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Title: The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India
Volume 3 of 4
Author: R. V. Russell
Release Date: November 21, 2012 [EBook #41424]
Language: English
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THE TRIBES AND CASTES OF THE CENTRAL PROVINCES OF INDIA
By
R.V. RUSSELL
Of the Indian Civil Service Superintendent of Ethnography, Central
Provinces
Assisted by
Rai Bahadur Hira Lal
Extra Assistant Commissioner
Published Under the Orders of the Central Provinces Administration
In Four Volumes
Vol. III.
Macmillan and Co., Limited St. Martin's Street, London.
1916
CONTENTS OF VOLUME III
Articles on Castes and Tribes of the Central Provinces in Alphabetical
Order
The articles which are considered to be of most general interest are
shown in capitals
Page
Gadaria (Shepherd) 3
Gadba (Forest tribe) 9
Ganda (Weaver and labourer) 14
Gandhmali (Uriya village priests and temple servants) 17
Garpagari (Averter of hailstorms) 19
Gauria (Snake-charmer and juggler) 24
Ghasia (Grass-cutter) 27
Ghosi (Buffalo-herdsman) 32
Golar (Herdsman) 35
Gond (Forest tribe and cultivator) 39
Gond-Gowari (Herdsman) 143
Gondhali (Religious mendicant) 144
Gopal (Vagrant criminal caste) 147
Gosain (Religious mendicant) 150
Gowari (Herdsman) 160
Gujar (Cultivator) 166
Gurao (Village priest) 175
Halba (Forest tribe, labourer) 182
Halwai (Confectioner) 201
Hatkar (Soldier, shepherd) 204
Hijra (Eunuch, mendicant) 206
Holia (Labourer, curing hides) 212
Injhwar (Boatman and fisherman) 213
Jadam (Cultivator) 217
Jadua (Criminal caste) 219
Jangam (Priest of the Lingayat sect) 222
Jat (Landowner and cultivator) 225
Jhadi Telenga (Illegitimate, labourer) 238
Jogi (Religious mendicant and pedlar) 243
Joshi (Astrologer and village priest) 255
Julaha (Weaver) 279
Kachera (Maker of glass bangles) 281
Kachhi (Vegetable-grower) 285
Kadera (Firework-maker) 288
Kahar (Palanquin-bearer and household servant) 291
Kaikari (Basket-maker and vagrant) 296
Kalanga (Soldier, cultivator) 302
Kalar (Liquor vendor) 306
Kamar (Forest tribe) 323
Kanjar (Gipsies and prostitutes) 331
Kapewar (Cultivator) 342
Karan (Writer and clerk) 343
Kasai (Butcher) 346
Kasar (Worker in brass) 369
Kasbi (Prostitute) 373
Katia (Cotton-spinner) 384
Kawar (Forest tribe and cultivator) 389
Kayasth (Village accountant, writer and clerk) 404
Kewat (Boatman and fisherman) 422
Khairwar (Forest tribe; boilers of catechu) 427
Khandait (Soldier, cultivator) 436
Khangar (Village watchman and labourer) 439
Kharia (Forest tribe, labourer) 445
Khatik (Mutton-butcher) 453
Khatri (Merchant) 456
Khojah (Trader and shopkeeper) 461
Khond (Forest tribe, cultivator) 464
Kir (Cultivator) 481
Kirar (Cultivator) 485
Kohli (Cultivator) 493
Kol (Forest tribe, labourer) 500
Kolam (Forest tribe, cultivator) 520
Kolhati (Acrobat) 527
Koli (Forest tribe, cultivator) 532
Kolta (Landowner and cultivator) 537
Komti (Merchant and shopkeeper) 542
Kori (Weaver and labourer) 545
Korku (Forest tribe, labourer) 550
Korwa (Forest tribe, cultivator) 571
Koshti (Weaver) 581
ILLUSTRATIONS IN VOLUME III
Page
65. Gond women grinding corn 42
66. Palace of the Gond kings of Garha-Mandla at Ramnagar 46
67. Gonds on a journey 62
68. Killing of Rawan, the demon king of Ceylon, from whom the
Gonds are supposed to be descended 114
69. Woman about to be swung round the post called Meghnath 116
70. Climbing the pole for a bag of sugar 118
71. Gonds with their bamboo carts at market 122
72. Gond women, showing tattooing on backs of legs 126
73. Maria Gonds in dancing costume 136
74. Gondhali musicians and dancers 144
75. Gosain mendicant 150
76. Alakhwale Gosains with faces covered with ashes 152
77. Gosain mendicants with long hair 154
78. Famous Gosain Mahant. Photograph taken after death 156
79. Gujar village proprietress and her land agent 168
80. Guraos with figures made at the Holi festival called
Gangour 176
81. Group of Gurao musicians with their instruments 180
82. Ploughing with cows and buffaloes in Chhattisgarh 182
83. Halwai or confectioner's shop 202
84. Jogi mendicants of the Kanphata sect 244
85. Jogi musicians with sarangi or fiddle 250
86. Kaikaris making baskets 298
87. Kanjars making ropes 332
88. A group of Kasars or brass-workers 370
89. Dancing girls and musicians 374
90. Girl in full dress and ornaments 378
91. Old type of sugarcane mill 494
92. Group of Kol women 512
93. Group of Kolams 520
94. Korkus of the Melghat hills 550
95. Korku women in full dress 556
96. Koshti men dancing a figure, holding strings and beating
sticks 582
PRONUNCIATION
a has the sound of u in but or murmur.
a has the sound of a in bath or tar.
e has the sound of é in écarté or ai in maid.
i has the sound of i in bit, or (as a final letter) of y in sulky.
i has the sound of ee in beet.
o has the sound of o in bore or bowl.
u has the sound of u in put or bull.
u has the sound of oo in poor or boot
The plural of caste names and a few common Hindustani words is formed
by adding s in the English manner according to ordinary usage, though
this is not, of course, the Hindustani plural.
Note.--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.
PART III
ARTICLES ON CASTES AND TRIBES
GARARDIA--KOSHTI
Gadaria
List of Paragraphs
1. General notice.
2. Subdivisions.
3. Marriage customs.
4. Religion and funeral rites.
5. Social customs.
6. Goats and sheep.
7. Blanket-weaving.
8. Sanctity of wool.
1. General notice.
Gadaria, Gadri. [1]--The occupational shepherd caste of northern
India. The name is derived from the Hindi gadar and the Sanskrit
gandhara, a sheep, the Sanskrit name being taken from the country of
Gandhara or Kandahar, from which sheep were first brought. The three
main shepherd castes all have functional names, that of the Dhangars
or Maratha shepherds being derived from dhan, small stock, while the
Kuramwars or Telugu shepherds take their name like the Gadarias from
kuruba, a sheep. These three castes are of similar nature and status,
and differ only in language and local customs. In 1911 the Gadarias
numbered 41,000 persons. They are found in the northern Districts,
and appear to have been amongst the earliest settlers in the Nerbudda
valley, for they have given their name to several villages, as
Gadariakheda and Gadarwara.
2. Subdivisions.
The Gadarias are a very mixed caste. They themselves say that their
first ancestor was created by Mahadeo to tend his rams, and that he
married three women who were fascinated by the sight of him shearing
the sheep. These belonged to the Brahman, Dhimar and Barai castes
respectively, and became the ancestors of the Nikhar, Dhengar and
Barmaiyan subcastes of Gadarias. The Nikhar subcaste are the highest,
their name meaning pure. Dhengar is probably, in reality, a corruption
of Dhangar, the name of the Maratha shepherd caste. They have other
subdivisions of the common territorial type, as Jheria or jungly,
applied to the Gadarias of Chhattisgarh; Desha from desh, country,
meaning those who came from northern India; Purvaiya or eastern,
applied to immigrants from Oudh; and Malvi or those belonging to
Malwa. Nikhar and Dhengar men take food together, but not the women;
and if a marriage cannot be otherwise arranged these subcastes will
sometimes give daughters to each other. A girl thus married is no
longer permitted to take food at her father's house, but she may eat
with the women of her husband's subcaste. Many of their exogamous
groups are named after animals or plants, as Hiranwar, from hiran,
a deer; Sapha from the cobra, Moria from the peacock, Nahar from the
tiger, Phulsungha, a flower, and so on. Others are the names of Rajput
septs and of other castes, as Ahirwar (Ahir) and Bamhania (Brahman).
Another more ambitious legend derives their origin from the Bania
caste. They say that once a Bania was walking along the road with a
cocoanut in his hand when Vishnu met him and asked him what it was. The
Bania answered that it was a cocoanut. Vishnu said that it was not
a cocoanut but wool, and told him to break it, and on breaking the
cocoanut the Bania found that it was filled with wool. The Bania asked
what he should do with it, and Vishnu told him to make a blanket out
of it for the god to sit on. So he made a blanket, and Vishnu said
that from that day he should be the ancestor of the Gadaria caste,
and earn his bread by making blankets from the wool of sheep. The
Bania asked where he should get the sheep from, and the god told him
to go home saying 'Ehan, Ehan, Ehan,' all the way, and when he got
home he would find a flock of sheep following him; but he was not to
look behind him all the way. And the Bania did so, but when he had
almost got home he could not help looking behind him to see if there
were really any sheep. And he saw a long line of sheep following him
in single file, and at the very end was a ram with golden horns just
rising out of the ground. But as he looked it sank back again into
the ground, and he went back to Vishnu and begged for it, but Vishnu
said that as he had looked behind him he had lost it. And this was
the origin of the Gadaria caste, and the Gadarias always say 'Ehan,
Ehan,' as they lead their flocks of sheep and goats to pasture.
3. Marriage customs.
Marriage within the clan is forbidden and also the union of first
cousins. Girls may be married at any age, and are sometimes united to
husbands much younger than themselves. Four castemen of standing carry
the proposal of marriage from the boy's father, and the girl's father,
being forewarned, sends others to meet them. One of the ambassadors
opens the conversation by saying, 'We have the milk and you have the
milk-pail; let them be joined.' To which the girl's party, if the
match be agreeable, will reply, "Yes, we have the tamarind and you
have the mango; if the panches agree let there be a marriage." The
boy's father gives the girl's father five areca-nuts, and the latter
returns them and they clasp each other round the neck. When the
wedding procession reaches the bride's village it is met by their
party, and one of them takes the sarota or iron nut-cutter, which
the bridegroom holds in his hand, and twirls it about in the air
several times. The ceremony is performed by walking round the sacred
pole, and the party return to the bridegroom's lodging, where his
brother-in-law fills the bride's lap with sweetmeats and water-nut
as an omen of fertility. The maihar or small wedding-cakes of wheat
fried in sesamum oil are distributed to all members of the caste
present at the wedding. While the bridegroom's party is absent at
the bride's house, the women who remain behind enjoy amusements of
their own. One of them strips herself naked, tying up her hair like
a religious mendicant, and is known as Baba or holy father. In this
state she romps with her companions in turn, while the others laugh
and applaud. Occasionally some man hides himself in a place where
he can be a witness of their play, but if they discover him he is
beaten severely with belnas or wooden bread-rollers. Widow-marriage
and divorce are permitted, the widow being usually expected to marry
her late husband's younger brother, whether he already has a wife or
not. Sexual offences are not severely reprobated, and may be atoned
for by a feast to the caste-fellows.
4. Religion and funeral rites.
The Gadarias worship the ordinary Hindu deities and also Dishai Devi,
the goddess of the sheep-pen. No Gadaria may go into the sheep-pen with
his shoes on. On entering it in the morning they make obeisance to the
sheep, and these customs seem to indicate that the goddess Dishai Devi
[2] is the deified sheep. When the sheep are shorn and the fleeces are
lying on the ground they take some milk from one of the ewes and mix
rice with it and sprinkle it over the wool. This rite is called Jimai,
and they say that it is feeding the wool, but it appears to be really
a sacrificial offering to the material. The caste burn the dead when
they can afford to do so, and take the bones to the Ganges or Nerbudda,
or if this is not practicable, throw them into the nearest stream.
5. Social customs.
Well-to-do members of the caste employ Brahmans for ceremonial
purposes, but others dispense with their services. The Gadarias
eat flesh and drink liquor, but abstain from fowls and pork. They
will take food cooked with water from a Lodhi or a Dangi, members
of these castes having formerly been their feudal chieftains in the
Vindhyan Districts and Nerbudda valley. Brahmans and members of the
good cultivating castes would be permitted to become Gadarias if
they should so desire. The head of the caste committee has the title
of Mahton and the office is hereditary, the holder being invariably
consulted on caste questions even if he should be a mere boy. The
Gadarias rank with those castes from whom a Brahman cannot take water,
but above the servile and labouring castes. They are usually somewhat
stupid, lazy and good-tempered, and are quite uneducated. Owing to
their work in cleaning the pens and moving about among the sheep, the
women often carry traces of the peculiar smell of these animals. This
is exemplified in the saying, 'Ek to Gadaria, dusre lahsan khae,' or
'Firstly she is a Gadaria and then she has eaten garlic'; the inference
being that she is far indeed from having the scent of the rose.
6. Goats and sheep.
The regular occupations of the Gadarias are the breeding and grazing
of sheep and goats, and the weaving of country blankets from sheep's
wool. The flocks are usually tended by the children, while the men
and women spin and weave the wool and make blankets. Goats are bred
in larger numbers than sheep in the Central Provinces, being more
commonly used for food and sacrifices, while they are also valuable
for their manure. Any Hindu who thinks an animal sacrifice requisite,
and objects to a fowl as unclean, will choose a goat; and the animal
after being sacrificed provides a feast for the worshippers, his head
being the perquisite of the officiating priest. Muhammadans and most
castes of Hindus will eat goat's meat when they can afford it. The
milk is not popular and there is very little demand for it locally,
but it is often sold to the confectioners, and occasionally made into
butter and exported. Sheep's flesh is also eaten, but is not so highly
esteemed. In the case of both sheep and goats there is a feeling
against consuming the flesh of ewes. Sheep are generally black in
colour and only occasionally white. Goats are black, white, speckled
or reddish-white. Both animals are much smaller than in Europe. Both
sheep and goats are in brisk demand in the cotton tracts for their
manure in the hot-weather months, and will be kept continually on
the move from field to field for a month at a time. It is usual to
hire flocks at the rate of one rupee a hundred head for one night;
but sometimes the cultivators combine to buy a large flock, and
after penning them on their fields in the hot weather, send them to
Nagpur in the beginning of the rains to be disposed of. The Gadaria
was formerly the bête noir of the cultivator, on account of the
risk incurred by the crops from the depredations of his sheep and
goats. This is exemplified in the saying:
Ahir, Gadaria, Pasi,
Yeh tinon satyanasi,
or, 'The Ahir (herdsman), the Gadaria and the Pasi, these three are
the husbandmen's foes.' And again:
Ahir, Gadaria, Gujar,
Yeh tinon chahen ujar,
or 'The Ahir, the Gadaria and the Gujar want waste land,' that is for
grazing their flocks. But since the demand for manure has arisen, the
Gadaria has become a popular personage in the village. The shepherds
whistle to their flocks to guide them, and hang bells round the necks
of goats but not of sheep. Some of them, especially in forest tracts,
train ordinary pariah dogs to act as sheep-dogs. As a rule, rams and
he-goats are not gelt, but those who have large flocks sometimes resort
to this practice and afterwards fatten the animals up for sale. They
divide their sheep into five classes, as follows, according to the
length of the ears: Kanari, with ears a hand's length long; Semri,
somewhat shorter; Burhai, ears a forefinger's length; Churia, ears
as long as the little finger; and Neori, with ears as long only as
the top joint of the forefinger. Goats are divided into two classes,
those with ears a hand's length long being called Bangalia or Bagra,
while those with small ears a forefinger's length are known as Gujra.
7. Blanket-weaving.
While ordinary cultivators have now taken to keeping goats, sheep
are still as a rule left to the Gadarias. These are of course valued
principally for their wool, from which the ordinary country blanket
is made. The sheep [3] are shorn two or sometimes three times a year,
in February, June and September, the best wool being obtained in
February from the cold weather coat. Members of the caste commonly
shear for each other without payment. The wool is carded with a
kamtha, or simple bow with a catgut string, and spun by the women of
the household. Blankets are woven by men on a loom like that used for
cotton cloth. The fabric is coarse and rough, but strong and durable,
and the colour is usually a dark dirty grey, approaching black,
being the same as that of the raw material. Every cultivator has one
of these, and the various uses to which it may be put are admirably
described by 'Eha' as follows: [4]
"The kammal is a home-spun blanket of the wool of black sheep, thick,
strong, as rough as a farrier's rasp, and of a colour which cannot
get dirty. When the Kunbi (cultivator) comes out of his hole in the
morning it is wrapped round his shoulders and reaches to his knees,
guarding him from his great enemy, the cold, for the thermometer is
down to 60° Fahrenheit. By-and-by he has a load to carry, so he folds
his kammal into a thick pad and puts it on the top of his head. Anon
he feels tired, so he lays down his load, and arranging his kammal
as a cushion, sits with comfort on a rugged rock or a stony bank, and
has a smoke. Or else he rolls himself in it from head to foot, like a
mummy, and enjoys a sound sleep on the roadside. It begins to rain,
he folds his kammal into an ingenious cowl and is safe. Many more
are its uses. I cannot number them all. Whatever he may be called
upon to carry, be it forest produce, or grain or household goods,
or his infant child, he will make a bundle of it with his kammal and
poise it on his head, or sling it across his back, and trudge away."
8. Sanctity of wool.
Wool is a material of some sanctity among the Hindus. It is
ceremonially pure, and woollen clothing can be worn by Brahmans
while eating or performing sacred functions. In many castes the
bridegroom at a wedding has a string of wool with a charm tied round
his waist. Religious mendicants wear jatas or wigs of sheep's wool,
and often carry woollen charms. The beads used for counting prayers are
often of wool. The reason for wool being thus held sacred may be that
it was an older kind of clothing used before cotton was introduced,
and thus acquired sanctity by being worn at sacrifices. Perhaps the
Aryans wore woollen clothing when they entered India.
Gadba
1. Description and structure of the tribe.
Gadba, Gadaba. [5]--A primitive tribe classified as Mundari or Kolarian
on linguistic grounds. The word Gadba, Surgeon-Major Mitchell states,
signifies a person who carries loads on his shoulders. The tribe call
themselves Guthau. They belong to the Vizagapatam District of Madras,
and in the Central Provinces are found only in the Bastar State, into
which they have immigrated to the number of some 700 persons. They
speak a Mundari dialect, called Gadba, after their tribal name, and
are one of the two Mundari tribes found so far south as Vizagapatam,
the other being the Savars. [6] Their tribal organisation is not very
strict, and a Bhatra, a Parja, a Muria, or a member of any superior
caste may become a Gadba at an expenditure of two or three rupees. The
ceremony consists of shaving the body of the novice, irrespective of
sex, clean of hair, after which he or she is given to eat rice cooked
in the water of the Ganges. This is followed by a feast to the tribe
in which a pig must be killed. The Gadbas have totemistic exogamous
septs, usually named after animals, as gutal dog, angwan bear, dungra
tortoise, surangai tiger, gumal snake, and so on. Members of each sept
abstain from killing or injuring the animal or plant after which it is
named, but they have no scruple in procuring others to do this. Thus
if a snake enters the hut of a person belonging to the Gumal sept,
he will call a neighbour of another sept to kill it. He may not touch
its carcase with his bare hand, but if he holds it through a piece
of rag no sin is incurred.
2. Marriage.
Marriage is adult, but the rule existing in Madras that a girl is
not permitted to marry until she can weave her own cloth does not
obtain in the Central Provinces. [7] As a rule the parents of the
couple arrange the match, but the wishes of the girl are sometimes
consulted and various irregular methods of union are recognised. Thus
a man is permitted with the help of his friends to go and carry off a
girl and keep her as his wife, more especially if she is a relation
on the maternal side more distant than a first cousin. Another form
is the Paisa Mundi, by which a married or unmarried woman may enter
the house of a man of her caste other than her husband and become his
wife; and the Upaliya, when a married woman elopes with a lover. The
marriage ceremony is simple. The bridegroom's party go to the girl's
house, leaving the parents behind, and before they reach it are met and
stopped by a bevy of young girls and men in their best clothes from
the bride's village. A girl comes forward and demands a ring, which
one of the men of the wedding party places on her finger, and they
then proceed to the bride's house, where the bridegroom's presents,
consisting of victuals, liquor, a cloth, and two rupees, are opened
and carefully examined. If any deficiency is found, it must at once
be made good. The pair eat a little food together, coloured rice is
applied to their foreheads, and on the second day a new grass shed is
erected, in which some rice is cooked by an unmarried girl. The bride
and bridegroom are shut up in this, and two pots of water are poured
over them from the roof, the marriage being then consummated. If
the girl is not adult this ceremony is omitted. Widow-marriage is
permitted by what is called the tika form, by which a few grains
of rice coloured with turmeric are placed on the foreheads of the
pair and they are considered as man and wife. There is no regular
divorce, but if a married woman misbehaves with a man of the caste,
the husband goes to him with a few friends and asks whether the story
is true, and if the accusation is admitted demands a pig and liquor
for himself and his friends as compensation. If these are given he
does not turn his wife out of his house. A liaison of a Gadba woman
with a man of a superior caste is also said to involve no penalty, but
if her paramour is a low-caste man she is excommunicated for ever. In
spite of these lax rules, however, Major Mitchell states that the
women are usually very devoted to their husbands. Mr. Thurston [8]
notes that among the Bonda Gadabas a young man and a maid retire to
the jungle and light a fire. Then the maid, taking a burning stick,
places it on the man's skin. If he cries out he is unworthy of her,
and she remains a maid. If he does not, the marriage is at once
consummated. The application of the brand is probably light or severe
according to the girl's feelings towards the young man.
3. Religious beliefs and festivals.
The Gadbas worship Burhi Mata or Thakurani Mata, who is the goddess
of smallpox and rinderpest. They offer to her flowers and incense when
these diseases are prevalent among men or cattle, but if the epidemic
does not abate after a time, they abuse the goddess and tell her to do
her worst, suspending the offerings. They offer a white cock to the sun
and a red one to the moon, and various other deities exercise special
functions, Bhandarin being the goddess of agriculture and Dharni of
good health, while Bharwan is the protector of cattle and Dand Devi
of men from the attacks of wild beasts. They have vague notions
of a heaven and hell where the sinful will be punished, and also
believe in re-birth. But these ideas appear to be borrowed from their
Hindu neighbours. When the new rice crop is ripe, the first-fruits
are cooked and served to the cattle in new bamboo baskets, and are
then partaken of by men. The ripening of the mango crop is also an
important festival. In the bright fortnight of Chait (March) the men
go out hunting, and on their return cook the game before Matideo,
the god of hunting, who lives in a tree. In Madras the whole male
population turn out to hunt, and if they come back without success
the women pelt them with cowdung on their return. If successful,
however, they have their revenge on the women in another way. [9]
On festival days men and women dance together to the music of a pipe
and drum. Sometimes they form a circle, holding long poles, and jump
backwards and forwards to and from the centre by means of the pole; or
the women dance singly or in pairs, their hands resting on each other's
waists. A man and woman will then step out of the crowd and sing at
each other, the woman reflecting on the man's ungainly appearance and
want of skill as a cultivator or huntsman, while the man retorts by
reproaching her with her ugliness and slatternly habits. [10]
4. Disposal of the dead.
The dead are buried with their feet to the west, ready to start for
the region of the setting sun. On their return from the funeral the
mourners stop on the way, and a fish is boiled and offered to the
dead. An egg is cut in half and placed on the ground, and pieces
of mango bark are laid beside it on which the mourners tread. The
women accompany the corpse, and in the meantime the house of the
dead person is cleaned with cowdung by the children left behind. On
the first day food is supplied to the mourners by their relatives,
and in the evening some cooked rice and vegetables are offered to the
dead. The mourning lasts for nine days, and on the last day a cow or
bullock is killed with the blunt head of an axe, the performance of
this function being hereditary in certain families of the caste. Some
blood from the animal and some cooked rice are put in leaf-cups and
placed on the grave by the head of the corpse. The animal is cooked
and eaten by the grave, and they then return to the cooking shed and
place its jawbone under a stick supported on two others, blood and
cooked rice being again offered. The old men and women bathe in warm
water, and all return to the place where the dead man breathed his
last. Here they drink and have another meal of rice and beef, which
is repeated on the following day, and the business of committing the
dead to the ancestors is complete. Liquor is offered to the ancestors
on feast days.
5. Occupation and mode of living.
The caste are cultivators and labourers, while some are employed
as village watchmen, and others are hereditary palki-bearers to the
Raja of Bastar, enjoying a free grant of land. They practise shifting
cultivation, cleaning a space by indiscriminate felling in the forest,
and roughly ploughing the ground for a single broad-cast crop of rice;
in the following year the clearing is usually abandoned. Their dress
is simple, though they now wear ordinary cloth. Forty years ago it
is said that they wore coverings made from the bark of the kuring
tree and painted with horizontal bands of red, yellow and blue. [11]
A girdle of the thickness of a man's arm made from fine strips of bark
is still worn and is a distinguishing feature of the Gadba women. They
also carry a circlet round their forehead of the seeds of kusa grass
threaded on a string. Both men and women wear enormous earrings, the
men having three in each ear. The Gadbas are almost omnivorous, and eat
flesh, fish, fowls, pork, buffaloes, crocodiles, non-poisonous snakes,
large lizards, frogs, sparrows, crows and large red ants. They abstain
only from the flesh of monkeys, horses and asses. A Gadba must not
ride on a horse under penalty of being put out of caste. Mr. Thurston
[12] gives the following reason for this prejudice:--"The Gadbas of
Vizagapatam will not touch a horse, as they are palanquin-bearers,
and have the same objection to a rival animal as a cart-driver has
to a motor-car." They will eat the leavings of other castes and take
food from all except the impure ones, but like the Mehtars and Ghasias
elsewhere they will not take food or water from a Kayasth. Only the
lowest castes will eat with Gadbas, but they are not considered as
impure, and are allowed to enter temples and take part in religious
ceremonies.
Ganda
1. Distribution and origin.
Ganda.--A servile and impure caste of Chota Nagpur and the Uriya
Districts. They numbered 278,000 persons in 1901, resident largely
in Sambalpur and the Uriya States, but since the transfer of this
territory to Bengal, only about 150,000 Gandas remain in the Central
Provinces in Raipur, Bilaspur and Raigarh. In this Province the Gandas
have become a servile caste of village drudges, acting as watchmen,
weavers of coarse cloth and musicians. They are looked on as an impure
caste, and are practically in the same position as the Mehras and
Chamars of other Districts. In Chota Nagpur, however, they are still
in some places recognised as a primitive tribe, [13] being generally
known here as Pan, Pab or Chik. Sir H. Risley suggests that the name
of Ganda may be derived from Gond, and that the Pans may originally
have been an offshoot of that tribe, but no connection between the
Gandas and Gonds has been established in the Central Provinces.
2. Caste subdivisions.
The subcastes reported differ entirely from those recorded in
Orissa. In the Central Provinces they are mainly occupational. Thus
the Bajna or Bajgari are those who act as musicians at feasts and
marriages; the Mang or Mangia make screens and mats, while their women
serve as midwives; the Dholias make baskets; the Doms skin cattle and
the Nagarchis play on nakkaras or drums. Panka is also returned as a
subcaste of Ganda, but in the Central Provinces the Pankas are now
practically a separate caste, and consist of those Gandas who have
adopted Kabirpanthism and have thereby obtained some slight rise in
status. In Bengal Sir H. Risley mentions a group called Patradias,
or slaves and menials of the Khonds, and discusses the Patradias as
follows:--"The group seems also to include the descendants of Pans,
who sold themselves as slaves or were sold as Merias or victims to
the Khonds. We know that an extensive traffic in children destined
for human sacrifice used to go on in the Khond country, and that the
Pans were the agents who sometimes purchased, but more frequently
kidnapped, the children, whom they sold to the Khonds, and were so
debased that they occasionally sold their own offspring, though they
knew of course the fate that awaited them. [14] Moreover, apart from
the demand for sacrificial purposes, the practice of selling men as
agricultural labourers was until a few years ago by no means uncommon
in the wilder parts of the Chota Nagpur Division, where labour is
scarce and cash payments are almost unknown. Numbers of formal bonds
have come before me, whereby men sold themselves for a lump sum to
enable them to marry." The above quotation is inserted merely as an
interesting historical reminiscence of the Pans or Gandas.
3. Marriage.
The Gandas have exogamous groups or septs of the usual low-caste type,
named after plants, animals or other inanimate objects. Marriage is
prohibited within the sept, and between the children of two sisters,
though the children of brothers and sisters may marry. If a girl
arrives at maturity without a husband having been found for her,
she is wedded to a spear stuck up in the courtyard of the house,
and then given away to anybody who wishes to take her. A girl going
wrong with a man of the caste is married to him by the ceremony
employed in the case of widows, while her parents have to feed the
caste. But a girl seduced by an outsider is permanently expelled. The
betrothal is marked by a present of various articles to the father of
the bride. Marriages must not be celebrated during the three rainy
months of Shrawan, Bhadon or Kunwar, nor during the dark fortnight
of the month, nor on a Saturday or Tuesday. The marriage-post is
of the wood of the mahua tree, and beneath it are placed seven
cowries and seven pieces of turmeric. An elderly male member of the
caste known as the Sethia conducts the ceremony, and the couple go
five times round the sacred pole in the morning and thrice in the
evening. When the bride and bridegroom return home after the wedding,
an image of a deer is made with grass and placed behind the ear of the
bride. The bridegroom then throws a toy arrow at it made of grass or
thin bamboo, and is allowed seven shots. If he fails to knock it out
of her ear after these the bride's brother takes it and runs away and
the bridegroom must follow and catch him. This is clearly a symbolic
process representing the chase, of the sort practised by the Khonds
and other primitive tribes, and may be taken as a reminiscence among
the Gandas of their former life in the forests. The remarriage of
widows is permitted, and the younger brother of the deceased husband
takes his widow if he wishes to do so. Otherwise she may marry whom
she pleases. A husband may divorce his wife for adultery before the
caste committee, and if she marries her lover he must repay to the
husband the expenses incurred by the latter on his wedding.
4. Religion.
The Gandas principally worship Dulha Deo, the young bridegroom who
was carried off by a tiger, and they offer a goat to him at their
weddings. They observe the Hindu fasts and festivals, and at Dasahra
worship their musical instruments and the weaver's loom. Being
impure, they do not revere the tulsi plant nor the banyan or pipal
trees. Children are named on the sixth day after birth without any
special ceremony. The dead are generally buried from motives of
economy, as with most families the fuel required for cremation would
be a serious item of expenditure. A man is laid on his face in the
grave and a woman on her back. Mourning is observed for three days,
except in the case of children under three years old, whose deaths
entail no special observances. On the fourth day a feast is given,
and when all have been served, the chief mourner takes a little food
from the plate of each guest and puts it in a leaf-cup. He takes
another leaf-cup full of water and places the two outside the house,
saying 'Here is food for you' to the spirit of the departed.
5. Occupation and social status.
The Gandas are generally employed either in weaving coarse cloth or as
village musicians. They sing and dance to the accompaniment of their
instruments, the dancers generally being two young boys dressed as
women. They have long hair and put on skirts and half-sleeved jackets,
with hollow anklets round their feet filled with stones to make them
tinkle. On their right shoulders are attached some peacocks' feathers,
and coloured cloths hang from their back and arms and wave about
when they dance. Among their musical instruments is the sing-baja,
a single drum made of iron with ox-hide leather stretched over it;
two horns project from the sides for purposes of decoration and
give the instrument its name, and it is beaten with thick leather
thongs. The dafla is a wooden drum open on one side and covered with
a goat-skin on the other, beaten with a cane and a bamboo stick. The
timki is a single hemispherical drum of earthenware; and the sahnai
is a sort of bamboo flute. The Gandas of Sambalpur have strong
criminal tendencies which have recently called for special measures of
repression. Nevertheless they are usually employed as village watchmen
in accordance with long-standing custom. They are considered as impure
and, though not compelled actually to live apart from the village,
have usually a separate quarter and are not permitted to draw water
from the village well or to enter Hindu temples. Their touch defiles,
and a Hindu will not give anything into the hands of one of the caste
while holding it himself, but will throw it down in front of the Ganda,
and will take anything from him in the same manner. They will admit
outsiders of higher rank into the caste, taking from them one or two
feasts. And it is reported that in Raipur a Brahman recently entered
the caste for love of a Ganda girl.
Gandhmali
Gandhmali, [15] Thanapati.--The caste of village priests of the
temples of Siva or Mahadeo in Sambalpur and the Uriya States. They
numbered about 700 persons in the Central Provinces in 1911. The caste
appears to be an offshoot of the Malis or gardeners, differentiated
from them by their special occupation of temple attendants. In
Hindustan the priests of Siva's temples in villages are often Malis,
and in the Maratha country they are Guraos, another special caste,
or Phulmalis. Some members of the caste in Sambalpur, however,
aspire to Rajput origin and wear the sacred thread. These prefer
the designation of Thanapati or 'Master of the sacred place,' and
call the others who do not wear the thread Gandhmalis. Gandh means
incense. The Thanapatis say that on one occasion a Rajput prince
from Jaipur made a pilgrimage to the temple of Jagannath at Puri,
and on his return stopped at the celebrated temple of Mahadeo at Huma
near Sambalpur. Mahadeo appeared before the prince and asked him to
become his priest; the Rajput asked to be excused as he was old,
but Mahadeo promised him three sons, which he duly obtained and
in gratitude dedicated them to the service of the god. From these
sons the Thanapatis say that they are descended, but the claim is no
doubt quite illusory. The truth is, probably, that the Thanapatis are
priests of the temples situated in towns and large villages, and owing
to their calling have obtained considerable social estimation, which
they desire to justify and place on an enduring basis by their claim
to Rajput ancestry; while the Gandhmalis are village priests, more
or less in the position of village menials and below the cultivating
castes, and any such pretensions would therefore in their case be quite
untenable. There are signs of the cessation of intermarriage between
the two groups, but this has not been brought about as yet, probably
owing to the paucity of members in the caste and the difficulty of
arranging matches. Three functional subdivisions also appear to be in
process of formation, the Pujaris or priests of Mahadeo's temples,
the Bandhadias or those who worship him on the banks of tanks, and
the Mundjhulas [16] or devotees of the goddess Somlai in Sambalpur,
on whom the inspiration of the goddess descends, making them shake and
roll their heads. When in this state they are believed to drink the
blood flowing from goats sacrificed in the temple. For the purposes
of marriage the caste is divided into exogamous groups or bargas, the
names of which are usually titles or designations of offices. Marriage
within the barga is prohibited. When the bride is brought to the
altar in the marriage ceremony, she throws a garland of jasmine
flowers on the neck of the bridegroom. This custom resembles the old
Swayamwara form of marriage, in which a girl chose her own husband
by throwing a garland of flowers round his neck. But it probably has
no connection with this and merely denotes the fact that the caste
are gardeners by profession, similar ceremonies typifying the caste
calling being commonly performed at marriages, especially among the
Telugu castes. Girls should be married before adolescence and, as is
usual among the Uriya castes, if no suitable husband is forthcoming a
symbolic marriage is celebrated; the Thanapatis make her go through the
form with her maternal grandfather or sister's husband, and in default
of them with a tree. She is then immediately divorced and disposed
of as a widow. Divorce and the remarriage of widows are permitted. A
bachelor marrying a widow must first go through the ceremony with
a flower. The Gandhmalis, as the priests of Mahadeo, are generally
Saivas and wear red clothes covered with ochre. They consider that
their ultimate ancestor is the Nag or cobra and especially observe
the festival of Nag-Panchmi, abstaining from any cooked food on that
day. They both burn and bury the dead and perform the shraddh ceremony
or the offering of sacrificial cakes. They eat flesh but do not drink
liquor. Their social position is fairly good and Brahmans will take
water from their hands. Many of them hold free grants of land in return
for their services at the temples. A few are ordinary cultivators.
Garpagari
1. Origin of the caste.
Garpagari. [17]--A caste of village menials whose function it is to
avert hailstorms from the crops. They are found principally in the
Maratha Districts of the Nagpur country and Berar, and numbered 9000
persons in 1911. The name is derived from the Marathi gar, hail. The
Garpagaris are really Naths or Jogis who have taken to this calling and
become a separate caste. They wear clothes coloured with red ochre,
and a garland of rudraksha beads, and bury their dead in a sitting
posture. According to their tradition the first Garpagari was one
Raut, a Jogi, who accompanied a Kunbi malguzar on a visit to Benares,
and while there he prophesied that on a certain day all the crops
of their village would be destroyed by a hailstorm. The Kunbi then
besought him to save the crops if he could, and he answered that by
his magic he could draw off the hail from the rest of the village
and concentrate it in his own field, and he agreed to do this if the
cultivators would recompense him for his loss. When the two came home
to their village they found that there had been a severe hailstorm,
but it had all fallen in the Jogi's field. His loss was made good to
him and he adopted this calling as a profession, becoming the first
Garpagari, and being paid by contributions from the proprietor and
tenants. There are no subcastes except that the Kharchi Garpagari
are a bastard group, with whom the others refuse to intermarry.
2. Marriage.
Marriage is regulated by exogamous groups, two of which, Watari from
the Otari or brass-worker, and Dhankar from the Dhangar or shepherds,
are named after other castes. Some are derived from the names of
animals, as Harnya from the black-buck, and Wagh from the tiger. The
Diunde group take their name from diundi, the kotwar's [18] drum. They
say that their ancestor was so named because he killed his brother, and
was proclaimed as an outlaw by beat of drum. The marriage of members
of the same group is forbidden and also that of the children of two
sisters, so long as the relationship between them is remembered. The
caste usually celebrate their weddings after those of the Kunbis, on
whom they depend for contributions to their expenses. Widow-marriage
is permitted, but the widow sometimes refuses to marry again, and,
becoming a Bhagat or devotee, performs long pilgrimages in male
attire. Divorce is permitted, but as women are scarce, is rarely
resorted to. The Garpagaris say, "If one would not throw away a
vegetable worth a damri (one-eighth of a pice or farthing), how shall
one throw away a wife who is 3 1/2 cubits long." A divorced wife is
allowed to marry again.
3. Religion.
The caste worship Mahadeo or Siva and Mahabir or Hanuman, and do not
usually distinguish them. Their principal festival is called Mahi
and takes place on the first day of Poush (December), this being the
day from which hailstorms may be expected to occur; and next to this
Mando Amawas, or the first day of Chait (March), after which hailstorms
need not be feared. They offer goats to Mahadeo in his terrible form
of Kal Bhairava, and during the ceremony the Kunbis beat the daheka,
a small drum with bells, to enhance the effect of the sacrifice, so
that their crops may be saved. When a man is at the point of death
he is placed in the sitting posture in which he is to be buried,
for fear that after death his limbs may become so stiff that they
cannot be made to assume it. The corpse is carried to the grave in
a cloth coloured with red ochre. A gourd containing pulse and rice,
a pice coin, and a small quantity of any drug to which the deceased
may have been addicted in life are placed in the hands, and the grave
is filled in with earth and salt. A lamp is lighted on the place where
the death occurred, for one night, and on the third day a cocoanut is
broken there, after which mourning ends and the house is cleaned. A
stone brought from the bed of a river is plastered down on to the
grave with clay, and this may perhaps represent the dead man's spirit.
4. Occupation.
The occupation of the Garpagari is to avert hailstorms, and he was
formerly remunerated by a customary contribution of rice from each
cultivator in the village. He received the usual presents at seed-time
and harvest, and two pice from each tenant on the Basant-Panchmi
festival. When the sky is of mixed red and black at night like smoke
and flame, the Garpagari knows that a hailstorm is coming. Then, taking
a sword in his hand, he goes and stands before Mahabir, and begs him
to disperse the clouds. When entreaties fail, he proceeds to threats,
saying that he will kill himself, and throws off his clothes. Sometimes
his wife and children go and stand with him before Mahabir's shrine
and he threatens to kill them. Formerly he would cut and slash himself,
so it is said, if Mahabir was obdurate, but now the utmost he does is
to draw some blood from a finger. He would also threaten to sacrifice
his son, and instances are known of his actually having done so.
Two ideas appear to be involved in these sacrifices of the
Garpagari. One is the familiar principle of atonement, the blood
being offered to appease the god as a substitute for the crops
which he seems about to destroy. But when the Garpagari threatened
to kill himself, and actually killed his son, it was not merely as
an atonement, because in that case the threats would have had no
meaning. His intention seems rather to have been to lay the guilt of
homicide upon the god by slaying somebody in front of his shrine,
in case nothing less would move him from his purpose of destroying
the crops. The idea is the same as that with which people committed
suicide in order that their ghosts might haunt those who had driven
them to the act. As late as about the year 1905 a Gond Bhumka
or village priest was hanged in Chhindwara for killing his two
children. He owed a debt of Rs. 25 and the creditor was pressing
him and he had nothing to pay. So he flew into a rage and exclaimed
that the gods would do nothing for him even though he was a Bhumka,
and he seized his two children and cut off their heads and laid them
before the god. In this it would appear that the Bhumka's intention
was partly to take revenge on his master for the neglect shown to him,
the god's special servant. The Garpagari diverts the hail by throwing
a handful of grain in the direction in which he wishes it to go. When
the storm begins he will pick up some hailstones, smear them with his
blood and throw them away, telling them to rain over rivers, hills,
forests and barren ground. When caterpillars or locusts attack the
crops he catches one or two and offers them at Mahabir's shrine,
afterwards throwing them up in the air. Or he buries one alive and
this is supposed to stay the plague. When rust appears in the crops,
one or two blades are in like manner offered to Mahabir, and it is
believed that the disease will be stayed. Or if the rice plants do
not come into ear a few of them are plucked and offered, and fresh
fertile blades then come up. He also has various incantations which
are believed to divert the storm or to cause the hailstones to melt
into water. In some localities, when the buffalo is slaughtered at
the Dasahra festival, the Garpagari takes seven different kinds of
spring-crop seeds and dips them in its blood. He buries them in a
spot beside his hearth, and it is believed that when a hailstorm
threatens the grains move about and give out a humming sound like
water boiling. Thus the Garpagari has warning of the storm. If the
Garpagari is absent and a storm comes his wife will go and stand naked
before Mahabir's shrine. The wives know the incantations, but they
must not learn them from their husbands, because in that case the
husband would be in the position of a guru or spiritual preceptor
to his wife and the conjugal relation could no longer continue. No
other caste will learn the incantations, for to make the hailstones
melt is regarded as equivalent to causing an abortion, and as a sin
for which heavy retribution would be incurred in a future life.
In Chhattisgarh the Baiga or village priest of the aboriginal tribes
averts hailstorms in the same manner as the Garpagari, and elsewhere
the Barais or betel-vine growers perform this function, which is
especially important to them because their vines are so liable to
be injured by hailstorms. In ancient Greece there existed a village
functionary, the Chalazo phulax, who kept off hailstorms in exactly the
same manner as the Garpagari. He would offer a victim, and if he had
none would draw blood from his own fingers to appease the storm. [19]
The same power has even been imputed to Christian priests as recorded
by Sir James Frazer: "In many villages of Provence the priest is
still required to possess the faculty of averting storms. It is not
every priest who enjoys this reputation; and in some villages when
a change of pastors takes place, the parishioners are eager to learn
whether the new incumbent has the power (pouder) as they call it. At
the first sign of a heavy storm they put him to the proof by inviting
him to exorcise the threatening clouds; and if the result answers to
their hopes, the new shepherd is assured of the sympathy and respect
of his flock. In some parishes where the reputation of the curate
in this respect stood higher than that of the rector, the relations
between the two have been so strained in consequence that the bishop
has had to translate the rector to another benefice." [20]
Of late years an unavoidable scepticism as to the Garpagari's
efficiency has led to a reduction of his earnings, and the cultivators
now frequently decline to give him anything, or only a sheaf of corn
at harvest. Some members of the caste have taken to weaving newar or
broad tape for beds, and others have become cultivators.
5. Social status.
The Garpagaris eat flesh and drink liquor. They will take cooked
food from a Kunbi, though the Kunbis will not take even water from
them. They are a village menial caste and rank with others of the
same position, though on a somewhat lower level because they beg and
accept cooked food at the weddings of Kunbis. Their names usually
end in nath, as Ramnath, Kisannath and so on.
Gauria
Gauria. [21]--A small caste of snake-charmers and jugglers who are
an offshoot of the Gond tribe. They number about 500 persons and
are found only in Chhattisgarh. They have the same exogamous septs
as the Gonds, as Markam, Marai, Netam, Chhedaiha, Jagat, Purteti,
Chichura and others. But they are no doubt of very mixed origin, as is
shown by the fact that they do not eat together at their feasts, but
the guests all cook their own food and eat it separately. And after
a daughter has been married her own family even will not take food
from her hand because they are doubtful of her husband's status. It
is said that the Gaurias were accustomed formerly to beg only from
the Kewat caste, though this restriction is no longer maintained. The
fact may indicate that they are partly descended from the unions of
Kewats with Gond women.
Adult marriage is the general rule of the caste and a fixed bride-price
of sixteen rupees is paid. The couple go away together at once and six
months afterwards return to visit the bride's parents, when they are
treated as outsiders and not allowed to touch the food cooked for the
family, while they reciprocally insist on preparing their own. Male
Gaurias will take food from any of the higher castes, but the women
will eat only from Gaurias. They will admit outsiders belonging to
any caste from whom they can take food into the community. And if
a Gauria woman goes wrong with a member of any of these castes they
overlook the matter and inflict only a feast as a penalty.
Their marriage ceremony consists merely in the placing of bangles
on the woman's wrists, which is the form by which a widow is married
among other castes. If a widow marries a man other than her husband's
younger brother, the new husband must pay twelve rupees to her first
husband's family, or to her parents if she has returned to them. If
she takes with her a child born of her first husband with permission
to keep it, the second husband must pay eight rupees to the first
husband's family as the price of the child. But if the child is to be
returned as soon as it is able to shift for itself the second husband
receives eight rupees instead of paying it, as remuneration for his
trouble in rearing the baby. The caste bury their dead with the feet
to the south, like the Hindus. The principal business of the Gaurias
is to catch and exhibit snakes, and they carry a damru or rattle in
the shape of an hour-glass, which is considered to be a distinctive
badge of the caste. If a Gauria saw an Ojha snake-charmer carrying
a damru he would consider himself entitled to take it from the Ojha
forcibly if he could. A Gauria is forbidden to exhibit monkeys under
penalty of being put out of caste. Their principal festival is the
Nag-Panchmi, when the cobra is worshipped. They also profess to know
charms for curing persons bitten by snakes. The following incantation
is cried by a Gauria snake-doctor three times into the ears of his
patient in a loud voice:
"The bel tree and the bel leaves are on the other side of the
river. All the Gaurias are drowned in it. The breast of the koil;
over it is a net. Eight snakes went to the forest. They tamed rats
on the green tree. The snakes are flying, causing the parrots to
fly. They want to play, but who can make them play? After finishing
their play they stood up; arise thou also, thou sword. I am waking you
(the patient) up by crying in your ear, I conjure you by the name of
Dhanvantari [22] to rise carefully."
Similar meaningless charms are employed for curing the bites of
scorpions and for exorcising bad spirits and the influence of the
evil eye.
The Gaurias will eat almost all kinds of flesh, including pigs, rats,
fowls and jackals, but they abstain from beef. Their social status is
so low that practically no caste will take food or water from them,
but they are not considered as impure. They are great drunkards,
and are easily known by their damrus or rattles and the baskets in
which they carry their snakes.
GHASIA
List of Paragraphs
1. Description of the caste.
2. Subcastes.
3. Exogamous sections.
4. Marriage.
5. Religion and superstitions.
6. Occupation.
7. Social customs.
8. Ghasias and Kayasths.
1. Description of the caste.
Ghasia, Sais. [23]--A low Dravidian caste of Orissa and Central
India who cut grass, tend horses and act as village musicians at
festivals. In the Central Provinces they numbered 43,000 in 1911,
residing principally in the Chhattisgarh Division and the adjoining
Feudatory States. The word Ghasia is derived from ghas (grass) and
means a grass-cutter. Sir H. Risley states that they are a fishing
and cultivating caste of Chota Nagpur and Central India, who attend as
musicians at weddings and festivals and also perform menial offices of
all kinds. [24] In Bastar they are described as an inferior caste who
serve as horse-keepers and also make and mend brass vessels. They dress
like the Maria Gonds and subsist partly by cultivation and partly by
labour. [25] Dr. Ball describes them in Singhbhum as gold-washers and
musicians. Colonel Dalton speaks of them as "An extraordinary tribe,
foul parasites of the Central Indian hill tribes and submitting to be
degraded even by them. If the Chandals of the Puranas, though descended
from the union of a Brahmini and a Sudra, are the lowest of the low,
the Ghasias are Chandals and the people further south who are called
Pariahs are no doubt of the same distinguished lineage." [26]
2. Subcastes.
The Ghasias generally, however, appear now to be a harmless caste
of labourers without any specially degrading or repulsive traits. In
Mandla their social position and customs are much on a par with those
of the Gonds, from whom a considerable section of the caste seems
to be derived. In other localities they have probably immigrated
into the Central Provinces from Bundelkhand and Orissa. Among their
subdivisions the following may be mentioned: the Udia, who cure raw
hides and do the work of sweepers and are generally looked down on;
the Dingkuchia, who castrate cattle and ponies; the Dolboha, who carry
dhoolies or palanquins; the Nagarchi, who derive their name from the
nakkara or kettle-drum and are village musicians; the Khaltaha or those
from Raipur; the Laria, belonging to Chhattisgarh, and the Uria of
the Uriya country; the Ramgarhia, who take their name from Ramgarh in
the Mandla District, and the Mahobia from Mahoba in Bundelkhand. Those
members of the caste who work as grooms have become a separate group
and call themselves Sais, dropping the name of Ghasia. They rank
higher than the others and marry among themselves, and some of them
have become cultivators or work as village watchmen. They are also
called Thanwar by the Gonds, the word meaning stable or stall. In
Chota Nagpur a number of Ghasias have become tailors and are tending
to form a separate subcaste under the name of Darzi.
3. Exogamous sections.
Their septs are of the usual low-caste type, being named after animals,
inanimate objects or nicknames of ancestors. One of them is Panch-biha
or 'He who had five wives,' and another Kul-dip or 'The sept of the
lamp.' Members of this sept will stop eating if a lamp goes out. The
Janta Ragda take their name from the mill for grinding corn and will
not have a grinding-mill in their houses. They say that a female
ancestor was delivered of a child when sitting near a grinding-mill
and this gave the sept its name. Three septs are named after other
castes: Kumharbans, descended from a potter; Gandbans, from a Ganda;
and Luha, from a Lohar or blacksmith, and which names indicate that
members of these castes have been admitted into the community.
4. Marriage.
Marriage is forbidden within the sept, but is permitted between the
children of brothers and sisters. Those members of the caste who have
become Kabirpanthis may also marry with the others. Marriages may
be infant or adult. A girl who is seduced by a member of the caste
is married to him by a simple ceremony, the couple standing before a
twig of the umar [27] tree, while some women sprinkle turmeric over
them. If a girl goes wrong with an outsider she is permanently expelled
and a feast is exacted from her parents. The boy and his relatives
go to the girl's house for the betrothal, and a present of various
articles of food and dress is made to her family, apparently as a sort
of repayment for their expenditure in feeding and clothing her. A
gift of clothes is also made to her mother, called dudh-sari, and
is regarded as the price of the milk with which the mother nourished
the girl in her infancy. A goat, which forms part of the bride-price,
is killed and eaten by the parties and their relatives. The binding
portion of the marriage is the bhanwar ceremony, at which the couple
walk seven times round the marriage-post, holding each other by the
little fingers. When they return to the bridegroom's house, a cock or
a goat is killed and the head buried before the door; the foreheads of
the couple are marked with its blood and they go inside the house. If
the bride is not adult, she goes home after a stay of two days,
and the gauna or going-away ceremony is performed when she finally
leaves her parents' house. The remarriage of widows is permitted,
no restriction being imposed on the widow in her choice of a second
husband. Divorce is permitted for infidelity on the part of the wife.
5. Religion and superstitions.
Children are named on the sixth day after birth, special names being
given to avert ill-luck, while they sometimes go through the ceremony
of selling a baby for five cowries in order to disarm the jealousy
of the godlings who are hostile to children. They will not call any
person by name when they think an owl is within hearing, as they
believe that the owl will go on repeating the name and that this
will cause the death of the person bearing it. The caste generally
revere Dulha Deo, the bridegroom god, whose altar stands near the
cooking place, and the goddess Devi. Once in three years they offer
a white goat to Bura Deo, the great god of the Gonds. They worship
the sickle, the implement of their trade, at Dasahra, and offer
cocoanuts and liquor to Ghasi Sadhak, a godling who lives by the peg
to which horses are tied in the stable. He is supposed to protect
the horse from all kinds of diseases. At Dasahra they also worship
the horse. Their principal festival is called Karma and falls on the
eleventh day of the second half of Bhadon (August). On this day they
bring a branch of a tree from the forest and worship it with betel,
areca-nut and other offerings. All through the day and night the men
and women drink and dance together. They both burn and bury the dead,
throwing the ashes into water. For the first three days after a death
they set out rice and pulse and water in a leaf cup for the departed
spirit. They believe that the ghosts of the dead haunt the living,
and to cure a person possessed in this manner they beat him with
shoes and then bury an effigy of the ghost outside the village.
6. Occupation.
The Ghasias usually work as grass-cutters and grooms to horses, and
some of them make loom-combs for weavers. These last are looked down
upon and called Madarchawa. They make the kunch or brushes for the
loom, like the Kuchbandhias, from the root of the babai or khas-khas
grass, and the rachh or comb for arranging the threads on the loom
from the stalks of the bharru grass. Other Ghasias make ordinary hair
combs from the kathai, a grass which grows densely on the borders
of streams and springs. The frame of the comb is of bamboo and the
teeth are fixed in either by thread or wire, the price being one pice
(farthing) in the former case and two in the latter.
7. Social customs.
The caste admit outsiders by a disgusting ceremony in which the
candidate is shaved with urine and forced to eat a mixture of
cowdung, basil leaves, dub [28] grass and water in which a piece of
silver or gold has been dipped. The women do not wear the choli or
breast-cloth nor the nose-ring, and in some localities they do not
have spangles on the forehead. Women are tattooed on various parts
of the body before marriage with the idea of enhancing their beauty,
and sometimes tattooing is resorted to for curing a pain in some
joint or for rheumatism. A man who is temporarily put out of caste
is shaved on readmission, and in the case of a woman a lock of her
hair is cut. To touch a dead cow is one of the offences entailing
temporary excommunication. They employ a Brahman only to fix the dates
of their marriages. The position of the caste is very low and in some
places they are considered as impure. The Ghasias are very poor, and
a saying about them is 'Ghasia ki jindagi hasia', or 'The Ghasia is
supported by his sickle,' the implement used for cutting grass. The
Ghasias are perhaps the only caste in the Central Provinces outside
those commonly returning themselves as Mehtar, who consent to do
scavenger's work in some localities.
8. Ghasias and Kayasths.
The caste have a peculiar aversion to Kayasths and will not take food
or water from them nor touch a Kayasth's bedding or clothing. They
say that they would not serve a Kayasth as horse-keeper, but if by
any chance one of them was reduced to doing so, he at any rate would
not hold his master's stirrup for him to mount. To account for this
hereditary enmity they tell the following story:
On one occasion the son of the Kayasth minister of the Raja of Ratanpur
went out for a ride followed by a Ghasia sais (groom). The boy was
wearing costly ornaments, and the Ghasia's cupidity being excited,
he attacked and murdered the child, stripped him of his ornaments and
threw the body down a well. The murder was discovered and in revenge
the minister killed every Ghasia, man, woman or child that he could
lay his hands on. The only ones who escaped were two pregnant women
who took refuge in the hut of a Ganda and were sheltered by him. To
them were born a boy and a girl and the present Ghasias are descended
from the pair. Therefore a Ghasia will eat even the leavings of a
Ganda but will accept nothing from the hands of a Kayasth.
This story is an instance of the process which has been called the
transplantation of myth. Sir H. Risley tells a similar legend of the
Ghasias of Orissa, [29] but in their case it was a young Kayasth
bridegroom who was killed, and before dying he got leave from his
murderers to write a letter to his relatives informing them of his
death, on condition that he said nothing as to its manner. But in the
letter he disclosed the murder, and the Ghasias, who could not read,
were duly brought to justice. In the Ratanpur story as reported from
Bilaspur it was stated that "Somehow, even from down the well, the
minister's son managed to get a letter sent to his father telling him
of the murder." And this sentence seems sufficient to establish the
fact that the Central Provinces story has merely been imported from
Orissa and slightly altered to give it local colour. The real reason
for the traditional aversion felt by the Ghasias and other low castes
for the Kayasths will be discussed in the article on that caste.
Ghosi
Ghosi. [30]--A caste of herdsmen belonging to northern India and
found in the Central Provinces in Saugor and other Districts of the
Jubbulpore and Nerbudda Divisions. In 1911 they numbered 10,000 persons
in this Province out of a strength of about 60,000 in India. The
name is said to be derived from the Sanskrit root ghush, to shout,
the word ghosha meaning one who shouts as he herds his cattle. A
noticeable fact about the caste is that, while in Upper India they
are all Muhammadans--and it is considered to be partly on account of
the difference in religion that they have become differentiated into
a separate caste from the Ahirs--in the Central Provinces they are
nearly all Hindus and show no trace of Muhammadan practices. A few
Muhammadan Ghosis are found in Nimar and some Muhammadans who call
themselves Gaddi in Mandla are believed to be Ghosis. And as the
Ghosis of the northern Districts of the Central Provinces must in
common with the bulk of the population be descended from immigrants
from northern India, it would appear that they must have changed
their religion, or rather abandoned one to which their ancestors
had only been imperfectly proselytised, when it was no longer the
dominant faith of the locality in which they lived. Sir D. Ibbetson
says that in the Punjab the name Ghosi is used only for Muhammadans,
and is often applied to any cowherd or milkman of that religion,
whether Gujar, Ahir or of any other caste, just as Goala is used for
a Hindu cowherd. It is said that Hindus will buy pure milk from the
Musalman Ghosi, but will reject it if there is any suspicion of its
having been watered by the latter, as they must not drink water at
his hands. [31] But in Berar Brahmans will now buy milk and curds
from Muhammadan milkmen. Mr. Crooke remarks that most of the Ghosis
are Ahirs who have been converted to Islam. To the east of the United
Provinces they claim a Gujar origin, and here they will not eat beef
themselves nor take food with any Muhammadans who consume it. They
employ Brahmans to fix the auspicious times for marriage and other
ceremonies. The Ghosis of Lucknow have no other employment but the
keeping of milch cattle, chiefly buffaloes of all kinds, and they
breed buffaloes. [32] This is the case also in Saugor, where the
Ghosis are said to rank below ordinary Ahirs because they breed and
tend buffaloes instead of cows. Those of Narsinghpur, however, are
generally not herdsmen at all but ordinary cultivators. In northern
India, owing to the large number of Muhammadans who, other things being
equal, would prefer to buy their milk and ghi from co-religionists,
there would be an opening for milkmen professing this faith, and on
the facts stated above it may perhaps be surmised that the Ghosi
caste came into existence to fill the position. Or they may have
been forcibly converted as a number of Ahirs in Berar were forcibly
converted to Islam, and still call themselves Muhammadans, though they
can scarcely repeat the Kalma and only go to mosque once a year. [33]
But when some of the Ghosis migrated into the Central Provinces,
they would find, in the absence of a Musalman clientele, that their
religion, instead of being an advantage, was a positive drawback to
them, as Hindus would be reluctant to buy milk from a Muhammadan who
might be suspected of having mixed it with water; and it would appear
that they have relapsed naturally into Hinduism, all traces of their
profession of Islam being lost. Even so, however, in Narsinghpur they
have had to abandon their old calling and become ordinary cultivators,
while in Saugor, perhaps on account of their doubtful status, they
are restricted to keeping buffaloes. If this suggestion turned out
to be well founded, it would be an interesting instance of a religion
being changed to secure a professional advantage. But it can only be
considered as a guess. A parallel to the disadvantage of being unable
to water their milk without rendering it impure, which attaches to the
Ghosis of the Punjab, may be adduced in the case of the Telis of the
small town of Multai in Betul District. Here the dairyman's business
is for some reason in the hands of Telis (oilmen) and it is stated that
from every Teli who engages in it a solemn oath is exacted that he will
not put water in the milk, and any violation of this would be punished
by expulsion from caste. Because if the Hindus once found that they
had been rendered impure by drinking water touched by so low a caste
as the Telis, they would decline any longer to purchase milk from
them. It is curious that the strict rule of ceremonial purity which
obtains in the case of water has apparently no application to milk.
In the Central Provinces the Ghosis have two subcastes, the Havelia or
those living in open wheat country, and the Birchheya or residents
of jungle tracts. In Saugor they have another set of divisions
borrowed from the Ahirs, and here the Muhammadan Ghosis are said to
be a separate subcaste, though practically none were returned at the
census. They have the usual system of exogamous groups with territorial
names derived from those of villages. At their marriages the couple
walk six times round the sacred post, reserving the seventh round, if
the bride is a child, to be performed subsequently when she goes to
her husband. But if she is adult, the full number may be completed,
the ceremony known as lot pata coming between the sixth and seventh
rounds. In this the bride sits first on the right of her husband and
then changes seats so as to be on his left; and she is thus considered
to become joined to her husband as the left part of his body, which
the Hindus consider the wife to be, holding the same belief as that
expressed in Genesis. After this the bride takes some child of the
household into her lap and then makes it over to the bridegroom saying,
'Take care of the baby while I go and do the household work.' This
ceremony, which has been recorded also of the Kapus in Chanda, is
obviously designed as an auspicious omen that the marriage may be
blessed with children. Like other castes of their standing, the Ghosis
permit polygamy, divorce and the remarriage of widows, but the practice
of taking two wives is rare. The dead are burnt, with the exception
that the bodies of young children whose ears have not been pierced
and of persons dying of smallpox are buried. Children usually have
their ears pierced when they are three or four years old. A corpse
must not be taken to the pyre at night, as it is thought that in
that case it would be born blind in the next birth. The caste have
bards and genealogists of their own who are known as Patia. In Damoh
the Ghosis are mainly cart-drivers and cultivators and very few of
them sell milk. In Nimar there are some Muhammadan Ghosis who deal in
milk. Their women are not secluded and may be known by the number of
little rings worn in the ear after the Muhammadan custom. Like the
Ahirs, the Ghosis are considered to be somewhat stupid. They call
themselves Ghosi Thakur, as they claim to be Rajputs, and outsiders
also sometimes address them as Thakur. But in Sangor and Damoh these
aspirations to Kshatriya rank are so widespread that when one person
asks another his caste the usual form of the question is 'What Thakur
are you?' The questioner thus politely assumes that his companion
must be a Rajput of some sort and leaves it to him to admit or deny
the soft impeachment. Another form of this question is to say 'What
dudh, or milk, are you?'
Golar
Golar, [34] Gollam, Golla, Gola, Golkar.--The great shepherd caste
of the Telugu country, which numbers nearly 1 1/2 million of persons
in Madras and Hyderabad. In the Central Provinces there were under
3000 Golars in 1901, and they were returned principally from the
Balaghat and Seoni Districts. But 2500 Golkars, who belonged to
Chanda and were classified under Ahirs in 1901, may, in view of
the information now available, be considered to belong to the Golar
caste. Some 2000 Golars were enumerated in Berar. They are a nomadic
people and frequent Balaghat, owing to the large area of grazing
land found in the District. The caste come from the south and speak
a dialect of Canarese. Hindus liken the conversation of two Golars to
two cocks crowing at each other. [35] They seem to have no subcastes
except that in Chanda the Yera and Nana, or black and white Golkars,
are distinguished. Marriage is regulated by the ordinary system
of exogamous groups, but no meaning can be assigned to the names
of these. In Seoni they say that their group-names are the same as
those of the Gonds, and that they are related to this great tribe;
but though both are no doubt of the same Dravidian stock, there is no
reason for supposing any closer affinity to exist, and the statement
may be explained by the fact that Golars frequently reside in Gond
villages in the forest; and in accordance with a practice commonly
found among village communities the fiction of relationship has grown
up. The children of brothers and sisters are allowed to marry, but not
those of two sisters, the reason stated for this prohibition being that
during the absence of the mother her sister nurses her children; the
children of sisters are therefore often foster brothers and sisters,
and this is considered as equivalent to the real relationship. But
the marriage of a brother's son to a sister's daughter is held,
as among the Gonds, to be a most suitable union. The adult marriage
of girls involves no stigma, and the practice of serving for a wife
is sometimes followed. Weddings may not be held during the months of
Shrawan, Bhadon, Kunwar and Pus. The marriage altar is made of dried
cowdung plastered over with mud, in honour perhaps of the animal which
affords the Golars their livelihood. The clothes of the bridegroom
and bride are knotted together and they walk five times round the
altar. In Bhandara the marriages of Golars are celebrated both at
the bride's house and the bridegroom's. The bridegroom rides on a
horse, and on arrival at the marriage-shed is presented by his future
mother-in-law with a cup of milk. The bride and bridegroom sit on a
platform together, and each gets up and sits down nine times, whoever
accomplishes this first being considered to have won. The bridegroom
then takes the bride's little finger in his hand and they walk nine
times round the platform. He afterwards falls at the girl's feet, and
standing up carries her inside the house, where they eat together out
of one dish. After three days the party proceeds to the bridegroom's
house, where the same ceremonies are gone through. Here the family
barbers of the bride and bridegroom take the couple up in their arms
and dance, holding them, and all the party dance too. The remarriage of
widows is permitted, a sum of Rs. 25 being usually paid to the parents
of the woman by her second husband. Divorce may be effected at the
option of either party, and documents are usually drawn up on both
sides. The Golars worship Mahadeo and have a special deity, Hularia,
who protects their cattle from disease and wild beasts. A clay image
of Hularia is erected outside the village every five or ten years and
goats are offered to it. Each head of a family is supposed to offer
on the first occasion two goats, and on the second and subsequent
ones, five, seven, nine and twelve goats respectively. But when a
man dies his son starts afresh with an offering of two. The flesh
of the animals offered is consumed by the caste-fellows. The name
Hularia Deo has some connection with the Holias, a low Telugu caste
of leather-workers to whom the Golars appear to be related, as they
have the same family names. When a Golar dies a plate of cooked rice
is laid on his body and then carried to the burning-ghat. The Holias
belonging to the same section go with it, and before arrival the plate
of rice is laid on the ground and the Holias eat it. The Golars have
various superstitions, and on Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays they
will not give salt, fire, milk or water to any one. They usually burn
the dead, the corpse being laid with the head to the south, though
in some localities the Hindu custom of placing the head to the north
has been adopted. They employ Brahmans for religious and ceremonial
purposes. The occupation of the caste is to breed and tend buffaloes
and cattle, and they also deal in live-stock, and sell milk, curds and
ghi. They were formerly addicted to dacoity and cattle-theft. They have
a caste panchayat, the head of which is designated as Mokasi. Formerly
the Mokasi received Rs. 15 on the marriage of a widow, and Rs. 5 when
a person temporarily outcasted was readmitted to social intercourse,
but these payments are now only occasionally made. The caste drink
liquor and eat flesh, including pigs and fowls, but not beef. They
employ Brahmans for ceremonial purposes, but their social status is
low and they are practically on a level with the Dravidian tribes. The
dialect of Canarese spoken by the Golars is known as Golari, Holia
or Komtau, and is closely related to the form which that language
assumes in Bijapur; [36] but to outsiders they now speak Hindi.
GOND
[Bibliography.--The most important account of the Gond tribe is that
contained in the Rev. Stephen Hislop's Papers on the Aboriginal
Tribes of the Central Provinces, published after his death by
Sir R. Temple in 1866. Mr. Hislop recorded the legend of Lingo,
of which an abstract has been reproduced. Other notices of the
Gonds are contained in the ninth volume of General Cunningham's
Archaeological Survey Reports, Sir C. Grant's Central Provinces
Gazetteer of 1871 (Introduction), Colonel Ward's Mandla Settlement
Report (1868), Colonel Lucie Smith's Chanda Settlement Report
(1870), and Mr. C. W. Montgomerie's Chhindwara Settlement Report
(1900). An excellent monograph on the Bastar Gonds was contributed
by Rai Bahadur Panda Baijnath, Superintendent of the State, and
other monographs by Mr. A. E. Nelson, C.S., Mandla; Mr. Ganga Prasad
Khatri, Forest Divisional Officer, Betul; Mr. J. Langhorne, Manager,
Ahiri zamindari, Chanda; Mr. R. S. Thakur, tahsildar, Balaghat; and
Mr. Din Dayal, Deputy Inspector of Schools, Nandgaon State. Papers were
also furnished by the Rev. A. Wood of Chanda; the Rev. H. J. Molony,
Mandla; and Major W. D. Sutherland, I.M.S., Saugor. Notes were also
collected by the writer in Mandla. Owing to the inclusion of many
small details from the different papers it has not been possible to
acknowledge them separately.]
List of Paragraphs
(a) Origin and History
1. Numbers and distribution.
2. Gondwana.
3. Derivation of name and origin of the Gonds.
4. History of the Gonds.
5. Mythical traditions. Story of Lingo.
6. Legend of the creation.
7. Creation of the Gonds and their imprisonment by Mahadeo.
8. The birth and history of Lingo.
9. Death and resurrection of Lingo.
10. He releases the Gonds shut up in the cave and constitutes the tribe.
(b) Tribal Subdivisions
11. Subcastes.
12. Exogamy.
13. Totemism.
14. Connection of totemism with the gods.
(c) Marriage Customs
15. Prohibitions on intermarriage, and unions of relations.
16. Irregular marriages.
17. Marriage. Arrangement of matches.
18. The marriage ceremony.
19. Wedding expenditure.
20. Special customs.
21. Taking omens.
22. Marriage by capture. Weeping and hiding.
23. Serving for a wife.
24. Widow remarriage.
25. Divorce.
26. Polygamy.
(d) Birth and Pregnancy
27. Menstruation.
28. Superstitions about pregnancy and childbirth.
29. Procedure at a birth.
30. Names.
31. Superstitions about children.
(e) Funeral Rites
32. Disposal of the dead.
33. Funeral ceremony.
34. Mourning and offerings to the dead.
35. Memorial stones to the dead.
36. House abandoned after a death.
37. Bringing back the soul.
38. The dead absorbed in Bura Deo.
39. Belief in a future life.
(f) Religion
40. Nature of the Gond religion. The gods.
41. Tribal gods, and their place of residence.
42. Household gods.
43. Nag Deo.
44. Narayan Deo.
45. Bura Deo.
46. Charms and magic.
47. Omens.
48. Agricultural superstitions.
49. Magical or religious observances in fishing and hunting.
50. Witchcraft.
51. Human sacrifice.
52. Cannibalism.
53. Festivals. The new crops.
54. The Holi Festival.
55. The Meghnath swinging rite.
56. The Karma and other rites.
(g) Appearance and Character and Social Rules and Customs
57. Physical type.
58. Character.
59. Shyness and ignorance.
60. Villages and houses.
61. Clothes and ornaments.
62. Ear-piercing.
63. Hair.
64. Bathing and washing clothes.
65. Tattooing.
66. Special system of tattooing.
67. Branding.
68. Food.
69. Liquor.
70. Admission of outsiders and sexual morality.
71. Common sleeping-houses.
72. Methods of greeting and observances between relatives.
73. The caste panchayat and social offences.
74. Caste penalty feasts.
75. Special purification ceremony.
76. Dancing.
77. Songs.
78. Language.
(h) Occupation
79. Cultivation.
80. Patch cultivation.
81. Hunting. Traps for animals.
(a) Origin and History
1. Numbers and distribution.
Gond.--The principal tribe of the Dravidian family, and perhaps
the most important of the non-Aryan or forest tribes in India. In
1911 the Gonds were three million strong, and they are increasing
rapidly. The Kolis of western India count half a million persons
more than the Gonds, and if the four related tribes Kol, Munda, Ho,
and Santal were taken together, they would be stronger by about the
same amount. But if historical importance be considered as well as
numbers, the first place should be awarded to the Gonds. Of the whole
caste the Central Provinces contain 2,300,000 persons, Central India,
and Bihar and Orissa about 235,000 persons each, and they are returned
in small numbers from Assam, Madras and Hyderabad. The 50,000 Gonds
in Assam are no doubt immigrant labourers on the tea-gardens.
2. Gondwana.
In the Central Provinces the Gonds occupy two main tracts. The first
is the wide belt of broken hill and forest country in the centre of
the Province, which forms the Satpura plateau, and is mainly comprised
in the Chhindwara, Betul, Seoni and Mandla Districts, with portions
of several others adjoining them. And the second is the still wider
and more inaccessible mass of hill ranges extending south of the
Chhattisgarh plain, and south-west down to the Godavari, which includes
portions of the three Chhattisgarh Districts, the Bastar and Kanker
States, and a great part of Chanda. In Mandla the Gonds form nearly
half the population, and in Bastar about two-thirds. There is, however,
no District or State of the Province which does not contain some Gonds,
and it is both on account of their numbers and the fact that Gond
dynasties possessed a great part of its area that the territory of the
Central Provinces was formerly known as Gondwana, or the country of
the Gonds. [37] The existing importance of the Central Provinces dates
from recent years, for so late as 1853 it was stated before the Royal
Asiatic Society that "at present the Gondwana highlands and jungles
comprise such a large tract of unexplored country that they form quite
an oasis in our maps." So much of this lately unexplored country as
is British territory is now fairly well served by railways, traversed
almost throughout by good roads, and provided with village schools
at distances of five to ten miles apart, even in the wilder tracts.
3. Derivation of name and origin of the Gonds.
The derivation of the word Gond is uncertain. It is the name given
to the tribe by the Hindus or Muhammadans, as their own name for
themselves is Koitur or Koi. General Cunningham considered that the
name Gond probably came from Gauda, the classical term for part of
the United Provinces and Bengal. A Benares inscription relating to one
of the Chedi kings of Tripura or Tewar (near Jubbulpore) states that
he was of the Haihaya tribe, who lived on the borders of the Nerbudda
in the district of the Western Gauda in the Province of Malwa. Three
or four other inscriptions also refer to the kings of Gauda in the
same locality. Gauda, however, was properly and commonly used as the
name of part of Bengal. There is no evidence beyond a few doubtful
inscriptions of its having ever been applied to any part of the
Central Provinces. The principal passage in which General Cunningham
identifies Gauda with the Central Provinces is that in which the king
of Gauda came to the assistance of the ruler of Malwa against the
king of Kanauj, elder brother of the great Harsha Vardhana, and slew
the latter king in A.D. 605. But Mr. V. A. Smith holds that Gauda
in this passage refers to Bengal and not to the Central Provinces;
[38] and General Cunningham's argument on the locality of Gauda is
thus rendered extremely dubious, and with it his derivation of the
name Gond. In fact it seems highly improbable that the name of a large
tribe should have been taken from a term so little used and known in
this special application. Though in the Imperial Gazetteer [39] the
present writer reproduced General Cunningham's derivation of the term
Gond, it was there characterised as speculative, and in the light of
the above remarks now seems highly improbable. Mr. Hislop considered
that the name Gond was a form of Kond, as he spelt the name of the
Khond tribe. He pointed out that k and g are interchangeable. Thus
Gotalghar, the empty house where the village young men sleep, comes
from Kotal, a led horse, and ghar, a house. Similarly, Koikopal,
the name of a Gond subtribe who tend cattle, is from Koi or Gond,
and gopal, a cowherd. The name by which the Gonds call themselves
is Koi or Koitur, while the Khonds call themselves Ku, which word
Sir G. Grierson considers to be probably related to the Gond name
Koi. Further, he states that the Telugu people call the Khonds, Gond
or Kod (Kor). General Cunningham points out that the word Gond in the
Central Provinces is frequently or, he says, usually pronounced Gaur,
which is practically the same sound as god, and with the change
of G to K would become Kod. Thus the two names Gond and Kod, by
which the Telugu people know the Khonds, are practically the same
as the names Gond and God of the Gonds in the Central Provinces,
though Sir G. Grierson does not mention the change of g to k in
his account of either language. It seems highly probable that the
designation Gond was given to the tribe by the Telugus. The Gonds
speak a Dravidian language of the same family as Tamil, Canarese
and Telugu, and therefore it is likely that they come from the south
into the Central Provinces. Their route may have been up the Godavari
river into Chanda; from thence up the Indravati into Bastar and the
hills south and east of the Chhattisgarh plain; and up the Wardha and
Wainganga to the Districts of the Satpura Plateau. In Chanda, where
a Gond dynasty reigned for some centuries, they would be in contact
with the Telugus, and here they may have got their name of Gond,
and carried it with them into the north and east of the Province. As
already seen, the Khonds are called Gond by the Telugus, and Kandh
by the Uriyas. The Khonds apparently came up more towards the east
into Ganjam and Kalahandi. Here the name of Gond or Kod, given them
by the Telugus, may have been modified into Kandh by the Uriyas,
and from the two names came the English corruption of Khond. The
Khond and Gondi languages are now dissimilar. Still they present
certain points of resemblance, and though Sir G. Grierson does not
discuss their connection, it appears from his highly interesting
genealogical tree of the Dravidian languages that Khond or Kui and
Gondi are closely connected. These two languages, and no others, occupy
an intermediate position between the two great branches sprung from
the original Dravidian language, one of which is mainly represented
by Telugu and the other by Tamil, Canarese and Malayalam. [40] Gondi
and Khond are shown in the centre as the connecting link between the
two great branches. Gondi is more nearly related to Tamil and Khond to
Telugu. On the Telugu side, moreover, Khond approaches most closely
to Kolami, which is a member of the Telugu branch. The Kolams are a
tribe of Wardha and Berar, sometimes considered an offshoot of the
Gonds; at any rate, it seems probable that they came from southern
India by the same route as the Gonds. Thus the Khond language is
intermediate between Gondi and the Kolami dialect of Wardha and Berar,
though the Kolams live west of the Gonds and the Khonds east. And a
fairly close relationship between the three languages appears to be
established. Hence the linguistic evidence appears to afford strong
support to the view that the Khonds and Gonds may originally have
been one tribe. Further, Mr. Hislop points out that a word for god,
pen, is common to the Gonds and Khonds; and the Khonds have a god
called Bura Pen, who might be the same as Bura Deo, the great god
of the Gonds. Mr. Hislop found Kodo Pen and Pharsi Pen as Gond gods,
[41] while Pen or Pennu is the regular word for god among the
Khonds. This evidence seems to establish a probability that the
Gonds and Khonds were originally one tribe in the south of India,
and that they obtained separate names and languages since they left
their original home for the north. The fact that both of them speak
languages of the Dravidian family, whose home is in southern India,
makes it probable that the two tribes originally belonged there, and
migrated north into the Central Provinces and Orissa. This hypothesis
is supported by the traditions of the Gonds.
4. History of the Gonds.
As stated in the article on Kol, it is known that Rajput dynasties
were ruling in various parts of the Central Provinces from about the
sixth to the twelfth centuries. They then disappear, and there is a
blank till the fourteenth century or later, when Gond kingdoms are
found established at Kherla in Betul, at Deogarh in Chhindwara, at
Garha-Mandla, [42] including the Jubbulpore country, and at Chanda,
fourteen miles from Bhandak. It seems clear, then, that the Hindu
dynasties were subverted by the Gonds after the Muhammadan invasions
of northern India had weakened or destroyed the central powers of the
Hindus, and prevented any assistance being afforded to the outlying
settlements. There is some reason to suppose that the immigration of
the Gonds into the Central Provinces took place after the establishment
of these Hindu kingdoms, and not before, as is commonly held. [43]
But the point must at present be considered doubtful. There is no
reason however to doubt that the Gonds came from the south through
Chanda and Bastar. During the fourteenth century and afterwards the
Gonds established dynasties at the places already mentioned in the
Central Provinces. For two or three centuries the greater part of the
Province was governed by Gond kings. Of their method of government in
Narsinghpur, Sleeman said: "Under these Gond Rajas the country seems
for the most part to have been distributed among feudatory chiefs,
bound to attend upon the prince at his capital with a stipulated
number of troops, to be employed wherever their services might be
required, but to furnish little or no revenue in money. These chiefs
were Gonds, and the countries they held for the support of their
families and the payment of their troops and retinue little more
than wild jungles. The Gonds seem not to have been at home in open
country, and as from the sixteenth century a peaceable penetration of
Hindu cultivators into the best lands of the Province assumed large
dimensions, the Gonds gradually retired to the hill ranges on the
borders of the plains." The headquarters of each dynasty at Mandla,
Garha, Kherla, Deogarh and Chanda seem to have been located in a
position strengthened for defence either by a hill or a great river,
and adjacent to an especially fertile plain tract, whose produce
served for the maintenance of the ruler's household and headquarters
establishment. Often the site was on other sides bordered by dense
forest which would afford a retreat to the occupants in case it fell
to an enemy. Strong and spacious forts were built, with masonry tanks
and wells inside them to provide water, but whether these buildings
were solely the work of the Gonds or constructed with the assistance of
Hindu or Muhammadan artificers is uncertain. But the Hindu immigrants
found Gond government tolerant and beneficent. Under the easy eventless
sway of these princes the rich country over which they ruled prospered,
its flocks and herds increased, and the treasury filled. So far back
as the fifteenth century we read in Firishta that the king of Kherla,
who, if not a Gond himself, was a king of the Gonds, sumptuously
entertained the Bahmani king and made him rich offerings, among
which were many diamonds, rubies and pearls. Of the Rani Durgavati of
Garha-Mandla, Sleeman said: "Of all the sovereigns of this dynasty she
lives most in the page of history and in the grateful recollections
of the people. She built the great reservoir which lies close to
Jubbulpore, and is called after her Rani Talao or Queen's pond; and
many other highly useful works were formed by her about Garha." When
the castle of Chauragarh was sacked by one of Akbar's generals in 1564,
the booty found, according to Firishta, comprised, independently of
jewels, images of gold and silver and other valuables, no fewer than
a hundred jars of gold coin and a thousand elephants. Of the Chanda
rulers the Settlement officer who has recorded their history wrote
that, "They left, if we forget the last few years, a well-governed
and contented kingdom, adorned with admirable works of engineering
skill and prosperous to a point which no aftertime has reached. They
have left their mark behind them in royal tombs, lakes and palaces,
but most of all in the seven miles of battlemented stone wall, too wide
now for the shrunk city of Chanda within it, which stands on the very
border-line between the forest and the plain, having in front the rich
valley of the Wardha river, and behind and up to the city walls deep
forest extending to the east." According to local tradition the great
wall of Chanda and other buildings, such as the tombs of the Gond kings
and the palace at Junona, were built by immigrant Telugu masons of the
Kapu or Munurwar castes. Another excellent rule of the Gond kings was
to give to any one who made a tank a grant of land free of revenue of
the land lying beneath it. A large number of small irrigation tanks
were constructed under this inducement in the Wainganga valley, and
still remain. But the Gond states had no strength for defence, as was
shown when in the eighteenth century Maratha chiefs, having acquired
some knowledge of the art of war and military training by their long
fighting against the Mughals, cast covetous eyes on Gondwana. The
loose tribal system, so easy in time of peace, entirely failed to
knit together the strength of the people when united action was most
required, and the plain country fell before the Maratha armies almost
without a struggle. In the strongholds, however, of the hilly ranges
which hem in every part of Gondwana the chiefs for long continued to
maintain an unequal resistance, and to revenge their own wrongs by
indiscriminate rapine and slaughter. In such cases the Maratha plan
was to continue pillaging and harassing the Gonds until they obtained
an acknowledgment of their supremacy and the promise, at least, of an
annual tribute. Under this treatment the hill Gonds soon lost every
vestige of civilisation, and became the cruel, treacherous savages
depicted by travellers of this period. They regularly plundered and
murdered stragglers and small parties passing through the hills, while
from their strongholds, built on the most inaccessible spurs of the
Satpuras, they would make a dash into the rich plains of Berar and
the Nerbudda valley, and after looting and killing all night, return
straight across country to their jungle fortresses, guided by the light
of a bonfire on some commanding peak. [44] With the pacification of
the country and the introduction of a strong and equable system of
government by the British, these wild marauders soon settled down
and became the timid and inoffensive labourers which they now are.
5. Mythica traditions. Story of Lingo.
Mr. Hislop took down from a Pardhan priest a Gond myth of the creation
of the world and the origin of the Gonds, and their liberation from a
cave, in which they had been shut up by Siva, through the divine hero
Lingo. General Cunningham said that the exact position of the cave was
not known, but it would seem to have been somewhere in the Himalayas,
as the name Dhawalgiri, which means a white mountain, is mentioned. The
cave, according to ordinary Gond tradition, was situated in Kachikopa
Lohagarh or the Iron Valley in the Red Hill. It seems clear from the
story itself that its author was desirous of connecting the Gonds
with Hindu mythology, and as Siva's heaven is in the Himalayas, the
name Dhawalgiri, where he located the cave, may refer to them. It
is also said that the cave was at the source of the Jumna. But in
Mr. Hislop's version the cave where all the Gonds except four were
shut up is not in Kachikopa Lohagarh, as the Gonds commonly say;
but only the four Gonds who escaped wandered to this latter place
and dwelt there. And the story does not show that Kachikopa Lohagarh
was on Mount Dhawalgiri or the Himalayas, where it places the cave in
which the Gonds were shut up, or anywhere near them. On the contrary,
it would be quite consonant with Mr. Hislop's version if Kachikopa
Lohagarh were in the Central Provinces. It may be surmised that in the
original Gond legend their ancestors really were shut up in Kachikopa
Lohagarh, but not by the god Siva. Very possibly the story began with
them in the cave in the Iron Valley in the Red Hill. But the Hindu
who clearly composed Mr. Hislop's version wished to introduce the god
Siva as a principal actor, and he therefore removed the site of the
cave to the Himalayas. This appears probable from the story itself,
in which, in its present form, Kachikopa Lohagarh plays no real part,
and only appears because it was in the original tradition and has
to be retained. [45] But the Gonds think that their ancestors were
actually shut up in Kachikopa Lohagarh, and one tradition puts the
site at Pachmarhi, whose striking hill scenery and red soil cleft by
many deep and inaccessible ravines would render it a likely place for
the incident. Another version locates Kachikopa Lohagarh at Darekasa
in Bhandara, where there is a place known as Kachagarh or the iron
fort. But Pachmarhi is perhaps the more probable, as it has some deep
caves, which have always been looked upon as sacred places. The point
is of some interest, because this legend of the cave being in the
Himalayas is adduced as a Gond tradition that their ancestors came
from the north, and hence as supporting the theory of the immigration
of the Dravidians through the north-west of India. But if the view now
suggested is correct, the story of the cave being in the Himalayas is
not a genuine Gond tradition at all, but a Hindu interpolation. The
only other ground known to the writer for asserting that the Gonds
believed their ancestors to have come from the north is that they
bury their dead with the feet to the north. There are other obvious
Hindu accretions in the legend, as the saintly Brahmanic character of
Lingo and his overcoming the gods through fasting and self-torture,
and also the fact that Siva shut up the Gonds in the cave because
he was offended by their dirty habits and bad smell. But the legend
still contains a considerable quantity of true Gond tradition, and
though somewhat tedious, it seems necessary to give an abridgment of
Mr. Hislop's account, with reproduction of selected passages. Captain
Forsyth also made a modernised poetical version, [46] from which one
extract is taken. Certain variations from another form of the legend
obtained in Bastar are included.
6. Legend of the creation.
In the beginning there was water everywhere, and God was born in a
lotus-leaf and lived alone. One day he rubbed his arm and from the
rubbing made a crow, which sat on his shoulder; he also made a crab,
which swam out over the waters. God then ordered the crow to fly
over the world and bring some earth. The crow flew about and could
find no earth, but it saw the crab, which was supporting itself with
one leg resting on the bottom of the sea. The crow was very tired
and perched on the crab's back, which was soft so that the crow's
feet made marks on it, which are still visible on the bodies of all
crabs at present. The crow asked the crab where any earth could be
found. The crab said that if God would make its body hard it would
find some earth. God said he would make part of the crab's body hard,
and he made its back hard, as it still remains. The crab then dived
to the bottom of the sea, where it found Kenchna, the earth-worm. It
caught hold of Kenchna by the neck with its claws and the mark thus
made is still to be seen on the earth-worm's neck. Then the earth-worm
brought up earth out of its mouth and the crab brought this to God,
and God scattered it over the sea and patches of land appeared. God
then walked over the earth and a boil came on his hand, and out of
it Mahadeo and Parvati were born.
7. Creation of the Gonds and their imprisonment by Mahadeo.
From Mahadeo's urine numerous vegetables began to spring up. Parvati
ate of these and became pregnant and gave birth to eighteen
threshing-floors [47] of Brahman gods and twelve threshing-floors
of Gond gods. All the Gonds were scattered over the jungle. They
behaved like Gonds and not like good Hindus, with lamentable results,
as follows: [48]
Hither and thither all the Gonds were scattered in the jungle.
Places, hills, and valleys were filled with these Gonds.
Even trees had their Gonds. How did the Gonds conduct themselves?
Whatever came across them they must needs kill and eat it;
They made no distinction. If they saw a jackal they killed
And ate it; no distinction was observed; they respected not
antelope, sambhar and the like.
They made no distinction in eating a sow, a quail, a pigeon,
A crow, a kite, an adjutant, a vulture,
A lizard, a frog, a beetle, a cow, a calf, a he- and she-buffalo,
Rats, bandicoots, squirrels--all these they killed and ate.
So began the Gonds to do. They devoured raw and ripe things;
They did not bathe for six months together;
They did not wash their faces properly, even on dunghills they
would fall down and remain.
Such were the Gonds born in the beginning. A smell was spread
over the jungle
When the Gonds were thus disorderly behaved; they became
disagreeable to Mahadeva,
Who said: "The caste of the Gonds is very bad;
I will not preserve them; they will ruin my hill Dhawalgiri."
Mahadeo then determined to get rid of the Gonds. With this view he
invited them all to a meeting. When they sat down Mahadeo made a
squirrel from the rubbings of his body and let it loose in the middle
of the Gonds. All the Gonds at once got up and began to chase it,
hoping for a meal. They seized sticks and stones and clods of earth,
and their unkempt hair flew in the wind. The squirrel dodged about
and ran away, and finally, directed by Mahadeo, ran into a large cave
with all the Gonds after it. Mahadeo then rolled a large stone to the
mouth of the cave and shut up all the Gonds in it. Only four remained
outside, and they fled away to Kachikopa Lohagarh, or the Iron Cave
in the Red Hill, and lived there. Meanwhile Parvati perceived that
the smell of the Gonds, which had pleased her, had vanished from
Dhawalgiri. She desired it to be restored and commenced a devotion. For
six months she fasted and practised austerities. Bhagwan (God) was
swinging in a swing. He was disturbed by Parvati's devotion. He sent
Narayan (the sun) to see who was fasting. Narayan came and found
Parvati and asked her what she wanted. She said that she missed her
Gonds and wanted them back. Narayan told Bhagwan, who promised that
they should be given back.
8. The birth and history of Lingo.
The yellow flowers of the tree Pahindi were growing on
Dhawalgiri. Bhagwan sent thunder and lightning, and the flower
conceived. First fell from it a heap of turmeric or saffron. In
the morning the sun came out, the flower burst open, and Lingo was
born. Lingo was a perfect child. He had a diamond on his navel and
a sandalwood mark on his forehead. He fell from the flower into the
heap of turmeric. He played in the turmeric and slept in a swing. He
became nine years old. He said there was no one there like him, and
he would go where he could find his fellows. He climbed a needle-like
hill, [49] and from afar off he saw Kachikopa Lohagarh and the four
Gonds. He came to them. They saw he was like them, and asked him to
be their brother. They ate only animals. Lingo asked them to find
for him an animal without a liver, and they searched all through the
forest and could not. Then Lingo told them to cut down trees and make
a field. They tried to cut down the anjan [50] trees, but their hands
were blistered and they could not go on. Lingo had been asleep. He
woke up and saw they had only cut down one or two trees. He took the
axe and cut down many trees, and fenced a field and made a gate to
it. Black soil appeared. It began to rain, and rained without ceasing
for three days. All the rivers and streams were filled. The field
became green with rice, and it grew up. There were sixteen score
of nilgai or blue-bull. They had two leaders, an old bull and his
nephew. The young bull saw the rice of Lingo's field and wished to
eat it. The uncle told him not to eat of the field of Lingo or all
the nilgai would be killed. But the young bull did not heed, and took
off all the nilgai to eat the rice. When they got to the field they
could find no entrance, so they jumped the fence, which was five cubits
high. They ate all the rice from off the field and ran away. The young
bull told them as they ran to put their feet on leaves and stones and
boughs and grass, and not on the ground, so that they might not be
tracked. Lingo woke up and went to see his field, and found all the
rice eaten. He knew the nilgai had done it, and showed the brothers
how to track them by the few marks which they had by accident made
on the ground. They did so, and surrounded the nilgai and killed
them all with their bows and arrows except the old uncle, from whom
Lingo's arrow rebounded harmlessly on account of his innocence, and
one young doe. From these two the nilgai race was preserved. Then
Lingo told the Gonds to make fire and roast the deer as follows:
He said, I will show you something; see if anywhere in your
Waistbands there is a flint; if so, take it out and make fire.
But the matches did not ignite. As they were doing this, a watch
of the night passed.
They threw down the matches, and said to Lingo, Thou art a Saint;
Show us where our fire is, and why it does not come out.
Lingo said: Three koss (six miles) hence is Rikad Gawadi the giant.
There is fire in his field; where smoke shall appear, go there,
Come not back without bringing fire. Thus said Lingo.
They said, We have never seen the place, where shall we go?
Ye have never seen where this fire is? Lingo said;
I will discharge an arrow thither.
Go in the direction of the arrow; there you will get fire.
He applied the arrow, and having pulled the bow, he discharged one:
It crashed on, breaking twigs and making its passage clear.
Having cut through the high grass, it made its way and reached
the old man's place (above mentioned).
The arrow dropped close to the fire of the old man, who had
daughters.
The arrow was near the door. As soon as they saw it, the daughters
came and took it up,
And kept it. They asked their father: When will you give us
in marriage?
Thus said the seven sisters, the daughters of the old man.
I will marry you as I think best for you;
Remain as you are. So said the old man, the Rikad Gawadi.
Lingo said, Hear, O brethren! I shot an arrow, it made its way.
Go there, and you will see fire; bring thence the fire.
Each said to the other, I will not go; but (at last) the youngest
went.
He descried the fire, and went to it; then beheld he an old man
looking like the trunk of a tree.
He saw from afar the old man's field, around which a hedge
was made.
The old man kept only one way to it, and fastened a screen to
the entrance, and had a fire in the centre of the field.
He placed logs of the Mahua and Anjun and Saj trees on the fire,
Teak faggots he gathered, and enkindled flame.
The fire blazed up, and warmed by the heat of it, in deep sleep
lay the Rikad Gawadi.
Thus the old man like a giant did appear. When the young Gond
beheld him, he shivered;
His heart leaped; and he was much afraid in his mind, and said:
If the old man were to rise he will see me, and I shall be
eaten up;
I will steal away the fire and carry it off, then my life will
be safe.
He went near the fire secretly, and took a brand of tendu wood
tree.
When he was lifting it up a spark flew and fell on the hip of
the old man.
That spark was as large as a pot; the giant was blistered; he
awoke alarmed.
And said: I am hungry, and I cannot get food to eat anywhere;
I feel a desire for flesh;
Like a tender cucumber hast thou come to me. So said the old man
to the Gond,
Who began to fly. The old man followed him. The Gond then threw
away the brand which he had stolen.
He ran onward, and was not caught. Then the old man, being tired,
turned back.
Thence he returned to his field, and came near the fire and sat,
and said, What nonsense is this?
A tender prey had come within my reach;
I said I will cut it up as soon as I can, but it escaped from
my hand!
Let it go; it will come again, then I will catch it. It has
gone now.
Then what happened? the Gond returned and came to his brethren.
And said to them: Hear, O brethren, I went for fire, as you sent
me, to that field; I beheld an old man like a giant.
With hands stretched out and feet lifted up. I ran. I thus survived
with difficulty.
The brethren said to Lingo, We will not go. Lingo said, Sit
ye here.
O brethren, what sort of a person is this giant? I will go and
see him.
So saying, Lingo went away and reached a river.
He thence arose and went onward. As he looked, he saw in front
three gourds.
Then he saw a bamboo stick, which he took up.
When the river was flooded
It washed away a gourd tree, and its seed fell, and each stem
produced bottle-gourds.
He inserted a bamboo stick in the hollow of the gourd and made
a guitar.
He plucked two hairs from his head and strung it.
He held a bow and fixed eleven keys to that one stick, and played
on it.
Lingo was much pleased in his mind.
Holding it in his hand, he walked in the direction of the old
man's field.
He approached the fire where Rikad Gawadi was sleeping.
The giant seemed like a log lying close to the fire; his teeth
were hideously visible;
His mouth was gaping. Lingo looked at the old man while sleeping.
His eyes were shut. Lingo said, This is not a good time to carry
off the old man while he is asleep.
In front he looked, and turned round and saw a tree
Of the pipal sort standing erect; he beheld its branches with
wonder, and looked for a fit place to mount upon.
It appeared a very good tree; so he climbed it, and ascended to
the top of it to sit.
As he sat the cock crew. Lingo said, It is daybreak;
Meanwhile the old man must be rising. Therefore Lingo took the
guitar in his hand,
And held it; he gave a stroke, and it sounded well; from it he
drew one hundred tunes.
It sounded well, as if he was singing with his voice.
Thus (as it were) a song was heard.
Trees and hills were silent at its sound. The music loudly
entered into
The old man's ears; he rose in haste, and sat up quickly; lifted
up his eyes,
And desired to hear (more). He looked hither and thither, but
could not make out whence the sound came.
The old man said: Whence has a creature come here to-day to sing
like the maina bird?
He saw a tree, but nothing appeared to him as he looked underneath
it.
He did not look up; he looked at the thickets and ravines, but
Saw nothing. He came to the road, and near to the fire in the
midst of his field and stood.
Sometimes sitting, and sometimes standing, jumping, and rolling,
he began to dance.
The music sounded as the day dawned. His old woman came out in
the morning and began to look out.
She heard in the direction of the field a melodious music playing.
When she arrived near the edge of her field, she heard music in
her ears.
That old woman called her husband to her.
With stretched hands, and lifted feet, and with his neck bent down,
he danced.
Thus he danced. The old woman looked towards her husband, and said,
My old man, my husband,
Surely, that music is very melodious. I will dance, said the
old woman.
Having made the fold of her dress loose, she quickly began to
dance near the hedge.
9. Death and resurrection of Lingo.
Then Lingo disclosed himself to the giant and became friendly with
him. The giant apologised for having tried to eat his brother, and
called Lingo his nephew. Lingo invited him to come and feast on the
flesh of the sixteen scores of nilgai. The giant called his seven
daughters and offered them all to Lingo in marriage. The daughters
produced the arrow which they had treasured up as portending
a husband. Lingo said he was not marrying himself, but he would
take them home as wives for his brothers. So they all went back to
the cave and Lingo assigned two of the daughters each to the three
elder brothers and one to the youngest. Then the brothers, to show
their gratitude, said that they would go and hunt in the forest and
bring meat and fruit and Lingo should lie in a swing and be rocked
by their seven wives. But while the wives were swinging Lingo and
his eyes were shut, they wished to sport with him as their husbands'
younger brother. So saying they pulled his hands and feet till he woke
up. Then he reproached them and called them his mothers and sisters,
but they cared nothing and began to embrace him. Then Lingo was filled
with wrath and leapt up, and seeing a rice-pestle near he seized it
and beat them all with it soundly. Then the women went to their houses
and wept and resolved to be revenged on Lingo. So when the brothers
came home they told their husbands that while they were swinging
Lingo he had tried to seduce them all from their virtue, and they
were resolved to go home and stay no longer in Kachikopa with such
a man about the place. Then the brothers were exceedingly angry with
Lingo, who they thought had deceived them with a pretence of virtue
in refusing a wife, and they resolved to kill him. So they enticed
him into the forest with a story of a great animal which had put them
to flight and asked him to kill it, and there they shot him to death
with their arrows and gouged out his eyes and played ball with them.
But the god Bhagwan became aware that Lingo was not praying to him as
usual, and sent the crow Kageshwar to look for him. The crow came and
reported that Lingo was dead, and the god sent him back with nectar to
sprinkle it over the body and bring it to life again, which was done.
10. He releases the Gonds shut up in the cave and constitutes the
tribe.
Lingo then thought he had had enough of the four brothers, so he
determined to go and find the other sixteen score Gonds who were
imprisoned somewhere as the brothers had told him. The manner of his
doing this may be told in Captain Forsyth's version: [51]
And our Lingo redivivus
Wandered on across the mountains,
Wandered sadly through the forest
Till the darkening of the evening,
Wandered on until the night fell.
Screamed the panther in the forest,
Growled the bear upon the mountain,
And our Lingo then bethought him
Of their cannibal propensities.
Saw at hand the tree Niruda,
Clambered up into its branches.
Darkness fell upon the forest,
Bears their heads wagged, yelled the jackal
Kolyal, the King of Jackals.
Sounded loud their dreadful voices
In the forest-shade primeval.
Then the Jungle-Cock Gugotee,
Mull the Peacock, Kurs the Wild Deer,
Terror-stricken, screeched and shuddered,
In that forest-shade primeval.
But the moon arose at midnight,
Poured her flood of silver radiance,
Lighted all the forest arches,
Through their gloomy branches slanting;
Fell on Lingo, pondering deeply
On his sixteen scores of Koiturs.
Then thought Lingo, I will ask her
For my sixteen scores of Koiturs.
'Tell me, O Moon!' said Lingo,
'Tell, O Brightener of the darkness!
Where my sixteen scores are hidden.'
But the Moon sailed onwards, upwards,
And her cold and glancing moonbeams
Said, 'Your Gonds, I have not seen them.'
And the Stars came forth and twinkled
Twinkling eyes above the forest.
Lingo said, "O Stars that twinkle!
Eyes that look into the darkness,
Tell me where my sixteen scores are."
But the cold Stars twinkling ever,
Said, 'Your Gonds, we have not seen them.'
Broke the morning, the sky reddened,
Faded out the star of morning,
Rose the Sun above the forest,
Brilliant Sun, the Lord of morning,
And our Lingo quick descended,
Quickly ran he to the eastward,
Fell before the Lord of Morning,
Gave the Great Sun salutation--
'Tell, O Sun!' he said, 'Discover
Where my sixteen scores of Gonds are.'
But the Lord of Day reply made--
"Hear, O Lingo, I a Pilgrim
Wander onwards, through four watches
Serving God, I have seen nothing
Of your sixteen scores of Koiturs."
Then our Lingo wandered onwards
Through the arches of the forest;
Wandered on until before him
Saw the grotto of a hermit,
Old and sage, the Black Kumait,
He the very wise and knowing,
He the greatest of Magicians,
Born in days that are forgotten,
In the unremembered ages,
Salutation gave and asked him--
'Tell, O Hermit! Great Kumait!
Where my sixteen scores of Gonds are.
Then replied the Black Magician,
Spake disdainfully in this wise--
"Lingo, hear, your Gonds are asses
Eating cats, and mice, and bandicoots,
Eating pigs, and cows, and buffaloes;
Filthy wretches! wherefore ask me?
If you wish it I will tell you.
Our great Mahadeva caught them,
And has shut them up securely
In a cave within the bowels
Of his mountain Dewalgiri,
With a stone of sixteen cubits,
And his bulldog fierce Basmasur;
Serve them right, too, I consider,
Filthy, casteless, stinking wretches!"
And the Hermit to his grotto
Back returned, and deeply pondered
On the days that are forgotten,
On the unremembered ages.
But our Lingo wandered onwards,
Fasting, praying, doing penance;
Laid him on a bed of prickles,
Thorns long and sharp and piercing.
Fasting lay he devotee-like,
Hand not lifting, foot not lifting,
Eye not opening, nothing seeing.
Twelve months long thus lay and fasted,
Till his flesh was dry and withered,
And the bones began to show through.
Then the great god Mahadeva
Felt his seat begin to tremble,
Felt his golden stool, all shaking
From the penance of our Lingo.
Felt, and wondered who on earth
This devotee was that was fasting
Till his golden stool was shaking.
Stepped he down from Dewalgiri,
Came and saw that bed of prickles
Where our Lingo lay unmoving.
Asked him what his little game was,
Why his golden stool was shaking.
Answered Lingo, "Mighty Ruler!
Nothing less will stop that shaking
Than my sixteen scores of Koiturs
Rendered up all safe and hurtless
From your cave in Dewalgiri."
Then the Great God, much disgusted,
Offered all he had to Lingo,
Offered kingdom, name, and riches,
Offered anything he wished for,
'Only leave your stinking Koiturs
Well shut up in Dewalgiri.'
But our Lingo all refusing
Would have nothing but his Koiturs;
Gave a turn to run the thorns a
Little deeper in his midriff.
Winced the Great God: "Very well, then,
Take your Gonds--but first a favour.
By the shore of the Black Water
Lives a bird they call Black Bindo,
Much I wish to see his young ones,
Little Bindos from the sea-shore;
For an offering bring these Bindos,
Then your Gonds take from my mountain."
Then our Lingo rose and wandered,
Wandered onwards through the forest,
Till he reached the sounding sea-shore,
Reached the brink of the Black Water,
Found the Bingo birds were absent
From their nest upon the sea-shore,
Absent hunting in the forest,
Hunting elephants prodigious,
Which they killed and took their brains out,
Cracked their skulls, and brought their brains to
Feed their callow little Bindos,
Wailing sadly by the sea-shore.
Seven times a fearful serpent,
Bhawarnag the horrid serpent,
Serpent born in ocean's caverns,
Coming forth from the Black Water,
Had devoured the little Bindos--
Broods of callow little Bindos
Wailing sadly by the sea-shore--
In the absence of their parents.
Eighth this brood was. Stood our Lingo,
Stood he pondering beside them--
"If I take these little wretches
In the absence of their parents
They will call me thief and robber.
No! I'll wait till they come back here."
Then he laid him down and slumbered
By the little wailing Bindos.
