter or oil. They are usually considered as an impure caste, whose +touch is a defilement to Hindus. Brāhmans do not officiate at their ceremonies, though the Pārdhis resort to the village Joshi +or astrologer to have a propitious date indicated for marriages. They have to pay for such services in money, as Brāhmans +usually refuse to accept even uncooked grain from them. After childbirth women are held to be impure and forbidden to cook +for their families for a period varying from six weeks to six months. During their periodical impurity they are secluded for +four, six or eight days, the Pārdhis observing very strict rules in these matters, as is not infrequently the case with the +lowest castes. Their caste meetings, Mr. Sewell states, are known as Deokāria or ‘An act performed in honour of God’; at these +meetings arrangements for expeditions are discussed and caste disputes decided. The penalty for social offences is a fine +of a specified quantity of liquor, the liquor provided by male and female delinquents being drunk by the men and women respectively. +The punishment for adultery in either sex consists in cutting off a piece of the left ear with a razor, and a man guilty of +intercourse with a prostitute is punished as if he had committed adultery. The Pārdhi women are said to be virtuous. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e10982"> +<h3>6. Ordeals</h3> +<p>The Pārdhis still preserve the primitive method of trial by ordeal. If a woman is suspected of misconduct she is made to pick +a pice coin out of boiling oil; or a pīpal leaf is placed on her hand and a red-hot axe laid over it, and if her hand is burnt +or she refuses to stand the test she is pronounced guilty. Or, in the case of a man, the accused is made to dive into water; +and as he dives an arrow is shot <a id="d0e10987"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e10987">365</a>]</span>from a bow. A swift runner fetches and brings back the arrow, and if the diver can remain under water until the runner has +returned he is held to be innocent. In Nimār, if an unmarried girl becomes pregnant, two cakes of dough are prepared, a piece +of silver being placed in one and a lump of coal in the other. The girl takes one of the cakes, and if it is found to contain +the coal she is expelled from the community, while if she chooses the piece of silver, she is pardoned and made over to one +of the caste. The idea of the ordeal is apparently to decide the question whether her condition was caused by a Pārdhi or +an outsider. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e10989"> +<h3>7. Methods of catching birds</h3> +<p>The Phāns Pārdhis hunt all kinds of birds and the smaller animals with the <i>phānda</i> or snare. Mr. Ball describes their procedure as follows:<a id="d0e10997src" href="#d0e10997" class="noteref">5</a> “For peacock, sāras crane and bustard they have a long series of nooses, each provided with a wooden peg and all connected +with a long string. The tension necessary to keep the nooses open is afforded by a slender slip of antelope’s horn (very much +resembling whalebone), which forms the core of the loop. Provided with several sets of these nooses, a trained bullock and +a shield-like cloth screen dyed buff and pierced with eye-holes, the bird-catcher sets out for the jungle, and on seeing a +flock of pea-fowl circles round them under cover of the screen and the bullock, which he guides by a nose-string. The birds +feed on undisturbed, and the man rapidly pegs out his long strings of nooses, and when all are properly disposed, moves round +to the opposite side of the birds and shows himself; when they of course run off, and one or more getting their feet in the +nooses fall forwards and flap on the ground; the man immediately captures them, knowing that if the strain is relaxed the +nooses will open and permit of the bird’s escape. Very cruel practices are in vogue with these people with reference to the +captured birds, in order to keep them alive until a purchaser is found. The peacocks have a feather passed through the eyelids, +by which means they are effectually blinded, while in the case of smaller birds both the legs and wings are broken.” Deer, +hares and even pig are also caught by a strong rope with running nooses. For smaller birds the <a id="d0e11002"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e11002">366</a>]</span>appliance is a little rack about four inches high with uprights a few inches apart, between each of which is hung a noose. +Another appliance mentioned by Mr. Ball is a set of long conical bag nets, which are kept open by hooks and provided with +a pair of folding doors. The Pārdhi has also a whistle made of deer-horn, with which he can imitate the call of the birds. +Tree birds are caught with bird-lime as described by Sir G. Grierson.<a id="d0e11004src" href="#d0e11004" class="noteref">6</a> The Bahelia has several long shafts of bamboos called <i>nāl</i> or <i>nār</i>, which are tied together like a fishing rod, the endmost one being covered with bird-lime. Concealing himself behind his +bamboo screen the Bahelia approaches the bird and when near enough strikes and secures it with his rod; or he may spread some +grain out at a short distance, and as the birds are hopping about over it he introduces the pole, giving it a zig-zag movement +and imitating as far as possible the progress of a snake. Having brought the point near one of the birds, which is fascinated +by its stealthy approach, he suddenly jerks it into its breast and then drawing it to him, releases the poor palpitating creature, +putting it away in his bag, and recommences the same operation. This method does not require the use of bird-lime. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e11015"> +<h3>8. Hunting with leopards</h3> +<p>The manner in which the Chita Pārdhis use the hunting leopard (<i>Felis jubata</i>) for catching deer has often been described.<a id="d0e11023src" href="#d0e11023" class="noteref">7</a> The leopard is caught full-grown by a noose in the manner related above. Its neck is first clasped in a wooden vice until +it is half-strangled, and its feet are then bound with ropes and a cap slipped over its head. It is partially starved for +a time, and being always fed by the same man, after a month or so it becomes tame and learns to know its master. It is then +led through villages held by ropes on each side to accustom it to the presence of human beings. On a hunting party the leopard +is carried on a cart, hooded, and, being approached from down wind, the deer allow the cart to get fairly close to them. The +Indian antelope or black-buck are the usual quarry, and as these frequent cultivated land, they regard country carts without +suspicion. The hood is then taken off and the leopard <a id="d0e11032"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e11032">367</a>]</span>springs forward at the game with extreme velocity, perhaps exceeding that which any other quadruped possesses. The accounts +given by Jerdon say that for the moment its speed is greater than that of a race-horse. It cannot maintain this for more than +three or four hundred yards, however, and if in that distance the animal has not seized its prey, it relinquishes the pursuit +and stalks about in a towering passion. The Pārdhis say that when it misses the game the leopard is as sulky as a human being +and sometimes refuses food for a couple of days. If successful in the pursuit, it seizes the antelope by the throat; the <span id="d0e11034" class="corr" title="Source: kepeer">keeper</span> then comes up, and cutting the animal’s throat collects some of the blood in the wooden ladle with which the leopard is always +fed; this is offered to him, and dropping his hold he laps it up eagerly, when the hood is cleverly slipped on again. + +</p> +<p>The conducting of the cheetah from its cage to the chase is by no means an easy matter. The keeper leads him along, as he +would a large dog, with a chain; and for a time as they scamper over the country the leopard goes willingly enough; but if +anything arrests his attention, some noise from the forest, some scented trail upon the ground, he moves more slowly, throws +his head aloft and peers savagely round. A few more minutes perhaps and he would be unmanageable. The keeper, however, is +prepared for the emergency. He holds in his left hand a cocoanut shell, sprinkled on the inside with salt; and by means of +a handle affixed to the shell he puts it at once over the nose of the cheetah. The animal licks the salt, loses the scent, +forgets the object which arrested his attention, and is led quietly along again.<a id="d0e11039src" href="#d0e11039" class="noteref">8</a> + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e11044"> +<h3>9. Decoy stags</h3> +<p>For hunting stags, tame stags were formerly used as decoys according to the method described as follows: “We had about a dozen +trained stags, all males, with us. These, well acquainted with the object for which they were sent forward, advanced at a +gentle trot over the open ground towards the skirt of the wood. They were observed at once by the watchers of the herd, and +the boldest of the wild animals advanced to meet them. Whether the intention was to welcome them peacefully or to do battle +for their <a id="d0e11049"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e11049">368</a>]</span>pasturage I cannot tell; but in a few minutes the two parties were engaged in a furious contest. Head to head, antlers to +antlers, the tame deer and the wild fought with great fury. Each of the tame animals, every one of them large and formidable, +was closely engaged in contest with a wild adversary, standing chiefly on the defensive, not in any feigned battle or mimicry +of war but in a hard-fought combat. We now made our appearance in the open ground on horseback, advancing towards the scene +of conflict. The deer on the skirts of the wood, seeing us, took to flight; but those actually engaged maintained their ground +and continued the contest. In the meantime a party of native huntsmen, sent for the purpose, gradually drew near to the wild +stags, getting in between them and the forest. What their object was we were not at the time aware; in truth it was not one +that we could have approved or encouraged. They made their way into the rear of the wild stags, which were still combating +too fiercely to mind them; they approached the animals, and with a skilful cut of their long knives the poor warriors fell +hamstrung. We felt pity for the noble animals as we saw them fall helplessly on the ground, unable longer to continue the +contest and pushed down of course by the decoy-stags. Once down, they were unable to rise again.”<a id="d0e11051src" href="#d0e11051" class="noteref">9</a> + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e11056"> +<h3>10. Hawks</h3> +<p>Hawks were also used in a very ingenious fashion to prevent duck from flying away when put upon water: “The trained hawks +were now brought into requisition, and marvellous it was to see the instinct with which they seconded the efforts of their +trainers. The ordinary hawking of the heron we had at a later period of this expedition; but the use now made of the animal +was altogether different, and displayed infinitely more sagacity than one would suppose likely to be possessed by such an +animal. These were trained especially for the purpose for which they were now employed. A flight of ducks—thousands of birds—were +enticed upon the water as before by scattering corn over it. The hawks were then let fly, four or five of them. We made our +appearance openly upon the bank, guns in hand, and the living swarm of birds rose at once into the air. The hawks circled +above them, however, in a rapid revolving <a id="d0e11061"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e11061">369</a>]</span>flight and they dared not ascend high. Thus was our prey retained fluttering in mid-air, until hundreds had paid the penalty +with their lives. Only picture in your mind’s eye the circling hawks above gyrating monotonously, the fluttering captives +in mid-air, darting now here, now there to escape, and still coward-like huddling together; and the motley group of sportsmen +on the bank and you have the whole scene before you at once.”<a id="d0e11063src" href="#d0e11063" class="noteref">10</a> + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e11068"> +<h3>11. Crocodile fishing</h3> +<p>For catching crocodile, a method by which as already stated one group of the Pārdhis earn their livelihood, a large double +hook is used, baited with a piece of putrid deer’s flesh and attached to a hempen rope 70 or 80 feet long. When the crocodile +has swallowed the hook, twenty or thirty persons drag the animal out of the water and it is despatched with axes. Crocodiles +are hunted only in the months of Pūs (December), Māgh (January) and Chait (March), when they are generally fat and yield plenty +of oil. The flesh is cut into pieces and stewed over a slow fire, when it exudes a watery oil. This is strained and sold in +bottles at a rupee a seer (2 lbs.). It is used as an embrocation for rheumatism and for neck galls of cattle. The Pārdhis +do not eat crocodile’s flesh. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e11073"> +<h3>12. Other occupations and criminal practices</h3> +<p>A body of Pārdhis are sometimes employed by all the cultivators of a village jointly for the purpose of watching the spring +crops during the day and keeping black-buck out of them. They do this perhaps for two or three months and receive a fixed +quantity of grain. The Tākankars are regularly employed as village servants in Berār and travel about roughening the stones +of the household grinding-mills when their surfaces have worn smooth. For this they receive an annual contribution of grain +from each household. The caste generally have criminal tendencies and Mr. Sewell states, that “The Langoti Pārdhis and Tākankars +are the worst offenders. Ordinarily when committing dacoity they are armed with sticks and stones only. In digging through +a wall they generally leave a thin strip at which the leader carefully listens before finally bursting through. Then when +the hole has been made large enough, he strikes a match and holding it in front of him so that his features are shielded <a id="d0e11078"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e11078">370</a>]</span>has a good survey of the room before entering.... As a rule, they do not divide the property on or near the scene of the crime, +but take it home. Generally it is carried by one of the gang well behind the rest so as to enable it to be hidden if the party +is challenged.” In Bombay they openly rob the standing crops, and the landlords stand in such awe of them that they secure +their goodwill by submitting to a regular system of blackmail.<a id="d0e11080src" href="#d0e11080" class="noteref">11</a> +<a id="d0e11088"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e11088">371</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e10912" href="#d0e10912src" class="noteref">1</a></span> This article is partly compiled from papers by Mr. Adurām Chaudhri and Pandit Pyāre Lāl Misra of the Gazetteer Office, and +extracts from Mr. Kitts’ <i>Berār Census Report</i> (1881), and Mr. Sewell’s note on the caste quoted in Mr. Gayer’s <i>Lectures on the Criminal Tribes of the Central Provinces</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e10950" href="#d0e10950src" class="noteref">2</a></span> <i>Lectures on Criminal Tribes of the C.P.</i>, p. 19. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e10967" href="#d0e10967src" class="noteref">3</a></span> <i>Berār Census Report</i> (1881), p. 135. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e10977" href="#d0e10977src" class="noteref">4</a></span> <i>Bombay Ethnographic Survey</i>, art. Pārdhi. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e10997" href="#d0e10997src" class="noteref">5</a></span> <i>Jungle Life in India</i>, pp. 586–587. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e11004" href="#d0e11004src" class="noteref">6</a></span> <i>Peasant Life in Bihār</i>, p. 80. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e11023" href="#d0e11023src" class="noteref">7</a></span> See Jerdon’s <i>Mammals of India</i>, p, 97. The account there given is quoted in the <i>Chhindwāra District Gazetteer</i>, pp. 16–17. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e11039" href="#d0e11039src" class="noteref">8</a></span> <i>Private Life of an Eastern King</i>, p. 75. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e11051" href="#d0e11051src" class="noteref">9</a></span> <i>Private Life of an Eastern King</i>, pp. 69, 71. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e11063" href="#d0e11063src" class="noteref">10</a></span> <i>Private Life of an Eastern King</i>, pp. 39–40. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e11080" href="#d0e11080src" class="noteref">11</a></span> <i>Bombay Ethnographic Survey</i>, <i>ibidem</i>. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e11089" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Parja</h2> +<h3>List of Paragraphs</h3> +<ul> +<li><a href="#d0e11141">1. General notice of the tribe</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e11173">2. Exogamous septs</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e11187">3. Kinship and marriage</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e11194">4. Marriage dance</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e11219">5. Nuptial ceremony</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e11226">6. Widow-marriage and divorce</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e11234">7. Religion and festivals</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e11253">8. Disposal of the dead</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e11267">9. Occupation and social customs</a></li> +</ul> +<div class="div2" id="d0e11141"> +<h3>1. General notice of the tribe</h3> +<p><b>Parja.</b>—A small tribe,<a id="d0e11148src" href="#d0e11148" class="noteref">1</a> originally an offshoot of the Gonds, who reside in the centre and east of the Bastar State and the adjoining Jaipur zamīndāri +of Madras. They number about 13,000 persons in the Central Provinces and 92,000 in Madras, where they are also known as Poroja. +The name Parja appears to be derived from the Sanskrit Parja, a subject. The following notice of it is taken from the <i>Madras Census Report</i><a id="d0e11153src" href="#d0e11153" class="noteref">2</a> of 1871: “The term Parja is, as Mr. Carmichael has pointed out, merely a corruption of a Sanskrit term signifying a subject; +and it is understood as such by the people themselves, who use it in contradistinction to a free hillman. Formerly, says a +tradition that runs through the whole tribe, Rājas and Parjas were brothers, but the Rājas took to riding horses or, as the +Barenja Parjas put it, sitting still, and we became carriers of burdens and Parjas. It is quite certain in fact that the term +Parja is not a tribal denomination, but a class denomination; and it may be fitly rendered by the familiar epithet of ryot. +There is no doubt, however, that by far the greater number of these Parjas are akin to the Khonds of the Ganjam Maliāhs. They +are thrifty, hardworking cultivators, undisturbed by the intestinal broils which their cousins in the north engage in, <a id="d0e11156"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e11156">372</a>]</span>and they bear in their breasts an inalienable reverence for their soil, the value of which they are rapidly becoming acquainted +with. Their ancient rights to these lands are acknowledged by colonists from among the Aryans, and when a dispute arises about +the boundaries of a field possessed by recent arrivals a Parja is usually called in to point out the ancient landmarks. Gadbas +are also represented as indigenous from the long lapse of years that they have been in the country, but they are by no means +of the patriarchal type that characterises the Parjas.” + +</p> +<p>In Bastar the caste are also known as Dhurwa, which may be derived from Dhur, the name applied to the body of Gonds as opposed +to the Rāj-Gonds. In Bastar, Dhurwa now conveys the sense of a headman of a village. The tribe have three divisions, Thakara +or Tagara, Peng and Mudara, of which only the first is found in Bastar. Thakara appears to be a corruption of Thākur, a lord, +and the two names point to the conclusion that the Parjas were formerly dominant in this tract. They themselves have a story, +somewhat resembling the one quoted above from Madras, to the effect that their ancestor was the elder brother of the first +Rāja of Bastar when he lived in Madras, to the south of Warangal. From there he had to flee on account of an invasion of the +Muhammadans, and was accompanied by the goddess Dānteshwari, the tutelary deity of the Rājas of Bastar. In accordance with +the command of the goddess the younger brother was considered as the Rāja and rode on a horse, while the elder went before +him carrying their baggage. At Bhadrachallam they met the Bhatras, and further on the Halbas. The goddess followed them, guiding +their steps, but she strictly enjoined on the Rāja not to look behind him so as to see her. But when they came to the sands +of the rivers Sankani and Dankani, the tinkle of the anklets of the goddess could not be heard for the sand. The Rāja therefore +looked behind him to see if she was following, on which she said that she could go no more with him, but he was to march as +far as he could and then settle down. The two brothers settled in Bastar, where the descendants of the younger became the +ruling clan, and those of the elder were their servants, the Parjas. The <a id="d0e11160"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e11160">373</a>]</span>story indicates, perhaps, that the Parjas were the original Gond inhabitants and rulers of the country, and were supplanted +by a later immigration of the same tribe, who reduced them to subjection, and became Rāj-Gonds. Possibly the first transfer +of power was effected by the marriage of an immigrant into a Parja Rāja’s family, as so often happened with these old dynasties. +The Parjas still talk about the Rāni of Bastar as their <i>Bohu</i> or ‘younger brother’s wife,’ and the custom is probably based on some such legend. The Madras account of them as the arbiters +of boundary disputes points to the same conclusion, as this function is invariably assigned to the oldest residents in any +locality. The Parjas appear to be Gonds and not Khonds. Their sept names are Gondi words, and their language is a form of +Gondi, called after them Parji. Parji has hitherto been considered a form of Bhatri, but Sir G. Grierson<a id="d0e11165src" href="#d0e11165" class="noteref">3</a> has now classified the latter as a dialect of the Uriya language, while Parji remains ‘A local and very corrupt variation +of Gondi, considerably mixed with Hindi forms.’ While then the Parjas, in Bastar at any rate, must be held to be a branch +of the Gonds, they may have a considerable admixture of the Khonds, or other tribes in different localities, as the rules +of marriage are very loose in this part of the country.<a id="d0e11170src" href="#d0e11170" class="noteref">4</a> + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e11173"> +<h3>2. Exogamous septs</h3> +<p>The tribe have exogamous totemistic septs, as Bāgh a tiger, Kachhim a tortoise, Bokda a goat, Netām a dog, Gohi a big lizard, +Pandki a dove and so on. If a man kills accidentally the animal after which his sept is named, the earthen cooking-pots of +his household are thrown away, the clothes are washed, and the house is purified with water in which the bark of the mango +or <i>jāmun</i><a id="d0e11180src" href="#d0e11180" class="noteref">5</a> tree has been steeped. This is in sign of mourning, as it is thought that such an act will bring misfortune. If a man of +the snake sept kills a snake accidentally, he places a piece of new yarn on his head, praying for forgiveness, and deposits +the body on an anthill, where snakes are supposed to live. If a man of the goat sept eats goat’s flesh, it is thought that +he will <a id="d0e11185"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e11185">374</a>]</span>become blind at once. A Parja will not touch the body of his totem-animal when dead, and if he sees any one killing or teasing +it when alive, he will go away out of sight. It is said that a man of the Kachhim sept once found a tortoise while on a journey, +and leaving it undisturbed, passed on. When the tortoise died it was reborn in the man’s belly and troubled him greatly, and +since then every Parja is liable to be afflicted in the same way in the side of the abdomen, the disease which is produced +being in fact enlarged spleen. The tortoise told the man that as he had left it lying by the road, and had not devoted it +to any useful purpose, he was afflicted in this way. Consequently, when a man of the Kachhim sept finds a tortoise nowadays, +he gives it to somebody else who can cut it up. The story is interesting as a legend of the origin of spleen, but has apparently +been invented as an excuse for killing the sacred animal. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e11187"> +<h3>3. Kinship and marriage</h3> +<p>Marriage is prohibited in theory between members of the same sept. But as the number of septs is rather small, the rule is +not adhered to, and members of the same sept are permitted to marry so long as they do not come from the same village; the +original rule of exogamy being perhaps thus exemplified. The proposal for a match is made by the boy’s father, who first offers +a cup of liquor to the girl’s father in the bazār, and subsequently explains his errand. If the girl’s father, after consulting +with his family, disapproves of the match, he returns an equal quantity of liquor to the boy’s father in token of his decision. +The girl is usually consulted, and asked if she would like to marry her suitor, but not much regard is had to her opinion. +If she dislikes him, however, she usually runs away from him after a short interlude of married life. If a girl becomes pregnant +with a caste-fellow before marriage, he is required to take her, and give to the family the presents which he would make to +them on a regular marriage. The man can subsequently be properly married to some other woman, but the girl cannot be married +at all. If a girl is seduced by a man outside the caste, she is made over to him. It is essential for a man to be properly +married at least once, and an old bachelor will sometimes go through the form of being wedded to his maternal uncle’s daughter, +even though <a id="d0e11192"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e11192">375</a>]</span>she may be an infant. If no proposal for marriage is made for a girl, she is sometimes handed over informally to any man who +likes to take her, and who is willing to give as much for her as the parents would receive for a regular marriage. A short +time before the wedding, the boy’s father sends a considerable quantity of rice to the girl’s father, and on the day before +he sends a calf, a pot of liquor, fifteen annas worth of copper coin, and a new cloth. The bridegroom’s expenses are about +Rs. 50, and the bride’s about Rs. 10. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e11194"> +<h3>4. Marriage dance</h3> +<p>At weddings the tribe have a dance called Surcha, for which the men wear a particular dress consisting of a long coat, a turban +and two or three scarves thrown loosely over the shoulders. Strings of little bells are tied about the feet, and garlands +of beads round the neck; sometimes men and women dance separately, and sometimes both sexes together in a long line or a circle. +Music is provided by bamboo flutes, drums and an iron instrument something like a flute. As they dance, songs are sung in +the form of question and answer between the lines of men and women, usually of a somewhat indecent character. The following +short specimen may be given:— + +</p> +<div class="blockquote"> +<p><i>Man</i>. If you are willing to go with me we will both follow the officer’s elephant. If I go back without you my heart can have +no rest. + +</p> +<p><i>Woman</i>. Who dare take me away from my husband while the Company is reigning. My husband will beat me and who will pay him the compensation? + +</p> +<p><i>Man</i>. You had better make up your mind to go with me. I will ask the Treasurer for some money and pay it to your husband as compensation. + +</p> +<p><i>Woman</i>. Very well, I will make ready some food, and will run away with you in the next bright fortnight. +</p> +</div><p> + +</p> +<p>These dialogues often, it is said, lead to quarrels between husband and wife, as the husband cannot rebuke his wife in the +assembly. Sometimes the women fall in love with men in the dance, and afterwards run away with them. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e11219"> +<h3>5. Nuptial ceremony</h3> +<p>The marriage takes place at the boy’s house, where two marriage-sheds are made. It is noticeable that the bride on going to +the bridegroom’s house to be married is accompanied only by her female relatives, no man of her family being allowed to be +with her. This is probably a reminiscence <a id="d0e11224"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e11224">376</a>]</span>of the old custom of marriage by capture, as in former times she was carried off by force, the opposition of her male relatives +having been quelled. In memory of this the men still do not countenance the wedding procession by their presence. The bridal +couple are made to sit down together on a mat, and from three to seven pots of cold water are poured over them. About a week +after the wedding the couple go to a market with their friends, and after walking round it they all sit down and drink liquor. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e11226"> +<h3>6. Widow-marriage and divorce</h3> +<p>The remarriage of widows is permitted, and a widow is practically compelled to marry her late husband’s younger brother, if +he has one. If she persistently refuses to do so, in spite of the strongest pressure, her parents turn her out of their house. +In order to be married the woman goes to the man’s house with some friends; they sit together on the ground, and the friends +apply the <i>tīka</i> or sign by touching their foreheads with dry rice. A man can divorce his wife if she is of bad character, or if she is supposed +to be under an unfavourable star, or if her children die in infancy. A divorced woman can marry again as if she were a widow. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e11234"> +<h3>7. Religion and festivals</h3> +<p>The Parjas worship the class of divinities of the hills and forests usually revered among primitive tribes, as well as Dānteshwari, +the tutelary goddess of Bastar. On the day that sowing begins they offer a fowl to the field, first placing some grains of +rice before it. If the fowl eats the rice they prognosticate a good harvest, and if not the reverse. A few members of the +tribe belong to the Rāmānandi sect, and on this account a little extra attention is paid to them. If such a one is invited +to a feast he is given a wooden seat, while others sit on the ground. It is said that a few years ago a man became a Kabīrpanthi, +but he subsequently went blind and his son died, and since this event the sect is absolutely without adherents. Most villages +have a Sirha or man who is possessed by the deity, and his advice is taken in religious matters, such as the detection of +witches. Another official is called Medha Gantia or ‘The Counter of posts.’ He appoints the days for weddings, calculating +them by counting on his fingers, and also fixes auspicious days for the construction of a house or for the commencement of +sowing. It is probable that in former times he kept count of the days <a id="d0e11239"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e11239">377</a>]</span>by numbering posts or trees. When rain is wanted the people fix a piece of wood into the ground, calling it Bhīmsen Deo or +King of the Clouds. They pour water over it and pray to it, asking for rain. Every year, after the crops are harvested, they +worship the rivers or streams in the village. A snake, a jackal, a hare and a dog wagging its ears are unlucky objects to +see when starting on a journey, and also a dust devil blowing along in front. They do not kill wild dogs, because they say +that tigers avoid the forests where these reside, and some of them hold that a tiger on meeting a wild dog climbs a tree to +get out of his way. Wednesday and Thursday are lucky days for starting on a journey, and the operations of sowing, reaping +and threshing should be commenced and completed on one of these days. When a man intends to build a house he places a number +of sets of three grains of rice, one resting on the other two, on the ground in different places. Each set is covered by a +leaf-cup with some earth to hold it down. Next morning the grains are inspected, and if the top one has fallen down the site +is considered to be lucky, as indicating that the earth is wishful to bear the burden of a house in this place. A house should +face to the east or west, and not to the north or south. Similarly, the roads leading out of the village should run east or +west from the starting-point. The principal festivals of the Parjas are the Hareli<a id="d0e11241src" href="#d0e11241" class="noteref">6</a> or feast of the new vegetation in July, the Nawākhāni<a id="d0e11247src" href="#d0e11247" class="noteref">7</a> or feast of the new rice crop in August or September, and the Am Nawākhāni or that of the new mango crop in April or May. +At the feasts the new season’s crop should be eaten, but if no fresh rice has ripened, they touch some of the old grain with +a blade of a growing rice-plant, and consider that it has become the new crop. On these occasions ancestors are worshipped +by members of the family only inside the house, and offerings of the new crops are made to them. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e11253"> +<h3>8. Disposal of the dead</h3> +<p>The dead are invariably buried, the corpse being laid in the ground with head to the east and feet to the west. This is probably +the most primitive burial, it being supposed that the region of the dead is towards the west, as the setting <a id="d0e11258"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e11258">378</a>]</span>sun disappears in that direction. The corpse is therefore laid in the grave with the feet to the west ready to start on its +journey. Members of the tribe who have imbibed Hindu ideas now occasionally lay the corpse with the head to the north in the +direction of the Ganges. Rice-gruel, water and a tooth-stick are placed on the grave nightly for some days after death. As +an interesting parallel instance, near home, of the belief that the soul starts on a long journey after death, the following +passage may be quoted from Mr. Gomme’s Folklore: “Among the superstitions of Lancashire is one which tells us of a lingering +belief in a long journey after death, when food is necessary to support the soul. A man having died of apoplexy at a public +dinner near Manchester, one of the company was heard to remark, ‘Well, poor Joe, God rest his soul! He has at least gone to +his long rest wi’ a belly full o’ good meat, and that’s some consolation!’ And perhaps a still more remarkable instance is +that of the woman buried in Curton Church, near Rochester, who directed by her will that the coffin was to have a lock and +key, the key being placed in her dead hand, so that she might be able to release herself at pleasure.”<a id="d0e11260src" href="#d0e11260" class="noteref">8</a> + +</p> +<p>After the burial a dead fish is brought on a leaf-plate to the mourners, who touch it, and are partly purified. The meaning +of this rite, if there be any, is not known. After the period of mourning, which varies from three to nine days, is over, +the mourners and their relatives must attend the next weekly bazār, and there offer liquor and sweets in the name of the dead +man, who upon this becomes ranked among the ancestors. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e11267"> +<h3>9. Occupation and social customs</h3> +<p>The Parjas are cultivators, and grow rice and other crops in the ordinary manner. Many of them are village headmen, and to +these the term Dhurwa is more particularly applied. The tribe will eat fowls, pig, monkeys, the large lizard, field-rats, +and bison and wild buffalo, but they do not eat carnivorous animals, crocodiles, snakes or jackals. Some of them eat beef +while others have abjured it, and they will not accept the leavings of others. They are not considered to be an impure caste. +If any man or woman belonging to a higher caste has a <i>liaison</i> with a Parja, and is on that <a id="d0e11275"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e11275">379</a>]</span>account expelled from their own caste, he or she can be admitted as a Parja. In their other customs and dress and ornaments +the tribe resemble the Gonds of Bastar. Women are tattooed on the chest and arms with patterns of dots. The young men sometimes +wear their hair long, and tie it in a bunch behind, secured by a strip of cloth. +<a id="d0e11277"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e11277">380</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e11148" href="#d0e11148src" class="noteref">1</a></span> This article is based on papers by Mr. Panda Baijnāth and other officers of the Bastar State. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e11153" href="#d0e11153src" class="noteref">2</a></span> By Dr. Cornish. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e11165" href="#d0e11165src" class="noteref">3</a></span> <i>Linguistic Survey</i>; vol. ix, p. 554; vol. ii. part ii. pp. 434 ff. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e11170" href="#d0e11170src" class="noteref">4</a></span> In the article on Gond it is suggested that the Gonds and Khonds were originally one tribe, and the fact that the Parjas have +affinities with both of them appears to support this view. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e11180" href="#d0e11180src" class="noteref">5</a></span> <i>Eugenia jambolana</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e11241" href="#d0e11241src" class="noteref">6</a></span> Hareli, <i>lit.</i> ‘the season of greenness.’ +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e11247" href="#d0e11247src" class="noteref">7</a></span> Nawākhāni, <i>lit.</i> ‘the new eating.’ +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e11260" href="#d0e11260src" class="noteref">8</a></span> <i>Folklore as a Historical Science</i> (G.L. Gomme), pp. 191, 192. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e11278" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Pāsi</h2> +<h3>List of Paragraphs</h3> +<ul> +<li><a href="#d0e11320">1. The nature and origin of the caste</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e11357">2. Brāhmanical legends</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e11370">3. Its mixed composition</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e11380">4. Marriage and other customs</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e11397">5. Religion, superstitions and social customs</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e11410">6. Occupation</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e11446">7. Criminal tendencies</a></li> +</ul> +<div class="div2" id="d0e11320"> +<h3>1. The nature and origin of the caste</h3> +<p><b>Pāsi, Passi.</b><a id="d0e11326src" href="#d0e11326" class="noteref">1</a>—A Dravidian occupational caste of northern India, whose hereditary employment is the tapping of the palmyra, date and other +palm trees for their sap. The name is derived from the Sanskrit <i>pāshika</i>, ‘One who uses a noose,’ and the Hindi, <i>pās</i> or <i>pāsa</i>, a noose. It is a curious fact that when the first immigrant Parsis from Persia landed in Gujarāt they took to the occupation +of tapping palm trees, and the poorer of them still follow it. The resemblance in the name, however, can presumably be nothing +more than a coincidence. The total strength of the Pāsis in India is about a million and a half persons, nearly all of whom +belong to the United Provinces and Bihār. In the Central Provinces they number 3500, and reside principally in the Jubbulpore +and Hoshangābād Districts. The caste is now largely occupational, and is connected with the Bhars, Arakhs, Khatīks and other +Dravidian groups of low status. But in the past they seem to have been of some importance in Oudh. “All through Oudh,” Mr. +Crooke states, “they have traditions that they were lords of the country, and that their kings reigned in the Districts of +Kheri, Hardoi and Unao. Rāmkot, where the town of Bāngarmau in Unao now stands, is said to have been one of their chief strongholds. +The last of the Pāsi lords of <a id="d0e11341"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e11341">381</a>]</span>Rāmkot, Rāja Santhar, threw off his allegiance to Kanauj and refused to pay tribute. On this Rāja Jaichand gave his country +to the Banāphar heroes Alha and Udal, and they attacked and destroyed Rāmkot, leaving it the shapeless mass of ruins which +it now is.” Similar traditions prevail in other parts of Oudh. It is also recorded that the Rājpāsis, the highest division +of the caste, claim descent from Tilokchand, the eponymous hero of the Bais Rājpūts. It would appear then that the Pāsis were +a Dravidian tribe who held a part of Oudh before it was conquered by the Rājpūts. As the designation of Pāsi is an occupational +term and is derived from the Sanskrit, it would seem that the tribe must formerly have had some other name, or they may be +an occupational offshoot of the Bhars. In favour of this suggestion it may be noted that the Bhars also have strong traditions +of their former dominance in Oudh. Thus Sir C. Elliott states in his <i>Chronicles of Unao</i><a id="d0e11345src" href="#d0e11345" class="noteref">2</a> that after the close of the heroic age, when Ajodhya was held by the Sūrajvansi Rājpūts under the great Rāma, we find after +an interval of historic darkness that Ajodhya has been destroyed, the Sūrajvansis utterly banished, and a large extent of +country is being ruled over by aborigines called Cheros in the far east, Bhars in the centre and Rājpāsis in the west. Again, +in Kheri the Pāsis always claim kindred with the Bhars,<a id="d0e11351src" href="#d0e11351" class="noteref">3</a> and in Mīrzāpur<a id="d0e11354src" href="#d0e11354" class="noteref">4</a> the local Pāsis represent the Bhars as merely a subcaste of their own tribe, though this is denied by the Bhars themselves. +It seems therefore a not improbable hypothesis that the Pāsis and perhaps also the kindred tribe of Arakhs are functional +groups formed from the Bhar tribe. For a discussion of the early history of this important tribe the reader must be referred +to Mr. Crooke’s excellent article. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e11357"> +<h3>2. Brāhmanical legends</h3> +<p>The following tradition is related by the Pāsis themselves in Mīrzāpur and the Central Provinces: One day a man was going +to kill a number of cows. Parasurāma was at that time practising austerities in the jungles. Hearing the cries of the sacred +animals he rushed to their assistance, but the cow-killer was aided by his friends. So <a id="d0e11362"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e11362">382</a>]</span>Parasurāma made five men out of <i>kusha</i> grass and brought them to life by letting drops of his perspiration fall upon them. Hence arose the name Pāsi, from the Hindi +<i>pasīna</i>, sweat. The men thus created rescued the cows. Then they returned to Parasurāma and asked him to provide them with a wife. +Just at that moment a Kāyasth girl was passing by, and her Parasurāma seized and made over to the Pāsis. From them sprang +the Kaithwās subcaste. Another legend related by Mr. Crooke tells that during the time Parasurāma was incarnate there was +an austere devotee called Kuphal who was asked by Brahma to demand of him a boon, whereupon he requested that he might be +perfected in the art of thieving. His request was granted, and there is a well-known verse regarding the devotions of Kuphal, +the pith of which is that the mention of the name of Kuphal, who received a boon from Brahma, removes all fear of thieves; +and the mention of his three wives—Māya (illusion), Nidra (sleep), and Mohani (enchantment)—deprives thieves of success in +their attempts against the property of those who repeat these names. Kuphal is apparently the progenitor of the caste, and +the legend is intended to show how the position of the Pāsis in the Hindu cosmos or order of society according to the caste +system has been divinely ordained and sanctioned, even to the recognition of theft as their hereditary pursuit. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e11370"> +<h3>3. Its mixed composition</h3> +<p>Whatever their origin may have been the composition of the caste is now of a very mixed nature. Several names of other castes, +as Gūjar, Guāl or Ahīr, Arakh, Khatīk, Bahelia, Bhīl and Bania, are returned as divisions of the Pāsis in the United Provinces. +Like all migratory castes they are split into a number of small groups, whose constitution is probably not very definite. +The principal subcastes in the Central Provinces are the Rājpāsis or highest class, who probably were at one time landowners; +the Kaithwās or Kaithmās, supposed to be descended from a Kāyasth, as already related; the Tirsulia, who take their name from +the <i>trisūla</i> or three-bladed knife used to pierce the stem of the palm tree; the Bahelia or hunters, and Chiriyamār or fowlers; the Ghudchadha +or those who ride on ponies, these being probably saises or horse-keepers; the Khatīk or <a id="d0e11378"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e11378">383</a>]</span>butchers and Gūjar or graziers; and the Māngta or beggars, these being the bards and genealogists of the caste, who beg from +their clients and take food from their hands; they are looked down on by the other Pāsis. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e11380"> +<h3>4. Marriage and other customs</h3> +<p>In the Central Provinces the tribe have now no exogamous groups; they avoid marriage with blood relations as far back as their +memory carries them. At their weddings the couple walk round the <i>srāwan</i> or heavy log of wood, which is dragged over the fields before sowing to break up the larger clods of earth. In the absence +of this an ordinary plough or harrow will serve as a substitute, though why the Pāsis should impart a distinctively agricultural +implement into their marriage ceremony is not clear. Like the Gonds, the Pāsis celebrate their weddings at the bridegroom’s +house and not at the bride’s. Before the wedding the bridegroom’s mother goes and sits over a well, taking with her seven +<i>urad</i> cakes<a id="d0e11391src" href="#d0e11391" class="noteref">5</a> and stalks of the plant. The bridegroom walks seven times round the well, and at each turn the parapet is marked with red +and white clay and his mother throws one of the cakes and stalks into the well. Finally, the mother threatens to throw herself +into the well, and the bridegroom begs her not to do so, promising that he will serve and support her. Divorce and the remarriage +of widows are freely permitted. Conjugal morality is somewhat lax, and Mr. Crooke quotes a report from Pertābgarh to the effect +that if a woman of a tribe become pregnant by a stranger and the child be born in the house of her father or husband, it will +be accepted as a Pāsi of pure blood and admitted to all tribal privileges. The bodies of adults may be buried or burnt as +convenient, but those of children or of persons dying from smallpox, cholera or snake-bite are always buried. Mourning is +observed during ten days for a man and nine days for a woman, while children who die unmarried are not mourned at all. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e11397"> +<h3>5. Religion, superstitions and social customs</h3> +<p>The Pāsis worship all the ordinary Hindu deities. All classes of Brāhmans will officiate at their marriages and other ceremonies, +and do anything for them which does not involve touching them or any article in their houses. In Bengal, Sir H. Risley writes, +the employment of Brāhmans <a id="d0e11402"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e11402">384</a>]</span>for the performance of ceremonies appears to be a very recent reform for, as a rule, in sacrifices and funeral ceremonies, +the worshipper’s sister’s son performs the functions of a priest. “Among the Pāsis of Monghyr this ancient custom, which admits +of being plausibly interpreted as a survival of female kinship, still prevails generally.” The social status of the Pāsis +is low, but they are not regarded as impure. At their marriage festivals, Mr. Gayer notes, boys are dressed up as girls and +made to dance in public, but they do not use drums or other musical instruments. They breed pigs and cure the bacon obtained +from them. Marriage questions are decided by the tribal council, which is presided over by a chairman (<i>Chaudhri</i>) selected at each meeting from among the most influential adult males present. The council deals especially with cases of +immorality and pollution caused by journeys across the black water (<i>kāla pāni</i>) which the criminal pursuits of the tribe occasionally necessitate. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e11410"> +<h3>6. Occupation</h3> +<p>The traditional occupation of the Pāsis, as already stated, is the extraction of the sap of palm trees. But some of them are +hunters and fowlers like the Pārdhis, and like them also they make and mend grindstones, while others are agriculturists; +and the caste has also strong criminal propensities, and includes a number of professional thieves. Some are employed in the +Nāgpur mills and others have taken small building contracts. Pāsis are generally illiterate and in poor circumstances, and +are much addicted to drink. In climbing<a id="d0e11415src" href="#d0e11415" class="noteref">6</a> palm trees to tap them for their juice the worker uses a heel-rope, by which his feet are tied closely together. At the same +time he has a stout rope passing round the tree and his body. He leans back against this rope and presses the soles of his +feet, thus tied together, against the tree. He then climbs up the tree by a series of hitches or jerks of his back and feet +alternately. The juice of the palmyra palm (<i>tār</i>) and the date palm (<i>khajūr</i>) is extracted by the Pāsi. The <i>tār</i> trees, Sir H. Risley states,<a id="d0e11430src" href="#d0e11430" class="noteref">7</a> are tapped from March to May, and the date palm in the cold season. The juice of the former, known as <i>tāri</i> or <a id="d0e11438"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e11438">385</a>]</span>toddy, is used in the manufacture of bread, and an intoxicating liquor is obtained from it by adding sugar and grains of rice. +Hindustāni drunkards often mix <i>dhatūra</i> with the toddy to increase its intoxicating properties. The quantity of juice extracted from one tree varies from five to +ten pounds. Date palm <i>tāri</i> is less commonly drunk, being popularly believed to cause rheumatism, but is extensively used in preparing sugar. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e11446"> +<h3>7. Criminal tendencies</h3> +<p>Eighty years ago, when General Sleeman wrote, the Pāsis were noted thieves. In his <i>Journey through Oudh</i><a id="d0e11453src" href="#d0e11453" class="noteref">8</a> he states that in Oudh there were then supposed to be one hundred thousand families of Pāsis, who were skilful thieves and +robbers by profession, and were formerly Thugs and poisoners as well. They generally formed the worst part of the gangs maintained +by refractory landowners, “who keep Pāsis to fight for them, as they pay themselves out of the plunder and cost little to +their employers. They are all armed with bows and are very formidable at night. They and their refractory employés keep the +country in a perpetual state of disorder.” Mr. Gayer notes<a id="d0e11462src" href="#d0e11462" class="noteref">9</a> that the criminally disposed members of the caste take contracts for the watch and sale of mangoes in groves distant from +habitations, so that their movements will not be seen by prying eyes. They also seek employment as roof-thatchers, in which +capacity they are enabled to ascertain which houses contain articles worth stealing. They show considerable cunning in disposing +of their stolen property. The men will go openly in the daytime to the receiver and acquaint him with the fact that they have +property to dispose of; the receiver goes to the bazār, and the women come to him with grass for sale. They sell the grass +to the receiver, and then accompany him home with it and the stolen property, which is artfully concealed in it. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e11326" href="#d0e11326src" class="noteref">1</a></span> Based principally on Mr. Crooke’s article on the caste in his <i>Tribes and Castes of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e11345" href="#d0e11345src" class="noteref">2</a></span> Quoted in Mr. Crooke’s <i>Tribes and Castes</i>, art. Bhar. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e11351" href="#d0e11351src" class="noteref">3</a></span> Art. Pāsi, para. 3. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e11354" href="#d0e11354src" class="noteref">4</a></span> Art. Bhar, para. 4. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e11391" href="#d0e11391src" class="noteref">5</a></span> A pulse of a black colour (<i>Phaseolus radiatus</i>). +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e11415" href="#d0e11415src" class="noteref">6</a></span> These sentences are taken from Dr. Grierson’s <i>Peasant Life in Behār</i>, p. 79. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e11430" href="#d0e11430src" class="noteref">7</a></span> <i>Tribes and Castes of Bengal</i>, art. Pāsi. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e11453" href="#d0e11453src" class="noteref">8</a></span> The following passage is taken from Mr. Crooke’s article on Pāsi, and includes quotations from the <i>Sitāpur</i> and <i>Hardoi Settlement Reports</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e11462" href="#d0e11462src" class="noteref">9</a></span> <i>Lectures on Criminal Tribes of the Central Provinces</i>. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e11467" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Patwa</h2> +<p><b>Patwa, Patwi, Patra, Ilākelband.</b>—The occupational caste of weavers of fancy silk braid and thread. In 1911 the Patwas numbered nearly 6000 persons in the +Central <a id="d0e11474"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e11474">386</a>]</span>Provinces, being returned principally from the Narsinghpur, Raipur, Saugor, Jubbulpore and Hoshangābād Districts. About 800 +were resident in Berār. The name is derived from the Sanskrit <i>pata</i>, woven cloth, or Hindi <i>pāt</i>, silk. The principal subcastes of the Patwas are the Naraina; the Kanaujia, also known as Chhipi, because they sew marriage +robes; the Deobansi or ‘descendants of a god,’ who sell lac and glass bangles; the Lakhera, who prepare lac bangles; the Kachera, +who make glass bangles; and others. Three of the above groups are thus functional in character. They have also Rājpūt and +Kāyastha subcastes, who may consist of refugees from those castes received into the Patwa community. In the Central Provinces +the Patwas and Lakheras are in many localities considered to be the same caste, as they both deal in lac and sell articles +made of it; and the account of the occupations of the Lakhera caste also applies largely to the Patwas. The exogamous groups +of the caste are named after villages, or titles or nicknames borne by the reputed founder of the group. They indicate that +the Patwas of the Central Provinces are generally descended from immigrants from northern India. The Patwa usually purchases +silk and colours it himself. He makes silk strings for pyjamas and coats, armlets and other articles. Among these are the +silk threads called <i>rākhis</i>, used on the Rakshābandhan festival,<a id="d0e11485src" href="#d0e11485" class="noteref">1</a> when the Brāhmans go round in the morning tying them on to the wrists of all Hindus as a protection against evil spirits. +For this the Brāhman receives a present of one or two pice. The <i>rākhi</i> is made of pieces of raw silk fibre twisted together, with a knot at one end and a loop at the other. It goes round the wrist, +and the knot is passed through the loop. Sisters also tie it round their brothers’ wrists and are given a present. The Patwas +make the <i>phundri</i> threads for tying up the hair of women, whether of silk or cotton, and various threads used as amulets, such as the <i>janjīra</i>, worn by men round the neck, and the <i>ganda</i> or wizard’s thread, which is tied round the arm after incantations have been said over it; and the <a id="d0e11500"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e11500">387</a>]</span>necklets of silk or cotton thread bound with thin silver wire which the Hindus wear at Anant Chaudas, a sort of All Saints’ +Day, when all the gods are worshipped. In this various knots are made by the Brāhmans, and in each a number of deities are +tied up to exert their beneficent influence for the wearer of the thread. These are the bands which Hindus commonly wear on +their necks. The Patwas thread necklaces of gold and jewels on silk thread, and also make the strings of cowries, slung on +pack-thread, which are tied round the necks of bullocks when they race on the Pola day, and on ponies, probably as a charm. +After a child is born in the family of one of their clients, the Patwas make tassels of cotton and hemp thread coloured red, +green and yellow, and hang them to the centre-beam of the house and the top of the child’s cradle, and for this they get a +present, which from a rich man may be as much as ten rupees. The sacred thread proper is usually made by Brāhmans in the Central +Provinces. Some of the Patwas wander about hawking their wares from village to village. Besides the silk threads they sell +the <i>tiklis</i> or large spangles which women wear on their foreheads, lac bangles and balls of henna, and the large necklaces of lac beads +covered with tinsel of various colours which are worn in Chhattīsgarh. A Patwa must not rear the tasar silkworm nor boil the +cocoons on pain of expulsion from caste. +<a id="d0e11505"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e11505">388</a>]</span></p> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e11485" href="#d0e11485src" class="noteref">1</a></span> The word Rakshābandhan is said to mean literally, ‘the bond of protection.’ Another suggested derivation, ‘binding the devil,’ +is perhaps incorrect. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e11506" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Pindāri</h2> +<h3>List of Paragraphs</h3> +<ul> +<li><a href="#d0e11561">1. Origin of the name</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e11614">2. Rise of the Pindāris</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e11638">3. Their strength and sphere of operations</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e11660">4. Pindāri expeditions and methods</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e11673">5. Return from an expedition</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e11686">6. Suppression of the Pindāris. Death of Chitu</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e11699">7. Character of the Pindāris</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e11718">8. The existing Pindāris</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e11729">9. Attractions of a Pindāri’s life</a></li> +</ul> +<div class="div2" id="d0e11561"> +<h3>1. Origin of the name</h3> +<p><b>Pindāri, Pindāra, Pendhāri.</b><a id="d0e11567src" href="#d0e11567" class="noteref">1</a>—The well-known professional class of freebooters, whose descendants now form a small cultivating caste. In the Central Provinces +they numbered about 150 persons in 1911, while there are about 10,000 in India. They are mainly Muhammadans but include some +Hindus. The Pindāris of the Central Provinces are for the most part the descendants of Gonds, Korkus and Bhīls whose children +were carried off in the course of raids, circumcised, and brought up to follow the profession of a Pindāri. When the bands +were dispersed many of them returned to their native villages and settled down. Malcolm considered that the name Pindāri was +derived from <i>pinda</i>, an intoxicating drink, and was given to them on account of their dissolute habits. He adds that Karīm Khān, a famous Pindāri +leader, had never heard of any other reason for the name, and Major Henley had the etymology confirmed by the most intelligent +of the Pindāris of whom he inquired.<a id="d0e11582src" href="#d0e11582" class="noteref">2</a> In support of this may be adduced the name of Bhangi, given to the sweeper caste on account of their drinking <i>bhang</i> or hemp. Wilson <a id="d0e11590"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e11590">389</a>]</span>again held the most probable derivation to be from the Marāthi <i>pendha</i>, in the sense of a bundle of rice-straw, and <i>hara</i> one who takes, because the name was originally applied to horsemen who hung on to an army and were employed in collecting +forage. The fact that the existing Pindāris are herdsmen and tenders of buffaloes and thus might well have been employed for +the collection of forage may be considered somewhat to favour the above view; but the authors of <i>Hobson-Jobson</i>, after citing these derivations, continue: “We cannot think any of the etymologies very satisfactory. We venture another +as a plausible suggestion merely. Both <i>pind-parna</i> in Hindi and <i>pindas-basnen</i> in Marāthi signify ‘to follow,’ the latter being defined as ‘to stick closely; to follow to the death; used of the adherence +of a disagreeable fellow.’ Such phrases could apply to these hangers-on of an army in the field looking out for prey.” Mr. +W. Irvine<a id="d0e11607src" href="#d0e11607" class="noteref">3</a> has suggested that the word comes from a place or region called Pandhār, which is referred to by native historians and seems +to have been situated between Burhānpur and Handia on the Nerbudda; and states that there is good evidence to prove that a +large number of Pindāris were settled in this part of the country. Mr. D. Chisholm reports from Nimār that “Pandhār or Pāndhar +is the name given to a stream which rises in the Gularghāt hills of the Asīr range and flows after a very circuitous course +into the Masak river by Mandeva. The name signifies five, as it is joined by four other small streams. The Asīr hills were +the haunts of the Pindāris, and the country about these, especially by the banks of the Pandhār, is very wild; but it is not +commonly known that the Pindāris derived their name from this stream.” And as the Pindāris are first heard of as hangers-on +of the Marātha armies in the Deccan prior to A.D. 1700, it seems unlikely also that their name can be taken from a place in +the Nimār District, where it is not recorded that they were settled before 1794. Nor does the Pandhār itself seem sufficiently +important to have given a name to the whole body of freebooters. Malcolm’s or Wilson’s derivations are perhaps on the whole +the most probable. Prinsep writes: “Pindāra seems to have the same <a id="d0e11612"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e11612">390</a>]</span>reference to Pandour that Kuzāk has to Cossack. The latter word is of Turkish origin but is commonly used to express a mounted +robber in Hindustān.” Though the Pandours were the predatory light cavalry of the Austrian army, and had considerable resemblance +to the Pindāris, it does not seem possible to suppose that there is any connection between the two words. The Pendra zamīndāri +in Bilāspur is named after the Pindāris, the dense forests of the Rewah plateau which includes Pendra having been one of their +favourite asylums of refuge. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e11614"> +<h3>2. Rise of the Pindāris</h3> +<p>The Pindāri bands appear to have come into existence during the wars of the late Muhammadan dynasties in the Deccan, and in +the latter part of the seventeenth century they attached themselves to the Marāthas in their revolt against Aurāngzeb. The +first mention of the name occurs at this time. During and after the Marātha wars many of the Pindāri leaders obtained grants +in Central India from Sindhia and Holkar, and were divided into two parties owing a nominal allegiance to these princes and +designated as the Sindhia Shāhi and Holkar Shāhi. In the period of chaos which reigned at this time outside British territories +their raids in all directions attended by the most savage atrocities became more and more intolerable. These outrages extended +from Bundelkhand to Cuddapah south of Madras and from Orissa to Gujarāt. + +</p> +<p>When attached to the Marātha armies, Malcolm states, the Pindāris always camped separately and were not permitted to plunder +in the Marātha territories; they were given an allowance averaging four annas each a day, and further supported themselves +by employing their small horses and bullocks in carrying grain, forage and wood, for which articles the Pindāri bazār was +the great mart. When let loose to pillage, which was always the case some days before the army entered an enemy’s country, +all allowances stopped; no restraint whatever was put upon these freebooters till the campaign was over, when the Marātha +commander, if he had the power, generally seized the Pindāri chiefs or surrounded their camps and forced them to yield up +the greater part of their booty. A knowledge of this practice led the Pindāris to redouble their excesses, that they might +be <a id="d0e11621"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e11621">391</a>]</span>able to satisfy without ruin the expected rapacity of their employers. + +</p> +<p>In 1794, Grant-Duff writes, Sindhia assigned some lands to the Pindāris near the banks of the Nerbudda, which they soon extended +by conquests from the Grassias or original independent landholders in their neighbourhood. Their principal leaders at that +time were two brothers named Hiru and Burun, who are said to have been put to death for their aggressions on the territory +of Sindhia and of Rāghuji Bhonsla. The sons of Hiru and Burun became Pindāri chiefs; but Karīm Khān, a Pindāra who had acquired +great booty at the plunder of the Nizām’s troops after the battle of Hurdla, and was distinguished by superior cunning and +enterprise, was the principal leader of this refuse of the Marātha armies. Karīm got the district of Shujahalpur from Umar +Khān which, with some additions, was afterwards confirmed to him by Sindhia. During the war of 1803 and the subsequent disturbed +state of the country Karīm contrived to obtain possession of several districts in Mālwa belonging to Sindhia’s jāgirdārs; +and his land revenue at one time is said to have amounted to fifteen lakhs of rupees a year. He also wrested some territory +from the Nawāb of Bhopāl on which he built a fort as a place of security for his family and of deposit for his plunder. Karīm +was originally a Sindhia Shāhi, but like most of the Pindāris, except about 5000 of the Holkar Shāhis who remained faithful, +he changed sides or plundered his master whenever it suited his convenience, which was as often as he found an opportunity. +Sindhia, jealous of his encroachments, on pretence of lending him some gems inveigled him to an interview, made him prisoner, +plundered his camp, recovered the usurped districts and lodged Karīm in the fort of Gwalior. + +</p> +<p>A number of leaders started up after the confinement of Karīm, of whom Chitu, Dost Muhammad, Namdār Khān and Sheikh Dullah +became the most conspicuous. They associated themselves with Amīr Khān in 1809 during his expedition to Berār; and in 1810, +when Karīm Khān purchased his release from Gwalior, they assembled under that leader a body of 25,000 horse and some battalions +of newly raised infantry with which they again proposed to invade Berār; but Chitu, always jealous of Karīm’s ascendency, +<a id="d0e11627"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e11627">392</a>]</span>was detached by Rāghuji Bhonsla from the alliance, and afterwards co-operated with Sindhia in attacking him; Karīm was in +consequence driven to seek an asylum with his old patron Amīr Khān, but by the influence of Sindhia Amīr Khān kept him in +a state of confinement until 1816. + +</p> +<p>When the Marāthas ceased to spread themselves over India, the Pindāris who had attended their armies were obliged to plunder +the territories of their former protectors for subsistence. To the unemployed soldiery of India, particularly to the Muhammadans, +the life of a Pindāra had many allurements; but the Marātha horsemen who possessed hereditary rights or had any pretensions +to respectability did not readily join them. One of the above leaders, Sheikh Dullah or Abdullah, apparently became a dacoit +after the Pindāris had been dispersed, and he is still remembered in Hoshangābād and Nimār in the following saying: + +</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Niche zamīn aur upar Allah, +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Aur bīch men phiren Sheikh Dullah,</span></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>or ‘God is above and the earth beneath, and Sheikh Dullah ranges at his will between.’ + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e11638"> +<h3>3. Their strength and sphere of operations</h3> +<p>In 1814, Prinsep states,<a id="d0e11643src" href="#d0e11643" class="noteref">4</a> the actual military force at the disposal of the Pindāris amounted to 40,000 horse, inclusive of the Pathāns, who though +more orderly and better disciplined than the Pindāris of the Nerbudda, possessed the same character and were similarly circumstanced +in every respect, supporting themselves entirely by depredations whenever they could practise them. Their number would be +doubled were we to add the remainder of Holkar’s troops of the irregular kind, which were daily deserting the service of a +falling house in order to engage in the more profitable career of predatory enterprise; and the loose cavalry establishments +of Sindhia and the Bhonsla, which were bound by no ties but those of present entertainment, and were always in great arrears +of pay. The presence of this force in the centre of India and able to threaten each of the three Presidencies imposed the +most extensive annual precautions for defence, in spite of which the territories of our allies were continually overrun. On +two occasions, once <a id="d0e11648"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e11648">393</a>]</span>when they entered Gujarāt in 1808–9 and again in 1812 when the Bengal provinces of Mirzāpur and Shahābād were devastated, +they penetrated into our immediate territories. Grant-Duff records that in one raid on the coast from Masulipatam northward +they in ten days plundered 339 villages, burning many, killing and wounding 682 persons, torturing 3600 and carrying off or +destroying property to the amount of two lakhs and a half. Indeed their reputation was such that the mere rumour of an incursion +caused a regular panic at Madras in 1816, of which General Hislop gives an amusing account:<a id="d0e11650src" href="#d0e11650" class="noteref">5</a> “In the middle of this year the troops composing the garrison of Fort St. George were moved out and encamped on the island +outside Black Town wall. This imprudent step was taken, as was affirmed, to be in readiness to meet the Pindāris, who were +reported to be on their road to Madras, although it was well known that not half a dozen of them were at that time within +200 miles of the place. The native inhabitants of all classes throughout Madras and its vicinity were in the utmost alarm, +and looked for places of retreat and security for their property. It brought on Madras all the distresses in imagination of +Hyder Ali’s invasion. It was about this period that an idle rumour reached Madras of the arrival of the Pindāris at the Mount; +all was uproar, flight and despair to the walls of Madras. This alarm originated in a few Dhobis and grass-cutters of the +artillery having mounted their <i>tattus</i> and, in mock imitation of the Pindāris, galloped about and played with long bamboos in their hands in the vicinity of the +Mount. The effect was such, however, that many of the civil servants and inhabitants of the Mount Road packed up and moved +to the Fort for protection. Troopers, messengers, etc., were seen galloping to the Government House and thence to the different +public authorities. Such was the alarm in the Government House that on the afternoon of that day an old officer, anxious to +offer some advice to the Governor, rode smartly to the Government gardens, and on reaching the entrance observed the younger +son of the Governor running with all possible speed into the house; who having got to a place of security ventured to <a id="d0e11658"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e11658">394</a>]</span>look back and then discovered in the old officer a face which he had before seen; when turning back again he exclaimed, ‘Upon +my word, sir, I was so frightened I took you for a Pindāri.’” + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e11660"> +<h3>4. Pindāri expeditions and methods</h3> +<p>A Pindāri expedition<a id="d0e11665src" href="#d0e11665" class="noteref">6</a> usually started at the close of the rains, as soon as the rivers became fordable after the Dasahra festival in October. Their +horses were then shod, having previously been carefully trained to prepare them for long marches and hard work. A leader of +tried courage having been chosen as Luhbaria, all who were so inclined set forth on a foray, or Luhbar as it was called in +the Pindāri nomenclature, the strength of the party often amounting to several thousands. In every thousand Pindāris about +400 were tolerably well mounted and armed; of this number about every fifteenth man carried a matchlock, but their favourite +weapon was the ordinary bamboo spear of the Marāthas, from 12 to 18 feet long. Of the remaining 600 two-thirds were usually +common Lootais or plunderers, indifferently mounted and armed with every variety of weapon; and the rest slaves, attendants +and camp-followers, mounted on <i>tattus</i> or wild ponies and keeping up with the Luhbar in the best manner they could. They were encumbered neither by tents nor baggage; +each horseman carried a few cakes of bread for his own subsistence and some feeds of grain for his horse. They advanced at +the rapid rate of forty or fifty miles a day, neither turning to the right nor to the left till they arrived at their place +of destination. They then divided, and made a sweep of all the cattle and property they could find; committing at the same +time the most horrid atrocities and destroying what they could not carry away. They trusted to the secrecy and suddenness +of the irruption for avoiding those who guarded the frontiers of the countries they invaded; and before a force could be brought +against them they were on their return. Their chief strength lay in their being intangible. If pursued they made marches of +extraordinary length, sometimes upwards of sixty miles, by roads almost impracticable for regular troops. If overtaken they +dispersed and reassembled at an appointed rendezvous; if followed to <a id="d0e11671"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e11671">395</a>]</span>the country from which they issued they broke into small parties. The cruelties they perpetrated were beyond belief. As it +was impossible for them to remain more than a few hours on the same spot the utmost despatch was necessary in rifling any +towns or villages into which they could force an entrance; every one whose appearance indicated the probability of his possessing +money was immediately put to the most horrid torture till he either pointed out his hoard or died under the infliction. Nothing +was safe from the pursuit of Pindāri lust or avarice; it was their common practice to burn and destroy what they could not +carry away; and in the wantonness of barbarity to ravish and murder women and children under the eyes of their husbands and +parents. The ordinary modes of torture inflicted by these miscreants were to apply red-hot irons to the soles of the feet; +or to throw the victim on the ground and place a plank or beam across his chest on which two men pressed with their whole +weight; and to throw oil on the clothes and set fire to them, or tie wisps of rag soaked in oil to the ends of all the victim’s +fingers and set fire to these. Another favourite method was to put hot ashes into a horse-bag, which they tied over a man’s +mouth and nostrils and thumped him on the back until he inhaled the ashes. The effect on the lungs of the sufferer was such +that few long survived the operation. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e11673"> +<h3>5. Return from an expedition</h3> +<p>The return of the Pindāris from an expedition presented at one view their character and habits. When they recrossed the Nerbudda +and reached their homes their camp became like a fair. After the claims of the chief of the territory (whose right was a fourth +part of the booty, but who generally compounded for one or two valuable articles) had been satisfied, the usual share paid +to their Luhbaria, or chosen leader for the expedition, and all debts to merchants and others who had made advances discharged, +the plunder of each man was exposed for sale; traders from every part came to make cheap bargains; and while the women were +busy in disposing of their husbands’ property, the men, who were on such occasions certain of visits from all their friends, +were engaged in hearing music, seeing dancers and drolls, and in drinking. This life of debauchery and excess lasted <a id="d0e11678"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e11678">396</a>]</span>till their money was gone; they were then compelled to look for new scenes of rapine, or, if the season was favourable, were +supported by their chiefs, or by loans at high interest from merchants who lived in their camps, many of whom amassed large +fortunes. This worst part of the late population of Central India is, as a separate community, now extinct.<a id="d0e11680src" href="#d0e11680" class="noteref">7</a> + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e11686"> +<h3>6. Suppression of the Pindāris. Death of Chitu</h3> +<p>The result of the Pindāri raids was that Central India was being rapidly reduced to the condition of a desert, and the peasants, +unable to support themselves on the land, had no option but to join the robber bands or starve. It was not until 1817 that +Lord Hastings obtained authority from home to take regular measures for their repression; and at the same time he also forced +or persuaded the principal chiefs of Central India to act vigorously in concert with him. When these were put into operation +and the principal routes from Central India occupied by British detachments, the Pindāris were completely broken up and scattered +in the course of a single campaign. They made no stand against regular troops, and their bands, unable to escape from the +ring of forces drawn round them, were rapidly dispersed over the country. The people eagerly plundered and seized them in +revenge for the wrongs long suffered at their hands, and the Bhīl Grassias or border landholders gladly carried out the instructions +to hunt them down. On one occasion a native havildar with only thirty-four men attacked and put a large body of them to flight. +The principal chiefs, reduced to the condition of hunted outlaws in the jungles, soon accepted the promise of their lives, +and on surrendering were either settled on a grant of land or kept in confinement. The well-known leader Chitu joined Apa +Sāhib, who had then escaped from Nāgpur and was in hiding in the Pachmarhi hills. Being expelled from there in February 1819 +he proceeded to the fort of Asīrgarh in Nimār, but was refused admittance by Sindhia’s commandant. He sought shelter in the +neighbouring jungle, and on horseback and alone attempted to penetrate a thick cover known to be infested with tigers. He +was missed for some days afterwards and no one knew what had become of him. <a id="d0e11691"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e11691">397</a>]</span>His horse was at last discovered grazing near the margin of the forest, saddled and bridled, and exactly in the state in which +it was when Chitu had last been seen upon it. Upon search a bag of Rs. 250 was found in the saddle; and several seal rings +with some letters of Apa Sāhib, promising future reward, served more completely to fix the identity of the horse’s late master. +These circumstances, combined with the known resort of tigers to the spot, induced a search for the body, when at no great +distance some clothes clotted with blood, and farther on fragments of bones, and at last the Pindāri’s head entire with features +in a state to be recognised, were successively discovered. The chief’s mangled remains were given over to his son for interment, +and the miserable fate of one who so shortly before had ridden at the head of twenty thousand horse gave an awful lesson of +the uncertainty of fortune and drew pity even from those who had been victims of his barbarity when living.