As he slept the dreadful serpent,
Rising, came from the Black Water,
Came to eat the callow Bindos,
In the absence of their parents.
Came he trunk-like from the waters,
Came with fearful jaws distended,
Huge and horrid, like a basket
For the winnowing of corn.
Rose a hood of vast dimensions
O'er his fierce and dreadful visage.
Shrieked the Bindos young and callow,
Gave a cry of lamentation;
Rose our Lingo; saw the monster;
Drew an arrow from his quiver,
Shot it swift into his stomach,
Sharp and cutting in the stomach,
Then another and another;
Cleft him into seven pieces,
Wriggled all the seven pieces,
Wriggled backward to the water.
But our Lingo, swift advancing,
Seized the headpiece in his arms,
Knocked the brains out on a boulder;
Laid it down beside the Bindos,
Callow, wailing, little Bindos.
On it laid him, like a pillow,
And began again to slumber.
Soon returned the parent Bindos
From their hunting in the forest;
Bringing brains and eyes of camels
And of elephants prodigious,
For their little callow Bindos
Wailing sadly by the sea-shore.
But the Bindos young and callow
Brains of camels would not swallow;
Said--"A pretty set of parents
You are truly! thus to leave us
Sadly wailing by the sea-shore
To be eaten by the serpent--
Bhawarnag the dreadful serpent--
Came he up from the Black Water,
Came to eat us little Bindos,
When this very valiant Lingo
Shot an arrow in his stomach,
Cut him into seven pieces--
Give to Lingo brains of camels,
Eyes of elephants prodigious."
Then the fond paternal Bindo
Saw the head-piece of the serpent
Under Lingo's head a pillow,
And he said, 'O valiant Lingo,
Ask whatever you may wish for.'
Then he asked the little Bindos
For an offering to the Great God,
And the fond paternal Bindo,
Much disgusted first refusing,
Soon consented; said he'd go too
With the fond maternal Bindo--
Take them all upon his shoulders,
And fly straight to Dewalgiri.
Then he spread his mighty pinions,
Took his Bindos up on one side
And our Lingo on the other.
Thus they soared away together
From the shores of the Black Water,
And the fond maternal Bindo,
O'er them hovering, spread an awning
With her broad and mighty pinions
O'er her offspring and our Lingo.
By the forests and the mountains
Six months' journey was it thither
To the mountain Dewalgiri.
Half the day was scarcely over
Ere this convoy from the sea-shore
Lighted safe on Dewalgiri;
Touched the knocker to the gateway
Of the Great God, Mahadeva.
And the messenger Narayan
Answering, went and told his master--
"Lo, this very valiant Lingo!
Here he is with all the Bindos,
The Black Bindos from the sea-shore."
Then the Great God, much disgusted,
Driven quite into a corner,
Took our Lingo to the cavern,
Sent Basmasur to his kennel,
Held his nose, and moved away the
Mighty stone of sixteen cubits;
Called those sixteen scores of Gonds out
Made them over to their Lingo.
And they said, "O Father Lingo!
What a bad time we've had of it,
Not a thing to fill our bellies
In this horrid gloomy dungeon."
But our Lingo gave them dinner,
Gave them rice and flour of millet,
And they went off to the river,
Had a drink, and cooked and ate it.
The next episode is taken from a slightly different local version:
And while they were cooking their food at the river a great flood
came up, but all the Gonds crossed safely except the four gods,
Tekam, Markam, Pusam and Telengam. [52] These were delayed because
they had cooked their food with ghi which they had looted from the
Hindu deities. Then they stood on the bank and cried out,
O God of the crossing,
O Boundary God!
Should you be here,
Come take us across.
Hearing this, the tortoise and crocodile came up to them, and offered
to take them across the river. So Markam and Tekam sat on the back
of the crocodile and Pusam and Telengam on the back of the tortoise,
and before starting the gods made the crocodile and tortoise swear
that they would not eat or drown them in the sea. But when they got
to the middle of the river the tortoise and crocodile began to sink,
with the idea that they would drown the Gonds and feed their young
with them. Then the Gonds cried out, and the Raigidhni or vulture
heard them. This bird appears to be the same as the Bindo, as it fed
its young with elephants. The Raigidhni flew to the Gonds and took
them up on its back and flew ashore with them. And in its anger it
picked out the tongue of the crocodile and crushed the neck of the
tortoise. And this is why the crocodile is still tongueless and the
tortoise has a broken neck, which is sometimes inside and sometimes
outside its shell. Both animals also have the marks of string on
their backs where the Gond gods tied their necks together when
they were ferried across. Thus all the Gonds were happily reunited
and Lingo took them into the forest, and they founded a town there,
which grew and prospered. And Lingo divided all the Gonds into clans
and made the oldest man a Pardhan or priest and founded the rule of
exogamy. He also made the Gond gods, subsequently described, [53]
and worshipped them with offerings of a calf and liquor, and danced
before them. He also prescribed the ceremonies of marriage which are
still observed, and after all this was done Lingo went to the gods.
(b) Tribal Subdivisions
11. Subcastes.
Out of the Gond tribe, which, as it gave its name to a province, may
be considered as almost a people, a number of separate castes have
naturally developed. Among them are several occupational castes such
as the Agarias or iron-workers, the Ojhas or soothsayers, Pardhans
or priests and minstrels, Solahas or carpenters, and Koilabhutis or
dancers or prostitutes. These are principally sprung from the Gonds,
though no doubt with an admixture of other low tribes or castes. The
Parjas of Bastar, now classed as a separate tribe, appear to represent
the oldest Gond settlers, who were subdued by later immigrants of
the race; while the Bhatras and Jhadi Telengas are of mixed descent
from Gonds and Hindus. Similarly the Gowari caste of cattle-graziers
originated from the alliances of Gond and Ahir graziers. The Mannewars
and Kolams are other tribes allied to the Gonds. Many Hindu castes
and also non-Aryan tribes living in contact with the Gonds have a
large Gond element; of the former class the Ahirs, Basors, Barhais
and Lohars, and of the latter the Baigas, Bhunjias and Khairwars
are instances.
Among the Gonds proper there are two aristocratic subdivisions, the
Raj-Gonds and Khatolas. According to Forsyth the Raj-Gonds are in
many cases the descendants of alliances between Rajput adventurers
and Gonds. But the term practically comprises the landholding
subdivision of the Gonds, and any proprietor who was willing to pay
for the privilege could probably get his family admitted into the
Raj-Gond group. The Raj-Gonds rank with the Hindu cultivating castes,
and Brahmans will take water from them. They sometimes wear the
sacred thread. In the Telugu country the Raj-Gond is known as Durla
or Durlasattam. In some localities Raj-Gonds will intermarry with
ordinary Gonds, but not in others. The Khatola Gonds take their name
from the Khatola state in Bundelkhand, which is said to have once been
governed by a Gond ruler, but is no longer in existence. In Saugor
they rank about equal with the Raj-Gonds and intermarry with them,
but in Chhindwara it is said that ordinary Gonds despise them and
will not marry with them or eat with them on account of their mixed
descent from Gonds and Hindus. The ordinary Gonds in most Districts
form one endogamous group, and are known as the Dhur or 'dust' Gonds,
that is the common people. An alternative name conferred on them by the
Hindus is Rawanvansi or of the race of Rawan, the demon king of Ceylon,
who was the opponent of Rama. The inference from this name is that the
Hindus consider the Gonds to have been among the people of southern
India who opposed the Aryan expedition to Ceylon, which is preserved in
the legend of Rama; and the name therefore favours the hypothesis that
the Gonds came from the south and that their migration northward was
sufficiently recent in date to permit of its being still remembered
in tradition. There are several other small local subdivisions. The
Koya Gonds live on the border of the Telugu country, and their name
is apparently a corruption of Koi or Koitur, which the Gonds call
themselves. The Gaita are another Chanda subcaste, the word Gaite or
Gaita really meaning a village priest or headman. Gattu or Gotte is
said to be a name given to the hill Gonds of Chanda, and is not a real
subcaste. The Darwe or Naik Gonds of Chanda were formerly employed as
soldiers, and hence obtained the name of Naik or leader. Other local
groups are being formed such as the Larhia or those of Chhattisgarh,
the Mandlaha of Mandla, the Lanjiha from Lanji and so on. These are
probably in course of becoming endogamous. The Gonds of Bastar are
divided into two groups, the Maria and the Muria. The Maria are the
wilder, and are apparently named after the Mad, as the hilly country of
Bastar is called. Mr. Hira Lal suggests the derivation of Muria from
mur, the palas tree, which is common in the plains of Bastar, or from
mur, a root. Both derivations must be considered as conjectural. The
Murias are the Gonds who live in the plains and are more civilised
than the Marias. The descendants of the Raja of Deogarh Bakht Buland,
who turned Muhammadan, still profess that religion, but intermarry
freely with the Hindu Gonds. The term Bhoi, which literally means
a bearer in Telugu, is used as a synonym for the Gonds and also as
an honorific title. In Chhindwara it is said that only a village
proprietor is addressed as Bhoi. It appears that the Gonds were used
as palanquin-bearers, and considered it an honour to belong to the
Kahar or bearer caste, which has a fairly good status. [54]
12. Exogamy.
The Gond rules of exogamy appear to preserve traces of the system found
in Australia, by which the whole tribe is split into two or four main
divisions, and every man in one or two of them must marry a woman in
the other one or two. This is considered by Sir J. G. Frazer to be
the beginning of exogamy, by which marriage was prohibited, first,
between brothers and sisters, and then between parents and children,
by the arrangement of these main divisions. [55]
Among the Gonds, however, the subdivision into small exogamous septs
has been also carried out, and the class system, if the surmise that
it once existed be correct, remains only in the form of a survival,
prohibiting marriage between agnates, like an ordinary sept. In one
part of Bastar all the septs of the Maria Gonds are divided into two
great classes. There are ninety septs in A Class and sixty-nine in
B Class, though the list may be incomplete. All the septs of A Class
say that they are Bhaiband or Dadabhai to each other, that is in the
relation of brothers, or cousins being the sons of brothers. No man
of Class A can marry a woman of any sept in Class A. The septs of
Class A stand in relation of Mamabhai or Akomama to those of Class
B. Mamabhai means a maternal uncle's son, and Akomama apparently
signifies having the same maternal grandfather. Any man of a sept
in Class A can marry any woman of a sept in Class B. It will thus be
seen that the smaller septs seem to serve no purpose for regulating
marriage, and are no more than family names. The tribe might just
as well be divided into two great exogamous clans only. Marriage is
prohibited between persons related only through males; but according
to the exogamous arrangement there is no other prohibition, and
a man could marry any maternal relative. Separate rules, however,
prohibit his marriage with certain female relatives, and these will
be given subsequently. [56] It is possible that the small septs may
serve some purpose which has not been elicited, though the inquiry
made by Rai Bahadur Panda Baijnath was most careful and painstaking.
In another part of Bastar there were found to be five classes, and
each class had a small number of septs in it. The people who supplied
this information could not give the names of many septs. Thus Class A
had six septs, Class B five, Classes C and D one each, Class E four,
and Class F two. A man could not marry a woman of any sept belonging
to his own class.
The Muria Gonds of Bastar have a few large exogamous septs or clans
named in Hindi after animals, and each of these clans contains several
subsepts with Gondi names. Thus the Bakaravans or Goat race contains
the Garde, Kunjami, Karrami and Vadde septs. The Kachhimvans or
Tortoise race has the Netami, Kawachi, Usendi and Tekami septs; the
Nagvans or Cobra race includes the Maravi, Potari, Karanga, Nurethi,
Dhurwa and others. Other exogamous races are the Sodi (or tiger),
Behainsa (buffalo), Netam (dog in Gondi), Chamchidai (bat) and one
or two more. In this case the exogamous clans with Hindi names would
appear to be a late division, and have perhaps been adopted because
the meaning of the old Gondi names had been forgotten, or the septs
were too numerous to be remembered.
In Chanda a classification according to the number of gods worshipped
is found. There are four main groups worshipping seven, six, five
and four gods respectively, and each group contains ten to fifteen
septs. A man cannot marry a woman of any sept which worships the same
number of gods as himself. Each group has a sacred animal which the
members revere, that of the seven-god worshippers being a porcupine,
of the six-god worshippers a tiger, of the five-god worshippers the
saras crane, and of the four-god worshippers a tortoise. As a rule the
members of the different groups do not know the names of their gods,
and in practice it is doubtful whether they restrict themselves to the
proper number of gods of their own group. Formerly there were three-,
two- and one-god worshippers, but in each of these classes it is
said that there were only one or two septs, and they found that they
were much inconvenienced by the paucity of their numbers, perhaps
for purposes of communal worship and feasting, and hence they got
themselves enrolled in the larger groups. In reality it would appear
that the classification according to the number of gods worshipped is
being forgotten, and the three lowest groups have disappeared. This
conjecture is borne out by the fact that in Chhindwara and other
localities only two large classes remain who worship six and seven
gods respectively, and marry with each other, the union of a man
with a woman worshipping the same number of gods as himself being
prohibited. Here, again, the small septs included in the groups appear
to serve no purpose for regulating marriages. In Mandla the division
according to the number of gods worshipped exists as in Chanda; but
many Gonds have forgotten all particulars as to the gods, and say only
that those septs which worship the same number of gods are bhaiband,
or related to each other, and therefore cannot intermarry. In Betul
the division by numbers of gods appears to be wholly in abeyance. Here
certain large septs, especially the Uika and Dhurwa, are subdivided
into a number of subsepts, within each of which marriage is prohibited.
13. Totemism.
Many of the septs are named after animals and plants. Among the
commonest septs in all Districts are Markam, the mango tree; Tekam,
the teak tree; Netam, the dog; Irpachi, the mahua tree; Tumrachi, the
tendu tree; Warkara, the wild cat, and so on. Generally the members
of a sept do not kill or injure their totem animals, but the rule
is not always observed, and in some cases they now have some other
object of veneration, possibly because they have forgotten the meaning
of the sept name, or the object after which it is named has ceased
to be sacred. Thus the Markam sept, though named after the mango,
now venerate the tortoise, and this is also the case with the Netam
sept in Bastar, though named after the dog. In Bastar a man revering
the tortoise, though he will not catch the animal himself, will get
one of his friends to catch it, and one revering the goat, if he
wishes to kill a goat for a feast, will kill it not at his own house
but at a friend's. The meaning of the important sept names Marabi,
Dhurwa and Uika has not been ascertained, and the members of the sept
do not know it. In Mandla the Marabi sept are divided into the Eti
Marabi and Padi Marabi, named after the goat and pig. The Eti or goat
Marabi will not touch a goat nor sacrifice one to Bura Deo. They say
that once their ancestors stole a goat and were caught by the owner,
when they put a basket over it and prayed Bura Deo to change it into
a pig, which he did. Therefore they sacrifice only pigs to Bura Deo,
but apparently the Padi Marabi also both sacrifice and eat pigs. The
Dhurwa sept are divided into the Tumrachi and Nabalia Dhurwa, named
after the tendu tree and the dwarf date-palm. The Nabalia Dhurwas
will not cut a dwarf date-palm nor eat its fruit. They worship Bura
Deo in this tree instead of in the saj tree, making an iron doll
to represent him and covering it with palm-leaves. The Uika sept in
Mandla say that they revere no animal or plant, and can eat any animal
or cut down any plant except the saj tree, [57] the tree of Bura Deo;
but in Betul they are divided into several subsepts, each of which
has a totem. The Parteti sept revere the crocodile. When a marriage
is finished they make a sacrifice to the crocodile, and if they see
one lying dead they break their earthen pots in token of mourning. The
Warkara sept revere the wild cat; they also will not touch a village
cat nor keep one in their house, and if a cat comes in they drive it
out at once. The Kunjam sept revere the rat and do not kill it.
14. Connection of totemism with the gods.
In Betul the Gonds explain the totemistic names of their septs
by saying that some incident connected with the animal, tree
or other object occurred to the ancestor or priest of the sept
while they were worshipping at the Deo-khulla or god's place or
threshing-floor. Mr. Ganga Prasad Khatri has made an interesting
collection of these. The reason why these stories have been devised
may be that the totem animals or plants have ceased to be revered
on their own merits as ancestors or kinsmen of the sept, and it
was therefore felt necessary to explain the sept name or sanctity
attaching to the totem by associating it with the gods. If this were
correct the process would be analogous to that by which an animal or
plant is first held sacred of itself, and, when this feeling begins
to decay with some recognition of its true nature, it is associated
with an anthropomorphic god in order to preserve its sanctity. The
following are some examples recorded by Mr. Ganga Prasad Khatri. Some
of the examples are not associated with the gods.
Gajjami, subsept of Dhurwa sept. From gaj, an arrow. Their first
ancestor killed a tiger with an arrow.
Gouribans Dhurwa. Their first ancestor worshipped his gods in a
bamboo clump.
Kusadya Dhurwa. (Kosa, tasar silk cocoon.) The first ancestor found
a silk cocoon on the tree in which he worshipped his gods.
Kohkapath. Kohka is the fruit of the bhilawa [58] or marking-nut tree,
and path, a kid. The first ancestor worshipped his gods in a bhilawa
tree and offered a kid to them. Members of this sept do not eat the
fruit or flowers of the bhilawa tree.
Jaglya. One who keeps awake, or the awakener. The first ancestor stayed
awake the whole night in the Deo-khulla, or god's threshing-floor.
Sariyam. (Sarri, a path.) The first ancestor swept the path to the
Deo-khulla.
Guddam. Gudda is a place where a hen lays her eggs. The first
ancestor's hen laid eggs in the Deo-khulla.
Irpachi. The mahua tree. A mahua tree grew in the Deo-khulla or
worshipping-place of this sept.
Admachi. The dhaura tree. [59] The first ancestor worshipped his
gods under a dhaura tree. Members of the sept do not cut this tree
nor burn its wood.
Sarati Dhurwa. (Sarati, a whip.) The first ancestor whipped the priest
of the gods.
Suibadiwa. (Sui, a porcupine.) The first ancestor's wife had a
porcupine which went and ate the crop of an old man's field. He tried
to catch it, but it went back to her. He asked the name of her sept,
and not being able to find it out called it Suibadiwa.
Watka. (A stone.) Members of this sept worship five stones for their
gods. Some say that the first ancestors were young boys who forgot
where the Deo-khulla was and therefore set up five stones and offered
a chicken to them. As they did not offer the usual sacrifice of a goat,
members of this sept abstain from eating goats.
Tumrecha Uika. (The tendu tree. [60]) It is said that the original
ancestor of this sept was walking in the forest with his pregnant
wife. She saw some tendu fruit and longed for it and he gave it to
her to eat. Perhaps the original idea may have been that she conceived
through swallowing a tendu fruit. Members of this sept eat the fruit
of the tendu tree, but do not cut the tree nor make any use of its
leaves or branches.
Tumdan Uika. Tumdan is a kind of pumpkin or gourd. They say that this
plant grows in their Deo-khulla. The members drink water out of this
gourd in the house, but do not carry it out of the house.
Kadfa-chor Uika. (Stealer of the kadfa.) Kadfa is the sheaf of grain
left standing in the field for the gods when the crop is cut. The
first ancestor stole the kadfa and offered it to his gods.
Gadhamar Uika. (Donkey-slayer.) Some say that the gods of the sept
came to the Deo-khulla riding on donkeys, and others that the first
ancestor killed a donkey in the Deo-khulla.
Eti-kumra. Eti is a goat. The ancestors of the sept used to sacrifice
a Brahman boy to their gods. Once they were caught in the act by the
parents of the boy they had stolen, and they prayed to the gods to
save them, and the boy was turned into a goat. They do not kill a
goat nor eat its flesh, nor sacrifice it to the gods.
Ahke. This word means 'on the other side of a river.' They say that
a man of the Dhurwa sept abducted a girl of the Uika sept from the
other side of a river and founded this sept.
Tirgam. The word means fire. They say that their ancestor's hand was
burnt in the Deo-khulla while cooking the sacrifice.
Tekam. (The teak tree.) The ancestor of the sept had his gods in
this tree. Members of the sept will not eat food off teak leaves,
but they will use them for thatching, and also cut the tree.
Manapa. In Gondi mani is a son and apa a father. They say that their
ancestors sacrificed a Brahman father and son to their gods and were
saved by their being turned into goats like the Eti-kumra sept. Members
of the sept do not kill or eat a goat.
Korpachi. The droppings of a hen. The ancestors of the sept offered
these to his gods.
Mandani. The female organ of generation. The ancestor of the sept
slept with his wife in the Deo-khulla.
Paiyam. Paiya is a heifer which has not borne a calf, such as is
offered to the gods. Other Gonds say that the people of this sept have
no gods. They are said not only to marry a girl from any other subsept
of the Dhurwas and Uikas, but from their own sept and even their own
sisters, though this is probably no longer true. They are held to be
the lowest of the Gonds. Except in this instance, as already seen,
the subsepts of the Dhurwa and Uika septs do not intermarry with
each other.
(c) Marriage Customs
15. Prohibitions on intermarriage, and unions of relations.
A man must not marry in his own sept, nor in one which worships the
same number of gods, in localities where the classification of septs
according to the number of gods worshipped obtains. Intermarriage
between septs which are bhaiband or brothers to each other is also
prohibited. The marriage of first cousins is considered especially
suitable. Formerly, perhaps, the match between a brother's daughter
and sister's son was most common; this is held to be a survival of the
matriarchate, when a man's sister's son was his heir. But the reason
has now been generally forgotten, and the union of a brother's son
to a sister's daughter has also become customary, while, as girls
are scarce and have to be paid for, it is the boy's father who puts
forward his claim. Thus in Mandla and Bastar a man thinks he has a
right to his sister's daughter for his son on the ground that his
family has given a girl to her husband's family, and therefore they
should give one back. This match is known as Dudh lautana or bringing
back the milk; and if the sister's daughter marries any one else
her maternal uncle sometimes claims what is known as 'milk money,'
which may be a sum of Rs. 5, in compensation for the loss of the
girl as a wife for his son. This custom has perhaps developed out of
the former match in changed conditions of society, when the original
relation between a brother and his sister's son has been forgotten
and girls have become valuable. But it is said that the dudh or milk
money is also payable if a brother refuses to give his daughter to
his sister's son. In Mandla a man claims his sister's daughter for
his son and sometimes even the daughter of a cousin, and considers
that he has a legitimate grievance if the girl is married to somebody
else. Frequently, if he has reason to apprehend this, he invites the
girl to his house for some ceremony or festival, and there marries
her to his son without the consent of her parents. As this usually
constitutes the offence of kidnapping under the Penal Code, a crop of
criminal cases results, but the procedure of arrest without warrant
and the severe punishment imposed by the Code are somewhat unsuitable
for a case of this kind, which, according to Gond ideas, is rather
in the nature of a civil wrong, and a sufficient penalty would often
be the payment of an adequate compensation or bride-price for the
girl. The children of two sisters cannot, it is said, be married,
and a man cannot marry his wife's elder sister, any aunt or niece,
nor his mother-in-law or her sister. But marriage is not prohibited
between grandparents and grandchildren. If an old man marries a young
wife and dies, his grandson will marry her if she is of proper age. In
this there would be no blood-relationship, but it is doubtful whether
even the existence of such relationship would prevent the match. It
is said that even among Hindu castes the grandfather will flirt with
his granddaughter, and call her his wife in jest, and the grandmother
with her grandson. In Bastar a man can marry his daughter's daughter
or maternal grandfather's or grandmother's sister. He could not marry
his son's daughter or paternal grandfather's sister, because they
belong to the same sept as himself.
16. Irregular marriages.
In the Maria country, if a girl is made pregnant by a man of the
caste before marriage, she simply goes to his house and becomes his
wife. This is called Paithu or entering. The man has to spend Rs. 2
or 3 on food for the caste and pay the price for the girl to her
parents. If a girl has grown up and no match has been arranged for
her to which she agrees, her parents will ask her maternal uncle's or
paternal aunt's son to seize her and take her away. These two cousins
have a kind of prescriptive claim to the girl, and apparently it makes
no difference whether the prospective husband is already married or
not. He and his friends lie in wait near her home and carry her off,
and her parents afterwards proceed to his house to console their
daughter and reconcile her to the match. Sometimes when a woman is
about to become what is known as a Paisamundi or kept woman, without
being married, the relations rub her and the man whose mistress she
is with oil and turmeric, put marriage crowns of palm-leaves on their
heads, pour water on them from the top of a post, and make them go
seven times round a mahua branch, so that they may be considered to
be married. When a couple are very poor they may simply go and live
together without any wedding, and perform the ceremony afterwards
when they have means, or they distribute little pieces of bread to
the tribesmen in lieu of the marriage feast.
17. Marriage. Arrangement of matches.
Marriage is generally adult. Among the wild Maria Gonds of Bastar
the consent of the girl is considered an essential preliminary to
the union. She gives it before a council of elders, and if necessary
is allowed time to make up her mind. The boy must also agree to the
match. Elsewhere matches are arranged by the parents, and a bride-price
which amounts to a fairly substantial sum in comparison with the means
of the parties is usually paid. But still the girls have a considerable
amount of freedom. It is generally considered that if a girl goes of
her own accord and pours turmeric and water over a man, it is a valid
marriage and he can take her to live in his house. Married women also
sometimes do this to another man if they wish to leave their husbands.
18. The marriage ceremony.
The most distinctive feature of a Gond marriage is that the procession
usually starts from the bride's house and the wedding is held at that
of the bridegroom, in contradistinction to the Hindu practice. It
is supposed that this is a survival of the custom of marriage by
capture, when the bride was carried off from her own house to the
bridegroom's, and any ceremony which was requisite was necessarily
held at the house of the latter. But the Gonds say that since Dulha
Deo, the bridegroom god and one of the commonest village deities, was
carried off by a tiger on his way to his wedding, it was decided that
in future the bride must go to the bridegroom to be married in order
to obviate the recurrence of such a calamity. Any risk incidental to
the journey thus falls to the lady. Among the wilder Maria Gonds of
Bastar the ritual is very simple. The bride's party arrive at the
bridegroom's village and occupy some huts made ready for them. His
father sends them provisions, including a pig and fowls, and the day
passes in feasting. In the evening they go to the bridegroom's house,
and the night is spent in dancing by the couple and the young people
of the village. Next morning the bride's people go back again, and
after another meal her parents bring her to the bridegroom's house
and push her inside, asking the boy's father to take charge of her,
and telling her that she now belongs to her husband's family and must
not come back to them alone. The girl cries a little for form's sake
and acquiesces, and the business is over, no proper marriage rite being
apparently performed at all. Among the more civilised Marias the couple
are seated for the ceremony side by side under a green shed, and water
is poured on them through the shed in imitation of the fertilising
action of rain. Some elder of the village places his hands on them and
the wedding is over. But Hindu customs are gradually being adopted,
and the rubbing of powdered turmeric and water on the bodies of the
bride and bridegroom is generally essential to a proper wedding. The
following description is given of the Gonds of Kanker. On the day fixed
for the marriage the pair, accompanied by the Dosi or caste priest,
proceed to a river, in the bed of which two reeds five or six feet
high are placed just so far apart that a man can lie down between
them, and tied together with a thread at the top. The priest lies
down between the reeds, and the bride and bridegroom jump seven times
over his body. After the last jump they go a little way off, throw
aside their wet clothes, and then run naked to a place where their
dry clothes are kept; they put them on and go home without looking
back. Among the Gonds in Khairagarh the pair are placed in two pans
of a balance and covered with blankets. The caste priest lifts up the
bridegroom's pan and her female relatives the bride's, and walk round
with them seven times, touching the marriage-post at each time. After
this they are taken outside the village without being allowed to see
each other. They are placed standing at a little distance with a screen
between them, and liquor is spilt on the ground to make a line from
one to the other. After a time the bridegroom lifts up the screen,
rushes on the bride, gives her a blow on the back and puts the ring
on her finger, at the same time making a noise in imitation of the
cry of a goat. All the village then indulge in bacchanalian orgies,
not sparing their own relations.
19. Wedding expenditure.
In Bastar it is said that the expenses of a wedding vary from Rs. 5
to Rs. 20 for the bride's family and from Rs. 10 to Rs. 50 for the
bridegroom's, according to their means. [61] In a fairly well-to-do
family the expenditure of the bridegroom's family is listed as follows:
liquor Rs. 20, rice Rs. 12, salt Rs. 2, two goats Rs. 2, chillies
Rs. 2, ghi Rs. 4, turmeric Rs. 2, oil Rs. 3, three cloths for the bride
Rs. 8, two sheets and a loin-cloth for her relatives Rs. 5, payment to
the Kumhar for earthen pots Rs. 5, the bride-price Rs. 10, present to
the bride's maternal uncle when she is not married to his son Rs. 2,
and something for the drummers. The total of this is Rs. 76, and any
expenditure on ornaments which the family can afford may be added. In
wealthier localities the bride-price is Rs. 15 to 20 or more. Sometimes
if the girl has been married and dies before the bride-price has
been paid, her father will not allow her body to be buried until
it is paid. The sum expended on a wedding probably represents the
whole income of the family for at least six months, and often for a
considerably longer period. In Chanda [62] the bride's party on arrival
at the bridegroom's village receive the Bara jawa or marriage greeting,
every one present being served with a little rice-water, an onion and
a piece of tobacco. At the wedding the bridegroom has a ring either of
gold, silver or copper, lead not being permissible, and places this on
the bride's finger. Often the bride resists and the bridegroom has to
force her fist open, or he plants his foot on hers in order to control
her while he gets the ring on to her finger. Elsewhere the couple hold
each other by the little fingers in walking round the marriage-post,
and then each places an iron ring on the other's little finger. The
couple then tie strings, coloured yellow with turmeric, round each
other's right wrists. On the second day they are purified with water
and put on new clothes. On the third day they go to worship the god,
preceded by two men who carry a chicken in a basket. This chicken is
called the Dhendha or associate of the bridal couple, and corresponds
to the child which in Hindu marriages is appointed as the associate
of the bridegroom. Just before their arrival at the temple the village
jester snatches away the chicken, and pretends to eat it. At the temple
they worship the god, and deposit before him the strings coloured with
turmeric which had been tied on their wrists. In Chhindwara the bride
is taken on a bullock to the bridegroom's house. At the wedding four
people hold out a blanket in which juari, lemons and eggs are placed,
and the couple walk round this seven times, as in the Hindu bhanwar
ceremony. They then go inside the house, where a chicken is torn
asunder and the blood sprinkled on their heads. At the same time
the bride crushes a chicken under her foot. In Mandla the bride on
entering the marriage-shed kills a chicken by cutting off its head
either with an axe or a knife. Then all the gods of her house enter
into her and she is possessed by them, and for each one she kills a
chicken, cutting off its head in the same manner. The chickens are
eaten by all the members of the bride's party who have come with her,
but none belonging to the bridegroom's party may partake of them. Here
the marriage-post is made of the wood of the mahua tree, round which a
toran or string of mango leaves is twisted, and the couple walk seven
times round this. In Wardha the bride and bridegroom stand on the heap
of refuse behind the house and their heads are knocked together. In
Bhandara two spears are placed on the heap of refuse and their ends
are tied together at the top with the entrails of a fowl. The bride
and bridegroom have to stand under the spears while water is poured
over them, and then run out. Before the bride starts the bridegroom
must give her a blow on the back, and if he can do this before she runs
out from the spears it is thought that the marriage will be lucky. The
women of the bride's and bridegroom's party also stand one at each end
of a rope and have a competition in singing. They sing against each
other and see which can go on the longest. Brahmans are not employed
at a Gond wedding. The man who officiates is known as Dosi, and is
the bridegroom's brother-in-law, father's sister's husband or some
similar relative. A woman relative of the bride helps her to perform
her part and is known as Sawasin. To the Dosi and Sawasin the bride
and bridegroom's parties present an earthen vessel full of kodon. The
donors mark the pots, take them home and sow them in their own fields,
and then give the crop to the Dosi and Sawasin.
20. Special customs.
Some years ago in Balaghat the bride and bridegroom sat and ate food
together out of two leaf-plates. When they had finished the bride took
the leaf-plates, ran with them to the marriage-shed, and fixed them in
the woodwork so that they did not fall down. The bridegroom ran after
her, and if she did not put the plates away quickly, gave her one or
two blows with his fist. This apparently was a symbolical training of
the bride to be diligent and careful in her household work. Among the
Raj-Gonds of Saugor, if the bridegroom could not come himself he was
accustomed to send his sword to represent him. The Sawasin carried the
sword seven times round the marriage-post with the bride and placed
a garland on her on its behalf, and the bride put a garland over
the sword. This was held to be a valid marriage. In a rich Raj-Gond
or Khatola Gond family two or three girls would be given with the
bride, and they would accompany her and become the concubines of the
bridegroom. Among the Maria Gonds of Chanda the wedded pair retire
after the ceremony to a house allotted to them and spend the night
together. Their relatives and friends before leaving shout and make
merry round the house for a time, and throw all kinds of rubbish and
dirt on it. In the morning the couple have to get up early and clear
all this off, and clean up the house. A curious ceremony is reported
from one part of Mandla. When a Gond girl is leaving to be married,
her father places inside her litter a necklace of many strings of
blue and yellow beads, with a number of cowries at the end, and an
iron ring attached to it. On her arrival at the bridegroom's house
his father takes out the necklace and ring. Sometimes it is said
that he simply passes a stone through the ring, but often he hangs
it up in the centre of a room, and the bridegroom's relatives throw
stones at it until one of them goes through the ring, or they throw
long bamboo sticks or shoot arrows at it, or even fire bullets from
a gun. In a recent case it is said that a man was trying to fire
a bullet through the ring and killed a girl. Until a stone, stick,
arrow or bullet has been sent through the ring the marriage cannot
take place, nor can the bridegroom or his father touch the bride,
and they go on doing this all night until somebody succeeds. When the
feat has been done they pour a bottle of liquor over the necklace and
ring, and the bride's relatives catch the liquor as it falls, and drink
it. The girl wears the necklace at her wedding, and thereafter so long
as her husband lives, and when he dies she tears the string to pieces
and throws it into the river. The iron ring must be made by a Gondi
Lohar or blacksmith, and he will not accept money in payment for it,
but must be given a cow, calf, or buffalo. The symbolical meaning
of this rite does not appear to require explanation. [63] In many
places the bride and bridegroom go and bathe in a river or tank on
the day after the wedding, and throw mud and dirt over each other,
or each throws the other down and rolls him or her in the mud. This
is called Chikhal-Mundi or playing in the mud. Afterwards the bride
has to wash the bridegroom's muddy clothes, roll them up in a blanket,
and carry them on her head to the house. A see-saw is then placed in
the marriage-shed, and the bridegroom's father sits on it. The bride
makes the see-saw move up and down, while her relations joke with her
and say, 'Your child is crying.' Elsewhere the bridegroom's father sits
in a swing. The bride and bridegroom swing him, and the bystanders
exclaim that the old man is the child of the new bride. It seems
possible that both customs are meant to portray the rocking of a baby
in a cradle or swinging it in a swing, and hence it is thought that
through performing them the bride will soon rock or swing a real baby.
21. Taking omens.
In Bastar an omen is taken before the wedding. The village elders meet
on an auspicious day as Monday, Thursday or Friday, and after midnight
they cook and eat food, and go out into the forest. They look for a
small black bird called Usi, from which omens are commonly taken. When
anybody sees this bird, if it cries 'Sun, Sun,' on the right hand,
it is thought that the marriage will be lucky. If, however, it cries
'Chi, Chi' or 'Fie, Fie,' the proposed match is held to be of evil
omen, and is cancelled. The Koya Gonds of Bastar distil mahua liquor
before arranging for a match. If the liquor is good they think the
marriage will be lucky, and take the liquor with them to cement the
betrothal; but if it is bad they think the marriage will be unlucky,
and the proposal is dropped. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays are
held to be lucky days for marriages, and they are celebrated in the
hot-weather months of Baisakh, Jesth and Asar, or April, May and June,
or in Pus (December), and rarely in Magh (January). A wedding is only
held in Kartik (October) if the bride and bridegroom have already
had sexual intercourse, and cannot take place in the rains.
22. Marriage by capture. Weeping and hiding.
Survivals of the custom of marriage by capture are to be found in many
localities. In Bastar the prospective bridegroom collects a party of
his friends and lies in wait for the girl, and they catch her when she
comes out and gets a little distance from her house. The girl cries
out, and women of the village come and rescue her and beat the boys
with sticks till they have crossed the boundary of the village. The
boys neither resist nor retaliate on the women, but simply make off
with the girl. When they get home a new cloth is given to her, and the
boys have a carouse on rice-beer, and the marriage is considered to
be complete. The parents do not interfere, but as a rule the affair
is prearranged between the girl and her suitor, and if she really
objects to the match they let her go. A similar procedure occurs in
Chanda. Other customs which seem to preserve the idea that marriage
was once a forcible abduction are those of the bride weeping and
hiding, which are found in most Districts. In Balaghat the bride
and one or two friends go round to the houses of the village and to
other villages, all of them crying, and receive presents from their
friends. In Wardha the bride is expected to cry continuously for a day
and a night before the wedding, to show her unwillingness to leave her
family. In Kanker it is said that before marriage the bride is taught
to weep in different notes, so that when that part of the ceremony
arrives in which weeping is required, she may have the proper note
at her command. In Chhindwara the bridegroom's party go and fetch the
bride for the wedding, and on the night before her departure she hides
herself in some house in the village. The bridegroom's brother and
other men seek all through the village for her, and when they find
her she runs and clings to the post of the house. The bridegroom's
brother carries her off by force, and she is taken on a bullock to
the bridegroom's house. In Seoni the girl hides in the same manner,
and calls out 'Coo, coo,' when they are looking for her. After she
is found, the bridegroom's brother carries her round on his back
to the houses of his friends in the village, and she weeps at each
house. When the bride's party arrive at the bridegroom's village the
latter's party meet them and stop them from proceeding further. After
waving sticks against each other in a threatening manner they fall
on each other's necks and weep. Then two spears are planted to make
an arch before the door, and the bridegroom pushes the bride through
these from behind, hitting her to make her go through, while she hangs
back and feigns reluctance. In Mandla the bride sometimes rides to the
wedding on the shoulders of her sister's husband, and it is supposed
that she never gets down all the way.
23. Serving for a wife.
The practice of Lamsena, or serving for a wife, is commonly adopted
by boys who cannot afford to buy one. The bridegroom serves his
prospective father-in-law for an agreed period, usually three to
five or even six years, and at its expiry he should be married
to the girl without expense. During this time he is not supposed
to have access to the girl, but frequently they become intimate,
and if this happens the boy may either stay and serve his unexpired
term or take his wife away at once; in the latter case his parents
should pay the girl's father Rs. 5 for each year of the bridegroom's
unexpired service. The Lamsena custom does not work well as a rule,
since the girl's parents can break their contract, and the Lamsena has
no means of redress. Sometimes if they are offered a good bride-price
they will marry the girl to another suitor when he has served the
greater part of his term, and all his work goes for nothing.
24. Widow remarriage.
The remarriage of widows is freely permitted. As a rule it is
considered suitable that she should marry her deceased husband's
younger brother, but she may not marry his elder brother, and in
the south of Bastar and Chanda the union with the younger brother is
also prohibited. In Mandla, if she will not wed the younger brother,
on the eleventh day after the husband's death he puts the tarkhi or
palm-leaf earrings in her ears, and states that if she marries anybody
else he will claim dawa-bunda or compensation. Similarly in Bastar, if
an outsider marries the widow, he first goes through a joint ceremony
with the younger brother, by which the latter relinquishes his right
in favour of the former. The widow must not marry any man whom she
could not have taken as her first husband. After her husband's death
she resides with her parents, and a price is usually paid to them
by any outsider who wishes to marry her. In Bastar there is a fixed
sum of Rs. 24, half of which goes to the first husband's family and
half to the caste panchayat. The payment to the panchayat perhaps
comes down from the period when widows were considered the property
of the state or the king, and sold by auction for the benefit of the
treasury. It is said that the descendants of the Gond Rajas of Chanda
still receive a fee of Rs. 1-8 from every Gond widow who is remarried
in the territories over which their jurisdiction extended. In Bastar
when a widow marries again she has to be transferred from the gods
of her first husband's sept to those of her second husband. For this
two leaf-cups are filled with water and mahua liquor respectively,
and placed with a knife between them. The liquor and water are each
poured three times from one cup to the other and back until they are
thoroughly mixed, and the mixture is then poured over the heads of
the widow and her second husband. This symbolises her transfer to the
god of the new sept. In parts of Bastar when a man has been killed by
a tiger and his widow marries again, she goes through the ceremony
not with her new husband but with a lance, axe or sword, or with
a dog. It is thought that the tiger into which her first husband's
spirit has entered will try to kill her second husband, but owing to
the precaution taken he will either simply carry off the dog or will
himself get killed by an axe, sword or lance. In most localities the
ceremony of widow-marriage is simple. Turmeric is rubbed on the bodies
of the couple and they may exchange a pair of rings or their clothes.
25. Divorce.
Divorce is freely allowed on various grounds, as for adultery on the
wife's part, a quarrelsome disposition, carelessness in the management
of household affairs, or if a woman's children continue to die, or
she is suspected of being a witch. Divorce is, however, very rare,
for in order to get a fresh wife the man would have to pay for another
wedding, which few Gonds can afford, and he would also have difficulty
in getting a girl to marry him. Therefore he will often overlook even
adultery, though a wife's adultery not infrequently leads to murder
among the Gonds. In order to divorce his wife the husband sends for
a few castemen, takes a piece of straw, spits on it, breaks it in
two and throws it away, saying that he has renounced all further
connection with his wife. If a woman is suspected of being a witch
she often has to leave the village and go to some place where she
is not known, and in that case her husband must either divorce her
or go with her. There is no regular procedure for a wife divorcing
her husband, but she can, if sufficiently young and attractive, take
matters into her own hands, and simply leave her husband's house and
go and live with some one else. In such a case the man who takes
her has to repay to the husband the sum expended by the latter on
his marriage, and the panchayat may even decree that he should pay
double the amount. When a man divorces his wife he has no liability
for her maintenance, and often takes back any ornaments he may have
given her. And a man who marries a divorced woman may be expected
to pay her husband the expenses of his marriage. Instances are known
of a bride disappearing even during the wedding, if she dislikes her
partner; and Mr. Lampard of the Baihir Mission states that one night
a Gond wedding party came to his house and asked for the loan of a
lantern to look for the bride who had vanished.
26. Polygamy.
Polygamy is freely allowed, and the few Gonds who can afford the
expense are fond of taking a number of wives. Wives are very useful
for cultivation as they work better than hired servants, and to
have several wives is a sign of wealth and dignity. A man who has
a number of wives will take them all to the bazar in a body to
display his importance. A Gond who had seven wives in Balaghat was
accustomed always to take them to the bazar like this, walking in a
line behind him.
(d) Birth and Pregnancy
27. Menstruation.
In parts of Mandla the first appearance of the signs of puberty in
a girl is an important occasion. She stays apart for four days, and
during this time she ties up one of her body-cloths to a beam in the
house in the shape of a cradle, and swings it for a quarter or half
an hour every day in the name of Jhulan Devi, the cradle goddess. On
the fifth day she goes and bathes, and the Baiga priest and his wife
go with her. She gives the Baiga a hen and five eggs and a bottle of
wine, and he offers them to Jhulan Devi at her shrine. To the Baigan
she gives a hen and ten eggs and a bottle of liquor, and the Baigan
tattoos the image of Jhulan Devi on each side of her body. A black
hen with feathers spotted with white is usually chosen, as they say
that this hen's blood is of a darker colour and that she lays more
eggs. All this ceremonial is clearly meant to induce fertility in the
girl. The Gonds regard a woman as impure for as long as the menstrual
period lasts, and during this time she cannot draw water nor cook food,
nor go into a cowshed or touch cowdung. In the wilder Maria tracts
there is, or was till lately, a building out of sight of the village
to which women in this condition retired. Her relatives brought her
food and deposited it outside the hut, and when they had gone away
she came out and took it. It was considered that a great evil would
befall any one who looked on the face of a woman during the period of
this impurity. The Raj-Gonds have the same rules as Hindus regarding
the menstrual periods of women. [64]
28. Superstitions about pregnancy and childbirth.
No special rites are observed during pregnancy, and the superstitions
about women in this condition resemble those of the Hindus. [65]
A pregnant woman must not go near a horse or elephant, as they think
that either of these animals would be excited by her condition and
would assault her. In cases where labour is prolonged they give the
woman water to drink from a swiftly flowing stream, or they take
pieces of wood from a tree struck by lightning or by a thunder-bolt,
and make a necklace of them and hang it round her neck. In these
instances the swiftness of the running water, or of the lightning or
thunder-bolt, is held to be communicated to the woman, and thus she
will obtain a quick delivery. Or else they ask the Gunia or sorcerer
to discover what ancestor will be reborn in the child, and when he has
done this he calls on the ancestor to come and be born quickly. If
a woman is childless they say that she should worship Bura Deo and
fast continually, and then on the termination of her monthly impurity,
after she has bathed, if she walks across the shadow of a man she will
have a child. It is thus supposed that the woman can be made fertile
by the man's shadow, which will be the father of the child. Or she
should go on a Sunday night naked to a saj tree [66] and pray to
it, and she may have a child. The saj is the tree in which Bura Deo
resides, and was probably in the beginning itself the god. Hence it
is supposed that the woman is impregnated by the spirit of the tree,
as Hindu women think that they can be made fertile by the spirits of
unmarried Brahman boys living in pipal trees. Or she may have recourse
to the village priest, the Bhumka or the Baiga, who probably finds
that her barren condition is the work of an evil spirit and propitiates
him. If a woman dies in the condition of pregnancy they cut her belly
open before burial, so that the spirit of the child may escape. If
she dies during or soon after delivery they bury her in some remote
jungle spot, from which her spirit will find it difficult to return
to the village. The spirit of such a woman is supposed to become a
Churel and to entice men, and especially drunken men, to injury by
causing them to fall into rivers or get shut up in hollow trees. The
only way they can escape her is to offer her the ornaments which a
married woman wears. Her enmity to men is due to the fact that she
was cut off when she had just had the supreme happiness of bearing
a child, and the present of these ornaments appeases her. The spirit
of a woman whose engagement for marriage has been broken off, or who
has deserted her husband's house for another man's, is also supposed
to become a Churel. If an abortion occurs, or a child is born dead
or dies very shortly after birth, they put the body in an earthen
pot, and bury it under the heap of refuse behind the house. They say
that this is done to protect the body from the witches, who if they
get hold of it will raise the child's spirit, and make it a Bir or
familiar spirit. Witches have special power over the spirits of such
children, and can make them enter the body of an owl, a cat, a dog,
or a headless man, and in this form cause any injury which the witch
may desire to inflict on a human being. The real reason for burying
the bodies of such children close to the house is probably, however,
the belief that they will thus be born again in the same family. If the
woman is fat and well during pregnancy they think a girl will be born,
but if she is ailing and thin, that the child will be a boy. If the
nipples of her breasts are of a reddish colour they think the birth of
a boy is portended, but if of blackish colour, a girl. When a birth
occurs another woman carefully observes the knots or protuberances
on the navel-cord. It is supposed that the number of them indicates
the further number of children which will be born to the mother. A
blackish knot inclining downwards portends a boy, and a reddish one
inclining upwards a girl. It is supposed that an intelligent midwife
can change the order of these knots, and if a woman has only borne
girl-children can arrange that the next one shall be a boy.
29. Procedure at a birth.
Professional midwives are not usually employed at childbirth, and the
women look after each other. Among the Maria Gonds of Bastar the father
is impure for a month after the birth of a child and does not go to
his work. A Muria Gond father is impure until the navel-cord drops;
he may reap his crop, but cannot thresh or sow. This is perhaps a
relic of the custom of the Couvade. The rules for the treatment of
the mother resemble those of the Hindus, but they do not keep her
so long without food. On some day from the fifth to the twelfth
after the birth the mother is purified and the child is named. On
this day its hair is shaved by the son-in-law or husband's or wife's
brother-in-law. The mother and child are washed and rubbed with oil
and turmeric, and the house is freshly whitewashed and cleaned with
cowdung. They procure a winnowing-fan full of kodon and lay the child
on it, and the mother ties this with a cloth under her arm. In the
Nagpur country the impurity of the mother is said to last for a month,
during which time she is not allowed to cook food and no one touches
her. Among the poorer Gonds the mother often does not lie up at all
after a birth, but eats some pungent root as a tonic and next day
goes on with her work.
30. Names.
On the Sor night, or that of purification, the women of the village
assemble and sing. The mother holds the child in her lap, and they each
put a pice (1/4d.) in a dish as a present to it. A name is chosen,
and an elderly woman announces it. Names are now often Hindu words,
and are selected very much at random. [67] If the child was born
on a Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday or Sunday the name of the day is
often given, as Mangal, Budhu, Sukhiya, Itwari; or if born in the
month of Magh (January), Phagun (February), Chait (March), Baisakh
(April), Jesth (May), or Pus (December), the name may be from
the month, as Mahu, Phagu, Chaitia, Baisakhu, Jetha and Puso. The
names of the other months are also given, but are less common. If
any Government official is in the village when the child is born it
may be named after his office, as Daroga, Havildar (head-constable),
Vaccinator, Patwari (village surveyor), Jemadar (head process-server),
or Munshi (clerk). If a European officer is in the village the child
may be called Gora (red) or Bhura (brown). Other names are Zamindar
(landholder) or Kirsan (tenant). Or the child may be named after any
peculiarity, as Ghurman, fat, Kaluta, black, Chatua, one who kicks,
and so on. Or it may be given a bad name in order to deceive the
evil spirits as to its value, as Ghurha, a heap of cowdung, Jharu,
sweepings, Dumre or Bhangi, a sweeper, Chamari, a Chamar or tanner, and
so on. If the mother has got the child after propitiating a spirit,
it may be called Bhuta, from bhut, a spirit or ghost. Nicknames
are also given to people when they grow up, as Dariya, long-footed,
Bobdi, fat and sluggish, Putchi, having a tail or cat-like, Bera, an
idiot, and so on. Such names come into general use, and the bearers
accept and answer to them without objection. All the above names are
Hindi. Names taken from the Gond language are rare or non-existent,
and it would appear either that they have been completely forgotten,
or else that the Gonds had not advanced to the stage of giving every
individual a personal name prior to their contact with the Hindus.
31. Superstitions about children.
If a child is born feet first its feet are supposed to have special
power, and people suffering from pain in the back come and have their
backs touched by the toes of the child's left foot. This power is
believed to be retained in later life. If a woman gets a child when the
signs of menstruation have not appeared, the child is called Lamka, and
is held to be in danger of being struck by lightning. In order to avert
this fate an offering of a white cock is made to the lightning during
the month of Asarh (June) following the birth, when thunderstorms are
frequent, and prayer is made that it will accept this sacrifice in lieu
of the life of the child. They think that the ancestors who have been
mingled with Bura Deo may be born again. Sometimes such an ancestor
appears in a dream and intimates that he is coming back to earth. Then
if a newborn child will not drink its mother's milk, they think it is
some important male ancestor, and that he is vexed at being in such a
dependent position to a woman over whom he formerly had authority. So
they call the Gunia or sorcerer, and he guesses what ancestor has been
reborn by measuring a stick. He says that if the length of the stick
is an even number of times the breadth of his hand, or more or less
than half a hand-breadth over, such and such an ancestor is reborn
in the child. Then he measures his hand along the stick breadthwise,
and when the measurement comes to that foretold for a particular
ancestor he says that this one has been reborn; or if they find any
mark on the body of the child corresponding to one they remember to
have been borne by a particular ancestor, they identify it with this
ancestor. Then they wash the child's feet as a token of respect, and
pass their hands over its head and say to it, 'Drink milk, and we will
give you a ring and clothes and jewels.' Sometimes they think that an
ancestor has been born again in a calf, and the Gunia ascertains who
he is in the same manner. Then this calf is not castrated if a bull,
nor put to the plough if it is a cow, and when it dies they will not
take off its hide for sale but bury it with the hide on.
It is believed that if a barren woman can get hold of the first hair
of another woman's child or its navel-cord, she can transfer the
mother's fertility to herself, so they dispose of these articles
very carefully. If they wish the child to grow fat, they bury the
navel-cord in a manure-heap. The upper milk teeth are thrown on to
the roof, and the lower ones buried under a water-pot. They say that
the upper ones should be in a high place, and the lower ones in a low
place. The teeth thrown on the roof may be meant for the rats, who in
exchange for them will give the child strong white teeth like their
own, while those thrown under the water-pot will cause the new teeth
to grow large and quickly, like the grass under a water-pot. Diseases
of children are attributed to evil spirits. The illness called Sukhi,
in which the body and limbs grow weak and have a dried-up appearance,
is very common, and is probably caused by malnutrition. They attribute
it to the machinations of an owl which has heard the child's name
or obtained a piece of its soiled clothing. If a stone or piece of
wood is thrown at the owl to scare it away, it will pick this up,
and after wetting it in a stream, put it out in the sun to dry. As
the stone or wood dries up, so will the child's body dry up and
wither. In order to cure this illness they use charms and amulets,
and also let the child wallow in a pig-sty so that it may become
as fat as the pigs. They say that they always beat a brass dish at
a birth so that the noise may penetrate the child's ears, and this
will remove any obstruction there may be to its hearing. If the child
appears to be deaf, they lay it several times in a deep grain-bin for
about half an hour at a time; when it cries the noise echoes in the
bin, and this is supposed to remove the obstruction to its power of
hearing. If they wish the boy to be a good dancer, they get a little
of the flesh of the kingfisher or hawk which hangs poised in the air
over water by the rapid vibration of its wings, on the look-out for
a fish, and give him this to eat. If they wish him to speak well,
they touch his finger with the tip of a razor, and think that he will
become talkative like a barber. If they want him to run fast, they
look for a stone on which a hare has dropped some dung and rub this
on his legs, or they get a piece of a deer's horn and hang it round
his neck as a charm. If a girl or boy is very dark-coloured, they get
the branches of a creeper called malkangni, and express the oil from
them, and rub it on the child's face, and think it will make the face
reddish. Thus they apparently consider a black colour to be ugly.
(e) Funeral Rites
32. Disposal of the dead.
Burial of the dead has probably been the general custom of the Gonds in
the past, and the introduction of cremation may be ascribed to Hindu
influence. The latter method of disposal involves greater expense on
account of the fuel, and is an honour reserved for elders and important
men, though in proportion as the body of the tribe in any locality
becomes well-to-do it may be more generally adopted. The dead are
usually buried with the feet pointing to the north in opposition to
the Hindu practice, and this fact has been adduced in evidence of the
Gond belief that their ancestors came from the north. The Maria Gonds
of Bastar, however, place the feet to the west in the direction of
the setting sun, and with the face upwards. In some places the Hindu
custom of placing the head to the north has been adopted. Formerly
it is said that the dead were buried in or near the house in which
they died, so that their spirits would thus the more easily be born
again in children, but this practice has now ceased. In most British
Districts Hindu ceremonial [68] tends more and more to be adopted,
but in Bastar State and Chanda some interesting customs remain.
33. Funeral ceremony.
Among the Maria Gonds a drum is beaten to announce a death, and the
news is sent to relatives and friends in other villages. The funeral
takes place on the second or third day, when these have assembled. They
bring some pieces of cloth, and these, together with the deceased's own
clothes and some money, are buried with him, so that they may accompany
his spirit to the other world. Sometimes the women will put a ring
of iron on the body. The body is borne on a hurdle to the burial-
or burning-ground, which is invariably to the east of the village,
followed by all the men and women of the place. Arrived there, the
bearers with the body on their shoulders face round to the west,
and about ten yards in front of them are placed three saj leaves in
a line with a space of a yard between each, the first representing
the supreme being, the second disembodied spirits, and the third
witchcraft. Sometimes a little rice is put on the leaves. An axe
is struck three times on the ground, and a villager now cries to the
corpse to disclose the cause of his death, and immediately the bearers,
impelled, as they believe, by the dead man, carry the body to one of
the leaves. If they halt before the first, then the death was in the
course of nature; if before the second, it arose from the anger of
offended spirits; if before the third, witchcraft was the cause. The
ordeal may be thrice repeated, the arrangement of the leaves being
changed each time. If witchcraft is indicated as the cause of death,
and confirmed by the repeated tests, the corpse is asked to point out
the sorcerer or witch, and the body is carried along until it halts
before some one in the crowd, who is at once seized and disposed of as
a witch. Sometimes the corpse may be carried to the house of a witch in
another village to a distance of eight or ten miles. In Mandla in such
cases a Gunia or exorciser formerly called on the corpse to go forward
and point out the witch. The bearers then, impelled by the corpse,
made one step forward and stopped. The exorciser then again adjured the
corpse, and they made a step, and this was repeated again and again
until they halted in front of the supposed witch. All the beholders
and the bearers themselves thus thought that they were impelled by
the corpse, and the episode is a good illustration of the power of
suggestion. Frequently the detected witch was one of the deceased's
wives. In Mandla the cause of the man's death was determined in the
digging of his grave. When piling in the earth removed for the grave
after burial, if it reached exactly to the surface of the ground,
they thought that the dead man had died after living the proper span
of his life. If the earth made a mound over the hole, they thought
he had lived beyond his allotted time and called him Sigpur, that is
a term for a measure of grain heaped as high as it will stand above
the brim. But if the earth was insufficient and did not reach to the
level of the ground, they held that he had been prematurely cut off,
and had been killed by an enemy or by a witch through magic.
Children at breast are buried at the roots of a mahua tree, as it
is thought that they will suck liquor from them and be nourished as
if by their mother's milk. The mahua is the tree from whose flowers
spirits are distilled. The body of an adult may also be burnt under
a mahua tree so that the tree may give him a supply of liquor in the
next world. Sometimes the corpse is bathed in water, sprinkled over
with milk and then anointed with a mixture of mahua oil, turmeric
and charcoal, which will prevent it from being reincarnated in
a human body. In the case of a man killed by a tiger the body is
burned, and a bamboo image of a tiger is made and thrown outside
the village. None but the nearest relatives will touch the body of a
man killed by a tiger, and they only because they are obliged to do
so. None of the ornaments are removed from the corpse, and sometimes
any other ornaments possessed by the deceased are added to them, as it
is thought that otherwise the tiger into which his spirit passes will
come back to look for them and kill some other person in the house. In
some localities any one who touches the body of a man killed or even
wounded by a tiger or panther is put temporarily out of caste. Yet the
Gonds will eat the flesh of tigers and panthers, and also of animals
killed and partly devoured by them. When a man has been killed by a
tiger, or when he has died of disease and before death vermin have
appeared in a wound, the whole family are temporarily out of caste
and have to be purified by an elaborate ceremony in which the Bhumka
or village priest officiates. The method of laying the spirit of a
man killed by a tiger resembles that described in the article on Baiga.
34. Mourning and offerings to the dead.
Mourning is usually observed for three days. The mourners abstain
from work and indulgence in luxuries, and the house is cleaned and
washed. The Gonds often take food on the spot after the burial or
burning of a corpse and they usually drink liquor. On the third day
a feast is given. In Chhindwara a bullock or cow is slaughtered on
the death of a male or female Gond respectively. They tie it up by
the horns to a tree so that its forelegs are in the air, and a man
slashes it across the head once or twice until it dies. The head
is buried under a platform outside the village in the name of the
deceased. Sometimes the spirit of the dead man is supposed to enter
into one of the persons present and inform the party how he died,
whether from witchcraft or by natural causes. He also points out the
place where the bullock's or cow's head is to be buried, and here
they make a platform to his spirit with a memorial stone. Red lead is
applied to the stone and the blood of a chicken poured over it, and
the party then consume the bodies of the cow and chicken. In Mandla
the mourners are shaved at the grave nine or ten days after the death
by the brother-in-law or son-in-law of the deceased, and they cook
and eat food there and drink liquor. Then they come home and put
oil on the head of the heir and tie a piece of new cloth round his
head. They give the dead man's clothes and also a cow or bullock to
the Pardhan priest, and offer a goat to the dead man, first feeding
the animal with rice, and saying to the dead man's spirit, 'Your son-
or brother-in-law has given you this.' Sometimes the rule is that the
priest should receive all the ornaments worn on the right side of a
man or the left side of a woman, including those on the head, arm and
leg. If they give him a cow or bullock, they will choose the one which
goes last when the animals are let out to graze. Then they cook and
eat it in the compound. They have no regular anniversary ceremonies,
but on the new moon of Kunwar (September) they will throw some rice
and pulse in front of the house and pour water on it in honour of the
dead. The widow breaks her glass bangles when the funeral takes place,
and if she is willing she may be married to the dead man's younger
brother on the expiry of the period of mourning.
35. Memorial stones to the dead.
In Bastar, at some convenient time after the death, a stone is set
up in memory of any dead person who was an adult, usually by the
roadside. Families who have emigrated to other localities often return
to their parent village for setting up these stones. The stones vary
according to the importance of the deceased, those for prominent men
being sometimes as much as eight feet high. In some places a small
stone seat is made in front, and this is meant for the deceased to
sit on, the memorial stone being his house. After being placed in
position the stone is anointed with turmeric, curds, ghi and oil,
and a cow or pig is offered to it. Afterwards irregular offerings
of liquor and tobacco are made to the dead man at the stone by the
family and also by strangers passing by. They believe that the memorial
stones sometimes grow and increase in size, and if this happens they
think that the dead man's family will become extinct, as the stone
and the family cannot continue to grow together. Elsewhere a long
heap of stones is made in honour of a dead man, sometimes with a
flat-topped post at the head. This is especially done for men who
have died from epidemic disease or by an accident, and passers-by
fling stones on the heap with the idea that the dead man's spirit
will thereby be kept down and prevented from returning to trouble
the living. In connection with the custom of making a seat at the
deceased's tomb for his spirit to sit upon, Mr. A. K. Smith writes:
"It is well known to every Gond that ghosts and devils cannot squat on
the bare ground like human beings, and must be given something to sit
on. The white man who requires a chair to sit on is thus plainly akin
to the world of demons, so one of the few effective ways of getting
Gonds to open their mouths and talk freely is to sit on the ground
among them. Outside every Gond house is placed a rough bench for
the accommodation of any devils that may be flitting about at night,
so that they may not come indoors and trouble the inmates."
36. House abandoned after a death.
If one or two persons die in a house in one year, the family often
leave it and make another house. On quitting the old house they knock
a hole in the back wall to go out, so as to avoid going out by the
front door. This is usually done when the deaths have been due to an
epidemic, and it is presumably supposed that the dead men's spirits
will haunt the house and cause others to die, from spite at their
own untimely end. If an epidemic visits a village, the Gonds will
also frequently abandon it, and make a new village on another site.
37. Bringing back the soul.
They believe that the spirits of ancestors are reincarnated in children
or in animals. Sometimes they make a mark with soot or vermilion
on the body of a dead man, and if some similar mark is subsequently
found on any newborn child it is held that the dead man's spirit has
been reborn in it. In Bastar, on some selected day a short time after
the death, they obtain two small baskets and set them out at night,
placing a chicken under one and some flour of wheat or kutki under
the other. The householder then says, "I do the work of those old men
who died. O spirits, I offer a chicken to you to-day; be true and I
will perform your funeral rites to-morrow." On the next morning the
basket placed over the flour is lifted up, and if a mark resembling a
footprint of a man or any animal be found, they think that the deceased
has become incarnate in a human being or in that animal. Subsequently
they sacrifice a cow to the spirit as described. In other places on
the fifth day after death they perform the ceremony of bringing back
the soul. The relatives go to the riverside and call aloud the name
of the dead person, and then enter the river, catch a fish or insect
and, taking it home, place it among the sainted dead of the family,
believing that the spirit of the dead person has in this manner been
brought back to the house. The brother-in-law or son-in-law of the dead
man will make a miniature grass hut in the compound and place the fish
or insect inside it. He will then sacrifice a pig, killing it with a
rice-husker, and with not more than three blows. The animal is eaten,
and next morning he breaks down the hut and throws away the earthen
pots from the house. They will spread some flour on the ground and in
the morning bring a chicken up to it. If the animal eats the flour
they say that the soul of the deceased has shown his wish to remain
in the house, and he is enshrined there in the shape of a stone or
copper coin. If it does not eat, then they say that the spirit will not
remain in the house. They take the stone or coin outside the village,
sacrifice a chicken to it and bury it under a heap of stones to prevent
it from returning. Sometimes at the funeral ceremony one of the party
is possessed by the spirit of the dead man, and a little white mark or
a small caterpillar appears on his hand, and they say that it is the
soul of the dead man come back. Then the caterpillar vanishes again,
and they say that the dead man has been taken among the gods, and go
home. Occasionally some mark may appear on the hand of the dead man's
son after a period of time, and he says that his father's soul has
come back, and gives another funeral feast. The good souls are quickly
appeased and their veneration is confined to their descendants. But
the bad ones excite a wider interest because their evil influences may
be extended to others. And the same fear attaches to the spirits of
persons who have died a violent or unnatural death. The soul of a man
who has been eaten by a tiger must be specially propitiated, and ten
or twelve days are occupied in bringing it back. To ascertain when
this has been done a thread is tied to a beam and a copper ring is
suspended from it, being secured by twisting the thread round it and
not by a knot. A pot full of water is placed below the ring. Songs are
then sung in propitiation and a watch is kept day and night. When the
ring falls from the thread and drops into the water it is considered
that the soul has come back. If the ring delays to fall they adjure
the dead man to come back and ask where he has gone to and why he
is tarrying. Animals are offered to the ring and their blood poured
over it, and when it finally falls they rejoice greatly and say
that the dead man has come back. The ancestors are represented by
small pebbles kept in a basket in the kitchen, which is considered
the holiest part of the house, or they may be pice copper coins
(1/4d.) tied up in a little bundle. They are daubed with vermilion
and worshipped occasionally. A man who has been killed by a tiger or
cobra may receive general veneration, with the object of appeasing
his spirit, and become a village god. And the same honour may be
accorded to any prominent man, such as the founder of a village.
38. The dead absorbed in Bura Deo.
In Mandla the dead are sometimes mingled with Bura Deo or the Great
God. On the occasion of a communal sacrifice to Bura Deo a stalk of
charra grass is picked in the name of each of the dead ancestors, and
tied to the little bundle containing a pice and a piece of turmeric,
which represents the dead ancestor in the house. The stalk of grass
and the bundle is called kunda; and all the kundas are then hidden in
grass or under stones in the adjacent forest. Then Bura Deo comes on
some man and possesses him, and he waves his arms about and goes and
finds all the kundas. Some of them he throws down beside Bura Deo,
and these they say have been absorbed in Bura Deo and are disposed
of. Others he throws apart, and these are said not to have been
absorbed into the god. For the latter, as well as for all persons who
have died a violent death, a heap of stones should be made outside the
village, and wine and a fowl are offered at the heap, and passers-by
cast additional stones on it to keep down their spirits, which remain
unquiet because they have not been absorbed in the god, and are apt
to wander about and trouble the living.
39. Belief in a future life.
The Gonds seem originally to have had no idea of a place of abode for
the spirits of the dead, that is a heaven or hell. So far as can be
conjectured, their primary view of the fate of the spirits of the dead,
after they had come to consider the soul or spirit as surviving the
death of the body, was that they hung about the houses and village
where they had dwelt, and were able to exert considerable influence
on the lives and fortunes of their successors. An alternative or
subsequent view was that they were reincarnated, most frequently in
the bodies of children born in the same family, and less frequently in
animals. Whether or no this doctrine of reincarnation is comparatively
late and borrowed from Hinduism cannot be decided. In Bastar, however,
they have now a conception of retribution after death for the souls
of evil-doers. They say that the souls are judged after death, and
the sinful are hurled down into a dense forest without any sulphi
trees. The sulphi tree appears to be that variety of palm from which
palm-liquor or toddy is obtained in Bastar, and the Gond idea of a
place of punishment for departed sinners is, therefore, one in which
no alcoholic liquor is to be had.
(f) Religion
40. Nature of the Gond religion. The gods.
The religious practices of the Gonds present much variety. The tribal
divisions into groups worshipping seven, six, five and four gods,
already referred to, are generally held to refer to the number of
gods which a man has in his house. But very few Gonds can name the
gods of their sect, and the prescribed numbers are seldom adhered
to. The worship of ancestors is an integral part of their religion
and is described in the section on funeral customs. Bura Deo, their
great god in most localities, was probably at first the saj tree,
[69] but afterwards the whole collection of gods were sometimes
called Bura Deo. He is further discussed subsequently. The other
Gond gods proper appear to be principally implements and weapons of
the chase, one or two animals, and deified human beings. A number of
Hindu deities have now also been admitted into the Gond pantheon. The
following account of the gods is largely taken from a note written
by Mr. J. A. Tawney. [70] The worship of the Gonds may be summarised
as that of the gods presiding over the village destinies, the crops,
and epidemic disease, the spirits of their forefathers and the weapons
and creatures of the chase. The village gods are generally common
to the Gonds and Hindus. They consist of stones, or mud platforms,
placed at a convenient distance from the village under the shade of
some appropriate tree, and often having a red or white flag, made
of a piece of cloth, tied to the end of a pole to indicate their
position. The principal village gods have been given in the article
on Kurmi. Besides these in Gond villages there is especially Bhimsen,
who is held to be Bhima, one of the five Pandava brothers, and is the
god of strength. Ghor Deo [71] is the horse god, and Holera, who is
represented by a wooden bullock's bell, is the god of cattle. Ghansiam
Deo is a god much worshipped in Mandla. He is said to have been a
prince who was killed by a tiger on his way to his wedding like Dulha
Deo. In northern Bastar the Gonds worship the spirit of a Muhammadan
doctor under the name of Doctor Deo. A Gond of the place where the
doctor died is occasionally possessed by his spirit, and on such
occasions he can talk fluent Urdu. This man's duty is to keep off
cholera, and when the epidemic breaks out he is ordered by the Raja
to drive it away. The local method of averting cholera is to make a
small litter covered with cloth, and in it to place a brass or silver
image of the cholera goddess, Marai Mata. When the goddess is thus
sent from one village to another it is supposed that the epidemic is
similarly transferred. The man possessed by Doctor Deo has the power
of preventing the approach of this litter to villages in Bastar, and
apparently also can drive away the epidemic, though his method of doing
this is not explained. The dealings of the Gonds with the Government
of India are mainly conducted through chuprassies or peons, who come to
collect their revenue, obtain supplies and so on. The peons have in the
past been accustomed to abuse their authority and practise numerous
petty extortions, which is a very easy business with the ignorant
Gonds of the wilder tracts. Regarding the peons as the visible emblem
of authority, the Gonds, like the Oraons, have similarly furnished the
gods with a peon, who is worshipped under the name of Kalha Deo with
offerings of liquor and fowls. Besides this if a tiger makes himself
troublesome a stone is set up in his honour and he receives a small
offering; and if a platform has been erected to the memory of the
founder of the village he is included with the others. The cholera
and smallpox deities are worshipped when an epidemic breaks out. The
worship of the village gods is communal, and in Chhindwara is performed
at the end of the hot weather before seed is sown, houses thatched,
or the new mahua oil eaten by the Gonds. All the villagers subscribe,
and the Bhumka or village priest conducts the rite. If in any year
the community cannot afford a public worship they hang up a little
grass over the god just to intimate that they have not forgotten him,
but that he will have to wait till next year.
41. Tribal gods, and their place of residence.
Besides the village gods worshipped in common with the Hindus, the
Gonds have also their special tribal gods. These are sometimes kept
at a Deo-khulla, which is said to mean literally the threshing-floor
of the gods, and is perhaps so called because the place of meeting of
the worshippers is cleaned and plastered like a threshing-floor in the
fields. The gods most commonly found are Pharsi Pen, the battle-axe
god; Matiya, the great god of mischief; Ghangra, the bell god; Chawar,
the cow's tail, which is also used as a whisk; Palo, who consists of
a piece of cloth used to cover spear-heads; and Sale, who may be the
god who presides over cattle-pens (sala). The Deo-khulla of a six-god
Gond should have six, and that of a seven-god Gond seven gods, but
this rule is not regularly observed, and the Deo-khullas themselves
now tend to disappear as the Gonds become Hinduised and attention is
concentrated on the village and household gods. The collection of gods
at a Deo-khulla, Mr. Tawney remarks, is called Bura Deo, and when a
Gond swears by Bura Deo, he swears by all the gods of his sect. "The
gods," Mr. Tawney writes, "are generally tied up in grass and fixed
in the fork of the saj tree, or buried in some recess in the forest,
except Palo, who is put in a bag to prevent his getting wet, and Chawar
the cow's tail. The Bhumkas or priests are somewhat shy of showing
the gods at the Deo-khulla, and they may have some reason for this,
for not long since, a young scamp of a Muhammadan, having determined
to put to a test the reputed powers of the Gond gods for evil, hid
himself in a tree near the Deo-khulla during a meeting, and afterwards
took the gods out and threw them bag and baggage down a well. However,
when I went there, the Bhumka at Mujawar after some parley retired into
the forest, and came out quite confidingly with an armful of gods. The
Deo-khulla gods are generally all of iron, and those at Mujawar were
all spear-shaped except Palo, who is a piece of cloth, and Ghangra,
who is of bell-metal and in form like the bells ordinarily put round
the necks of bullocks. When a spear-head has been lost, and another is
not available, anything in the shape of a pike or spear will do, and
it does not appear to make any difference so long as iron is the metal
used. Women may not worship at the Deo-khulla. It seems clear that the
original gods were, with the exception of Ghangra, hunting-weapons and
representations of animals. Ghangra may be venerated because of his
association with bullocks and also on account of the melodious sound
made by bullock-bells. Of all the gods the most remarkable probably is
Palo. He is made of cloth and acts as a covering for the spear-heads
at the time of worship. The one I saw was a small cloth, about 30 by
18 inches, and in the form of a shield. He is a very expensive god
and costs from Rs. 50 to Rs. 80, his outside value perhaps being
Rs. 5. When a new one is required it has to be made by a Katia or
Raj-Pardhan, who must live in a separate house and not go near his
own till its completion. He must also be naked while he is working
and may not eat, drink, smoke or perform natural functions till he
has finished for the day. While engaged on the cloth he is well fed by
the Gonds and supplied with fowls and spirits; it is not surprising,
therefore, that the god is never finished in six months, though I would
engage to make one in a week. The cloth is embroidered with figures
in coloured silk, with a stitch or two of red silk in each animal,
which will subsequently represent blood. The animals I saw embroidered
were a bullock, some sort of deer, a gouty-looking snake with a body as
thick as the elephant's, and the latter animal barely distinguishable
from it by having two legs and a trunk. When ready the cloth Palo is
taken to the Deo-khulla and a great worship is held, during which blood
is seen to flow from the figures on the cloth and they are supposed
to be endowed with life." The animals embroidered on the cloth are
probably those principally revered by the Gonds, as the elephant,
snake, deer and bullock, while the worship of the cloth itself and the
embroidery on it indicates that they considered the arts of weaving
and sewing as divinely revealed accomplishments. And the fact that
the other gods were made of iron shows a similar reverence for this
metal, which they perhaps first discovered in India. At any rate the
quarrying and refining of indigenous iron-ore is at present carried
out by the Agarias, a caste derived from the Gonds. The spear-head
shape of most of the gods and that of Palo like a shield show their
veneration for these weapons of war, which are themselves sacred.
42. Household gods.
"In almost every house," Mr. Tawney states, "there is also a set of
gods for everyday use. They are often the same as the village gods
or those of the Deo-khulla and also include deified ancestors. These
household gods have a tendency to increase, as special occasions
necessitate the creation of a new god, and once he is enthroned in
the house he never seems to leave it of his own accord. Thus if a man
is killed by a cobra; he or the cobra becomes a household god and
is worshipped for many generations. If a set of gods does not work
satisfactorily, they are also, some or all of them, discarded and a
new lot introduced. The form of the gods varies considerably, the only
constant thing about them being the vermilion with which they are all
daubed. They are sometimes all earthen cones and vary from that to
miniature wooden tables. I may mention that it is somewhat difficult
to get a Gond either to confess that he has any household gods or
to show them. The best way is to send off the father of the family
on some errand, and then to ask his unsuspecting wife to bring out
the gods. You generally get them on a tray and some of the villagers
will help her to name them." In Mandla in every Gond's house there
is a Deothana or god's place, where all the gods are kept. Those who
have children include Jhulan Devi, or the cradle goddess, among their
household deities. In the Deothana there is always a vessel full of
water and a stick, and when a man comes in from outside he goes to
this and sprinkles a little water over his body to free himself from
any impurity he may have contracted abroad.
43. Nag Deo.
On one of the posts of the house the image of Nag Deo, the cobra
god, is made in mud. In Asarh (June) the first month of the rains,
which the Gonds consider the beginning of the year, snakes frequently
appear. In this month they try to kill a cobra, and will then cut
off the head and tail, and offer them to Nag Deo, inside the house,
while they cook and eat the body. They think that the eating of
the snake's body will protect them from the effects of eating any
poisonous substance throughout the year.
44. Narayan Deo.
Narayan Deo or the sun is also a household deity. He has a little
platform inside the threshold of the house. He may be worshipped every
two or three years, but if a snake appears in the house or any one
falls ill they think that Narayan Deo is impatient and perform his
worship. A young pig is offered to him and is sometimes fattened up
beforehand by feeding it on rice. The pig is laid on its back over
the threshold of the door and a number of men press a heavy beam
of wood on its body till it is crushed to death. They cut off the
tail and testicles and bury them near the threshold. The body of the
pig is washed in a hole dug in the yard, and it is then cooked and
eaten. They sing to the god, "Eat, Narayan Deo, eat this rice and
meat, and protect us from all tigers, snakes and bears in our houses;
protect us from all illnesses and troubles." Next day the bones and
any other remains of the pig are buried in the hole in the compound
and the earth is well stamped down over it.
45. Bura Deo.
Bura Deo, the great god of the Gonds, is sometimes, as seen, a name
for all the gods in the Deo-khulla. But he is usually considered
as a single god, and often consists of a number of brass or iron
balls suspended to a ring and hung on a saj tree. Again, he may
be represented by a few links of a roughly forged iron chain also
hung on the tree, and the divine power of the chain is shown by
the fact that it can move of itself, and occasionally descends to
rest on a stone under the tree or migrates to a neighbouring nullah
(stream). Nowadays in Mandla Bura Deo is found as an iron doll made
by a neighbouring blacksmith instead of a chain. It would appear,
however, that he was originally the saj tree (Boswellia serrata), an
important forest tree growing to a considerable height, which is much
revered by the Gonds. They do not cut this tree, nor its branches,
except for ceremonial purposes, and their most sacred form of oath
is to swear by the name of Bura Deo, holding a branch of the saj tree
above the head. If Bura Deo was first the saj tree, then we may surmise
that when the Gonds discovered iron they held it more sacred than the
tree because it was more important, as the material from which their
axes and spears were made. And therefore Bura Deo became an iron chain
hanging on the saj tree. The axe is a Gond's most valuable implement,
as with it he cut down the forest to clear a space for his shifting
cultivation, and also provided himself with wood for hutting, fuel and
other purposes. The axe and spear were also his weapons of war. Hence
the discovery of iron was an enormous step forward in civilisation,
and this may account for the reverence in which it is held by the
Gonds. The metamorphosis of Bura Deo from an iron chain to an iron
doll may perhaps be considered to mark the arrival of the Gonds at the
stage of religion when anthropomorphic gods are worshipped. Bura Deo
is sometimes represented with Mahadeo or Siva and Parvati, two of the
greatest Hindu deities, in attendance on him on each side. Communal
sacrifices of pigs and also of goats are made to him at intervals
of one or two years; the animals are stretched out on their backs
and killed by driving a stake of saj or tendu [72] wood through
the belly. Sometimes a goat is dedicated to him a year beforehand,
and allowed to wander loose in the village in the name of Bura Deo,
and given good food, and even called by the name of the god. It would
appear that the original sacrificial animal was the pig, and the goat
was afterwards added or substituted. Bura Deo is also worshipped on
special occasions, as when a man has got vermin in a wound, or, as
the people of the country say, when god has remembered him. In this
case the sufferer must pay all the expenses of the ceremony which is
necessary for his purification. The dead are also mingled in Bura Deo,
as described in the section on funeral rites. Bura Deo is believed
to protect the Gonds from wild animals; and if members of a family
meet a tiger, snake or other dangerous animal several times within
a fairly short period, they think that Bura Deo is displeased with
them and have a special sacrifice in his honour. Ordinarily when
the Panda or priest sacrifices an animal he severs its head with an
axe and holds the head over the image or symbol of the god to allow
the blood to drop on it. Before sacrificing a chicken he places some
grain before it and says, 'If I have committed no fault, eat,' and
if the chicken does not eat of itself he usually forces it to pick
a grain. Then he says that the sacrifice is acceptable to the god.
46. Charms and magic.
When they think a child has been overlooked they fetch a strip of
leather from the Chamar's house, make it into a little bag, fill
it with scrapings from a clean bit of leather, and hang it round
the child's neck. If a child is ill they sometimes fetch from the
Chamar's house water which has been used for tanning and give it him
to drink. If a man is possessed by an evil spirit, they will take
some coins, silver for preference, and wave them round his head with
a lamp, and take them out and bury them in a waste place. They throw
one or two more rupees on the surface of the soil in which they have
buried the coins. Then they think the spirit will leave the sufferer,
and if any one picks up the coins on the surface of the ground the
spirit will possess him. Hindus who find such buried coins frequently
refuse to take them, even though they may be valuable, from fear of
being possessed by the spirit. Occasionally a man of a treacherous
disposition may transfer an evil spirit, which is haunting him, with
a daughter in marriage. The husband's family suspect this if a spirit
begins to trouble them. A Vaddai or magician is called, and he tries
to transfer the spirit to a fowl or goat by giving the latter some
rice to eat. If the spirit then ceases troubling they conclude that
it was transferred by the bride's father, and go to him and reproach
him. If he admits that he had a spirit in his family which has given
no trouble lately, they ask him to take it back, even though he may
not have intended its transfer. The goat or fowl to which the spirit
was transferred is then sacrificed in its name and the meat is eaten
only by the father-in-law's family, to whom the spirit thus returns. A
miniature hut is built for the spirit in his yard, and a pot, a lamp
and a knife are placed in the hut for its use, and an offering of a
goat is made to the spirit occasionally at festivals.
In order to injure an enemy they will make an image of him in clay,
preferably taken from underneath his footprint, and carry it to
the cemetery. Here they offer red lead, red thread, bangles, and
various kinds of grain and pulse to the ghosts and say to them,
"Male and female deities, old and newly buried, maimed and lame,
spirits of the wind, I pronounce this charm with your help." Then
they pierce the figure with arrows in the chest and cut it with a
knife in the region of the liver and think that their enemy will
die. Another method is to draw the likeness of an enemy on cloth
with lime or charcoal, and bury it in a pot in front of his house on
a Sunday or Tuesday night so that he may walk on it in the morning,
when they hope that the same result will be achieved.
In order to breed a quarrel in an enemy's house they get the feathers
of a crow, or the seeds of the amaltas, [73] or porcupine needles, and
after smoking them over a fire in which some nails have been placed,
tie them to the eaves of his house, repeating some charm. The seeds of
the amaltas rattle in their pods in the wind, and hence it is supposed
that they will produce a noise of quarrelling. Porcupine's quills are
sharp and prickly, and crow's feathers are perhaps efficacious because
the crow is supposed to be a talkative and quarrelsome bird. The nails
in the fire, being sharp-pointed, may be meant to add potency to the
charm. One who wishes to transfer sickness to another person obtains a
cloth belonging to the latter and draws two human figures on it, one
right side up and the other upside down, in lamp-black. After saying
charms over the cloth he puts it back surreptitiously in the owner's
house. When people are ill they make a vow to some god that if they
recover they will sacrifice a certain number of animals proportionate
to the severity of the illness. If the patient then recovers, and the
vow is for a larger number of animals than he can afford, he sets
fire to a piece of forest so that a number of animals may be burnt
as an offering to the god, and his vow may thus be fulfilled. This
practice has no doubt gone out owing to the conservation of forests.
47. Omens.
If a Gond, when starting on a journey in the morning, should meet a
tiger, cat, hare, or a four-horned deer, he will return and postpone
his journey; but if he meets one of these animals when he is well
on the way it is considered to be lucky. Rain falling at a wedding
or some other festival is believed to be unlucky, as it is as if
somebody were crying. In Mandla, if a cock crows in the night, a man
will get up at once, catch it and twist its neck, and throw it over
the house as far away as he can. Apparently the cock is supposed to
be calling to evil spirits. If a hen cackles, or lays eggs at night,
it is also considered inauspicious, and the bird is often killed
or given away. They think they can acquire strength by carrying the
shoulder-bones of a tiger on their shoulders or drinking a little of
the bone-dust pounded in water. If there is disease in the village,
the Bhumka or village priest performs the ceremony of Gaon bandhna
or tying up the village. Accompanied by a party of men he drives
a pig all round the village boundary, scattering grains of urad
pulse and mustard seed on the way. The pig is then sacrificed, its
blood is sprinkled on all the village gods, and it is eaten by the
party. No man or animal may go outside the village on the day of this
ceremony, which should be performed on a Sunday or Wednesday. When
cattle disease breaks out the Bhumka makes an arch of three poles,
to which is hung a string of mango leaves, and all the cattle of the
village are driven under it to avert the disease.
48. Agricultural superstitions.
When there is drought two boys put a pestle across their shoulders,
tie a living frog to it with a rag, and go from house to house
accompanied by other boys and girls singing:
Mendak Bhai pani de,
Dhan, kodon pakne de,
Mere byah hone de,
or 'Brother Frog give rain; let the rice and kodon ripen; let my
marriage be held.' The frog is considered to be able to produce
rain because it lives in water and therefore has control over its
element. The boy's point in asking the frog to let his marriage be
held is that if the rains failed and the crops withered, his parents
would be unable to afford the expense. Another method of obtaining
rain is for two naked women to go and harness themselves to a plough
at night, while a third naked woman drives the plough and pricks
them with a goad. This does not appear capable of explanation on any
magical basis, so far as I know, and the idea may possibly be to force
the clemency of the gods by showing their extraordinary sufferings,
or to show that the world is topsy-turvy for want of rain. A leather
rope is sometimes tied to a plough and harrow, and the boys and
girls pull against one another on the rope in a tug-of-war. If the
girls win they think that rain will soon come, but if the boys win
that it will not. In order to stop excessive rain, a naked bachelor
collects water from the eaves in a new earthen pot, covers the pot
with a lid or with mud, and buries it beneath the earth; or the pot
may be filled with salt. Here it may perhaps be supposed that, as the
water dries up in the pot or the salt gets dry, so the rain will stop
and the world generally become dry. The reason for employing women to
produce rain, and men to stop it, may be that women, as they give milk,
will be more potent in obtaining the other liquid, water. Nakedness
is a common element in magic, perhaps because clothes are considered
a civilised appanage, and unsuitable for a contest with the powers
of nature; a certain idea of impurity may also attach to them. If a
crow in carrying a straw to build its nest holds it in the middle,
they think that the rains will be normal and adequate; but if the
straw is held towards one end, that the rains will be excessive
or deficient. If the titahri or sandpiper lays four eggs properly
arranged, they think that sufficient rain will fall in all the four
monsoon months. If only one, two or three eggs are laid, or only
this number properly placed in the nest and the others at the side,
then the rains will be good only in an equivalent number of months.
At the beginning of the harvest they pluck an ear of corn and say,
'Whatever god is the guardian of this place, this is your share,
take it, and do not interfere.' The last plants in the field are cut
and sent home by a little girl and put at the bottom of the grain-bin
of the house. Chitkuar Devi is the goddess of the threshing-floor,
and before beginning to winnow the grain they sacrifice a pig and
a chicken to her, cutting the throats of the animals and letting
their blood drop on to the central post of the threshing-floor. When
they are about to take the kodon home, they set aside a basketful
and give it to the sister's son or sister's husband of the owner,
placing a bottle of liquor on the top, and he takes it home to the
house, and there they drink one or two bottles of liquor, and then
begin eating the new grain.
49. Magical or religious observances in fishing and hunting.
In Mandla the Gonds still perform, or did till recently, various
magical or religious rites to obtain success in fishing and
hunting. The men of a village were accustomed to go out fishing
as a communal act. They arrived at the river before sunrise, and
at midday their women brought them pej or gruel. On returning the
women made a mound or platform before the house of the principal
man of the party. All the fish caught were afterwards laid on this
platform and the leader then divided them, leaving one piece on the
platform. Next morning this piece was taken away and placed on the
grave of the leader's ancestor. If no fish were caught on the first
day, then on the next day the women took the men no food. And if they
caught no fish for two or three days running, they went and dug up
the platform erected in front of the leader's house and levelled it
with the ground. Then the next morning early all the people of the
village went to another village and danced the Sela dance before the
tombs of the ancestors of that village. Sometimes they went on to a
third village and did the same. The headman of the village visited
levied a contribution from his people, and gave them food and drink
and a present of Rs. 1-4. With this they bought liquor, and coming
back to their own village, offered it in front of the platform which
they had levelled, and drank it. Next morning they went fishing
again, but said that they did not care whether they caught anything
or not, as they had pleased their god. Next year all the people of
the village they had visited would come and dance the Sela dance at
their village the whole day, and the hosts had to give the visitors
food and drink. This was said to be from gratitude to the headman
of the other village for placating their god with an offering of
Rs. 1-4. And the visit might even be repeated annually so long as the
headman of the other village was alive. Apparently in this elaborate
ritual the platform especially represented the forefathers of the
village, whose spirits were supposed to give success in fishing. If the
fishers were unsuccessful, they demolished the platform to show their
displeasure to the spirits, and went and danced before the ancestors
of another village to intimate the transfer of their allegiance from
their own ancestors to these latter. The ancestors would thus feel
themselves properly snubbed and discarded for their ill-nature in not
giving success to the fishing party. But when they had been in this
condition for a day or so the headman of the other village sent them
an offering of liquor, and it was thus intimated to them that, though
their own descendants had temporarily transferred their devotion,
they were not entirely abandoned. It would be hoped that the ancestors
would lay the lesson to heart, and, placated by the liquor, be more
careful in future of the welfare of their descendants. The season for
fishing was in Kunwar and Kartik, and it sometimes extended into Aghan
(September to November). During these months, from the time the new
kodon was cut at the beginning of the period, they danced the Sela,
and they did not dance this dance at any other time of the year. [74]
At other seasons they would dance the Karma. The Sela dance is danced
by men alone; they have sticks and form two circles, and walk in and
out in opposite directions, beating their sticks together as they
pass. Sometimes other men sit on the shoulders of the dancers and
beat their sticks. Sela is said to be the name of the stick. In the
Sela dance the singing is in the form of Dadaria, that is, one party
recites a line and the other party replies; this is not done in the
Karma dance, for which they have regular songs. It seems possible that
the Sela dance was originally a mimic combat, danced before they went
out to fight in order to give them success in the battle. Subsequently
it might be danced before they went out hunting and fishing with the
same object. If there was no stream to which they could go fishing
they would buy some fish and offer it to the god, and have a holiday
and eat it, or if they could not go fishing they might go hunting in
a party instead. When a single Gond intends to go out hunting in the
forest he first lights a lamp before his household god in the house,
or if he has no oil he will kindle a fire, and the lamp or fire must
be kept burning all the time he is out. If he returns successful he
offers a chicken to the god and extinguishes the lamp. But if he is
unsuccessful he keeps the lamp burning all night, and goes out again
early next morning. If he gets more game this time he will offer the
chicken, but if not he will extinguish the lamp, put his gun outside
and not touch it again for eight days. A Gond never takes food in the
morning before going out hunting, but goes out in a fasting condition
perhaps in order that the god, seeing his hunger, may send him some
game to eat. Nor will a Gond visit his wife the night before he goes
out hunting. When a Baiga goes out hunting he bangs his liquor-gourd
on the ground before his household god and vows that, if successful,
he will offer to the god the gourd full of liquor and a chicken. But
if he returns empty-handed, instead of doing this he fills the gourd
with earth and throws it over the god to show his wrath. Then if
he is successful on the next day, he will scrape off the earth and
offer the liquor and chicken as promised. A Baiga should worship his
god and go out hunting at the new moon, and then he will hunt the
whole month. But if he has not worshipped his god at the new moon,
and still goes out hunting and is unsuccessful, he will hunt no more
that month. Some Gonds before they go hunting draw an image of Mahabir
or Hanuman, the monkey god and the god of strength, on their guns,
and rub it out when they get home again.
50. Witchcraft.
The belief in witchcraft has been till recently in full force and
vigour among the Gonds, and is only now showing symptoms of decline. In
1871 Sir C. Grant wrote: [75] "The wild hill country from Mandla to
the eastern coast is believed to be so infested by witches that at
one time no prudent father would let his daughter marry into a family
which did not include among its members at least one of the dangerous
sisterhood. The non-Aryan belief in the power of evil here strikes a
ready chord in the minds of their conquerors, attuned to dread by the
inhospitable appearance of the country and the terrible effect of its
malicious influences upon human life. In the wilds of Mandla there are
many deep hillside caves which not even the most intrepid Baiga hunter
would approach for fear of attracting upon himself the wrath of their
demoniac inhabitants; and where these hillmen, who are regarded both
by themselves and by others as ministers between men and spirits,
are afraid, the sleek cultivator of the plains must feel absolute
repulsion. Then the suddenness of the epidemics to which, whether from
deficient water-supply or other causes, Central India seems so subject,
is another fruitful source of terror among an ignorant people. When
cholera breaks out in a wild part of the country it creates a perfect
stampede--villages, roads, and all works in progress are deserted;
even the sick are abandoned by their nearest relations to die, and
crowds fly to the jungles, there to starve on fruits and berries till
the panic has passed off. The only consideration for which their minds
have room at such times is the punishment of the offenders, for the
ravages caused by the disease are unhesitatingly set down to human
malice. The police records of the Central Provinces unfortunately
contain too many sad instances of life thus sacrificed to a mad
unreasoning terror." The detection of a witch by the agency of the
corpse, when the death is believed to have been caused by witchcraft,
has been described in the section on funeral rites. In other cases a
lamp was lighted and the names of the suspected persons repeated; the
flicker of the lamp at any name was held to indicate the witch. Two
leaves were thrown on the outstretched hand of a suspected person,
and if the leaf representing her or him fell above the other suspicion
was deepened. In Bastar the leaf ordeal was followed by sewing the
person accused into a sack and letting her down into shallow water;
if she managed in her struggles for life to raise her head above water
she was finally adjudged to be guilty. A witch was beaten with rods
of the tamarind or castor-oil plants, which were supposed to be of
peculiar efficacy in such cases; her head was shaved cross-wise from
one ear to the other over the head and down to the neck; her teeth were
sometimes knocked out, perhaps to prevent her from doing mischief if
she should assume the form of a tiger or other wild animal; she was
usually obliged to leave the village, and often murdered. Murder for
witchcraft is now comparatively rare as it is too often followed by
detection and proper punishment. But the belief in the causation of
epidemic disease by personal agency is only slowly declining. Such
measures as the disinfection of wells by permanganate of potash during
a visitation of cholera, or inoculation against plague, are sometimes
considered as attempts on the part of the Government to reduce the
population. When the first epidemic of plague broke out in Mandla in
1911 it caused a panic among the Gonds, who threatened to attack with
their axes any Government officer who should come to their village,
in the belief that all of them must be plague-inoculators. In the
course of six months, however, the feeling of panic died down under a
system of instruction by schoolmasters and other local officials and
by circulars; and by the end of the period the Gonds began to offer
themselves voluntarily for inoculation, and would probably have come
to do so in fairly large numbers if the epidemic had not subsided.
51. Human sacrifice. [76]
The Gonds were formerly accustomed to offer human sacrifices,
especially to the goddess Kali and to the goddess Danteshwari, the
tutelary deity of the Rajas of Bastar. Her shrine was at a place called
Dantewara, and she was probably at first a local goddess and afterwards
identified with the Hindu goddess Kali. An inscription recently found
in Bastar records the grant of a village to a Medipota in order to
secure the welfare of the people and their cattle. This man was the
head of a community whose business it was, in return for the grants of
land which they enjoyed, to supply victims for human sacrifice either
from their own families or elsewhere. Tradition states that on one
occasion as many as 101 persons were sacrificed to avert some great
calamity which had befallen the country. And sacrifices also took place
when the Raja visited the temple. During the period of the Bhonsla rule
early in the nineteenth century the Raja of Bastar was said to have
immolated twenty-five men before he set out to visit the Raja of Nagpur
at his capital. This would no doubt be as an offering for his safety,
and the lives of the victims were given as a substitute for his own. A
guard was afterwards placed on the temple by the Marathas, but reports
show that human sacrifice was not finally stamped out until the Nagpur
territories lapsed to the British in 1853. At Chanda and Lanji also,
Mr. Hislop states, human sacrifices were offered until well into the
nineteenth century [77] at the temples of Kali. The victim was taken
to the temple after sunset and shut up within its dismal walls. In
the morning, when the door was opened, he was found dead, much to the
glory of the great goddess, who had shown her power by coming during
the night and sucking his blood. No doubt there must have been some
of her servants hid in the fane whose business it was to prepare the
horrid banquet. It is said that an iron plate was afterwards put over
the face of the goddess to prevent her from eating up the persons
going before her. In Chanda the legend tells that the families of
the town had each in turn to supply a victim to the goddess. One day
a mother was weeping bitterly because her only son was to be taken
as the victim, when an Ahir passed by, and on learning the cause of
her sorrow offered to go instead. He took with him the rope of hair
with which the Ahirs tie the legs of their cows when milking them
and made a noose out of it. When the goddess came up to him he threw
the noose over her neck and drew it tight like a Thug. The goddess
begged him to let her go, and he agreed to do so on condition that
she asked for no more human victims. No doubt, if the legend has any
foundation, the Ahir found a human neck within his noose. It has been
suggested in the article on Thug that the goddess Kali is really the
deified tiger, and if this were so her craving for human sacrifices
is readily understood. All the three places mentioned, Dantewara,
Lanji and Chanda, are in a territory where tigers are still numerous,
and certain points in the above legends favour the idea of this animal
origin of the goddess. Such are the shutting of the victim in the
temple at night as an animal is tied up for a tiger-kill, and the
closing of her mouth with an iron plate as the mouths of tigers are
sometimes supposed to be closed by magic. Similarly it may perhaps be
believed that the Raja of Bastar offered human sacrifices to protect
himself and his party from the attacks of tigers, which would be the
principal danger on a journey to Nagpur. In Mandla there is a tradition
that a Brahman boy was formerly sacrificed at intervals to the god Bura
Deo, and the forehead of the god was marked with his hair in place
of sandalwood, and the god bathed in his blood and used his bones as
sticks for playing at ball. Similarly in Bindranawagarh in Raipur the
Gonds are said to have entrapped strangers and offered them to their
gods, and if possible a Brahman was obtained as the most suitable
offering. These legends indicate the traditional hostility of the
Gonds to the Hindus, and especially to the Brahmans, by whom they were
at one time much oppressed and ousted from their lands. According to
tradition, a Gond Raja of Garha-Mandla, Madhkur Shah, had treacherously
put his elder brother to death. Divine vengeance overtook him and he
became afflicted with chronic pains in the head. No treatment was of
avail, and he was finally advised that the only means of appeasing
a justly incensed deity was to offer his own life. He determined
to be burnt inside the trunk of the sacred pipal tree, and a hollow
trunk sufficiently dry for the purpose having been found at Deogarh,
twelve miles from Mandla, he shut himself up in it and was burnt to
death. The story is interesting as showing how the neurotic or other
pains, which are the result of remorse for a crime, are ascribed to
the vengeance of a divine providence.
52. Cannibalism.
Mr. Wilson quotes [78] an account, written by Lieutenant Prendergast
in 1820, in which he states that he had discovered a tribe of Gonds
who were cannibals, but ate only their own relations. The account
was as follows: "In May 1820 I visited the hills of Amarkantak, and
having heard that a particular tribe of Gonds who lived in the hills
were cannibals, I made the most particular inquiries assisted by my
clerk Mohan Singh, an intelligent and well-informed Kayasth. We learned
after much trouble that there was a tribe of Gonds who resided in the
hills of Amarkantak and to the south-east in the Gondwana country,
who held very little intercourse with the villagers and never went
among them except to barter or purchase provisions. This race live in
detached parties and seldom have more than eight or ten huts in one
place. They are cannibals in the real sense of the word, but never eat
the flesh of any person not belonging to their own family or tribe;
nor do they do this except on particular occasions. It is the custom of
this singular people to cut the throat of any person of their family
who is attacked by severe illness and who they think has no chance of
recovering, when they collect the whole of their relations and friends,
and feast upon the body. In like manner when a person arrives at a
great age and becomes feeble and weak, the Halalkhor operates upon him,
when the different members of the family assemble for the same purpose
as above stated. In other respects this is a simple race of people,
nor do they consider cutting the throats of their sick relations or
aged parents any sin; but on the contrary an act acceptable to Kali,
a blessing to their relatives, and a mercy to their whole race."
It may be noted that the account is based on hearsay only, and such
stories are often circulated about savage races. But if correct,
it would indicate probably only a ritual form of cannibalism. The
idea of the Gonds in eating the bodies of their relatives would be to
assimilate the lives of these as it were, and cause them to be reborn
as children in their own families. Possibly they ate the bodies of
their parents, as many races ate the bodies of animal gods, in order
to obtain their divine virtues and qualities. No corroboration of this
custom is known in respect of the Gonds, but Colonel Dalton records
[79] a somewhat similar story of the small Birhor tribe who live in
the Chota Nagpur hills not far from Amarkantak, and it has been seen
that the Bhunjias of Bilaspur eat small portions of the bodies of
their dead relatives. [80]
53. Festivals. The new crops.
The original Gond festivals were associated with the first eating of
the new crops and fruits. In Chait (March) a festival called Chaitrai
is observed in Bastar. A pig or fowl with some liquor is offered to
the village god, and the new urad and semi beans of the year's crop
are placed before him uncooked. The people dance and sing the whole
night and begin eating the new pulse and beans. In Bhadon (August)
is the Nawakhai or eating of the new rice. The old and new grain is
mixed and offered raw to the ancestors, a goat is sacrificed, and they
begin to eat the new crop of rice. Similarly when the mahua flowers,
from which country spirit is made, first appear, they proceed to the
forest and worship under a saj tree.
Before sowing rice or millet they have a rite called Bijphutni or
breaking the seed. Some grain, fowls and a pig are collected from the
villagers by subscription. The grain is offered to the god and then
distributed to all the villagers, who sow it in their fields for luck.
54. The Holi festival.
The Holi festival, which corresponds to the Carnival, being held in
spring at the end of the Hindu year, is observed by Gonds as well
as Hindus. In Bilaspur a Gond or Baiga, as representing the oldest
residents, is always employed to light the Holi fire. Sometimes it
is kindled in the ancient manner by the friction of two pieces of
wood. In Mandla, at the Holi, the Gonds fetch a green branch of the
semar or cotton tree and plant it in a little hole, in which they put
also a pice (farthing) and an egg. They place fuel round and burn up
the branch. Then next day they take out the egg and give it to a dog
to eat and say that this will make the dog as swift as fire. They
choose a dog whom they wish to train for hunting. They bring the
ploughshare from the house and heat it red-hot in the Holi fire and
take it back. They say that this wakes up the ploughshare, which
has fallen asleep from rusting in the house, and makes it sharp for
ploughing. Perhaps when rust appears on the metal they think this a
sign of its being asleep. They plough for the first time on a Monday
or Wednesday and drive three furrows when nobody is looking.
55. The Meghnath swinging rite.
In the western Districts on one of the five days following the Holi
the swinging rite is performed. For this they bring a straight teak
or saj tree from the forest, as long as can be obtained, and cut from
a place where two trees are growing together. The Bhumka or village
priest is shown in a dream where to cut the tree. It is set up in
a hole seven feet deep, a quantity of salt being placed beneath
it. The hole is coloured with geru or red ochre, and offerings of
goats, sheep and chickens are made to it by people who have vowed
them in sickness. A cross-bar is fixed on to the top of the pole
in a socket and the Bhumka is tied to one end of the cross-bar. A
rope is attached to the other end and the people take hold of this
and drag the Bhumka round in the air five times. When this has been
done the village proprietor gives him a present of a cocoanut, and
head- and body-clothes. If the pole falls down it is considered that
some great misfortune, such as an epidemic, will ensue. The pole
and ritual are now called Meghnath. Meghnath is held to have been
the son of Rawan, the demon king of Ceylon, from whom the Gonds are
supposed by the Hindus to be descended, as they are called Rawanvansi,
or of the race of Rawan. After this they set up another pole, which
is known as Jheri, and make it slippery with oil, butter and other
things. A little bag containing Rs. 1-4 and also a seer (2 lbs.) of
ghi or butter are tied to the top, and the men try to climb the pole
and get these as a prize. The women assemble and beat the men with
sticks as they are climbing to prevent them from doing so. If no man
succeeds in climbing the pole and getting the reward, it is given to
the women. This seems to be a parody of the first or Meghnath rite,
and both probably have some connection with the growth of the crops.
56. The Karma and other rites.
During Bhadon (August), in the rains, the Gonds bring a branch of the
kalmi or of the haldu tree from the forest and wrap it up in new cloth
and keep it in their houses. They have a feast and the musicians play,
and men and women dance round the branch singing songs, of which the
theme is often sexual. The dance is called Karma and is the principal
dance of the Gonds, and they repeat it at intervals all through the
cold weather, considering it as their great amusement. A further
notice of it is given in the section on social customs. The dance
is apparently named after the tree, though it is not known whether
the same tree is always selected. Many deciduous trees in India shed
their leaves in the hot weather and renew them in the rains, so that
this season is partly one of the renewal of vegetation as well as of
the growth of crops.
In Kunwar (September) the Gond girls take an earthen pot, pierce
it with holes, and put a lamp inside and also the image of a dove,
and go round from house to house singing and dancing, led by a girl
carrying the pot on her head. They collect contributions and have a
feast. In Chhattisgarh among the Gonds and Rawats (Ahirs) there is
from time to time a kind of feminist movement, which is called the
Stiria-Raj or kingdom of women. The women pretend to be soldiers,
seize all the weapons, axes and spears that they can get hold of, and
march in a body from village to village. At each village they kill
a goat and send its head to another village, and then the women of
that village come and join them. During this time they leave their
hair unbound and think that they are establishing the kingdom of
women. After some months the movement subsides, and it is said to
occur at irregular intervals with a number of years between each. The
women are commonly considered to be out of their senses.