<a id="d0e11693src" href="#d0e11693" class="noteref">8</a> + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e11699"> +<h3>7. Character of the Pindāris</h3> +<p>The Pindāris, as might be expected, were recruited from all classes and castes, and though many became Muhammadans the Hindus +preserved the usages of their respective castes. Most of the Hindu men belonged to the Ladul or grass-cutter class, and their +occupation was to bring grass and firewood to the camps. “Those born in the Durrahs or camps,” Malcolm states,<a id="d0e11704src" href="#d0e11704" class="noteref">9</a> “appear to have been ignorant in a degree almost beyond belief and were in the same ratio superstitious. The women of almost +all the Muhammadan Pindāris dressed like Hindus and worshipped Hindu deities. From accompanying their husbands in most of +their excursions they became hardy and masculine; they were usually mounted on small horses or camels, and were more dreaded +by the villagers than the men, whom they exceeded in cruelty and rapacity.” Colonel Tod notes that the Pindāris, like other +Indian robbers, were devout in the observance of their religion: + +</p> +<p>“A short distance to the west of the Regent’s (Kotāh) camp is the Pindāri-ka-chhaoni, where the sons of Karīm Khān, the chief +leader of those hordes, resided; for in <a id="d0e11711"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e11711">398</a>]</span>those days of strife the old Regent would have allied himself with Satan, if he had led a horde of plunderers. I was greatly +amused to see in this camp the commencement of an Id-Gāh or place of prayer; for the villains, while they robbed and murdered +even defenceless women, prayed five times a day!”<a id="d0e11713src" href="#d0e11713" class="noteref">10</a> + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e11718"> +<h3>8. The existing Pindāris</h3> +<p>While the freebooting Pindāris had no regular caste organisation, their descendants have now become more or less of a caste +in accordance with the usual tendency of a distinctive occupation, producing a difference in status, to form a fresh caste. +The existing Pindāris in the Central Provinces are both Muhammadans and Hindus, the Muhammadans, as already stated, having +been originally the children of Hindus who were kidnapped and converted. It is one of the very few merits of the Pindāris +that they did not sell their captives to slavery. Their numerous prisoners of all ages and both sexes were employed as servants, +made over to the chiefs or held to ransom from their relatives, but the Pindāris did not carry on like the Banjāras a traffic +in slaves.<a id="d0e11723src" href="#d0e11723" class="noteref">11</a> The Muhammadan Pindāris were said some time ago to have no religion, but with the diffusion of knowledge they have now adopted +the rites of Islam and observe its rules and restrictions. In Bhandāra the Hindu Pindāris are Garoris or Gowāris, They say +that the ancestors of the Pindāris and Gowāris were two brothers, the business of the Pindāri brother being to tend buffaloes +and that of the Gowāri brother to herd cows. These Pindāris will beg from the owners of buffaloes for the above reason. They +revere the dog and will not kill it, and also worship snakes and tigers, believing that these animals never do them injury. +They carry their dead to the grave in a sitting posture, seated in a <i>jholi</i> or wallet, and bury them in the same position. They wear their beards and do not shave. Some of these Pindāris are personal +servants, others cultivators and labourers, and others snake-charmers and jugglers. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e11729"> +<h3>9. Attractions of a Pindāri’s life</h3> +<p>The freebooting life of the Pindāris, unmitigated scoundrels though they were, no doubt had great charms, and must often have +been recalled with regret by those who <a id="d0e11734"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e11734">399</a>]</span>settled down to the quiet humdrum existence of a cultivator. This feeling has been admirably depicted in Sir Alfred Lyall’s +well-known poem, of which it will be permissible to quote a short extract: + +</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="line" style=""><span>When I rode a Dekhani charger with the saddle-cloth gold-laced, +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>And a Persian sword and a twelve-foot spear and a pistol at my waist. +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>It’s many a year gone by now; and yet I often dream +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Of a long dark march to the Jumna, of splashing across the stream, +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Of the waning moon on the water and the spears in the dim starlight +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>As I rode in front of my mother<a id="d0e11749src" href="#d0e11749" class="noteref">12</a> and wondered at all the sight. +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Then the streak of the pearly dawn—the flash of a sentinel’s gun, +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>The gallop and glint of horsemen who wheeled in the level sun, +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>The shots in the clear still morning, the white smoke’s eddying wreath, +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Is this the same land that I live in, the dull dank air that I breathe? +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>And if I were forty years younger, with my life before me to choose, +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>I wouldn’t be lectured by Kafirs or bullied by fat Hindoos; +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>But I’d go to some far-off country where Musalmāns still are men, +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Or take to the jungle like Chetoo, and die in the tiger’s den.</span></p> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e11567" href="#d0e11567src" class="noteref">1</a></span> The historical account of the Pindāris is compiled from Malcolm’s <i>Memoir of Central India</i>, Grant-Duff’s <i>History of the Marāthas</i>, and Prinsep’s <i>Transactions in India</i> (1825). Some notes on the modern Pindāris have been furnished by Mr. Hīra Lāl, and Mr. Waman Rustom Mandloi, Naib-Tahsīldār, +Harda. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e11582" href="#d0e11582src" class="noteref">2</a></span> <i>Memoir of Central India</i>, i, p. 433. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e11607" href="#d0e11607src" class="noteref">3</a></span> <i>Indian Antiquary</i>, 1900. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e11643" href="#d0e11643src" class="noteref">4</a></span> <i>Transactions in India</i>, 1813–23, by H.T. Prinsep. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e11650" href="#d0e11650src" class="noteref">5</a></span> <i>Marātha and Pindāri Campaigns</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e11665" href="#d0e11665src" class="noteref">6</a></span> The above is compiled from the accounts given by Prinsep and Malcolm. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e11680" href="#d0e11680src" class="noteref">7</a></span> That is when Malcolm wrote his <i>Memoir</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e11693" href="#d0e11693src" class="noteref">8</a></span> This account is copied from Prinsep’s <i>Transactions</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e11704" href="#d0e11704src" class="noteref">9</a></span> <i>Memoir</i>, ii. p. 177. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e11713" href="#d0e11713src" class="noteref">10</a></span> <i>Rājasthān</i>, ii. p. 674. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e11723" href="#d0e11723src" class="noteref">11</a></span> Malcolm, ii. p. 177. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e11749" href="#d0e11749src" class="noteref">12</a></span> The Pindāri’s childhood is recalled here, <i>vide</i> poem. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e11771" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Prabhu</h2> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>1. Historical notice</h3> +<p><b>Prabhu, Parbhu.</b>—The Marātha caste of clerks, accountants and patwāris corresponding to the Kāyasths. They numbered about 1400 persons in +the southern Districts of the Central Provinces and Berār in 1911. The Prabhus, like the Kāyasths, claim to be descendants +of a child of Chandra Sena, a Kshatriya king and himself a son of Arjun, one of the five Pāndava brothers. Chandra Sena was +slain by Parasurāma, the Brāhman destroyer of the Kshatriyas, but the child was saved by a Rishi, who promised that he should +be brought up as a clerk. The boy was named Somrāj and was married to the daughter of Chitra Gupta, the recorder of the dead. +The caste thus claim Kshatriya origin. The name Prabhu signifies ‘lord,’ but the Brāhmans pretend that the real name of the +caste was Parbhu, meaning one of irregular birth. The Prabhus say that Parbhu is a colloquial corruption used by the uneducated. +The <i>gotras</i> of the Prabhus are eponymous, the names being the same as those of Brāhmans. In the Central Provinces many of them have the +surname of Chitnavīs or Secretary. Child-marriage is in vogue and widow-remarriage is forbidden. The wedding ceremony resembles +that of the Brāhmans. + + +</p> +<p></p> +<div id="d0e11785" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p122.jpg" alt="Little girls playing" width="720" height="400"><p class="figureHead">Little girls playing</p> +</div><p> + +<a id="d0e11789"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e11789">400</a>]</span></p> +<p>In his <i>Description of a Prabhu marriage</i><a id="d0e11794src" href="#d0e11794" class="noteref">1</a> Rai Bahādur B.A. Gupte shows how the old customs are being broken through among the educated classes under the influence +of modern ideas. Marriages are no longer arranged without regard to the wishes of the couple, which are thus ascertained: +“The next step<a id="d0e11797src" href="#d0e11797" class="noteref">2</a> is to find out the inclination of the hero of the tale. His friends and equals do that easily enough. They begin talking +of the family and the girl, and are soon able to fathom his mind. They leave on his desk all the photographs of the girls +offered and watch his movements. If he is sensible he quietly drops or returns all the likenesses except the one he prefers, +and keeps this in his drawer. He dare not display it, for it is immodest to do so. The news of the approval by the boy soon +reaches the parents of the girl.” Similarly in her case: “The girl has no direct voice, but her likes and dislikes are carefully +fathomed through her girl friends. If she says, ‘Why is papa in such a hurry to get rid of me,’ or turns her face and goes +away as soon as the proposed family is mentioned, a sensible father drops the case and turns his attention to some other boy. +This is the direct result of higher education under British rule, but among the masses the girl has absolutely no voice, and +the boy has very little unless he revolts and disobediently declines to accept a girl already selected.” Similarly the educated +Prabhus are beginning to dispense with the astrologer’s calculations showing the agreement of the horoscopes of the couple, +which are too often made a cloak for the extortion of large presents. “It very often happens that everything is amicably settled +except the greed of the priest, and he manages to find out some disagreement between the horoscopes of the marriageable parties +to vent his anger. This trick has been sufficiently exposed, and the educated portion of this ultra-literary caste have in +most cases discarded horoscopes and planetary conjunctions altogether. Under these restrictions the only thing the council +of astrologers have to do is to draw up two documents giving diagrams based on the names of the parties—for names are presumably +selected <a id="d0e11804"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e11804">401</a>]</span>according to the conjunctions of the stars at birth. But they are often not, and depend on the liking of the father for a +family god, a mythological hero, a patron or a celebrated ancestor in the case of the boy. In that of the girl the favourite +deity or a character in the most recent fable or drama the father has just read.” + +</p> +<p>According to custom the bridegroom should go to the bride’s house to be married, but if it is more convenient to have the +wedding at the bridegroom’s town, the bride goes there to a temporary house taken by her father, and then the bridegroom proceeds +to a temple with his party and is welcomed as if he had arrived on completion of a journey. Mr. Gupte thus describes the reception +of the bride when she has come to be married: “But there comes an urgent telegram. The bride and her mother are expected and +information is given to the bridegroom’s father. In all haste preparations are made to give her a grand and suitable reception. +Oh, the flutter among the girls assembled in the house of the bridegroom from all quarters. Every one is dressed in her best +and is trying to be the foremost in welcoming the new bride, the Goddess Lakshmi. The numerous maidservants of the house want +to prostrate themselves before their future queen on the Sūna or borderland of the city, which is of course the railway station. +Musicians have been already despatched and the platform is full of gaily dressed girls. The train arrives, the party assemble +at the waiting-room, a maidservant waves rice and water to ‘take off’ the effects of evil eyes and they start amid admiring +eyes of the passengers and onlookers. As soon as the bride reaches her father’s temporary residence another girl waves rice +and water and throws it away. The girls of the bridegroom’s house run home and come back again with a Kalash (water-pot) full +of water, with its mouth covered with mango-leaves and topped over with a cocoanut and a large tray of sugar. This is called +<i>Sakhar pāni</i>, sugar and water, the first to wash the mouth with and the second to sweeten it. The girls have by this time all gathered +round the bride and are busy cheering her up with encouraging remarks: ‘Oh, she is a Rati, the goddess of beauty,’ says one, +and another, ‘How delicate,’ ‘What a fine <a id="d0e11811"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e11811">402</a>]</span>nose’ from a third, and ‘Look at her eyes’ from a fourth. All complimentary and comforting. ‘We are glad it is our house you +are coming to,’ says a sister-in-law in prospect. ‘We are happy you are going to be our <i>mālikin</i> (mistress),’ adds a maidservant. As soon as the elder ladies have completed their courteous inquiries <i>pān-supāri</i> and <i>attar</i> are distributed and the party returns home. But on arrival the girls gather round the bridegroom to tease him. ‘Oh, you Sudhārak +(reformer),’ ‘Oh, you Sāhib (European), <i>you</i> have selected your bride.’ ‘You have seen her <i>before</i> marriage. You have broken the rule of the society. You ought to be excommunicated.’ ‘But,’ says another, ‘he will now have +no time to speak to us. His Rati (goddess of beauty) and he! The Sāhib and the Memsāhib! We shall all be forgotten now. Who +cares for sisters and cousins in these days of civilisation?’ But all these little jokes of the little girls are meant as +congratulations to him for having secured a good girl.” At a wedding among the highest families such as is described here, +the bridegroom is presented with drinking cups and plates, trays for holding sandalwood paste, betel-leaf and an incense-burner, +all in solid silver to the value of about Rs. 1000; water-pots and cooking vessels and a small bath in German silver costing +Rs. 300 to Rs. 400; and a set of brass vessels.<a id="d0e11828src" href="#d0e11828" class="noteref">3</a> + + +</p> +<p></p> +<div id="d0e11834" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p123.jpg" alt="Gujarati girls doing figures with strings and sticks" width="720" height="456"><p class="figureHead">Gujarati girls doing figures with strings and sticks</p> +</div><p> + + + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>2. General Customs</h3> +<p>The Prabhus wear the sacred thread. In Bombay boys receive it a short time before their marriage without the ceremonies which +form part of the regular Brāhman investiture. On the fifth day after the birth of a child, the sword and also pens, paper +and ink are worshipped, the sword being the symbol of their Kshatriya origin and the pens, paper and ink of their present +occupation of clerks.<a id="d0e11843src" href="#d0e11843" class="noteref">4</a> The funeral ceremonies, Mr. Enthoven writes, are performed during the first thirteen days after death. Oblations of rice +are offered every day, in consequence of which the soul of the dead attains a spiritual body, limb by limb, till on the thirteenth +day it is enabled to start on its journey. In twelve months the journey ends, and a <i>shrāddh</i> ceremony is performed on an extensive scale on the anniversary of <a id="d0e11851"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e11851">403</a>]</span>the death. Most of the Prabhus are in Government service and others are landowners. In the Bombay Presidency<a id="d0e11853src" href="#d0e11853" class="noteref">5</a> they had at first almost a monopoly of Government service as English writers, and the term Prabhu was commonly employed to +denote a clerk of any caste who could write English. Both men and women of the caste are generally of a fair complexion, resembling +the Marātha Brāhmans. The taste of the women in dress is proverbial, and when a Sunār, Sutār or Kasār woman has dressed herself +in her best for some family festival, she will ask her friends, ‘<i>Prabhuin disto</i>,’ or ‘Do I look like a Prabhu?’ + +</p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e11794" href="#d0e11794src" class="noteref">1</a></span> Pamphlet published in connection with the Ethnographic Survey. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e11797" href="#d0e11797src" class="noteref">2</a></span> <i>A Prabhu Marriage</i>, p. 3 <i>et seq.</i></p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e11828" href="#d0e11828src" class="noteref">3</a></span> <i>A Prabhu Marriage</i>, pp. 26–27. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e11843" href="#d0e11843src" class="noteref">4</a></span> <i>Bombay Ethnographic Survey</i>, art. Prabhu. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e11853" href="#d0e11853src" class="noteref">5</a></span> <i>Bombay Gazetteer</i>, ix. p. 68, footnotes. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e11861" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Rāghuvansi</h2> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>1. Historical notice</h3> +<p><b>Rāghuvansi, Rāghvi.</b>—A class of Rājpūts of impure descent, who have now developed in the Central Provinces into a caste of cultivators, marrying +among themselves. Their first settlement here was in the Nerbudda Valley, and Sir C. Elliott wrote of them:<a id="d0e11871src" href="#d0e11871" class="noteref">1</a> “They are a queer class, all professing to be Rājpūts from Ajodhia, though on cross-examination they are obliged to confess +that they did not come here straight from Ajodhia, but stopped in Bundelkhand and the Gwalior territory by the way. They are +obviously of impure blood as they marry only among themselves; but when they get wealthy and influential they assume the sacred +thread, stop all familiarity with Gūjars and Kirārs (with whom they are accustomed to smoke the huqqa and to take water) and +profess to be very high-caste Rājpūts indeed.” From Hoshangābād they have spread to Betūl, Chhindwāra and Nāgpur and now number +24,000 persons in all in the Central Provinces. Chhindwāra, on the Satpūra plateau, is supposed to have been founded by one +Ratan Rāghuvansi, who built the first house on the site, burying a goat alive under the foundations. The goat is still worshipped +as the tutelary deity of the town. The name Rāghuvansi is derived from Rāja Rāghu, king of Ajodhia and ancestor of the great +Rāma, the hero of the Rāmāyana. In Nāgpur the name has been shortened to Rāghvi, and the branch of the caste settled here +is somewhat looked down upon by their fellows in Hoshangābād. <a id="d0e11876"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e11876">404</a>]</span>Sir R. Craddock<a id="d0e11878src" href="#d0e11878" class="noteref">2</a> states that their religion is unorthodox and they have <i>gurus</i> or priests of their own caste, discarding Brāhmans. Their names end in Deo. Their origin, however, is still plainly discernible +in their height, strength of body and fair complexion. The notice continues: “Whatever may happen to other classes the Rāghvi +will never give way to the moneylender. Though he is fond of comfort he combines a good deal of thrift with it, and the clannish +spirit of the caste would prevent any oppression of Rāghvi tenants by a landlord or moneylender of their own body.” In Chhindwāra, +Mr. Montgomerie states,<a id="d0e11886src" href="#d0e11886" class="noteref">3</a> they rank among the best cultivators, and formerly lived in clans, holding villages on <i>bhaiachāri</i> or communal tenure. As mālguzārs or village proprietors, they are very prone to absorb tenant land into their home-farms. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>2. Social customs</h3> +<p>The Rāghuvansis have now a set of exogamous groups of the usual low-caste type, designated after titles, nicknames or natural +objects. They sometimes invest their sons with the sacred thread at the time of marriage instead of performing the proper +thread ceremony. Some discard the cord after the wedding is over. At a marriage the Rāghuvansis of Chhindwara and Nāgpur combine +the Hindustāni custom of walking round the sacred pole with the Marātha one of throwing coloured rice on the bridal couple. +Sometimes they have what is known as a <i>gānkar</i> wedding. At this, flour, sugar and <i>ghī</i><a id="d0e11904src" href="#d0e11904" class="noteref">4</a> are the only kinds of food permissible, large cakes of flour and sugar being boiled in pitchers full of <i>ghī</i>, and everybody being given as much of this as he can eat. The guests generally over-eat themselves, and as weddings are celebrated +in the hot weather, one or two may occasionally die of repletion. The neighbours of Rāghuvansis say that the host considers +such an occurrence as evidence of the complete success of his party, but this is probably a libel. Such a wedding feast may +cost two or three thousand rupees. After the wedding the women of the bride’s party attack those of the bridegroom’s with +bamboo sticks, while these retaliate by throwing red powder on them. The remarriage of widows is freely permitted, but <a id="d0e11910"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e11910">405</a>]</span>a widow must be taken from the house of her own parents or relatives, and not from that of her first husband or his parents. +In fact, if any members of the dead husband’s family meet the second husband on the night of the wedding they will attack +him and a serious affray may follow. On reaching her new house the woman enters it by a back door, after bathing and changing +all her clothes. The old clothes are given away to a barber or washerman, and the presentation of new clothes by the second +husband is the only essential ceremony. No wife will look on a widow’s face on the night of her second marriage, for fear +lest by doing so she should come to the same position. The majority of the caste abstain from liquor, and they eat flesh in +some localities, but not in others. The men commonly wear beards divided by a shaven patch in the centre of the chin; and +the women have two body-cloths, one worn like a skirt according to the northern custom. Mr. Crooke states<a id="d0e11912src" href="#d0e11912" class="noteref">5</a> that “in northern India a tradition exists among them that the cultivation of sugar is fatal to the farmer, and that the +tiling of a house brings down divine displeasure upon the owner; hence to this day no sugar is grown and not a tiled house +is to be seen in their estates.” These superstitions do not appear to be known at all in the Central Provinces. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e11871" href="#d0e11871src" class="noteref">1</a></span> <i>Hoshangābād Settlement Report</i> (1807), p. 60. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e11878" href="#d0e11878src" class="noteref">2</a></span> <i>Nāgpur Settlement Report</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e11886" href="#d0e11886src" class="noteref">3</a></span> <i>Settlement Report</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e11904" href="#d0e11904src" class="noteref">4</a></span> Preserved butter. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e11912" href="#d0e11912src" class="noteref">5</a></span> <i>Tribes and Castes</i>, art. Raghūvansi. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e11917" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Rājjhar</h2> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>1. General notice</h3> +<p><b>Rājjhar, Rājbhar, Lajjhar.</b>—A caste of farmservants found in the northern Districts. In 1911 they numbered about 8000 persons in the Central Provinces, +being returned principally from the Districts of the Satpūra plateau. The names Rājjhar and Rājbhar appear to be applied indiscriminately +to the same caste, who are an offshoot of the great Bhar tribe of northern India. The original name appears to have been Rāj +Bhar, which signifies a landowning Bhar, like Rāj-Gond, Rāj-Korku and so on. In Mandla all the members of the caste were shown +as Rājbhar in 1891, and Rājjhar in 1901, and the two names seem to be used interchangeably in other Districts in the same +manner. Some section or family names, such as Bamhania, Patela, Barhele and others, are common to people calling themselves +Rājjhar and Rājbhar. But, though practically the same <a id="d0e11927"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e11927">406</a>]</span>caste, the Rājjhars seem, in some localities, to be more backward and primitive than the Rājbhars. This is also the case in +Berār, where they are commonly known as Lajjhar and are said to be akin to the Gonds. A Gond will there take food from a Lajjhar, +but not a Lajjhar from a Gond. They are more Hinduised than the Gonds and have prohibited the killing or injuring of cows +by some caste penalties.<a id="d0e11929src" href="#d0e11929" class="noteref">1</a> + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>2. Origin and subdivisions</h3> +<p>The caste appears to be in part of mixed origin arising from the unions of Hindu fathers with women of the Bhar tribe. Several +of their family names are derived from those of other castes, as Bamhania (from Brāhman), Sunārya (from Sunār), Baksaria (a +Rājpūt sept), Ahīriya (an Ahīr or cowherd), and Bisātia from Bisāti (a hawker). Other names are after plants or animals, as +Baslya from the <i>bāns</i> or bamboo, Mohanya from the <i>mohin</i> tree, Chhitkaria from the <i>sītaphal</i> or custard-apple tree, Hardaya from the banyan tree, Rīchhya from the bear, and Dukhania from the buffalo. Members of this +last sept will not drink buffalo’s milk or wear black cloth, because this is the colour of their totem animal. Members of +septs named after other castes have also adopted some natural object as a sept totem; thus those of the Sunārya sept worship +gold as being the metal with which the Sunār is associated. Those of the Bamhania sept revere the banyan and pipal trees, +as these are held sacred by Brāhmans. The Bakraria or Bagsaria sept believe their name to be derived from that of the <i>bāgh</i> or tiger, and they worship this animal’s footprints by tying a thread round them. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>3. Marriage</h3> +<p>The marriage of members of the same sept, and also that of first cousins, is forbidden. The caste do not employ Brāhmans at +their marriage and other ceremonies, and they account for this somewhat quaintly by saying that their ancestors were at one +time accustomed to rely on the calculations of Brāhman priests; but many marriages which the Brāhman foretold as auspicious +turned out very much the reverse; and on this account they have discarded the Brāhman, and now determine the suitability or +otherwise of a projected union by the common primitive custom of <a id="d0e11957"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e11957">407</a>]</span>throwing two grains of rice into a vessel of water and seeing whether they will meet. The truth is probably that they are +too backward ever to have had recourse to the Brāhman priest, but now, though they still apparently have no desire for his +services, they recognise the fact to be somewhat discreditable to themselves, and desire to explain it away by the story already +given. In Hoshangābād the bride still goes to the bridegroom’s house to be married as among the Gonds. A bride-price is paid, +which consists of four rupees, a <i>khandi</i><a id="d0e11961src" href="#d0e11961" class="noteref">2</a> of juāri or wheat, and two pieces of cloth. This is received by the bride’s father, who, however, has in turn to pay seven +rupees eight annas and a goat to the caste <i>panchāyat</i> or committee for the arrangement and sanction of the match. This last payment is known as <i>Skarāb-ka-rupaya</i> or liquor-money, and with the goat furnishes the wherewithal for a sumptuous feast to the caste. The marriage-shed must be +made of freshly-cut timber, which should not be allowed to fall to the ground, but must be supported and carried off on men’s +shoulders as it is cut. When the bridegroom arrives at the marriage-shed he is met by the bride’s mother and conducted by +her to an inner room of the house, where he finds the bride standing. He seizes her fist, which she holds clenched, and opens +her fingers by force. The couple then walk five times round the <i>chauk</i> or sacred space made with lines of flour on the floor, the bridegroom holding the bride by her little finger. They are preceded +by some relative of the bride, who walks round the post carrying a pot of water, with seven holes in it; the water spouts +from these holes on to the ground, and the couple must tread in it as they go round the post. This forms the essential and +binding portion of the marriage. That night the couple sleep in the same room with a woman lying between them. Next day they +return to the bridegroom’s house, and on arriving at his door the boy’s mother meets him and touches his head, breast and +knees with a churning-stick, a winnowing-fan and a pestle, with the object of exorcising any evil spirits who may be accompanying +the bridal couple. As the pair enter the marriage-shed erected before the bridegroom’s house they are drenched with water +<a id="d0e11973"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e11973">408</a>]</span>by a man sitting on the roof, and when they come to the door of the house the bridegroom’s younger brother, or some other +boy, sits across it with his legs stretched out to prevent the bride from entering. The girl pushes his legs aside and goes +into the house, where she stays for three months with her husband, and then returns to her parents for a year. After this +she is sent to her husband with a basket of fried cakes and a piece of cloth, and takes up her residence with him. When a +widow is to be married, the couple pour turmeric and water over each other, and then walk seven times round in a circle in +an empty space, holding each other by the hand. A widow commonly marries her deceased husband’s younger brother, but is not +compelled to do so. Divorce is permitted for adultery on the part of the wife. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>4. Social Customs</h3> +<p>The caste bury their dead with the head pointing to the west. This practice is peculiar, and is also followed, Colonel Dalton +states, by the hill Bhuiyas of Bengal, who in so doing honour the quarter of the setting sun. When a burial takes place, all +the mourners who accompany the corpse throw a little earth into the grave. On the same day some food and liquor are taken +to the grave and offered to the dead man’s spirit, and a feast is given to the caste-fellows. This concludes the ceremonies +of mourning, and the next day the relatives go about their business. The caste are usually petty cultivators and labourers, +while they also collect grass and fuel for sale, and propagate the lac insect. In Seoni they have a special relation with +the Ahīrs, from whom they will take cooked food, while they say that the Ahīrs will also eat from their hands. In Narsinghpur +a similar connection has been observed between the Rājjhars and the Lodhi caste. This probably arises from the fact that the +former have worked for several generations as the farm-servants of Lodhi or Ahīr employers, and have been accustomed to live +in their houses and partake of their meals, so that caste rules have been abandoned for the sake of convenience. A similar +intimacy has been observed between the Panwārs and Gonds, and other castes who stand in this relation to each other. The Rājjhars +will also eat <i>katcha</i> food (cooked with water) from Kunbis and Kahārs. But in <a id="d0e11983"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e11983">409</a>]</span>Hoshangābād some of them will not take food from any caste, even from Brāhmans. Their women wear glass bangles only on the +right hand, and a brass ornament known as <i>māthi</i> on the left wrist. They wear no ornaments in the nose or ears, and have no breast-cloth. They are tattooed with dots on the +face and patterns of animals on the right arm, but not on the left arm or legs. A <i>liaison</i> between a youth and maiden of the caste is considered a trifling matter, being punished only with a fine of two to four annas +or pence. A married woman detected in an intrigue is mulcted in a sum of four or five rupees, and if her partner be a man +of another caste a lock of her hair is cut off. The caste are generally ignorant and dirty, and are not much better than the +Gonds and other forest tribes. +<a id="d0e11991"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e11991">410</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e11929" href="#d0e11929src" class="noteref">1</a></span> Kitts’ <i>Berār Census Report</i> (1881), p. 157. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e11961" href="#d0e11961src" class="noteref">2</a></span> About 400 lbs. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e11992" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Rājpūt</h2> +<p>[The following article is based mainly on Colonel Tod’s classical <i>Annals and Antiquities of Rājasthān</i>, 2nd ed., Madras, Higginbotham, 1873, and Mr. Crooke’s articles on the Rājpūt clans in his <i>Tribes and Castes of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh</i>. Much information as to the origin of the Rājpūt clans has been obtained from inscriptions and worked up mainly by the late +Mr. A.M.T. Jackson and Messrs. B.G. and D.R. Bhandarkar; this has been set out with additions and suggestions in Mr. V.A. +Smith’s <i>Early History of India</i>, 3rd ed., and has been reproduced in the subordinate articles on the different clans. Though many of the leading clans are +very weakly represented in the Central Provinces, some notice of them is really essential in an article treating generally +of the Rājpūt caste, on however limited a scale, and has therefore been included. In four cases, Panwār, Jādum, Rāghuvansi +and Daharia, the original Rājpūt clans have now developed into separate cultivating castes, ranking well below the Rājpūts; +separate articles have been written on these as for independent castes.] + +</p> +<h3>List of Paragraphs</h3> +<ul> +<li><a href="#d0e12144">1. Introductory notice</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e12158">2. The thirty-six royal races</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e12246">3. The origin of the Rājpūts</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e12307">4. Subdivisions of the clans</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e12337">5. Marriage customs</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e12380">6. Funeral rites</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e12394">7. Religion</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e12427">8. Food</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e12449">9. Opium</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e12500">10. Improved training of Rājpūt chiefs</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e12505">11. Dress</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e12527">12. Social customs</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e12552">13. Seclusion of women</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e12566">14. Traditional character of the Rājpūts</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e12633">15. Occupation</a></li> +</ul> +<div class="div2" id="d0e12144"> +<h3>1. Introductory notice</h3> +<p><b>Rājpūt, Kshatriya, Chhatri, Thākur.</b>—The Rājpūts are the representatives of the old Kshatriya or warrior class, the second of the four main castes or orders of +classical Hinduism, and were supposed to have been made originally from the arms of Brahma. The old name of Kshatriya is still +commonly used in the Hindi form Chhatri, but the designation Rājpūt, or son of a king, has now superseded it as the standard +name of the caste. Thākur, or lord, is the common Rājpūt title, and that by which they are generally addressed. The total +number of persons returned as Rājpūts in the Province in 1911 was about 440,000. India has about nine million Rājpūts in all, +and they are most numerous in the Punjab, the United Provinces, and Bihār and Orissa, Rājputāna returning under 700,000 and +Central India about 800,000. + +</p> +<p>The bulk of the Rājpūts in the Central Provinces are of very impure blood. Several groups, such as the Panwārs of the Wainganga +Valley, the Rāghuvansis of Chhindwāra and Nāgpur, the Jādams of Hoshangābād and the Daharias of Chhattīsgarh, have developed +into separate castes and marry among themselves, though a true Rājpūt must not marry in his own clan. Some of them have abandoned +the sacred thread and now rank with the good cultivating castes below Banias. Reference may be made to the separate articles +on these castes. Similarly the Sūrajvansi, Gaur or Gorai, Chauhān, and Bāgri clans marry among themselves in the Central Provinces, +and it is probable that detailed research would establish the same of many clans or parts of clans bearing the name of Rājpūt +in all parts of India. If the definition of a proper Rājpūt were taken, as it should be correctly, as one whose family intermarried +with clans of good standing, the caste would be reduced to comparatively small dimensions. The name Dhākar, also shown as +a Rājpūt clan, is applied to a person of illegitimate birth, like Vidūr. Over 100,000 persons, or nearly a quarter of the +total, did not return the name of any clan in 1911, and <a id="d0e12153"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e12153">412</a>]</span>these are all of mixed or illegitimate descent. They are numerous in Nimār, and are there known as <i>chhoti-tur</i> or low-class Rājpūts. The Bāgri Rājpūts of Seoni and the Sūrajvansis of Betal marry among themselves, while the Bundelas +of Saugor intermarry with two other local groups, the Panwār and Dhundhele, all the three being of impure blood. In Jubbulpore +a small clan of persons known as Pāik or foot-soldier return themselves as Rājpūts, but are no doubt a mixed low-caste group. +Again, some landholding sections of the primitive tribes have assumed the names of Rājpūt clans. Thus the zamīndārs of Bilāspur, +who originally belonged to the Kawar tribe, call themselves Tuar or Tomara Rājpūts, and the landholding section of the Mundas +in Chota Nāgpur say that they are of the Nāgvansi clan. Other names are returned which are not those of Rājpūt clans or their +offshoots at all. If these subdivisions, which cannot be considered as proper Rājpūts, and all those who have returned no +clan be deducted, there remain not more than 100,000 who might be admitted to be pure Rājpūts in Rājputāna. But a close local +scrutiny even of these would no doubt result in the detection of many persons who have assumed and returned the names of good +clans without being entitled to them. And many more would come away as being the descendants of remarried widows. A Rājpūt +of really pure family and descent is in fact a person of some consideration in most parts of the Central Provinces. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e12158"> +<h3>2. The thirty-six royal races</h3> +<p>Traditionally the Rājpūts are divided into thirty-six great clans or races, of which Colonel Tod gives a list compiled from +different authorities as follows (alternative names by which the clan or important branches of it are known are shown in brackets): + +</p> +<ul> +<li> 1. Ikshwaka or Sūrajvansi. + +</li> +<li> 2. Indu, Somvansi or Chandravansi. + +</li> +<li> 3. Gahlot or Sesodia (Rāghuvansi). + +</li> +<li> 4. Yādu (Bhatti, Jareja, Jādon, Banāphar). + +</li> +<li> 5. Tuar or Tomara. + +</li> +<li> 6. Rāthor. + +</li> +<li> 7. Kachhwāha (Cutchwāha). + +</li> +<li> 8. Prāmara or Panwār (Mori). + +</li> +<li> 9. Chauhān (Hāra, Khichi, Nikumbh, Bhadauria). + +</li> +<li>10. Chalukya or Solankhi (Baghel). + +</li> +<li>11. Parihār. + +</li> +<li>12. Chawara or Chaura. + +</li> +<li>13. Tāk or Takshac (Nāgvansi, Mori). +<a id="d0e12190"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e12190">413</a>]</span></li> +<li>14. Jit or Gete. + +</li> +<li>15. Hūna. + +</li> +<li>16. Kāthi. + +</li> +<li>17. Balla. + +</li> +<li>18. Jhalla. + +</li> +<li>19. Jaitwa or Kamari. + +</li> +<li>20. Gohil. + +</li> +<li>21. Sarweya. + +</li> +<li>22. Silar. + +</li> +<li>23. Dhābi. + +</li> +<li>24. Gaur. + +</li> +<li>25. Doda or Dor. + +</li> +<li>26. Gherwāl or Gaharwār (Bundela). + +</li> +<li>27. Badgūjar. + +</li> +<li>28. Sengar. + +</li> +<li>29. Sikarwāl. + +</li> +<li>30. Bais. + +</li> +<li>31. Dahia. + +</li> +<li>32. Johia. + +</li> +<li>33. Mohil. + +</li> +<li>34. Nikumbh. + +</li> +<li>35. Rājpali. + +</li> +<li>36. Dahima.</li> +</ul><p> + +</p> +<p>And two extra, Hul and Daharia. + +</p> +<p>Several of the above races are extinct or nearly so, and on the other hand some very important modern clans, as the Gautam, +Dikhit and Bisen, and such historically important ones as the Chandel and Haihaya, are not included in the thirty-six royal +races at all. Practically all the clans should belong either to the solar and lunar branch, that is, should be descended from +the sun or moon, but the division, if it ever existed, is not fully given by Colonel Tod. Two special clans, the Sūrajvansi +and Chandra or Somvansi, are named after the sun and moon respectively; and a few others, as the Sesodia, Kachhwāha, Gohil, +Bais and Badgūjar, are recorded as being of the solar race, descended from Vishnu through his incarnation as Rāma. The Rāthors +also claimed solar lineage, but this was not wholly conceded by the Bhāts, and the Dikhits are assigned to the solar branch +by their legends. The great clan of the Yādavas, of whom the present Jādon or Jādum and Bhatti Rājpūts are representatives, +was of the lunar race, tracing their descent from Krishna, though, as a matter of fact, Krishna was also an incarnation of +Vishnu or the sun; and the Tuar or Tomara, as well as the Jit or Gete, the Rājpūt section of the modern Jāts, who were considered +to be branches of the Yādavas, would also be of the moon division, The Gautam and Bisen clans, who are not included in the +thirty-six royal races, now claim lunar descent. Four clans, the Panwār, Chauhān, Chalukya or Solankhi, and Parihār, had a +different origin, being held to have been born through the agency of the gods from a firepit on the summit of Mount Abu. They +are hence known as Agnikula or the fire races. Several clans, such as the <a id="d0e12242"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e12242">414</a>]</span>Tāk or Takshac, the Hūna and the Chaura, were considered by Colonel Tod to be the representatives of the Huns or Scythians, +that is, the nomad invading tribes from Central Asia, whose principal incursions took place during the first five centuries +of the Christian era. + +</p> +<p>At least six of the thirty-six royal races, the Sarweya, Silar, Doda or Dor, Dahia, Johia and Mohil, were extinct in Colonel +Tod’s time, and others were represented only by small settlements in Rājputāna and Surat. On the other hand, there are now +a large number of new clans, whose connection with the thirty-six is doubtful, though in many cases they are probably branches +of the old clans who have obtained a new name on settling in a different locality. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e12246"> +<h3>3. The origin of the Rājpūts</h3> +<p>It was for long the custom to regard the Rājpūts as the direct descendants and representatives of the old Kshatriya or warrior +class of the Indian Aryans, as described in the Vedas and the great epics. Even Colonel Tod by no means held this view in +its entirety, and modern epigraphic research has caused its partial or complete abandonment Mr. V.A. Smith indeed says:<a id="d0e12251src" href="#d0e12251" class="noteref">1</a> “The main points to remember are that the Kshatriya or Rājpūt caste is essentially an occupational caste, composed of all +clans following the Hindu ritual who actually undertook the act of government; that consequently people of most diverse races +were and are lumped together as Rājpūts, and that most of the great clans now in existence are descended either from foreign +immigrants of the fifth or sixth century A.D. or from indigenous races such as the Gonds and Bhars.” Colonel Tod held three +clans, the Tāk or Takshac, the Hūna and the Chaura, to be descended from Scythian or nomad Central Asian immigrants, and the +same origin has been given for the Haihaya. The Hūna clan actually retains the name of the White Huns, from whose conquests +in the fifth century it probably dates its existence. The principal clan of the lunar race, the Yādavas, are said to have +first settled in Delhi and at Dwārka in Gujarāt. But on the death of Krishna, who was their prince, they were expelled from +<a id="d0e12256"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e12256">415</a>]</span>these places, and retired across the Indus, settling in Afghānistan. Again, for some reason which the account does not clearly +explain, they came at a later period to India and settled first in the Punjab and afterwards in Rājputāna. The Jit or Jāt +and the Tomara clans were branches of the Yādavas, and it is supposed that the Jits or Jāts were also descended from the nomad +invading tribes, possibly from the Yueh-chi tribe who conquered and occupied the Punjab during the first and second centuries.<a id="d0e12258src" href="#d0e12258" class="noteref">2</a> The legend of the Yādavas, who lived in Gujarāt with their chief Krishna, but after his defeat and death retired to Central +Asia, and at a later date returned to India, would appear to correspond fairly well with the Sāka invasion of the second century +B.C. which penetrated to Kāthiāwār and founded a dynasty there. In A.D. 124 the second Sāka king was defeated by the Andhra +king Vilivāyakura II. and his kingdom destroyed.<a id="d0e12263src" href="#d0e12263" class="noteref">3</a> But at about the same period, the close of the first century, a fresh horde of the Sākas came to Gujarāt from Central Asia +and founded another kingdom, which lasted until it was subverted by Chandragupta Vikramaditya about A.D. 390.<a id="d0e12268src" href="#d0e12268" class="noteref">4</a> The historical facts about the Sākas, as given on the authority of Mr. V.A. Smith, thus correspond fairly closely with the +Yādava legend. And the later Yueh-chi immigrants might well be connected by the Bhāts with the Sāka hordes who had come at +an earlier date from the same direction, and so the Jāts<a id="d0e12273src" href="#d0e12273" class="noteref">5</a> might be held to be an offshoot of the Yādavas. This connection of the Yādava and Jāt legends with the facts of the immigration +of the Sākas and Yueh-chi appears a plausible one, but may be contradicted by historical arguments of which the writer is +ignorant. If it were correct we should be justified in identifying the lunar clans of Rājpūts with the early Scythian immigrants +of the first and second centuries. Another point is that Buddha is said to be the progenitor <a id="d0e12279"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e12279">416</a>]</span>of the whole Indu or lunar race.<a id="d0e12281src" href="#d0e12281" class="noteref">6</a> It is obvious that Buddha had no real connection with these Central Asian tribes, as he died some centuries before their +appearance in India. But the Yueh-chi or Kushān kings of the Punjab in the first and second centuries A.D. were fervent Buddhists +and established that religion in the Punjab. Hence we can easily understand how, if the Yādus or Jāts and other lunar clans +were descended from the Sāka and Yueh-chi immigrants, the legend of their descent from Buddha, who was himself a Kshatriya, +might be devised for them by their bards when they were subsequently converted from Buddhism to Hinduism. The Sākas of western +India, on the other hand, who it is suggested may be represented by the Yādavas, were not Buddhists in the beginning, whether +or not they became so afterwards. But as has been seen, though Buddha was their first progenitor, Krishna was also their king +while they were in Gujarāt, so that at this time they must have been supposed to be Hindus. The legend of descent from Buddha +arising with the Yueh-chi or Kushāns might have been extended to them. Again, the four Agnikula or fire-born clans, the Parihār, +Chalukya or Solankhi, Panwār and Chauhān, are considered to be the descendants of the White Hun and Gūjar invaders of the +fifth and sixth centuries. These clans were said to have been created by the gods from a firepit on the summit of Mount Abu +for the re-birth of the Kshatriya caste after it had been exterminated by the slaughter of Parasurāma the Brāhman. And it +has been suggested that this legend refers to the cruel massacres of the Huns, by which the bulk of the old aristocracy, then +mainly Buddhist, was wiped out; while the Huns and Gūjars, one at least of whose leaders was a fervent adherent of Brāhmanism +and slaughtered the Buddhists of the Punjab, became the new fire-born clans on being absorbed into Hinduism.<a id="d0e12286src" href="#d0e12286" class="noteref">7</a> The name of the Huns is still retained in the Hūna clan, now almost extinct. There remain the clans descended from the sun +through Rāma, and it would be <a id="d0e12289"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e12289">417</a>]</span>tempting to suppose that these are the representatives of the old Aryan Kshatriyas. But Mr. Bhandarkar has shown<a id="d0e12291src" href="#d0e12291" class="noteref">8</a> that the Sesodias, the premier clan of the solar race and of all Rājpūts, are probably sprung from Nāgar Brāhmans of Gujarāt, +and hence from the Gūjar tribes; and it must therefore be supposed that the story of solar origin and divine ancestry was +devised because they were once Brāhmans, and hence, in the view of the bards, of more honourable origin than the other clans. +Similarly the Badgūjar clan, also of solar descent, is shown by its name of <i>bara</i> or great Gūjar to have been simply an aristocratic section of the Gūjars; while the pedigree of the Rāthors, another solar +clan, and one of those who have shed most lustre on the Rājpūt name, was held to be somewhat doubtful by the Bhāts, and their +solar origin was not fully admitted. Mr. Smith gives two great clans as very probably of aboriginal or Dravidian origin, the +Gaharwār or Gherwāl, from whom the Bundelas are derived, and the Chandel, who ruled Bundelkhand from the ninth to the twelfth +centuries, and built the fine temples at Mahoba, Kālanjar and Khajarāho as well as making many great tanks. This corresponds +with Colonel Tod’s account, which gives no place to the Chandels among the thirty-six royal races, and states that the Gherwāl +Rājpūt is scarcely known to his brethren in Rājasthān, who will not admit his contaminated blood to mix with theirs, though +as a brave warrior he is entitled to their fellowship.<a id="d0e12302src" href="#d0e12302" class="noteref">9</a> Similarly the Kāthi clan may be derived from the indigenous Kāthi tribe who gave their name to Kāthiāwār. And the Sūrajvansi, +Somvansi and Nāgvansi clans, or descendants of the sun, moon and snake, which are scarcely known in Rājputāna, may represent +landholding sections of lower castes or non-Aryan tribes who have been admitted to Rājpūt rank. But even though it be found +that the majority of the Rājpūt clans cannot boast a pedigree dating farther back than the first five centuries of our era, +this is at any rate an antiquity to which few if any of the greatest European houses can lay claim. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e12307"> +<h3>4. Subdivisions of the clans</h3> +<p>Many of the great clans are now split up into a number <a id="d0e12312"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e12312">418</a>]</span>of branches. The most important of these were according to locality, the different <i>sachae</i> or branches being groups settled in separate areas. Thus the Chalukya or Solankhi had sixteen branches, of which the Baghels +of Rewah or Baghelkhand were the most important. The Panwārs had thirty-five branches, of which the Mori and the Dhunda, now +perhaps the Dhundele of Saugor, are the best known. The Gahlot had twenty-four branches, of which one, the Sesodia, became +so important that it has given its name to the whole clan. The Chamār-Gaur section of the Gaur clan now claim a higher rank +than the other Gaurs, though the name would apparently indicate the appearance of a Chamār in their family tree; while the +Tilokchandi Bais form an aristocratic section of the Bais clan, named after a well-known king, Tilokchand, who reigned in +upper India about the twelfth century and is presumably claimed by them as an ancestor. Besides this the Rājpūts have <i>gotras</i>, named after eponymous saints exactly like the Brāhman <i>gotras</i>, and probably adopted in imitation of the Brāhmans. Since, theoretically, marriage is prohibited in the whole clan, the <i>gotra</i> divisions would appear to be useless, but Sir H. Risley states that persons of the same clan but with different <i>gotras</i> have begun to intermarry. Similarly it would appear that the different branches of the great clans mentioned above must intermarry +in some cases; while in the Central Provinces, as already stated, several clans have become regular castes and form endogamous +and not exogamous groups. In northern India, however, Mr. Crooke’s accounts of the different clans indicate that marriage +within the clan is as a rule not permitted. The clans themselves and their branches have different degrees of rank for purposes +of marriage, according to the purity of their descent, while in each clan or subclan there is an inferior section formed of +the descendants of remarried widows, or even the offspring of women of another caste, who have probably in the course of generations +not infrequently got back into their father’s clan. Thus many groups of varying status arise, and one of the principal rules +of a Rājpūt’s life was that he must marry his daughter, sometimes into a clan of equal, or sometimes into one of higher rank +than his own. Hence arose great <a id="d0e12329"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e12329">419</a>]</span>difficulty in arranging the marriages of girls and sometimes the payment of a price to the bridegroom; while in order to retain +the favour of the Bhāts and avoid their sarcasm, lavish expenditure had to be incurred by the bride’s father on presents to +these rapacious mendicants.<a id="d0e12331src" href="#d0e12331" class="noteref">10</a> Thus a daughter became in a Rājpūt’s eyes a long step on the road to ruin, and female infanticide was extensively practised. +This crime has never been at all common in the Central Provinces, where the rule of marrying a daughter into an equal or higher +clan has not been enforced with the same strictness as in northern India. But occasional instances formerly occurred in which +the child’s neck was placed under one leg of its mother’s cot, or it was poisoned with opium or by placing the juice of the +<i>ākra</i> or swallow-wort plant on the mother’s nipple. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e12337"> +<h3>5. Marriage customs</h3> +<p>Properly the proposal for a Rājpūt marriage should emanate from the bride’s side, and the customary method of making it was +to send a cocoanut to the bridegroom. ‘The cocoanut came,’ was the phrase used to intimate that a proposal of marriage had +been made.<a id="d0e12342src" href="#d0e12342" class="noteref">11</a> It is possible that the bride’s initiative was a relic of the Swayamwāra or maiden’s choice, when a king’s daughter placed +a garland on the neck of the youth she preferred among the competitors in a tournament, and among some Rājpūts the Jāyamāla +or garland of victory is still hung round the bridegroom’s neck in memory of this custom; but it may also have been due to +the fact that the bride had to pay the dowry. One tenth of this was paid as earnest when the match had been arranged, and +the boy’s party could not then recede from it. At the entrance of the marriage-shed was hung the <i>toran</i>, a triangle of three wooden bars, having the apex crowned with the effigy of a peacock. The bridegroom on horseback, lance +in hand, proceeded to break the <i>toran</i>, which was defended by the damsels of the bride. They assailed him with missiles of various kinds, and especially with red +powder made from the flowers of the <i>palās</i><a id="d0e12355src" href="#d0e12355" class="noteref">12</a> tree, at the same time singing songs full of immoral allusions. At length the <a id="d0e12360"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e12360">420</a>]</span><i>toran</i> was broken amid the shouts of the retainers, and the fair defenders retired. If the bridegroom could not attend in person +his sword was sent to represent him, and was carried round the marriage-post, with the bride, this being considered a proper +and valid marriage. At the rite of <i>hātleva</i> or joining the hands of the couple it was customary that any request made by the bridegroom to the bride’s father should +meet with compliance, and this usage has led to many fatal results in history. Another now obsolete custom was that the bride’s +father should present an elephant to his son-in-law as part of the dowry, but when a man could not afford a real elephant +a small golden image of the animal might be substituted. In noble families the bride was often accompanied to her husband’s +house by a number of maidens belonging to the servant and menial castes. These were called Devadhari or lamp-bearers, and +became inmates of the harem, their offspring being <i>golas</i> or slaves. In time of famine many of the poor had also perforce to sell themselves as slaves in order to obtain subsistence, +and a chiefs household would thus contain a large number of them. They were still adorned in Mewār, Colonel Tod states, like +the Saxon slaves of old, with a silver ring round the left ankle instead of the neck. They were well treated, and were often +among the best of the military retainers; they took rank among themselves according to the quality of the mothers, and often +held confidential places about the ruler’s person. A former chief of Deogarh would appear at court with three hundred <i>golas</i> or slaves on horseback in his train, men whose lives were his own.<a id="d0e12373src" href="#d0e12373" class="noteref">13</a> These special customs have now generally been abandoned by the Rājpūts of the Central Provinces, and their weddings conform +to the usual Hindu type as described in the article on Kurmi. The remarriage of widows is now recognised in the southern Districts, +though not in the north; but even here widows frequently do marry and their offspring are received into the caste, though +with a lower status than those who do not permit this custom. Among the Baghels a full Rājpūt will allow a relative born of +a remarried widow to cook his food for him, but not to add the salt nor to eat it with him. <a id="d0e12378"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e12378">421</a>]</span>Those who permit the second marriage of widows also allow a divorced woman to remain in the caste and to marry again. But +among proper Rājpūts, as with Brāhmans, a wife who goes wrong is simply put away and expelled from the society. Polygamy is +permitted and was formerly common among the chiefs. Each wife was maintained in a separate suite of rooms, and the chief dined +and spent the evening alternately with each of them in her own quarters. The lady with her attendants would prepare dinner +for him and wait upon him while he ate it, waving the punkah or fan behind him and entertaining him with her remarks, which, +according to report, frequently constituted a pretty severe curtain lecture. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e12380"> +<h3>6. Funeral rites</h3> +<p>The dead are burnt, except infants, whose bodies are buried. Mourning is observed for thirteen days for a man, nine days for +a woman, and three days for a child. The <i>shrāddh</i> ceremony or offering of sacrificial cakes to the spirit is performed either during the usual period in the month of Kunwār +(September), or on the anniversary day of the death. It was formerly held that if a Kshatriya died on the battlefield it was +unnecessary to perform his funeral rites because his spirit went straight to heaven, and thus the end to which the ceremonies +were directed was already attained without them. It was also said that the wife of a man dying such a death should not regard +herself as a widow nor undergo the privations imposed on widowhood. But this did not apply so far as self-immolation was concerned, +since the wives of warriors dying in battle very frequently became <i>sati</i>. In the case of chiefs also it was sometimes the custom, probably for political reasons, that the heir should not observe +mourning; because if he did so he would be incapable of appearing in an assembly for thirteen days, or of taking the public +action which might be requisite to safeguard his succession. The body of the late chief would be carried out by the back door +of the house, and as soon as it left his successor would take his seat on the <i>gaddi</i> or cushion and begin to discharge the public business of government. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e12394"> +<h3>7. Religion</h3> +<p>The principal deity of the Rājpūts is the goddess Devi or Durga in her more terrible form as the goddess of war. Their swords +were sacred to her, and at the Dasahra festival <a id="d0e12399"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e12399">422</a>]</span>they worshipped their swords and other weapons of war and their horses. The dreadful goddess also protected the virtue of +the Rājpūt women and caused to be enacted the terrible holocausts, not infrequent in Rājpūt history, when some stronghold +was besieged and could hold out no longer. A great furnace was then kindled in the citadel and into this the women, young +and old, threw themselves, or else died by their husbands’ swords, while the men, drunk with <i>bhāng</i> and wearing saffron-coloured robes, sallied out to sell their lives to the enemy as dearly as possible. It is related that +on one occasion Akbar desired to attempt the virtue of a queen of the Sesodia clan, and for that purpose caused her to lose +herself in one of the mazes of his palace. The emperor appeared before her suddenly as she was alone, but the lady, drawing +a dagger, threatened to plunge it into her breast if he did not respect her, and at the same time the goddess of her house +appeared riding on a tiger. The baffled emperor gave way and retired, and her life and virtue were saved. + +</p> +<p>The Rājpūts also worship the sun, whom many of them look upon as their first ancestor. They revere the animals and trees sacred +to the Hindus, and some clans show special veneration to a particular tree, never cutting or breaking the branches or leaves. +In this manner the Bundelas revere the <i>kadamb</i> tree, the Panwārs the <i>nīm</i><a id="d0e12411src" href="#d0e12411" class="noteref">14</a> tree, the Rāthors the pīpal<a id="d0e12416src" href="#d0e12416" class="noteref">15</a> tree, and so on. This seems to be a relic of totemistic usage. In former times each clan had also a tribal god, who was its +protector and leader and watched over the destinies of the clan. Sometimes it accompanied the clan into battle. “Every royal +house has its palladium, which is frequently borne to battle at the saddle-bow of the prince. Rao Bhima Hāra of Kotah lost +his life and protecting deity together. The celebrated Khīchi (Chauhān) leader Jai Singh never took the field without the +god before him. ‘Victory to Bujrung’ was his signal for the charge so dreaded by the Marātha, and often has the deity been +sprinkled with his blood and that of the foe.”<a id="d0e12420src" href="#d0e12420" class="noteref">16</a> It is said that a Rājpūt should always kill a snake if he sees one, because the snake, though a prince among Rājpūts, is +an enemy, <a id="d0e12425"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e12425">423</a>]</span>and he should not let it live. If he does not kill it, the snake will curse him and bring ill-luck upon him. The same rule +applies, though with less binding force, to a tiger. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e12427"> +<h3>8. Food</h3> +<p>The Rājpūts eat the flesh of clean animals, but not pigs or fowls. They are, however, fond of the sport of pig-sticking, and +many clans, as the Bundelas and others, will eat the flesh of the wild pig. This custom was perhaps formerly universal. Some +of them eat of male animals only and not of females, either because they fear that the latter would render them effeminate +or that they consider the sin to be less. Some only eat animals killed by the method of <i>jatka</i> or severing the head with one stroke of the sword or knife. They will not eat animals killed in the Muhammadan fashion by +cutting the throat. They abstain from the flesh of the <i>nīlgai</i> or blue bull as being an animal of the cow tribe. Among the Brāhmans and Rājpūts food cooked with water must not be placed +in bamboo baskets, nor must anything made of bamboo be brought into the <i>rasoya</i> or cooking-place, or the <i>chauka</i>, the space cleaned and marked out for meals. A special brush of date-palm fibre is kept solely for sweeping these parts of +the house. At a Rājpūt banquet it was the custom for the prince to send a little food from his own plate or from the dish +before him to any guest whom he especially wished to honour, and to receive this was considered a very high distinction. In +Mewār the test of legitimacy in a prince of the royal house was the permission to eat from the chief’s plate. The grant of +this privilege conferred a recognised position, while its denial excluded the member in question from the right to the succession.<a id="d0e12444src" href="#d0e12444" class="noteref">17</a> This custom indicates the importance attached to the taking of food together as a covenant or sacrament. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e12449"> +<h3>9. Opium</h3> +<p>The Rājpūts abstain from alcoholic liquor, though some of the lower class, as the Bundelas, drink it. In classical times there +is no doubt that they drank freely, but have had to conform to the prohibition of liquor imposed by the Brāhmans on high-caste +Hindus. In lieu of liquor they became much addicted to the noxious drugs, opium and gānja or Indian hemp, drinking the latter +in the form of the intoxicating liquid known as <i>bhāngs</i>, which is prepared <a id="d0e12457"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e12457">424</a>]</span>from its leaves. <i>Bhāng</i> was as a rule drunk by the Rājpūts before battle, and especially as a preparation for those last sallies from a besieged +fortress in which the defenders threw away their lives. There is little reason to doubt that they considered the frenzy and +carelessness of death produced by the liquor as a form of divine possession. Opium has contributed much to the degeneration +of the Rājpūts, and their relapse to an idle, sensuous life when their energies were no longer maintained by the need of continuous +fighting for the protection of their country. The following account by Forbes of a Rājpūt’s daily life well illustrates the +slothful effeminacy caused by the drug:<a id="d0e12462src" href="#d0e12462" class="noteref">18</a> “In times of peace and ease the Rājpūt leads an indolent and monotonous life. It is usually some time after sunrise before +he bestirs himself and begins to call for his hookah; after smoking he enjoys the luxury of tea or coffee, and commences his +toilet and ablutions, which dispose of a considerable part of the morning. It is soon breakfast-time, and after breakfast +the hookah is again in requisition, with but few intervals of conversation until noon. The time has now arrived for a siesta, +which lasts till about three in the afternoon. At this hour the chief gets up again, washes his hands and face, and prepares +for the great business of the day, the distribution of the red cup, <i>kusumba</i> or opium. He calls together his friends into the public hall, or perhaps retires with them to a garden-house. Opium is produced, +which is pounded in a brass vessel and mixed with water; it is then strained into a dish with a spout, from which it is poured +into the chief’s hand. One after the other the guests now come up, each protesting that <i>kusumba</i> is wholly repugnant to his taste and very injurious to his health, but after a little pressing first one and then another +touches the chief’s hand in two or three places, muttering the names of Deos (gods), friends or others, and drains the draught. +Each after drinking washes the chief’s hand in a dish of water which a servant offers, and after wiping it dry with his own +scarf makes way for his neighbour. After this refreshment the chief and his guests sit down in the public hall, and amuse +themselves with chess, draughts or games of chance, or perhaps dancing-girls are called in to <a id="d0e12473"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e12473">425</a>]</span>exhibit their monotonous measures, or musicians and singers, or the never-failing favourites, the Bhāts and Chārans. At sunset +the torch-bearers appear and supply the chamber with light, upon which all those who are seated therein rise and make obeisance +towards the chief’s cushion. They resume their seats, and playing, singing, dancing, story-telling go on as before. At about +eight the chief rises to retire to his dinner and his hookah, and the party is broken up.” There is little reason to doubt +that the Rājpūts ascribed a divine character to opium and the mental exaltation produced by it, as suggested in the article +on Kalār in reference to the Hindus generally. Opium was commonly offered at the shrines of deified Rājpūt heroes. Colonel +Tod states: “<i>Umul lār khāna</i>, to eat opium together, is the most inviolable, pledge, and an agreement ratified by this ceremony is stronger than any adjuration.”<a id="d0e12478src" href="#d0e12478" class="noteref">19</a> The account given by Forbes of the manner in which the drug was distributed by the chief from his own hand to all his clansmen +indicates that the drinking of it was the renewal of a kind of pledge or covenant between them, analogous to the custom of +pledging one another with wine, and a substitute for the covenant made by taking food together, which originated from the +sacrificial meal. It has already been seen that the Rājpūts attached the most solemn meaning and virtue to the act of partaking +of the chief’s food, and it is legitimate to infer that they regarded the drinking of a sacred drug like opium from his hand +in the same light. The following account<a id="d0e12483src" href="#d0e12483" class="noteref">20</a> of the drinking of healths in a Highland clan had, it may be suggested, originally the same significance as the distribution +of opium by the Rājpūt chief: “Lord Lovat was wont in the hall before dinner to have a kind of herald proclaiming his pedigree, +which reached almost up to Noah, and showed each man present to be a cadet of his family, whilst after dinner he drank to +every one of his cousins by name, each of them in return pledging him—the better sort in French claret, the lower class in +husky (whisky).” Here also the drinking of wine together perhaps implied the renewal of a pledge of fealty and protection +between the chief and his clansmen, <a id="d0e12488"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e12488">426</a>]</span>all of whom were held to be of his kin. The belief in the kinship of the whole clan existed among the Rājpūts exactly as in +the Scotch clans. In speaking of the Rāthors Colonel Tod states that they brought into the field fifty thousand men, <i>Ek bāp ka beta</i>, the sons of one father, to combat with the emperor of Delhi; and remarks: “What a sensation does it not excite when we know +that a sentiment of kindred pervades every individual of this immense affiliated body, who can point out in the great tree +the branch of his origin, of which not one is too remote from the main stem to forget his pristine connection with it.”<a id="d0e12493src" href="#d0e12493" class="noteref">21</a> + +</p> +<p>The taking of opium and wine together, as already described, thus appear to be ceremonies of the same character, both symbolising +the renewal of a covenant between kinsmen. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e12500"> +<h3>10. Improved training of Rājpūt chiefs</h3> +<p>The temptations to a life of idleness and debauchery to which Rājpūt gentlemen were exposed by the cessation of war have happily +been largely met and overcome by the careful education and training which their sons now receive in the different chiefs’ +colleges and schools, and by the fostering of their taste for polo and other games. There is every reason to hope that a Rājpūt +prince’s life will now be much like that of an English country gentleman, spent largely in public business and the service +of his country, with sport and games as relaxation. Nor are the Rājpūts slow to avail themselves of the opportunities for +the harder calling of arms afforded by the wars of the British Empire, in which they are usually the first to proffer their +single-hearted and unselfish assistance. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e12505"> +<h3>11. Dress</h3> +<p>The most distinctive feature of a Rājpūt’s dress was formerly his turban; the more voluminous and heavy this was, the greater +distinction attached to the bearer. The cloth was wound in many folds above the head, or cocked over one ear as a special +mark of pride. An English gentleman once remarked to the minister of the Rao of Cutch on the size and weight of his turban, +when the latter replied, ‘Oh, this is nothing, it only weighs fifteen pounds.’<a id="d0e12510src" href="#d0e12510" class="noteref">22</a> A considerable reverence attached to the turban, probably because it was the covering of the head, the seat of life, and +<a id="d0e12516"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e12516">427</a>]</span>the exchanging of turbans was the mark of the closest friendship. On one occasion Shāh Jahān, before he came to the throne +of Delhi, changed turbans with the Rāna of Mewār as a mark of amity. Shāh Jahān’s turban was still preserved at Udaipur, and +seen there by Colonel Tod in 1820. They also wore the beard and moustaches very long and full, the moustache either drooping +far below the chin, or being twisted out stiffly on each side to impart an aspect of fierceness. Many Rājpūts considered it +a disgrace to have grey beards or moustaches, and these were accustomed to dye them with a preparation of indigo. Thus dyed, +however, after a few days the beard and moustache assumed a purple tint, and finally faded to a pale plum colour, far from +being either deceptive or ornamental. The process of dyeing was said to be tedious, and the artist compelled his patient to +sit many hours under the indigo treatment with his head wrapped up in plantain leaves.<a id="d0e12518src" href="#d0e12518" class="noteref">23</a> During the Muhammadan wars, however, the Rājpūts gave up their custom of wearing beards in order to be distinguished from +Moslems, and now, as a rule, do not retain them, while most of them have also discarded the long moustaches and large turbans. +In battle, especially when they expected to die, the Rājpūts wore saffron-coloured robes as at a wedding. At the same time +their wives frequently performed <i>sati</i>, and the idea was perhaps that they looked on their deaths as the occasion of a fresh bridal in the warrior’s Valhalla. Women +wear skirts and shoulder-cloths, and in Rājputāna they have bangles of ivory or bone instead of the ordinary glass, sometimes +covering the arm from the shoulders to the wrist. Their other ornaments should be of gold if possible, but the rule is not +strictly observed, and silver and baser metals are worn. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e12527"> +<h3>12. Social customs</h3> +<p>The Rājpūts wear the sacred thread, but many of them have abandoned the proper <i>upanayana</i> or thread ceremony, and simply invest boys with it at their marriage. In former times, when a boy became fit to bear arms, +the ceremony of <i>kharg bandai</i>, or binding on of the sword, was performed, and considered to mark his attainment of manhood. The king himself had his sword +thus bound on by the first of his vassals. The Rājpūts take food cooked with water (<i>katchi</i>) <a id="d0e12541"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e12541">428</a>]</span>only from Brāhmans, and that cooked without water (<i>pakki</i>) from Banias, and sometimes from Lodhis and Dhīmars. Brāhmans will take <i>pakki</i> food from Rājpūts, and Nais and Dhīmars <i>katchi</i> food. When a man is ill, however, he may take food from members of such castes as Kurmi and Lodhi as a matter of convenience +without incurring caste penalties. The large turbans and long moustaches and beards no longer characterise their appearance, +and the only point which distinguishes a Rājpūt is that his name ends with Singh (lion). But this suffix has also been adopted +by others, especially the Sikhs, and by such castes as the Lodhis and Rāj-Gonds who aspire to rank as Rājpūts. A Rājpūt is +usually addressed as Thākur or lord, a title which properly applies only to a Rājpūt landholder, but has now come into general +use. The head of a state has the designation of Rāja or Rāna, and those of the leading states of Mahārāja or Mahārāna, that +is, great king. Mahārāna, which appears to be a Gujarāti form, is used by the Sesodia family of Udaipur. The sons of a Rāja +are called Kunwar or prince. The title Rao appears to be a Marāthi form of Rāj or Rāja; it is retained by one or two chiefs, +but has now been generally adopted as an honorific suffix by Marātha Brāhmans. Rawat appears to have been originally equivalent +to Rājpūt, being simply a diminutive of Rājpūtra, the Sanskrit form of the latter. It is the name of a clan of Rājpūts in +the Punjab, and is used as an honorific designation by Ahīrs, Saonrs, Kols and others. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e12552"> +<h3>13. Seclusion of women</h3> +<p>Women are strictly secluded by the Rājpūts, especially in Upper India, but this practice does not appear to have been customary +in ancient times, and it would be interesting to know whether it has been copied from the Muhammadans. It is said that a good +Rājpūt in the Central Provinces must not drive the plough, his wife must not use the <i>rehnta</i> or spinning-wheel, and his household may not have the <i>kathri</i> or <i>gudri</i>, the mattress made of old pieces of cloth or rag sewn one on top of the other, which is common in the poorer Hindu households. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e12566"> +<h3>14. Traditional character of the Rājpūts</h3> +<p>The Rājpūts as depicted by Colonel Tod resembled the knights of the age of chivalry. Courage, strength and endurance were +the virtues most highly prized. One of the <a id="d0e12571"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e12571">429</a>]</span>Rājpūt trials of strength, it is recorded, was to gallop at full speed under the horizontal branch of a tree and cling to +it while the horse passed on. This feat appears to have been a common amusement, and it is related in the annals of Mewār +that the chief of Bunera broke his spine in the attempt; and there were few who came off without bruises and falls, in which +consisted the sport. Of their martial spirit Colonel Tod writes: “The Rājpūt mother claims her full share in the glory of +her son, who imbibes at the maternal fount his first rudiments of chivalry; and the importance of this parental instruction +cannot be better illustrated than in the ever-recurring simile, ‘Make thy mother’s milk resplendent.’ One need not reason +on the intensity of sentiment thus implanted in the infant Rājpūt, of whom we may say without metaphor the shield is his cradle +and daggers his playthings, and with whom the first commandment is ‘Avenge thy father’s feud.’<a id="d0e12573src" href="#d0e12573" class="noteref">24</a> A Rājpūt yet loves to talk of the days of chivalry, when three things alone occupied him, his horse, his lance and his mistress; +for she is but third in his estimation after all, and to the first two he owed her.”<a id="d0e12578src" href="#d0e12578" class="noteref">25</a> And of their desire for fame: “This sacrifice (of the Johar) accomplished, their sole thought was to secure a niche in that +immortal temple of fame, which the Rājpūt bard, as well as the great minstrel of the West peoples ‘with youths who died to +be by poets sung.’ For this the Rājpūt’s anxiety has in all ages been so great as often to defeat even the purpose of revenge, +his object being to die gloriously rather than to inflict death; assured that his name would never perish, but, preserved +in immortal rhyme by the bard, would serve as the incentive to similar deeds.”<a id="d0e12583src" href="#d0e12583" class="noteref">26</a> He sums up their character in the following terms: “High courage, patriotism, loyalty, honour, hospitality and simplicity +are qualities which must at once be conceded to them; and if we cannot vindicate them from charges to which human nature in +every clime is obnoxious; if we are compelled to admit the deterioration of moral dignity from continual inroads of, and their +consequent collision with rapacious conquerors; we must yet admire the quantum of virtue <a id="d0e12588"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e12588">430</a>]</span>which even oppression and bad example have failed to banish. The meaner vices of deceit and falsehood, which the delineators +of national character attach to the Asiatic without distinction, I deny to be universal with the Rājpūts, though some tribes +may have been obliged from position to use these shields of the weak against continuous oppression.”<a id="d0e12590src" href="#d0e12590" class="noteref">27</a> The women prized martial courage no less than the men: they would hear with equanimity of the death of their sons or husbands +in the battlefield, while they heaped scorn and contumely on those who returned after defeat. They were constantly ready to +sacrifice themselves to the flames rather than fall into the hands of a conqueror; and the Johar, the final act of a besieged +garrison, when the women threw themselves into the furnace, while the men sallied forth to die in battle against the enemy, +is recorded again and again in Rājpūt annals. Three times was this tragedy enacted at the fall of Chitor, formerly the capital +fortress of the Sesodia clan; and the following vivid account is given by Colonel Tod of a similar deed at Jaisalmer, when +the town fell to the Muhammadans:<a id="d0e12595src" href="#d0e12595" class="noteref">28</a> “The chiefs were assembled; all were unanimous to make Jaisalmer resplendent by their deeds and preserve the honour of the +Yādu race. Muhāj thus addressed them: ‘You are of a warlike race and strong are your arms in the cause of your prince; what +heroes excel you who thus tread in the Chhatri’s path? For the maintenance of my honour the sword is in your hands; let Jaisalmer +be illumined by its blows upon the foe.’ Having thus inspired the chiefs and men, Muhāj and Ratan repaired to the palace of +their queens. They told them to take the <i>sohāg</i><a id="d0e12600src" href="#d0e12600" class="noteref">29</a> and prepare to meet in heaven, while they gave up their lives in defence of their honour and their faith. Smiling the Rāni +replied, ‘This night we shall prepare, and by the morning’s light we shall be inhabitants of heaven’; and thus it was with +all the chiefs and their wives. The night was passed together for the last time in preparation for the awful morn. It came; +ablutions and prayers were finished and at the royal gate were convened children, wives and <a id="d0e12603"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e12603">431</a>]</span>mothers. They bade a last farewell to all their kin; the Johar commenced, and twenty-four thousand females, from infancy to +old age, surrendered their lives, some by the sword, others in the volcano of fire. Blood flowed in torrents, while the smoke +of the pyre ascended to the heavens: not one feared to die, and every valuable was consumed with them, so that not the worth +of a straw was preserved for the foe. The work done, the brothers looked upon the spectacle with horror. Life was now a burden +and they prepared to quit it They purified themselves with water, paid adoration to the divinity, made gifts to the poor, +placed a branch of the <i>tulsi</i><a id="d0e12607src" href="#d0e12607" class="noteref">30</a> in their casques, the <i>sāligrām</i><a id="d0e12612src" href="#d0e12612" class="noteref">31</a> round their neck; and having cased themselves in armour and put on the saffron robe, they bound the marriage crown around +their heads and embraced each other for the last time. Thus they awaited the hour of battle. Three thousand eight hundred +warriors, their faces red with wrath, prepared to die with their chiefs.” In this account the preparation for the Johar as +if for a wedding is clearly brought out, and it seems likely that husbands and wives looked on it as a bridal preparatory +to the resumption of their life together in heaven. + +</p> +<p>Colonel Tod gives the following account of a Rājpūt’s arms:<a id="d0e12617src" href="#d0e12617" class="noteref">32</a> “No prince or chief is without his <i>silla-khāna</i> or armoury, where he passes hours in viewing and arranging his arms. Every favourite weapon, whether sword, dagger, spear, +matchlock or bow, has a distinctive epithet. The keeper of the armoury is one of the most confidential officers about the +person of the prince. These arms are beautiful and costly. The <i>sirohi</i> or slightly curved blade is formed like that of Damascus, and is the greatest favourite of all the variety of weapons throughout +Rājputāna. The long cut-and-thrust sword is not uncommon, and also the <i>khanda</i> or double-edged sword. The matchlocks, both of Lahore and the country, are often highly finished and inlaid with mother-of-pearl +and gold; those of Boondi are the best. The shield of the rhinoceros-hide offers the best resistance, and is often ornamented +with animals beautifully painted <a id="d0e12631"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e12631">432</a>]</span>and enamelled in gold and silver. The bow is of buffalo-horn, and the arrows of reed, which are barbed in a variety of fashions, +as the crescent, the trident, the snake’s tongue, and other fanciful forms.” It is probable that the forms were in reality +by no means fanciful, but were copied from sacred or divine objects; and similarly the animals painted on the shields may +have been originally the totem animals of the clan. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e12633"> +<h3>15. Occupation</h3> +<p>The traditional occupation of a Rājpūt was that of a warrior and landholder. Their high-flown titles, Bhupāl (Protector of +the earth), Bhupati (Lord of the earth), Bhusur (God of the earth), Bahuja (Born from the arms), indicate, Sir H. Risley says,<a id="d0e12638src" href="#d0e12638" class="noteref">33</a> the exalted claims of the tribe. The notion that the trade of arms was their proper vocation clung to them for a very long +time, and has retarded their education, so that they have perhaps lost status relatively to other castes under British supremacy. +The rule that a Rājpūt must not touch the plough was until recently very strictly observed in the more conservative centres, +and the poorer Rājpūts were reduced by it to pathetic straits for a livelihood, as is excellently shown by Mr. Barnes in the +<i>Kāngra Settlement Report</i>:<a id="d0e12646src" href="#d0e12646" class="noteref">34</a> “A Miān or well-known Rājpūt, to preserve his name and honour unsullied, must scrupulously observe four fundamental maxims: +first, he must never drive the plough; second, he must never give his daughter in marriage to an inferior nor marry himself +much below his rank; thirdly, he must never accept money in exchange for the betrothal of his daughter; and lastly, his female +household must observe strict seclusion. The prejudice against the plough is perhaps the most inveterate of all; that step +can never be recalled; the offender at once loses the privileged salutation; he is reduced to the second grade of Rājpūts; +no man will marry his daughter, and he must go a step lower in the social scale to get a wife for himself. In every occupation +of life he is made to feel his degraded position. In meetings of the tribe and at marriages the Rājpūts undefiled by the plough +will refuse to sit at meals with the Hal Bāh or plough-driver as he is <a id="d0e12652"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e12652">433</a>]</span>contemptuously styled; and many to avoid the indignity of exclusion never appear at public assemblies.... It is melancholy +to see with what devoted tenacity the Rājpūt clings to these deep-rooted prejudices. Their emaciated looks and coarse clothes +attest the vicissitudes they have undergone to maintain their fancied purity. In the quantity of waste land which abounds +in the hills, a ready livelihood is offered to those who will cultivate the soil for their daily bread; but this alternative +involves a forfeiture of their dearest rights, and they would rather follow any precarious pursuit than submit to the disgrace. +Some lounge away their time on the tops of the mountains, spreading nets for the capture of hawks; many a day they watch in +vain, subsisting on berries and on game accidentally entangled in their nets; at last, when fortune grants them success, they +despatch the prize to their friends below, who tame and instruct the bird for the purpose of sale. Others will stay at home +and pass their time in sporting, either with a hawk or, if they can afford it, with a gun; one Rājpūt beats the bushes and +the other carries the hawk ready to be sprung after any quarry that rises to the view. At the close of the day if they have +been successful they exchange the game for a little meal and thus prolong existence over another span. The marksman armed +with a gun will sit up for wild pig returning from the fields, and in the same manner barter their flesh for other necessaries +of life. However, the prospect of starvation has already driven many to take the plough, and the number of seceders daily +increases. Our administration, though just and liberal, has a levelling tendency; service is no longer to be procured, and +to many the stern alternative has arrived of taking to agriculture and securing comparative comfort, or enduring the pangs +of hunger and death. So long as any resource remains the fatal step will be postponed, but it is easy to foresee that the +struggle cannot be long protracted; necessity is a hard task-master, and sooner or later the pressure of want will overcome +the scruples of the most bigoted.” The objection to ploughing appears happily to have been quite overcome in the Central Provinces, +as at the last census nine-tenths of the whole caste were shown as employed <a id="d0e12654"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e12654">434</a>]</span>in pasture and agriculture, one-tenth of the Rājpūts being landholders, three-fifths actual cultivators, and one-fifth labourers +and woodcutters. The bulk of the remaining tenth are probably in the police or other branches of Government service. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12251" href="#d0e12251src" class="noteref">1</a></span> <i>Early History of India</i> (Oxford, Clarendon Press), 3rd edition, p. 414. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12258" href="#d0e12258src" class="noteref">2</a></span> <i>Early History of India</i>, pp. 252, 254. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12263" href="#d0e12263src" class="noteref">3</a></span> <i>Ibidem</i>, p. 210. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12268" href="#d0e12268src" class="noteref">4</a></span> <i>Ibidem</i>, p. 227. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12273" href="#d0e12273src" class="noteref">5</a></span> Colonel Tod states that, the proper name of the caste was Jit or Jat, and was changed to Jāt by a section of them who also +adopted Muhammadanism. Colonel Tod also identifies the Jats or Jits with the Yueh-chi as suggested in the text (<i>Rājasthān</i>, i. p. 97). +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12281" href="#d0e12281src" class="noteref">6</a></span> <i>Rājasthān</i>, i. p. 42. Mr. Crooke points out that the Buddha here referred to is probably the planet Mercury. But it is possible that +he may have been identified with the religious reformer as the names seem to have a common origin. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12286" href="#d0e12286src" class="noteref">7</a></span> See also separate articles on Panwār, Rājpūt and Gūjar. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12291" href="#d0e12291src" class="noteref">8</a></span> <i>J.A.S.B.</i>, 1909, p. 167, <i>Guhilots</i>. See also annexed article on Rājpūt Sesodia. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12302" href="#d0e12302src" class="noteref">9</a></span> <i>Ibidem</i>, i. p. 105. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12331" href="#d0e12331src" class="noteref">10</a></span> See also article Bhāt. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12342" href="#d0e12342src" class="noteref">11</a></span> <i>Rājasthān</i>, i. pp. 231, 232. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12355" href="#d0e12355src" class="noteref">12</a></span> <i>Butea frondosa</i>. This powder is also used at the Holi festival and has some sexual significance. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12373" href="#d0e12373src" class="noteref">13</a></span> <i>Rājasthān</i>, i. p. 159. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12411" href="#d0e12411src" class="noteref">14</a></span> <i>Melia indica</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12416" href="#d0e12416src" class="noteref">15</a></span> <i>Ficus R.</i></p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12420" href="#d0e12420src" class="noteref">16</a></span> <i>Rājasthān</i>, i. p. 123. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12444" href="#d0e12444src" class="noteref">17</a></span> <i>Rājasthān</i>, i. pp. 267, 268. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12462" href="#d0e12462src" class="noteref">18</a></span> <i>Rāsmāla</i>, ii. p. 261. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12478" href="#d0e12478src" class="noteref">19</a></span> <i>Rājasthān</i>, i. p. 553. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12483" href="#d0e12483src" class="noteref">20</a></span> <i>Reminiscences of Lady Dorothy Nevill</i>, Nelson’s edition, p. 367. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12493" href="#d0e12493src" class="noteref">21</a></span> <i>Rājasthān</i>, ii. p. 3. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12510" href="#d0e12510src" class="noteref">22</a></span> Mrs. Postans, <i>Cutch</i>, p. 35. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12518" href="#d0e12518src" class="noteref">23</a></span> Mrs. Postans, <i>Cutch</i>, p. 138. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12573" href="#d0e12573src" class="noteref">24</a></span> <i>Rājasthān</i>, i. pp. 543, 544. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12578" href="#d0e12578src" class="noteref">25</a></span> <i>Ibidem</i>, i. p. 125. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12583" href="#d0e12583src" class="noteref">26</a></span> <i>Ibidem</i>, ii. p. 52. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12590" href="#d0e12590src" class="noteref">27</a></span> <i>Rājasthān</i>, i. p. 552. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12595" href="#d0e12595src" class="noteref">28</a></span> Vol. ii. p. 227. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12600" href="#d0e12600src" class="noteref">29</a></span> A ceremony of smearing vermilion on the bride before a wedding, which is believed to bring good fortune. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12607" href="#d0e12607src" class="noteref">30</a></span> The basil plant, sacred to Vishnu. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12612" href="#d0e12612src" class="noteref">31</a></span> A round black stone, considered to be a form of Vishnu. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12617" href="#d0e12617src" class="noteref">32</a></span> <i>Rājasthān</i>, i. p. 555. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12638" href="#d0e12638src" class="noteref">33</a></span> <i>Tribes and Castes of Bengal</i>. art. Rājpūt. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12646" href="#d0e12646src" class="noteref">34</a></span> Quoted in Sir D. Ibbetson’s <i>Punjab Census Report</i> (1881), para. 456. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e12656" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Rājpūt, Baghel</h2> +<p><b>Rājpūt, Baghel.</b>—The Baghel Rājpūts, who have given their name to Baghelkhand or Rewah, the eastern part of Central India, are a branch of +the Chalukya or Solankhi clan, one of the four Agnikulas or those born from the firepit on Mount Abu. The chiefs of Rewah +are Baghel Rājpūts, and the late Mahārāja Raghurāj Singh has written a traditional history of the sept in a book called the +<i>Bhakt Māla</i>.<a id="d0e12666src" href="#d0e12666" class="noteref">1</a> He derives their origin from a child, having the form of a tiger (<i>bāgh</i>) who was born to the Solankhi Rāja of Gujarāt at the intercession of the famous saint Kabīr. One of the headquarters of the +Kabīrpanthi sect are at Kawardha, which is close to Rewah, and the ruling family are members of the sect; hence probably the +association of the Prophet with their origin. The <i>Bombay Gazetteer</i><a id="d0e12677src" href="#d0e12677" class="noteref">2</a> states that the founder of the clan was one Anoka, a nephew of the Solankhi king of Gujarāt, Kumarpāl (A.D. 1143–1174). He +obtained a grant of the village Vaghela, the tiger’s lair, about ten miles from Anhilvāda, the capital of the Solankhi dynasty, +and the Baghel clan takes its name from this village. Subsequently the Baghels extended their power over the whole of Gujarāt, +but in A.D. 1304 the last king, Karnadeva, was driven out by the Muhammadans, and one of his most beautiful wives was captured +and sent to the emperor’s harem. Karnadeva and his daughter fled and hid themselves near Nāsik, but the daughter was subsequently +also taken, while it is not stated what became of Karnadeva. Mr. Hīra Lāl suggests that he fled towards Rewah, and that he +is the Karnadeva of the list of Rewah Rājas, who married a daughter of the Gond-Rājpūt dynasty of Garha-Mandla.<a id="d0e12680src" href="#d0e12680" class="noteref">3</a> At any rate the Baghel branch of the Solankhis apparently migrated to Rewah from Gujarāt and founded that State <a id="d0e12686"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e12686">435</a>]</span>about the fourteenth century, as in the fifteenth they became prominent. According to Captain Forsyth, the Baghels claim descent +from a tiger, and protect it when they can; and, probably, as suggested by Mr. Crooke,<a id="d0e12688src" href="#d0e12688" class="noteref">4</a> the name is really totemistic, or is derived from some ancestor of the clan who obtained the name of the tiger as a title +or nickname, like the American Red Indians. The Baghels are found in the Hoshangābād District, and in Mandla and Chhattīsgarh +which are close to Rewah. Amarkantak, at the source of the Nerbudda, is the sepulchre of the Mahārājas of Rewah, and was ceded +to them with the Sohāgpur tahsīl of Mandla after the Mutiny, in consideration of their loyalty and services during that period. + +</p> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12666" href="#d0e12666src" class="noteref">1</a></span> Mr. Crooke’s <i>Tribes and Castes</i>, art. Baghel. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12677" href="#d0e12677src" class="noteref">2</a></span> Vol. i. part i. p. 198. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12680" href="#d0e12680src" class="noteref">3</a></span> See also a history of the Baghels, called <i>Pratāp Vinod</i>, written by Khān Bahādur Rahmat Ali Khān, and translated by Thākur Pratāp Singh, Revenue Commissioner of Rewah. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12688" href="#d0e12688src" class="noteref">4</a></span> Article Baghel, quoting Forsyth’s <i>Highlands of Central India</i>. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e12694" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Rājpūt, Bāgri</h2> +<p><b>Rājpūt, Bāgri.</b>—This clan is found in small numbers in the Hoshangābād and Seoni Districts. The name Bāgri, Malcolm says,<a id="d0e12701src" href="#d0e12701" class="noteref">1</a> is derived from that large tract of plain called Bāgar or ‘hedge of thorns,’ the Bāgar being surrounded by ridges of wooded +hills on all sides as if by a hedge. The Bāgar is the plain country of the Bikaner State, and any Jāt or Rājpūt coming from +this tract is called Bāgri.<a id="d0e12706src" href="#d0e12706" class="noteref">2</a> The Rājpūts of Bikaner are Rāthors, but they are not numerous, and the great bulk of the people are Jāts. Hence it is probable +that the Bāgris of the Central Provinces were originally Jāts. In Seoni they say that they are Baghel Rājpūts, but this claim +is unsupported by any tradition or evidence. In Central India the Bāgris are professed robbers and thieves, but these seem +to be a separate group, a section of the Badhak or Bāwaria dacoits, and derived from the aboriginal population of Central +India. The Bāgris of Seoni are respectable cultivators and own a number of villages. They rank higher than the local Panwārs +and wear the sacred thread, but will remove dead cattle with their own hands. They marry among themselves. + +</p> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12701" href="#d0e12701src" class="noteref">1</a></span> <i>Memoir of Central India</i>, vol. ii. p. 479. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12706" href="#d0e12706src" class="noteref">2</a></span> <i>Punjab Census Report</i> (1881), para. 445. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e12711" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Rājpūt, Bais</h2> +<p><b>Rājpūt, Bais.</b><a id="d0e12717src" href="#d0e12717" class="noteref">1</a>—The Bais are one of the thirty-six royal <a id="d0e12720"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e12720">436</a>]</span>races. Colonel Tod considered them a branch of the Sūrajvansi, but according to their own account their eponymous ancestor +was Sālivāhana, the mythic son of a snake, who conquered the great Rāja Vikramaditya of Ujjain and fixed his own era in A.D. +55. This is the Sāka era, and Sālivāhana was the leader of the Sāka nomads who invaded Gujarāt on two occasions, before and +shortly after the beginning of the Christian era. It is suggested in the article on Rājpūt that the Yādava lunar clan are +the representatives of these Sākas, and if this were correct the Bais would be a branch of the lunar race. The fact that they +are snake-worshippers is in favour of their connection with the Yādavas and other clans, who are supposed to represent the +Scythian invaders of the first and subsequent centuries, and had the legend of being descended from a snake. The Bais, Mr. +Crooke says, believe that no snake has destroyed, or ever can destroy, one of the clan. They seem to take no precautions against +the bite except hanging a vessel of water at the head of the sufferer, with a small tube at the bottom, from which the water +is poured on his head as long as he can bear it. The cobra is, in fact, the tribal god. The name is derived by Mr. Crooke +from the Sanskrit Vaishya, one who occupies the soil. The principal hero of the Bais was Tilokchand, who is supposed to have +come from the Central Provinces. He lived about A.D. 1400, and was the premier Rāja of Oudh. He extended his dominions over +all the tract known as Baiswāra, which comprises the bulk of the Rai Bareli and Unao Districts, and is the home of the Bais +Rājpūts. The descendants of Tilokchand form a separate subdivision known as Tilokchandi Bais, who rank higher than the ordinary +Bais, and will not eat with them. The Bais Rājpūts are found all over the United Provinces. In the Central Provinces they +have settled in small numbers in the northern and eastern Districts. + +</p> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12717" href="#d0e12717src" class="noteref">1</a></span> This article consists entirely of extracts from Mr. Crooke’s article on the Bais Rājpūts. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e12722" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Rājpūt, Baksaria</h2> +<p><b>Rājpūt, Baksaria.</b>—A small clan found principally in the Bilāspur District, who derive their name from Baxār in Bengal. They were accustomed +to send a litter, that is to say, a girl of their clan, to the harem of each Mughal Emperor, and this has degraded them. They +allow widow-marriage, <a id="d0e12729"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e12729">437</a>]</span>and do not wear the sacred thread. It is probable that they marry among themselves, as other Rājpūts do not intermarry with +them, and they are no doubt an impure group with little pretension to be Rājpūts. The name Baksaria is found in the United +Provinces as a territorial subcaste of several castes. + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e12731" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Rājpūt, Banāphar</h2> +<p><b>Rājpūt, Banāphar.</b>—Mr. Crooke states that this sept is a branch of the Yādavas, and hence it is of the lunar race. The sept is famous on account +of the exploits of the heroes Alha and Udal who belonged to it, and who fought for the Chandel kings of Mahoba and Khajurāha +in their wars against Prithwi Rāj Chauhān, the king of Delhi. The exploits of Alha and Udal form the theme of poems still +well known and popular in Bundelkhand, to which the sept belongs. The Banāphars have only a moderately respectable rank among +Rājpūts.<a id="d0e12738src" href="#d0e12738" class="noteref">1</a> + +</p> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12738" href="#d0e12738src" class="noteref">1</a></span> Mr. Crooke’s <i>Tribes and Castes</i>, art. Banāphar. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e12744" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Rājpūt, Bhadauria</h2> +<p><b>Rājpūt, Bhadauria.</b>—An important clan who take their name from the village of Bhadāwar near Ater, south of the Jumna. They are probably a branch +of the Chauhāns, being given as such by Colonel Tod and Sir H.M. Elliot.<a id="d0e12751src" href="#d0e12751" class="noteref">1</a> Mr. Crooke remarks<a id="d0e12761src" href="#d0e12761" class="noteref">2</a> that the Chauhāns are disposed to deny this relationship, now that from motives of convenience the two tribes have begun +to intermarry. If they are, as supposed, an offshoot of the Chauhāns, this is an instance of the subdivision of a large clan +leading to intermarriage between two sections, which has probably occurred in other instances also. This clan is returned +from the Hoshangābād District. + +</p> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12751" href="#d0e12751src" class="noteref">1</a></span> <i>Rājasthān</i>, i. p. 88, and <i>Supplementary Glossary</i>, <i>s.v.</i></p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12761" href="#d0e12761src" class="noteref">2</a></span> <i>Tribes and Castes</i>, <i>s.v.</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e12768" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Rājpūt, Bisen</h2> +<p><b>Rājpūt, Bisen.</b>—This clan belongs to the United Provinces and Oudh. They do not appear in history before the time of Akbar, and claim descent +from a well-known Brāhman saint and a woman of the Sūrajvansi Rājpūts whom he married. The Bisens occupy a respectable position +among Rājpūts, and intermarry with other good clans. +<a id="d0e12775"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e12775">438</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div id="d0e12776" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Rājpūt, Bundela</h2> +<p><b>Rājpūt, Bundela.</b>—A well-known clan of Rājpūts of somewhat inferior position, who have given their name to Bundelkhand, or the tract comprised +principally in the Districts of Saugor, Damoh, Jhānsi, Hamīrpur and Bānda, and the Panna, Orchha, Datia and other States. +The Bundelas are held to be derived from the Gaharwār or Gherwāl Rājpūts, and there is some reason for supposing that these +latter were originally an aristocratic section of the Bhar tribe with some infusion of Rājpūt blood. But the Gaharwārs now +rank almost with the highest clans. According to tradition one of the Gaharwār Rājas offered a sacrifice of his own head to +the Vindhya-basini Devi or the goddess of the Vindhya hills, and out of the drops (<i>bund</i>) of blood which fell on the altar a boy was born. He returned to Panna and founded the clan which bears the name Bundela, +from <i>bund</i>, a drop.<a id="d0e12789src" href="#d0e12789" class="noteref">1</a> It is probable that, as suggested by Captain Luard, the name is really a corruption of Vindhya or Vindhyela, a dweller in +the Vindhya hills, where, according to their own tradition, the clan had its birth. The Bundelas became prominent in the thirteenth +or fourteenth century, after the fall of the Chandels. “Orchha became the chief of the numerous Bundela principalities; but +its founder drew upon himself everlasting infamy, by putting to death the wise Abul Fazl, the historian and friend of the +magnanimous Akbar, and the encomiast and advocate of the Hindu race. From the period of Akbar the Bundelas bore a distinguished +part in all the grand conflicts, to the very close of the monarchy.”<a id="d0e12795src" href="#d0e12795" class="noteref">2</a> + +</p> +<p>The Bundelas held the country up to the Nerbudda in the Central Provinces, and, raiding continually into the Gond territories +south of the Nerbudda on the pretence of protecting the sacred cow which the Gonds used for ploughing, they destroyed the +castle on Chauragarh in Narsinghpur on a crest of the Satpūras, and reduced the Nerbudda valley to subjection. The most successful +chieftain of the tribe was Chhatarsāl, the Rāja of Panna, in the eighteenth century, who was virtually ruler of all Bundelkhand; +his dominions extending from Bānda in the north to Jubbulpore in the <a id="d0e12802"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e12802">439</a>]</span>south, and from Rewah in the east to the Betwa River in the west. But he had to call in the help of the Peshwa to repel an +invasion of the Mughal armies, and left a third of his territory by will to the Marāthas. Chhatarsāl left twenty-two legitimate +and thirty illegitimate sons, and their descendants now hold several small Bundela States, while the territories left to the +Peshwa subsequently became British. The chiefs of Panna, Orchha, Datia, Chhatarpur and numerous other small states in the +Bundelkhand agency are Bundela Rājpūts.<a id="d0e12804src" href="#d0e12804" class="noteref">3</a> The Bundelas of Saugor do not intermarry with the good Rājpūt clans, but with an inferior group of Panwārs and another clan +called Dhundhele, perhaps an offshoot of the Panwārs, who are also residents of Saugor. Their character, as disclosed in a +number of proverbial sayings and stories current regarding them, somewhat resembles that of the Scotch highlanders as depicted +by Stevenson. They are proud and penurious to the last degree, and quick to resent the smallest slight. They make good <i>shikāris</i> or sportsmen, but are so impatient of discipline that they have never found a vocation by enlisting in the Indian Army. Their +characteristics are thus described in a doggerel verse: “The Bundelas salute each other from miles apart, their <i>pagris</i> are cocked on the side of the head till they touch the shoulders. A Bundela would dive into a well for the sake of a cowrie, +but would fight with the Sardārs of Government.” No Bania could go past a Bundela’s house riding on a pony or holding up an +umbrella; and all low-caste persons who passed his house must salute it with the words, <i>Diwān ji ko Rām Rām</i>. Women must take their shoes off to pass by. It is related that a few years ago a Bundela was brought up before the Assistant +Commissioner, charged with assaulting a tahsīl process-server, and threatening him with his sword. The Bundela, who was very +poor and wearing rags, was asked by the magistrate whether he had threatened the man with his sword. He replied “Certainly +not; the sword is for gentlemen like you and me of equal position. To him, if I had wished to beat him I would have taken +my shoe.” Another story is that there was once a very overbearing Tahsīldār, who had a <a id="d0e12818"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e12818">440</a>]</span>shoe 2½ feet long with which he used to collect the land revenue. One day a Bundela mālguzār appeared before him on some business. +The Tahsīldār kept his seat. The Bundela walked quietly up to the table and said, “Will the Sirkār step aside with me for +a moment, as I have something private to say.” The Tahsīldār got up and walked aside with him, on which the Bundela said, +‘That is sufficient, I only wished to tell you that you should rise to receive me.’ When the Bundelas are collected at a feast +they sit with their hands folded across their stomachs and their eyes turned up, and remain impassive while food is being +put on their plates, and never say, ‘Enough,’ because they think that they would show themselves to be feeble men if they +refused to eat as much as was put before them. Much of the food is thus ultimately wasted, and given to the sweepers, and +this leads to great extravagance at marriages and other ceremonial occasions. The Bundelas were much feared and were not popular +landlords, but they are now losing their old characteristics and settling down into respectable cultivators. + +</p> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12789" href="#d0e12789src" class="noteref">1</a></span> Mr. Crooke’s <i>Tribes and Castes</i>, art. Bundela. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12795" href="#d0e12795src" class="noteref">2</a></span> <i>Rājasthān</i>, i. p. 106. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12804" href="#d0e12804src" class="noteref">3</a></span> <i>Imperial Gazetteer</i>, articles Bundelkhand and Panna. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e12820" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Rājpūt, Chandel</h2> +<p><b>Rājpūt, Chandel.</b>—An important clan of Rājpūts, of which a small number reside in the northern Districts of Saugor, Damoh and Jubbulpore, and +also in Chhattīsgarh. The name is derived by Mr. Crooke from the Sanskrit <i>chandra</i>, the moon. The Chandel are not included in the thirty-six royal races, and are supposed to have been a section of one of +the indigenous tribes which rose to power. Mr. V.A. Smith states that the Chandels, like several other dynasties, first came +into history early in the ninth century, when Nannuka Chandel about A.D. 831 overthrew a Parihār chieftain and became lord +of the southern parts of Jejākabhukti or Bundelkhand. Their chief towns were Mahoba and Kālanjar in Bundelkhand, and they +gradually advanced northwards till the Jumna became the frontier between their dominions and those of Kanauj. They fought +with the Gūjar-Parihār kings of Kanauj and the Kālachuris of Chedi, who had their capital at Tewar in Jubbulpore, and joined +in resisting the incursions of the Muhammadans. In A.D. 1182 Parmāl, the Chandel king, was defeated by Prithwi Rāja, the <a id="d0e12830"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e12830">441</a>]</span>Chauhān king of Delhi, after the latter had abducted the Chandel’s daughter. This was the war in which Alha and Udal, the +famous Banāphar heroes, fought for the Chandels, and it is commemorated in the Chand-Raisa, a poem still well known to the +people of Bundelkhand. In A.D. 1203 Kālanjar was taken by the Muhammadan Kutb-ud-Dīn Ibak, and the importance of the Chandel +rulers came to an end, though they lingered on as purely local chiefs until the sixteenth century. The Chandel princes were +great builders, and beautified their chief towns, Mahoba, Kālanjar and Khajurāho with many magnificent temples and lovely +lakes, formed by throwing massive dams across the openings between the hills.<a id="d0e12832src" href="#d0e12832" class="noteref">1</a> Among these were great irrigation works in the Hamīrpur District, the forts of Kālanjar and Ajaighar, and the noble temples +at Khajurāho and Mahoba.<a id="d0e12837src" href="#d0e12837" class="noteref">2</a> Even now the ruins of old forts and temples in the Saugor and Damoh Districts are attributed by the people to the Chandels, +though many were in fact probably constructed by the Kālachuris of Chedi. + +</p> +<p>Mr. Smith derives the Chandels either from the Gonds or Bhars, but inclines to the view that they were Gonds. The following +considerations tend, I venture to think, to favour the hypothesis of their origin from the Bhars. According to the best traditions, +the Gonds came from the south, and practically did not penetrate to Bundelkhand. Though Saugor and Damoh contain a fair number +of Gonds they have never been of importance there, and this is almost their farthest limit to the north-west. The Gond States +in the Central Provinces did not come into existence for several centuries after the commencement of the Chandel dynasty, +and while there are authentic records of all these states, the Gonds have no tradition of their dominance in Bundelkhand. +The Gonds have nowhere else built such temples as are attributed to the Chandels at Khajurāho, whilst the Bhars were famous +builders. “In Mīrzāpur traces of the Bhars abound on all sides in the shape of old tanks and village forts. The bricks found +in the Bhar-dīhs or forts are of enormous dimensions, and frequently measure 19 by 11 inches, and <a id="d0e12845"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e12845">442</a>]</span>are 2¼ inches thick. In quality and size they are similar to bricks often seen in ancient Buddhist buildings. The old capital +of the Bhars, five miles from Mīrzāpur, is said to have had 150 temples.”<a id="d0e12847src" href="#d0e12847" class="noteref">3</a> Elliot remarks<a id="d0e12853src" href="#d0e12853" class="noteref">4</a> that “common tradition assigns to the Bhars the possession of the whole tract from Gorakhpur to Bundelkhand and Saugor, and +many old stone forts, embankments and subterranean caverns in Gorakhpur, Azamgarh, Jaunpur, Mīrzāpur and Allahābād, which +are ascribed to them, would seem to indicate no inconsiderable advance in civilisation.” Though there are few or no Bhars +now in Bundelkhand, there are a large number of Pāsis in Allahābād which partly belongs to it, and small numbers in Bundelkhand; +and the Pāsi caste is mainly derived from the Bhars;<a id="d0e12858src" href="#d0e12858" class="noteref">5</a> while a Gaharwār dynasty, which is held to be derived from the Bhars, was dominant in Bundelkhand and Central India before +the rise of the Chandels. According to one legend, the ancestor of the Chandels was born with the moon as a father from the +daughter of the high priest of the Gaharwār Rāja Indrajīt of Benāres or of Indrajīt himself.<a id="d0e12861src" href="#d0e12861" class="noteref">6</a> As will be seen, the Gaharwārs were an aristocratic section of the Bhars. Another legend states that the first Chandel was +the offspring of the moon by the daughter of a Brāhman Pandit of Kalanjar.<a id="d0e12867src" href="#d0e12867" class="noteref">7</a> In his <i>Notes on the Bhars of Bundelkhand</i><a id="d0e12874src" href="#d0e12874" class="noteref">8</a> Mr. Smith argues that the Bhars adopted the Jain religion, and also states that several of the temples at Khajurāho and Mahoba, +erected in the eleventh century, are Jain. These were presumably erected by the Chandels, but I have never seen it suggested +that the Gonds were Jains or were capable of building Jain temples in the eleventh century. Mr. Smith also states that Maniya +Deo, to whom a temple exists at Mahoba, was the tutelary deity of the Chandels; and that the only other shrine of Maniya Deo +discovered by him in the Hamīrpur District was in a village reputed formerly to have been held by the Bhars.<a id="d0e12879src" href="#d0e12879" class="noteref">9</a> Two instances of intercourse between the Chandels and Gonds are given, but <a id="d0e12884"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e12884">443</a>]</span>the second of them, that the Rāni Dūrgavati of Mandla was a Chandel princess, belongs to the sixteenth century, and has no +bearing on the origin of the Chandels. The first instance, that of the Chandel Rāja Kīrat Singh hunting at Maniagarh with +the Gond Rāja of Garha-Mandla, cannot either be said to furnish any real evidence in favour of a Gond origin for the Chandels; +it maybe doubted whether there was any Gond Rāja of Garha-Mandla till after the fall of the Kālachuri dynasty of Tewar, which +is quite close to Garha-Mandla, in the twelfth century; and a reference so late as this would not affect the question.<a id="d0e12886src" href="#d0e12886" class="noteref">10</a> Finally, the Chandels are numerous in Mīrzāpur, which was formerly the chief seat of the Bhars, while the Gonds have never +been either numerous or important in Mīrzāpur. These considerations seem to point to the possibility of the derivation of +the Chandels from the Bhars rather than from the Gonds; and the point is perhaps of some interest in view of the suggestion +in the article on Kol that the Gonds did not arrive in the Central Provinces for some centuries after the rise of the Chandel +dynasty of Khajurāho and Mahoba. The Chandels may have simply been a local branch of the Gaharwārs, who obtained a territorial +designation from Chanderi, or in some other manner, as has continually happened in the case of other clans. The Gaharwārs +were probably derived from the Bhars. The Chandels now rank as a good Rājpūt clan, and intermarry with the other leading clans. + +</p> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12832" href="#d0e12832src" class="noteref">1</a></span> <i>Early History of India</i>, 3rd edition, pp. 390–394. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12837" href="#d0e12837src" class="noteref">2</a></span> Mr. Crooke’s <i>Tribes and Castes</i>, art. Chandel. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12847" href="#d0e12847src" class="noteref">3</a></span> Sherring’s <i>Castes and Tribes</i>, i. pp. 359, 360. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12853" href="#d0e12853src" class="noteref">4</a></span> <i>Supplemental Glossary</i>, art. Bhar. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12858" href="#d0e12858src" class="noteref">5</a></span> See art. Pāsi. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12861" href="#d0e12861src" class="noteref">6</a></span> Crooke’s <i>Tribes and Castes</i>, art. Chandel. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12867" href="#d0e12867src" class="noteref">7</a></span> <i>Ibidem</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12874" href="#d0e12874src" class="noteref">8</a></span> <i>J.A.S.B.</i> vol. xlvi. (1877), p. 232. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12879" href="#d0e12879src" class="noteref">9</a></span> <i>Ibidem</i>, p. 233. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12886" href="#d0e12886src" class="noteref">10</a></span> <i>J.A.S.B.</i> vol. xlvi. (1877), p. 233. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e12891" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Rājpūt, Chauhān</h2> +<p><b>Rājpūt, Chauhān</b>.—The Chauhān was the last of the Agnikula or fire-born clans, According to the legend: “Again Vasishtha seated on the lotus +prepared incantations; again he called the gods to aid; and as he poured forth the libation a figure arose, lofty in stature, +of elevated front, hair like jet, eyes rolling, breast expanded, fierce, terrific, clad in armour with quiver filled, a bow +in one hand and a brand in the other, quadriform (Chaturanga), whence his name was given as Chauhān.” This account makes the +Chauhān the most important of the fire-born clans, and Colonel Tod says that he was the most valiant of the Agnikulas, and +it may be asserted not of them only but of <a id="d0e12898"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e12898">444</a>]</span>the whole Rājpūt race; and though the swords of the Rāhtors would be ready to contest the point, impartial decision must assign +to the Chauhān the van in the long career of arms.<a id="d0e12900src" href="#d0e12900" class="noteref">1</a> General Cunningham shows that even so late as the time of Prithwi Rāj in the twelfth century the Chauhāns had no claim to +be sprung from fire, but were content to be considered descendants of a Brāhman sage Bhrigu.<a id="d0e12905src" href="#d0e12905" class="noteref">2</a> Like the other Agnikula clans the Chauhāns are now considered to have sprung from the Gurjara or White Hun invaders of the +fifth and sixth centuries, but I do not know whether this is held to be definitely proved in their case. Sāmbhar and Ajmer +in Rājputāna appear to have been the first home of the clan, and inscriptions record a long line of thirty-nine kings as reigning +there from Anhul, the first created Chauhān. The last but one of them, Vigraha Rāja or Bisāl Deo, in the middle of the twelfth +century extended the ancestral dominions considerably, and conquered Delhi from a chief of the Tomara clan. At this time the +Chauhāns, according to their own bards, held the line of the Nerbudda from Garha-Mandla to Maheshwar and also Asīrgarh, while +their dominions extended north to Hissar and south to the Aravalli hills.<a id="d0e12910src" href="#d0e12910" class="noteref">3</a> The nephew of Bisāl Deo was Prithwi Rāj, the most famous Chauhān hero, who ruled at Sāmbhar, Ajmer and Delhi. His first exploit +was the abduction of the daughter of Jaichand, the Gaharwār Rāja of Kanauj, in about A.D. 1175. The king of Kanauj had claimed +the title of universal sovereign and determined to celebrate the Ashwa-Medha or horse-sacrifice, at which all the offices +should be performed by vassal kings. Prithwi Rāj alone declined to attend as a subordinate, and Jaichand therefore made a +wooden image of him and set it up at the gate in the part of doorkeeper. But when his daughter after the tournament took the +garland of flowers to bestow it on the chief whom she chose for her husband, she passed by all the assembled nobles and threw +the garland on the neck of the wooden image. At this moment Prithwi Rāj dashed in with a few companions, and catching her +up, escaped with <a id="d0e12915"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e12915">445</a>]</span>her from her father’s court.<a id="d0e12917src" href="#d0e12917" class="noteref">4</a> Afterwards, in 1182, Prithwi Rāj defeated the Chandel Rāja Parmāl and captured Mahoba. In 1191 Prithwi Rāj was the head of +a confederacy of Hindu princes in combating the invasion of Muhammad Ghori. He repelled the Muhammadans at Tarāin about two +miles north of Delhi, but in the following year was completely defeated and killed at Thaneswar, and soon afterwards Delhi +and Ajmer fell to the Muhammadans. The Chauhān kingdom was broken up, but scattered parts of it remained, and about A.D. 1307 +Asīrgarh in Nimār, which continued to be held by the Chauhāns, was taken by Ala-ud-Dīn Khilji and the whole garrison put to +the sword except one boy. This boy, Raisi Chauhān, escaped to Rājputāna, and according to the bardic chronicle his descendants +formed the Hāra branch of the Chauhāns and conquered from the Mīnas the tract known as Hāravati, from which they perhaps took +their name.<a id="d0e12924src" href="#d0e12924" class="noteref">5</a> This is now comprised in the Kotah and Bundi states, ruled by Hāra chiefs. Another well-known offshoot from the Chauhāns +are the Khīchi clan, who belong to the Sind-Sāgar Doāb; and the Nikumbh and Bhadauria clans are also derived from them. The +Chauhāns are numerous in the Punjab and United Provinces and rank as one of the highest Rājpūt clans. In the Central Provinces +they are found principally in the Narsinghpur and Hoshangābād Districts, and also in Mandla. The Chauhān Rājpūts of Mandla +marry among themselves, with other Chauhāns of Mandla, Seoni and Bālāghāt They have exogamous sections with names apparently +derived from villages like an ordinary caste. The remarriage of widows is forbidden, but those widows who desire to do so +go and live with a man and are put out of caste. This, however, is said not to happen frequently. A widow’s hair is not shaved, +but her glass bangles are broken, she is dressed in white, made to sleep on the ground, and can wear no ornaments. Owing to +the renown of the clan their name has been adopted by numerous classes of inferior Rājpūts and low Hindu castes who have no +right to it. Thus in the Punjab a large subcaste of Chamārs call themselves Chauhān, and in the Bilāspur District a low caste +<a id="d0e12929"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e12929">446</a>]</span>of village watchmen go by this name. These latter may be descendants of the illegitimate offspring of Chauhān Rājpūts by low-caste +women. + +</p> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12900" href="#d0e12900src" class="noteref">1</a></span> <i>Rājasthān</i>, i. pp. 86, 87. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12905" href="#d0e12905src" class="noteref">2</a></span> <i>Archaeological Reports</i>, ii. 255, quoted in Mr. Crooke’s art. Chauhān. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12910" href="#d0e12910src" class="noteref">3</a></span> <i>Imperial Gazetteer, India</i>, vol. ii, p. 312. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12917" href="#d0e12917src" class="noteref">4</a></span> <i>Early History of India</i> and <i>Imperial Gazetteer, loc. cit.</i></p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12924" href="#d0e12924src" class="noteref">5</a></span> <i>Rājasthān</i>, ii. p. 419. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e12931" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Rājpūt, Dhākar</h2> +<p><b>Rājpūt, Dhākar</b>.—In the Central Provinces this term has the meaning of one of illegitimate descent, and it is often used by the Kirārs, who +are probably of mixed descent from Rājpūts. In northern India, however, the Dhākars are a clan of Rājpūts, who claim Sūrajvansi +origin; but this is not generally admitted. Mr. Crooke states that some are said to be emigrants from the banks of the Nerbudda; +but the main body say they came from Ajmer in the sixteenth century. They were notorious in the eighteenth century for their +lawlessness, and gave the imperial Mughal officers much trouble in the neighbourhood of Agra, rendering the communications +between that city and Etāwah insecure. In the Mutiny they broke out again, and are generally a turbulent, ill-conducted sept, +always ready for petty acts of violence and cattle-stealing. They are, however, recognised as Rājpūts of good position and +intermarry with the best clans.<a id="d0e12938src" href="#d0e12938" class="noteref">1</a> + +</p> +<p>In the Central Provinces the Dhākars are found principally in Hoshangābād, and it is doubtful if they are proper Rājpūts. + +</p> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12938" href="#d0e12938src" class="noteref">1</a></span> The above particulars are taken from Mr. Crooke’s article Dhākara in his <i>Tribes and Castes</i>. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e12946" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Rājpūt, Gaharwār</h2> +<p><b>Rājpūt, Gaharwār, Gherwāl</b>.—This is an old clan. Mr. V.A. Smith states that they had been dominant in Central India about Nowgong and Chhatarpur before +the Parihārs in the eighth century. The Parihār kings were subsequently overthrown by the Chandels of Mahoba. In their practice +of building embankments and constructing lakes the Chandels were imitators of the Gaharwārs, who are credited with the formation +of some of the most charming lakes in Bundelkhand.<a id="d0e12953src" href="#d0e12953" class="noteref">1</a> And in A.D. 1090 a Rāja of the Gaharwār clan called Chandradeva seized Kanauj (on the Ganges north-west of Lucknow), and +established his <a id="d0e12958"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e12958">447</a>]</span>authority certainly over Benāres and Ajodhia, and perhaps over the Delhi territory. Govindachandra, grandson of Chandradeva, +enjoyed a long reign, which included the years A.D. 1114 and 1154. His numerous land grants and widely distributed coins prove +that he succeeded to a large extent in restoring the glories of Kanauj, and in making himself a power of considerable importance. +The grandson of Govindachandra was Jayachandra, renowned in the popular Hindu poems and tales of northern India as Rāja Jaichand, +whose daughter was carried off by the gallant Rai Pithora or Prithwi Rāj of Ajmer. Kanauj was finally captured and destroyed +by Shihāb-ud-Dīn in 1193, when Jaichand retired towards Benāres but was overtaken and slain.<a id="d0e12960src" href="#d0e12960" class="noteref">2</a> His grandson, Mr. Crooke says,<a id="d0e12965src" href="#d0e12965" class="noteref">3</a> afterwards fled to Kantit in the Mīrzāpur District and, overcoming the Bhar Rāja of that place, founded the family of the +Gaharwār Rājas of Kantīt Bijaypur, which was recently still in existence. All the other Gaharwārs trace their lineage to Benāres +or Bijaypur. The predecessors of the Gaharwārs in Kantit and in a large tract of country lying contiguous to it were the Bhars, +an indigenous race of great enterprise, who, though not highly civilised, were far removed from barbarism. According to Sherring +they have left numerous evidences of their energy and skill in earthworks, forts, dams and the like.<a id="d0e12970src" href="#d0e12970" class="noteref">4</a> Similarly Elliot says of the Bhars: “Common tradition assigns to them the possession of the whole tract from Gorakhpur to +Bundelkhand and Saugor, and the large pargana of Bhadoi or Bhardai in Benāres is called after their name. Many old stone forts, +embankments and subterranean caverns in Gorakhpur, Azamgarh, Jaunpur, Mīrzāpur and Allahābād, which are ascribed to them, +would seem to indicate no inconsiderable advance in civilisation.”<a id="d0e12975src" href="#d0e12975" class="noteref">5</a> Colonel Tod says of the Gaharwārs: “The Gherwāl Rājpūt is scarcely known to his brethren in Rājasthān, who will not admit +his contaminated blood to mix with theirs, though as a brave warrior he is entitled to their fellowship.”<a id="d0e12980src" href="#d0e12980" class="noteref">6</a> It is thus curious that the Gaharwārs, who are one of the oldest clans <a id="d0e12985"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e12985">448</a>]</span>to appear in authentic history, if they ruled Central India in the eighth century before the Parihārs, should be considered +to be of very impure origin. And as they are subsequently found in Mīrzāpur, a backward forest tract which is also the home +of the Bhars, and both the Gaharwārs and Bhars have a reputation as builders of tanks and forts, it seems likely that the +Gaharwārs were really, as suggested by Mr. V.A. Smith, the aristocratic branch of the Bhars, probably with a considerable +mixture of Rājpūt blood. Elliot states that the Bhars formerly occupied the whole of Azamgarh, the pargana of Bara in Allahābād +and Khariagarh in the Kanauj tract. This widespread dominance corresponds with what has been already stated as regards the +Gaharwārs, who, according to Mr. V.A. Smith, ruled in Central India, Kanauj, Oudh, Benāres and Mīrzāpur. And the name Gaharwār, +according to Dr. Hoernle, is connected with the Sanskrit root <i>gah</i>, and has the sense of ‘dwellers in caves or deep jungle.’<a id="d0e12990src" href="#d0e12990" class="noteref">7</a> The origin of the Gaharwārs is of interest in the Central Provinces, because it is from them that the Bundela clan of Saugor +and Bundelkhand is probably descended.<a id="d0e12993src" href="#d0e12993" class="noteref">8</a> + +</p> +<p>The Gaharwārs, Mr. Crooke states, now hold a high rank among Rājpūt septs; they give daughters to the Baghel, Chandel and +Bisen, and take brides of the Bais, Gautam, Chauhān, Parihār and other clans. The Gaharwārs are found in small numbers in +the Central Provinces, chiefly in the Chhattīsgarh Districts and Feudatory States. + +</p> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12953" href="#d0e12953src" class="noteref">1</a></span> <i>Early History of India</i>, 3rd edition, p. 391. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12960" href="#d0e12960src" class="noteref">2</a></span> <i>Early History of India</i>, 3rd edition, p. 385. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12965" href="#d0e12965src" class="noteref">3</a></span> <i>Tribes and Castes</i>, art. Gaharwār. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12970" href="#d0e12970src" class="noteref">4</a></span> <i>Tribes and Castes</i>, i. p. 75. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12975" href="#d0e12975src" class="noteref">5</a></span> <i>Supplementary Glossary</i>, p. 33. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12980" href="#d0e12980src" class="noteref">6</a></span> <i>Rājasthān</i>, i. p. 105. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12990" href="#d0e12990src" class="noteref">7</a></span> Quoted in Mr. Crooke’s article on Gaharwār. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e12993" href="#d0e12993src" class="noteref">8</a></span> See art. Rājpūt, Bundela. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e12998" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Rājpūt, Gaur</h2> +<p><b>Rājpūt, Gaur, Chamar Gaur</b>.—Colonel Tod remarks of this tribe: “The Gaur tribe was once respected in Rājasthān, though it never there attained to any +considerable eminence. The ancient kings of Bengal were of this race, and gave their name to the capital, Lakhnauti.” This +town in Bengal, and the kingdom of which it was the capital, were known as Ganda, and it has been conjectured that the Gaur +Brāhmans and Rājpūts were named after it. Sir H.M. Elliot and Mr. Crooke, however, point out that the home of the Gaur Brāhmans +and Rājpūts and a cultivating caste, <a id="d0e13005"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e13005">449</a>]</span>the Gaur Tāgas, is in the centre and west of the United Provinces, far removed from Bengal; the Gaur Brāhmans now reside principally +in the Meerut Division, and between them and Bengal is the home of the Kanaujia Brāhmans. General Cunningham suggests that +the country comprised in the present Gonda District round the old town of Sravāsti, was formerly known as Gauda, and was hence +the origin of the caste name.<a id="d0e13007src" href="#d0e13007" class="noteref">1</a> The derivation from Gaur in Bengal is perhaps, however, more probable, as the name was best known in connection with this +tract. The Gaur Rājpūts do not make much figure in history. “Repeated mention of them is found in the wars of Prithwi Rāj +as leaders of considerable renown, one of whom founded a small state in the centre of India. This survived through seven centuries +of Mogul domination, till it at length fell a prey indirectly to the successes of the British over the Marāthas, when Sindhia +in 1809 annihilated the power of the Gaur and took possession of his capital, Supur.”<a id="d0e13010src" href="#d0e13010" class="noteref">2</a> + +</p> +<p>In the United Provinces the Gaur Rājpūts are divided into three groups, the Bāhman, or Brāhman, the Bhāt, and the Chamār Gaur. +Of these the Chamār Gaur, curiously enough appear to rank the highest, which is accounted for by the following story: When +trouble fell upon the Gaur family, one of their ladies, far advanced in pregnancy, took refuge in a Chamār’s house, and was +so grateful to him for his disinterested protection that she promised to call her child by his name. The Bhāts and Brāhmans, +to whom the others fled, do not appear to have shown a like chivalry, and hence, strange as it may appear, the subdivisions +called after their name rank below the Chamār Gaur.<a id="d0e13017src" href="#d0e13017" class="noteref">3</a> The names of the subsepts indicate that this clan of Rājpūts is probably of mixed origin. If the Brāhman subsept is descended +from Brāhmans, it would be only one of several probable cases of Rājpūt clans originating from this caste. As regards the +Bhāt subcaste, the Chārans or Bhāts of Rājputāna are admittedly Rājpūts, and there is therefore nothing curious in finding +a Bhāt subsection in a Rājpūt clan. What the real origin of the Chamār Gaurs was is difficult to surmise. <a id="d0e13021"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e13021">450</a>]</span>The Chamār Gaur is now a separate clan, and its members intermarry with the other Gaur Rājpūts, affording an instance of the +subdivision of clans. In the Central Provinces the greater number of the persons returned as Gaur Rājpūts really belong to +a group known as Gorai, who are considered to be the descendants of widows or kept women in the Gaur clan, and marry among +themselves. They should really therefore be considered a separate caste, and not members of the Rājpūt caste proper. In the +United Provinces the Gaurs rank with the good Rājpūt clans. In the Central Provinces the Gaur and Chamār-Gaur clans are returned +from most Districts of the Jubbulpore and Nerbudda divisions, and also in considerable numbers from Bhandāra. + +</p> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13007" href="#d0e13007src" class="noteref">1</a></span> Quoted in Mr. Crooke’s article Gaur Brāhman. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13010" href="#d0e13010src" class="noteref">2</a></span> <i>Rajasthān</i>, i. p. 105. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13017" href="#d0e13017src" class="noteref">3</a></span> <i>Supplemental Glossary, s.v.</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e13023" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Rājpūt, Haihaya</h2> +<p><b>Rājpūt, Haihaya, Haihaivansi, Kālaehuri</b>.—This well-known historical clan of the Central Provinces is not included among the thirty-six royal races, and Colonel Tod +gives no information about them. The name Haihaya is stated to be a corruption of Ahihaya, which means snake-horse, the legend +being that the first ancestor of the clan was the issue of a snake and a mare. Haihaivansi signifies descendants of the horse. +Colonel Tod states that the first capital of the Indu or lunar race was at Mahesvati on the Nerbudda, still existing as Maheshwar, +and was founded by Sahasra Arjuna of the Haihaya tribe.<a id="d0e13030src" href="#d0e13030" class="noteref">1</a> This Arjuna of the thousand arms was one of the Pāndava brothers, and it may be noted that the Ratanpur Haihaivansis still +have a story of their first ancestor stealing a horse from Arjuna, and a consequent visit of Arjuna and Krishna to Ratanpur +for its recovery. Since the Haihayas also claim descent from a snake and are of the lunar race, it seems not unlikely that +they may have belonged to one of the Scythian or Tartar tribes, the Sākas or Yueh-chi, who invaded India shortly after the +commencement of the Christian era, as it has been conjectured that the other lunar Rājpūt clans worshipping or claiming descent +from a snake originated from these tribes. The Haihaivansis or Kālachuris became dominant in the Nerbudda valley about the +sixth century, their earliest <a id="d0e13035"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e13035">451</a>]</span>inscription being dated A.D. 580. Their capital was moved to Tripura or Tewar near Jubbulpore about A.D. 900, and from here +they appear to have governed an extensive territory for about 300 years, and were frequently engaged in war with the adjoining +kingdoms, the Chandels of Mahoba, the Panwārs of Mālwa, and the Chalukyas of the south. One king, Gangeyadeva, appears even +to have aspired to become the paramount power in northern India, and his sovereignty was recognised in distant Tirhūt. Gangeyadeva +was fond of residing at the foot of the holy fig-tree of Prayāga (Allahābād), and eventually found salvation there with his +hundred wives. From about A.D. 1100 the power of the Kālachuri or Haihaya princes began to decline, and their last inscription +is dated A.D. 1196. It is probable that they were subverted by the Gond kings of Garha-Mandla, the first of whom, Jadurai, +appears to have been in the service of the Kālachuri king, and subsequently with the aid of a dismissed minister to have supplanted +his former-master.<a id="d0e13037src" href="#d0e13037" class="noteref">2</a> The kingdom of the Kālachuri or Haihaya kings was known as Chedi, and, according to Mr. V.A. Smith, corresponded more or +less roughly to the present area of the Central Provinces.<a id="d0e13043src" href="#d0e13043" class="noteref">3</a> + +</p> +<p>In about the tenth century a member of the reigning family of Tripura was appointed viceroy of some territories in Chhattīsgarh, +and two or three generations afterwards his family became practically independent of the parent house, and established their +own capital at Ratanpur in Bilāspur District (A.D. 1050). This state was known as Dakshin or southern Kosāla. During the twelfth +century its importance rapidly increased, partly no doubt on the ruins of the Jubbulpore kingdom, until the influence of the +Ratanpur princes, Ratnadeva II. and Prithwideva II., may be said to have extended from Amarkantak to beyond the Godāvari, +and from the confines of Berār in the west to <a id="d0e13050"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e13050">452</a>]</span>the boundaries of Orissa in the east.<a id="d0e13052src" href="#d0e13052" class="noteref">4</a> The Ratanpur kingdom of Chedi or Dakshin Kosāla was the only one of the Rājpūt states in the Central Provinces which escaped +subversion by the Gonds, and it enjoyed a comparatively tranquil existence till A.D. 1740, when Ratanpur fell to the Marāthas +almost without striking a blow. “The only surviving representative of the Haihayas of Ratanpur,” Mr. Wills states,<a id="d0e13057src" href="#d0e13057" class="noteref">5</a> “is a quite simple-minded Rājpūt who lives at Bargaon in Raipur District. He represents the junior or Raipur branch of the +family, and holds five villages which were given him revenue-free by the Marāthas for his maintenance. The mālguzār of Senduras +claims descent from the Ratanpur family, but his pretensions are doubtful. He enjoys no privileges such as those of the Bargaon +Thākur, to whom presents are still made when he visits the chiefs who were once subordinate to his ancient house.” In the +Ballia District of the United Provinces<a id="d0e13062src" href="#d0e13062" class="noteref">6</a> are some Hayobans Rājpūts who claim descent from the Ratanpur kings. Chandra Got, a cadet of this house, is said to have +migrated northwards in A.D. 850<a id="d0e13068src" href="#d0e13068" class="noteref">7</a> and settled in the Sāran District on the Ganges, where he waged successful war with the aboriginal Cheros. Subsequently one +of his descendants violated a Brāhman woman called Maheni of the house of his Purohit or family priest, who burnt herself +to death, and is still locally worshipped. After this tragedy the Hayobans Rājpūts left Sāran and settled in Ballia. Colonel +Tod states that, “A small branch of these ancient Haihayas yet exist in the country of the Nerbudda, near the very top of +the valley, at Sohāgpur in Baghelkhand, aware of their ancient lineage, and, though few in number, are still celebrated for +their valour.”<a id="d0e13071src" href="#d0e13071" class="noteref">8</a> This Sohāgpur must apparently be the Sohāgpur tahsīl of Rewah, ceded from Mandla after the Mutiny. + +</p> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13030" href="#d0e13030src" class="noteref">1</a></span> <i>Rajasthān</i>, i. p. 36. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13037" href="#d0e13037src" class="noteref">2</a></span> The above notice of the Kālachuri or Haihaya dynasty of Tripura is taken from the detailed account in the <i>Jubbulpore District Gazetteer</i>, pp. 42–47, compiled by Mr. A.E. Nelson, C.S., and Rai Bahādur Hīra Lāl. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13043" href="#d0e13043src" class="noteref">3</a></span> <i>Early History of India</i>, 3rd edition, p. 390. This, however, does not only refer to the Jubbulpore branch, whose territories did not probably include +the south and east of the present Central Provinces, but includes also the country over which the Ratanpur kings subsequently +extended their separate jurisdiction. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13052" href="#d0e13052src" class="noteref">4</a></span> <i>Bilāspur District Gazetteer</i>, chap. ii., in which a full and interesting account of the Ratanpur kingdom is given by Mr. C.U. Wills, C.S. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13057" href="#d0e13057src" class="noteref">5</a></span> <i>Ibidem</i>, p. 49. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13062" href="#d0e13062src" class="noteref">6</a></span> Mr. Crooke’s <i>Tribes and Castes</i>, art. Hayobans. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13068" href="#d0e13068src" class="noteref">7</a></span> The date is too early, as is usual in these traditions. Though the Haihaivansis only founded Ratanpur about A.D. 1050, their +own legends put it ten centuries earlier. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13071" href="#d0e13071src" class="noteref">8</a></span> <i>Rajasthān</i>, i. p. 36. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e13076" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Rājpūt, Hūna</h2> +<p><b>Rājpūt, Hūna, Hoon</b>.—This clan retains the name and <a id="d0e13083"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e13083">453</a>]</span>memory of the Hun barbarian hordes, who invaded India at or near the epoch of their incursions into Europe. It is practically +extinct; but in his <i>Western India</i> Colonel Tod records the discovery of a few families of Hūnas in Baroda State: “At a small village opposite Ometa I discovered +a few huts of Huns, still existing under the ancient name of Hoon, by which they are known to Hindu history. There are said +to be three or four families of them at the village of Trisavi, three <i>kos</i> from Baroda, and although neither feature nor complexion indicate much relation to the Tartar-visaged Hun, we may ascribe +the change to climate and admixture of blood, as there is little doubt that they are descended from these invaders, who established +a sovereignty on the Indus in the second and sixth centuries of the Christian era, and became so incorporated with the Rājpūt +population as to obtain a place among the thirty-six royal races of India, together with the Gete, the Kāthi, and other tribes +of the Sacae from Central Asia, whose descendants still occupy the land of the sun-worshipping Saura or Chaura, no doubt one +of the same race.” + +</p> +</div> +<div id="d0e13091" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Rājpūt, Kachhwāha</h2> +<p><b>Rājpūt, Kachhwāha, Cutchwāha</b>—A celebrated clan of Rājpūts included among the thirty-six royal races, to which the Mahārājas of the important states of +Amber or Jaipur and Alwar belong. They are of the solar race and claim descent from Kash, the second son of the great king +Rāma of Ajodhia, the incarnation of Vishnu. Their original seat, according to tradition, was Rohtās on the Son river, and +another of their famous progenitors was Rāja Nal, who migrated from Rohtās and founded Narwar.<a id="d0e13098src" href="#d0e13098" class="noteref">1</a> The town of Damoh in the Central Provinces is supposed to be named after Damyanti, Rāja Nal’s wife. According to General +Cunningham the name Kachhwāha is an abbreviation of Kachhaha-ghāta or tortoise-killer. The earliest appearance of the Kachhwāha +Rājpūts in authentic history is in the tenth century, when a chief of the clan captured Gwalior from the Parihār-Gūjar kings +of Kanauj and established himself there. His dynasty had an independent existence till A.D. 1128, when it became tributary +<a id="d0e13103"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e13103">454</a>]</span>to the Chandel kings of Mahoba.<a id="d0e13105src" href="#d0e13105" class="noteref">2</a> The last prince of Gwalior was Tejkaran, called Dūlha Rai or the bridegroom prince, and he received from his father-in-law +the district of Daora in the present Jaipur State, where he settled. In 1150 one of his successors wrested Amber from the +Mīnas and made it his capital. The Amber State from the first acknowledged the supremacy of the Mughal emperors, and the chief +of the period gave his daughter in marriage to Akbar. This chief’s son, Bhagwān Dās, is said to have saved Akbar’s life at +the battle of Sarnāl. Bhagwān Dās gave a daughter to Jahāngīr, and his adopted son, Mān Singh, the next chief, was one of +the most conspicuous of the Mughal Generals, and at different periods was governor of Kābul, Bengal, Bihār and the Deccan. +The next chief of note, Jai Singh I., appears in all the wars of Aurāngzeb in the Deccan. He was commander of 6000 horse, +and captured Sivaji, the celebrated founder of the Marātha power. The present city of Jaipur was founded by a subsequent chief, +Jai Singh II., in 1728. During the Mutiny the Mahārāja of Jaipur placed all his military power at the disposal of the Political +Agent, and in every way assisted the British Government. At the Durbar of 1877 his salute was raised to 21 guns. Jaipur, one +of the largest states in Rājputāna, has an area of nearly 16,000 square miles, and a population of 2½ million persons. The +Alwar State was founded about 1776 by Pratāp Singh, a descendant of a prince of the Jaipur house, who had separated from it +three centuries before. It has an area of 3000 square miles and a population of nearly a million.<a id="d0e13110src" href="#d0e13110" class="noteref">3</a> In Colonel Tod’s time the Kachhwāha chiefs in memory of their descent from Rāma, the incarnation of the sun, celebrated with +great solemnity the annual feast of the sun. On this occasion a stately car called the chariot of the sun was brought from +Rāma’s temple, and the Mahārāja ascending into it perambulated his capital. The images of Rāma and Siva were carried with +the army both in Alwar and Jaipur. The banner of Amber was always called the <i>Pānchranga</i> <a id="d0e13119"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e13119">455</a>]</span>or five-coloured flag, and is frequently mentioned in the traditions of the Rājpūt bards. But it does not seem to be stated +what the five colours were. Some of the finest soldiers in the old Sepoy army were Kachhwāha Rājpūts. The Kachhwāhas are fairly +numerous in the United Provinces and rank with the highest Rājpūt clans.<a id="d0e13121src" href="#d0e13121" class="noteref">4</a> In the Central Provinces they are found principally in the Saugor, Hoshangābād and Nimār Districts. + +</p> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13098" href="#d0e13098src" class="noteref">1</a></span> <i>Rajasthān</i>, ii. p. 319. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13105" href="#d0e13105src" class="noteref">2</a></span> <i>Early History of India</i>, 3rd edition, p. 381. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13110" href="#d0e13110src" class="noteref">3</a></span> The above information is taken from the new <i>Imperial Gazetteer</i>, articles Jaipur and Alwar States. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13121" href="#d0e13121src" class="noteref">4</a></span> Mr. Crooke’s <i>Tribes and Castes</i>, art. Kachhwāha. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e13127" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Rājpūt, Nāgvansi</h2> +<p><b>Rājpūt, Nāgvansi</b>.—This clan are considered to be the descendants of the Tāk or Takshac, which is one of the thirty-six royal races, and was +considered by Colonel Tod to be of Scythian origin. The Takshac were also snake-worshippers. “Nāga and Takshac are synonymous +appellations in Sanskrit for the snake, and the Takshac is the celebrated Nāgvansa of the early heroic history of India. The +Mahābhārat describes in its usual allegorical style the war between the Pāndus of Indraprestha and the Takshacs of the north. +Parikhīta, a prince on the Pāndu side, was assassinated by the Takshac, and his son and successor, Janamejaya, avenged his +death and made a bonfire of 20,000 snakes.”<a id="d0e13134src" href="#d0e13134" class="noteref">1</a> This allegory is supposed to have represented the warfare of the Aryan races against the Sākas or Scythians. The Tāk or Takshac +would be one of the clans held to be derived from the earlier invading tribes from Central Asia, and of the lunar race. The +Tāk are scarcely known in authentic history, but the poet Chand mentions the Tāk from Aser or Asīrgarh as one of the princes +who assembled at the summons of Prithwi Rāj of Delhi to fight against the Muhammadans. In another place he is called Chatto +the Tāk. Nothing more is known of the Tāk clan unless the cultivating Tāga caste of northern India is derived from them. But +the Nāgvansi clan of Rājpūts, who profess to be descended from them, is fairly numerous. Most of the Nāgvansis, however, are +probably in reality descended from landholders of the indigenous tribes who have adopted the name of this clan, when they +wished to claim rank as Rājpūts. The change is rendered more easy by <a id="d0e13142"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e13142">456</a>]</span>the fact that many of these tribes have legends of their own, showing the descent of their ruling families from snakes, the +snake and tiger, owing to their deadly character, being the two animals most commonly worshipped. Thus the landholding section +of the Kols or Mundas of Chota Nāgpur have a long legend<a id="d0e13144src" href="#d0e13144" class="noteref">2</a> of their descent from a princess who married a snake in human form, and hence call themselves Nāgvansi Rājpūts; and Dr. Buchanan +states that the Nāgvansi clan of Gorakhpur is similarly derived from the Chero tribe.<a id="d0e13147src" href="#d0e13147" class="noteref">3</a> In the Central Provinces the Nāgvansi Rājpūts number about 400 persons, nearly all of whom are found in the Chhattīsgarh +Districts and Feudatory States, and are probably descendants of Kol or Munda landholding families. + +</p> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13134" href="#d0e13134src" class="noteref">1</a></span> <i>Rājasthān</i>, i. p. 94; Elliot’s <i>Supplemental Glossary</i>, art. Gaur Tāga. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13144" href="#d0e13144src" class="noteref">2</a></span> See article on Kol. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13147" href="#d0e13147src" class="noteref">3</a></span> <i>Eastern India</i>, ii. 461, quoted in Mr. Crooke’s art. Nāgvansi. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e13152" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Rājpūt, Nikumbh</h2> +<p><b>Rājpūt, Nikumbh</b>.—The Nikumbh is given as one of the thirty-six royal races, but it is also the name of a branch of the Chauhāns, and it seems +that, as suggested by Sherring,<a id="d0e13159src" href="#d0e13159" class="noteref">1</a> it may be an offshoot from the great Chauhān clan. The Nikumbh are said to have been given the title of Sirnet by an emperor +of Delhi, because they would not bow their heads on entering his presence, and when he fixed a sword at the door some of them +allowed their necks to be cut through by the sword rather than bend the head. The term Sirnet is supposed to mean headless. +A Chauhān column with an inscription of Rāja Bisal Deo was erected at Nigumbode, a place of pilgrimage on the Jumna, a few +miles below Delhi, and it seems a possible conjecture that the Nikumbhs may have obtained their name from this place.<a id="d0e13164src" href="#d0e13164" class="noteref">2</a> Mr. Crooke, however, takes the Nikumbh to be a separate clan. The foundation of most of the old forts and cities in Alwar +and northern Jaipur is ascribed to them, and two of their inscriptions of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries have been discovered +in Khāndesh. In northern India some of them are now known as Rāghuvansi.<a id="d0e13169src" href="#d0e13169" class="noteref">3</a> They are chiefly found in the Hoshangābād and Nimār Districts, and may be connected with the Rāghuvansi or Rāghwi caste of +these Provinces. +<a id="d0e13175"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e13175">457</a>]</span></p> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13159" href="#d0e13159src" class="noteref">1</a></span> <i>Tribes and Castes</i>, vol. i. art. Nikumbh. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13164" href="#d0e13164src" class="noteref">2</a></span> <i>Rājasthān</i>, ii. p. 417. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13169" href="#d0e13169src" class="noteref">3</a></span> Mr. Crooke’s <i>Tribes and Castes</i>, art. Nikumbh. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e13176" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Rājpūt, Pāik</h2> +<p><b>Rājpūt, Pāik</b>.—This term means a foot-soldier, and is returned from the northern Districts. It belongs to a class of men formerly maintained +as a militia by zamīndārs and landholders for the purpose of collecting their revenue and maintaining order. They were probably +employed in much the same manner in the Central Provinces as in Bengal, where Buchanan thus describes them:<a id="d0e13183src" href="#d0e13183" class="noteref">1</a> “In order to protect the money of landowners and convey it from place to place, and also, as it is alleged, to enforce orders, +two kinds of guards are kept. One body called Burkandāz, commanded by Duffadārs and Jemādārs, seems to be a more recent establishment +The other called Pāik, commanded by Mīrdhas and Sirdārs, are the remains of the militia of the Bengal kingdom. Both seem to +have constituted the foot-soldiers whose number makes such a formidable appearance in the Ain-i-Akbari. These unwieldy establishments +seem to have been formed when the Government collected rent immediately from the farmer and cultivator, and when the same +persons managed not only the collections but the police and a great part of the judicial department. This vast number of armed +men, more especially the latter, formed the infantry of the Mughal Government, and were continued under the zamīndārs, who +were anxious to have as many armed men as possible to support them in their depredations. And these establishments formed +no charge, as they lived on lands which the zamīndār did not bring to account.” The Pāiks are thus a small caste formed from +military service like the Khandaits or swordsmen of Orissa, and are no doubt recruited from all sections of the population. +They have no claim to be considered as Rājpūts. + +</p> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13183" href="#d0e13183src" class="noteref">1</a></span> <i>Eastern India</i>, ii. p. 919. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e13188" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Rājpūt, Parihār</h2> +<p><b>Rājpūt, Parihār</b>.—This clan was one of the four Agnikulas or fire-born. Their founder was the first to issue from the fire-fountain, but he +had not a warrior’s mien. The Brāhmans placed him as guardian of the gate, and hence his name, <i>Prithi-ha-dwāra</i> of which Parihār is supposed to be a corruption<a id="d0e13198src" href="#d0e13198" class="noteref">1</a>. Like the Chauhāns and Solankis the Parihār clan is held to have originated from the Gurjara or Gūjar invaders who came with +the white Huns in the <a id="d0e13203"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e13203">458</a>]</span>fifth and sixth centuries, and they were one of the first of the Gūjar Rājpūt clans to emerge into prominence. They were dominant +in Bundelkhand before the Chandels, their last chieftain having been overthrown by a Chandel prince in A.D. 831<a id="d0e13205src" href="#d0e13205" class="noteref">2</a>. A Parihār-Gūjar chieftain, whose capital was at Bhinmāl in Rājputāna, conquered the king of Kanauj, the ruler of what remained +of the dominions of the great Harsha Vārdhana, and established himself there about A.D. 816<a id="d0e13210src" href="#d0e13210" class="noteref">3</a>. Kanauj was then held by Gūjar-Parihār kings till about 1090, when it was seized by Chandradeva of the Gaharwār Rājpūt clan. +The Parihār rulers were thus subverted by the Gaharwārs and Chandels, both of whom are thought to be derived from the Bhars +or other aboriginal tribes, and these events appear to have been in the nature of a rising of the aristocratic section of +the indigenous residents against the Gūjar rulers, by whom they had been conquered and perhaps taught the trade of arms. After +this period the Parihārs are of little importance. They appear to have retired to Rājputāna, as Colonel Tod states that Mundore, +five miles north of Jodhpur, was their headquarters until it was taken by the Rāhtors. The walls of the ruined fortress of +Mundore are built of enormous square masses of stone without cement, and attest both its antiquity and its former strength<a id="d0e13213src" href="#d0e13213" class="noteref">4</a>. The Parihārs are scattered over Rājputāna, and a colony of them on the Chambal was characterised as the most notorious body +of thieves in the annals of Thug history<a id="d0e13218src" href="#d0e13218" class="noteref">5</a>. Similarly in Etāwah they are said to be a peculiarly lawless and desperate community<a id="d0e13221src" href="#d0e13221" class="noteref">6</a>. The Parihār Rājpūts rank with the leading clans and intermarry with them. In the Central Provinces they are found principally +in Saugor, Damoh and Jubbulpore. + +</p> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13198" href="#d0e13198src" class="noteref">1</a></span> <i>Rājasthān</i>, i. p. 86. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13205" href="#d0e13205src" class="noteref">2</a></span> <i>Early History of India</i>, 3rd edition, p. 390. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13210" href="#d0e13210src" class="noteref">3</a></span> Ibidem, pp. 378, 379. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13213" href="#d0e13213src" class="noteref">4</a></span> <i>Rājasthān</i>, i. p. 91. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13218" href="#d0e13218src" class="noteref">5</a></span> Ibidem. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13221" href="#d0e13221src" class="noteref">6</a></span> Mr. Crooke’s <i>Tribes and Castes</i>, art. Parihār. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e13227" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Rājpūt, Rāthor</h2> +<p><b>Rājpūt, Rāthor, Rāthaur.</b>—The Rāthor of Jodhpur or Mārwār is one of the most famous clans of Rājpūts, and that which is most widely dominant at the +present time, including as it does the Rājas of Jodhpur, Bikaner, Ratlām, Kishengarh and Idar, as well as several smaller +states. The <a id="d0e13234"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e13234">459</a>]</span>origin of the Rāthor clan is uncertain. Colonel Tod states that they claim to be of the solar race, but by the bards of the +race are denied this honour; and though descended from Kash, the second son of Rāma, are held to be the offspring of one of +his progeny, Kashyap, by the daughter of a Dait (Titan). The view was formerly held that the dynasty which wrested Kanauj +from the descendants of Harsha Vārdhana, and held it from A.D. 810 to 1090, until subverted by the Gaharwārs, were Rāthors, +but proof has now been obtained that they were really Parihār-Gūjars. Mr. Smith suggests that after the destruction of Kanauj +by the Muhammadans under Shihāb-ud-Dīn Ghori in A.D. 1193 the Gaharwār clan, whose kings had conquered it in 1090 and reigned +there for a century, migrated to the deserts of Mārwār in Rājputāna, where they settled and became known as Rāthors.<a id="d0e13236src" href="#d0e13236" class="noteref">1</a> It has also been generally held that the Rāshtrakūta dynasty of Nāsik and Mālkhed in the Deccan which reigned from A.D. 753 +to 973, and built the Kailāsa temples at Ellora were Rāthors, but Mr. Smith states that there is no evidence of any social +connection between the Rāshtrakūtas and Rāthors.<a id="d0e13241src" href="#d0e13241" class="noteref">2</a> At any rate Siāhji, the grandson or nephew of Jai Chand, the last king of Kanauj, who had been drowned in the Ganges while +attempting to escape, accomplished with about 200 followers—the wreck of his vassalage—the pilgrimage to Dwārka in Gujarāt. +He then sought in the sands and deserts of Rājputāna a second line of defence against the advancing wave of Muhammadan invasion, +and planted the standard of the Rāthors among the sandhills of the Luni in 1212. This, however, was not the first settlement +of the Rāthors in Rājputāna, for an inscription, dated A.D. 997, among the ruins of the ancient city of Hathūndi or Hastikūndi, +near Bāli in Jodhpur State, tells of five Rāthor Rājas who ruled there early in the tenth century, and this fact shows that +the name Rāthor is really much older than the date of the fall of Kanauj.<a id="d0e13246src" href="#d0e13246" class="noteref">3</a> + +</p> +<p>In 1381 Siāhji’s tenth successor, Rao Chonda, took Mundore from a Parihār chief, and made his possession secure by marrying +the latter’s daughter. A subsequent <a id="d0e13253"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e13253">460</a>]</span>chief, Rao Jodha, laid the foundation of Jodhpur in 1459, and transferred thither the seat of government. The site of Jodhpur +was selected on a peak known as Joda-gīr, or the hill of strife, four miles distant from Mundore on a crest of the range overlooking +the expanse of the desert plains of Mārwār. The position for the new city was chosen at the bidding of a forest ascetic, and +was excellently adapted for defence, but had no good water-supply.<a id="d0e13255src" href="#d0e13255" class="noteref">4</a> Joda had fourteen sons, of whom the sixth, Bīka, was the founder of the Bikaner state. Rāja Sur Singh (1595–1620) was one +of Akbar’s greatest generals, and the emperor Jahāngīr buckled the sword on to his son Gaj Singh with his own hands. Gaj Singh, +the next Rāja (1620–1635), was appointed viceroy of the Deccan, as was his successor, Jaswant Singh, under Aurāngzeb. The +Mughal Emperors, Colonel Tod remarks, were indebted for half their conquests to the Lākh Tulwār Rāhtorān, the hundred thousand +swords which the <span id="d0e13260" class="corr" title="Source: Rāhtors">Rāthors</span> boasted that they could muster.<a id="d0e13263src" href="#d0e13263" class="noteref">5</a> On another occasion, when Jahāngīr successfully appealed to the Rājpūts for support against his rebel son Khusru, he was +so pleased with the zeal of the Rāthor prince, Rāja Gaj Singh, that he not only took the latter’s hand, but kissed it,<a id="d0e13268src" href="#d0e13268" class="noteref">6</a> perhaps an unprecedented honour. But the constant absence from his home on service in distant parts of the empire was so +distasteful to Rāja Sur Singh that, when dying in the Deccan, he ordered a pillar to be erected on his grave containing his +curse upon any of his race who should cross the Nerbudda. The pomp of imperial greatness or the sunshine of court favour was +as nothing with the Rāthor chiefs, Colonel Tod says, when weighed against the exercise of their influence within their own +cherished patrimony. The simple fare of the desert was dearer to the Rāthor than all the luxuries of the imperial banquet, +which he turned from in disgust to the recollection of the green pulse of Mundore, or his favourite <i>rabi</i> or maize porridge, the prime dish of the Rāthor.<a id="d0e13276src" href="#d0e13276" class="noteref">7</a> The Rāthor princes have been not less ready in placing themselves and the forces of their States at the disposal of the British +Government, and the latest and perhaps most <a id="d0e13281"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e13281">461</a>]</span>brilliant example of their loyalty occurred during 1914, when the veteran Sir Partāp Singh of Idar insisted on proceeding +to the front against Germany, though over seventy years of age, and was accompanied by his nephew, a boy of sixteen. + +</p> +<p>The Ratlām State was founded by Ratan Singh, a grandson of Rāja Udai Singh of Jodhpur, who was born about 1618, and obtained +it as a grant for good service against the Usbegs at Kandahār and the Persians in Khorasān about 1651–52. Kishangarh was founded +by Kishan Singh, a son of the same Rāja Udai Singh, who obtained a grant of territory from Akbar about 1611. Idar State in +Gujarāt has, according to its traditions, been held by Rāthor princes from a very early period. Jodhpur State is the largest +in Rājputāna, with an area of 35,000 square miles, and a population of two million. The Mahārāja is entitled to a salute of +twenty-one guns. A great part of the State is a sandy desert, and its older name of Mārwār is, according to Colonel Tod, a +corruption of Mārusthān, or the region of death. In the Central Provinces the Rāthor Rājpūts number about 6000 persons, and +are found mainly in the Saugor, Jubbulpore, Narsinghpur and Hoshangābād Districts. The census statistics include about 5000 +persons enumerated in Mandla and Bilaspur, nearly all of whom are really Rāthor Telis. + +</p> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13236" href="#d0e13236src" class="noteref">1</a></span> <i>Early History of India</i>, 3rd edition, p. 389. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13241" href="#d0e13241src" class="noteref">2</a></span> <i>Ibidem</i>, p. 413. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13246" href="#d0e13246src" class="noteref">3</a></span> <i>Imperial Gazetteer</i>, art. Bali. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13255" href="#d0e13255src" class="noteref">4</a></span> <i>Rajasthān</i>, ii. pp. 16, 17. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13263" href="#d0e13263src" class="noteref">5</a></span> <i>Ibidem</i>, i. p. 81. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13268" href="#d0e13268src" class="noteref">6</a></span> <i>Ibidem</i>, ii. p. 37. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13276" href="#d0e13276src" class="noteref">7</a></span> <i>Ibidem</i>, ii. p. 35. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e13285" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Rājpūt, Sesodia</h2> +<p><b>Rājpūt, Sesodia, Gahlot, Ahāria</b>.—The Gahlot or Sesodia is generally admitted to be the premier Rājpūt clan. Their chief is described by the bards as “The +Sūryavānsi Rāna, of royal race, Lord of Chitor, the ornament of the thirty-six royal races.” The Sesodias claim descent from +the sun, through Loh, the eldest son of the divine Rāma of Ajodhia. In token of their ancestry the royal banner of Mewār consisted +of a golden sun on a crimson field. Loh is supposed to have founded Lahore. His descendants migrated to Saurāshtra or Kāthiāwār, +where they settled at Vidurbha or Balabhi, the capital of the Valabhi dynasty. The last king of Valabhi was Silāditya, who +was killed by an invasion of barbarians, and his posthumous son, Gohāditya, ruled in Idar and the hilly country in the south-west +<a id="d0e13292"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e13292">462</a>]</span>of Mewār. From him the clan took its name of Gohelot or Gahlot. Mr. D.R. Bhandarkar, however, from a detailed examination +of the inscriptions relating to the Sesodias, arrives at the conclusion that the founders of the line were Nāgar Brāhmans +from Vadnagar in Gujarāt, the first of the line being one Guhadatta, from which the clan takes its name of Gahlot<a id="d0e13294src" href="#d0e13294" class="noteref">1</a> The family were also connected with the ruling princes of Valabhi. Mr. Bhandarkar thinks that the Valabhi princes, and also +the Nāgar Brāhmans, belonged to the Maitraka tribe, who, like the Gūjars, were allied to the Huns, and entered India in the +fifth or sixth century. Mr. Bhandarkar’s account really agrees quite closely with the traditions of the Sesodia bards themselves, +except that he considers Guhadatta to have been a Nāgar Brāhman of Valabhi, and descended from the Maitrakas, a race allied +to the Huns, while the bards say that he was a descendant of the Aryan Kshatriyas of Ajodhia, who migrated to Surat and established +the Valabhi kingdom. The earliest prince of the Gahlot dynasty for whom a date has been obtained is Sīla, A.D. 646, and he +was fifth in descent from Guhadatta, who may therefore be placed in the first part of the sixth century. Bāpa, the founder +of the Gahlot clan in Mewār, was, according to tradition, sixth in descent from Gohāditya, and he had his capital at Nāgda, +a few miles to the north of Udaipur city.<a id="d0e13299src" href="#d0e13299" class="noteref">2</a> A tradition quoted by Mr. Bhandarkar states that Bāpa was the son of Grahadāta. He succeeded in propitiating the god Siva. +One day the king of Chitor died and left no heir to his throne. It was decided that whoever would be garlanded by a certain +elephant would be placed on the throne. Bāpa was present on the occasion, and the elephant put the garland round his neck +not only once, but thrice. Bāpa was thus seated on the throne. One day he was suffering from some eye-disease. A physician +mixed a certain medicine in alcoholic liquor and applied it to his eyes, which were speedily cured. Bāpa afterwards inquired +what the medicine was, and learnt the truth. He trembled like a reed and said, “I am a Brāhman, and you have given me medicine +mixed in liquor. I have lost my caste,” So saying he drank molten lead (<i>sīsa</i>), and forthwith <a id="d0e13307"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e13307">463</a>]</span>died, and hence arose the family name Sesodia.<a id="d0e13309src" href="#d0e13309" class="noteref">3</a> This story, current in Rājputāna, supports Mr. Bhandarkar’s view of the Brāhman origin of the clan. According to tradition +Bāpa went to Chitor, then held by the Mori or Prāmara Rājpūts, to seek his fortune, and was appointed to lead the Chitor forces +against the Muhammadans on their first invasion of India.<a id="d0e13315src" href="#d0e13315" class="noteref">4</a> After defeating and expelling them he ousted the Mori ruler and established himself at Chitor, which has since been the capital +of the Sesodias. The name Sesodia is really derived from Sesoda, the residence of a subsequent chief Rāhup, who captured Mundore +and was the first to bear the title of Rāna of Mewār. Similarly Ahāria is another local name from Ahār, a place in Mewār, +which was given to the clan. They were also known as Rāghuvansi, or of the race of king Rāghu, the ancestor of the divine +Rāma. The Rāghuvansis of the Central Provinces, an impure caste of Rājpūt origin, are treated in a separate article, but it +is not known whether they were derived from the Sesodias. From the fourteenth century the chronicles of the Sesodias contain +many instances of Rājpūt courage and devotion. Chitor was sacked three times before the capital was removed to Udaipur, first +by Ala-ul-Din Khilji in 1303, next by Bahādur Shāh, the Muhammadan king of Gujarāt in 1534, and lastly by Akbar in 1567. These +events were known as Sāka or massacres of the clan. On each occasion the women of the garrison performed the Johar or general +immolation by fire, while the men sallied forth, clad in their saffron-coloured robes and inspired by <i>bhāng</i>, to die sword in hand against the foe. At the first sack the goddess of the clan appeared in a dream to the Rāna and demanded +the lives of twelve of its chiefs as a condition of its preservation. His eleven sons were in their turn crowned as chief, +each ruling for three days, while on the fourth he sallied out and fell in battle.<a id="d0e13324src" href="#d0e13324" class="noteref">5</a> Lastly, the Rāna devoted himself in order that his favourite son Ajeysi might be spared and might perpetuate the clan. At +the second sack 32,000 were slain, and at the third 30,000. Finally Aurāngzeb destroyed the <a id="d0e13329"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e13329">464</a>]</span>temples and idols at Chitor, and only its ruins remain. Udaipur city was founded in 1559. The Sesodias resisted the Muhammadans +for long, and several times defeated them. Udai Singh, the founder of Udaipur, abandoned his capital and fled to the hills, +whence he caused his own territory to be laid waste, with the object of impeding the imperial forces. Of this period it is +recorded that the Rānas were from father to son in outlawry against the emperor, and that sovereign had carried away the doors +of the gate of Chitor, and had set them up in Delhi. Fifty-two rājas and chiefs had perished in the struggle, and the Rāna +in his trouble lay at nights on a counterpane spread on the ground, and neither slept in his bed nor shaved his hair; and +if he perchance broke his fast, had nothing better with which to satisfy it than beans baked in an earthen pot. For this reason +it is that certain practices are to this day observed at Udaipur. A counterpane is spread below the Rāna’s bed, and his head +remains unshaven and baked beans are daily laid upon his plate.<a id="d0e13331src" href="#d0e13331" class="noteref">6</a> A custom of perhaps somewhat similar origin is that in this clan man and wife take food together, and the wife does not wait +till her husband has finished. It is said that the Sesodia Rājpūts are the only caste in India among whom this rule prevails, +and it may have been due to the fact that they had to eat together in haste when occasion offered during this period of guerilla +warfare. + +</p> +<p>In 1614 Rāna Amar Singh, recognising that further opposition was hopeless, made his submission to the emperor, on the condition +that he should never have to present himself in person but might send his two sons in his place. This stipulation being accepted, +the heir-apparent Karan Singh proceeded to Ajmer where he was magnanimously treated by Jahāngīr and shortly afterwards the +imperial troops were withdrawn from Chitor. It is the pride of the Udaipur house that it never gave a daughter in marriage +to any of the Musalmān emperors, and for many years ceased to intermarry with other Rājpūt families who had formed such alliances. +But Amar Singh II. (1698–1710) made a league with the Mahārājas of Jodhpur and Jaipur for mutual protection against the Muhammadans; +and it <a id="d0e13339"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e13339">465</a>]</span>was one of the conditions of the compact that the latter chiefs should regain the privilege of marriage with the Udaipur family +which had been suspended since they had given daughters in marriage to the emperors. But the Rāna unfortunately added a proviso +that the son of an Udaipur princess should succeed to the Jodhpur or Jaipur States in preference to any elder son by another +mother. The quarrels to which this stipulation gave rise led to the conquest of the country by the Marāthas, at whose hands +Mewār suffered more cruel devastation than it had ever been subjected to by the Muhammadans. Ruinous war also ensued between +Jodhpur and Jaipur for the hand of the famous Udaipur princess Kishen Kumāri at the time when Rājputāna was being devastated +by the Marāthas and Pindāris; and the quarrel was only settled by the voluntary death of the object of contention, who, after +the kinsman sent to slay her had recoiled before her young beauty and innocence, willingly drank the draught of opium four +times administered before the fatal result could be produced.<a id="d0e13341src" href="#d0e13341" class="noteref">7</a> + +</p> +<p>The Mahārāna of Udaipur is entitled to a salute of nineteen guns. The Udaipur State has an area of nearly 13,000 square miles +and a population of about a million persons. Besides Udaipur three minor states, Partābgarh, Dungarpur and Banswāra, are held +by members of the Sesodia clan. In the Central Provinces the Sesodias numbered nearly 2000 persons in 1911, being mainly found +in the districts of the Nerbudda Division. + +</p> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13294" href="#d0e13294src" class="noteref">1</a></span> <i>J.A.S.B.</i> (1909), vol. v. p. 167. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13299" href="#d0e13299src" class="noteref">2</a></span> <i>Imperial Gazetteer, loc. cit</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13309" href="#d0e13309src" class="noteref">3</a></span> Bhandarkar, <i>loc. cit.</i> p. 180. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13315" href="#d0e13315src" class="noteref">4</a></span> The following extracts from the history of the clan are mainly taken from the article on Udaipur State in the <i>Imperial Gazetteer</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13324" href="#d0e13324src" class="noteref">5</a></span> <i>Rājasthān</i>, pp. 222, 223. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13331" href="#d0e13331src" class="noteref">6</a></span> Forbes, <i>Rāsmala</i> i. p. 400. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13341" href="#d0e13341src" class="noteref">7</a></span> <i>Rajasthān</i> i. pp, 398, 399. The death of the young princess was mainly the work of Amīr Khān Pindāri who brought pressure on the Rāna +to consent to it in order to save his state. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e13348" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Rājpūt, Solankhi</h2> +<p><b>Rājpūt, Solankhi, Solanki, Chalukya.</b>—This clan was one of the Agnikula or fire-born, and are hence considered to have probably been Gurjaras or Gūjars. Their +original name is said to have been Chaluka, because they were formed in the palm (<i>chalu</i>) of the hand. They were not much known in Rājputāna, but were very prominent in the Deccan. Here they were generally called +Chalukya, though in northern India the name Solankhi is more common. As early as A.D. 350 Pulakesin I. made himself master +of the town <a id="d0e13358"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e13358">466</a>]</span>of Vatapi, the modern Bādāmi In the Bijāpur District, and founded a dynasty, which developed into the most powerful kingdom +south of the Nerbudda, and lasted for two centuries, when it was overthrown by the Rāshtrakūtas<a id="d0e13360src" href="#d0e13360" class="noteref">1</a>. Pulākesin II. of this Chalukya dynasty successfully resisted an inroad of the great emperor Harsha Vardhana of Kanauj, who +aspired to the conquest of the whole of India. The Rāshtrakūta kings governed for two centuries, and in A.D. 973 Taila or +Tailapa II., a scion of the old Chalukya stock, restored the family of his ancestors to its former glory, and founded the +dynasty known as that of the Chalukyas of Kalyān, which lasted like that which it superseded for nearly two centuries and +a quarter, up to about A.D. 1190. In the tenth century apparently another branch of the clan migrated from Rājputāna into +Gujarāt and established a new dynasty there, owing to which Gujarāt, which had formerly been known as Lāta, obtained its present +name<a id="d0e13363src" href="#d0e13363" class="noteref">2</a>. The principal king of this line was Sidh Rāj Solankhi, who is well known to tradition. From these Chalukya or Solankhi rulers +the Baghel clan arose, which afterwards migrated to Rewah. The Solankhis are found in the United Provinces, and a small number +are returned from the Central Provinces, belonging mainly to Hoshangābād and Nimār. + +</p> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13360" href="#d0e13360src" class="noteref">1</a></span> If the Chalukyas were in the Deccan in the fourth century they could not have originated from the Hun and Gūjar invaders of +the fifth and sixth centuries, but must have belonged to an earlier horde. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13363" href="#d0e13363src" class="noteref">2</a></span> <i>Some Problems of Ancient Indian History</i>, by Dr. Rudolf Hoernle, <i>J.R.A.S.</i> (1905) pp. 1–14. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e13371" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Rājpūt, Somvansi</h2> +<p><b>Rājpūt, Somvansi, Chandravansi.</b>—These two are returned as separate septs, though both names mean ‘Descendants of the moon.’ Colonel Tod considers Sūrajvansi +and Somvansi, or the descendants of the sun and moon as the first two of the thirty-six royal clans, from which all the others +were evolved. But he gives no account of them, nor does it appear that they were regularly recognised clans in Rājputāna. +It is probable that both Somvansi and Chandravansi, as well as Sūrajvansi and perhaps Nāgvansi (Descendants of the snake) +have served as convenient designations for Rājpūts of illegitimate birth, or for <a id="d0e13378"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e13378">467</a>]</span>landholding sections of the cultivating castes and indigenous tribes when they aspired to become Rājpūts. Thus the Sūrajvansis, +and Somvansis of different parts of the country might be quite different sets of people. There seems some reason for supposing +that the Somvansis of the United Provinces as described by Mr. Crooke are derived from the Bhar tribe;<a id="d0e13380src" href="#d0e13380" class="noteref">1</a> in the Central Provinces a number of Somvansis and Chandravansis are returned from the Feudatory States, and are probably +landholders who originally belonged to one of the forest tribes residing in them. I have heard the name Somvansi applied to +a boy who belonged to the Baghel clan of Rājpūts, but he was of inferior status on account of his mother being a remarried +widow, or something of the kind. + +</p> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13380" href="#d0e13380src" class="noteref">1</a></span> <i>Tribes and Castes, s.v.</i></p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e13384" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Rājpūt, Sūrajvansi</h2> +<p><b>Rājpūt, Sūrajvansi.</b>—The Sūrajvansi (Descendants of the Sun) is recorded as the first of the thirty-six royal clans, but Colonel Tod gives no +account of it, and it does not seem to be known to history as a separate clan. Mr. Crooke mentions an early tradition that +the Sūrajvansis migrated from Ajodhia to Gujarāt in A.D. 224, but this is scarcely likely to be authentic in view, of the +late dates now assigned for the origin of the important Rājpūt clans. Sūrajvansi should properly be a generic term denoting +any Rājpūt belonging to a clan of the solar race, and it seems likely that it may at different times have been adopted by +Rājpūts who were no longer recognised in their own clan, or by families of the cultivating castes or indigenous tribes who +aspired to become Rājpūts. Thus Mr. Crooke notes that a large section of the Soiris (Savaras or Saonrs) have entirely abandoned +their own tribal name and call themselves Sūrajvansi Rājpūts;<a id="d0e13391src" href="#d0e13391" class="noteref">1</a> and the same thing has probably happened in other cases. In the Central Provinces the Sūrajvansis belong mainly to Hoshangābād, +and here they form a separate caste, marrying among themselves and not with other Rājpūt clans. Hence they would not be recognised +as proper Rājpūts, and are probably a promoted group of some cultivating caste. +<a id="d0e13396"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e13396">468</a>]</span></p> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13391" href="#d0e13391src" class="noteref">1</a></span> <i>Ibidem</i>, art. Soiri. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e13397" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Rājpūt, Tomara</h2> +<p><b>Rājpūt, Tomara, Tuar, Turtwar</b>.—This clan is an ancient one, supposed by Colonel Tod to be derived from the Yādavas or lunar race. The name is said to come +from <i>tomar</i> a club.<a id="d0e13407src" href="#d0e13407" class="noteref">1</a> The Tomara clan was considered to be a very ancient one, and the great king Vikramāditya, whose reign was the Hindu Golden +Age, was held to have been sprung from it. These traditions are, however, now discredited, as well as that of Delhi having +been built by a Tomara king, Anang Pāl I., in A.D. 733. Mr. V.A. Smith states that Delhi was founded in 993–994, and Anangapāla, +a Tomara king, built the Red Fort about 1050. In 1052 he removed the celebrated iron pillar, on which the eulogy of Chandragupta +Vikramāditya is incised, from its original position, probably at Mathura, and set it up in Delhi as an adjunct to a group +of temples from which the Muhammadans afterwards constructed the great mosque.<a id="d0e13413src" href="#d0e13413" class="noteref">2</a> This act apparently led to the tradition that Vikramāditya had been a Tomara, and also to a much longer historical antiquity +being ascribed to the clan than it really possessed. The Tomara rule at Delhi only lasted about 150 years, and in the middle +of the twelfth century the town was taken by Bisāl Deo, the Chauhān chieftain of Ajmer, whose successor, Prithwi Rāj, reigned +at Delhi, but was defeated and killed by the Muhammadans in A.D. 1192. Subsequently, perhaps in the reign of Ala-ud-Dīn Khilji, +a Tomara dynasty established itself at Gwalior, and one of their kings, Dungara Singh (1425–1454), had executed the celebrated +rock-sculptures of Gwalior.<a id="d0e13418src" href="#d0e13418" class="noteref">3</a> In 1518 Gwalior was taken by the Muhammadans, and the last Tomara king reduced to the status of an ordinary jāgīrdār. The +Tomara clan is numerous in the Punjab country near Delhi, where it still possesses high rank, but in the United Provinces +it is not so much esteemed.<a id="d0e13423src" href="#d0e13423" class="noteref">4</a> No ruling chief now belongs to this clan. In the Central Provinces the Tomaras or Tunwars belong principally to the Hoshangābād +District The zamīndārs of Bilāspur, who were originally of the Tawar subcaste of the Kawar tribe, now also claim to be Tomara +Rājpūts on the strength of the similarity of the name. +<a id="d0e13429"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e13429">469</a>]</span></p> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13407" href="#d0e13407src" class="noteref">1</a></span> Mr Crooke’s <i>Tribes and Castes</i>, art. Tomara. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13413" href="#d0e13413src" class="noteref">2</a></span> <i>Early History of India</i>, 3rd edition, p. 386. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13418" href="#d0e13418src" class="noteref">3</a></span> Elliot, <i>Supplemental Glossary, s.v.</i></p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13423" href="#d0e13423src" class="noteref">4</a></span> Mr. Crooke’s <i>Tribes, and Castes,</i> art. Tomara. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e13430" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Rājpūt; Yādu</h2> +<p><b>Rājpūt; Yādu, Yādava, Yādu-Bhatti, Jādon.</b><a id="d0e13436src" href="#d0e13436" class="noteref">1</a>—The Yādus are a well-known historical clan. Colonel Tod says that the Yādu was the most illustrious of all the tribes of +Ind, and became the patronymic of the descendants of Buddha, progenitor of the lunar (Indu) race. It is not clear, even according +to legendary tradition, what, if any, connection the Yādus had with Buddha, but Krishna is held to have been a prince of this +tribe and founded Dwārka in Gujarāt with them, in which locality he is afterwards supposed to have been killed. Colonel Tod +states that the Yādu after the death of Krishna, and their expulsion from Dwārka and Delhi, the last stronghold of their power, +retired by Multān across the Indus, founded Ghazni in Afghānistān, and peopled these countries even to Samārcand. Again driven +back on the Indus they obtained possession of the Punjab and founded Salbhānpur. Thence expelled they retired across the Sutlej +and Gāra into the Indian deserts, where they founded Tannote, Derawāl and Jaisalmer, the last in A.D. 1157. It has been suggested +in the main article on Rājpūt that the Yādus might have been the Sākas, who invaded India in the second century A.D. This +is only a speculation. At a later date a Yādava kingdom existed in the Deccan, with its capital at Deogiri or Daulatābād and +its territory lying between that place and Nāsik.<a id="d0e13439src" href="#d0e13439" class="noteref">2</a> Mr. Smith states that these Yādava kings were descendants of feudatory nobles of the Chalukya kingdom, which embraced parts +of western India and also Gujarāt. The Yādu clan can scarcely, however, be a more recent one than the Chalukya, as in that +case it would not probably have been credited with having had Krishna as its member. The Yādava dynasty only lasted from A.D. +1150 to 1318, when the last prince of the line, Harāpala, stirred up a revolt against the Muhammadans to whom the king, his +father-in-law, had submitted, and being defeated, was flayed alive and decapitated. It is noticeable that the Yādu-Bhatti +Rājpūts of Jaisalmer claim descent from Sālivāhana, who founded the Sāka era in A.D. 78, and it is believed that this era +belonged to the Sāka dynasty of Gujarāt, where, according <a id="d0e13444"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e13444">470</a>]</span>to the tradition given above, the Yādus also settled. This point is not important, but so far as it goes would favour the +identification of the Sākas with the Yādavas. + +</p> +<p>The Bhatti branch of the Yādus claim descent from Bhāti, the grandson of Sālivāhana. They have no legend of having come from +Gujarāt, but they had the title of Rāwal, which is used in Gujarāt, and also by the Sesodia clan who came from there. The +Bhattis are said to have arrived in Jaisalmer about the middle of the eighth century, Jaisalmer city being founded much later +in A.D. 1183. Jaisalmer State, the third in Rājputāna, has an area of 16,000 square miles, most of which is desert, and a +population of about 100,000 persons. The chief has the title of Mahārāwal and receives a salute of fifteen guns. The Jareja +Rājpūts of Sind and Cutch are another branch of the Yādus who have largely intermarried with Muhammadans. They now claim descent +from Jāmshīd, the Persian hero, and on this account, Colonel Tod states, the title of their rulers is Jām. They were formerly +much addicted to female infanticide. The name Yādu has in other parts of India been corrupted into Jādon, and the class of +Jādon Rājpūts is fairly numerous in the United Provinces, and in some places is said to have become a caste, its members marrying +among themselves. This is also the case in the Central Provinces, where they are known as Jādum, and have been treated under +that name in a separate article. The small State of Karauli in Rājputāna is held by a Jādon chief. + +</p> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13436" href="#d0e13436src" class="noteref">1</a></span> See also article Jādum for a separate account of the local caste in the Central Provinces. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13439" href="#d0e13439src" class="noteref">2</a></span> <i>Early History of India</i>, 3rd edition, p. 434. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e13448" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Rajwār</h2> +<p><b>Rajwār.</b><a id="d0e13454src" href="#d0e13454" class="noteref">1</a>—A low cultivating caste of Bihār and Chota Nāgpur, who are probably an offshoot of the Bhuiyas. In 1911 a total of 25,000 +Rajwārs were returned in the Central Provinces, of whom 22,000 belong to the Sargūja State recently transferred from Bengal. +Another 2000 persons are shown in Bilāspur, but these are Mowārs, an offshoot of the Rajwārs, who have taken to the profession +of gardening and have changed their name. They probably rank a little higher than the bulk of the Rajwārs. “Traditionally,” +Colonel Dalton states, “the Rajwārs appear <a id="d0e13457"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e13457">471</a>]</span>to connect themselves with the Bhuiyas; but this is only in Bihār. The Rajwārs in Sargūja and the adjoining States are peaceably +disposed cultivators, who declare themselves to be fallen Kshatriyas; they do not, however, conform to Hindu customs, and +they are skilled in a dance called Chailo, which I believe to be of Dravidian origin. The Rajwārs of Bengal admit that they +are the descendants of mixed unions between Kurmis and Kols. They are looked upon as very impure by the Hindus, who will not +take water from their hands.” The Rajwārs of Bihār told Buchanan that their ancestor was a certain Rishi, who had two sons. +From the elder were descended the Rajwārs, who became soldiers and obtained their noble title; and from the younger the Musāhars, +who were so called from their practice of eating rats, which the Rajwārs rejected. The Musāhars, as shown by Sir H. Risley, +are probably Bhuiyas degraded to servitude in Hindu villages, and this story confirms the Bhuiya origin of the Rajwārs. In +the Central Provinces the Bhuiyas have a subcaste called Rajwār, which further supports this hypothesis, and in the absence +of evidence to the contrary it is reasonable to suppose that the Rajwārs are an offshoot of the Bhuiyas, as they themselves +say, in Bihār. The substitution of Kols for Bhuiyas in Bengal need not cause much concern in view of the great admixture of +blood and confused nomenclature of all the Chota Nāgpur tribes. In Bengal, where the Bhuiyas have settled in Hindu villages, +and according to the usual lot of the forest tribes who entered the Hindu system have been degraded into the servile and impure +caste of Musāhars, the Rajwārs have shared their fate, and are also looked upon as impure. But in Chota Nāgpur the Bhuiyas +have their own villages and live apart from the Hindus, and here the Rajwārs, like the landholding branches of other forest +tribes, claim to be an inferior class of Rājpūts. + +</p> +<p>In Sargūja the caste have largely adopted Hindu customs. They abstain from liquor, employ low-class Brāhmans as priests, and +worship the Hindu deities. When a man wishes to arrange a match for his son he takes a basket of wheat-cakes and proceeding +to the house of the girl’s father sets them down outside. If the match is acceptable the <a id="d0e13461"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e13461">472</a>]</span>girl’s mother comes and takes the cakes into the house and the betrothal is then considered to be ratified. At the wedding +the bridegroom smears vermilion seven times on the parting of the bride’s hair, and the bride’s younger sister then wipes +a little of it off with the end of the cloth. For this service she is paid a rupee by the bridegroom. Divorce and the remarriage +of widows are permitted. After the birth of a child the mother is given neither food nor water for two whole days; on the +third day she gets only boiled water to drink and on the fourth day receives some food. The period of impurity after a birth +extends to twelve days. When the navel-string drops it is carefully put away until the next Dasahra, together with the child’s +hair, which is cut on the sixth day. On the Dasahra festival all the women of the village take them to a tank, where a lotus +plant is worshipped and anointed with oil and vermilion, and the hair and navel-string are then buried at its roots. The dead +are burned, and the more pious keep the bones with a view to carrying them to the Ganges or some other sacred river. Pending +this, the bones are deposited in the cow-house, and a lamp is kept burning in it every night so long as they are there. The +Rajwārs believe that every man has a soul or Prān, and they think that the soul leaves the body, not only at death, but whenever +he is asleep or becomes unconscious owing to injury or illness. Dreams are the adventures of the soul while wandering over +the world apart from the body. They think it very unlucky for a man to see his own reflection in water and carefully avoid +doing so. + +</p> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13454" href="#d0e13454src" class="noteref">1</a></span> Based on the accounts of Sir H. Risley and Colonel Dalton and a paper by Pandit G.L. Pāthak, Superintendent, Korea State. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e13463" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Rāmosi</h2> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>1. General notice</h3> +<p><b>Rāmosi, Rāmoshi.</b>—A criminal tribe of the Bombay Presidency, of which about 150 persons were returned from the Central Provinces and Berār +in 1911. They belong to the western tract of the Satpūras adjoining Khāndesh. The name is supposed to be a corruption of Rāmvansi, +meaning ‘The descendants of Rāma.’ They say<a id="d0e13473src" href="#d0e13473" class="noteref">1</a> that when Rāma, the hero of the Rāmāyana, was driven from his kingdom by his step-mother Kaikeyi, he went to the forest land +south <a id="d0e13478"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e13478">473</a>]</span>of the Nerbudda. His brother Bharat, who had been raised to the throne, could not bear to part with Rāma, so he followed him +to the forest, began to do penance, and made friends with a rough but kindly forest tribe. After Rāma’s restoration Bharat +took two foresters with him to Ajodhia (Oudh) and brought them to the notice of Rāma, who appointed them village watchmen +and allowed them to take his name. If this is the correct derivation it may be compared with the name of Rāwanvansi or Children +of Rāwan, the opponent of Rāma, which is applied to the Gonds of the Central Provinces. The Rāmosis appear to be a Hinduised +caste derived from the Bhīls or Kolis or a mixture of the two tribes. They were formerly a well-known class of robbers and +dacoits. The principal scenes of their depredations were the western Ghāts, and an interesting description of their methods +is given by Captain Mackintosh in his account of the tribe.<a id="d0e13480src" href="#d0e13480" class="noteref">2</a> Some extracts from this are here reproduced. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>2. Methods of robbery</h3> +<p>They armed themselves chiefly with swords, taking one, two or three matchlocks, or more should they judge it necessary. Several +also carried their shields and a few had merely sticks, which were in general shod with small bars of iron from eight to twelve +inches in length, strongly secured by means of rings and somewhat resembling the ancient mace. One of the party carried a +small copper or earthen pot or a cocoanut-shell with a supply of <i>ghī</i> or clarified butter in it, to moisten their torches with before they commenced their operations. The Rāmosis endeavoured +as much as possible to avoid being seen by anybody either when they were proceeding to the object of their attack or returning +afterwards to their houses. They therefore travelled during the night-time; and before daylight in the morning they concealed +themselves in a jungle or ravine near some water, and slept all day, proceeding in this way for a long distance till they +reached the vicinity of the village to be attacked. When they were pursued and much pressed, at times they would throw themselves +into a bush or under a prickly pear <a id="d0e13496"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e13496">474</a>]</span>plant, coiling themselves up so carefully that the chances were their pursuers would pass them unnoticed. If they intended +to attack a treasure party they would wait at some convenient spot on the road and sally out when it came abreast of them, +first girding up their loins and twisting a cloth tightly round their faces, to prevent the features from being recognised. +Before entering the village where their dacoity or <i>durrowa</i> was to be perpetrated, torches were made from the turban of one of the party, which was torn into three, five or seven pieces, +but never into more, the pieces being then soaked with butter. The same man always supplied the turban and received in exchange +the best one taken in the robbery. Those who were unarmed collected bags of stones, and these were thrown at any people who +tried to interfere with them during the dacoity. They carried firearms, but avoided using them if possible, as their discharge +might summon defenders from a distance. They seldom killed or mutilated their victims, except in a fight, but occasionally +travellers were killed after being robbed as a measure of precaution. They retreated with their spoils as rapidly as possible +to the nearest forest or hill, and from there, after distributing the booty into bags to make it portable, they marched off +in a different direction from that in which they had come. Before reaching their homes one of the party was deputed with an +offering of one, two or five rupees to be presented as an offering to their god Khandoba or the goddess Bhawāni in fulfilment +of a vow. All the spoil was then deposited before their Nāik or headman, who divided it into equal shares for members of the +gang, keeping a double share for himself. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>3. Rāmosis employed as village watchmen</h3> +<p>In order to protect themselves from the depredations of these gangs the villagers adopted a system of hiring a Rāmosi as a +surety to be responsible for their property, and this man gradually became a Rakhwāldār or village watchman. He received a +grant of land rent-free and other perquisites, and also a fee from all travellers and gangs of traders who halted in the village +in return for his protection during the night. If a theft or house-breaking occurred in a village, the Rāmosi was held responsible +to the owner for <a id="d0e13506"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e13506">475</a>]</span>the value of the property, unless a large gang had been engaged. If he failed to discover the thief he engaged to make the +lost property good to the owner within fifteen days or a month unless its value was considerable. If a gang had been engaged, +the Rāmosi, accompanied by the patel and other village officials and cultivators, proceeded to track them by their footprints. +Obtaining a stick he cut it to the exact length of the footprint, or several such if a number of prints could be discovered, +and followed the tracks, measuring the footprints, to the boundary of the village. The inhabitants of the adjoining village +were then called and were responsible for carrying on the trail through their village. The measures of footprints were handed +over to them, and after satisfying themselves that the marks came from outside and extended into their land they took up the +trail accompanied by the Rāmosi. In this way the gang was tracked from village to village, and if it was run to earth the +residents of the villages to which it belonged had to make good the loss. If the tracks were lost owing to the robbers having +waded along a stream or got on to rocky ground or into a public road, then the residents of the village in whose borders the +line failed were considered responsible for the stolen property. Usually, however, a compromise was made, and they paid half, +while the other half was raised from the village in which the theft occurred. If the Rāmosi failed to track the thieves out +of the village he had to make good the value of the theft, but he was usually assisted by the village officer. Often, too, +the owner had to be contented with half or a quarter of the amount lost as compensation. In the early part of the century +the Rāmosis of Poona became very troublesome and constantly committed robberies in the houses of Europeans. As a consequence +a custom grew up of employing a Rāmosi as chaukidār or watchman for guarding the bungalow at night on a salary of seven rupees +a month, and soon became general. It was the business of the Rāmosi watchman to prevent other Rāmosis from robbing the house. +Apparently this was the common motive for the custom, prevalent up to recent years, of paying a man solely for the purpose +of watching the house at night, and it originated, as in <a id="d0e13508"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e13508">476</a>]</span>Poona, as a form of insurance and an application of the proverb of setting a thief to catch a thief. The selection of village +watchmen from among the low, criminal castes appears to have been made on the same principle. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>4. Social customs</h3> +<p>The principal deity of the Rāmosis is Khandoba, the Marātha god of war.<a id="d0e13515src" href="#d0e13515" class="noteref">3</a> He is the deified sword, the name being <i>khanda-aba</i> or sword-father. An oath taken on the Bhandar or little bag of turmeric dedicated to Khandoba is held by them most sacred +and no Rāmosi will break this oath. Every Rāmosi has a family god known as Devak, and persons having the same Devak cannot +intermarry. The Devak is usually a tree or a bunch of the leaves of several trees. No one may eat the fruit of or otherwise +use the tree which is his Devak. At their weddings the branches of several trees are consecrated as Devaks or guardians of +the wedding. A Gurao cuts the leafy branches of the mango, <i>umar</i>,<a id="d0e13533src" href="#d0e13533" class="noteref">4</a> <i>jāmun</i><a id="d0e13540src" href="#d0e13540" class="noteref">5</a> and of the <i>rui</i><a id="d0e13547src" href="#d0e13547" class="noteref">6</a> and <i>shami</i><a id="d0e13554src" href="#d0e13554" class="noteref">7</a> shrubs and a few stalks of grass and sets them in Hanumān’s temple. From here the bridegroom’s parents, after worshipping +Hanumān with a betel-leaf and five areca-nuts, take them home and fasten them to the front post of the marriage-shed. When +the bridegroom is taken before the family gods of the bride, he steals one of them in token of his profession, but afterwards +restores it in return for a payment of money. In social position the Rāmosis rank a little above the Mahārs and Māngs, not +being impure. They speak Marāthi but have also a separate thieves’ jargon of their own, of which a vocabulary is given in +the account of Captain Mackintosh. When a Rāmosi child is seven or eight years old he must steal something. If he is caught +and goes to prison the people are delighted, fall at his feet when he comes out and try to obtain him as a husband for their +daughters.<a id="d0e13559src" href="#d0e13559" class="noteref">8</a> It is doubtful whether these practices obtain in the Central Provinces, and as the Rāmosis are not usually reckoned here +among the notorious criminal tribes they may probably have taken to more honest pursuits. +<a id="d0e13564"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e13564">477</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13473" href="#d0e13473src" class="noteref">1</a></span> <i>B. G. Poona</i>, Part I., p. 409. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13480" href="#d0e13480src" class="noteref">2</a></span> <i>An Account of the Origin and Present Condition of the Tribe of Rāmosis</i> (Bombay, 1833; India Office Tracts. Also published in the <i>Madras Journal of Literature and Science</i>.) +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13515" href="#d0e13515src" class="noteref">3</a></span> This paragraph is mainly compiled from the <i>Nāsik</i> and <i>Poona</i> volumes of the <i>Bombay Gazetteer</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13533" href="#d0e13533src" class="noteref">4</a></span> <i>Ficus glomerata</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13540" href="#d0e13540src" class="noteref">5</a></span> <i>Eugenia jambolana</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13547" href="#d0e13547src" class="noteref">6</a></span> <i>Calotropis gigantea</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13554" href="#d0e13554src" class="noteref">7</a></span> <i>Bauhinia racemosa</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13559" href="#d0e13559src" class="noteref">8</a></span> <i>Poona Gazetteer</i>, part i. p. 425. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e13565" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Rangrez</h2> +<p><b>Rangrez.</b>—The Muhammadan caste of dyers. The caste is found generally in the northern Districts, and in 1901 its members were included +with the Chhīpas, from whom, however, they should be distinguished as having a different religion and also because they practise +a separate branch of the dyeing industry. The strength of the caste in the Central Provinces does not exceed a few hundred +persons. The Rangrez is nominally a Muhammadan of the Sunni sect, but the community forms an endogamous group after the Hindu +fashion, marrying only among themselves. Good-class Muhammadans will neither intermarry with nor even take food from members +of the Rangrez community. In Sohāgpur town of Hoshangābād this is divided into two branches, the Kherālawālas or immigrants +from Kherāla in Mālwa and the local Rangrezes. These two groups will take food together but will not intermarry. Kherālawāla +women commonly wear a skirt like Hindu women and not Muhammadan pyjamas. In Jubbulpore the Rangrez community employ Brāhmans +to conduct their marriage and other ceremonies. Long association with Hindus has as usual caused the Rangrez to conform to +their religious practices and the caste might almost be described as a Hindu community with Muhammadan customs. The bulk of +them no doubt were originally converted Hindus, but as their ancestors probably immigrated from northern India their present +leaning to that religion would perhaps be not so much an obstinate retention of pre-Islamic ritual as a subsequent lapse following +on another change of environment. In northern India Mr. Crooke records them as being governed mainly by Muhammadan rules. +There<a id="d0e13572src" href="#d0e13572" class="noteref">1</a> they hold themselves to be the descendants of one Khwāja Bali, a very pious man, about whom the following verse is current: + +</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Khwāja Bali Rangrez +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Range Khuda ki sez:</span></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>‘Khwāja Bali dyes the bed of God.’ The name is derived from <i>rang</i>, colour, and <i>rez, rekhtān</i>, to pour. In Bihār, Sir G. Grierson states<a id="d0e13590src" href="#d0e13590" class="noteref">2</a> the word Rangrez is often confounded <a id="d0e13595"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e13595">478</a>]</span>with ‘Angrezi’ or ‘English’; and the English are sometimes nicknamed facetiously Rangrez or ‘dyers,’ The saying, ‘Were I a +dyer I would dye my own beard first,’ in reference to the Muhammadan custom of dyeing the beard, has the meaning of ‘Charity +begins at home,’<a id="d0e13597src" href="#d0e13597" class="noteref">3</a> + +</p> +<p>The art of the Rangrez differs considerably from that of the Chhīpa or Rangāri, the Hindu dyer, and he produces a much greater +variety of colours. His principal agents were formerly the safflower (<i>Carthamus tinctorius</i>), turmeric and myrobalans. The fact that the brilliant red dye of safflower was as a rule only used by Muhammadan dyers, +gives some ground for the supposition that it may have been introduced by them to India. This would account for the existence +of a separate caste of Muhammadan dyers, and in support of it may be adduced the fact that the variety of colours is much +greater in the dress of the residents of northern India and Rājputāna than in those of the Marātha Districts. The former patronise +many different shades, more especially for head-cloths, while the latter as a rule do not travel beyond red, black or blue. +The Rangrez obtains his red shades from safflower, yellow from <i>haldi</i> or turmeric, green from a mixture of indigo and turmeric, purple from indigo and safflower, <i>khāki</i> or dust-colour from myrobalans and iron filings, orange from turmeric and safflower, and <i>badāmi</i> or almond-colour from turmeric and two wild plants <i>kachora</i> and <i>nāgarmothi</i>, the former of which gives a scent. Cloths dyed in the <i>badāmi</i> shades are affected, when they can afford it, by Gosains and other religious mendicants, who thus dwell literally in the +odour of sanctity. Muhammadans generally patronise the shades of green or purple, the latter being often used as a lining +for white coats. Fakīrs or Muhammadan beggars wear light green. Mārwāri Banias and others from Rājputāna like the light yellow, +pink or orange shades. A green or black head-cloth is with them a sign of mourning. Cloths dyed in yellow or scarlet are bought +by Brāhmans and other castes of Hindus for their marriages. Blue is not a lucky colour among the Hindus and is considered +as on a level with black. It may be worn on ordinary occasions, but not at festivals or at auspicious <a id="d0e13626"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e13626">479</a>]</span>periods. Muhammadans rather affect black and do not consider it an unlucky colour. I have seen a Rangrez dye a piece of cloth +in about twenty colours in the course of two or three hours, but several of these dyes are fugitive and will not stand washing. +The trade of the Rangrez is being undermined by the competition of cheap chemical dyes imported from Germany and sold in the +form of powders; the process of dyeing with these is absolutely simple and can be carried out by any one. They are far cheaper +than safflower, and this agent has consequently been almost driven from the market. People buy a little dyeing powder from +the bazār and dye their own cloths. But men will only wear cloths dyed in this manner, and known as <i>katcha kapra</i>, on their heads and not on their bodies; women sometimes wear them also on their bodies. The decay in the indigenous art +of dyeing must be a matter for regret. + +</p> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13572" href="#d0e13572src" class="noteref">1</a></span> <i>Tribes and Castes</i>, art. Rangrez. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13590" href="#d0e13590src" class="noteref">2</a></span> <i>Peasant Life in Bihār</i>, p. 101, footnote. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13597" href="#d0e13597src" class="noteref">3</a></span> Temple and Fallon’s <i>Hindustani Proverbs</i>. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e13631" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Rautia</h2> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>1. Origin of the tribe</h3> +<p><b>Rautia.</b><a id="d0e13640src" href="#d0e13640" class="noteref">1</a>—A cultivating caste of the Chota Nāgpur plateau. In 1911 about 12,000 Rautias were enumerated in the Province, nearly all +of whom belong to the Jashpur State with a few in Sargūja. These states lie outside the scope of the Ethnographic Survey and +hence no regular inquiry has been made on the Rautias. The following brief notice is mainly taken from the account of the +caste in Sir H. Risley’s <i>Tribes and Castes of Bengal</i>. He describes the caste as, “refined in features and complexion by a large infusion of Aryan blood. Their chief men hold +estates on quit-rent from the Mahārāja of Chota Nāgpur, and the bulk of the remainder are tenants with occupancy right and +often paying only a low quit-rent or half the normal assessment.” These favourable tenures may probably be explained by the +fact that they were held in former times on condition of military service, and were analogous to the feudal fiefs of Europe. +The Rautias themselves say that this was their original occupation in Chota Nāgpur. The name Rautia is a form of Rāwat, and +this latter word signifies a prince and is a title borne by relatives of a Rāja. It may be noticed <a id="d0e13649"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e13649">480</a>]</span>that Rāwat is the ordinary name by which the Ahīr caste is known in Chhattīsgarh, the neighbouring country to Chota Nāgpur +in the Central Provinces; and further that the Rautias will take food from a Chhattīsgarhi Rāwat. This fact, coupled with +the identity of the name, appears to demonstrate a relationship of the two castes. The Rautias will not take food from any +other Hindu caste, but they will eat with the Kawar and Gond tribes, at least in Raigarh. The Kawars have a subtribe called +Rautia as also have the Kols. In Sir H. Risley’s list of the sept-names of the Rautias<a id="d0e13651src" href="#d0e13651" class="noteref">2</a> we find two names, Aind the eel, and Rukhi a squirrel, which are also the names of Munda septs, and one, Karsāyal or deer, +which is the name of a Kawar sept. They have also a name Sanwāni, which is probably Sonwāni or ‘gold-water,’ and is common +to many of the primitive tribes. The most plausible hypothesis of the origin of the Rautias on the above facts seems to be +that they were a tribal militia in Chota Nāgpur, the leaders being Ahīrs or Rāwats with possibly a sprinkling of the local +Rājpūts, while the main body were recruited from the Kawar and Kol tribes. The Khandaits or swordsmen of Orissa furnish an +exact parallel to the Rautias, being a tribal militia, who have now become a caste, and are constituted mainly from the Bhuiya +tribe with a proportion of Chasas or cultivators and Rājpūts. They also have obtained possession of the land, and in Orissa +the Sresta or good Khandaits rank next to the Rājpūts. The history and position of the Rautias appears to be similar to that +of the Khandaits. The Halbas of Bastar are probably another nearly analogous instance. They were Gonds, who apparently formed +the tribal militia of the Rājas of Bastar and got grants of land and consequently a certain rise in status though not to the +same level as the Khandaits and Rautias. It does not seem that the Rautias have any special connection with the Gonds, and +their acceptance of food from Gonds may perhaps, as suggested by Mr. Hīra Lāl, be due to the fact that they served a Gond +Rāja. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>2. Subdivisions</h3> +<p>The Rautias had formerly three subdivisions, the Barki, Majhli and Chhotki Bhīr or Gorhi, or the high, middle and low class +Rautias. But it is related that the Barki group <a id="d0e13661"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e13661">481</a>]</span>found that they could not obtain girls in marriage for their sons, so they extended the privileges of the <i>connubium</i> to the Majhli group after taking a caste feast. Possibly the Barki Rautias formerly practised hypergamy with the Majhli, +taking daughters in marriage but not giving daughters, and in course of time this has led to the obliteration of the distinction +between them. The different status of the three groups was based on their purity of descent. The Majhli and Chhotki were the +descendants of Rautia fathers and mothers of other castes; the offspring going to the Majhli group if the mother was a Gond +or Kawar or of respectable caste, while the children of impure Gānda and Ghasia women by Rautia fathers were admitted into +the Chhotki group. These divisions confirm the hypothesis previously given of the genesis of the Rautia caste; and it is further +worth noting that the Khandaits have also Bar and Chhot Gohir divisions or those of pure and mixed blood, and the Halbas of +Bastar are similarly divided into the Purāit or pure Halbas, and the Surāit or descendants of Halba fathers by women of other +castes. In a military society, where the men were frequently on the move or stationed in outlying forts and posts, temporary +unions and illegitimate children would naturally be of common occurrence. And the mixed nature of the three castes affords +some support to the hypothesis of their common origin from military service. + +</p> +<p>The tribe have totemistic septs, and retain some veneration for their totems. Those of the Bāgh or tiger sept throw away their +earthen pots on hearing of the death of a tiger. Those of the Sānd or bull sept will not castrate bullocks themselves, and +must have this operation performed on their plough-bullocks by others. Those of the Kānsi sept formerly, according to their +own account, would not root up the <i>kāns</i> grass<a id="d0e13671src" href="#d0e13671" class="noteref">3</a> growing in their fields, but now they no longer object to do so. Other septs are Tithi a bird, Bīra a hawk, Barwan a wild +dog, and so on. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>3. Marriage</h3> +<p>Marriage is forbidden within the sept, but is permitted between the children of a brother and a sister or of two sisters. +Matches are arranged at the caste feasts and the <a id="d0e13681"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e13681">482</a>]</span>usual bride-price is four rupees with six or seven pieces of cloth and some grain. When the procession arrives at the bride’s +village her party go out to meet it, and the Gāndas or musicians on each side try to break each other’s drums, but are stopped +by their employers. At the wedding two wooden images of the bridegroom and bride are made and placed in the centre of the +marriage-shed. A goat is led round these and killed, and the bride and bridegroom walk round them seven times. They rub vermilion +on the wooden images and then on each other’s foreheads. It is probable that the wooden images are made and set up in the +centre of the shed to attract the evil eye and divert it from the real bride and bridegroom, and the goat may be a substituted +sacrifice on their behalf. Divorce and the remarriage of widows are permitted. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>4. Funeral rites</h3> +<p>In the forest tracts the tribe bury the dead, placing the corpse with the feet to the south. Before being placed in the grave +the corpse is rubbed with oil and turmeric and carried seven times round the grave according to the ritual of a wedding. This +is called the <i>Chhed vivāh</i> or marriage to the grave. The Kabīrpanthi Rautias are placed standing in the grave with the face turned to the north. Well-to-do +members of the caste burn their dead and employ Brāhmans to perform the <i>shrāddh</i> ceremony. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>5. Inheritance</h3> +<p>The tribe have some special rules of inheritance. In Bengal<a id="d0e13699src" href="#d0e13699" class="noteref">4</a> the eldest son of the legitimate wife inherits the whole of the father’s property, subject to the obligation of making grants +for the maintenance of his younger brothers. These grants decrease according to the standing of the brothers, the elder ones +getting more and the younger less. Sons of a wife married by the ceremony used for widows receive smaller grants. But the +widow of an elder brother counts as the regular wife of a younger brother and her sons have full rights of succession. In +the Central Provinces the eldest son does not succeed to the whole property but obtains a share half as large again as the +other sons. And if the father divides the property in his lifetime and participates in it he himself takes only the share +of a younger son. +<a id="d0e13704"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e13704">483</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13640" href="#d0e13640src" class="noteref">1</a></span> Based on Sir H. Risley’s account of the tribe in the <i>Tribes and Castes of Bengal</i>, and on notes taken by Mr. Hīra Lāl at Raigarh. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13651" href="#d0e13651src" class="noteref">2</a></span> <i>Tribes and Castes of Bengal</i>, vol. ii. App. I. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13671" href="#d0e13671src" class="noteref">3</a></span> <i>Saccharum spontaneum</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13699" href="#d0e13699src" class="noteref">4</a></span> <i>Tribes and Castes of Bengal</i>, art. Rautia. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e13705" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Sanaurhia</h2> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>1. A band of criminals</h3> +<p><b>Sanaurhia, Chandravedi.</b><a id="d0e13714src" href="#d0e13714" class="noteref">1</a>—A small but well-known community of criminals in Bundelkhand. They claim to be derived from the Sanādhya Brāhmans, and it +seems possible that this may in fact have been their origin; but at present they are a confraternity recruited by the initiation +of promising boys from all castes except sweepers and Chamārs;<a id="d0e13720src" href="#d0e13720" class="noteref">2</a> and a census taken of them in northern India in 1872 showed that they included members of the following castes: Brāhman, +Rājpūt, Teli, Kurmi, Ahīr, Kanjar, Nai, Dhobi, Dhīmar, Sunār and Lodhi. It is said, however, that they do not form a caste +or intermarry, members of each caste continuing their relations with their own community. Their regular method of stealing +is through the agency of a boy, and no doubt they pick up a likely urchin whenever they get the chance, as only selected boys +would be clever enough for the work. Their trade is said to possess much fascination, and Mr. Crooke quotes a saying, ‘Once +a Sanaurhia always a Sanaurhia’; so that unless the increased efficiency of the police has caused the dangers of their calling +to outweigh its pleasures they should have no difficulty in obtaining recruits. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>2. Traditions of origin</h3> +<p>Mr. Seagrim<a id="d0e13731src" href="#d0e13731" class="noteref">3</a> states that their home is in the Datia State of Bundelkhand, and some of them live in the adjoining Alamgarh tract of Indore +State. Formerly they also resided in the Orchha and Chanderi States of Bundelkhand, having six or eight villages in each state<a id="d0e13736src" href="#d0e13736" class="noteref">4</a> in their sole occupation, with colonies in other villages. In 1857 it was estimated that the Tehri State contained 4000 Sanaurhias, +Bānpur 300 and Datia 300. They occupied twelve villages in Tehri, and an officer of the state presided over the community +and acted as umpire in the division of the spoils. The office of Mukhia or leader was hereditary in the caste, and in default +of male issue descended to females. If among the booty there happened to be any object of peculiar elegance or value, it was +ceremoniously presented to the chief of the state. They say that their ancestors were two Sanādhya Brāhmans <a id="d0e13742"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e13742">484</a>]</span>of the village of Rāmra in Datia State. They were both highly accomplished men, and one had the gift of prophecy, while the +other could understand the language of birds. One day they met at a river a rich merchant and his wife, who were on a pilgrimage +to Jagannāth. As they were drinking water a crow sitting on a tree commenced cawing, and the Sanādhya heard him say that whoever +got hold of the merchant’s walking-stick would be rich. The two Brāhmans then accompanied the merchant until they obtained +an opportunity of making off with his stick; and they found it to be full of gold mohurs, the traveller having adopted this +device as a precaution against being robbed. The Brāhmans were so pleased at their success that they took up stealing as a +profession, and opened a school where they taught small boys of all castes the art of stealing property in the daytime. Prior +to admission the boys were made to swear by the moon that they would never commit theft at night, and on this account they +are known as Chandravedi or ‘Those who observe the moon.’ In Bombay and Central India this name is more commonly used than +Sanaurhia. Another name for them is Uthaigīra or ‘A picker-up of that which has fallen,’ corresponding to the nickname of +Uchla or ‘Lifter’ applied to the Bhāmtas. Mr. Seagrim described them as going about in small gangs of ten to twenty persons +without women, under a leader who has the title of Mukhia or Nālband. The other men are called Upardār, and each of these +has with him one or two boys of between eight and twelve years old, who are known as <i>Chauwa</i> (chicks) and do the actual stealing. The Nālband or leader trains these boys to their work, and also teaches them a code +vocabulary (<i>Pārsi</i>) and a set of signals (<i>teni</i>) by which the Upardār can convey to them his instructions while business is proceeding. The whole gang set out at the end +of the rains and, arriving at some distant place, break up into small parties; the Nālband remains at a temporary headquarters, +where he receives and disposes of the spoil, and arranges for the defence of any member of the gang who is arrested, and for +the support of his wife and children if he is condemned to imprisonment. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>3. Methods of stealing</h3> +<p>The methods of the Sanaurhias as described by Mr. Seagrim show considerable ingenuity. When they desire to <a id="d0e13758"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e13758">485</a>]</span>steal something from a stall in a crowded market two of the gang pretend to have a violent quarrel, on which all the people +in the vicinity collect to watch, including probably the owner of the stall. In this case the <i>Chauwa</i> or boy, who has posted himself in a position of vantage, will quickly abstract the article agreed upon and make off. Or if +there are several purchasers at a shop, the man will wait until one of them lays down his bundle while he makes payment, and +then pushing up against him signal to the <i>Chauwa</i>, who snatches up the bundle and bolts. If he is caught, the Sanaurhia will come up as an innocent member of the crowd and +plead for mercy on the score of his youth; and the boy will often be let off with a few slaps. Sometimes three or four Sanaurhias +will proceed to some place of resort for pilgrims to bathe, and two or three of them entering the water will divert the attention +of the bather by pointing out some strange object or starting a discussion. In the meantime the <i>Chauwas</i> or chicks, under the direction of another on the bank, will steal any valuable article left by the bather. The attention +of any one left on shore to watch the property is diverted by a similar device. If they see a man with expensive clothes the +<i>Chauwa</i> will accidentally brush against him and smear him with dirt or something that causes pollution; the victim will proceed to +bathe, and one of the usual stratagems is adopted. Or the Sanaurhia will engage the man in conversation and the <i>Chauwa</i> will come running along and collide with them; on being abused by the Sanaurhia for his clumsiness he asks to be pardoned, +explaining that he is only a poor sweeper and meant no harm; and on hearing this the victim, being polluted, must go off and +bathe.