(g) Appearance and Character, and Social Rules and Customs
57. Physical type.
Hislop describes the Gonds as follows: [81] "All are a little below
the average size of Europeans and in complexion darker than the
generality of Hindus. Their bodies are well proportioned, but their
features rather ugly. They have a roundish head, distended nostrils,
wide mouth, thickish lips, straight black hair and scanty beard and
moustache. It has been supposed that some of the aborigines of Central
India have woolly hair; but this is a mistake. Among the thousands
I have seen I have not found one with hair like a negro." Captain
Forsyth says: [82] "The Gond women differ among themselves more than
the men. They are somewhat lighter in colour and less fleshy than
Korku women. But the Gond women of different parts of the country
vary greatly in appearance, many of them in the open tracts being
great robust creatures, finer animals by far than the men; and here
Hindu blood may fairly be expected. In the interior again bevies
of Gond women may be seen who are more like monkeys than human
beings. The features of all are strongly marked and coarse. The
girls occasionally possess such comeliness as attaches to general
plumpness and a good-humoured expression of face; but when their short
youth is over all pass at once into a hideous age. Their hard lives,
sharing as they do all the labours of the men except that of hunting,
suffice to account for this." There is not the least doubt that the
Gonds of the more open and civilised country, comprised in British
Districts, have a large admixture of Hindu blood. They commonly work
as farmservants, women as well as men, and illicit connections with
their Hindu masters have been a natural result. This interbreeding,
as well as the better quality of food which those who have taken to
regular cultivation obtain, have perhaps conduced to improve the Gond
physical type. Gond men as tall as Hindus, and more strongly built
and with comparatively well-cut features, are now frequently seen,
though the broad flat nose is still characteristic of the tribe as
a whole. Most Gonds have very little hair on the face.
58. Character.
Of the Maria Gonds, Colonel Glasfurd wrote [83] that "They are a
timid, quiet race, docile, and though addicted to drinking they
are not quarrelsome. Without exception they are the most cheerful,
light-hearted people I have met with, always laughing and joking
among themselves. Seldom does a Maria village resound with quarrels
or wrangling among either sex, and in this respect they present a
marked contrast to those in more civilised tracts. They, in common with
many other wild races, bear a singular character for truthfulness and
honesty, and when once they get over the feeling of shyness which is
natural to them, are exceedingly frank and communicative." Writing in
1825 Sleeman said: "Such is the simplicity and honesty of character
of the wildest of these Gonds that when they have agreed to a jama
[84] they will pay it, though they sell their children to do so, and
will also pay it at the precise time that they agreed to. They are
dishonest only in direct theft, and few of them will refuse to take
another man's property when a fair occasion offers, but they will
immediately acknowledge it." [85] The more civilised Gonds retain
these characteristics to a large extent, though contact with the
Hindus and the increased complexity of life have rendered them less
guileless. Murder is a comparatively frequent crime among Gonds, and
is usually due either to some quarrel about a woman or to a drunken
affray. The kidnapping of girls for marriage is also common, though
hardly reckoned as an offence by the Gonds themselves. Otherwise crime
is extremely rare in Gond villages as a rule. As farmservants the
Gonds are esteemed fairly honest and hard-working; but unless well
driven they are constitutionally averse to labour, and care nothing
about provision for the future. The proverb says, 'The Gond considers
himself a king as long as he has a pot of grain in the house,' meaning
that while he has food for a day or two he will not work for any
more. During the hot weather the Gonds go about in parties and pay
visits to their relatives, staying with them several days, and the
time is spent simply in eating, drinking when liquor is available,
and conversation. The visitors take presents of grain and pulse with
them and these go to augment the host's resources. The latter will
kill a chicken or, as a great treat, a young pig. Mr. Montgomerie
writes of the Gonds as follows: [86] "They are a pleasant people, and
leave kindly memories in those who have to do with them. Comparatively
truthful, always ready for a laugh, familiar with the paths and animals
and fruits of the forest, lazy cultivators on their own account
but good farmservants under supervision, the broad-nosed Gonds are
the fit inhabitants of the hilly and jungly tracts in which they are
found. With a marigold tucked into his hair above his left ear, with an
axe in his hand and a grin on his face, the Gond turns out cheerfully
to beat for game, and at the end of the day spends his beating pay
on liquor for himself or on sweetmeats for his children. He may, in
the previous year, have been subsisting largely on jungle fruits and
roots because his harvest failed, but he does not dream of investing
his modest beating pay in grain."
59. Shyness and ignorance.
In the wilder tracts the Gonds were, until recently, extremely shy
of strangers, and would fly at their approach. Their tribute to the
Raja of Bastar, paid in kind, was collected once a year by an officer
who beat a tom-tom outside the village and forthwith hid himself,
whereupon the inhabitants brought out whatever they had to give and
deposited it on an appointed spot. Colonel Glasfurd notes that they had
great fear of a horse, and the sight of a man on horseback would put
a whole village to flight. [87] Even within the writer's experience,
in the wilder forest tracts of Chanda Gond women picking up mahua
would run and climb a tree at one's approach on a pony. As displaying
the ignorance of the Gonds, Mr. Cain relates [88] that about forty
years ago a Gond was sent with a basket of mangoes from Palvatsa to
Bhadrachalam, and was warned not to eat any of the fruit, as it would
be known if he did so from a note placed in the basket. On the way,
however, the Gond and his companion were overcome by the attraction
of the fruit, and decided that if they buried the note it would be
unable to see them eating. They accordingly did so and ate some of the
mangoes, and when taxed with their dishonesty at the journey's end,
could not understand how the note could have known of their eating
the mangoes when it had not seen them.
The Gonds can now count up to twenty, and beyond that they use the
word kori or a score, in talking of cattle, grain or rupees, so that
this, perhaps, takes them up to twenty score. They say they learnt
to count up to twenty on their ten fingers and ten toes.
60. Villages and houses.
When residing in the centre of a Hindu population the Gonds inhabit mud
houses, like the low-class Hindus. But in the jungles their huts are of
bamboo matting plastered with mud, with thatched roofs. The internal
arrangements are of the simplest kind, comprising two apartments
separated from each other by a row of tall baskets, in which they
store up their grain. Adjoining the house is a shed for cattle,
and round both a bamboo fence for protection from wild beasts. In
Bastar the walls of the hut are only four or five feet high, and the
door three feet. Here there are one or two sheds, in which all the
villagers store their grain in common, and no man steals another's
grain. In Gond villages the houses are seen perched about on little
bluffs or other high ground, overlooking the fields, one, two and
three together. The Gond does not like to live in a street. He likes
a large bari or fenced enclosure, about an acre in size, besides
his house. In this he will grow mustard for sale, or his own annual
supply of tobacco or vegetables. He arranges that the village cattle
shall come and stand in the bari on their way to and from pasture,
and that the cows shall be milked there for some time. His family
also perform natural functions in it, which the Hindus will not do
in their fields. Thus the bari gets well manured and will easily
give two crops in the year, and the Gond sets great store by this
field. When building a new house a man plants as the first post a
pole of the saj tree, and ties a bundle of thatching-grass round it,
and buries a pice (1/4d.) and a bhilawa nut beneath it. They feed two
or three friends and scatter a little of the food over the post. The
post is called Khirkhut Deo, and protects the house from harm.
A brass or pewter dish and lota or drinking-vessel of the same
material, a few earthen cooking-pots, a hatchet and a clay chilam or
pipe-bowl comprise the furniture of a Gond.
61. Clothes and ornaments.
In Sir R. Jenkins' time, a century ago, the Gonds were represented as
naked savages, living on roots and fruits, and hunting for strangers to
sacrifice. About fifty years later, when Mr. Hislop wrote, the Maria
women of the wilder tracts were said only to have a bundle of leafy
twigs fastened with a string round their waist to cover them before
and behind. Now men have a narrow strip of cloth round the waist and
women a broader one, but in the south of Bastar they still leave their
breasts uncovered. Here a woman covers her breasts for the first time
when she becomes pregnant, and if a young woman did it, she would be
thought to be big with child. In other localities men and women clothe
themselves more like Hindus, but the women leave the greater part of
the thighs bare, and men often have only one cloth round the loins
and another small rag on the head. They have bangles of glass, brass
and zinc, and large circlets of brass round the legs, though these are
now being discarded. In Bastar both men and women have ten to twenty
iron and brass hoops round their necks, and on to these rings of the
same metal are strung. Rai Bahadur Panda Baijnath counted 181 rings
on one hoop round an old woman's neck. In the Maria country the boys
have small separate plots of land, which they cultivate themselves
and use the proceeds as their pocket-money, and this enables them to
indulge in a profusion of ornaments sometimes exceeding those worn
by the girls. In Mandla women wear a number of strings of yellow and
bluish-white beads. A married woman has both colours, and several
cowries tied to the end of the necklace. Widows and girls may only
wear the bluish-white beads without cowries, and a remarried widow
may not have any yellow beads, but she can have one cowrie on her
necklace. Yellow beads are thus confined to married women, yellow
being the common wedding-colour. A Gond woman is not allowed to wear
a choli or little jacket over the breasts. If she does she is put
out of caste. This rule may arise from opposition to the adoption of
Hindu customs and desire to retain a distinctive feature of dress,
or it may be thought that the adoption of the choli might make Gond
women weaker and unfitted for hard manual labour, like Hindu women. A
Gond woman must not keep her cloth tucked up behind into her waist
when she meets an elderly man of her own family, but must let it down
so as to cover the upper part of her legs. If she omits to do this,
on the occasion of the next wedding the Bhumka or caste priest will
send some men to catch her, and when she is brought the man to whom
she was disrespectful will put his right hand on the ground and she
must make obeisance to it seven times, then to his left hand, then to
a broom and pestle, and so on till she is tired out. When they have a
sprain or swelling of the arm they make a ring of tree-fibre and wear
this on the arm, and think that it will cure the sprain or swelling.
62. Ear-piercing.
The ears of girls are pierced by a thorn, and the hole is enlarged by
putting in small pieces of wood or peacock's feathers. Gond women wear
in their ears the tarkhi or a little slab in shape like a palm-leaf,
covered with coloured glass and fixed on to a stalk of hemp-fibre
nearly an inch thick, which goes through the ear; or they wear the
silver shield-shaped ornament called dhara, which is described in the
article on Sunar. In Bastar the women have their ears pierced in a
dozen or more places, and have a small ring in each hole. If a woman
gets her ear torn through she is simply put out of caste and has to
give a feast for readmission, and is not kept out of caste till it
heals, like a Hindu woman.
63. Hair.
Gond men now cut their hair. Before scissors were obtainable it is
said that they used to tie it up on their heads and chop off the ends
with an axe, or burn them off. But the wilder Gonds often wear their
hair long, and as it is seldom combed it gets tangled and matted. The
Pandas or priests do not cut their hair. Women wear braids of false
hair, of goats or other animals, twisted into their own to improve
their appearance. In Mandla a Gond girl should not have her hair
parted in the middle till she is married. When she is married this
is done for the first time by the Baiga, who subsequently tattoos on
her forehead the image of Chandi Mata. [89]
64. Bathing and washing clothes.
Gonds, both men and women, do not bathe daily, but only wash their arms
and legs. They think a complete bath once a month is sufficient. If a
man gets ill he may think the god is angry with him for not bathing,
and when he recovers he goes and has a good bath, and sometimes gives a
feast. Hindus say that a Gond is only clean in the rains, when he gets
a compulsory bath every day. In Bastar they seldom wash their clothes,
as they think this impious, or else that the cloth would wear out too
quickly if it were often washed. Here they set great store by their
piece of cloth, and a woman will take it off before she cleans up her
house, and do her work naked. It is probable that these wild Gonds,
who could not weave, regarded the cloth as something miraculous and
sacred, and, as already seen, the god Palo is a piece of cloth. [90]
65. Tattooing.
Both men and women were formerly much tattooed among the Gonds,
though the custom is now going out among men. Women are tattooed over
a large part of the body, but not on the hips or above them to the
waist. Sorcerers are tattooed with some image or symbol of their god
on their chest or right shoulder, and think that the god will thus
always remain with them and that any magic directed against them by an
enemy will fail. A woman should be tattooed at her father's house, if
possible before marriage, and if it is done after marriage her parents
should pay for it. The tattooing is done with indigo in black or blue,
and is sometimes a very painful process, the girl being held down
by her friends while it is carried out. Loud shrieks, Forsyth says,
would sometimes be heard by the traveller issuing from a village,
which proclaimed that some young Gondin was being operated upon with
the tattooing-needle. Patterns of animals and also common articles of
household use are tattooed in dots and lines. In Mandla the legs are
marked all the way up behind with sets of parallel lines, as shown
above. These are called ghats or steps, and sometimes interspersed
at intervals is another figure called sankal or chain. Perhaps their
idea is to make the legs strong for climbing.
66. Special system of tattooing.
Tattooing seems to have been originally a magical means of protecting
the body against real and spiritual dangers, much in the same manner
as the wearing of ornaments. It is also supposed that people were
tattooed with images of their totem in order the better to identify
themselves with it. The following account is stated to have been taken
from the Baiga priest of a popular shrine of Devi in Mandla. His wife
was a tattooer of both Baigas and Gonds, and considered it the correct
method for the full tattooing of a woman, though very few women can
nowadays be found with it. The magical intent of tattooing is here
clearly brought out:--
On the sole of the right foot is the annexed device:
It represents the earth, and will have the effect of preventing the
woman's foot from being bruised and cut when she walks about barefoot.
On the sole of the left foot is this pattern:
It is meant to be in the shape of a foot, and is called Padam Sen Deo
or the Foot-god. This deity is represented by stones marked with two
footprints under a tree outside the village. When they have a pain in
the foot they go to him, rub his two stones together and sprinkle the
dust from them on their feet as a means of cure. The device tattooed
on the foot no doubt performs a similar protective function.
On the upper part of the foot five dots are made, one on each toe, and
a line is drawn round the foot from the big toe to the little toe. This
sign is said to represent Gajkaran Deo, the elephant god, who resides
in cemeteries. He is a strong god, and it is probably thought that
his symbol on the feet will enable them to bear weight. On the legs
behind they have the images of the Baiga priest and priestess. These
are also supposed to give strength for labour, and when they cannot
go into the forest from fever or weakness they say that Bura Deo, as
the deified priest is called, is angry with them. On the upper legs
in front they tattoo the image of a horse, and at the back a saddle
between the knee and the thigh. This is Koda Deo the horse-god, whose
image will make their thighs as strong as those of a horse. If they
have a pain or weakness in the thigh they go and worship Koda Deo,
offering him a piece of saddle-cloth. On the outer side of each upper
arm they tattoo the image of Hanuman, the deified monkey and the
god of strength, in the form of a man. Both men and women do this,
and men apply burning cowdung to the tattoo-mark in order to burn
it effectually into the arm. This god makes the arms strong to carry
weights. Down the back is tattooed an oblong figure, which is the house
of the god Bhimsen, with an opening at the lower end just above the
buttocks to represent the gate. Inside this on the back is the image
of Bhimsen's club, consisting of a pattern of dots more or less in
the shape of an Indian club. Bhimsen is the god of the cooking-place,
and the image of his club, in white clay stained green with the
leaves of the semar tree, is made on the wall of the kitchen. If
they have no food, or the food is bad, they say that Bhimsen is angry
with them. The pattern tattooed on the back appears therefore to be
meant to facilitate the digestion of food, which the Gonds apparently
once supposed to pass down the body along the back. On the breast in
front women tattoo the image of Bura Deo, as shown, the head on her
neck and the body finishing at her breast-bone. The marks round the
body represent stones, because the symbol of Bura Deo is sometimes
a basket plastered with mud and filled with stones. On each side of
the body women have the image of Jhulan Devi, the cradle goddess, as
shown by the small figures attached to Bura Deo. But a woman cannot
have the image of Jhulan Devi tattooed on her till she has borne a
child. The place where the image is tattooed is that where a child
rests against its mother's body when she carries it suspended in her
cloth, and it is supposed that the image of the goddess supports and
protects the child, while the mother's arms are left free for work.
Round the neck they have Kanteshwar Mata, the goddess of the
necklace. She consists of three to six lines of dots round the neck
representing bead necklaces.
On the face below the mouth there is sometimes the image of a cobra,
and it is supposed that this will protect them from the effects of
eating any poisonous thing.
On the forehead women have the image of Chandi Mata. This consists of
a dot at the forehead at the parting of the hair, from which two lines
of dots run down to the ears on each side, and are continued along
the sides of the face to the neck. This image can only be tattooed
after the hair of a woman has been parted on her marriage, and they
say that Chandi Mata will preserve and guard the parting of the hair,
that is the life of the woman's husband, because the parting can
only be worn so long as her husband is alive. Chandi means the moon,
and it seems likely that the parting of the hair may be considered
to represent the bow of the moon.
The elaborate system of tattooing here described is rarely found,
and it is perhaps comparatively recent, having been devised by the
Baiga and Pardhan priests as their intelligence developed and their
theogony became more complex.
67. Branding.
Men are accustomed to brand themselves on the joints of the wrists,
elbows and knees with burning wood of the semar tree from the Holi fire
in order to render their joints supple for dancing. It would appear
that the idea of suppleness comes from the dancing of the flames or
the swift burning of the fire, while the wood is also of very light
weight. Men are also accustomed to burn two or three marks on each
wrist with a piece of hare's dung, perhaps to make the joints supple
like the legs of a hare.
68. Food.
The Gonds have scarcely any restriction on diet. They will eat fowls,
beef, pork, crocodiles, certain kinds of snakes, lizards, tortoises,
rats, cats, red ants, jackals and in some places monkeys. Khatola
and Raj-Gonds usually abstain from beef and the flesh of the buffalo
and monkey. They consider field-mice and rats a great delicacy, and
will take much trouble in finding and digging out their holes. The
Maria Gonds are very fond of red ants, and in Bastar give them fried
or roasted to a woman during her confinement. The common food of the
labouring Gond is a gruel of rice or small millet boiled in water,
the quantity of water increasing in proportion to their poverty. This
is about the cheapest kind of food on which a man can live, and the
quantity of grain taken in the form of this gruel or pej which will
suffice for a Gond's subsistence is astonishingly small. They grow the
small grass-millets kodon and kutki for their subsistence, selling the
more valuable crops for rent and expenses. The flowers of the mahua
tree are also a staple article of diet, being largely eaten as well as
made into liquor, and the Gond knows of many other roots and fruits of
the forest. He likes to eat or drink his pej several times a day, and
in Seoni, it is said, will not go more than three hours without a meal.
Gonds are rather strict in the matter of taking food from others, and
in some localities refuse to accept it even from Brahmans. Elsewhere
they will take it from most Hindu castes. In Hoshangabad the men may
take food from the higher Hindu castes, but not the women. This, they
say, is because the woman is a wooden vessel, and if a wooden vessel is
once put on the fire it is irretrievably burnt. A woman similarly is
the weaker vessel and will sustain injury from any contamination. The
Raj-Gond copies Hindu ways and outdoes the Hindu in the elaboration
of ceremonial purity, even having the fuel with which his Brahman
cook prepares his food sprinkled with water to purify it before it is
burnt. Mr. A. K. Smith states that a Gond will not eat an antelope if
a Chamar has touched it, even unskinned, and in some places they are
so strict that a wife may not eat her husband's leavings of food. The
Gonds will not eat the leavings of any Hindu caste, probably on account
of a traditional hostility arising out of their subjection by the
Hindus. Very few Hindu castes will take water or food from the Gonds,
but some who employ them as farmservants do this for convenience. The
Gonds are not regarded as impure, even though from a Hindu point of
view some of their habits are more objectionable than those of the
impure castes. This is because the Gonds have never been completely
reduced to subjection, nor converted into the village drudges, who
are consigned to the most degraded occupations. Large numbers of them
hold land as tenants and estates as zamindars; and the greater part
of the Province was once governed by Gond kings. The Hindus say that
they could not consider a tribe as impure to which their kings once
belonged. Brahmans will take water from Raj-Gonds and Khatola Gonds
in many localities. This is when it is freshly brought from the well
and not after it has been put in their houses.
69. Liquor.
Excessive drinking is the common vice of the Gonds and the principal
cause which militates against their successfully competing with the
Hindus. They drink the country spirit distilled from the flowers of the
mahua tree, and in the south of the Province toddy or the fermented
juice of the date-palm. As already seen, in Bastar their idea of
hell is a place without liquor. The loss of the greater part of the
estates formerly held by Gond proprietors has been due to this vice,
which many Hindu liquor-sellers have naturally fostered to their own
advantage. No festival or wedding passes without a drunken bout,
and in Chanda at the season for tapping the date-palm trees the
whole population of a village may be seen lying about in the open
dead drunk. They impute a certain sanctity to the mahua tree, and
in some places walk round a post of it at their weddings. Liquor is
indispensable at all ceremonial feasts, and a purifying quality is
attributed to it, so that it is drunk at the cemetery or bathing-ghat
after a funeral. The family arranges for liquor, but mourners
attending from other families also bring a bottle each with them,
if possible. Practically all the events of a Gond's life, the birth
of a child, betrothals and weddings, recovery from sickness, the
arrival of a guest, bringing home the harvest, borrowing money or
hiring bullocks, and making contracts for cultivation, are celebrated
by drinking. And when a Gond has once begun to drink, if he has the
money he usually goes on till he is drunk, and this is why the habit is
such a curse to him. He is of a social disposition and does not like
to drink alone. If he has drunk something, and has no more money, and
the contractor refuses to let him have any more on credit as the law
prescribes, the Gond will sometimes curse him and swear never to drink
in his shop again. Nevertheless, within a few days he will be back,
and when chaffed about it will answer simply that he could not resist
the longing. In spite of all the harm it does him, it must be admitted
that it is the drink which gives most of the colour and brightness to
a Gond's life, and without this it would usually be tame to a degree.
When a Gond drinks water from a stream or tank, he bends down and
puts his mouth to the surface and does not make a cup with his hands
like a Hindu.
70. Admission of outsiders and sexual morality.
Outsiders are admitted into the tribe in some localities in Bastar,
and also the offspring of a Gond man or woman with a person of another
caste, excepting the lowest. But some people will not admit the
children of a Gond woman by a man of another caste. Not much regard
is paid to the chastity of girls before marriage, though in the more
civilised tracts the stricter Hindu views on the subject are beginning
to prevail. Here it is said that if a girl is detected in a sexual
intrigue before marriage she may be taken into caste, but may not
participate in the worship of Bura Deo nor of the household god. But
this is probably rather a counsel of perfection than a rule actually
enforced. If a daughter is taken in the sexual act, they think some
misfortune will happen to them, as the death of a cow or the failure
of crops. Similarly the Maria Gonds think that if tigers kill their
cattle it is a punishment for the adultery of their wives, and hence
if a man loses a head or two he looks very closely after his wife,
and detection is often followed by murder. Here probably adultery was
originally considered an offence as being a sin against the tribe,
because it contaminated the tribal blood, and out of this attitude
marital jealousy has subsequently developed. Speaking generally, the
enforcement of rules of sexual morality appears to be comparatively
recent, and there is no doubt that the Baigas and other tribes who have
lived in contact with the Gonds, as well as the Ahirs and other low
castes, have a large admixture of Gond blood. In Bastar a Gond woman
formerly had no feelings of modesty as regards her breasts, but this
is now being acquired. Laying the hand on a married woman's shoulder
gives great offence. Mr. Low writes: [91] "It is difficult to say what
is not a legal marriage from a Gond point of view; but in spite of
this laxity abductions are frequent, and Colonel Bloomfield mentions
one particularly noteworthy case where the abductor, an unusually ugly
Gond with a hare-lip, was stated by the complainant to have taken off
first the latter's aunt, then his sister and finally his only wife."
71. Common sleeping-houses.
Many Gond villages in Chhattisgarh and the Feudatory States have what
is known as a gotalghar. This is a large house near the village
where unmarried youths and maidens collect and dance and sing
together at night. Some villages have two, one for the boys and one
for the girls. In Bastar the boys have a regular organisation, their
captain being called Sirdar, and the master of the ceremonies Kotwar,
while they have other officials bearing the designation of the State
officers. After supper the unmarried boys go first to the gotalghar
and are followed by the girls. The Kotwar receives the latter and
directs them to bow to the Sirdar, which they do. Each girl then
takes a boy and combs his hair and massages his hands and arms to
refresh him, and afterwards they sing and dance together until they
are tired and then go to bed. The girls can retire to their own house
if they wish, but frequently they sleep in the boys' house. Thus
numerous couples become intimate, and if on discovery the parents
object to their marriage, they run away to the jungle, and it has to
be recognised. In some villages, however, girls are not permitted to
go to the gotalghar. In one part of Bastar they have a curious rule
that all males, even the married, must sleep in the common house for
the eight months of the open season, while their wives sleep in their
own houses. A Maria Gond thinks it impious to have sexual intercourse
with his wife in his house, as it would be an insult to the goddess
of wealth who lives in the house, and the effect would be to drive
her away. Their solicitude for this goddess is the more noticeable,
as the Maria Gond's house and furniture probably constitute one of
the least valuable human habitations on the face of the globe.
72. Methods of greeting and observances between relatives.
When two Gond friends or relatives meet, they clasp each other in
their arms and lean against each shoulder in turn. A man will then
touch the knees of an elder male relative with his fingers, carrying
them afterwards to his own forehead. This is equivalent to falling
at the other's feet, and is a token of respect shown to all elder
male relatives and also to a son-in-law, sister's husband, and a
samhdi, that is the father of a son- or daughter-in-law. Their term of
salutation is Johar, and they say this to each other. Another method
of greeting is that each should put his fingers under the other's chin
and then kiss them himself. Women also do this when they meet. Or
a younger woman meeting an elder will touch her feet, and the elder
will then kiss her on the forehead and on each cheek. If they have
not met for some time they will weep. It is said that Baigas will
kiss each other on the cheek when meeting, both men and women. A Gond
will kiss and caress his wife after marriage, but as soon as she has
a child he drops the habit and never does it again. When husband and
wife meet after an absence the wife touches her husband's feet with
her hand and carries it to her forehead, but the husband makes no
demonstration. The Gonds kiss their children. Among the Maria Gonds
the wife is said not to sleep on a cot in her husband's house, which
would be thought disrespectful to him, but on the ground. Nor will
a woman even sit on a cot in her own house, as if any male relative
happened to be in the house it would be disrespectful to him. A woman
will not say the name of her husband, his elder or younger brother,
or his elder brother's sons. A man will not mention his wife's name
nor that of her elder sister.
73. The caste panchayat and social offences.
The tribe have panchayats or committees for the settlement of tribal
disputes and offences. A member of the panchayat is selected by general
consent, and holds office during good behaviour. The office is not
hereditary, and generally there does not seem to be a recognised
head of the panchayat. In Mandla there is a separate panchayat for
each village, and every Gond male adult belongs to it, and all have
to be summoned to a meeting. When they assemble five leading elderly
men decide the matter in dispute, as representing the assembly. Caste
offences are of the usual Hindu type with some variations. Adultery,
taking another man's wife or daughter, getting vermin in a wound,
being sent to jail and eating the jail food, or even having handcuffs
put on, a woman getting her ear torn, and eating or even smoking with
a man of very low caste, are the ordinary offences. Others are being
beaten by a shoe, dealing in the hides of cattle or keeping donkeys,
removing the corpse of a dead horse or donkey, being touched by a
sweeper, cooking in the earthen pots of any impure caste, a woman
entering the kitchen during her monthly impurity, and taking to wife
the widow of a younger brother, but not of course of an elder brother.
In the case of septs which revere a totem animal or plant, any act
committed in connection with that animal or plant by a member of
the sept is an offence within the cognisance of the panchayat. Thus
in Mandla the Kumhra sept revere the goat and the Markam sept the
crocodile and crab. If a member of one of these septs touches, keeps,
kills or eats the animal which his sept reveres, he is put out of caste
and comes before the panchayat. In practice the offences with which
the panchayat most frequently deals are the taking of another man's
wife or the kidnapping of a daughter for marriage, this last usually
occurring between relatives. Both these offences can also be brought
before the regular courts, but it is usually only when the aggrieved
person cannot get satisfaction from the panchayat, or when the offender
refuses to abide by its decision, that the case goes to court. If
a Gond loses his wife he will in the ordinary course compromise the
matter if the man who takes her will repay his wedding expenses; this
is a very serious business for him, as his wedding is the principal
expense of a man's life, and it is probable that he may not be able to
afford to buy another girl and pay for her wedding. If he cannot get
his wedding expenses back through the panchayat he files a complaint
of adultery under the Penal Code, in the hope of being repaid through
a fine inflicted on the offender, and it is perfectly right and just
that this should be done. When a girl is kidnapped for marriage, her
family can usually be induced to recognise the affair if they receive
the price they could have got for the girl in an ordinary marriage,
and perhaps a little more, as a solace to their outraged feelings.
The panchayat takes no cognisance of theft, cheating, forgery, perjury,
causing hurt and other forms of crime. These are not considered to be
offences against the caste, and no penalty is inflicted for them. Only
if a man is arrested and handcuffed, or if he is sent to jail for
any such crime, he is put out of caste for eating the jail food and
subjected in this latter case to a somewhat severe penalty. It is
not clear whether a Gond is put out of caste for murder, though Hindu
panchayats take cognisance of this offence.
74. Caste penalty feasts.
The punishments inflicted by the panchayat consist of feasts, and in
the case of minor offences of a fine. This last, subject perhaps to
some commission to the members for their services, is always spent on
liquor, the drinking of which by the offender with the caste-fellows
will purify him. The Gonds consider country liquor as equivalent to
the Hindu Amrita or nectar.
The penalty for a serious offence involves three feasts. The first,
known as the meal of impurity, consists of sweet wheaten cakes which
are eaten by the elders on the bank of a stream or well. The second or
main feast is given in the offender's courtyard to all the castemen of
the village and sometimes of other villages. Rice, pulse, and meat,
either of a slaughtered pig or goat, are provided at this. The third
feast is known as 'The taking back into caste' and is held in the
offender's house and may be cooked by him. Wheat, rice and pulses
are served, but not meat or vegetables. When the panchayat have
eaten this food in the offender's house he is again a proper member
of the caste. Liquor is essential at each feast. The nature of the
penalty feasts is thus very clear. They have the effect of a gradual
purification of the offender. In the first meal he can take no part,
nor is it served in his house, but in some neutral place. For the
second meal the castemen go so far as to sit in his compound, but
apparently he does not cook the food nor partake of it. At the third
meal they eat with him in his house and he is fully purified. These
three meals are prescribed only for serious offences, and for ordinary
ones only two meals, the offender partaking of the second. The three
meals are usually exacted from a woman taken in adultery with an
outsider. In this case the woman's head is shaved at the first meal
by the Sharmia, that is her son-in-law, and the children put her to
shame by throwing lumps of cowdung at her. She runs away and bathes
in a stream. At the second meal, taken in her courtyard, the Sharmia
sprinkles some blood on the ground and on the lintel of the door as
an offering to the gods and in order that the house may be pure for
the future. If a man is poor and cannot afford the expense of the
penalty feasts imposed on him, the panchayat will agree that only a
few persons will attend instead of the whole community. The procedure
above described is probably borrowed to a large extent from Hinduism,
but the working of a panchayat can be observed better among the Gonds
and lower castes than among high-caste Hindus, who are tending to
let it lapse into abeyance.
75. Special purification ceremony.
The following detailed process of purification had to be undergone
by a well-to-do Gond widow in Mandla who had been detected with a
man of the Panka caste, lying drunk and naked in a liquor-shop. The
Gonds here consider the Pankas socially beneath themselves. The ritual
clearly belongs to Hinduism, as shown by the purifying virtue attached
to contact with cows and bullocks and cowdung, and was directed by
the Panda or priest of Devi's shrine, who, however, would probably
be a Gond. First, the offending woman was taken right out of the
village across a stream; here her head was shaved with the urine
of an all-black bullock and her body washed with his dung, and she
then bathed in the stream, and a feast was given on its bank to the
caste. She slept here, and next day was yoked to the same bullock
and taken thus to the Kharkha or standing-place for the village
cattle. She was rolled over the surface of the Kharkha about four
times, again rubbed with cowdung, another feast was given, and she
slept the night on the spot, without being washed. Next day, covered
with the dust and cowdung of the Kharkha, she crouched underneath
the black bullock's belly and in this manner proceeded to the gate of
her own yard. Here a bottle of liquor and fifteen chickens were waved
round her and afterwards offered at Devi's shrine, where they became
the property of the Panda who was conducting the ceremony. Another
feast was given in her yard and the woman slept there. Next day the
woman, after bathing, was placed standing with one foot outside her
threshold and the other inside; a feast was given, called the feast
of the threshold, and she again slept in her yard. On the following
day came the final feast of purification in the house. The woman was
bathed eleven times, and a hen, a chicken and five eggs were offered
by the Panda to each of her household gods. Then she drank a little
liquor from a cup of which the Panda had drunk, and ate some of the
leavings of food of which he had eaten. The black bullock and a piece
of cloth sufficient to cover it were presented to the Panda for his
services. Then the woman took a dish of rice and pulse and placed a
little in the leaf-cup of each of the caste-fellows present, and they
all ate it and she was readmitted to caste. Twelve cow-buffaloes were
sold to pay for the ceremony, which perhaps cost Rs. 600 or more.
76. Dancing.
Dancing and singing to the dance constitute the social amusement and
recreation of the Gonds, and they are passionately fond of it. The
principal dance is the Karma, danced in celebration of the bringing
of the leafy branch of a tree from the forest in the rains. They
continue to dance it as a recreation during the nights of the cold
and hot weather, whenever they have leisure and a supply of liquor,
which is almost indispensable, is forthcoming. The Marias dance, men
and women together, in a great circle, each man holding the girl next
him on one side round the neck and on the other round the waist. They
keep perfect time, moving each foot alternately in unison throughout
the line, and moving round in a slow circle. Only unmarried girls may
join in a Maria dance, and once a woman is married she can never dance
again. This is no doubt a salutary provision for household happiness,
as sometimes couples, excited by the dance and wine, run away from it
into the jungle and stay there for a day or two till their relatives
bring them home and consider them as married. At the Maria dances
the men wear the skins of tigers, panthers, deer and other animals,
and sometimes head-dresses of peacock's feathers. They may also have
a girdle of cowries round the waist, and a bell tied to their back to
ring as they move. The musicians sit in the centre and play various
kinds of drums and tom-toms. At a large Maria dance there may be
as many as thirty musicians, and the provision of rice or kodon and
liquor may cost as much as Rs. 50. In other localities the dance is
less picturesque. Men and women form two long lines opposite each
other, with the musicians in the centre, and advance and retreat
alternately, bringing one foot forward and the other up behind it,
with a similar movement in retiring. Married women may dance, and
the men do not hold the women at any time. At intervals they break
off and liquor is distributed in small leaf-cups, or if these are not
available, it is poured into the hands of the dancers held together
like a cup. In either case a considerable proportion of the liquor
is usually spilt on to the ground.
77. Songs.
All the time they are dancing they also sing in unison, the
men sometimes singing one line and the women the next, or both
together. The songs are with few exceptions of an erotic character,
and a few specimens are subjoined.
a. Be not proud of your body, your body must go away above
(to death).
Your mother, brother and all your kinsmen, you must leave them
and go.
You may have lakhs of treasure in your house, but you must leave
it all and go.
b. The musicians play and the feet beat on the earth.
A pice (1/4d.) for a divorced woman, two pice for a kept woman,
for a virgin many sounding rupees.
The musicians play and the earth sounds with the trampling of feet.
c. Raja Darwa is dead, he died in his youth.
Who is he that has taken the small gun, who has taken the big bow?
Who is aiming through the harra and bahera trees, who is aiming
on the plain?
Who has killed the quail and partridge, who has killed the peacock?
Raja Darwa has died in the prime of his youth.
The big brother says, 'I killed him, I killed him'; the little
brother shot the arrow.
Raja Darwa has died in the bloom of his youth.
d. Rawan [92] is coming disguised as a Bairagi; by what road will
Rawan come?
The houses and castles fell before him, the ruler of Bhanwargarh
rose up in fear.
He set the match to his powder, he stooped and crept along the
ground and fired.
e. Little pleasure is got from a kept woman; she gives her lord
pej (gruel) of kutki to drink.
She gives it him in a leaf-cup of laburnum; [93] the cup is too
small for him to drink.
She put two gourds full of water in it, and the gruel is so thin
that it gives him no sustenance.
f. Man speaks:
The wife is asleep and her Raja (husband) is asleep in her lap.
She has taken a piece of bread in her lap and water in her vessel.
See from her eyes will she come or not?
Woman:
I have left my cow in her shed, my buffalo in her stall.
I have left my baby at the breast and am come alone to follow you.
g. The father said to his son, 'Do not go out to service with
any master, neither go to any strange woman.
I will sell my sickle and axe, and make you two marriages.'
He made a marriage feast for his son, and in one plate he put
rice, and over it meat, and poured soup over it till it flowed
out of the plate.
Then he said to the men and women, young and old, 'Come and eat
your fill.'
78. Language.
In 1911 Gondi was spoken by 1,500,000 persons, or more than half
the total number of Gonds in India. The other Gonds of the Central
Provinces speak a broken Hindi. Gondi is a Dravidian language, having
a common ancestor with Tamil and Canarese, but little immediate
connection with its neighbour Telugu; the specimens given by Sir
G. Grierson show that a large number of Hindi words have been adopted
into the vocabulary of Gondi, and this tendency is no doubt on the
increase. There are probably few Gonds outside the Feudatory States,
and possibly a few of the wildest tracts in British Districts, who
could not understand Hindi to some extent. And with the extension of
primary education in British Districts Gondi is likely to decline still
more rapidly. Gondi has no literature and no character of its own;
but the Gospels and the Book of Genesis have been translated into it
and several grammatical sketches and vocabularies compiled. In Saugor
the Hindus speak of Gondi as Farsi or Persian, apparently applying
this latter name to any foreign language.
(h) Occupation
79. Cultivation.
The Gonds are mainly engaged in agriculture, and the great bulk of
them are farmservants and labourers. In the hilly tracts, however,
there is a substantial Gond tenantry, and a small number of proprietors
remain, though the majority have been ousted by Hindu moneylenders and
liquor-sellers. In the eastern Districts many important zamindari
estates are owned by Gond proprietors. The ancestors of these
families held the wild hilly country on the borders of the plains in
feudal tenure from the central rulers, and were responsible for the
restraint of the savage hillmen under their jurisdiction, and the
protection of the rich and settled lowlands from predatory inroads
from without. Their descendants are ordinary landed proprietors, and
would by this time have lost their estates but for the protection
of the law declaring them impartible and inalienable. A few of
the Feudatory Chiefs are also Gonds. Gond proprietors are generally
easy-going and kind-hearted to their tenants, but lacking in business
acumen and energy, and often addicted to drink and women. The tenants
are as a class shiftless and improvident and heavily indebted. But
they show signs of improvement, especially in the ryotwari villages
under direct Government management, and it may be hoped that primary
education and more temperate habits will gradually render them equal
to the Hindu cultivators.
80. Patch cultivation.
In the Feudatory States and some of the zamindaris the Gonds retain
the dahia or bewar method of shifting cultivation, which has been
prohibited everywhere else on account of its destructive effects on
the forests. The Maria Gonds of Bastar cut down a patch of jungle on
a hillside about February, and on its drying up burn all the wood in
April or May. Tying strips of the bark of the saj tree to their feet
to prevent them from being burnt, they walk over the smouldering area,
and with long bamboo sticks move any unburnt logs into a burning patch,
so that they may all be consumed. When the first showers of rain fall
they scatter seed of the small millets into the soft covering of wood
ashes, and the fertility of the soil is such that without further
trouble they get a return of a hundred-fold or more. The same patch
can be sown for three years in succession without ploughing, but it
then gives out, and the Gonds move themselves and their habitations
to a fresh one. When the jungle has been allowed to grow on the old
patch for ten or twelve years, there is sufficient material for a fresh
supply of wood-ash manure, and they burn it over again. Teak yields a
particularly fertilising ash, and when standing the tree is hurtful to
crops grown near it, as its large, broad leaves cause a heavy drip and
wash out the grain. Hence the Gonds were particularly hostile to this
tree, and it is probably to their destructive efforts that the poor
growth of teak over large areas of the Provincial forests is due. [94]
The Maria Gonds do not use the plough, and their only agricultural
implement is a kind of hoe or spade. Elsewhere the Gonds are gradually
adopting the Hindu methods of cultivation, but their land is generally
in hilly and jungly tracts and of poor quality. They occupy large
areas of the wretched barra or gravel soil which has disintegrated
from the rock of the hillsides, and covers it in a thin sheet mixed
with quantities of large stones. The Gonds, however, like this land,
as it is so shallow as to entail very little trouble in ploughing, and
it is suitable for their favourite crops of the small millets, kodon
and kutki, and the poorer oilseeds. After three years of cropping it
must be given an equal or longer period of fallow before it will again
yield any return. The Gonds say it is narang or exhausted. In the new
ryotwari villages formed within the last twenty years the Gonds form
a large section, and in Mandla the great majority, of the tenantry,
and have good black-soil fields which grow wheat and other valuable
crops. Here, perhaps, their condition is happier than anywhere else,
as they are secured in the possession of their lands subject to the
payment of revenue, liberally assisted with Government loans at low
interest, and protected as far as possible from the petty extortion
and peculation of Hindu subordinate officials and moneylenders. The
opening of a substantial number of primary schools to serve these
villages will, it may be hoped, have the effect of making the Gond a
more intelligent and provident cultivator, and counteract the excessive
addiction to liquor which is the great drawback to his prosperity. The
fondness of the Gond for his bari or garden plot adjoining his hut
has been described in the section on villages and houses.
81. Hunting: traps for animals.
The primary occupation of the Gonds in former times was hunting and
fishing, but their opportunities in this respect have been greatly
circumscribed by the conservation of the game in Government forests,
which was essential if it was not to become extinct, when the native
shikaris had obtained firearms. Their weapons were until recently
bows and arrows, but now Gond hunters usually have an old matchlock
gun. They have several ingenious devices for trapping animals. It is
essential for them to make a stockade round their patch cultivation
fields in the forests, or the grain would be devoured by pig and
deer. At one point in this they leave a narrow opening, and in front
of it dig a deep pit and cover it with brushwood and grass; then at the
main entrance they spread some sand. Coming in the middle of the night
they see from the footprints in the sand what animals have entered
the enclosure; if these are worth catching they close the main gate,
and make as much noise as they can. The frightened animals dash round
the enclosure and, seeing the opening, run through it and fall into the
pit, where they are easily despatched with clubs and axes. They also
set traps across the forest paths frequented by animals. The method
is to take a strong raw-hide rope and secure one end of it to a stout
sapling, which is bent down like a spring. The other end is made into
a noose and laid open on the ground, often over a small hole. It is
secured by a stone or log of wood, and this is so arranged by means
of some kind of fall-trap that on pressure in the centre of the hole
it is displaced and releases the noose. The animal comes and puts his
foot in the hole, thus removing the trap which secured the noose. This
flies up and takes the animal's foot with it, being drawn tight in
mid-air by the rebound of the sapling. The animal is thus suspended
with one foot in the air, which it cannot free, and the Gonds come and
kill it. Tigers are sometimes caught in this manner. A third very cruel
kind of trap is made by putting up a hedge of thorns and grass across a
forest-path, on the farther side of which they plant a few strong and
sharply-pointed bamboo stakes. A deer coming up will jump the hedge,
and on landing will be impaled on one of the stakes. The wound is
very severe and often festers immediately, so that the victim dies
in a few hours. Or they suspend a heavy beam over a forest path held
erect by a loose prop which stands on the path. The deer comes along
and knocks aside the prop, and the beam falls on him and pins him
down. Mr. Montgomerie writes as follows on Gond methods of hunting:
[95] "The use of the bow and arrow is being forgotten owing to the
restrictions placed by Government on hunting. The Gonds can still throw
an axe fairly straight, but a running hare is a difficult mark and has
a good chance of escaping. The hare, however, falls a victim to the
fascination of fire. The Gond takes an earthen pot, knocks a large hole
in the side of it, and slings it on a pole with a counterbalancing
stone at the other end. Then at night he slings the pole over one
shoulder, with the earthen pot in front containing fire, and sallies
out hare-hunting. He is accompanied by a man who bears a bamboo. The
hare, attracted and fascinated by the light, comes close and watches
it stupidly till the bamboo descends on the animal's head, and the
Gonds have hare for supper." Sometimes a bell is rung as well, and
this is said to attract the animals. They also catch fish by holding
a lamp over the water on a dark night and spearing them with a trident.
Gond-Gowari
Gond-Gowari. [96]--A small hybrid caste formed from alliances between
Gonds and Gowaris or herdsmen of the Maratha country. Though they must
now be considered as a distinct caste, being impure and thus ranking
lower than either the Gonds or Gowaris, they are still often identified
with either of them. In 1901 only 3000 were returned, principally
from the Nagpur and Chanda Districts. In 1911 they were amalgamated
with the Gowaris, and this view may be accepted as their origin is
the same. The Gowaris say that the Gond-Gowaris are the descendants
of one of two brothers who accidentally ate the flesh of a cow. Both
the Gonds and Gowaris frequent the jungles for long periods together,
and it is natural that intimacies should spring up between the youth
of either sex. And the progeny of these irregular connections has
formed a separate caste, looked down upon by both its progenitors. The
Gond-Gowaris have no subcastes, and for purposes of marriages are
divided into exogamous septs, all bearing Gond names. Like the Gonds,
the caste is also split into two divisions, worshipping six and
seven gods respectively, and members of septs worshipping the same
number of gods must not marry with each other. The deities of the
six and seven god-worshippers are identical, except that the latter
have one extra called Durga or Devi, who is represented by a copper
coin of the old Nagpur dynasty. Of the other deities Bura Deo is a
piece of iron, Khoda and Khodavan are both pieces of the kadamb tree
(Nauclea parvifolia), Supari is the areca-nut, and Kaipen consists of
two iron rings and counts as two deities. It seems probable, therefore,
from the double set of identical deities that two of the original ones
have been forgotten. The gods are kept on a small piece of red cloth
in a closed bamboo basket, which must not be opened except on days of
worship, lest they should work some mischief; on these special days
they are rendered harmless for the time being by the homage which is
rendered to them. Marriage is adult, and a bride-price of nine rupees
and some grain is commonly paid by the boy's family. The ceremony
is a mixture of Gond and Maratha forms; the couple walk seven times
round a bohla or mound of earth and the guests clap their hands. At a
widow-marriage they walk three and a half times round a burning lamp,
as this is considered to be only a kind of half-marriage. The morality
of the caste is very loose, and a wife will commonly be pardoned any
transgression except an intrigue with a man of very low caste. Women
of other castes, such as Kunbis or Barhais, may be admitted to the
community on forming a connection with a Gond-Gowari. The caste have
no prescribed observance of mourning for the dead. The Gond-Gowaris
are cultivators and labourers, and dress like the Kunbis. They are
considered to be impure and must live outside the village, while other
castes refuse to touch them. The bodies of the women are disfigured
by excessive tattooing, the legs being covered with a pattern of dots
and lines reaching up to the thighs. In this matter they simply follow
their Gond ancestors, but they say that a woman who is not tattooed
is impure and cannot worship the deities.
Gondhali
Gondhali. [97]--A caste or order of wandering beggars and musicians
found in the Maratha Districts of the Central Provinces and in
Berar. The name is derived from the Marathi word gondharne, to make a
noise. In 1911 the Gondhalis numbered about 3000 persons in Berar and
500 in the Central Provinces, and they are also found in Bombay. The
origin of the caste is obscure, but it appears to have been recruited
in recent times from the offspring of Waghyas and Murlis or male and
female children devoted to temples by their parents in fulfilment of
a vow. Mr. Kitts states in the Berar Census Report [98] of 1881 that
the Gondhalis are there attached either to the temple of Tukai at
Tuljapur or the temple of Renuka at Mahur, and in consequence form
two subcastes, the Kadamrai and Renurai, who do not intermarry. In
the Central Provinces, however, besides these two there are a number
of other subcastes, most of which bear the names of distinct castes,
and obviously consist of members of that caste who became Gondhalis,
or of their descendants. Thus among the names of subcastes reported
are the Brahman, Maratha, Mane Kunbi, Khaire Kunbi, Teli, Mahar,
Mang and Vidur Gondhalis, as well as others like the Deshkars,
or those coming from the Deccan, the Gangapare, [99] or those from
beyond the Ganges, and the Hijade or eunuchs. It is clear, therefore,
that members of these castes becoming Gondhalis attempt to arrange
their marriages with other converts from their own caste and to
retain their relative social position. There is little doubt that all
Gondhalis are theoretically meant to be equal, a principle which at
their first foundation applies to nearly all sects and orders, but
here as elsewhere the social feeling of caste has been too strong
to permit of its retention. It may be doubted, however, whether in
view of the small total numbers of the caste all these groups can
be strictly endogamous. The Kunbi Gondhalis can take food from the
ordinary Kunbis, but they rank below them, as being mendicants. The
caste has also a number of exogamous groups or gotras, the names of
which may be classified as titular or territorial. Instances of the
former kind are Dokiphode or one who broke his head while begging,
Sukt (thin, emaciated), Muke (dumb), Jabal (one with long hair like
a Jogi), and Panchange (one who has five limbs). Girls are married
as a rule before adolescence, and the ceremony resembles that of the
Kunbis, but a special prayer is offered to the deity Renuka, and the
boy is invested with a necklace of cowries by five married men of the
caste. Till this has been done he is not considered to be a proper
Gondhali. Celibacy is not a tenet of the order. The remarriage of
widows is allowed, and the ceremony consists in the husband placing
a string of small black glass beads round the woman's neck, while
she holds out a pair of new shoes for him to put his feet into. The
second wife often wears a small silver or golden image of the first
wife round her neck, and worships it before she eats by touching it
with food; she also asks its permission before going to sleep with
her husband. The goddess Bhawani or Devi is especially revered by
the caste, and they fast in her honour on Tuesdays and Fridays. They
worship their musical instruments at Dasahra with an offering of a
goat, and afterwards sing and dance for the whole night, this being
their principal festival. They also observe the nine days' fasts
in honour of Devi in Chait (March) and Kunwar (September) and sow
the Jawaras or pots of wheat. The Gondhalis are mendicant musicians,
and are engaged on the occasion of marriages among the higher castes
to perform their gondhal or dance accompanied by music. Four men are
needed for it, one being the dancer who is dressed in a long white robe
with a necklace of cowries and bells on his ankles, while the other
three stand behind him, two of them carrying drums and the third a
sacred torch called dioti. The torch-bearer serves as a butt for the
witticisms of the dancer. Their instruments are the chonka, an open
drum carrying an iron string which is beaten with a small wooden pin,
and two sambals or double drums of iron, wood or earth, one of which
emits a dull and the other a sharp sound. The dance is performed in
honour of the goddess Bhawani. They set up a wooden stool on the stage
arranged for the performance, covered with a cloth on which wheat is
spread, and over this is placed a brass vessel containing water and
a cocoanut. This represents the goddess. After the performance the
Gondhalis take away and eat the cocoanut and wheat; their regular fee
for an engagement is Rs. 1-4, and the guests give them presents of a
few pice (farthings). They are engaged for important ceremonies such
as marriages, the Barsa or name-giving of a boy, and the Shantik or
maturity of a girl, and also merely for entertainment; but in this
case the stool and cocoanut representing the goddess are not set
up. The following is a specimen of a Gondhali religious song:
Where I come from and who am I,
This mystery none has solved;
Father, mother, sister and brother, these are all illusions.
I call them mine and am lost in my selfish concerns.
Worldliness is the beginning of hell, man has wrapped himself in
it without reason.
Remember your guru, go to him and touch his feet.
Put on the shield of mercy and compassion and take the sword
of knowledge.
God is in every human body.
The caste beg between dawn and noon, wearing a long white or red
robe and a red turban folded from twisted strings of cloth like the
Marathas. Their status is somewhat low, but they are usually simple
and honest. Occasionally a man becomes a Gondhali in fulfilment of
a vow without leaving his own caste; he will then be initiated by a
member of the caste and given the necklace of cowries, and on every
Tuesday he will wear this and beg from five persons in honour of the
goddess Devi; while except for this observance he remains a member
of his own caste and pursues his ordinary business.
Gopal
Gopal, Borekar.--Bibliography: Major Gunthorpe's Criminal Tribes;
Mr. Kitt's Berar Census Report, 1881.
A small vagrant and criminal caste of Berar, where they numbered about
2000 persons in 1901. In the Central Provinces they were included
among the Nats in 1901, but in 1891 a total of 681 were returned. Here
they belong principally to the Nimar District, and Major Gunthorpe
considers that they entered Berar from Nimar and Indore.
They are divided into five classes, the Marathi, Vir, Pangul, Pahalwan,
or Kham, and Gujarati Gopals. The ostensible occupation of all the
groups is the buying and selling of buffaloes. The word Gopal means a
cowherd and is a name of Krishna. The Marathi Gopals rank higher than
the rest, and all other classes will take food from them, while the
Vir Gopals eat the flesh of dead cattle and are looked down upon by the
others. The ostensible occupation of the Vir Gopals is that of making
mats from the leaves of the date-palm tree. They build their huts of
date-leaves outside a village and remain there for one or two years
or more until the headman tells them to move on. The name Borekar is
stated to have the meaning of mat-maker. The Pangul Gopals also make
mats, but in addition to this they are mendicants, begging from off
trees, and must be the same as the Harbola mendicants of the Central
Provinces. The Pangul spreads a cloth below a tree and climbing it
sits on some high branch in the early morning. Here he sings and
chants the praises of charitable persons until somebody throws a
small present on to the cloth. This he does only between cock-crow
and sunrise and not after sunrise. Others walk through the streets,
ejaculating dam! [100] dam! and begging from door to door. With the
exception of shaving after a death they never cut the hair either of
their head or face. Their principal deity is Dawal Malik, but they also
worship Khandoba; and they bury the bodies of their dead. The corpse is
carried to the grave in a jholi or wallet and is buried in a sitting
posture. In order to discover whether a dead ancestor has been reborn
in a child they have recourse to magic. A lamp is suspended from a
thread, and the upper stone of the grinding-mill is placed standing
upon the lower one. If either of them moves when the name of the dead
ancestor is pronounced they consider that he has been reborn. One
section of the Panguls has taken to agriculture, and these refuse to
marry with the mendicants, though eating and drinking with them. The
Pahalwan Gopals live in small tents and travel about, carrying their
belongings on buffaloes. They are wrestlers and gymnasts, and belong
mainly to Hyderabad. [101] The Kham Gopals are a similar group also
belonging to Hyderabad; and are so named because they carry about a
long pole (kham) on which they perform acrobatic feats. They also have
thick canvas bags, striped blue and white, in which they carry their
property. The Gujarati Gopals are lower than the other divisions,
who will not take food from them. They are tumblers and do feats of
strength and also perform on the tight-rope. All five groups, Major
Gunthorpe states, are inveterate cattle-thieves; and have colonies of
their people settled on the Indore and Hyderabad borders and between
them along the foot of the Satpura Hills. Buffaloes or other animals
which they steal are passed along from post to post and taken to
foreign territory in an incredibly short space of time. A considerable
proportion of them, however, have now taken to agriculture, and their
proper traditional calling is to sell milk and butter, for which
they keep buffaloes. Gopal is a name of Krishna, and they consider
themselves to be descended from the herdsmen of Brindaban.
GOSAIN
List of Paragraphs
1. Names for the Gosains.
2. The ten orders.
3. Initiation.
4. Dress.
5. Methods of begging and greetings.
6. The Dandis.
7. The Rawanvansis.
8. Monasteries.
9. The fighting Gosains.
10. Burial.
11. Sexual indulgence.
12. Missionary work.
13. The Gosain caste.
1. Names for the Gosains.
Gosain, Gusain, Sanniasi, Dasnami. [102]--A name for the orders of
religious mendicants of the Sivite sect, from which a caste has
now developed. In 1911 the Gosains numbered a little over 40,000
persons in the Central Provinces and Berar, being distributed over
all Districts. The name Gosain signifies either gao-swami, master of
cows, or go-swami, master of the senses. Its significance sometimes
varies. Thus in Bengal the heads of Bairagi or Vaishnava monasteries
are called Gosain, and the priests of the Vishnuite Vallabhacharya
sect are known as Gokulastha Gosain. But over most of India, as in the
Central Provinces, Gosain appears to be a name applied to members of
the Sivite orders. Sanniasi means one who abandons the desires of the
world and the body. Properly every Brahman should become a Sanniasi
in the fourth stage or ashram of his life, when after marrying and
begetting a son to celebrate his funeral rites in the second stage,
he should retire to the forest, become a hermit and conquer all the
appetites and passions of the body in the third stage. Thereafter,
when the process of mortification is complete he should beg his bread
as a Sanniasi. But only those who enter the religious orders now become
Sanniasis, and the name is therefore confined to them. Dasnami means
the ten names, and refers to the ten orders in which the Gosains or
Sivite anchorites are commonly classified. Sadhu is a generic term for
a religious mendicant. The name Gosain is now more commonly applied
to the married members of the caste, who pursue ordinary avocations,
while the mendicants are known as Sadhu or Sanniasi.
2. The ten orders.
The Gosains consider their founder to have been Shankar Acharya,
the great apostle of the revival of the worship of Siva in southern
India, who lived between the eighth and tenth centuries. He had four
disciples from whom the ten orders of Gosains are derived. These are
commonly stated as follows:
1. Giri (peak or top of a hill).
2. Puri (a town).
3. Parbat (a mountain).
4. Sagar (the ocean).
5. Ban or Van (the forest).
6. Tirtha (a shrine of pilgrimage).
7. Bharthi (the goddess of speech).
8. Saraswati (the goddess of learning).
9. Aranya (forest).
10. Ashram (a hermitage).
The names may perhaps be held to refer to the different places in which
the members of each order would pursue their austerities. The different
orders have their headquarters at great shrines. The Saraswati,
Bharthi and Puri orders are supposed to be attached to the monastery at
Sringeri in Mysore; the Tirtha and Ashram to that at Dwarka in Gujarat;
the Ban and Aranya to the Govardhan monastery at Puri; and the Giri,
Parbat and Sagara to the shrine of Badrinath in the Himalayas.
Dandi is sometimes shown as one of the ten orders, but it seems to
be the special designation of certain ascetics who carry a staff
and may belong to either the Tirtha, Ashram, Bharthi or Saraswati
groups. Another name for Gosain ascetics is Abdhut, or one who
has separated himself from the world. The term Abdhut is sometimes
specially applied to followers of the Maratha saint, Dattatreya,
an incarnation of Siva.
The commonest orders in the Central Provinces are Giri, Puri and
Bharthi, and the members frequently use the name of the order as
their surname. Members of the Aranya, Sagara and Parbat orders are
rarely met with at present.
3. Initiation.
A notice of the Gosains who have become an ordinary caste will be given
later. Formerly only Brahmans or members of the twice-born castes
could become Gosains, but now a man of any caste, as Kurmi, Kunbi
or Mali, from whom a Brahman takes water, may be admitted. In some
localities it is said that Gonds and Kols can now be made Gosains,
and hence the social position of the Gosains has greatly fallen,
and high-caste Hindus will not take water from them. It is supposed,
however, that the Giri order is still recruited only from Brahmans.
At initiation the body of a neophyte is cleaned with the five products
of the sacred cow, milk, curds, ghi, dung and urine. He drinks water in
which the great toe of his guru has been dipped and eats the leavings
of the latter's food, thus severing himself from his own caste. His
sacred thread is taken off and broken, and it is sometimes burned and
he eats the ashes. All the hair of his head is shaved, including the
scalp-lock, which every secular Hindu wears. A mantra or text is then
whispered or blown into his ear.
4. Dress.
The novice is dressed in a cloth coloured with geru or red ochre,
such as the Gosains usually wear. It is probable that the red or
pink colour is meant to symbolise blood and to signify that the
Gosains allow the sacrifice of animals and the consumption of flesh,
and on this account they are called Lal Padri or red priest, while
Vishnuite mendicants, who dress in white, are called Sita Padri. He
has a necklace or rosary of the seeds of the rudraksha tree, [103]
sacred to Siva, consisting of 32 or 64 beads. These are like nuts
with a rough indented shell. On his forehead he marks with bhabhut
or ashes three horizontal lines to represent the trident of Siva,
or sometimes the eye of the god. Others make only two lines with a
dot above or below, and this sign is said to represent the phallic
emblem. A crescent moon or a triangle may also be made. [104] The
marks are often made in sandalwood, and the Gosains say that the
original sandalwood grows on a tree in the Himalayas, which is guarded
by a great snake so that nobody can approach it; but its scent is so
strong that all the surrounding trees of the grove are scented with
it and sandalwood is obtained from them. Those who worship Bhairon
make a round mark with vermilion between the eyes, taking it from
beneath the god's foot. A mendicant usually has a begging-bowl and
a pair of tongs, which are useful for kindling a fire. Those who
have visited Badrinath or one of the other Himalayan shrines have a
ring of iron, brass or copper on the arm, often inscribed with the
image of a deity. If they have been to the temple of Devi at Hinglaj
in the Lasbela State of Beluchistan they have a necklace of little
white stone beads called thumra; and one who has made a pilgrimage
to Rameshwaram at the extreme southern point of India has a ring
of conch-shell on the wrist. When he can obtain it a Gosain also
carries a tiger- or panther-skin, which he wears over his shoulders
and uses to sit and lie down on. Among the ancient Greeks it was the
custom to sleep in a temple or its avenue either on the bare ground
or on the skin of a sacred animal, in order to obtain visions or
appearances of the god in a dream or to be cured of diseases. [105]
Formerly the Gosains were accustomed to go about naked, and at the
religious festivals they would go in procession naked to bathe in the
river. At Amarnath in the Punjab they would throw themselves naked
on the block of ice which represented Siva. [106] The Naga Gosains,
so called because they were once accustomed to go naked into battle,
were a famous fighting corps. Though they shave the head and scalp-lock
on initiation the Gosains usually let the hair grow, and either have
it hanging down in matted locks over the shoulders, which gives them
a wild and unkempt appearance, or wind it on the top of the head into
a coil often thickened with strips of sheep's wool. They say that
they let the hair grow in imitation of the ancient forest ascetics,
who could not but let it grow as they had no means to shave it, and
also of the matted locks of the god Siva. Sometimes they let the
hair grow during the whole period of a pilgrimage, and on arrival
at the shrine of their destination shave it off and offer it to the
god. Those who are initiated on the banks of the Nerbudda throw the
hair cut from their head into the sacred river.
5. Methods of begging and greetings.
They have various rules about begging. Some will never turn back to
receive alms. They may also make a rule only to accept the surplus of
food cooked for the family, and to refuse any of special quality or
cooked expressly for them. One Gosain, noticed by Mr. A. K. Smith,
always begged hopping, and only from five houses; he took from them
respectively two handfuls of flour, a pinch of salt, and sufficient
quantities of vegetables, spices and butter for his meal, and then
went hopping home. Those who are performing the perikrama or circuit
of the Nerbudda from its source to its mouth and back, do not cut
their hair or nails during the whole period of about three years. They
may not enter the Nerbudda above their knees nor wash their vessels
in it. After crossing any tributary river or stream in their path
they may not re-cross this; and if they have forgotten or left any
article behind, must abandon it unless they can persuade somebody
to go back and fetch it for them. Some carry a gourd with a single
string stretched on a stick, on which they twang some notes; others
have a belt of sheep's hair hung with the bells of bullocks which they
tie round the waist, so that the tinkling of the bells may announce
their coming. A common begging cry is Alakh, which is said to mean
'apart,' and to refer to themselves as being apart or separated from
the world. The beggar gives this cry and stands at the door of the
house for half a minute, shaking his body about all the time. If no
alms are brought in this time he moves on.
When an ordinary Hindu meets a Gosain he says 'Namu Narayan' or
'I go to Narayan,' and the Gosain answers 'Narayan.' Narayan is a
name of Vishnu, and its use by the Gosains is curious. Those who
have performed the circuit of the Nerbudda say 'Har Nerbudda,' and
the person addressed answers 'Nerbudda Mai ki Jai' or 'Victory to
Mother Nerbudda.'
6. The Dandis.
The Dandis are a special group of ascetics belonging to several of the
ten orders. According to one account a novice who desires to become
a Sanniasi must serve a period of probation for twelve years as a
Dandi. Others say that only a Brahman can be a Dandi, while members
of other castes may become Sanniasis, and a Brahman can only become
one if he is without father, mother, wife or child. [107] The Dandi
is so called because he has a dand or bamboo staff like the ancient
Vedic students. He must always carry this and never lay it down,
but when sleeping plant it in the ground. Sometimes a piece of red
cloth is tied round the staff. The Dandi should live in the forest,
and only come once a day to beg at a Brahman's house for a part of
such food as the family may have cooked. He should not ask for food
if any one else, even a dog, is waiting for it. He must not accept
money, or touch fire or any metal. As a matter of fact these rules
are disregarded, and the Dandi frequents towns and is accompanied by
companions who will accept all kinds of alms on his behalf. [108]
Dandis and Sanniasis do not worship idols, as they are themselves
considered to have become part of the deity. They repeat the phrase
'Sevoham,' which signifies 'I am Siva.'
7. The Rawanvansis.
Another curious class of Gosains are the Rawanvansis, who go about
in the character of Rawan, the demon king of Ceylon, as he was when
he carried off Sita. The legend is that in order to do this, Rawan
first sent his brother in the shape of a golden deer before Rama's
palace. Sita saw it and said she must have the head of the deer, and
sent Rama to kill it. So Rama pursued it to the forest, and from there
Rawan cried out, imitating Rama's voice. Then Sita thought Rama was
being attacked and told his brother Lachman to go to his help. But
Lachman had been left in charge of her by Rama and refused to leave
her, till Sita said he was hoping Rama would be killed, so that he
might marry her. Then he drew a circle round her on the ground, and
telling her not to step outside it until his return, went off. Then
Rawan took the disguise of a beggar and came and begged for alms from
Sita. She told him to come inside the magic circle and she would give
him alms, but he refused. So finally Sita came outside the circle,
and Rawan at once seized her and carried her off to Ceylon. The
Rawanvansi Gosains wear rings of hair all up their arms and a rope
of hair round the waist, and the hair of their head hanging down. It
would appear that they are intended to represent some animal. They
smear vermilion on the forehead, and beg only at twilight and never at
any other time, whether they obtain food or not. In begging they will
never move backwards, so that when they have passed a house they cannot
take alms from it unless the householder brings the gift to them.
8. Monasteries.
Unmarried Sanniasis often reside in Maths or monasteries. The superior
is called Mahant, and he appoints his successor by will from the
members. The Mahant admits all those willing and qualified to enter
the order. If the applicant is young the consent of the parents is
usually obtained; and parents frequently vow to give a child to the
order. Many convents have considerable areas of land attached to them,
and also dependent institutions. The whole property of the convent and
its dependencies seems to be at the absolute disposal of the Mahant,
but he is bound to give food, raiment and lodging to the inmates,
and he entertains all travellers belonging to the order. [109]
9. The fighting Gosains.
In former times the Gosains often became soldiers and entered the
service of different military chiefs. The most famous of these fighting
priests were the Naga Gosains of the Jaipur State of Rajputana, who
are said to have been under an obligation from their guru or religious
chief to fight for the Raja of Jaipur whenever required. They received
rent-free lands and pay of two pice (1/2d.) a day, which latter was
put into a common treasury and expended on the purchase of arms and
ammunition whenever needed for war. They would also lend money, and if
a debtor could not pay would make him give his son to be enrolled in
the force. The 7000 Naga Gosains were placed in the vanguard of the
Jaipur army in battle. Their weapons were the bow, arrow, shield,
spear and discus. The Gosain proprietor of the Deopur estate in
Raipur formerly kept up a force of Naga Gosains, with which he used
to collect the tribute from the feudatory chiefs of Chhattisgarh on
behalf of the Raja of Nagpur. It is said that he once invaded Bastar
with this object, where most of the Gosains died of cholera. But after
they had fasted for three days, the goddess Danteshwari appeared to
them and promised them her protection. And they took the goddess away
with them and installed her in their own village in Raipur. Forbes
records that in Gujarat an English officer was in command of a troop
known as the Gosain's wife's troops. These Naga Gosains wore only a
single white garment, like a sleeveless shirt reaching to the knees,
and hence it is said that they were called naked. The Gosains and
Bairagis, or adherents of Siva and Vishnu, were often engaged in
religious quarrels on the merits of their respective deities, and
sometimes came to blows. A favourite point of rivalry was the right
of bathing first in the Ganges on the occasion of one of the great
religious fairs at Allahabad or Hardwar. The Gosains claim priority of
bathing, on the ground that the Ganges flows from the matted locks of
Siva; while the Bairagis assert that the source of the river is from
Vishnu's foot. In 1760 a pitched battle on this question ended in the
defeat of the Bairagis, of whom 1800 were slain. Again in 1796 the
Gosains engaged in battle with the Sikh pilgrims and were defeated
with the loss of 500 men. [110] During the reign of Akbar a combat
took place in the Emperor's presence between the two Sivite sects
of Gosains, or Sanniasis and Jogis, having been apparently arranged
for his edification, to decide which sect had the best ground for
its pretensions to supernatural power. The Jogis were completely
defeated. [111]
10. Burial.
A dead Sanniasi is always buried in the sitting attitude of religious
contemplation with the legs crossed. The grave may be dug with a side
receptacle for the corpse so that the earth, on being filled in, does
not fall on it. The corpse is bathed and rubbed with ashes and clad
in a new reddish-coloured shirt, with a rosary round the neck. The
begging-wallet with some flour and pulse are placed in the grave,
and also a gourd and staff. Salt is put round the body to preserve
it, and an earthen pot is put over the head. Sometimes cocoanuts are
broken on the skull, to crack it and give exit to the soul. Perhaps
the idea of burial and of preserving the corpse with salt is that
the body of an ascetic does not need to be purified by fire from the
appetites and passions of the flesh like that of an ordinary Hindu;
it is already cleansed of all earthly frailty by his austerities, and
the belief may therefore have originally been that such a man would
carry his body with him to the afterworld or to absorption with the
deity. The burial of a Sanniasi is often accompanied with music and
signs of rejoicing; Mr. Oman describes such a funeral in which the
corpse was seated in a litter, open on three sides so that it could be
seen; it was tied to the back of the litter, and garlands of flowers
partly covered the body, but could not conceal the hideousness of death
as the unconscious head rolled helplessly from side to side with the
movement of the litter. The procession was headed by a European brass
band and by men carrying censers of incense. [112]
11. Sexual indulgence.
Celibacy is the rule of the Gosain orders, and a man's property passes
in inheritance to a selected chela or disciple. But the practice of
keeping women is very common, even outside the large section of the
community which now recognises marriage. Women could be admitted
into the order, when they had to shave their heads, assume the
ochre-coloured shirt and rub their bodies with ashes. Afterwards,
with the permission of the guru and on payment of a fine, they could
let their hair grow again, at least temporarily. These women were
supposed to remain quite chaste and live in nunneries, but many of
them lived with men of the order. It is not known to what extent
women are admitted at present. The sons born of such unions would be
adopted as chelas or disciples by other Gosains, and made their heirs
by a reciprocal arrangement. Women who are convicted of some social
offence, or who wish to leave their husbands, often join the order
nominally and live with a Gosain or are married into the caste. Many
of the wandering mendicants lead an immoral life, and scandals about
their enticing away the wives of rich Hindus are not infrequent. [113]
During their visits to villages they also engage in intrigues, and
a ribald Gond song sung at the Holi festival describes the pleasure
of the village women at the arrival of a Gosain owing to the sexual
gratification which they expected to receive from him.
12. Missionary work.
Nevertheless the wandering Gosains have done much to foster and
maintain the Hindu religion among the people. They are the gurus or
spiritual preceptors of the middle and lower castes, and though their
teaching may be of little advantage, it perhaps quickens and maintains
to some extent the religious feelings of their clients. In former times
the Gosains travelled over the wildest tracts of country, proselytising
the primitive non-Aryan tribes, for whose conversion to Hinduism they
are largely responsible. On such journeys they necessarily carried
their lives in their hands, and not infrequently lost them.
13. The Gosain caste.
The majority of the Gosains are, however, now married and form an
ordinary caste. Buchanan states that the ten different orders became
exogamous groups, the members of which married with each other, but
it is doubtful whether this is the case at present. It is said that
all Giri Gosains marry, whether they are mendicants or not, while
the Bharthi order can marry or not as they please. They prohibit
any marriage between first cousins, but permit widow remarriage and
divorce. They eat the flesh of all clean animals and also of fowls,
and drink liquor, and will take cooked food from the higher castes,
including Sunars and Kunbis. Hence they do not rank high socially, and
Brahmans do not take water from them, but their religious character
gives them some prestige. Many Gosains have become landholders,
obtaining their estates either as charitable grants from clients
or through moneylending transactions. In this capacity they do not
usually turn out well, and are often considered harsh landlords and
grasping creditors.
Gowari
1. Origin of the caste.
Gowari. [114]--The herdsman or grazier caste of the Maratha country,
corresponding to the Ahirs or Gaolis. The name is derived from gai
or gao, the cow, and means a cowherd. The Gowaris numbered more
than 150,000 persons in 1911, of whom nearly 120,000 belonged to the
Nagpur division and nearly 30,000 to Berar. In localities where the
Gowaris predominate, Ahirs or Gaolis, the regular herdsman caste,
are found only in small numbers. The honorific title of the Gowaris
is Dhare, which is said to mean 'One who keeps cattle.' The Gowaris
rank distinctly below the Ahirs or Gaolis. The legend of their
origin is that an Ahir, who was tending the cows of Krishna, stood
in need of a helper. He found a small boy in the forest and took
him home and brought him up. He then gave to the boy the work of
grazing cows in the jungle, while he himself stayed at home and made
milk and butter. This boy was the ancestor of the Gowari caste. His
descendants took to eating fowls and peacocks and drinking liquor,
and hence were degraded below the Gaolis. But the latter will allow
Gowaris to sit at their feasts and eat, they will carry the corpse of
a Gowari to the grave, and they will act as members of the panchayat
in readmitting a Gowari who has been put out of caste. In the Maratha
country any man who touches the corpse of a man of another caste is
temporarily excommunicated, and the fact that a Gaoli will do this
for a Gowari demonstrates the close relationship of the castes. The
legend, in fact, indicates quite clearly and correctly the origin of
the Gowaris. The small boy in the forest was a Gond, and the Gowari
caste is of mixed descent from Ahirs and Gonds. The Ahirs or Gaolis
of the Maratha country have largely abandoned the work of grazing
cattle in the forest, and have taken to the more profitable business
of making milk and ghi. The herdsman's duties have been relegated to
the mixed class of Gowaris, produced from the unions of Ahirs and
Gonds in the forests, and not improbably including a considerable
section of pure Gond blood. At present only Gaolis and no other caste
are admitted into the Gowari community, though there is evidence that
the rule was not formerly so strict.
2. Subcastes.
The Gowaris have three divisions, the Gai Gowari, Inga, and Maria or
Gond Gowari. The Gai or cow Gowaris are the highest and probably have
more Gaoli blood in them. The Inga and Maria or Gond Gowaris are more
directly derived from the Gonds. Maria is the name given to a large
section of the Gond tribe in Chanda. Both the other two subcastes
will take cooked food from the Gai Gowaris and the Gond Gowaris
from the Inga, but the Inga subcaste will not take it from the Gond,
nor the Gai Gowaris from either of the other two. The Gond Gowaris
have been treated as a distinct caste and a separate article is given
on them, but at the census Mr. Marten has amalgamated them with the
Gowaris. This is probably more correct, as they are locally held to
be a branch of the caste. But their customs differ in some points
from those of the other Gowaris. They will admit outsiders from any
respectable caste and worship the Gond gods, [115] and there seems
no harm, therefore, in allowing the separate article on them to remain.
3. Totemism and exogamy.
The Gowaris have exogamous sections of the titular and totemistic
types, such as Chachania from chachan, a bird, Lohar from loha iron,
Ambadare a mango-branch, Kohria from the Kohri or Kohli caste, Sarwaina
a Gond sept, and Rawat the name of the Ahir caste in Chhattisgarh. Some
septs do not permit intermarriage between their members, saying that
they are Dudh-Bhais or foster-brothers, born from the same mother. Thus
the Chachania, Kohria, Senwaria, Sendua (vermilion) and Wagare (tiger)
septs cannot intermarry. They say that their fathers were different,
but their mothers were related or one and the same. This is apparently
a relic of polyandry, and it is possible that in some cases the Gonds
may have allowed Ahirs sojourning in the forest to have access to
their wives during the period of their stay. If this was permitted
to Ahirs of different sections coming to the same Gond village in
successive years, the offspring might be the ancestors of sections
who consider themselves to be related to each other in the manner of
the Gowari sections.
Marriage is prohibited within the same section or kur, and between
sections related to each other as Dudh-Bhais in the manner explained
above. A man can marry his daughter to his sister's son, but cannot
take her daughter for his son. The children of two sisters cannot
be married.
4. Marriage customs.
Girls are usually married after attaining maturity, and a bride-price
is paid which is normally two khandis (800 lbs.) of grain, Rs. 16 to
20 in cash, and a piece of cloth. The auspicious date of the wedding
is calculated by a Mahar Mohturia or soothsayer. Brahmans are not
employed, the ceremony being performed by the bhanya or sister's son of
either the girl's father or the boy's father. If he is not available,
any one whom either the girl's father or the boy's father addresses
as bhanja or nephew in the village, according to the common custom of
addressing each other by terms of relationship, even though he may be
no relative and belong to another caste, may be substituted; and if
no such person is available a son-in-law of either of the parties. The
peculiar importance thus attached to the sister's son as a relation is
probably a relic of the matriarchate, when a man's sister's son was
his heir. The substitution of a son-in-law who might inherit in the
absence of a sister's son perhaps strengthens this view. The wedding
is held mainly according to the Maratha ritual. [116] The procession
goes to the girl's house, and the bridegroom is wrapped in a blanket
and carries a spear, in the absence of which the wedding cannot be
held. A spear is also essential among the Gonds. The ancestors of the
caste are invited to the wedding by beating a drum and calling on
them to attend. The original ancestors are said to be Kode Kodwan,
the names of two Gond gods, Baghoba (the tiger-god), and Meghnath,
son of Rawan, the demon king of Ceylon, after whom the Gonds are
called Rawanvansi, or descendants of Rawan. The wedding costs about
Rs. 50, all of which is spent by the boy's father. The girl's father
only gives a feast to the caste out of the amount which he receives
as bride-price. Divorce and the remarriage of widows are permitted.
5. Funeral rites.
The dead are either buried or burnt, burial being more common. The
corpse is laid with head to the south and feet to the north. On
returning from the funeral they go and drink at the liquor-shop, and
then kill a cock on the spot where the deceased died, and offer some
meat to his spirit, placing it outside the house. The caste-fellows
sit and wait until a crow comes and pecks at the food, when they think
that the deceased has enjoyed it, and begin to eat themselves. If no
crow comes before night the food may be given to a cow, and the party
can then begin to eat. When the next wedding is held in the family,
the deceased is brought down from the skies and enshrined among the
deified ancestors.
6. Religion.
The principal deities of the Gowaris are the Kode Kodwan or deified
ancestors. They are worshipped at the annual festivals, and also at
weddings. When a man or woman dies without children their spirits
are known as Dhal, and are worshipped in the families to which
they belonged. A male Dhal is represented by a stick of bamboo with
one cross-piece at the top, and a female Dhal by a stick with two
others crossing each other lashed to it at the top. These sticks are
worshipped at the Diwali festival, and carried in procession. Dudhera
is a godling worshipped for the protection of cattle. He is represented
by a clay horse placed near a white ant-hill. If a cow stops giving
milk her udder is smoked with the burning wood of a tree called sanwal,
and this is supposed to drive away the spirits who drink the milk
from the udder. All Gowaris revere the haryal, or green pigeon. They
say that it gives a sound like a Gowari calling his cows, and that
it is a kinsman. They would on no account kill this bird. They say
that the cows will go to a tree from which green pigeons are cooing,
and that on one occasion when a thief was driving away their cows a
green pigeon cooed from a tree, and the cows turned round and came
back again. This is like the story of the sacred geese at Rome,
who gave warning of the attack of the Goths.
7. Caste rules and the panchayat.
The head of the caste committee is known as Shendia, from shendi, a
scalp-lock or pig-tail, perhaps because he is at the top of the caste
as the scalp-lock is at the top of the head. The Shendia is elected,
and holds office for life. He has to readmit offenders into caste by
being the first to eat and drink with them, thus taking their sins on
himself. On such occasions it is necessary to have a little opium,
which is mixed with sugar and water, and distributed to all members
of the caste. If the quantity is insufficient for every one to drink,
the man responsible for preparing it is fined, and this mixture,
especially the opium, is indispensable on all such occasions. The
custom indicates that a sacred or sacrificial character is attributed
to the opium, as the drinking of the mixture together is the sign of
the readmission of a temporary outcaste into the community. After this
has been drunk he becomes a member of the caste, even though he may
not give the penalty feast for some time afterwards. The Ahirs and
Sunars of the Maratha country have the same rite of purification by
the common drinking of opium and water. A caste penalty is incurred
for the removal of bital or impurity arising from the usual offences,
and among others for touching the corpse of a man of any other caste,
or of a buffalo, horse, cow, cat or dog, for using abusive language
to a casteman at any meeting or feast, and for getting up from a
caste feast without permission from the headman. For touching the
corpse of a prohibited animal and for going to jail a man has to get
his head, beard and whiskers shaved. If a woman becomes with child
by a man of another caste, she is temporarily expelled, but can be
readmitted after the child has been born and she has disposed of it to
somebody else. Such children are often made over for a few rupees to
Muhammadans, who bring them up as menial servants in their families,
or, if they have no child of their own, sometimes adopt them. On
readmission a lock of the woman's hair is cut off. In the same case,
if no child is born of the liaison, the woman is taken back with the
simple penalty of a feast. Permanent expulsion is imposed for taking
food from, or having an intrigue with a member of an impure caste as
Madgi, Mehtar, Pardhan, Mahar and Mang.
8. Social customs.
The Gowaris eat pork, fowls, rats, lizards and peacocks, and
abstain only from beef and the flesh of monkeys, crocodiles and
jackals. They will take food from a Mana, Marar or Kohli, and water
from a Gond. Kunbis will take water from them, and Gonds, Dhimars
and Dhobis will accept cooked food. All Gowari men are tattooed
with a straight vertical line on the forehead, and many of them have
the figures of a peacock, deer or horse on the right shoulder or on
both shoulders. A man without the mark on the forehead will scarcely
be admitted to be a true Gowari, and would have to prove his birth
before he was allowed to join a caste feast. Women are tattooed with
a pattern of straight and crooked lines on the right arm below the
elbow, which they call Sita's arm. They have a vertical line standing
on a horizontal one on the forehead, and dots on the temples.
GUJAR
List of Paragraphs
1. Historical notice of the caste.
2. The Gujars and the Khazars.
3. Predatory character of the Gujars in Northern India.
4. Subdivisions.
5. Marriage.
6. Disposal of the dead.
7. Religion.
8. Character.
1. Historical notice of the caste.
Gujar.--A great historical caste who have given their name to the
Gujarat District and the town of Gujaranwala in the Punjab, the
peninsula of Gujarat or Kathiawar and the tract known as Gujargarh in
Gwalior. In the Central Provinces the Gujars numbered 56,000 persons
in 1911, of whom the great majority belonged to the Hoshangabad and
Nimar Districts. In these Provinces the caste is thus practically
confined to the Nerbudda Valley, and they appear to have come here
from Gwalior probably in the middle of the sixteenth century, to
which period the first important influx of Hindus into this area
has been ascribed. But some of the Nimar Gujars are immigrants from
Gujarat. Owing to their distinctive appearance and character and their
exploits as cattle-raiders, the origin of the Gujars has been the
subject of much discussion. General Cunningham identified them with
the Yueh-chi or Tochari, the tribe of Indo-Scythians who invaded India
in the first century of the Christian era. The king Kadphises I. and
his successors belonged to the Kushan section of the Yueh-chi tribe,
and their rule extended over north-western India down to Gujarat in the
period 45-225 A.D. Mr. V. A. Smith, however, discards this theory and
considers the Gujars or Gurjaras to have been a branch of the white
Huns who invaded India in the fifth and sixth centuries. He writes:
[117] "The earliest foreign immigration within the limits of the
historical period which can be verified is that of the Sakas in the
second century B.C.; and the next is that of the Yueh-chi and Kushans
in the first century A.D. Probably none of the existing Rajput clans
can carry back their genuine pedigrees so far. The third recorded
great irruption of foreign barbarians occurred during the fifth
century and the early part of the sixth. There are indications that
the immigration from Central Asia continued during the third century,
but, if it did, no distinct record of the event has been preserved,
and, so far as positive knowledge goes, only three certain irruptions
of foreigners on a large scale through the northern and north-western
passes can be proved to have taken place within the historical period
anterior to the Muhammadan invasions of the tenth and eleventh
centuries. The first and second, as above observed, were those of
the Sakas and Yueh-chi respectively, and the third was that of the
Hunas or white Huns. It seems to be clearly established that the Hun
group of tribes or hordes made their principal permanent settlements
in the Punjab and Rajputana. The most important element in the group
after the Huns themselves was that of the Gurjaras, whose name still
survives in the spoken form Gujar as the designation of a widely
diffused middle-class caste in north-western India. The prominent
position occupied by Gurjara kingdoms in early mediaeval times is a
recent discovery. The existence of a small Gurjara principality in
Bharoch (Broach), and of a larger state in Rajputana, has been known
to archaeologists for many years, but the recognition of the fact
that Bhoja and the other kings of the powerful Kanauj dynasty in the
ninth, tenth and eleventh centuries were Gurjaras is of very recent
date and is not yet general. Certain misreadings of epigraphic dates
obscured the true history of that dynasty, and the correct readings
have been established only within the last two or three years. It is
now definitely proved that Bhoja (circ. A.D. 840-890), his predecessors
and successors belonged to the Pratihara (Parihar) clan of the Gurjara
tribe or caste, and, consequently, that the well-known clan of Parihar
Rajputs is a branch of the Gurjara or Gujar stock." [118]
2. The Gujars and the Khazars.
Sir J. Campbell identified the Gujars with the Khazar tribe of Central
Asia: [119] "What is known of the early history of the Gujaras in
India points to their arrival during the last quarter of the fifth
or the first quarter of the sixth century (A.D. 470-520). That is
the Gujaras seem to have formed part of the great horde of which the
Juan-Juan or Avars, and the Ephthalites, Yetas or White Hunas were
leading elements. The question remains: How far does the arrival of
the Gujara in India, during the early sixth century, agree with what is
known of the history of the Khazar? The name Khazar appears under the
following forms: Among Chinese as Kosa, among Russians as Khwalisses,
among Byzantines as Chozars or Chazars, among Armenians as Khazirs and
among Arabs as Khozar. Other variations come closer to Gujara. These
are Gazar, the form Kazar takes to the north of the sea of Asof;
Ghysar, the name for Khazars who have become Jews; and Ghusar, the
form of Khazar in use among the Lesghians of the Caucasus. Howarth
and the writer in the Encyclopædia Britannica follow Klaproth in
holding that the Khazars are the same as the White Hunas....
"Admitting that the Khazar and White Huna are one, it must also be
the case that the Khazars included two distinct elements, a fair or
Ak-Khazar, the Akatziroi or Khazaroi of Byzantine historians, and a
dark or Kara Khazar. The Kara Khazar was short, ugly and as black
as an Indian. He was the Ughrian nomad of the steppes, who formed
the rank and file of the army. The White Khazar or White Huna was
fair-skinned, black-haired and beautiful, their women (in the ninth
and tenth centuries) being sought after in the bazars of Baghdad and
Byzantium. According to Klaproth, a view adopted by the writer in
the Encyclopædia Britannica, the White Khazar represented the white
race which, since before Christ has been settled round the Caspian. As
White Hunas, Ephthalites, [120] White Ughrians and White Bulgars, this
white race were the carriers between Europe and East Asia; they were
also the bearers of the brunt of the Tartar inroads. A trace both of
the beautiful and coarse clans seems to survive in the complimentary
Marwar proverb, 'Handsome as a Huna,' and in the abusive Gujarat
proverb, 'Yellow and short as a Huna's beard.' Under its Hindu form
Gurjara, Khazar appears to have become the name by which the great
bulk of the sixth-century horde was known." Sir J. Campbell was of
opinion that the Sesodia or Gahlot Rajputs, the most illustrious of
all the clans, were of Gujar stock, as well as the Parihar, Chauhan,
and Chalukya or Solanki; these last were three of the Agnikula clans
or those created from the firepit, [121] and a Solanki dynasty ruled
in Gujarat. He also considered the Nagar Brahmans of Gujarat to be
derived from the Gujars and considerable sections of the Ahir and
Kunbi castes. The Badgujar (great Gujar) clan of Rajputs is no doubt
also an aristocratic branch of the caste. In Ajmere it is said that
though all Gujars are not Rajputs, no Rajput becomes a hero unless
he is suckled by a Gujar woman. Gujarika dudh, nahari ka dudh; or
'Gujar's milk is tiger's milk.' A Rajput who has not been suckled by
a Gujar woman is a gidar or jackal. [122]
3. Predatory character of the Gujars in northern India.
The fact of the White Huns being tall and of fine features, in contrast
to the horde which invaded Europe under Attila, accounts for these
characteristics being found among the highest Rajput clans, who,
as has been seen, are probably derived from them. The Gujar caste
generally is now, however, no doubt of mixed and impure blood. They
were distinguished in the past as vagrant and predatory marauders,
and must have assimilated various foreign elements. Mr. Crooke
writes of them: [123] "The Gujars as a tribe have always been
noted for their turbulence and habit of cattle-stealing. Babar in
his Memoirs describes how the commander of the rearguard captured
a few Gujar ruffians who followed the camp, decapitated them and
sent their heads to the Emperor. The Gujars of Pali and Pahal
became exceedingly audacious while Sher Shah was fortifying Delhi,
and he marched to the hills and expelled them so that not a vestige
of their habitations was left. Jahangir remarks that the Gujars live
chiefly on milk and curds and seldom cultivate land; and Babar says:
'Every time I entered Hindustan the Jats and Gujars have regularly
poured down in prodigious numbers from the hills and wilds to carry
off oxen and buffaloes. These were the wretches that really inflicted
the chief hardships and were guilty of the chief oppression in the
country.' They maintained their old reputation in the Mutiny when they
perpetrated numerous outrages and seriously impeded the operations
of the British Army before Delhi." In northern India the Gujars are
a pastoral caste. The saying about them is--
Ahir, Gadaria, Gujar,
E tinon tâken ujar,
or, 'The Ahir, Gadaria and Gujar want waste land'; that is for grazing
their flocks. In Kangra the Gujars generally keep buffaloes. Here
they are described as "A fine, manly race with peculiar and handsome
features. They are mild and inoffensive in manner, and in these hills
are not distinguished by the bad pre-eminence which attaches to their
race in the plains." [124] Sir D. Ibbetson had a very unfavourable
opinion of the Gujars of the plains, of whom he wrote as follows:
[125] "The Gujar is a fine stalwart fellow, of precisely the same
physical type as the Jat; and the theory of aboriginal descent which
has been propounded is to my mind conclusively negatived by his
cast of countenance. He is of the same social standing as the Jat,
or perhaps slightly inferior; but the two eat and drink in common
without any scruple, and the proverb says: 'The Jat, Gujar, Ahir and
Gola are all hail fellow well met.' But he is far inferior in both
personal character and repute to the Jat. He is lazy to a degree, and
a wretched cultivator; his women, though not secluded, will not do
field-work save of the lightest kind; while his fondness for cattle
extends to those of other people. The difference between a Gujar
and a Rajput cattle-thief was once explained to me thus by a Jat:
'The Rajput will steal your buffalo. But he will not send his old
father to say he knows where it is and will get it back for Rs. 20,
and then keep the Rs. 20 and the buffalo too. The Gujar will.'"
4. Subdivisions.
The Gujars of the Central Provinces have, however, entirely given up
the predatory habits of their brethren in northern India and have
developed into excellent cultivators and respectable law-abiding
citizens. In Hoshangabad they have three subcastes, Lekha, Mundle
and Jadam. The Mundle or 'Shaven' are so called because they take
off their turbans when they eat and expose their crowns bare of hair,
while the Lekha eat with their turbans on. The Mundle are also known as
Rewe, from the Rewa or Nerbudda, near which they reside. The Jadam are
probably an offshoot from the cultivating caste of Hoshangabad of that
name, Jadam being a corruption of Jadubansi, a tribe of Rajputs. The
Badgujars, who belong to Nimar, consider themselves the highest,
deriving their name from bara or 'great' Gujar. As already seen,
there is a Badgujar clan of Rajputs. The Nimar Badgujars, however,
were formerly engaged in the somewhat humble calling of clearing
cotton of its seeds, and on this account they are also known as
Ludhare, the word lodhna meaning to work the hand-ginning machine
(charkhi). It seems possible that the small caste of Lorhas of the
Hoshangabad District, whose special avocation is to grow san-hemp,
may be derived from these Ludhare Gujars. The Kekre or Kanwe subcaste
are the lowest and are of illegitimate descent. They are known as Kekre
or 'Crabs,' but prefer their other name. They will take food from the
other subcastes, but these do not return the compliment. Another group
in the Sohagpur Tahsil of Hoshangabad are the Lilorhia Gujars. They
say that their ancestors were grazing calves when some of them with
their herdsmen were stolen by Brahma. Then Krishna created fresh
cowherds and the Lilorhias were made from the sweat of his forehead
(lilat). Afterwards Brahma restored the original cowherds, who were
known as Murelia, because they were the first players on the murli
or flute. [126] The Badgujars or highest branch of the clan are
descendants of these Murelias. The caste have also a set of exogamous
groups, several of which bear the names of Rajput clans, while others
are called after villages, titles or nicknames or natural objects. A
man is not permitted to marry any one belonging either to his own
sept or that of his mother or grandmother.
5. Marriage.
At a Gujar wedding four plough-yokes are laid out to form a square
under the marriage booth, with a copper pot full of water in the
centre. At the auspicious moment the bride's hand is placed on that
of the bridegroom, and the two walk seven times round the pot, the
bridegroom leading for the first four rounds and the bride for the
last three. Widows are allowed to remarry, and, as girls are rather
scarce in the caste, a large price is often paid for the widow to
her father or guardian, though this is not willingly admitted. As
much as Rs. 3000 is recorded to have been paid. A widow marriage is
known as Natra or Pat. A woman is forbidden to marry any relative of
her first husband. When the marriage of a widow is to take place a
fee of Rs. 1-4 must be paid to the village proprietor to obtain his
consent. The Gujars of the Bulandshahr District of the United Provinces
furnish, Mr. Crooke says, [127] perhaps the only well-established
instance of polyandry among the Hindus of the plains. Owing to the
scarcity of women in the caste it was customary for the wife of one
brother, usually the eldest, to be occasionally at the disposal of
other unmarried brothers living in the house. The custom arose owing
to the lack of women caused by the prevalence of female infanticide,
and now that this has been stopped it is rapidly dying out, while no
trace of it is believed to exist in the Central Provinces.
6. Disposal of the dead.
The bodies of unmarried persons are buried, and also of those who die
of any epidemic disease. Others are cremated. The funeral of an elderly
man of good means and family is an occasion for great display. A large
feast is given and the Brahman priests of the caste go about inviting
all the Gujars to attend. Sometimes the number of guests rises to three
or four thousand. At the conclusion of the feast one of the hosts claps
his hands and all the guests then get up and immediately depart without
ceremony or saying farewell. Such an occasion is known as Gujarwada,
and the Gujars often spend as much, or more, on a funeral as on a
wedding, in the belief that the outlay is of direct benefit to the
dead man's spirit. This idea is inculcated and diligently fostered
by the family priests and those Brahmans who receive gifts for the
use of the dead, the greed of these cormorants being insatiable.
7. Religion.
The household goddess of the caste is known as Kul Devi, the word
kul meaning family. To her a platform is erected inside the house,
and she must be worshipped by the members of the family alone,
no stranger being present. Offerings of cocoanuts, rice, turmeric
and flowers are made to her, but no animal sacrifices. When a son
of the family dies unmarried, an image of him, known as Mujia, is
made on a piece of silver, copper or brass, and is worshipped on
Mondays and Fridays during the month of Magh (January). On one of
these days also a feast is given to the caste. Each member of the
caste has a guru or spiritual preceptor, who visits him every second
or third year and receives a small present of a cocoanut or a piece
of cloth. But he does not seem to perform any duties. The guru may
belong to any of the religious mendicant castes. A man who is without
a guru is known as Nugra and is looked down on. To meet him in the
morning is considered unlucky and portends misfortune. Sir C. Elliot
[128] characterised the Mundle Gujars as "A very religious race; they
never plough on the new moon nor on the 8th of the month, because it
is Krishna's birthday. Their religious and social head is the Mahant
of the Ramjidas temple at Hoshangabad." In Nimar many of the Gujars
belong to the Pirzada sect, which is a kind of reformed creed, based
on a mixture of Hinduism and Islam.
8. Character.
The Gujars wear the dress of northern India and their women usually
have skirts (lahenga) and not saris or body-cloths. Married women
have a number of strings of black beads round the neck and widows
must change these for red ones. As a rule neither men nor women are
tattooed. The men sometimes have their hair long and wear beards
and whiskers. The Gujars are now considered the best cultivators of
the Nimar District. They are fond of irrigation and sink unfaced
wells to water their land and get a second crop off it. They are
generally prosperous and make good landlords. Members of the caste
have the custom of lending and borrowing among themselves and not
from outsiders, and this no doubt conduces to mutual economy and
solvency. Like keen cultivators elsewhere, such as the Panwars
and Kurmis, the Gujar sets store by having a good house and good
cattle. The return from a Mundle Gujar's wedding, Captain Forsyth
wrote, [129] is a sight to be seen. Every Gujar from far and near has
come with his whole family in his best bullock-cart gaily ornamented,
and, whatever the road may be, nothing but a smash will prevent a
breakneck race homewards at full gallop, cattle which have won in
several such races acquiring a much coveted reputation throughout
the District.
GURAO
List of Paragraphs
1. Origin of the caste.
2. Internal structure.
3. Marriage and ceremonies of adolescence.
4. Birth customs.
5. The sacred thread.
6. Funeral customs.
7. Social position.
8. The Jain Guraos.
1. Origin of the caste.
Gurao. [130]--A caste of village priests of the temples of Mahadeo
in the Maratha Districts. They numbered about 14,000 persons in the
Central Provinces and Berar in 1911. The Guraos say that they were
formerly Brahmans and worshippers of Siva, but for some negligence
or mistake in his ritual they were cursed by the god and degraded
from the status of Brahmans, though subsequently the god relented
and permitted them to worship him and take the offerings made to him.
It is related that a certain Brahman, who was a votary of Siva, had to
go on a journey. He left his son behind and strictly enjoined on him
to perform the worship of the god at midday. The son had bathed and
purified himself for this purpose, when shortly before midday his wife
came to him and so importuned him to have conjugal intercourse with her
that he was obliged to comply. It was then midday and in his impure
condition the son went to the shrine of the god to worship him. But
Siva cursed him and said that his descendants should be degraded from
the status of Brahmans, though he afterwards relented so far as to
permit of their continuing to act as his priests; and this was the
origin of the Guraos. It seems doubtful, however, whether the caste
are really of Brahman origin. They were formerly village priests,
and Grant-Duff gives the Gurao as one of the village menials in the
Maratha villages. They have the privilege of taking the Naivedya
or offerings of cooked food made to the god Mahadeo, which Brahmans
will not accept. They also sell leaf-plates and flowers and bel leaves
[131] which are offered at the temples of Mahadeo; and on the festival
of Shivratri and during the month of Shrawan (July) they take round
the bel leaves which the cultivators require for their offerings and
receive presents in return. In Wardha the Guraos get small gifts of
grain from the cultivators at seed-time and harvest. They also act as
village musicians and blow the conch-shell, beat the drum and play
other musical instruments for the morning and evening worship at
the temple. They play on the cymbals and drums at the marriages of
Brahmans and other high castes. In the Bombay Presidency [132] some
are astrologers and fortune-tellers, and others make the basing or
coronet of flowers which the bridegroom wears. Sometimes they play on
the drum or fiddle for their spiritual followers, the dancing-girls
or Kalavants. When a dancing-girl became pregnant she worshipped
the Gurao, and he, in return, placed the missi or tooth-powder made
from myrobalans on her teeth. If this was not done before her child
was born, a Kalavantin was put out of caste. In some localities
the Guraos will take food from Kunbis. And further, as will be seen
subsequently, the caste have no proper gotras or exogamous sections,
but in arranging their marriages they simply avoid persons having
a common surname. All these considerations point to the fact that
the caste is not of Brahmanical origin but belongs to a lower class
of the population. Nevertheless in Wardha they are known as Shaiva
Brahmans and rank above the Kunbis. They may study the Sama Veda only
and not the others, and may repeat the Rudra Gayatri or sacred verse
of Siva. Clearly the Brahmans could not accept the offerings of cooked
food made at Siva's shrine; though the larger temples of this deity
have Brahman priests. It seems uncertain whether Siva or Mahadeo was
first a village deity and was subsequently exalted to the position of
a member of the supreme Hindu Trinity, or whether the opposite process
took place and the Guraos obtained their priestly functions on his
worship being popularised. But in any case it would appear that they
were originally a class of village priests regarded as the servants
of the cultivating community, by whose gifts and offerings they were
maintained. Grant-Duff in enumerating the village servants says:
"Ninth, the Gurao, who is a Sudra employed to wash the ornaments and
attend the idol in the village temples, and on occasions of feasting
to prepare the patraoli or leaves which the Hindus substitute for
plates. They are also trumpeters by profession and in this capacity
are much employed in Maratha armies." [133]
2. Internal structure.
The caste has several subdivisions which are principally of a
territorial nature, as Warade from Berar; Jhade, inhabitants of the
forest or rice country; Telanga, of the Telugu country; Dakshne, from
the Deccan; Marwari, from Marwar, and so on. Other subcastes are the
Ahir and Jain Guraos, of whom the former are apparently Ahirs who
have adopted the priestly profession, while the Jain Guraos are held
in Bombay to be the descendants of Jain temple servants who entered
the caste when their own deities were thrown out and their shrines
annexed by the votaries of Siva. [134] In Bombay, Mr. Enthoven states
"That the Koli and Maratha ministrants at the temples of Siva and
other deities often describe themselves as Guraos, but they have
not formed themselves into separate castes and are members of the
general Koli or Maratha community. They cease to call themselves
Guraos when they cease to minister at temples." [135] In the Central
Provinces one of the subcastes is known as Vajantri because they act
as village musicians. The caste have no regular exogamous sections,
but a number of surnames which answer the same purpose. These are of
a professional type, as Lokhandes, an iron-dealer; Phulzares, a maker
of fireworks; Sontake, a gold-merchant; Gaikwad, a cowherd; Nakade,
long-nosed, and so on. They say they all belong to the same gotra,
Sankhiayan, named after Sankhiaya Rishi, the ancestor of the caste.
3. Marriage and ceremonies of adolescence.
Marriage is avoided between persons having the same surname and
those within six degrees of descent from a common ancestor whether
male or female. The marriage ceremony generally resembles that of
the Brahmans. Before the wedding the bridegroom's father prepares an
image of Siva from rice and til-seed, [136] covers it with a cloth and
sends it to the bride's house. In return her mother prepares and sends
back a similar image of Gauri, Siva's consort. Girls are married as
infants, and when a woman arrives at adolescence the following ritual
is observed: She goes to her husband's house and is there secluded for
three or four days while her impurity lasts. On its termination she is
bathed and clothed in a green dress and yellow choli or breast-cloth,
and seated in a gaily decked wooden frame. Her lap is filled with wheat
and a cocoanut, and her female friends and relatives and father and
father-in-law give her presents of sweets and clothes. This is known
as the Shantik ceremony and is practised by the higher castes in the
Maratha country. It may continue for as long as sixteen days. Finally,
on an auspicious day the bride and bridegroom are given delicate food
and dressed in new clothes. The fire sacrifice is offered and they
are taken into a room where a bed, the gift of the bride's parents,
has been prepared for them, and left to consummate the marriage. This
is known as Garbhadhan. Next day the bride's parents give new clothes
and a feast to the bridegroom's family; this feast is known as Godai,
and after giving it the bride's parents may eat at their daughter's
house. A girl seduced by a man of the caste may be properly married
to him after her parents have performed Prayaschit or atonement. But
if she has a child out of wedlock, he is relegated to the Vidur or
illegitimate group. Even if a girl be seduced by a stranger, provided
he be of higher or equal caste, as the Kunbis and Marathas, she may
be taken back into the community.
4. Birth customs.
If a child is born at an unlucky season, they take two winnowing-fans
and tie the baby between them with a thread wound many times round
about. A cow is brought and made to lick the child, which is thus
supposed to have been born again from it as a calf, the evil omen of
the first birth being removed. The father performs the fire sacrifice,
and a human figure is made from cooked rice and worshipped. A
burning wick is placed in its stomach and it is taken out and left
at cross-roads, this being probably a substitute for the member of
the family whose death was presaged by the untimely birth of the
child. Similarly if any one dies at the astronomical period known as
Panchak, they make five figures of wheat-flour and burn or bury them
with the body, as it is thought that otherwise five members of the
family would die.
5. The sacred thread.
Boys are invested with the sacred thread at the age of five, seven or
nine years, and until that time they are considered to be Sudras and
not members of the caste. From a hundred to three hundred rupees may
be spent on the investiture. On the day before the ceremony a Brahman
and his wife are invited to take food, and a yellow thread with a
mango leaf is tied round the boy's wrist. The spirits of other boys
who died before their thread ceremony was performed and of women of
the family who died before their husbands are invited to attend. These
are represented by young boys and married women of other families who
come to the house and are bathed and anointed with turmeric and oil,
and given presents of sugar and new clothes. Next day the initiate
is seated on a platform in a shed erected for the purpose and puts on
the sacred thread made of cotton and also a strip of the skin of the
black-buck with a silk apron and cap. The boy's father takes him on
his lap and whispers or, as the Hindus say, blows the Gayatri mantra
or sacred text into his ear. A sacrifice is performed, and the friends
and fellow-castemen of the family make presents to the boy of copper
and silver coin. The amount thus given is not used by the parents,
but is spent on the boy's education or on the purchase of an ornament
for him. On the conclusion of the ceremony the boy mounts a wooden
model of a horse and pretends to set out for Benares. His paternal
uncle then says to him, 'Why are you going away?' And the boy replies,
'Because you have not married me.' His uncle then promises to find
a bride for him and he gives up his project. The part played by the
maternal uncle in this ceremony is probably a survival of the period
of the matriarchate, when a man's property descended to his sister's
son. He would thus naturally claim the boy as a husband for his own
daughter, and such a marriage apparently became customary and in
course of time acquired binding force. And although all recollection
of the rule of inheritance through women has long been forgotten,
the marriage of a brother's daughter to a sister's son is still
considered peculiarly suitable, and the idea that it is the duty
of the maternal uncle to find a bride for his nephew appears to be
simply a development of this. The above account also gives reason for
supposing that the investiture with the sacred thread was originally
a ceremony of puberty.
6. Funeral customs.
The dead are burnt and the ashes thrown into water or carried to the
Ganges. A small piece of gold, two or three small pearls, and some
basil leaves are put into the mouth, and flowers, red powder and
betel leaves are spread over the corpse. The son or male heir of the
deceased walks in front carrying fire in an earthen pot. At a small
distance from the burning-ground, when the bearers change places,
he picks up a stone, known as the life-stone or jivkhada. This is
afterwards buried at the burning-ghat until the priest comes to effect
the purification of the mourners on the tenth day. It is then dug up,
set up and worshipped, and thrown into a well. A man is burnt naked;
a woman in a robe and bodice. The heads of widows are not shaved
as a rule, but on the tenth day after her husband's death a widow
is asked whether she would like her head shaved; if she refuses,
the people conclude that she intends to marry again. But if the
deceased left no male heir to carry behind his bier the burning wood
with which the funeral pyre is to be kindled, then the widow must be
shaved before the funeral starts and perform this duty. If there is
no male relative and no widow, the pot containing fire is tied to the
bier. When the corpse of a woman who has died in child-bed is being
carried to the burning-ground various rites are observed to prevent
her spirit from becoming a Churel and troubling the living. A lemon
charmed by a magician is buried under the corpse and a man follows
the body strewing the seeds of rala, while nails are driven into the
threshold of the house. [137]
7. Social position.
The caste has now a fairly high social status and ranks above the
Kunbis. They abstain from all flesh and from liquor and will take
food only from the hands of a Maratha Brahman, while Kunbis and other
cultivating and serving castes will accept food from their hands. They
worship Siva principally on Mondays, this day being sacred to the
deity, who carries the moon as an ornament on his head, crowning the
matted locks from which the Ganges flows.
8. The Jain Guraos.
Of the Jain Guraos Mr. Enthoven quotes the following interesting
description from the Bombay Gazetteer: "They are mainly servants in
village temples which, though dedicated to Brahmanic gods, have still
by their sides broken remains of Jain images. This, and the fact
that most of the temple land-grants date from a time when Jainism
was the State religion, support the theory that the Jain Guraos are
probably Jain temple servants who have come under the influence partly
of Lingayatism and partly of Brahmanism. A curious survival of their
Jainism occurs at Dasahra, Shimga and other leading festivals, when the
village deity is taken out of the temple and carried in procession. On
these occasions, in front of the village god's palanquin, three, five
or seven of the villagers, among whom the Gurao is always the leader,
carry each a long, gaily-painted wooden pole resting against their
right shoulder. At the top of the pole is fastened a silver mask
or hand and round it is draped a rich silk robe. Of these poles,
the chief one, carried by the Gurao, is called the Jain's pillar,
Jainacha khamb."
HALBA
List of Paragraphs
1. Traditions of the caste.
2. Halba landowners in Bastar and Bhandara.
3. Internal structure. Subcastes.
4. Exogamous sections.
5. Theory of the origin of the caste.
6. Marriage.
7. Importance of the sister's son.
8. The wedding ceremony.
9. Going-away ceremony.
10. Widow-marriage and divorce.
11. Religion.
12. Disposal of the dead.
13. Propitiating the spirits of those who have died a violent
death.
14. Impurity of women.
15. Childbirth.
16. Names.
17. Social status.
18. Caste panchayat.
19. Dress.
20. Tattooing.
21. Occupation.
1. Traditions of the caste.
Halba, Halbi. [138]--A caste of cultivators and farmservants whose
home is the south of the Raipur District and the Kanker and Bastar
States; from here small numbers of them have spread to Bhandara and
parts of Berar. In 1911 they numbered 100,000 persons in the combined
Provinces. The Halbas have several stories relating to their own
origin. One of these, reported by Mr. Gokul Prasad, is as follows:
One of the Uriya Rajas had erected four scarecrows in his field to
keep off the birds. One night Mahadeo and Parvati were walking on the
earth and happened to pass that way, and Parvati saw them and asked
what they were. When it was explained to her she thought that as they
had excited her interest something should be done for them, and at
her request Mahadeo gave them life and they became two men and two
women. Next morning they presented themselves before the Raja and told
him what had happened. The Raja said, "Since you have come on earth,
you must have a caste. Run after Mahadeo and find out what caste you
should belong to." So they ran after the god and inquired of him,
and he said that as they had excited his and Parvati's attention
by waving in the wind they should be called Halba, from halna, to
wave. This story is clearly based on one of those fanciful punning
derivations so dear to the Brahmanical mind, but the legend about being
created from scarecrows is found among other agricultural castes of
non-Aryan origin, as the Lodhis. The story continues that the reason
why the Halbas came to settle in Bastar and Kanker was that they had
accompanied one of the Rajas of Jagannath in Orissa, who was afflicted
with leprosy, to the Sihawa jungles, where he proposed to pass the
rest of his life in retirement. On a certain day the Raja went out
hunting with his dogs, one of which was quite white. This dog jumped
into a spring of water and came out with his white skin changed to
copper red. The Raja, observing this miracle, bathed in the spring
himself and was cured of his leprosy. He then wished to return to
Orissa, but the Halbas induced him to remain in his adopted country,
and he became the ancestor of the Rajas of Kanker. The Halbas are
still the household servants of the Kanker family, and when a fresh
chief succeeds, one of them, who has the title of Kapardar, takes
him to the temple and invests him with the Durbar ki poshak or royal
robes, affixing also the tika or badge of office on his forehead with
turmeric, rice and sandalwood, and rubbing his body over with ottar of
roses. Until lately the Kapardar's family had a considerable grant of
rent-free land, but this has now been taken away. A Halba is or was
also the priest of the temple at Sihawa, which is said to have been
built by the first Raja over the spring where he was healed of his
leprosy. The Halbas are also connected with the Rajas of Bastar, and
a suggestion has been made [139] that they originally belonged to the
Telugu country and came with the Rajas of Bastar from Warangal in the
Deccan. Mr. Gilder derives the name from an old Canarese word Halbar or
Halbaru, meaning 'old ones or ancients' or 'primitive inhabitants.' The
Halba dialect, however, contains no traces of Canarese, and on the
question of their entering Bastar with the Rajas, Rai Bahadur Panda
Baijnath, Diwan of Bastar, writes as follows: In the following saying
relating to the coming of the Bastar Rajas, which is often repeated,
the Halba's name does not occur:
Chalkibans Raja Dibdibi baja.
Kosaria Rawat Pita Bhatra.
Peng Parja Raja Muria.
Tendukhuti Pania lava.
Which may be rendered: "The Raja was of the Chalki race. [140] The drum
was called Dibdibi. Kosaria Rawat, Pita Bhatra, Peng Parja and Raja
Muria, [141] these four castes came with the Raja. The tribute paid
(to the Raja) was a comb of tendu wood and a lava quail." This doggerel
rhyme is believed to recall the circumstances of the immigration of
the Bastar Rajas. So the Halbas did not perhaps come with the Raja,
but they were his guards for a long time. In the Dasahra ceremony a
Halba carried the royal Chhatra or Umbrella, and the Raja walked under
the protection of another Halba's naked sword. A Halba's widows were
not sold and his intestate property was not taken over by the Raja.
2. Halba landowners in Bastar and Bhandara.
Thus the Halbas occupy a comparatively honourable position in
Bastar. They are the highest local caste with the exception of the
Brahmans, the Dhakars or illegitimate descendants of Brahmans, and
a few Rajput families. The reason for this is no doubt that they
have become landholders in the State, a position which it would
not be difficult for them to acquire when their only rivals were
the Gonds. They are moderately good cultivators, and in Dhamtari
can hold their own with Hindus, so that they could well surpass
the Gond. Traditions also remain in Bastar of a Halba revolt. It
is said that during Raja Daryao Deo's reign, about 125 years back,
the Halbas rebelled and many were thrown down a waterfall ninety feet
high, one only of these escaping with his life. The eyes of some were
also put out as a punishment for the oppression they had exercised,
and a stone inscription at Donger records the oath of fealty taken
by the Halbas before the image of Danteshwari, the tutelary deity
of Bastar, after their insurrection was put down in Samvat 1836 or
A.D. 1779. The Halbas were thus a caste of considerable influence,
since they could attempt to subvert the ruling dynasty. In Bhandara
again the caste have quite a different story, and say that they came
from the United Provinces or, according to another version, the Makrai
State, where they were of the status of Rajputs and wore the sacred
thread. There a girl of their family, of great beauty, was asked in
marriage by a Muhammadan king. The father could not refuse the king,
but would not give his daughter in marriage to one not of his own
caste. So he fled south and took asylum with the Gond Raja of Chanda,
from whom the Halba zamindars subsequently received their estates. It
seems unnecessary to attach any importance to this story; the tale of
the beautiful daughter is most hackneyed, and the whole has probably
been devised by the Brahmans to give the Halba zamindars of Bhandara a
more respectable ancestry than they could claim if they admitted having
come from Bastar, certainly no home of Rajputs. But if this supposition
is correct it is interesting to note how a legend may show a caste
as originating in some place with which it never had any connection
whatever; and it seems a necessary conclusion that no importance can
be attached to such traditions without corroborating evidence.
3. Internal structure: subcastes.
The caste have local divisions known as Bastarha, Chhattisgarhia
and Marethia, according as they live in Bastar, Chhattisgarh,
or Bhandara and the other Maratha Districts. The last two groups,
however, intermarry, so only the Bastar Halbas really form a separate
subcaste. But the caste is also everywhere divided into two groups of
pure and mixed Halbas. These are known in Bastar and Chhattisgarh as
Purait or Nekha, and Surait or Nayak, respectively, and in Bhandara as
Barpangat and Khalpangat or those of good and bad stock. The Suraits
or Khalpangats are said to be of mixed origin, born from Halba fathers
and women of other castes. But in past times unions of Halba mothers
and men of other castes were perhaps not less frequent. These two
sets of groups do not intermarry. A Surait Halba will take food from
a Purait, but the Puraits do not return the compliment; though in some
localities they will accept food which does not contain salt. The two
divisions will take water from each other and exchange leaf-pipes. In
Bhandara the Barpangat or pure Halbas have now further split into
two groups, the zamindari families having constituted themselves
into a separate subdivision; they practise hypergamy with the others,
taking daughters from them in marriage but not giving their daughters
to them. This is simply of a piece with their claim to be Rajputs,
hypergamy being a custom of northern India.
4. Exogamous sections.
The exogamous sections of the caste afford further evidence of their
mixed origin. Many of the names recorded are those of other castes,
as Baretha (a washerman), Bhoyar (Bhoi or bearer), Rawat (herdsman),
Barhai (carpenter), Malia (Mali or gardener), Dhakar (Vidur or
illegitimate Brahman), Bhandari (barber), Pardhan (Gond), Mankar
(title of various tribes), Sahara (Saonr), Kanderi (turner), Agri
(Agarwala Bania), Baghel (a sept of Rajputs), Elmia (from Velama,
Telugu cultivators), and Chalki and Ponwar (Chalukya and Panwar
Rajputs). It may be concluded that these groups are descended from
ancestors of the caste after which they are named. There are also a
number of territorial and titular names of the usual type, and many
totemistic names, as Ghorapatia (a horse), Kawaliha (lotus), Aurila
(tamarind), Lendia (a tree), Gohi (a lizard), Manjur (a peacock),
Bhringraj (a blackbird) and so on. In Bastar they revere the animal
or plant after which their sept is named and will not kill or injure
it. If a man accidentally kills his devak or sacred animal he will
tear off a small piece of his cloth and throw it away to make a shroud
for the corpse. A few of them will break their earthen pots as if a
relative had died in their house, but this is not general. In Bastar
the totemistic groups are named barags, and many men also belong to a
thok, having some titular name which they use as a surname. Nowadays
marriage is avoided by persons having the same thok or surname as
well as between those of the same barag.
5. Theory of the origin of the caste.
In view of the information available the most probable theory of
the origin of the Halbas is that they were a mixed caste, born of
irregular alliances between the Uriya Rajas and their retainers with
the women of their household servants and between the different
servants themselves. Mr. Gokul Prasad points out that many of the
names of Halba sections are those of the haguas or household menials
of the Uriya chiefs. The Halbas, according to their own story, came
here in attendance on one of the chiefs, and are still employed as
household servants in Kanker and Bastar. They are clearly a caste
of mixed origin as they still admit women of other castes married
by Halba men into the community, and one of their two subcastes in
each locality consists of families of impure descent. The Dhakars of
Bastar are the illegitimate offspring of Brahmans with women of the
country who have grown into a caste, and Mr. Panda Baijnath quotes a
proverb, saying that 'The Halbas and Dhakars form two portions of a
bedsheet.' Instances of other castes similarly formed are the Audhelias
of Bilaspur, who are said to be the offspring of Daharia Rajputs
by their kept women, and the Bargahs, descended from the nurses of
Rajput families. The name Halba might be derived from hal, a plough,
and be a variant for harwaha, the common term for a farmservant in
the northern Districts. This derivation they give themselves in one
of their stories, saying that their first ancestor was created from
a sod of earth on the plough of Balaram or Haladhara, the brother of
Krishna; and it has also the support of Sir G. Grierson. The caste
includes no doubt a number of Gonds, Rawats (herdsmen) and others,
and it may be partly occupational, consisting of persons employed as
farmservants by the Hindu settlers. The farmservant in Chhattisgarh
has a very definite position, his engagement being permanent and
his wages consisting always in a fourth share of the produce, which
is divided among them when several are employed. The caste have
a peculiar dialect of their own, which Dr. Grierson describes as
follows: [142] "Linguistic evidence also points to the fact that the
Halbas are an aboriginal tribe, who have adopted Hinduism and an Aryan
language. Their dialect is a curious mixture of Uriya, Chhattisgarhi
and Marathi, the proportions varying according to the locality. In
Bhandara it is nearly all Marathi, but in Bastar it is much more mixed
and has some forms which look like Telugu." If the home of the Halbas
was in the debateable land between Chhattisgarh and the Uriya country
to the east and south of the Mahanadi, their dialect might, as Mr. Hira
Lal points out, have originated here. They themselves give the ruined
but once important city of Sihawa on the banks of the Mahanadi in this
tract as that of their first settlement; and Uriya is spoken to the
east of Sihawa and Marathi to the west, while Chhattisgarhi is the
language of the locality itself and of the country extending north
and south. Subsequently the Halbas served as soldiers in the armies of
the Ratanpur kings and their position no doubt considerably improved,
so that in Bastar they became an important landholding caste. Some
of these soldiers may have migrated west and taken service under the
Gond kings of Chanda, and their descendants may now be represented
by the Bhandara zamindars, who, however, if this theory be correct,
have entirely forgotten their origin. Others took up weaving and have
become amalgamated with the Koshti caste in Bhandara and Berar.
6. Marriage.
Girls are not usually married until they are above ten years old,
or nearly adult as age goes in India; but there is no rule on
the subject. Many girls reach twenty without entering wedlock. If
the parents are too poor to pay for their daughter's marriage the
neighbours will subscribe. In Bastar, however, the Uriya custom
prevails, and an unmarried girl in whom the signs of puberty appear
is put out of caste. In such a case her father marries her to a
mahua tree. The strictness of the rule on this subject among the
Uriyas is probably due to the strength of Brahmanical influence,
the priestly caste possessing more power and property in Sambalpur
and Orissa than in almost any part of India. If a death occurs in the
family of the bridegroom just before the date fixed for the wedding,
and the ceremonies of purification cannot be completed prior to it,
the bride is formally wedded to an achar [143] or mahua tree; [144]
the marriage crown is tied on to the tree, and the bride walks round
it seven times. After the bridegroom's purification the couple are
taken to the same tree, and here the forehead of the bridegroom is
marked with turmeric paste and rice. The couple sit one on each side
of the tree, and the Tikawan ceremony or presentation of gifts by the
relatives and friends is performed, and the marriage is considered to
be complete. If an unmarried girl goes wrong with an outsider of low
caste she is expelled from the community; but if with a member of a
caste from whom a Halba can take water she may be readmitted to caste,
provided she has not eaten food cooked in an earthen pot from the hands
of her seducer; but not if she has done so. If there be a child of
the seducer she must wait until it be weaned and either taken by the
putative father or given away to a Chamar or Gond. The girl can then
be given in marriage to any Halba as a widow. Women of other castes
married by Halbas are admitted into the community. This happens most
frequently in the case of women of the Rawat (herdsman) caste.
7. Importance of the sister's son.
A match which is commonly arranged where practicable is that of
a brother's daughter to a sister's son. And a man always shows
a special regard and respect for his sister's son, touching his
feet as to a superior, while, whenever he desires to make a gift
as an offering of thanks or atonement or as a meritorious action,
the sister's son is the recipient. At his death he usually leaves a
substantial legacy, such as one or two buffaloes, to his sister's son,
the remainder of the property going to his own family. This recognition
of a special relationship is probably a survival of the matriarchate,
when property descended through women, and a sister's son would be his
uncle's heir. Thus a man would naturally desire to marry his daughter
to his nephew in order that she might participate in his property,
and hence arose the custom of making this match, which is still the
most favoured among the Halbas and Gonds, though the reasons which
led to it have been forgotten for several centuries.
8. The wedding ceremony.
Matches are usually arranged on the initiative of the boy's father
through a mutual friend who resides in the girl's village, and is
known as the Mahalia or matchmaker. When the contract is concluded
the boy's father sends a present of fixed quantities of grain to the
girl, which are in the nature of a bride-price, and subsequently on
an auspicious day selected by the family priest he and his friends
proceed to the girl's village. The girl meets them, standing at
the entrance of the principal house, dressed in the new clothes
sent on behalf of the bridegroom, and holding out her cloth for the
reception of presents. The boy's father goes up to her and smooths
her hair with his hand, chucks her under the chin with his right
hand, and makes a noise with his lips as if he were kissing her. He
then touches her feet, places a rupee on the skirt of her cloth, and
retires. The other members of his party follow his example, giving
small presents of copper, and afterwards the women of the girl's party
treat the bridegroom in the same manner, but they actually kiss him
(chumna). Betrothals can be held only in the five months from Magh
(January) to Jeth (May), while marriages may be celebrated during
the eight dry months. The auspicious date is selected by the Joshi
or caste-priest, who is chosen by the community for his personal
qualities. If the names of the couple do not point to an auspicious
union the bridegroom's name may be changed either temporarily or
permanently. The Joshi takes two pieces of cloth, which should be
torn from the scarf of the boy's father, and ties up in each of them
some rice, areca nuts, turmeric and dub grass (Cynodon dactylon). One
of these is marked with red lead, and is intended for the bride,
and the other, which is left plain, is for the bridegroom. At the
wedding some of this rice with pulse is placed with a twig of mahua
in a hole in the marriage-shed and addressed: 'You are the goddess
Lachhmi; you have come to assist in the marriage.'
The Halbas, like the other lower castes of Chhattisgarh, have two
forms of wedding, known as the 'Small' and 'Large,' the former being
held at the bridegroom's house with curtailed ceremonies, and being
much cheaper than the latter or Hindu marriage proper, which is held
at the bride's house. The 'small' wedding is more popular among the
Halbas, and for this the bride, accompanied by some of her girl and
boy friends, arrives at the bridegroom's village in the evening,
her parents following her only on the third day. On entering the
lands of the village her party begin singing obscene songs filled
with abuse of the bridegroom's parents and relatives. Nobody goes
to receive or welcome them, and on reaching the bridegroom's house
they enter it without ceremony and sit down in the room where the
family gods are kept. All this time they continue singing, and the
musicians keep up a deafening din in accompaniment. Subsequently the
bride's party are shown to their lodging, known as the Dulhi-kuria or
bride's apartments, and here the bridegroom's father visits her and
washes her big toes first with milk and then with water. The practice
of washing the feet of guests, which strikes strangely on our minds
when we meet it in Scripture, was obviously a welcome attention when
travellers went bare-footed, or at most wore sandals, and arrived at
their journey's end with the feet soiled and bruised by the rigours
of the way. Another of the bridegroom's friends pretends to act as
a barber, and shaves all the bride's men friends with a piece of
straw as if it were a razor. For the marriage ceremony proper the
bride and bridegroom stand facing each other by the marriage hut
with a sheet held between them; the Joshi or caste-priest takes two
lamps and mingles their flames, and the cloth between the couple
being pulled down the bridegroom drags the bride over to him. If
the wedding is held on a Sunday, Tuesday or Saturday the bridegroom
stands facing the east, and if on a Monday, Thursday or Friday, to
the north. After this the cloths of the couple are tied together, or
the end of the bridegroom's scarf is tucked in the bride's waistcloth,
and they go round the marriage-post seven times, the bride following
the bridegroom throughout. A plough-yoke is then brought and placed
close by the marriage-post and the couple take their seats on it,
the bride sitting on the left of the bridegroom. The bundles of rice
consecrated by the Joshi are given to them and they throw it over each
other. The bridegroom takes some red lead and smears the bride's face
with it, making a line from the end of her nose up across her forehead
and along the parting of her hair. He says her name aloud and covers
her head with her cloth. This signifies that she is a married woman,
as in Chhattisgarh unmarried girls go about with the head bare. After
this the mother and father of the bride come and wash the feet of
the couple with milk and water. This ceremony is known as Dharam
Tika, and after its completion the bride's parents will take food
in the bridegroom's house, which they abstain from doing from the
date of the betrothal up to this washing of the feet. It is on this
account that they do not accompany the bride but only follow her on
the third day, but the reason for the rule is by no means clear. On
the following day more ceremonies are performed, and the friends
of the couple touch their foreheads with rice and make presents to
them of cowries. Last of all the bride's parents come and give them
cattle and other articles according to their means. These gifts are
known as Tikawan and remain the separate property of the bride which
she can dispose of as she pleases. The ceremonies usually extend
over four days, the wedding itself taking place on the third. The
bride's party then go home, leaving her with her husband, and after a
week or so they return and take the couple to the bride's house for
the ceremony known as Pinar Dhawai or getting their yellow wedding
clothes washed. The bridegroom stays here two or three weeks, and
during this time he must work at building or repairing the walls of
his father-in-law's house. The custom of serving for a wife still
obtains among the Halbas, and the above rule may perhaps indicate
that it was once more general. At the end of the bridegroom's visit
his father-in-law gives him a new cloth and pair of shoes and sends
him back to his parents' house with his wife. The expenses of the
wedding average about fifty rupees for the bridegroom's family and
from five to thirty rupees for the bride's family.
9. Going-away ceremony.
After the wedding if the bride is grown up she lives with her husband
at once; but if she is a child she goes back to her parents until
her adolescence, when the ceremony of Pathoni or 'Going away' is
performed. On this occasion some people from the bridegroom's home
go to fetch her and their number must be even, so that when she
returns with them the party may be an odd one, which is lucky. They
take a new cloth for the bride and stay the night at her house; next
morning the bride's parents put some rice, pulse, oil and a comb in
a basket for her, and she sets out with the party, wearing her new
cloth. But when she gets outside the village this is taken off her
and placed in the basket, which she has to carry on her head as far
as her husband's house. As she enters his village the people stretch
a rope across the way and prevent her passage until her father-in-law
gives them a present. On arriving at his house her feet are washed
by her mother-in-law, and she is then made to cook the food brought
in her basket. After a fortnight she again goes back to her parents'
house and stays with them for another year, before finally taking up
her abode with her husband. It has been remarked that this return of
a married woman to her parents' house for such lengthened periods is
likely to be a pregnant source of immorality, and the advantage of the
custom has been questioned; the explanation may perhaps be that it is
an outcome of the joint family system by which young married couples
live with the bridegroom's parents, and that the object is to accustom
the girl gradually to the habits of a fresh household and the yoke,
necessarily irksome, of her mother-in-law. The proverb with reference
to a young wife, 'If your husband loves you your mother-in-law can
do nothing,' indicates how formidable this may be in the event of
any cooling of marital affection; and it is well known that if she
does not please her husband's family a young wife may be treated as
little better than a slave. To throw a young girl, therefore, into
a family of complete strangers is probably too severe a trial, and
this is the reason of the goings and returnings of the bride after
her wedding between her husband's home and her own.
10. Widow-marriage and divorce.
The remarriage of a widow must be held during the bright fortnight
of the month, and on any odd day of the fortnight excluding the
first. The couple are seated together on a yoke in a part of the
courtyard cleaned with cowdung, and their clothes are tied together,
while the husband rubs vermilion on his wife's hair. A bachelor should
not take a widow in marriage, and if he does so he must at the same
time also wed a maiden with the regular ceremony, as otherwise he
is likely after death to become a masaan or evil spirit. In order to
avoid this contingency a bachelor who espouses a widow in Kanker is
first wedded to a spear. Turmeric and oil are rubbed on his body and
on the spear, and he walks round it seven times. Divorce is freely
permitted in Chhattisgarh at the instance of either party and for
the most trivial reasons, as a mere allegation of disagreement; but
if a husband puts away his wife when she has not been unfaithful to
him he must give her something for her support. In some localities
no ceremony is performed at all, but a wife or husband who tires of
wedlock simply leaves the other as the case may be. In Bastar a wife
cannot divorce her husband. A divorced woman does not break her glass
bangles until she marries again, when new ones are given to her by
her second husband.
11. Religion.
A large proportion of the Halbas of Chhattisgarh belong to the
Kabirpanthi sect. These are known as Kabirhas and abjure the
consumption of flesh and alcoholic liquor; while the others who
indulge in these articles are known as Sakatha or Sakta, that is,
a worshipper of Devi or Durga. These latter, however, also revere
all the village godlings of Chhattisgarh.
12. Disposal of the dead.
The dead are always buried by the Kabirpanthis and usually by other
Halbas, cremation being reserved by the latter as a special mark
of respect for elders and heads of families. A dead body is wrapped
in a new white cloth and laid on an inverted cot. The Kabirpanthis
lay plantain leaves at the sides of the cot and over the body to
cover it. One of the mourners carries a burning cowdung cake with the
party. Before burial the thread which every male wears round his waist
is broken, the clothes are taken off the corpse and given to a sweeper,
and the body is wrapped in the shroud and laid in the grave, salt being
sprinkled under and over it. If the dead body should be touched by any
person of another caste, the deceased's family has to pay a fine or
give a penal caste-feast. After the interment the mourners bathe and
return to the deceased's house in their wet clothes. Before entering
it they wash their feet in water, which is kept for that purpose at
the door, and chew the leaves of the nim tree (Melia indica). They
smoke their chongis or leaf-pipes and console the deceased's family
and then return home, washing their feet again and changing their
clothes at their own houses. On the third day, known as Tij Nahan,
the male members of the family with the relatives and mourners walk
in Indian file to a river or tank, where they are all shaved by the
barber, the sons of the dead man or woman having the entire head
and face cleared of hair, while in the case of other relatives, the
scalp-lock and moustache may be left, and the mourning friends are
only shaved as on ordinary occasions. For his services the barber
receives a cow or a substantial cash present, which he divides with
the washerman. The latter subsequently washes all clothes worn at the
funeral and on this occasion. On the Akti festival, or commencement of
the agricultural year, libations of water and offerings of urad [145]
cakes are made to the spirits of ancestors. A feast is given to women
in honour of all departed female ancestors on the ninth day of the
Pitripaksh or mourning fortnight of Kunwar (September), and feasts
for male ancestors may be held on the same day of the fortnight
as that on which they died at any other time of the year. [146]
Such observances are practised only by the well-to-do. Nothing is
done for persons who die before their marriage or without children,
unless they trouble some member of the family and appear in a dream
to demand that these honours be paid to them. During an epidemic
of cholera all funeral and mourning ceremonies are suspended, and a
general purification of the village takes place on its conclusion.
13. Propitiating the spirits of those who have died a violent death.
If a person has been killed by a tiger, the people go out, and if any
remains of the body are found, these are burnt on the spot. The Baiga
is then invoked to bring back the spirit of the deceased, a most
essential precaution as will shortly be seen. In order to do this
he suspends a copper ring on a long thread above a vessel of water
and then burns butter and sugar on the fire, muttering incantations,
while the people sing songs and call on the spirit of the dead man to
return. The thread swings to and fro, and at length the copper ring
falls into the pot, and this is taken as a sign that the spirit has
come and entered the vessel. The mouth of this is immediately covered
and it is buried or kept in some secure place. The people believe that
unless the dead man's spirit is secured it will accompany the tiger
and lure solitary travellers to destruction. This is done by calling
out and offering them tobacco to smoke, and when they proceed in the
direction of the voice the tiger springs out and kills them. And
they think that a tiger directed in this manner grows fiercer and
fiercer with every person whom it kills. When somebody has been
killed by a tiger the relatives will not even remove the ornaments
from the corpse, for they think that these would constitute a link
by which its spirit would cause the tiger to track them down. The
malevolence thus attributed to persons killed by tigers is explained
by their bitter wrath at having encountered such an untimely death
and consequent desire to entice others to the same.
14. Impurity of women.
During the monthly period of menstruation women are spoken of as 'Mund
maili' or having the head dirty, and are considered to be impure for
four or five days, for which time they sleep on the ground and not on
cots. In Kanker they are secluded in a separate room, and forbidden
to cook or to touch the clothes or persons of other members of the
family. They must not walk on a ploughed field, nor will the men of
their family drive the plough or sow seed during the time of their
impurity. On the fifth day they wash their heads with earth and boil
their clothes in water mixed with wood ashes. Cloth stained with the
menstrual blood is usually buried underground; if it is burnt it is
supposed that the woman to whom it belonged will become barren, and
if a barren woman should swallow the ashes of the cloth the fertility
of its owner would be transferred to her.
15. Childbirth.
When pregnant women experience longings for strange kinds of food, it
is believed that these really come from the child in the womb and must
be satisfied if its development is not to be retarded. Consequently
in the fifth month of a wife's first pregnancy, or shortly before
delivery, her mother takes to her various kinds of rich food and feeds
her with them. It is a common custom also for pregnant women, driven by
perverted appetite, to eat earth of a clayey texture, or the ordinary
black cotton soil, or dried clay scraped off the walls of houses, or
the ashes of burnt cowdung cakes. This is done by low-caste women in
most parts of the Province, and if carried to excess leads to severe
intestinal derangement which may prove fatal. A pregnant woman must
not cross a river or eat anything with a knife, and she must observe
various precautions against the machinations of witches. At the time
of delivery the woman sits on the ground and is attended by a midwife,
who may be a Chamar, Mahar or Ganda by caste. The navel cord is burnt
in the lying-in room, but the after-birth, known as Phul, is usually
buried in a rubbish pit outside the house. The portion of the cord
attached to the child's body is also burnt when it falls off, but
in the northern Districts it is preserved and used as a cure for the
child if it suffers from sore eyes. If a woman who has borne only girl
children can obtain the dried navel-string of a male child and swallow
it, they believe that she will have a son, and that the mother of the
boy will henceforth bear only daughters. This is the reason why the
cord is carefully secreted and not simply thrown away. In Bastar on
the sixth or naming day the female relatives and friends of the family
are invited to take food at the house. The father touches the feet of
the child with blades of dub grass (Cynodon dactylon) steeped first
in milk or melted butter, then in sandal-paste, and finally in water,
and each time passes the blade over his head as a mark of respect. The
blades of grass are afterwards thrown over the roof of the house, so
that they may not be trampled under foot. The women guests then bring
leaf-cups containing rice and a few copper coins, which they offer to
the mother, the younger ones bowing before her with a prayer that the
child may grow as old as the speaker. All the women kiss the child,
and the elder ones the mother also. The offerings of rice and coins
are taken by the midwife.
16. Names.
The names of the Halbas are of the ordinary type found in Chhattisgarh,
but at present they often add the termination Sinha or Singh in
imitation of the Rajputs. Two names are sometimes given, one for
daily use and the other for comparison with that of the girl when the
marriage is to be arranged. As already seen, either the bride's or
bridegroom's name may be changed to make their union auspicious. When
a daughter-in-law comes into her husband's house she is usually not
called by her own name, but by some nickname or that of her home,
as Jabalpurwali, Raipurwali (she who comes from Jabalpur or Raipur),
and so on. Sometimes men of the caste are addressed by the name of
the clan or section and not by their own. A woman must not utter
the names of her husband, his parents or brothers, nor of the sons
of his elder brother and his sisters. But for these last as well as
for her own son-in-law she may invent fictitious names. These rules
she observes to show her respect for her husband's relatives. A child
must not be called by name at night, because if an owl hears the name
and repeats it the child will probably die. The owl is everywhere
regarded as a bird of the most evil omen. Its hoot is unlucky, and a
house in which its nest is built will be destroyed or deserted. If it
perches on the roof of a house and hoots, some one of the family will
probably fall ill, or if a member of the household is already ill,
he or she will probably die.
17. Social status.
The social customs of the caste present some differences. In Bastar,
where they have a fairly high status, the Purait Halbas abstain from
liquor, though they will eat the flesh of clean animals and of the
wild pig. The Halbas of Raipur on the other hand, who are usually
farmservants, will eat fowls, pigs and rats, and abstain only from
beef and the leavings of others. In Bastar, Sunars, Kurmis and castes
of similar position will take water from the hands of a Halba, and
Kosaria Rawats will eat all kinds of food with them. In Chhattisgarh
the Halbas will accept water from Telis, Kahars and other like castes,
and will also allow any of them to become a Halba. In Chhattisgarh
they will take even food cooked with water from the hands of a man of
these castes, provided that they are not in their own villages. These
differences of custom are probably due to the varying social status of
the caste. In Bastar they hold land and behave accordingly, while in
Chhattisgarh they are only labourers. They do not employ Brahmans for
ceremonial purposes but have their own caste priest, known as Joshi,
while among the Kabirpanthis the local Mahant or Bairagi of the sect
takes his place.
18. Caste panchayat.
They have a caste panchayat or committee, the headman of which is
known as Kursha; he has jurisdiction over ten or twenty villages,
and is usually chosen from the Kotwar, Chanap or Naik sections. It
is the duty of the men of these sections to scatter the sonpani or
'water of gold' [147] as an act of purification over persons who
have been temporarily put out of caste for social offences. They
are also the first to eat food with such offenders on readmission
to social intercourse, and thereby take the sins of these persons
upon their own heads. In order to counteract the effect of this the
purifier usually asks three or four other men to eat with him at his
own house, and passes on a part of his burden to them. For such duties
he receives a payment of money varying from four annas to a rupee and
a half. Among the offences punished with temporary exclusion from
caste are those of rearing the lac insect and tasar silk cocoons,
probably because such work involves the killing of the insects and
caterpillars which produce the dye and silk. In Bastar a man loses
his caste if he is beaten with a shoe except by a Government servant,
and is not readmitted to it. If a man seduces a married woman and
is beaten with a shoe by her husband he is also finally expelled
from caste. But happily, Mr. Panda Baijnath remarks, shoes are very
scarce in the State, and hence such cases do not often arise. They
never yoke cows to the plough as other castes do in Bastar, nor do
they tie up two cows with the same rope.
19. Dress.
The dress of the Halbas, as of other Chhattisgarh castes, is scanty,
and most of them have only a short cloth about the loins and another
round the shoulders. They dispense with both shoes and head-cloth,
but every man must have a thread tied round his waist. To this thread
in former times, Colonel Dalton remarks, the apron of leaves was not
improbably suspended. The women do not wear nose-rings, spangles on the
forehead or rings on the toes; but girl children have the left nostril
pierced, and this must always be done on the full moon day of the month
of Pus (December). A copper ring is inserted in the nostril and worn
for a few months, but must be removed before the girl's marriage. A
married woman has a cloth over her head, and smears vermilion on
the parting of her hair and also on her forehead. An unmarried girl
may have the copper ring already mentioned, and may place a dab of
vermilion on her forehead, but must not smear it on the parting of
her hair. She goes bare-headed till marriage, as is the custom in
Chhattisgarh. A widow should not have vermilion on her face at all,
nor should she use glass bangles or ornaments about the ankles. She
may have a string of glass beads about her neck. A woman's cloth is
usually white with a broad red border all round it. The Gonds and
Halbas tie the cloth round the waist and carry the slack end from the
left side behind up the back and over the head and right shoulder;
while women of higher castes take the cloth from the right side over
the head and left shoulder.
20. Tattooing.
Girls are tattooed before marriage, usually at the age of four or
five years, with dots on the left nostril and centre of the chin, and
three dots in a line on the right shoulder. A girl is again tattooed
after marriage, but before leaving for her husband's house. On this
occasion four pairs of parallel lines are made on the leg above the
ankle, in front, behind, and on the sides. As a rule, the legs are
not otherwise tattooed, nor the trunk of the body. Groups of dots,
triangles and lines are made on the arms, and on the left arm is
pricked a zigzag line known as the sikri or chain, the pattern of
which is distinctive. Teli and Gahra (Ahir) women also have the sikri,
but in a slightly different form. The tattooing is done by a woman of
the Dewar caste, and she receives some corn and the cloth worn by the
girl at the time of the operation. If a child is slow in learning to
walk they tattoo it on the loins above the hips, and believe that this
is efficacious. Men who suffer from rheumatism also get the affected
joints tattooed, and are said to experience much relief. The tattooing
acts no doubt as a blister, and may produce a temporarily beneficial
effect. It may be compared to the bee-sting cure for rheumatism now
advocated in England. Tattooing is believed to enhance the beauty of
women, and it is also said that the tattoo marks are the only ornament
which will accompany the soul to the other world. From this belief it
seems clear that they expect to have the same body in the after-life.
21. Occupation.
Nearly all the Halbas are now engaged in agriculture as tenants and
labourers. Seven zamindari estates are held by members of the caste,
six in Bhandara and one in Chanda, and they also have some villages
in the south of the Raipur and Drug Districts. It is probable that
they obtained this property in reward for military service, at the
period when they were employed in the armies of the Ratanpur kings
and of the Gond dynasty of Chanda. In the forest tracts of Dhamtari
they are considered the best cultivators next to the Telis, and they
show themselves quite able to hold their own in the open country,
where their villages are usually prosperous. In Bastar they still
practise shifting cultivation, sowing their crops on burnt-out patches
of forest. Though hunting is not now one of their regular occupations,
Mr. Gokul Prasad describes them as catching game by the following
method: Six or seven men go out together at night, tying round their
feet ghunghunias or two small hollow balls of brass with stones inside
which tinkle as they move, such as are worn by postal runners. They
move in Indian file, the first man carrying a lantern and the others
walking behind him in its shadow. They walk with measured tread,
and the ghunghunias give out a rhythmical harmonious sound. Hares
and other small animals are attracted by the sound, and at the same
time half-blinded by the light, so that they do not see the line
of men. They approach, and are knocked over or caught by the men
following the leader.
Halwai
Halwai.--The occupational caste of confectioners, numbering about
3000 persons in the Central Provinces and Berar in 1911. The Halwai
takes his name from halwa, a sweet made of flour, clarified butter
and sugar, coloured with saffron and flavoured with almonds,
raisins and pistachio-nuts. [148] The caste gives no account of
its origin in northern India, but it is clearly a functional group
composed of members of respectable middle-class castes who adopted the
profession of sweetmeat-making. The Halwais are also called Mithaihas,
or preparers of sweets, and in the Uriya country are known as Guria
from gur or unrefined sugar. The caste has several subdivisions with
territorial names, generally derived from places in northern India,
as Kanaujia from Kanauj, and Jaunpuria from Jaunpur; others are Kandu,
a grain-parcher, and Dobisya, meaning two score. One of the Guria
subdivisions is named Haldia from haldi, turmeric, and members of
this subcaste are employed to prepare the mahaprasad or cooked rice
which is served at the temple of Jagannath and which is eaten by all
castes together without scruple. The Gurias have exogamous divisions
or bargas, the names of which are generally functional, as Darban,
door-keeper; Saraf, treasurer; Bhitarya, one who looks to household
affairs, and others. Marriage within the barga is forbidden, but the
union of first cousins is not prohibited. Marriage may be infant or
adult. A girl who has a liaison with a man of the caste may be wedded
to him by the form used for the remarriage of a widow, but if she
goes wrong with an outsider she is finally expelled. Widow-marriage
is allowed, and divorce may be effected for misconduct on the part
of the wife.
The social standing of the Halwai is respectable. "His art," says
Mr. Nesfield, [149] "implies rather an advanced state of culture, and
hence his rank in the social scale is a high one. There is no caste
in India which considers itself too pure to eat what a confectioner
has made. In marriage banquets it is he who supplies a large part of
the feast, and at all times and seasons the sweetmeat is a favourite
food to a Hindu requiring a temporary refreshment. There is a kind
of bread called puri, consisting of wheaten dough fried in melted
butter, which is taken as a substitute for the chapati or wheaten
pancake by travellers and others who happen to be unable to have
their bread cooked at their own fire, and is made by the Halwais."
The real reason why the Halwai occupies a good position perhaps
simply results from the necessity that other castes should be able
to take cakes from him. Among the higher castes food cooked with
water should not be eaten except at the hearth after this has been
specially cleansed and spread with cowdung, and those who are to
eat have bathed and otherwise purified themselves. But as the need
continuously arises for travellers and others to take a meal abroad
where they cannot cook it for themselves, sweetmeats and cakes made
without water are permitted to be eaten in this way, and the Halwai,
as the purveyor of these, has been given the position of a pure caste
from whose hands a Brahman can take water. In a similar manner, water
may be taken from the hands of the Dhimar who is a household servant,
the Kahar or palanquin-bearer, the Barai or betel-leaf seller, and
the Bharbhunja or rice-parcher, although some of these castes have
a very low origin and occupy the humble position of menial servants.
The Halwai's shop is one of the most familiar in an Indian bazar,
and in towns a whole row of them may be seen together, this
arrangement being doubtless adopted for the social convenience
of the caste-fellows, though it might be expected to decrease the
custom that they receive. His wares consist of trays full of white
and yellow-coloured sweetmeats and cakes of flour and sugar, very
unappetising to a European eye, though Hindu boys show no lack of
appreciation of them. The Hindus are very fond of sweet things, which
is perhaps a common trait of an uneducated palate. Hindu children
will say that such sweets as chocolate almonds are too bitter, and
their favourite drink, sherbet, is simply a mixture of sugar and
water with some flavouring, and seems scarcely calculated to quench
the thirst produced by an Indian hot weather. Similarly their tea is
so sweetened with sugar and spices as to be distasteful to a European.
The ingredients of a Halwai's sweets are wheat and gram-flour,
milk and country sugar. Those called batashas consist merely of
syrup of sugar boiled with a little flour, which is taken out in
spoonfuls and allowed to cool. They are very easy to make and are
commonly distributed to schoolboys on any occasion of importance,
and are something like a meringue in composition. The kind called
barafi or ice is made from thick boiled milk mixed with sugar, and is
more expensive and considered more of a treat than batashas. Laddus
are made from gram-flour which is mixed with water and dropped into
boiling butter, when it hardens into lumps. These are taken out
and dipped in syrup of sugar and allowed to cool. Pheni is a thin
strip of dough of fine wheat-flour fried in butter and then dipped
in syrup of sugar. Other sweets are made from the flour of singara
or water-nut and from chironji, the kernel of the achar [150] nut,
coated with sugar. Of ordinary sweets the cheaper kinds cost 8 annas
a seer of 2 lb. and the more expensive ones 10 or 12 annas. Sweets
prepared by Bengali confectioners are considered the best of all. The
Halwai sits on a board in his shop surrounded by wooden trays of the
different kinds of sweets. These are often covered with crowds of flies
and in some places with a variety of formidable-looking hornets. The
latter do not appear to be vicious, however, and when he wishes to
take sweets off a tray the Halwai whisks them off with a palm-leaf
brush. Only if one of them gets into his cloth, or he unguardedly
pushes his hand down into a heap of sweets and encounters a hornet,
he may receive a sting of which the mark remains for some time. The
better-class confectioners now imitate English sweets, and at fairs
when they retail boiled grain and ghi they provide spoons and little
basins for their customers.
Hatkar
1. Derivation and historical notice.
Hatkar, Hatgar. [151]--A small caste of Berar, numbering about 14,000
persons in 1911. They are found principally in the Pusad taluk of
Yeotmal District, their villages being placed like a line of outposts
along the Hyderabad border. The Hatkars are a branch of the Dhangar
or shepherd caste, and in some localities they are considered as a
subcaste of Dhangars. The derivation of the name Hatkar is obscure,
but the Hatkars appear to be those Dhangars who first took to military
service under Sivaji and hence became a distinct group. "Undisciplined,
often unarmed, men of the Mawals or mountain valleys above the Ghauts
who were called Mawallees, and of those below the mountains towards the
sea, called Hetkurees, joined the young leader." [152] The Hatkars were
thus the soldiers of the Konkan in Sivaji's army. The Ain-i-Akbari
states that the Hatkars were driven westward across the Wardha by
the Gonds. At this time (A.D. 1600) they were holding the country
round Basim by force of arms, and are described as a refractory and
perfidious race. [153] "The Hatkars of Berar are all Bargi or Bangi
Dhangars, the shepherds with the spears. They say that formerly when
going on any expedition they took only a blanket seven cubits long and
a bear-spear. They would appear to have been all footmen. The Naiks
or village headman of Basim were principally Hatkars. The duty of a
Naik was to maintain order and stop robbery; but in time they became
law-breakers and their men the dacoits of the country. Some of them
were very powerful, and in 1818 Nowsaji Naik's troops gave battle to
the Nizam's regular forces under Major Pitman before Umarkhar. He
was beaten and sent to Hyderabad, where he died, and the power of
the Naiks was broken by Major Sutherland. He hanged so many that the
Naiks pronounce his name to this day with awe. To some of the Naiks he
gave money and told them to settle down in certain villages. Others
who also came, expecting money, were at once hanged." [154] But it
would appear that only those leaders were hanged who did not come in
before a certain fixed date.
2. The Gauli Hatkar's reverence for cattle.
The Hatkars are also called Bangi Dhangars, and in Berar rank
above other Dhangars because they took to soldiering and obtained
grants of land, just as the Marathas rank above the Kunbis. Another
group have given up sheep-tending and keep cattle, which is a more
respectable occupation on account of the sanctity of cattle, and
these call themselves Gauli Hatkars. These Gauli Hatkars have given
up drinking liquor and eating fowls. They will not touch or sell the
milk of buffaloes and cows before sunset on Mondays, the day on which
they worship Krishna. If any one is in need of milk on that day they
will let him milk the animal himself, but will take no price for the
milk. On a Monday also they will not give fire from their house to
any member of a low caste, such as a Mahar. On the day of Diwali they
worship their cows, tying a bunch of wool to the animal's forehead and
putting rice on it; they make a mud image of Govardhan, the mountain
held up by Krishna as an umbrella to protect the people from the rain,
and then let the cows trample it to pieces with their hoofs. If a
bullock dies with the rope halter through its nose, the owner is
put out of caste; this rule also obtains among the Ahirs and Gaulis,
and is perhaps responsible for the objection felt in some localities
to putting string through the nostrils of plough- and cart-bullocks,
though it is the only means of obtaining any control over them.
3. Funeral rites.
Formerly the Hatkars burned the corpses only of men who died in battle
or the chase or subsequently of their wounds, cremation being reserved
for this honourable end. Others were buried sitting cross-legged,
and a small piece of gold was placed in the mouth of the corpse. Now
they either burn or bury the dead according to their means. Most of
them at the time they were soldiers never allowed the hair on their
face to be cut.
4. Exogamous groups.
The Hatkars of Berar are said to be divided into three exogamous
clans who apparently marry with each other, their names being Poli,
Gurdi and Muski. In the Central Provinces they have a set of exogamous
sections with titular names of a somewhat curious nature; among them
are Hakkya, said to be so called because their ancestor was absent
when his cow gave birth to a calf; Wakmar, one who left the Pangat
or caste feast while his fellows were eating; and Polya, one who did
not take off his turban at the feast.
Hijra
Hijra, Khasua. [155]--The class of eunuchs, who form a separate
community, recruited by the admission of persons born with this
deformity or reduced to the like condition by amputation. In Saugor
it is said that the Khasuas are natural and the Hijras artificial
eunuchs, and the Khasuas deny that they admit Hijras into their
society. They may be either Hindus or Muhammadans by birth, but all
become Muhammadans. Children born in the condition of eunuchs are
usually made over to the Khasuas by their parents. The caste are
beggars, and also sing and dance at weddings and at the births of
male children, and obtain presents of grain from the cultivators
at seedtime and harvest. They wear female clothes and ornaments and
assume the names of women. They are admitted to mosques, but have to
stand behind the women, and in Saugor they have their own mosque. They
observe Muhammadan rites and festivals generally, and are permitted
to smoke from the huqqas of other Muhammadans. They are governed by a
caste panchayat or committee, which imposes fines but does not expel
any member from the community. Each Khasua has a beat or locality
reserved to him for begging and no other may infringe on it, violations
of this rule being punished by the committee. Sometimes a well-to-do
Khasua adopts an orphan and celebrates the child's marriage with as
much expense and display as he can afford, and the Kazi officiates
at the ceremony.
The Hijras form apparently a separate group, and the following
account of them is mainly taken from the Bombay Gazetteer. [156]
In Gujarat they are the emasculated male votaries of the goddess
Bouchera or Behechra, a sister of Devi. She is the spirit of a
martyred Charan or Bhat woman. Some Charan women were travelling
from Sulkhunpur in Gujarat when they were attacked and plundered by
Kolis. One of the women, of the name of Bouchera, snatched a sword
from a boy who attended her and with it cut off both her breasts. She
immediately perished, and was deified and worshipped as a form of
Devi in the Chunwal. [157] The Hijras usually mutilate themselves in
the performance of a religious vow, sometimes taken by the mother as
a means of obtaining children, and in rare cases by the boy himself
to obtain recovery by the favour of the goddess from a dangerous
illness. [158] Hence it is clear that they worship Boucheraji on
the ground that she obtained divine honours by self-mutilation and
should enable her votaries to do the same. But the real reason for
the Charan woman cutting off her breasts was no doubt that her ghost
might haunt and destroy the Koli robbers, in accordance with the
usual practice of the Charans. [159] As a further fulfilment of their
vow the Hijras pull out the hair of their beards and moustaches,
bore their ears and noses for female ornaments, and affect female
speech and manners. The meaning of the vow would appear to be that
the mother sacrifices her great blessing of a boy child and transforms
him after a fashion into a girl, at the same time devoting him to the
service of the goddess. Similarly, as a much milder form of the same
idea, a mother whose sons have died will sometimes bore the nose of a
later-born son and put a small nose-ring in it to make believe he is
a girl. But in this case the aim is also partly to cheat the goddess
or the evil spirits who cause the death of children, and make them
think the boy is a girl and therefore not worth taking.
The rite of mutilation is described by Mr. Faridi as follows: "The
initiation takes place at the temple of the goddess Behechra about 60
miles from Ahmadabad, where the neophyte repairs under the guardianship
or adoption of some older member of the brotherhood. The lad is called
the daughter of the old Hijra his guardian. The emasculation is a
secret rite and takes place under the direction of the chief Hijra
priest of Behechra. It is said that the operation and initiation
are held in a house with closed doors, where all the Hijras meet
in holiday dress. A special dish of fried pastry is cooked, and
the neophyte is bathed, dressed in red female attire, decked with
flower-garlands and seated on a stool in the middle of the room,
while the others sing to the accompaniment of a small drum and copper
cymbals. Another room is prepared for the operation, soft ashes being
spread on the floor and piled in a heap in the centre. When the time
for the operation approaches, the neophyte is led to the room and
is made to lie on his back on the ash-heap. The operator approaches
chewing betel-leaf. The hands and legs of the neophyte are firmly
held by some one of the fraternity, and the operator, carelessly
standing near with an unconcerned air, when he finds the attention
of his patient otherwise occupied, with great dexterity and with one
stroke completely cuts off the genital organs. He spits betel and
areca juice on the wound and staunches the bleeding with a handful
of the ashes of the babul. [160] The operation is dangerous and not
uncommonly fatal." Another method is to hold the organs in a cleft
bamboo and slice them off. The Hijras are beggars like the Khasuas,
and sometimes become very importunate. Soon after the birth of a
child in Gujarat the hated Hijras or eunuchs crowd round the house for
gifts. If the demand of one of them is refused the whole rank and file
of the local fraternity besiege the house with indecent clamour and
gesture. Their claim to alms rests, as with other religious mendicants,
in the sacred character which attaches to them. In Bombay there is
also a belief that the god Hanuman cries out once in twelve years,
and that those men who hear him are transformed into eunuchs. [161]
Some of them make money by allowing spectators to look at the mutilated
part of their body, and also by the practice of pederasty.
Homosexual practices are believed to be distinctly rare among Hindus,
and not common among Muhammadans of the Central Provinces. For this the
early age of marriage may probably be considered a principal cause. The
Hindu sacred books, however, do not attach severe penalties to this
offence. "According to the Laws of Manu, a twice-born man who commits
an unnatural offence with a male, or has intercourse with a female in
a cart drawn by oxen, in water or in the daytime, shall bathe, dressed
in his clothes; and all these are reckoned as minor offences." [162]
In his Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas Dr. Westermarck shows
that, apart from the genuine cases of sexual perversion, as to the
frequency of which opinions differ, homosexual love frequently arises
in three conditions of society. These are, when women are actually
scarce, as among the Australian aborigines and other primitive races;
when the men are frequently engaged in war or in predatory expeditions
and are separated from their wives for long periods, a condition
which accounts for its prevalence among the Sikhs and Pathans;
and lastly, when women are secluded and uneducated and hence their
society affords little intellectual pleasure to men. This was the
case in ancient Greece where women received no education and had no
place at the public spectacles which were the chief means of culture;
[163] and the same reason probably accounts for the frequency of the
vice among the Persians and modern Egyptians. "So also it seems that
the ignorance and dulness of Muhammadan women, which is a result of
their total lack of education and their secluded life, is a cause of
homosexual practices; Moors are sometimes heard to defend pederasty
on the plea that the company of boys, who have always news to tell,
is so much more entertaining than the company of women." [164]
The Christian Church in this as in other respects has set a very
high standard of sexual morality. Unnatural crimes were regarded with
peculiar horror in the Middle Ages, and the punishments for them in
English law were burying and burning alive, though these were probably
seldom or never enforced. [165] The attitude of the Church, which
was reflected in the civil law, was partly inherited from the Jews of
the Old Testament, and reinforced by similar conditions in mediaeval
society. In both cases this crime was especially associated with
the heathen and heretics, as shown in Dr. Westermarck's interesting
account: [166]
"According to Genesis, unnatural vice was the sin of a people who
were not the Lord's people, and the Levitical legislation represents
Canaanitish abominations as the chief reason why the Canaanites
were exterminated. Now we know that sodomy entered as an element in
their religion. Besides kedeshoth, or female prostitutes, there were
kedeshim or male prostitutes, attached to their temples. The word
kadesh, translated 'Sodomite,' properly denotes a man dedicated
to a deity; and it appears that such men were consecrated to the
mother of the gods, the famous Dea Syria, whose priests or devotees
they were considered to be. The male devotees of this and other
goddesses were probably in a position analogous to that occupied
by the female devotees of certain gods, who also, as we have seen,
have developed into libertines; and the sodomitic acts committed with
these temple prostitutes may, like the connections with priestesses,
have had in view to transfer blessings to the worshippers. In Morocco
supernatural benefits are expected not only from heterosexual, but
also from homosexual intercourse with a holy person. The kedeshim are
frequently alluded to in the Old Testament, especially in the period
of the monarchy, when rites of foreign origin made their way into
both Israel and Judah. And it is natural that the Yahveh worshipper
should regard their practices with the utmost horror as forming part
of an idolatrous cult.
"The Hebrew conception of homosexual love to some extent affected
Muhammadanism, and passed into Christianity. The notion that it
is a form of sacrilege was here strengthened by the habits of the
Gentiles. St. Paul found the abominations of Sodom prevalent among
nations who had 'changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped
and served the creature more than the creator.' During the Middle Ages
heretics were accused of unnatural vice as a matter of course. Indeed,
so closely was sodomy associated with heresy that the same name was
applied to both. In La Coutume de Touraine-Anjou the word hérite,
which is the ancient form of hérétique, seems to be used in the
sense of 'sodomite'; and the French bougre (from the Latin Bulgarus,
Bulgarian), as also its English synonym, was originally a name given
to a sect of heretics who came from Bulgaria in the eleventh century
and was afterwards applied to other heretics, but at the same time
it became the regular expression for a person guilty of unnatural
intercourse. In mediaeval laws sodomy was also repeatedly mentioned
together with heresy, and the punishment was the same for both. It
thus remained a religious offence of the first order. It was not only
a 'vitium nefandum et super omnia detestandum,' but it was one of
the four 'clamantia peccata,' or crying sins, a 'crime de Majestie,
vers le Roy celestre.' Very naturally, therefore, it has come to be
regarded with somewhat greater leniency by law and public opinion
in proportion as they have emancipated themselves from theological
doctrines. And the fresh light which the scientific study of the sexual
impulse has lately thrown upon the subject of homosexuality must also
necessarily influence the moral ideas relating to it, in so far as no
scrutinising judge can fail to take into account the pressure which
a powerful non-volitional desire exercises upon an agent's will."
Holia
Holia. [167]--A low caste of drummers and leather-workers who claim
to be degraded Golars or Telugu Ahirs, under which caste most of the
Holias seem to have returned themselves in 1901. [168] The Holias
relate the following story of their origin. Once upon a time two
brothers, Golar by caste, set out in search of service, having with
them a bullock. On the way the elder brother went to worship his
tutelary deity Holiari Deva; but while he was doing so the bullock
accidentally died, and the ceremony could not be proceeded with until
the carcase was removed. Neither a Chamar nor anybody else could
be got to do this, so at length the younger brother was prevailed
upon by the elder one to take away the body. When he returned,
the elder brother would not touch him, saying that he had lost his
caste. The younger brother resigned himself to his fate and called
himself Holu, after the god whom he had been worshipping at the time
he lost his caste. His descendants were named Holias. But he prayed
to the god to avenge him for the treachery of his brother, and from
that moment misfortunes commenced to shower upon the Golar until he
repented and made what reparation he could; and in memory of this,
whenever a Golar dies, the Holias are feasted by the other Golars to
the present day. The story indicates a connection between the castes,
and it is highly probable that the Holias are a degraded class of
Golars who took to the trade of tanning and leather-working. When
a Holia goes to a Golar's house he must be asked to come in and sit
down or the Golar will be put out of caste; and when a Golar dies the
house must be purified by a Holia. The caste is a very numerous one in
Madras. Here the Holia is superior only to the Madiga or Chamar. [169]
In the Central Provinces they are held to be impure and to rank below
the Mahars, and they live on the outskirts of the village. Their caste
customs resemble generally those of the Golars. They believe their
traditional occupation to be the playing of leathern drums, and they
still follow this trade, and also make slippers and leather thongs
for agricultural purposes. But they must not make or mend shoes on
pain of excommunication from caste. They are of middle stature, dark
in colour, and very dirty in their person and habits. Like the Golars,
the Holias speak a dialect of Canarese, which is known as Golari, Holia
or Komtau. Mr. Thurston gives the following interesting particulars
about the Holias: [170] "If a man of another caste enters the house
of a Mysore Holia, the owner takes care to tear the intruder's cloth,
and turn him out. This will avert any evil which might have befallen
him. It is said that Brahmans consider great luck will wait upon them
if they can manage to pass through a Holia village unmolested. Should
a Brahman attempt to enter their quarters, the Holias turn him out,
and slipper him, in former times it is said to death."
Injhwar
1. Origin of the caste.
Injhwar. [171]--A caste of agricultural labourers and fishermen found
in the Maratha tract of the Wainganga Valley, comprised in the Bhandara
and Balaghat Districts. In 1901 they numbered 8500 persons as against
11,000 in 1891. The name Injhwar is simply a Marathi corruption of
Binjhwar, as is for bis (twenty) and Ithoba for Bithoba or Vithoba. In
his Census Report of 1891 Sir Benjamin Robertson remarked that the
name was often entered in the census books as Vinjhwar, and in Marathi
B and V are practically interchangeable. The Injhwars are thus a caste
formed from the Binjhwars or highest subdivision of the Baiga tribe of
Balaghat; they have adopted the social customs of the Marathi-speaking
people among whom they live, and have been formed into a separate caste
through a corruption of their name. They still worship Injha or Vindhya
Devi, the tutelary deity of the Vindhyan hills, from which the name of
the Binjhwars is derived. The Injhwars have also some connection with
the Gowari or cowherd caste of the Maratha country. They are sometimes
known as Dudh-Gowari, and say that this is because an Injhwar woman was
a wet-nurse of the first-born Gowari. The Gowaris themselves, as a low
caste of herdsmen frequenting the jungles, would naturally be brought
into close connection with both the Baigas and Gonds. Their alliances
with the Gonds have produced the distinct caste of Gond-Gowari, and
it is not improbable that one fact operating to separate the Injhwars
from their parent tribe of the Baigas was an admixture of Gowari
blood. But they rank higher than the Gond-Gowaris, who are regarded as
impure; this is probably on account of the superior position of the
Binjhwars, who form the aristocracy of the Baiga tribe, and, living
in the forests, were never reduced to the menial and servile condition
imposed on the Gond residents in Hindu villages. The Injhwars, however,
admit the superiority of the Gowaris by taking food from their hands,
a favour which the latter will not reciprocate. Several of the sept
or family names of the caste are also taken from the Gonds, and this
shows an admixture of Gond blood; the Injhwars are thus probably a
mixed group of Gonds, Gowaris, and Binjhwars or Baigas.
2. Subdivisions.
The Injhwars have four subcastes, three of the territorial and one
of the occupational class. These are the Lanjiwar, or those living
round Lanji in Balaghat; the Korre, or those of the Korai hill tract
in Seoni; the Chandewar or Maratha Injhwars who belong to Chanda, and
are distinguished by holding their weddings only in the evening after
the Maratha custom, while other Injhwars will perform the ceremony at
any time of day; and the Sonjharias, or those who have taken to washing
for gold in the beds of streams. Of their sept or family names some,
as already stated, are taken from the Gonds, as Mesram, Tekam, Marai,
Ukya. [172] Three names, Bhoyar, Kawara and Kohrya (from Kohli),
are the names of other castes or tribes, and indicate that members
of these became Injhwars and founded families; and others are of the
territorial, titular and totemistic types. Among them may be mentioned
the Pithvalyas, from pith, flour; all families of this sept should
steal a little rice from somebody else's field as soon as it is ripe,
husband and wife making a joint expedition for the purpose. They
must not speak a word to each other from the time they start until
they have brought back the rice, pounded and cooked it, offered it
to the god and made their meal. The Paunpats, named after the lotus,
will not touch the flowers or leaves of the lotus plants, or even drink
water from a tank in which the lotus grows. The Dobokria Rawats are so
named because they make an offering of two goats to their gods. Some of
the septs are subdivided. Thus the Sonwani or gold-water sept, whose
members readmit social culprits, is divided into the Paunpat or lotus
Sonwanis; the Gurhiwal, who revere a brass vessel tied to a bamboo on
the first day of the year; the Sati Sonwani, who worship the spirit
of a sati woman ancestor; and the Mungphatia Sonwanis, whose token is
the broken mung pulse. At present these subsepts cannot intermarry,
the union of any two Sonwanis being forbidden, but it seems likely
that intermarriage may be permitted in the course of time.
3. Marriage and other customs.
The social customs of the Injhwars resemble those of the lower Maratha
castes. [173] Marriage is forbidden between members of the same sept
and first cousins, and a man should also not take a wife from the sept
of his brother or sister-in-law. This rule prevents the marriage of
two brothers to two sisters, to which there is of course no objection
on the ground of affinity. Girls are usually not married until they
are grown up; but in places where they have been much subjected to
Hindu influences, the Injhwars will sometimes wed an adult girl to a
basil plant in order to avoid the stigma of keeping her in the house
unmarried. The boy's father goes to make a proposal of marriage,
and the girl's father, if he approves it, intimates his consent by
washing his visitor's feet. A bride-price of about Rs. 20 is usually
paid, which is increased somewhat if the bridegroom is a widower, and
decreased if the bride has been seduced before marriage. The marriage
is performed by throwing coloured rice over the couple. Divorce and
the remarriage of widows are permitted. A bachelor who marries a widow
must first go through the ceremony with an arka or swallow-wort plant,
this being considered his real marriage. The Injhwars usually bury the
dead, and in accordance with Dravidian custom place the corpse in the
grave with the feet to the north. When the body is that of a young
girl, the face is left exposed as it is carried to the grave. The
regular ceremonies are performed for the welfare of the deceased's
soul, and they try to ascertain its fate in the next incarnation by
spreading flour on the ground overnight and looking in the morning
for anything resembling the foot-mark of a human being, animal or
bird. On the festival of Akhatij and in the month of Kartik (October)
they offer libations to the dead, setting out a large pitcher of
water for a male and a small one for a female. On the former they
paint five lines of sandalwood to represent a man's caste-mark, and
on the latter five splashes of kunku or the red powder which women
rub on their foreheads. A burning lamp is placed before the pitchers,
and they feed a male Mali or gardener as representative of a dead
man and a female for a woman.
4. Occupation and social status.
The Injhwars are generally labourers and cultivators, while the
Sonjharias wash for gold. The women of the Maratha or Chandewar
subcaste serve as midwives. Their social status is low, and in
the forest tracts they will eat snakes and crocodiles, and in fact
almost anything except beef. They will admit members of the Brahman,
Dhimar (waterman), Mali and Gowari castes into the community on
payment of a premium of five to fifteen rupees and a dinner to the
caste-fellows. The candidate for admission, whether male or female,
must have his head shaved clean. Both men and women can obtain pardon
for a liaison with an outsider belonging to any except the most impure
castes by giving a feast to the community. To be beaten with a shoe
involves temporary excommunication from caste, unless the striker be
a Government official, when no penalty is inflicted. If a man kills a
cat, he is required to have an image of it made in silver, which, after
being worshipped, is presented to a temple or thrown into a river.
Jadam
Jadam. [174]--A branch of the well-known Yadu or Yadava sept of Rajputs
which has now developed into a caste in the Nerbudda valley. Colonel
Tod describes the Yadu as the most illustrious of all the tribes
of India, this name having been borne by the descendants of Buddha,
progenitor of the Lunar race. The Yadavas were the herdsmen of Mathura,
and Krishna was born in this tribe. His son was Bharat, from whom the
classical name of Bharatavarsha for India is held to be derived. It is
related that when Krishna was about to ascend to heaven, he reflected
that the Yadavas had multiplied exceedingly and would probably cause
trouble to the world after he had left it. So he decided to reduce
their numbers, and one day he persuaded one of his companions to dress
up as a pregnant woman in jest, and they took him to the hermitage of
the saint Durvasa and asked the saint to what the woman would give
birth. Durvasa, who was of a very irascible temper, divined that he
was being trifled with, and replied that a rice-pestle would be born by
which the Yadavas would be destroyed. On the return of the party they
found to their astonishment that a pestle had actually, as it were,
been born from the man. So they were alarmed at the words of the saint
and tried to destroy the pestle by rubbing it on a stone. But as the
sawdust of the pestle fell on the ground there sprang up from it the
shoots of the Gondla or Elephant grass, which grows taller than the
head of a man on horseback. And some time afterwards a quarrel arose
among the Yadavas, and they tore up the stalks of this grass and slew
each other with it. Only one woman escaped, whose son was afterwards
the King of Mathura and the ancestor of the existing tribe. Another
body, however, with whom was Krishna, fled to Gujarat, and on the
coast there built the great temple of Dwarka, in the place known
as Jagat Khant, or the World's End. The story has some resemblance
to that of the sowing of the dragon's teeth by Cadmus at Thebes. The
principal branches of the Yadavas are the Yaduvansi chiefs of Karauli,
in Rajputana, and the Bhatti chiefs of Jaisalmer. The Jadams of
Hoshangabad say that they immigrated from Karauli State about 700
years ago, having come to the country on a foray for plunder and
afterwards settled here. They have now developed into a caste, marrying
among themselves. In Hoshangabad the caste has two subdivisions,
the Kachhotia who belong principally to the Sohagpur tahsil, and the
Adhodias who live in Seoni and Harda. These two groups are endogamous
and do not marry with each other. The Kachhotia are the offspring of
irregular unions and are looked down upon by the others. They say that
they have fifty-two exogamous groups or sections, but this number is
used locally as an expression of indefinite magnitude. All the sections
appear to be named after villages where their ancestors once lived,
but the preference for totemism has led some of the groups to connect
their names with natural objects. Thus the designation of the Semaria
section may be held to be derived from a village of that name, both
on account of its form, and because the other known section-names are
taken from villages. But the Semaria Jadams have adopted the semar
or cotton-tree as their totem and pay reverence to this. [175]
Infant-marriage is favoured in the caste, and polygamy is also
prevalent. This is often the case among the agricultural castes,
where a man will marry several wives in order to obtain their
assistance in his cultivation, a wife being a more industrious
and reliable worker than a hired servant. No penalty is, however,
imposed for allowing a girl to reach adolescence before marriage, and
this not infrequently happens. If a girl becomes with child through
a man of the caste she is united to him by a simple rite known as
gunda, in which she merely gives him a ring or throws a garland
of flowers over his neck. A caste feast is also exacted, and the
couple are then considered to be married. The remarriage of widows is
permitted, but it is known by the opprobrious name of Kukar-gauna or
'dog-marriage,' signifying that it is held to be little or no better
than a simple illicit connection. Divorce is also somewhat common in
the caste, notwithstanding that the person who occupies the position
of co-respondent must repay to the husband the expenses incurred by
him on the marriage ceremony. Some women are known to have had ten
or twelve husbands.
The Jadams are proprietors, tenants and labourers, and are reckoned to
be efficient cultivators; they plough with their own hands and allow
their women to work in the fields. They will also eat food cooked
with water in the field, which is against the practice of the higher
castes. They eat flesh, including that of the wild pig, and fish,
but abstain from liquor, and will take food cooked with water only
from Jijhotia or Sanadhya Brahmans who are their family priests. A
Brahman will take water from the hands of a Jadam in a metal, but not
in an earthen, vessel. Boys are invested with the sacred thread at the
time of their wedding, a common practice among the higher agricultural
castes, and one pointing to the hypothesis suggested in the article on
Gurao that the investiture with the sacred thread was in its origin
a rite of puberty. The women wear a peculiar dress know as sawang,
consisting of a small skirt of about six feet of cloth and a long
body-cloth wrapped round the waist and over the shoulders. They also
have larger spangles on the forehead than other women. The women
of the caste are emancipated to an unusual degree, and it is stated
that they commonly accompany their husbands to market for shopping,
to prevent them from being cheated. Dr. Hunter describes the Jadam as
a brave soldier, but a bad agriculturist; but in the Central Provinces
his courage is rated less highly, and a proverb quoted about him is:
'Patta khatka, Jadam satka,' or 'The Jadam trembles at the rustle of
a leaf.'
Jadua
Jadua-, Jaduah-Brahman. [176]--This is the name of a class of
swindlers, who make money by pretending to turn other metals
into gold or finding buried treasure. They are believed to have
originated from the caste of Bhadris or Jyotishis, the astrologers
of western India. The Jyotishi or Joshi astrologers are probably an
offshoot of the Brahman caste. The name Jadua is derived from jadu,
magic. The Bhadris or Jyotishis were in former times, Mr. Knyvett
writes, attached to the courts of all important rajas in western
India, where they told fortunes and prophesied future events from
their computations of the stars, often obtaining great influence and
being consulted as oracles. Readers of Quentin Durward will not need
to be reminded that an exactly similar state of things obtained in
Europe. And both the European and Indian astrologers were continually
searching for the philosopher's stone and endeavouring by the practice
of alchemy to discover the secret of changing silver and other metals
into gold. It is easy to understand how the more dishonest members
of the community would come to make a livelihood by the pretence
of being possessed of this power. The Jaduas belong principally to
Bihar, and Mr. Knyvett's account of them is based on inquiries in that
Province. But it is probable that, like the Bhadris, travelling parties
of Jaduas occasionally visit the Central Provinces. Their method of
procedure is somewhat as follows. They start out in parties of three
or four and make inquiries for the whereabouts of some likely dupe,
in the shape of an ignorant and superstitious person possessed of
property. Sometimes they settle temporarily in a village and open a
small grain-shop in order to facilitate their search. When the victim
has been selected one of them proceeds to his village in the disguise
of a Sadhu or anchorite, being usually accompanied by another as
his chela or disciple. Soon afterwards the others come, one of them
perhaps posing as a considerable landholder, and go about inquiring
if a very holy Brahman has been seen. They go to the house of their
intended dupe, who naturally asks why they are seeking the Brahman;
they reply that they have come to do homage to him as he had turned
their silver and brass ornaments into gold. The dupe at once goes with
them in search of the Brahman, and is greatly impressed by seeing the
landholder worship him with profound respect and make him presents of
cloth, money and cattle. He at once falls into the trap and says that
he too has a quantity of silver which he would like to have turned
into gold. The Brahman pretends reluctance, but eventually yields to
the dupe's entreaties and allows himself to be led to the latter's
house, where with his chela he takes up his quarters in an inner room,
dark and with a mud floor. A variety of tricks are now resorted to,
to impress the dupe with the magic powers of the swindlers. Sometimes
he is directed to place a rupee on his forehead and go to the door
and look at the sun for five minutes, being assured that when he
returns the Brahman will have disappeared by magic. Having looked at
the sun for five minutes he can naturally see nothing on returning to
a dark room and expresses wonder at the Brahman's disappearance and
gradual reappearance as his eyes get accustomed to the darkness. Or
if the trick to be practised is the production of buried treasure,
a rupee may be buried in the ground and after various incantations
two rupees are produced from the same spot by sleight of hand. Or
by some trickery the victim is shown the mouth of an earthen vessel
containing silver or gold coins in a hole dug in the ground. He is
told that the treasure cannot be obtained until more treasure has
been added to it and religious rites have been performed. Sometimes
the victim is made to visit a secluded spot, where he is informed that
after repeating certain incantations Sivaji will appear before him. A
confederate, dressed in tinsel and paint, appears before the victim
posing as Sivaji, and informs him that there is treasure buried in
his house, and it is only necessary to follow the instructions of the
holy Brahman in order to obtain it. The silver ornaments, all that
can be collected, are then made over to the Brahman, who pretends to
tie them in a cloth or place them in an earthen pot and bury them in
the floor of the room. If buried treasure is to be found the Brahman
explains that it is first necessary to bury more treasure in order
to obtain it, and if the ornaments are to be turned into gold they
are buried for the purpose of transmutation. During the process the
victim is induced on some pretence to leave the room or cover himself
with a sheet, when a bundle containing mud or stones is substituted
for the treasure. The Brahman calls for ghi, oil and incense, and
lights a fire over the place where the ornaments are supposed to be
buried, bidding his victim watch over it for some hours or days until
his return. The Brahman and his disciple, with the silver concealed
about them, then leave the house, join their confederates and make
their escape. The duped villager patiently watches the fire until he
becomes tired of waiting for the Brahman's return, when he digs up
the earth and finds nothing in the cloth but stones and rubbish.
Jangam
Jangam, Jangama.--A Sivite order of wandering religious mendicants. The
Jangams are the priests or gurus of the Sivite sect of Lingayats. They
numbered 3500 persons in the Central Provinces and Berar in 1911,
and frequent the Maratha country. The Jangam is said to be so
called because he wears a movable emblem of Siva (jana gama, to
come and go) in contradistinction to the Sthawar or fixed emblems
found in temples. The Jangams discard many of the modern phases of
Hinduism. They reject the poems in honour of Vishnu, Rama and Krishna,
such as the Bhagavad Gita and Ramayana; they also deny the authority
of Brahmans, the efficacy of pilgrimage and self-mortification, and
the restrictions of caste; while they revere principally the Vedas and
the teaching of the great Sivite reformer Shankar Acharya. [177] Like
other religious orders, the Jangams have now become a caste, and are
divided into two groups of celibate and married members. The Gharbaris
(married members) celebrate their weddings in the usual Maratha
fashion, except that they perform no hom or fire sacrifice. They
permit the remarriage of widows. The Jangams wear ochre-coloured or
badami clothes and long necklaces of seeds called rudraksha [178]
beads, which resemble a nutmeg in size, in colour and nearly in shape;
they besmear their forehead, arms and various other parts of the body
with cowdung ashes. They wear the lingam or phallic sign of Siva
either about the neck or loins in a little casket of gold, silver,
copper or brass. As the lingam is supposed to represent the god and
to be eternal, they are buried and not burnt after death, because
the lingam must be buried with them and must not be destroyed in the
fire. If any Jangam loses the lingam he or she must not eat or drink
until it has been replaced by the guru or spiritual preceptor. It
must be worshipped thrice a day, and ashes and bel [179] leaves are
offered to it, besides food when the owner is about to partake of this
himself. The Jangams worship no deity other than Siva or Mahadeo, and
their great festival is the Shivratri. Some of them make pilgrimages
to Pachmarhi, to the Mahadeo hills. Most of them subsist by begging
and singing songs in praise of Mahadeo. Grant-Duff gives the Jangam as
one of the twenty-four village servants in a Maratha village, perhaps
as the priest of the local shrine of Siva, or as the caste priest
of the Lingayats, who are numerous in some Districts of Bombay. He
carries a wallet over the shoulder and a conch-shell and bell in the
hand. On approaching the door of a house he rings his bell to bring
out the occupant, and having received alms proceeds on his way,
blowing his conch-shell, which is supposed to be a propitious act
for the alms-giver, and to ensure his safe passage to heaven. The
wallet is meant to hold the grain given to him, and on returning
home he never empties it completely, but leaves a little grain in
it as its own share. The Jangams are strict vegetarians, and take
food only from the hands of Lingayats. They bless their food before
eating it and always finish it completely, and afterwards wash the
dish with water and drink down the water. When a child is born, the
priest is sent for and his feet are washed with water in a brass
tray. The water is then rubbed over the bodies of those present,
and a few drops sprinkled on the walls of the house as a ceremony
of purification. The priest's great toes are then washed in a cup
of water, and he dips the lingam he wears into this, and then sips
a few drops of the water, each person present doing the same. This
is called karuna or sanctification. He then dips a new lingam into
the holy water, and ties it round the child's neck for a minute or
two, afterwards handing it to the mother to be kept till the child
is old enough to wear it. The dead are buried in a sitting posture,
the lingam being placed in the palm of the hand. On the third day a
clay image of Mahadeo is carried to the grave, and food and flowers
are offered to it, as well as any intoxicants to which the deceased
person may have been addicted. The following notice of the Jangams
more than a century ago may be quoted from the Abbé Dubois, though the
custom described does not, so far as is known, prevail at present,
at least in the Central Provinces: [180] "The gurus or priests of
Siva, who are known in the Western Provinces by the name of Jangams,
are for the most part celibates. They have a custom which is peculiar
to themselves, and curious enough to be worth remarking. When a guru
travels about his district he lodges with some member of the sect,
and the members contend among themselves for the honour of receiving
him. When he has selected the house he wishes to stay in, the master
and all the other male inmates are obliged, out of respect for him,
to leave it and go and stay elsewhere. The holy man remains there day
and night with only the women of the house, whom he keeps to wait on
him and cook for him, without creating any scandal or exciting the
jealousy of the husbands. All the same, some scandal-mongers have
remarked that the Jangams always take care to choose a house where
the women are young." The Jangams are not given to austerities,
and go about well clad.
JAT
List of Paragraphs
1. Theories of the origin of the caste.
2. Sir D. Ibbetson's description of the caste.
3. Are the Jats and Rajputs distinct?
4. The position of the Jat in the Punjab.
5. Social status of the Jats.
6. Brahmanical legend of origin.
7. The Jats in the Central Provinces.
8. Marriage customs.
9. Funeral rites.
10. The Paida ceremony.
11. Customs at birth.
12. Religion.
13. Social customs.
14. Occupation.
1. Theories of the origin of the caste.
Jat. [181]--The representative cultivating caste of the Punjab,
corresponding to the Kurmi of Hindustan, the Kunbi of the Deccan,
and the Kapu of Telingana. In the Central Provinces 10,000 Jats were
returned in 1911, of whom 5000 belonged to Hoshangabad and the bulk of
the remainder to Narsinghpur, Saugor and Jubbulpore. The origin of the
Jat caste has been the subject of much discussion. Sir D. Ibbetson
stated some of the theories as follows: [182] "Suffice it to say
that both General Cunningham and Major Tod agree in considering the
Jats to be of Indo-Scythian stock. The former identifies them with
the Zanthii of Strabo and the Jatii of Pliny and Ptolemy; and holds
that they probably entered the Punjab from their home on the Oxus
very shortly after the Meds or Mands, who also were Indo-Scythians,
and who moved into the Punjab about a century before Christ.... Major
Tod classes the Jats as one of the great Rajput tribes, and extends
his identification with the Getae to both races; but here General
Cunningham differs, holding the Rajputs to belong to the original Aryan
stock, and the Jats to a later wave of immigrants from the north-west,
probably of Scythian race." It is highly probable that the Jats may
date their settlement in the Punjab from one of the three Scythian
inroads mentioned by Mr. V. A. Smith, [183] but I do not know that
there is as yet considered to be adequate evidence to identify them
with any particular one.
The following curious passage from the Mahabharata would appear to
refer to the Jats: [184]
"An old and excellent Brahman reviling the countries Bahika and
Madra in the dwelling of Dhritarashtra, related facts long known, and
thus described those nations. External to the Himavan, and beyond the
Ganges, beyond the Sarasvati and Yamuna rivers and Kurukshetra, between
five rivers, and the Sindhu as the sixth, are situated the Bahikas,
devoid of ritual or observance, and therefore to be shunned. Their
figtree is named Govardhana (i.e. the place of cow-killing); their
market-place is Subhadram (the place of vending liquor: at least so
say the commentators), and these give titles to the doorway of the
royal palace. A business of great importance compelled me to dwell
amongst the Bahikas, and their customs are therefore well known to
me. The chief city is called Shakala, and the river Apaga. The people
are also named Jarttikas; and their customs are shameful. They drink
spirits made from sugar and grain, and eat meat seasoned with garlic;
and live on flesh and wine: their women intoxicated appear in public
places, with no other garb than garlands and perfumes, dancing and
singing, and vociferating indecencies in tones more harsh than those of
the camel or the ass; they indulge in promiscuous intercourse and are
under no restraint. They clothe themselves in skins and blankets, and
sound the cymbal and drum and conch, and cry aloud with hoarse voices:
'We will hasten to delight, in thick forests and in pleasant places;
we will feast and sport; and gathering on the highways spring upon the
travellers, and spoil and scourge them!' In Shakala, a female demon
(a Rakshasi) on the fourteenth day of the dark fortnight sings aloud:
'I will feast on the flesh of kine, and quaff the inebriating spirit
attended by fair and graceful females.' The Sudra-like Bahikas have no
institutes nor sacrifices; and neither deities, manes, nor Brahmans
accept their offerings. They eat out of wooden or earthen plates,
nor heed their being smeared with wine or viands, or licked by dogs,
and they use equally in its various preparations the milk of ewes,
of camels and of asses. Who that has drunk milk in the city Yugandhara
can hope to enter Svarga? Bahi and Hika were the names of two fiends
in the Vipasha river; the Bahikas are their descendants and not of
the creation of Brahma. Some say the Arattas are the name of the
people and Bahika of the waters. The Vedas are not known there,
nor oblation, nor sacrifice, and the gods will not partake of their
food. The Prasthalas (perhaps borderers), Madras, Gandharas, Arattas,
Khashas, Vasas, Atisindhus (or those beyond the Indus), Sauviras, are
all equally infamous. There one who is by birth a Brahman, becomes a
Kshatriya, or a Vaishya, or a Sudra, or a Barber, and having been a
barber becomes a Brahman again. A virtuous woman was once violated by
Aratta ruffians, and she cursed the race, and their women have ever
since been unchaste. On this account their heirs are their sisters'
children, not their own. All countries have their laws and gods:
the Yavanas are wise, and preeminently brave; the Mlechchas observe
their own ritual, but the Madrakas are worthless. Madra is the ordure
of the earth: it is the region of inebriety, unchastity, robbery,
and murder: fie on the Panchanada people! fie on the Aratta race!"
In the above account the country referred to is clearly the Punjab,
from the mention of the five rivers and the Indus. The people are
called Bahika or Jarttika, and would therefore seem to be the Jats. And
the account would appear to refer to a period when they were newly
settled in the Punjab and had not come under Hindu influence. But
at the same time the Aryans or Hindus had passed through the Punjab
and were settled in Hindustan. And it would therefore seem to be a
necessary inference that the Jats were comparatively late immigrants,
and were one of the tribes who invaded India between the second
century B.C. and the fifth century A.D. as suggested above.
2. Sir D. Ibbetson's description of the caste.
Sir D. Ibbetson held that the Jats and Rajputs must be, to some
extent at least, of the same blood. Though the Jats are represented
in the Central Provinces only by a small body of immigrants it will
be permissible to quote the following passages from his admirable
and classical account of the caste: [185]
"It may be that the original Rajput and the original Jat entered
India at different periods in its history, though to my mind the term
Rajput is an occupational rather than an ethnological expression. But
if they do originally represent two separate waves of immigration,
it is at least exceedingly probable, both from their almost identical
physique and facial character and from the close communion which has
always existed between them, that they belong to one and the same
ethnic stock; while, whether this be so or not, it is almost certain
that they have been for many centuries and still are so intermingled
and so blended into one people that it is practically impossible to
distinguish them as separate wholes. It is indeed more than probable
that the process of fusion has not ended here, and that the people
who thus in the main resulted from the blending of the Jat and the
Rajput, if these two were ever distinct, is by no means free from
foreign elements....
3. Are the Jats and Rajputs distinct?
"But whether Jats and Rajputs were or were not originally distinct,
and whatever aboriginal elements may have been affiliated to their
society, I think that the two now form a common stock, the distinction
between Jat and Rajput being social rather than ethnic. I believe
that those families of that common stock whom the tide of fortune
has raised to political importance have become Rajputs almost by
mere virtue of their rise; and that their descendants have retained
the title and its privileges on the condition, strictly enforced, of
observing the rules by which the higher are distinguished from the
lower castes in the Hindu scale of precedence; of preserving their
purity of blood by refusing to marry with families of inferior social
rank, of rigidly abstaining from widow-marriage, and of refraining
from degrading occupations. Those who transgressed these rules have
fallen from their high position and ceased to be Rajputs; while
such families as, attaining a dominant position in their territory,
began to affect social exclusiveness and to observe the rules, have
become not only Rajas but also Rajputs or sons of Rajas. For the last
seven centuries at least the process of elevation has been almost at
a standstill. Under the Delhi Emperors king-making was practically
impossible. Under the Sikhs the Rajput was overshadowed by the Jat,
who resented his assumption of superiority and his refusal to join him
on equal terms in the ranks of the Khalsa, deliberately persecuted him
wherever and whenever he had the power, and preferred his title of Jat
Sikh to that of the proudest Rajput. On the frontier the dominance
of Pathans and Biloches and the general prevalence of Muhammadan
feelings and ideas placed recent Indian origin at a discount, and
led the leading families who belonged to neither of these two races
to claim connection not with the Kshatriyas of the Sanskrit classics
but with the Mughal conquerors of India or the Qureshi cousins of
the Prophet; in so much that even admittedly Rajput tribes of famous
ancestry, such as the Khokha, have begun to follow the example. But
in the hills, where Rajput dynasties, with genealogies perhaps more
ancient and unbroken than can be shown by any other royal families
in the world, retained their independence till yesterday, and where
many of them still enjoy as great social authority as ever, the twin
processes of degradation from and elevation to Rajput rank are still
to be seen in operation. The Raja is there the fountain not only of
honour but also of caste, which is the same thing in India....
4. The position of the Jat in the Punjab.
"The Jat is in every respect the most important of the Punjab
peoples. In point of numbers he surpasses the Rajput, who comes next
to him, in the proportion of nearly three to one; while the two
together constitute twenty-seven per cent of the whole population
of the Province. Politically he ruled the Punjab till the Khalsa
yielded to our arms. Ethnologically he is the peculiar and most
prominent product of the plain of the five rivers. And from an
economical and administrative point of view he is the husbandman,
the peasant, the revenue-payer par excellence of the Province. His
manners do not bear the impress of generations of wild freedom which
marks the races of our frontier mountains. But he is more honest,
more industrious, more sturdy, and no less manly than they. Sturdy
independence indeed and patient, vigorous labour are his strongest
characteristics. The Jat is of all Punjab races the most impatient
of tribal or communal control, and the one which asserts the freedom
of the individual most strongly. In tracts where, as in Rohtak,
the Jat tribes have the field to themselves, and are compelled,
in default of rival castes as enemies, to fall back upon each other
for somebody to quarrel with, the tribal ties are strong. But as a
rule a Jat is a man who does what seems right in his own eyes and
sometimes what seems wrong also, and will not be said nay by any
man. I do not mean, however, that he is turbulent; as a rule he is
very far from being so. He is independent and he is self-willed; but
he is reasonable, peaceably inclined if left alone, and not difficult
to manage. He is usually content to cultivate his fields and pay
his revenue in peace and quietness if people will let him do so;
though when he does go wrong he takes to anything from gambling to
murder, with perhaps a preference for stealing other people's wives
and cattle. As usual the proverbial wisdom of the villages describes
him very fairly though perhaps somewhat too severely: 'The soil,
fodder, clothes, hemp, grass-fibre, and silk, these six are best
beaten; and the seventh is the Jat.' 'A Jat, a Bhat, a caterpillar,
and a widow woman; these four are best hungry. If they eat their fill
they do harm.' 'The Jat, like a wound, is better when bound.' In
agriculture the Jat is pre-eminent. The market-gardening castes,
the Arain, the Mali, the Saini are perhaps more skilful cultivators
on a small scale; but they cannot rival the Jat as landowners and
yeoman cultivators. The Jat calls himself zamindar or 'husbandman' as
often as Jat, and his women and children alike work with him in the
fields: 'The Jat's baby has a plough-handle for a plaything.' 'The
Jat stood on his corn heap and said to the king's elephant-drivers,
Will you sell those little donkeys?' Socially the Jat occupies a
position which is shared by the Ror, the Gujar, and the Ahir, all
four eating and smoking together. He is, of course, far below the
Rajput, from the simple fact that he practises widow-marriage. The
Jat father is made to say in the rhyming proverbs of the countryside,
'Come, my daughter, and be married; if this husband dies there are
plenty more.' But among the widow-marrying castes he stands first. The
Bania with his sacred thread, his strict Hinduism, and his twice-born
standing, looks down on the Jat as a Sudra. But the Jat looks down
upon the Bania as a cowardly, spiritless money-grubber, and society
in general agrees with the Jat. The Khatri, who is far superior to
the Bania in manliness and vigour, probably takes precedence of the
Jat. But among the races or tribes of purely Hindu origin, I think that
the Jat stands next after the Brahman, the Rajput, and the Khatri."
5. Social status of the Jats.
The above account clearly indicates the social position of the
Jat. His is the highest caste except the aristocracy consisting
of the Brahmans and Rajputs, the Khatris who are derived from the
Rajputs, and the Banias who are recognised as ranking not much
below the Rajputs. The derivation of some of the Rajput clans from
the Jats seems highly probable, and is confirmed by other instances
of aristocratic selection in such castes as the Marathas and Kunbis,
the Raj-Gonds and Gonds, and so on. If, however, the Rajputs are a Jat
aristocracy, it is clear that the Jats were not the Sudras, who are
described as wholly debased and impure in the Hindu classics; and the
present application of the term Sudra to them is a misnomer arising
from modern errors in classification by the Hindus themselves. The
Jats, if Sir D. Ibbetson's account be accepted, must have been the
main body of the invading host, whether Aryan or Scythian, of whom
the Rajputs were the leaders. They settled on the land and formed
village communities, and the status of the Jat at present appears to
be that of a member of the village community and part-holder of its
land. A slightly undue importance may perhaps have been given in the
above passage to the practice of widow-marriage as determining the
position of a great caste like the Jats. Some Rajputs, Kayasths and
Banias permit widow-marriage, and considerable sections of all these
castes, and Brahmans also, permit the practice of keeping widows,
which, though not called a marriage, does not differ very widely from
it. The Jat probably finds his women too valuable as assistants in
cultivation to make a pretence at the abolition of widow-marriage in
order to improve his social status as some other castes do. The Jat,
of course, ranks as what is commonly called a pure caste, in that
Brahmans take water to drink from him. But his status does not depend
on this, because Brahmans take water from such menials as barbers,
Kahars or bearers, Baris or household servants, and so on, who rank
far below the Jat, and also from the Malis and other gardening castes
who are appreciably below him. The Jat is equal to the Gujar and Ahir
so far as social purity is concerned, but still above them, because
they are graziers and vagrants, while he is a settled cultivator. It
is from this fact that his status is perhaps mainly derived; and
his leading characteristics, his independence, self-sufficiency,
doggedness, and industry, are those generally recognised as typical
of the peasant proprietor. But the Jat, in the Punjab at any rate,
has also a higher status than the principal cultivating castes of
other provinces, the Kurmi and the Kunbi. And this may perhaps be
explained by his purer foreign descent, and also by the fact that
both as Jat and as Sikh his caste has been a military and dominant
one in history and has furnished princes and heads of states.
6. Brahmanical legend of origin.
The Jats themselves relate the following Brahmanical legend of
their origin. On one occasion when Himachal or Daksha Raja, the
father-in-law of Mahadeo, was performing a great sacrifice, he
invited all the gods to be present except his son-in-law Mahadeo
(Siva). The latter's wife Parvati was, however, very anxious to go,
so she asked Mahadeo to let her attend, even though she had not been
invited. Mahadeo was unwilling to do this, but finally consented. But
Daksha treated Parvati with great want of respect at the sacrifice,
so she came home and told Mahadeo about him. When Mahadeo heard this
he was filled with wrath, and untying his matted hair (jata) dashed
it on the ground, when two powerful beings arose from it. He sent
them to destroy Daksha's sacrifice and they went and destroyed it,
and from these were descended the race of the Jats, and they take
their name from the matted locks (jata) of the lord Mahadeo. Another
saying of the caste is that "The ancestor of the Rajputs was Kashyap
[186] and of the Jats Siva. In the beginning these were the only two
races of India."
7. The Jats in the Central Provinces.
No detailed description of the Jats need be attempted here, but
some information which has been obtained on their customs in this
Province may be recorded. They entered the Hoshangabad District,
Sir C. Elliot states, [187] in the eighteenth century, and came
originally from Bharatpur (Bhurtpur), but halted in Marwar on the
way. "They are the best cultivators in the District after the Pardeshi
Kurmis, and though they confine themselves to ordinary crops they
are very laborious, and the tilth of their fields is pleasant to look
on." For the purposes of marriage the caste is divided into exogamous
sections in the usual manner. The bulk of the section-names cannot be
explained, being probably corrupted forms of the names of villages,
but it is noticeable that several pairs of them are considered to be
related so that their members cannot intermarry. Thus no marriages
can take place between the Golia and Gwalwa, the Choyala and Sarana,
the Bhukar and Bhari, and the Lathial and Lalar sections, as each
pair is considered to be descended from a common ancestor.
8. Marriage customs.
A man may not take a wife either from his own section or that of
his mother or his grandmother, nor from those of the husbands of his
father's sisters. For a Jat wedding a square enclosure is marked out
with pegs, and a thread is wound seven times round the pegs touching
the ground, and covered over with rice or wheat so that it may not
be burnt. The enclosure is known as Chaonri, and inside it the hom
or fire sacrifice is performed with butter, barley, sesamum, sugar
and saffron placed on the top of a heap of wheat-flour. After the
sacrifice the bride and bridegroom walk seven times round the Chaonri
with their right hands inwards. After this tufts of cotton are thrown
over the bodies of the bridegroom and bride and they have to pick
it off each other, the one who finishes first being considered the
winner. This is apparently a symbolical imitation of the agricultural
operation of cotton-picking. The remarriage of widows is permitted,
the ceremony being usually performed on a Saturday. A bachelor
who is to marry a widow must first walk seven times round a pipal
tree. Contrary to the usual custom, a widow is forbidden to espouse
her deceased husband's younger brother or any of his relations within
three degrees of consanguinity.
9. Funeral rites.
The dead are burnt, with the exception of children under seven
whose bodies are buried. After the death of a married man his
widow walks round his body seven times with her left hand inwards,
or in the reverse direction to the perambulation of the Chaonri at
marriage. This ceremony is therefore, as it were, a sort of undoing
of the marriage. The women wear lac or ivory bangles, and the widow
breaks a few of these when the corpse of her husband is lifted up to be
carried outside the house. She breaks the remaining ones on the twelfth
day after the death and throws them on the chulha or earthen hearth.
10. The Paida ceremony.
An important occasion for display among the Jats is known as the Paida
ceremony. This is sometimes performed by wealthy families when the head
of the household or his wife dies or a daughter is married. They get
a long pole of teakwood and plant it in the ground so that it stands
some forty feet high. Before being raised the pole is worshipped with
offerings of milk; a cart-wheel is tied to the upper end and it is
then pulled erect with ropes, and if any difficulty is experienced
the celebrant believes himself to be in fault and gives away some
cows in charity. On the axle of the cart-wheel is secured a brass pot
called kaseri, containing wheat and money, with a cloth tied over the
mouth. The pole is left standing for three days, and during this time
the celebrant feasts the Bhats or genealogists of the caste and all
the caste-fellows from his own and the surrounding villages. If the
occasion of the ceremony be a death, male and female calves are taken
and their marriage is performed; oil and turmeric are rubbed on their
bodies, and they are led seven times round the high pole. The heifer
is then given to a Brahman, and the male, being first branded on one
flank with a figure of a trident and on the other with a representation
of the sun and moon, is set at liberty for life, and no Hindu will
injure it. This last practice is, however, falling into desuetude,
owing to the injury which such animals inflict on the crops. A
Jat who performs the Paida ceremony obtains great consideration in
the community, and his opinion is given weight in caste disputes. A
similar liberality is observed in other ways by wealthy men; thus one
rich proprietor in Hoshangabad, whose son was to be married, gave a
feast to all the residents of every village through which the wedding
procession passed on its way to the bride's house. Another presented
each of his wedding guests with new cloth to the value of ten or
twelve rupees, and as in the case of a prominent family the number
of guests may be a thousand or more, the cost of such liberality can
be easily realised. Similarly Colonel Tod states that on the occasion
of their weddings the Jats of Bikaner even blocked up the highways to
obtain visitors, whose numbers formed the measure of the liberality
and munificence of the donor of the fête. Indeed, the desire for the
social distinction which accrues to generous hosts on such occasions
has proved to be the undoing of many a once notable family.
11. Customs at birth.
If a woman is barren, she is taken to the meeting of the boundaries
of three villages and bathed there. On the birth of a boy a brass
dish is hammered to announce the event, but on that of a girl
only a winnowing-fan. The navel-string is buried in the lying-in
room. When the newborn child is a few days old, it is taken out of
doors and made to bow to the sun. When a man proposes to adopt a
son the caste-fellows are invited, and in their presence the boy is
seated in his lap, while music is played and songs are sung by the
women. Each of the guests then comes up and presents the boy with a
cocoanut, while sugar is distributed and a feast is afterwards given.
12. Religion.
The favourite deity of the caste is Siva or Mahadeo, whom they
consider to be their ultimate ancestor. On the festival of Shivratri
(Siva's night) they observe a total fast, and pass the whole day
and night singing songs in honour of the god, while offerings of bel
[188] leaves, flowers, rice and sandalwood are made on the following
morning. In Hoshangabad the caste have two minor deities, Ramji Deo and
Bairam Deo, who are presumably the spirits of defunct warriors. These
are worshipped on the eleventh day of every month, and many Jats wear
an impression of their images on a piece of gold or silver round the
neck. On the Dasahra festival the caste worship their swords and horses
in memory of their soldier ancestors, and they revere their implements
of husbandry on the Akshaya Tritiya of Baisakh (June), the commencement
of the agricultural year, while each cultivator does the same on the
days that he completes the sowing of his rain crops and winter crops.
13. Social customs.
The caste employ Brahmans for the performance of their ceremonies,
and also as their gurus or spiritual preceptors. They eat flesh and
drink liquor in the Central Provinces, but in Hoshangabad they do
not consume either birds or fish; and when they eat mutton or the
flesh of the wild pig, they do this only outside the house, in order
not to offend their women, who will not eat flesh. In Hoshangabad
the Jats, like other immigrants from Marwar, commonly wear their
hair long and keep the face unshaven, and this gives them rather a
wild and farouche appearance among the neatly shorn Hindus of the
Nerbudda Valley. [189] They are of light complexion, the difference
in shade between the Jats and ordinary residents in the locality
being apparent to the casual observer. Their women are fond of the
hollow anklets known as bora, which contain small balls or pebbles,
and tinkle as they walk. Girls are tattooed before marriage, and while
the operation is being carried out the women of the caste collect and
sing songs to divert the sufferer's attention from the pain. The men
have pagris or turbans made of many little strings of twisted cloth,
which come down over the ears. If a man kills a cow or a squirrel,
he must stay outside the village for five weeks and nobody looks
upon his face. After this he should go and bathe in the Ganges,
but if he is too poor the Nerbudda may be substituted for it with
the permission of the caste committee. The penalty for killing a cat
is almost as severe, but to slay a dog involves no sin. If a man who
has committed a murder escapes conviction but his guilt is known to
the caste, it is absolutely incumbent on him to go and bathe in the
Ganges and be purified there, having his head and face shaved. After
this he may be readmitted to caste intercourse. The caste observe
some curious rules or taboos: they never drink the milk of a black
cow; their women do not have their noses bored for nose-rings, but
if a woman loses several children she will have the nose bored of
the next one which is born; women never wear glass bangles, but have
them made of ivory or lac and clay; they never wear the bazuband or
armlet with bars crossed on hinges which can be pulled in or out,
but instead of it the kara or rigid bangle; and the caste never keep
a basil plant in the house for worship, though they may revere it
outside the house. As the basil is the emblem of Vishnu, and the Jats
consider themselves to be descended from Siva, they would naturally
not be inclined to pay any special respect to the plant.
14. Occupation.
The Jats are good cultivators, and at the thirty years' settlement
(1865) several members of the caste held considerable estates; but a
number of these have now been lost, owing probably to extravagance of
living. In Saugor the Jats are commonly employed as masons or navvies.
JHADI TELENGA
List of Paragraphs
1. General notice.
2. Exogamous divisions.
3. Admission of outsiders.
4. Marriage.
5. Religion.
6. Names.
7. Magical devices.
8. Occupation.
1. General notice.
Jhadi Telenga. [190]--A small caste in the Bastar State who appear to
be a mixture of Gonds and the lower Telugu castes, the name meaning
'The jungly Telugus.' Those living in the open country are called
Mandar Telengas. In the census of 1901 these Telengas were wrongly
classified under the Balji or Balija caste. They numbered about 5000
persons. The caste have three divisions according to their comparative
purity of descent, which are named Purait, Surait and Pohni. The son
of a Purait by a woman of different caste will be a Surait, and the
son of a Surait by such a woman will be a Pohni. Such alliances are
now, however, infrequent, and most of the Telengas in Bastar belong
to the Purait or legitimate group. A Pohni will take cooked food from
the two higher groups and a Surait from a Purait. The last will take
water from the two lower groups, but not food.
2. Exogamous divisions.
For the purposes of marriage the caste is divided into the usual
exogamous septs, and these are further arranged in two groups. The
first group contains the following septs: Kudmulwadu, from kudmul,
a preparation of rice; Kolmulwadu, from kolmul, a treasure-pit;
Lingawadu, from the linga emblem; and Nagulwadu, a ploughman. The
second group contains the following septs: Kodamajjiwadu, a hunter and
trapper of animals; Wargaiwadu, one who makes ropes from wood-fibre;
Paspulwadu, one who prepares turmeric; Pankiwadu, one who distributes
cooked food; Bhandariwadu, a rich man; and one or two others. The rule
is that no man or woman of a sept belonging to the first group should
marry in any other sept of that group, but always from some sept of
the other. This, therefore, appears to be a relic of the classificatory
system of marriage, which obtains among the Australian aborigines. The
rule is now, however, sometimes violated. The caste say that their
ancestors came from Warangal with the ruling family of Bastar.
3. Admission of outsiders.
They will admit Brahmans, Rajputs and Halbas into the community. If a
man of any of these castes has a child by a Telenga woman, this child
will be considered to belong to the same group of the Jhadi Telengas
as its mother. If a man of lower caste, such as Rawat, Dhakar, Jangam,
Kumhar or Kalar has such a child it will be admitted into the next
lower group than that to which the mother belonged. Thus the child of
a Purait woman by one of these castes will become a Surait. A Telenga
woman having a child by a Gond, Sunar, Lohar or Mehra man is put out
of caste.