<a id="d0e13775src" href="#d0e13775" class="noteref">5</a> Colonel Sleeman relates the following case of such a theft:<a id="d0e13781src" href="#d0e13781" class="noteref">6</a> “While at Saugor I got a note one morning from an officer in command of a treasure escort just arrived from Narsinghpur stating +that the old Sūbahdār of his company had that morning been robbed of his gold necklace valued at Rs. 150, and requesting that +I would assist him in recovering it. The old Sūbahdār brought the note, and stated that he had undressed at the brook near +the <a id="d0e13786"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e13786">486</a>]</span>cantonments, and placed the necklace with his clothes, about twenty yards from the place where he bathed; that on returning +to his clothes he could not find the necklace, and the only person he saw near the place was a young lad who was sauntering +in the mango grove close by. This lad he had taken and brought with him, and I found after a few questions that he belonged +to the Sanaurhia Brāhmans of Bundelkhand. As the old Sūbahdār had not seen the boy take the necklace or even approach the +clothes, I told him that we could do nothing, and he must take the boy back to camp and question him in his own way. The boy, +as I expected, became alarmed, and told me that if I would not send him back with the angry old Sūbahdār he would do anything +I pleased. I bade him tell me how he had managed to secure the necklace; and he told me that while the Sūbahdār turned his +back upon his clothes in prayer, he had taken it up and made it over to one of the men of his party; and that it must have +been taken to their bivouac, which was in a grove about three miles from the cantonments. I sent off a few policemen, who +secured the whole party, but could not find anything upon them. Seeing some signs of a hole having been freshly made under +one of the trees they dug up the fresh earth and discovered the necklace, which the old man was delighted to recover so easily.” +Another device which they have is to beat the <i>Chauwa</i> severely in the sight of a rich stranger. The boy runs crying and clings to the stranger asking him for help, and in the +meantime picks his pocket. When the Sanaurhias are convicted in Native States and put into jail they refuse to eat, pleading +that they are poor Brāhmans, and pretend to starve themselves to death, and thus often get out of jail. In reply to a letter +inquiring about these people from the Superintendent of Chanderi about 1851, the Rāja of Bānpur wrote: + +</p> +<p>“I have to state that from former times these people following their profession have resided in my territory and in the states +of other native princes; and they have always followed this calling, but no former kings or princes or authority have ever +forbidden the practice. In consequence of these people stealing by day only, and that they do not take life or distress any +person by personal ill-usage, and that <a id="d0e13793"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e13793">487</a>]</span>they do not break into houses by digging walls or breaking door-locks, but simply by their smartness manage to abstract property; +owing to such trifling thefts I looked upon their proceedings as a petty matter and have not interfered with them.”<a id="d0e13795src" href="#d0e13795" class="noteref">7</a> This recalls another famous excuse. +<a id="d0e13801"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e13801">488</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13714" href="#d0e13714src" class="noteref">1</a></span> This article is based principally on an account of the Sanaurhias written by Mr. C.M. Seagrim, Inspector-General of Police, +Indore, and included in Mr. Kennedy’s <i>Criminal Classes of Bombay</i> (1908). +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13720" href="#d0e13720src" class="noteref">2</a></span> Crooke’s <i>Tribes and Castes</i>, art. Sanaurhia. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13731" href="#d0e13731src" class="noteref">3</a></span> <i>Criminal Classes of Bombay Presidency</i>, pp. 296, 297. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13736" href="#d0e13736src" class="noteref">4</a></span> Sleeman’s <i>Reports on the Badhaks</i>, p. 327. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13775" href="#d0e13775src" class="noteref">5</a></span> Mr. Gayer’s <i>Lectures on some Criminal Tribes</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13781" href="#d0e13781src" class="noteref">6</a></span> <i>Report on the Badhak or Bāgri Dacoits</i> (1849), p. 328. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13795" href="#d0e13795src" class="noteref">7</a></span> J. Hutton, <i>A Popular Account of the Thugs and Dacoits and Gang-robbers of India</i> (London, 1857). +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e13802" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Sānsia</h2> +<h3>List of Paragraphs</h3> +<ul> +<li><a href="#d0e13849">1. Historical notice of the caste</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e13877">2. Social customs</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e13890">3. Taboos of relationship</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e13900">4. Organisation for dacoity</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e13905">5. Description of a dacoity</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e13931">6. Omens</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e13946">7. Ordeals</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e13983">8. Sānsias at the present time</a></li> +</ul> +<div class="div2" id="d0e13849"> +<h3>1. Historical notice of the caste</h3> +<p><b>Sānsia</b>.<a id="d0e13856src" href="#d0e13856" class="noteref">1</a>—A small caste of wandering criminals of northern India, who live by begging and dealing in cattle. They also steal and commit +dacoities, house-breaking and thefts on railway trains. The name Sānsia is borne as well by the Uriya or Od masons of the +Uriya country, but these are believed to be quite a distinct group from the criminal Sānsias of Central India and are noticed +in another short article. Separate statistics of the two groups were not obtained at the census. The Sānsias are closely connected +with the Berias, and say that their ancestors were two brothers Sains Mūl and Sānsi, and that the Berias are descended from +the former and the Sānsias from the latter. They were the bards of the Jāt caste, and it was their custom to chronicle the +names of the Jāts and their ancestors, and when they begged from Jāt families to recite their praises. The Sānsias, Colonel +Sleeman states, had particular families (of the Jāts) allotted to them, from whom they had not only the privilege of begging, +but received certain dues; some had fifty, some a hundred houses appointed to them, and they received yearly from the head +of each house one rupee and a quarter and one day’s food. When the Jāts celebrated their marriages they were <a id="d0e13862"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e13862">489</a>]</span>accustomed to invite the Sānsias, who as their minstrels recited the praises of the ancestors of the Jāts, tracing them up +to the time of Punya Jāt; and for this they received presents, according to the means of the parties, of cows, ponies or buffaloes. +Should any Jāt demur to paying the customary dues the Sānsias would dress up a cloth figure of his father and parade with +it before the house, when the sum demanded was generally given; for if the figure were fastened on a bamboo and placed over +the house the family would lose caste and no one would smoke or drink water with them.<a id="d0e13864src" href="#d0e13864" class="noteref">2</a> + +</p> +<p>The Sānsias say that their ancestors have always resided in Mārwār and Ajmer. About twenty-four miles distant from Ajmer are +two towns, Pīsangān and Sagun; on their eastern side is a large tank, and the bones of all persons of the Sānsia tribe who +died in any part of the country were formerly buried there, being covered by a wooden platform with four pillars.<a id="d0e13872src" href="#d0e13872" class="noteref">3</a> On one occasion a quarrel had arisen over a Sānsia woman, and a large number of the caste were killed in this place. So they +left Mārwār, and some of them came to the Deccan, where they took to house-breaking and dacoity; and so successful were they +that the other Sānsias followed them and gave up all their former customs, even those of reciting the praises of and begging +from the Jāts. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e13877"> +<h3>2. Social customs</h3> +<p>The Sānsias are divided into two groups, Kalkar and Malha; and these two are further subdivided into eight and twelve sections +respectively. No one belonging to the Kalkar group may marry another person of that group, but he may marry anybody belonging +to any section of the Malha group. Thus the two groups being exogamous the sections do not serve any purpose, but it is possible +that the rules are really more complicated. In the Punjab their marriage ceremony is peculiar, the bride being covered by +a basket, on which the bridegroom sits while the nuptial rites are being performed.<a id="d0e13882src" href="#d0e13882" class="noteref">4</a> According to Colonel Sleeman, after the arrangement of a match the caste committee assemble to determine the price to be +paid to the father of the girl, <a id="d0e13888"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e13888">490</a>]</span>which may amount to as much as Rs. 2000. When this is settled some liquor is spilt on the ground in the name of Bhagwān or +Vishnu, and an elder pronounces that the two have become man and wife; a feast is given to the caste, and the ceremony is +concluded. After child-birth a woman cannot wash herself for five days, but on the sixth she may go to a stream and wash. +Even on ordinary occasions a woman must never wash herself inside the house, but must always go to a stream, which rule does +not apply to men. When the hair of a child begins to grow it is all shaved except the scalp-lock, which is dedicated to Bhagwān; +and at ten or twelve years of age this lock is also shaved off and a dinner is given to members of the caste. The last ceremony +is of the nature of a puberty-rite, and if children die prior to its performance their bodies are buried, whereas after it +they have a right to cremation. After a body has been burnt the bones are buried on the spot in an earthen vessel, over the +mouth of which a large stone is placed. Some pig’s flesh is cooked and sweet cakes prepared, portions of which are placed +upon the stone; and the deceased is then called upon, by reason of the usual ceremonies having been performed at his death, +to watch over his surviving relatives. If any Sānsia happened to commit a murder when engaged in a dacoity he was afterwards +obliged to make an offering for forgiveness, and to spend a rupee and a quarter in liquor for the caste-fellows. If a dacoit +had himself been killed and his body abandoned, his clothes, with some new clothes, were put upon a sleeping-cot, and his +companions of the same caste carried it to a convenient spot, where it was either burnt or buried in the ground. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e13890"> +<h3>3. Taboos of relationship</h3> +<p>Colonel Sleeman records some curious taboos among relations.<a id="d0e13895src" href="#d0e13895" class="noteref">5</a> A man cannot go into the hut of his mother-in-law or of his son’s wife; for if their petticoat should touch him he would +be turned out of his caste and would not be admitted into it until he had paid a large sum. “If we quarrel with a woman,” +said a Sānsia, “and she strikes us with her petticoat we lose our caste; we should be allowed to eat and drink with our tribe, +but not to perform worship <a id="d0e13898"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e13898">491</a>]</span>with them nor to assist in burial rites. If a woman piles up a heap of stones and puts her petticoat upon it and throws filth +upon it and says to any other, ‘This disgrace fell upon your ancestors for seven generations back,’ both are immediately expelled +from our caste, and cannot return to it until they have paid a large sum of money.” + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e13900"> +<h3>4. Organisation for dacoity</h3> +<p>As in the case of the Badhaks the arrangements for a dacoity were carefully organised. Each band had a Jemādār or leader, +while the others were called Sipāhis or soldiers. A tenth of all the booty taken was given to the Jemādār in return for the +provision of the spears, torches and other articles, and of the remainder the Jemādār received two shares and the Sipāhis +one each. But no novice was permitted to share in the booty or carry a spear until he had participated in two or three successful +dacoities; and inasmuch as outsiders, with the exception of the impure Dhers and Māngs, were freely admitted to the Sānsia +community in return for a small money payment, some such apprenticeship as this was no doubt necessary. If a Sipāhi was killed +in a dacoity his wife was entitled to a sum of Rs. 350 and half an ordinary share in future dacoities as long as she remained +with the gang. The Sānsias never pitched their camp in the vicinity of the place in which they contemplated an enterprise, +but despatched their scouts to it, themselves remaining some twenty miles distant. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e13905"> +<h3>5. Description of a dacoity</h3> +<p>The scouts,<a id="d0e13910src" href="#d0e13910" class="noteref">6</a> having prospected the town and determined the house to be exploited, usually that of the leading banker, would then proceed +to it in the early morning before business began and ask to purchase some ornaments or change some money; by this request +they often induced the banker to bring out his cash chest from the place of security where he was accustomed to deposit it +at night, and learnt where it should be looked for. Having picked up as much information as possible, the scouts would purchase +some spear-heads, bury them in a neighbouring ravine, and rejoin the main body. The party would arrive at the rendezvous in +the evening, and having fitted their spears to bamboo shafts, would enter the town carrying them concealed in a bundle <a id="d0e13916"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e13916">492</a>]</span>of <i>karbi</i> or the long thick stalks of the large millet, juāri.<a id="d0e13921src" href="#d0e13921" class="noteref">7</a> One man was appointed to carry the torch,<a id="d0e13926src" href="#d0e13926" class="noteref">8</a> and the oil to be poured on this had always to be purchased in the town or village where the dacoity was to take place, the +use of any other oil being considered most unlucky. The vessel containing the oil was not allowed to touch the earth until +its contents had been poured upon the torch, when it was dashed upon the ground. From this time until the completion of the +dacoity no one might spit or drink water or relieve himself under penalty of putting a stop to the enterprise. The Jemādār +invoked Khandoba, an incarnation of Mahādeo, and said that if by his assistance the box of money was broken at the first or +second stroke of the axe, a chain of gold weighing one and a quarter tolas would be made over to him. The party then approached +the shop, the roads surrounding it being picketed to guard against a rescue, and the Jemādār, accompanied by four or five +men and the torch-bearer, rushed into the shop crying Dīn, Dīn. The doors usually gave way under a few heavy blows with the +axe, which they wielded with great expertness, and the scout pointed out the location of the money and valuables. Once in +possession of the property the torch was extinguished and the whole party made off as rapidly as possible. During their retreat +they tried to avoid spearing people who pursued them, first calling out to them to go away. If any member of the party was +killed or so desperately wounded that he could not be removed, the others cut off his head and carried it off so as to prevent +recognition; a man who was slightly wounded would be carried off by his companions, but if the pursuit became hot and he had +to be left, they cut off his head also and took it with them, escaping by this drastic method the risk of his turning approver +with the consequent danger of conviction for the rest of the gang. About a mile from the place of the dacoity they stopped +and mustered their party, and the Jemādār called out to the god Bhagwān to direct any pursuers in the wrong direction and +enable them to reach their families. If any dacoit had ever been killed at this particular town they also called upon his +spirit to assist them, <a id="d0e13929"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e13929">493</a>]</span>promising to offer him a goat or some liquor; and so, throwing down a rupee or two at any temple or stream which they might +pass on their way, they came to their families. When about a mile away from the camp they called out ‘Cuckoo’ to ascertain +if any misfortune had occurred during their absence; if they thought all was well they went nearer and imitated the call of +the partridge; and finally when close to the encampment made a hissing noise like a snake. On arrival at the camp they at +once mounted their ponies and started off, marching fifty or sixty miles a day, for two or three days. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e13931"> +<h3>6. Omens</h3> +<p>The Sānsias never committed a dacoity on moonlight nights, but had five appointed days during the dark half of the month, +the seventh, ninth, eleventh, thirteenth and the night of the day on which the new moon was first seen. If they did not meet +with a favourable omen on any of these nights, no dacoity was committed that month. The following is a list of omens given +by one of the caste:<a id="d0e13936src" href="#d0e13936" class="noteref">9</a> “If we see a cat when we are near the place where we intend to commit a dacoity, or we hear the relations of a dead person +lamenting, or hear a person sneeze while cooking his meal, or see a dog run away with a portion of any person’s food, or a +kite screams while sitting on a tree, or a woman breaks the earthen vessel in which she may have been drawing water, we consider +the omens unfavourable. If a person drops his turban or we meet a corpse, or the Jemādār has forgotten to put some bread into +his waistbelt, or any dacoit forgets his axe or spear or sees a snake whether dead or alive; these omens are also considered +unfavourable and we do not commit the dacoity. Should we see a wolf and any one of us have on a red turban, we take this and +tear it into seven pieces and hang each piece upon a separate tree. We then purchase a rupee’s worth of liquor and kill a +goat, which is cut up into four pieces. Four men pretend that they are wolves and rushing on the four quarters of the meat +seize them, imitating the howl of these animals, while the rest of the dacoits pelt them with the entrails; the meat is afterwards +cooked and eaten in the name of Bhagwān.” + +</p> +<p>It would appear that the explanation of this curious <a id="d0e13941"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e13941">494</a>]</span>ceremony must be that the Sānsias thought the appearance of the wolf to be an omen that one of them would furnish a meal for +him. The turban is venerated on account of its close association with the head, a sacred part of the body among Hindus, and +in this case it probably served as a substituted offering for the head, while its red colour represented blood; and the mimic +rite of the goat being devoured by men pretending to be wolves fulfilled the omen which portended that the wolves would be +provided with a meal, and hence averted the necessity of one of the band being really devoured. In somewhat analogous fashion +the Gonds and Baigas placate or drive away a tiger who has killed a man in order to prevent him from obtaining further victims. +Some similar idea apparently underlay the omen of the dog running away with food. Perhaps the portent of hearing the kite +scream on a tree also meant that he looked on them with a prescient eye as a future meal. On the other hand, meeting a corpse +and seeing a snake are commonly considered to be lucky omens, and their inclusion in this list is curious.<a id="d0e13943src" href="#d0e13943" class="noteref">10</a> The passage continues: “Among our favourable omens are meeting a woman selling milk; or a person carrying a basket of grain +or a bag of money; or if we see a calf sucking its mother, or meet a person with a vessel of water, or a marriage procession; +or if any person finds a rupee that he has lost; or we meet a bearer carrying fish or a pig or a blue-jay; if any of these +occur near our camp on the day we contemplate a dacoity, we proceed forthwith to commit it and consider that these signs assure +us a good booty. If a Fakīr begs from us while we are on our way to the place of dacoity we cannot give him anything.” Another +Sānsia said: “We think it very favourable if, when on the way to commit a dacoity we hear or see the jackal; it is as good +as gold and silver to us; also if we hear the bray of the ass in a village we consider it to be lucky.” + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e13946"> +<h3>7. Ordeals</h3> +<p>The following is a description given by a Sānsia of their ordeals:<a id="d0e13951src" href="#d0e13951" class="noteref">11</a> If a Jemādār suspects a Sipāhi of secreting plunder a <i>panchāyat</i> is assembled,<a id="d0e13957src" href="#d0e13957" class="noteref">12</a> the members of which <a id="d0e13960"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e13960">495</a>]</span>receive five rupees from both parties. Seven pīpal<a id="d0e13962src" href="#d0e13962" class="noteref">13</a> leaves are laid upon his hand and bound round with thread, and upon these a heated iron <i>tawa</i> or plate is set; he is then ordered to walk seven paces and put the plate down upon seven thorns; should he be able to do +so he is pronounced innocent, but if he is burnt by the plate and throws it down he is considered guilty. Another ordeal is +by fixing arrows, two of which are shot off at once from one bow, one in the name of Bhagwān (god), and the other in the name +of the <i>panchāyat</i>; the place being on the bank of the river. The arrow that flies the farthest is stuck upright into the ground; upon which +a man carrying a long bamboo walks up to his breast in the water and the suspected person is desired to join him. One of the +<i>panchāyat</i> then claps his hands seven times and runs off to pick up the arrow; at this instant the suspected person is obliged to put +his head under water, and if he can hold his breath until the other returns to the bank with the arrow and has again clapped +his hands seven times he is pronounced innocent. If he cannot do so he is declared guilty and punished. A third form of ordeal +was as follows: The Jemādār and the gang assemble under a pīpal tree, and after knocking off the neck of an earthen pitcher +they kill a goat and collect its blood in the pitcher, and put some glass bangles in it. Four lines are drawn on the pitcher +with vermilion (representing blood), and it is placed under a tree and 1¼ seers<a id="d0e13976src" href="#d0e13976" class="noteref">14</a> of <i>gur</i> (sugar) are tied up in a piece of cloth 1¼ cubits in length and hung on to a branch of the tree. The Jemādār then says, ‘I +will forgive any person who has not secreted more than fifteen or twenty rupees, but whoever has stolen more than that sum +shall be punished.’ The Jemādār dips his finger in the pitcher of blood, and afterwards touches the sugar and calls out loudly, +‘If I have embezzled any money may Bhagwān punish me’; and each dacoit in turn pronounces the same sentence. No one who is +guilty will do this but at once makes his confession. The oath pronounced on 1¼ seers of sugar tied up in 1¼ cubits of cloth +was considered the most solemn and binding which a Sānsia could take. +<a id="d0e13982"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e13982">496</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e13983"> +<h3>8. Sānsias at the present time</h3> +<p>At present, Mr. Kennedy states,<a id="d0e13988src" href="#d0e13988" class="noteref">15</a> the Sānsias travel about in gangs of varying strength with their families, bullocks, sheep, goats and dogs. The last mentioned +of these animals are usually small mongrels with a terrier strain, mostly stolen or bred from types dishonestly obtained during +their peregrinations. Dacoity is still the crime which they most affect, and they also break into houses and steal cattle. +Men usually have a necklace of red coral and gold beads round the neck, from which is suspended a square piece of silver or +gold bearing an effigy of a man on horseback. This represents either the deity Rāmdeo Pīr or one of the wearer’s ancestors, +and is venerated as a charm. They are very quarrelsome, and their drinking-bouts in camp usually end in a free fight, in which +they also beat their women, and the affray not infrequently results in the death of one of the combatants. When this happens +the slayer makes restitution to the relatives by defraying the expenses of a fresh drinking-bout.<a id="d0e13993src" href="#d0e13993" class="noteref">16</a> During the daytime men are seldom to be found in the encampment, as they are in the habit of hiding in the ditches and jungle, +where the women take them their food; at night they return to their tents, but are off again at dawn. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13856" href="#d0e13856src" class="noteref">1</a></span> This article is based almost entirely on a description of the Sānsias contained in Colonel Sleeman’s <i>Report on the Badhak or Bāgri Dacoits</i> (1849). Most of the material belongs to a report drawn up at Nāgpur by Mr. C. Ramsay, Assistant Resident, in 1845. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13864" href="#d0e13864src" class="noteref">2</a></span> Sleeman’s <i>Report on the Badhaks</i>, p. 253. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13872" href="#d0e13872src" class="noteref">3</a></span> <i>Ibidem</i>, p. 254. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13882" href="#d0e13882src" class="noteref">4</a></span> Sir D. Ibbetson, <i>Punjab Census Report</i> (1881), para. 577. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13895" href="#d0e13895src" class="noteref">5</a></span> P. 259. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13910" href="#d0e13910src" class="noteref">6</a></span> The description of a dacoity is combined from two accounts given at pp. 257, 273 of Colonel Sleeman’s <i>Report</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13921" href="#d0e13921src" class="noteref">7</a></span> <i>Sorghum vulgare</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13926" href="#d0e13926src" class="noteref">8</a></span> Made of the bark of the date-palm tied with strips of cloth round some inflammable wood. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13936" href="#d0e13936src" class="noteref">9</a></span> Sleeman, p. 263. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13943" href="#d0e13943src" class="noteref">10</a></span> But it is unlucky for a snake to cross one’s path in front. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13951" href="#d0e13951src" class="noteref">11</a></span> Sleeman, pp. 261, 262. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13957" href="#d0e13957src" class="noteref">12</a></span> Committee of five persons. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13962" href="#d0e13962src" class="noteref">13</a></span> <i>Ficus religiosa</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13976" href="#d0e13976src" class="noteref">14</a></span> The seer = 2 lbs. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13988" href="#d0e13988src" class="noteref">15</a></span> <i>Criminal Classes in the Bombay Presidency</i>; Sānsias and Berias. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e13993" href="#d0e13993src" class="noteref">16</a></span> Mr. Gayer, <i>Central Provinces Police Lectures</i>; p. 68. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e13999" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Sānsia, Uria</h2> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>1. The caste and its subdivisions</h3> +<p><b>Sānsia, Uria</b>.<a id="d0e14009src" href="#d0e14009" class="noteref">1</a>—A caste of masons and navvies of the Uriya country. The Sānsias are really a branch of the great migratory Ud or Odde caste +of earth-workers, whose name has been corrupted into various forms.<a id="d0e14012src" href="#d0e14012" class="noteref">2</a> Thus in Chānda they are known as Wadewār or Waddar. The term Uria is here a corruption of Odde, and it is the one by which +the caste prefer to be known, but they are generally called Sānsia by outsiders. The caste sometimes class the Sānsias as +a subcaste of Urias, the others being Benātia Urias and Khandait Urias. Since the Uriya tract has been transferred to Bengal, +and subsequently to Bihār and Orissa, there remain only about 1000 Sānsias in the Chhattīsgarh Districts and States. Although +it is possible that the name <a id="d0e14015"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e14015">497</a>]</span>of the caste may have been derived from some past connection, the Sānsias of the Uriya country have at present no affinities +with the outcaste and criminal tribe of Sānsis or Sānsias of northern India. They enjoy a fairly high position in Sarnbalpur, +and Brāhmans will take water from them. + +</p> +<p>They are divided into two subcastes, the Benetia and Khandait. The Benetia are the higher and look down on the Khandaits, +because, it is said, these latter have accepted service as foot-soldiers, and this is considered a menial occupation. Perhaps +in the households of the Uriya Rājas the tribal militia had also to perform personal services, and this may have been considered +derogatory., In Orissa, on the other hand, the Khandaits have become landholders and occupy a high position next to Rājpūts. +The Benetia Sānsias practise hypergamy with the Khandait Sansias, taking their daughters in marriage, but not giving daughters +to them. When a Benetia is marrying a Khandait girl his party will not take food with the bride’s relatives, but only partake +of some sugar and curds and depart with the bride. The Sānsias have totemistic exogamous septs, usually derived from the names +of sacred objects, as Kachhap, tortoise, Sankh, the conch-shell, Tulsi, basil, and so on. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>2. Marriage customs</h3> +<p>Girls are married between seven and ten, and after she is twelve years old a girl cannot go through the proper ceremony, but +can only be wedded by a simple rite used for widows, in which vermilion is rubbed on her forehead and some grains of rice +stuck on it. The marriage procession, as described by Mr. Rāma Prasād Bohidār, is a gorgeous affair: “The drummers, all drunk, +head the procession, beating their drums to the tune set by the piper. Next in order are placed dancing-boys between two rows +of lights carried on poles adorned with festoons of paper flowers. Rockets and fireworks have their proper share in the procession, +and last of all comes the bridegroom in his wedding apparel, mounted on a horse. His person is studded with various kinds +of gold necklaces borrowed for the occasion, and the fingers of his right hand are covered with rings. Bangles and chains +of silver shine on his wrists and arms. His forehead is beautifully painted with ground sandalwood divided in the centre by +a streak of vermilion. <a id="d0e14024"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e14024">498</a>]</span>His head carries a crown of palm-leaves overlaid with bright paper of various colours. A network of <i>mālti</i> flowers hangs loosely from the head over the back and covers a portion of the loins of the steed. The eyes are painted with +collyrium and the feet with red dye. The lips and teeth are also reddened by the betel-leaf, which the bridegroom chews in +profusion. A silk cloth does the work of a belt, in which is fixed a dagger on the right side.” Here the red colour which +predominates in the bridegroom’s decorations is lucky for the reasons given in the article on Lakhera; the blacking of the +eyes is also considered to keep off evil spirits; betel-leaf is itself a powerful agent of magic and averter of spirits, and +to the same end the bridegroom carries iron in the shape of the dagger. The ceremony is of the customary Uriya type. On the +seventh day of the wedding the husband and wife go to the river and bathe, throwing away the sacred threads worn at the time +of marriage, and also those which have been tied round their wrists. On returning home the wife piles up seven brass vessels +and seven stools one above the other and the husband kicks them over, this being repeated seven times. The husband then washes +his teeth with water brought from the river, breaks the vessel containing the water in the bride’s house, and runs away, while +the women of her family throw pailfuls of coloured water over him. On the ninth day the bride comes and smears a mixture of +curds and sugar on the forehead of each member of the bridegroom’s family, probably as a sign of her admission to their clan, +and returns home. Divorce and the remarriage of widows are permitted. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>3. Religion and worship of ancestors</h3> +<p>The caste worship Viswakarma, the celestial architect, and on four principal festivals they revere their trade-implements +and the book on architecture, by which they work. At Dasahra a pumpkin is offered to these articles in lieu of a goat. They +observe the <i>shrāddh</i> ceremony, and first make two offerings to the spirits of ancestors who have died a violent death or have committed suicide, +and to those of relatives who died unmarried, for fear lest these unclean and malignant spirits should seize and defile the +offerings to the beneficent ancestors. Thereafter <i>pindas</i> or sacrificial cakes are offered to three male and three female ancestors both on <a id="d0e14040"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e14040">499</a>]</span>the father’s and mother’s side, twelve cakes being offered in all. The Sānsias eat the flesh of clean animals, but the consumption +of liquor is strictly forbidden, on pain, it is said, of permanent exclusion from caste. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>4. Occupation</h3> +<p>In Sambalpur the caste are usually stone-workers, making cups, mortars, images of idols and other articles. They also build +tanks and wander from place to place for this purpose in large companies. It is related that on one occasion they came to +dig a tank in Drūg, and the Rāja of that place, while watching their work, took a fancy to one of the Odnis, as their women +were called, and wanted her to marry him. But as she was already married, and was a virtuous woman, she refused. The Rāja +persisted in his demand, on which the whole body of Sānsias from Chhattīsgarh, numbering, it is said, nine lakhs of persons, +left their work and proceeded to Warārbāndh, near Rāj-Nāndgaon. Here they dug the great tank of Warārbāndh<a id="d0e14047src" href="#d0e14047" class="noteref">3</a> in one night to obtain a supply of water for themselves. But the Raja followed them, and as they could not resist him by +force, the woman whom he was pursuing burnt herself alive, and thus earned undying fame in the caste. This legend is perpetuated +in the Odni Gīt, a popular folk-song in Chhattīsgarh. But it is a traditional story of the Sānsias in connection with large +tanks, and in another version the scene is laid in Gujarāt.<a id="d0e14050src" href="#d0e14050" class="noteref">4</a> +<a id="d0e14053"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e14053">500</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e14009" href="#d0e14009src" class="noteref">1</a></span> This article is mainly based on a paper by Mr. Rāma Prasād Bohidār, Assistant Master, Sambalpur High School. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e14012" href="#d0e14012src" class="noteref">2</a></span> See article Beldār for a notice of the different groups of earth-workers. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e14047" href="#d0e14047src" class="noteref">3</a></span> Said to be derived from their name Waddar. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e14050" href="#d0e14050src" class="noteref">4</a></span> Story of Jasma Odni in Sati Charita Sangrah. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e14054" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Savar</h2> +<h3>List of Paragraphs</h3> +<ul> +<li><a href="#d0e14096">1. Distribution and historical notices</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e14166">2. Tribal legends</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e14185">3. Tribal subdivisions</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e14240">4. Marriage</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e14258">5. Death ceremonies</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e14272">6. Religion</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e14288">7. Occupation</a></li> +</ul> +<div class="div2" id="d0e14096"> +<h3>1. Distribution and historical notices</h3> +<p><b>Savar,<a id="d0e14102src" href="#d0e14102" class="noteref">1</a> Sawara, Savara, Saonr, Sahra</b> (and several other variations. In Bundelkhand the Savars, there called Saonrs, are frequently known by the honorific title +of Rāwat).—A primitive tribe numbering about 70,000 persons in the Central Provinces in 1911, and principally found in the +Chhattīsgarh Districts and those of Saugor and Damoh. The eastern branch of the tribe belongs chiefly to the Uriya country. +The Savars are found in large numbers in the Madras Districts of Ganjām and Vizagapatam and in Orissa. They also live in the +Bundelkhand Districts of the United Provinces. The total number of Savars enumerated in India in 1911 was 600,000, of which +the Bundelkhand Districts contained about 100,000 and the Uriya country the remainder. The two branches of the tribe are thus +separated by a wide expanse of territory. As regards this peculiarity of distribution General Cunningham says: “Indeed there +seems good reason to believe that the Savaras were formerly the dominant branch of the great Kolarian family, and that their +power lasted down to a comparatively late period, when they were pushed aside by other Kolarian tribes in the north and east, +and by the Gonds in the south. In the Saugor District <a id="d0e14106"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e14106">501</a>]</span>I was informed that the Savaras had formerly fought with the Gonds and that the latter had conquered them by treacherously +making them drunk.”<a id="d0e14108src" href="#d0e14108" class="noteref">2</a> Similarly Cunningham notices that the zamīndār of Suarmār in Raipur, which name is derived from Savar, is a Gond. A difference +of opinion has existed as to whether the Savars were Kolarian or Dravidian so far as their language was concerned, Colonel +Dalton adopting the latter view and other authorities the former and correct one. In the Central Provinces the Savars have +lost their own language and speak the Aryan Hindi or Uriya vernacular current around them. But in Madras they still retain +their original speech, which is classified by Sir G. Grierson as Mundāri or Kolarian. He says: “The most southerly forms of +Munda speech are those spoken by the Savars and Gadabas of the north-east of Madras. The former have been identified with +the Suari of Pliny and the Sabarae of Ptolemy. A wild tribe of the same name is mentioned in Sanskrit literature, even so +far back as in late Vedic times, as inhabiting the Deccan, so that the name at least can boast great antiquity.”<a id="d0e14113src" href="#d0e14113" class="noteref">3</a> As to the origin of the name Savar, General Cunningham says that it must be sought for outside the language of the Aryans. +“In Sanskrit <i>savara</i> simply means ‘a corpse.’ From Herodotus, however, we learn that the Scythian word for an axe was <i>sagaris</i>, and as ‘g’ and ‘v’ are interchangeable letters <i>savar</i> is the same word as <i>sagar</i>. It seems therefore not unreasonable to infer that the tribe who were so called took their name from their habit of carrying +axes. Now it is one of the striking peculiarities of the Savars that they are rarely seen without an axe in their hands. The +peculiarity has been frequently noticed by all who have seen them.”<a id="d0e14130src" href="#d0e14130" class="noteref">4</a> The above opinion of Cunningham, which is of course highly speculative, is disputed by Mr. Crooke, who says that “The word +Savara, if it be, as some believe, derived from <i>sava</i> a corpse, comes from the root <i>sav</i> ‘to cause to decay,’ and need not necessarily therefore be of non-Aryan origin, while on the other hand no distinct <a id="d0e14141"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e14141">502</a>]</span>inference can be drawn from the use of the axe by the Savars, when it is equally used by various other Dravidian jungle tribes +such as the Korwas, Bhuiyas and the like.”<a id="d0e14143src" href="#d0e14143" class="noteref">5</a> In the classical stories of their origin the first ancestor of the Savars is sometimes described as a Bhīl. The word Savar +is mentioned in several Sanskrit works written between 800 B.C. and A.D. 1200, and it seems probable that they are a Munda +tribe who occupied the tracts of country which they live in prior to the arrival of the Gonds. The classical name Savar has +been corrupted into various forms. Thus in the Bundeli dialect ‘<i>ava</i>’ changes into ‘<i>au</i>’ and a nasal is sometimes interpolated. <i>Savar</i> has here become Saunr or Saonr. The addition of ‘a’ at the end of the word sometimes expresses contempt, and Savar becomes +Savara as Chamār is corrupted into <i>Chamra</i>. In the Uriya country ‘v’ is changed into ‘b’ and an aspirate is interpolated, and thus Savara became Sabra or Sahara, as +Gaur has become Gahra. The word Sahara, Mr. Crooke remarks,<a id="d0e14161src" href="#d0e14161" class="noteref">6</a> has excited speculation as to its derivation from Arabic, in which Sahara means a wilderness; and the name of the Savars +has accordingly been deduced from the same source as the great Sahara desert. This is of course incorrect. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e14166"> +<h3>2. Tribal legends</h3> +<p>Various stories of the origin of the Savars are given in Sanskrit literature. In the Aitareya Brāhmana they are spoken of +as the descendants of Vishwāmitra, while in the Mahābhārat they are said to have been created by Kāmdhenu, Vasishtha’s wonder-working +cow, in order to repel the aggression of Vishwāmitra. Local tradition traces their origin to the celebrated Seorī of the Rāmāyana, +who is supposed to have lived somewhere near the present Seorīnārāyan in the Bilāspur District and to have given her name +to this place. Rāmchandra in his wanderings met her there, ate the plums which she had gathered for him after tasting each +one herself, and out of regard for her devotion permitted her name to precede his own of Nārāyan in that given to the locality. +Another story makes one Jara Savar their original ancestor, who was said to have shot <a id="d0e14171"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e14171">503</a>]</span>Krishna in the form of a deer. Another states that they were created for carrying stones for the construction of the great +temple at Puri and for dragging the car of Jagannāth, which they still do at the present time. Yet another connecting them +with the temple of Jagannāth states that their ancestor was an old Bhīl hermit called Sawar, who lived in Karod, two miles +from Seorīnārāyan. The god Jagannāth had at this time appeared in Seorīnārāyan and the old Sawar used to worship him. The +king of Orissa had built the great temple at Puri and wished to install Jagannāth in it, and he sent a Brāhman to fetch him +from Seorīnārāyan, but nobody knew where he was except the old hermit Sawar. The Brāhman besought him in vain to be allowed +to see the god and even went so far as to marry his daughter, and finally the old man consented to take him blindfold to the +place. The Brāhman, however, tied some mustard seeds in a corner of his cloth and made a hole in it so that they dropped out +one by one on the way. After some time they grew up and served to guide him to the spot. This story of the mustard seeds of +course finds a place in the folklore of many nations. The Brāhman then went to Seorīnārāyan alone and begged the god to go +to Puri. Jagannāth consented, and assuming the form of a log of wood floated down the Mahānadi to Puri, where he was taken +out and placed in the temple. A carpenter agreed to carve the god’s image out of the log of wood on condition that the temple +should be shut up for six months while the work was going on. But some curious people opened the door before the time and +the work could not proceed, and thus the image of the god is only half carved out of the wood up to the present day. As a +consolation to the old man the god ordained that the place should bear the hermit’s name before his own as Seorīnārāyan. Lastly +the Saonrs of Bundelkhand have the following tradition. In the beginning of creation Mahādeo wished to teach the people how +to cultivate the ground, and so he made a plough and took out his bull Nandi to yoke to it But there was dense forest on the +earth, so he created a being whom he called Savar and gave him an axe to clear the forest. In the meantime Mahādeo went away +to get another bullock. The Savar after clearing the forest felt <a id="d0e14173"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e14173">504</a>]</span>very hungry, and finding nothing else to eat killed Nandi and ate his flesh on a teak leaf. And for this reason the young +teak leaves when rubbed give out sap which is the colour of blood to the present day. After some time Mahādeo returned, and +finding the forest well cleared was pleased with the Savar, and as a reward endowed him with the knowledge of all edible and +medicinal roots and fruits of the forest. But on looking round for Nandi he found him lying dead with some of his flesh cut +off. The Savar pleaded ignorance, but Mahādeo sprinkled a little nectar on Nandi, who came to life again and told what had +happened. Then Mahādeo was enraged with the Savar and said, ‘You shall remain a barbarian and dwell for ever in poverty in +the jungles without enough to eat.’ And accordingly this has always been the condition of the Savar’s descendants. + +</p> +<p>Other old authors speak of the Parna or leaf-clad Savars; and a Savar messenger is described as carrying a bow in his hand +“with his hair tied up in a knot behind with a creeper, black himself, and wearing a loin-cloth of <i>bhilawān</i> leaves”;<a id="d0e14180src" href="#d0e14180" class="noteref">7</a> an excellent example of ‘a leaf-fringed legend.’ + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e14185"> +<h3>3. Tribal subdivisions</h3> +<p>The Bundelkhand Savars have been so long separated from the others that they have sometimes forgotten their identity and consider +themselves as a subtribe of Gonds, though the better informed repudiate this. They may be regarded as a separate endogamous +group. The eastern branch have two main divisions called Laria and Uriya, or those belonging to Chhattīsgarh and Sambalpur +respectively. A third division known as the Kālāpithia or ‘Black Backs’ are found in Orissa, and are employed to drag the +car of Jagannāth. These on account of their sacred occupation consider themselves superior to the others, abstain from fowls +and liquor, and sometimes wear the sacred thread. The Larias are the lowest subdivision. Marriage is regulated by exogamous +septs or <i>bargas</i>. The northern Savars say that they have 52 of these, 52 being a number frequently adopted to express the highest possible +magnitude, as if no more could be imagined. The <a id="d0e14193"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e14193">505</a>]</span>Uriya Savars say they have 80 <i>bargas</i>. Besides the prohibition of marriage within the same <i>barga</i>, the union of first cousins is sometimes forbidden. Among the Uriya Savars each <i>barga</i> has the two further divisions of Joria and Khuntia, the Jorias being those who bury or burn their dead near a <i>jor</i> or brook, and the Khuntias those who bury or burn them near a <i>khunt</i> or old tree. Jorias and Khuntias of the same <i>barga</i> cannot intermarry, but in the case of some other subdivisions of the <i>barga</i>, as between those who eat rice at one festival in the year and those eating it at two, marriage is allowed between members +of the two subdivisions, thus splitting the exogamous group into two. The names of the <i>bargas</i> are usually totemistic, and the following are some examples: Badaiya, the carpenter bird; Bāgh, the tiger; Bagula, the heron; +Bahra, a cook; Bhatia, a <i>brinjal</i> or egg-plant; Bīsi, the scorpion; Basantia, the trunk of the cotton tree; Hathia, an elephant; Jancher, a tree (this <i>barga</i> is divided into Bada and Kachcha, the Bada worshipping the tree and the Kachcha a branch of it, and marriage between the +two subdivisions is allowed); Jharia (this <i>barga</i> keeps a lock of a child’s hair unshaved for four or five years after its birth); Juadi, a gambler; Karsa, a deer; Khairaiya, +the <i>khair</i> or catechu tree; Lodhi, born from the caste of that name (in Saugor); Markām, the name of a Gond sept; Rājhans, a swan; Suriya +Bansia, from the sun (members of this <i>barga</i> feed the caste-fellows on the occasion of a solar eclipse and throw away their earthen pots); Silgainya from <i>sil</i>, a slate; and Tiparia from <i>tipari</i>, a basket (these two septs are divided into Kachcha and Pakka groups which can marry with each other); Sona, gold (a member +of this sept does not wear gold ornaments until he has given a feast and a caste-fellow has placed one on his person). + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e14240"> +<h3>4. Marriage</h3> +<p>Marriage is usually adult, but in places where the Savars live near Hindus they have adopted early marriage. A reason for +preferring the latter custom is found in the marriage ceremony, when the bride and bridegroom must be carried on the shoulders +of their relatives from the bride’s house to the bridegroom’s. If they are grown up, this part of the ceremony entails no +inconsiderable labour on the <a id="d0e14245"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e14245">506</a>]</span>relatives. In the Uriya country, while the Khuntia subdivision of each <i>barga</i> see nothing wrong in marrying a girl after adolescence, the Jorias consider it a great sin, to avoid which they sometimes +marry a girl to an arrow before she attains puberty. An arrow is tied to her hand, and she goes seven times round a mahua +branch stuck on an improvised altar, and drinks <i>ghī</i> and oil, thus creating the fiction of a marriage. The arrow is then thrown into a river to imply that her husband is dead, +and she is afterwards disposed of by the ceremony of widow-marriage. If this mock ceremony has not been performed before the +girl becomes adult, she is taken to the forest by a relative and there tied to a tree, to which she is considered to be married. +She is not taken back to her father’s house but to that of some relative, such as her brother-in-law or grandfather, who is +permitted to talk to her in an obscene and jesting manner, and is subsequently disposed of as a widow. Or in Sambalpur she +may be nominally married to an old man and then again married as a widow. The Savars follow generally the local Hindu form +of the marriage ceremony. On the return of the bridal pair seven lines are drawn in front of the entrance to the bridegroom’s +house. Some relative takes rice and throws it at the persons returning with the marriage procession, and then pushes the pair +hastily across the lines and into the house. They are thus freed from the evil spirits who might have accompanied them home +and who are kept back by the rice and the seven lines. A price of Rs. 5 is sometimes paid for the bride. In Saugor if the +bride’s family cannot afford a wedding feast they distribute small pieces of bread to the guests, who place them in their +head-cloths to show their acceptance of this substitute. To those guests to whom it is necessary to make presents five cowries +are given. Widow-marriage is allowed, and in some places the widow is bound to marry her late husband’s younger brother unless +he declines to take her. If she marries somebody else the new husband pays a sum by way of compensation either to her father +or to the late husband’s family. Divorce is permitted on the husband’s initiative for adultery or serious disagreement. If +the wife wishes for a divorce <a id="d0e14253"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e14253">507</a>]</span>she simply runs away from her husband. The Laria Savars must give a <i>mārti-jīti kā bhāt</i> or death-feast on the occasion of a divorce. The Uriyas simply pay a rupee to the headman of the caste. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e14258"> +<h3>5. Death ceremonies</h3> +<p>The Savars both burn and bury their dead, placing the corpse on the pyre with its head to the north, in the belief that heaven +lies in that direction. On the eleventh day after the death in Sambalpur those members of the caste who can afford it present +a goat to the mourners. The Savars believe that the souls of those who die become ghosts, and in Bundelkhand they used formerly +to bury the dead near their fields in the belief that the spirits would watch over and protect the crops. If a man has died +a violent death they raise a small platform of earth under a teak or <i>sāj</i> tree, in which the ghost of the dead man is believed to take up its residence, and nobody thereafter may cut down that tree. +The Uriya Savars take no special measures unless the ghost appears to somebody in a dream and asks to be worshipped as Baghiapāt +(tiger-eaten) or Masān (serpent-bitten). In such cases a <i>gunia</i> or sorcerer is consulted, and such measures as he prescribes are taken to appease the dead man’s soul. If a person dies without +a child a hole is made in a stone, and his soul is induced to enter it by the <i>gunia</i>. A few grains of rice are placed in the hole, and it is then closed with melted lead to imprison the ghost, and the stone +is thrown into a stream so that it may never be able to get out and trouble the family. Savars offer water to the dead. A +second wife usually wears a metal impression of the first wife by way of propitiation to her. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e14272"> +<h3>6. Religion</h3> +<p>The Savars worship Bhawāni under various names and also Dūlha Deo, the young bridegroom who was killed by a tiger. He is located +in the kitchen of every house in some localities, and this has given rise to the proverb, ‘<i>Jai chūlha, tai Dūlha</i>,’ or ‘There is a Dūlha Deo to every hearth.’ The Savars are considered to be great sorcerers. ‘<i>Sawara ke pānge, Rāwat ke bāndhe</i>,’ or ‘The man bewitched by a Savar and the bullock tied up by a Rāwat (grazier) cannot escape’; and again, ‘Verily the Saonr +is a cup of poison.’ Their charms, called Sabari <i>mantras</i>, are especially intended <a id="d0e14286"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e14286">508</a>]</span>to appease the spirits of persons who have died a violent death. If one of their family was seriously ill they were accustomed +formerly to set fire to the forest, so that by burning the small animals and insects which could not escape they might propitiate +the angry gods. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e14288"> +<h3>7. Occupation</h3> +<p>The dress of the Savars is of the scantiest. The women wear <i>khilwān</i> or pith ornaments in the ear, and abstain from wearing nose-rings, a traditional method of deference to the higher castes. +The proverb has it, ‘The ornaments of the Sawara are <i>gumchi</i> seeds.’ These are the red and black seeds of <i>Abrus precatorius</i> which are used in weighing gold and silver and are called <i>rati</i>. Women are tattooed and sometimes men also to avoid being pierced with a red-hot iron by the god of death. Tattooing is further +said to allay the sexual passion of women, which is eight times more intense than that of men. Their occupations are the collection +of jungle produce and cultivation. They are very clever in taking honeycombs: ‘It is the Savar who can drive the black bees +from their hive.’ The eastern branch of the caste is more civilised than the Saonras of Bundelkhand, who still sow juāri with +a pointed stick, saying that it was the implement given to them by Mahādeo for this purpose. In Saugor and Damoh they employ +Brāhmans for marriage ceremonies if they can afford it, but on other occasions their own caste priests. In some places they +will take food from most castes but in others from nobody who is not a Savar. Sometimes they admit outsiders and in others +the children only of irregular unions; thus a Gond woman kept by a Savar would not be recognised as a member of the caste +herself but her children would be Savars. A woman going wrong with an outsider of low caste is permanently excommunicated. +<a id="d0e14305"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e14305">509</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e14102" href="#d0e14102src" class="noteref">1</a></span> This article is principally based on papers by Munshi Gopīnāth, Naib-Tahsīldār, Sonpur, Mr. Kālūrām Pachorē, Assistant Settlement +Officer, Sambalpur, and Mr. Hīra Lāl, Assistant Gazetteer Superintendent. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e14108" href="#d0e14108src" class="noteref">2</a></span> <i>Archaeological Reports</i>, vol. xvii. pp. 120, 122. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e14113" href="#d0e14113src" class="noteref">3</a></span> <i>India Census Report</i> (1901), p. 283. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e14130" href="#d0e14130src" class="noteref">4</a></span> <i>Archaeological Reports</i>, vol. xvii. p. 113. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e14143" href="#d0e14143src" class="noteref">5</a></span> Crooke’s <i>Tribes and Castes of N.W.P.</i>, art Savara. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e14161" href="#d0e14161src" class="noteref">6</a></span> <i>Tribes and Castes of N.W.P.</i>, art. Savara. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e14180" href="#d0e14180src" class="noteref">7</a></span> <i>Tribes and Castes of Bengal</i>, art. Savar. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e14306" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Sonjhara</h2> +<h3>List of Paragraphs</h3> +<ul> +<li><a href="#d0e14353">1. Origin and constitution of the caste</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e14371">2. Totemism</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e14379">3. Marriage</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e14386">4. Customs at birth</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e14392">5. Funeral rites</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e14397">6. Religion</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e14417">7. Social customs</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e14424">8. Occupation</a></li> +</ul> +<div class="div2" id="d0e14353"> +<h3>1. Origin and constitution of the caste</h3> +<p><b>Sonjhara, Jhara, Jhora, Jhira.</b>—A small occupational caste who wash for gold in river-beds, belonging to the Sambalpur, Mandla, Bālāghāt and Chānda Districts +and the Chota Nāgpur Feudatory States. In 1911 they numbered about 1500 persons. The name probably comes from <i>sona</i>, gold, and <i>jhārna</i>, to sweep or wash, though, when the term Jhara only is used, some derive it from <i>jhori</i> a streamlet. Colonel Dalton surmised that the Sonjharas were an offshoot of the Gonds, and this appears to be demonstrated +by the fact that the names of their exogamous septs are identical with Gond names as Marābi, Tekām, Netām, Dhurwa and Madao. +The Sonjharas of Bilāspur say that their ancestors were Gonds who dwelt at Lānji in Bālāghāt. The caste relate the tradition +that they were condemned by Mahādeo to perpetual poverty because their first ancestor stole a little gold from Pārvatis crown +when it fell into the river Jamuna (in Chota Nāgpur) and he was sent to fetch it out. The metal which is found in the river +sands they hold to be the remains of a shower of gold which fell for two and a half days while the Banāphar heroes Alha and +Udal were fighting their great battle with Prithvi Rāj, king of Delhi. The caste is partly occupational, and recruited from +different sources. This is shown by the fact that in Chānda members of different septs <a id="d0e14369"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e14369">510</a>]</span>will not eat together, though they are obliged to intermarry. In Sambalpur the Behra, Pātar, Nāik and Padhān septs eat together +and intermarry. Two other septs, the Kanar and Peltrai who eat fowls and drink liquor, occupy a lower position, and members +of the first four will not take food from them nor give daughters to them in marriage, though they will take daughters from +these lower groups for their sons. Here they have three subcastes, the Laria or residents of Chhattīsgarh, the Uriya belonging +to the Uriya country, and the Bhuinhār, who may be an offshoot from the Bhuiya tribe. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e14371"> +<h3>2. Totemism</h3> +<p>They have one recorded instance of totemism, which is of some interest. Members of the sept named after a tree called <i>kausa</i> revere the tree and explain it by saying that their ancestor, when flying from some danger, sought protection from this tree, +which thereupon opened and enfolded him in its trunk. No member of the sept will touch the tree without first bathing, and +on auspicious occasions, such as births and weddings, they will dig up a little earth from the roots of the tree and taking +this home worship it in the house. If any member of the sept finds that he has cut off a branch or other part of this tree +unwittingly he will take and consign it to a stream, observing ceremonies of mourning. Women of the Nāg or cobra sept will +not mention the name of this snake aloud, just as they refrain from speaking the names of male relatives. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e14379"> +<h3>3. Marriage</h3> +<p>Marriage within the sept is forbidden, and they permit the intermarriage of the children of a brother and sister, but not +of those of two sisters, though their husbands may be of different septs. Marriage is usually adult except in Sambalpur, where +a girl must be provided with a husband before reaching maturity in accordance with the general rule among the Uriya castes. +In Chhindwāra it is said that the Sonjharas revere the crocodile and that the presence of this animal is essential at their +weddings. They do not, however, kill and eat it at a sacrificial feast as the Singrore Dhīmars are reported to do, but catch +and keep it alive, and when the ceremony is concluded take it back again and deposit it in a river. After a girl has been +married neither her father nor any of her own near relatives will ever take food again <a id="d0e14384"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e14384">511</a>]</span>in the house of her husband’s family, saying that they would rather starve. Each married couple also becomes a separate commensal +group and will not eat with the parents of either of them. This is a common custom among low castes of mixed origin where +every man is doubtful of his neighbour’s parentage. Divorce and the remarriage of widows are permitted, and a woman may be +divorced merely on the ground of incompetence in household management or because she does not please her husband’s parents. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e14386"> +<h3>4. Customs at birth</h3> +<p>At child-birth they make a little separate hut for the mother near the river where they are encamped, and she remains in it +for two days and a half. During this time her husband does no work; he stays a few paces distant from his wife’s hut and prepares +her food but does not go to the hut or touch her, and he kindles a fire between them. During the first two days the woman +gets three handfuls of rice boiled thin in water, and on the third day she receives nothing until the evening, when the Sendia +or head of the sept takes a little cowdung, gold and silver in his hand, and pouring water over this gives her of it to drink +as many times as the number of gods worshipped by her family up to seven. Then she is pure. On this day the father sacrifices +a chicken and gives a meal with liquor to the caste and names the child, calling it after one of his ancestors who is dead. +Then an old woman beats on a brass plate and calls out the name which has been given in a loud voice to the whole camp so +that they may all know the child’s name. In Bilāspur the Sonjharas observe the custom of the Couvade, and for six days after +the birth of a child the husband lies prone in his house, while the wife gets up and goes to work, coming home to give suck +to the child when necessary. The man takes no food for three days and on the fourth is given ginger and raw sugar, thus undergoing +the ordinary treatment of a woman after childbirth. This is supposed by them to be a sort of compensation for the labours +sustained by the woman in bearing the child. The custom obtains among some other primitive races, but is now rapidly being +abandoned by the Sonjharas. +<a id="d0e14391"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e14391">512</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e14392"> +<h3>5. Funeral rites</h3> +<p>The bodies of the old are cremated as a special honour, and those of other persons are buried. No one other than a member +of the dead man’s family may touch his corpse under a penalty of five rupees. A relative will remove the body and bury it +with the feet pointing to the river or burn it by the water’s edge. They mourn a child for one day and an adult for four days, +and at the end the mourner is shaved and provides liquor for the community. If there be no relative, since no other man can +touch the corpse, they fire the hut over it and burn it as it is lying or bury hut and body under a high mound of sand. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e14397"> +<h3>6. Religion</h3> +<p>Their principal deities are Dūlha Deo, the boy bridegroom, Nira his servant, and Kauria a form of Devi. Nira lives under an +<i>ūmar</i><a id="d0e14404src" href="#d0e14404" class="noteref">1</a> tree and he and Dūlha Deo his master are worshipped every third year in the month of Māgh (January). Kauria is also worshipped +once in three years on a Sunday in the month of Māgh with an offering of a cocoanut, and in her honour they never sit on a +cot nor sleep on a stool because they think that the goddess has her seat on these articles. The real reason, however, is +probably that the Sonjharas consider the use of such furniture an indication of a settled life and permanent residence, and +therefore abjure it as being wanderers. Some analogous customs have been recorded of the Banjāras. They also revere the spirit +of one of their female ancestors who became a Sati. They sacrifice a goat to the <i>genius loci</i> or spirit haunting the spot where they decide to start work; and they will leave it for fear of angering this spirit, which +is said to appear in the form of a tiger, should they make a particularly good find.<a id="d0e14412src" href="#d0e14412" class="noteref">2</a> They never keep dogs, and it is said that they are defiled by the touch of a dog and will throw away their food if one comes +near them during their meal. The same rule applies to a cat, and they will throw away an earthen vessel touched by either +of these animals. On the Diwālī day they wash their implements, and setting them up near the huts worship them with offerings +of a cocoanut and vermilion. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e14417"> +<h3>7. Social customs</h3> +<p>Their rule is always to camp outside a village at a <a id="d0e14422"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e14422">513</a>]</span>distance of not less than a mile. In the rains they make huts with a roof of bamboos sloping from a central ridge and walls +of matting. The huts are built in one line and do not touch each other, at least a cubit’s distance being left between each. +Each hut has one door facing the east. As a rule they avoid the water of village wells and tanks, though it is not absolutely +forbidden. Each man digs a shallow well in the sand behind his hut and drinks the water from it, and no man may drink the +water of his neighbour’s well; if he should do so or if any water from his well gets into his neighbour’s, the latter is abandoned +and a fresh one made. If the ground is too swampy for wells they collect the water in their wooden washing-tray and fill their +vessels from it. In the cold weather they make little leaf-huts on the sand or simply camp out in the open, but they must +never sleep under a tree. When living in the open each family makes two fires and sleeps together between them. Some of them +have their stomachs burned and blackened from sleeping too near the fire. The Sonjharas will not take cooked food from the +hands of any other caste, but their social status is very low, about equivalent to that of the parent Gond tribe. They have +no fear of wild animals, not even the children. Perhaps they think that as fellow-denizens of the jungle these animals are +kin to them and will not injure them. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e14424"> +<h3>8. Occupation</h3> +<p>The traditional occupation of the caste is to wash gold from the sandy beds of streams, while they formerly also washed for +diamonds at Hirākud on the Mahānadi near Sambalpur and at Wairāgarh in Chanda. The industry is decaying, and in 1901 only +a quarter of the total number of Sonjharas were still employed In it. Some have become cultivators and fishermen, while others +earn their livelihood by sweeping up the refuse dirt of the workshops of goldsmiths and brass-workers; they wash out the particles +of metal from this and sell it back to the Sunārs. The Mahānadi and Jonk rivers in Sambalpur, the Banjar In Mandla, the Son +and other rivers in Bālāghāt, and the Wainganga and the eastern streams of Chānda contain minute particles of gold. The washers +earn a miserable and uncertain livelihood, and indeed appear not to desire <a id="d0e14429"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e14429">514</a>]</span>anything beyond a bare subsistence. In Bhandāra<a id="d0e14431src" href="#d0e14431" class="noteref">3</a> it is said that they avoid any spot where they have previously been lucky, while in Chānda they have a superstition that +a person making a good find of gold will be childless, and hence many dread the search.<a id="d0e14436src" href="#d0e14436" class="noteref">4</a> When they set out to look for gold they wash three small trayfuls at three places about five cubits apart. If they find no +appreciable quantity of gold they go on for one or two hundred yards and wash three more trayfuls, and proceed thus until +they find a profitable place where they will halt for two or three days. A spot<a id="d0e14442src" href="#d0e14442" class="noteref">5</a> in the dry river-bed is usually selected at the outside of a bend, where the finer sediment is likely to be found; after +removing the stones and pebbles from above, the sand below is washed several times in circular wooden cradles, shaped like +the top of an umbrella, of diminishing sizes, until all the clay is removed and fine particles of sand mixed with gold are +visible. A large wooden spoon is used to stir up the sediment, which is washed and rubbed by hand to separate the gold more +completely from the sand, and a blackish residue is left, containing particles of gold and mercury coloured black with oxide +of iron. Mercury is used to pick up the gold with which it forms an amalgam. This is evaporated in a clay cupel called a <i>ghariya</i> by which the mercury is got rid of and the gold left behind. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e14404" href="#d0e14404src" class="noteref">1</a></span> <i>F. glomerata</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e14412" href="#d0e14412src" class="noteref">2</a></span> <i>Bālāghāt Gazetteer</i>, C.E. Low, p. 207. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e14431" href="#d0e14431src" class="noteref">3</a></span> <i>Bhandāra Settlement Report</i> (A.J. Lawrence), p. 49. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e14436" href="#d0e14436src" class="noteref">4</a></span> Major Lucie Smith’s <i>Chānda Settlement Report</i> (1869), p. 105. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e14442" href="#d0e14442src" class="noteref">5</a></span> The following account of the process of gold-washing is taken from Mr. Low’s <i>Bālāghāt Gazetteer</i>, p. 201. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e14451" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Sudh</h2> +<p><b>Sudh,<a id="d0e14457src" href="#d0e14457" class="noteref">1</a> Sudha, Sudho, Suda</b>.—A cultivating caste in the Uriya country. Since the transfer of Sambalpur to Bengal only a few Sudhs remain in the Central +Provinces. They are divided into four subcastes—the Bada or high Sudhs, the Dehri or worshippers, the Kabāt-konia or those +holding the corners of the gate, and the Butka. These last are the most primitive and think that Rairākhol is their first +home. They relate that they were born of the Pāndava hero Bhīmsen and the female demon Hedembiki, and were originally occupied +in supplying leaves for the funeral ceremonies <a id="d0e14461"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e14461">515</a>]</span>of the Pāndava brothers, from which business they obtained their name of Butka or ‘one who brings leaves.’ They are practically +a forest tribe and carry on shifting cultivation like the Khonds. According to their own story the ancestors of the Butka +Sudhs once ruled In Rairākhol and reclaimed the land from the forest, that is so far as it has been reclaimed. The following +story connects them with the ruling family of Rairākhol. In former times there was constant war between Bāmra and Rairākhol, +and on one occasion the whole of the Rairākhol royal family was destroyed with the exception of one boy who was hidden by +a Butka Sudh woman. She placed him in a cradle supported on four uprights, and when the Bāmra Rāja’s soldiers came to seek +for him the Sudhs swore, “If we have kept him either in heaven or earth may our god destroy us.” The Bāmra people were satisfied +with this reply and the child was saved, and on coming to manhood he won back his kingdom. He received the name of Janāmani +or ‘Jewel among men,’ which the family still bear. In consequence of this incident, the Butka Sudhs are considered by the +Rairākhol house as relations on their mother’s side; they have several villages allotted to them and perform sacrifices for +the ruling family. In some of these villages nobody may sleep on a cot or sit on a high chair, so as to be between heaven +and earth in the position in which the child was saved. The Bada Sudhs are the most numerous subdivision and have generally +adopted Hindu customs, so that the higher castes will take water from their hands. They neither drink liquor nor eat fowls, +but the other subcastes do both. The Sudhs have totemistic <i>gotras</i> as Bhallūka (bear), Bāgh (tiger), Ullūka (owl), and others. They also have <i>bargas</i> or family names as Thākur (lord), Dānaik, Amāyat and Bīshi. The Thākur clan say that they used to hold the Baud kings in +their lap for their coronation, and the Dānaik used to tie the king’s turban. The Bīshi were so named because of their skill +in arms, and the Amāyat collected materials for the worship of the Pānch Khanda or five swords. The <i>bargas</i> are much more numerous than the totemistic septs, and marriage either within the <i>barga</i> or within the sept is forbidden. Girls <a id="d0e14475"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e14475">516</a>]</span>must be married before adolescence; and in the absence of a suitable husband, the girl is married to an old man who divorces +her immediately afterwards, and she may then take a second husband at any time by the form for widow-remarriage. A betrothal +is sealed by tying an areca-nut in a knot made from the clothes of a relative of each party and pounding it seven times with +a pestle. After the marriage a silver ring is placed in a pot of water, over the mouth of which a leaf-plate is bound. The +bridegroom pierces the leaf-plate with a knife, and the bride then thrusts her hand through the hole, picks out the ring and +puts it on. The couple then go inside the house and sit down to a meal. The bridegroom, after eating part of his food, throws +the leavings on to the bride’s plate. She stops eating in displeasure, whereupon the bridegroom promises her some ornaments, +and she relents and eats his leavings. It is customary for a Hindu wife to eat the leavings of food of her husband as a mark +of her veneration for him. Divorce and the remarriage of widows are permitted. The Sudhs worship the Pānch Khanda or five +swords, and in the Central Provinces they say that these are a representation of the five Pāndava brothers, in whose service +their first ancestors were engaged. Their tutelary goddess is Khambeshwari, represented by a wooden peg (<i>khamba</i>). She dwells in the wilds of the Baud State and is supposed to fulfil all the desires of the Sudhs. Liquor, goats, buffaloes, +vermilion and swallow-wort flowers are offered to her, the last two being in representation of blood. The Dehri Sudhs worship +a goddess called Kandrāpat who dwells always on the summits of hills. It is believed that whenever worship is concluded the +roar of her tiger is heard, and the worshippers then leave the place and allow the tiger to come and take the offerings. The +goddess would therefore appear to be the deified tiger. The Bada Sudhs rank with the cultivating castes of Sambalpur, but +the other three subcastes have a lower position. +<a id="d0e14480"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e14480">517</a>]</span></p> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e14457" href="#d0e14457src" class="noteref">1</a></span> This article is compiled from a paper by Mr. Bhāgirath Patnāik, Diwān of Rairākhol, and from notes taken by Mr. Hīra Lāl at +Rairākhol. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e14481" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Sunār</h2> +<h3>List of Paragraphs</h3> +<ul> +<li><a href="#d0e14563">1. General notice of the caste</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e14593">2. Internal structure</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e14615">3. Marriage and other customs</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e14623">4. Religion</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e14635">5. Social position</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e14640">6. Manufacture of ornaments</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e14667">7. The sanctity of gold</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e14813">8. Ornaments. The marriage ornaments</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e14878">9. Beads and other ornaments</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e14959">10. Ear-piercing</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e14996">11. Origin of ear-piercing</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e15008">12. Ornaments worn as amulets</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e15015">13. Audhia Sunārs</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e15033">14. The Sunār as money-changer</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e15073">15. Malpractices of lower-class Sumārs</a></li> +</ul> +<div class="div2" id="d0e14563"> +<h3>1. General notice of the caste</h3> +<p>Sunār,<a id="d0e14568src" href="#d0e14568" class="noteref">1</a> Sonār, Soni, Hon-Potdār, Sarāf.