4. Marriage.
A girl cannot be properly married unless the ceremony is performed
before she arrives at puberty. After this she can only be married by
an abridged rite, which consists of rubbing her with oil and turmeric,
investing her with glass bangles and a new cloth, and giving a feast
to the caste. In such a case the bridegroom first goes through a
sham marriage with the branch of a mahua tree. The boy's father
looks out for a girl, and the most suitable match is considered to
be his sister's daughter. Before giving away his daughter he must
ask his wife's brother and his own sister whether they want her for
one of their sons. When setting out to make a proposal they take the
omens from a bird called Usi. The best omen is to hear this bird's
call on both sides of them as they go into the jungle. When asking
for the girl the envoys say to her father, 'You have got rice and
pulse; give them to us for our friend's son.' The wedding should be
held on a Monday or Thursday, and the bridegroom should arrive at
the bride's village on a Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday or Friday. The
sacred post in the centre of the marriage-shed must be of the mahua
[191] tree, which is no doubt held sacred by these people, as by the
Gonds, because spirituous liquor is made from its fruit. A widow
must mourn her husband for a month, and can then marry again. But
she may not marry her late husband's brother, nor his first cousin,
nor any member of her father's sept. Divorce is allowed, but no man
will divorce his wife unless she leaves him of her own accord or is
known to be intriguing with a man of lower caste.
5. Religion.
Each sept has a deity of its own who is usually some local god
symbolised by a wooden post or a stone. Instances of these are Kondraj
of Santoshpur represented by a wooden pillar carved into circular form
at the top; Chikat Raj of Bijapur by two bamboos six feet in length
leaning against a wall; Kaunam Raj of Gongla by a stone image, and at
fairs by a bamboo with peacock's feathers tied at the top. They offer
incense, rice and a fowl to their ancestors in their own houses in
Chait (March) at the new year, and at the festival of the new rice in
Bhadon (August). At the sowing festival they go out hunting, and those
who return empty-handed think they will have ill-luck. Each tenant
also worships the earth-goddess, whose image is then decorated with
flowers and vermilion. He brings a goat, and rice is placed before it
at her shrine. If the animal eats the sacrifice is held to be accepted,
but if not it is returned to the owner, and it is thought that some
misfortune will befall him. The heads of all the goats offered are
taken by the priest and the bodies returned to the worshippers to be
consumed at a feast. Each village has also its tutelary god, having a
hut to himself. Inside this a post of mahua wood is fixed in the ground
and roughly squared, and a peg is driven into it at the top. The god
is represented by another bamboo peg about two inches long, which is
first worshipped in front of the post and then suspended from it in a
receptacle. In each village the smallpox goddess is also present in
the form of a stone, either with or without a hut over it. A Jangam
or devotee of the Lingayat sect is usually the caste priest, and at
a funeral he follows the corpse ringing his bell. If a man is put
out of caste through getting maggots in a wound or being beaten by a
shoe, he must be purified by the Jangam. The latter rubs some ashes
on his own body and places them in the offender's mouth, and gives
him to drink some water from his own lota in place of water from a
sacred river. For this the offender pays a fee of five rupees and a
calf to the Jangam and must also give a feast to the caste. The dead
are either buried or burnt, the head being placed to the east. The
eldest son has his head and face shaved on the death of the father
of the family, and the youngest on that of the mother.
6. Names.
A child is named on the seventh or eighth day after birth by the old
women. If it is much given to crying they consider the name unsuitable
and change it, repeating those of deceased relatives. When the child
stops crying at the mention of a particular name, they consider that
the relative mentioned has been born again in the child and name it
after him. Often the name of the sept is combined with the personal
name as Lingam-Lachha, Lingam-Kachchi, Panki-Samaya, Panki-Ganglu,
Panki-Buchcham, Nagul-Sama, Nagul-Mutta.
7. Magical devices
When a man wishes to destroy an enemy he makes an image of him with
earth and offers a pig and goat to the family god, praying for the
enemy's destruction. Then the operator takes a frog or a tree-lizard
which has been kept ready and breaks all its limbs, thinking that
the limbs of his enemy will similarly be broken and that the man will
die. Or he takes some grains of kossa, a small millet, and proceeds
to a saj [192] or mahua tree. A pigeon is offered to the tree and to
the family god, and both are asked to destroy the foe. The man then
ascends the tree, and muttering incantations throws the grains in the
direction of his enemy thinking that they will enter his body and
destroy him. To counteract these devices a man who thinks himself
bewitched calls in the aid of a wizard, who sucks out of his body
the grains or other evil things which have been caused to enter it as
shown above. Occasionally a man will promise a human sacrifice to his
god. For this he must get some hair or a piece of cloth belonging to
somebody else and wash it in water in the name of the god, who may then
kill the owner of the hair or cloth and thus obtain the sacrifice. Or
the sacrificer may pick a quarrel and assault the other person so as
to draw blood from him. He picks up a drop or two of the blood and
offers it to the deity with the same end in view.
8. Occupation.
The caste are cultivators and farmservants, and are, as a rule, very
poor, living from hand to mouth. They practise shifting cultivation and
are too lazy to grow the more valuable crops. They eat grain twice a
day during the four months from October to January only, and at other
times eke out their scanty provision with edible roots and leaves,
and hunt and fish in the forest like the Muria and Maria Gonds.
JOGI
[Bibliography: Sir E. Maclagan's Punjab Census Report (1891);
Mr. Crooke's Tribes and Castes, articles Jogi, Kanphata and
Aghorpanthi; Mr. Kitts' Berar Census Report (1881); Professor Oman's
Mystics, Ascetics and Saints of India (London: T. Fisher Unwin).]
List of Paragraphs
1. The Yoga philosophy.
2. Abstraction of the senses or autohypnotism.
3. Breathing through either nostril.
4. Self-torture of the Jogis.
5. Resort to them for oracles.
6. Divisions of the order.
7. Hair and clothes.
8. Burial.
9. Festivals.
10. Caste subdivisions.
11. Begging.
12. Other occupations.
13. Swindling practices.
14. Proverbs about Jogis.
1. The Yoga philosophy.
Jogi, Yogi.--The well-known order of religious mendicants and
devotees of Siva. The Jogi or Yogi, properly so called, is a follower
of the Yoga system of philosophy founded by Patanjali, the main
characteristics of which are a belief in the power of man over nature
by means of austerities and the occult influences of the will. The
idea is that one who has obtained complete control over himself,
and entirely subdued all fleshly desires, acquires such potency
of mind and will that he can influence the forces of nature at his
pleasure. The Yoga philosophy has indeed so much sub-stratum of truth
that a man who has complete control of himself has the strongest will,
and hence the most power to influence others, and an exaggerated
idea of this power is no doubt fostered by the display of mesmeric
control and similar phenomena. The fact that the influence which
can be exerted over other human beings through their minds in no way
extends to the physical phenomena of inanimate nature is obvious to
us, but was by no means so to the uneducated Hindus, who have no clear
conceptions of the terms mental and physical, animate and inanimate,
nor of the ideas connoted by them. To them all nature was animate,
and all its phenomena the results of the actions of sentient beings,
and hence it was not difficult for them to suppose that men could
influence the proceedings of such beings. And it is a matter of
common knowledge that savage peoples believe their magicians to be
capable of producing rain and fine weather, and even of controlling
the course of the sun. [193] The Hindu sacred books indeed contain
numerous instances of ascetics who by their austerities acquired such
powers as to compel the highest gods themselves to obedience.
2. Abstraction of the senses or autohypnotism.
The term Yoga is held to mean unity or communion with God, and the Yogi
by virtue of his painful discipline and mental and physical exercises
considered himself divine. "The adept acquires the knowledge of
everything past and future, remote or hidden; he divines the thoughts
of others, gains the strength of an elephant, the courage of a lion,
and the swiftness of the wind; flies into the air, floats in the water,
and dives into the earth, contemplates all worlds at one glance and
performs many strange things." [194]
The following excellent instance of the pretensions of the Yogis is
given by Professor Oman: [195] "Wolff went also with Mr. Wilson to see
one of the celebrated Yogis who was lying in the sun in the street,
the nails of whose hands were grown into his cheeks and a bird's nest
upon his head. Wolff asked him, 'How can one obtain the knowledge
of God?' He replied, 'Do not ask me questions; you may look at me,
for I am God.'
"It is certainly not easy at the present day," Professor Oman states,
[196] "for the western mind to enter into the spirit of the so-called
Yoga philosophy; but the student of religious opinions is aware
that in the early centuries of our era the Gnostics, Manichæans and
Neo-Platonists derived their peculiar tenets and practices from the
Yoga-vidya of India, and that at a later date the Sufi philosophy
of Persia drew its most remarkable ideas from the same source. [197]
The great historian of the Roman Empire refers to the subject in the
following passage: "The Fakirs of India and the monks of the Oriental
Church, were alike persuaded that in total abstraction of the faculties
of the mind and body, the pure spirit may ascend to the enjoyment
and vision of the Deity. The opinion and practice of the monasteries
of Mount Athos will be best represented in the words of an abbot,
who flourished in the eleventh century: 'When thou art alone in thy
cell,' says the ascetic teacher, 'Shut thy door, and seat thyself
in a corner, raise thy mind above all things vain and transitory,
recline thy beard and chin on thy breast, turn thine eyes and thy
thoughts towards the middle of the belly, the region of the navel,
and search the place of the heart, the seat of the soul. At first
all will be dark and comfortless; but if you persevere day and night,
you will feel an ineffable joy; and no sooner has the soul discovered
the place of the heart, than it is involved in a mystic and ethereal
light.' This light, the production of a distempered fancy, the creature
of an empty stomach and an empty brain, was adored by the Quietists
as the pure and perfect essence of God Himself." [198]
"Without entering into unnecessary details, many of which are simply
disgusting, I shall quote, as samples, a few of the rules of practice
required to be followed by the would-be Yogi in order to induce a
state of Samadhi--hypnotism or trance--which is the condition or state
in which the Yogi is to enjoy the promised privileges of Yoga. The
extracts are from a treatise on the Yoga philosophy by Assistant
Surgeon Nobin Chander Pal." [199]
"Place the left foot upon the right thigh, and the right foot upon the
left thigh; hold with the right hand the right great toe and with the
left hand the left great toe (the hands coming from behind the back
and crossing each other); rest the chin on the interclavicular space,
and fix the sight on the tip of the nose.
"Inspire through the left nostril, fill the stomach with the inspired
air by the act of deglutition, suspend the breath, and expire through
the right nostril. Next inspire through the right nostril, swallow
the inspired air, suspend the breath, and finally expire through the
left nostril.
"Be seated in a tranquil posture, and fix your sight on the tip of
the nose for the space of ten minutes.
"Close the ears with the middle fingers, incline the head a little
to the right side and listen with each ear attentively to the sound
produced by the other ear, for the space of ten minutes.
"Pronounce inaudibly twelve thousand times the mystic syllable Om,
and meditate upon it daily after deep inspirations.
"After a few forcible inspirations swallow the tongue, and thereby
suspend the breath and deglutate the saliva for two hours.
"Listen to the sounds within the right ear abstractedly for two hours,
with the left ear.
"Repeat the mystic syllable Om 20,736,000 times in silence and meditate
upon it.
"Suspend the respiratory movements for the period of twelve days,
and you will be in a state of Samadhi."
Another account of a similar procedure is given by Buchanan: [200]
"Those who pretend to be eminent saints perform the ceremony called
Yoga, described in the Tantras. In the accomplishment of this, by
shutting what are called the nine passages (dwara, lit. doors) of
the body, the votary is supposed to distribute the breath into the
different parts of the body, and thus to obtain the beatific vision
of various gods. It is only persons who abstain from the indulgence
of concupiscence that can pretend to perform this ceremony, which
during the whole time that the breath can be held in the proper place
excites an ecstasy equal to whatever woman can bestow on man."
3. Breathing through either nostril.
It is clear that the effect of some of the above practices is designed
to produce a state of mind resembling the hypnotic trance. The Yogis
attach much importance to the effect of breathing through one or
the other nostril, and this is also the case with Hindus generally,
as various rules concerning it are prescribed for the daily prayers
of Brahmans. To have both nostrils free and be breathing through
them at the same time is not good, and one should not begin any
business in this condition. If one is breathing only through the
right nostril and the left is closed, the condition is propitious
for the following actions: To eat and drink, as digestion will be
quick; to fight; to bathe; to study and read; to ride on a horse;
to work at one's livelihood. A sick man should take medicine when he
is breathing through his right nostril. To be breathing only through
the left nostril is propitious for the following undertakings: To lay
the foundations of a house and to take up residence in a new house;
to put on new clothes; to sow seed; to do service or found a village;
to make any purchase. The Jogis practise the art of breathing in this
manner by stopping up their right and left nostril alternately with
cotton-wool and breathing only through the other. If a man comes
to a Brahman to ask him whether some business or undertaking will
succeed, the Brahman breathes through his nostrils on to his hand; if
the breath comes through the right nostril the omen is favourable and
the answer yes; if through the left nostril the omen is unfavourable
and the answer no.
4. Self-torture of the Jogis.
The following account of the austerities of the Jogis during the Mughal
period is given by Bernier: [201] "Among the vast number and endless
variety of Fakirs or Dervishes, and holy men or Gentile hypocrites
of the Indies, many live in a sort of convent, governed by superiors,
where vows of chastity, poverty, and submission are made. So strange
is the life led by these votaries that I doubt whether my description
of it will be credited. I allude particularly to the people called
'Jogis,' a name which signifies 'United to God.' Numbers are seen day
and night, seated or lying on ashes, entirely naked; frequently under
the large trees near talabs or tanks of water, or in the galleries
round the Deuras or idol temples. Some have hair hanging down to the
calf of the leg, twisted and entangled into knots, like the coats
of our shaggy dogs. I have seen several who hold one, and some who
hold both arms perpetually lifted above the head, the nails of their
hands being twisted and longer than half my little finger, with
which I measured them. Their arms are as small and thin as the arms
of persons who die in a decline, because in so forced and unnatural
a position they receive not sufficient nourishment, nor can they be
lowered so as to supply the mouth with food, the muscles having become
contracted, and the articulations dry and stiff. Novices wait upon
these fanatics and pay them the utmost respect, as persons endowed
with extraordinary sanctity. No fury in the infernal regions can be
conceived more horrible than the Jogis, with their naked and black
skin, long hair, spindle arms, long twisted nails, and fixed in the
posture which I have mentioned.
"I have often met, generally in the territory of some Raja, bands of
these naked Fakirs, hideous to behold. Some have their arms lifted up
in the manner just described; the frightful hair of others either hung
loosely or was tied and twisted round their heads; some carried a club
like the Hercules, others had a dry and rough tiger-skin thrown over
their shoulders. In this trim I have seen them shamelessly walk stark
naked through a large town, men, women, and girls looking at them
without any more emotion than may be created when a hermit passes
through our streets. Females would often bring them alms with much
devotion, doubtless believing that they were holy personages, more
chaste and discreet than other men.
"Several of these Fakirs undertake long pilgrimages not only naked
but laden with heavy iron chains, such as are put about the legs of
elephants. I have seen others who, in consequence of a particular
vow, stood upright during seven or eight days without once sitting
or lying down, and without any other support than might be afforded
by leaning forward against a cord for a few hours in the night; their
legs in the meantime were swollen to the size of their thighs. Others,
again, I have observed standing steadily, whole hours together, upon
their hands, the head down and the feet in the air. I might proceed
to enumerate various other positions in which these unhappy men place
their body, many of them so difficult and painful that they could not
be imitated by our tumblers; and all this, let it be recollected is
performed from an assumed feeling of piety, of which there is not so
much as the shadow in any part of the Indies."
5. Resort to them for oracles.
The forest ascetics were credited with prophetic powers, and were
resorted to by Hindu princes to obtain omens and oracles on the brink
of any important undertaking. This custom is noticed by Colonel Tod
in the following passage describing the foundation of Jodhpur: [202]
"Like the Druids of the cells, the vana-perist Jogis, from the glades
of the forest (vana) or recess in the rocks (gopha), issue their
oracles to those whom chance or design may conduct to their solitary
dwellings. It is not surprising that the mandates of such beings prove
compulsory on the superstitious Rajput; we do not mean those squalid
ascetics who wander about India and are objects disgusting to the eye,
but the genuine Jogi, he who, as the term imports, mortifies the flesh,
till the wants of humanity are restricted merely to what suffices
to unite matter with spirit, who had studied and comprehended the
mystic works and pored over the systems of philosophy, until the full
influence of Maia (illusion) has perhaps unsettled his understanding;
or whom the rules of his sect have condemned to penance and solitude;
a penance so severe that we remain astonished at the perversity of
reason which can submit to it. We have seen one of these objects,
self-condemned never to lie down during forty years, and there remained
but three to complete the term. He had travelled much, was intelligent
and learned, but, far from having contracted the moroseness of the
recluse, there was a benignity of mien and a suavity and simplicity
of manner in him quite enchanting. He talked of his penance with
no vainglory and of its approaching term without any sensation. The
resting position of this Druid (vana-perist) was by means of a rope
suspended from the bough of a tree in the manner of a swing, having
a cross-bar, on which he reclined. The first years of this penance,
he says, were dreadfully painful; swollen limbs affected him to that
degree that he expected death, but this impression had long since
worn off. To these, the Druids of India, the prince and the chieftain
would resort for instruction. Such was the ascetic who recommended
Joda to erect his castle of Jodhpur on the 'Hill of Strife' (Jodagir),
a projecting elevation of the same range on which Mundore was placed,
and about four miles south of it."
6. Divisions of the order.
About 15,000 Jogis were returned from the Central Provinces in
1911. They are said to be divided into twelve Panths or orders, each
of which venerates one of the twelve disciples of Gorakhnath. But,
as a rule, they do not know the names of the Panths. Their main
divisions are the Kanphata and Aughar Jogis. The Kanphatas, [203]
as the name denotes, pierce their ears and wear in them large rings
(mundra), generally of wood, stone or glass; the ears of a novice
are pierced by the Guru, who gets a fee of Rs. 1-4. The earring must
thereafter always be worn, and should it be broken must be replaced
temporarily by a model in cloth before food is taken. If after the
ring has been inserted the ear tears apart, they say that the man has
become useless, and in former times he was buried alive. Now he is
put out of caste, and no tomb is erected over him when he dies. It is
said that a man cannot become a Kanphata all at once, but must first
serve an apprenticeship of twelve years as an Aughar, and then if his
Guru is satisfied he will be initiated as a Kanphata. The elect among
the Kanphatas are known as Darshani. These do not go about begging,
but remain in the forest in a cave or other abode, and the other
Jogis go there and pay their respects; this is called darshan, the
term used for visiting a temple and worshipping the idol. These men
only have cooked food when their disciples bring it to them, otherwise
they live on fruits and roots. The Aughars do not pierce their ears,
but have a string of black sheep's wool round the neck to which is
suspended a wooden whistle called nadh; this is blown morning and
evening and before meals. [204] The names of the Kanphatas end in
Nath and those of the Aughars in Das.
7. Hair and clothes.
When a novice is initiated all the hair of his head is shaved,
including the scalp-lock. If the Ganges is at hand the Guru throws the
hair into the Ganges, giving a great feast to celebrate the occasion;
otherwise he keeps the hair in his wallet until he and his disciple
reach the Ganges and then throws it into the river and gives the
feast. After this the Jogi lets all his hair grow until he comes to
some great shrine, when he shaves it off clean and gives it as an
offering to the god. The Jogis wear clothes coloured with red ochre
like the Jangams, Sanniasis and all the Sivite orders. The reddish
colour perhaps symbolises blood and may denote that the wearers
still sacrifice flesh and consume it. The Vaishnavite orders usually
wear white clothes, and hence the Jogis call themselves Lal Padris
(red priests), and they call the Vaishnava mendicants Sita Padris,
apparently because Sita is the consort of Rama, the incarnation of
Vishnu. When a Jogi is initiated the Guru gives him a single bead
of rudraksha wood which he wears on a string round his neck. He is
not branded, but afterwards, if he visits the temple of Dwarka in
Gujarat, he is branded with the mark of the conch-shell on the arm;
or if he goes on pilgrimage to the shrine of Badri-Narayan in the
Himalayas he is branded on the chest. Copper bangles are brought
from Badri-Narayan and iron ones from the shrine of Kedarnath. A
necklace of small white stones, like juari-seeds, is obtained from
the temple of Hinglaj in the territories of the Jam of Lasbela in
Beluchistan. During his twelve years' period as a Brahmachari or
acolyte, a Jogi will make either one or three parikramas of the
Nerbudda; that is, he walks from the mouth at Broach to the source
at Amarkantak on one side of the river and back again on the other
side, the journey usually occupying about three years. During each
journey he lets his hair grow and at the end of it makes an offering
of all except the choti or scalp-lock to the river. Even as a full
Jogi he still retains the scalp-lock, and this is not finally shaved
off until he turns into a Sanniasi or forest recluse. Other Jogis,
however, do not merely keep the scalp-lock but let their hair grow,
plaiting it with ropes of black wool over their heads into what is
called the jata, that is an imitation of Siva's matted locks. [205]
8. Burial.
The Jogis are buried sitting cross-legged with the face to the north
in a tomb which has a recess like those of Muhammadans. A gourd full
of milk and some bread in a wallet, a crutch and one or two earthen
vessels are placed in the grave for the sustenance of the soul. Salt
is put on the body and a ball of wheat-flour is laid on the breast
of the corpse and then deposited on the top of the grave.
9. Festivals.
The Jogis worship Siva, and their principal festival is the Shivratri,
when they stay awake all night and sing songs in honour of Gorakhnath,
the founder of their order. On the Nag-Panchmi day they venerate the
cobra and they take about snakes and exhibit them.
10. Caste subdivisions.
A large proportion of the Jogis have now developed into a caste,
and these marry and have families. They are divided into subcastes
according to the different professions they have adopted. Thus the
Barwa or Garpagari Jogis ward off hailstorms from the standing crops;
the Manihari are pedlars and travel about to bazars selling various
small articles; the Ritha Bikanath prepare and sell soap-nut for
washing clothes; the Patbina make hempen thread and gunny-bags for
carrying grain on bullocks; and the Ladaimar hunt jackals and sell
and eat their flesh. These Jogis rank as a low Hindu caste of the
menial group. No good Hindu caste will take food or water from them,
while they will accept cooked food from members of any caste of
respectable position, as Kurmis, Kunbis or Malis. A person belonging
to any such caste can also be admitted into the Jogi community. Their
social customs resemble those of the cultivating castes of the
locality. They permit widow-marriage and divorce and employ Brahmans
for their ceremonies, with the exception of the Kanphatas, who have
priests of their own order.
11. Begging.
Begging is the traditional occupation of the Jogis, but they have now
adopted many others. The Kanphatas beg and sell a woollen string amulet
(ganda), which is put round the necks of children to protect them
from the evil eye. They beg only from Hindus and use the cry 'Alakh,'
'The invisible one.' [206] The Nandia Jogis lead about with them a
deformed ox, an animal with five legs or some other malformation. He
is decorated with ochre-coloured rags and cowrie shells. They call
him Nandi or the bull on which Mahadeo rides, and receive gifts of
grain from pious Hindus, half of which they put into their wallet
and give the other half to the animal. They usually carry on a more
profitable business than other classes of beggars. The ox is trained
to give a blessing to the benevolent by shaking its head and raising
its leg when its master receives a gift. [207] Some of the Jogis of
this class carry about with them a brush of peacock's feathers which
they wave over the heads of children afflicted with the evil eye or
of sick persons, muttering texts. This performance is known as jharna
(sweeping), and is the commonest method of casting out evil spirits.
12. Other occupations.
Many Jogis have also adopted secular occupations, as has already
been seen. Of these the principal are the Manihari Jogis or pedlars,
who retail small hand-mirrors, spangles, dyeing-powders, coral beads
and imitation jewellery, pens, pencils, and other small articles of
stationery. They also bring pearls and coral from Bombay and sell
them in the villages. The Garpagaris, who protect the crops from
hailstorms, have now become a distinct caste and are the subject of
a separate article. Others make a living by juggling and conjuring,
and in Saugor some Jogis perform the three-card trick in the village
markets, employing a confederate who advises customers to pick out
the wrong card. They also play the English game of Sandown, which
is known as 'Animur,' from the practice of calling out 'Any more'
as a warning to backers to place their money on the board before
beginning to turn the fish.
13. Swindling practices.
These people also deal in ornaments of base metal and practise
other swindles. One of their tricks is to drop a ring or ornament
of counterfeit gold on the road. Then they watch until a stranger
picks it up and one of them goes up to him and says, "I saw you
pick up that gold ring, it belongs to so-and-so, but if you will
make it worth my while I will say nothing about it." The finder is
thus often deluded into giving him some hush-money and the Jogis
decamp with this, having incurred no risk in connection with the
spurious metal. They also pretend to be able to convert silver and
other metals into gold. They ingratiate themselves with the women,
sometimes of a number of households in one village or town, giving
at first small quantities of gold in exchange for silver, and binding
them to secrecy. Then each is told to give them all the ornaments which
she desires to be converted on the same night, and having collected as
much as possible from their dupes the Jogis make off before morning. A
very favourite device some years back was to personate some missing
member of a family who had gone on a pilgrimage. Up to within a
comparatively recent period a large proportion of the pilgrims who
set out annually from all over India to visit the famous shrines at
Benares, Jagannath and other places perished by the way from privation
or disease, or were robbed and murdered, and never heard of again by
their families. Many households in every town and village were thus
in the position of having an absent member of whose fate they were
uncertain. Taking advantage of this, and having obtained all the
information he could pick up among the neighbours, the Jogi would
suddenly appear in the character of the returned wanderer, and was
often successful in keeping up the imposture for years. [208]
14. Proverbs about Jogis.
The Jogi is a familiar figure in the life of the people and there
are various sayings about him: [209] Jogi Jogi laren, khopron ka dam,
or 'When Jogis fight skulls are smashed,' that is, the skulls which
some of them use as begging-cups, not their own skulls, and with the
implication that they have nothing else to break; Jogi jugat jani
nahin, kapre range, to kya hua, 'If the Jogi does not know his magic,
what is the use of his dyeing his clothes?' Jogi ka larka khelega, to
sanp se, or, 'If a snake-charmer's son plays, he plays with a snake.'
JOSHI
List of Paragraphs
1. The village priest and astrologer.
2. The apparent path of the sun. The ecliptic or zodiac.
3. Inclination of the ecliptic to the equator.
4. The orbits of the moon and planets.
5. The signs of the zodiac.
6. The Sankrants.
7. The nakshatras or constellations of the moon's path.
8. The revolution of the moon.
9. The days of the week.
10. The lunar year.
11. Intercalary months.
12. Superstitions about numbers.
13. The Hindu months.
14. The solar nakshatras.
15. Lunar fortnights and days.
16. Divisions of the day.
17. The Joshi's calculations.
18. Personal names.
19. Terminations of names.
20. Women's names.
21. Special names and bad names.
1. The village priest and astrologer.
Joshi, Jyotishi, Bhadri, Parsai.--The caste of village priests
and astrologers. They numbered about 6000 persons in 1911, being
distributed over all Districts. The Joshis are nearly all Brahmans,
but have now developed into a separate caste and marry among
themselves. Their social customs resemble those of Brahmans, and
need not be described in detail. The Joshi officiates at weddings
in the village, selects auspicious names for children according to
the nakshatra or constellation of the moon under which they were
born, and points out the auspicious time or mahurat for all such
ceremonies and for the commencement of agricultural operations. He is
also sometimes in charge of the village temples. He is supported by
the contributions from the villagers, and often has a plot of land
rent-free from the proprietor. The social position of the Joshis is
not very good, and, though Brahmans, they are considered to rank
somewhat below the cultivating castes, the Kurmis and Kunbis, by
whose patronage they are supported. [210]
The Bhadris are a class of Joshis who wander about and live by
begging, telling fortunes and giving omens. They avert the evil
influences of the planet Saturn and accept the gifts offered to
this end, which are always black, as black blankets, charcoal,
tilli or sesamum oil, the urad pulse, [211] and iron. People born on
Saturday or being otherwise connected with the planet are especially
subject to his malign influence. The Joshi ascertains who these
unfortunate persons are from their horoscopes, and neutralises the
evil influence of the planet by the acceptance of the gifts already
mentioned, while he sometimes also receives a buffalo or a cow. He
computes by astrological calculations the depth at which water will
be found when a cultivator wishes to dig a well. He also practises
palmistry, classifying the whorls of the fingers into two patterns,
called the Shank or conch-shell and Chakra or discus of Vishnu. The
Shank is considered to be unfortunate and the Chakra fortunate. The
lines on the balls of the toes and on the forehead are similarly
classified. When anything has been lost or stolen the Joshi can tell
from the daily nakshatra or mansion of the moon in which the loss or
theft occurred whether the property has gone to the north, south, east
or west, and within what interval it is likely to be found. The people
have not nowadays much faith in his prophetic powers, and they say,
"If clouds come on Friday, and the sky is black on Saturday, then the
Joshi foretells that it will rain on Sunday." The Joshi's calculations
are all based on the rashis or signs of the zodiac through which the
sun passes during the year, and the nakshatras or those which mark the
monthly revolutions of the moon. These are given in all Hindu almanacs,
and most Joshis simply work from the almanac, being quite ignorant of
astronomy. Since the measurement of the sun's apparent path on the
ecliptic, and the moon's orbit mapped out by the constellations are
of some interest, and govern the arrangement of the Hindu calendar,
it has been thought desirable to give some account of them. And in
order to make this intelligible it is desirable first to recapitulate
some elementary facts of astronomy.
2. The apparent path of the sun. The ecliptic or zodiac.
The universe may be conceived for the purpose of understanding the
sun's path among the stars as if it were a huge ball, of which looking
from the earth's surface we see part of the inside with the stars
marked on it, as on the inside of a dome. This imaginary inside of a
ball is called the celestial sphere, and the ancients believed that
it actually existed, and also, in order to account for the varying
distances of the stars, supposed that there were several of them, one
inside the other, and each with a number of stars fixed to it. The
sun and earth may be conceived as smaller solid balls suspended
inside this large one. Then looking from the surface of the earth
we see the sun outlined against the inner surface of the imaginary
celestial sphere. And as the earth travels round the sun in its orbit,
the appearance to us is that the sun moves over the surface of the
celestial sphere. The following figure will make this clear. [212]
Thus when the earth is at A in its orbit the sun will appear to be at
M, and as the earth travels from A to B the sun will appear to move
from M to N on the line of the ecliptic. It will be seen that as the
earth in a year makes a complete circuit round the sun, the sun will
appear to have made a complete circuit among the stars, and have come
back to its original position. This apparent movement is annual, and
has nothing to do with the sun's apparent diurnal course over the sky,
which is caused by the earth's daily rotation on its axis. The sun's
annual path among the stars naturally cannot be observed during the
day. Professor Newcomb says: "But the fact of the motion will be made
very clear if, day after day, we watch some particular fixed star
in the west. We shall find that it sets earlier and earlier every
day; in other words, it is getting continually nearer and nearer the
sun. More exactly, since the real direction of the star is unchanged,
the sun seems to be approaching the star.
"If we could see the stars in the daytime all round the sun, the case
would be yet clearer. We should see that if the sun and a star were
together in the morning, the sun would, during the day, gradually
work past the star in an easterly direction. Between the rising
and setting it would move nearly its own diameter, relative to the
star. Next morning we should see that it had got quite away from the
star, being nearly two diameters distant from it. This motion would
continue month after month. At the end of the year the sun would have
made a complete circuit relative to the star, and we should see the
two once more together. This apparent motion of the sun in one year
round the celestial sphere was noticed by the ancients, who took
much trouble to map it out. They imagined a line passing round the
celestial sphere, which the sun always followed in its annual course,
and which was called the ecliptic. They noticed that the planets
followed nearly the same course as the sun among the stars. A belt
extending on each side of the ecliptic, and broad enough to contain
all the known planets, as well as the sun, was called the zodiac. It
was divided into twelve signs, each marked by a constellation. The sun
went through each sign in a month, and through all twelve signs in a
year. Thus arose the familiar signs of the zodiac, which bore the same
names as the constellations among which they are situated. This is not
the case at present, owing to the precession of the equinoxes." It
was by observing the paths of the sun and moon round the celestial
sphere along the zodiac that the ancients came to be able to measure
the solar and lunar months and years.
3. Inclination of the ecliptic to the equator.
As is well known, the celestial sphere is imagined to be spanned
by an imaginary line called the celestial equator, which is in the
same plane as the earth's equator, and as it were, a vast concentric
circle. The points in the celestial sphere opposite the north and
south terrestrial poles are called the north and south celestial
poles, and the celestial equator is midway between these. Owing to the
special form of the earth the north celestial pole is visible to us
in the northern hemisphere, and marked very nearly by the pole-star,
its height above the horizon being equal to the latitude of the place
where the observer stands. Owing to the daily rotation of the earth
the whole celestial sphere seems to revolve daily on the axis of the
north and south celestial poles, carrying the sun, moon and stars
with it. To this the apparent daily course of the sun and moon is
due. Their course seems to us oblique, as we are north of the equator.
If the earth's axis were set vertically to the plane of its orbit round
the sun, then it would follow that the plane of the equator would pass
through the centre of the sun, and that the line drawn by the sun in
its apparent revolution against the background of the celestial sphere
would be in the same plane. That is, the sun would seem to move round
a circle in the heavens in the same plane as the earth's equator,
or round the celestial equator. But the earth's axis is inclined at
23 1/2° to the plane of its orbit, and therefore the apparent path
traced by the sun in the celestial sphere, which is the same path as
the earth would really follow to an observer on the surface of the sun,
is inclined at 23 1/2° to the celestial equator. This is the ecliptic,
and is really the line of the plane of the earth's orbit extended to
cut the celestial sphere.
4. The orbits of the moon and planets.
All the planets move round the sun in orbits whose planes are
slightly inclined to that of the earth, the plane of Mercury having
the greatest inclination of 6°. The plane of the moon's orbit round
the earth is also inclined at 5° 9' to the ecliptic. The orbits of
the moon and all the planets must necessarily intersect the plane of
the earth's orbit on the ecliptic at two points, and these are called
the nodes of the moon and each planet respectively. In consequence
of the inclination being so slight, though the course of the moon and
planets is not actually on the ecliptic, they are all so close to it
that they are included in the belt of the zodiac. Thus the moon and
all the planets follow almost the same apparent course on the zodiac
or belt round the ecliptic in the changes of position resulting from
their own and the earth's orbital movements with reference to what
are called the fixed stars.
5. The signs of the zodiac.
As the sun completes his circuit of the ecliptic or zodiac in the
course of a year, it followed that if his course could be measured and
divided into periods, these periods would form divisions of time for
the year. This was what the ancients did, and it is probable that the
measurement and division of time was the primary object of the science
of astronomy, as apart from the natural curiosity to ascertain the
movements of the sun, moon and planets, when they were looked upon as
divine beings controlling the world. They divided the zodiac or the
path of the sun into twelve parts, and gave to each part the name of
the principal constellation situated on, or adjacent to, that section
of the line of the ecliptic. When they had done this and observed the
dates of the sun's entry into each sign or rashi, as it is called
in Hindi, they had divided the year into twelve solar months. The
following are the Hindu names and meanings of the signs of the zodiac:
1. Aries. The ram. Mesha.
2. Taurus. The bull. Vrisha.
3. Gemini. The twins. Mithuna.
4. Cancer. The crab. Karkati.
5. Leo. The lion. Sinha.
6. Virgo. The virgin. Kanya.
7. Libra. The balance. Tula.
8. Scorpio. The scorpion. Vrischika.
9. Sagittarius. The archer. Dhanus or Chapa.
10. Capricornus. The goat. Makara (said to mean a
sea-monster).
11. Aquarius. The water-bearer. Kumbha (a water-pot).
12. Pisces. The fishes. Mina.
The signs of the zodiac were nearly the same among the Greeks,
Egyptians, Persians, Babylonians and Indians. They are supposed
to have originated in Chaldea or Babylonia, and the fact that the
constellations are indicated by nearly the same symbols renders their
common origin probable. It seems likely that the existing Hindu zodiac
may have been adopted from the Greeks.
6. The Sankrants.
The solar year begins with the entrance of the sun into Mesha or
Aries. [213] The day on which the sun passes into a new sign is
called Sankrant, and is to some extent observed as a holy day. But
the Til Sankrant or entry of the sun into Makara or Capricorn, which
falls about the 15th January, is a special festival, because it marks
approximately the commencement of the sun's northern progress and
the lengthening of the days, as Christmas roughly does with us. On
this day every Hindu who is able bathes in a sacred river at the hour
indicated by the Joshis of the sun's entrance into the sign. Presents
of til or sesamum are given to the Joshi, owing to which the day is
called Til Sankrant. People also sometimes give presents to each other.
7. The nakshatras or constellations of the moon's path.
The Sankrants do not mark the commencement of the Hindu months, which
are still lunar and are adjusted to the solar year by intercalation. It
is probable that long before they were able to measure the sun's
progress along the ecliptic the ancients had observed that of the
moon, which it was much easier to do, as she is seen among the
stars at night. Similarly there is little reason to doubt that the
first division of time was the lunar month, which can be remarked by
every one. Ancient astronomers measured the progress of the moon's
path along the ecliptic and divided it into twenty-seven sections,
each of which represented roughly a day's march. Each section was
distinguished by a group of stars either on the ecliptic or so
near it, either in the northern or southern hemisphere, as to be
occultated by the moon or capable of being in conjunction with it or
the planets. These constellations are called nakshatras. Naturally,
some of these constellations are the same as those subsequently chosen
to mark the sun's path or the signs of the zodiac. In some cases a
zodiacal constellation is divided into two nakshatras. Like the signs,
the nakshatras were held to represent animals or natural objects. The
following is a list of them with their corresponding stars, and the
object which each was supposed to represent: [214]
Nakshatra. Constellation. Object. Corresponding
zodiacal sign.
1. Aswini. b and g Arietis. A horse's Aries.
head.
2. Bharani. 35, 39 and 41 Pudendum Aries.
Arietis. muliebre.
3. Krittika. Pleiades. A knife. Part of
Taurus.
4. Rohini. a, g, d, e, th A wheeled Taurus.
Tauri carriage or a
(Aldebaran). temple.
5. Mrigasiras. l, ph1, ph2, A deer's
Orionis (Orion's head.
head).
6. Ardra. Betelgeux or a A gem.
Orionis (one of
Orion's arms).
7. Punarvasu. Gemini or Castor A house. Gemini.
and Pollux.
8. Pushya. g, d and th An arrow. Cancer.
Cancri.
9. Aslesha. d, e, ê, r and s A wheel.
Hydrae.
10. Magha. a, g, e, z, ê and A house. Leo.
m Leonis.
11. Purva d and th Leonis. A couch. Leo.
Phalguni.
12. Uttara b and 93 Leonis. A bed. Leo.
Phalguni.
13. Hasta. a, b, g, d and e A hand.
Corvi.
14. Chitra. Spica (a A pearl. Virgo.
Virginis).
15. Swati. Arcturus (a A coral bead.
Boötis).
16. Visacha. a, b, g and i A garland. Libra.
Librae.
17. Anuradha. b, A sacrifice or Scorpio.
d and p offering.
Scorpionis.
18. Jyestha. a, s and t An earring. Scorpio.
Scorpionis.
19. Mula. e, z, ê, th, i, A lion's Scorpio.
k, l, m, y tail.
Scorpionis.
20. Purva d and e A couch or an Sagittarius.
Ashadha. Sagittarii. elephant's
tusk.
21. Uttara z and s An elephant's Sagittarius.
Ashadha. Sagittarii. tusk or the
singara nut.
22. Sravana. a, b and g The footprint
Aquilae. of Vishnu.
23. Dhanishtha. a, b, g and d A drum.
Delphinis.
24. Sata-bhishaj. l Aquarii. A circular Aquarius.
jewel or a
circle.
25. Purva a and b Pegasi. A two-faced
Bhadrapada. image.
26. Uttara g Pegasi and a A two-faced
Bhadrapada. Andromedae. image or a
couch.
27. Revati. z Piscium. A tabor. Pisces.
8. The revolution of the moon.
All the zodiacal constellations are thus included in the
nakshatras except Capricorn, for which Aquila and Delphinis are
substituted. These, as well as Hydra, are a considerable distance
from the ecliptic, but may perhaps be nearer the moon's path, which,
as already seen, slightly diverges from it. But this point has not
been ascertained by me. The moon completes the circuit of the heavens
in its orbit round the earth in a little less than a lunar month or
27 days 8 hours. As twenty-seven nakshatras were demarcated, it seems
clear that a nakshatra was meant to represent the distance travelled
by the moon in a day. Subsequently a twenty-eighth small nakshatra
was formed called Abhijit, out of Uttarashadha and Sravana, and this
may have been meant to represent the fractional part of the day. The
days of the lunar month have each, as a matter of fact, a nakshatra
allotted to them, which is recorded in all Hindu almanacs, and enters
largely into the Joshi's astrological calculations. It may have been
the case that prior to the naming of the days of the week, the days of
the lunar month were distinguished by the names of their nakshatras,
but this could only have been among the learned. For though there
was a nakshatra for every day of the moon's path round the ecliptic,
the same days in successive months could not have the same nakshatras
on account of what is called the synodical revolution of the moon. The
light of the moon comes from the sun, and we see only that part of it
which is illuminated by the sun. When the moon is between the earth
and the sun, the light hemisphere is invisible to us, and there is
no moon. When the moon is on the opposite side of the earth to the
sun we see the whole of the illuminated hemisphere, and it is full
moon. Thus in the time between one new moon and the next, the moon
must proceed from its position between the earth and the sun to the
same position again, and to do this it has to go somewhat more than
once round the ecliptic, as is shown by the following figure. [215]
9. The days of the week.
As during the moon's circuit of the earth, the earth is also travelling
on its orbit, the moon will not be between the earth and the sun again
on completion of its orbit, but will have to traverse the further arc
shown in the figure to come between the earth and the sun. When the
moon has completed the circle of the ecliptic from the position ME,
its position relative to the earth has become as NF and it has not yet
come between the earth and the sun. Hence while the moon completes the
circuit of the ecliptic [216] in 27 days 8 hours, the time from one new
moon to another is 29 days 13 hours. Hence the nakshatras will not fall
on the same days in successive lunar months, and would not be suitable
as names for the days. It seems that, recognising this, the ancient
astronomers had to find other names. They had the lunar fortnights of
14 or 15 days from new to full and full to new moon. Hence apparently
they hit on the plan of dividing these into half and regulating the
influence which the sun, moon and planets were believed to exercise
over events in the world by allotting one day to each of them. They
knew of five planets besides the sun and moon, and by giving a day to
each of them the seven-day week was formed. The term planet signifies
a wanderer, and it thus perhaps seemed suitable that they should give
their names to the days which would revolve endlessly in a cycle,
as they themselves did in the heavens. The names of the days are:
Etwar or Raviwar. Sunday. (Ravi--the sun.)
Somwar. Monday. (Soma--the moon.)
Mangalwar. Tuesday. (Mangal or Bhauma--Mars.)
Budhwar. Wednesday. (Buddha--Mercury.)
Brihaspatwar or Guru. Thursday. (Brihaspat or Guru--Jupiter.)
Shukurwar. Friday. (Shukra--Venus.)
Saniwar or Sanichara. Saturday. (Sani--Saturn.)
The termination vara means a day. The weekdays were similarly named in
Rome and other countries speaking Aryan languages, and they are readily
recognised in French. In English three days are named after the sun,
moon and Saturn, but four, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday,
are called after Scandinavian deities, the last three being Woden or
Odin, Thor and Freya. I do not know whether these were identified with
the planets. It is supposed that the Hindus obtained the seven-day
week from the Greeks. [217]
10. The lunar year.
Four seven-day weeks were within a day and a fraction of the lunar
month, which was the nearest that could be got. The first method of
measuring the year would be by twelve lunar months, which would bring
it back nearly to the same period. But as the lunar month is 29 days
13 hours, twelve months would be 354 days 12 hours, or nearly eleven
days less than the tropical solar year. Hence if the lunar year was
retained the months would move back round the year by about eleven days
annually. This is what actually happens in the Muhammadan calendar
where the twelve lunar months have been retained and the Muharram
and other festivals come earlier every year by about eleven days.
11. Intercalary months.
In order to reconcile the lunar and solar years the Hindus hit upon
an ingenious device. It was ordained that any month in which the sun
did not enter a new sign of the zodiac would not count and would
be followed by another month of the same name. Thus in the month
of Chait the sun must enter the sign Mesha or Aries. If he does not
enter it during the lunar month there will be an intercalary Chait,
followed by the proper month of the same name during which the sun
will enter Mesha. [218] Such an intercalary month is called Adhika. An
intercalary month, obtained by having two successive lunar months
of the same name, occurs approximately once in three years, and by
this means the reckoning by twelve lunar months is adjusted to the
solar year. On the other hand, the sun very occasionally passes two
Sankrants or enters into two fresh signs during the lunar month. This
is rendered possible by the fact that the time occupied by the sun in
passing through different signs of the zodiac varies to some extent. It
is said that the zodiac was divided into twelve equal signs of 30°
each or 1° for each day, as at this period it was considered that the
year was 360 days. [219] Possibly in adjusting the signs to 365 odd
days some alterations may have been made in their length, or errors
discovered. At any rate, whatever may be the reason, the length of
the sun's periods in the signs, or of the solar months, varies from
31 days 14 hours to 29 days 8 hours. Three of the months are less
than the lunar month, and hence it is possible that two Sankrants or
passages of the sun into a fresh sign may occasionally occur in the
same lunar month. When this happens, following the same rule as before,
the month to which the second Sankrant properly belongs, that is the
one following that in which two Sankrants occur, is called a Kshaya
or eliminated month and is omitted from the calendar. Intercalary
months occur generally in the 3rd, 5th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 16th and
18th years of a cycle of nineteen years, or seven times in nineteen
years. It is found that in each successive cycle only one or two
months are changed, so that the same month remains intercalary for
several cycles of nineteen years and then gives way generally to one
of the months preceding and rarely to the following month. Suppressed
months occur at intervals varying from 19 to 141 years, and in a year
when a suppressed month occurs there must always be one intercalary
month and not infrequently there are two. [220]
This method of adjusting the solar and lunar years, though clumsy,
is so far scientific that the solar and lunar years are made to
agree without any artificial intercalation of days. It has, however,
the great disadvantages of the frequent intercalary month, and also
of the fact that the lunar months begin on different dates in the
English solar calendar, varying by nearly twenty days.
12. Superstitions about numbers.
It seems not improbable that the unlucky character of the number
thirteen may have arisen from its being the number of the intercalary
month. Though the special superstition against sitting down thirteen
to a meal is, no doubt, associated particularly with the Last Supper,
the number is generally unlucky as a date and in other connections. And
this is not only the case in Europe, but the Hindus, Persians and
Parsis also consider thirteen an unlucky number; and the Muhammadans
account for a similar superstition by saying that Muhammad was ill for
the first thirteen days of the month Safar. Twelve, as being the number
of the months in the lunar and solar years, is an auspicious number;
thirteen would be one extra, and as being the intercalary month would
be here this year and missing next year. Hence it might be supposed
that one of thirteen persons met together would be gone at their
next meeting like the month. Similarly, the auspicious character of
the number seven may be due to its being the total of the sun, moon
and five planets, and of the days of the week named after them. And
the number three may have been invested with mystic significance as
representing the sun, moon and earth. In the Hindu Trinity Vishnu
and Siva are the sun and moon, and Brahma, who created the earth,
and has since remained quiescent, may have been the personified
representative of the earth itself.
13. The Hindu months.
The names of the Hindu months were selected from among those of the
nakshatras, every second or third being taken and the most important
constellations apparently chosen. The following statement shows the
current names for the months, the nakshatras from which they are
derived, and the constellations they represent:
Month. Nakshatra. Constellation.
1. Chait. Chitra. Virgo.
2. Baisakh. Visacha. Libra.
3. Jeth. Jyestha. Scorpio.
4. Asarh. Purva Ashadha. Sagittarius.
Uttara Ashadha.
5. Shrawan. Sravana. Aquila.
6. Bhadon. Purva (E) Bhadrapada. Pegasus.
Uttara (N) Bhadrapada.
7. Kunwar or Aswini. Aries.
Aswin.
8. Kartik. Krittika. Pleiades (Part
of Taurus).
9. Aghan or Mrigasiras. Orion.
Margashir.
10. Pus. Pushya. Cancer.
11. Magh. Magha. Leo.
12. Phagun. Purva (E) Phalguni. Leo.
Uttara (N) Phalguni.
Thus if the Pleiades are reckoned as part of Taurus, [221] eight
zodiacal signs give their names to months as well as Orion, Pegasus
and Aquila, while two months are included in Leo. It appears that
in former times the year began with Pus or December, as the month
Margashir was also called Aghan or Agrahana, or 'That which went
before,' that is the month before the new year. But the renewal
of vegetation in the spring has exercised a very powerful effect
on the primitive mind, being marked by the Holi festival in India,
corresponding to the Carnival in Europe. The vernal equinox was thus
perhaps selected as the most important occasion and the best date
for beginning the new year, which now commences in northern India
with the new moon of Chait, immediately following the Holi festival,
when the sun is in the sign of Mesha or Aries. At first the months
appear to have travelled round the year, but subsequently they were
fixed by ordaining that the month of Chait should begin with the new
moon during the course of which the sun entered the sign Aries. [222]
The constellation Chitra, from which the sign is named, is nearly
opposite to this in the zodiac, as shown by the above figure. [223]
Consequently, the full moon, being nearly opposite the sun on the
ecliptic, would be in the sign Chitra or near it. In southern India
the months begin with the full moon, but in northern India with the
new moon; it seems possible that the months were called after the
nakshatra, of the full moon to distinguish them from the solar months
which would be called after the sign of the zodiac in which the sun
was. But no authoritative explanation seems to be available. Similarly,
the nakshatras after which the other months are named, fall nearly
opposite to them at the new moon, while the full moon would be in or
near them.
14. The solar nakshatras.
The periods during which the sun passes through each nakshatra are
also recorded, and they are of course constant in date like the
solar months. As there are twenty-seven nakshatras, the average time
spent by the sun in each is about 13 1/2 days. These periods are
well known to the people as they have the advantage of not varying
in date like the lunar months, while over most of India the solar
months are not used. The commencement of the various agricultural
operations is dated by the solar nakshatras, and there are several
proverbs about them in connection with the crops. The following are
some examples: "If it does not rain in Pushya and Punarvasu Nakshatras
the children of Nimar will go without food." 'Rain in Magha Nakshatra
(end of August) is like food given by a mother,' because it is so
beneficial. "If there is no wind in Mrigasiras (beginning of June),
and no heat in Rohini (end of May), sell your plough-cattle and go
and look for work." 'If it rains during Uttara (end of September)
dogs will turn up their noses at grain,' because the harvest will
be so abundant. "If it rains during Aslesha (first half of August)
the wheat-stalks will be as stout as drum-sticks" (because the land
will be well ploughed). 'If rain falls in Chitra or Swati Nakshatras
(October) there won't be enough cotton for lamp-wicks.'
15. Lunar fortnights and days.
The lunar month was divided into two fortnights called paksha or
wing. The period of the waxing moon was known as sukla or sudi paksha,
that is the light fortnight, and that of the waning moon as krishna
or budi paksha, that is the dark fortnight.
Each lunar month was also divided into thirty equal periods, called
tithis or lunar days. Since there are less than thirty days in the
lunar month, a tithi does not correspond to an ordinary day, but
begins and ends at odd hours of the day. Nevertheless the tithis
are printed in all almanacs, and are used for the calculation of
auspicious moments. [224]
16. Divisions of the day.
The day is divided for ordinary purposes of measuring time into
eight pahars or watches, four of the day and four of the night;
and into sixty gharis or periods of twenty-four minutes each. The
pahars, however, are not of equal length. At the equinox the first
and fourth pahar of the day and night each contain eight gharis,
and the two middle ones seven gharis. In summer the first and fourth
pahars of the day contain nine gharis each, and the two middle ones
eight each, while the first and fourth pahars of the night contain
seven and the two middle ones six each. Thus in summer the four day
pahars contain 13 hours 36 minutes and the night ones 10 hours 24
minutes. And in winter the exact opposite is the case, the night
pahars being lengthened and the day ones shortened in precisely
the same manner. No more unsatisfactory measure of time could well
be devised. The termination of the second watch or do pahar always
corresponds with midday and midnight respectively.
The apparatus with which the hours were measured and announced
consisted of a shallow metal pan, named from its office, gharial,
and suspended so as to be easily struck with a wooden mallet by the
ghariali. He measured the passing of a ghari by an empty thin brass
cup or katori, perforated at the bottom, and placed on the surface
of a large vessel filled with water, where nothing could disturb it;
the water came through the small hole in the bottom of the cup and
filled it, causing it to sink in the period of one ghari. At the
expiration of each ghari the gharial struck its number from one to
nine with a mallet on a brass plate, and at the end of each pahar
he struck a gujar or eight strokes to announce the fact, followed
by one to four hollow-sounding strokes to indicate the number of
the pahar. This custom is still preserved in the method by which the
police-guards of the public offices announce the hours on a gong and
subsequently strike four, eight and twelve strokes to proclaim these
hours of the day and night by our clock. Only rich men could afford
to maintain a gharial, as four persons were required to attend to it
during the day and four at night. [225]
17. The Joshi's calculations.
The Joshi calculates auspicious [226] seasons by a consideration of the
sun's zodiacal sign, the moon's nakshatra or daily mansion, and other
rules. From the monthly zodiacal signs and daily nakshatras in which
children are born, as recorded in their horoscopes, he calculates
whether their marriage will be auspicious. Thus the zodiacal signs
are supposed to be divided among the four castes, Pisces, Cancer and
Scorpio belonging to the Brahman; Aries, Leo and Sagittarius to the
Kshatriya; Taurus, Virgo and Capricorn to the Vaishya; and Gemini,
Libra and Aquarius to the Sudra. If the boy and girl were born under
any of the three signs of the same caste it is a happy conjunction. If
the boy's sign was of a caste superior to the girl's, it is suitable,
but if the girl's sign is of a superior caste to the boy's it is an
omen that she will rule the household; and though the marriage may
take place, certain ceremonies should be performed to obviate this
effect. There is also a division of the zodiacal signs according
to their nature. Thus Virgo, Libra, Gemini, Aquarius and half of
Sagittarius are considered to be of the nature of man, or formed by
him; Aries, Taurus, half of Sagittarius and half of Capricorn are of
the nature of animals; Cancer, Pisces and half of Capricorn are of
a watery nature; Leo is of the desert or wild nature; and Scorpio
is of the nature of insects. If the boy and girl were both born
under signs of the same nature their marriage will be auspicious,
but if they were born under signs of different natures, they will
share only half the blessings and comforts of the marriage state,
and may be visited by strife, enmity, misery or distress. As Leo and
Scorpio are looked upon as being enemies, evil consequences are much
dreaded from the marriage of a couple born under these signs. There
are also numerous rules regarding the nakshatras or mansions of the
moon and days of the week under which the boy and girl were born,
but these need not be reproduced. If on the day of the wedding the
sun or any of the planets passes from one zodiacal sign to another,
the wedding must be delayed for a certain number of gharis or periods
of twenty-four minutes, the number varying for each planet. The hours
of the day are severally appointed to the seven planets and the twelve
zodiacal signs, and the period of ascendancy of a sign is known as
lagan; this name is also given to the paper specifying the day and
hour which have been calculated as auspicious for the wedding. It
is stated that no weddings should be celebrated during the period of
occultation of the planets Jupiter and Venus, nor on the day before
new moon, nor the Sankrant or day on which the sun passes from one
zodiacal sign to another, nor in the Singhast year, when the planet
Jupiter is in the constellation Leo. This takes place once in twelve
years. Marriages are usually prohibited during the four months of
the rainy season, and sometimes also in Pus, Jeth or other months.
18. Personal names.
The Joshi names children according to the moon's daily nakshatra
under which they were born, each nakshatra having a letter or certain
syllables allotted to it with which the name must begin. Thus Magha
has the syllables Ma, Mi, Mu and Me, with which the name should begin,
as Mansaram, Mithu Lal, Mukund Singh, Meghnath; Purwa Phalguni has Mo
and Te, as Moji Lal and Tegi Lal; Punarvasu has Ke, Ko, Ha and Hi,
as Kesho Rao, Koshal Prasad, Hardyal and Hira Lal, and so on. The
primitive idea connecting a name with the thing or person to which it
belongs is that the name is actually a concrete part of the person or
object, containing part of his life, just as the hair, nails and all
the body are believed to contain part of the life, which is not at
first localised in any part of the body nor conceived of as separate
from it. The primitive mind could conceive no abstract idea, that is
nothing that could not be seen or heard, and it could not think of
a name as an abstract appellation. The name was thought of as part
of that to which it was applied. Thus, if one knew a man's name, it
was thought that one could use it to injure him, just as if one had a
piece of his hair or nails he could be injured through them because
they all contained part of his life; and if a part of the life was
injured or destroyed the remainder would also suffer injury, just as
the whole body might perish if a limb was cut off. For this reason
savages often conceal their real names, so as to prevent an enemy from
obtaining power to injure them through its knowledge. By a development
of the same belief it was thought that the names of gods and saints
contained part of the divine life and potency of the god or saint to
whom they were applied. And even separated from the original owner the
name retained that virtue which it had acquired in association; hence
the power assigned to the names of gods and superhuman beings when used
in spells and incantations. Similarly, if the name of a god or saint
was given to a child it was thought that some part of the nature and
virtue of the god might be conferred on the child. Thus Hindu children
are most commonly named after gods and goddesses under the influence
of this idea; and though the belief may now have decayed the practice
continues. Similarly the common Muhammadan names are epithets of Allah
or god or of the Prophet and his relations. Jewish children are named
after the Jewish patriarchs. In European countries the most common
male names are those of the Apostles, as John, Peter, James, Paul,
Simon, Andrew and Thomas; and the names of the Evangelists were, until
recently, also given. The most common girl's name in several European
countries is Mary, and a generation or two ago other Biblical names,
as Sarah, Hannah, Ruth, Rachel, and so on, were very usually given
to girls. In England the names next in favour for boys and girls
are those of kings and queens, and the same idea perhaps originally
underlay the application of these names. The following are some of
the best-known Hindu names, taken from those of gods:--
Names of Vishnu.
Narayan. Probably 'The abode of mortals,' or else 'He who dwelt
on the waters (before creation)'; now applied to the sun.
Waman. The dwarf, one of Vishnu's incarnations.
Janardan. Said to mean protector of the people.
Narsingh. The man-lion, one of Vishnu's incarnations.
Hari. Yellow or gold-colour or green. Perhaps applied to the sun.
Parashram. From Parasurama or Rama with the axe, one of the
incarnations of Vishnu.
Gadadhar. Wielder of the club or gada.
Jagannath. Lord of the world.
Dinkar. The sun, or he who makes the days (din karna).
Bhagwan. The fortunate or illustrious.
Anant. The infinite or eternal.
Madhosudan. Destroyer of the demon Madho (Madho means honey
or wine).
Pandurang. Yellow-coloured.
Names of Rama, or Vishnu's Great Incarnation as King Rama of Ayodhia.
Ramchandra, the moon of Rama, and Rambaksh, the gift of Rama,
are the commonest Hindu male names.
Atmaram. Soul of Rama.
Sitaram. Rama and Sita his wife.
Ramcharan. The footprint of Rama.
Sakharam. The friend of Rama.
Sewaram. Servant of Rama.
Names of Krishna.
Krishna and its diminutive Kishen are very common names.
Kanhaiya. A synonym for Krishna.
Damodar. Because his mother tied him with a rope to a large tree
to keep him quiet and he pulled up the tree, roots and all.
Balkishen. The boy Krishna.
Ghansiam. The dark-coloured or black one (like dark clouds);
probably referring to the belief that Krishna belonged to the
non-Aryan races.
Madan Mohan. The enchanter of love.
Manohar. The heart-stealer.
Yeshwant. The glorious.
Kesho. Having long, fine hair. A name of Krishna. Also the
destroyer of the demon Keshi, who was covered with hair. It would
appear that the epithet was first applied to Krishna himself and
afterwards to a demon whom he was supposed to have destroyed.
Balwant. Strong. An epithet of Krishna, used in conjunction with
other names.
Madhava. Honey-sweet or belonging to the spring, vernal.
Girdhari. He who held up the mountain. Krishna held up the mountain
Govardhan, balancing the peak on his finger to protect the people
from the destructive rains sent by Indra.
Shiamsundar. The dark and beautiful one.
Nandkishore, Nandkumar. Child of Nand the cowherd, Krishna's
foster-father.
Names of Siva.
Sadasheo. Siva the everlasting.
Mahadeo. The great god.
Trimbak. The three-eyed one (?).
Gangadhar. The holder of the Ganges, because it flows from
Siva's hair.
Kashinath. The lord of Benares.
Kedarnath. The lord of cedars (referring to the pine-forests of
the Himalayas).
Nilkanth. The blue-jay sacred to Siva. Name of Siva because his
throat is bluish-black either from swallowing poison at the time
of the churning of the ocean or from drinking large quantities
of bhang.
Shankar. He who gives happiness.
Vishwanath. Lord of the universe.
Sheo Prasad. Gift of Siva.
Names of Ganpati or Ganesh.
Ganpati is itself a very common name.
Vidhyadhar. The lord of learning.
Vinayak. The remover of difficulties.
Ganesh Prasad. Gift of Ganesh. A child born on the fourth day of
any month will often be given this name, as Ganesh was born on
the 4th Bhadon (August).
Names of Hanuman.
Hanuman itself is a very common name.
Maroti, son of Marut the god of the wind.
Mahavira or Mahabir. The strong one.
Other common sacred names are: Amrit, the divine nectar, and Moreshwar,
lord of the peacock, perhaps an epithet of the god Kartikeya. Men
are also often named after jewels, as: Hira Lal, diamond; Panna Lal,
emerald; Ratan Lal, a jewel; Kundan Lal, fine gold. A child born
on the day of full moon may be called Puran Chand, which means full
moon. There are of course many other male names, but those here given
are the commonest. Children are also frequently named after the day
or month in which they were born.
19. Terminations of names.
Common terminations of male names are: Charan, footprint; Das, slave;
Prasad, food offered to a god; Lal, dear; Datta, gift, commonly used
by Maithil Brahmans; Din or Baksh, which also means gift; Nath,
lord of; and Dulare, dear to. These are combined with the names
of gods, as: Kalicharan, footprint of Kali; Ram Prasad or Kishen
Prasad, an offering to Rama or Krishna; Bishen Lal, dear to Vishnu;
Ganesh Datta, a gift from Ganesh; Ganga Din, a gift from the Ganges;
Sheo Dulare, dear to Siva; Vishwanath, lord of the universe. Boys
are sometimes given the names of goddesses with such terminations,
as Lachmi or Janki Prasad, an offering to these goddesses. A child
born on the 8th of light Chait (April) will be called Durga Prasad,
as this day is sacred to the goddess Durga or Devi.
20. Women's names.
Women are also frequently named after goddesses, as: Parvati, the
consort of Siva; Sita, the wife of Rama; Janki, apparently another name
for Sita; Lakshmi, the consort of Vishnu, and the goddess of wealth;
Saraswati, the goddess of wisdom; Radha, the beloved of Krishna;
Dasoda, the foster-mother of Krishna; Dewaki, who is supposed to
have been the real mother of Krishna; Durga, another name for Siva's
consort; Devi, the same as Durga and the earth-goddess; Rukhmini, the
bright or shining one, a consort of Vishnu; and Tulsi, the basil-plant,
sacred to Vishnu.
Women are also named after the sacred rivers, as: Ganga, Jamni or
Yamuni (Jumna); Gomti, the river on which Lucknow stands; Godha or
Gautam, after the Godavari river; and Bhagirathi, another name for
the Ganges. The river Nerbudda is commonly found as a man's name,
especially in places situated on its banks. Other names of women are:
Sona, gold; Puna, born at the full moon; Manohra, enchanting; Kamala,
the lotus; Indumati, a moonlight night; Sumati, well-minded; Sushila,
well-intentioned; Srimati, wealthy; Amrita, nectar; Phulwa, a flower;
Imlia, the tamarind; Malta, jasmine; and so on.
If a girl is born after four sons she will be called Pancho or fifth,
and one born in the unlucky Mul Nakshatra is called Mulia. When a
girl is married and goes to her husband's house her name is always
changed there. If two girls have been married into the household,
they may be called Bari Bohu and Choti Bohu, or the elder and younger
daughters-in-law; or a girl may be called after the place from which
she comes, as Jabalpurwali, Raipurwali, and so on.
21. Special names and bad names.
The higher castes have two names, one given by the Joshi, which
is called rashi-ka-nam or the ceremonial name, rashi meaning the
Nakshatra or moon's daily mansion under which the child was born. This
is kept secret and only used in marriage and other ceremonies,
though the practice is now tending to decay. The other is the chaltu
or current name, and may either be a second ordinary name, such as
those already given, or it may be taken from some peculiarity of the
child. Names of the latter class are: Bhura, brown; Putro, a doll,
given to a pretty child; Dukali, born in famine-time; Mahinga, dear
or expensive; Chhota, little; Babu, equivalent to little prince or
noble; Papa, father; Kakku, born in the cucumber season; Lada, pet;
Pattu, a somersault; Judawan, cooling, and so on. Bad names are also
given to avert ill-luck and remove the enmity of the spirits hostile to
children, if the mother's previous babies have been lost. Instances of
these are Raisa, short in stature; Lula, having a maimed arm; Ghasita,
dragged along on a board; Damru, bought for a farthing; Khairati, alms;
Dukhi, pain; Kubra, hunch-back; Gudri, rag; Kana, one-eyed; Birla, thin
or lean; Bisahu, bought or purchased; and Bulaki and Chedi, having a
pierced nostril; these names are given to a boy whose nostril has been
pierced to make him resemble a girl and thus decrease his value. [227]
Further instances of such names have been given in other articles.
Julaha
Julaha, Momin.--A low Muhammadan caste of weavers resident mainly in
Saugor and Burhanpur. They numbered about 4000 persons in 1911. In
Nagpur District the Muhammadan weavers generally call themselves
Momin, a word meaning 'orthodox.' In northern India and Bengal
Julahas are very numerous and the bulk of them are probably converted
Hindus. Mr. (Sir Denzil) Ibbetson remarks: "We find Koli-Julahas,
Chamar-Julahas, Morhi-Julahas, Ramdasi-Julahas, and so forth; and
it is probable that after a few generations these men will drop the
prefix which denotes their low origin and become Julahas pure and
simple." [228] The Julahas claim Adam as the founder of their craft,
inasmuch as when Satan made him realise his nakedness he taught
the art of weaving to his sons. And they say that their ancestors
came from Arabia. In Nimar the Julahas or Momins assert that they
do not permit outsiders to be admitted as members of the caste, but
the accuracy of this is doubtful, while in Saugor any Muhammadan who
wishes to do so may become a Julaha. They follow the Muhammadan laws
of marriage and inheritance. Unions between relatives are favoured,
but a man may not marry his sister, niece, aunt or foster-sister. The
Julaha or Momin women observe no purda, and are said to be almost
unique among Muhammadans in this respect.
"The Musalman [229] weaver or Julaha," Sir G. Grierson writes,
"is the proverbial fool of Hindu stories and proverbs. He swims in
the moonlight across fields of flowering linseed, thinking the blue
colour to be caused by water. He hears his family priest reading the
Koran, and bursts into tears to the gratification of the reader. When
pressed to tell what part affected him most, he says it was not that,
but that the wagging beard of the old gentleman so much reminded
him of a favourite goat of his which had died. When forming one of a
company of twelve he tries to count them and finding himself missing
wants to perform his own funeral obsequies. He finds the rear peg of
a plough and wants to set up farming on the strength of it. He gets
into a boat at night and forgets to pull up the anchor. After rowing
till dawn he finds himself where he started, and concludes that the
only explanation is that his native village could not bear to lose him
and has followed him. If there are eight weavers and nine huqqas, they
fight for the odd one. Once on a time a crow carried off to the roof of
the house some bread which a weaver had given his child. Before giving
the child any more he took the precaution of removing the ladder. Like
the English fool he always gets unmerited blows. For instance, he once
went to see a ram-fight and got butted himself, as the saying runs:
Karigah chhor tamasa jay
Nahak chot Julaha khay.
'He left his loom to see the fun and for no reason got a
bruising.' Another story (told by Fallon) is that being told by a
soothsayer that it was written in his fate that his nose would be
cut off with an axe, the weaver was incredulous and taking up an axe,
kept flourishing it, saying--
Yon karba ta gor katbon
Yon karba ta hath katbon
Aur yon karba tab na----
'If I do so I cut off my leg, if I do so I cut off my hand, but
unless I do so my no----,' and his nose was off. Another proverb
Julaha janathi jo katai, 'Does a weaver know how to cut barley,'
refers to a story (in Fallon) that a weaver unable to pay his debt
was set to cut barley by his creditor, who thought to repay himself
in this way. But instead of reaping, the stupid fellow kept trying to
untwist the tangled barley stems. Other proverbs at his expense are;
'The Julaha went out to cut the grass at sunset, when even the crows
were going home.' 'The Julaha's brains are in his backside.' His wife
bears an equally bad character, as in the proverb: 'A wilful Julahin
will pull her own father's beard.'"
Kachera
1. Origin of the caste.
Kachera, [230] Kachara (from kanch, glass).--The functional caste of
makers of glass bangles. The Kacheras numbered 2800 persons in the
Central Provinces in 1911, of whom 1800 were found in the Jubbulpore
District. The caste say that in former times glass bangles were made
only by Turk or Muhammadan Kacheras. The present name of Turkari is
probably derived from Turk. But when Gauri Parvati was to be married
to Mahadeo, she refused to wear the bangles made by a Turkari. So
Mahadeo constructed a vedi or furnace, and from this sprang the first
Hindu Kachera, who was employed to make bangles for Parvati. A later
variant of the legend, having a sufficiently obvious deduction, is
that Mahadeo did not create a man, but caught hold of a Kshatriya
who happened to be present and ordered him to make the bangles. His
descendants followed the new profession and thus came to be known
as Kacheras. It is a possible conclusion from the story that the
art of making glass bangles was introduced by the Muhammadans and,
as suggested in the article on Lakhera, it may be the case that Hindu
women formerly wore ornaments made of lac.
2. Exogamous groups.
The exogamous sections of the Kacheras show that the caste is of
very mixed origin. Several of them are named after other castes,
as Bharia (forest tribe), Gadaria (shepherd), Sunar, Naua (Nai),
Thakurel (Thakur or Rajput), Kachhwaha and Chauhan (septs of Rajputs),
and Kuria or Kori (weaver), and indicate that members of these castes
took to the profession of bangle-making and became Kacheras. It may be
surmised that, in the first instance perhaps, when the objection to
using the product of the Muhammadan workman arose, if the theory of
the prior use of lac bangles be correct, members of different castes
took to supplying bangles for their own community, and from these
in the course of time the Kachera caste was developed. Other names
of sections worth mentioning are Jharraha, one who frets or worries;
Kharraha, a choleric person; Dukesha, one who carries a begging-bowl;
Thuthel, a maimed man, and Khajha, one suffering from the itch.
3. Social customs.
The exogamous sections are known as baink. The marriage of persons
belonging to the same section and of first cousins is forbidden. Girls
are generally married at an early age, as there is a scarcity of
women in the caste, and they are snapped up as soon as available. As a
natural consequence a considerable bride-price is paid, and the desire
of the Kachera to make a profit by the marriage of his daughter
is ridiculed in the following saying, supposed to be his prayer:
"O God, give me a daughter. In exchange for her I shall get a pair
of bullocks and a potful of rupees, and I shall be rich for the
rest of my life. As her dowry I shall give her a sickle, a hoe and a
spinning-machine, and these will suffice for my daughter to earn her
livelihood." The usual sum paid for a girl is Rs. 50. The marriage
ceremony is performed by walking round the sacred pole, and after it
the couple try their strength against each other, the bride trying to
push a stone pestle on to a slab with her foot and the groom pushing
it off with his. At the end of the wedding an omen is taken, a silver
ornament known as dhal [231] which women wear in the ear being fixed on
to a wall and milk poured over it. If the ornament is displaced by the
stream of milk and falls down, it is considered that the union will
be a happy one. The proceeding perhaps symbolises roughly the birth
of a child. The marriage of widows is permitted, and in consequence
of the scarcity of women the widow is usually married to her late
husband's younger brother, if there be one, even though he may be only
a child. Divorce is permitted. Liaisons within the caste are usually
overlooked, but a woman going wrong with an outsider is expelled
from the community. The Kacheras commonly burn the dead. They employ
Brahmans for ceremonial purposes, but their social status is low and
no high caste will take water from them. They eat flesh and fish, and
some of them drink liquor, while others have given it up. They have
a caste committee or panchayat for the punishment of social offences,
which is headed by officials known as Malik and Diwan. Their favourite
deity is Devi, and in her honour they sow the Jawaras or pots of wheat
corresponding to the gardens of Adonis during the nine days prior to
the Ramnaomi and Dasahra festivals in March and September. Some of
them carry their devotion so far as to grow the plants of wheat on
their bodies, sitting in one posture for nine days and almost giving
up food and drink. At the Diwali festival they worship the furnace
in which glass bangles are made.
4. Occupation.
The traditional occupation of the caste is the manufacture of glass
bangles. They import the glass in lumps from northern India and melt
it in their furnace, after which the colouring matter is applied and
the ring is turned on a slab of stone. Nearly all Hindu married women
have glass bangles, which are broken or removed if their husbands
die. But the rule is not universal, and some castes do not wear them
at all. Marwari women have bangles of ivory, and Dhangar (shepherd)
women of cocoanut-shell. Women of several castes who engage in
labour have glass bangles only on the left wrist and metal ones on
the right, as the former are too fragile. Low-caste women sometimes
wear the flat, black bangles known as khagga on the upper arm. In
many castes the glass bangles are also broken after the birth of a
child. Bangles of many colours are made, but Hindus usually prefer
black or indigo-blue. Among Hindus of good caste a girl may wear
green bangles while she is unmarried; at her wedding black bangles
are put on her wrists, and thereafter she may have them of black,
blue, red or yellow, but not green. Muhammadans usually wear black
or dark-green bangles. A Hindu woman has the same number of bangles
on each wrist, not less than five and more if she likes. She will
never leave her arms entirely without bangles, as she thinks this
would cause her to become a widow. Consequently when a new set are
purchased one or two of the old ones are kept on each arm. Similarly
among castes who wear lac bangles like Banjaras, five should be worn,
and these cover the greater part of the space between the wrist and
the elbow. The men of the caste usually stay at home and make the
bangles, and the women travel about to the different village markets,
carrying their wares on little ponies if they can afford them. It is
necessary that the seller of bangles should be a woman, as she has
to assist her customers to work them on to their wrists, and also
display her goods to high-caste women behind the purda in their homes.
The Kacheras' bangles are very cheap, from two to fourteen being
obtainable for a pice (farthing), according to quality. Many are
also broken, and the seller has to bear the loss of all those broken
when the purchaser is putting them on, which may amount to 30 per
cent. And though an improvement on the old lac bangles, the colours
are very dull, and bracelets of better and more transparent glass
imported from Austria now find a large sale and tend to oust the
indigenous product. The Kachera, therefore, is, as a rule, far from
prosperous. The incessant bending over the furnace tends to undermine
his constitution and often ruins his eyesight. There is in fact a Hindi
saying to the effect that, "When the Kachera has a son the rejoicings
are held in the Kundera's (turner's) house. For he will go blind and
then he will find nothing else to do but turn the Kundera's lathe."
KACHHI
List of Paragraphs
1. General notice.
2. Subdivisions.
3. Marriage customs.
4. Child-birth.
5. Ear-piercing.
6. Disposal of the dead.
1. General notice.
Kachhi.--An important cultivating caste of the northern Districts,
who grow vegetables and irrigated crops requiring intensive
cultivation. The distinction between the Kachhis and Malis of the
Hindustani Districts is that the former grow regular irrigated
crops, while the latter confine their operations to vegetables and
flower-gardens; whereas the Mali or Marar of the Maratha country is
both a cultivator and a gardener. The Kachhis numbered about 120,000
persons in 1911, and resided mainly in the Saugor, Damoh, Jubbulpore
and Narsinghpur Districts. The word Kachhi may be derived from kachhar,
the name given to the alluvial land lying on river banks, which they
greatly affect for growing their vegetables. Another derivation is
from kachhni, a term used for the process of collecting the opium from
the capsules of the poppy. [232] The caste are probably an offshoot of
the Kurmis. Owing to the resemblance of names they claim a connection
with the Kachhwaha sept of Rajputs, but this is not at all probable.
2. Subdivisions.
The caste is divided into a number of subcastes, most of which take
their names from special plants which they grow. Thus the Hardia
Kachhis grow haldi or turmeric; the Alias cultivate the al or Indian
madder, from which the well-known red dye is obtained; the Phulias are
flower-gardeners; the Jirias take their name from jira or cumin; the
Murai or Murao Kachhis are called after the muli or radish; the Pirias
take their name from the piria or basket in which they carry earth;
the Sanias grow san or hemp; the Mor Kachhis are those who prepare the
maur or marriage-crown for weddings; and the Lilia subcaste are called
after the indigo plant (il or nil). In some localities they have a
subcaste called Kachhwahi, who are considered to have a connection
with the Rajputs and to rank higher than the others.
3. Marriage customs.
The social customs of the Kachhis resemble those of the Kurmis. The
descendants of the same parents do not intermarry for three
generations. A man may have two sisters to wife at the same time. In
the Damoh District, on the arrival of the bridegroom's party, the
bride is brought into the marriage-shed, and is there stripped to the
waist while she holds a leaf-cup in her hand; this is probably done
so that the bridegroom may see that the bride is free from any bodily
defect. Girls are usually married before they are ten years old, and
if the parents are too poor to arrange a match for their daughter,
the caste-fellows often raise a subscription when she attains this
age and get her married. The bridegroom should always be older
than the bride, and the difference is generally from five to ten
years. The bridegroom wears a loin-cloth and long coat reaching to
the ground, both of which are stained yellow with turmeric; the bride
wears a red cloth or one in which red is the main colour. The girl's
father gives her a dowry of a cow or jewels, or at least two rupees;
while the boy's father pays all the expenses of the wedding with the
exception of one feast. The bridegroom gives the bride a present of
three shoulder-cloths and three skirts, and one of these is worn by her
at the wedding; this is the old northern method of dress, but married
women do not usually adhere to it and have adopted the common sari or
single body-cloth. The principal ceremony is the bhanwar or walking
round the sacred post. While the bride and bridegroom are engaged
in this the parents and elderly relatives shut themselves into the
house and weep. During the first four rounds of the post the bride
walks in front bowing her head and the bridegroom places his right
hand on her back; while during the last three the bridegroom walks
in front holding the bride by her third finger. After this the bride
is hidden somewhere in the house and the bridegroom has to search for
her. Sometimes the bride's younger sister is dressed up in her clothes
and the bridegroom catches her in mistake for his wife, whereupon the
old women laugh and say to him, 'Do you want her also?' If finally
he fails to find the bride he must give her some ornament.
After the wedding the bridegroom's marriage-crown is hung to the roof
in a basket. And on the sixth day of the following month of Bhadon
(August), he again dresses himself in his wedding clothes, and taking
his marriage-crown on a dish, proceeds to the nearest stream or river
accompanied by his friends. Here he throws the crown into the water,
and the wedding coat is washed clean of the turmeric and unsewn and
made up into ordinary clothes. This ceremony is known as moschatt and
is common to Hindu castes generally. Widows are permitted to marry
again, and the most usual match is with the younger brother of the
deceased husband. Divorce is allowed at the instance either of the
husband or wife, and may be effected by a simple declaration before
the caste committee.
4. Childbirth.
After a birth neither the mother nor child are given anything to eat
the first day; and on the second they bring a young calf and give a
little of its urine to the child, and to the mother a little sugar and
the half of a cocoanut. In the evening of this day they buy all kinds
of hot spices and herbs from a Bania and make a cake with them and give
it to the mother to eat. On the second day the child begins to drink
its mother's milk. The navel-string is cut and buried in the room on
the first day, and over it a fire is kept burning continuously during
the period of impurity. The small piece which falls from the child's
body is buried beneath the mother's bed. The period of impurity after
the birth of a girl lasts for four days and five days for a boy. On
the sixth day the mother is given rice to eat. Twelve days after a
child is born the barber's wife cuts its nails for the first time
and throws the clippings away.
5. Ear-piercing
The ears of boys and girls are pierced when they are four or five
years old; until this is done they are not considered as members of
the caste and may take food from anyone. The ear is always pierced
by a Sunar (goldsmith), who travels about the country in the pursuit
of this calling. A brass pin is left in the ear for fifteen days,
and is then removed and a strip of wood is substituted for it in a
boy's ear and a peacock's feather in that of a girl to enlarge the
hole. Girls do not have their nostrils pierced nor wear nose-rings,
as the Kachhis are a comparatively low caste. They are tattooed before
or after marriage with patterns of a scorpion, a peacock, a discus,
and with dots on the chin and cheek-bones. During the period of her
monthly impurity a girl is secluded in the house and does not eat
flesh or fish. When the time is finished she goes to the river and
bathes and dresses her hair with earth, which is a necessary ceremony
of purification.
6. Disposal of the dead.
The bodies of children under five and of persons dying from smallpox,
snake-bite or cholera are buried, and those of others are cremated. In
Chhindwara they do not wash or anoint the corpses of the dead, but
sprinkle on them a little turmeric and water. On the day of the funeral
or cremation the bereaved family is supplied with food by friends. The
principal deity of the Kachhis is Bhainsasur, who is regarded as the
keeper of the vegetable garden and is represented by a stone placed
under a tree in any part of it. He is worshipped once a year after the
Holi festival with offerings of vermilion, areca-nuts and cocoanuts,
and libations of liquor. The Kachhis raise all kinds of vegetables and
garden crops, the principal being chillies, turmeric, tobacco, garlic,
onions, yams and other vegetables. They are diligent and laborious,
and show much skill in irrigating and manuring their crops.
Kadera
1. Historical notice.
Kadera, Kandera, Golandaz, Bandar, Hawaidar. [233]--A small
occupational caste of makers of fireworks. The Kaderas numbered
2200 persons in 1911, and were most numerous in the Narsinghpur
District. They consider themselves to have come from Bundelkhand, where
the caste is also found, but it is in greatest strength in the Gwalior
State. In former times Kaderas were employed to manufacture gunpowder
and missiles of iron, and serve cannon in the Indian armies. The term
Golandaz or 'ball-thrower' was also applied to native artillerymen. The
Bandar or 'rocket-throwers' were a separate class, who fired rockets
containing missiles, the name being derived from van, an arrow. With
them may be classed the Deg-andaz or 'mortar-throwers,' who used
thick earthenware pots filled with powder and having fuses attached,
somewhat resembling the modern bomb--missiles which inflicted dreadful
wounds. [234] Mr. Irvine writes of the Mughal artillery as follows:
"The fire was never very rapid. Orme speaks of the artillery firing
once in a quarter of an hour. In 1721 the usual rate of fire of
heavy guns was once every three hours. Artillery which fired once
in two gharis or forty-four minutes was praised for its rapidity of
action. The guns were usually posted behind the clay walls of houses;
or they might take up a commanding position on the top of a brick-kiln;
or a temporary entrenchment might be formed out of the earthen bank
and ditch which usually surround a grove of mango-trees." Hawaidar
is a term for a maker of fireworks, while the name Kandera itself
may perhaps be derived from kand, an arrow.
2. Subdivisions.
In Narsinghpur the Kaderas have three subcastes, Rajput or Dangiwara,
Dhunka, and Matwala. The first claim to be Rajputs, but the alternative
name of Dangiwara indicates that they are a mixed group, perhaps
partly of Rajput descent like the Dangis of Saugor. It is by no
means unlikely that the lower classes of Rajputs should have been
employed in the avocations of the Kaderas. The term Dhunka signifies
a cotton-cleaner, and some of the Kaderas may have taken up this
calling, when they could no longer find employment in the native
armies. Matwala means a drinker of country liquor, in which members
of this group indulge. But with the exception of the Rajput Kaderas
in Narsinghpur, other members of the caste also drink it.
3. Social customs.
They celebrate their marriages by walking round the sacred
post. Divorce and the remarriage of widows are permitted. They have
a caste committee, with a headman called Chaudhri or Mehtar, and an
inferior officer known as Diwan. When a man has been put out of caste
the Chaudhri first takes food with him on readmission, and for this is
entitled to a fee of a rupee and a turban, while the Diwan receives a
smaller cloth. These offices are hereditary. The Kaderas have no purda
system, and a wife may speak freely to her father-in-law. They bury the
milk-teeth of children below the ghinochi, or stand for water-pots,
with the idea probably of preventing heat and inflammation in the
gums. A child's jhala or birth-hair is usually cut for the first time
on the occasion of some marriage in the family, and is thrown into
the Nerbudda or buried at a temple. Names are given by the Brahman
on the day of birth or soon afterwards, and a second pet name is
commonly used in the family. If a child sees a lamp on the chhati or
sixth day after its birth they think that it will squint.
4. Religion and occupation.
The caste employ Brahmans for religious ceremonies, but their social
position is low, and they rank with castes from whom a Brahman cannot
take water. On the tenth day of Jeth (May) they worship Lukman
Hakim, a personage whom they believe to have been the inventor of
gunpowder. He is popularly identified with Solomon, and is revered
with Muhammadan rites in the shop and not in the house. A Fakir is
called in who sacrifices a goat, and makes an offering of the head,
which becomes his perquisite; sugar-cakes and sweet rice are also
offered and given away to children, and the flesh of the goat is
eaten by the family of the worshipper. Since the worship is paid only
in the shop it would appear that Lukman Hakim is considered a deity
foreign to the domestic religion, and is revered as having invented
the substance which enables the caste to make their livelihood; and
since he is clearly a Muhammadan deity, and is venerated according to
the ritual of this religion by the Kaderas, who are otherwise Hindus,
a recognition seems to be implied that as far at least as the Kaderas
are concerned the introduction of gunpowder into India is attributed to
the Muhammadans. It is not stated whether or not the month of May was
selected of set purpose for the worship of the inventor of gunpowder,
but it is at any rate a most appropriate season in India. At present
the Kadera makes his own gunpowder and manufactures fireworks, and
in this capacity he is also known as Atashbaz. The ingredients for
gunpowder in Narsinghpur are a pound of saltpetre, two ounces of
sulphur, and four ounces of charcoal of a light wood, such as saleh
[235] or the stalks of arhar. [236] Water is sprinkled on the charcoal
and the ingredients are pounded together in a mortar, a dangerous
proceeding which is apt to cause occasional vacancies in the family
circle. Arsenic and potash are also used for different fireworks, and
sesamum oil is added to prevent smoke. Fireworks form a very popular
spectacle in India, and can be obtained of excellent quality even in
small towns. Bharbhunjas or grain-parchers now also deal in them.
Kahar
1. Origin and statistics.
Kahar, [237] Bhoi.--The caste of palanquin-bearers and watermen of
northern India. No scientific distinction can be made between the
Kahars and Dhimars, both names being applied to the same people. In
northern India the term Kahar is generally used, and Mr. Crooke has
an article on Kahar, but none on Dhimar. In the Central Provinces
the latter is the more common name for the caste, and in 1911 23,000
Kahars were returned as against nearly 300,000 Dhimars. Berar had also
27,000 Kahars. The social customs of the caste are described in the
article on Dhimar, but a short separate notice is given to the Kahars
on account of their special social interest. Some Kahars refuse to
clean household cooking-vessels and hence occupy a slightly higher
social position than the Dhimars generally. Mr. Crooke derives the
name of the caste from the Sanskrit Skandha-kara, or 'One who carries
things on his shoulder.' The Brahmanical genealogists represent the
Kahar as descended from a Brahman father and a Chandal or sweeper
mother, and this is typical of the position occupied by the caste,
who, though probably derived from the primitive non-Aryan tribes,
have received a special position on account of their employment as
household servants, so that all classes may take water and cooked
food at their hands. As one of Mr. Crooke's correspondents remarks:
"This caste is so low that they clean the vessels of almost all
castes except menials like the Chamar and Dhobi, and at the same time
so high that, except Kanaujia Brahmans, all other castes eat pakki
and drink water at their hands." Sir D. Ibbetson says of the Kahar:
"He is a true village menial, receiving customary dues and performing
customary service. His social standing is in one respect high; for all
will drink water at his hands. But he is still a servant, though the
highest of his class." This comparatively high degree of social purity
appears to have been conferred on the Kahars and Dhimars from motives
of convenience, as it would be intolerable to have a palanquin-bearer
or indoor servant from whom one could not take a drink of water.
2. The doli or palanquin.
The proper occupation of the Kahar is that of doli or
litter-bearer. When carts could not travel owing to the absence of
roads this was the regular mode of conveyance of those who could
afford it and did not ride. Buchanan remarks: "Few or none except
some chief native officers of Government keep bearers in constant pay;
but men of large estates give farms at low rents to their bearers, who
are ready at a call and receive food when employed." [238] A superior
kind of litter used by rich women had a domed roof supported on eight
pillars with side-boards like Venetian blinds; and was carried on
two poles secured to the sides beneath the roof. This is perhaps the
progenitor of the modern Calcutta ghari or four-wheeler, just as the
body of the hansom-cab was modelled on the old sedan-chair. It was
called Kharkhariya in imitation of the rattling of the blinds when in
motion. [239] The palki or ordinary litter consisted of a couch slung
under a long bamboo, which formed an arch over it. Over the arch was
suspended a tilt made of cloth, which served to screen the passenger
from sun and rain. A third kind was the Chaupala or square box open at
the sides and slung on a bamboo; the passenger sat doubled up inside
this. If as was sometimes the case the Chaupala was hung considerably
beneath the bamboo the passenger was miserably draggled by dust and
mud. Nowadays regular litters are so little used that they are not
to be found in villages; but when required because one cannot ride
or for travelling at night they are readily improvised by slinging
a native wooden cot from two poles by strings of bamboo-fibre. Most
of the Kahars and Dhimars have forgotten how to carry a litter,
and proceed very slowly with frequent stops to change shoulders or
substitute other bearers. But the Kols of Mandla still retain the art,
and will do more than four miles an hour for several hours if eight
men are allowed. Under native governments the privilege of riding in
a palanquin was a mark of distinction; and a rule was enforced that
no native could thus enter into the area of the forts in Madras and
Bombay without the permission of the Governor; such permission being
recorded in the order book at the gates of the fort and usually granted
only to a few who were lame or otherwise incapacitated. When General
Medows assumed the office of Governor of Bombay in 1788 some Parsis
waited on him and begged for the removal of this restriction; to which
the Governor replied, "So long as you do not force me to ride in this
machine he may who likes it"; and so the rule was abrogated. [240]
A passage from Hobson-Jobson, however, shows that the Portuguese were
much stricter in this respect: "In 1591 a proclamation of the Viceroy,
Matthias d'Albuquerque, ordered: 'That no person of what quality or
condition soever, shall go in a palanquy without my express licence,
save they be over sixty years of age, to be first proved before the
Auditor-General of Police ... and those who contravene this shall
pay a penalty of 200 cruzados, and persons of mean estate the half,
the palanquys and their belongings to be forfeited, and the bois or
mouços who carry such palanquys shall be condemned to His Majesty's
galleys.'" [241] The meaning of the last sentence appears to be that
the bearers were considered as slaves, and were forfeited to the king's
service as a punishment to their owner. As the unauthorised use of
this conveyance was so severely punished it would appear that riding
in a palanquin must have been a privilege of nobility. Similarly to
ride on a horse was looked upon in something of the same light; and
when a person of inferior consequence met a superior or a Government
officer while riding, he had to dismount from his horse as a mark of
respect until the other had passed. This last custom still obtains
to some extent, though it is rapidly disappearing.
As a means of conveyance the litter would be held sacred by primitive
people, and Mr. Crooke gives an instance of the regard paid to it:
"At the Holi festival eight days before Diwali in the western Districts
the house is plastered with cowdung and figures of a litter (doli) and
bearers are made on the walls with four or five colours, and to them
offerings of incense, lights and flowers are given." [242] Even after
passable roads were made tongas or carts drawn by trotting-bullocks
were slow in coming into general use owing to the objection felt by
the Hindus to harnessing the sacred ox.
3. Female bearers.
At royal courts women were employed to carry the litters of the
king and the royal ladies into the inner precincts of the palace,
the male bearers relinquishing their charge outside. "Another
class of attendants at the palace peculiar to Lucknow were the
female bearers. Their occupation was to carry the palanquins and
various covered conveyances of the king and his ladies into the
inner courts of the harem. These female bearers were also under
military discipline. They had their officers, commissioned and
non-commissioned. The head of them, a great masculine woman of pleasing
countenance, was an especial favourite of the king. The badinage which
was exchanged between them was of the freest possible character--not
fit for ears polite, of course; but the extraordinary point in it was
that no one hearing it or witnessing such scenes could have supposed
it possible that a king and a slave stood before him as the two chief
disputants." [243] Similarly female sepoys were employed to guard the
harem, dressed in ordinary uniform and regularly drilled and taught
to shoot. [244] A battalion of female troops for guarding the zenana
is still maintained in Hyderabad. [245]
4. Indoor servants.
From being a palanquin-bearer the Kahar became the regular indoor
servant of Hindu households. Originally of low caste, and derived from
the non-Aryan tribes, they did not object to eat the leavings of food
of their masters, a relation which is naturally very convenient, if
not essential, in poor Hindu houses. Sir H. Risley notes, however, that
in Bengal a Kahar engaged in personal service with a Brahman, Rajput,
Babhan, Kayasth or Agarwal, will only eat his master's leavings so long
as he is himself unmarried. [246] It seems that the marriage feast
may be considered as the sacrificial meal conferring full membership
of the caste, after which the rules against taking food from other
castes must be strictly observed. Slaves were commonly employed as
indoor servants, and hence the term Kahar came to be almost synonymous
with a slave. "In the eighteenth century the title Kahar was at Patna
the distinctive appellation of a Hindu slave, as Maulazadah was of
a Muhammadan, and the tradition in 1774 was that the Kahar slavery
took its rise when the Muhammadans first invaded northern India." [247]
As the Kahar was the common indoor servant in Hindu houses so
apparently he came to be employed in the same capacity by the
English. But he was of too high a caste to serve the food of a
European, which would have involved touching the cooked flesh of
the cow, and thus lost him his comparatively good status and social
purity among the Hindus. Hence arose the anomaly of a body servant
who would not touch his master's food, and confined himself to the
duties of a valet; while the name of bearer given to this servant
indicates clearly that he is the successor of the old-time Kahar
or palanquin-bearer. The Uriya bearers of Bengal were well known as
excellent servants and most faithful; but in time the inconvenience
of their refusal to wait at table has led to their being replaced by
low-caste Madrasis and by Muhammadans. The word 'boy' as applied to
Indian servants is no doubt of English origin, as it is also used in
China and the West Indies; but the South Indian term boyi or Hindi
bhoi for a palanquin-bearer also appears to have been corrupted into
boy and to have made this designation more common. The following
instances of the use of the word 'boy' from Hobson-Jobson [248] may
be quoted in conclusion: "The real Indian ladies lie on a sofa, and
if they drop their handkerchief they just lower their voices and say
'Boy,' in a very gentle tone" (Letters from Madras in 1826). 'Yes,
Sahib, I Christian Boy. Plenty poojah do. Sunday time never no work do'
(Trevelyan, The Dawk Bungalow, in 1866). The Hindu term Bhoi or bearer
is now commonly applied to the Gonds, and is considered by them as an
honorific name or title. The hypothesis thus appears to be confirmed
that the Kahar caste of palanquin-bearers was constituted from the
non-Aryan tribes, who were practically in the position of slaves to
the Hindus, as were the Chamars and Mahars, the village drudges and
labourers. But when the palanquin-bearer developed into an indoor
servant, his social status was gradually raised from motives of
convenience, until he grew to be considered as ceremonially pure, and
able to give his master water and prepare food for cooking. Thus the
Kahars or Dhimars came to rank considerably above the primitive tribes
from whom they took their origin, their ceremonial purity being equal
to that of the Hindu cultivating castes, while the degrading status
of slavery which had at first attached to them gradually fell into
abeyance. And thus one can understand why the Gonds should consider
the name of Bhoi or bearer as a designation of honour.
Kaikari
1. Origin and traditions.
Kaikari, Kaikadi (also called Bargandi by outsiders). [249]--A
disreputable wandering tribe, whose ostensible profession is to
make baskets. They are found in Nimar and the Maratha Districts,
and number some 2000 persons in the Central Provinces. The Kaikaris
here, as elsewhere, claim to have come from Telingana or the Deccan,
but there is no caste of this name in the Madras Presidency. They may
not improbably be the caste there known as Korva or Yerukala, whose
occupations are similar. Mr. Kitts [250] has stated that the Kaikaris
are known as Koravars in Arcot and as Korvas in the Carnatic. The
Kaikaris speak a gipsy language, which according to the specimen given
by Hislop [251] contains Tamil and Telugu words. One derivation of
Kaikari is from the Tamil kai, hand, and kude, basket, and if this
is correct it is in favour of their identification with the Korvas,
who always carry their tattooing and other implements in a basket in
the hand. [252] The Kaikaris of the Central Provinces say that their
original ancestor was one Kanoba Ramjan who handed a twig to his sons
and told them to earn their livelihood by it. Since then they have
subsisted by making baskets from the stalks of the cotton-plant, the
leaves of the date-palm and grass. They themselves derive their name
from Kai, standing for Kanoba Ramjan and kadi, a twig, an etymology
which may be dismissed with that given in the Berar Census Report [253]
that they are the remnants of the Kaikeyas, who before the Christian
era dwelt north of the Jalandhar Doab. Two subcastes exist in Nimar,
the Marathas and the Phirasti or wandering Kaikaris, the former no
doubt representing recruits from Maratha castes, not improbably from
the Kunbis. The Maratha Kaikaris look down on the Phirastis as the
latter take cooked food from a number of castes including the Telis,
while the Marathas refuse to do this. In the Nagpur country there
are several divisions which profess to be endogamous, as the Kamathis
or those selling toys made of palm-leaves, the Bhamtis or those who
steal from bazars, the Kunbis or cultivators, the Tokriwalas or makers
and sellers of baskets and the Boriwalas or those who carry bricks,
gravel and stone. Kunbi and Bhamti are the names of other castes,
and Kamathi is a general term applied in the Maratha country to
Telugu immigrants; the names thus show that the Kaikaris, like other
vagrant groups, are largely recruited from persons expelled from
their own caste for social offences. These groups cannot really be
endogamous as yet, but as in the case of several other wandering
tribes they probably have a tendency to become so. In Berar [254]
an entirely different set of 12 1/2 subcastes is recorded, several
of which are territorial, and two, the Pungis or blowers of gourds,
and the Wajantris or village musicians, are occupational. In Nimar
as in Khandesh [255] the Kaikaris have only two exogamous clans,
Jadon and Gaikwar, who must marry with each other. In the southern
Districts there are a number of exogamous divisions, as Jadon, Mane,
Kumre, Jeshti, Kade, Dane and others. Jadon is a well-known Rajput
sept, and the Kaikaris do not explain how they came by the name, but
claim to have fought as soldiers under several kings, during which
occasions the name may have been adopted from some Rajput leader in
accordance with the common practice of imitation. Mane and Gaikwar are
family names of the Maratha caste. The names and varied nomenclature of
the subdivisions show that the Kaikaris, as at present constituted,
are a very mixed caste, though they may not improbably have been
originally connected with the Korvas of Madras.
2. Marriage.
Marriage within the same gotra or section is prohibited, but with one
or two exceptions there are no other restrictions on intermarriage
between relatives. A sister's son may marry a brother's daughter, but
not vice versa. A man may not marry his wife's elder sister either
during his wife's lifetime or after her death, and he may marry her
younger sister, but not the younger but one. Girls are generally
married between 8 and 12 years of age. If a girl cannot get a partner
nothing is done, but when the marriage of a boy has not been arranged,
a sham rite is performed with an akao plant (swallow-wort) or with
a silver ring, all the ceremonies of a regular marriage being gone
through. The tree is subsequently carefully reared, or the ring worn on
the finger. Should the tree die or the ring be lost, funeral obsequies
are performed for it as for a member of the family. A bride-price is
paid which may vary from Rs. 20 to Rs. 100. In the southern Districts
the following custom is in vogue at weddings. After the ceremony the
bridegroom pretends to be angry and goes out of the mandap or shed,
on which the bride runs after him, and throwing a piece of cloth round
his neck, drags him back again. Her father then gives him some money
or ornaments to pacify him. After this the same performance is gone
through with the bride. The bride is taken to her husband's house,
but is soon brought back by her relatives. On her second departure
the husband himself does not go to fetch her, and she is brought
home by his father and other relations, her own family presenting
her with new clothes on this occasion. Widow-marriage is permitted,
and the widow is expected to marry the next younger brother of the
deceased husband. She may not marry any except the next younger,
and if another should take her he is expelled from the caste until
the connection is severed. If she marries somebody else he must
repay to her late husband's brother a half of the expenses incurred
on the first marriage. In the southern Districts she may not marry
a brother of her husband's at all. A widow cannot be married in her
late husband's house, but is taken to her parents' house and married
from there. In Nimar her family do not take anything, but in the
south they are paid a small sum. Here also the marriage is performed
at the second husband's house; the woman carries to it a new earthen
pitcher filled with water, and, placing it on the chauk or pattern
of lines traced with flour in the courtyard, touches the feet of
the Panch or caste committee, after which her skirt is tied to her
husband's cloth. The pair are seated on a blanket and new bangles are
placed on the woman's wrist, widows officiating at the ceremony. The
couple then leave the village and pass the night outside it, returning
next morning, when the woman manages to enter the house without being
perceived by a married woman or unmarried girl. A bachelor marrying a
widow must first go through the ceremony with a ring or akao plant,
as already described, this being his real marriage; if he omits the
rite his daughters by the widow will not be considered as members
of the caste, though his sons will be admitted. Polygamy is allowed,
but the consent of the first wife must be obtained to the taking of a
second, and she may require a written promise of good treatment after
the second marriage. A second wife is usually only taken if the first
is barren, and if she has children her parents usually interfere to
dissuade the husband, while other parents are always averse to giving
their daughter in marriage to a man under such circumstances. Divorce
is permitted for the usual reasons, a deed being drawn up and attested
by the panchayat, to whom the husband pays a fine of Rs. 8 or Rs. 10.
3. Religion.
The tutelary god of the Kaikaris is the Nag or cobra, who is worshipped
at marriages and on the day of Nag-Panchmi. Every family has in the
house a platform dedicated to Khandoba, the Maratha god of war. They
also worship Marimata, to whom flowers are offered at festivals, and
a little ghi is poured out in her honour by way of incense. When the
juari harvest is gathered, dalias or cakes of boiled juari and a ewe
are offered to Marimata. They do not revere the Hindu sacred trees,
the pipal and banyan, nor the basil plant, and will readily cut them
down. They both burn and bury the dead. The Jadons burn all married
persons, but if they cannot afford firewood they touch the corpse
with a burning cinder and then bury it. The Gaikwars always bury their
dead, the corpse being laid naked on its back with the feet pointing
to the south. On returning from the burial-ground each relative of
the deceased gives one roti or wheaten cake to the bereaved family,
and they eat, sharing the cakes with the panchayat. Bread is also
presented on the second day, and on the third the family begin to
cook again. Mourning lasts for ten days, and on the last day the
house is cleaned and the earthen pots thrown out; the clothes of the
family are washed and the males are shaved. Ten balls of rice cooked
in milk are offered to the soul of the dead person and a feast is
given to the caste. After a birth the mother remains impure for five
weeks. For the first five days both the mother and child are bathed
daily. The navel cord and after-birth are buried by the midwife in a
rubbish heap. When the milk teeth fall out they are placed in a ball
of the dung of an ass and thrown on to the roof of the house. It is
considered that the rats or mice, who have very good and sharp teeth,
will take them and give the child good teeth in exchange. Women are
impure for five days during the menstrual period. When a girl attains
maturity a ceremony called god-bharni is performed. The neighbours
are invited and songs are sung and the girl is seated in the chauk
or pattern of lines traced with flour. She is given new clothes and
bangles by her father, or her father-in-law if she is married, and
rice and plantains, cocoanuts and other fruits are tied up in her
skirt. This is no doubt done so that the girl may in like manner be
fruitful, the cocoanuts perhaps being meant to represent human heads,
as they usually do.
4. Social customs and position.
The Kaikaris eat flesh, including pork and fowls, but not beef. In
Nimar the animals which they eat must have their throats cut by a
Muhammadan with the proper formula, otherwise it is considered as
murder to slaughter them. Both men and women drink liquor. They take
food cooked with water from Kunbis and Malis and take water from the
same castes, but not from Dhimars, Nais or Kahars. No caste will take
food from a Kaikari. Their touch is considered to defile a Brahman,
Bania, Kalar and other castes, but not a Kunbi. They are not allowed
to enter temples but may live inside the village. Their status is thus
very low. They have a caste panchayat or committee, and punishments
are imposed for the usual offences. Permanent exclusion from caste
is rarely or never inflicted, and even a woman who has gone wrong
with an outsider may be readmitted after a peculiar ceremony of
purification. The delinquent is taken to a river, tank or well, and
is there shaved clean. Her tongue is branded with a ring or other
article of gold, and she is then seated under a wooden shed having
two doors. She goes in by one door and sits in the shed, which is
set on fire. She must remain seated until the whole shed is burning
and is then allowed to escape by the other door. A young boy of the
caste is finally asked to eat from her hand, and thus purified she
is readmitted to social intercourse. Fire is the great purifier, and
this ceremony probably symbolises the immolation of the delinquent
and her new birth. A similar ordeal is practised among the Korvas of
Bombay, and this fact may be taken as affording further evidence of
the identity of the two castes. [256] The morals of the caste are,
however, by no means good, and some of them are said to live by
prostituting their women. The dog is held especially sacred as with
all worshippers of Khandoba, and to swear by a dog is Khandoba's
oath and is considered the most binding. The Kaikaris are of dark
colour and have repulsive features. They do not bathe or change their
clothes for days together. They are also quarrelsome, and in Bombay
the word Kaikarin is a proverbial term for a dirty shrew. Women are
profusely tattooed, because tattooing is considered to be a record
of the virtuous acts performed in this world and must be displayed
to the deity after death. If no marks of tattooing are found the soul
is sent to hell and punished for having acquired no piety.
5. Occupation.
Basket-making is the traditional occupation of the Kaikaris and
is still followed by them. They do not however make baskets from
bamboos, but from cotton-stalks, palm-leaves and grass. In the south
they are principally employed as carriers of stone, lime, bricks and
gravel. Like most wandering castes they have a bad character. In Berar
the Ran Kaikaris are said to be the most criminal class. [257] They
act under a chief who is elected for life, and wander about in the cold
weather, usually carrying their property on donkeys. Their ostensible
occupations are to make baskets and mend grinding mills. A notice of
them in Lawrence's Settlement Report of Bhandara (1867) stated that
they were then professional thieves, openly avowing their dependence
on predatory occupations for subsistence, and being particularly
dexterous at digging through the walls of houses and secret pilfering.
Kalanga
1. Origin.
Kalanga.--A cultivating caste of Chhattisgarh numbering 1800 persons
in 1911. In Sambalpur they live principally in the Phuljhar zamindari
on the border, between Chhattisgarh and the Uriya track. The Kalangas
appear to be a Dravidian tribe who took up military service and
therefore adopted a territorial name, Kalanga being probably derived
from Kalinga, the name of the sea-board of the Telugu country. The
Kalangas may be a branch of the great Kalingi tribe of Madras. They
have mixed much with the Kawars, and in Phuljhar say that they have
three branches, the Kalingia, Kawar and Chero Kalangas; Kawar and
Chero are names for the same tribe, and the last two branches are thus
probably a mixture of Kalingis and Kawars, while the first comprises
the original Kalingis. The Kalangas themselves, like the Kawars,
say that they are the descendants of the Kauravas of the Mahabharata,
and that they came from northern India with the Rajas of Patna, whom
they still serve. But their features indicate their Dravidian descent
as also their social customs, especially that of killing a cock with
the bare hands on the birth of a child, and anointing the infant's
forehead with its blood. They have not retained their Telugu language,
however, and like the Kawars now speak a dialect of Chhattisgarhi at
home, while many also know Uriya.
2. Subdivisions.
The Kalangas have no real endogamous divisions but a large number
of exogamous groups or bargas, the names of which are derived from
animals, plants, or material objects, nicknames, occupations or
titles. Instances of the totemistic groups are Barha the wild boar,
Magar the crocodile, Bichhi the scorpion, Saria a variety of rice,
Chhati a mushroom, Khumri a leaf umbrella, and several others. The
members of the group revere the animal, plant or other object from
which it takes its name and would refuse to injure it or use it
for food. They salute the object whenever they see it. Instances of
other group names are Manjhi a headman, Behra a cook, Gunda dusty,
Kapat a shutter, Bhundi a hole, Chika muddy, Bhil a tribe, Rendia
quarrelsome, and Bersia a Thug or strangler. Some of the nicknames or
titles are curious, as for instance Kapat, a shutter, which stands
for gate-keeper, and Bhundi, a hole, which indicates a defective
person. Some of the group names are those of other castes, and this
probably indicates the admission of families of other castes among the
Kalangas. One of the groups is called Kusundi, the meaning of which is
not known, but whenever any one of the caste gets maggots in a wound
and is temporarily expelled, it is a member of the Kusundi group,
if one is available, who gives him water on his readmission into
caste. This is a dangerous service, because it renders the performer
liable to the burden of the other's sin, and when no Kusundi is present
five or seven men of other groups combine in doing it so as to reduce
the risk to a fraction. But why this function of a scapegoat should be
imposed upon the Kusundi group, or whether it possesses any peculiar
sanctity which protects it from danger, cannot be explained.
3. Marriage.
Marriage within the same barga or group is prohibited and also
the union of first cousins. Marriage is usually adult and matches
are arranged between the parents of the parties. A considerable
quantity of grain with five pieces of cloth and Rs. 5 are given
to the father of the bride. A marriage-shed is erected and a post
of the mahua tree fixed inside it. Three days before the wedding a
Ganda goes to the shed with some pomp and worships the village gods
there. In the ceremony the bridegroom and bride proceed separately
seven times round the post, this rite being performed for three days
running. During the four days of the wedding the fathers of the bride
and bridegroom each give one meal to the whole caste on two days,
while the other meal on all four days is given to the wedding party
by the members of the caste resident in the village. This may be a
survival of the time when all members of the village community were
held to be related. Widow-marriage is allowed, but the widow must
obtain the consent of the caste people before taking a second husband,
and a feast must be given to them. If the widow has no children and
there are no relatives to succeed to her late husband's property,
it is expended on feeding the caste people. Divorce is permitted and
is effected by breaking the woman's bangles in front of the caste
panchayat. In memory perhaps of their former military profession the
Kalangas worship the sword on the 15th day of Shrawan and the 9th
day of Kunwar. Offerings are made to the dead in the latter month,
but not to persons who have died a violent death. The spirits of these
must be laid lest they should trouble the living, and this is done in
the following manner: a handful of rice is placed at the threshold
of the house, and a ring is suspended by a thread so as to touch
the rice. A goat is then brought up, and when it eats the rice, the
spirit of the dead person is considered to have entered into the goat,
which is thereupon killed and eaten by the family so as to dispose of
him once for all. If the goat will not eat the rice it is made to do
so. The spirit of a man who has been killed by a tiger must, however,
be laid by the Sulia or sorcerer of the caste, who goes through the
formula of pretending to be a tiger and of mauling another sorcerer.
4. Social position.
The Kalangas are at present cultivators and many of them are
farmservants. They do not now admit outsiders into the caste, but they
will receive the children begotten on any woman by a Kalanga man. They
take food cooked without water from a Guria, but katchi food from
nobody. Only the lowest castes will take food from them. They drink
liquor and eat fowls and rats, but not beef or pork. A man who gets
his ear torn is temporarily excluded from caste, and this penalty
is also imposed for the other usual offences. A woman committing
adultery with a man of another caste is permanently expelled. The
Kalangas are somewhat tall in stature. Their features are Dravidian,
and in their dress and ornaments they follow the Chhattisgarhi style.
KALAR
List of Paragraphs
1. Strength of the caste.
2. Internal structure.
3. Dandsena Kalars in Chhattisgarh.
4. Social customs.
5. Liquor held divine in Vedic times.
6. Subsequent prohibition of alcohol.
7. Spirits habitually drunk in ancient times.
8. Drunkenness and divine inspiration.
9. Sanctity of liquor among the Gonds and other castes.
10. Drugs also considered divine.
11. Opium and ganja.
12. Tobacco.
13. Customs in connection with drinking.
1. Strength of the caste.
Kalar, Kalwar. [258]--The occupational caste of distillers and sellers
of fermented liquor. In 1911 the Kalars numbered nearly 200,000 persons
in the Central Provinces and Berar, or rather more than one per cent of
the population; so they are a somewhat important caste numerically. The
name is derived from the Sanskrit Kalyapala, a distiller of liquor.
2. Internal structure.
The caste has a number of subdivisions, of which the bulk are
of the territorial type, as Malvi or the immigrants from Malwa,
Lad those coming from south Gujarat, Daharia belonging to Dahar or
the Jubbulpore country, Jaiswar and Kanaujia coming from Oudh. The
Rai Kalars are an aristocratic subcaste, the word Rai signifying
the highest or ruling group like Raj. But the Byahut or 'Married'
are perhaps really the most select, and are so called because they
forbid the remarriage of widows, their women being thus married once
for all. In Bengal they also decline to distil or sell liquor. [259]
The Chauske Kalars are said to be so called because they prohibit
the marriage of persons having a common ancestor up to the fourth
generation. The name of the Seohare or Sivahare subcaste is perhaps a
corruption of Somhare or dealers in Soma, the sacred fermented liquor
of the Vedas; or it may mean the worshippers of the god Siva. The
Seohare Kalars say that they are connected with the Agarwala Banias,
their common ancestors having been the brothers Seoru and Agru. These
brothers on one occasion purchased a quantity of mahua [260] flowers;
the price afterwards falling heavily. Agru sold his stock at a discount
and cut the loss; but Seoru, unwilling to suffer it, distilled liquor
from his flowers and sold the liquor, thus recouping himself for his
expenditure. But in consequence of his action he was degraded from
the Bania caste and his descendants became Kalars. The Jaiswar,
Kanaujia and Seohare divisions are also found in northern India,
and the Byahut both there and in Bengal. Mr. Crooke states that the
caste may be an offshoot from the Bania or other Vaishya tribes; and
a slight physical resemblance may perhaps be traced between Kalars
and Banias. It may be noticed also that some of the Kalars are Jains,
a religion to which scarcely any others except Banias adhere. Another
hypothesis, however, is that since the Kalars have become prosperous
and wealthy they devised a story connecting them with the Bania caste
in order to improve their social position.
3. Dandsena Kalars in Chhattisgarh.
In Chhattisgarh the principal division of the Kalars is that of the
Dandsenas or 'Stick-carriers,' and in explanation of the name they
relate the following story: "A Kalar boy was formerly the Mahaprasad
or bosom friend of the son of the Rajput king of Balod. [261] But the
Raja's son fell in love with the Kalar boy's sister and entertained
evil intentions towards her. Then the Kalar boy went and complained
to the Raja, who was his Phulbaba, [262] the father of his friend,
saying, 'A dog is always coming into my house and defiling it,
what am I to do?' The Raja replied that he must kill the dog. Then
the boy asked whether he would be punished for killing him, and the
Raja said, No. So the next day as the Rajput boy was entering his
house to get at his sister, the Kalar boy killed him, though he was
his dearest friend. Then the Rajputs attacked the Kalars, but they
were led only by the queen, as the king had said that the Kalar boy
might kill the dog. But the Rajputs were being defeated and so the
Raja intervened, and the Kalars then ceased fighting as the Raja had
broken his word. But they left Balod, saying that they would drink
no more of its waters, which they have not done to this day." [263]
And the Kalars are called Dandsena, because in this fight sticks were
their only weapons.
4. Social customs.
The marriage customs of the caste follow the ordinary Hindu ritual
prevalent in the locality and are not of special interest. Before
a Kalar wedding procession starts a ceremony known as marrying the
well is performed. The mother or aunt of the bridegroom goes to the
well and sits in the mouth with her legs hanging down inside it and
asks what the bridegroom will give her. He then goes round the well
seven times, and a stick of kans [264] grass is thrown into it at each
turn. Afterwards he promises the woman some handsome present and she
returns to the house. Another explanation of the story is that the
woman pretends to be overcome with grief at the bridegroom's departure
and threatens to throw herself into the well unless he will give
her something. The well-to-do marry their daughters at an early age,
but no stigma attaches to those who have to postpone the ceremony. A
bride-price is not customary, but if the girl's parents are poor
they sometimes receive help from those of the boy in order to carry
out the wedding. Matches are usually arranged at the caste feasts,
and a Brahman officiates at the ceremony. Divorce is recognised and
widows are allowed to marry again except by the Byahut subcaste. The
Kalars worship the ordinary Hindu deities, and those who sell liquor
revere an earthen jar filled with wine at the Holi festival. The
educated are usually Vaishnavas by sect, and as already stated a
few of them belong to the Jain religion. The social status of the
Kalars is equivalent to that of the village menials, ranking below
the good cultivating castes. Brahmans do not take water from their
hands. But in Mandla, where the Kalars are important and prosperous,
certain Sarwaria Brahmans who were their household priests took water
from them, thus recognising them as socially pure. This has led to a
split among the local Sarwaria Brahmans, the families who did not take
water from the Kalars refusing to intermarry with those who did so.
While the highest castes of Hindus eschew spirituous liquor the
cultivating and middle classes are divided, some drinking it and others
not; and to the menial and labouring classes, and especially to the
forest tribes, it is the principal luxury of their lives. Unfortunately
they have not learnt to indulge in moderation and nearly always drink
to excess if they have the means, while the intoxicating effect of
even a moderate quantity is quickly perceptible in their behaviour.
In the Central Provinces the liquor drunk is nearly all distilled from
the flowers of the mahua tree (Bassia latifolia), though elsewhere
it is often made from cane sugar. The smell of the fermented mahua
and the refuse water lying about make the village liquor-shop an
unattractive place. But the trade has greatly profited the Kalars by
the influence which it has given them over the lower classes. "With
the control of the liquor-supply in their hands," Mr. Montgomerie
writes, "they also controlled the Gonds, and have played a more
important part in the past history of the Chhindwara District than
their numbers would indicate." [265] The Kalar and Teli (oil-presser)
are usually about on the same standing; they are the creditors of
the poorer tenants and labourers, as the Bania is of the landowners
and substantial cultivators. These two of the village trades are not
suited to the method of payment by annual contributions of grain, and
must from an early period have been conducted by single transactions
of barter. Hence the Kalar and Teli learnt to keep accounts and to
appreciate the importance of the margin of profit. This knowledge and
the system of dealing on credit with the exaction of interest have
stood them in good stead and they have prospered at the expense of
their fellow-villagers. The Kalars have acquired substantial property
in several Districts, especially in those mainly populated by Gonds,
as Mandla, Betul and Chhindwara. In British Districts of the Central
Provinces they own 750 villages, or about 4 per cent of the total. In
former times when salt was highly taxed and expensive the Gonds had
no salt. The Kalars imported rock-salt and sold it to the Gonds in
large pieces. These were hung up in the Gond houses just as they are
in stables, and after a meal every one would go up to the lump of salt
and lick it as ponies do. When the Gonds began to wear cloth instead
of leaves and beads the Kalars retailed them thin strips of cloth just
sufficient for decency, and for the cloth and salt a large proportion
of the Gond's harvest went to the Kalar. When a Gond has threshed
his grain the Kalar takes round liquor to the threshing-floor and
receives a present of grain much in excess of its value. Thus the
Gond has sold his birthright for a mess of pottage and the Kalar
has taken his heritage. Only a small proportion of the caste are
still supported by the liquor traffic, and a third of the whole are
agriculturists. Others have engaged in the timber trade, purchasing
teak timber from the Gonds in exchange for liquor, a form of commerce
which has naturally redounded to their great advantage. A few are
educated and have risen to good positions in Government service. Sir
D. Ibbetson describes them as 'Notorious for enterprise, energy and
obstinacy. Death may budge, but a Kalar won't.' The Sikh Kalars, who
usually call themselves Ahluwalia, contain many men who have attained
to high positions under Government, especially as soldiers, and the
general testimony is that they make brave soldiers. [266] One of the
ruling chiefs of the Punjab belongs to this caste. Until quite recently
the manufacture of liquor, except in the large towns, was conducted
in small pot-stills, of which there was one for a circle of perhaps
two dozen villages with subordinate shops. The right of manufacture
and vend in each separate one of these stills was sold annually by
auction at the District headquarters, and the Kalars assembled to bid
for it. And here instances of their dogged perseverance could often be
noticed; when a man would bid up for a licence to a sum far in excess
of the profits which he could hope to acquire from it, rather than
allow himself to be deprived of a still which he desired to retain.
5. Liquor held divine in Vedic times.
Though alcoholic liquor is now eschewed by the higher castes of
Hindus and forbidden by their religion, this has by no means always
been the case. In Vedic times the liquor known as Soma was held in so
much esteem by the Aryans that it was deified and worshipped as one
of their principal gods. Dr. Hopkins summarises [267] the attributes
of the divine wine, Soma, as follows, from passages in the Rig-Veda:
"This offering of the juice of the Soma-plant in India was performed
thrice daily. It is said in the Rig-Veda that Soma grows upon the
mountain Mujawat, that its or his father is Parjanya, the rain-god,
and that the waters are his sisters. From this mountain, or from
the sky, accounts differ, Soma was brought by a hawk. He is himself
represented in other places as a bird; and as a divinity he shares
in the praise given to Indra. It was he who helped Indra to slay
Vritra, the demon that keeps back the rain. Indra, intoxicated by
Soma, does his great deeds, and indeed all the gods depend on Soma
for immortality. Divine, a weapon-bearing god, he often simply takes
the place of Indra and other gods in Vedic eulogy. It is the god Soma
himself who slays Vritra, Soma who overthrows cities, Soma who begets
the gods, creates the sun, upholds the sky, prolongs life, sees all
things, and is the one best friend of god and man, the divine drop
(indu), the friend of Indra. As a god he is associated not only with
Indra but also with Agni, Rudra and Pushan. A few passages in the
later portion of the Rig-Veda show that Soma already was identified
with the moon before the end of this period. After this the lunar
yellow god was regularly regarded as the visible and divine Soma
of heaven represented on earth by the plant." Mr. Hopkins discards
the view advanced by some commentators that it is the moon and not
the beverage to which the Vedic hymns and worship are addressed,
and there is no reason to doubt that he is right.
The soma plant has been thought to be the Asclepias acida, [268] a
plant growing in Persia and called hom in Persian. The early Persians
believed that the hom plant gave great energy to body and mind. [269]
An angel is believed to preside over the plant, and the Hom Yast
is devoted to its praises. Twigs of it are beaten in water in the
smaller Agiari or fire-temple, and this water is considered sacred,
and is given to newborn children to drink. [270] Dr. Hopkins states,
however, that the hom or Asclepias acida was not the original soma,
as it does not grow in the Punjab region, but must have been a
later substitute. Afterwards again another kind of liquor, sura,
became the popular drink, and soma, which was now not so agreeable,
was reserved as the priests' (gods') drink, a sacrosanct beverage not
for the vulgar, and not esteemed by the priests except as it kept up
the rite. [271]
Soma is said to have been prepared from the juice of the creeper
already mentioned, which was diluted with water, mixed with barley
meal, clarified butter and the flour of wild rice, and fermented
in a jar for nine days. [272] Sura was simply arrack prepared from
rice-flour, or rice-beer.
6. Subsequent prohibition of alcohol.
Though in the cold regions of Central Asia the cheering and warming
liquor had been held divine, in the hot plains of India the evil
effects of alcohol were apparently soon realised. "Even more bold is
the scorn of the gods in Hymn x. 119 of the Rig-Veda, which introduces
Indra in his merriest humour, ready to give away everything, ready to
destroy the earth and all that it contains, boasting of his greatness
in ridiculous fashion--all this because, as the refrain tells us, he is
in an advanced state of intoxication caused by excessive appreciation
of the soma offered to him. Another Hymn (vii. 103) sings of the frogs,
comparing their voices to the noise of a Brahmanical school and their
hopping round the tank to the behaviour of drunken priests celebrating
a nocturnal offering of soma." [273] It seems clear, therefore,
that the evil effects of drunkenness were early realised, and led to
a religious prohibition of alcohol. Dr. Rajendra Lal Mitra writes:
[274] "But the fact remains unquestioned that from an early period
the Hindus have denounced in their sacred writings the use of wine as
sinful, and two of their greatest law-givers, Manu and Yajnavalkya,
held that the only expiation meet for a Brahman who had polluted
himself by drinking spirit was suicide by a draught of spirit or water
or cow's urine or milk, in a boiling state taken in a burning hot metal
pot. Angira, Vasishtha and Paithurasi restricted the drink to boiling
spirits alone. Dewala went a step farther and prescribed a draught
of molten silver, copper or lead as the most appropriate.... Manu
likewise provides for the judicial cognisance of such offences by
Brahmans, and ordains excommunication, and branding on the forehead
the figure of a bottle as the most appropriate punishment."
7. Spirits habitually drunk in ancient times.
Nevertheless the consumption of alcohol was common in classical
times. Bharadwaja, a great sage, offered wine to Bharata and his
soldiers when they spent a night under his roof. [275] When Sita
crossed the Ganges on her way to the southern wilderness she begged the
river for a safe passage, saying, "Be merciful to me, O Goddess, and I
shall on my return home worship thee with a thousand jars of arrack and
dishes of well-dressed flesh meat." When crossing the Jumna she said,
"Be auspicious, O Goddess; I am crossing thee. When my husband has
accomplished his vow I shall worship thee with a thousand head of
cattle and a hundred jars of arrack." Similarly the companions of
Krishna, the Yadavas, destroyed each other when they were overcome
by drink; and many other instances are given by Dr. Rajendra Lal
Mitra. The Puranas abound in descriptions of wine and drinking,
and though the object of many of them is to condemn the use of wine
the inference is clear that there was a widespread malady which they
proposed to overcome. [276] Pulastya, an ancient sage and author of
one of the original Smritis, enumerates twelve different kinds of
liquor, besides the soma beer which is not usually reckoned under the
head of madya or wine, and his successors have added largely to the
list. The twelve principal liquors of this sage are those of the jack
fruit, the grape, honey or mead, date-liquor, palm-liquor or toddy,
sugarcane-liquor, mahua-liquor, rum and those made from long-pepper,
soap-berries and cocoanuts. [277] All these drinks were not merely
fermented, but distilled and flavoured with different kinds of spices,
fruits and herbs; they were thus varieties of spirits or liqueurs. It
is probable that without the use of glass bottles and corks it would
be very difficult to keep fermented wine for any length of time in
the Indian climate. But spirits drunk neat as they were would produce
more markedly evil results in a hot country, and would strengthen and
accelerate the reaction against alcoholic liquor, which has gone so
far that probably a substantial majority at least of the inhabitants
of India are total abstainers. To this good result the adoption of
Buddhism as stated by Dr. Mitra no doubt largely contributed. This was
for some centuries the state religion, and was a strong force in aid
of temperance as well as of abstention from flesh. The Sivite revival
reacted in favour of liquor drinking as well as of the consumption
of drugs. But the prohibition of alcohol has again been a leading
tenet of practically all the Vaishnava reforming sects.
8. Drunkenness and divine inspiration.
The intoxication of alcohol is considered by primitive people as
a form of divine inspiration or possession like epileptic fits and
insanity. This is apparently the explanation of the Vedic liquor, Soma,
being deified as one of the greatest gods. In later Hindu mythology,
Varuni, the goddess of wine, was produced when the gods churned the
ocean with the mountain Mandara as a churning-stick on the back of
the tortoise, Vishnu, and the serpent as a rope, for the purpose
of restoring to man the comforts lost during the great flood. [278]
Varuni was considered to be the consort of Varuna, the Vedic Neptune.
Similarly the Bacchantes in their drunken frenzy were considered to be
possessed by the wine-god Dionysus. "The Aztecs regarded pulque or the
wine of the country as bad, on account of the wild deeds which men did
under its influence. But these wild deeds were believed to be the acts,
not of the drunken man, but of the wine-god by whom he was possessed
and inspired; and so seriously was this theory of inspiration held that
if any one spoke ill of or insulted a tipsy man, he was liable to be
punished for disrespect to the wine-god incarnate in his votary." [279]
Sir James Frazer thinks that the grape-juice was also considered to
be the blood of the vine. At one time the arrack or rice-beer liquor
was also considered by the Hindus as holy and purifying. Siva says to
his consort: "Oh, sweet-speaking goddess, the salvation of Brahmans
depends on drinking wine.... No one becomes a Brahman by repeating the
Gayatri, the mother of the Vedas; he is called a Brahman only when he
has knowledge of Brahma. The ambrosia of the gods is their Brahma,
and on earth it is arrack, and because one attains the character of
a god (suratva) therefore is arrack called sura." [280] The Sakta
Tantras insist upon the use of wine as an element of devotion. The
Kaulas, who are the most ardent followers of the Sakta Tantras,
celebrate their rites at midnight in a closed room, when they sit in
a circle round a jar of country arrack, one or more young women of
a lewd character being in the company; they drink, drink and drink
until they fall down on the ground in utter helplessness, then rising
again they drink in the hope of never having a second birth. [281]
"I knew a highly respectable widow lady, connected with one of the
most distinguished families in Calcutta, who belonged to the Kaula
sect, and had survived the 75th anniversary of her birthday, who never
said her prayers (and she did so regularly every morning and evening)
without touching the point of her tongue with a tooth-pick dipped
in a phial of arrack, and sprinkling a few drops of the liquor on
the flowers which she offered to her god. I doubt very much if she
had ever drunk a wine-glassful of arrack at once in all her life, and
certain it is that she never had any idea of the pleasures of drinking;
but as a faithful Kaula she felt herself in duty bound to observe the
mandates of her religion with the greatest scrupulousness." [282]
In this case it seems clear that the liquor was considered to have
a purifying effect, which was perhaps especially requisite for the
offerings of a widow.
9. Sanctity of liquor among the Gonds and other castes.
Similarly the Gonds and Baigas revere the mahua tree and consider the
liquor distilled from its flowers as sacred and purificatory. At a Gond
wedding the sacred post round which the couple go is made of the wood
of the mahua tree. The Bhatras of Bastar also use the mahua for the
wedding post, and the Sonkars of Chhattisgarh a forked branch of the
tree. Minor caste offences are expiated among the Gonds by a fine of
liquor, and by drinking it the culprit is purified. At a Gond funeral
one man may be seen walking with a bottle or two of liquor slung to
his side; this is drunk by all the party on the spot after the burial
or burning of the corpse as a means of purification. Among the Korwas
and other tribes the Baiga or priest protects the village from ghosts
by sprinkling a line of liquor all round the boundary, over which the
ghosts cannot pass. Similarly during epidemics of cholera liquor is
largely used in the rites of the Baigas for averting the disease and
is offered to the goddess. At their weddings the Mahars 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. At
the Hareli or festival of the new green vegetation in July the Gonds
take the branches of four kinds of trees and place them at the corners
of their fields and also inside the house over the door. They pour ghi
(butter) on the fire as incense and an offering to the deities. Then
they go to the meeting-place of the village and there they all take a
bottle or two of liquor each and drink together, having first thrown
a little on the ground as an offering. Then they invite each other
to their houses to take food. The Baigas do not observe Hareli,
but on any moonlight night in Shrawan (July) they will go to the
field where they have sown grain and root up a few plants and bring
them to the house, and, laying them on a clean place, pour ghi and
a little liquor over them. Then they take the corn plants back to
the field and replace them. For these rites and for offerings to the
deities of disease the Gonds say that the liquor should be distilled
at home by the person who offers the sacrifice and not purchased from
the Government contractor. This is a reason or at any rate an excuse
for the continuance of the practice of illicit distillation. Hindus
generally make a libation to Devi before drinking liquor. They pour
a little into their hand and sprinkle it in a circle on the ground,
invoking the goddess. The palm-tree is also held sacred on account of
the tari or toddy obtained from it. "The shreds of the holy palm-tree,
holy because liquor-yielding, are worn by some of the early Konkan
tribes and by some of the Konkan village gods. The strip of palm-leaf
is the origin of the shape of one of the favourite Hindu gold bracelet
patterns." [283]
10. Drugs also considered divine.
The abstinence from liquor enjoined by modern Hinduism to the higher
castes of Hindus has unfortunately not extended to the harmful drugs,
opium, and ganja [284] or Indian hemp with its preparations. On
the contrary ganja is regularly consumed by Hindu ascetics,
whether devotees of Siva or Vishnu, though it is more favoured by
the Sivite Jogis. The blue throat of Siva or Mahadeo is said to be
due to the enormous draughts of bhang [285] which he was accustomed
to swallow. The veneration attached to these drugs may probably be
explained by the delusion that the pleasant dreams and visions obtained
under their influence are excursions of the spirit into paradise. It
is a common belief among primitive people that during sleep the soul
leaves the body and that dreams are the actual experiences of the
soul when travelling over the world apart from the body. [286] The
principal aim of Hindu asceticism is also the complete conquest of all
sensation and movement in the body, so that while it is immobile the
spirit freed from the trammels of the body and from all worldly cares
and concerns may, as it is imagined, enter into communion with and be
absorbed in the deity. Hence the physical inertia and abnormal mental
exaltation produced by these drugs would be an ideal condition to the
Hindu ascetic; the body is lulled to immobility and it is natural that
he should imagine that the delightful fantasies of his drugged brain
are beatific visions of heaven. Ganja and bhang are now considered
sacred as being consumed by Mahadeo, and are offered to him. Before
smoking ganja a Hindu will say, 'May it reach you, Shankar,' [287]
that is, the smoke of the ganja, like the sweet savour of a sacrifice;
and before drinking bhang he will pour a little on the ground and say
'Jai Shankar.' [288] Similarly when cholera visits a village and
various articles of dress with food and liquor are offered to the
cholera goddess, Marhai Mata, smokers of ganja and madak [289] will
offer a little of their drugs. Hindu ascetics who smoke ganja are
accustomed to mix with it some seeds of the dhatura (Datura alba),
which have a powerful stupefying effect. In large quantities these
seeds are a common narcotic poison, being administered to travellers
and others by criminals. This tree is sacred to Siva, and the purple
and white flowers are offered on his altars, and probably for this
reason it is often found growing in villages so that the poisonous
seeds are readily available. Its sanctity apparently arises from the
narcotic effects produced by the seeds.
The conclusion of hostilities and ratification of peace after a
Bhil fight was marked by the solemn administration of opium to all
present by the Jogi or Gammaiti priests. [290] This incident recalls
the pipe of peace of the North American Indians, among whom a similar
divine virtue was no doubt ascribed to tobacco. In ancient Greece the
priestesses of Apollo consumed the leaves of the laurel to produce the
prophetic ecstasy; the tree was therefore held sacred and associated
with Apollo and afterwards developed into a goddess in the shape
of Daphne pursued by Apollo and transformed into a laurel. [291]
The laurel was also considered to have a purifying or expiatory
effect like alcoholic liquor in India. Wreaths of laurel were worn
by such heroes as Apollo and Cadmus before engaging in battle to
cleanse themselves from the pollution of bloodshed, and hence the
laurel-wreath afterwards became the crown of victory. [292]
In India bhang was regularly drunk by the Rajputs before going
into battle, to excite their courage and render them insensible to
pain. The effects produced were probably held to be caused by divine
agency. Herodotus says that the Scythians had a custom of burning the
seeds of the hemp plant in religious ceremonies and that they became
intoxicated with the fumes. [293] Ganja is the hashish of the Old
Man of the Mountain and of Monte Cristo. The term hashshash, meaning
'a smoker or eater of hemp,' was first applied to Arab warriors in
Syria at the time of the Crusades; from its plural hashshasheen our
word assassin is derived. [294]
11. Opium and ganja.
The sacred or divine character attributed to the Indian drugs in spite
of their pernicious effects has thus probably prevented any organised
effort for their prohibition. Buchanan notes that "No more blame
follows the use of opium and ganja than in Europe that of wine; yet
smoking tobacco is considered impure by the highest castes." [295] It
is said, however, that a Brahman should abstain from drugs until he is
in the last or ascetic stage of life. In India opium is both eaten and
smoked. It is administered to children almost from the time of their
birth, partly perhaps because its effects are supposed to be beneficial
and also to prevent them from crying and keep them quiet while their
parents are at work. One of the favourite methods of killing female
children was to place a fatal dose of opium on the nipple of the
mother's breast. Many children continue to receive small quantities
of opium till they are several years old, sometimes eight or nine,
when it is gradually abandoned. It can scarcely be doubted that the
effect of the drug must be to impair their health and enfeeble their
vitality. The effect of eating opium on adults is much less pernicious
than when the habit of smoking it is acquired. Madak or opium prepared
for smoking may not now be sold, but people make it for themselves,
heating the opium in a little brass cup over a fire with an infusion
of tamarind leaves. It is then made into little balls and put into the
pipe. Opium-smokers are gregarious and partake of the drug together. As
the fumes mount to their brains, their intellects become enlivened,
their tongues unloosed and the conversation ranges over all subjects
in heaven and earth. This factitious excitement must no doubt be a
powerful attraction to people whose lives are as dull as that of the
average Hindu. And thus they become madakis or confirmed opium-smokers
and are of no more use in life. Dhimars or fishermen consume opium and
ganja largely under the impression that these drugs prevent them from
taking cold. Ganja is smoked and is usually mixed with tobacco. It is
much less injurious than opium in the same form, except when taken in
large quantities, and is also slower in acquiring a complete hold over
its votaries. Many cultivators buy a little ganja at the weekly bazar
and have one pipeful each as a treat. Sweepers are greatly addicted
to ganja, and their patron saint Lalbeg was frequently in a comatose
condition from over-indulgence in the drug. Ahirs or herdsmen also
smoke it to while away the long days in the forests. But the habitual
consumers of either kind of drug are now only a small fraction of the
population, while English education and the more strenuous conditions
of modern life have effected a substantial decline in their numbers,
at least among the higher classes. At the same time a progressive
increase is being effected by Government in the retail price of the
drugs, and the number of vend licences has been very greatly reduced.
The prohibition of wine to Muhammadans is held to include drugs, but
it is not known how far the rule is strictly observed. But addiction
to drugs is at any rate uncommon among Muhammadans.
12. Tobacco.
No kind of sanctity attaches to tobacco and, as has been seen, certain
classes of Brahmans are forbidden to smoke though they may chew the
leaves. Tobacco is prohibited by the Sikhs, the Satnamis and some other
Vaishnava sects. The explanation of this attitude is simple if, as is
supposed, tobacco was first introduced into India by the Portuguese in
the fifteenth century. [296] In this case as a new and foreign product
it could have no sacred character, only those things being held sacred
and the gifts of the gods whose origin is lost in antiquity. In a note
on the subject [297] Mr. Ganpat Rai shows that several references to
smoking and also to the huqqa are found in ancient Sanskrit literature;
but it does not seem clear that the plant smoked was tobacco and, on
the other hand, the similarity of the vernacular to the English name
[298] is strong evidence in favour of its foreign origin.
13. Customs in connection with drinking.
The country liquor, consisting of spirits distilled from the flowers
of the mahua tree, is an indispensable adjunct to marriage and other
ceremonial feasts among the lower castes of Hindus and the non-Aryan
tribes. It is usually drunk before the meal out of brass vessels,
cocoanut-shells or leaf-cups, water being afterwards taken with
the food itself. If an offender has to give a penalty feast for
readmission to caste but the whole burden of the expense is beyond
his means, other persons who may have committed minor offences and
owe something to the caste on that account are called upon to provide
the liquor. Similarly at the funeral feast the heir and chief mourner
may provide the food and more distant relatives the liquor. The Gonds
never take food while drinking, and as a rule one man does not drink
alone. Three or four of them go to the liquor-shop together and each in
turn buys a whole bottle of liquor which they share with each other,
each bottle being paid for by one of the company and not jointly. And
if a friend from another village turns up and is invited to drink he
is not allowed to pay anything. In towns there will be in the vicinity
of the liquor-shop retailers of little roasted balls of meat on sticks
and cakes of gram-flour fried in salt and chillies. These the customers
eat, presumably to stimulate their thirst or as a palliative to the
effects of the spirit. Illicit distillation is still habitual among
the Gonds of Mandla, who have been accustomed to make their own liquor
from time immemorial. In the rains, when travelling is difficult and
the excise officers cannot descend on them without notice, they make
the liquor in their houses. In the open season they go to the forest
and find some spot secluded behind rocks and also near water. When
the fermented mahua is ready they put up the distilling vat in the
middle of the day so that the smoke may be less perceptible, and
one of them will climb a tree and keep watch for the approach of the
Excise Sub-Inspector and his myrmidons while the other distils.
KAMAR [299]
List of Paragraphs
1. Origin and traditions.
2. Subdivisions and marriage.
3. The sister's son.
4. Menstruation.
5. Birth customs.
6. Death and inheritance.
7. Religious beliefs.
8. Veneration of iron and liquor.
9. Social customs and caste penalties.
10. Tattooing.
11. Hair.
12. Occupation and manner of life.
13. Their skill with bows and arrows.
1. Origin and traditions.
Kamar.--A small Dravidian tribe exclusively found in the Raipur
District and adjoining States. They numbered about 7000 persons
in 1911, and live principally in the Khariar and Bindranawagarh
zamindaris of Raipur. In Bengal and Chota Nagpur the term Kamar
is merely occupational, implying a worker in iron, and similarly
Kammala in the Telugu country is a designation given to the five
artisan castes. Though the name is probably the same the Kamars of
the Central Provinces are a purely aboriginal tribe and there is
little doubt that they are an offshoot of the Gonds, nor have they
any traditions of ever having been metal-workers. They claim to be
autochthonous like most of the primitive tribes. They tell a long
story of their former ascendancy, saying that a Kamar was the original
ruler of Bindranawagarh. But a number of Kamars one day killed the
bhimraj bird which had been tamed and taught hawking by a foreigner
from Delhi. He demanded satisfaction, and when it was refused went to
Delhi and brought man-eating soldiers from there, who ate up all the
Kamars except one pregnant woman. She took refuge in a Brahman's hut
in Patna and there had a son, whom she exposed on a dung-heap for fear
of scandal, as she was a widow at the time. Hence the boy was called
Kachra-Dhurwa or rubbish and dust. This name may be a token of the
belief of the Kamars that they were born from the earth as insects
generate in dung and decaying organisms. Similarly one great subtribe
of the Gonds are called Dhur or dust Gonds. Kachra-Dhurwa was endowed
with divine strength and severed the head of a goat made of iron with
a stick of bamboo. On growing up he collected his fellow-tribesmen
and slaughtered all the cannibal soldiers, regaining his ancestral
seat in Bindranawagarh. It is noticeable that the Kamars call the
cannibal soldiers Aghori, the name of a sect of ascetics who eat
human flesh. They still point to various heaps of lime-encrusted
fossils in Bindranawagarh as the bones of the cannibal soldiers. The
state of the Kamars is so primitive that it does not seem possible
that they could ever have been workers in iron, but they may perhaps,
like the Agarias, be a group of the Gonds who formerly quarried iron
and thus obtained their distinctive name.
2. Subdivisions and marriage.
They have two subdivisions, the Bundhrajia and Makadia. The latter
are so called because they eat monkeys and are looked down on by the
others. They have only a few gots or septs, all of which have the same
names as those of Gond septs. The meaning of the names has now been
forgotten. Their ceremonies also resemble those of the Gonds, and there
can be little doubt that they are an offshoot of that tribe. Marriage
within the sept is prohibited, but is permitted between the children
of brothers and sisters or of two sisters. Those who are well-to-do
marry their children at about ten years old, but among the bulk of
the caste adult-marriage is in fashion, and the youths and maidens
are sometimes allowed to make their own choice. At the betrothal the
boy and girl are made to stand together so that the caste panchayat
or elders may see the suitability of the match, and a little wine is
sprinkled in the name of the gods. The marriage ceremony is a simple
one, the marriage-post being erected at the boy's house. The party go
to the girl's house to fetch her, and there is a feast, followed by a
night of singing and dancing. They then return to the boy's house and
the couple go round the sacred pole and throw rice over each other
seven times. All the guests also throw rice over the couple with
the object, it is said, of scaring off the spirits who are always
present on this occasion, and protecting the bride and bridegroom
from harm. But perhaps the rice is really meant to give fertility to
the match. The wife remains with her husband for four days and then
they return to the house of her parents, where the wedding clothes
stained yellow with turmeric must be washed. After this they again
proceed to the bridegroom's house and live together. Polygamy and
widow-marriage are allowed, the ceremony in the marriage of a widow
consisting simply in putting bangles on her wrists and giving her
a piece of new cloth. The Kamars never divorce their wives, however
loose their conduct may be, as they say that a lawful wife is above
all suspicion. They also consider it sinful to divorce a wife. The
liaison of an unmarried girl is passed over even with a man outside
the caste, unless he is of a very low caste, such as a Ganda.
3. The sister's son.
As among some of the other primitive tribes, a man stands in a special
relation to his sister's children. The marriage of his children
with his sister's children is considered as the most suitable
union. If a man's sister is poor he will arrange for the wedding
of her children. He will never beat his sister's children, however
much they may deserve it, and he will not permit his sister's son
or daughter to eat from the dish from which he eats. This special
connection between a maternal uncle and his nephew is held to be a
survival of the matriarchate, when a man stood in the place a father
now occupies to his sister's children, the real father having nothing
to do with them.
4. Menstruation.
During the period of her monthly impurity a woman is secluded for eight
days. She may not prepare food nor draw water nor worship the gods,
but she may sweep the house and do outdoor work. She sleeps on the
ground and every morning spreads fresh cowdung over the place where
she has slept. The Kamars think that a man who touched a woman in
this condition would be destroyed by the household god. When a woman
in his household is impure in this manner a man will bathe before
going into the forest lest he should pollute the forest gods.
5. Birth customs.
A woman is impure for six days after a birth until the performance
of the Chathi or sixth-day ceremony, when the child's head is shaved
and the mother and child are bathed and their bodies rubbed with oil
and turmeric. After this a woman can go about her work in the house,
but she may not cook food nor draw water for two and a half months
after the birth of a male child, nor for three months after that of a
female one. Till the performance of the Chathi ceremony the husband
is also impure, and he may not worship the gods or go hunting or
shooting or even go for any distance into the forest. If a child is
born within six months of the death of any person in the family, they
think that the dead relative has been reborn in the child and give
the child the same name, apparently without distinction of sex. If a
mother's milk runs dry and she cannot suckle her child they give her
fresh fish and salt to eat, and think that this will cause the milk
to flow. The idea of eating the fish is probably that being a denizen
of the liquid element it will produce liquid in the mother's body,
but it is not clear whether the salt has any special meaning.
6. Death and inheritance.
The dead are buried with the head to the north, and mourning
is nominally observed for three days. But they have no rules of
abstinence, and do not even bathe to purify themselves as almost all
castes do. Sons inherit equally, and daughters do not share with
sons. But if there are no sons, then an unmarried daughter or one
married to a Lamsena, or man who has served for her, and living in
the house, takes the whole property for her lifetime, after which
it reverts to her father's family. Widows, Mr. Ganpati Giri states,
only inherit in the absence of male heirs.
7. Religious beliefs.
They worship Dulha Deo and Devi, and have a firm belief in magic. They
tell a curious story about the origin of the world, which recalls
that of the Flood. They say that in the beginning God created a man
and a woman to whom two children of opposite sex were born in their
old age. Mahadeo, however, sent a deluge over the world in order to
drown a jackal who had angered him. The old couple heard that there
was going to be a deluge, so they shut up their children in a hollow
piece of wood with provision of food to last them until it should
subside. They then closed up the trunk, and the deluge came and
lasted for twelve years, the old couple and all other living things
on the earth being drowned, but the trunk floated on the face of the
waters. After twelve years Mahadeo created two birds and sent them to
see whether his enemy the jackal had been drowned. The birds flew over
all the corners of the world, but saw nothing except a log of wood
floating on the surface of the water, on which they perched. After
a short time they heard low and feeble voices coming from inside
the log. They heard the children saying to each other that they
only had provision for three days left. So the birds flew away and
told Mahadeo, who then caused the flood to subside, and taking out
the children from the log of wood, heard their story. He thereupon
brought them up, and they were married, and Mahadeo gave the name
of a different caste to every child who was born to them, and from
them all the inhabitants of the world are descended. The fact that
the Kamars should think their deity capable of destroying the whole
world by a deluge, in order to drown a jackal which had offended him,
indicates how completely they are wanting in any exalted conception of
morality. They are said to have no definite ideas of a future life nor
any belief in a resurrection of the body. But they believe in future
punishment in the case of a thief, who, they say, will be reborn
as a bullock in the house of the man whose property he has stolen,
or will in some other fashion expiate his crime. They think that the
sun and moon are beings in human shape, and that darkness is caused
by the sun going to sleep. They also think that a railway train is
a live and sentient being, and that the whistle of the engine is its
cry, and they propitiate the train with offerings lest it should do
them some injury. When a man purposes to go out hunting, Mr. Ganpati
Giri states, he consults the village priest, who tells him whether he
will fail or succeed. If the prediction is unfavourable he promises
a fowl or a goat to his family god in order to obtain his assistance,
and then confidently expects success. When an animal has been killed
and brought home, the hunter cuts off the head, and after washing
it with turmeric powder and water makes an offering of it to the
forest god. Ceremonial fishing expeditions are sometimes held, in
which all the men and women of the village participate, and on such
occasions the favour of the water-goddess is first invoked with an
offering of five chickens and various feminine adornments, such as
vermilion, lamp-black for the eyes, small glass bangles and a knot
of ribbons made of cotton or silk, after which a large catch of fish
is anticipated. The men refrain from visiting their wives on the day
before they start for a hunting or fishing expedition.
8. Veneration of iron and liquor.
The tribe have a special veneration for iron, which they now say is
the emblem of Durga Mata or the goddess of smallpox. On their chief
festivals of Hareli and Dasahra all iron implements are washed and
placed together in the house, where they are worshipped with offerings
of rice, flowers and incense; nor may any iron tool be brought into
use on this day. On the day appointed for the worship of Dulha Deo,
the bridegroom god, or other important deities, and on the Dasahra
festival, they will not permit fire or anything else to be taken out
of the house. Before drinking liquor they will pour a few drops on
the ground, making a libation first to mother-earth, then to their
family and other important gods, and lastly to their ancestors.
9. Social customs and caste penalties.
The Kamars will eat with all except the very lowest castes, and do not
refuse any kind of food. The Bundhrajias, however, abstain from the
flesh of snakes, crocodiles and monkeys, and on this account claim to
be superior to the Makadias who eat these animals. Temporary exclusion
from caste is imposed for the usual offences, and in serious cases,
such as adultery with a woman of impure caste or taking food from her,
the penalty is severe. The offender puts a straw and a piece of iron
between his teeth, and stands before the elders with one leg lifted in
his clasped hands. He promises never to repeat the offence nor permit
his children to do so, and falls prostrate at the feet of each elder,
imploring his forgiveness. He supplies the elders with rice, pulse,
salt and vegetables for two days, and on the third day he and his
family prepare a feast with one or more goats and two rupees' worth
of liquor. The elders eat of this in his house, and readmit him to
social intercourse.
10. Tattooing.
The women are tattooed either before or after marriage, the usual
figures being a peacock on the shoulders, a scorpion on the back of
the hand, and dots representing flies on the fingers. On their arms
and legs they have circular lines of dots representing the ornaments
usually worn, and they say that if they are destitute in the other
world they will be able to sell these. This indicates that the more
civilised of them, at any rate, now believe in a future life. They
also have circular dotted lines round the knees which they say will
help them to climb to heaven. Like the Gonds the men scarify their
bodies by burning the outer skin of the forearm in three or four
places with a small piece of burning cloth.
11. Hair.
The men shave the whole head on the death of a father or other
venerable relative, but otherwise they never cut their hair, and let
it grow long, twisting it into a bunch at the back of the head. They
shave off or eradicate the hair of the face and pubes, but that on
other parts of the body is allowed to remain. The hair of the head
is considered to be sacred.
12. Occupation and manner of life.
The tribe wear only the narrowest possible strip of cloth round the
loins, and another strip on the head, one end of which is often allowed
to hang down over the ear. Formerly they lived by dahya cultivation,
burning down patches of forest and scattering seed on the ground
fertilised by the ashes, and they greatly resent the prohibition of
this destructive method. They have now taken to making baskets and
other articles from the wood of the bamboo. They are of dirty habits,
and seldom wash themselves. Forty years ago their manner of life was
even ruder than at present, as shown in the following notice [300]
of them by Mr. Ball in 1876:
"Proceeding along the bed of the valley I came upon two colonies of
a wild race of people called Kamars by their neighbours. They were
regular Troglodytes in their habits, dwelling in caves and existing
chiefly on roots and fish. It is singular to observe how little the
people of these wild races do to protect themselves from the inclemency
of the weather. In one of these caves the sole protection from the
air was a lean-to of loosely placed branches. The people seemed to
be very timid, hiding themselves on our approach. I did not therefore
like to attempt an examination of their dwellings. After some calling
on our part one man was induced to make his appearance. He was a most
wretched-looking, leprous object, having lost several fingers and
toes. He could give no very definite explanation as to his means of
subsistence. All he could say was that he lived 'by picking up odds and
ends here and there.' However, he seemed to be able to afford himself
the solace of tobacco. A few cocks and hens at one of the caves,
and a goat at the other, were the only domestic animals which I saw."
13. Their skill with bows and arrows.
The tribe are of small stature. They are very fond of hunting, and are
expert at using their bows and arrows, with which they have killed
even bison. Mr. W. E. Ley, C.S., relates the following particulars
of a recent murder by a Kamar in Raipur: Two Hindus went to a Kamar's
house in the jungle to dun him for a debt. He could not pay the debt,
but invited them to take food in his house. At the meal the creditor's
companion said the food was bad, and a quarrel thereupon ensuing,
slapped the Kamar in the face. The latter started up, snatched up his
bow and arrow and axe, and ran away into the jungle. The Hindus then
set out for home, and as they were afraid of being attacked by the
Kamar, they took his brother with them as a protection. Nevertheless
the Kamar shot one of them through the side, the arrow passing through
the arm and penetrating the lung. He then shot the other through the
chest, and running in, mutilated his body in a shocking manner. When
charged with the murders he confessed them freely, saying that he
was a wild man of the woods and knew no better.
KANJAR
[Bibliography: Mr. J. C. Nesfield's The Kanjars of Upper India,
Calcutta Review, vol. lxxvii., 1883; Mr. Crooke's Castes and Tribes,
art. Kanjar; Major Gunthorpe's Criminal Tribes; Mr. Kitts' Berar
Census Report (1881); Mr. Gayer's Lectures on Criminal Tribes of the
Central Provinces.]
List of Paragraphs
1. Derivation of the Kanjars from the Doms.
2. The Kanjars and the Gipsies.
3. The Thugs derived from the Kanjars.
4. The Doms.
5. The criminal Kanjars.
6. The Kunchband Kanjars.
7. Marriage and religion.
8. Social customs.
9. Industrial arts.
1. Derivation of the Kanjars from the Doms.
Kanjar.--A name applied somewhat loosely to various small communities
of a gipsy character who wander about the country. In 1911 about
1000 Kuchbandhia Kanjars were returned in the Province. In Berar
the Kanjars seem to be practically identical with the Sansias;
Major Gunthorpe [301] gives Kanjar and Sansia as alternative names
of the same caste of criminals, and this is also done by Mr. Kennedy
in Bombay. [302] Mr. Kitts writes of them: [303] "The Deccani and
Marwari Kanjars were originally Bhats (bards) of the Jat tribe;
and as they generally give themselves out to be Bhats are probably
not included at all among the Kanjars returned at the census. They
are a vagrant people, living in tents and addicted to crime. The
women are good-looking; some are noted for their obscene songs,
filthy alike in word and gesture; while others, whose husbands play
on the sarangi, lead a life of immorality. The men are often skilful
acrobats." And in another passage: [304] "The Sansia family or the
'Long Firm' of India includes two principal divisions represented in
Berar by the Kanjars and Kolhatis respectively. They will eat, drink
and smoke together, and occasionally join in committing dacoity. They
eat all kinds of meat and drink all liquors; they are lax of morals
and loose of life." Now in northern India the business of acting as
bards to the Jats and begging from them is the traditional function
of the Sansias; and we may therefore conclude that so far as Berar
and the Maratha Districts are concerned the Kanjars are identical
with the Sansias, while the Kolhatis mentioned by Mr. Kitts are the
same people as the Berias, as shown in the article on Kolhati, and
the Berias themselves are another branch of the Sansias. [305] There
seems some reason to suppose that these four closely allied groups,
the Kanjar or Sansia, and the Kolhati or Beria, may have their origin
from the great Dom caste of menials and scavengers in Hindustan and
Bengal. In the Punjab the Doms are the regular bards and genealogists
of the lower castes, being known also as Mirasi: "The two words are
used throughout the Province as absolutely synonymous. The word Mirasi
is derived from the Arabic miras or inheritance; and the Mirasi is
to the inferior agricultural castes and the outcaste tribes what
the Bhat is to the Rajputs." [306] In the article on Sansia it is
shown that the primary calling of the Sansias was to act as bards and
genealogists of the Jats; and this common occupation is to some extent
in favour of the original identity of the two castes Dom and Sansia,
though Sir D. Ibbetson was not of this opinion. [307] In the United
Provinces Mr. Crooke gives the Jallad or executioners as one of the
main divisions of the Kanjars; [308] and the Jallads of Umballa are
said to be the descendants of a Kanjar family who were attached to
the Delhi Court as executioners. [309] But the Jallad or supwala is
also a name of the Doms. "The term Jallad, which is an Arabic name
for 'A public flogger,' is more especially applied to those Doms who
are employed in cities to kill ownerless dogs and to act as public
executioners." [310] Mr. Gayer states that as the result of special
inquiries made by an experienced police-officer it would appear that
these Jallad Kanjars are really Doms. [311] In Gujarat the Mirs or
Mirasis are also known as Dom after the tribe of that name; they
were originally of two classes, one the descendants of Gujarat Bhats
or bards, the other from northern India, partly of Bhat descent and
partly connected with the Doms. [312] And the Sansias and Berias in
Bombay when accompanied by their families usually pass themselves
off as Gujarati Bhats, that is, bards of the Jat caste from Marwar
or of the Kolis from Gujarat. [313] Major Gunthorpe states that the
Kolhatis or Berias of Berar appear to be the same as the Domras of
Bengal; [314] and Mr. Kitts that the Kham Kolhatis are the Domarus of
Telingana. [315] In writing of the Kanjar bards Sherring also says:
"These are the Kanjars of Gondwana, the Sansis of northern India; they
are the most desperate of all dacoits and wander about the country
as though belonging to the Gujarati Domtaris or showmen." The above
evidence seems sufficient to establish a prima facie case in favour
of the Dom origin of these gipsy castes. It may be noticed further
that the Jallad Kanjars of the United Provinces are also known as
Supwala or makers of sieves and winnowing-fans, a calling which belongs
specially to the Doms, Bhangis, and other sweeper castes. Both Doms
and Bhangis have divisions known as Bansphor or 'breaker of bamboos,'
a name which has the same signification as Supwala. Again, the deity
of the criminal Doms of Bengal is known as Sansari Mai. [316]
2. The Kanjars and the Gipsies.
The Kanjars and Berias are the typical gipsy castes of India, and
have been supposed to be the parents of the European gipsies. On
this point Mr. Nesfield writes: "The commonly received legend is that
multitudes of Kanjars were driven out of India by the oppressions of
Tamerlane, and it is inferred that the gipsies of Europe are their
direct descendants by blood, because they speak like them a form of
the Hindi language." [317] Sir G. Grierson states: [318] "According to
the Shah-nama, the Persian monarch Bahram Gaur received in the fifth
century from an Indian king 12,000 musicians who were known as Luris,
and the Luris or Lulis, that is gipsies, of modern Persia are the
descendants of these." These people were also called Lutt, and hence
it was supposed that they were the Indian Jats. Sir G. Grierson,
however, shows it to be highly improbable that the Jats, one of
the highest castes of cultivators, could ever have furnished a huge
band of professional singers and dancers. He on the contrary derives
the gipsies from the Dom tribe: [319] "Mr. Leland has made a happy
suggestion that the original gipsies may have been Doms of India.
He points out that Romany is almost letter for letter the same as
Domni, the plural of Dom. Domni is the plural form in the Bhojpuri
dialect of the Bihari language. It was originally a genitive plural;
so that Romany-Rye, 'A gipsy gentleman,' may be well compared with
the Bhojpuri Domni Rai, 'A king of the Doms.' The Bhojpuri-speaking
Doms are a famous race, and they have many points of resemblance
with the gipsies of Europe. Thus they are darker in complexion
than the surrounding Biharis, are great thieves, live by hunting,
dancing and telling fortunes, their women have a reputation for making
love-philtres and medicines to procure abortion, they keep fowls (which
no orthodox Hindu will do), and are said to eat carrion. They are also
great musicians and horsemen. The gipsy grammar is closely connected
with Bhojpuri, and the following mongrel, half-gipsy, half-English
rhyme will show the extraordinary similarity of the two vocabularies:
[320]
Gipsy. The Rye (squire) he mores (hunts) adrey the wesh (wood)
Bhojpuri. Rai mare andal besh (Pers. bysh)
Gipsy. The kaun-engro (ear-fellow, hare) and chiriclo (bird).
Bhojpuri. Kanwala chirin
Gipsy. You sovs (sleep) with leste (him) drey (within) the wesh (wood)
Bhojpuri. soe andal besh
Gipsy. And rigs (carry) for leste (him) the gono (sack, game-bag).
Bhojpuri. gon
Gipsy. Oprey (above) the rukh (tree) adrey (within) the wesh (wood)
Bhojpuri. Upri rukh andal besh
Gipsy. Are chiriclo (male-bird) and chiricli (female-bird).
Bhojpuri. chirin chirin
Gipsy. Tuley (below) the rukh (tree) adrey (within) the wesh (wood)
Bhojpuri. Tule rukh andal besh
Gipsy. Are pireno (lover) and pireni (lady-love).
Bhojpuri. pyara pyari
In the above it must be remembered that the verbal terminations of
the gipsy text are English and not gipsy."
Sir G. Grierson also adds (in the passage first quoted): "I may note
here a word which lends a singular confirmation to the theory. It is
the gipsy term for bread, which is manro or manro. This is usually
connected either with the Gaudian manr 'rice-gruel' or with manrua,
the millet (Eleusine coracana). Neither of these agrees with the idea
of bread, but in the Magadhi dialect of Bihari, spoken south of the
Ganges in the native land of these Maghiya Doms, there is a peculiar
word manda or manra which means wheat, whence the transition to the
gipsy manro, bread, is eminently natural."
The above argument renders it probable that the gipsies are derived
from the Doms; and as Mr. Nesfield gives it as a common legend that
they originated from the Kanjars, this is perhaps another connecting
link between the Doms and Kanjars. The word gipsy is probably an
abbreviation of 'Egyptian,' the country assigned as the home of the
gipsies in mediaeval times. It has already been seen that the Doms are
the bards and minstrels of the lower castes in the Punjab, and that the
Kanjars and Sansias, originally identical or very closely connected,
were in particular the bards of the Jats. It is a possible speculation
that they may have been mixed up with the lower classes of Jats or
have taken their name, and that this has led to the confusion between
the Jats and gipsies. Some support is afforded to this suggestion
by the fact that the Kanjars of Jubbulpore say that they have three
divisions, the Jat, Multani and Kuchbandia. The Jat Kanjars are, no
doubt, those who acted as bards to the Jats, and hence took the name;
and if the ancestors of these people emigrated from India they may
have given themselves out as Jat.
3. The Thugs derived from the Kanjars.
In the article on Thug it is suggested that a large, if not the
principal, section of the Thugs were derived from the Kanjars. At the
Thug marriages an old matron would sometimes repeat, "Here's to the
spirits of those who once led bears and monkeys; to those who drove
bullocks and marked with the godini (tattooing-needle); and those
who made baskets for the head." And these are the occupations of the
Kanjars and Berias. The Goyandas of Jubbulpore, descendants of Thug
approvers, are considered to be a class of gipsy Muhammadans, akin to
or identical with the Kanjars, of whom the Multani subdivision are
also Muhammadans. Like the Kanjar women the Goyandas make articles
of net and string. There is also a colony of Berias in Jubbulpore,
and these are admittedly the descendants of Thugs who were located
there. If the above argument is well founded, we are led to the
interesting conclusion that four of the most important vagrant and
criminal castes of India, as well as the Mirasis or low-class Hindu
bards, the gipsies, and a large section of the Thugs, are all derived
from the great Dom caste.
4. The Doms.
The Doms appear to be one of the chief aboriginal tribes of northern
India, who were reduced to servitude like the Mahars and Chamars. Sir
H. M. Elliot considered them to be "One of the original tribes of
India. Tradition fixes their residence to the north of the Ghagra,
touching the Bhars on the east in the vicinity of the Rohini. Several
old forts testify to their former importance, and still retain the
names of their founders, as, for instance, Domdiha and Domingarh in
the Gorakhpur district. Ramgarh and Sahukot on the Rohini are also
Dom forts." [321] Sir G. Grierson quotes Dr. Fleet as follows: "In a
south Indian inscription a king Rudradeva is said to have subdued a
certain Domma, whose strength evidently lay in his cavalry. No clue
is given as to who this Domma was, but he may have been the leader
of some aboriginal tribe which had not then lost all its power"; and
suggests that this Domma may have been a leader of the Doms, who would
then be shown to have been dominant in southern India. As already seen
there is a Domaru caste of Telingana, with whom Mr. Kitts identified
the Berias or Kolhatis. In northern India the Doms were reduced to
a more degraded condition than the other pre-Aryan tribes as they
furnished a large section of the sweeper caste. As has been seen also
they were employed as public executioners like the Mangs. This brief
mention of the Doms has been made in view of the interest attaching
to them on account of the above suggestions, and because there will
be no separate article on the caste.
5. The criminal Kanjars.
In Berar two main divisions of the Kanjars may be recognised, the
Kunchbandhia or those who make weavers' brooms and are comparatively
honest, and the other or criminal Kanjars. [322] The criminal Kanjars
may again be divided into the Marwari and Deccani groups. They were
probably once the same, but the Deccanis, owing to their settlement
in the south, have adopted some Maratha or Gujarati fashions, and
speak the Marathi language; their women wear the angia or Maratha
breast-cloth fastening behind, and have a gold ornament shaped
like a flower in the nose; [323] while the Marwari Kanjars have no
breast-cloth and may not wear gold ornaments at all. The Deccani
Kanjars are fond of stealing donkeys, their habit being either to
mix their own herds with those of the village and drive them all off
together, or, if they catch the donkeys unattended, to secrete them
in some water-course, tying their legs together, and if they remain
undiscovered to remove them at nightfall. The animals are at once
driven away for a long distance before any attempt is made to dispose
of them. The Marwari Kanjars consider it derogatory to keep donkeys
and therefore do not steal these animals. They are preeminently
cattle-lifters and sheep-stealers, and their encampments may be
recognised by the numbers of bullocks and cows about them. Their
women wear the short Marwari petticoat reaching half-way between the
knees and ankles. Their hair is plaited over the forehead and cowrie
shells and brass ornaments like buttons are often attached in it. Bead
necklaces are much worn by the women and bead and horse-hair necklets
by the men. A peculiarity about the women is that they are confirmed
snuff-takers and consume great quantities of the weed in this form. The
women go into the towns and villages and give exhibitions of singing
and dancing; and picking up any information they can acquire about
the location of property, impart this to the men. Sometimes they
take service, and a case was known in Jubbulpore of Kanjar women
hiring themselves out as pankha-pullers, with the result that the
houses in which they were employed were subsequently robbed. [324]
It is said, however, that they do not regularly break into houses,
but confine themselves to lurking theft. I have thought it desirable
to record here the above particulars of the criminal Kanjars, taken
from Major Gunthorpe's account; for, though the caste is, as already
stated, identical with the Sansias, their customs in Berar differ
considerably from those of the Sansias of Central India, who are
treated of in the article on that caste.
6. The Kunchband Kanjars.
We come, finally, to the Kunchband Kanjars, the most representative
section of the caste, who as a body are not criminals, or at any rate
less so than the others. The name Kunchband or Kuchband, by which they
are sometimes known, is derived from their trade of making brushes
(kunch) of the roots of khas-khas grass, which are used by weavers
for cleaning the threads entangled on the looms. This has given rise
to the proverb 'Kori ka bigari Kunchbandhia' or 'The Kunchbandhia
must look to the Kori (weaver) as his patron'; the point being that
the Kori is himself no better than a casual labourer, and a man who
is dependent on him must be in a poor way indeed. The Kunchbandhias
are also known in northern India as Sankat or Patharkat, because
they make and sharpen the household grinding-stones, this being the
calling of the Takankar Pardhis in the Maratha Districts, and as Goher
because they catch and eat the goh, the large lizard or iguana. [325]
Other divisions are the Dhobibans or washerman's race, the Lakarhar
or wood-cutters, and the Untwar or camelmen.
7. Marriage and religion.
In the Central Provinces there are other divisions, as the Jat and
Multani Kanjars. They say they have two exogamous divisions, Kalkha and
Malha, and a member of either of these must take a wife from the other
division. Both the Kalkhas and Malhas are further divided into kuls
or sections, but the influence of these on marriage is not clear. At a
Kanjar marriage, Mr. Crooke states, the gadela or spade with which they
dig out the khas-khas grass and kill wolves or vermin, is placed in
the marriage pavilion during the ceremony. The bridegroom swears that
he will not drive away nor divorce his wife, and sometimes a mehar or
dowry is also fixed for the bride. The father-in-law usually, however,
remits a part or the whole of this subsequently, when the bridegroom
goes to take food at his house on festival occasions. Mr. Nesfield
states that the principal deity of the Kanjars is the man-god Mana,
who was not only the teacher and guide, but also the founder and
ancestor of the tribe. He is buried, as some Kanjars relate, at Kara
in the Allahabad District, not far from the Ganges and facing the old
city of Manikpur on the opposite bank. Mana is worshipped with special
ceremony in the rainy season, when the tribe is less migratory than in
the dry months of the year. On such occasions, if sufficient notice
is circulated, several encampments unite temporarily to pay honour
to their common ancestor. The worshippers collect near a tree under
which they sacrifice a pig, a goat, a sheep, or a fowl, and make an
offering of roasted flesh and spirituous liquor. Formerly, it is said,
they used to sacrifice a child, having first made it insensible with
fermented palm-juice or toddy. [326] They dance round the tree in
honour of Mana, and sing the customary songs in commemoration of his
wisdom and deeds of valour.
8. Social customs.
The dead are usually buried, both male and female corpses being
laid on their faces with the feet pointing to the south. Kanjars
who become Muhammadans may be readmitted to the community after
the following ceremony. A pit is dug and the convert sits in it and
each Kanjar throws a little curds on to his body. He then goes and
bathes in a river, his tongue is touched or branded with heated gold
and he gives a feast to the community. A Kanjar woman who has lived
in concubinage with a Brahman, Rajput, Agarwal Bania, Kurmi, Ahir
or Lodhi may be taken back into the caste after the same ceremony;
but not one who has lived with a Kayasth, Sunar or Lohar or any lower
caste. A Kanjar is not put out of caste for being imprisoned, nor for
being beaten by an outsider, nor for selling shoes. If a man touches
his daughter-in-law even accidentally he is fined the sum of Rs. 2-8.
9. Industrial arts.
The following account of the industries of the vagrant Kanjars was
written by Mr. Nesfield in 1883. In the Central Provinces many of
them are now more civilised, and some are employed in Government
service. Their women also make and retail string-net purses, balls
and other articles.
"Among the arts of the Kanjar are making mats of the sirki reed,
baskets of wattled cane, fans of palm-leaves and rattles of plaited
straw: these last are now sold to Hindu children as toys, though
originally they may have been used by the Kanjars themselves (if we
are to trust to the analogy of other backward races) as sacred and
mysterious implements. From the stalks of the munj grass and from
the roots of the palas [327] tree they make ropes which are sold or
bartered to villagers in exchange for grain and milk. They prepare the
skins of which drums are made and sell them to Hindu musicians; though,
probably, as in the case of the rattle, the drum was originally used
by the Kanjars themselves and worshipped as a fetish; for even the
Aryan tribes, who are said to have been far more advanced than the
indigenous races, sang hymns in honour of the drum or dundubhi as
if it were something sacred. They make plates of broad leaves which
are ingeniously stitched together by their stalks; and plates of
this kind are very widely used by the inferior Indian castes and by
confectioners and sellers of sweetmeats. The mats of sirki reed with
which they cover their own movable leaf huts are models of neatness
and simplicity and many of these are sold to cart-drivers. The toddy
or juice of the palm tree, which they extract and ferment by methods
of their own and partly for their own use, finds a ready sale among
low-caste Hindus in villages and market towns. They are among the
chief stone-cutters in Upper India, especially in the manufacture
of the grinding-mill which is very widely used. This consists of
two circular stones of equal diameter; the upper one, which is the
thicker and heavier, revolves on a wooden pivot fixed in the centre
of the lower one and is propelled by two women, each holding the
same handle. But it is also not less frequent for one woman to grind
alone." It is perhaps not realised what this business of grinding her
own grain instead of buying flour means to the Indian woman. She rises
before daybreak to commence the work, and it takes her perhaps two
or three hours to complete the day's provision. Grain-grinding for
hire is an occupation pursued by poor women. The pisanhari, as she
is called, receives an anna (penny) for grinding 16 lbs. of grain,
and can get through 30 lbs. a day. In several localities temples are
shown supposed to have been built by some pious pisanhari from her
earnings. "The Kanjars," Mr. Nesfield continues, "also gather the
white wool-like fibre which grows in the pods of the semal or Indian
cotton tree and twist it into thread for the use of weavers. [328]
In the manufacture of brushes for the cleaning of cotton-yarn the
Kanjars enjoy almost a complete monopoly. In these brushes a stiff
mass of horsehair is attached to a wooden handle by sinews and strips
of hide; and the workmanship is remarkably neat and durable. [329]
Another complete or almost complete monopoly enjoyed by Kanjars
is the collection and sale of sweet-scented roots of the khas-khas
grass, which are afterward made up by the Chhaparbands and others
into door-screens, and through being continually watered cool the
hot air which passes through them. The roots of this wild grass,
which grows in most abundance on the outskirts of forests or near
the banks of rivers, are dug out of the earth by an instrument
called khunti. This has a handle three feet long, and a blade about
a foot long resembling that of a knife. The same implement serves as
a dagger or short spear for killing wolves or jackals, as a tool for
carving a secret entrance through the clay wall of a villager's hut in
which a burglary is meditated, as a spade or hoe for digging snakes,
field-rats, and lizards out of their holes, and edible roots out of
the earth, and as a hatchet for chopping wood."
Kapewar
Kapewar, [330] Munurwar.--A great cultivating caste of the Telugu
country, where they are known as Kapu or Reddi, and correspond to
the Kurmi in Hindustan and the Kunbi in the Maratha Districts. In the
Central Provinces about 18,000 persons of the caste were enumerated in
the Chanda District and Berar in 1911. The term Kapu means a watchman,
and Reddi is considered to be a corruption of Rathor or Rashtrakuta,
meaning a king, or more properly the headman of a village. Kapewar
is simply the plural form of Kapu, and Munurwar, in reality the name
of a subcaste of Kapewars, is used as a synonym for the main caste
in Chanda. They are divided into various occupational subcastes,
as the Upparwars or earth-diggers, from uppar, earth; the Gone, who
make gonas or hemp gunny-bags; the Elmas, who are household servants;
the Gollewars, who sell milk; and the Gamadis or masons. The Kunte or
lame Kapewars, the lowest group, say that their ancestor was born lame;
they are also called Bhiksha Kunte or lame beggars and serve as the
bards of the caste besides begging from them. They are considered to
be of illegitimate origin. No detailed account of the caste need be
given here, but one or two interesting customs reported from Chanda
may be noted. Girls must be married before they are ten years old,
and in default of this the parents are temporarily put out of caste
and have to pay a penalty for readmission. But if they take the girl
to some sacred place on the Godavari river and marry her there the
penalty is avoided. Contrary to the usual custom the bride goes to the
bridegroom's house to be married. On the fourth night of the marriage
ceremony the bridegroom takes with him all the parts of a plough as
if he was going out to the field, and walks up the marriage-shed
to the further end followed by the bride, who carries on her head
some cooked food tied up in a cloth. The skirts of the couple are
knotted together. On reaching the end of the shed the bridegroom
makes five drills in the ground with a bullock-goad and sows cotton
and juari seeds mixed together. Then the cooked food is eaten by all
who are present, the bridal couple commencing first, and the seed
is irrigated by washing their hands over it. This performance is a
symbolical portrayal of the future life of the couple, which will be
spent in cultivation. In Chanda a number of Kapewars are stone-masons,
and are considered the most proficient workers at this trade in the
locality. Major Lucie Smith, the author of the Chanda Settlement Report
of 1869, thought that the ancestors of the caste had been originally
brought to Chanda to build the fine walls with ramparts and bastions
which stretch for a length of six or seven miles round the town. The
caste are sometimes known as Telugu Kunbis. Men may be distinguished
by the single dot which is always tattooed on the forehead during
their infancy. Men of the Gowari caste have a similar mark.
Karan
Karan, [331] Karnam, Mahanti.--The indigenous writer caste of
Orissa. In 1901 a total of 5000 Karans were enumerated in Sambalpur
and the Uriya States, but the bulk of these have since passed under
the jurisdiction of Bihar and Orissa, and only about 1000 remain
in the Central Provinces. The total numbers of the caste in India
exceed a quarter of a million. The poet Kalidas in his Raghuvansa
describes Karans as the offspring of a Vaishya father and a Sudra
mother. The caste fulfils the same functions in Orissa as the
Kayasths elsewhere, and it is said that their original ancestors
were brought from northern India by Yayati Kesari, king of Orissa
(A.D. 447-526), to supply the demand for writers and clerks. The
original of the word Karan is said to be the Hindi karani, kiran,
which Wilson derives from Sanskrit karan, 'a doer.' The word karani
was at one time applied by natives to the junior members of the
Civil Service--'Writers,' as they were designated. And the 'Writers'
Buildings' of Calcutta were known as karani kibarik. From this term
a corruption 'Cranny' came into use, and was applied in Bengal to a
clerk writing English, and thence to the East Indians or half-castes
from whom English copyists were subsequently recruited. [332] The
derivation of Mahanti is obscure, unless it be from maha, great,
or from Mahant, the head of a monastery. The caste prefer the name of
Karan, because that of Mahanti is often appropriated by affluent Chasas
and others who wish to get a rise in rank. In fact a proverb says:
Jar nahin Jati, taku bolanti Mahanti, or 'He who has no caste calls
himself a Mahanti.' The Karans, like the Kayasths, claim Chitragupta
as their first ancestor, but most of them repudiate any connection
with the Kayasths, though they are of the same calling. The Karans
of Sambalpur have two subcastes, the Jhadua or those of the jhadi
or jungle and the Utkali or Uriyas. The former are said to be the
earlier immigrants and are looked down on by the latter, who do not
intermarry with them. Their exogamous divisions or gotras are of the
type called eponymous, being named after well-known Rishis or saints
like those of the Brahmans. Instances of such names are Bharadwaj,
Parasar, Valmik and Vasishtha. Some of the names, however, are in
a manner totemistic, as Nagas, the cobra; Kounchhas, the tortoise;
Bachas, a calf, and so on. These animals are revered by the members
of the gotra named after them, but as they are of semi-divine nature,
the practice may be distinguished from true totemism. In some cases,
however, members of the Bharadwaj gotra venerate the blue-jay, and of
the Parasar gotra, a pigeon. Marriage is regulated according to the
table of prohibited degrees in vogue among the higher castes. Girls
are commonly married before they are ten years old, but no penalty
attaches to the postponement of the ceremony to a later age. The
binding portion of the marriage is Hastabandhan or the tying of the
hands of the couple together with kusha grass, [333] and when this
has been done the marriage cannot be annulled. The bride goes to
her husband's house for a few days and then returns home until she
attains maturity. Divorce and remarriage of widows are prohibited,
and an unfaithful wife is finally expelled from the caste. The Karans
worship the usual Hindu gods and call themselves Smarths. Some belong
to the local Parmarth and Kumbhipatia sects, the former of which
practises obscene rites. They burn their dead, excepting the bodies of
infants, and perform the shraddh ceremony. The caste have a high social
position in Sambalpur, and Brahmans will sometimes take food cooked
without water from them. They wear the sacred thread. They eat fish
and the flesh of clean animals but do not drink liquor. Bhandaris or
barbers will take katcha food from a Karan. They are generally engaged
in service as clerks, accountants, schoolmasters or patwaris. Their
usual titles are Patnaik or Bohidar. The Karans are considered to be
of extravagant habits, and one proverb about them is--
Mahanti jati, udhar paile kinanti hathi,
or, 'The Mahanti if he can get a loan will at once buy an
elephant.' Their shrewdness in business transactions and tendency
to overreach the less intelligent cultivating castes have made them
unpopular like the Kayasths, and another proverb says--
Patarkata, Tankarkata, Paniota, Gaudini mai
E chari jati ku vishwas nai,
or, 'Trust not the palm-leaf writer (Karan), the weaver, the
liquor-distiller nor the milk-seller.'
KASAI
List of Paragraphs
1. General notice of the caste.
2. The cattle-slaughtering industry.
3. Muhammadan rite of zibah or halal.
4. Animism.
5. Animal-gods. The domestic animals.
6. Other animals.
7. Animals worshipped in India.
8. The sacrificial meal.
9. Primitive basis of kinship.
10. The bond of food.
11. The blood-feud.
12. Taking food together and hospitality.
13. The Roman sacra.
14. The Hindu caste-feasts.
15. Sacrifice of the camel.
16. The joint sacrifice.
17. Animal sacrifices in Greece.
18. The Passover.
19. Sanctity of domestic animals.
20. Sacrificial slaughter for food.
21. Animal-fights.
22. The sacrificial method of killing.
23. Animal sacrifices in Indian ritual.
1. General notice of the caste.
Kasai, Kassab.--The caste of Muhammadan butchers, of whom about
4000 persons were returned from the Central Provinces and Berar in
1911. During the last decade the numbers of the caste have very greatly
increased owing to the rise of the cattle-slaughtering industry. Two
kinds of Kasais may be distinguished, the Gai Kasai or cow-killers
and the Bakar Kasai or mutton butchers. The latter, however, are
usually Hindus and have been formed into a separate caste, being
known as Khatik. Like other Muhammadans who have adopted professions
of a not too reputable nature, the Kasais have become a caste, partly
because the ordinary Muhammadan declines to intermarry with them, and
partly no doubt in imitation of the Hindu social system. The Kasais
are one of the lowest of the Muhammadan castes, and will admit into
their community even low-caste Hindu converts. They celebrate their
weddings by the nikah form, but until recently many Hindu rites were
added to it. The Kazi is employed to conduct the marriage, but if
his services are not available a member of the caste may officiate
instead. Polygamy is permitted to the number of four wives. A man may
divorce his wife simply for disobedience, but if a woman wishes to
divorce her husband she must forego the Meher or dowry promised at the
time of the wedding. The Kasai women, perhaps owing to their meat diet,
are noticeably strong and well nourished, and there is a saying to the
effect that, 'The butcher's daughter will bear children when she is
ten years old.' The deities of the Kasais are a number of Muhammadan
saints, who are known as Aulia or Favourites of God. The caste bury
the dead, and on the third day they read the Kalma over some parched
grain and distribute this to the caste-fellows, who eat it in the name
of the deceased man, invoking a blessing upon him. On the ninth day
after the death they distribute food to Muhammadan Fakirs or beggars,
and on the twentieth and fortieth days two more feasts are given to
the caste and a third on the anniversary of the death. Owing to what
is considered the degrading nature of his occupation, the social
position of the Kasai is very low, and there is a saying--
Na dekha ho bagh, to dekh belai;
Na dekha ho Thag, to dekh Kasai,
or, 'If you have not seen a tiger, look at a cat; and if you have not
seen a Thug, look at a butcher.' Many Hindus have a superstition that
leprosy is developed by the continual eating of beef.
2. The cattle-slaughtering industry.
In recent years an extensive industry in the slaughter of cattle
has sprung up all over the Province. Worn-out animals are now
eagerly bought up and killed; their hides are dried and exported,
and the meat is cured and sent to Madras and Burma, a substantial
profit being obtained from its sale. The blood, horns and hoofs are
other products which yield a return. The religious scruples of the
Hindus have given way to the temptation of obtaining what is to them
a substantial sum for a valueless animal, and, with the exception
perhaps of Brahmans and Banias, all castes now dispose of their
useless cattle to the butchers. At first this was done by stealth,
and efforts were made to impose severe penalties on anybody guilty
of the crime of being accessory to the death of the sacred kine,
while it is said that the emissaries of the butchers were sent to the
markets disguised as Brahmans or religious mendicants, and pretended
that they wished to buy cattle in order to preserve their lives as
a meritorious act. But such attempts at restriction have generally
proved fruitless, and the trade is now openly practised and acquiesced
in by public opinion. In spite of many complaints of the shortage
of plough cattle caused by the large numbers of animals slaughtered,
the results of this traffic are probably almost wholly advantageous;
for the villages no longer contain a horde of worn-out and decrepit
animals to deprive the valuable plough and milch cattle of a share of
the too scanty pasturage. Kasais themselves are generally prosperous.
3. Muhammadan rite of zibah or halal.
When killing an animal the butcher lays it on the ground with its
feet to the west and head stretched towards the north and then cuts
its throat saying:
In the name of God;
God is great.
This method of killing an animal is known as zibah. The Muhammadan
belief that an animal is not fit for food unless its throat has been
cut so that the blood flows on to the ground is thus explained in
Professor Robertson Smith's Religion of the Semites [334]: "In heathen
Canaan all the animals belonged to the god of the country; but it
was lawful to kill them if payment was made to the god by pouring
out their life or blood on the ground." The Arabs are of the same
Semitic stock, and this may be partly the underlying idea of their
rite of zibah. It seems doubtful, however, whether the explanation
suffices to explain its continuance for so long a period among
the Muhammadans who have long ceased to reverence any earth-deity,
and in a foreign country where the soil cannot be sacred to them;
and a short summary of Dr. Robertson Smith's luminous explanation
of the underlying principle of animal sacrifice in early times seems
requisite to its full understanding.
4. Animism.
Primitive man did not recognise any difference of intelligence and
self-consciousness between himself and the lower animals and even
plants, but believed them all to be possessed of consciousness and
volition as he was. He knew of no natural laws of the constitution of
matter and the action of forces, and therefore thought that all natural
phenomena, the sun, moon and stars, the wind and rain, were similarly
appearances, manifestations or acts of volition of beings conscious
like himself. This is what is meant by animism. Among several races the
community was divided into totem-clans, and each clan held sacred some
animal or bird, which was considered as a kinsman. All the members
of the clan were kin to each other through the tie formed by their
eating their totem animal, which in the hunting stage was probably
their chief means of subsistence, and from which they consequently
thought that they derived their common life. [335] In process of time
the animals which were domesticated, such as the horse, the sheep,
the cow and the camel, acquired a special sanctity, and became, in
fact, the principal deities of the community, such as the calf-god
Apis, the cow-goddess Isis-Hathor, and the ram-god Amen in Egypt,
Hera, probably a cow-goddess, and Dionysus, who may be the deified
bull or goat (or a combination of them) in Greece, and so on.
5. Animal-gods. The domestic animals.
It is easy to see how these domestic animals would overshadow all
others in importance when the tribe had arrived at the pastoral or
agricultural stage; thus in the former the camel, horse, goat or sheep,
and in the latter pre-eminently the bull and cow, as the animals which
afforded subsistence to the whole tribe, would become their greatest
gods. It must be presumed that men forgot that their ancestors had
tamed these animals, and looked on them as divine helpers who of
their own free will had come to give mankind their aid in gaining a
subsistence. Those who have observed the reverence paid to the cow
and bull in India will have no difficulty in realising this point
of view. Many other instances can be obtained. Thus in the Vedic
religion of the Aryans the Ashvins, from ashva, a horse, were the
divine horsemen of the dawn or of the sun. The principal sacrifice
was that of the horse, considered, perhaps, as the representative of
the sun or carrier of celestial fire. In a hymn the horse is said to
be sprung from the gods. In Greece Phaethon was the charioteer of
the horses of the sun. Mars, as the Roman god of war, may perhaps
have been the deified horse, as suggested later. The chieftains of
the Anglo-Saxon invaders of England, Hengist and Horsa, were held
to be descended from the god Odin, to whom horses were sacrificed;
Hengist means a stallion and Horsa a horse, the word having survived
in modern English. Other mythical kings in Bede's chronicle have names
derived from that of the horse (vicg.). [336] The camel does not seem
to have become an anthropomorphic god, but the Arabs venerated it and
refrained from killing it except as a sacrifice, when it was offered
to the Morning-Star and partaken of sacramentally by the worshippers
as will be seen subsequently. The ox as the tiller of the ground,
with the cow as milk-giver and mother of the ox, are especially
venerated by races in the early agricultural stage. Egyptian and Greek
instances have already been given. In modern Egypt, as in India, bulls
are let loose and held sacred. "Sometimes a peasant vows that he will
sacrifice, for the sake of a saint, a calf which he possesses, as soon
as it is full grown and fatted. It is let loose, by consent of all his
neighbours, to pasture where it will, even in fields of young wheat;
and at last, after it has been sacrificed, a public feast is made with
its meat. Many a large bull is thus given away." [337] Dionysus Zagreus
was a young bull devoured by the Titans, whom Zeus raised again to
a glorious life. [338] The Babylonians had a bull-god, Ninit. [339]
Brazen images of bulls were placed in Babylonian temples. The Parsis
hold the bull sacred, and a child is made to drink a bull's urine as
a rite of purification. After a funeral the mourners free themselves
from the impurity caused by contact with the dead in a similar
manner. [340] The monotheistic religion of Persia, Mitraism, which
was an outcome of the faith of Zoroaster, and being introduced by the
Emperors Commodus and Julian into the Roman world contended for some
time with Christianity, was apparently sun-worship, Mitra being the
sun-god of the ancient Aryans and Iranians; M. Reinach says: "Mitra
is born from a rock; he makes water flow from the rock by striking
it with an arrow, makes an alliance with the sun, and enters into a
struggle with a bull, whom he conquers and sacrifices. The sacrifice
of the bull appears to indicate that the worship of Mitra in its most
ancient form was that of a sacred bull, conjoined to or representing
the sun, which was sacrificed as a god, and its flesh and blood eaten
in a sacrificial meal. Mitra, the slayer of the bull, figures in a
double rôle as one finds in all the religions which have passed from
totemism to anthropomorphism." [341] In Scandinavia the god Odin and
his brothers were the grandsons of a divine cow, born from the melting
ice in the region of snow and darkness. [342] In Rome a white bull
was sacrificed to the Feriae Latinae, apparently the spirit of the
Latin holy days, and distributed among all the towns of Latium. [343]
Altars of the ancient Celts or Gauls have been found in France carved
with the image of a bull. [344] In Palestine there is the familiar
instance of the golden calf. In the open court of Solomon's temple
stood the brazen sea on twelve oxen, and figures of lions, oxen and
cherubim covered the portable tanks. [345] The veneration of the bull
survived into Christian England in the Middle Ages. "At St. Edmundsbury
a white bull, which enjoyed full ease and plenty in the fields, and
was never yoked to the plough nor employed in any service, was led
in procession in the chief streets of the town to the principal gate
of the monastery, attended by all the monks singing and a shouting
crowd. [346] "Such remedies as cowdung and cow's urine have been used
on the continent of Europe by peasant physicians down to our times";
[347] and the belief in their efficacy must apparently have arisen from
the sanctity attaching to the animal. In India Siva rides upon the
bull Nandi, and when the Kunbis were too weak from famine to plough
the fields, he had Nandi castrated and harnessed to the plough,
thus teaching them to use oxen for ploughing; the image of Nandi
is always carved in stone in front of Siva, and there seems little
reason to doubt that in his beneficent aspect of Mahadeo the god was
originally the deified bull. Bulls were let loose in his honour and
allowed to graze where they would, and formerly a good Hindu would
not even sell a bull, though this rule has fallen into abeyance. The
sacred cow, Kamdhenu, was the giver of all wealth in Hindu mythology,
and Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, is considered to have been the
deified cow. Hindus are purified from grave offences by drinking the
five products of the sacred cow, milk, curds, butter, dung and urine;
and the floors of Hindu houses are daily plastered with cowdung to
the same end.
6. Other animals.
Of the exaltation of minor animals into anthropomorphic gods and
goddesses only a few instances need be given. As is shown by Sir
J. G. Frazer, Demeter and Proserpine probably both represent the
deified pig. [348] "The Greek drama has arisen from the celebrations
of Dionysus. In the beginning the people sacrificed a goat totem-god,
that is to say, Dionysus himself; they wept for his death and then
celebrated his resurrection with transports of joy." [349] And again
M. Reinach states: "There are more than mere vestiges of totemism
in ancient Greece. We may take first the attendant animals of the
gods, the eagle of Zeus, the owl of Athena, the fawn of Artemis,
the dolphin of Poseidon, the dove of Aphrodite and so on; the sacred
animal can develop into the companion of the god, but also into his
enemy or victim; thus Apollo Sauroctonos is, as the epithet shows,
a killer of lizards; but in the beginning it was the lizard itself
which was divine. We have seen that the boar before becoming the
slayer of Adonis had been Adonis himself." [350]
In early Rome "The wolf was the animal most venerated. Its association
with Mars, as the sacrifice most pleasing to him, leaves no doubt
as to the primitive nature of the god. It was a wolf which acted as
guide to the Samnites in their search for a place to settle in, and
these Samnites called themselves Hirpi or Hirpini, that is to say,
wolves. Romulus and Remus, sons of the wolf Mars and the she-wolf
Silvia (the forest-dweller), are suckled by a she-wolf." [351] It seems
possible that Mars as the deified wolf was at first an agricultural
deity, the wolf being worshipped by the shepherd and farmer because he
was their principal enemy, as the sambhar stag and the wild buffalo
are similarly venerated by Indian cultivators. At a later period,
in becoming the god of war, he may have represented the deified horse
as well. Races of war-horses were held at his festivals on 14th March
and 27th February, and a great race on the Ides of October when the
winner was solemnly slain. [352] "In Egypt the baboon was regarded
as the emblem of Tahuti, the god of wisdom; the serious expression
and human ways of the large baboons are an obvious cause for their
being regarded as the wisest of animals. Tahuti is represented as a
baboon from the earliest dynasty down to late times; and four baboons
were sacred in his temple at Heliopolis." [353] "The hippopotamus was
the goddess Ta-urt, 'the great one,' the patroness of pregnancy, who
is never shown in any other form. Rarely this animal appears as the
emblem of the god Set. The jackal haunted the cemeteries on the edge
of the desert, and so came to be taken as the guardian of the dead
and identified with Anubis, the god of departing souls. The vulture
was the emblem of maternity as being supposed to care especially for
her young. Hence she is identified with Mut, the mother-goddess of
Thebes. The cobra serpent was sacred from the earliest times to the
present day. It was never identified with any of the great deities,
but three goddesses appear in serpent form." [354]
7. Animals worshipped in India.
Finally, in India we have Hanuman, originally the deified ape, about
whose identity there can be no doubt as he still retains his monkey's
tail in all sculpture. Bhairon, the watchman of Mahadeo's temples,
rides on a black dog, and was perhaps originally the watch-dog,
or in his more terrible character of the devourer of human beings,
the wolf. Ganesh or Ganpati has the head of an elephant and rides on
a rat and appears to have derived his divine attributes from both
these animals, as will be explained elsewhere; [355] Kartikeya,
the god of war, rides on a peacock, and as the peacock is sacred,
he may originally have been that bird, perhaps because its plumes
were a favourite war emblem. Among his epithets are Sarabhu, born
in the thicket, Dwadasakara and Dwadasaksha, twelve-handed and
twelve-eyed. He was fostered by the maidens who make the Pleiades,
and his epithet of twelve-eyed may be taken from the eyes in the
peacock's feathers. [356] But, like the Greek gods, the Hindu gods
have now long become anthropomorphic, and only vestiges remain of
their animal associations. Enough has been said to show that most of
the pantheons are largely occupied by deified animals and birds.
8. The sacrificial meal.
The original sacrifice was that in which the community of kinsmen
ate together the flesh of their divine or totem animal-god and drank
its blood. In early religion the tribal god was the ancestor and
relative of the tribe. He protected and fostered the tribe in its
public concerns, but took no special care of individuals; the only
offences of which he took cognisance were those against the tribe as
a whole, such as shedding a kinsman's blood. At periodical intervals
the tribe renewed their kinship with the god and each other by eating
his flesh together at a sacrificial meal by which they acquired his
divine attributes; and every tribesman was not only invited, but
bound, to participate. "According to antique ideas those who eat and
drink together are by this very act tied to one another by a bond of
friendship and mutual obligation. Hence when we find that in ancient
religions all the ordinary functions of worship are summed up in the
sacrificial meal, and that the ordinary intercourse between gods and
men has no other form, we are to remember that the act of eating and
drinking together is the solemn and stated expression of the fact that
all who share the meal are brethren, and that the duties of friendship
and brotherhood are implicitly acknowledged in their common act. [357]
The one thing directly expressed in the sacrificial meal is that
the god and his worshippers are commensals, but every other point in
their mutual relations is included in what this involves. Those who
sit at meat together are united for all social effects; those who do
not eat together are aliens to one another, without fellowship in
religion and without reciprocal social duties. The extent to which
this view prevailed among the ancient Semites, and still prevails
among the Arabs, may be brought out most clearly by reference to the
law of hospitality. Among the Arabs every stranger whom one meets
in the desert is a natural enemy, and has no protection against
violence except his own strong hand or the fear that his tribe will
avenge him if his blood be spilt. But if I have eaten the smallest
morsel of food with a man I have nothing further to fear from him;
'there is salt between us,' and he is bound not only to do me no harm,
but to help and defend me as if I were his brother. So far was this
principle carried by the old Arabs that Zaid-al-Khail, a famous
warrior in the days of Muhammad, refused to slay a vagabond who
carried off his camels, because the thief had surreptitiously drunk
from his father's milk-bowl before committing the theft." [358] It is
in this idea that the feeling of hospitality originally arose. Those
who ate together the sacred food consisting of the body of the god
were brothers, and bound to assist each other and do each other no
harm; and the obligation extended in a modified form to all food
partaken of together, more especially as with some races, as the
ancient Romans and the Hindus, all the regular household meals are
sacred; they may only be partaken of after purifying the body, and a
portion of the food at each meal is offered to the gods. "There was
a sworn alliance between the Lihyan and the Mostalic--they were wont
to eat and drink together. This phrase of an Arab narrator supplies
exactly what is wanted to define the significance of the sacrificial
meal. The god and his worshippers are wont to eat and drink together,
and by this token their fellowship is declared and sealed." [359]
9. Primitive basis of kinship.
The primitive idea of kinship rested on this participation in the
sacrificial meal, and not on blood-relationship. "In ancient times the
fundamental obligations of kinship had nothing to do with degrees of
relationship, but rested with absolute and identical force on every
member of the clan. To know that a man's life was sacred to me and
that every blood-feud that touched him involved me also, it was not
necessary for me to count cousinship with him by reckoning up to our
common ancestor; it was enough that we belonged to the same clan and
bore the same clan-name. What was my clan was determined by customary
law, which was not the same in all stages of society; in the earliest
Semitic communities a man was of his mother's clan, in later times he
belonged to the clan of his father. But the essential idea of kinship
was independent of the particular form of the law. A kin was a group of
persons whose lives were so bound up together, in what must be called
a physical unity, that they could be treated as parts of one common
life. The members of one kindred looked on themselves as one living
whole, a single animated mass of blood, flesh, and bones, of which
no member could be touched without all the members suffering. This
point of view is expressed in the Semitic tongues in many familiar
forms of speech. In case of homicide Arabian tribesmen do not say,
'The blood of M or N has been spilt,' naming the man; they say,
'Our blood has been spilt.' In Hebrew the phrase by which one claims
kinship is, 'I am your bone and your flesh.' Both in Hebrew and in
Arabic 'flesh' is synonymous with 'clan' or kindred group." [360]
Similarly in India a Hindu speaks of any member of his subcaste or
clan as his bhai or brother.
"Indeed, in a religion based on kinship, where the god and his
worshippers are of one stock, the principle of sanctity and that
of kinship are identical. The sanctity of a kinsman's life and the
sanctity of the godhead are not two things but one; for ultimately the
only thing which is sacred is the common tribal life or the common
blood which is identified with the life. Whatever being partakes in
this life is holy, and its holiness may be described indifferently
as participation in the divine life and nature, or as participation
in the kindred blood." [361]
10. The bond of food.
"At a later period the conception is found current that any food which
two men partake of together, so that the same substance enters into
their flesh and blood, is enough to establish some sacred unity of
life between them; but in ancient times this significance seems to be
always attached to participation in the flesh of a sacrosanct victim,
and the solemn mystery of its death is justified by the consideration
that only in this way can the sacred cement be procured which creates
or keeps alive a living bond of union between the worshippers and
their god. This cement is nothing less than the actual life of the
sacred and kindred animal, which is conceived as residing in its flesh,
but especially in its blood, and so, in the sacred meal, is actually
distributed among all the participants, each of whom incorporated a
particle of it with his own individual life." [362]
11. The blood-feud.
It thus appears that the sacrifice of the divine animal which was the
god of the tribe or clan, and the eating of its flesh and drinking of
its blood together, was the only tangible bond or obligation on which
such law and morality as existed in primitive society was based. Those
who participated in this sacrifice were brothers and forbidden to shed
each other's blood, because in so doing they would have spilt the
blood of the god impiously and unlawfully; the only lawful occasion
on which it could be shed being by participation of all the clan or
kinsmen in the sacrificial meal. All other persons outside the clan
were strangers or enemies, and no rights or obligations existed in
connection with them; the only restraint on killing them being the
fear that their kinsmen would take blood-revenge, not solely on the
murderer, but on any member of his clan. A man's life was protected
only by this readiness of his clansmen to avenge him; if he slew a
fellow-kinsman, thus shedding the blood of the god which flowed in the
veins of every member, or committed any other great impiety against the
god, he was outlawed, and henceforth there was no protection for his
life except such as he could afford himself by his own strength. This
reflection puts the importance of the blood-feud in primitive society
in a clear light. It was at that time really a beneficent institution,
being the only protection for human life; and its survival among such
backward races as the Pathans and Corsicans, long after the State
has undertaken the protection and avenging of life and the blood-feud
has become almost wholly useless and evil, is more easily understood.
12. Taking food together and hospitality.
The original idea of the sacrificial meal was that the kinsmen in
concert partook of the body of the god, thereby renewing their kinship
with him and with each other. By analogy, however, the tie thus formed
was extended to the whole practice of eating together. It has been
seen how a stranger who partook of food with an Arab became sacred
and as a kinsman to his host and all the latter's clan for such time
as any part of the food might remain in his system, a period which
was conventionally taken as about three days. "The Old Testament
records many cases where a covenant was sealed by the parties eating
and drinking together. In most of these the meal is sacrificial,
and the deity is taken in as a third party to the covenant. But in
Joshua i. 14 the Israelites enter into alliance with the Gibeonites by
taking of their victuals without consulting Jehovah. A formal league
confirmed by an oath follows, but by accepting the proffered food
the Israelites are already committed to the alliance." [363] From
the belief in the strength and sanctity of the tie formed by eating
together the obligation of hospitality appears to be derived. And
this is one of the few moral ideas which are more binding in primitive
than in civilised society.
13. The Roman sacra.
"A good example of the clan sacrifice, in which a whole kinship
periodically joins, is afforded by the Roman sacra gentilicia. As
in primitive society no man can belong to more than one kindred, so
among the Romans no one could share in the sacra of two gentes--to
do so was to confound the ritual and contaminate the purity of the
gens. The sacra consisted in common anniversary sacrifices, in which
the clansmen honoured the gods of the clan, and after them the whole
kin, living and dead, were brought together in the service." [364]
14. The Hindu caste-feasts.
The intense importance thus attached to eating in common on ceremonial
occasions has a very familiar ring to any one possessing some
acquaintance with the Indian caste-system. The resemblance of the
gotra or clan and the subcaste to the Greek phratry and phule and the
Roman gens and curia or tribe has been pointed out by M. Emile Senart
in Les Castes dans l'Inde. The origin of the subcaste or group, whose
members eat together and intermarry, cannot be discussed here. But it
seems probable that the real bond which unites it is the capacity of
its members to join in the ceremonial feasts at marriages, funerals,
and the readmission of members temporarily excluded, which are of a
type closely resembling and seemingly derived from the sacrificial
meal. Before a wedding the ancestors of the family are formally
invited, and when the wedding-cakes are made they are offered to the
ancestors and then partaken of by all relatives of the family as in
the Roman sacra. In this case grain would take the place of flesh
as the sacrificial food among a people who no longer eat the flesh
of animals. Thus Sir J. G. Frazer states: "At the close of the rice
harvest in the East Indian island of Buro each clan (fenna) meets
at a common sacramental meal, to which every member of the clan is
bound to contribute a little of the new rice. This meal is called
'eating the soul of the rice,' a name which clearly indicates the
sacramental character of the repast. Some of the rice is also set
apart and offered to the spirits." [365] Grain cooked with water is
sacred food among the Hindus. The bride and bridegroom worship Gauri,
perhaps a corn-goddess, and her son Ganesh, the god of prosperity and
full granaries. It has been suggested that yellow is the propitious
Hindu colour for weddings, because it is the colour of the corn. [366]
At the wedding feast all the guests sit knee to knee touching each
other as a sign of their brotherhood. Sometimes the bride eats with
the men in token of her inclusion in the brotherhood. In most castes
the feast cannot begin until all the guests have come, and every
member of the subcaste who is not under the ban of exclusion must be
invited. If any considerable number of the guests wilfully abstain
from attending it is an insult to the host and an implication that
his own position is doubtful. Other points of resemblance between
the caste feast and the sacrificial meal will be discussed elsewhere.
15. Sacrifice of the camel.
The sacrifice of the camel in Arabia, about the period of the fourth
century, is thus described: "The camel chosen as the victim is bound
upon a rude altar of stones piled together, and when the leader of
the band has thrice led the worshippers round the altar in a solemn
procession accompanied with chants, he inflicts the first wound while
the last words of the hymn are still upon the lips of the congregation,
and in all haste drinks of the blood that gushes forth. Forthwith
the whole company fall on the victim with their swords, hacking off
pieces of the quivering flesh and devouring them raw, with such wild
haste that in the short interval between the rise of the day-star,
which marked the hour for the service to begin, and the disappearance
of its rays before the rising sun, the entire camel, body and bones,
skin, blood and entrails, is wholly devoured." [367]
In this case the camel was offered as a sacrifice to Venus or the
Morning Star, and it had to be devoured while the star was visible. But
it is clear that the camel itself had been originally revered,
because except for the sacrifice it was unlawful for the Arabs to
kill the camel otherwise than as a last resort to save themselves from
starvation. "The ordinary sustenance of the Saracens was derived from
pillage or from hunting and from the milk of their herds. Only when
these supplies failed they fell back on the flesh of their camels, one
of which was slain for each clan or for each group which habitually
pitched their tents together--always a fraction of a clan--and the
flesh was hastily devoured by the kinsmen in dog-like fashion, half
raw and merely softened over the fire." [368] In Bhopal it is stated
that a camel is still sacrificed annually in perpetuation of the
ancient rite. Hindus who keep camels revere them like other domestic
animals. When one of my tent-camels had broken its leg by a fall and
had to be killed, I asked the camelman, to whom the animal belonged,
to shoot it; but he positively refused, saying, 'How shall I kill
him who gives me my bread'; and a Muhammadan orderly finally shot it.
16. The joint sacrifice.
The camel was devoured raw almost before the life had left the
body, so that its divine life and blood might be absorbed by the
worshippers. The obligation to devour the whole body perhaps rested
on the belief that its slaughter otherwise than as a sacrifice was
impious, and if any part of the body was left unconsumed the clan
would incur the guilt of murder. Afterwards, when more civilised
stomachs revolted against the practice of devouring the whole body, the
bones were buried or burnt, and it is suggested that our word bonfire
comes from bone-fire. [369] Primitive usage required the presence of
every clansman, so that each might participate in shedding the sacred
blood. Neither the blood of the god nor of any of the kinsmen might
be spilt by private violence, but only by consent of the kindred
and the kindred god. Similarly in shedding the blood of a member of
the kin all the others were required to share the responsibility,
and this was the ancient Hebrew form of execution where the culprit
was stoned by the whole congregation. [370]
17. Animal sacrifices in Greece.
M. Salomon Reinach gives the following explanation of Greek myths
in connection with the sacrificial meal: "The primitive sacrifice of
the god, usually accompanied by the eating of the god in fellowship,
was preserved in their religious rites, and when its meaning had
been forgotten numerous legends were invented to account for it. In
order to understand their origin it is necessary to remember that the
primitive worshippers masqueraded as the god and took his name. As
the object of the totem sacrifice is to make the participants like
the god and confer his divinity on them, the faithful endeavoured to
increase the resemblance by taking the name of the god and covering
themselves with the skins of animals of his species. Thus the Athenian
damsels celebrating the worship of the bear Artemis dressed themselves
in bear-skins and called themselves bears; the Maenads who sacrificed
the doe Penthea were clad in doe-skins. Even in the later rites the
devotees of Bacchus called themselves Bacchantes. A whole series of
legends can be interpreted as semi-rationalistic explanations of the
sacrificial meal. Actaeon was really a great stag sacrificed by women
devotees who called themselves the great hind and the little hinds;
he became the rash hunter who surprised Artemis at her bath, and was
transformed into a stag and devoured by his own dogs. The dogs are
a euphemism; in the early legend they were the human devotees of the
sacred stag who tore him to pieces and devoured him with their bare
teeth. These feasts of raw flesh survived in the secret religious
cults of Greece long after uncooked meat had ceased to be consumed
in ordinary life. Orpheus (ophreus, the haughty), who appears in
art with the skin of a fox on his head, was originally a sacred
fox devoured by the women of the fox totem-clan; these women call
themselves Bassarides in the legend, and bassareus is one of the
old names of the fox. Zagreus is a son of Zeus and Persephone who
transformed himself into a bull to escape from the Titans, excited
against him by Hera; the Titans, worshippers of the divine bull,
killed and ate him; Zagreus was invoked in his worship as the 'good
bull,' and when Zagreus by the grace of Zeus was reborn as Dionysus,
the young god carried on his forehead the horns which bore witness
to his animal nature. Hippolytus in the fable is the son of Theseus
who repels the advances of Phaedra, his stepmother, and was killed by
his runaway horses because Theseus, deceived by Phaedra, invoked the
anger of a god upon him. But Hippolytus in Greek means 'One torn to
pieces by horses.' Hippolytus is himself a horse whom the worshippers
of the horse, calling themselves horses and disguised as such, tore to
pieces and devoured. Phaethon (The Shining One) is a son of Apollo,
who demands leave to drive the chariot of the sun, drives it badly,
nearly burns up the world, and finally falls and perishes in the
sea. This legend is the product of an old rite at Rhodes, the island
of the sun, where every year a white horse and a burning chariot were
thrown into the sea to help the sun, fatigued by his labours." [371]
18. The Passover.
M. Reinach points out that the Passover of the Israelites was in
its origin a similar sacrifice. A lamb or kid, the first-fruit of
the flocks, was eaten entire without the bones being broken, the
blood smeared on the doorway being an offering to the god. The story
connecting this sacrifice with the death of the first-born in Egypt
was of later origin, devised to account for it when the real meaning
had been forgotten. [372] The name Rachel [373] means a ewe, and it
would appear that the children of Israel in the pastoral stage had the
sheep for their totem deity and supposed themselves to be descended
from it, as the Jats consider themselves to be descended from Siva,
probably in his form of Mahadeo, the deified bull. As held in Canaan,
the festival may have been a relic of the former migratory life of
the Israelites when they tended flocks and regarded the sheep, or
goat, as their most important domestic animal. It may have been in
memory of this wandering life that the festival was accompanied by
the eating of unleavened bread, and the sacrifice was consumed with
loins girded up and staffs in their hands, as if in readiness for
a journey. The Banjaras retain in their marriage and other customs
various reminiscences of their former migratory life, as shown in the
article on that caste. The Gadarias of the Central Provinces worship
a goddess called Dishai Devi, who is represented by a stone platform
just outside the sheep-pen. She has thus probably developed from the
deified sheep or goat, which itself was formerly worshipped. On the
eighth day of the fasts in Chait and Kunwar the Gadarias offer the
goddess a virgin she-goat. They wash the goat's feet in water and rub
turmeric on its feet and head. It is given rice to eat and brought
before the goddess, and water is poured over its body; when the goat
begins to shiver they think that the goddess has accepted the offering,
and cut its throat with a sickle or knife. Then the animal is roasted
whole and eaten in the veranda of the house, nothing being thrown
away but the bones. Only men may join in this sacrifice, and not women.