—The occupational caste of goldsmiths and silversmiths. The name is derived from the Sanskrit +<i>Suvarna kār</i>, a worker in gold. In 1911 the Sunārs numbered 96,000 persons in the Central Provinces and 30,000 in Berār. They live all +over the Province and are most numerous in the large towns. The caste appears to be a functional one of comparatively recent +formation, and there is nothing on record as to its origin, except a collection of Brāhmanical legends of the usual type. +The most interesting of these as related by Sir H. Risley is as follows:<a id="d0e14574src" href="#d0e14574" class="noteref">2</a> + +</p> +<p>“In the beginning of time, when the goddess Devi was busy with the construction of mankind, a giant called Sonwa-Daitya, whose +body consisted entirely of gold, devoured her creations as fast as she made them. To baffle this monster the goddess created +a goldsmith, furnished him with the tools of his art, and instructed him how to proceed. <a id="d0e14581"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e14581">518</a>]</span>When the giant proposed to eat him, the goldsmith suggested to him that if his body were polished his appearance would be +vastly improved, and asked to be allowed to undertake the job. With the characteristic stupidity of his tribe the giant fell +into the trap, and having had one finger polished was so pleased with the result that he agreed to be polished all over. For +this purpose, like Aetes in the Greek legend of Medea, he had to be melted down, and the goldsmith, who was to get the body +as his perquisite, giving the head only to Devi, took care not to put him together again. The goldsmith, however, overreached +himself. Not content with his legitimate earnings, he must needs steal a part of the head, and being detected in this by Devi, +he and his descendants were condemned to be for ever poor.” The Sunārs also have a story that they are the descendants of +one of two Rājpūt brothers, who were saved as boys by a Sāraswat Brāhman from the wrath of Parasurāma when he was destroying +the Kshatriyas. The descendants of the other brother were the Khatris. This is the same story as is told by the Khatris of +their own origin, but they do not acknowledge the connection with Sunārs, nor can the Sunārs allege that Sāraswat Brāhmans +eat with them as they do with Khatris. In Gujarāt they have a similar legend connecting them with Banias. In Bombay they also +claim to be Brāhmans, and in the Central Provinces a caste of goldsmiths akin to the Sunārs call themselves Vishwa Brāhmans. +On the other hand, before and during the time of the Peshwas, Sunārs were not allowed to wear the sacred thread, and they +were forbidden to hold their marriages in public, as it was considered unlucky to see a Sunār bridegroom. Sunār bridegrooms +were not allowed to see the state umbrella or to ride in a palanquin, and had to be married at night and in secluded places, +being subject to restrictions and annoyances from which even Mahārs were free.<a id="d0e14583src" href="#d0e14583" class="noteref">3</a> Their <i>raison d’être</i> may possibly be found in the fact that the Brāhmans, all-powerful in the Poona state, were jealous of the pretensions of +the Sunārs, and devised these rules as a means of suppressing them. It may be suggested that the Sunārs, being workers at +an important urban <a id="d0e14591"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e14591">519</a>]</span>industry, profitable in itself and sanctified by its association with the sacred metal gold, aspired to rank above the other +artisans, and put forward the pretensions already mentioned, because they felt that their position was not commensurate with +their deserts. But the Sunār is included in Grant-Duff’s list of the twenty-four village menials of a Marātha village, and +consequently he would in past times have ranked below the cultivators, from whom he must have accepted the annual presents +of grain. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e14593"> +<h3>2. Internal structure</h3> +<p>The caste have a number of subdivisions, nearly all of which are of the territorial class and indicate the various localities +from which it has been recruited in these Provinces. The most important subcastes are the Audhia from Ajodhia or Oudh; the +Purānia or old settlers; the Bundelkhandi from Bundelkhand; the Mālwi from Mālwa; the Lād from Lāt, the old name for the southern +portion of Gujarāt; and the Mair, who appear to have been the first immigrants from Upper India and are named after Mair, +the original ancestor, who melted down the golden demon. Other small groups are the Pātkars, so called because they allow +<i>pāt</i> or widow-marriage, though, as a matter of fact, it is permitted by the great majority of the caste; the Pāndhare or ‘White +Sunārs’; and the Ahīr Sunārs, whose ancestors must presumably have belonged to the caste whose name they bear. The caste have +also numerous <i>bainks</i> or exogamous septs, which differ entirely from the long lists given for Bengal and the United Provinces, and show, as Mr. +Crooke remarks, the extreme fertility with which sections of this kind spring up. In the Central Provinces the names are of +a titular or territorial nature. Examples of the former kind, that is, a title or nickname supposed to have been borne by +the sept’s founder, are: Dantele, one who has projecting teeth; Kāle, black; Munde, bald; Kolhīmāre, a killer of jackals; +and Ladaiya, a jackal or a quarrelsome person. Among the territorial names are Narwaria from Narwar; Bhilsainyān from Bhilsa; +Kanaujia from Kanauj; Dillīwāl from Delhi; Kālpiwāl from Kālpi. Besides the <i>bainks</i> or septs by which marriage is regulated, they have adopted the Brāhmanical eponymous <i>gotra</i>-names as Kashyap, Garg, Sāndilya, and so on. These are employed on ceremonial occasions as when a gift is made <a id="d0e14610"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e14610">520</a>]</span>for the purpose of obtaining religious merit, and the <i>gotra-</i> name of the owner is recorded, but they do not influence marriage. The use of them is a harmless vanity analogous to the +assumption of distinguished surnames by people who were not born to them. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e14615"> +<h3>3. Marriage and other customs</h3> +<p>Marriage is forbidden within the sept. In some localities persons descended from a common ancestor may not intermarry for +five generations, but in others a brother’s daughter may be wedded to a sister’s son. A man is forbidden to marry two sisters +while both are alive, and after his wife’s death he may espouse her younger sister, but not her elder one. Girls are usually +wedded at a tender age, but some Sunārs have hitherto had a rule that neither a girl nor a boy should be married until they +had had smallpox, the idea being that there can be no satisfactory basis for a contract of marriage while either party is +still exposed to such a danger to life and personal appearance; just as it might be considered more prudent not to buy a young +dog until it had had distemper. But with the spread of vaccination the Sunārs are giving up this custom. The marriage ceremony +follows the Hindustāni or Marātha ritual according to locality.<a id="d0e14620src" href="#d0e14620" class="noteref">4</a> In Betūl the mother of the bride ties the mother of the bridegroom to a pole with the ropes used for tethering buffaloes +and beats her with a piece of twisted cloth, until the bridegroom’s mother gives her a present of money or cloth and is released. +The ceremony may be designed to express the annoyance of the bride’s mother at being deprived of her daughter. Polygamy is +permitted, but people will not give their daughter to a married man if they can find a bachelor husband for her. Well-to-do +Sunārs who desire increased social distinction prohibit the marriage of widows, but the caste generally allow it. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e14623"> +<h3>4. Religion</h3> +<p>The caste venerate the ordinary Hindu deities, and many of them have sects and return themselves as Vaishnavas, Saivas or +Sāktas. In some places they are said to make a daily offering to their melting-furnace so that it may bring them in a profit. +When a child has been born they make a sacrifice of a goat to Dūlha Deo, the marriage-god, on the following Dasahra festival, +and the body of this must be <a id="d0e14628"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e14628">521</a>]</span>eaten by the family only, no outsider being allowed to participate. In Hoshangābād it is stated that on the night before the +Dasahra festival all the Sunārs assemble beside a river and hold a feast. Each of them is then believed to take an oath that +he will not during the coming year disclose the amount of the alloy which a fellow-craftsman may mix with the precious metals. +Any Sunār who violates this agreement is put out of caste. On the 15th day of Jeth (May) the village Sunār stops work for +five days and worships his implements after washing them. He draws pictures of the goddess Devi on a piece of paper and goes +round the village to affix them to the doors of his clients, receiving in return a small present. + +</p> +<p>The caste usually burn their dead and take the ashes to the Nerbudda or Ganges; those living to the south of the Nerbudda +always stop at this river, because they think that if they crossed it to go to the Ganges, the Nerbudda would be offended +at their not considering it good enough. If a man meets with a violent death and his body is lost, they construct a small +image of him and burn this with all the proper ceremonies. Mourning is observed for ten or thirteen days, and the <i>shrāddh</i> ceremony is performed on the anniversary of a death, while the usual oblations are offered to the ancestors during the fortnight +of Pitr Paksh in Kunwār (September). + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e14635"> +<h3>5. Social position</h3> +<p>The more ambitious members of the caste abjure all flesh and liquor, and wear the sacred thread. These will not take cooked +food even from a Brāhman. Others do not observe these restrictions. Brāhmans will usually take water from Sunārs, especially +from those who wear the sacred thread. Owing to their association with the sacred metal gold, and the fact that they generally +live in towns or large villages, and many of their members are well-to-do, the Sunārs occupy a fairly high position, ranking +equal with, or above the cultivating castes. But, as already stated, the goldsmith was a village menial in the Marātha villages, +and Sir D. Ibbetson thinks that the Jat really considers the Sunār to be distinctly inferior to himself. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e14640"> +<h3>6. Manufacture of ornaments</h3> +<p>The Sunār makes all kinds of ornaments of gold and silver, being usually supplied with the metal by his <a id="d0e14645"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e14645">522</a>]</span>customers. He is paid according to the weight of metal used, the rate varying from four annas to two rupees with an average +of a rupee per tola weight of metal for gold, and from one to two annas per tola weight of silver.<a id="d0e14647src" href="#d0e14647" class="noteref">5</a> The lowness of these rates is astonishing when compared with those charged by European jewellers, being less than 10 per +cent on the value of the metal for quite delicate ornaments. The reason is partly that ornaments are widely regarded as a +means for the safe keeping of money, and to spend a large sum on the goldsmith’s labour would defeat this end, as it would +be lost on the reconversion of the ornaments into cash. Articles of elaborate workmanship are also easily injured when worn +by women who have to labour in the fields or at home. These considerations have probably retarded the development of the goldsmith’s +art, except in a few isolated localities where it may have had the patronage of native courts, and they account for the often +clumsy form and workmanship of his ornaments. The value set on the products of skilled artisans in early times is nevertheless +shown by the statement in M’Crindle’s <i>Ancient India</i> that any one who caused an artisan to lose the use of an eye or a hand was put to death.<a id="d0e14653src" href="#d0e14653" class="noteref">6</a> In England the jeweller’s profit on his wares is from 33 to 50 per cent or more, in which, of course, allowance is made for +the large amount of capital locked up in them and the time they may remain on his hands. But the difference in rates is nevertheless +striking, and allowance must be made for it in considering the bad reputation which the Sunār has for mixing alloy with the +metal. Gold ornaments are simply hammered or punched into shape or rudely engraved, and are practically never cast or moulded. +They are often made hollow from thin plate or leaf, the interior being filled up with lac. Silver ones are commonly cast in +Saugor and Jubbulpore, but rarely elsewhere. The Sunār’s trade appears now to be fairly prosperous, but during the famines +it was greatly depressed and many members of the caste took to other occupations. Many Sunārs make small articles of brass, +such as chains, bells and little boxes. Others have become cultivators and drive the <a id="d0e14658"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e14658">523</a>]</span>plough themselves, a practice which has the effect of spoiling their hands, and also prevents them from giving their sons +a proper training. To be a good Sunār the hands must be trained from early youth to acquire the necessary delicacy of touch. +The Sunār’s son sits all day with his father watching him work and handling the ornaments. Formerly the Sunār never touched +a plough. Like the Pekin ivory painter— + +</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="line" style=""><span>From early dawn he works; +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>And all day long, and when night comes the lamp +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Lights up his studious forehead and thin hands.</span></p> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e14667"> +<h3>7. The sanctity of gold</h3> +<p>As already stated, the Sunār obtains some social distinction from working in gold, which is a very sacred metal with the Hindus. +Gold ornaments must not on this account be worn below the waist, as to do so would be considered an indignity to the holy +material. Marātha and Khedāwāl Brāhman women will not have ornaments for the head and arms of any baser metal than gold. If +they cannot afford gold bracelets they wear only glass ones. Other castes should, if they can afford it, wear only gold on +the head. And at any rate the nose-ring and small earrings in the upper ear should be of gold if worn at all. When a man is +at the point of death, a little gold, Ganges water, and a leaf of the <i>tulsi</i> or basil plant are placed in his mouth, so that these sacred articles may accompany him to the other world. So valuable as +a means of securing a pure death is the presence of gold in the mouth that some castes have small pieces inserted into a couple +of their upper teeth, in order that wherever and whenever they may die, the gold may be present to purify them.<a id="d0e14675src" href="#d0e14675" class="noteref">7</a> A similar idea was prevalent in Europe. <i>Aurum potabile</i><a id="d0e14680src" href="#d0e14680" class="noteref">8</a> or drinkable gold was a favourite nostrum of the Middle Ages, because gold being perfect should produce perfect health; and +patients when <i>in extremis</i> were commonly given water in which gold had been washed. And the belief is referred to by Shakespeare: + +</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Therefore, thou best of gold art worst of gold: +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Other, less fine in carat, is more precious, +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Preserving life in medicine potable.<a id="d0e14696src" href="#d0e14696" class="noteref">9</a></span></p> +</div> +</div><a id="d0e14700"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e14700">524</a>]</span><p>The metals which are used for currency, gold, silver and copper, are all held sacred by the Hindus, and this is easily explained +on the grounds of their intrinsic value and their potency when employed as coin. It may be noted that when the nickel anna +coinage was introduced, it was held in some localities that the coins could not be presented at temples as this metal was +not sacred. + + +</p> +<p></p> +<div id="d0e14704" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p124.jpg" alt="Ornaments" width="648" height="546"><p class="figureHead">Ornaments</p> +<p>List of Ornaments, from Left to Right. + +</p> +<p>Three bracelets on top of board, from left to right:— + +</p> +<ul> +<li>1.—Anklet, with links like coils of a snake. + +</li> +<li>2.—<i>Tora</i>, or solid anklet. + +</li> +<li>3.—<i>Naugrihi</i>, or wristlet of nine planets. +</li> +</ul><p> + +</p> +<p>Second row, from left to right:— + +</p> +<ul> +<li>4.—Large <i>nathni</i>, or nose-ring. + +</li> +<li>5.—Another <i>naugrihi</i>. + +</li> +<li>6.—<i>Bīja,</i> or custard apple worn on head above <i>bindia</i>. + +</li> +<li>7.—<i>Bindia</i>, or ornament worn on head. + +</li> +<li>8.—<i>Haniel</i>, or necklace of rupees with betel-leaf pendant. +</li> +</ul><p> + +</p> +<p>Third row, from left to right:— + +</p> +<ul> +<li>9.—Small <i>nathni</i>, or nose-ring. + +</li> +<li>10.—<i>Bora</i>, or waistband with beads like smallpox postules. + +</li> +<li>11.—<i>Kantha</i>, or gold necklace. + +</li> +<li>12.—<i>Bohta,</i> or circlet for upper arm. + +</li> +<li>13.—<i>Hasli</i>, or necklet like collar-bone. +</li> +</ul><p> + +</p> +<p>Fourth row, from left to right:— + +</p> +<ul> +<li>14.—<i>Karanphūl</i> or earring like marigold. + +</li> +<li>15.—<i>Paijan</i>, or hollow tinkling anklet. + +</li> +<li>16.—<i>Dhara</i>, or earring like shield. + +</li> +<li>17.—Another anklet. + +</li> +<li>18.—Another armlet, called “<i>koparbela</i>.” +</li> +</ul><p> + +</p> +</div><p> + + + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e14813"> +<h3>8. Ornaments. The marriage ornaments</h3> +<p>It can scarcely also be doubted in view of this feeling that the wearing of both gold and silver in ornaments is considered +to have a protective magical effect, like that attributed to charms and amulets. And the suggestion has been made that this +was the object with which all ornaments were originally worn. Professor Robertson Smith remarks:<a id="d0e14818src" href="#d0e14818" class="noteref">10</a> “Jewels, too, such as women wore in the sanctuary, had a sacred character; the Syriac word for an earring is <i>c’ dāsha</i>, ‘the holy thing,’ and generally speaking, jewels serve as amulets. As such they are mainly worn to protect the chief organs +of action (the hands and feet), but especially the orifices of the body, as earrings; nose-rings hanging over the mouth; jewels +on the forehead hanging down and protecting the eyes.” The precious metals, as has been seen, are usually sacred among primitive +people, and when made into ornaments they have the same sanctity and protective virtue as jewels. The subject has been treated<a id="d0e14826src" href="#d0e14826" class="noteref">11</a> with great fullness of detail by Sir J. Campbell, and the different ornaments worn by Hindu women of the Central Provinces +point to the same conclusion. The <i>bindia</i> or head ornament of a Marātha Brāhman woman consists of two chains of silver or gold and in the centre an image of a cobra +erect. This is Shesh-Nāg, the sacred snake, who spreads his hood over all the <i>lingas</i> of Mahādeo and is placed on the woman’s head to guard her in the same way. The Kurmis and other castes do not have Shesh-Nāg, +but instead the centre of the <i>bindia</i> consists of an ornament known as <i>bīja</i>, which represents the custard-apple, the sacred fruit of Sita. The <i>nathni</i> or nose-ring, which was formerly confined to high-caste women, represents the sun and moon. The large hoop circle is the +sun, and underneath in the part below <a id="d0e14849"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e14849">525</a>]</span>the nose is a small segment, which is the crescent moon and is hidden when the ornament is in wear. On the front side of this +are red stones, representing the sun, and on the underside white ones for the moon. The <i>nathni</i> has some mysterious connection with a woman’s virtue, and to take off her nose-ring—<i>nathni utdārna</i>—signifies to dishonour a woman (Platts). In northern India women wear the nose-ring very large and sometimes cover it with +a piece of cloth to guard it from view or keep it in <i>parda</i>. It is possible that the practice of Hindu husbands of cutting off the nose of a wife detected in adultery has some similar +association, and is partly intended to prevent her from again wearing a nose-ring. The toe ornament of a high-caste woman +is called <i>bichhia</i> and it represents a scorpion (<i>bichhu</i>). A ring on the big toe stands for the scorpion’s head, a silver chain across the foot ending in another ring on the little +toe is his body, and three rings with high projecting knobs on the middle toes are the joints of his tail folded back. It +is of course supposed that the ornament protects the feet from scorpion bites. These three ornaments, the <i>bindia</i>, the <i>nathni</i> and the <i>bichhia</i>, must form part of the Sohāg or wedding dowry of every high-caste Hindu girl in the northern Districts, and she cannot be +married without them. But if the family is poor a <i>laong</i> or gold stud to be worn in the nose may be substituted for the nose-ring. This stud, as its name indicates, is in the form +of a clove, which is sacred food and is eaten on fast-days. Burning cloves are often used to brand children for cold; a fresh +one being employed for each mark. A widow may not wear any of these ornaments; she is always impure, being perpetually haunted +by the ghost of her dead husband, and they could thus be of no advantage to her; while, on the other hand, her wearing them +would probably be considered a kind of sacrilege or pollution of the holy ornaments. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e14878"> +<h3>9. Beads and other ornaments</h3> +<p>In the Marātha Districts an essential feature of a wedding is the hanging of the <i>mangal-sūtram</i> or necklace of black beads round the bride’s neck. All beads which shine and reflect the light are considered to be efficacious +in averting the evil eye, and a peculiar virtue, Sir J. Campbell states, attaches to black beads. A woman wears the <i>mangalsūtram</i> <a id="d0e14889"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e14889">526</a>]</span>or marriage string of beads all her life, and considers that her husband’s life is to some extent bound up in it. If she breaks +the thread she will not say ‘my thread is broken,’ but ‘my thread has increased’; and she will not let her husband see her +until she has got a new thread, as she thinks that to do so would cause his death. The many necklaces of beads worn by the +primitive tribes and the strings of blue beads tied round the necks of oxen and ponies have the same end in view. A similar +belief was probably partly responsible for the value set on precious stones as ornaments, and especially on diamonds, which +sparkle most of all. The pearl is very sacred among the Hindus, and Madrāsis put a pearl into the mouth at the time of death +instead of gold. Partly at least for this purpose pearls are worn set in a ring of gold in the ear, so that they may be available +at need. Coral is also highly esteemed as an amulet, largely because it is supposed to change colour. The coral given to babies +to suck may have been intended to render the soft and swollen gums at teething hard like the hard red stone. Another favourite +shape for beads of gold is that of grains of rice, rice being a sacred grain. The gold ornament called <i>kantha</i> worn on the neck has carvings of the flowers of the <i>singāra</i> or water-nut This is a holy plant, the eating of which on fast-days gives purity. Hence women think that water thrown over +the carved flowers of the ornament when bathing will have greater virtue to purify their bodies. Another favourite ornament +is the <i>hamel</i> or necklace of rupees. The sanctity of coined metal would probably be increased by the royal image and superscription and +also by its virtue as currency. Mr. Nunn states that gold mohur coins are still made solely for the purpose of ornament, being +commonly engraved with the formula of belief of Islām and worn by Muhammadans as a charm. Suspended to the <i>hamel</i> or necklace of rupees in front is a silver pendant in the shape of a betel-leaf, this leaf being very efficacious in magic; +and on this is carved either the image of Hanumān, the god of strength, or a peacock’s feather as a symbol of Kārtikeya, the +god of war. The silver bar necklet known as <i>hasli</i> is intended to resemble the collar-bone. Children carried in their mother’s <a id="d0e14906"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e14906">527</a>]</span>cloth are liable to be jarred and shaken against her body, so that the collar-bone is bruised and becomes painful. It is thought +that the wearing of a silver collar-bone will prevent this, just as silver eyes are offered in smallpox to protect the sufferer’s +eyes and a silver wire to save his throat from being choked. Little children sometimes have round the waist a band of silver +beads which is called <i>bora</i>; these beads are meant to resemble the smallpox pustules and the <i>bora</i> protects the wearer from smallpox. There are usually 84 beads, this number being lucky among the Hindus. At her wedding a +Hindu bride must wear a wristlet of nine little cones of silver like the <i>kalas</i> or pinnacle of a temple. This is called <i>nau-graha</i> or <i>nau-giri</i> and represents the nine planets which are worshipped at weddings—that is, the sun, moon and the five planets, Mars, Mercury, +Jupiter, Venus and Saturn, which were known to the ancients and gave their names to the days of the week in many of the Aryan +languages; while the remaining two are said to have been Rahu and Ketu, the nodes of the moon and the demons which cause eclipses. +The <i>bonhta</i> or <i>bānkra</i>, the rigid circular bangle on the upper arm, is supposed to make a woman’s arm stronger by the pressure exercised on the +veins and muscles. Circular ornaments worn on the legs similarly strengthen them and prevent a woman from getting stiffness +or pins and needles in her legs after long squatting on the ground. The <i>chutka</i>, a large silver ring worn by men on the big toe, is believed to attract to itself the ends of all the veins and ligaments +from the navel downwards, and hold them all braced in their proper position, thus preventing rupture. + +</p> +<p>On their feet children and young girls wear the <i>paijan</i> or hollow anklet with tinkling balls inside. But when a married woman has had two or three children she leaves off the <i>paijan</i> and wears a solid anklet like the <i>tora</i> or <i>kasa</i>. It is now said that the reason why girls wear sounding anklets is that their whereabouts may be known and they may be prevented +from getting into mischief in dark corners. But the real reason was probably that they served as spirit scarers, which they +would do in effect by frightening away snakes, scorpions and noxious insects; for it is clear that <a id="d0e14946"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e14946">528</a>]</span>the bites of such reptiles and insects, which often escape unseen, must be largely responsible for the vast imaginative fabric +of the belief in evil spirits, just as Professor Robertson Smith demonstrates that the <i>jins</i> or <i>genii</i> of Arabia were really wild animals.<a id="d0e14954src" href="#d0e14954" class="noteref">12</a> In India, owing to the early age of marriage and the superstitious maltreatment of women at child-birth, the mortality among +girls at this period is very high; and the Hindus, ignorant of the true causes, probably consider them especially susceptible +to the attacks of evil spirits. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e14959"> +<h3>10. Ear-piercing</h3> +<p>Before treating of ear-ornaments it will be convenient to mention briefly the custom of ear-piercing. This is universal among +Hindus and Muhammadans, both male and female, and the operation is often performed by the Sunār. The lower Hindu castes and +the Gonds consider piercing the ears to be the mark of admission to the caste community. It is done when the child is four +or five years old, and till then he or she is not considered to be a member of the caste and may consequently take food from +anybody. The Rāj-Gonds will not have the ears of their children pierced by any one but a Sunār; and for this they give him +<i>sīdha</i> or a seer<a id="d0e14967src" href="#d0e14967" class="noteref">13</a> of wheat, a seer of rice and an anna. Hindus employ a Sunār when one is available, but if not, an old man of the family may +act. After the piercing a peacock’s feather or some stalks of grass or straw are put in to keep the hole open and enlarge +it. A Hindu girl has her ear pierced in five places, three being in the upper ear, one in the lobe and one in the small flap +over the orifice. Muhammadans make a large number of holes all down the ear and in each of these they place a gold or silver +ring, so that the ears are dragged down by the weight. Similarly their women will have ten or fifteen bangles on the legs. +The Hindus also have this custom in Bhopāl, but if they do it in the Central Provinces they are chaffed with having become +Muhammadans. In the upper ear Hindu women have an ornament in the shape of the <i>genda</i> or marigold, a sacred flower which is offered to all the deities. The holes in the upper and middle ear are only large enough +to contain a small ring, but that in the lobe <a id="d0e14973"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e14973">529</a>]</span>is greatly distended among the lower castes. The <i>tarkhi</i> or Gond ear-ornament consists of a glass plate fixed on to a stem of <i>ambāri</i> fibre nearly an inch thick, which passes through the lobe. As a consequence the lower rim is a thin pendulous strip of flesh, +very liable to get torn. But to have the hole torn open is one of the worst social mishaps which can happen to a woman. She +is immediately put out of caste for a long period, and only readmitted after severe penalties, equivalent to those inflicted +for getting vermin in a wound. When a woman gets her ear torn she sits weeping in her house and refuses to be comforted. At +the ceremony of readmission a Sunār is sometimes called in who stitches up the ear with silver thread.<a id="d0e14981src" href="#d0e14981" class="noteref">14</a> Low-caste Hindu and Gond women often wear a large circular embossed silver ornament over the ear which is known as <i>dhāra</i> or shield and is in the shape of an Indian shield. This is secured by chains to the hair and apparently affords some support +to the lower part of the ear, which it also covers. Its object seems to be to shield and protect the lobe, which is so vulnerable +in a woman, and hence the name. A similar ornament worn in Bengal is known as <i>dhenri</i> and consists of a shield-shaped disk of gold, worn on the lobe of the ear, sometimes with and sometimes without a pendant.<a id="d0e14990src" href="#d0e14990" class="noteref">15</a> + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e14996"> +<h3>11. Origin of ear-piercing</h3> +<p>The character of the special significance which apparently attaches to the custom of ear-piercing is obscure. Dr. Jevons considers +that it is merely a relic of the practice of shedding the blood of different parts of the body as an offering to the deity, +and analogous to the various methods of self-mutilation, flagellation and gashing of the flesh, whose common origin is ascribed +to the same custom. “To commend themselves and their prayers the Quiches pierced their ears and gashed their arms and offered +the sacrifice of their blood to their gods. The practice of drawing blood from the ears is said by Bastian to be common in +the Orient; and Lippert conjectures that the marks left in the ears were valued as visible and permanent indications that +<a id="d0e15001"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e15001">530</a>]</span>the person possessing them was under the protection of the god with whom the worshipper had united himself by his blood offering. +In that case earrings were originally designed, not for ornament, but to keep open and therefore permanently visible the marks +of former worship. The marks or scars left on legs or arms from which blood had been drawn were probably the origin of tattooing, +as has occurred to various anthropologists.”<a id="d0e15003src" href="#d0e15003" class="noteref">16</a> This explanation, while it may account for the general custom of ear-piercing, does not explain the special guilt imputed +by the Hindus to getting the lobe of the ear torn. Apparently the penalty is not imposed for the tearing of the upper part +of the ear, and it is not known whether men are held liable as well as women; but as large holes are not made in the upper +ear at all, nor by men in the lobe, such cases would very seldom occur. The suggestion may be made as a speculation that the +continuous distension of the lobe of the ear by women and the large hole produced is supposed to have some sympathetic effect +in opening the womb and making child-birth more easy. The tearing of the ear might then be considered to render, the women +incapable of bearing a child, and the penalties attached to it would be sufficiently explained. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e15008"> +<h3>12. Ornaments worn as amulets</h3> +<p>The above account of the ornaments of a Hindu woman is sufficient to show that her profuse display of them is not to be attributed, +as is often supposed, to the mere desire for adornment. Each ornament originally played its part in protecting some limb or +feature from various dangers of the seen or unseen world. And though the reasons which led to their adoption have now been +to a large extent forgotten and the ornaments are valued for themselves, the shape and character remain to show their real +significance. Women as being weaker and less accustomed to mix in society are naturally more superstitious and fearful of +the machinations of spirits. And the same argument applies in greater degree to children. The Hindus have probably recognised +that children are very delicate and succumb easily to disease, and they could scarcely fail to have done so when statistics +show that about a quarter of all the babies born in India die in the first year of age. But they do not <a id="d0e15013"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e15013">531</a>]</span>attribute the mortality to its real causes of congenital weakness arising from the immaturity of the parents, insanitary treatment +at and after birth, unsuitable food, and the general frailty of the undeveloped organism. They ascribe the loss of their offspring +solely to the machinations of jealous deities and evil spirits, and the envy and admiration of other people, especially childless +women and witches, who cast the evil eye upon them. And in order to guard against these dangers their bodies are decorated +with amulets and ornaments as a means of protection. But the result is quite other than that intended, and the ornaments which +are meant to protect the children from the imaginary terrors of the evil eye, in reality merely serve as a whet to illicit +cupidity, and expose them a rich, defenceless prey to the violence of the murderer and the thief. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e15015"> +<h3>13. Audhia Sunārs</h3> +<p>The Audhia Sunārs usually work in bell-metal, an alloy of copper or tin and pewter. When used for ornaments the proportion +of tin or pewter is increased so as to make them of a light colour, resembling silver as far as may be. Women of the higher +castes may wear bell-metal ornaments only on their ankles and feet, and Marātha and Khedāwāl Brāhmans may not wear them at +all. In consequence of having adopted this derogatory occupation, as it is considered, the Audhia Sunārs are looked down on +by the rest of the caste. They travel about to the different village markets carrying their wares on ponies; among these, +perhaps, the favourite ornament is the <i>kara</i> or curved bar anklets, which the Audhia works on to the purchaser’s feet for her, forcing them over the heels with a piece +of iron like a shoe-horn. The process takes time and is often painful, the skin being rasped by the iron. The woman is supported +by a friend as her foot is held up behind, and is sometimes reduced to cries and tears. High-caste women do not much affect +the <i>kara</i> as they object to having their foot grasped by the Sunār. They wear instead a chain anklet which they can work on themselves. +The Sunārs set precious stones in ornaments, and this is also done by a class of persons called Jadia, who do not appear to +be a caste. Another body of persons accessory to the trade are the Niārīas, who take the ashes and sweepings from the goldsmith’s +shop, paying a sum of <a id="d0e15026"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e15026">532</a>]</span>ten or twenty rupees annually for them.<a id="d0e15028src" href="#d0e15028" class="noteref">17</a> They wash away the refuse and separate the grains of gold and silver, which they sell back to the Sunārs. Niāria also appears +to be an occupational term, and not a caste. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e15033"> +<h3>14. The Sunār as money-changer</h3> +<p>Formerly Sunārs were employed for counting and testing money in the public treasuries, and in this capacity they were designated +as Potdār and Sarāf or Shroff. Before the introduction of the standard English coinage the money-changer’s business was important +and profitable, as the rupee varied over different parts of the country exactly as grain measures do now. Thus the Pondicherry +rupee was worth 26 annas, while the Gujarat rupee would not fetch 12½ annas in the bazār. In Bengal,<a id="d0e15038src" href="#d0e15038" class="noteref">18</a> at the beginning of the nineteenth century, people who wished to make purchases had first to exchange their rupees for cowries. +The Potdar carried his cowries to market in the morning on a bullock, and gave 5760 cowries for a new <i>kaldār</i> or English rupee, while he took 5920 cowries in exchange for a rupee when his customers wanted silver back in the evening +to take away with them. The profit on the <i>kaldār</i> rupee was thus one thirty-sixth on the two transactions, while all old rupees, and every kind of rupee but the <i>kaldār</i>, paid various rates of exchange or <i>batta</i>, according to the will of the money-changers, who made a higher profit on all other kinds of money than the <i>kaldār</i>. They therefore resisted the general introduction of these rupees as long as possible, and when this failed they hit on a +device of marking the rupees with a stamp, under pretext of ascertaining whether they were true or false; after which the +rupee was not exchangeable without paying an additional <i>batta</i>, and became as valuable to the money-changers as if it were foreign coin. As justification for their action they pretended +to the people that the marks would enable those who had received the rupees to have them changed should any other dealer refuse +them, and the necessities of the poor compelled them to agree to any <i>batta</i> or exchange rather than suffer delay. This was apparently the origin of the ‘Shroff-marked rupees,’ familiar to readers of +the <i>Treasury Manual</i>; and the line in a Bhāt song, ‘The <a id="d0e15068"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e15068">533</a>]</span>English have made current the <i>kaldār</i> (milled) rupee,’ is thus seen to be no empty praise. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e15073"> +<h3>15. Malpractices of lower-class Sumārs</h3> +<p>As the bulk of the capital of the poorer classes is hoarded in the shape of gold and silver ornaments, these are regularly +pledged when ready money is needed, and the Sunār often acts as a pawnbroker. In this capacity he too often degenerates into +a receiver of stolen property, and Mr. Nunn suggested that his proceedings should be supervised by license. Generally, the +Sunār is suspected of making an illicit profit by mixing alloy with the metal entrusted to him by his customers, and some +bitter sayings are current about him. One of his customs is to filch a little gold from his mother and sister on the last +day of Shrāwan (July) and make it into a luck-penny.<a id="d0e15078src" href="#d0e15078" class="noteref">19</a> This has given rise to the saying, ‘The Sunār will not respect even his mother’s gold’; but the implication appears to be +unjust. Another saying is: <i>‘Sona Sunār kā, abharan sansār ka,’</i> or, ‘The ornament is the customer’s, but the gold remains with the Sunār.’<a id="d0e15086src" href="#d0e15086" class="noteref">20</a> Gold is usually melted in the employer’s presence, who, to guard against fraud, keeps a small piece of the metal called <i>chāsnī</i> or <i>māslo</i>, that is a sample, and when the ornament is ready sends it with the sample to an assayer or <i>Chokshi</i> who, by rubbing them on a touchstone, tells whether the gold in the sample and the ornament is of the same quality. Further, +the employer either himself sits near the Sunār while the ornament is being made or sends one of his family to watch. In spite +of these precautions the Sunār seldom fails to filch some of the gold while the spy’s attention is distracted by the prattling +of the parrot, by the coquetting of a handsomely dressed young woman of the family or by some organised mishap in the inner +rooms among the women of the house.<a id="d0e15100src" href="#d0e15100" class="noteref">21</a> One of his favourite practices is to substitute copper for gold in the interior, and this he has the best chance of doing +with the marriage ornaments, as many people consider it unlucky to weigh or test the quality of these.<a id="d0e15105src" href="#d0e15105" class="noteref">22</a> The account must, however, be taken to apply only to the small artisans, <a id="d0e15111"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e15111">534</a>]</span>and well-to-do reputable Sunārs would be above such practices. + +</p> +<p>The goldsmith’s industry has hitherto not been affected to any serious extent by the competition of imported goods, and except +during periods of agricultural depression the Sunār continues to prosper. + +</p> +<p>A Persian couplet said by a lover to his mistress is, ‘Gold has no scent and in the scent of flowers there is no gold; but +thou both art gold and hast scent.’ + +</p> +<p id="d0e15117"><b>Sundi, Sundhi, Sunri or Sondhi.</b><a id="d0e15120src" href="#d0e15120" class="noteref">23</a>—The liquor-distilling caste of the Uriya country. The transfer of Sambalpur and the Uriya States to Bihār and Orissa has +reduced their strength in the Central Provinces to about 5000, found in the Raipur District and the Bastar and Chota Nāgpur +Feudatory States. The caste is an important one in Bengal, numbering more than six lakhs of persons and being found in western +Bengal and Bihār as well as in Orissa. The word Sundi is derived from the Sanskrit Shaundik, a spirit-seller. The caste has +various genealogies of differing degrees of respectability, tracing their origin to cross unions between other castes born +of Brāhmans, Kshatriyas, and Vaishyas. The following story is told of them in Madras.<a id="d0e15123src" href="#d0e15123" class="noteref">24</a> In ancient times a certain Brāhman was famous for his magical attainments. The king of the country sent for him one day and +asked him to cause the water in a tank to burn. The Brāhman saw no way of doing this, and returned homewards uneasy in his +mind. On the way he met a distiller who asked him to explain what troubled him. When the Brāhman told his story the distiller +promised to cause the water to burn on condition that the Brāhman gave him his daughter in marriage. This the Brāhman agreed +to do, and the distiller, after surreptitiously pouring large quantities of liquor into the tank, set fire to it in the presence +of the king. In accordance with the agreement he married the daughter of the Brāhman and the pair became the ancestors of +the Sundi caste. In confirmation of the story it is alleged that up to the present day the women of the caste maintain the +<a id="d0e15128"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e15128">535</a>]</span>recollection of their Brāhman ancestors by refusing to eat fowls or the remains of their husbands’ meals. Nor will they take +food from the hands of any other caste. Sir H. Risley relates the following stories current about the caste in Bengal, where +its status is very low: “According to Hindu ideas, distillers and sellers of strong drink rank among the most degraded castes, +and a curious story in the Vaivarta Purāna keeps alive the memory of their degradation. It is said that when Sani, the Hindu +Saturn, failed to adapt an elephant’s head to the mutilated trunk of Ganesh who had been accidentally slain by Siva, Viswākarma, +the celestial artificer, was sent for, and by careful dissection and manipulation he fitted the incongruous parts together, +and made a man called Kedāra Sena from the slices cut off in fashioning his work. This Kedāra Sena was ordered to fetch a +drink of water for Bhagavati, weary and athirst. Finding on the river’s bank a shell full of water he presented it to her, +without noticing that a few grains of rice left in it by a parrot had fermented and formed an intoxicating liquid. Bhagavati, +as soon as she had drunk, became aware of the fact, and in her anger condemned the offender to the vile and servile occupation +of making spirituous liquors for mankind.” Like other castes in Sambalpur the Sundis have two subcastes, the Jhārua and the +Utkal or Uriya, of whom the Jhāruas probably immigrated from Orissa at an earlier period and adopted some of the customs of +the indigenous tribes; for this reason they are looked down on by the more orthodox Utkalis. The caste say that they belong +to the Nāgas or snake gotra, because they consider themselves to be descended from Bāsuki, the serpent with a thousand heads +who formed a canopy for Vishnu. They also have <i>bargas</i> or family titles, but these at present exercise no influence on marriage. The Sundis have in fact outgrown the system of +exogamy and regulate their marriages by a table of prohibited degrees in the ordinary manner, the unions of <i>sapindas</i> or persons who observe mourning together at a death being prohibited. The prohibition does not extend to cognatic relationship, +but a man must not marry into the family of his paternal aunt. The fact that the old <i>bargas</i> or exogamous groups are still in existence is <a id="d0e15139"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e15139">536</a>]</span>interesting, and an intermediate step in the process of their abandonment may be recognised in the fact that some of them +are subdivided. Thus the Sāhu (lord) group has split into the Gaj Sāhu (lord of the elephant), Dhavila Sāhu (white lord), +and Amila Sāhu sub-groups, and it need not be doubted that this was a convenient method adopted for splitting up the Sāhu +group when it became so large as to include persons so distantly connected with each other that the prohibition of marriage +between them was obviously ridiculous. As the number of Sundis in the Central Provinces is now insignificant no detailed description +of their customs need be given, but one or two interesting points may be noted. Their method of observing the <i>pitripaksh</i> or worship of ancestors is as follows: A human figure is made of <i>kusha</i> grass and placed under a miniature straw hut. A lamp is kept burning before it for ten days, and every day a twig for cleaning +the teeth is placed before it, and it is supplied with fried rice in the morning and rice, pulse and vegetables in the evening. +On the tenth day the priest comes, and after bathing the figure seven times, places boiled rice before it for the last meal, +and then sets fire to the hut and burns it, while repeating sacred verses. On the eleventh day after a death, when presents +for the use of the deceased are made to a priest as his representative, the priest lies down in the new bed which is given +to him, and the members of the family rub his feet and attend on him as if he were the dead man. He is also given a present +sufficient to purchase food for him for a year. The Sundis worship Surādevi or the goddess of wine, whom they consider as +their mother, and they refuse to drink liquor, saying that this would be to enjoy their own mother. They worship the still +and all articles used in distillation at the rice-harvest and when the new mango crop appears. Large numbers of them have +taken to cultivation. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e14568" href="#d0e14568src" class="noteref">1</a></span> This article is partly based on an article by Mr. Raghunāth Prasād, E.A.C., formerly Deputy Superintendent of Census, with +extracts from the late Mr. Nunn’s Monograph on the Gold and Silver Industries, and on information furnished by Krishna Rao, +Revenue Inspector, Mandla. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e14574" href="#d0e14574src" class="noteref">2</a></span> <i>Tribes and Castes of Bengal</i>, art. Sunār. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e14583" href="#d0e14583src" class="noteref">3</a></span> <i>Bombay Gazetteer</i>, vol. xvii. p. 134. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e14620" href="#d0e14620src" class="noteref">4</a></span> See articles on Kunbi and Kurmi. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e14647" href="#d0e14647src" class="noteref">5</a></span> Monograph on the Gold and Silverware of the Central Provinces (Mr. H. Nunn, I.C.S.), 1904. The tola is a rupee’s weight, or +two-fifths of an ounce. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e14653" href="#d0e14653src" class="noteref">6</a></span> <i>Journal of Indian Art</i>, July 1909, p. 172. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e14675" href="#d0e14675src" class="noteref">7</a></span> From a monograph on rural customs in Saugor, by Major W.D. Sutherland, I.M.S. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e14680" href="#d0e14680src" class="noteref">8</a></span> Lang, <i>Myth, Ritual and Religion</i>, i. p. 98. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e14696" href="#d0e14696src" class="noteref">9</a></span> <i>2 King Henry IV.</i> Act IV. Sc. 4. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e14818" href="#d0e14818src" class="noteref">10</a></span> <i>Religion of the Semites</i>, note B., p. 453. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e14826" href="#d0e14826src" class="noteref">11</a></span> <i>Bombay Gazetteer</i>, <i>Poona</i>, App. D., Ornaments. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e14954" href="#d0e14954src" class="noteref">12</a></span> <i>Religion of the Semites</i>, Lecture III. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e14967" href="#d0e14967src" class="noteref">13</a></span> 2 lbs. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e14981" href="#d0e14981src" class="noteref">14</a></span> From a paper on Caste Panchāyats, by the Rev. Failbus, C.M.S. Mission, Mandla. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e14990" href="#d0e14990src" class="noteref">15</a></span> Rājendra Lāl Mitra, <i>Indo-Aryans</i> vol. i. p. 231. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e15003" href="#d0e15003src" class="noteref">16</a></span> <i>Introduction to the History of Religion</i>, 3rd ed. p. 172. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e15028" href="#d0e15028src" class="noteref">17</a></span> Monograph, <i>loc. cit.</i></p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e15038" href="#d0e15038src" class="noteref">18</a></span> This account is taken from Buchanan’s <i>Eastern India</i>, vol. ii. p. 100. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e15078" href="#d0e15078src" class="noteref">19</a></span> <i>Bombay Gazetteer</i>, vol. xii. p. 71. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e15086" href="#d0e15086src" class="noteref">20</a></span> Temple and Fallon’s <i>Hindustāni Proverbs.</i></p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e15100" href="#d0e15100src" class="noteref">21</a></span> <i>Bombay Gazetteer, Hindus of Gujarāt,</i> pp. 199, 200. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e15105" href="#d0e15105src" class="noteref">22</a></span> Pandīan’s <i>Indian Village Folk</i>, p. 41. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e15120" href="#d0e15120src" class="noteref">23</a></span> This article is compiled from a paper by Mr. D. Mitra, pleader, Sambalpur. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e15123" href="#d0e15123src" class="noteref">24</a></span> <i>Madras Census Report</i>, 1891, p. 301. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e15147" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Tamera</h2> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>1. The Tamera and Kasār</h3> +<p><b>Tamera, Tambatkar</b>.<a id="d0e15157src" href="#d0e15157" class="noteref">1</a>—The professional caste of coppersmiths, the name being derived from <i>tāmba</i>, copper. The <a id="d0e15163"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e15163">537</a>]</span>Tameras, however, like the Kasārs or brass-workers, use copper, brass and bell-metal indifferently, and in the northern Districts +the castes are not really distinguished, Tamera and Kasār being almost interchangeable terms. In the Marātha country, however, +and other localities they are considered as distinct castes. Copper is a sacred metal, and the copper-smith’s calling would +be considered somewhat more respectable than that of the worker in brass or bell-metal, just as the Sunār or goldsmith ranks +above both; and probably, therefore, the Tameras may consider themselves a little better than the Kasārs. As brass is an alloy +made from copper and zinc, it seems likely that vessels were made from copper before they were made from brass. But copper +being a comparatively rare and expensive metal, utensils made from it could scarcely have ever been generally used, and it +is therefore not necessary to suppose that either the Tamera or Kasār caste came into being before the adoption of brass as +a convenient material for the household pots and pans. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>2. Social traditions and customs</h3> +<p>In 1911 the Tameras numbered about 5000 persons in the Central Provinces and Berār. They tell the same story of their origin +which has already been related in the article on the Kasār caste, and trace their descent from the Haihaya Rājpūt dynasty +of Ratanpur. They say that when the king Dharampāl, the first ancestor of the caste, was married, a bevy of 119 girls were +sent with his bride in accordance with the practice still occasionally obtaining among royal Hindu families, and these, as +usual, became the concubines of the husband or, as the Tameras say, his wives: and from the bride and her companions the 120 +exogamous sections of the caste are sprung. As a fact, however, many of the sections are named after villages or natural objects. +A man is not permitted to marry any one belonging to his own section or that of his mother, the union of first cousins being +thus prohibited. The caste also do not favour <i>Anta sānta</i> or the practice of exchanging girls between families, the reason alleged being that after the bride’s father has acknowledged +the superiority of the bridegroom’s father by washing his feet, it is absurd to require the latter to do the same, that is, +to wash the feet of his inferior. So they may not take a <a id="d0e15173"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e15173">538</a>]</span>girl from a family to which they have given one of their own. The real reason for the rule lies possibly in an extension of +the principle of exogamy, whether based on a real fear of carrying too far the practice of intermarriage between families +or an unfounded superstition that intermarriage between families already connected may have the same evil results on the offspring +as the union of blood-relations. When the wedding procession is about to start, after the bridegroom has been bathed and before +he puts on the <i>kankan</i> or iron wristlet which is to protect him from evil spirits, he is seated on a stool while all the male members of the household +come up with their <i>choti</i> or scalp-lock untied and rub it against that of the bridegroom. Again, after the wedding ceremonies are over and the bridegroom +has, according to rule, untied one of the fastenings of the marriage-shed, he also turns over a tile of the roof of the house. +The meaning of the latter ceremony is not clear; the significance attaching to the <i>choti</i> has been discussed in the article on Nai. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>3. Disposal of the dead</h3> +<p>The caste burn their dead except children, who can be buried, and observe mourning for ten days in the case of an adult and +for three days for a child. A cake of flour containing two pice (farthings) is buried or burnt with the corpse. When a death +takes place among the community all the members of it stop making vessels for that day, though they will transact retail sales. +When mourning is over, a feast is given to the caste-fellows and to seven members of the menial and serving castes. These +are known as the ‘Sāttiho Jāt’ or Seven Castes, and it may be conjectured that in former times they were the menials of the +village and were given a meal in much the same spirit as prompts an English landlord to give his tenants a dinner on occasions +of ceremony. Instances of a similar custom are noted among the Kunbis and other castes. Before food is served to the guests +a leaf-plate containing a portion for the deceased is placed outside the house with a pot of water, and a burning lamp to +guide his spirit to the food. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>4. Religion</h3> +<p>The caste worship the goddess Singhbāhani. or Devi riding on a tiger. They make an image of her in the most expensive metal +they can afford, and worship it daily. They will on no account swear by this goddess. They worship <a id="d0e15194"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e15194">539</a>]</span>their trade implements on the day of the new moon in Chait (March) and Bhādon (August). A trident, as a symbol of Devi, is +then drawn with powdered rice and vermilion on the furnace for casting metal. A lamp is waved over the furnace and a cocoanut +is broken and distributed to the caste-fellows, no outsider being allowed to be present. They quench their furnace on the +new moon day of every month, the Rāmnaomi and Durgapūja or nine days’ fasts in the months of Chait and Kunwār, and for the +two days following the Diwāli and Holi festivals. On these days they will not prepare any new vessels, but will sell those +which they have ready. The Tameras have Kanaujia Brāhmans for their priests, and the Brāhmans will take food from them which +has been cooked without water and salt. On this account other Kanaujia Brāhmans require a heavy payment before they will marry +with the priests of the Tameras. The caste abstain from liquor, and some of them have abjured all flesh food while others +partake of it. They usually wear the sacred thread. Brāhmans will take water from their hands, and the menial castes will +eat food which they have touched. They work in brass, copper and bell-metal in exactly the same manner as the Kasārs, and +have an equivalent social position. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e15157" href="#d0e15157src" class="noteref">1</a></span> This article is based on information: contributed by Nand Kishore, Nāzir of the Deputy Commissioner’s Office, Damoh; Mr. Tārāchand +Dube, Municipal Member, Bilāspur; and Mr. Adurām Chaudhri of the Gazetteer Office. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e15196" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Taonla</h2> +<p><b>Taonla</b>.—A small non-Aryan caste of the Uriya States. They reside principally in Bāmra and Sonpur, and numbered about 2000 persons +in 1901, but since the transfer of these States to Bengal are not found in the Central Provinces. The name is said to be derived +from Tālmūl, a village in the Angul District of Orissa, and they came to Bāmra and Sonpur during the Orissa famine of 1866. +The Taonlas appear to be a low occupational caste of mixed origin, but derived principally from the Khond tribe. Formerly +their profession was military service, and it is probable that like the Khandaits and Pāiks they formed the levies of some +of the Uriya Rājas, and gradually became a caste. They have three subdivisions, of which the first consists of the Taonlas +whose ancestors were soldiers. These consider themselves superior to the others, and their family names as Nāik (leader), +Padhān (chief), Khandait (swordsman), and Behra <a id="d0e15203"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e15203">540</a>]</span>(master of the kitchen) indicate their ancestral profession. The other subcastes are called Dāngua and Khond; the Dānguas, +who are hill-dwellers, are more primitive than the military Taonlas, and the Khonds are apparently members of that tribe of +comparatively pure descent who marry among themselves and not with other Taonlas. In Orissa Dr. Hunter says that the Taonlas +are allied to the Savaras, and that they will admit a member of any caste, from whose hands they can take water, into the +community. This is also the case in Bāmra. The candidate has simply to worship Kālapāt, the god of the Taonlas, and after +drinking some water in which basil leaves have been dipped, to touch the food prepared for a caste feast, and his initiation +is complete. As usual among the mixed castes, female morality is very lax, and a Taonla woman may have a <i>liaison</i> with a man of her own or any other caste from whom a Taonla can take water without incurring any penalty whatsoever. A man +committing a similar offence must give a feast to the caste. In Sonpur the Taonlas admit a close connection with Chasas, and +say that some of their families are descended from the union of Chasa men and Taonla women. They will eat the leavings of +Chasas. The custom may be accounted for by the fact that the Taonlas are now generally farmservants and field-labourers, and +the Chasas, as cultivators, would be their employers. A similar close connection is observable among other castes standing +in the same position towards each other as the Panwārs and Gonds and the Rājbhars and Lodhis. + +</p> +<p>The Taonlas have no exogamous divisions as they all belong to the same <i>gotra</i>, that of the Nāg or cobra. Their marriages are therefore regulated by relationship in the ordinary manner. If two families +find that they have no common ancestor up to the third generation they consider it lawful to intermarry. The marriage ritual +is of the usual Uriya form. After the marriage the bride and the bridegroom have a ceremony of throwing a mahua branch into +a river together. Divorce and widow remarriage are permitted. When a woman is divorced she returns her bangles to her husband, +and receives from him a <i>chhor-chitthi</i> or letter severing connection. Then she goes before the caste <a id="d0e15216"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e15216">541</a>]</span><i>panchāyat</i> and pronounces her husband’s name aloud. This shows that she is no longer his wife, since so long as she continued to be +so, she would never mention his name. + +</p> +<p>The tutelary deity of the caste is Kālapāt, who resides at Tālmūl in Angul District. They offer him a goat at the festival +of Nawākhai when the new rice is first eaten. On this day they also worship a cattle-goad as the symbol of their vocation. +They revere the cobra, and will not wear wooden sandals because they think that the marks on a cobra’s head are in the form +of a sandal. They believe in re-birth, and when a child is born they proceed to ascertain what ancestor has become reincarnate +by dropping rice grains coloured with turmeric into a pot of water. As each one is dropped they repeat the name of an ancestor, +and when the first grain floats conclude that the one named has been born again. The dead are both buried and burnt. At the +head of a grave they plant a bough of the <i>jāmun</i> tree (<i>Eugenia jambolana</i>) so that the departed spirit may dwell under this cool and shady tree in the other world or in his next birth. They have +also a ceremony for bringing back the soul. An earthen pot is placed upside down on four legs outside the village, and on +the eleventh day after a death they proceed to the place, ringing a bell suspended to an iron rod. A cloth is spread before +the spot on which the spirit of the deceased is supposed to be sitting, and they wait till an insect alights on it. This is +taken to be the soul of the dead person, and it is carefully wrapped up in the cloth and carried to the house. There the cloth +is unfolded and the insect allowed to go, while they proceed to inspect some rice-flour which has been spread on the ground +under another pot in the house. If any mark is found on the surface of the flour they think that the dead man’s spirit has +returned to the house. The carrying back of the insect is thus an act calculated to assist their belief, by the simple performance +of which they are able to suppose more easily that the invisible spirit has returned to the house. As already stated, the +Taonlas are now generally farmservants and labourers, and their social position is low, though they rank above the impure +castes and the forest tribes. +<a id="d0e15228"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e15228">542</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div id="d0e15229" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Teli</h2> +<h3>List of Paragraphs</h3> +<ul> +<li><a href="#d0e15320">1. Strength and distribution of the caste</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e15340">2. Origin and traditions</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e15369">3. Endogamous subcastes</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e15406">4. Exogamous divisions</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e15413">5. Marriage customs</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e15426">6. Widow-remarriage</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e15436">7. Religion: Caste deities</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e15443">8. Driving out evil</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e15462">9. Customs at birth and death</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e15467">10. Social status</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e15474">11. Social customs and caste penalties</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e15490">12. The Rāthor Telis</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e15498">13. Gujarāti Telis of Nimār</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e15505">14. The Teli an unlucky caste</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e15538">15. Occupation. Oil-pressing</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e15566">16. Trade and agriculture</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e15576">17. Teli beneficence</a></li> +</ul> +<div class="div2" id="d0e15320"> +<h3>1. Strength and distribution of the caste</h3> +<p><b>Teli.</b><a id="d0e15326src" href="#d0e15326" class="noteref">1</a>—The occupational caste of oil-pressers and sellers. The Telis numbered nearly 900,000 persons in 1911, being the fifth caste +in the Province in point of population. They are numerous in the Chhattīsgarh and Nāgpur Divisions, nearly 400,000 belonging +to the former and 200,000 to the latter tract; while in Berār and the north of the Province they are sparsely represented. +The reason for such a distribution of the caste is somewhat obscure. Vegetable oil is more largely used for food in the south +and east than in the north, but while this custom might explain the preponderance of Telis in Nāgpur and Chhattīsgarh it gives +no reason to account for their small numbers in Berār. In Chhattīsgarh again nearly all the Telis are cultivators, and it +may be supposed that, like the Chamārs, they have found opportunity here to get possession of the land owing to its not being +already taken up by the cultivating castes proper; but in the Nāgpur Division, with the exception of part of Wardha, the Telis +have had no such opening and are not <a id="d0e15329"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e15329">543</a>]</span>large landholders. Their distribution thus remains a somewhat curious problem. But all over the Province the Telis have generally +abandoned their hereditary trade of pressing oil, and have taken to trade and agriculture, the number of those returned as +oil-pressers being only about seven per cent of the total strength of the caste. The name comes from the Sanskrit <i>tailika</i> or <i>taila</i>, oil, and this word, is derived from the <i>tilli</i> or sesamum plant. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e15340"> +<h3>2. Origin and traditions</h3> +<p>The caste have few traditions of origin. Their usual story is that during Siva’s absence the goddess Pārvati felt nervous +because she had no doorkeeper to her palace, and therefore she made the god Ganesh from the sweat of her body and set him +to guard the southern gate. But when Siva returned Ganesh did not know him and refused to let him enter; on which Siva was +so enraged that he cut off the head of Ganesh with a stroke of his sword. He then entered the palace, and Pārvati, observing +the blood on his sword, asked him what had happened, and reproached him bitterly for having slain her son. Siva was distressed, +but said that he could not replace the head as it was already reduced to ashes. But he said that if any animal could be found +looking towards the south he could put its head on Ganesh and bring him to life. As it happened a trader was then resting +outside the palace and had with him an elephant, which was seated with its head to the south. So Siva quickly struck off the +head of the elephant and placed it on the body of Ganesh and brought him to life again, and thus Ganesh got his elephant’s +head. But the trader made loud lamentation about the loss of his elephant, so to pacify him Siva made a pestle and mortar, +utensils till then unknown, and showed him how to pound oil-seeds in them and express the oil, and enjoined him to earn a +livelihood in future by this calling, and his descendants after him; and so the merchant became the first Teli. And the pestle +was considered to be Siva and the mortar Pārvati. This last statement affords some support to Mr. Marten’s suggestion<a id="d0e15345src" href="#d0e15345" class="noteref">2</a> that a certain veneration attaching to the pestle and mortar and their use in marriage ceremonies may be due to the idea +of their <a id="d0e15353"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e15353">544</a>]</span>typifying the male and female organs. The fact that Ganesh was set to guard the southern gate, and that the animal whose head +could be placed on his body must be looking to the south, probably hinges in some way on the south being the abode of Yama, +the god of death, but the connection has been forgotten by the teller of the story; it may also be noted that if the palace +was in the Himalayas, the site of Kailās or Siva’s heaven, the whole of India would be to the south. Another story related +by Mr. Crooke<a id="d0e15355src" href="#d0e15355" class="noteref">3</a> from Mīrzāpur is that a certain man had three sons and owned fifty-two mahua<a id="d0e15360src" href="#d0e15360" class="noteref">4</a> trees. When he became aged and infirm he told his sons to divide the trees, but after some discussion they decided to divide +not the trees themselves but their produce. One of them fell to picking up the leaves, and he was the ancestor of the Bharbhūnjas +or grain-parchers, who still use leaves in their ovens; the second collected the flowers and corollas, and having distilled +liquor from them became a Kalār; while the third took the kernels or fruit and crushed the oil out of them, and was the founder +of the Teli caste. The country spirit generally drunk is distilled from the flowers of the mahua tree, and a cheap vegetable +oil in common use is obtained from its seeds. The Telis and Kalārs are also castes of about the same status and have other +points of resemblance; and the legend connecting them is therefore of some interest Some groups of Telis who have become landed +proprietors or prospered in trade have stories giving them a more exalted origin. Thus the landholding Rāthor Telis of Mandla +say that they were Rāthor Rājpūts who fled from the Muhammadans and threw away their swords and sacred threads; and the Telis +of Nimār, several of whom are wealthy merchants, give out that their ancestors were Modh Banias from Gujarāt who had to take +to oil-pressing for a livelihood under Muhammadan rule. But these legends may perhaps be considered a natural result of their +rise in the world. + + +</p> +<p></p> +<div id="d0e15365" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p125.jpg" alt="Teli’s oil-press" width="720" height="540"><p class="figureHead">Teli’s oil-press</p> +</div><p> + + + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e15369"> +<h3>3. Endogamous subcastes</h3> +<p>The caste has a large number of subdivisions. The principal groups in Chhattīsgarh are the Halia, Jharia and Ekbahia Telis. +The Halias, who perhaps take their name from <i>hal</i>, a plough, are considered to be the best cultivators, and are said to have immigrated from Mandla some generations <a id="d0e15377"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e15377">545</a>]</span>ago. Probably the bulk of the Hindu population of Chhattīsgarh came from this direction. The name Jharia means jungly or savage, +and is commonly applied to the oldest residents, but the Jharia Telis are the highest local subcaste. They require the presence +of a Brāhman at their weddings, and abstain generally from liquor, fowls and pork, to which the Halias are not averse. They +also bathe the corpse before it is burnt or buried, an observance omitted by the Halias. The Jharias yoke only one bullock +to the oil-press, and the Halias two, a distinction which is elsewhere sufficient of itself to produce separate subcastes. +The Ekbahia (one-armed) Telis are so called because their women wear glass bangles only on the right hand and metal ones on +the left. This is a custom of several castes whose women do manual labour, and the reason appears to be one of convenience, +as glass bangles on the working arm would be continually getting broken. Among the Ekbahia Telis it is said that a woman considers +it a point of honour to have these metal bangles as numerous and heavy as her arm can bear; and at a wedding a present of +three bracelets from the bridegroom to the bride is held to be indispensable. The Madpotwa are a small subcaste living near +the hills, who in former times distilled liquor; they keep pigs and poultry, and rank below the others. Other groups are the +Kosarias, who are called after Kosala, the old name of Chhattīsgarh, and the Chhote or Little Telis, who are of illegitimate +descent. Children born out of wedlock are relegated to this group. + +</p> +<p>In the Nāgpur country the principal subdivisions are the Ekbaile and Dobaile, so called because they yoke one and two bullocks +respectively to the oil-press; the distinction is still maintained, the Dobaile being also known as Tarāne. This seems a trivial +reason for barring intermarriage, but it must be remembered that the yoking of the bullock to the oil-press, coupled as it +is with the necessity of blindfolding the animal, is considered a great sin on the Teli’s part and a degrading incident of +his profession; the Teli’s worst fear is that after death his soul will pass into one of his own bullocks. The Yerande Telis +are so called because they formerly pressed only the <i>erandi</i> or castor-oil seed, but the rule is no longer maintained. The Yerande women leave <a id="d0e15384"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e15384">546</a>]</span>off wearing the <i>choli</i> or breast-cloth after they have had one child, and have nothing under the <i>sāri</i> or body-cloth, but they wear this folded double. The Ruthia group are said to be so called from the noise <i>rut, rut</i> made by the oil-mill in turning. They say they are descended from the Nāg or cobra. They salute the snake when they see it +and refrain from killing it, and they will not make any drawing or sign having the semblance of a snake or use any article +which may be supposed to be like it. The Sao Telis are the highest group in Wardha, and have eschewed the pressing of oil. +The word Sao or Sāhu is the title of a moneylender, but they are usually cultivators or village proprietors. A Brāhman will +enter a Sao Teli’s house, but not the houses of any other subcaste. Their women wear silver bangles on the right hand and +glass ones on the left. The Batri subcaste are said to be so called from their growing the <i>batar</i>, a kind of pea, and the Hardia from raising the <i>haldi</i> or turmeric. The Teli-Kalārs appear to be a mixed group of Kalārs who have taken to the oilman’s profession, and the Teli-Banias +are Telis who have become shopkeepers, and may be expected in the course of time to develop either into a plebeian group of +Banias or an aristocratic one of Telis. In Nimār the Gujarāti Telis, who have now grown wealthy and prosperous, claim, as +already seen, to be Modh Banias, and the same pretension is put forward by their fellow-castemen in Gujarāt itself. “The large +class of oilmen known in Gujarāt as Modh-Ghanelis were originally Modh Banias, who by taking to making and selling oil lost +their position as Banias”;<a id="d0e15401src" href="#d0e15401" class="noteref">5</a> it seems doubtful, however, whether the reverse process has not really taken place. The Umre Telis also have the name of +a subcaste of Banias. The landholding Rāthor Telis of Mandla, who now claim to be Rāthor Rājpūts, will be more fully noticed +later. There are also several local subcastes, as the Mattha or Marātha Telis, who say they came from Pātan in Gujarāt, the +Sirwas from the ancient city of Srāvasti in Gonda District, and the Kanaujia from Oudh. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e15406"> +<h3>4. Exogamous divisions</h3> +<p>Each subcaste is divided into a number of exogamous groups for the regulation of marriages. The names of the <a id="d0e15411"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e15411">547</a>]</span>groups appear to be taken either from villages or titles or nicknames. Most of them cannot be recognised, but the following +are a few: Bāghmāre, a tiger-killer; Deshmukh, a village officer; Vaidya, a physician; Bāwankule, the fifty-two septs; Badwāik, +the great ones; Satpute, seven sons; Bhājikhāya, an eater of vegetables; Satapaise, seven pice; Ghoremādia, a horse-killer; +Chaudhri, a caste headman; Ardona, a kind of gram; Malghāti, a valley; Chandan-malāgar, one who presented sandalwood; and +Sanichara, born on Saturday. Three septs, Dhurwa, Besrām, a hawk, and Sonwāni, gold-water, belong to the Gonds or other tribes. +The clans of the Rāthor Telis of Mandla are said to be named after villages in Jubbulpore and Maihar State. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e15413"> +<h3>5. Marriage customs</h3> +<p>The marriage of persons of the same sept and of first cousins is usually forbidden. A man may marry his wife’s younger sister +while she herself is alive, but never her elder sister. An unmarried girl becoming pregnant by a man of the caste is married +to him by the ceremony used for a widow, and she may be readmitted even after a <i>liaison</i> with an outsider among most Telis. In Chānda the parents of a girl who is not married before puberty are fined. The proposal +comes from the boy’s side and a bride-price is usually paid, though not of large amount. The Halia Telis of Chhattīsgarh, +like other agricultural castes, sometimes betroth their children when they are five or six months old, but as a rule no penalty +attaches to the breaking of the betrothal. The betrothal is celebrated by the distribution of one or two rupees’ worth of +liquor to the neighbours of the caste. As among other low castes, on the day before the wedding procession starts, the bridegroom +goes round to all the houses in the village and his sister dances round him with her head bent, and all the people give him +presents. This is known as the Binaiki or Farewell, and the bride does the same in her village. Among the Jharia Telis the +women go and worship the marriage-post at the carpenter’s house while it is being made. In this subcaste the bridegroom goes +to the wedding in a cart and not on horseback or in a litter as among some castes. The rule may perhaps be a recognition of +their humble station. The Halia subcaste can dispense with the presence of a Brāhman at the wedding, but not the <a id="d0e15421"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e15421">548</a>]</span>Jharias. In Wardha the bridegroom’s head is covered with a blanket, over which is placed the marriage-crown. On the arrival +of the bridegroom’s party they are regaled with <i>sherbet</i> or sugar and water by the bride’s relatives, and sometimes red pepper is mixed with this by way of a joke. At a wedding of +the Gujarāti Tells in Nimār the caste-priest carries the tutelary goddess Kāli in procession, and in front of her a pot filled +with burning cotton-seeds and oil. A cloth is held over the pot, and it is believed that the power of the goddess prevents +the cloth from taking fire. If this should happen some great calamity would be portended. Rāthor Teli girls, whether married +or unmarried, go with their heads bare, and a woman draws her cloth over her head for the first time when she begins to live +in her husband’s house. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e15426"> +<h3>6. Widow-remarriage</h3> +<p>Divorce and widow-marriage are permitted. In Chhattīsgarh a widow is always kept in the family if possible, and if her late +husband’s brother be only a boy she is sometimes induced to put on the bangles and wait for him. If a <i>barandi</i> widow, that is one who has been married but has not lived with her husband, desires to marry again out of his family, the +second husband must repay to them the amount spent on her first marriage. In Chānda, on the other hand, some Telis do not +permit a widow to marry her late husband’s younger brother at all, and others only when he is a bachelor or a widower. Here +the minimum period for which a widow must remain single after her husband’s death is one month. The engagement with a widow +is arranged by the suitor’s female relatives, and they pay her a rupee as earnest money. On the day fixed she goes with one +or two other widows to the bridegroom’s house, and from there to the bazār, where she buys two pairs of bell-metal rings, +to be worn on the second toe of each foot, and some glass bangles. She remains sitting in the bazār till well after dark, +when some widow goes to fetch her on behalf of her suitor. They bring her to his house, where the couple sit together, and +red powder is applied to their foreheads. They then bathe and present their clothes to the washerman, putting on new clothes. +The idea in all this is clearly to sever the widow as completely <a id="d0e15434"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e15434">549</a>]</span>as possible from her old home and prevent her from being accompanied to the new one by the first husband’s spirit. In some +localities when a Teli widow remarries it is considered most unlucky for any one to see the face of the bride or bridegroom +for twenty-four hours, or as some say for three days after the wedding. The ceremony is therefore held at night, and for this +period the couple either remain shut up in the house or retire to the jungle. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e15436"> +<h3>7. Religion: Caste deities</h3> +<p>The caste especially revere Mahādeo or Siva, who gave them the oil-mill. In the Nāgpur country they do not work the mill on +Monday, because it is Mahādeo’s day, he having the moon on his forehead. They revere the oil-mill, and when the trunk is brought +to be set up in the house, if there is difficulty in moving it they make offerings to it of a goat or wheat-cakes or cocoanuts, +after which it moves easily. When a Teli first sets the trunk-socket of the oil-press in the ground he buries beneath it five +pieces of turmeric, some cowries and an areca-nut In the northern Districts the Telis worship Masān Bāba, who is supposed +to be the ghost of a Teli boy. He is a boy about three feet in height, black-coloured, with a long black scalp-lock. Some +Telis have Masān Bāba in their possession, and when they are turning the oil-press they set him on top of it, and he makes +the bullocks keep on working, so that the master can go away and leave the press. But in order to prevent him from getting +into mischief a cake of flour mixed with human hair must be placed in front of the press; he will eat this, but will first +pick out all the hairs one by one, and this will occupy him the whole night; but if no cake is put for him he will eat all +the food in the house. A Teli who has not got Māsan must go to one who has and hire him for Rs. 1–4 a night. They then both +go to the owner’s oil-press, and the hirer says, ‘I have hired you to-night,’ and the owner says, ‘Yes, I have let you for +to-night’; and then the hirer goes away, and Masān Bāba follows him and will turn the oil-mill all night. A Teli who has not +got Masān Bāba puts a stone on the oil-mill, and then the bullock thinks that his master Masān is sitting on it, and will +go on turning the press; but this is not so good as having Masān Bāba. <a id="d0e15441"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e15441">550</a>]</span>Some say that he will repay his hirer the sum of Rs. 1–4 by stealing something during the year and giving it to him. Masān +may perhaps be considered as a divine personification of the oil-press, and as being the Teli’s explanation of the fact that +the bullock goes on turning the press without being driven, which he does not attribute simply to the animal’s docility. In +Chhattīsgarh Dūlha Deo is the household god of the caste, and he is said not to have any visible image or symbol, but is considered +to reside in a cupboard in the house. When any member of the family falls ill it is thought that Dūlha Deo is angry, and a +goat is offered to appease him. Like the other low castes the Telis of the Nāgpur country make the sacrifice of a pig to Nārāyan +Deo or the Sun at intervals. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e15443"> +<h3>8. Driving out evil</h3> +<p>Here on the third day after the Pola festival in the rains the women of the caste bring the branches of a thorny creeper, +with very small leaves, and call it Mārbod, and sweep out the whole house with it, saying: + +</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p class="line" style=""><span>‘Ira, pīra, khātka, khatkīra, +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Khānsi, kokhala, rai, rog, +</span></p> +<p class="line" style=""><span>Murkuto gheunja ga Mārbod,’</span></p> +</div> +</div> +<p>or, ‘Oh Mārbod! sweep away all diseases, pains, coughs, bugs, flies and mosquitoes.’ And then they take the pot of sweepings +and throw it outside the village. Mārbod is the deity represented by the branch of the creeper. This rite takes place in the +middle of the rainy season, when all kinds of insects infest the house, and colds and fever are prevalent Mr. H.R. Crosthwaite +sends the following explanation given by a Teli cultivator of an eclipse of the sun: “The Sun is indebted to a sweeper. The +sweeper has gone to collect the debt and the Sun has refused to pay. The sweeper is in need of the money and is sitting <i>dharna</i> at the Sun’s door; you can see his shadow across the Sun’s threshold. Presently the debt will be paid and the sweeper will +go away.” The Telis of Nimār observe various Muhammadan practices. They fast during the month of Ramazān, taking their food +in the morning before sunrise; and at Id they eat the vermicelli and dates which the Muhammadans eat in memory of the time +when their forefathers lived on this food in the <a id="d0e15460"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e15460">551</a>]</span>Arabian desert. Such customs are a relic of the long period of Muhammadan dominance in Nimār, when the Hindus conformed partly +to the religion of their masters. Many Telis are also members of the Swāmi-Nārāyan reforming sect, which may have attracted +them by its disregard of the distinctions of caste and of the low status which attaches to them under Hinduism. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e15462"> +<h3>9. Customs at birth and death</h3> +<p>In Patna State a pregnant woman must not cross a river nor eat any fruit or vegetables of red colour, nor wear any black cloth. +These taboos preserve her health and that of her unborn child. After the birth of a child a woman is impure for seven or nine +days in Chhattīsgarh, and is then permitted to cook. The dead are either buried or burnt, cremation being an honour reserved +for the old. The body is placed in both cases with the head to the north and face downwards or upwards for a male or female +respectively. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e15467"> +<h3>10. Social status</h3> +<p>The social status of the Telis is low, in the group of castes from which Brāhmans will not take water, and below such menials +as the blacksmith and carpenter. Manu classes them with butchers and liquor-vendors: “From a king not born in the military +class let a Brāhman accept no gift nor from such as keep a slaughter-house, or an oil-press, or put out a vintner’s flag or +subsist by the gains of prostitutes.” This is much about the position which the Telis have occupied till recently. Brāhmans +will not usually enter their houses, though they have begun to do so in the case of the landholding subcastes. It is noticeable +that the Teli has a much better position in Bengal than elsewhere. Sir H. Risley says: “Their original profession was probably +oil-pressing, and the caste may be regarded as a functional group recruited from the respectable middle class of Hindu society. +Oil is used by all Hindus for domestic and ceremonial purposes, and its manufacture could only be carried on by men whose +social purity was beyond dispute.” This is, however, quite exceptional, and Mr. Crooke, Mr. Nesfield and Sir D. Ibbetson are +agreed as to his inferior, if not partly impure, status. This is only one of several instances, such as those of the barber, +the potter and the weaver, of menial castes which in Bengal have now obtained a position above the agricultural castes. It +may be suggested in explanation that the old fabric of <a id="d0e15472"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e15472">552</a>]</span>Hindu society, that is the village community, has long decayed in Bengal owing to Muhammadan dominance, the concentration +of estates in the hands of large proprietors and the weakening or lapse of the customary rights of tenants. Coupled with this +has been the growth of an important urban population, in which the castes mentioned have raised themselves from their menial +position in the villages and attained wealth and influence, just as the Gujarāti Telis are now doing in Burhānpur, while the +agricultural castes of Bengal have been comparatively depressed. Hence the urban industrial castes have obtained a great rise +in status. Sir H. Risley’s emphasis of the importance of oil in Hindu domestic ceremonial is no doubt quite true, though it +is perhaps little used in sacrifices, butter being generally preferred as a product of the sacred cow. But the inference does +not seem necessarily to follow that the producer of any article shares exactly in the estimation attaching to the thing itself. +Turmeric, for instance, is a sacred plant and indispensable at every wedding; but those who grow turmeric always incur a certain +stigma and loss in social position. The reason for the impurity of the Teli’s calling seems somewhat doubtful. That generally +given is his sinful conduct in harnessing the sacred ox and blindfolding the animal’s eyes to make it work continuously on +the tread-mill. The labour is said to be very severe, and the bullocks often die after two or three years. As already seen, +the Teli fears that after death his soul may pass into one of his own bullocks in retribution for his treatment of them during +life. Another reason which may be suggested is that the crushing of oil-seeds must involve a large destruction of insect life, +many of the seeds being at times infested with insects. The Teli’s occupation would naturally rank with the other village +industries, that is below agriculture; and prior to the introduction of cash coinage he must have received contributions of +grain from the tenants for supplying them with oil like the other village menials. He still takes his oil to the fields at +harvest-time and gets his sheaf of grain from each holding. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e15474"> +<h3>11. Social customs and caste penalties</h3> +<p>The Telis will take cooked food from Kurmis and Kunbis, and in some localities from a Lohār or Barhai. Dhīmars are the highest +caste which will take food from them. In Mandla <a id="d0e15479"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e15479">553</a>]</span>if a man does not attend the meeting of the <i>panchāyat</i> when summoned for some special purpose, he is fined. In Chānda a Teli beaten with a shoe by any other caste has to have his +head shaved and pay a rupee or two to the priest. In Mandla the Telis have made it a rule that not less than four <i>puris</i> or wheat-cakes fried in butter<a id="d0e15487src" href="#d0e15487" class="noteref">6</a> must be given to each guest at a caste-feast, besides rice and pulse. But if an offender is poor only four or five men go +to his feast, while if he is rich the whole caste go. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e15490"> +<h3>12. The Rāthor Telis</h3> +<p>The Rāthor Telis of Mandla hold a number of villages. They now call themselves Rāthor, and entirely disown the name of Teli. +They say that they came from the Maihar State near Panna, and that the title of Mahto, from <i>mahat</i>, great, which is borne by the leading men of the caste, was conferred on them by the Rāja of Maihar. Another story is that, +as already related, they are debased Rāthor Rājpūts. Recently they have given up eating fowls and drinking liquor. They are +good cultivators, borrowing among themselves at low interest and avoiding debt, and their villages are generally prosperous. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e15498"> +<h3>13. Gujarāti Telis of Nimār</h3> +<p>Again, as has been seen, the Gujarāti Telis of Burhānpur have taken to trade, and some of them have become wealthy merchants +and capitalists from their dealings in cotton. The position of Telis in Burhānpur was apparently one of peculiar degradation +under Muhammadan rule. According to local tradition they had to remove the corpses of dead elephants, which no other caste +would consent to do, and also to dig the graves of Muhammadans. It is also said that even now a Hindu becomes impure by passing +under the eaves of a Teli’s house, and that no dancing-girl may dance before a Teli, and if she does so will incur a penalty +of Rs. 50 to her caste. The Telis, on the other hand, vigorously repudiate these allegations, which no doubt are due partly +to jealousy of their present prosperity and consequent attempts to better their status. The Telis allege that they were Modh +Banias in Gujarāt and when they came to Burhānpur adopted the occupation of oil-pressing, which is also countenanced by the +Shāstras for a Vaishya. They say that formerly they did not permit widow-marriage, but when living under Muhammadan <a id="d0e15503"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e15503">554</a>]</span>rule they were constrained to get their widows married in the caste, or the Muhammadans would have taken them. The Muhammadan +practices already noticed as prevalent among them are being severely repressed, and they are believed to have made a caste +rule that any Teli who goes to the house of a Muhammadan will have his hair and beard shaved and be fined Rs. 50. They are +also supposed to have made offers to Brāhmans of sums of Rs. 500 to Rs. 1000 to come and take their food in the verandas of +the Telis’ houses, but hitherto these have not been accepted. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e15505"> +<h3>14. The Teli an unlucky caste</h3> +<p>The Teli is considered a caste of bad omen. The proverb says, ‘God protect me from a Teli, a Chamār and a Dhobi’; and the +Teli is considered the most unlucky of the three. He is also talkative: ‘Where there is a Teli there is sure to be contention.’ +The Teli is thought to be very close-fisted, but occasionally his cunning overreaches itself: ‘The Teli counts every drop +of oil as it issues from the press, but sometimes he upsets the whole pot.’ The reason given for his being unlucky is his +practice of harnessing and blindfolding bullocks already mentioned, and also that he presses <i>urad</i><a id="d0e15512src" href="#d0e15512" class="noteref">7</a> a black-coloured pulse, the oil from which is offered to the unlucky planet Saturn on Saturdays. ‘<i>Teli ka bail</i>,’ or ‘A Teli’s bullock,’ is a proverbial expression for a man who has to slave very hard for small pay.<a id="d0e15519src" href="#d0e15519" class="noteref">8</a> The Teli is believed to have magical powers. A good magician in search of an attendant spirit will, it is said, prefer to +raise the corpse of a Teli who died on a Tuesday. He proceeds to the burning-<i>ghāt</i> with chickens, eggs, some vermilion and red cloth. He seats himself near to where the corpse was burnt, and after repeating +some spells offers up the chickens and eggs and breaks the cocoanut. Then it is believed that the corpse will gradually rise +and take shape and be at the magician’s service so long as the latter may desire. The following prescription is given for +a love-charm: take the skull of a Teli’s wife and cook some rice in it under a <i>babūl</i><a id="d0e15530src" href="#d0e15530" class="noteref">9</a> tree on a Sunday. This if given to a girl to eat will make her fall in love with him who gives it to her. +<a id="d0e15537"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e15537">555</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e15538"> +<h3>15. Occupation. Oil-pressing</h3> +<p>The Teli’s oil-press is a very primitive affair. It consists of a hollowed tree-trunk in which a post is placed with rounded +lower end. The top of this projects perhaps three feet above the hollow trunk and is secured by two pieces of wood to a horizontal +bar, one end of which presses against the trunk, while the bullock is harnessed to the outer end. The yoke-bar hangs about +a foot from the ground, the inner end resting in a groove of the trunk, while the outer is supported by the poles connecting +it with the churning-post. From the top of this latter a rope is also tied to the bullock’s horn to keep the animal in position. +The press is usually set up inside a shed, and it is said that if the bullock were not blindfolded it would quickly become +too giddy to work. The bullock drags the yoke-bar round the trunk and this gives a circular movement to the top of the churning-post, +causing the lower end of the latter to move as on a pivot inside the trunk. The friction thus produced crushes the oil-seed, +and the oil trickles out through a hole in the lower part of the trunk. The oil of <i>ramtilli</i> or <i>jagni</i> is commonly burnt for lighting in villages, and also that of the mahua-seed. Linseed-oil is generally exported, but if used +at home it is mainly as an illuminant. It is mixed with food by the Marātha castes but not in northern India. All the vegetable +oils are rapidly being supplanted by kerosene, even in villages; but the inferior quality generally purchased, burnt as it +is in small open saucers, gives out a great deal of smoke and is said to be very injurious to the eyesight, and students especially +sustain permanent injury to the sight by working with these lamps. This want is, however, being met, and cheap lamp-burners +can be bought in Bombay for about twelve annas. Owing to their having until recently supplied the only means of illumination +the Telis sometimes call themselves <i>Dīpabans</i>, or ‘Sons of the lamp.’ Tilli or sesamum is called sweet oil; it is much eaten by Brāhmans and others in the Marātha country, +and is always used for rubbing on the hair and body. On the festivals of Diwāli and Til Sankrānt all Hindus rub sesamum oil +on their bodies; otherwise they put it on their hair once or twice a week, and on their bodies if they get a chill, or as +a protective against cold twice or thrice a month in the winter. The Uriya castes rub oil on the <a id="d0e15552"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e15552">556</a>]</span>body if they can afford it every day after bathing and say that it keeps off malaria. Castor-oil is used as a medicine, and +by some people even as ordinary food. It is also a good lubricant, being applied to cart-wheels and machinery. Other oils +mentioned by Mr. Crooke are poppy-seed, mustard, cocoanut and safflower, and those prepared from almond and the berries of +the <i>nīm</i><a id="d0e15556src" href="#d0e15556" class="noteref">10</a> tree. The Teli’s occupation is a dirty one, his house being filled with the refuse of oil and oil-seed, and Mr. Gordon notes +that leprosy is very prevalent in the caste.<a id="d0e15561src" href="#d0e15561" class="noteref">11</a> + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e15566"> +<h3>16. Trade and agriculture</h3> +<p>The Telis are a very enterprising caste, and the great bulk of them have abandoned their traditional occupation and taken +to others which are more profitable and respectable. In their trade, like that of the Kalār, cash payment by barter must have +been substituted for customary annual contributions at an early period, and hence they learnt to keep accounts when their +customers were ignorant of this accomplishment. The knowledge has stood them in good stead. Many of them have become moneylenders +in a small way, and by this means have acquired villages. In the Raipur and Bilāspur Districts they own more than 200 villages +and 700 in the Central Provinces as a whole. They are also shopkeepers and petty traders, travelling about with pack-bullocks +like the Banjāras. Mr. A. K. Smith notes that formerly the Teli hired Banjāras to carry his goods through the jungle, as he +would have been killed by them if he had ventured to do so himself. But now he travels with his own bullocks. Even in Mughal +times Mr. Smith states Telis occasionally rose to important positions; Kāwaji Teli was sutler to the Imperial army, and obtained +from the Emperor Jahāngīr a grant of Ashti in Wardha and an order that no one should plant betel-vine gardens in Ashti without +his permission. This rule is still observed and any one wishing to have a betel-vine garden makes a present to the patel. +Krishna Kānta Nandi or Kānta Bābu, the Banyan of Warren Hastings, was a Teli by caste and did much to raise their position +among the Hindus.<a id="d0e15571src" href="#d0e15571" class="noteref">12</a> + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e15576"> +<h3>17. Teli beneficence</h3> +<p>Colonel Tod gives instances in Udaipur of works of <a id="d0e15581"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e15581">557</a>]</span>beneficence executed by Telis. “The <i>Teli-ki-Sarai</i> or oilman’s caravanserai is not conspicuous for magnitude; but it is remarkable not merely for its utility but even for its +elegance of design. The <i>Teli-ka-Pūl</i> or Oilman’s Bridge at Nūrabād is a magnificent memorial of the trade and deserves preservation. These Telis perambulate the +country with skins of oil on a bullock and from hard-earned pence erect the structures which bear their name.”<a id="d0e15589src" href="#d0e15589" class="noteref">13</a> Similarly the temple of Vishnu at Rājim is said to be named after one Rājan Telin, who discovered the image lying abandoned +by the roadside. She placed her skin of oil on it to rest herself and on that day her oil never decreased, and when she had +finished selling in the market she had all her oil as well as the money. Her husband suspected her of evil practices, but, +when next day her mother-in-law laid a skinful of oil on the image and the same thing happened, it was seen that the god had +made himself manifest to her, and a temple was built and named after her and the image enshrined in it. Similarly the image +of Mahādeo at Pīthampur in Bilāspur was seen buried by a Teli in a dream, and he dug it up and made a shrine to it and was +cured of dysentery. So an annual fair is held and many people go there to be healed of their diseases. +<a id="d0e15594"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e15594">558</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e15326" href="#d0e15326src" class="noteref">1</a></span> This article is based on papers by Mr. Prem Nārāyan, Extra Assistant Commissioner, Chānda; Mr. Mīr Pacha, Tahsīldār, Seoni; +Mr. Chintāman Rao, Tahsīldār, Chanda; and Mr. K.G. Vaidya, Chānda. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e15345" href="#d0e15345src" class="noteref">2</a></span> <i>C.P. Census Report</i> (1911), p. 147, referring to Professor Karl Pearson’s <i>Chances of Death</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e15355" href="#d0e15355src" class="noteref">3</a></span> <i>Tribes and Castes</i>, art. Teli. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e15360" href="#d0e15360src" class="noteref">4</a></span> <i>Bassia latifolia.</i></p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e15401" href="#d0e15401src" class="noteref">5</a></span> <i>Hindus of Gujarāt</i>, p. 72. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e15487" href="#d0e15487src" class="noteref">6</a></span> Weighing. 2 oz. each. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e15512" href="#d0e15512src" class="noteref">7</a></span> <i>Phaseolus radiatas.</i></p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e15519" href="#d0e15519src" class="noteref">8</a></span> Mr. Crooke’s <i>Tribes and Castes</i>, art. Teli. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e15530" href="#d0e15530src" class="noteref">9</a></span> <i><span id="d0e15532" class="corr" title="Source: Acacta">Acacia</span> arabica</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e15556" href="#d0e15556src" class="noteref">10</a></span> <i>Melia indica</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e15561" href="#d0e15561src" class="noteref">11</a></span> <i>Indian Folk Tales</i>, p. 10. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e15571" href="#d0e15571src" class="noteref">12</a></span> <i>Tribes and Castes of Bengal</i>, art. Teli. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e15589" href="#d0e15589src" class="noteref">13</a></span> <i>Rājasthān</i>, vol. ii. pp. 678, 679. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e15595" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Thug</h2> +<p>[This article is based almost entirely on Colonel (Sir William) Sleeman’s <i>Rāmaseeāna or Vocabulary of the Thugs</i> (1835). A small work, Hutton’s <i>Thugs and Dacoits</i>, has been quoted for convenience, but it is compiled entirely from Colonel Sleeman’s Reports. Another book by Colonel Sleeman, +<i>Reports on the Depredations of the Thug Gangs</i>, is mainly a series of accounts of the journeys of different gangs and contains only a very brief general notice.] + +</p> +<h3>List of Paragraphs</h3> +<ul> +<li><a href="#d0e15738">1. Historical notice</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e15765">2. Thuggees depicted in the caves of Ellora</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e15777">3. Origin of the Thugs</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e15804">4. Methods of assassination</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e15851">5. Account of certain murders</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e15878">6. Special incidents (continued)</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e15902">7. Disguises of the Thugs</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e15929">8. Secrecy of their operations</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e15948">9. Support of landholders and villagers</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e15973">10. Murder of sepoys</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e15984">11. Callous nature of the Thugs</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e15998">12. Belief in divine support</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e16007">13. Theory of Thuggee as a religious sect</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e16027">14. Worship of Kāli</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e16032">15. The sacred pickaxe</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e16047">16. The sacred <i>gur</i> (sugar)</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e16092">17. Worship of ancestors</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e16097">18. Fasting</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e16107">19. Initiation of a novice</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e16147">20. Prohibition of murder of women</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e16157">21. Other classes of persons not killed</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e16164">22. Belief in omens</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e16198">23. Omens and taboos</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e16222">24. Nature of the belief in omens</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e16237">25. Suppression of Thuggee</a></li> +</ul> +<div class="div2" id="d0e15738"> +<h3>1. Historical notice</h3> +<p><b>Thug, Phānsigar.</b>—The famous community of murderers who were accustomed to infest the high-roads and strangle travellers for their property. +The Thugs are, of course, now extinct, having been finally suppressed by measures taken under the direction of Colonel Sleeman +between 1825 and 1850. The only existing traces of them are a small number of persons known as Goranda or Goyanda in Jubbulpore, +the descendants of Thugs employed in the school of industry which was established at that town. These work honestly for their +living and are believed to <a id="d0e15745"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e15745">559</a>]</span>have no marked criminal tendencies. In the course of his inquiries, however, Colonel Sleeman collected a considerable mass +of information about the Thugs, some of which is of ethnological interest, and as the works in which this is contained are +out of print and not easily accessible, it seems desirable to record a portion of it here. The word Thug signifies generically +a cheat or robber, while Phānsigar, which was the name used in southern India, is derived from <i>phānsi</i>, a noose, and means a strangler. The form of robbery and murder practised by these people was probably of considerable antiquity, +and is referred to as follows by a French traveller, Thevenot, in the sixteenth century: + +</p> +<p>“Though the road I have been speaking of from Delhi to Agra be tolerable yet it hath many inconveniences. One may meet with +tigers, panthers and lions upon it, and one can also best have a care of robbers, and above all things not to suffer anybody +to come near one upon the road. The cunningest robbers in the world are in that country. They use a certain slip with a running +noose which they can cast with so much sleight about a man’s neck, when they are within reach of him, that they never fail, +so that they can strangle him in a trice. They have another cunning trick also to catch travellers with. They send out a handsome +woman upon the road, who with her hair dishevelled seems to be all in tears, sighing and complaining of some misfortune which +she pretends has befallen her. Now, as she takes the same way that the traveller goes he falls easily into conversation with +her, and finding her beautiful, offers her his assistance, which she accepts; but he hath no sooner taken her up behind him +on horseback, but she throws the snare about his neck and strangles him, or at least stuns him until the robbers who lie hid +come running to her assistance and complete what she hath begun. But besides that, there are men in those quarters so skilful +in casting the snare, that they succeed as well at a distance as near at hand; and if an ox or any other beast belonging to +a caravan run away, as sometimes it happens, they fail not to catch it by the neck.”<a id="d0e15752src" href="#d0e15752" class="noteref">1</a> + +</p> +<p>This passage seems to demonstrate an antiquity of <a id="d0e15763"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e15763">560</a>]</span>three centuries for the Thugs down to 1850. But during the period over which Sir William Sleeman’s inquiries extended women +never accompanied them on their expeditions, and were frequently even, as a measure of precaution, left in ignorance of the +profession of their husbands. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e15765"> +<h3>2. Thuggees depicted in the caves of Ellora</h3> +<p>The Thugs themselves believed that the operations of their trade were depicted in the carvings of the Ellora caves, and a +noted leader, Feringia, and other Thugs spoke of these carvings as follows: “Every one of the operations is to be seen there: +in one place you see men strangling; in another burying the bodies; in another carrying them off to the graves. Whenever we +passed near we used to go and see these caves. Every man will there find his trade described and they were all made in one +night. + +</p> +<p>“Everybody there can see the secret operations of his trade; but he does not tell others of them; and no other person can +understand what they mean. They are the works of God. No human hands were employed on them. That everybody admits.” + +</p> +<p>Another Thug: “I have seen there the Sotha (inveigler) sitting upon the same carpet as the traveller, and in close conversation +with him, just as we are when we worm out their secrets. In another place the strangler has got his <i>rūmāl</i> (handkerchief) over his neck and is strangling him; while another, the Chamochi, is holding him by the legs.” I do not think +there is any reason to suppose that these carvings really have anything to do with the Thugs. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e15777"> +<h3>3. Origin of the Thugs</h3> +<p>The Thugs did not apparently ever constitute a distinct caste like the Badhaks, but were recruited from different classes +of the population. In northern and southern India three-fourths or more, and in Central India about a half, were Muhammadans, +whether genuine or the descendants of converted Hindus. The Muhammadan Thugs consisted of seven clans, Bhais, Barsote, Kachuni, +Hattar, Garru, Tandel and Rāthur: “And these, by the common consent of all Thugs throughout India, whether Hindus or Muhammadans, +are admitted to be the most ancient and the great original trunk upon which all the others have at different times and in +different places been grafted.”<a id="d0e15782src" href="#d0e15782" class="noteref">2</a> These names, <a id="d0e15785"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e15785">561</a>]</span>however, are of Hindu and not of Muhammadan origin; and it seems probable that many of the Thugs were originally Banjāras +or cattle-dealers and Kanjars or gipsies. One of the Muhammadan Thugs told Colonel Sleeman that, “The Arcot gangs will never +intermarry with our families, saying that we once drove bullocks and were itinerant tradesmen, and consequently of lower caste.”<a id="d0e15787src" href="#d0e15787" class="noteref">3</a> Another man said<a id="d0e15790src" href="#d0e15790" class="noteref">4</a> that at their marriages an old matron would sometimes repeat as she threw down the <i>tulsi</i> or basil, “Here’s to the spirits of those who once led bears and monkeys; to those who drove bullocks and marked with the +<i>godini</i> (tattooing-needle); and those who made baskets for the head.” These are the regular occupations of the Kanjars and Berias, +the gipsy castes who are probably derived from the Doms. And it seems not unlikely that these people may have been the true +progenitors of the Thugs. There is at present a large section of Muhammadan Kanjars who are recognised as members of the caste +by the Hindu section. Colonel Sleeman was of opinion that the Kanjars also practised murder by strangling, but not as a regular +profession; for this would have been too dangerous, as they were accustomed to wander about with their wives and all their +belongings, and the disappearance of many travellers in the locality of their camps would naturally excite suspicion. Whereas +the true Thugs resided in villages and towns and many of them had other ostensible occupations, their periodical excursions +for robbery and murder being veiled under the pretence of some necessary journey. But the Kanjars may have changed their mode +of life on taking to this profession, and their adroitness in other forms of crime, such as killing and carrying off cattle, +would make them likely persons to have discovered the advantages of a system of murder of travellers by strangulation. The +existing descendants of the Thugs at Jubbulpore appear to be mainly Kanjars and Berias. For such a life it is clear that the +profession of the Muhammadan religion would be of much assistance in maintaining the disguise; for it set a man free from +many caste obligations and ties and also from a host of irksome restrictions as to eating and drinking with others. We <a id="d0e15799"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e15799">562</a>]</span>may therefore conjecture, though without certain knowledge, that many of the Thugs may originally have become Muhammadans +for convenience; and this is supported by the well-known fact that the principal deity of all of them was the Hindu goddess +Kāli. Many bodies of Thugs were also recruited from other Hindu castes, of whom the Lodhas or Lodhis were perhaps the most +numerous; others of the fraternity were Rājpūts, Brāhmans, Tāntis or weavers, Goālas or cowherds, Multānis or Muhammadan Banjāras, +as well as the Sānsias and Kanjars or criminal vagrants and gipsies. These seem to have observed their caste rules and to +have intermarried among themselves; sometimes they obtained wives from other families who had no connection with Thuggee and +kept their wives in ignorance of their nefarious trade; occasionally a girl would be spared from a murdered party and married +to a son of one of the Thugs; while boys were more frequently saved and brought up to the business. The Thugs said<a id="d0e15801src" href="#d0e15801" class="noteref">5</a> that the fidelity of their wives was proverbial and they were not less loving and dutiful than those of other men, while +several instances are recorded of the strong affection borne by fathers to their children. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e15804"> +<h3>4. Methods of assassination</h3> +<p>As is well known the method of the Thugs was to attach themselves to travellers, either single men or small parties, and at +a convenient opportunity to strangle them, bury the bodies and make off with the property found on them. The gangs of Thugs +usually contained from ten to fifty men and were sometimes much larger; on one occasion as many as three hundred and sixty +Thugs accomplished the murder of a party of forty persons in Bilāspur.<a id="d0e15809src" href="#d0e15809" class="noteref">6</a> They pretended to be traders, soldiers or cultivators and usually went without weapons in order to disarm suspicion; and +this practice also furnished them with an excuse for seeking for permission to accompany parties travelling with arms. There +was nothing to excite alarm or suspicion in the appearance of these murderers; but on the contrary they are described as being +mild and benevolent of aspect, and peculiarly courteous, gentle and obliging. In their palmy days the leader of the gang often +travelled on horseback <a id="d0e15812"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e15812">563</a>]</span>with a tent and passed for a person of consequence or a wealthy merchant. They were accustomed to get into conversation with +travellers by doing them some service or asking permission to unite their parties as a measure of precaution. They would then +journey on together, and strive to win the confidence of their victims by a demeanour of warm friendship and feigned interest +in their affairs. Sometimes days would elapse before a favourable opportunity occurred for the murder; an instance is mentioned +of a gang having accompanied a family of eleven persons for twenty days during which they had traversed upwards of 200 miles +and then murdered the whole of them; and another gang accomplished 160 miles in twelve days in company with a party of sixty +men, women and children, before they found a propitious occasion.<a id="d0e15814src" href="#d0e15814" class="noteref">7</a> Their favourite time for the murder was in the evening when the whole party would be seated in the open, the Thugs mingled +with their victims, talking, smoking and singing. If their numbers were sufficient three Thugs would be allotted to every +victim, so that on the signal being given two of them could lay hold of his hands and feet, while the Bhurtot or strangler +passed the <i>rūmāl</i> over his head and tightened it round his neck, forcing the victim backwards and not relaxing his hold till life was extinct. +The <i>rūmāl</i> or ‘handkerchief,’ always employed for throttling victims, was really a loin-cloth or turban, in which a loop was made with +a slip-knot. The Thugs called it their <i>sikka</i> or ‘ensign,’ but it was not held sacred like the pickaxe. When the leader of the gang cleared his throat violently it was +a sign to prepare for action, and he afterwards gave the <i>jhirni</i> or signal for the murder, by saying either ‘<i>Tamākhu khā lo</i>,’ ‘Begin chewing tobacco’; ‘<i>Bhānja ko pān do</i>,’ ‘Give betel to my nephew’; or ‘<i>Ayi ho to ghiri chalo</i>,’ ‘If you are come, pray descend.’ Their adroitness was such that their victims seldom or never escaped nor even had a chance +of making a fight for their lives. But if several persons were to be killed some men were detached to surround the camp and +cut down any one who tried to escape. The Thugs do not therefore appear to have had any religious objection to the shedding +<a id="d0e15841"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e15841">564</a>]</span>of blood, but they preferred murder by strangling as being safer. After the murder the bodies were at once buried, being first +cut about to prevent them from swelling on decomposition, as this might raise the surface of the earth over the grave and +so attract attention. If the ground was too hard they were thrown into a ravine or down one of the shallow irrigation wells +which abound in north India; and it was stated that the discovery of a body in one of these wells was so common an occurrence +that the cultivators took no notice of it. If there were people in the vicinity so that it was dangerous to dig the graves +in the open air, the Thugs did not scruple to inter the bodies of victims inside their own tents and to eat their food sitting +on the soil above. For the attack of a horseman three men were always detailed, if practicable, so that one could seize the +bridle and the other two pull him out of the saddle and strangle him; but if, as happened occasionally, a single Thug managed +to kill a man on horseback, he obtained a great reputation, which even descended to his children. On the other hand, if a +strangler was unlucky or clumsy, so that the cloth fell on the victim’s head or face, or he got blood on his clothes or other +suspicious signs, and these accidents recurred, he was known as Bisul, and was excluded from the office of strangler on account +of presumed unfitness for the duty. When it was necessary for some reason to murder a party on the march, some <i>belhas</i> or scouts were sent on ahead to choose a <i>beil</i> or suitable place for the business, and see that no one was coming in the opposite direction; and when the leader said, ‘Wash +the cup,’ it was a signal for the scouts to go forward for this purpose. If a traveller had a dog with him the dog was also +killed, lest he might stay beside his master’s grave and call attention to it. Another device in case of difficulty was for +one of the Thugs to feign sickness. The Garru or man who did this fell down on a sudden and pretended to be taken violently +ill. Some of his friends raised and supported him, while others brought water and felt his pulse; and at last one of them +pretended that a charm would restore him. All were then requested to sit down, the pot of water being in the centre; all were +desired to take off their belts, if <a id="d0e15849"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e15849">565</a>]</span>they had any, and uncover their necks, and lastly to look up and see if they could count a certain number of stars. While +they were thus occupied intently gazing at the sky to carry out the charm for the recovery of the sick man, the cloths were +passed round their necks and they were strangled. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e15851"> +<h3>5. Account of certain murders</h3> +<p>The secrecy and adroitness with which the Thugs conducted their murders are well illustrated by the narrative of the assassination +of a native official or pleader at Lakhnādon in Seoni as given by one of the gang:<a id="d0e15856src" href="#d0e15856" class="noteref">8</a> “We fell in with the Munshi and his family at Chhapāra between Nāgpur and Jubbulpore; and they came on with us to Lakhnādon, +where we found that some companies of a native regiment under European officers were expected the next morning. It was determined +to put them all to death that evening as the Munshi seemed likely to join the soldiers. The encampment was near the village +and the Munshi’s tent was pitched close to us. In the afternoon some of the officers’ tents came on in advance and were pitched +on the other side, leaving us between them and the village. The <i>khalāsis</i> were all busily occupied in pitching them. Nūr Khān and his son Sādi Khān and a few others went as soon as it became dark +to the Munshi’s tent, and began to play and sing upon a <i>sitār</i> as they had been accustomed to do. During this time some of them took up the Munshi’s sword on pretence of wishing to look +at it. His wife and children were inside listening to the music. The <i>jhirni</i> or signal was given, but at this moment the Munshi saw his danger, called out murder, and attempted to rush through, but +was seized and strangled. His wife hearing him ran out with the infant in her arms, but was seized by Ghabbu Khān, who strangled +her and took the infant. The other daughter was strangled in the tent. The <i>saises</i> (grooms) were at the time cleaning their horses, and one of them seeing his danger ran under the belly of his horse and called +murder; but he was soon seized and strangled as well as all the rest. In order to prevent the party pitching the officers’ +tents from hearing the disturbance, as soon as the signal was given those of the gang who were idle began <a id="d0e15871"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e15871">566</a>]</span>to play and sing as loud as they could; and two vicious horses were let loose, and many ran after them calling out as loud +as they could; so that the calls of the Munshi and his party were drowned.” They thought at first of keeping the infant, but +decided that it was too risky, and threw it alive into the grave in which the other bodies had been placed. It is surprising +to realise that in the above case about half a dozen people, awake and conscious, were killed forcibly in broad daylight within +a few paces of a number of men occupied in pitching tents, without their noticing anything of the matter; and this may certainly +be characterised as an instance of murder as a fine art to show the absolute callousness of the Thugs towards their victims +and the complete absence of any feelings of compassion, the story of the following murder by the same gang may be recorded.<a id="d0e15873src" href="#d0e15873" class="noteref">9</a> The Thugs were travelling from Nāgpur toward Jubbulpore with a party consisting of Newal Singh, a Jemādār (petty officer) +in the Nizām’s army, his brother, his two daughters, one thirteen and the other eleven years old, his son about seven years +old, two young men who were to marry the daughters, and four servants. At Dhūrna the house in which the Thugs lodged took +fire, and the greater number of them were seized by the police, but were released at the urgent request of Newal Singh and +his two daughters, who had taken a great fancy to Khimoli, the principal leader of the gang, and some of the others. Newal +Singh was related to a native officer of the British detachment at Seoni and obtained his assistance for the release of the +Thugs. At this time the gang had with them two bags of silk, the property of three carriers whom they had murdered in the +great temple of Kamptee, and if they had been searched by the police these must have been discovered. On reaching Jubbulpore +the Thugs found a lodging in the town with Newal Singh and his family. But the merchants who were expecting the silk from +Nāgpur and found that it had not arrived, induced the Kotwāl to search the lodging of the Thugs. Hearing of the approach of +the police, the leader Khimoli again availed himself of the attachment of Newal Singh and his daughters, <a id="d0e15876"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e15876">567</a>]</span>and the girls were made to sit each upon one of the two bags of silk while the police searched the place. Nothing was found +and the party again set out; and five days afterwards Newal Singh and his whole family were murdered at Biseni by the Thugs +whom they had twice preserved from arrest. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e15878"> +<h3>6. Special incidents (continued)</h3> +<p>These murderers looked on all travellers as their legitimate prey, as sportsmen regard game. On one occasion the noted Thug, +Feringia,<a id="d0e15883src" href="#d0e15883" class="noteref">10</a> with his gang were cooking their dinners under some trees on the road when five travellers came by, but could not be persuaded +to stop and partake of the meal, saying they wished to sleep at a place called Hirora that night, and had yet eight miles +to go. The Thugs afterwards followed, but found no traces of the travellers at Hirora. Feringia therefore concluded that they +must have fallen into the hands of another gang, and suddenly recollected having passed an encampment of Banjāras (pack-carriers) +not far from the town. On the following morning he accordingly went back with a few of his comrades, and at once recognised +a horse and pony which he had observed in the possession of the travellers. So he asked the Banjāras, “What have you done +with the five travellers, my good friends? You have taken from us our <i>banij</i> (merchandise).” They apologised for what they had done, pleading ignorance of the lien of the other Thugs, and offered to +share the booty; but Feringia declined, as none of his party had been present at the <i>loading.</i> They were accustomed to distinguish their most important exploits by the number of persons who were killed. Thus one murder +in the Jubbulpore District was known as the ‘Sāthrup,’ or ‘Sixty soul affair,’ and another in Bilāspur as the ‘Chālisrup,’ +or ‘Murder of forty.’ At this time (1807) the road between northern and southern India through the Nerbudda valley had been +rendered so unsafe by the incursions of the Pindāris that travellers preferred to go through Chhattīsgarh and Sambalpur to +the Ganges. This route, passing for long distances through dense forest, offered great advantages to the Thugs, and was soon +infested <a id="d0e15892"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e15892">568</a>]</span>by them. In 1806, owing to the success<a id="d0e15894src" href="#d0e15894" class="noteref">11</a> of previous expeditions, it was determined that all the Thugs of northern India should work on this road; accordingly after +the Dasahra festival six hundred of them, under forty Jemādārs or leaders of note, set out from their homes, and having worshipped +in the temple of Devi at Bindhyāchal, met at Ratanpur in Bilāspur. The gangs split up, and after several murders sixty of +them came to Lānji in Bālāghāt, and here in two days’ time fell in with a party of thirty-one men, seven women and two girls +on their way to the Ganges. The Jemādārs soon became intimate with the principal men of the party, pretended to be going to +the same part of India and won their confidence; and next day they all set out and in four days reached Ratanpur, where they +met 160 Thugs returning from the murder of a wealthy widow and her escort. Shortly afterwards another 200 men who had heard +of the travellers near Nāgpur also came up, but all the different bodies pretended to be strangers to each other. They detached +sixty men to return to Nāgpur, leaving 360 to deal with the forty travellers. From Ratanpur they all journeyed to Chura (Chhuri?), +and here scouts were sent on to select a proper place for the murder. This was chosen in a long stretch of forest, and two +men were despatched to the village of Sutranja, farther on the road, to see that no one was coming in the opposite direction, +while another picket remained behind to prevent interruption from the rear. By the time they reached the appointed place, +the Bhurtots (stranglers) and Shamsias (holders) had all on some pretext or other got close to the side of the persons whom +they were appointed to kill; and on reaching the spot the signal was given in several places at the same time; and thirty-eight +out of forty were immediately seized and strangled. One of the girls was a very handsome young woman, and Pancham, a Jemādār, +wished to preserve her as a wife for his son. But when she saw her father and mother strangled she screamed and beat her head +against the ground and tried to kill herself. Pancham tried in vain to quiet her, and promised to take great care of her and +marry her to his own son, who would be a great chief; but <a id="d0e15897"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e15897">569</a>]</span>all to no effect. She continued to scream, and at last Pancham put the <i>rūmāl</i> (handkerchief) round her neck and strangled her. One little girl of three years old was preserved by another Jemādār and +married to his son, and when she grew up often heard the story of the affair narrated. The bodies were buried in a ravine +and the booty amounted to Rs. 17,000. The Thugs then decided to return home, and arrived without mishap, except that the Jemādār, +Pancham, died on the way. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e15902"> +<h3>7. Disguises of the Thugs</h3> +<p>They were not particular, however, to ascertain that their victims carried valuable property before disposing of them. Eight +annas (8d.), one of them said,<a id="d0e15907src" href="#d0e15907" class="noteref">12</a> was sufficient remuneration for murdering a man. On another occasion two river Thugs killed two old men and obtained only +a rupee’s worth of coppers, two brass vessels and their body-cloths. But as a rule the gains were much larger. It sometimes +happened that the Thugs themselves were robbed at night by ordinary thieves, though they usually set a watch. On one occasion +a band of more than a hundred Thugs fell in with a party of twenty-seven dacoits who had with them stolen property of Rs. +13,000 in cash, with gold ornaments, gems and shawls. The Thugs asked to be allowed to travel under their protection, and +the dacoits carelessly assenting were shortly afterwards all murdered.<a id="d0e15910src" href="#d0e15910" class="noteref">13</a> As already stated, the Thugs were accustomed to live in towns or villages and many of them ostensibly followed respectable +callings. The following instance of this is given by Sir W. Sleeman:<a id="d0e15915src" href="#d0e15915" class="noteref">14</a> “The first party of Thug approvers whom I sent into the Deccan to aid Captain Reynolds recognised in the person of one of +the most respectable linen-drapers of the cantonment of Hingoli, Hari Singh, the adopted son of Jawāhir Sukul, Sūbahdār of +Thugs, who had been executed twenty years before. On hearing that the Hari Singh of the list sent to him of noted Thugs at +large in the Deccan was the Hari Singh of the Sadar Bazār, Captain Reynolds was quite astounded; so correct had he been in +his deportment and all his dealings that he had won the esteem of all the gentlemen of the station, who used to assist him +in procuring passports for his goods on their way from Bombay; and <a id="d0e15918"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e15918">570</a>]</span>yet he had, as he has since himself shown, been carrying on his trade of murder up to the very day of his arrest with gangs +of Hindustān and the Deccan on all the roads around and close to the cantonments of Hingoli; and leading out his band of assassins +while he pretended to be on his way to Bombay for a supply of fresh linen and broad-cloth.” Another case is quoted by Mr. +Oman from Taylor’s <i>Thirty-eight Years in India</i>.<a id="d0e15923src" href="#d0e15923" class="noteref">15</a> “Dr. Cheek had a child’s bearer who had charge of his children. The man was a special favourite, remarkable for his kind +and tender ways with his little charges, gentle in manner and unexceptionable in all his conduct. Every year he obtained leave +from his master and mistress, as he said, for the filial purpose of visiting his aged mother for one month; and returning +after the expiry of that time, with the utmost punctuality, resumed with the accustomed affection and tenderness the charge +of his little darlings. This mild and exemplary being was the missing Thug; kind, gentle, conscientious and regular at his +post for eleven months in the year he devoted the twelfth to strangulation.” + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e15929"> +<h3>8. Secrecy of their operations</h3> +<p>Again, as regards the secrecy with which murders were perpetrated and all traces of them hidden, Sir W. Sleeman writes:<a id="d0e15934src" href="#d0e15934" class="noteref">16</a> “While I was in civil charge of the District of Narsinghpur, in the valley of the Nerbudda, in the years 1822–1824, no ordinary +robbery or theft could be committed without my becoming aware of it, nor was there a robber or thief of the ordinary kind +in the District with whose character I had not become acquainted in the discharge of my duties as magistrate; and if any man +had then told me that a gang of assassins by profession resided in the village of Kandeli,<a id="d0e15937src" href="#d0e15937" class="noteref">17</a> not four hundred yards from my court, and that the extensive groves of the village of Mundesur, only one stage from me on +the road to Saugor and Bhopāl, were one of the greatest <i>beles</i> or places of murder in all India, and that large gangs from Hindustān and the Deccan used to <i>rendezvous</i> in these groves, remain in them for many days every year, and carry on their dreadful trade along all the lines of road that +<a id="d0e15946"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e15946">571</a>]</span>pass by and branch off from them, with the knowledge and connivance of the two landholders by whose ancestors these groves +had been planted, I should have thought him a fool or a madman; and yet nothing could have been more true. The bodies of a +hundred travellers lie buried in and around the groves of Mundesur; and a gang of assassins lived in and about the village +of Kandeli while I was magistrate of the District, and extended their depredations to the cities of Poona and Hyderābād.” + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e15948"> +<h3>9. Support of landholders and villagers</h3> +<p>The system of Thuggee reached its zenith during the anarchic period of the decline of the Mughal Empire, when only the strongest +and most influential could obtain any assistance from the State in recovering property or exacting reparation for the deaths +of murdered friends and relatives. Nevertheless, the Thugs could hardly have escaped considerable loss even from private vengeance +had they been compelled to rely on themselves for protection. But this was not the case, for, like the Badhaks and other robbers, +they enjoyed the countenance and support of landholders and ruling chiefs in return for presenting them with the choicest +of their booty and taking holdings of land at very high rents. Sir W. Sleeman wrote<a id="d0e15953src" href="#d0e15953" class="noteref">18</a> that, “The zamīndārs and landholders of every description have everywhere been found ready to receive these people under +their protection from the desire to share in the fruits of their expeditions, and without the slightest feeling of religious +or moral responsibility for the murders which they know must be perpetrated to secure these fruits. All that they require +from them is a promise that they will not commit murders within their estates and thereby involve them in trouble.” Sometimes +the police could also be conciliated by bribes, and on one occasion when a body of Thugs who had killed twenty-five persons +were being pursued by the Thākur of Powai<a id="d0e15956src" href="#d0e15956" class="noteref">19</a> they retired upon the village of Tigura, and even the villagers came out to their support and defended them against his attack. +Another officer wrote:<a id="d0e15959src" href="#d0e15959" class="noteref">20</a> “To conclude, there seems no doubt but that this horrid crime has been fostered by all classes in the community—the landholders, +the native <a id="d0e15965"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e15965">572</a>]</span>officers of our courts, the police and village authorities—all, I think, have been more or less guilty; my meaning is not, +of course, that every member of these classes, but that individuals varying in number in each class were concerned. The subordinate +police officials have in many cases been <i>practising Thugs</i>, and the <i>chaukīdārs</i> or village watchmen frequently so.” + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e15973"> +<h3>10. Murder of sepoys</h3> +<p>A favourite class of victims were sepoys proceeding to their homes on furlough and carrying their small savings; such men +would not be quickly missed, as their relatives would think they had not started, and the regimental authorities would ascribe +their failure to return to desertion. So many of these disappeared that a special Army Order was issued warning them not to +travel alone, and arranging for the transmission of their money through the Government treasuries.<a id="d0e15978src" href="#d0e15978" class="noteref">21</a> In this order it is stated that the Thugs were accustomed first to stupefy their victim by surreptitiously administering +the common narcotic <i>dhatūra</i>, still a familiar method of highway robbery. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e15984"> +<h3>11. Callous nature of the Thugs</h3> +<p>Like the Badhaks and other Indian robbers and the Italian banditti the Thugs were of a very religious or superstitious turn +of mind. There was not one among them, Colonel Sleeman wrote,<a id="d0e15989src" href="#d0e15989" class="noteref">22</a> who doubted the divine origin of Thuggee: “Not one who doubts that he and all who have followed the trade of murder, with +the prescribed rites and observance, were acting under the immediate orders and auspices of the goddess, Devi, Durga, Kāli +or Bhawāni, as she is indifferently called, and consequently there is not one who feels the slightest remorse for the murders +which he may have perpetrated or abetted in the course of his vocation. A Thug considers the persons murdered precisely in +the light of victims offered up to the goddess; and he remembers them as a priest of Jupiter remembered the oxen and a priest +of Saturn the children sacrificed upon their altars. He meditates his murders without any misgivings, he perpetrates them +without any emotions of pity, and he recalls them without any feeling of remorse. They trouble not his dreams, nor does their +recollection ever cause him inquietude in darkness, in solitude or in the hour of death.” +<a id="d0e15992"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e15992">573</a>]</span></p> +<p>And again: “The most extraordinary trait in the characters of these people is not this that they can look back upon all the +murders they have perpetrated without any feelings of remorse, but that they can look forward indifferently to their children, +whom they love as tenderly as any man in the world, following the same trade of murder or being united in marriage to men +who follow the trade. When I have asked them how they could cherish these children through infancy and childhood under the +determination to make them murderers or marry them to murderers, the only observation they have ever made was that formerly +there was no danger of their ever being hung or transported, but that now they would rather that their children should learn +some less dangerous trade.<span id="d0e15995" class="corr" title="Source: ">”</span> + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e15998"> +<h3>12. Belief in divine support</h3> +<p>They considered that all their victims were killed by the agency of God and that they were merely irresponsible agents, appointed +to live by killing travellers as tigers by feeding on deer. If a man committed a real murder they held that his family must +become extinct, and adduced the fact that this fate had not befallen them as proof that their acts of killing were justifiable. +Nay, they even held that those who oppressed them were punished by the goddess:<a id="d0e16003src" href="#d0e16003" class="noteref">23</a> “Was not Nanha, the Rāja of Jālon,” said one of them, “made leprous by Devi for putting to death Budhu and his brother Khumoli, +two of the most noted Thugs of their day? He had them trampled under the feet of elephants, but the leprosy broke out on his +body the very next day. When Mūdhaji Sindhia caused seventy Thugs to be executed at Mathura was he not warned in a dream by +Devi that he should release them? And did he not the very day after their execution begin to spit blood? And did he not die +within three months?” Their subsequent misfortunes and the success of the British officers against them they attributed to +their disobedience of the ordinances of Devi in slaying women and other classes of prohibited persons and their disregard +of her omens. They also held that the spirits of all their victims went straight to Paradise, and this was the reason why +the Thugs were not troubled by them as other murderers were. +<a id="d0e16006"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e16006">574</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e16007"> +<h3>13. Theory of Thuggee as a religious sect</h3> +<p>The fact that the Thugs considered themselves to be directed by the deity, reinforced by their numerous superstitious beliefs +and observances, has led to the suggestion by one writer that they were originally a religious sect, whose principal tenet +was the prohibition of the shedding of blood. There is, however, no evidence in support of this view in the accounts of Colonel +Sleeman, incomparably the best authority. Their method of strangulation was, as has been seen, simply the safest and most +convenient means of murder: it enabled them to dispense with arms, by the sight of which the apprehensions of their victims +would have been aroused, and left no traces on the site of the crime to be observed by other travellers. On occasion also +they did not scruple to employ weapons; as in the murder of seven treasure-bearers near Hindoria in Damoh, who would not probably +have allowed the Thugs to approach them, and in consequence were openly attacked and killed with swords.<a id="d0e16012src" href="#d0e16012" class="noteref">24</a> Other instances are given in Colonel Sleeman’s narrative, and they were also accustomed to cut and slash about the bodies +of their victims after death. The belief that they were guided by the divine will may probably have arisen as a means of excusing +their own misdeeds to themselves and allaying their fear of such retribution as being haunted by the ghosts of their victims. +Similar instances of religious beliefs and practices are given in the accounts of other criminals, such as the Badhaks and +Sānsias. And the more strict and serious observances of the Thugs may be accounted for by the more atrocious character of +their crimes and the more urgent necessity of finding some palliative. + + +</p> +<p></p> +<div id="d0e16019" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p126.jpg" alt="The Goddess Kāli" width="549" height="651"><p class="figureHead">The Goddess Kāli</p> +</div><p> + + +</p> +<p>The veneration paid to the pickaxe, which will shortly be described, merely arises from the common animistic belief that tools +and implements generally achieve the results obtained from them by their inherent virtue and of their own volition, and not +from the human hand which guides them and the human brain which fashioned them to serve their ends. Members of practically +all castes worship the implements of their profession and thus afford evidence of the same belief, the most familiar instance +of which is perhaps, ‘The pestilence that walketh in the darkness and <a id="d0e16025"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e16025">575</a>]</span>the arrow that flieth by noonday’; where the writer intended no metaphor but actually thought that the pestilence walked and +the arrow flew of their own volition. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e16027"> +<h3>14. Worship of Kāli</h3> +<p>Kāli or Bhawāni was the principal deity of the Thugs, as of most of the criminal and lower castes; and those who were Muhammadans +got over the difficulty of her being a Hindu goddess by pretending that Fātima, the daughter of the Prophet, was an incarnation +of her. In former times they held that the goddess was accustomed to relieve them of the trouble of destroying the dead bodies +by devouring them herself; but in order that they might not see her doing this she had strictly enjoined on them never to +look back on leaving the site of a murder. On one occasion a novice of the fraternity disobeyed this rule and, unguardedly +looking behind him, saw the goddess in the act of feasting upon a body with the half of it hanging out of her mouth. Upon +this she declared that she would no longer devour those whom the Thugs slaughtered; but she agreed to present them with one +of her teeth for a pickaxe, a rib for a knife and the hem of her lower garment for a noose, and ordered them for the future +to cut about and bury the bodies of those whom they destroyed. As there seems reason to suppose that the goddess Kāli represents +the deified tiger, on which she rides, she was eminently appropriate as the patroness of the Thugs and in the capacity of +the devourer of corpses. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e16032"> +<h3>15. The sacred pickaxe</h3> +<p>When the sacred pickaxe used for burying corpses had to be made, the leader of the gang, having ascertained a lucky day from +the priest, went to a blacksmith and after closing the door so that no other person might enter, got him to make the axe in +his presence without touching any other work until it was completed. A day was then chosen for the consecration of the pickaxe, +either Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Friday; and the ceremony was performed inside a house or tent, so that the shadow of +no living thing might fall on and contaminate the sacred implement. A pit was dug in the ground and over it the pickaxe was +washed successively with water, sugar and water, sour milk, and alcoholic liquor, all of which were poured over it into the +pit. Finally it was marked seven times with vermilion. <a id="d0e16037"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e16037">576</a>]</span>A burnt offering was then made with all the usual ingredients for sacrifice and the pickaxe was passed seven times through +the flames. A cocoanut was placed on the ground, and the priest, holding the pickaxe by the point in his right hand, said, +‘Shall I strike?’ The others replied yes, and striking the cocoanut with the butt end he broke it in pieces, upon which all +exclaimed, ‘All hail, Devi, and prosper the Thugs.’ All then partook of the kernel of the cocoanut, and collecting the fragments +put them into the pit so that they might not afterwards be contaminated by the touch of any man’s foot. Here the cocoanut +may probably be considered as a substituted sacrifice for a human being. Thereafter the pickaxe was called Kassi or Mahi instead +of <i>kudāli</i> the ordinary name, and was given to the shrewdest, cleanest and most sober and careful man of the party, who carried it in +his waist-belt. While in camp he buried it in a secure place with its point in the direction they intended to go; and they +believed that if another direction was better the point would be found changed towards it. They said that formerly the pickaxe +was thrown into a well and would come up of itself when summoned with due ceremonies; but since they disregarded the ordinances +of Kāli it had lost that virtue. Many Thugs told Colonel Sleeman<a id="d0e16042src" href="#d0e16042" class="noteref">25</a> that they had seen the pickaxe rise out of the well in the morning of its own accord and come to the hands of the man who +carried it; and even the several pickaxes of different gangs had been known to come up of themselves from the same well and +go to their respective bearers. The pickaxe was also worshipped on every seventh day during an expedition, and it was believed +that the sound made by it in digging a grave was never heard by any one but a Thug. The oath by the pickaxe was in their esteem +far more sacred than that by the Ganges water or the Korān, and they believed that a man who perjured himself by this oath +would die or suffer some great calamity within six days. In prison, when administering an oath to each other in cases of dispute, +they sometimes made an image of the pickaxe out of a piece of cloth and consecrated it for the purpose. If the pickaxe at +any time fell from the hands of the carrier it was a dreadful <a id="d0e16045"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e16045">577</a>]</span>omen and portended either that he would be killed that year or that the gang would suffer some grievous misfortune. He was +deprived of his office and the gang either returned home or chose a fresh route and consecrated the pickaxe anew. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e16047"> +<h3>16. The sacred <i>gur</i> (sugar) +</h3> +<p>After each murder they had a sacrificial feast of <i>gur</i> or unrefined sugar. This was purchased to the value of Rs. 1–4, and the leader of the gang and the other Bhurtotes (stranglers) +sat on a blanket with the rest of the gang round them. A little sugar was dropped into a hole and the leader prayed to Devi +to send them some rich victims. The remainder of the sugar was divided among all present. One of them gave the <i>jhirni</i> or signal for strangling and they consumed the sugar in solemn silence, no fragment of it being lost They believed that it +was this consecrated <i>gur</i> which gave the desire for the trade of a Thug and made them callous to the sufferings of their victims, and they thought +that if any outsider tasted it he would at once become a Thug and continue so all his life. When Colonel Sleeman asked<a id="d0e16064src" href="#d0e16064" class="noteref">26</a> a young man who had strangled a beautiful young woman in opposition to their rules, whether he felt no pity for her, the +leader Feringia exclaimed: “We all feel pity sometimes, but the <i>gur</i> of the Tuponi (sacrifice) changes our nature. It would change the nature of a horse. Let any man once taste of that <i>gur</i> and he will be a Thug, though he knows all the trades and have all the wealth in the world. I never wanted food; my mother’s +family was opulent, her relations high in office. I have been high in office myself, and became so great a favourite wherever +I went that I was sure of promotion; yet I was always miserable while absent from my gang and obliged to return to Thuggee. +My father made me taste of that fatal <i>gur</i> when I was yet a mere boy; and if I were to live a thousand years I should never be able to follow any other trade.” + +</p> +<p>The eating of this <i>gur</i> was clearly the sacrificial meal of the Thugs. On the analogy of other races they should have partaken of the body of an +animal god at their sacrificial meal, and if the goddess Kāli is the deified tiger, they should have eaten tiger’s flesh. +This custom, if it ever existed, had <a id="d0e16081"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e16081">578</a>]</span>been abandoned, and the <i>gur</i> would in that case be a substitute; and as has been seen the eating of the <i>gur</i> was held to confer on them the same cruelty, callousness and desire to kill which might be expected to follow from eating +tiger’s flesh and thus assimilating the qualities of the animal. Since they went unarmed as a rule, in order to avoid exciting +the suspicions of their victims, it would be quite impossible for them to obtain tiger’s flesh, except by the rarest accident; +and the <i>gur</i> might be considered a suitable substitute, since its yellow colour would be held to make it resemble the tiger. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e16092"> +<h3>17. Worship of ancestors</h3> +<p>The Thugs also worshipped the spirits of their ancestors. One of these was Dādu Dhira, an ancient Thug of the Barsote class, +who was invoked at certain religious ceremonies, when liquor was drunk. Vows were made to offer libations of ardent spirits +to him, and if the prayer was answered the worshipper drank the liquor, or if his caste precluded him from doing this, threw +it on the ground with an expression of thanks. Another deity was the spirit of Jhora Nāik, who was a Muhammadan. He and his +servant killed a man who had jewels and other articles laden on a mule to the value of more than a lakh and a half. They brought +home the booty, assembled all the members of their fraternity within reach, and honestly divided the whole as if all had been +present The Thugs also said that Nizām-ud-dīn Aulia, a well-known Muhammadan saint, famed for his generosity, whose shrine +is near Delhi, had been a Thug, at any rate in his younger days. He distributed so much money in charity that he was supposed +to be endowed with a Dustul Ghīb or supernatural purse; and they supposed that he obtained it by the practice of Thuggee. +Orthodox Muhammadans would, however, no doubt indignantly repudiate this. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e16097"> +<h3>18. Fasting</h3> +<p>Whenever they set out on a fresh expedition the first week was known as Satha (seven). During this period the families of +those who were engaged in it would admit no visitors from the relatives of other Thugs, lest the travellers destined for their +own gang should go over to these others; neither could they eat any food belonging to the families of other Thugs. During +the Satha period the Thugs engaged in the <a id="d0e16102"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e16102">579</a>]</span>expedition ate no animal food except fish and nothing cooked with <i>ghī</i> (melted butter). They did not shave or bathe or have their clothes washed or indulge in sexual intercourse, or give away +anything in charity or throw any part of their food to dogs or jackals. At one time they ate no salt or turmeric, but this +rule was afterwards abandoned. But if the Sourka or first murder took place within the seven days they considered themselves +relieved by it from all these restraints. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e16107"> +<h3>19. Initiation of a novice</h3> +<p>A Thug seldom attained to the office of Bhurtote or strangler until he had been on several expeditions and acquired the requisite +courage or insensibility by slow degrees. At first they were almost always shocked or frightened; but after a time they said +they lost all sympathy with the victims. They were first employed as scouts, then as buriers of the dead, next as Shamsias +or holders of hands, and finally as stranglers. When a man felt that he had sufficient courage and insensibility he begged +the oldest and most renowned Thug of the gang to make him his <i>chela</i> or disciple. If his proposal was accepted he awaited the arrival of a suitable victim of not too great bodily strength. While +the traveller was asleep with the gang at their quarters the <i>guru</i> or preceptor took his disciple into a neighbouring field, followed by three or four old members of the gang. Here they all +faced in the direction in which the gang intended to move, and the <i>guru</i> said, “<i>Oh Kāli, Kunkāli, Bhudkāli,<a id="d0e16123src" href="#d0e16123" class="noteref">27</a> Oh Kāli, Mahā Kāli, Kalkatāwāli!