19. Sanctity of domestic animals.
Thus it was a more or less general rule among several races that the
domestic animals were deified and held sacred, and were slain only at
a sacrifice. It followed that it was sinful to kill these animals on
any other occasion. It has already been seen that the Arabs forbore
to kill their worn-out camels for food except when driven to it by
hunger as a last resort. "That it was once a capital offence to kill
an ox, both in Attica and the Peloponnesus, is attested by Varro. So
far as Athens is concerned, this statement seems to be drawn from the
legend that was told in connection with the annual sacrifice at the
Diipolia, where the victim was a bull and its death was followed by a
solemn inquiry as to who was responsible for the act. In this trial
everyone who had anything to do with the slaughter was called as a
party; the maidens who drew water to sharpen the axe and knife threw
the blame on the sharpeners, they put it on the man who handed the
axe, he on the man who struck down the victim, and he again on the
one who cut its throat, who finally fixed the responsibility on the
knife, which was accordingly found guilty of murder and cast into
the sea." [374] "At Tenedos the priest who offered a bull-calf to
Dionysus anthroporraistes was attacked with stones and had to flee
for his life; and at Corinth, in the annual sacrifice of a goat
to Hera Acraea, care was taken to shift the responsibility of the
death off the shoulders of the community by employing hirelings as
ministers. Even they did no more than hide the knife in such a way
that the goat, scraping with its feet, procured its own death." [375]
"Agatharchides, describing the Troglodytes of East Africa, a primitive
pastoral people in the polyandrous state of society, tells us that
their whole sustenance was derived from their flocks and herds. When
pasture abounded, after the rainy season, they lived on milk mingled
with blood (drawn apparently, as in Arabia, from the living animal),
and in the dry season they had recourse to the flesh of aged or
weakly beasts. Further, 'they gave the name of parent to no human
being, but only to the ox and cow, the ram and ewe, from whom they
had their nourishment.' Among the Caffres the cattle kraal is sacred;
women may not enter it, and to defile it is a capital offence." [376]
Among the Egyptians also cows were never killed. [377]
20. Sacrificial slaughter for food.
Gradually, however, as the reverence for animals declined and the
true level of their intelligence compared to that of man came to be
better appreciated, the sanctity attaching to their lives no doubt
grew weaker. Then it would become permissible to kill a domestic animal
privately and otherwise than by a joint sacrifice of the clan; but the
old custom of justifying the slaughter by offering it to the god would
still remain. "At this stage, [378] at least among the Hebrews, the
original sanctity of the life of domestic animals is still recognised
in a modified form, inasmuch as it is held unlawful to use their flesh
for food except in a sacrificial meal. But this rule is not strict
enough to prevent flesh from becoming a familiar luxury. Sacrifices
are multiplied on trivial occasions of religious gladness or social
festivity, and the rite of eating at the sanctuary loses the character
of an exceptional sacrament, and means no more than that men are
invited to feast and be merry at the table of their god, or that no
feast is complete in which the god has not his share." [379] This is
the stage reached by the Hebrews in the time of Samuel, as described
by Professor Robertson Smith, and it bears much resemblance to that of
the lower Hindu castes and the Gonds at the present time. They too,
when they can afford to kill a goat or a pig, cows being prohibited
in deference to Hindu susceptibility, take it to the shrine of some
village deity and offer it there prior to feasting on it with their
friends. At intervals of a year or more many of the lower castes
sacrifice a goat to Dulha Deo, the bridegroom-god, and Thakur Deo,
the corn-god, and eat the body as a sacrificial meal within the
house, burying the bones and other remnants beneath the floor of the
house. [380] Among the Kafirs of the Hindu Kush, when a man wishes to
become a Jast, apparently a revered elder or senator, he must give a
series of feasts to the whole community, so expensive that many men
utterly ruin themselves in becoming Jast. The initiatory proceedings
are sacrifices of bulls and male goats to Gish, the war-god, at the
village shrine. The animals are examined with jealous eyes by the
spectators, to see that they come up to the prescribed standard
of excellence. After the sacrifice the meat is divided among the
people, who carry it to their homes. These special sacrifices at
the shrine recur at intervals; but the great slaughterings are at
the feast-giver's own house, where he entertains sometimes the Jast
exclusively and sometimes the whole tribe, as already mentioned. [381]
Even in the latter case, however, after a big distribution at the
giver's house one or two goats are offered to the war-god at his
shrine; and while the animals are being killed at the house offerings
are made on a sacrificial fire, and as each goat is slain a handful
of its blood is taken and thrown on the fire. [382] The Kafirs would
therefore appear to be in the stage when it is still usual to kill
domestic animals as a sacrifice to the god, but no longer obligatory.
21. Animal fights.
Finally animals are recognised for what they are, all sanctity
ceases to attach to them, and they are killed for food in an ordinary
manner. Possibly, however, such customs as roasting an ox whole, and
the sports of bull-baiting and bull-fighting, may be relics of the
ancient sacrifice. Formerly the buffaloes sacrificed at the shrine of
the goddess Rankini or Kali in Dalbhum zamindari of Chota Nagpur were
made to fight. "Two male buffaloes are driven into a small enclosure
and on a raised stage adjoining and overlooking it the Raja and his
suite take up their position. After some ceremonies the Raja and his
family priest discharge arrows at the buffaloes, others follow their
example, and the tormented and enraged beasts fall to and gore each
other whilst arrow after arrow is discharged. When the animals are
past doing very much mischief, the people rush in and hack at them
with battle-axes till they are dead." [383]
22. The sacrificial method of killing.
Muhammadans however cannot eat the flesh of an animal unless its throat
is cut and the blood allowed to flow before it dies. At the time of
cutting the throat a sacred text or invocation must be repeated. It
has been seen that in former times the blood of the animal was offered
to the god and scattered on the altar or collected in a pit at its
foot. It may be suggested that the method of killing which still
survives was that formerly practised in offering the sacrifice,
and that the necessity of allowing the blood to flow is a relic of
the blood offering. When it no longer became necessary to sacrifice
every animal at a shrine the sacrificial method of slaughter and the
invocation to the god might be retained as removing the impiety of
the act. At present it is said that unless an animal's blood flows it
is a murda or corpse, and hence not suitable for food. But this idea
may have grown up to account for the custom when its original meaning
had been forgotten. The Gonds, when sacrificing a fowl, hold it over
the sacred post or stone, which represents the god, and let the blood
drop upon it. And when sacrificing a pig they first cut its tongue
and let the blood fall upon the symbol of the god. In Chhattisgarh,
when a Hindu is ill he makes a vow of the affected limb to the god;
then on recovering he goes to the temple, and cutting this limb, lets
the blood fall on to the symbol of the god as an offering. Similarly
the Sikhs are forbidden to eat flesh unless the animal has been killed
by jatka or cutting off the head with one stroke, and the same rule
is observed by some of the lower Hindu castes. In Hindu sacrifices
it is often customary that the head of the animal should be made over
to the officiating priest as his share, and so in killing the animal
he would naturally cut off its head. The above rule may therefore be
of the same character as the rite of halal among the Muhammadans, and
here also the sacrificial method of killing an animal may be retained
to legalise its slaughter after the sacrifice itself has fallen into
desuetude. In Berar some time ago the Mullah or Muhammadan priest
was a village servant and the Hindus paid him dues. In return he was
accustomed to kill the goats and sheep which they wished to sacrifice
at temples, or in their fields to propitiate the deities presiding over
them. He also killed animals for the Khatik or mutton-butcher and the
latter exposed them for sale. The Mullah was entitled to the heart of
the animal killed as his perquisite and a fee of two pice. Some of the
Marathas were unmindful of the ceremony, but in general they professed
not to eat flesh unless the sacred verse had been pronounced either by
the Mullah or some Muhammadan capable of rendering it halal or lawful
to be eaten. [384] Hence it would appear that the Hindus, unprovided
by their own religion with any sacrificial mode of legalising the
slaughter of animals, adopted the ritual of a foreign faith in order
to make animal sacrifices acceptable to their own deities. The belief
that it is sinful to kill a domestic animal except with some religious
sanction is thus clearly shown in full force.
23. Animal sacrifices in Indian ritual.
Among high-caste Hindus also sacrifices, including the killing of
cows, were at one time legal. This is shown by several legends,
[385] and is also a historical fact. One of Asoka's royal edicts
prohibited at the capital the celebration of animal sacrifices
and merry-makings involving the use of meat, but in the provinces
apparently they continued to be lawful. [386] This indicates that prior
to the rise of Buddhism such sacrifices had been customary, and also
that when a feast was to be given, involving the consumption of meat,
the animal was offered as a sacrifice. It is noteworthy that Asoka's
rules do not forbid the slaughter of cows. [387] In ancient times
also the most important royal sacrifice was that of the horse. The
development of religious belief and practice in connection with the
killing of domestic animals has thus proceeded on exactly opposite
lines in India as compared with most of the world. Domestic animals
have become more instead of less sacred and several of them cannot
be killed at all. The reason usually given to account for this is
the belief in the transmigration of souls, leading to the conclusion
that the bodies of animals might be tenanted by human souls. Probably
also Buddhism left powerful traces of its influence on the Hindu
view of the sanctity of animal life even after it had ceased to be
the state religion. Perhaps the Brahmans desired to make their faith
more popular and took advantage of the favourite reverence of all
cultivators for the cow to exalt her into one of their most powerful
deities, and at the same time to extend the local cult of Krishna,
the divine cowherd, thus following exactly the contrary course to that
taken by Moses with the golden calf. Generally the growth of political
and national feeling has mainly operated to limit the influence of the
priesthood, and the spread of education and development of reasoned
criticism and discussion have softened the strictness of religious
observance and ritual. Both these factors have been almost entirely
wanting in Hindu society, and this perhaps explains the continued
sanctity attaching to the lives of domestic animals as well as the
unabated power of the caste system.
Kasar
1. Distribution and origin of the caste.
Kasar, Kasera, Kansari, Bharewa. [388]--The professional caste of
makers and sellers of brass and copper vessels. In 1911 the Kasars
numbered 20,000 persons in the Central Provinces and Berar, and were
distributed over all Districts, except in the Jubbulpore division,
where they are scarcely found outside Mandla. Their place in the other
Districts of this division is taken by the Tameras. In Mandla the
Kasars are represented by the inferior Bharewa group. The name of the
caste is derived from kansa, a term now applied to bell-metal. The
kindred caste of Tameras take their name from tamba, copper, but
both castes work in this metal indifferently, and in Saugor, Damoh
and Jubbulpore no distinction exists between the Kasars and Tameras,
the same caste being known by both names. A similar confusion exists
in northern India in the use of the corresponding terms Kasera
and Thathera. [389] In Wardha the Kasars are no longer artificers,
but only dealers, employing Panchals to make the vessels which they
retail in their shops. And the same is the case with the Maratha
and Deshkar subcastes in Nagpur. The Kasars are a respectable caste,
ranking next to the Sunars among the urban craftsmen.
According to a legend given by Mr. Sadasheo Jairam they trace their
origin from Dharampal, the son of Sahasra Arjun or Arjun of the
Thousand Arms. Arjun was the greatgrandson of Ekshvaku, who was born
in the forests of Kalinga, from the union of a mare and a snake. On
this account the Kasars of the Maratha country say that they all
belong to the Ahihaya clan (Ahi, a snake; and Haya, a mare). Arjun
was killed by Parasurama during the slaughter of the Kshatriyas and
Dharampal's mother escaped with three other pregnant women. According
to another version all the four women were the wives of the king
of the Somvansi Rajputs who stole the sacred cow Kamdhenu. Their
four sons on growing up wished to avenge their father and prayed to
the Goddess Kali for weapons. But unfortunately in their prayer,
instead of saying ban, arrow, they said van, which means pot, and
hence brass pots were given to them instead of arrows. They set
out to sell the pots, but got involved in a quarrel with a Raja,
who killed three of them, but was defeated by the fourth, to whom
he afterwards gave his daughter and half his kingdom; and this hero
became the ancestor of the Kasars. In some localities the Kasars say
that Dharampal, the Rajput founder of their caste, was the ancestor
of the Haihaya Rajput kings of Ratanpur; and it is noticeable that
the Thatheras of the United Provinces state that their original home
was a place called Ratanpur, in the Deccan. [390] Both Ratanpur and
Mandla, which are very old towns, have important brass and bell-metal
industries, their bell-metal wares being especially well known on
account of the brilliant polish which is imparted to them. And the
story of the Kasars may well indicate, as suggested by Mr. Hira Lal,
that Ratanpur was a very early centre of the brass-working industry,
from which it has spread to other localities in this part of India.
2. Internal structure.
The caste have a number of subdivisions, mainly of a territorial
nature. Among these are the Maratha Kasars; the Deshkar, who also
belong to the Maratha country; the Pardeshi or foreigners, the
Jhade or residents of the forest country of the Central Provinces,
and the Audhia or Ajudhiabasi who are immigrants from Oudh. Another
subdivision, the Bharewas, are of a distinctly lower status than the
body of the caste, and have non-Aryan customs, such as the eating of
pork. They make the heavy brass ornaments which the Gonds and other
tribes wear on their legs, and are probably an occupational offshoot
from one of these tribes. In Chanda some of the Bharewas serve as
grooms and are looked down upon by the others. They have totemistic
septs, named after animals and plants, some of which are Gond words;
and among them the bride goes to the bridegroom's house to be married,
which is a Gond custom. The Bharewas may more properly be considered as
a separate caste of lower status. As previously stated, the Maratha and
Deshkar subcastes of the Maratha country no longer make vessels, but
only keep them for sale. One subcaste, the Otaris, make vessels from
moulds, while the remainder cut and hammer into shape the imported
sheets of brass. Lastly comes a group comprising those members of
the caste who are of doubtful or illegitimate descent, and these are
known either as Takle ('Thrown out' in Marathi), Bidur, 'Bastard,'
or Laondi Bachcha, 'Issue of a kept wife.' In the Maratha country the
Kasars, as already seen, say that they all belong to one gotra, the
Ahihaya. They have, however, collections of families distinguished by
different surnames, and persons having the same surname are forbidden
to marry. In the northern Districts they have the usual collection
of exogamous septs, usually named after villages.
3. Social customs.
The marriages of first cousins are generally forbidden, as well as
of members of the same sept. Divorce and the remarriage of widows
are permitted. Devi or Bhawani is the principal deity of the caste,
as of so many Hindus. At her festival of Mando Amawas or the day
of the new moon of Phagun (February), every Kasar must return to
the community of which he is a member and celebrate the feast with
them. And in default of this he will be expelled from caste until the
next Amawas of Phagun comes round. They close their shops and worship
the implements of their trade on this day and also on the Pola day. The
Kasars, as already stated, rank next to the Sunars among the artisan
castes, and the Audhia Sunars, who make ornaments of bell-metal, form
a connecting link between the two groups. The social status of the
Kasars varies in different localities. In some places Brahmans take
water from them but not in others. Some Kasars now invest boys with the
sacred thread at their weddings, and thereafter it is regularly worn.
4. Occupation.
The caste make eating and drinking vessels, ornaments and ornamental
figures from brass, copper and bell-metal. Brass is the metal most in
favour for utensils, and it is usually imported in sheets from Bombay,
but in places it is manufactured from a mixture of three parts of
copper and two of zinc. This is considered the best brass, though
it is not so hard as the inferior kinds, in which the proportion of
zinc is increased. Ornaments of a grey colour, intended to resemble
silver, are made from a mixture of four parts of copper with five of
zinc. Bell-metal is an alloy of copper and tin, and in Chanda is made
of four parts of copper to one part tin or tinfoil, the tin being the
more expensive metal. Bells of fairly good size and excellent tone
are moulded from this amalgam, and plates or saucers in which anything
acid in the way of food is to be kept are also made of it, since acids
do not corrode this metal as they do brass and copper. But bell-metal
vessels are fragile and sometimes break when dropped. They cannot also
be heated in the fire to clean them, and therefore cannot be lent to
persons outside the family; while brass vessels may be lent to friends
of other castes, and on being received back pollution is removed by
heating them in the fire or placing hot ashes in them. Brahmans make
a small fire of grass for this purpose and pass the vessels through
the flame. Copper cooking-pots are commonly used by Muhammadans
but not by Hindus, as they have to be coated with tin; the Hindus
consider that tin is an inferior metal whose application to copper
degrades the latter. Pots made of brass with a copper rim are called
'Ganga Jamni' after the confluence of the dark water of the Jumna
with the muddy stream of the Ganges, whose union they are supposed
to symbolise. Small figures of the deities or idols are also made of
brass, but some Kasars will not attempt this work, because they are
afraid of the displeasure of the god in case the figure should not
be well or symmetrically shaped.
KASBI
List of Paragraphs
1. General notice.
2. Girls dedicated to temples.
3. Music and dancing.
4. Education of courtesans.
5. Caste customs.
6. First pregnancy.
7. Different classes of women.
8. Dancing and singing.
1. General notice.
Kasbi, [391] Tawaif, Devadasi.--The caste of dancing-girls and
prostitutes. The name Kasbi is derived from the Arabic kasab,
prostitution, and signifies rather a profession than a caste. In India
practically all female dancers and singers are prostitutes, the Hindus
being still in that stage of the development of intersexual relations
when it is considered impossible that a woman should perform before the
public and yet retain her modesty. It is not so long that this idea
has been abandoned by Western nations, and the fashion of employing
women actors is perhaps not more than two or three centuries old in
England. The gradual disappearance of the distinctive influence of
sex in the public and social conduct of women is presumably a sign of
advancing civilisation, and is greatest in the West, the old standards
retaining more and more vitality as we proceed Eastward. Among the
Anglo-Saxon races women are almost entirely emancipated from any
handicap due to their sex, and direct their lives with the same
freedom and independence as men. Among the Latin races many people
still object to girls walking out alone in towns, and in Italy the
number of women to be seen in the streets is so small that it must
be considered improper for a young and respectable woman to go about
alone. Here also survives the mariage de convenance or arrangement
of matches by the parents; the underlying reason for this custom,
which also partly accounts for the institution of infant-marriage,
appears to be that it is not considered safe to permit a young girl
to frequent the society of unmarried men with sufficient freedom to
be able to make her own choice. And, finally, on arrival in Egypt
and Turkey we find the seclusion of women still practised, and only
now beginning to weaken before the influence of Western ideas. But
again in the lowest scale of civilisation, among the Gonds and other
primitive tribes, women are found to enjoy great freedom of social
intercourse. This is partly no doubt because their lives are too hard
and rude to permit of any seclusion of women, but also partly because
they do not yet consider it an obligatory feature of the institution of
marriage that a girl should enter upon it in the condition of a virgin.
2. Girls dedicated to temples.
In the Deccan girls dedicated to temples are called Devadasis or
'Hand-maidens of the gods.' They are thus described by Marco Polo:
"In this country," he says, "there are certain abbeys in which are
gods and goddesses, and here fathers and mothers often consecrate
their daughters to the service of the deity. When the priests desire
to feast their god they send for those damsels, who serve the god with
meats and other goods, and then sing and dance before him for about as
long as a great baron would be eating his dinner. Then they say that
the god has devoured the essence of the food, and fall to and eat it
themselves." [392] Mr. Francis writes of the Devadasis as follows:1
"It is one of the many inconsistences of the Hindu religion that
though their profession is repeatedly and vehemently condemned by the
Shastras it has always received the countenance of the church. The rise
of the caste and its euphemistic name seem both of them to date from
the ninth and tenth centuries of our era, during which much activity
prevailed in southern India in the matter of building temples and
elaborating the services held in them. The dancing-girls' duties
then as now were to fan the idol with chamaras or Thibetan ox-tails,
to hold the sacred light called Kumbarti and to sing and dance before
the god when he was carried in procession. Inscriptions show that in
A.D. 1004 the great temple of the Chola king Rajaraja at Tanjore had
attached to it 400 women of the temple who lived in free quarters
in the surrounding streets, and were given a grant of land from the
endowment. Other temples had similar arrangements. At the beginning
of last century there were a hundred dancing-girls attached to the
temple at Conjeeveram, and at Madura, Conjeeveram and Tanjore there
are still numbers of them who receive allowances from the endowments
of the big temples at those places. In former days the profession was
countenanced not only by the church but by the state. Abdur Razak,
a Turkish ambassador to the court of Vijayanagar in the fifteenth
century, describes women of this class as living in state-controlled
institutions, the revenue of which went towards the upkeep of the
police."
The dedication of girls to temples and religious prostitution was
by no means confined to India but is a common feature of ancient
civilisation. The subject has been mentioned by Dr. Westermarck in The
Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas, and fully discussed by Sir
James Frazer in Attis, Adonis, Osiris. The best known and most peculiar
instance is that of the temple of Istar in Babylonia. "Herodotus says
that every woman born in that country was obliged once in her life to
go and sit down in the precinct of Aphrodite and there consort with a
stranger. A woman who had once taken her seat was not allowed to return
home till one of the strangers threw a silver coin into her lap and
took her with him beyond the holy ground. The silver coin could not
be refused because, since once thrown, it was sacred. The woman went
with the first man who threw her money, rejecting no one. When she
had gone with him and so satisfied the goddess, she returned home,
and from that time forth no gift, however great, would prevail with
her. In the Canaanitish cults there were women called kedeshoth, who
were consecrated to the deity with whose temple they were associated,
and who at the same time acted as prostitutes." [393] Other instances
are given from Africa, Egypt and ancient Greece. The principal
explanation of these practices was that the act of intercourse,
according to the principle of sympathetic magic, produced fertility,
usually of the crops, though in the Babylonian case, Dr. Westermarck
thinks, of the woman herself. Several instances have been recorded of
people who perform the sexual act as a preliminary or accompaniment
to sowing the crops, [394] and there seems little doubt that this
explanation is correct. A secondary idea of religious prostitution may
have been to afford to the god the same sexual pleasures as delighted
an earthly king. Thus the Skanda Purana relates that Kartikeya, the
Hindu god of war, was sent by his father to frustrate the sacrifice of
Daksha, and at the instigation of the latter was delayed on his way
by beautiful damsels, who entertained him with song and dance. Hence
it is the practice still for dancing-girls who serve in the pagodas
to be betrothed and married to him, after which they may prostitute
themselves but cannot marry a man. [395] Similarly the Murlis or
dancing-girls in Maratha temples are married to Khandoba, the Maratha
god of war. Sometimes the practice of prostitution might begin by the
priests of the temple as representatives of the god having intercourse
with the women. This is stated to have been the custom at the temple
of Jagannath in Orissa, where the officiating Brahmans had adulterous
connection with the women who danced and sang before the god. [396]
3. Music and dancing.
Both music and dancing, like others of the arts, probably originated
as part of a religious or magical service or ritual, and hence would
come to be practised by the women attached to temples. And it would
soon be realised what potent attractions these arts possessed when
displayed by women, and in course of time they would be valued as
accomplishments in themselves, and either acquired independently by
other courtesans or divorced from a sole application to religious
ritual. In this manner music, singing and dancing may have grown to
be considered as the regular attractions of the courtesan and hence
immoral in themselves, and not suitable for display by respectable
women. The Emperor Shah Jahan is said to have delighted in the
performances of the Tawaif or Muhammadan singing and dancing girls,
who at that time lived in bands and occupied mansions as large as
palaces. [397] Aurangzeb ordered them all to be married or banished
from his dominions, but they did not submit without a protest; and
one morning as the Emperor was going to the mosque he saw a vast crowd
of mourners marching in file behind a bier, and filling the air with
screams and lamentations. He asked what it meant, and was told that
they were going to bury Music; their mother had been executed, and
they were weeping over her loss. 'Bury her deep,' the Emperor cried,
'she must never rise again.'
4. Education of courtesans.
The possession of these attractions naturally gave the courtesan an
advantage over ordinary women who lacked them, and her society was
much sought after, as shown in the following description of a native
court: [398] "Nor is the courtesan excluded, she of the smart saying,
famed for the much-valued cleverness which is gained in 'the world,'
who when the learned fail is ever ready to cut the Gordian knot of
solemn question with the sharp blade of her repartee, for--The sight
of foreign lands; the possession of a Pandit for a friend; a courtesan;
access to the royal court; patient study of the Shastras; the roots of
cleverness are these five." Mr. Crooke also remarks on the tolerance
extended to this class of women: "The curious point about Indian
prostitutes is the tolerance with which they are received into even
respectable houses, and the absence of that strong social disfavour
in which this class is held in European countries. This feeling has
prevailed for a lengthened period. We read in the Buddhist histories of
Ambapata, the famous courtesan, and the price of her favours fixed at
two thousand masurans. The same feeling appears in the folk-tales and
early records of Indian courts." [399] It may be remarked, however,
that the social ostracism of such women has not always been the
rule in Europe, while as regards conjugal morality Indian society
would probably appear to great advantage beside that of Europe in the
Middle Ages. But when the courtesan is alone possessed of the feminine
accomplishments, and also sees much of society and can converse with
point and intelligence on public affairs, her company must necessarily
be more attractive than that of the women of the family, secluded and
uneducated, and able to talk about nothing but the petty details of
household management. Education so far as women were concerned was
to a large extent confined to courtesans, who were taught all the
feminine attainments on account of the large return to be obtained
in the practice of their profession. This is well brought out in the
following passage from a Hindu work in which the mother speaks: [400]
"Worthy Sir, this daughter of mine would make it appear that I am to
blame, but indeed I have done my duty, and have carefully prepared her
for that profession for which by birth she was intended. From earliest
childhood I have bestowed the greatest care upon her, doing everything
in my power to promote her health and beauty. As soon as she was old
enough I had her carefully instructed in the arts of dancing, acting,
playing on musical instruments, singing, painting, preparing perfumes
and flowers, in writing and conversation, and even to some extent in
grammar, logic and philosophy. She was taught to play various games
with skill and dexterity, how to dress well and show herself off to
the greatest advantage in public; yet after all the time, trouble and
money which I have spent upon her, just when I was beginning to reap
the fruit of my labours, the ungrateful girl has fallen in love with
a stranger, a young Brahman without property, and wishes to marry him
and give up her profession (of a prostitute), notwithstanding all my
entreaties and representations of the poverty and distress to which
all her family will be reduced if she persists in her purpose; and
because I oppose this marriage, she declares that she will renounce
the world and become a devotee." Similarly the education of another
dancing-girl is thus described: [401] "Gauhar Jan did her duty by
the child according to her lights. She engaged the best 'Gawayyas'
to teach her music, the best 'Kathaks' to teach her dancing, the
best 'Ustads' to teach her elocution and deportment, and the best of
Munshis to ground her in Urdu and Persian belles lettres; so that
when Imtiazan reached her fifteenth year her accomplishments were
noised abroad in the bazar." It is still said to be the custom for the
Hindus in large towns, as among the Greeks of the time of Pericles,
to frequent the society of courtesans for the charm of their witty
and pointed conversation. Betel-nut is provided at such receptions,
and at the time of departure each person is expected to deposit a
rupee in the tray. Of course it is in no way meant to assert that
the custom is at all generally prevalent among educated men, as this
would be quite untrue.
The association of all feminine charms and intellectual attainments
with public women led to the belief that they were incompatible with
feminine modesty; and this was even extended to certain ornamental
articles of clothing such as shoes. The Abbé Dubois remarks: [402]
"The courtesans are the only women in India who enjoy the privilege
of learning to read, to dance and to sing. A well-bred respectable
woman would for this reason blush to acquire any one of these
accomplishments." Buchanan says: [403] "The higher classes of Hindu
women consider every approach to wearing shoes as quite indecent; so
that their use is confined to Muhammadans, camp trulls and Europeans,
and most of the Muhammadans have adopted the Hindu notion on this
subject; women of low rank wear sandals." And again: [404] "A woman who
appears clean in public on ordinary occasions may pretty confidently
be taken for a prostitute; such care of her person would indeed be
considered by her husband as totally incompatible with modesty." And
as regards accomplishments: [405] "It is considered very disgraceful
for a modest woman to sing or play on any musical instrument; the only
time when such a practice is permitted is among the Muhammadans at
the Muharram, when women are allowed to join in the praises of Fatima
and her son." And a current saying is: "A woman who sings in the house
as she goes about her work and one who is fond of music can never be
a Sati"; a term which is here used as an equivalent for a virtuous
woman. Buchanan wrote a hundred years ago, and things have no doubt
improved since his time, but this feeling appears to be principally
responsible for much of the prejudice against female education,
which has hitherto been so strong even among the literate classes
of Hindus; and is only now beginning to break down as the highly
cultivated young men of the present day have learned to appreciate
and demand a greater measure of intelligence from their wives.
5. Caste customs.
Among the better class of Kasbis a certain caste feeling and
organisation exists. When a girl attains adolescence her mother makes
a bargain with some rich man to be her first consort. Oil and turmeric
are rubbed on her body for five days as in the case of a bride. A
feast is given to the caste and the girl is married to a dagger,
walking seven times round the sacred post with it. Her human consort
then marks her forehead with vermilion and covers her head with her
head-cloth seven times. In the evening she goes to live with him
for as long as he likes to maintain her, and afterwards takes up
the practice of her profession. In this case it is necessary that
the man should be an outsider and not a member of the Kasbi caste,
because the quasi-marriage is the formal commencement on the part of
the woman of her hereditary trade. As already seen, the feeling of
shame and degradation attaching to this profession in Europe appears
to be somewhat attenuated in India, and it is counterbalanced by
that acquiescence in and attachment to the caste-calling which is
the principal feature of Hindu society. And no doubt the life of
the dancing-girl has, at any rate during youth, its attractions
as compared with that of a respectable married woman. Tavernier
tells the story [406] of a Shah of Persia who, desiring to punish a
dancing-girl for having boxed the ears of one of her companions within
his hearing (it being clearly not the effect of the operation on the
patient which annoyed his majesty) made an order that she should be
married. And a more curious instance still is the following from
a recent review: [407] "The natives of India are by instinct and
custom the most conservative race in the world. When I was stationed
at Aurangabad--fifty years ago it is true, but that is but a week
in regard to this question--a case occurred within my own knowledge
which shows the strength of hereditary feeling. An elderly wealthy
native adopted two baby girls, whose mother and family had died
during a local famine. The children grew up with his own girls and
were in all respects satisfactory, and apparently quite happy until
they arrived at the usual age for marriage. They then asked to see
their papa by adoption, and said to him, 'We are very grateful to
you for your care of us, but we are now grown up. We are told our
mother was a Kasbi (prostitute), and we must insist on our rights,
go out into the world, and do as our mother did.'"
6. First pregnancy.
In the fifth or seventh month of the first pregnancy of a Kasbi woman
108 fried wafers of flour and sugar, known as gujahs, are prepared,
and are eaten by her as well as distributed to friends and relatives
who are invited to the house. After this they in return prepare
similar wafers and send them to the pregnant woman. Some little time
before the birth the mother washes her head with gram flour, puts
on new clothes and jewels, and invites all her friends to the house,
feasting them with rice boiled in milk, cakes and sweetmeats.
7. Different classes of women.
Though the better-class Kasbis appear to have a sort of caste union,
this is naturally quite indefinite, inasmuch as marriage, at present
the essential bond of caste-organisation, is absent. The sons of
Kasbis take up any profession that they choose; and many of them
marry and live respectably with their wives. Others become musicians
and assist at the performances of the dancing-girls, as the Bhadua
who beats the cymbals and sings in chorus and also acts as a pimp,
and the Sarangia, one who performs on the sarangi or fiddle. The
girls themselves are of different classes, as the Kasbi or Gayan who
are Hindus, the Tawaif who are Muhammadans, and the Bogam or Telugu
dancing-girls. Gond women are known as Deogarhni, and are supposed
to have come from Deogarh in Chhindwara, formerly the headquarters
of a Gond dynasty. The Sarangias or fiddlers are now a separate
caste. In the northern Districts the dancing-girls are usually women
of the Beria caste and are known as Berni. After the spring harvest
the village headman hires one or two of these girls, who dance and
do acrobatic feats by torchlight. They will continue all through the
night, stimulated by draughts of liquor, and it is said that one woman
will drink two or three bottles of the country spirit. The young men of
the village beat the drum to accompany her dancing, and take turns to
see how long they can go on doing so without breaking down. After the
performance each cultivator gives the woman one or two pice (farthings)
and the headman gives her a rupee. Such a celebration is known as Rai,
and is distinctive of Bundelkhand.
In Bengal this class of women often become religious mendicants and
join the Vaishnava or Bairagi community, as stated by Sir H. Risley:
[408] "The mendicant members of the Vaishnava community are of evil
repute, their ranks being recruited by those who have no relatives, by
widows, by individuals too idle or depraved to lead a steady working
life, and by prostitutes. Vaishnavi, or Baishtabi according to the
vulgar pronunciation, has come to mean a courtesan. A few undoubtedly
join from sincere and worthy motives, but their numbers are too
small to produce any appreciable effect on the behaviour of their
comrades. The habits of these beggars are very unsettled. They wander
from village to village and from one akhara (monastery) to another,
fleecing the frugal and industrious peasantry on the plea of religion,
and singing songs in praise of Hari beneath the village tree or
shrine. Members of both sexes smoke Indian hemp (ganja), and although
living as brothers and sisters are notorious for licentiousness. There
is every reason for suspecting that infanticide is common, as children
are never seen. In the course of their wanderings they entice away
unmarried girls, widows, and even married women on the pretence of
visiting Sri Kshetra (Jagannath) Brindaban or Benares, for which
reason they are shunned by all respectable natives, who gladly give
charity to be rid of them."
In large towns prostitutes belong to all castes. An old list obtained
by Rai Bahadur Hira Lal of registered prostitutes in Jubbulpore showed
the following numbers of different castes: Barai six, Dhimar four,
and Nai, Khangar, Kachhi, Gond, Teli, Brahman, Rajput and Bania three
each. Each woman usually has one or two girls in training if she
can obtain them, with a view to support herself by their earnings
in the same method of livelihood when her own attractions have
waned. Fatherless and orphan girls run a risk of falling into this
mode of life, partly because their marriages cannot conveniently be
arranged, and also from the absence of strict paternal supervision. For
it is to be feared that a girl who is allowed to run about at her will
in the bazar has little chance of retaining her chastity even up to
the period of her arrival at adolescence. This is no doubt one of the
principal considerations in favour of early marriage. The caste-people
often subscribe for the marriage of a girl who is left without support,
and it is said that in former times an unmarried orphan girl might
go and sit dharna, or starving herself, at the king's gate until he
arranged for her wedding. Formerly the practice of obtaining young
girls was carried on to a much greater extent than at present. Malcolm
remarks: [409] "Slavery in Malwa and the adjoining provinces is chiefly
limited to females; but there is perhaps no part of India where there
are so many slaves of this sex. The dancing-girls are all purchased,
when young, by the Nakins or heads of the different sets or companies,
who often lay out large sums in these speculations, obtaining advances
from the bankers on interest like other classes." But the attractions
of the profession and the numbers of those who engage in it have now
largely declined.
8. Dancing and singing.
The better class of Kasbi women, when seen in public, are conspicuous
by their wealth of jewellery and their shoes of patent leather or
other good material. Women of other castes do not commonly wear shoes
in the streets. The Kasbis are always well and completely clothed,
and it has been noticed elsewhere that the Indian courtesan is more
modestly dressed than most women. No doubt in this matter she knows
her business. A well-to-do dancing-girl has a dress of coloured
muslin or gauze trimmed with tinsel lace, with a short waist, long
straight sleeves, and skirts which reach a little below the knee, a
shawl falling from the head over the shoulders and wrapped round the
body, and a pair of tight satin trousers, reaching to the ankles. The
feet are bare, and strings of small bells are tied round them. They
usually dance and sing to the accompaniment of the tabla, sarangi and
majira. The tabla or drum is made of two half-bowls--one brass or clay
for the bass, and the other of wood for the treble. They are covered
with goat-skin and played together. The sarangi is a fiddle. The majira
(cymbals) consist of two metallic cups slung together and used for
beating time. Before a dancing-girl begins her performance she often
invokes the aid of Saraswati, the goddess of music. She then pulls her
ear as a sign of remembrance of Tansen, India's greatest musician,
and a confession to his spirit of the imperfection of her own sense
of music. The movements of the feet are accompanied by a continual
opening and closing of henna-dyed hands; and at intervals the girl
kneels at the feet of one or other of the audience. On the festival
of Basant Panchmi or the commencement of spring these girls worship
their dancing-dress and musical instruments with offerings of rice,
flowers and a cocoanut.
Katia
1. General notice.
Katia, Katwa, Katua.--An occupational caste of cotton-spinners and
village watchmen belonging to the Satpura Districts and the Nerbudda
valley. In 1911 they numbered 41,000 persons and were returned mainly
from the Hoshangabad, Seoni and Chhindwara Districts. The caste is
almost confined to the Central Provinces. The name is derived from
the Hindi katna, to spin thread, and the Katias are an occupational
group probably recruited from the Mahars and Koris. They have a
tradition, Mr. Crooke states, [410] that they were originally Bais
Rajputs, whose ancestors, having been imprisoned for resistance
to authority, were released on the promise that they would follow
a woman's occupation of spinning thread. In the Central Provinces
they are sometimes called Renhta Rajputs or Knights of the Spinning
Wheel. The tradition of Rajput descent need not of course be taken
seriously. The drudgery of spinning thread was naturally imposed on
any widow in the household, and hence the saying, 'It is always moving,
like a widow's spinning-wheel.' [411]
2. Subcastes and exogamous groups.
The Katias have several subcastes, with names generally derived
from places in the Central Provinces, as Pathari from a village in
the Chhindwara District, Mandilwar from Mandla, Gadhewal from Garha,
near Jubbulpore, and so on. The Dulbuha group consist of those who were
formerly palanquin-bearers (from doli, a litter). They have also more
than fifty exogamous septs, with names of the usual low-caste type,
derived from places, animals or plants, or natural objects. Some of the
septs are subdivided. Thus the Nagotia sept, named after the cobra, is
split up into the Nagotia, Dirat [412] Nag, Bharowar [413] Nag, Kosam
Karia and Hazari [414] Nag groups. It is said that the different groups
do not intermarry; but it is probable that they do, as otherwise there
seems to be no object in the subdivision. The Kosam Karias worship a
cobra at their weddings, but not the others. The Singhotia sept, from
singh, a horn, is divided into the Bakaria (goat) and Ghagar-bharia
(one who fills an earthen vessel) subsepts. The Bakarias offer goats
to their gods; and the Ghagar-bharias on the Akti [415] festival,
just before the breaking of the rains, fill an earthen vessel and
worship it, and consider it sacred for that day. Next day it is
brought into ordinary use. The Dongaria sept, from dongar, a hill,
revere the chheola tree. [416] They choose any tree of this species
outside the village, and say that it is placed on a hill, and go and
worship it once a year. In this case it would appear that a hill was
first venerated as an animate being and the ancestor of the sept. When
hills were no longer so regarded, a chheola tree growing on a hill
was substituted; and now the tree only is revered, probably a good
deal for form's sake, and so far as the hill is concerned, the mere
pretence that it is growing on a hill is sufficient.
3. Marriage customs.
A man must not take a wife from his own sept nor from that of his
mother or grandmother. Girls are commonly married between eight
and twelve years of age; and a customary payment of Rs. 9 is made
to the father of the bride, double this amount being given by a
widower. An unmarried girl seduced by a man of the caste is united
to him by the ceremony used for a widow, and a fine is imposed on
her parents; if she goes wrong with an outsider she is expelled from
the community. In the marriage ceremony the customary ritual of the
northern Districts is followed, [417] and the binding portion of it
consists in the bride and bridegroom walking seven times around the
bhanwar or sacred pole. While she does this it is essential that
the bride should wear a string of black beads round her neck and
brass anklets on her feet. After the ceremony the bride's mother and
other women dance before the company. Whether the bride be a child
or young woman she always returns home after a stay of a few days at
her husband's house, and at her subsequent final departure the Gauna
or going-away ceremony is performed. If the bridegroom dies after the
wedding and before the Gauna, his younger brother or cousin or anybody
else may come and take away the bride after performing this ceremony,
and she will be considered as fully married to him. She is known
as a Gonhyai wife, as distinguished from a Byahta or one married in
the ordinary manner, and a Karta or widow married a second time. But
the children of all three inherit equally. A widow may marry again,
and take any one she pleases for her second husband. Widow-marriages
must not be celebrated in the rainy months of Shrawan, Bhadon and
Kunwar. No music is allowed at them, and the husband must present
a fee of a rupee and a cocoanut to the malguzar (proprietor) of the
village and four annas to the kotwar or watchman. A bachelor who is
to marry a widow first goes through a formal ceremony with a cotton
plant. Divorce is permitted for mutual disagreement. The couple stand
before the caste committee and each takes a stick, breaks it in two
halves, and throws them apart, saying, "I have no further connection
with my husband (or wife), and I break my marriage with him (or her)
as I break this stick."
4. Funeral rites.
The dead may be either buried or burnt, as convenient, and mourning
is always observed for three days. Before the corpse is removed
a new earthen pot filled with rice is placed on the bier. The
chief mourner raises it, and addressing the deceased informs him
that after a certain period he will be united to the sainted dead,
and until that day his spirit should abide happily in the pot and
not trouble his family. The mouth of the pot is then covered, and
after the funeral the mourners take it home with them. When the day
appointed for the final ceremony has come, a miniature platform is
made from sticks tied together, and garlands and offerings of cakes
are hung on to it. A small heap of rice is made on the platform,
and just above it a clove is suspended from a thread. Songs are sung,
and the principal relative opens the pot in which the spirit of the
deceased has been enclosed. The spirit is called upon to join the
sacred company of the dead, and the party continue to sing and to
adjure it with all their force. The thread from which the clove is
suspended begins to swing backwards and forwards over the rice; and
a pig and two or three chickens are crushed to death as offerings to
the soul of the deceased. Finally the clove touches the rice, and it
is believed that the spirit of the dead man has departed to join the
sainted dead. The Katias consider that after this he requires nothing
more from the living, and so they do not make the annual offerings
to the souls of the departed.
5. Social rules.
The caste sometimes employ a Brahman for the marriage ceremony;
but generally his services are limited to fixing an auspicious
date, and the functions of a priest are undertaken by members
of the family. They invite a Brahman to give a name to a boy,
and call him by this name. They think that if they changed the
name they would not be able to get a wife for the child. They will
eat any kind of flesh, including pork and fowls, but they are not
considered to be impure. They are generally illiterate, and dirty
in appearance. Unmarried girls wear glass bangles on both hands, but
married women wear metal bracelets on the right hand and glass on the
left. Girls are twice tattooed: first in childhood, and a second time
after marriage. The proper avocations of the Katias were the spinning
of cotton thread and the weaving of the finer kinds of cloth; but
most of them have had to abandon their ancestral calling from want of
custom, and they are now either village watchmen or cultivators and
labourers. A few of them own villages. The Katias think themselves
rather knowing; but this opinion is not shared by their neighbours,
who say ironically of them, "A Katia is eight times as wise as an
ordinary man, and a Kayasth thirteen times. Any one who pretends to
be wiser than these must be an idiot."
KAWAR [418]
List of Paragraphs
1. Tribal legend.
2. Tribal subdivisions.
3. Exogamous groups.
4. Betrothal and marriage.
5. Other customs connected with marriage.
6. Childbirth.
7. Disposal of the dead.
8. Laying spirits.
9. Religion.
10. Magic and witchcraft.
11. Dress.
12. Occupation and social rules.
1. Tribal legend.
Kawar, Kanwar, Kaur (honorific title, Sirdar).--A primitive tribe
living in the hills of the Chhattisgarh Districts north of the
Mahanadi. The hill-country comprised in the northern zamindari estates
of Bilaspur and the adjoining Feudatory States of Jashpur, Udaipur,
Sarguja, Chang Bhakar and Korea is the home of the Kawars, and is
sometimes known after them as the Kamran. Eight of the Bilaspur
zamindars are of the Kawar tribe. The total numbers of the tribe
are nearly 200,000, practically all of whom belong to the Central
Provinces. In Bilaspur the name is always pronounced with a nasal
as Kanwar. The Kawars trace their origin from the Kauravas of the
Mahabharata, who were defeated by the Pandavas at the great battle of
Hastinapur. They say that only two pregnant women survived and fled to
the hills of Central India, where they took refuge in the houses of
a Rawat (grazier) and a Dhobi (washerman) respectively, and the boy
and girl children who were born to them became the ancestors of the
Kawar tribe. Consequently, the Kawars will take food from the hands
of Rawats, especially those of the Kauria subcaste, who are in all
probability descended from Kawars. And when a Kawar is put out of
caste for having maggots in a wound, a Dhobi is always employed to
readmit him to social intercourse. These facts show that the tribe
have some close ancestral connection with the Rawats and Dhobis,
though the legend of descent from the Kauravas is, of course, a myth
based on the similarity of the names. The tribe have lost their own
language, if they ever had one, and now speak a corrupt form of the
Chhattisgarhi dialect of Hindi. It is probable that they belong to
the Dravidian tribal family.
2. Tribal subdivisions.
The Kawars have the following eight endogamous divisions: Tanwar,
Kamalbansi, Paikara, Dudh-Kawar, Rathia, Chanti, Cherwa and Rautia. The
Tanwar group, also known as Umrao, is that to which the zamindars
belong, and they now claim to be Tomara Rajputs, and wear the sacred
thread. They prohibit widow-remarriage, and do not eat fowls or drink
liquor; but they have not yet induced Brahmans to take water from
them or Rajputs to accept their daughters in marriage. The name
Tanwar is not improbably simply a corruption of Kawar, and they
are also altering their sept names to make them resemble those of
eponymous Brahmanical gotras. Thus Dhangur, the name of a sept, has
been altered to Dhananjaya, and Sarvaria to Sandilya. Telasi is the
name of a sept to which four zamindars belong, and is on this account
sometimes returned as their caste by other Kawars, who consider it as
a distinction. The zamindari families have now, however, changed the
name Telasi to Kairava. The Paikaras are the most numerous subtribe,
being three-fifths of the total. They derive their name from Paik,
a foot-soldier, and formerly followed this occupation, being employed
in the armies of the Haihaivansi Rajas of Ratanpur. They still worship
a two-edged sword, known as the Jhagra Khand, or 'Sword of Strife,'
on the day of Dasahra. The Kamalbansi, or 'Stock of the Lotus,'
may be so called as being the oldest subdivision; for the lotus is
sometimes considered the root of all things, on account of the belief
that Brahma, the creator of the world, was himself born from this
flower. In Bilaspur the Kamalbansis are considered to rank next after
the Tanwars or zamindars' group. Colonel Dalton states that the term
Dudh or 'Milk' Kawar has the signification of 'Cream of the Kawars,'
and he considered this subcaste to be the highest. The Rathias are a
territorial group, being immigrants from Rath, a wild tract of the
Raigarh State. The Rautias are probably the descendants of Kawar
fathers and mothers of the Rawat (herdsman) caste. The traditional
connection of the Kawars with a Rawat has already been mentioned,
and even now if a Kawar marries a Rawat girl she will be admitted
into the tribe, and the children will become full Kawars. Similarly,
the Rawats have a Kauria subcaste, who are also probably the offspring
of mixed marriages; and if a Kawar girl is seduced by a Kauria Rawat,
she is not expelled from the tribe, as she would be for a liaison
with any other man who was not a Kawar. This connection is no doubt
due to the fact that until recently the Kawars and Rawats, who are
themselves a very mixed caste, were accustomed to intermarry. At the
census persons returned as Rautia were included in the Kol tribe, which
has a subdivision of that name. But Mr. Hira Lal's inquiries establish
the fact that in Chhattisgarh they are undoubtedly Kawars. The Cherwas
are probably another hybrid group descended from connections formed by
Kawars with girls of the Chero tribe of Chota Nagpur. The Chanti, who
derive their name from the ant, are considered to be the lowest group,
as that insect is the most insignificant of living things. Of the above
subcastes the Tanwars are naturally the highest, while the Chanti,
Cherwa and Rautia, who keep pigs, are considered as the lowest. The
others occupy an intermediate position. None of the subcastes will eat
together, except at the houses of their zamindars, from whom they will
all take food. But the Kawars of the Chhuri estate no longer attend the
feasts of their zamindar, for the following curious reason. One of the
latter's village thekadars or farmers had got the hide taken off a dead
buffalo so as to keep it for his own use, instead of making the body
over to a Chamar (tanner). The caste-fellows saw no harm in this act,
but it offended the zamindar's more orthodox Hindu conscience. Soon
afterwards, at some marriage-feast of his family, when the Kawars
of his zamindari attended in accordance with the usual custom, he
remarked, 'Here come our Chamars,' or words to that effect. The Chhuri
Kawars were insulted, and the more so because the Pendra zamindar and
other outsiders were present. So they declined to take food any longer
from their zamindar. They continued to accept it, however, from the
other zamindars, until their master of Chhuri represented to them
that this would result in a slur being put upon his standing among
his fellows. So they have now given up taking food from any zamindar.
3. Exogamous groups.
The tribe have a large number of exogamous septs, which are generally
totemistic or named after plants and animals. The names of 117 septs
have been recorded, and there are probably even more. The following
list gives a selection of the names:
Andil Born from an egg.
Bagh Tiger.
Bichhi Scorpion.
Bilwa Wild cat.
Bokra Goat.
Chandrama Moon.
Chanwar A whisk.
Chita Leopard.
Chuva A well.
Champa A sweet-scented flower.
Dhenki A pounding-lever.
Darpan A mirror.
Gobira A dung insect.
Hundar A wolf.
Janta Grinding-mill.
Kothi A store-house.
Khumari A leaf-umbrella.
Lodha A wild dog.
Mama Maternal uncle.
Mahadeo The deity.
Nunmutaria A packet of salt.
Sendur Vermilion.
Sua A parrot.
Telasi Oily.
Thath Murra Pressed in a sugarcane press.
Generally it may be said that every common animal or bird and even
articles of food or dress and household implements have given their
names to a sept. In the Paikara subcaste a figure of the plant or
animal after which the sept is named is made by each party at the time
of marriage. Thus a bridegroom of the Bagh or tiger sept prepares a
small image of a tiger with flour and bakes it in oil; this he shows
to the bride's family to represent, as it were, his pedigree, or prove
his legitimacy; while she on her part, assuming that she is, say,
of the Bilwa or cat sept, will bring a similar image of a cat with
her in proof of her origin. The Andil sept make a representation
of a hen sitting on eggs. They do not worship the totem animal
or plant, but when they learn of the death of one of the species,
they throw away an earthen cooking-pot as a sign of mourning. They
generally think themselves descended from the totem animal or plant,
but when the sept is called after some inanimate object, such as a
grinding-mill or pounding-lever, they repudiate the idea of descent
from it, and are at a loss to account for the origin of the name. Those
whose septs are named after plants or animals usually abstain from
injuring or cutting them, but where this rule would cause too much
inconvenience it is transgressed: thus the members of the Karsayal
or deer sept find it too hard for them to abjure the flesh of that
animal, nor can those of the Bokra sept abstain from eating goats. In
some cases new septs have been formed by a conjunction of the names
of two others, as Bagh-Daharia, Gauriya-Sonwani, and so on. These
may possibly be analogous to the use of double names in English,
a family of one sept when it has contracted a marriage with another
of better position adding the latter's name to its own as a slight
distinction. But it may also simply arise from the constant tendency
to increase the number of septs in order to remove difficulties from
the arrangement of matches.
4. Betrothal and marriage.
Marriage within the same sept is prohibited and also between the
children of brothers and sisters. A man may not marry his wife's elder
sister but he can take her younger one in her lifetime. Marriage is
usually adult and, contrary to the Hindu rule, the proposal for a
match always comes from the boy's father, as a man would think it
undignified to try and find a husband for his daughter. The Kawar
says, 'Shall my daughter leap over the wall to get a husband.' In
consequence of this girls not infrequently remain unmarried until a
comparatively late age, especially in the zamindari families where
the provision of a husband of suitable rank may be difficult. Having
selected a bride for his son the boy's father sends some friends to
her village, and they address a friend of the girl's family, saying,
"So-and-so (giving his name and village) would like to have a cup
of pej (boiled rice-water) from you; what do you say?" The proposal
is communicated to the girl's family, and if they approve of it
they commence preparing the rice-water, which is partaken of by the
parties and their friends. If the bride's people do not begin cooking
the pej, it is understood that the proposal is rejected. The ceremony
of betrothal comes next, when the boy's party go to the girl's house
with a present of bangles, clothes, and fried cakes of rice and urad
carried by a Kaurai Rawat. They also take with them the bride-price,
known as Suk, which is made up of cash, husked or unhusked rice,
pulses and oil. It is a fixed amount, but differs for each subcaste,
and the average value is about Rs. 25. To this is added three or four
goats to be consumed at the wedding. If a widower marries a girl,
a larger bride-price is exacted. The wedding follows, and in many
respects conforms to the ordinary Hindu ritual, but Brahmans are not
employed. The bridegroom's party is accompanied by tomtom-players
on its way to the wedding, and as each village is approached plenty
of noise is made, so that the residents may come out and admire the
dresses, a great part of whose merit consists in their antiquity,
while the wearer delights in recounting to any who will listen the
history of his garb and of his distinguished ancestors who have worn
it. The marriage is performed by walking round the sacred pole, six
times on one day and once on the following day. After the marriage the
bride's parents wash the feet of the couple in milk, and then drink
it in atonement for the sin committed in bringing their daughter into
the world. The couple then return home to the bridegroom's house,
where all the ceremonies are repeated, as it is said that otherwise
his courtyard would remain unmarried. On the following day the couple
go and bathe in a tank, where each throws five pots full of water over
the other. And on their return the bridegroom shoots arrows at seven
straw images of deer over his wife's shoulder, and after each shot
she puts a little sugar in his mouth. This is a common ceremony among
the forest tribes, and symbolises the idea that the man will support
himself and his wife by hunting. On the fourth day the bride returns to
her father's house. She visits her husband for two or three months in
the following month of Asarh (June-July), but again goes home to play
what is known as 'The game of Gauri,' Gauri being the name of Siva's
consort. The young men and girls of the village assemble round her in
the evening, and the girls sing songs while the men play on drums. An
obscene representation of Gauri is made, and some of them pretend to
be possessed by the deity, while the men beat the girls with ropes
of grass. After she has enjoyed this amusement with her mates for
some three months, the bride finally goes to her husband's house.
5. Other customs connected with marriage.
The wedding expenses come to about seventy rupees on the bridegroom's
part in an ordinary marriage, while the bride's family spend the
amount of the bride-price and a few rupees more. If the parties are
poor the ceremony can be curtailed so far as to provide food for only
five guests. It is permissible for two families to effect an exchange
of girls in lieu of payment of the bride-price, this practice being
known as Gunrawat. Or a prospective bridegroom may give his services
for three or four years instead of a price. The system of serving
for a wife is known as Gharjian, and is generally resorted to by
widows having daughters. A girl going wrong with a Kawar or with a
Kaurai Rawat before marriage may be pardoned with the exaction of a
feast from her parents. For a liaison with any other outsider she
is finally expelled, and the exception of the Kaurai Rawats shows
that they are recognised as in reality Kawars. Widow-remarriage is
permitted except in the Tanwar subcaste. New bangles and clothes
are given to the widow, and the pair then stand under the eaves of
the house; the bridegroom touches the woman's ear or puts a rolled
mango-leaf into it, and she becomes his wife. If a widower marries a
girl for his third wife it is considered unlucky for her. An earthen
image of a woman is therefore made, and he goes through the marriage
ceremony with it; he then throws the image to the ground so that it is
broken, when it is considered to be dead and its funeral ceremony is
performed. After this the widower may marry the girl, who becomes his
fourth wife. Such cases are naturally very rare. If a widow marries
her deceased husband's younger brother, which is considered the most
suitable match, the children by her first husband rank equally with
those of the second. If she marries outside the family her children
and property remain with her first husband's relatives.
Dalton [419] records that the Kawars of Sarguja had adopted the
practice of sati: "I found that the Kawars of Sarguja encouraged
widows to become Satis and greatly venerated those who did so. Sati
shrines are not uncommon in the Tributary Mahals. Between Partabpur
and Jhilmili in Sarguja I encamped in a grove sacred to a Kauraini
Sati. Several generations have elapsed since the self-sacrifice
that led to her canonisation, but she is now the principal object
of worship in the village and neighbourhood, and I was informed that
every year a fowl was sacrificed to her, and every third year a black
goat. The Hindus with me were intensely amused at the idea of offering
fowls to a Sati!" Polygamy is permitted, but is not common. Members
of the Tanwar subtribe, when they have occasion to do so, will take
the daughters of Kawars of other groups for wives, though they will
not give their daughters to them. Such marriages are generally made
clandestinely, and it has become doubtful as to whether some families
are true Tanwars. The zamindars have therefore introduced a rule that
no family can be recognised as a Tanwar for purposes of marriage unless
it has a certificate to that effect signed by the zamindar. Some of
the zamindars charge considerable sums for these certificates, and all
cannot afford them; but in that case they are usually unable to get
husbands for their daughters, who remain unwed. Divorce is permitted
for serious disagreement or bad conduct on the part of the wife.
6. Childbirth.
During childbirth the mother sits on the ground with her legs apart,
and her back against the wall or supported by another woman. The
umbilical cord is cut by the midwife: if the parents wish the boy
to become eloquent she buries it in the village Council-place; or if
they wish him to be a good trader, in the market; or if they desire
him to be pious, before some shrine; in the case of a girl the cord
is usually buried in a dung-heap, which is regarded as an emblem of
fertility. As is usual in Chhattisgarh, the mother receives no food
or water for three days after the birth of a child. On the fifth day
she is given regular food and on that day the house is purified. Five
months after birth the lips of the child are touched with rice and
milk and it is named. When twins are born a metal vessel is broken to
sever the connection between them, as it is believed that otherwise
they must die at the same time. If a boy is born after three girls
he is called titura, and a girl after three boys, tituri. There is
a saying that 'A titura child either fills the storehouse or empties
it'; that is, his parents either become rich or penniless. To avert
ill-luck in this case oil and salt are thrown away, and the mother
gives one of her bangles to the midwife.
7. Disposal of the dead.
The dead are usually buried, though well-to-do families have
adopted cremation. The corpse is laid on its side in the grave,
with head to the north and face to the east. A little til, cotton,
urad and rice are thrown on the grave to serve as seed-grain for
the dead man's cultivation in the other world. A dish, a drinking
vessel and a cooking-pot are placed on the grave with the same idea,
but are afterwards taken away by the Dhobi (washerman). They observe
mourning for ten days for a man, nine days for a woman, and three days
for children under three years old. During the period of mourning
the chief mourner keeps a knife beside him, so that the iron may
ward off the attacks of evil spirits, to which he is believed to be
peculiarly exposed. The ordinary rules of abstinence and retirement
are observed during mourning. In the case of cremation the ceremonies
are very elaborate and generally resemble those of the Hindus. When
the corpse is half burnt, all the men present throw five pieces of
wood on to the pyre, and a number of pieces are carried in a winnowing
fan to the dead man's house, where they are touched by the women and
then brought back and thrown on to the fire. After the funeral the
mourners bathe and return home walking one behind the other in Indian
file. When they come to a cross-road, the foremost man picks up a
pebble with his left foot, and it is passed from hand to hand down
the line of men until the hindmost throws it away. This is supposed
to sever their connection with the spirit of the deceased and prevent
it from following them home. On the third day they return to the
cremation ground to collect the ashes and bones. A Brahman is called
who cooks a preparation of milk and rice at the head of the corpse,
boils urad pulse at its feet, and bakes eight wheaten chapatis at
the sides. This food is placed in leaf-cups at two corners of the
ground. The mourners sprinkle cow's urine and milk over the bones,
and picking them up with a palas (Butea frondosa) stick, wash them in
milk and deposit them in a new earthen pot until such time as they
can be carried to the Ganges. The bodies of men dying of smallpox
must never be burnt, because that would be equivalent to destroying
the goddess, incarnate in the body. The corpses of cholera patients
are buried in order to dispose of them at once, and are sometimes
exhumed subsequently within a period of six months and cremated. In
such a case the Kawars spread a layer of unhusked rice in the grave,
and address a prayer to the earth-goddess stating that the body has
been placed with her on deposit, and asking that she will give it
back intact when they call upon her for it. They believe that in such
cases the process of decay is arrested for six months.
8. Laying spirits.
When a man has been killed by a tiger they have a ceremony called
'Breaking the string,' or the connection which they believe the
animal establishes with a family on having tasted its blood. Otherwise
they think that the tiger would gradually kill off all the remaining
members of the family of his victim, and when he had finished with
them would proceed to other families in the same village. This curious
belief is no doubt confirmed by the tiger's habit of frequenting the
locality of a village from which it has once obtained a victim, in
the natural expectation that others may be forthcoming from the same
source. In this ceremony the village Baiga or medicine-man is painted
with red ochre and soot to represent the tiger, and proceeds to the
place where the victim was carried off. Having picked up some of the
blood-stained earth in his mouth, he tries to run away to the jungle,
but the spectators hold him back until he spits out the earth. This
represents the tiger being forced to give up his victim. The Baiga
then ties a string round all the members of the dead man's family
standing together; he places some grain before a fowl saying, 'If
my charm has worked, eat of this'; and as soon as the fowl has eaten
some grain the Baiga states that his efforts have been successful and
the attraction of the man-eater has been broken; he then breaks the
string and all the party return to the village. A similar ceremony
is performed when a man has died of snake-bite.
9. Religion.
The religion of the Kawars is entirely of an animistic character. They
have a vague idea of a supreme deity whom they call Bhagwan and
identify with the sun. They bow to him in reverence, but do no more
as he does not interfere with men's concerns. They also have a host
of local and tribal deities, of whom the principal is the Jhagra
Khand or two-edged sword, already mentioned. The tiger is deified as
Bagharra Deo and worshipped in every village for the protection of
cattle from wild animals. They are also in great fear of a mythical
snake with a red crest on its head, the mere sight of which is
believed to cause death. It lives in deep pools in the forest which
are known as Shesk Kund, and when it moves the grass along its track
takes fire. If a man crosses its track his colour turns to black
and he suffers excruciating pains which end in death, unless he is
relieved by the Baiga. In one village where the snake was said to
have recently appeared, the proprietor was so afraid of it that he
never went out to his field without first offering a chicken. They
have various local deities, of which the Mandwa Rani or goddess of
the Mandwa hill in Korba zamindari may be noticed as an example. She
is a mild-hearted maiden who puts people right when they have gone
astray in the forest, or provides them with food for the night and
guides them to the water-springs on her hill. Recently a wayfarer
had lost his path when she appeared and, guiding him into it, gave
him a basket of brinjals. [420] As the traveller proceeded he felt
his burden growing heavier and heavier on his head, and finally on
inspecting it found that the goddess had played a little joke on him
and the brinjals had turned into stones. The Kawars implicitly believe
this story. Rivers are tenanted by a set of goddesses called the Sat
Bahini or seven sisters. They delight in playing near waterfalls,
holding up the water and suddenly letting it drop. Trees are believed
to be harmless sentient beings, except when occasionally possessed by
evil spirits, such as the ghosts of man-eating tigers. Sometimes a
tree catches hold of a cow's tail as the animal passes by and winds
it up over a branch, and many cattle have lost their tails in this
way. Every tank in which the lotus grows is tenanted by Purainha, the
godling who tends this plant. The sword, the gun, the axe, the spear
have each a special deity, and, in fact, in the Bangawan, the tract
where the wilder Kawars dwell, it is believed that every article of
household furniture is the residence of a spirit, and that if any one
steals or injures it without the owner's leave, the spirit will bring
some misfortune on him in revenge. Theft is said to be unknown among
them, partly on this account and partly, perhaps, because no one has
much property worth stealing. Instances of deified human beings are
Kolin Sati, a Kol concubine of a zamindar of Pendra who died during
pregnancy, and Sarangarhni, a Ghasia woman who was believed to have
been the mistress of a Raja of Sarangarh and was murdered. Both are
now Kawar deities. Thakur Deo is the deity of agriculture, and is
worshipped by the whole village in concert at the commencement of the
rains. Rice is brought by each cultivator and offered to the god,
a little being sown at his shrine and the remainder taken home and
mixed with the seed-grain to give it fertility. Two bachelors carry
water round the village and sprinkle it on the brass plates of the
cultivators or the roofs of their houses in imitation of rain.
10. Magic and witchcraft.
The belief in witchcraft is universal and every village has its
tonhi or witch, to whom epidemic diseases, sudden illnesses and other
calamities are ascribed. The witch is nearly always some unpopular
old woman, and several instances are known of the murder of these
unfortunate creatures, after their crimes had been proclaimed by
the Baiga or medicine-man. In the famine of 1900 an old woman from
another village came and joined one of the famine-kitchens. A few
days afterwards the village watchman got ill, and when the Baiga was
called in he said the old woman was a witch who had vowed the lives
of twenty children to her goddess, and had joined the kitchen to kill
them. The woman was threatened with a beating with castor-oil plants
if she did not leave the village, and as the kitchen officer refused
to supply her with food, she had to go. The Baiga takes action to
stop and keep off epidemics by the methods common in Chhattisgarh
villages. When a woman asks him to procure her offspring, the Baiga
sits dharna in front of Devi's shrine and fasts until the goddess,
wearied by his importunity, descends on him and causes him to prophesy
the birth of a child. They have the usual belief in imitative and
sympathetic magic. If a person is wounded by an axe he throws it
first into fire and then into cold water. By the first operation
he thinks to dry up the wound and prevent its festering, and by
the second to keep it cool. Thin and lean children are weighed in
a balance against moist cowdung with the idea that they will swell
out as the dung dries up. In order to make a bullock's hump grow,
a large grain-measure is placed over it. If cattle go astray an iron
implement is placed in a pitcher of water, and it is believed that
this will keep wild animals off the cattle, though the connection of
ideas is obscure. To cure intermittent fever a man walks through a
narrow passage between two houses. If the children in a family die,
the Baiga takes the parents outside the village and breaks the stem
of some plant in their presence. After this they never again touch
that particular plant, and it is believed that their children will
not die. Tuesday is considered the best day for weddings, Thursday
and Monday for beginning field-work and Saturday for worshipping the
gods. To have bats in one's granary is considered to be fortunate, and
there is a large harmless snake which, they say, produces fertility
when it makes its home in a field. If a crow caws on the house-top
they consider that the arrival of a guest is portended. A snake or
a cat crossing the road in front and a man sneezing are bad omens.
11. Dress.
The dress of the Kawars presents no special features calling for
remark. Women wear pewter ornaments on the feet, and silver or pewter
rings on the neck. They decorate the ears with silver pendants, but as
a rule do not wear nose-rings. Women are tattooed on the breast with
a figure of Krishna, on the arms with that of a deer, and on the legs
with miscellaneous patterns. The operation is carried out immediately
after marriage in accordance with the usual custom in Chhattisgarh.
12. Occupation and social rules.
The tribe consider military service to be their traditional occupation,
but the bulk of them are now cultivators and labourers. Many of them
are farmers of villages in the zamindaris. Rautias weave ropes and
make sleeping-cots, but the other Kawars consider such work to be
degrading. They have the ordinary Hindu rules of inheritance, but a son
claiming partition in his father's lifetime is entitled to two bullocks
and nothing more. When the property is divided on the death of the
father, the eldest son receives an allowance known as jithai over and
above his share, this being a common custom in the Chhattisgarh country
where the Kawars reside. The tribe do not admit outsiders with the
exception of Kaurai Rawat girls married to Kawars. They have a tribal
panchayat or committee, the head of which is known as Pardhan. Its
proceedings are generally very deliberate, and this has led to the
saying: "The Ganda's panchayat always ends in a quarrel; the Gond's
panchayat cares only for the feast; and the Kawar's panchayat takes
a year to make up its mind." But when the Kawars have decided, they
act with vigour. They require numerous goats as fines for the caste
feast, and these, with fried urad, form the regular provision. Liquor,
however, is only sparingly consumed. Temporary exclusion from caste
is imposed for the usual offences, which include going to jail,
getting the ears split, or getting maggots in a wound. The last
is the most serious offence, and when the culprit is readmitted to
social intercourse the Dhobi (washerman) is employed to eat with him
first from five different plates, thus taking upon himself any risk
of contagion from the impurity which may still remain. The Kawar
eats flesh, fowls and pork, but abjures beef, crocodiles, monkeys
and reptiles. From birds he selects the parrot, dove, pigeon, quail
and partridge as fit for food. He will not eat meat sold in market
because he considers it halali or killed in the Muhammadan fashion,
and therefore impure. He also refuses a particular species of fish
called rechha, which is black and fleshy and has been nicknamed
'The Teli's bullock.' The higher subtribes have now given up eating
pork and the Tanwars abstain from fowls also. The Kawars will take
food only from a Gond or a Kaurai Rawat, and Gonds will also take
food from them. In appearance and manners they greatly resemble the
Gonds, from whom they are hardly distinguished by the Hindus. Dalton
[421] described them as "A dark, coarse-featured, broad-nosed,
wide-mouthed and thick-lipped race, decidedly ugly, but taller and
better set up than most of the other tribes. I have also found them
a clean, well-to-do, industrious people, living in comfortable,
carefully-constructed and healthily-kept houses and well dressed."
Of their method of dancing Ball [422] writes as follows: "In the
evening some of the villagers--Kaurs they were I believe--entertained
us with a dance, which was very different from anything seen among the
Santals or Kols. A number of men performed a kind of ladies' chain,
striking together as they passed one another's pronged sticks which
they carried in their hands. By foot, hand and voice the time given
by a tom-tom is most admirably kept."
KAYASTH
List of Paragraphs
1. General notice and legend of origin.
2. The origin of the caste.
3. The rise of the Kayasths under foreign rulers.
4. The original profession of the Kayasths.
5. The caste an offshoot from Brahmans.
6. The success of the Kayasths and their present position.
7. Subcastes.
8. Exogamy.
9. Marriage customs.
10. Marriage songs.
11. Social rules.
12. Birth Customs.
13. Religion.
14. Social customs.
15. Occupation.
1. General notice and legend of origin.
Kayasth, [423] Kaith, Lala.--The caste of writers and village
accountants. The Kayasths numbered 34,000 persons in 1911 and were
found over the whole Province, but they are most numerous in the
Saugor, Damoh, Jubbulpore and Narsinghpur Districts. In the Maratha
country their place is to some extent taken by the Prabhus, the Maratha
writer caste, and also by the Vidurs. No probable derivation of the
name Kayasth appears to have been suggested. The earliest reference
to Kayasths appears in an inscription in Malwa dated A.D. 738-739. The
inscription is of a Maurya king, and the term Kayasth is used there as
a proper noun to mean a writer. Another dated A.D. 987 is written by
a Kayasth named Kanchana. An inscription on the Delhi Siwalik pillar
dated A.D. 1164 is stated to have been written by a Kayasth named
Sispati, the son of Mahava, by the king's command. The inscription adds
that the Kayasth was of Gauda (Bengal) descent, and the term Kayasth
is here used in the sense of a member of the Kayasth caste and not
simply meaning a writer as in the Malwa inscription. [424] From the
above account it seems possible that the caste was of comparatively
late origin. According to their own legend the first progenitor of
the Kayasths was Chitragupta, who was created by Brahma from his own
body and given to Yama the king of the dead, to record the good and
evil actions of all beings, and produce the result when they arrived
in the kingdom of the dead. Chitragupta was called Kayastha, from
kaya stha, existing in or incorporate in the body, because he was
in the body of Brahma. Chitragupta was born of a dark complexion,
and having a pen and ink-pot in his hand. He married two wives, the
elder being the granddaughter of the sun, who bore him four sons,
while the younger was the daughter of a Brahman Rishi, and by her
he had eight sons. These sons were married to princesses of the
Naga or snake race; the Nagas are supposed to have been the early
nomad invaders from Central Asia, or Scythians. The twelve sons were
entrusted with the government of different parts of India and the
twelve subcastes of Kayasths are named after these localities.
2. The origin of the caste.
There has been much discussion on the origin of the Kayasth caste,
which now occupies a high social position owing to the ability and
industry of its members and their attainment of good positions in
the public services. All indications, however, point to the fact
that the caste has obtained within a comparatively recent period
a great rise in social status, and formerly ranked much lower than
it does now. Dr. Bhattacharya states: [425] "The Kayasths of Bengal
are described in some of the Hindu sacred books as Kshatriyas, but
the majority of the Kayasth clans do not wear the sacred thread, and
admit their status as Sudra also by the observance of mourning for
thirty days. But whether Kshatriya or Sudra, they belong to the upper
layer of Hindu society, and though the higher classes of Brahmans
neither perform their religious ceremonies nor enlist them among
their disciples, yet the gifts of the Kayasths are usually accepted
by the great Pandits of the country without hesitation." There is no
doubt that a hundred years ago the Kayasths of Bengal and Bihar were
commonly looked upon as Sudras. Dr. Buchanan, an excellent observer,
states this several times. In Bihar he says that the Kayasths are the
chief caste who are looked upon by all as pure Sudras and do not reject
the appellation. [426] And again that "Pandits in Gorakhpur insist that
Kayasths are mere Sudras, but on account of their influence included
among gentry (Ashraf). All who have been long settled in the district
live pure and endeavour to elevate themselves; but this has failed
of success as kindred from other countries who still drink liquor
and eat meat come and sit on the same mat with them." [427] Again
he calls the Kayasths the highest Sudras next to Vaidyas. [428] And
"In Bihar the penmen (Kayasthas) are placed next to the Kshatris and
by the Brahmans are considered as illegitimate, to whom the rank of
Sudras has been given, and in general they do not presume to be angry
at this decision, which in Bengal would be highly offensive. [429]
Colebrooke remarks of the caste: "Karana, from a Vaishya by a woman
of the Sudra class, is an attendant on princes or secretary. The
appellation of Kayastha is in general considered as synonymous
with Karana; and accordingly the Karana tribe commonly assumes the
name of Kayastha; but the Kayasthas of Bengal have pretensions to be
considered as true Sudras, which the Jatimala seems to authorise, for
the origin of the Kayastha is there mentioned before the subject of
mixed castes is introduced, immediately after describing the Gopa as
a true Sudra." [430] Similarly Colonel Dalton says: "I believe that
in the present day the Kayasths arrogate to themselves the position
of first among commoners, or first of the Sudras, but their origin
is involved in some mystery. Intelligent Kayasths make no pretension
to be other than Sudras." [431] In his Census Report of the United
Provinces Mr. R. Burn discusses the subject as follows: [432] "On
the authority of these Puranic accounts, and in view of the fact
that the Kayasths observe certain of the Sanskars in the same method
as is prescribed for Kshatriyas, the Pandits of several places have
given formal opinions that the Kayasths are Kshatriyas. On the other
hand, there is not the slightest doubt that the Kayasths are commonly
regarded either as a mixed caste, with some relationship to two if not
three of the twice-born castes, or as Sudras. This is openly stated
in some of the reports, and not a single Hindu who was not a Kayasth
of the many I have personally asked about the matter would admit
privately that the Kayasths are twice-born, and the same opinion
was expressed by Muhammadans, who were in a position to gauge the
ordinary ideas held by Hindus, and are entirely free from prejudice
in the matter. One of the most highly respected orthodox Brahmans in
the Provinces wrote to me confirming this opinion, and at the same
time asked that his name might not be published in connection with
it. The matter has been very minutely examined in a paper sent up
by a member of the Benares committee who came to the conclusion that
while the Kayasths have been declared to be Kshatriyas in the Puranas,
by Pandits, and in several judgments of subordinate courts, and to be
Sudras by Manu and various commentators on him, by public opinion,
and in a judgment of the High Court of Calcutta, they are really of
Brahmanical origin. He holds that those who to-day follow literary
occupations are the descendants of Chitragupta by his Brahman and
Kshatriya wives, that the so-called Unaya Kayasths are descended from
Vaishya mothers, and the tailors and cobblers from Sudra mothers. It
is possible to trace to some extent points which have affected public
opinion on this question. The Kayasths themselves admit that in the
past their reputation as hard drinkers was not altogether unmerited,
but they deserve the highest credit for the improvements which have
been effected in this regard. There is also a widespread belief
that the existing general observance by Kayasths of the ceremonies
prescribed for the twice-born castes, especially in the matter of
wearing the sacred thread, is comparatively recent. It is almost
superfluous to add that notwithstanding the theoretical views held
as to their origin and position, Kayasths undoubtedly rank high in
the social scale. All European writers have borne testimony to their
excellence and success in many walks of life, and even before the
commencement of British power many Kayasths occupied high social
positions and enjoyed the confidence of their rulers."
3. The rise of the Kayasths under foreign rulers.
It appears then a legitimate conclusion from the evidence that the
claim of the Kayasths to be Kshatriyas is comparatively recent, and
that a century ago they occupied a very much lower social position
than they do now. We do not find them playing any prominent part in
the early or mediæval Hindu kingdoms. There is considerable reason for
supposing that their rise to importance took place under the foreign
or non-Hindu governments in India. Thus a prominent Kayasth gentleman
says of his own caste: [433] "The people of this caste were the first
to learn Persian, the language of the Muhammadan invaders of India,
and to obtain the posts of accountants and revenue collectors under
Muhammadan kings. Their chief occupation is Government service,
and if one of the caste adopts any other profession he is degraded
in the estimation of his caste-fellows." Malcolm states: [434] "When
the Muhammadans invaded Hindustan and conquered its Rajput princes,
we may conclude that the Brahmans of that country who possessed
knowledge or distinction fled from their intolerance and violence;
but the conquerors found in the Kayastha or Kaith tribe more pliable
and better instruments for the conduct of the details of their new
Government. This tribe had few religious scruples, as they stand low in
the scale of Hindus. They were, according to their own records, which
there is no reason to question, qualified by their previous employment
in all affairs of state; and to render themselves completely useful
had only to add the language of their new masters to those with which
they were already acquainted. The Muhammadans carried these Hindus
into their southern conquests, and they spread over the countries
of Central India and the Deccan; and some families who are Kanungos
[435] of districts and patwaris of villages trace their settlement
in this country from the earliest Muhammadan conquest." Similarly
the Bombay Gazetteer states that under the arrangements made by the
Emperor Akbar, the work of collecting the revenues of the twenty-eight
Districts subordinate to Surat was entrusted to Kayasths. [436]
And the Mathur Kayasths of Gujarat came from Mathura in the train
of the Mughal viceroys as their clerks and interpreters. [437] Under
the Muhammadans and for some time after the introduction of English
rule, a knowledge of Persian was required in a Government clerk, and
in this language most of the Kayasths were proficient, and some were
excellent clerks. [438] Kayasths attained very high positions under
the Muhammadan kings of Bengal and were in charge of the revenue
department under the Nawabs of Murshidabad; while Rai Durlao Ram,
prime minister of Ali Verdi Khan, was a Kayasth. The governors of
Bihar in the period between the battle of Plassey and the removal of
the exchequer to Calcutta were also Kayasths. [439] The Bhatnagar
Kayasths, it is said, came to Bengal at the time of the Muhammadan
conquest. [440] Under the Muhammadan kings of Oudh, too, numerous
Kayasths occupied posts of high trust. [441] Similarly the Kayasths
entered the service of the Gond kings of the Central Provinces. It is
said that when the Gond ruler Bakht Buland of Deogarh in Chhindwara
went to Delhi, he brought a number of Kayasths back with him and
introduced them into the administration. One of these was appointed
Bakshi or paymaster to the army of Bakht Buland. His descendant is a
leading landholder in the Seoni District with an estate of eighty-four
villages. Another Kayasth landholder of Jubbulpore and Mandla occupied
some similar position in the service of the Gond kings of Garha-Mandla.
Finally in the English administration the Kayasths at first monopolised
the ministerial service. In the United Provinces, Bengal and Bihar,
it is stated that the number of Kayasths may perhaps even now exceed
that of all other castes taken together. [442] And in Gujarat the
Kayasths have lost in recent years the monopoly they once enjoyed as
Government clerks. [443] The Mathura Kayasths of Gujarat are said to be
declining in prosperity on account of the present keen competition for
Government service, [444] of which it would thus appear they formerly
had as large a share as they desired. The Prabhus, the writer-caste
of western India corresponding to the Kayasths, were from the time of
the earliest European settlements much trusted by English merchants,
and when the British first became supreme in Gujarat they had almost
a monopoly of the Government service as English writers. To such
an extent was this the case that the word Prabhu or Purvu was the
general term for a clerk who could write English, whether he was
a Brahman, Sunar, Prabhu, Portuguese or of English descent. [445]
Similarly the word Cranny was a name applied to a clerk writing
English, and thence vulgarly applied in general to the East Indians
or half-caste class from among whom English copyists were afterwards
chiefly recruited. The original is the Hindi karani, kirani, which
Wilson derives from the Sanskrit karan, a doer. Karana is also the
name of the Orissa writer-caste, who are writers and accountants. It
is probable that the name is derived from this caste, that is the
Uriya Kayasths, who may have been chiefly employed as clerks before
any considerable Eurasian community had come into existence. Writers'
Buildings at Calcutta were recently still known to the natives as
Karani ki Barik, and this supports the derivation from the Karans or
Uriya Kayasths, the case thus being an exact parallel to that of the
Prabhus in Bombay. [446]
4. The original profession of the Kayasths.
From the above argument it seems legitimate to deduce that the
Kayasths formerly occupied a lower position in Hindu society. The
Brahmans were no doubt jealous of them and, as Dr. Bhattacharya
states, would not let them learn Sanskrit. [447] But when India became
subject to foreign rulers the Kayasths readily entered their service,
learning the language of their new employers in order to increase
their efficiency. Thus they first learnt Persian and then English,
and both by Muhammadans and English were employed largely, if not
at first almost exclusively, as clerks in the public offices. It
must be remembered that there were at this time practically only two
other literate castes among Hindus, the Brahmans and the Banias. The
Brahmans naturally would be for long reluctant to lower their dignity
by taking service under foreign masters, whom they regarded as outcaste
and impure; while the Banias down to within the last twenty years
or so have never cared for education beyond the degree necessary
for managing their business. Thus the Kayasths had at first almost
a monopoly of public employment under foreign Governments. It has
been seen also that it is only within about the last century that
the status of the Kayasths has greatly risen, and it is a legitimate
deduction that the improvement dates from the period when they began
to earn distinction and importance under these governments. But they
were always a literate caste, and the conclusion is that in former
times they discharged duties to which literacy was essential in a
comparatively humble sphere. "The earliest reference to the Kayasths
as a distinct caste," Sir H. Risley states, "occurs in Yajnavalkya,
who describes them as writers and village accountants, very exacting
in their demands from the cultivators." The profession of patwari or
village accountant appears to have been that formerly appertaining to
the Kayasth caste, and it is one which they still largely follow. In
Bengal it is now stated that Kayasths of good position object to marry
their daughters in the families of those who have served as patwaris
or village accountants. Patwaris, one of them said to Sir H. Risley,
however rich they may be, are considered as socially lower than other
Kayasths, e.g. Kanungo, Akhauri, Pande or Bakshi. Thus it appears
that the old patwari Kayasths are looked down upon by those who have
improved their position in more important branches of Government
service. Kanungo, as explained, is a sort of head of the patwaris;
and Bakshi, a post already noticed as held by a Kayasth in the Central
Provinces, is the Muhammadan office of paymaster.
Similarly Mr. Crooke states that while the higher members of the
caste stand well in general repute, the village Lala (or Kayasth),
who is very often an accountant, is in evil odour for his astuteness
and chicanery. In Central India, as already seen, they are Kanungos of
Districts and patwaris of villages; and here again Malcolm states that
these officials were the oldest settlers, and that the later comers,
who held more important posts, did not intermarry with them. [448]
In Gujarat the work of collecting the revenue in the Surat tract
was entrusted to Kayasths. Till 1868, in the English villages, and
up to the present time in the Baroda villages, the subdivisional
accountants were mostly Kayasths. [449] In the Central Provinces the
bulk of the patwaris in the northern Districts and a large proportion
in other Districts outside the Maratha country are Kayasths. If
the Kayasths were originally patwaris or village accountants, their
former low status is fully explained. The village accountant would be
a village servant, though an important one, and would be supported
like the other village artisans by contributions of grain from the
cultivators. This is the manner in which patwaris of the Central
Provinces were formerly paid. His status would technically be lower
than that of the cultivators, and he might be considered as a Sudra
or a mixed caste.
5. The caste an offshoot from Brahmans.
As regards the origin of the Kayasths, the most probable hypothesis
would seem to be that they were an offshoot of Brahmans of irregular
descent. The reason for this is that the Kayasths must have learnt
reading and writing from some outside source, and the Brahmans were
the only class who could teach it them. The Brahmans were not disposed
to spread the benefits of education, which was the main source of
their power, with undue liberality, and when another literate class
was required for the performance of duties which they disdained to
discharge themselves, it would be natural that they should prefer
to educate people closely connected with them and having claims on
their support. In this connection the tradition recorded by Sir
H. Risley may be noted to the effect that the ancestors of the
Bengal Kayasths were five of the caste who came from Kanauj in
attendance on five Brahmans who had been summoned by the king of
Bengal to perform for him certain Vedic ceremonies. [450] It may be
noted also that the Vidurs, another caste admittedly of irregular
descent from Brahmans, occupy the position of patwaris and village
accountants in the Maratha districts. The names of their subcastes
indicate generally that the home of the Kayasths is the country
of Hindustan, the United Provinces, and part of Bengal. This is
also the place of origin of the northern Brahmans, as shown by the
names of their most important groups. The Rajputs and Banias on the
other hand belong mainly to Rajputana, Gujarat and Bundelkhand, and
in most of this area the Kayasths are immigrants. It has been seen
that they came to Malwa and Gujarat with the Muhammadans; the number
of Kayasths returned from Rajputana at the census was quite small,
and it is doubtful whether the Kayasths are so much as mentioned in
Tod's Rajasthan. The hypothesis therefore of their being derived
either from the Rajputs or Banias appears to be untenable. In the
Punjab also the Kayasths are found only in small numbers and are
immigrants. As stated by Sir H. Risley, both the physical type of
the Kayasths and their remarkable intellectual attainments indicate
that they possess Aryan blood; similarly Mr. Sherring remarks: "He
nevertheless exhibits a family likeness to the Brahman; you may not
know where to place him or how to designate him; but on looking at
him and conversing with him you feel quite sure that you are in the
presence of a Hindu of no mean order of intellect." [451] No doubt
there was formerly much mixture of blood in the caste; some time ago
the Kayasths were rather noted for keeping women of other castes, and
Sir H. Risley gives instances of outsiders being admitted into the
caste. Dr. Bhattacharya states [452] that, "There are many Kayasths
in eastern Bengal who are called Ghulams or slaves. Some of them
are still attached as domestic servants to the families of the local
Brahmans, Vaidyas and aristocratic Kayasths. Some of the Ghulams have
in recent times become rich landholders, and it is said that one of
them has got the title of Rai Bahadur from Government. The marriage
of a Ghulam generally takes place in his own class, but instances of
Ghulams marrying into aristocratic Kayasth families are at present
not very rare."
Further, the Dakshina Rarhi Kayasths affect the greatest veneration
for the Brahmans and profess to believe in the legend that traces
their descent from the five menial servants who accompanied the
five Brahmans invited by king Adisur. The Uttara Rarhi Kayasths or
those of northern Burdwan, on the other hand, do not profess the same
veneration for Brahmans as the southerners, and deny the authenticity
of the legend. It was this class which held some of the highest offices
under the Muhammadan rulers of Bengal, and several leading zamindars
or landholders at present belong to it. [453] It was probably in
this capacity of village accountant that the Kayasth incurred the
traditional hostility of one or two of the lower castes which still
subsists in legend. [454] The influence which the patwari possesses
at present, even under the most vigorous and careful supervision
and with the liability to severe punishment for any abuse of his
position, is a sufficient indication of what his power must have
been when supervision and control were almost nominal. On this point
Sir Henry Maine remarks in his description of the village community:
"There is always a village accountant, an important personage among
an unlettered population; so important indeed, and so conspicuous
that, according to the reports current in India, the earliest English
functionaries engaged in settlements of land were occasionally led,
by their assumption that there must be a single proprietor somewhere,
to mistake the accountant for the owner of the village, and to record
him as such in the official register. [455] In Bihar Sir H. Risley
shows that Kayasths have obtained proprietary right in a large area.
6. The success of the Kayasths and their present position.
It may be hoped that the leading members of the Kayasth caste will
not take offence, because in the discussion of the origin of their
caste, one of the most interesting problems of Indian ethnology, it
has been necessary to put forward a hypothesis other than that which
they hold themselves. It would be as unreasonable for a Kayasth to feel
aggrieved at the suggestion that centuries ago their ancestors were to
some extent the offspring of mixed unions as for an Englishman to be
insulted by the statement that the English are of mixed descent from
Saxons, Danes and Normans. If the Kayasths formerly had a comparatively
humble status in Hindu society, then it is the more creditable to the
whole community that they should have succeeded in raising themselves
by their native industry and ability without adventitious advantages
to the high position in which by general admission the caste now
stands. At present the Kayasths are certainly the highest caste
after Brahman, Rajput and Bania, and probably in Hindustan, Bengal
and the Central Provinces they may be accounted as practically equal
to Rajputs and Banias. Of the Bengal Kayasths Dr. Bhattacharya wrote:
[456] "They generally prove equal to any position in which they are
placed. They have been successful not only as clerks but in the very
highest executive and judicial offices that have yet been thrown open
to the natives of this country. The names of the Kayastha judges,
Dwarka Nath Mitra, Ramesh Chandra Mitra and Chandra Madhava Ghose
are well known and respected by all. In the executive services
the Kayasths have attained the same kind of success. One of them,
Mr. R. C. Dutt, is now the Commissioner of one of the most important
divisions of Bengal. Another, named Kalika Das Datta, has been for
several years employed as Prime Minister of the Kuch Bihar State,
giving signal proofs of his ability as an administrator by the success
with which he has been managing the affairs of the principality in his
charge." In the Central Provinces, too, Kayasth gentlemen hold the most
important positions in the administrative, judicial and public works
departments, as well as being strongly represented in the Provincial
and subordinate executive services. And in many Districts Kayasths
form the backbone of the ministerial staff of the public offices, a
class whose patient laboriousness and devotion to duty, with only the
most remote prospects of advancement to encourage them to persevere,
deserve high commendation.
7. Subcastes.
The northern India Kayasths are divided into the following twelve
subcastes, which are mainly of a territorial character:
(a) Srivastab.
(b) Saksena.
(c) Bhatnagar.
(d) Ambastha or Amisht.
(e) Ashthana or Aithana.
(f) Balmik or Valmiki.
(g) Mathur.
(h) Kulsreshtha.
(i) Suryadhwaja.
(k) Karan.
(l) Gaur.
(m) Nigum.
(a) The Srivastab subcaste take their name from the old town of
Sravasti, now Sahet-Mahet, in the north of the United Provinces. They
are by far the most numerous subcaste both there and here. In
these Provinces nearly all the Kayasths are Srivastabs except a few
Saksenas. They are divided into two sections, Khare and Dusre, which
correspond to the Bisa and Dasa groups of the Banias. The Khare are
those of pure descent, and the Dusre the offspring of remarried widows
or other irregular alliances.
(b) The Saksena are named from the old town of Sankisa, in the
Farukhabad District. They also have the Khare and Dusre groups, and a
third section called Kharua, which is said to mean pure, and is perhaps
the most aristocratic. A number of Saksena Kayasths are resident in
Seoni District, where their ancestors were settled by Bakht Buland,
the Gond Raja of Deogarh in Chhindwara. These constituted hitherto
a separate endogamous group, marrying among themselves, but since
the opening of the railway negotiations have been initiated with the
Saksenas of northern India, with the result that intermarriage is to
be resumed between the two sections.
(c) The Bhatnagar take their name from the old town of Bhatner, near
Bikaner. They are divided into the Vaishya or Kadim, of pure descent,
and the Gaur, who are apparently the offspring of intermarriage with
the Gaur subcaste.
(d) Ambastha or Amisht. These are said to have settled on the Girnar
hill, and to take their name from their worship of the goddess Ambaji
or Amba Devi. Mr. Crooke suggests that they may be connected with the
old Ambastha caste who were noted for their skill in medicine. The
practice of surgery is the occupation of some Kayasths. [457] It
is also supposed that the names may come from the Ameth pargana of
Oudh. The Ambastha Kayasths are chiefly found in south Bihar, where
they are numerous and influential. [458]
(e) Ashthana or Aithana. This is an Oudh subcaste. They have two
groups, the Purabi or eastern, who are found in Jaunpur and its
neighbourhood, and the Pachhauri or western, who live in or about
Lucknow.
(f) Balmik or Valmiki. These are a subcaste of western India. Balmik
or Valmik was the traditional author of the Ramayana, but they do
not trace their descent from him. The name may have some territorial
meaning. The Valmiki are divided into three endogamous groups according
as they live in Bombay, Cutch or Surat.
(g) The Mathur subcaste are named after Mathura or Muttra. They are
also split into the local groups Dihlawi of Delhi, Katchi of Cutch
and Lachauli of Jodhpur.
(h) The Kulsreshtha or 'well-born' Kayasths belong chiefly to the
districts of Agra and Etah. They are divided into the Barakhhera,
or those of twelve villages, and the Chha Khera of six villages.
(i) The Suryadhwaja subcaste belong to Ballia, Ghazi-pur and
Bijnor. Their origin is obscure. They profess excessive purity,
and call themselves Sakadwipi or Scythian Brahmans.
(k) The Karan subcaste belong to Bihar, and have two local divisions,
the Gayawale from Gaya, and the Tirhutia from Tirhut.
(l) The Gaur Kayasths, like the Gaur Brahmans and Rajputs, apparently
take their name from Gaur or Lakhnauti, the old kingdom of Bengal. They
have the Khare and Dusre subdivisions, and also three local groups
named after Bengal, Delhi and Budaun.
(m) The Nigum subcaste, whose name is apparently the same as that of
the Nikumbh Rajputs, are divided into two endogamous groups, the Kadim
or old, and the Unaya, or those coming from Unao. Sometimes the Unaya
are considered as a separate thirteenth subcaste of mixed descent.
8. Exogamy.
Educated Kayasths now follow the standard rule of exogamy, which
prohibits marriage between persons within five degrees of affinity on
the female side and seven on the male. That is, persons having a common
grandparent on the female side cannot intermarry, while for those
related through males the prohibition extends a generation further
back. This is believed to be the meaning of the rule but it is not
quite clear. In Damoh the Srivastab Kayasths still retain exogamous
sections which are all named after places in the United Provinces, as
Hamirpur ki baink (section), Lucknowbar, Kashi ki Pande (a wise man
of Benares), Partabpuria, Cawnpore-bar, Sultanpuria and so on. They
say that the ancestors of these sections were families who came from
the above places in northern India, and settled in Damoh; here they
came to be known by the places from which they had immigrated, and so
founded new exogamous sections. A man cannot marry in his own section,
or that of his mother or grandmother. In the Central Provinces a man
may marry two sisters, but in northern India this is prohibited.
9. Marriage customs.
Marriage may be infant or adult, and, as in many places husbands are
difficult to find, girls occasionally remain unmarried till nearly
twenty, and may also be mated to boys younger than themselves. In
northern India a substantial bridegroom-price is paid, which increases
for a well-educated boy, but this custom is not so well established
in the Central Provinces. However, in Damoh it is said that a sum of
Rs. 200 is paid to the bridegroom's family. The marriage ceremony is
performed according to the proper ritual for the highest or Brahma form
of marriage recognised by Manu with Vedic texts. When the bridegroom
arrives at the bride's house he is given sherbet to drink. It is
said that he then stands on a pestle, and the bride's mother throws
wheat-flour balls to the four points of the compass, and shows the
bridegroom a miniature plough, a grinding pestle, a churning-staff and
an arrow, and pulls his nose. The bridegroom's struggles to prevent
his mother-in-law pulling his nose are the cause of much merriment,
while the two parties afterwards have a fight for the footstool on
which he stands. [459] An image of a cow in flour is then brought,
and the bridegroom pierces its nostrils with a little stick of
gold. Kayasths do not pierce the nostrils of bullocks themselves,
but these rites perhaps recall their dependence on agriculture in
their capacity of village accountants.
After the wedding the bridegroom's father takes various kinds of fruit,
as almonds, dates and raisins, and fills the bride's lap with them
four times, finally adding a cocoanut and a rupee. This is a ceremony
to induce fertility, and the cocoanut perhaps represents a child.
10. Marriage songs.
The following are some specimens of songs sung at weddings. The first
is about Rama's departure from Ajodhia when he went to the forests:
Now Hari (Rama) has driven his chariot forth to the jungle.
His father and mother are weeping.
Kaushilya [460] stood up and said, 'Now, whom shall I call my
diamond and my ruby?'
Dasrath went to the tower of his palace to see his son;
As Rama's chariot set forth under the shade of the trees, he
wished that he might die.
Bharat ran after his brother with naked feet.
He said, 'Oh brother, you are going to the forest, to whom do
you give the kingdom of Oudh?'
Rama said, 'When fourteen years have passed away I shall come
back from the jungles. Till then I give the kingdom to you.'
The following is a love dialogue:
Make a beautiful garden for me to see my king.
In that garden what flowers shall I set?
Lemons, oranges, pomegranates, figs.
In that garden what music shall there be?
A tambourine, a fiddle, a guitar and a dancing girl.
In that garden what attendants shall there be?
A writer, a supervisor, a secretary for writing letters. [461]
The next is a love-song by a woman:
How has your countenance changed, my lord?
Why speak you not to your slave?
If I were a deer in the forest and you a famous warrior, would
you not shoot me with your gun?
If I were a fish in the water and you the son of a fisherman,
would you not catch me with your drag-net?
If I were a cuckoo in the garden and you the gardener's son,
would you not trap me with your liming-stick?
The last is a dialogue between Radha and Krishna. Radha with her
maidens was bathing in the river when Krishna stole all their clothes
and climbed up a tree with them. Girdhari is a name of Krishna:
R. You and I cannot be friends, Girdhari; I am wearing a
silk-embroidered cloth and you a black blanket.
You are the son of old Nand, the shepherd, and I am a princess
of Mathura.
You have taken my clothes and climbed up a kadamb tree. I am
naked in the river.
K. I will not give you your clothes till you come out of the water.
R. If I come out of the water the people will laugh and clap at me.
All my companions seeing your beauty say, 'You have vanquished us;
we are overcome.'
11. Social rules.
Polygamy is permitted but is seldom resorted to, except for the sake
of offspring. Neither widow-marriage nor divorce are recognised, and
either a girl or married woman is expelled from the caste if detected
in a liaison. A man may keep a woman of another caste if he does not
eat from her hand nor permit her to eat in the chauk or purified place
where he and his family take their meals. The practice of keeping
women was formerly common but has now been largely suppressed. Women
of all castes were kept except Brahmans and Kayasths. Illegitimate
children were known as Dogle or Surait and called Kayasths, ranking
as an inferior group of the caste. And it is not unlikely that in the
past the descendants of such irregular unions have been admitted to
the Dusre or lower branch of the different subcastes.
12. Birth customs.
During the seventh month of a woman's pregnancy a dinner is given to
the caste-fellows and songs are sung. After this occasion the woman
must not go outside her own village, nor can she go to draw water
from a well or to bathe in a tank. She can only go into the street
or to another house in her own village.
On the sixth day after a birth a dinner is given to the caste and
songs are sung. The women bring small silver coins or rupees and place
them in the mother's lap. The occasion of the first appearance of the
signs of maturity in a girl is not observed at all if she is in her
father's house. But if she has gone to her father-in-law's house,
she is dressed in new clothes, her hair after being washed is tied
up, and she is seated in the chauk or purified space, while the women
come and sing songs.
13. Religion.
The Kayasths venerate the ordinary Hindu deities. They worship
Chitragupta, their divine ancestor, at weddings and at the Holi
and Diwali festivals. Twice a year they venerate the pen and ink,
the implements of their profession, to which they owe their great
success. The patwaris in Hoshangabad formerly received small fees,
known as diwat puja, from the cultivators for worshipping the
ink-bottle on their behalf, presumably owing to the idea that,
if neglected, it might make a malicious mistake in the record of
their rights.
14. Social customs.
The dead are burnt, and the proper offerings are made on the
anniversaries, according to the prescribed Hindu ritual. Kayasth
names usually end in Prasad, Singh, Baksh, Sewak, and Lala in the
Central Provinces. Lala, which is a term of endearment, is often
employed as a synonym for the caste. Dada or uncle is a respectful
term of address for Kayasths. Two names are usually given to a boy,
one for ceremonial and the other for ordinary use.
The Kayasths will take food cooked with water from Brahmans, and that
cooked without water (pakki) from Rajputs and Banias. Some Hindustani
Brahmans, as well as Khatris and certain classes of Banias, will
take pakki food from Kayasths. Kayasths of different subcastes will
sometimes also take it from each other. They will give the huqqa
with the reed in to members of their own subcaste, and without the
reed to any Kayasth. The caste eat the flesh of goats, sheep, fish,
and birds. They were formerly somewhat notorious for drinking freely,
but a great reform has been effected in this respect by the community
itself through the agency of their caste conference, and many are
now total abstainers.
15. Occupation.
The occupations of the Kayasths have been treated in discussing the
origin of the caste. They set the greatest store by their profession of
writing and say that the son of a Kayasth should be either literate
or dead. The following is the definition of a Lekhak or writer,
a term said to be used for the Kayasths in Puranic literature:
"In all courts of justice he who is acquainted with the languages of
all countries and conversant with all the Shastras, who can arrange
his letters in writing in even and parallel lines, who is possessed
of presence of mind, who knows the art of how and what to speak in
order to carry out an object in view, who is well versed in all the
Shastras, who can express much thought in short and pithy sentences,
who is apt to understand the mind of one when one begins to speak,
who knows the different divisions of countries and of time, [462]
who is not a slave to his passions, and who is faithful to the king
deserves the name and rank of a Lekhak or writer." [463]
Kewat
1. General notice.
Kewat, Khewat, Kaibartta. [464]--A caste of fishermen, boatmen,
grain-parchers, and cultivators, chiefly found in the Chhattisgarh
Districts of Drug, Raipur, and Bilaspur. They numbered 170,000 persons
in 1911. The Kewats or Kaibarttas, as they are called in Bengal,
are the modern representatives of the Kaivartas, a caste mentioned in
Hindu classical literature. Sir H. Risley explains the origin of the
name as follows: [465] "Concerning the origin of the name Kaibartta
there has been considerable difference of opinion. Some derive it
from ka, water, and vartta, livelihood; but Lassen says that the
use of ka in this sense is extremely unusual in early Sanskrit,
and that the true derivation is Kivarta, a corruption of Kimvarta,
meaning a person following a low or degrading occupation. This, he
adds, would be in keeping with the pedigree assigned to the caste in
Manu, where the Kaivarta, also known as Margava or Dasa, is said to
have been begotten by a Nishada father and an Ayogavi mother, and to
subsist by his labour in boats. On the other hand, the Brahma-Vaivarta
Purana gives the Kaibartta a Kshatriya father and a Vaishya mother,
a far more distinguished parentage; for the Ayogavi having been born
from a Sudra father and a Vaishya mother is classed as pratiloma,
begotten against the hair, or in the inverse order of the precedence
of the castes." The Kewats are a mixed caste. Mr. Crooke says that
they merge on one side into the Mallahs and on the other into the
Binds. In the Central Provinces their two principal subdivisions
are the Laria and Uriya, or the residents of the Chhattisgarh and
Sambalpur plains respectively. The Larias are further split up
into the Larias proper, the Kosbonwas, who grow kosa or tasar silk
cocoons, and the Binjhwars and Dhuris (grain-parchers). The Binjhwars
are a Hinduised group of the Baiga tribe, and in Bhandara they have
become a separate Hindu caste, dropping the first letter of the name,
and being known as Injhwar. The Binjhwar Kewats are a group of the
same nature. The Dhuris are grain-parchers, and there is a separate
Dhuri caste; but as grain-parching is also a traditional occupation
of the Kewats, the Dhuris may be an offshoot from them. The Kewats
are so closely connected with the Dhimars that it is difficult to
make any distinction; in Chhattisgarh it is said that the Dhimars
will not act as ferrymen, while the Kewats will not grow or sell
singara or water-nut. The Dhimars worship their fishing-nets on the
Akti day, which the Kewats will not do. Both the Kewats and Dhimars
are almost certainly derived from the primitive tribes. The Kewats
say that formerly the Hindus would not take water from them; but
on one occasion during his exile Rama came to them and asked them
to ferry him across a river; before doing so they washed his feet
and drank the water, and since that time the Hindus have considered
them pure and take water from their hands. This story has no doubt
been invented to explain the fact that Brahmans will take water from
the non-Aryan Kewats, the custom having in reality been adopted as
a convenience on account of their employment as palanquin-bearers
and indoor servants. But in Saugor, where they are not employed as
servants, and also grow san-hemp, their position is distinctly lower
and no high caste will take water from them.