</i> If it seemeth to thee fit that the traveller now at our lodging should die by the hands of this thy slave, vouchsafe, we +pray thee, the omen on the right.” If they got this within a certain interval the candidate was considered to be accepted, +and if not some other Thug put the traveller to death and he had to wait for another chance. In the former case they returned +to their quarters and the <i>guru</i> took a handkerchief and tied the slip-knot in one end of it with a rupee inside it. The disciple received it respectfully +in his right <a id="d0e16130"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e16130">580</a>]</span>hand and stood over the victim with the Shamsia or holder by his side. The traveller was roused on some pretence or other +and the disciple passed the handkerchief over his neck and strangled him. He then bowed down to his <i>guru</i> and all his relations and friends in gratitude for the honour he had obtained. He gave the rupee from the knot with other +money, if he had it, to the <i>guru</i>, and with this sugar or sweetmeats were bought and the <i>gur</i> sacrifice was celebrated, the new strangler taking one of the seats of honour on the blanket for the first time. The relation +between a strangler and his <i>guru</i> was considered most sacred, and a Thug would often rather betray his father than the preceptor by whom he had been initiated. +There were certain classes of persons whom they were forbidden to kill, and they considered that the rapid success of the +English officers in finally breaking up the gangs was to be attributed to the divine wrath at breaches of these rules. The +original rule<a id="d0e16144src" href="#d0e16144" class="noteref">28</a> was that the Sourka or first victim must not be a Brāhman, nor a Saiyad, nor any very poor man, nor any man with gold on +his person, nor any man who had a quadruped with him, nor a washerwoman, nor a sweeper, nor a Teli (oilman), nor a Bhāt (bard), +nor a Kāyasth (writer), nor a leper, dancing-woman, pilgrim or devotee. The reason for some of these exemptions is obvious: +Brāhmans, Muhammadan Saiyads, bards, religious mendicants and devotees were excluded owing to their sanctity; and sweepers, +washermen and lepers owing to their impurity, which would have the same evil and unlucky effect on their murderers as the +holiness of the first classes. A man wearing gold ornaments would be protected by the sacred character of the metal; and the +killing of a poor man as the first victim would naturally presage a lack of valuable booty during the remainder of the expedition. +Telis and Kāyasths are often considered as unlucky castes, and even in the capacity of victims might be held to bring an evil +fortune on their murderers. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e16147"> +<h3>20. Prohibition of murder of women</h3> +<p>Another list is given of persons whom it was forbidden to kill at any time, and of these the principal category was women. +It was a rule of all Thugs that women should not be murdered, but one which they constantly <a id="d0e16152"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e16152">581</a>]</span>broke, for few large parties consisted solely of men, and to allow victims to escape from a party would have been a suicidal +policy. In all the important exploits related to Colonel Sleeman the women who accompanied victims were regularly strangled, +with the occasional exception of young girls who might be saved and married to the sons of Thug leaders. The breach of the +rule as to the murder of women was, however, that which they believed to be specially offensive to their patroness Bhawāni; +and no Thug, Colonel Sleeman states, was ever known to offer insult either in act or speech to the women whom they were about +to murder. No gang would ever dare to murder a woman with whom one of its members should be suspected of having had criminal +intercourse. The murder of women was especially reprobated by Hindus, and the Muhammadan Thugs were apparently responsible +for the disregard of this rule which ultimately became prevalent, as shown by the dispute over the killing of a wealthy old +lady,<a id="d0e16154src" href="#d0e16154" class="noteref">29</a> narrated by one of the Thugs as follows: “I remember the murder of Kāli Bībi well; I was at the time on an expedition to +Baroda and not present, but Punua must have been there. A dispute arose between the Musalmāns and Hindus before and after +the murder. The Musalmāns insisted upon killing her as she had Rs. 4000 of property with her, but the Hindus would not agree. +She was killed, and the Hindus refused to take any part of the booty; they came to blows, but at last the Hindus gave in and +consented to share in all but the clothes and ornaments which the woman wore. Feringia’s father, Parasrām Brāhman, was there, +and when they came home Parasrām’s brother, Rai Singh, refused to eat, drink or smoke with his brother till he had purged +himself from this great sin; and he, with two other Thugs, a Rājpūt and a Brāhman, gave a feast which cost them a thousand +rupees each. Four or five thousand Brāhmans were assembled at that feast. Had it rested here we should have thrived; but in +the affair of the sixty victims women were again murdered; in the affair of the forty several women were murdered; and from +that time we may trace our decline.” + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e16157"> +<h3>21. Other classes of persons not killed</h3> +<p>Another rule was that a man having a cow with him <a id="d0e16162"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e16162">582</a>]</span>should not be murdered, no doubt on account of the sanctity attaching to the animal. But in one case of a murder of fourteen +persons including women and a man with a cow at Kotri in the Damoh District, the Thugs, having made acquaintance with the +party, pretended that they had made a vow to offer a cow at a temple in Shāhpur lying on their road and persuaded the cow’s +owner to sell her to them for this sacred purpose, and having duly made the offering and deprived him of the protection afforded +by the cow, they had no compunction in strangling him with all the travellers. Travellers who had lost a limb were also exempted +from death, but this rule too was broken, as in the case of the native officer with his two daughters who was murdered by +the Thugs he had befriended; for it is recorded that this man had lost a leg. Pilgrims carrying Ganges water could not be +killed if they actually had the Ganges water with them; and others who should not be murdered were washermen, sweepers, oil-vendors, +dancers and musicians, carpenters and blacksmiths, if found travelling together, and religious mendicants. The reason for +the exemption of carpenters and blacksmiths only when travelling together may probably have been that the sacred pickaxe was +their joint handiwork, having a wooden handle and an iron head; and this seems a more likely explanation than any other in +view of the deep veneration shown for the pickaxe. Maimed persons would probably not be acceptable victims to the goddess, +according to the rule that the sacrifice must be without spot or blemish. The other classes have already been discussed under +the exemption of first victims. Among the Deccan Thugs if a man strangled any victim of a class whom it was forbidden to kill, +he was expelled from the community and never readmitted to it. This was considered a most dreadful crime. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e16164"> +<h3>22. Belief in omens</h3> +<p>The Thugs believed that the wishes of the deity were constantly indicated to them by the appearance or cries of a large number +of wild animals and birds from which they drew their omens; and indeed the number of these was so extensive that they could +never be at a loss for an indication of the divine will, and difficulties could only arise when the omens were conflicting. +As a general rule the omen varied <a id="d0e16169"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e16169">583</a>]</span>according as it was heard on the left hand, known as Pilhao, or the right, known as Thibao. On first opening an expedition +an omen must be heard on the left and be followed by one on the right, or no start was made; it signified that the deity took +them first by the left hand and then by the right to lead them on. When they were preparing to march or starting on a road, +an omen heard on the left encouraged them to go on, but if it came from the right they halted. When arriving at their camping-place +on the other hand the omen on the right was auspicious and they stayed, but if it came from the left the projected site was +abandoned and the march continued. In the case of the calls of a very few animals these rules were reversed, left and right +being transposed in each instance. The howl of the jackal was always bad if heard during the day, and the gang immediately +quitted the locality, leaving untouched any victims whom they might have inveigled, however wealthy. The jackal’s cry at night +followed the rule of right and left. The jackal was probably revered by the Thugs as the devourer of corpses. The sound made +by the lizard was at all times and places a very good omen; but if a lizard fell upon a Thug it was bad, and any garment touched +by it must be given away in charity. The call of the <i>sāras</i> crane was a very important omen, and when heard first on the left and then on the right or vice versa according to the rules +given above, they expected a great booty in jewels or money. The call of the partridge followed the same rules but was not +of so much importance. That of the large crow was favourable if the bird was sitting on a tree, especially when a tank or +river could be seen; but if the crow was perched on the back of a buffalo or pig or on the skeleton of any animal, it was +a bad omen. Tanks or rivers were likely places for booty in the shape of resting travellers, whose death the appearance of +the crow might portend; whereas in the other positions it might prognosticate a Thug’s own death. The chirping of the small +owlet was considered to be a bad omen, whether made while the bird was sitting or flying; It was known as <i>chiraiya</i> and is a low and melancholy sound seldom repeated. They considered it a very bad omen to hear the hare squeaking; this, unless +it was averted by sacrifices, signified, they said, <a id="d0e16177"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e16177">584</a>]</span>that they would perish in the jungles, and the hare or some other animal of the forest would drink water from their skulls. +“We know that the hare was used in Brittany as an animal of augury for foretelling the future; and all animals of augury were +once venerated.”<a id="d0e16179src" href="#d0e16179" class="noteref">30</a> The hare has still some remnant of sanctity among the Hindus. Women will not eat its flesh, and men eat the flesh of wild +hares only, not of tame ones. It seems likely that the hare may have been considered capable of foretelling the future on +account of its long ears. The omen of the donkey was considered the most important of all, whether it threatened evil or promised +good. It was a maxim of augury that the ass was equal to a hundred birds, and it was also more important than all other quadrupeds. +If they heard its bray on the left on the opening of an expedition and it was soon after repeated on the right, they believed +that nothing on earth could prevent their success during that expedition though it should last for years. The ass is the sacred +animal of Sītala, the goddess of smallpox, who is a form of Kāli. The ears and also the bray of the ass would give it importance. + +</p> +<p>The noise of two cats heard fighting was propitious only during the first watch of the night; if heard later in the night +it was known as ‘<i>Kāli ki mauj</i>’ or ‘Kāli’s temper,’ and threatened evil, and if during the daytime as ‘<i>Dhāmoni<a id="d0e16191src" href="#d0e16191" class="noteref">31</a> ki mauj</i>,’ and was a prelude of great misfortune; while if the cats fell from a height while fighting it was worst of all. The above +shows that the cat was also the animal of Kāli and is a point in favour of her derivation from the tiger; and on this hypothesis +the importance of the omen of the cat is explained. If they obtained a good omen when in company with travellers they believed +that it was a direct order from heaven to kill them, and that if they disobeyed the sign and let the travellers go they would +never obtain any more victims.<a id="d0e16195src" href="#d0e16195" class="noteref">32</a> + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e16198"> +<h3>23. Omens and taboos</h3> +<p>If a mare dropped a foal in their camp while they were travelling, they were all contaminated or came under the Itak; <a id="d0e16203"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e16203">585</a>]</span>and the only remedy for this was to return home and start the journey afresh. Various other events<a id="d0e16205src" href="#d0e16205" class="noteref">33</a> also produced the Itak, especially among the Deccan Thugs; these were the birth of a child in a Thug family; the first courses +of a Thug’s daughter; a marriage in a Thug’s family; a death of any member of his family except an infant at the breast; circumcision +of a boy; a buffalo or cow giving calf or dying; and a cat or dog giving a litter or dying. If a party fell under the Itak +or contamination at a time when it was extremely inconvenient or impossible to return home, they sometimes marched back for +a few miles and slept the night, making a fresh start in the morning, and this was considered equivalent to beginning a new +journey after getting rid of the contamination. If any member of the party sneezed on setting out on an expedition or on the +day’s march, it was a bad omen and required expiatory sacrifices; and if they had travellers with them when this omen occurred, +these must be allowed to escape and could not be put to death. Omens were also taken from the turban, without which no Thug, +except perhaps in Bengal, would travel.<a id="d0e16208src" href="#d0e16208" class="noteref">34</a> If a turban caught fire a great evil was portended, and the gang must, if near home, return and wait for seven days. But +if they had travelled for some distance an offering of <i>gur</i> (sugar) was made, and the owner of the turban alone returned home. If a man’s turban fell off it was also considered a very +bad omen, requiring expiatory sacrifices. The turban is important as being the covering of the head, which many primitive +people consider to contain the life or soul (<i>Golden Bough</i>). A shower of rain falling at any time except during the monsoon period from June to September was also a bad omen which +must be averted by sacrifices. Prior to the commencement<a id="d0e16217src" href="#d0e16217" class="noteref">35</a> of an expedition a Brāhman was employed to select a propitious day and hour for the start and for the direction in which +the gang should proceed. After this the auspices were taken with great solemnity and, if favourable omens were obtained, the +party set out and made a few steps in the direction indicated; after this they might turn to the right or left as impediments +or incentives presented themselves. If they heard any one weeping for a death as they <a id="d0e16220"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e16220">586</a>]</span>left the village, it threatened great evil; and so, too, if they met the corpse of any one belonging to their own village, +but not that of a stranger. And it was also a bad omen to meet an oil-vendor, a carpenter, a potter, a dancing-master, a blind +or lame man, a Fakīr (beggar) with a brown waistband or a Jogi (mendicant) with long matted hair. Most of these were included +in the class of persons who might not be killed. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e16222"> +<h3>24. Nature of the belief in omens</h3> +<p>The custom of the Thugs, and in a less degree of ignorant and primitive races generally, of being guided in their every action +by the chance indications afforded from the voices and movements of birds and animals appears to the civilised mind extremely +foolish. But its explanation is not difficult when the character of early religious beliefs is realised. It was held by savages +generally that animals, birds and all other living things, as well as trees and other inanimate objects, had souls and exercised +conscious volition like themselves. And those animals, such as the tiger and cow, and other objects, such as the sun and moon +and high mountains or trees, which appeared most imposing and terrible, or exercised the most influence on their lives, were +their principal deities, the spirits of which at a later period developed into anthropomorphic gods. Even the lesser animals +and birds were revered and considered to be capable of affecting the lives of men. Hence their appearance, their flight and +their cries were naturally taken to be direct indications afforded by the god to his worshippers; and it was in the interpretation +of these, the signs given by the divine beings by whom man was surrounded, and whom at one time he considered superior to +himself, that the science of augury consisted. “The priestesses of the oracle of Zeus at Dodona called themselves doves, as +those of Diana at Ephesus called themselves bees; this proves that the oracles of the temples were formerly founded on observations +of the flight of doves and bees, and no doubt also that the original cult consisted in the worship of these animals.”<a id="d0e16227src" href="#d0e16227" class="noteref">36</a> Thus, as is seen here, when the deity was no longer an animal but had developed into a god in human shape, the animal remained +associated with him and partook of his sanctity; and what could be <a id="d0e16232"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e16232">587</a>]</span>more natural than that he should convey the indications of his will through the appearance, movements and cries of the sacred +animal to his human <i>protégés</i>. The pseudo-science of omens is thus seen to be a natural corollary of the veneration of animals and inanimate objects. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e16237"> +<h3>25. Suppression of Thuggee</h3> +<p>When the suppression of the Thugs was seriously taken in hand by the Thuggee and Dacoity Department under the direction of +Sir William Sleeman, this abominable confraternity, which had for centuries infested the main roads of India and made away +with tens of thousands of helpless travellers, never to be heard of again by their families and friends, was destroyed with +comparatively little difficulty. The Thugs when arrested readily furnished the fullest information of their murders and the +names of their confederates in return for the promise of their lives, and Colonel Sleeman started a separate file or <i>dossier</i> for every Thug whose name became known to him, in which all information obtained about him from different informers was collected. +In this manner, as soon as a man was arrested and identified, a mass of evidence was usually at once forthcoming to secure +his conviction. Between 1826 and 1835 about 2000 Thugs were arrested and hanged, transported or kept under restraint; subsequently +to this a larger number of British officers were deputed to the work of hunting down the Thugs, and by 1848 it was considered +that this form of crime had been practically stamped out. For the support of the approver Thugs and the families of these +and others a labour colony was instituted at Jubbulpore, which subsequently developed into the school of industry and was +the parent of the existing Reformatory School. Here these criminals were taught tent and carpet-making and other trades, and +in time grew to be ashamed of the murderous calling in which they had once taken a pride. +<a id="d0e16245"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e16245">588</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e15752" href="#d0e15752src" class="noteref">1</a></span> Thevenot’s <i>Travels</i>, Part III. p. 41, quoted in Dr. Sherwood’s account, <i>Rāmaseeāna</i>, p. 359. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e15782" href="#d0e15782src" class="noteref">2</a></span> Sleeman, p. 11. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e15787" href="#d0e15787src" class="noteref">3</a></span> P. 144. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e15790" href="#d0e15790src" class="noteref">4</a></span> P. 162. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e15801" href="#d0e15801src" class="noteref">5</a></span> P. 147. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e15809" href="#d0e15809src" class="noteref">6</a></span> P. 205. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e15814" href="#d0e15814src" class="noteref">7</a></span> Hutton’s <i>Thugs and Dacoits</i>. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e15856" href="#d0e15856src" class="noteref">8</a></span> Sleeman, p. 170. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e15873" href="#d0e15873src" class="noteref">9</a></span> Sleeman, p. 168. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e15883" href="#d0e15883src" class="noteref">10</a></span> He was called Feringia because he was born while his mother was fleeing from an attack on her village by troops under European +officers (Feringis). +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e15894" href="#d0e15894src" class="noteref">11</a></span> Sleeman, p. 205. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e15907" href="#d0e15907src" class="noteref">12</a></span> Hutton, p. 70. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e15910" href="#d0e15910src" class="noteref">13</a></span> <i>Ibidem</i>, p. 71. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e15915" href="#d0e15915src" class="noteref">14</a></span> Pp. 34, 35. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e15923" href="#d0e15923src" class="noteref">15</a></span> See <i>Cults, Customs and Superstitions of India</i>, p. 249. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e15934" href="#d0e15934src" class="noteref">16</a></span> Pp. 32, 33. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e15937" href="#d0e15937src" class="noteref">17</a></span> Kandeli adjoins the headquarters station of Narsinghpur, the two towns being divided only by a stream. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e15953" href="#d0e15953src" class="noteref">18</a></span> P. 23. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e15956" href="#d0e15956src" class="noteref">19</a></span> Near Bilehri in Jubbulpore. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e15959" href="#d0e15959src" class="noteref">20</a></span> Captain Lowis in Sleeman’s <i>Report on the Thug Gangs</i> (1840). +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e15978" href="#d0e15978src" class="noteref">21</a></span> Pp. 15, 16. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e15989" href="#d0e15989src" class="noteref">22</a></span> P. 7. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e16003" href="#d0e16003src" class="noteref">23</a></span> P. 150. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e16012" href="#d0e16012src" class="noteref">24</a></span> Sleeman’s <i>Report on the Thug Gangs</i>, Introduction, p. vi. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e16042" href="#d0e16042src" class="noteref">25</a></span> P. 142. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e16064" href="#d0e16064src" class="noteref">26</a></span> P. 216. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e16123" href="#d0e16123src" class="noteref">27</a></span> ‘Oh Kāli, Eater of Men, Oh great Kāli of Calcutta.’ The name Calcutta signifies Kāli-ghāt or Kāli-kota, that is Kāli’s ferry +or house. The story is that Job Charnock was exploring on the banks of the Hoogly, when he found a widow about to be burnt +as a sacrifice to Kāli. He rescued her, married her, and founded a settlement on the site, which grew into the town of Calcutta. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e16144" href="#d0e16144src" class="noteref">28</a></span> P. 133. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e16154" href="#d0e16154src" class="noteref">29</a></span> P. 173. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e16179" href="#d0e16179src" class="noteref">30</a></span> <i>Orphéus</i>, p. 170. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e16191" href="#d0e16191src" class="noteref">31</a></span> Dhāmoni is an old ruined fort and town in the north of Saugor District, still a favourite haunt of tigers; and the Thugs may +often have lain there in concealment and heard the tigers quarrelling in the jungle. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e16195" href="#d0e16195src" class="noteref">32</a></span> Sleeman, p. 196. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e16205" href="#d0e16205src" class="noteref">33</a></span> P. 91. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e16208" href="#d0e16208src" class="noteref">34</a></span> P. 67. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e16217" href="#d0e16217src" class="noteref">35</a></span> P. 100. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e16227" href="#d0e16227src" class="noteref">36</a></span> <i>Orphéus</i> (M. Salomon Reinach), p. 316. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e16246" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Turi</h2> +<h3>List of Paragraphs</h3> +<ul> +<li><a href="#d0e16283">1. Origin of the caste</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e16354">2. Subdivisions</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e16361">3. Marriage</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e16368">4. Funeral rites</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e16377">5. Occupation</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e16453">6. Social status</a></li> +</ul> +<div class="div2" id="d0e16283"> +<h3>1. Origin of the caste</h3> +<p><b>Turi.</b>—A non-Aryan caste of cultivators, workers in bamboo, and basket-makers, belonging to the Chota Nāgpur plateau. They number +about 4000 persons in Raigarh, Sārangarh and the States recently transferred from Bengal. The physical type of the Turis, +Sir H. Risley states, their language, and their religion place it beyond doubt that they are a Hinduised offshoot of the Munda +tribe. They still speak a dialect derived from Mundāri, and their principal deity is Singbonga or the sun, the great god of +the Mundas: “In Lohardaga, where the caste is most numerous, it is divided into four subcastes—Turi or Kisān-Turi, Or, Dom, +and Domra—distinguished by the particular modes of basket and bamboo-work which they practise. Thus the Turi or Kisān-Turi, +who are also cultivators and hold <i>bhuinhāri</i> land, make the <i>sūp</i>, a winnowing sieve made of <i>sirki</i>, the upper joint of <i>Saccharum procerum</i>; the <i>tokri</i> or <i>tokiya</i>, a large open basket of split bamboo twigs woven up with the fibre of the leaves of the <i>tāl</i> palm; the <i>sair</i> and <i>nadua</i>, used for catching fish. The Ors are said to take their name from the <i>oriya</i> basket used by the sower, and made of split bamboo, sometimes helped out with <i>tāl</i> fibre. They also make umbrellas, and the <i>chhota dali</i> or <i>dāla</i>, a flat basket with vertical sides used for handling grain in small quantities. Doms make the <i>harka</i> and scale-pans (<i>tarāju</i>). Domras make the <i>peti</i> and fans. Turis frequently reckon in as a fifth subcaste the Birhors, who <a id="d0e16338"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e16338">589</a>]</span>cut bamboos and make the <i>sīkas</i> used for carrying loads slung on a shoulder-yoke (<i>bhangi</i>), and a kind of basket called <i>phanda</i>. Doms and Domras speak Hindi; Turis, Ors and Birhors use among themselves a dialect of Mundāri.”<a id="d0e16349src" href="#d0e16349" class="noteref">1</a> + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e16354"> +<h3>2. Subdivisions</h3> +<p>In Raigarh and Sārangarh of the Central Provinces the above subcastes are not found, and there are no distinct endogamous +groups; but the more Hinduised members of the caste have begun to marry among themselves and call themselves Turia, while +they look down on the others to whom they restrict the designation Turi. The names of subcastes given by Sir H. Risley appear +to indicate that the Turis are an offshoot from the Mundas, with an admixture of Doms and other low Uriya castes. Among themselves +the caste is also known as Husil, a term which signifies a worker in bamboo. The caste say that their original ancestor was +created by Singbonga, the sun, and had five sons, one of whom found a wooden image of their deity in the Baranda forest, near +the Barpahāri hill in Chota Nāgpur. This image was adopted as their family deity, and is revered to the present day as Barpahāri +Deo. The deity is thus called after the hill, of which it is clear that he is the personified representative. From the five +sons are descended the five main septs of the Turis. The eldest was called Mailuār, and his descendants are the leaders or +headmen of the caste. The group sprung from the second son are known as Chardhagia, and it is their business to purify and +readmit offenders to caste intercourse. The descendants of the third son conduct the ceremonial shaving of such offenders, +and are known as Surennār, while those of the fourth son bring water for the ceremony and are called Tīrkuār. The fifth group +is known as Hasdagia, and it is said that they are the offspring of the youngest brother, who committed some offence, and +the four other brothers took the parts which are still played by their descendants in his ceremony of purification. Traces +of similar divisions appear to be found in Bengal, as Sir H. Risley states that before a marriage can be celebrated the consent +of the heads of the Mādalwār and Surinwār sections, who are known respectively as Rāja and Thākur, is obtained, while <a id="d0e16359"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e16359">590</a>]</span>the head of the Charchāgiya section officiates as priest. The above names are clearly only variants of those found in the +Central Provinces. But besides the above groups the Turis have a large number of exogamous septs of a totemistic nature, some +of which are identical with those of the Mundas. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e16361"> +<h3>3. Marriage</h3> +<p>Marriage is adult, and the bride and bridegroom are usually about the same age; but girls are scarce in the caste, and betrothals +are usually effected at an early age, so that the fathers of boys may obtain brides for their sons. A contract of betrothal, +once made, cannot be broken without incurring social disgrace, and compensation in money is also exacted. A small bride-price +of three or four rupees and a piece of cloth is payable to the girl’s father. As in the case of some other Uriya castes the +proposal for a marriage is couched in poetic phraseology, the Turi bridegroom’s ambassador announcing his business with the +phrase: ‘I hear that a sweet-scented flower has blossomed in your house and I have come to gather it’; to which the bride’s +father, if the match be acceptable, replies: ‘You may take away my flower if you will not throw it away when its sweet scent +has gone.’ The girl then appears, and the boy’s father gives her a piece of cloth and throws a little liquor over her feet. +He then takes her on his lap and gives her an anna to buy a ring for herself, and sometimes kisses her and says, ‘You will +preserve my lineage.’ He washes the feet of her relatives, and the contract of betrothal is thus completed, and its violation +by either party is a serious matter. The wedding is performed according to the ritual commonly practised by the Uriya castes. +The binding portion of it consists in the perambulation of the sacred pole five or seven times. After each circle the bridegroom +takes hold of the bride’s toe and makes her kick away a small heap of rice on which a nut and a pice coin are placed. After +this a cloth is held over the couple and each rubs vermilion on the other’s forehead. At this moment the bride’s brother appears, +and gives the bridegroom a blow on the back. This is probably in token of his wrath at being deprived of his sister. A meal +of rice and fowls is set before the bridegroom, <a id="d0e16366"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e16366">591</a>]</span>but he feigns displeasure, and refuses to eat them. The bride’s parents then present him with a pickaxe and a crooked knife, +saying that these are the implements of their trade, and will suffice him for a livelihood. The bridegroom, however, continues +obdurate until they promise him a cow or a bullock, when he consents to eat. The bride’s family usually spend some twenty +or more rupees on her wedding, and the bridegroom’s family about fifty rupees. A widow is expected to marry her Dewar or deceased +husband’s younger brother, and if she takes somebody else he must repay to the Dewar the expenditure incurred by the latter’s +family on her first marriage. Divorce is permitted for misconduct on the part of the wife or for incompatibility of temper. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e16368"> +<h3>4. Funeral rites</h3> +<p>The caste bury the dead, placing the head to the north. They make libations to the spirits of their ancestors on the last +day of Phāgun (February), and not during the fortnight of Pitripaksh in Kunwār (September) like other Hindu castes. They believe +that the spirits of ancestors are reborn in children, and when a baby is born they put a grain of rice into a pot of water +and then five other grains in the names of ancestors recently deceased. When one of these meets the grain representing the +child they hold that the ancestor in question has been born again. The principal deity of the caste is Singbonga, the sun, +and according to one of their stories the sun is female. They say that the sun and moon were two sisters, both of whom had +children, but when the sun gave out great heat the moon was afraid that her children would be burnt up, so she hid them in +a <i>handi</i> or earthen pot. When the sun missed her sister’s children she asked her where they were, and the moon replied that she had +eaten them up; on which the sun also ate up her own children. But when night came the moon took her children out of the earthen +pot and they spread out in the sky and became the stars. And when the sun saw this she was greatly angered and vowed that +she would never look on the moon’s face again. And it is on this account that the moon is not seen in the daytime, and as +the sun ate up all her children there are no stars during the day. +<a id="d0e16376"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e16376">592</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e16377"> +<h3>5. Occupation</h3> +<p>The caste make and sell all kinds of articles manufactured from the wood of the bamboo, and the following list of their wares +will give an idea of the variety of purposes for which this product is utilised: <i>Tukna</i>, an ordinary basket; <i>dauri</i>, a basket for washing rice in a stream; <i>lodhar</i>, a large basket for carrying grain on carts; <i>chuki</i>, a small basket for measuring grain; <i>garni</i> and <i>sikosi</i>, a small basket for holding betel-leaf and a box for carrying it in the pocket; <i>dhitori</i>, a fish-basket; <i>dholi</i>, a large bamboo shed for storing grain; <i>ghurki</i> and <i>paili</i>, grain measures; <i>chhanni</i>, a sieve; <i>taji</i>) a balance; <i>pankha</i> and <i>bijna</i>, fans; <i>pelna</i>, a triangular frame for a fishing-net; <i>choniya</i>, a cage for catching fish; <i>chatai</i>) matting; <i>chhāta</i>, an umbrella; <i>chhitori</i>, a leaf hat for protecting the body from rain; <i>pinjra</i>, a cage; <i>khunkhuna</i>, a rattle; and <i>guna</i>, a muzzle for bullocks. + +</p> +<p>Most of them are very poor, and they say that when Singbonga made their ancestors he told them to fetch something in which +to carry away the grain which he would give them for their support; but the Turis brought a bamboo sieve, and when Singbonga +poured the grain into the sieve nearly the whole of it ran out. So he reproved them for their foolishness, and said, ‘<i>Khasar, khasar, tīn pasar</i>,’ which meant that, however hard they should work, they would never earn more than three handfuls of grain a day. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e16453"> +<h3>6. Social status</h3> +<p>The social status of the Turis is very low, and their touch is regarded as impure. They must live outside the village and +may not draw water from the common well; the village barber will not shave them nor the washerman wash their clothes. They +will eat all kinds of food, including the flesh of rats and other vermin, but not beef. The rules regarding social impurity +are more strictly observed in the Uriya country than elsewhere, owing to the predominant influence of the Brāhmans, and this +is probably the reason why the Turis are so severely ostracised. Their code of social morality is not strict, and a girl who +is seduced by a man of the caste is simply made over to him as his wife, the ordinary bride-price being exacted from him. +He must also feed the caste-fellows, and any money which is received by the girl’s father is expended in the same manner. +Members of Hindu castes and Gonds may be admitted into the community, <a id="d0e16458"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e16458">593</a>]</span>but not the Munda tribes, such as the Mundas themselves and the Kharias and Korwas; and this, though the Turis, as has been +seen, are themselves an offshoot of the Munda tribe. The fact indicates that in Chota Nāgpur the tribes of the Munda family +occupy a lower social position than the Gonds and others belonging to the Dravidian family. When an offender of either sex +is to be readmitted into caste after having been temporarily expelled for some offence he or she is given water to drink and +has a lock of hair cut off. Their women are tattooed on the arms, breast and feet, and say that this is the only ornament +which they can carry to the grave. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e16349" href="#d0e16349src" class="noteref">1</a></span> <i>Tribes and Castes of Bengal</i>, art. Turi. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e16460" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Velama</h2> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>1. Origin and social status</h3> +<p><b>Velama, Elama, Yelama.</b>—A Telugu cultivating caste found in large numbers in Vizagapatam and Ganjām, while in 1911 about 700 persons were returned +from Chānda and other districts in the Central Provinces. The caste frequently also call themselves by the honorific titles +of Naidu or Dora (lord). The Velamas are said formerly to have been one with the Kamma caste, but to have separated on the +question of retaining the custom of <i>parda</i> or <i>gosha</i> which they had borrowed from the Muhammadans. The Kammas abandoned <i>parda</i>, and, signing a bond written on palm-leaf to this effect, obtained their name from <i>kamma</i>, a leaf. The Velamas retained the custom, but a further division has taken place on the subject, and one subcaste, called +the Adi or original Velamas, do not seclude their women. The caste has at present a fairly high position, and several important +Madras chiefs are Velamas, as well as the zamīndār of Sironcha in the Central Provinces. They appear, however, to have improved +their status, and thus to have incurred the jealousy of their countrymen, as is evidenced by some derogatory sayings current +about the caste. Thus the Balijas call them Gūni Sakalvāndlu or hunchbacked washermen, because some of them print chintz and +carry their goods in a bundle on their backs.<a id="d0e16482src" href="#d0e16482" class="noteref">1</a> According to another derivation <i>gūna</i> is the large pot in which they dye their cloth. Another story is that the name of the caste is Velimāla, meaning those who +are above or better than the <a id="d0e16490"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e16490">594</a>]</span>Dhers, and was a title conferred on them by the Rāja of Bastar in recognition of the bravery displayed by the Velamas in his +army. These stories are probably the outcome of the feeling of jealousy which attaches to castes which have raised themselves +in the social scale. The customs of the Velamas do not indicate a very high standard of ceremonial observance, as they eat +fowls and pork and drink liquor. They are said to take food from Bestas and Dhīmars, while Kunbis will take it from them. +The men of the caste are tall and strong, of a comparatively fair complexion and of a bold and arrogant demeanour. It is said +that a Velama will never do anything himself which a servant can do for him, and a story is told of one of them who was smoking +when a spark fell on his moustache. He called his servant to remove it, but by the time the man came, his master’s moustache +had been burnt away. These stories and the customs of the Velamas appear to indicate that they are a caste of comparatively +low position, who have gone up in the world, and are therefore tenacious in asserting a social position which is not universally +admitted. Their subcastes show that a considerable difference in standing exists in the different branches of the caste. Of +these the Rācha or royal Velamas, to whom the chiefs and zamīndārs belong, are the highest. While others are the Gūna Velamas +or those who use a dyer’s pot, the Eku or ‘Cotton-skein’ who are weavers and carders, and the Tellāku or white leaf Velamas, +the significance of this last name not being known. It is probable that the Velamas were originally a branch of the great +Kāpu or Reddi caste of cultivators, corresponding in the Telugu country to the Kurmis and Kunbis, as many of their section +names are the same as those of the Kāpus. The Velamas apparently took up the trades of weaving and dyeing, and some of them +engaged in military service and acquired property. These are now landowners and cultivators and breed cattle, while others +dye and weave cloth. They will not engage themselves as hired labourers, and they do not allow their women to work in the +fields. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2"> +<h3>2. Marriage and social customs</h3> +<p>The caste are said to have 77 exogamous groups descended from the 77 followers or spearsmen who attended Rāja Rudra Pratāp +of Bastar when he was ousted from <a id="d0e16497"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e16497">595</a>]</span>Wārangal. These section names are eponymous, territorial and totemistic, instances of the last kind being Cherukunūla from +<i>cheruku</i>, sugarcane, and Pasapunūla from <i>pasapu</i>, turmeric, and <i>nūla</i>, thread. Marriage within the section or <i>gotra</i> is prohibited, but first cousins may intermarry. Marriage is usually adult, and the binding portion of the ceremony consists +in the tying of the <i>mangal-sūtram</i> or happy thread by the bridegroom round the bride’s neck. At the end of the marriage the <i>kankans</i> or bracelets of the bridegroom and bride are taken off in signification that all obstacles to complete freedom of intercourse +and mutual confidence between the married pair have been removed. In past years, when the Gūna Velamas had a marriage, they +were bound to pay the marriage expenses of a couple of the Palli or fisherman caste, in memory of the fact that on one occasion +when the Gūna Velamas were in danger of being exterminated by their enemies, the Pallis rescued them in their boats and carried +them to a place of safety. But now it is considered sufficient to hang up a fishing-net in the house when a marriage ceremony +of the Gūna Velamas is being celebrated.<a id="d0e16517src" href="#d0e16517" class="noteref">2</a> The caste do not permit the marriage of widows, and divorce is confined to cases in which a wife is guilty of adultery. The +Velamas usually employ Vaishnava Brāhmans as their priests. They burn the bodies of those who die after marriage, and bury +those dying before it. Children are named on the twenty-first day after birth, the child being placed in a swing, and the +name selected by the parents being called out three times by the oldest woman present. On this day the mother is taken to +a well and made to draw a bucket of water by way of declaration that she is fit to do household work. +<a id="d0e16522"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e16522">596</a>]</span></p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e16482" href="#d0e16482src" class="noteref">1</a></span> <i>North Arcot Manual</i>, i. p. 216. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e16517" href="#d0e16517src" class="noteref">2</a></span> <i>Indian Antiquary</i> (1879), p. 216. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e16523" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Vidur</h2> +<h3>List of Paragraphs</h3> +<ul> +<li><a href="#d0e16560">1. Origin and traditions</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e16578">2. The Purads, Golaks and Borals</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e16591">3. Illegitimacy among Hindustāni castes</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e16606">4. Legend of origin</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e16611">5. Marriage</a></li> +<li><a href="#d0e16630">6. Social rules and occupation</a></li> +</ul> +<div class="div2" id="d0e16560"> +<h3>1. Origin and traditions</h3> +<p><b>Vidur,<a id="d0e16566src" href="#d0e16566" class="noteref">1</a> Bidur</b>.—A Marātha caste numbering 21,000 persons in the Central Provinces in 1911, and found in the Nāgpur Division and Berār. They +are also returned from Hyderābād and Bombay. Vidur means a wise or intelligent man, and was the name of the younger brother +of Pāndu, the father of the Pāndava brothers. The Vidurs are a caste of mixed descent, principally formed from the offspring +of Brāhman fathers with women of other castes. But the descendants of Panchāls, Kunbis, Mālis and others from women of lower +caste are also known as Vidurs and are considered as different subcastes. Each of these groups follow the customs and usually +adopt the occupation of the castes to which their fathers belonged. They are known as Kharchi or Khāltātya, meaning ‘Below +the plate’ or ‘Below the salt,’ as they are not admitted to dine with the proper Vidurs. But the rule varies in different +places, and sometimes after the death of their mother such persons become full members of the caste, and with each succeeding +generation the status of their descendants improves. In Poona the name Vidur is restricted to the descendants of Brāhman fathers, +and they are also known as Brāhmanja or ‘Born from Brāhmans.’ Elsewhere the Brāhman Vidurs are designated especially as Krishnapakshi, +which means <a id="d0e16570"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e16570">597</a>]</span>‘One born during the dark fortnight,’ The term Krishnapakshi is or was also used in Bengal, and Buchanan defined it as follows: +“Men of the Rājpūt, Khatri and Kāyasth tribes, but no others, openly keep women slaves of any pure tribe, and the children +are of the same caste with their father, but are called Krishnapakshis and can only marry with each other.”<a id="d0e16572src" href="#d0e16572" class="noteref">2</a> In Bastar a considerable class of persons of similar illegitimate descent also exist, being the offspring of the unions of +immigrant Hindus with women of the Gond, Halba and other tribes. The name applied to them, however, is Dhākar, and as their +status and customs are quite different from those of the Marātha Vidurs they are treated in a short separate article. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e16578"> +<h3>2. The Purads, Golaks and Borals</h3> +<p>Another small group related to the Vidurs are the Purāds of Nāgpur; they say that their ancestor was a Brāhman who was carried +away in a flooded river and lost his sacred thread. He could not put on a new thread afterwards because the sacred thread +must be changed without swallowing the spittle in the interval. Hence he was put out of caste and his descendants are the +Purāds, the name being derived from <i>pūr</i>, a flood. These people are mainly shopkeepers. In Berār two other groups are found, the Golaks and Borals. The Golaks are +the illegitimate offspring of a Brāhman widow; if after her husband’s decease she did not shave her head, her illegitimate +children are known as Rand<a id="d0e16586src" href="#d0e16586" class="noteref">3</a> Golaks; if her head was shaved, they are called Mund (shaven) Golaks; and if their father be unknown, they are named Kund +Golaks. The Golaks are found in Malkāpur and Bālāpur and number about 400 persons. A large proportion of them are beggars. +A Boral is said to be the child of a father of any caste and a mother of one of those in which widows shave their heads. As +a matter of fact widows, except among Brāhmans, rarely shave their heads in the Central Provinces, and it would therefore +appear, if Mr. Kitts’ definition is correct, that the Borals are the offspring of women by fathers of lower caste than themselves; +a most revolting union to Hindu ideas. As, however, the Borals are mostly grocers and shopkeepers, it is possible that they +may be the same class <a id="d0e16589"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e16589">598</a>]</span>as the Purāds. In 1881 they numbered only 163 persons and were found in Dārhwa, Mehkar and Chikhli tāluks. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e16591"> +<h3>3. Illegitimacy among Hindustāni castes</h3> +<p>There is no caste corresponding to the Vidurs in the Hindi Districts and the offspring of unions which transgress the caste +marriage rules are variously treated. Many castes both in the north and south say that they have 12½ subdivisions and that +the half subcaste comprises the descendants of illicit unions. Of course the twelve subdivisions are as a rule mythical, the +number of subcastes being always liable to fluctuate as fresh endogamous groups are formed by migration or slight changes +in the caste calling. Other castes have a Lohri Sen or degraded group which corresponds to the half caste. In other cases +the illegitimate branch has a special name; thus the Nīche Pāt Bundelas of Saugor and Chhoti Tar Rājpūts of Nimār are the +offspring of fathers of the Bundela and other Rājpūt tribes with women of lower castes; both these terms have the same meaning +as Lohri Sen, that is a low-caste or bastard group. Similarly the Dauwa (wet-nurse) Ahīrs are the offspring of Bundela fathers +and the Ahīr women who act as nurses in their households. In Saugor is found a class of persons called Kunwar<a id="d0e16596src" href="#d0e16596" class="noteref">4</a> who are descended from the offspring of the Marātha Brāhman rulers of Saugor and their kept women. They now form a separate +caste and Hindustāni Brāhmans will take water from them. They refuse to accept <i>katcha</i> food (cooked with water) from Marātha Brāhmans, which all other castes will do. Another class of bastard children of Brāhmans +are called Dogle, and such people commonly act as servants of Marātha Brāhmans; as these Brāhmans do not take water to drink +from the hands of any caste except their own, they have much difficulty in procuring household servants and readily accept +a Dogle in this capacity without too close a scrutiny of his antecedents. There is also a class of Dogle Kāyasths of similar, +origin, who are admitted as members of the caste on an inferior status and marry among themselves. After several generations +such groups tend to become legitimised; thus the origin of the distinction between the Khare and Dūsre Srivāstab Kāyasths +and <a id="d0e16602"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e16602">599</a>]</span>the Dasa and Bīsa Agarwāla Banias was probably of this character, but now both groups are reckoned as full members of the +caste, one only ranking somewhat below the other so that they do not take food together. The Pārwār Banias have four divisions +of different social status known as the Bare, Manjhile, Sanjhile and Lohri Seg or Sen, or first, second, third and fourth +class. A man and woman detected in a serious social offence descend into the class next below their own, unless they can pay +the severe penalties prescribed for it. If either marries or forms a connection with a man or woman of a lower class they +descend into that class. Similarly, one who marries a widow goes into the Lohri Seg or lowest class. Other castes have a similar +system of divisions. Among the great body of Hindus cases of men living with women of different caste are now very common, +and the children of such unions sometimes inherit their father’s property. Though in such cases the man is out of caste this +does not mean that he is quite cut off from social intercourse. He will be invited to the caste dinners, but must sit in a +different row from the orthodox members so as not to touch them. As an instance of these mixed marriages the case of a private +servant, a Māli or gardener, may be quoted. He always called himself a Brāhman, and though thinking it somewhat curious that +a Brāhman should be a gardener, I took no notice of it until he asked leave to attend the funeral of his niece, whose father +was a Government menial, an Agarwāla Bania. It was then discovered that he was the son of a Brāhman landowner by a mistress +of the Kāchhi caste of sugarcane and vegetable growers, so that the profession of a private or ornamental gardener, for which +a special degree of intelligence is requisite, was very suitable to him. His sister by the same parents was married to this +Agarwāla Bania, who said his own family was legitimate and he had been deceived about the girl. The marriage of one of this +latter couple’s daughters was being arranged with the son of a Brāhman, father and Bania mother in Jubbulpore; while the gardener +himself had never been married, but was living with a girl of the Gadaria (shepherd) caste who had been married in her caste +but had never lived with her husband. <a id="d0e16604"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e16604">600</a>]</span>Inquiries made in a small town as to the status of seventy families showed that ten were out of caste on account of irregular +matrimonial or sexual relations; and it may therefore be concluded that a substantial proportion of Hindus have no real caste +at present. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e16606"> +<h3>4. Legend of origin</h3> +<p>The Vidurs say that they are the descendants of a son who was born to a slave girl by the sage Vyās, the celebrated compiler +of the Mahābhārata, to whom the girl was sent to provide an heir to the kingdom of Hastināpur. This son was named Vidur and +was remarkable for his great wisdom, being one of the leading characters in the Mahābhārata and giving advice both to the +Pāndavas and the Kauravas. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e16611"> +<h3>5. Marriage</h3> +<p>As already stated, the Vidurs who are sprung from fathers of different castes form subcastes marrying among themselves. Among +the Brāhman Vidurs also, a social difference exists between the older members of the caste who are descended from Vidurs for +several generations, and the new ones who are admitted into it as being the offspring of Brāhman fathers from recent illicit +unions, the former considering themselves to be superior and avoiding intermarriage with the latter as far as possible. The +Brāhman Vidurs, to whom this article chiefly relates, have exogamous sections of different kinds, the names being eponymous, +territorial, titular and totemistic. Among the names of their sections are Indurkar from Indore; Chaurikār, a whisk-maker; +Achārya and Pānde, a priest; Menjokhe, a measurer of wax; Mīne, a fish; Dūdhmānde, one who makes wheaten cakes with milk; +Goihe, a lizard; Wadābhāt, a ball of pulse and cooked rice; Diwāle, bankrupt; and Joshi, an astrologer. The Brāhman Vidurs +have the same sect groups as the Marātha Brāhmans, according to the Veda which they especially revere. Marriage is forbidden +within the section and in that of the paternal and maternal uncles and aunts. In Chānda, when a boy of one section marries +a girl of another, all subsequent alliances between members of the two sections must follow the same course, and a girl of +the first section must not marry a boy of the second. This rule is probably in imitation of that by which their caste is formed, +that is from the union of a man of higher with a woman of lower caste. As already stated, <a id="d0e16616"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e16616">601</a>]</span>the reverse form of connection is considered most disgraceful by the Hindus, and children born of it could not be Vidurs. +On the same analogy they probably object to taking both husbands and wives from the same section. Marriage is usually infant, +and a second wife is taken only if the first be barren or if she is sickly or quarrelsome. As a rule, no price is paid either +for the bride or bridegroom. Vidurs have the same marriage ceremony as Marātha Brāhmans, except that Purānic instead of Vedic +<i>mantras</i> or texts are repeated at the service. As among the lower castes the father of a boy seeks for a bride for his son, while +with Brāhmans it is the girl’s father who makes the proposal. When the bridegroom arrives he is conducted to the inner room +of the bride’s house; Mr. Tucker states that this is known as the <i>Gaurighar</i> because it contains the shrine of Gauri or Pārvati, wife of Mahādeo; and here he is received by the bride who has been occupied +in worshipping the goddess. A curtain is held between them and coloured rice is thrown over them and distributed, and they +then proceed to the marriage-shed, where an earthen mound or platform, known as Bohala, has been erected. They first sit on +this on two stools and then fire is kindled on the platform and they walk five times round it. The Bohala is thus a fire altar. +The expenses of marriage amount for the bridegroom’s family to Rs. 300 on an average, and for the bride’s to a little more. +Widows are allowed to remarry, but the second union must not take place with any member of the family of the late husband, +whose property remains with his children or, failing them, with his family. In the marriage of a widow the common <i>pāt</i> ceremony of the Marātha Districts is used. A price is commonly paid to the parents of a widow by her second husband. Divorce +is allowed on the instance of the husband by a written agreement, and divorced women may marry again by the <i>pāt</i> ceremony. In Chānda it is stated that when a widower marries again a silver or golden image is made of the first wife and +being placed with the household gods is daily worshipped by the second wife. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="div2" id="d0e16630"> +<h3>6. Social rules and occupation</h3> +<p>The Vidurs employ Marātha Brāhmans for religious and ceremonial purposes, while their <i>gurus</i> are either Brāhmans <a id="d0e16638"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e16638">602</a>]</span>or Bairāgis. They have two names, one for ceremonial and the other for ordinary use. When a child is to be named it is placed +in a cradle and parties of women sit on opposite sides of it. One of the women takes the child in her arms and passes it across +the cradle to another saying, ‘Take the child named Rāmchandra’ or whatever it may be. The other woman passes the child back +using the same phrase, and it is then placed in the cradle and rocked, and boiled wheat and gram are distributed to the party. +The Vidurs burn the dead, and during the period of mourning the well-to-do employ a Brāhman to read the Garud Purān to them, +which tells how a sinner is punished in the next world and a virtuous man is rewarded. This, it is said, occupies their minds +and prevents them from feeling their bereavement. They will take food only from Marātha Brāhmans and water from Rājpūts and +Kunbis. Brāhmans will, as a rule, not take anything from a Vidur’s hand, but some of them have begun to accept water and sweetmeats, +especially in the case of educated Vidurs. The Vidurs will not eat flesh of any kind nor drink liquor. The Brāhman Vidurs +did not eat in kitchens in the famine. Their dress resembles that of Marātha Brāhmans. The men do not usually wear the sacred +thread, but some have adopted it. In Bombay, however, boys are regularly invested with the sacred thread before the age of +ten.<a id="d0e16640src" href="#d0e16640" class="noteref">5</a> In Nāgpur it is stated that the Vidurs like to be regarded as Brāhmans.<a id="d0e16645src" href="#d0e16645" class="noteref">6</a> They are now quite respectable and hold land. Many of them are in Government service, some being officers of the subordinate +grades and others clerks, and they are also agents to landowners, patwāris and shopkeepers. The Vidurs are the best educated +caste with the exception of Brāhmans, Kāyasths and Banias, and this fact has enabled them to obtain a considerable rise in +social status. Their aptitude for learning may be attributed to their Brāhman parentage, while in some cases Vidurs have probably +been given an education by their Brāhman relatives. Their correct position should be a low one, distinctly beneath that of +the good cultivating castes. A saying has it, ‘As the <i>amarbel</i> creeper has no roots, so the Vidur has no ancestry.’ But owing to <a id="d0e16653"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e16653">603</a>]</span>their education and official position the higher classes of Vidurs have obtained a social status not much below that of Kāyasths. +This rise in position is assisted by their adherence in matters of dress, food and social practice to the customs of Marātha +Brāhmans, so that many of them are scarcely distinguishable from a Brāhman. A story is told of a Vidur Tahsīldār or Naib-Tahsīldār +who was transferred to a District at some distance from his home, and on his arrival there pretended to be a Marātha Brāhman. +He was duly accepted by the other Brāhmans, who took food with him in his house and invited him to their own. After an interval +of some months the imposture was discovered, and it is stated that this official was at a short subsequent period dismissed +from Government service on a charge of bribery. The Vidurs are also considered to be clever at personation, and one or two +stories are told of frauds being carried out through a Vidur returning to some family in the character of a long-lost relative. + +</p> +</div> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e16566" href="#d0e16566src" class="noteref">1</a></span> This article is compiled from papers by Mr. W.A. Tucker, Extra Assistant Commissioner, Bhandāra, and Mr. B.M. Deshmukh, Pleader, +Chānda. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e16572" href="#d0e16572src" class="noteref">2</a></span> Buchanan, <i>Eastern India</i>, i. p. 186. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e16586" href="#d0e16586src" class="noteref">3</a></span> Rand = widow or prostitute. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e16596" href="#d0e16596src" class="noteref">4</a></span> The term Kunwar is a title applied to the eldest son of a chief. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e16640" href="#d0e16640src" class="noteref">5</a></span> <i>Bombay Gazetteer</i>, vol. xviii. p. 185. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e16645" href="#d0e16645src" class="noteref">6</a></span> <i>Nagpur Settlement Report</i>, p. 27. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e16655" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Wāghya</h2> +<p><b>Wāghya,</b><a id="d0e16661src" href="#d0e16661" class="noteref">1</a> <b>Vāghe, Murli.</b>—An order of mendicant devotees of the god Khandoba, an incarnation of Siva; they belong to the Marātha Districts and Bombay +where Khandoba is worshipped. The term Wāghya is derived from <i>vāgh</i>, a tiger, and has been given to the order on account of the small bag of tiger-skin, containing <i>bhandār</i>, or powdered turmeric, which they carry round their necks. This has been consecrated to Khandoba and they apply a pinch of +it to the foreheads of those who give them alms. Murli, signifying ‘a flute’ is the name given to female devotees. Wāghya +is a somewhat indefinite term and in the Central Provinces does not strictly denote a caste. The order originated in the practice +followed by childless mothers of vowing to Khandoba that if they should bear a child, their first-born should be devoted to +his service. Such a child became a Wāghya or Murli according as it was a boy or a girl. But they were not necessarily severed +from their own caste and might remain members of it and marry in it. Thus there are Wāghya Telis in Wardha, who marry with +other Telis. The child might also <a id="d0e16673"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e16673">604</a>]</span>be kept in the temple for a period and then withdrawn, and nowadays this is always done. The children of rich parents sometimes +simply remain at home and worship Khandoba there. But they must beg on every Sunday from at least five persons all their lives. +Another practice, formerly existing, was for the father and mother to vow that if a child was born they would be swung. They +were then suspended from a wooden post on a rope by an iron hook inserted in the back and swung round four or five times. +The sacred turmeric was applied to the wound and it quickly healed up. Others would take a Wāghya child to Mahādeo’s cave +in Pachmarhi and let it fall from the top of a high tree. If it lived it was considered to be a Rāja of Mahādeo, and if it +died happiness might confidently be anticipated for it in the next birth. Besides the children who are dedicated to Khandoba, +a man may become a Wāghya either for life or for a certain period in fulfilment of a vow, and in the latter case will be an +ordinary member of his own caste again on its termination. The Wāghyas and Murlis who are permanent members of the order sometimes +also live together and have children who are brought up in it. The constitution of the order is therefore in several respects +indefinite, and it has not become a self-contained caste, though there are Wāghyas who have no other caste. + + +</p> +<p></p> +<div id="d0e16676" class="figure"><img border="0" src="images/p127.jpg" alt="Wāghya mendicants" width="471" height="720"><p class="figureHead">Wāghya mendicants</p> +</div><p> + + +</p> +<p>The following description of the dedication of children to Khandoba is taken from the <i>Bombay Gazetteer</i><a id="d0e16684src" href="#d0e16684" class="noteref">2</a>. When parents have to dedicate a boy to Khandoba they go to his temple at Jejuri in Poona on any day in the month of Chaitra +(March-April). They stay at a Gurao’s house and tell him the object of their visit. The boy’s father brings offerings and +they go in procession to Khandoba’s temple. There the Gurao marks the boy’s brow with turmeric, throws turmeric over his head, +fastens round his neck a deer-or tiger-skin wallet hung from a black woollen string and throws turmeric over the god, asking +him to take the boy. The Murlis or girls dedicated to the god are married to him between one and twelve years of age. The +girl is taken to the temple by her parents accompanied by the Gurao priest and other Murlis. At the temple she is bathed and +her body rubbed with turmeric, <a id="d0e16687"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e16687">605</a>]</span>with which the feet of the idol are also anointed. She is dressed in a new robe and bodice, and green glass bangles are put +on her wrists. A turban and sash are presented to the god, and the <i>guru</i> taking a necklace of nine cowries (shells) fastens it round the girl’s neck. She then stands before the god, a cloth being +held between them as at a proper wedding, and the priest repeats the marriage verses. Powdered turmeric is thrown on the heads +of the girl and of the idol, and from that day she is considered to be the wife of Khandoba and cannot marry any other man. +When a Murli comes of age she sits by herself for four days. Then she looks about for a patron, and when she succeeds in getting +one she calls a meeting of her brethren, the Wāghyas, and in their presence the patron says, ‘I will fill the Murli’s lap.’ +The Wāghyas ask him what he will pay and after some haggling a sum is agreed on, which thirty years ago varied between twenty-five +and a hundred rupees. If it is more than Rs. 50 a half of the money goes to the community, who spend it on a feast. With the +balance the girl buys clothes for herself. She lives with her patron for as long as he wishes to keep her, and is then either +attached to the temple or travels about as a female mendicant. Sometimes a married woman will leave her home and become a +Murli, with the object as a rule of leading a vicious life. + +</p> +<p>A man who takes a vow to become a Wāghya must be initiated by a <i>guru</i>, who is some elder member of the order. The initiation takes place early on a Sunday morning, and after the disciple is shaved, +bathed and newly clad, the <i>guru</i> places a string of cowries round his neck and gives him the tiger-skin bag in which the turmeric is kept. He always retains +much reverence for his <i>guru</i>, and invokes him with the exclamation, ‘Jai Guru,’ before starting out to beg in the morning. The following articles are +carried by the Wāghyas when begging. The <i>dapdi</i> a circular single drum of wood, covered with goat-skin, and suspended to the shoulder. The <i>chouka</i> consists of a single wire suspended from a bar and passing inside a hollow wooden conical frame. The wire is struck with +a stick to produce the sound. The <i>ghāti</i> is an ordinary temple bell; and the <i>kutumba</i> is a metal saucer which serves for a begging-bowl. This is considered sacred, <a id="d0e16715"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e16715">606</a>]</span>and sandalwood is applied to it before starting out in the morning. The Wāghyas usually beg in parties of four, each man carrying +one of these articles. Two of them walk in front and two behind, and they sing songs in praise of Khandoba and play on the +instruments. Every Wāghya has also the bag made of tiger-skin, or, if this cannot be had, of deer-skin, and the cowrie necklace, +and a <i>seli</i> or string of goat-hair round the neck. Alms, after being received in the <i>kutumba</i> or saucer, are carried in a bag, and before setting out in the morning they put a little grain in this bag, as they think +that it would be unlucky to start with it empty. At the end of the day they set out their takings on the ground and make a +little offering of fire to them, throwing a pinch of turmeric in the air in the name of Khandoba. The four men then divide +the takings and go home. Marāthas, Murlis and Telis are the castes who revere Khandoba, and they invite the Wāghyas to sing +on the Dasahra and also at their marriages. In Bombay the Wāghyas force iron bars through their calves and pierce the palms +of their hands with needles. To the needle a strip of wood is attached, and on this five lighted torches are set out, and +the Wāghya waves them about on his hand before the god.<a id="d0e16723src" href="#d0e16723" class="noteref">3</a> Once in three years each Wāghya makes a pilgrimage to Khandoba’s chief temple at Jejuri near Poona, and there are also local +temples to this deity at Hinganghāt and Nāgpur. The Wāghyas eat flesh and drink liquor, and their social and religious customs +resemble those of the Marāthas and Kunbis. + +</p> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e16661" href="#d0e16661src" class="noteref">1</a></span> This article is partly based on a paper by Pandit Pyāre Lāl Misra, ethnographic clerk. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e16684" href="#d0e16684src" class="noteref">2</a></span> Vol. xx. pp. 189–190. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e16723" href="#d0e16723src" class="noteref">3</a></span> <i>Bombay Gazetteer</i>; vol. xxii. p. 212. +</p> +</div> +</div> +<div id="d0e16728" class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><h2>Yerūkala</h2> +<p><b>Yerūkala.</b>—A vagrant gipsy tribe of Madras of whom a small number are returned from the Chānda District. They live by thieving, begging, +fortune-telling and making baskets, and are usually treated as identical with the Koravas or Kuravas, who have the same occupations. +Both speak a corrupt Tamil, and the Yerūkalas are said to call one another Kurru or Kura. It has been supposed that Korava +was the Tamil name which in the Telugu country became Yerukalavāndlu or fortune-teller. Mr. (Sir H.) Stewart thought there +could be no doubt of the identity of the two castes,<a id="d0e16735src" href="#d0e16735" class="noteref">1</a> though Mr. Francis points out differences <a id="d0e16740"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e16740">607</a>]</span>between them.<a id="d0e16742src" href="#d0e16742" class="noteref">2</a> The Yerūkalas are expert thieves. They frequent villages on the pretence of begging, and rob by day in regular groups under +a female leader, who is known as Jemādārin. Each gang is provided with a bunch of keys and picklocks. They locate a locked +house in an unfrequented lane, and one of them stands in front as if begging; the remainder are posted as watchers in the +vicinity, and the Jemādārin picks the lock and enters the house. When the leader comes out with the booty she locks the door +and they all walk away. If any one comes up while the leader is in the house the woman at the door engages him in conversation +by some device, such as producing a silver coin and asking if it is good. She then begins to dispute, and laying hold of him +calls out to her comrades that the man has abused her or been taking liberties with her. The others run up and jostle him +away from the door, and while they are all occupied with the quarrel the thief escapes. Or an old woman goes from house to +house pretending to be a fortune-teller. When she finds a woman at home alone, she flatters and astonishes her by relating +the chief events in her life, how many children she has, how many more are coming, and so on. When the woman of the house +is satisfied that the fortune-teller has supernatural powers, she allows the witch to cover her face with her robe, and shuts +her eyes while the fortune-teller breathes on them, and blows into her ears and sits muttering charms. Meanwhile one or two +of the latter’s friends who have been lurking close by walk into the house and carry away whatever they can lay their hands +on. When they have left the house the woman’s face is uncovered and the fortune-teller takes her fee and departs, leaving +her dupe to find out that her house has been robbed.<a id="d0e16747src" href="#d0e16747" class="noteref">3</a> The conjugal morals of these people are equally low. They sell or pledge their wives and unmarried daughters, and will take +them back on the redemption of the pledge with any children born in the interval, as though nothing out of the ordinary had +happened. When a man is sentenced to imprisonment his wife selects another partner for the period <a id="d0e16752"></a><span class="pagenum">[<a href="#d0e16752">608</a>]</span>of her husband’s absence, going back to him on his release with all her children, who are considered as his. Mr. Thurston +gives the following story of a gang of Koravas or Yerūkalas in Tinnevelly: “One morning, in Tinnevelly, while the butler in +a missionary’s house was attending to his duties, an individual turned up with a fine fowl for sale. The butler, finding that +he could purchase it for about half the real price, bought it, and showed it to his wife with no small pride in his ability +in making a bargain. But he was distinctly crestfallen when his wife pointed out that it was his own bird, which had been +lost on the previous night. The seller was a Korava.”<a id="d0e16754src" href="#d0e16754" class="noteref">4</a> In Madras they have also now developed into expert railway thieves. They have few restrictions as to food, eating cats and +mice, though not dogs.<a id="d0e16759src" href="#d0e16759" class="noteref">5</a> The Yerūkalas practised the custom of the Couvade as described by the Rev. John Cain, of Dumagudem:<a id="d0e16764src" href="#d0e16764" class="noteref">6</a> “Directly the woman feels the birth-pangs she informs her husband, who immediately takes some of her clothes, puts them on, +places on his forehead the mark which the women usually place on theirs, retires into a dark room where there is only a very +dim lamp, and lies down on the bed, covering himself up with a long cloth. When the child is born it is washed and placed +on the cot beside the father. Asafoetida, jaggery and other articles are then given, not to the mother but to the father. +During the days of ceremonial impurity the man is treated as other Hindus treat their women on such occasions. He is not allowed +to leave his bed, but has everything needful brought to him. + +</p> +<p>“The Yerūkalas marry when quite young. At the birth of a daughter the father of an unmarried little boy often brings a rupee +and ties it in the cloth of the father of a newly-born girl. When the girl is grown up he can then claim her for his son.” + +</p> +<div class="footnotes"> +<hr class="fnsep"> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e16735" href="#d0e16735src" class="noteref">1</a></span> <i>Madras Census Report</i> (1891). +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e16742" href="#d0e16742src" class="noteref">2</a></span> <i>Madras Census Report</i> (1901). +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e16747" href="#d0e16747src" class="noteref">3</a></span> <i>Bombay Gazetteer</i>, vol. xxi. pp. 170, 171. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e16754" href="#d0e16754src" class="noteref">4</a></span> <i>Tribes and Castes of Southern India</i>, art. Korava. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e16759" href="#d0e16759src" class="noteref">5</a></span> <i>North Arcot Manual</i>, p. 247. +</p> +<p class="footnote"><span class="label"><a id="d0e16764" href="#d0e16764src" class="noteref">6</a></span> <i>Ind. Ant.</i> vol. iii., 1874, p. 157. +</p> +</div> +</div> +</div> +</div> +<div class="back"> +<div class="div1"><span class="pagenum"> +[<a href="#d0e107">Contents</a>] +</span><p class="aligncenter">The End + +</p> +<p class="aligncenter"><i>Printed by</i> R. & R. Clark, Limited, <i>Edinburgh</i>. + + +</p> +<div class="transcribernote"> +<h2>Colophon</h2> +<h3>Availability</h3> +<p>This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give +it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/">www.gutenberg.org</a>. + +</p> +<p>This eBook is produced by Jeroen Hellingman and and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at <a href="http://www.pgdp.net/">www.pgdp.net</a> from page images provided by the Million Books Project, supplemented with scans of the illustrations from original copies. + +</p> +<h3>Encoding</h3> +<h3>Revision History</h3> +<ul> +<li>19-FEB-2004 Added TEI tagging. + +</li> +</ul> +<h3>Corrections</h3> +<p>The following corrections have been applied to the text:</p> +<table width="75%"> +<tr> +<th>Location</th> +<th>Source</th> +<th>Correction</th> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#d0e1137">Page 3</a></td> +<td width="40%"> +[<i>Not in source</i>] + +</td> +<td width="40%">”</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#d0e7540">Page 229</a></td> +<td width="40%">Lakshhmi</td> +<td width="40%">Lakshmi</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#d0e8617">Page 268</a></td> +<td width="40%">Unrol</td> +<td width="40%">Unroll</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#d0e8622">Page 268</a></td> +<td width="40%">unrol</td> +<td width="40%">unroll</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#d0e8658">Page 269</a></td> +<td width="40%"> +[<i>Not in source</i>] + +</td> +<td width="40%">,</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#d0e10082">Page 327</a></td> +<td width="40%">to</td> +<td width="40%">as</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#d0e11034">Page 367</a></td> +<td width="40%">kepeer</td> +<td width="40%">keeper</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#d0e13260">Page 460</a></td> +<td width="40%">Rāhtors</td> +<td width="40%">Rāthors</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#d0e15532">Page 554</a></td> +<td width="40%">Acacta</td> +<td width="40%">Acacia</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td width="20%"><a href="#d0e15995">Page 573</a></td> +<td width="40%"> +[<i>Not in source</i>] + +</td> +<td width="40%">”</td> +</tr> +</table> +</div> +</div> +</div> + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Tribes and Castes of the Central +Provinces of India - Volume IV of IV, by R.V. 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