2. Exogamous divisions and marriage.
The caste have also a number of exogamous groups, generally named
after plants or animals, or bearing some nickname given to the reputed
founder. Instances of the first class are Tuma, a gourd, Karsayal,
a deer, Bhalwa, a bear, Ghughu, an owl, and so on. Members of such a
sept abstain from injuring the animal after which the sept is named or
eating its flesh; those of the Tuma sept worship a gourd with offerings
of milk and a cocoanut at the Holi festival. Instances of titular names
are Garhtod, one who destroyed a fort, Jhagarha quarrelsome, Dehri
priest, Kala black, and so on. One sept is named Rawat, its founder
having probably belonged to the grazier caste. Members of this sept
must not visit the temple of Mahadeo at Rajim during the annual fair,
but give no explanation of the prohibition. Others are the Ahira,
also from the Ahir (herdsman) caste; the Rautele, which is the name
of a subdivision of Kols and other tribes; and the Sonwani or 'gold
water' sept, which is often found among the primitive tribes. In some
localities these three have now developed into separate subcastes,
marrying among themselves; and if any of their members become
Kabirpanthis, the others refuse to eat and intermarry with them. The
marriage of members of the same sept is prohibited, and also the union
of first cousins. Girls are generally married under ten years of age,
but if a suitable husband cannot be found for a daughter, the parents
will make her over to any member of the caste who offers himself on
condition that he bears the expenses of the marriage. In Sambalpur she
is married to a flower. Sir H. Risley notes [466] the curious fact
that in Bihar it is deemed less material that the bridegroom should
be older than the bride than that he should be taller. "This point is
of the first importance, and is ascertained by actual measurement. If
the boy shorter than the girl, or if his height is exactly the same as
hers, it is believed that the union of the two would bring ill-luck,
and the match is at once broken off." The marriage is celebrated in
the customary manner by walking round the sacred pole, after which the
bridegroom marks the forehead of the bride seven times with vermilion,
parts her hair with a comb, and then draws her cloth over her head. The
last act signifies that the bride has become a married woman, as a
girl never covers her head. In Bengal [467] a drop of blood is drawn
from the fingers of the bride and bridegroom and mixed with rice, and
each eats the rice containing the blood of the other. The anointing
with vermilion is probably a substitute for this. Widow-remarriage
and divorce are permitted. In Sambalpur a girl who is left a widow
under ten years of age is remarried with full rites as a virgin.
3. Social customs.
The Kewats worship the ordinary Hindu deities and believe that a
special goddess, Chaurasi Devi, dwells in their boats and keeps them
from sinking. She is propitiated at the beginning of the rains and in
times of flood, and an image of her is painted on their boats. They
bury the dead, laying the corpse with the feet to the south, while some
clothes, cotton, til and salt are placed in the grave, apparently as
a provision for the dead man's soul. They worship their ancestors at
intervals on a Monday or a Saturday with an offering of a fowl. As is
usual in Chhattisgarh, their rules as to food are very lax, and they
will eat both fowls and pork. Nevertheless Brahmans will take water
at their hands and eat the rice and gram which they have parched. The
caste consider fishing to have been their original occupation, and
tell a story to the effect that their ancestors saved the deity in
their boat on the occasion of the Deluge, and in return were given
the power of catching three or four times as many fish as ordinary
persons in the same space of time. Some of them parch gram and rice,
and others act as coolies and banghy-bearers. [468] Kewats are usually
in poor circumstances, but they boast that the town of Bilaspur is
named after Bilasa Keotin, a woman of their caste. She was married,
but was sought after by the king of the country, so she held out her
cloth to the sun, calling on him to set it on fire, and was burnt
alive, preserving her virtue. Her husband burnt himself with her,
and the pair ascended to heaven.
KHAIRWAR
[Authorities: Colonel Dalton's Ethnology of Bengal; Sir H. Risley's
Tribes and Castes of Bengal; Mr. Crooke's Tribes and Castes of the
N.-W.P. and Oudh.]
List of Paragraphs
1. Historical notice of the tribe.
2. Its origin.
3. Tribal subdivisions.
4. Exogamous septs.
5. Marriage.
6. Disposal of the dead.
7. Religion.
8. Inheritance.
9. The Khairwas of Damoh.
1. Historical notice of the tribe.
Khairwar, Kharwar, Khaira, Khairwa. [469]--A primitive tribe of the
Chota Nagpur plateau and Bihar. Nearly 20,000 Khairwars are now under
the jurisdiction of the Central Provinces, of whom two-thirds belong
to the recently acquired Sarguja State, and the remainder to the
adjoining States and the Bilaspur District. A few hundred Khairwars or
Khairwas are also returned from the Damoh District in the Bundelkhand
country. Colonel Dalton considers the Khairwars to be closely connected
with the Cheros. He relates that the Cheros, once dominant in Gorakhpur
and Shahabad, were expelled from these tracts many centuries ago by the
Gorkhas and other tribes, and came into Palamau. "It is said that the
Palamau population then consisted of Kharwars, Gonds, Mars, Korwas,
Parheyas and Kisans. Of these the Kharwars were the people of most
consideration. The Cheros conciliated them and allowed them to remain
in peaceful possession of the hill tracts bordering on Sarguja; all
the Cheros of note who assisted in the expedition obtained military
service grants of land, which they still retain. It is popularly
asserted that at the commencement of the Chero rule in Palamau they
numbered twelve thousand families and the Kharwars eighteen thousand,
and if an individual of one or the other is asked to what tribe he
belongs, he will say not that he is a Chero or a Kharwar, but that he
belongs to the twelve thousand or the eighteen thousand, as the case
may be. Intermarriages between Chero and Kharwar families have taken
place. A relative of the Palamau Raja married a sister of Maninath
Singh, Raja of Ramgarh, and this is among themselves an admission
of identity of origin, as both claiming to be Rajputs they could not
intermarry till it was proved to the satisfaction of the family priest
that the parties belonged to the same class.... The Rajas of Ramgarh
and Jashpur are members of this tribe, who have nearly succeeded in
obliterating their Turanian traits by successive intermarriages with
Aryan families. The Jashpur Raja is wedded to a lady of pure Rajput
blood, and by liberal dowries has succeeded in obtaining a similar
union for three of his daughters. It is a costly ambition, but there
is no doubt that the liberal infusion of fresh blood greatly improves
the Kharwar physique." [470] This passage demonstrates the existence
of a close connection between the Cheros and Khairwars. Elsewhere
Colonel Dalton connects the Santals with the Khairwars as follows:
[471] "A wild goose coming from the great ocean alighted at Ahiri
Pipri and there laid two eggs. From these two eggs a male and female
were produced, who were the parents of the Santal race. From Ahiri
Pipri our (Santal) ancestors migrated to Hara Dutti, and there they
greatly increased and multiplied and were called Kharwar." This also
affords some reason for supposing that the Khairwars are an offshoot
of the Cheros and Santals. Mr. Crooke remarks, "That in Mirzapur the
people themselves derive their name either from their occupation as
makers of catechu (khair) or on account of their emigration from
some place called Khairagarh, regarding which there is a great
difference of opinion. If the Santal tradition is to be accepted,
Khairagarh is the place of that name in the Hazaribagh District; but
the Mirzapur tradition seems to point to some locality in the south
or west, in which case Khairagarh may be identified with the most
important of the Chhattisgarh Feudatory States, or with the pargana
of that name in the Allahabad District." [472] According to their
own traditions in Chota Nagpur, Sir H. Risley states that, [473]
"The Kharwars declare their original seat to have been the fort of
Rohtas, so called as having been the chosen abode of Rohitaswa, son of
Harischandra, of the family of the Sun. From this ancient house they
also claim descent, calling themselves Surajvansis, and wearing the
Janeo or caste thread distinguishing the Rajputs. A less flattering
tradition makes them out to be the offspring of a marriage between
a Kshatriya man and a Bhar woman contracted in the days of King Ben,
when distinctions of caste were abolished and men might marry whom they
would." A somewhat similar story of themselves is told by the tribe
in the Bamra State. Here they say that their original ancestors were
the Sun and a daughter of Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth, who lived
in the town of Sara. She was very beautiful and the Sun desired her,
and began blowing into a conch-shell to express his passion. While
the girl was gaping at the sight and sound, a drop of the spittle fell
into her mouth and impregnated her. Subsequently a son was born from
her arm and a daughter from her thigh, who were known as Bhujbalrai
and Janghrai. [474] Bhujbalrai was given great strength by the Sun,
and he fought with the people of the country, and became king of
Rathgarh. But in consequence of this he and his family grew proud,
and Lakshmi determined to test them whether they were worthy of the
riches she had given them. So she came in the guise of a beggar to
the door, but was driven away without alms. On this she cursed them,
and said that their descendants, the Khairwars, should always be
poor, and should eke out a scanty subsistence from the forests. And
in consequence the Khairwars have ever since been engaged in boiling
wood for catechu. Mr. Hira Lal identifies the Rathgarh of this story
with the tract of Rath in the north of the Raigarh State and the town
of Sara, where Lakshmi's daughter lived and her children were born,
with Saria in Sarangarh.
2. Its origin.
On the information available as to the past history of the tribe it
seems probable that the Khairwars may, as suggested by Sir H. Risley,
be an offshoot from some other group. The most probable derivation of
the name seems to be from the khair or catechu tree (Acacia catechu);
and it may be supposed that it was the adoption as a calling of the
making of catechu which led to their differentiation. Mr. Crooke
derives their name either from the khair tree or a place called
Khairagarh; but this latter name almost certainly means 'The fort of
the khair trees.' The Khairwas or Khairwars of the Kaimur hills, who
are identified by Colonel Dalton and in the India Census of 1901 with
the Khairwars of Chota Nagpur, are certainly named after the tree;
they are generally recognised as being Gonds who have taken to the
business of boiling catechu, and are hence distinguished, being a
little looked down upon by other Gonds. Mr. Crooke describes them
in Mirzapur as "Admittedly a compound of various jungle tribes who
have taken to this special occupation; while according to another
account they are the offspring of the Saharias or Saonrs, with whom
their sept names are said to be identical." He also identifies them
with the Kathkaris of Bombay, whose name means 'makers of katha or
prepared catechu.' The Khairwars of Chota Nagpur have everywhere a
subdivision which makes catechu, this being known as Khairchura in
the Central Provinces, Khairi in Bengal and Khairaha in the United
Provinces. This group is looked down upon by the other Khairwars,
who consider their occupation to be disreputable and do not marry with
them. Possibly the preparation of catechu, like basket- and mat-making,
is despised as being a profession practised by primitive dwellers in
forests, and so those Khairwars who have become more civilised are now
anxious to disclaim it. Sir H. Risley has several times pointed out the
indeterminate nature of the constitution of the Chota Nagpur tribes,
between several of whom intermarriage is common. And it seems certain
that the tribes as we know them now must have been differentiated
from one or more common stocks much in the same fashion as castes,
though rather by the influence of local settlement than by differences
of occupation, and at a much earlier date. And on the above facts it
seems likely that the Khairwars of Chota Nagpur are an occupational
offshoot of the Cheros and Santals, as those of the Kaimur hills are
of the Gonds and Savars.
3. Tribal subdivisions.
Colonel Dalton states that the tribe had four subdivisions, Bhogta,
Mahto, Rawat and Manjhi. Of these Mahto simply means a village headman,
and is used as a title by many castes and tribes; Rawat is a term
meaning chief, and is in common use as a title; and Manjhi too is a
title, being specially applied to boatmen, and also means a village
headman among the Santals. These divisions, too, afford some reason for
considering the tribe to be a mixed group. Other occupational subtribes
are recorded by Sir H. Risley, and are found in the Central Provinces,
but these apparently have grown up since Colonel Dalton's time.
The most important group in Bengal are the Bhogtas, who are found,
says Colonel Dalton, "In the hills of Palamau, skirting Sarguja,
in Tori and Bhanwar Pahar of Chota Nagpur and other places. They
have always had an indifferent reputation. The head of the clan in
Palamau was a notorious freebooter, who, after having been outlawed
and successfully evaded every attempt to capture him, obtained a jagir
[475] on his surrendering and promising to keep the peace. He kept
to his engagement and died in fair repute, but his two sons could not
resist the opportunity afforded by the disturbances of 1857-58. After
giving much trouble they were captured; one was hanged, the other
transported for life and the estate was confiscated." Mr. Crooke
notes that the Khairwars since adopting Hinduism performed human
sacrifices to Kali. Some of our people who fell into their hands
during the Mutiny were so dealt with. [476]
In the Central Provinces there is a group known as Surajvansi or
Descendants of the Sun, or Janeodhari, 'Those who wear the sacred
thread.' This is the aristocratic division of the caste, to which
the chiefs and zamindars belong, and according to the usual practice
they have consolidated their higher position by marrying only among
themselves. Other groups are the Dualbandhi, who say that they are
so called because they make a livelihood by building the earthen
diwals or walls for houses and yards; but in Mirzapur they derive
the name from dual, a leather belt which is supposed to have been
the uniform of their forefathers when serving as soldiers. [477]
The Patbandhi or silk-makers, according to their own story, are thus
named because their ancestors were once very rich and wore silk;
but a more probable hypothesis is that they were rearers of tasar
silk cocoons. The Beldar or Matkora work as navvies, and are also
known as Kawarvansi or 'Descendants of the Kawars,' another tribe of
the locality; and last come the Khairchura, who take their name from
the khair tree and are catechu-makers.
4. Exogamous septs.
The tribe have a large number of exogamous groups named after plants
and animals. Members of the mouse, tortoise, parrot, pig, monkey,
vulture, banyan tree and date-palm septs worship their totem animal
or tree, and when they find the dead body of the animal they throw
away an earthen cooking-pot to purify themselves, as is done when
a member of the family dies. Those of the Dhan (rice), Non (salt),
Dila (plough) and Dhenki (rice pounding-lever) septs cannot dispense
with the use of these objects, but make a preliminary obeisance before
employing them. Those of the Kansi sept sprinkle water mixed with kans
[478] grass over the bride and bridegroom at the marriage ceremony,
and those of the Chandan or sandalwood sept apply sandal-paste to
their foreheads. They cannot clearly explain the meaning of these
observances, but some of them have a vague idea that they are descended
from the totem object.
5. Marriage.
Marriage is either infant or adult, and in the latter case a girl is
not disposed of without her consent. A bride-price varying from five
to ten rupees is paid, and in the case of a girl given to a widower
the amount is doubled. The Hindu ceremonial has been adopted for the
wedding, and an auspicious day is fixed by a Brahman. In Bengal Sir
H. Risley notes that "Remnants of non-Aryan usage may be discerned in
the marriage ceremony itself. Both parties must first go through the
form of marriage to a mango tree or at least a branch of the tree;
and must exchange blood mixed with sindur, though in the final and
binding act sindur alone is smeared by the bridegroom upon the bride's
forehead and the parting of her hair." As has been pointed out by
Mr. Crooke, the custom of smearing vermilion on the bride's forehead is
a substitute for an earlier anointing with blood; just as the original
idea underlying the offering of a cocoanut was that of substitution
for a human head. In some cases blood alone is still used. Thus Sir
H. Risley notes that among the Birhors the marriage rite is performed
by drawing blood from the little fingers of the bride and bridegroom
and smearing it on each of them. [479] The blood-covenant by which
a bride was admitted to her husband's sept by being smeared with his
blood is believed to have been a common rite among primitive tribes.
6. Disposal of the dead.
As a rule, the tribe bury the dead, though the Hindu custom of
cremation is coming into fashion among the well-to-do. Before the
interment they carry the corpse seven times round the grave, and it is
buried with the feet pointing to the north. They observe mourning for
ten days and abstain from animal food and liquor during that period. A
curious custom is reported from the Bilaspur District, where it is
said that children cut a small piece of flesh from the finger of a
dead parent and swallow it, considering this as a requital for the
labour of the mother in having carried the child for nine months in her
womb. So in return they carry a piece of her flesh in their bodies. But
the correct explanation as given by Sir J. G. Frazer is that they do
it to prevent themselves from being haunted by the ghosts of their
parents. "Thus Orestes, [480] after he had gone mad from murdering
his mother, recovered his wits by biting off one of his own fingers;
since his victim was his own mother it might be supposed that the
tasting of his own blood was the same as hers; and the furies of his
murdered mother, which had appeared black to him before, appeared
white as soon as he had mutilated himself in this way. The Indians
of Guiana believe that an avenger of blood who has slain his man
must go mad unless he tastes the blood of his victim, the notion
apparently being that the ghost drives him crazy. A similar custom
was observed by the Maoris in battle. When a warrior had slain his
foe in combat, he tasted his blood, believing that this preserved him
from the avenging spirit (atua) of his victim; for they imagined that
'the moment a slayer had tasted the blood of the slain, the dead man
became a part of his being and placed him under the protection of the
atua or guardian-spirit of the deceased.' Some of the North American
Indians also drank the blood of their enemies in battle. Strange as
it may seem, this truly savage superstition exists apparently in
Italy to this day. There is a widespread opinion in Calabria that
if a murderer is to escape he must suck his victim's blood from the
reeking blade of the dagger with which he did the deed."
7. Religion.
The religion of the tribe is of the usual animistic type. Colonel
Dalton notes that they have, like the Kols, a village priest, known
as Pahan or Baiga. He is always one of the impure tribes, a Bhuiya,
a Kharwar or a Korwa, and he offers a great triennial sacrifice of a
buffalo in the sacred grove, or on a rock near the village. The fact
that the Khairwars employed members of the Korwa and Bhuiya tribes
as their village priests may be taken to indicate that the latter
are the earlier residents of the country, and are on this account
employed by the Khairwars as later arrivals for the conciliation of
the indigenous deities. Colonel Dalton states that the Khairwars made
no prayers to any of the Hindu gods, but when in great trouble they
appealed to the sun. In the Central Provinces the main body of the
tribe, and particularly those who belong to the landholding class,
profess the Hindu religion.
8. Inheritance.
The Khairwars have now also adopted the Hindu rule of inheritance,
and have abandoned the tribal custom which Sir H. Risley records
as existing in Bengal. "Here the eldest son of the senior wife,
even if younger than one of the sons of the second wife, inherits
the entire property, subject to the obligation of providing for all
other legitimate children. If the inheritance consists of land, the
heir is expected to create separate maintenance grants in favour of
his younger brothers. Daughters can never inherit, but are entitled
to live in the ancestral home till they are married." [481]
9. The Khairwas of Damoh.
The Khairwas or Khairwars of the Kaimur hills are derived, as already
seen, from the Gonds and Savars, and therefore are ethnologically
a distinct group from those of the Chota Nagpur plateau, who have
been described above. But as nearly every caste is made up of diverse
ethnological elements held together by the tie of a common occupation,
it does not seem worth while to treat these groups separately. Colonel
Dalton, who also identifies them with the main tribe, records an
interesting notice of them at an earlier period: [482]
"There is in the seventh volume of the Asiatic Researches a notice
of the Kharwars of the Kaimur hills in the Mirzapur District, to the
north of the Son river, by Captain J. P. Blunt, who in his journey from
Chunar to Ellora in A.D. 1794, met with them and describes them as a
very primitive tribe. He visited one of their villages consisting of
half a dozen poor huts, and though proceeding with the utmost caution,
unattended, to prevent alarm, the inhabitants fled at his approach. The
women were seen, assisted by the men, carrying off their children and
moving with speed to hide themselves in the woods. It was observed
that they were nearly naked, and the only articles of domestic use
found in the deserted huts were a few gourds for water-vessels, some
bows and arrows, and some fowls as wild as their masters. With great
difficulty, by the employment of Kols as mediators, some of the men
were induced to return. They were nearly naked, but armed with bows
and arrows and a hatchet."
In Damoh the Khairwars are said to come from Panna State. During the
working season they live in temporary sheds in the forest, and migrate
from place to place as the supply of trees is exhausted. Having cut
down a tree they strip off the bark and cut the inner and tender wood
into small pieces, which are boiled for two or three days until a thick
black paste is obtained. From this the water is allowed to drain off,
and the residue is made into cakes and dried in the sun. It is eaten
in small pieces with betel-leaf and areca-nut. Duty is levied by the
Forest Department at the rate of a rupee per handi or pot in which
boiling is carried on. In Bombay various superstitious observances
are connected with the manufacture of catechu; and Mr. Crooke quoted
the following description of them from the Bombay Gazetteer: [483]
"Every year on the day after the Holi the chulha ceremony takes
place. In a trench seven feet long by three, and about three deep,
khair logs are carefully stacked and closely packed till they stand in
a heap about three feet above ground. The pile is then set on fire and
allowed to burn to the level of the ground. The village sweeper breaks
a cocoanut, kills a couple of fowls and sprinkles a little liquor near
the pile. Then, after washing their feet, the sweeper and the village
headman walk barefoot hurriedly across the fire. After this strangers
come to fulfil vows, and giving one anna and a half cocoanut to the
sweeper, and the other half cocoanut to the headman, wash their feet,
and turning to the left, walk over the pile. The fire seems to cause
none of them any pain." The following description of the Kathkaris
as hunters of monkeys is also taken by Mr. Crooke from the Bombay
Gazetteer: [484] "The Kathkaris represent themselves as descended from
the monkeys of Rama. Now that their legitimate occupation of preparing
catechu (kath) has been interfered with, they subsist almost entirely
by hunting, and habitually kill and eat monkeys, shooting them with
bows and arrows. In order to approach within range they are obliged
to have recourse to stratagems, as the monkeys at once recognise them
in their ordinary costume. The ruse usually adopted is for one of the
best shots to put on a woman's robe (sari), under the ample folds of
which he conceals his murderous weapons. Approaching the tree in which
the monkeys are seated, the sportsman affects the utmost unconcern,
and busies himself with the innocent occupation of picking up twigs
and leaves, and thus disarming suspicion he is enabled to get a
sufficiently close shot to render success a certainty."
Khandait
Khandait, Khandayat.--The military caste of Orissa, the word Khandait
meaning 'swordsman,' and being derived from the Uriya khanda, a
sword. Sir H. Risley remarks of the Khandaits: [485] "The caste is
for the most part, if not entirely, composed of Bhuiyas, whose true
affinities have been disguised under a functional name, while their
customs, their religion and in some cases even their complexion and
features have been modified by long contact with Hindus of relatively
pure Aryan descent. The ancient Rajas of Orissa kept up large armies
and partitioned the land on strictly military tenures. These armies
consisted of various castes and races, the upper ranks being officered
by men of good Aryan descent, while the lower ones were recruited
from the low castes alike of the hills and the plains. In the social
system of Orissa, the Sresta or 'best' Khandaits rank next to the
Rajputs, who have not the intimate connection with the land which
has helped to raise the Khandaits to their present position." The
Khandaits are thus like the Marathas, and the small body of Paiks
in the northern Districts, a caste formed from military service;
and though recruited for the most part originally from the Dravidian
tribes, they have obtained a considerable rise in status owing to their
occupation and the opportunity which has been afforded to many of them
to become landholders. The best Khandaits now aspire to Rajput rank,
while the bulk of them have the position of cultivators, from whom
Brahmans will take water, or a much higher one than they are entitled
to by descent. In [486] the Central Provinces the Khandaits have no
subcastes, and only two gotras or clans, named after the Kachhap or
tortoise and the Nagas or cobra respectively. These divisions appear,
however, to be nominal, and do not regulate marriage, as to which
the only rule observed is that persons whose descent can be traced
from the same parent should not marry each other. Early marriage is
usual, and if a girl arrives at adolescence without a husband having
been found for her, she goes through the ceremony of wedlock with an
arrow. Polygamy is permitted, but a person resorting to it is looked
down on and nicknamed Maipkhia or wife-eater. The essential portion of
the marriage ceremony is the bandan or tying of the hands of the bride
and bridegroom together with kusha grass. The bridegroom must lift
up the bride and walk seven times round the marriage altar carrying
her. Widow-marriage and divorce are permitted in the Central Provinces,
and Brahmans are employed for religious and ceremonial purposes.
KHANGAR
List of Paragraphs
1. Origin and traditions.
2. Caste subdivisions.
3. Marriage.
4. Religion.
5. Social status.
6. Occupation.
1. Origin and traditions.
Khangar, [487] called also Kotwal, Jemadar or Darbania (gatekeeper).--A
low caste of village watchmen and field-labourers belonging to
Bundelkhand, and found in the Saugor, Damoh, Narsinghpur and Jubbulpore
Districts. They numbered nearly 13,000 in 1911. The Khangars are
also numerous in the United Provinces. Hindu ingenuity has evolved
various explanations of the word Khangar, such as 'khand,' a pit,
and 'gar,' maker, digger, because the Khangar digs holes in other
people's houses for the purposes of theft. The caste is, however,
almost certainly of non-Aryan origin, and there is little doubt also
that Bundelkhand was its original home. It may be noted that the Munda
tribe have a division called Khangar with which the caste may have
some connection. The Khangars themselves relate the following story
of their origin. Their ancestors were formerly the rulers of the fort
and territory of Kurar in Bundelkhand, when a Bundela Rajput came
and settled there. The Bundela had a very pretty daughter whom the
Khangar Raja demanded in marriage. The Bundela did not wish to give
his daughter to the Khangar, but could not refuse the Raja outright,
so he said that he would consent if all the Khangars would agree
to adopt Bundela practices. This the Khangars readily agreed to do,
and the Bundela thereupon invited them all to a wedding feast, and
having summoned his companions and plied the Khangars with liquor
until they were dead drunk, cut them all to pieces. One pregnant
woman only escaped by hiding in a field of kusum or safflower,
[488] and on this account the Khangars still venerate the kusum and
will not wear cloths dyed with saffron. She fled to the house of
a Muhammadan eunuch or Fakir, who gave her shelter and afterwards
placed her with a Dangi landowner. The Bundelas followed her up and
came to the house of the Dangi, who denied that the Khangar woman was
with him. The Bundelas then asked him to make all the women in his
house eat together to prove that none of them was the Khangarin, on
which the Dangi five times distributed the maihar, a sacrificial cake
which is only given to relations, to all the women of the household
including the Khangarin, and thus convinced the Bundelas that she was
not in the house. The woman who was thus saved became the ancestor
of the whole Khangar caste, and in memory of this act the Khangars
and Nadia Dangis are still each bidden to eat the maihar cake at the
weddings of the other, or at least so it is said; while the Fakirs,
in honour of this great occasion when one of their number acted as
giver rather than receiver, do not beg for alms at the wedding of a
Khangar, but on the contrary bring presents. The basis of the story,
that the Khangars were the indigenous inhabitants of Bundelkhand and
were driven out and slaughtered by the immigrant Bundelas, may not
improbably be historically correct. It is also said that no Khangar is
even now allowed to enter the fort of Kurar, and that the spirit of
the murdered chief still haunts it; so that if a bed is placed there
in the evening with a tooth-stick, the tooth-stick will be split in
the morning as after use, and the bed will appear as if it had been
slept in. [489]
2. Caste subdivisions.
The caste has four subdivisions, named Rai, Mirdha or Nakib, Karbal
and Dahat. The Rai or royal Khangars are the highest group and
practise hypergamy with families of the Mirdha and Karbal groups,
taking daughters from them in marriage but not giving their daughters
to them. The Mirdhas or Nakibs are so called because they act as
mace-bearers and form the bodyguard of princes. Very few, if any,
are to be found in the Central Provinces. The Karbal are supposed
to be especially valorous. The Dahats have developed into a separate
caste called Dahait, and are looked down on by all the other divisions
as they keep pigs. The caste is also divided into numerous exogamous
septs, all of which are totemistic; and the members of the sept usually
show veneration to the object from which the sept takes its name. Some
of the names of septs are as follows: Bachhiya from bachhra a calf;
Barha from barah a pig, this sept worshipping the pig; Belgotia from
the bel tree; Chandan from the sandalwood tree; Chirai from chiriya
a bird, this sept revering sparrows; Ghurgotia from ghora a horse
(members of this sept touch the feet of a horse before mounting it and
do not ride on a horse in wedding processions); Guae from the iguana;
Hanuman from the monkey god; Hathi from the elephant; Kasgotia from
kansa bell-metal (members of this sept do not use vessels of bell-metal
on ceremonial occasions nor sell them); Mahiyar from maihar fried cakes
(members of this sept do not use ghi at their weddings and may not sell
ghi by weight though they may sell it by measure); San after san-hemp
(members of this sept place pieces of hemp near their family god);
Sandgotia from sand a bullock; Tambagotia from tamba copper; and Vishnu
from the god of that name, whom the sept worship. The names of 31 septs
in all are reported and there are probably others. The fact that two or
three septs are named after Hindu deities may be noticed as peculiar.
3. Marriage.
The marriage of members of the same sept is prohibited and also
that of first cousins. Girls are usually married at about ten
years of age, the parents of the girl having to undertake the
duty of finding a husband. The ceremonial in vogue in the northern
Districts is followed throughout, an astrologer being consulted to
ascertain that the horoscopes of the pair are favourable, and a
Brahman employed to draw up the lagan or auspicious paper fixing
the date of the marriage. The bridegroom is dressed in a yellow
gown and over-cloth, with trousers of red chintz, red shoes, and
a marriage-crown of date-palm leaves. He has the silver ornaments
usually worn by women on his neck, as the khangwari or silver ring,
and the hamel or necklace of rupees. In order to avert the evil
eye he carries a dagger or nutcracker, and a smudge of lampblack is
made on his forehead to disfigure him and thus avert the evil eye,
which it is thought would otherwise be too probably attracted by his
exquisitely beautiful appearance in his wedding garments. The binding
portion of the ceremony is the bhanwar or walking round the sacred
post of the munga tree (Moringa pterygosperma). This is done six times
by the couple, the bridegroom leading, and they then make a seventh
turn round the bedi or sacrificial fire. If the bride is a child this
seventh round is omitted at the marriage and performed at the Dusarta
or going-away ceremony. After the marriage the haldi ceremony takes
place, the father of the bridegroom being dressed in women's clothes;
he then dances with the mother of the bride, while they throw turmeric
mixed with water over each other. Widow-marriage is allowed, and the
widow may marry anybody in the caste; the ceremony consists in the
placing of bangles on her wrist, and is always performed at night,
a Wednesday being usually selected. A feast must afterwards be given
to the caste-fellows. Divorce is also permitted, and may be effected
at the instance of either party in the presence of the caste panchayat
or committee. When a husband divorces his wife he must give a feast.
4. Religion.
The Khangars worship the usual Hindu deities and especially
venerate Dulha Deo, a favourite household godling in the northern
Districts. Pachgara Deo is a deity who seems to have been created
to commemorate the occasion when the Dangi distributed the marriage
cakes five times to the fugitive ancestress of the caste. His cult is
now on the decline, but some still consider him the most important
deity of all, and it is said that no Khangar will tell an untruth
after having sworn by this god. Children dying unmarried and persons
dying of leprosy or smallpox are buried, while others are buried or
burnt according as the family can afford the more expensive rite of
cremation or not. As among other castes a corpse must not be burnt
between sunset and sunrise, as it is believed that this would cause
the soul to be born blind in the next birth. Nor must the corpse be
wrapped in stitched clothes, as in that case the child in which it is
reincarnated would be born with its arms and legs entangled. The corpse
is laid on its back and some ghi, til, barley cakes and sandalwood,
if available, are placed on the body. The soul of the deceased is
believed to haunt the house for three days, and each night a lamp
and a little water in an earthen pot are placed ready for it. When
cremation takes place the ashes are collected on the third day and
the burning ground is cleaned with cowdung and sprinkled with milk,
mustard and salt, in order that a cow may lick over the place and the
soul of the deceased may thus find more easy admission into Baikunth or
heaven. Well-to-do persons take the bones of the dead to the Ganges, a
few from the different parts of the body being selected and tied round
the bearer's neck. Mourning is usually only observed for three days.
5. Social status.
The Khangars do not admit outsiders into the caste, except children
born of a Khangar father and a mother belonging to one of the highest
castes. A woman going wrong with a man of another caste is finally
expelled, but liaisons within the caste may be atoned for by the
usual penalty of a feast. The caste eat flesh and drink liquor but
abjure fowls, pork and beef. They will take food cooked without
water from Banias, Sunars and Tameras, but katchi roti only from
the Brahmans who act as their priests. Such Brahmans are received
on terms of equality by others of the caste. Khangars bathe daily,
and their women take off their outer cloth to eat food, because this
is not washed every day. Food cooked with water must be consumed in
the chauka or place where it is prepared, and not carried outside
the house. Men of the caste often have the suffix Singh after their
names in imitation of the Rajputs. Although their social observances
are thus in some respects strict, the status of the caste is low,
and Brahmans do not take water from them.
6. Occupation.
The Khangars say that their ancestors were soldiers, but at present
they are generally tenants, field-labourers and village watchmen. They
were formerly noted thieves, and several proverbs remain in testimony
to this. "The Khangar is strong only when he possesses a khunta (a
pointed iron rod to break through the wall of a house)." 'The Sunar
and the Khangar only flourish together'; because the Sunar acts as a
receiver of the property stolen by the Khangar. They are said to have
had different ways of breaking into a house, those who got through
the roof being called chhappartor, while others who dug through
the side walls were known as khonpaphor. They have now, however,
generally relinquished their criminal practices and settled down to
live as respectable citizens.
KHARIA
List of Paragraphs
1. General notice.
2. Legend of origin.
3. Subcastes.
4. Exogamy and totemism.
5. Marriage.
6. Taboos as to food.
7. Widow-marriage and divorce.
8. Religion.
9. Funeral rites.
10. Bringing back the souls of the dead.
11. Social customs.
12. Caste rules and organisation.
13. Occupation and character.
14. Language.
1. General notice.
Kharia. [490]--A primitive Kolarian tribe, of which about 900 persons
were returned from the Central Provinces in 1911. They belong to the
Bilaspur District and the Jashpur and Raigarh States. The Kharias
are one of the most backward of the Kolarian tribes, and appear to
be allied to the Mundas and Savars. Colonel Dalton says of them:
"In the Chota Nagpur estate they are found in large communities, and
the Kharias belonging to these communities are far more civilised than
those who live apart. Their best settlements lie near the southern
Koel river, which stream they venerate as the Santals do the Damudar,
and into it they throw the ashes of their dead." Chota Nagpur is the
home of the Kharias, and their total strength is over a lakh. They
are found elsewhere only in Assam, where they have probably migrated
to the tea-gardens.
2. Legend of origin.
The Kharia legend of origin resembles that of the Mundas, and tends
to show that they are an elder branch of that tribe. They say that
a child was born to a woman in the jungle, and she left it to fetch
a basket in which to carry it home. On her return she saw a cobra
spreading its hood over the child to protect it from the sun. On this
account the child was called Nagvansi (of the race of the cobra),
and became the ancestor of the Nagvansi Rajas of Chota Nagpur. The
Kharias say this child had an elder brother, and the two brothers set
out on a journey, the younger riding a horse and the elder carrying
a kawar or banghy with their luggage. When they came to Chota Nagpur
the younger was made king, on which the elder brother also asked for
a share of the inheritance. The people then put two caskets before
him and asked him to choose one. One of the caskets contained silver
and the other only some earth. The elder brother chose that which
contained earth, and on this he was told that the fate of himself and
his descendants would be to till the soil, and carry banghys as he had
been doing. The Kharias say that they are descended from the elder
brother, while the younger was the ancestor of the Nagvansi Rajas,
who are really Mundas. They say that they can never enter the house
of the Nagvansi Rajas because they stand in the relation of elder
brother-in-law to the Ranis, who are consequently prohibited from
looking on the face of a Kharia. This story is exactly like that of the
Parjas in connection with the Rajas of Bastar. And as the Parjas are
probably an older branch of the Gonds, who were reduced to subjection
by the subsequent Raj-Gond immigrants under the ancestors of the
Bastar Rajas, so it seems a reasonable hypothesis that the Kharias
stood in a similar relationship to the Mundas or Kols. This theory
derives some support from the fact that, according to Sir H. Risley,
the Mundas will take daughters in marriage from the Kharias, but will
not give their daughters to them, and the Kharias speak of the Mundas
as their elder brethren. [491] Mr. Hira Lal suggests that the name
Kharia is derived from kharkhari, a palanquin or litter, and that the
original name Kharkharia has been contracted into Kharia. He states
that in the Uriya country Oraons, who carry litters, are also called
Kharias. This derivation is in accordance with the tradition of the
Kharias that their first ancestor carried a banghy, and with the fact
that the Kols are the best professional dhoolie-bearers.
3. Subcastes.
In Raigarh the Kharias have only two subtribes, the Dudh, or milk
Kharias, and the Delki. Of these the Delki are said to be of mixed
origin. They take food from Brahmans, and explain that they do so
because an ancestress went wrong with a Brahman. It seems likely
that they may be descended from the offspring of immigrant Hindus in
Chota Nagpur with Kharia women, like similar subdivisions in other
tribes. The Delkis look down on the Dudh Kharias, saying that the
latter eat the flesh of tigers and monkeys, from which the Delkis
abstain. In Bengal the tribe have two other divisions, the Erenga
and Munda Kharias.
4. Exogamy and totemism.
The tribe is divided, like others, into totemistic exogamous septs,
which pay reverence to their totems. Thus members of the Kulu
(tortoise), Kiro (tiger), Nag (cobra), Kankul (leopard) and Kuto
(crocodile) septs abstain from killing their totem animal, fold
their hands in obeisance when they meet it, and taking up some
dust from the animal's track place it on their heads as a mark of
veneration. Certain septs cannot wholly abstain from the consumption
of their sept totem, so they make a compromise. Thus members of the
Baa, or rice sept, cannot help eating rice, but they will not eat the
scum which gathers over the rice as it is being boiled. Those of the
Bilum or salt sept must not take up a little salt on one finger and
suck it, but must always use two or more fingers for conveying salt
to the mouth, presumably as a mark of respect. Members of the Suren
or stone sept will not make ovens with stones but only with clods of
earth. The tribe do not now think they are actually descended from
their totems, but tell stories accounting for the connection. Thus the
Katang Kondai or bamboo sept say that a girl in the family of their
ancestors went to cut bamboos and never came back. Her parents went
to search for her and heard a voice calling out from the bamboos, but
could not find their daughter. Then they understood that the bamboo
was of their own family and must not be cut by them. The supposition
is apparently that the girl was transformed into a bamboo.
5. Marriage.
Marriage between members of the same sept is forbidden, but the rule
is not always observed. A brother's daughter may marry a sister's
son, but not vice versa. Marriage is always adult, and overtures come
from the boy's father. The customary bride-price is twelve bullocks,
but many families cannot afford this, and resort is then made to a
fiction. The boy's party make twelve models of bullocks in earth,
and placing each in a leaf-plate send them to the girl's party, who
throw away two, saying that one has been eaten by a tiger, and the
other has fallen into a pit and died. The remaining ten are returned
to the bridegroom's party, who throw away two, saying that they have
been sold to provide liquor for the Panch. For two of the eight now
left real animals are substituted, and for the other six one rupee
each, and the two cattle and six rupees are sent back to the bride's
party as the real bride-price. Poor families, however, give four rupees
instead of the two cattle, and ten rupees is among them considered as
the proper price, though even this is reduced on occasion. The marriage
party goes from the bride's to the bridegroom's house, and consists of
women only. The men do not go, as they say that on one occasion all the
men of a Kharia wedding procession were turned into stones, and they
fear to undergo a similar fate. The real reason may probably be that
the journey of the bride is a symbolic reminiscence of the time when
she was carried off by force, and hence it would be derogatory for the
men to accompany her. The bridegroom comes out to meet the bride riding
on the shoulders of his brother-in-law or paternal aunt's husband,
who is known as Dherha. He touches the bride, and both of them perform
a dance. At the wedding the bridegroom stands on a plough-yoke, and
the bride on a grinding-slab, and the Dherha walks seven times round
them sprinkling water on them from a mango-leaf. The couple are shut
up alone for the night, and next morning the girl goes to the river
to wash her husband's clothes. On her return a fowl is killed, and
the couple drink two drops of its blood in water mixed with turmeric,
as a symbol of the mixing of their own blood. A goat is killed, and
they step in its blood and enter their houses. The caste-people say
to them, "Whenever a Kharia comes to your house, give him a cup of
water and tobacco and food if you have it," and the wedding is over.
6. Taboos as to food.
After a girl is married her own mother will not eat food cooked by her,
as no two Kharias will take food together unless they are of the same
sept. When a married daughter goes back to the house of her parents
she cooks her food separately, and does not enter their cook-room;
if she did all the earthen pots would be defiled and would have to be
thrown away. A similar taboo marks the relations of a woman towards
her husband's elder brother, who is known as Kura Sasur. She must
not enter his house nor sit on a cot or stool before him, nor touch
him, nor cook food for him. If she touches him a fine of a fowl with
liquor is imposed by the caste, and for his touching her a goat and
liquor. This idea may perhaps have been established as a check on the
custom of fraternal polyandry, when the idea of the eldest brother
taking the father's place as head of the joint family became prevalent.
7. Widow-marriage and divorce.
Widow-marriage is permitted at the price of a feast to the caste,
and the payment of a small sum to the woman's family. A widow must
leave her children with her first husband's family if required to
do so. If she takes them with her they become entitled to inherit
her second husband's property, but receive only a half-share as
against a full share taken by his children. Divorce is permitted
by mutual agreement or for adultery of the woman. But the practice
is not looked upon with favour, and a divorced man or woman rarely
succeeds in obtaining another mate.
8. Religion.
The principal deity of the Kharias is a hero called Banda. They
say that an Oraon had vowed to give his daughter to the man who
would clear the kans [492] grass off a hillock. Several men tried,
and at last Banda did it by cutting out the roots. He then demanded
the girl's hand, but the Oraon refused, thinking that Banda had
cleared the grass by magic. Then Banda went away and the girl died,
and on learning of this Banda went and dug her out of her grave,
when she came to life and they were married. Since then Banda has
been worshipped. The tribe also venerate their ploughs and axes,
and on the day of Dasahra they make offerings to the sun.
9. Funeral rites.
The tribe bury the dead, placing the head to the north. When the
corpse is taken out of the house two grains of rice are thrown to
each point of the compass to invite the ancestors of the family to
the funeral. And on the way, where two roads meet, the corpse is set
down and a little rice and cotton-seed sprinkled on the ground as a
guiding-mark to the ancestors. Before burial the corpse is anointed
with turmeric and oil, and carried seven times round the grave,
probably as a symbol of marriage to it. Each relative puts a piece
of cloth in the grave, and the dead man's cooking and drinking-pots,
his axe, stick, pipe and other belongings, and a basketful of rice are
buried with him. The mourners set three plants of orai or khas-khas
grass on the grave over the dead man's head, middle and feet, and
then they go to a tank and bathe, chewing the roots of this grass. It
would appear that the orai grass may be an agent of purification or
means of severance from the dead man's ghost, like the leaves of the
sacred nim [493] tree.
10. Bringing back the souls of the dead.
On the third day they bathe and are shaved, and catch a fish, which is
divided among all the relatives, however small it may be, and eaten
raw with salt, turmeric and garlic. It seems likely that this fish
may be considered to represent the dead man's spirit, and is eaten in
order to avoid being haunted by his ghost or for some other object,
and the fish may be eaten as a substitute for the dead man's body,
itself consumed in former times. On the tenth night after the death
the soul is called back, a lighted wick being set in a vessel at the
cross-roads where the rice and cotton had been sprinkled. They call
on the dead man, and when the flame of the lamp wavers in the wind
they break the vessel holding the lamp, saying that his soul has come
and joined them, and go home. On the following Dasahra festival, when
ancestors are worshipped, the spirit of the deceased is mingled with
the ancestors. A cock and hen are fed and let loose, and the headman of
the sept calls on the soul to come and join the ancestors and give his
protection to the family. When a man is killed by a tiger the remains
are collected and burnt on the spot. A goat is sacrificed and eaten
by the caste, and thereafter, when a wedding takes place in that man's
family, a goat is offered to his spirit. The Kharias believe that the
spirits of the dead are reborn in children, and on the Barhi day, a
month after the child's birth, they ascertain which ancestor has been
reborn by the usual method of divination with grains of rice in water.
11. Social customs.
The strict taboos practised by the tribe as regards food have
already been mentioned. Men will take food from one another, but not
women. Men will also accept food cooked without water from Brahmans,
Rajputs and Bhuiyas. The Kharias will eat almost any kind of flesh,
including crocodile, rat, pig, tiger and bear; they have now generally
abandoned beef in deference to Hindu prejudice, and also monkeys,
though they formerly ate these animals, the Topno sept especially
being noted on this account.
12. Caste rules and organisation.
Temporary expulsion from caste is imposed for the usual offences,
and also for getting shaved or having clothes washed by a barber
or washerman other than a member of the caste. This rule seems
to arise either from an ultra-strict desire for social purity or
from a hostile reaction against the Hindus for the low estimation
in which the Kharias are held. Again it is a caste offence to carry
the palanquin of a Kayasth, a Muhammadan, a Koshta (weaver) or a Nai
(barber), or to carry the tazias or representations of the tomb of
Husain in the Muharram procession. The caste have a headman who has
the title of Pardhan, with an assistant called Negi and a messenger
who is known as Ganda. The headman must always be of the Samer sept,
the Negi of the Suren sept, and the Ganda of the Bartha or messenger
sept. The headman's duty is to give water for the first time to caste
offenders on readmission, the Negi must make all arrangements for the
caste feast, and the Ganda goes and summons the tribesmen. In addition
to the penalty feast a cash fine is imposed on an erring member;
of this rather more than half is given to the assembled tribesmen
for the purpose of buying murra or fried grain on their way home on
the following morning. The remaining sum is divided between the three
officers, the Pardhan and Negi getting two shares each and the Ganda
one share. But the division is only approximate, as the Kharias are
unable to do the necessary calculation for an odd number of rupees. The
men have their hair tied in a knot on the right side of the head,
and women on the left. The women are tattooed, but not the men.
Colonel Dalton writes of the tribal dances: [494] "The nuptial dances
of the Kharias are very wild, and the gestures of the dancers and
the songs all bear more directly than delicately on what is evidently
considered the main object of the festivities, the public recognition
of the consummation of the marriage. The bride and bridegroom
are carried through the dances seated on the hips of two of their
companions. Dancing is an amusement to which the Kharias, like all
Kolarians, are passionately devoted. The only noticeable difference
in their style is that in the energy, vivacity and warmth of their
movements they excel all their brethren."
13. Occupation and character.
The Kharias say that their original occupation is to carry dhoolies
or litters, and this, as well as the social rules prohibiting them
from carrying those of certain castes, is in favour of the derivation
of the name from kharkhari, a litter. They are also cultivators,
and collect forest produce. They are a wild and backward tribe,
as shown in the following extracts from an account by Mr. Ball:
[495] "The first Kharias I met with were encamped in the jungle
at the foot of some hills. The hut was rudely made of a few sal
branches, its occupants being one man, an old and two young women,
besides three or four children. At the time of my visit they were
taking their morning meal; and as they regarded my presence with
the utmost indifference, without even turning round or ceasing from
their occupations, I remained for some time watching them. They had
evidently recently captured some small animal, but what it was, as
they had already eaten the skin, I could not ascertain. As I looked
on, the old woman distributed to the others, on plates of sal leaves,
what appeared to be the entrails of the animal, and wrapping up her
own portion between a couple of leaves threw it on the fire in order
to give it a very primitive cooking. With regard to their ordinary
food the Kharias chiefly depend on the jungle for a supply of fruits,
leaves and roots.
"The Kharias never make iron themselves, but are altogether dependent
on the neighbouring bazars for their supplies. Had they at any
period possessed a knowledge of the art of making iron, conservative
of their customs as such races are, it is scarcely likely that they
would have forgotten it. It is therefore not unreasonable to suppose
that there was a period prior to the advent of the Hindus when iron
was quite unknown to them--when, owing to the absence of cultivation
in the plains, they were even more dependent on the supply of jungle
food than they are at present. In those times their axes and their
implements for grubbing up roots were in all probability made of stone,
and their arrows had tips of the same material.
"In their persons the Kharias are very dirty, seldom if ever washing
themselves. Their features are decidedly of a low character, not
unlike the Bhumij, but there seemed to me to be an absence of any
strongly-marked type in their faces or build, such as enables one to
know a Santal and even a Kurmi at a glance."
14. Language.
Of the Kharia dialect Sir George Grierson states that it is closely
allied to Savara, and has also some similarity to Korku and Juang:
[496] "Kharia grammar has all the characteristics of a language which
is gradually dying out and being superseded by dialects of quite
different families. The vocabulary is strongly Aryanised, and Aryan
principles have pervaded the grammatical structure. Kharia is no longer
a typical Munda language. It is like a palimpsest, the original writing
on which can only be recognised with some difficulty." [497] An account
of the Kharia dialect has been published in Mr. G. B. Banerjee's
Introduction to the Kharia Language (Calcutta, 1894).
Khatik
Khatik.--A functional caste of Hindu mutton-butchers and vegetable
sellers. They numbered nearly 13,000 persons in the Central Provinces
and Berar in 1911, and are, as might be expected, principally returned
from the Districts with a considerable urban population, Amraoti,
Jubbulpore, Nagpur and Saugor. The name is derived from the Sanskrit
Khattika, [498] a butcher or hunter. In northern India Mr. Crooke
states that the caste are engaged in keeping and selling pigs and
retailing vegetables and fruits, and does not specially mention that
they slaughter animals, though in Agra one of their subcastes is named
Buchar, a corruption of the English word butcher. In the Punjab Sir
D. Ibbetson [499] says of them that, "They form a connecting link
between the scavengers and the leather-workers, though they occupy
a social position distinctly inferior to that of the latter. They
are great keepers of pigs and poultry, which a Chamar would not
keep. [500] At the same time many of them tan and dye leather and
indeed are not seldom confused with the Chamrang. The Khatik is
said sometimes to keep sheep and goats and twist their hair into
waist-bands for sale." Sir H. Risley again describes the Khatiks
of Bihar as a cultivating and vegetable-selling caste. [501] The
differences in the principal occupations ascribed to the caste are
thus somewhat remarkable. In the Central Provinces the Khatiks are
primarily slaughterers of sheep and goats and mutton-butchers, though
they also keep pigs, and some of them, who object to this trade, make
their livelihood by selling vegetables. Both in the United Provinces
and Punjab the Khatiks are considered to be connected with the Pasis
and probably an offshoot of that caste. In the Central Provinces they
are said to be an inferior branch of the Gadaria or shepherd caste. The
Gadarias state that their old sheep were formerly allowed to die. Then
they appointed some poor men of the community to kill them and sell
the flesh, dividing the profits with the owner, and thus the Khatik
caste arose. The Khatiks accept cooked food from the Gadarias, but
the latter do not reciprocate.
The Khatiks are both Hindu and Muhammadan by religion, the latter
being also known as Gai-Khatik or cow-killer; but these may more
suitably be classed with the Kasais or Muhammadan butchers. In the
Maratha Districts the Hindu Khatiks are divided into two subcastes,
the Beraria or those from Berar, and the Jhadi or those of the forest
country of the Wainganga valley. These will take food together,
but do not intermarry. They have the usual set of exogamous clans
or septs, many of which are of a totemistic nature, being named
after plants, animals or natural objects. In Jubbulpore, owing to
their habit of keeping pigs and the dirty state of their dwellings,
one of their divisions is named Lendha, which signifies the excrement
of swine. Here the sept is called ban, while in Wardha it is known as
kul or adnam. Marriage within the sept is forbidden. When arranging a
match they consider it essential that the boy should be taller than
the girl, but do not insist on his being older. A bride-price is
sometimes paid, especially if the parents of the girl are poor, but
the practice is considered derogatory. In such a case the father is
thought to sell his daughter and he is called Bad or Bhand. Marriages
commonly take place on the fifth, seventh or ninth day after the Holi
festival, or on the festival of Badsavitri, the third day of Baisakh
(light fortnight). When the bridegroom leaves the house to set out
for the wedding his mother or aunt waves a pestle and churning-stick
round him, puts a piece of betel-vine in his mouth and gives him
her breast to suck. He then steps on a little earthen lamp-saucer
placed over an egg and breaks them, and leaves the house without
looking back. These rites are common to many castes, but their exact
significance is obscure. The pestle and churning-stick and egg may
perhaps be emblems of fertility. At the wedding the fathers of the
couple split some wood into shreds, and, placing it in a little pit
with cotton, set a light to it. If it is all burnt up the ceremony
has been properly performed, but if any is left, the people laugh
and say that the corpses of the family's ancestors were not wholly
consumed on the pyre. To effect a divorce the husband and wife break
a stick in the presence of the caste panchayat or committee, and if
a divorced woman or one who has deserted her husband marries again,
the first husband has to give a feast to the caste on the tenth
day after the wedding; this is perhaps in the nature of a funeral
feast to signify that she is dead to him. The remarriage of widows
is permitted. A girl who is seduced by a member of the caste, even
though she may be delivered of a child, may be married to him by the
maimed rites used for widows. But she cannot take part in auspicious
ceremonies, and her feet are not washed by married women like those
of a proper bride. Even if a girl be seduced by an outsider, except
a Hindu of the impure castes or a Muhammadan, she may be taken back
into the community and her child will be recognised as a member of
it. But they say that if a Khatik keeps a woman of another caste he
will be excommunicated until he has put her away, and his children
will be known as Akre or bastard Khatiks, these being numerous in
Berar. The caste burn or bury the dead as their means permit, and
on the third day they place on the pyre some sugar, cakes, liquor,
sweets and fruit for the use of the dead man's soul.
The occupation of the Khatik is of course horrible to Hindu ideas, and
the social position of the caste is very low. In some localities they
are considered impure, and high-caste Hindus who do not eat meat will
wash themselves if forced to touch a Khatik. Elsewhere they rank just
above the impure castes, but do not enter Hindu temples. These Khatiks
slaughter sheep and goats and sell the flesh, but they do not cure
the skins, which are generally exported to Madras. The Hindu Khatiks
often refuse to slaughter animals themselves and employ a Muhammadan
to do so by the rite of halal. The blood is sometimes sold to Gonds,
who cook and eat it mixed with grain. Other members of the caste are
engaged in cultivation, or retail vegetables and grain.
Khatri
1. Rajput origin.
Khatri.--A prominent mercantile caste of the Punjab, whose members
to the number of about 5000 have settled in the Central Provinces
and Berar, being distributed over most Districts. The Khatris claim
to be derived from the Rajput caste, and say that their name is a
corruption of Kshatriya. At the census of 1901 Sir Herbert Risley
approved of their demand on the evidence laid before him by the
leading representatives of the caste. This view is assented to by
Mr. Crooke and Mr. Nesfield. In Gujarat also the caste are known as
Brahma-Kshatris, and their Rajput origin is considered probable,
while their appearance bears out the claim to be derived either
from the Aryans or some later immigrants from Central Asia: "They
are a handsome fair-skinned class, some of them with blue or grey
eyes, in make and appearance like Vanias (Banias), only larger and
more vigorous." [502] Mr. Crooke states that, "their women have a
reputation for their beauty and fair complexion. The proverb runs,
'A Khatri woman would be fair without fine clothes or ornaments,'
and, 'Only an albino is fairer than a Khatri woman.'" [503] Their
legend of origin is as follows: "When Parasurama the Brahman was
slaying the Kshatriyas in revenge for the theft of the sacred cow
Kamdhenu and for the murder of his father, a pregnant Kshatriya woman
took refuge in the hut of a Saraswat Brahman. When Parasurama came
up he asked the Brahman who the woman was, and he said she was his
daughter. Parasurama then told him to eat with her in order to prove
it, and the Brahman ate out of the same leaf-plate as the woman. The
child to whom she subsequently gave birth was the ancestor of the
Khatris, and in memory of this Saraswat Brahmans will eat with Khatris
to the present day." The Saraswat Brahman priests of the Khatris do as
a matter of fact take katcha food or that cooked with water from them,
and smoke from their huqqas, and this is another strong argument in
favour of their origin either from Brahmans or Rajputs.
The classical account of the Khatris is that given in Sir George
Campbell's Ethnology of India, and it may be reproduced here as in
other descriptions of the caste:
2. Sir George Campbell's account of the Khatris.
"Trade is their main occupation; but in fact they have broader and more
distinguishing features. Besides monopolising the trade of the Punjab
and the greater part of Afghanistan, and doing a good deal beyond those
limits, they are in the Punjab the chief civil administrators, and have
almost all literate work in their hands. So far as the Sikhs have a
priesthood, they are, moreover, the priests or gurus of the Sikhs. Both
Nanak and Govind were, and the Sodis and Bedis of the present day are,
Khatris. Thus then they are in fact in the Punjab, so far as a more
energetic race will permit them, all that Mahratta Brahmins are in
the Mahratta country, besides engrossing the trade which the Mahratta
Brahmins have not. They are not usually military in their character,
but are quite capable of using the sword when necessary. Diwan Sawan
Mal, Governor of Multan, and his notorious successor Mulraj, and very
many of Ranjit Singh's chief functionaries were Khatris.
"Even under Mahomedan rulers in the west they have risen to high
administrative posts. There is a record of a Khatri Diwan of Badakshan
or Kurdaz; and, I believe, of a Khatri Governor of Peshawar under the
Afghans. The Emperor Akbar's famous minister, Todarmal, was a Khatri;
and a relative of that man of undoubted energy, the great commissariat
contractor of Agra, Joti Pershad, lately informed me that he also
is a Khatri. Altogether, there can be no doubt that these Khatris
are one of the most acute, energetic and remarkable races in India,
though in fact, except locally in the Punjab, they are not much known
to Europeans. The Khatris are staunch Hindus, and it is somewhat
singular that, while giving a religion and priests to the Sikhs,
they themselves are comparatively seldom Sikhs. The Khatris are a
very fine, fair, handsome race, and, as may be gathered from what I
have already said, they are very generally educated.
"There is a large subordinate class of Khatris, somewhat lower, but of
equal mercantile energy, called Rors or Roras. The proper Khatris of
higher grade will often deny all connection with them, or at least only
admit that they have some sort of bastard kindred with Khatris, but
I think there can be no doubt that they are ethnologically the same,
and they are certainly mixed up with Khatris in their avocations. I
shall treat the whole kindred as generically Khatris.
"Speaking of the Khatris then thus broadly, they have, as I have
said, the whole trade of the Punjab and of most of Afghanistan. No
village can get on without the Khatri who keeps the accounts, does
the banking business, and buys and sells the grain. They seem, too,
to get on with the people better than most traders and usurers of this
kind. In Afghanistan, among a rough and alien people, the Khatris are
as a rule confined to the position of humble dealers, shopkeepers
and moneylenders; but in that capacity the Pathans seem to look on
them as a kind of valuable animal, and a Pathan will steal another
man's Khatri, not only for the sake of ransom, as is frequently done
on the frontier of Peshawar and Hazara, but also as he might steal a
milch-cow, or as Jews might, I dare say, be carried off in the Middle
Ages with a view to render them profitable.
"I do not know the exact limits of Khatri occupation to the West,
but certainly in all Eastern Afghanistan they seem to be just as much
a part of the established community as they are in the Punjab. They
find their way far into Central Asia, but the further they get the
more depressed and humiliating is their position. In Turkistan,
Vambéry speaks of them with great contempt, as yellow-faced Hindus
of a cowardly and sneaking character. Under Turcoman rule they
could hardly be otherwise. They are the only Hindus known in Central
Asia. In the Punjab they are so numerous that they cannot all be rich
and mercantile; and many of them hold land, cultivate, take service,
and follow various avocations."
3. Higher and lower groups.
The Khatris have a very complicated system of subdivisions, which it
is not necessary to detail here in view of their small strength in
the Province. As a rule they marry only one wife, though a second
may be taken for the purpose of getting offspring. But parents
are very reluctant to give their daughters to a man who is already
married. The remarriage of widows is forbidden and divorce also is
not recognised, but an unfaithful wife may be turned out of the house
and expelled from the caste. Though they practise monogamy, however,
the Khatris place no restrictions on the keeping of concubines, and
from the offspring of such women inferior branches of the caste have
grown up. In Gujarat these are known as the Dasa and Pancha groups,
and they may not eat or intermarry with proper Khatris. [504] The
name Khatri seems there to be restricted to these inferior groups,
while the caste proper is called Brahma-Kshatri. There is also a
marked distinction in their occupation, for, while the Brahma-Kshatris
are hereditary District officials, pleaders, bankers and Government
servants, the Khatris are engaged in weaving, and formerly prepared
the fine cotton cloth of Surat and Broach, while they also make gold
and silver thread, and the lace used for embroidery. [505] As a class
they are said to be thriftless and idle, and at least the Khatris of
Surat to be excessively fond of strong drink. The Khatris of Nimar in
the Central Provinces are also weavers, and it seems not unlikely that
they may be a branch of these Gujarat Khatris of the inferior class,
and that the well-known gold and silver lace and embroidery industry
of Burhanpur may have been introduced by them from Surat. The Khatris
of Narsinghpur are dyers, and may not improbably be connected with
the Nimar weavers. The other Khatris scattered here and there over
the Provinces may belong to the higher branch of the caste.
4. Marriage and funeral customs.
In conclusion some extracts may be given from the interesting
account of the marriage and funeral customs of the Brahma-Kshatris in
Gujarat: [506] "On the wedding-day shortly before the marriage hour
the bridegroom, his face covered with flower-garlands and wearing a
long tunic and a yellow silk waistcloth, escorted by the women of his
family, goes to the bride's house on horseback in procession.... Before
the bridegroom's party arrive the bride, dressed in a head-cloth,
bodice, a red robe, and loose yellow Muhammadan trousers, is seated
in a closed palanquin or balai set in front of the house. The
bridegroom on dismounting walks seven times round the palanquin,
the bride's brother at each turn giving him a cut with an oleander
twig, and the women of the family throwing showers of cake from the
windows. He retires, and while mounting his horse, and before he is in
the saddle, the bride's father comes out, and, giving him a present,
leads him into the marriage-hall.... The girl keeps her eyes closed
throughout the whole day, not opening them until the bridegroom is
ushered into the marriage-booth, so that the first object she sees is
her intended husband. On the first Monday, Thursday or Friday after
the marriage the bride is hid either in her own or in a neighbour's
house. The bridegroom comes in state, and with the point of his sword
touches the outer doors of seven houses, and then begins to search
for his wife. The time is one of much fun and merriment, the women
of the house bantering and taunting the bridegroom, especially when
he is long in finding his wife's hiding-place. When she is found the
bridegroom leads the bride to the marriage-hall, and they sit there
combing each other's hair."
In connection with their funeral ceremonies Mr. Bhimbhai Kirparam
gives the following particulars of the custom of beating the breasts:
[507] "Contrary to the Gujarat practice of beating only the breast,
the Brahma-Kshatri women beat the forehead, breast and knees. For
thirteen days after a death women weep and beat their breasts thrice
a day, at morning, noon and evening. Afterwards they weep and beat
their breasts every evening till a year has passed, not even excepting
Sundays, Tuesdays or Hindu holidays. During this year of mourning the
female relations of the deceased used to eat nothing but millet-bread
and pulse; but this custom is gradually being given up."
Khojah
Khojah. [508]--A small Muhammadan sect of traders belonging to
Gujarat, who retain some Hindu practices. They reside in Wardha,
Nagpur and the Berar Districts, and numbered about 500 persons in
1911 as against 300 in 1901. The Khojahs are Muhammadans of the Shia
sect, and their ancestors were converted Hindus of the Lohana trading
caste of Sind, who are probably akin to the Khatris. As shown in the
article on Cutchi, the Cutchi or Meman traders are also converted
Lohanas. The name Khojah is a corruption of the Turkish Khwajah,
Lord, and this is supposed to be a Muhammadan equivalent for the
title Thakur or Thakkar applied to the Lohanas. The Khojahs belong
to the Nazarian branch of the Egyptian Ismailia sect, and the founder
of this sect in Persia was Hasan Sabah, who lived at the beginning of
the eleventh century and founded the order of the Fidawis or devotees,
who were the Assassins of the Crusades. Hasan subsequently threw off
his allegiance to the Egyptian Caliph and made himself the head of his
own sect with the title of Shaikh-ul-Jabal or Lord. He was known to the
Crusaders as the 'Old Man of the Mountain.' His third successor Hasan
(A.D. 1163) declared himself to be the unrevealed Imam and preached
that no action of a believer in him could be a sin. It is through
this Hasan that His Highness the Aga Khan traces his descent from
Ali. Subsequently emissaries of the sect came to India, and one Pir
Sadr-ud-din converted the Lohanas. According to one account this man
was a Hindu slave of Imam Hasan. Sadr-ud-din preached that his master
Hasan was the Nishkalanki or tenth incarnation of Vishnu. The Adam
of the Semitic story of the creation was identified with the Hindu
deity Vishnu, the Prophet Muhammad with Siva, and the first five
Imams of Ismailia with the five Pandava brothers. By this means the
new faith was made more acceptable to the Lohanas. In 1845 Aga Shah
Hasan Ali, the Ismailia unrevealed Imam, came and settled in India,
and his successor is His Highness the Aga Khan.
The Khojahs retain some Hindu customs. Boys have their ears bored and
a lock of hair is left on a child's head to be shaved and offered at
some shrine. Circumcision and the wearing of a beard are optional. They
do not have mosques, but meet to pray at a lodge called the Jama'at
Khana. They repeat the names of their Pirs or saints on a rosary
made of 101 beads of clay from Karbala, the scene of the death of
Hasan and Husain. At their marriages, deaths and on every new-moon
day, contributions are levied which are sent to His Highness the Aga
Khan. "A remarkable feature at a Khojah's death," Mr. Faridi states,
"is the samarchhanta or Holy Drop. The Jama'at officer asks the dying
Khojah whether he wishes for the Holy Drop, and if the latter agrees
he must bequeath Rs. 5 to Rs. 500 to the Jama'at. The officer dilutes
a cake of Karbala clay in water and moistens the lips of the dying man
with it, sprinkling the remainder over his face, neck and chest. The
touch of the Holy Drop is believed to save the departing soul from
the temptation of the Arch-Fiend, and to remove the death-agony as
completely as among the Sunnis does the recital at a death-bed of the
chapter of the Koran known as the Surah-i-Ya-sin. If the dead man is
old and grey-haired the hair after death is dyed with henna. A garland
of cakes of Karbala clay is tied round the neck of the corpse. If the
body is to be buried locally two small circular patches of silk cloth
cut from the covering of Husain's tomb, called chashmah or spectacles,
are laid over the eyes. Those Khojahs who can afford it have their
bodies placed in air-tight coffins and transported to the field of
Karbala in Persia to be buried there. The bodies are taken by steamer
to Baghdad, and thence by camel to Karbala.
"The Khojahs are keen and enterprising traders, and are great
travellers by land and sea, visiting and settling in distant countries
for purposes of trade. They have business connections with Ceylon,
Burma, Singapore, China and Japan, and with ports of the Persian Gulf,
Arabia and East Africa. Khojah boys go as apprentices in foreign
Khojah firms on salaries of Rs. 200 to Rs. 2000 a year with board
and lodging."
KHOND [509]
[The principal authorities on the Khonds are Sir H. Risley's Tribes and
Castes of Bengal, Major-General Campbell's Wild Tribes of Khondistan,
and Major MacPherson's Report on the Khonds of the Districts of Ganjam
and Cuttack (Reprint, Madras Scottish United Press, 1863). When
the inquiries leading up to these volumes were undertaken, the
Central Provinces contained a large body of the tribe, but the bulk
of these have passed to Bihar and Orissa with the transfer of the
Kalahandi and Patna States and the Sambalpur District. Nevertheless,
as information of interest had been collected, it has been thought
desirable to reproduce it, and Sir James Frazer's description of
the human sacrifices formerly in vogue has been added. Much of
the original information contained in this article was furnished
by Mr. Panda Baijnath, Extra Assistant Commissioner, when Diwan
of Patna State. Papers were also contributed by Rai Sahib Dinbandhu
Patnaik, Diwan of Sonpur, Mr. Mian Bhai, Extra Assistant Commissioner,
Sambalpur, and Mr. Charu Chandra Ghose, Deputy Inspector of Schools,
Kalahandi.]
List of Paragraphs
1. Traditions of the tribe.
2. Tribal divisions.
3. Exogamous septs.
4. Marriage.
5. Customs at birth.
6. Disposal of the dead.
7. Occupation.
8. A Khond combat.
9. Social customs.
10. Festivals.
11. Religion.
12. Human sacrifice.
13. Last human sacrifices.
14. Khond rising in 1882.
15. Language.
1. Traditions of the tribe.
Khond, Kandh.1--A Dravidian tribe found in the Uriya-speaking tract of
the Sambalpur District and the adjoining Feudatory States of Patna and
Kalahandi, which up to 1905 were included in the Central Provinces,
but now belong to Bihar and Orissa. The Province formerly contained
168,000 Khonds, but the number has been reduced to about 10,000,
residing mainly in the Khariar zamindari to the south-east of the
Raipur District and the Sarangarh State. The tract inhabited by the
Khonds was known generally as the Kondhan. The tribe call themselves
Kuiloka, or Kuienju, which may possibly be derived from ko or ku,
a Telugu word for a mountain. [510] Their own traditions as to
their origin are of little historical value, but they were almost
certainly at one time the rulers of the country in which they now
reside. It was the custom until recently for the Raja of Kalahandi
to sit on the lap of a Khond on his accession while he received the
oaths of fealty. The man who held the Raja was the eldest member of
a particular family, residing in the village of Gugsai Patna, and
had the title of Patnaji. The coronation of a new Raja took place in
this village, to which all the chiefs repaired. The Patnaji would be
seated on a large rock, richly dressed, with a cloth over his knees
on which the Raja sat. The Diwan or minister then tied the turban of
state on the Raja's head, while all the other chiefs present held the
ends of the cloth. The ceremony fell into abeyance when Raghu Kesari
Deo was made Raja on the deposition of his predecessor for misconduct,
as the Patnaji refused to install a second Raja, while one previously
consecrated by him was still living. The Raja was also accustomed
to marry a Khond girl as one of his wives, though latterly he did
not allow her to live in the palace. These customs have lately been
abandoned; they may probably be interpreted as a recognition that the
Rajas of Kalahandi derived their rights from the Khonds. Many of the
zamindari estates of Kalahandi and Sonpur are still held by members
of the tribe.
2. Tribal divisions.
There is no strict endogamy within the Khond tribe. It has two
main divisions: the Kutia Khonds who are hillmen and retain their
primitive tribal customs, and the plain-dwelling Khonds who have
acquired a tincture of Hinduism. The Kutia or hill Khonds are said to
be so called because they break the skulls of animals when they kill
them for food; the word kutia meaning one who breaks or smashes. The
plain-dwelling Khonds have a number of subdivisions which are supposed
to be endogamous, though the rule is not strictly observed. Among these
the Raj Khonds are the highest, and are usually landed proprietors. A
man, however, is not considered to be a Raj Khond unless he possesses
some land, and if a Raj Khond takes a bride from another group he
descends to it. A similar rule applies among some of the other groups,
a man being relegated to his wife's division when he marries into
one which is lower than his own. The Dal Khonds may probably have
been soldiers, the word dal meaning an army. They are also known as
Adi Kandh or the superior Khonds, and as Balusudia or 'Shaven.' At
present they usually hold the honourable position of village priest,
and have to a certain extent adopted Hindu usages, refusing to eat
fowls or buffaloes, and offering the leaves of the tulsi (basil) to
their deities. The Kandhanas are so called because they grow turmeric,
which is considered rather a low thing to do, and the Pakhia because
they eat the flesh of the por or buffalo. The Gauria are graziers,
and the Nagla or naked ones apparently take their name from their
paucity of clothing. The Utar or Satbhuiyan are a degraded group,
probably of illegitimate descent; for the other Khonds will take
daughters from them, but will not give their daughters to them.
3. Exogamous septs.
Traditionally the Khonds have thirty-two exogamous septs, but the
number has now increased. All the members of one sept live in the same
locality about some central village. Thus the Tupa sept are collected
round the village of Teplagarh in the Patna State, the Loa sept round
Sindhekala, the Borga sept round Bangomunda, and so on. The names
of the septs are derived either from the names of villages or from
titles or nicknames. Each sept is further divided into a number of
subsepts whose names are of a totemistic nature, being derived from
animals, plants or natural objects. Instances of these are Bachhas
calf, Chhatra umbrella, Hikoka horse, Kelka the kingfisher, Konjaka
the monkey, Mandinga an earthen pot, and so on. It is a very curious
fact that while the names of the septs appear to belong to the Khond
language, those of the subsepts are all Uriya words, and this affords
some ground for the supposition that they are more recent than the
septs, an opinion to which Sir H. Risley inclines. On the other hand,
the fact that the subsepts have totemistic names appears difficult
of explanation under this hypothesis. Members of the subsept regard
the animal or plant after which it is named as sacred. Those of the
Kadam group will not stand under the tree of that name. Those of
the Narsingha [511] sept will not kill a tiger or eat the meat of
any animal wounded or killed by this animal. The same subsept will
be found in several different septs, and a man may not marry a woman
belonging either to the same sept or subsept as his own. But kinship
through females is disregarded, and he may take his maternal uncle's
daughter to wife, and in Kalahandi is not debarred from wedding his
mother's sister. [512]
4. Marriage.
Marriage is adult and a large price, varying from 12 to 20 head of
cattle, was formerly demanded for the bride. This has now, however,
been reduced in some localities to two or three animals and a rupee
each in lieu of the others, or cattle may be entirely dispensed with
and some grain given. If a man cannot afford to purchase a bride he may
serve his father-in-law for seven years as the condition of obtaining
her. A proposal for marriage is made by placing a brass cup and three
arrows at the door of the girl's father. He will remove these once to
show his reluctance, and they will be again replaced. If he removes
them a second time, it signifies his definite refusal of the match,
but if he allows them to remain, the bridegroom's friends go to him
and say, 'We have noticed a beautiful flower in passing through your
village and desire to pluck it.' The wedding procession goes from the
bride's to the bridegroom's house as among the Gonds; this custom,
as remarked by Mr. Bell, is not improbably a survival of marriage
by capture, when the husband carried off his wife and married her
at his own house. At the marriage the bride and bridegroom come out,
each sitting on the shoulders of one of their relatives. The bridegroom
pulls the bride to his side, when a piece of cloth is thrown over them,
and they are tied together with a string of new yarn wound round them
seven times. A cock is sacrificed, and the cheeks of the couple are
singed with burnt bread. They pass the night in a veranda, and next
day are taken to a tank, the bridegroom being armed with a bow and
arrows. He shoots one through each of seven cowdung cakes, the bride
after each shot washing his forehead and giving him a green twig for
a tooth-brush and some sweets. This is symbolical of their future
course of life, when the husband will procure food by hunting, while
the wife will wait on him and prepare his food. Sexual intercourse
before marriage between a man and girl of the tribe is condoned so
long as they are not within the prohibited degrees of relationship,
and in Kalahandi such liaisons are a matter of ordinary occurrence. If
a girl is seduced by one man and subsequently married to another, the
first lover usually pays the husband a sum of seven to twelve rupees
as compensation. In Sambalpur a girl may choose her own husband, and
the couple commonly form an intimacy while engaged in agricultural
work. Such unions are known as Udhlia or 'Love in the fields.' If the
parents raise any objection to the match the couple elope and return
as man and wife, when they have to give a feast to the caste, and if
the girl was previously betrothed to another man the husband must pay
him compensation. In the last case the union is called Paisa moli or
marriage by purchase. A trace of fraternal polyandry survives in the
custom by which the younger brothers are allowed access to the elder
brother's wife till the time of their own marriage. Widow-marriage
and divorce are recognised.
5. Customs at birth.
For one day after a child has been born the mother is allowed no
food. On the sixth day she herself shaves the child's head and bites
his nails short with her teeth, after which she takes a bow and arrows
and stands with the child facing successively to the four points of the
compass. The idea of this is to make the child a skilful hunter when
he grows up. Children are named in their fifth or sixth year. Names
are sometimes given after some personal peculiarity, as Lammudia,
long-headed, or Khanja, one having six fingers; or after some
circumstance of the birth, as Ghosian, in compliment to the Ghasia
(grass-cutter) woman who acts as midwife; Jugi, because some holy
mendicant (Yogi) was halting in the village when the child was born;
or a child may be named after the day of the week or month on which
it was born. The tribe believe that the souls of the departed are born
again as children, and boys have on occasion been named Majhian Budhi
or the old head-woman, whom they suppose to have been born again
with a change of sex. Major Macpherson observed the same belief:
[513] "To determine the best name for the child, the priest drops
grains of rice into a cup of water, naming with each grain a deceased
ancestor. He pronounces, from the movements of the seed in the fluid,
and from observations made on the person of the infant, which of his
progenitors has reappeared in him, and the child generally, but not
uniformly, receives the name of that ancestor." When the children are
named, they are made to ride a goat or a pig, as a mark of respect,
it is said, to the ancestor who has been reborn in them. Names usually
recur after the third generation.
6. Disposal of the dead.
The dead are buried as a rule, but the practice of cremating the bodies
of adults is increasing. When a body is buried a rupee or a copper coin
is tied in the sheet, so that the deceased may not go penniless to the
other world. Sometimes the dead man's clothes and bows and arrows are
buried with him. On the tenth day the soul is brought back. Outside
the village, where two roads meet, rice is offered to a cock, and
if it eats, this is a sign that the soul has come. The soul is then
asked to ride on a bowstick covered with cloth, and is brought to the
house and placed in a corner with those of other relatives. The souls
are fed annually with rice on the harvest and Dasahra festivals. In
Sambalpur a ball of powdered rice is placed under a tree with a lamp
near it, and the first insect that settles on the ball is taken to be
the soul, and is brought home and worshipped. The souls of infants
who die before the umbilical cord has dropped are not brought back,
because they are considered to have scarcely come into existence;
and Sir E. Gait records that one of the causes of female infanticide
was the belief that the souls of girl-children thus killed would not
be born again, and hence the number of future female births would
decrease. This belief partially conflicts with that of the change of
sex on rebirth mentioned above; but the two might very well exist
together. The souls of women who die during pregnancy or after a
miscarriage, or during the monthly period of impurity are also not
brought back, no doubt because they are held to be malignant spirits.
7. Occupation.
The Khond traditionally despises all occupations except those of
husbandry, hunting and war. "In Orissa," Sir H. Risky states, "they
claim full rights of property in the soil in virtue of having cleared
the jungle and prepared the land for cultivation. In some villages
individual ownership is unknown, and the land is cultivated on a
system of temporary occupation subject to periodical redistribution
under the orders of the headman or malik." Like the other forest
tribes they are improvident and fond of drink.
Macpherson [514] described the Khonds as faithful to friends, devoted
to their chiefs, resolute, brave, hospitable and laborious; but these
high qualities meet with no recognition among the Uriya Hindus,
who regard their stupidity as the salient attribute of the Khonds
and have various tales in derision of them, like those told of the
weavers. They consider the Khonds as only a little superior to the
impure Doms (musicians and sweepers), and say, 'Kandh ghare Domna
Mantri,' or 'In a Kandh house the Dom is Prime Minister.' This is
paralleled by the similar relation between the Gonds and Pardhans. The
arms of the Khonds were a light, long-handled sword with a blade very
curiously carved, the bow and arrow and the sling--no shields being
used. The axe also was used with both hands, to strike and guard, its
handle being partly defended by brass plates and wire for the latter
purpose. The following description of a battle between rival Khond
clans was recorded by Major Macpherson as having been given to him
by an eye-witness, and may be reproduced for its intrinsic interest;
the fight was between the hostile tribes of Bora Muta and Bora Des
in the Gumsur territory:
8. A Khond combat.
"At about 12 o'clock in the day the people of Bora Des began to
advance in a mass across the Salki river, the boundary between the
Districts, into the plain of Kurmingia, where a much smaller force
was arrayed to oppose them. The combatants were protected from the
neck to the loins by skins, and cloth was wound round their legs down
to the heel, but the arms were quite bare. Round the heads of many,
too, cloth was wound, and for distinction the people of Bora Muta
wore peacock's feathers in their hair, while those of Bora Des had
cock's tail plumes. They advanced with horns blowing, and the gongs
beat when they passed a village. The women followed behind carrying
pots of water and food for refreshments, and the old men who were
past bearing arms were there, giving advice and encouragement. As the
adverse parties approached, showers of stones, handed by the women,
flew from slings from either side, and when they came within range
arrows came in flights and many fell back wounded. At length single
combats sprang up betwixt individuals who advanced before the rest,
and when the first man fell all rushed to dip their axes in his blood,
and hacked the body to pieces. The first man who himself unwounded
slew his opponent, struck off the latter's right arm and rushed with
it to the priest in the rear, who bore it off as an offering to Loha
Pennu (the Iron God or the God of Arms) in his grove. The right arms
of the rest who fell were cut off in like manner and heaped in the
rear beside the women, and to them the wounded were carried for care,
and the fatigued men constantly retired for water. The conflict was
at length general. All were engaged hand-to-hand, and now fought
fiercely, now paused by common consent for a moment's breathing. In
the end the men of Bora Des, although superior in numbers, began to
give way, and before four o'clock they were driven across the Salki,
leaving sixty men dead on the field, while the killed on the side of
the Bora Muta did not exceed thirty. And from the entire ignorance
of the Khonds of the simplest healing processes, at least an equal
number of the wounded died after the battle. The right hands of the
slain were hung up by both parties on the trees of the villages and
the dead were carried off to be burned. The people of Bora Des the
next morning flung a piece of bloody cloth on the field of battle,
a challenge to renew the conflict which was quickly accepted, and so
the contest was kept up for three days." The above account could,
of course, find no place in a description of the Khonds of this
generation, but has been thought worthy of quotation, as detailed
descriptions of the manner of fighting of these tribes, now weaned
from war by the British Government, are so rarely to be found.
9. Social customs.
The Khonds will admit into the community a male orphan child of any
superior caste, including the Binjhwars and Gonds. A virgin of any age
of one of these castes will also be admitted. A Gond man who takes
a Khond girl to wife can become a Khond by giving a feast. As might
be expected the tribe are closely connected with the Gaurs or Uriya
shepherds, whose business leads them to frequent the forests. Either a
man or woman of the Gaurs can be taken into the community on marrying
a Khond, and if a Khond girl marries a Gaur her children, though
not herself, can become members of that caste. The Khonds will eat
all kinds of animals, including rats, snakes and lizards, but with
the exception of the Kutia Khonds they have now given up beef. In
Kalahandi social delinquencies are punished by a fine of so many
field-mice, which the Khond considers a great delicacy. The catching
of twenty to forty field-mice to liquidate the fine imposes on the
culprit a large amount of trouble and labour, and when his task is
completed his friends and neighbours fry the mice and have a feast with
plenty of liquor, but he himself is not allowed to participate. Khond
women are profusely tattooed with figures of trees, flowers, fishes,
crocodiles, lizards and scorpions on the calf of the leg and the arms,
hands and chest, but seldom on the face. This is done for purposes
of ornament. Husband and wife do not mention each other's names,
and a woman may not speak the names of any of her husband's younger
brothers, as, if left a widow, she might subsequently have to marry
one of them. A paternal or maternal aunt may not name her nephew,
nor a man his younger brother's wife.
10. Festivals.
The tribe have three principal festivals, known as the Semi Jatra,
the Mahul Jatra and the Chawal Dhuba Jatra. The Semi Jatra is held
on the tenth day of the waning moon of Aghan (November) when the new
semi or country beans are roasted, a goat or fowl is sacrificed,
and some milk or water is offered to the earth god. From this day
the tribe commence eating the new crop of beans. Similarly the Mahul
Jatra is held on the tenth of the waning moon of Chait (March), and
until this date a Khond may eat boiled mahua flowers, but not roasted
ones. The principal festival is the Dasahra or Chawal Dhuba (boiled
rice) on the tenth day of the waning moon of Kunwar (September),
which, in the case of the Khonds, marks the rice-harvest. The new
rice is washed and boiled and offered to the earth god with the same
accompaniment as in the case of the Semi Jatra, and until this date the
Khond may not clean the new rice by washing it before being boiled,
though he apparently may partake of it so long as it is not washed
or cleaned, this rule and that regarding the mahua flowers being so
made as concessions to convenience.
11. Religion.
The Khond pantheon consists of eighty-four gods, of whom Dharni Deota,
the earth god, is the chief. In former times the earth goddess was
apparently female and was known as Tari Pennu or Bera Pennu. To
her were offered the terrible human sacrifices presently to be
described. There is nothing surprising in the change of sex of the
divine being, for which parallels are forthcoming. Thus in Chhattisgarh
the deity of the earth, who also received human sacrifices, is either
Thakur Deo, a god, or Thakurani Mai, a goddess. Deota is an Aryan term,
and the proper Khond name for a god is Pennu. The earth god is usually
accompanied by Bhatbarsi Deota, the god of hunting. Dharni Deota
is represented by a rectangular peg of wood driven into the ground,
while Bhatbarsi has a place at his feet in the shape of a piece of
conglomerate stone covered with circular granules. Once in four or
five years a buffalo is offered to the earth god, in lieu of the human
sacrifice which was formerly in vogue. The animal is predestined for
sacrifice from its birth, and is allowed to wander loose and graze on
the crops at its will. The stone representing Bhatbarsi is examined
periodically, and when the granules on it appear to have increased,
it is decided that the time has come for the sacrifice. In Kalahandi
a lamb is sacrificed every year, and strips of its flesh distributed
to all the villagers, who bury it in their fields as a divine agent
of fertilisation, in the same way as the flesh of the human victim
was formerly buried. The Khond worships his bow and arrows before
he goes out hunting, and believes that every hill and valley has its
separate deity, who must be propitiated with the promise of a sacrifice
before his territory is entered, or he will hide the animals within
it from the hunter, and enable them to escape when wounded. These
deities are closely related to each other, and it is important when
arranging for an expedition to know the connection between them all;
this information can be obtained from any one on whom the divine
afflatus from time to time descends.
12. Human sacrifice.
The following account of the well-known system of human sacrifice,
formerly in vogue among the Khonds, is contained in Sir James Frazer's
Golden Bough, having been compiled by him from the accounts of Major
Macpherson and Major-General John Campbell, two of the officers
deputed to suppress it:
"The best known case of human sacrifices systematically offered
to ensure good crops is supplied by the Khonds or Kandhs, another
Dravidian race in Bengal. Our knowledge of them is derived from the
accounts written by British officers who, forty or fifty years ago,
were engaged in putting them down. The sacrifices were offered to the
Earth-Goddess, Tari Pennu or Bera Pennu, and were believed to ensure
good crops and immunity from all disease and accidents. In particular
they were considered necessary in the cultivation of turmeric, the
Khonds arguing that the turmeric could not have a deep red colour
without the shedding of blood. The victim or Meriah was acceptable
to the goddess only if he had been purchased, or had been born a
victim--that is the son of a victim father--or had been devoted as
a child by his father or guardian. Khonds in distress often sold
their children for victims, 'considering the beatification of their
souls certain, and their death, for the benefit of mankind, the
most honourable possible.' A man of the Panua (Pan) tribe was once
seen to load a Khond with curses, and finally to spit in his face,
because the Khond had sold for a victim his own child, whom the Panua
had wished to marry. A party of Khonds, who saw this, immediately
pressed forward to comfort the seller of his child, saying, 'Your
child has died that all the world may live, and the Earth-Goddess
herself will wipe that spittle from your face.' The victims were
often kept for years before they were sacrificed. Being regarded as
consecrated beings, they were treated with extreme affection, mingled
with deference, and were welcomed wherever they went. A Meriah youth,
on attaining maturity, was generally given a wife, who was herself
usually a Meriah or victim, and with her he received a portion of land
and farm-stock. Their offspring were also victims. Human sacrifices
were offered to the Earth-Goddess by tribes, branches of tribes,
or villages, both at periodical festivals and on extraordinary
occasions. The periodical sacrifices were generally so arranged by
tribes and divisions of tribes that each head of a family was enabled,
at least once a year, to procure a shred of flesh for his fields,
generally about the time when his chief crop was laid down. The mode
of performing these tribal sacrifices was as follows. Ten or twelve
days before the sacrifice, the victim was devoted by cutting off his
hair, which, until then, had been kept unshorn. Crowds of men and
women assembled to witness the sacrifice; none might be excluded,
since the sacrifice was declared to be for all mankind. It was
preceded by several days of wild revelry and gross debauchery. On
the day before the sacrifice the victim, dressed in a new garment,
was led forth from the village in solemn procession, with music and
dancing, to the Meriah grove, a clump of high forest trees standing a
little way from the village and untouched by the axe. Here they tied
him to a post, which was sometimes placed between two plants of the
sankissar shrub. He was then anointed with oil, ghee and turmeric,
and adorned with flowers; and 'a species of reverence, which it is
not easy to distinguish from adoration,' was paid to him throughout
the day. A great struggle now arose to obtain the smallest relic
from his person; a particle of the turmeric paste with which he was
smeared, or a drop of his spittle, was esteemed of sovereign virtue,
especially by the women. The crowd danced round the post to music,
and addressing the Earth said, 'O God, we offer this sacrifice to you;
give us good crops, seasons, and health.'
"On the last morning the orgies, which had been scarcely interrupted
during the night, were resumed and continued till noon, when they
ceased, and the assembly proceeded to consummate the sacrifice. The
victim was again anointed with oil, and each person touched the
anointed part, and wiped the oil on his own head. In some places they
took the victim in procession round the village, from door to door,
where some plucked hair from his head, and others begged for a drop of
his spittle, with which they anointed their heads. As the victim might
not be bound nor make any show of resistance, the bones of his arms
and, if necessary, his legs were broken; but often this precaution
was rendered unnecessary by stupefying him with opium. The mode of
putting him to death varied in different places. One of the commonest
modes seems to have been strangulation, or squeezing to death. The
branch of a green tree was cleft several feet down the middle; the
victim's neck (in other places, his chest) was inserted in the cleft,
which the priest, aided by his assistants, strove with all his force to
close. Then he wounded the victim slightly with his axe, whereupon the
crowd rushed at the wretch and cut the flesh from the bones, leaving
the head and bowels untouched. Sometimes he was cut up alive. In Chinna
Kimedy he was dragged along the fields, surrounded by the crowd, who,
avoiding his head and intestines, hacked the flesh from his body with
their knives till he died. Another very common mode of sacrifice in the
same district was to fasten the victim to the proboscis of a wooden
elephant, which revolved on a stout post, and, as it whirled round,
the crowd cut the flesh from the victim while life remained. In some
villages Major Campbell found as many as fourteen of these wooden
elephants, which had been used at sacrifices. [515] In one district
the victim was put to death slowly by fire. A low stage was formed,
sloping on either side like a roof; upon it they laid the victim,
his limbs wound round with cords to confine his struggles. Fires were
then lighted and hot brands applied, to make him roll up and down the
slopes of the stage as long as possible; for the more tears he shed
the more abundant would be the supply of rain. Next day the body was
cut to pieces.
"The flesh cut from the victim was instantly taken home by the persons
who had been deputed by each village to bring it. To secure its rapid
arrival it was sometimes forwarded by relays of men, and conveyed with
postal fleetness fifty or sixty miles. In each village all who stayed
at home fasted rigidly until the flesh arrived. The bearer deposited it
in the place of public assembly, where it was received by the priest
and the heads of families. The priest divided it into two portions,
one of which he offered to the Earth-Goddess by burying it in a hole
in the ground with his back turned, and without looking. Then each
man added a little earth to bury it, and the priest poured water on
the spot from a hill gourd. The other portion of flesh he divided
into as many shares as there were heads of houses present. Each head
of a house rolled his shred of flesh in leaves and buried it in his
favourite field, placing it in the earth behind his back without
looking. In some places each man carried his portion of flesh to the
stream which watered his fields, and there hung it on a pole. For
three days thereafter no house was swept; and, in one district, strict
silence was observed, no fire might be given out, no wood cut, and no
strangers received. The remains of the human victim (namely, the head,
bowels and bones) were watched by strong parties the night after the
sacrifice, and next morning they were burned along with a whole sheep,
on a funeral pile. The ashes were scattered over the fields, laid as
paste over the houses and granaries, or mixed with the new corn to
preserve it from insects. Sometimes, however, the head and bones were
buried, not burnt. After the suppression of the human sacrifices,
inferior victims were substituted in some places; for instance, in
the capital of Chinna Kimedy a goat took the place of a human victim.
"In these Khond sacrifices the Meriahs are represented by our
authorities as victims offered to propitiate the Earth-Goddess. But
from the treatment of the victims both before and after death
it appears that the custom cannot be explained as merely a
propitiatory sacrifice. A part of the flesh certainly was offered
to the Earth-Goddess, but the rest of the flesh was buried by each
householder in his fields, and the ashes of the other parts of the
body were scattered over the fields, laid as paste on the granaries,
or mixed with the new corn. These latter customs imply that to the
body of the Meriah there was ascribed a direct or intrinsic power
of making the crops to grow, quite independent of the indirect
efficacy which it might have as an offering to secure the good-will
of the deity. In other words, the flesh and ashes of the victim were
believed to be endowed with a magical or physical power of fertilising
the land. The same intrinsic power was ascribed to the blood and
tears of the Meriah, his blood causing the redness of the turmeric,
and his tears producing rain; for it can hardly be doubted that,
originally at least, the tears were supposed to bring down the rain,
not merely to prognosticate it. Similarly the custom of pouring water
on the buried flesh of the Meriah was no doubt a rain-charm. Again,
magical power as an attribute of the Meriah appears in the sovereign
virtue believed to reside in anything that came from his person, as his
hair or spittle. The ascription of such power to the Meriah indicates
that he was much more than a mere man sacrificed to propitiate a
deity. Once more, the extreme reverence paid him points to the same
conclusion. Major Campbell speaks of the Meriah as 'being regarded
as something more than mortal,' and Major Macpherson says: 'A species
of reverence, which it is not easy to distinguish from adoration, is
paid to him.' In short, the Meriah appears to have been regarded as
divine. As such, he may originally have represented the Earth-Goddess,
or perhaps a deity of vegetation, though in later times he came to
be regarded rather as a victim offered to a deity than as himself an
incarnate god. This later view of the Meriah as a victim rather than
a divinity may perhaps have received undue emphasis from the European
writers who have described the Khond religion. Habituated to the
later idea of sacrifice as an offering made to a god for the purpose
of conciliating his favour, European observers are apt to interpret
all religious slaughter in this sense, and to suppose that wherever
such slaughter takes place, there must necessarily be a deity to whom
the carnage is believed by the slayers to be acceptable. Thus their
preconceived ideas unconsciously colour and warp their descriptions
of savage rites." [516]
13. Last human sacrifices.
In his Ethnographic Notes in Southern India Mr. Thurston states:
[517] "The last recorded Meriah sacrifice in the Ganjam Maliahs
occurred in 1852, and there are still Khonds alive who were present at
it. Twenty-five descendants of persons who were reserved for sacrifice,
but were rescued by Government officers, returned themselves as Meriah
at the Census of 1901. The Khonds have now substituted a buffalo
for a human being. The animal is hewn to pieces while alive, and the
villagers rush home to their villages to bury the flesh in the soil,
and so secure prosperous crops. The sacrifice is not unaccompanied
by risk to the performers, as the buffalo, before dying, frequently
kills one or more of its tormentors. It was stated by the officers
of the Maliah Agency that there was reason to believe that the Raja
of Jaipur (Madras), when he was installed at his father's decease
in 1860-61, sacrificed a girl thirteen years of age at the shrine
of the Goddess Durga in the town of Jaipur. The last attempted human
sacrifice (which was nearly successful) in the Vizagapatam District,
among the Kutia Khonds, was, I believe, in 1880. But the memory of
the abandoned practice is kept green by one of the Khond songs, for a
translation of which we are indebted to Mr. J. E. Friend-Pereira: [518]
At the time of the great Kiabon (Campbell) Sahib's coming, the
country was in darkness; it was enveloped in mist.
Having sent paiks to collect the people of the land, they, having
surrounded them, caught the Meriah sacrificers.
Having caught the Meriah sacrificers, they brought them; and
again they went and seized the evil councillors.
Having seen the chains and shackles, the people were afraid;
murder and bloodshed were quelled.
Then the land became beautiful; and a certain Mokodella
(Macpherson) Sahib came.
He destroyed the lairs of the tigers and bears in the hills and
rocks, and taught wisdom to the people.
After the lapse of a month he built bungalows and schools; and
he advised them to learn reading and law.
They learnt wisdom and reading; they acquired silver and gold. Then
all the people became wealthy.
14. Khond rising in 1882.
In 1882 an armed rising of the Khonds of the Kalahandi State occurred
as a result of agrarian trouble. The Feudatory Chief had encouraged
the settlement in the State of members of the Kolta caste who are
excellent cultivators and keenly acquisitive of land. They soon got
the Khonds heavily indebted to them for loans of food and seed-grain,
and began to oust them from their villages. The Khonds, recognising
with some justice that this process was likely to end in their total
expropriation from the soil, concerted a conspiracy, and in May 1882
rose and murdered the Koltas of a number of villages. The signal
for the outbreak was given by passing a knotted string from village
to village; other signals were a bent arrow and a branch of a mahua
tree. When the Khond leaders were assembled an axe was thrown on to
the ground and each of them grasping it in turn swore to join in the
rising and support his fellows. The taint of cruelty in the tribe is
shown by the fact that the Kutia Khonds, on being requested to join
in the rising, replied that if plunder was the only object they would
not do so, but if the Koltas were to be murdered they agreed. Some
of the murdered Koltas were anointed with turmeric and offered at
temples, the Khonds calling them their goats, and in one case a
Kolta is believed to have been made a Meriah sacrifice to the earth
god. The Khonds appeared before the police, who were protecting a
body of refugees at the village of Norla, with the hair and scalps of
their murdered victims tied to their bows. To the Political Officer,
who was sent to suppress the rising, the Khonds complained that the
Koltas had degraded them from the position of lords of the soil to
that of servants, and justified their plundering of the Koltas on the
ground that they were merely taking back the produce of their own land,
which the Koltas had stolen from them. They said that if they were not
to have back their land Government might either drive them out of the
country or exterminate them, and that Koltas and Khonds could no more
live together than tigers and goats. Another grievance was that a new
Raja of Kalahandi had been installed without their consent having been
obtained. The Political Officer, Mr. Berry, hanged seven of the Khond
ringleaders and effected a settlement of their grievances. Peace was
restored and has not since been broken. At a later date in the same
year, 1882, and independently of the rising, a Khond landholder was
convicted and executed for having offered a five-year-old girl as a
Meriah sacrifice.
15. Language.
The Khond or Kandh language, called Kui by the Khonds themselves, is
spoken by rather more than half of the total body of the tribe. It is
much more nearly related to Telugu than is Gondi and has no written
character. [519]
Kir
1. Origin and Traditions.
Kir. [520]--A cultivating caste found principally in the Hoshangabad
District. They numbered about 7000 persons in 1911. The Kirs claim
to have come from the Jaipur State, and this is borne out by the
fact that they still retain a dialect of Marwari, though they have
been living among the Hindi-speaking population of Hoshangabad for
several generations. According to their traditions they immigrated
into the Central Provinces when Raja Man was ruling at Jaipur. He was a
contemporary of Akbar's and died in A.D. 1615. [521] This story tallies
with Colonel Sleeman's statement that the first important influx of
Hindus into the Nerbudda valley took place in the time of Akbar. [522]
The Kirs are akin to the Kirars, and at the India Census of 1901 were
amalgamated with them. Like the Kirars they claim to be descended from
the mythical Raja Karan of Jaipur. Their story is that on a summer day
Mahadeo and Parvati created a melon-garden, and Mahadeo made a man
and a woman out of a piece of kusha grass (Eragrostis cynosuroides)
to tend the garden. From these the Kirs are descended. The name may
possibly be a corruption of karar, a river-bank.
2. Marriage.
The Kirs have no endogamous divisions. For the purpose of marriage
the caste is divided into 12 1/2 gotras or sections. A man must not
marry within his own gotra or in that to which his mother belonged. The
names of the 12 gotras are as follows: Namchuria, Daima, Bania, Baman,
Nayar, Jat, Huwad, Gadri, Loharia, Hekdya, Mochi and Mali, while the
half-gotra contains the Bhats or genealogists of the caste, who are
not allowed to marry with the other subdivisions and have now formed
one of their own. Of the twelve names of gotras at least seven--Baman
(Brahman), Bania, Mali, Mochi, Gadri (Gadaria), Loharia and Jat--are
derived from other castes, and this fact is sufficient to show that
the origin of the Kirs is occupational, and that they are made up of
recruits from different castes. Infant-marriage is customary, but no
penalty is incurred if a girl remains unmarried after puberty. Only the
poorest members of the caste, however, fail to marry their daughters at
an early age. For the marriage of girls who are left unprovided for,
a subscription is raised among the caste-fellows in accordance with
the usual Hindu practice, the giving of money for this purpose being
considered to be an especially pious act. At the time of the betrothal
a bride-price called chari, varying between Rs. 14 and Rs. 20, is paid
by the boy's father, and the deed of betrothal, called lagan, is then
drawn up in the presence of the caste panchayat who are regaled with
liquor purchased out of the bride-price. A peculiarity of the marriage
ceremony is that the bridegroom is taken to the bride's house riding
on a buffalo. This custom is noteworthy, since other Hindus will
not usually ride on a buffalo, as being the animal on which Yama,
the god of death, rides. After the marriage the bride returns to
the bridegroom's house with the wedding party and stays there for
eight days, during which period she worships the family gods of her
father-in-law's house. The cost of the marriage is usually Rs. 60
for the boy's party and Rs. 40 for the girl's. But a widower on his
remarriage has to spend double this sum. The ceremonies called Gauna
and Rauna are both performed after the marriage. The former generally
takes place within a year, the bride being dressed in special new
clothes called bes, and sent with ceremony to her husband's house on
an auspicious day fixed by a Brahman. She remains there for two months
and the marriage is consummated, when she returns to her father's
house. Four months afterwards the bridegroom again goes to fetch
her and takes her away permanently, this being the Rauna ceremony. No
social stigma attaches to polygamy, and divorce is allowed on the usual
grounds. Widow-marriage is permitted, the ceremony consisting in giving
new clothes and ornaments to the widow and feeding the Panch for a day.
3. Religion.
The caste worships especially Bhairon and Devi, and each section of
it reveres a special incarnation of Devi, and the Bhairon of some
particular village. Thus, for instance, the Namchurias worship the
goddess Parvati and the Bhairon of Jaria Gowara; the Bania, Nayar,
Hekdya and Mochi septs worship Chamunda Mata and the Bhairon of Jaipur,
and so on. Members of the caste get triangular, rectangular or round
pieces of silver impressed with the images of these gods, and wear them
suspended by a thread from their necks. A similar respect is paid to
the Ahut or the spirit of a relative who has met with a violent death
or died without progeny or as a bachelor, the spirits of such persons
being always prone to trouble their living relatives. In order to
appease them songs are sung in their praise on important festivals,
the members of the family staying awake the whole night, and wearing
their images on a silver piece round the neck. When they eat and
drink they first touch the food with the image by way of offering it
to the dead, so that their spirits may be appeased and refrain from
harassing the living. Kirs revere and worship the cow and the pipal
tree. No Kir may sell a cow to a butcher. A man who is about to die
makes a present of a cow to a Brahman or a temple in order that by
catching hold of the tail of this cow he may be able to cross the
horrible river Vaitarni, the Styx of Hinduism, which bars the passage
to the nether regions. The Kirs believe in magic, and some members of
the caste profess to cure snake-bite. The poison-curer, when sent for,
has a small space cleared and plastered with cowdung, on which he draws
lines with wheat flour. A new earthen pot is then brought and placed
over the drawing. On the pot the operator draws a figure of Hanuman
in vermilion, and another figure on the nearest wall facing the pot. A
brass plate is put over the pot and the person who has been bitten by
the snake is brought near it. The snake-charmer then begins to name
various gods and goddesses and to play upon the plate, which emits, it
is said, a very melancholy sound. This performance is called bharni and
is supposed to charm all beings, even gods and serpents. The snake who
has inflicted the bite is then believed to appear in an invisible form
to listen to the bharni, and to enter into the sufferer. The sufferer
is questioned, being supposed to be possessed by the snake, and asked
why the bite was inflicted and how the snake can be appeased. The
replies are thought to be given by the snake, who explains that he
was trampled on, or something to that effect, and asks that milk or
some sweet-smelling article be placed at his hole. The offering is
promised, and the snake is asked not to kill the sufferer, to which he
agrees. The snake usually gives the history of his former human birth,
stating his name and village and the cause of his transmigration into
the body of a serpent. The Kirs believe that human beings who commit
offences are re-born as snakes, and they think that snakes live for
a thousand years. After giving this information the snake departs,
and the person who has been bitten is supposed to recover. The chief
festivals of the Kirs are Diwali and Sitala Athain. They worship
their ancestors at Diwali, making offerings of cooked food, kusha
grass and lamps made of dough at the river-side. The head of the
family sprinkles water and throws the kusha grass into the river,
lights the wicks placed in the lamps and burns a little food in them,
calling on the names of his ancestors. The rest of the food he takes
home and distributes to his caste-fellows. Sitala Athain is observed
on the seventh day of the dark fortnight of Chait. Devi is worshipped
at night with offerings of milk and whey, and on the next day no food
is cooked, the remains of that of the previous day being eaten cold,
and the whole day is devoted to singing the praises of the goddess.
4. Birth and death ceremonies.
The Kirs usually burn their dead, but children under twelve are
buried. The ashes and bones are either sent to the Ganges or consigned
to the nearest river or lake. Children have only one name, which is
given on the seventh day after birth by a Brahman. During the birth
ceremony the husband's younger brother catches hold of the skirt of
the child's mother, who on this pays him a few pice and pulls away her
cloth. If this custom has any meaning it is apparently in symbolical
memory of polyandry, the women bribing her husband's younger brother
so that he may not claim the child as his own.
5. Food, dress and occupation.
The Kirs do not take food from any caste except the Dadharia Brahmans,
who are Marwaris, and act as their family priests. Brahmans and
other high castes will drink water brought in a brass vessel by
a Kir. The Kirs eat no meat except goats' flesh and fish, but
are much addicted to liquor, which is always conspicuous at their
feasts and festivals. They have a caste panchayat, which deals with
the ordinary offences. Temporary excommunication is removed by the
offender giving three feasts, on which an amount varying with his
social position and means must be expended. The first of these is
eaten on a river-bank, the second in a garden, and the third, which
confers complete readmission to caste intercourse, in the offender's
house. The Kirs live along river-banks, where they grow melons in the
sand and castor and vegetables in alluvial soil. They are considered
very skilful at raising these crops, and fully appreciate the use of
manure. For their own consumption they usually grow bajra and arhar,
being, like all Marwaris, very fond of bajra. The members of the
caste are easily distinguished by their dress, the men wearing a white
mirzai or short coat, a dhoti reaching to the knees, and a head-cloth
placed in a crooked position on the head, so as to leave the hair
of the scalp uncovered. They wear necklaces of black wooden beads,
besides the images of Bhairon and Devi. The women wear Jaipur chunris
or over-cloths and ghanghras or skirts. They have red lac bangles on
their wrists and arms above the elbow, and ornaments called ramjhul on
their legs. The women have a gait like that of men. The speech of the
Kirs sounds like Marwari, and they are peculiar in their preference
for riding on buffaloes.
Kirar
1. Origin and traditions.
Kirar [523] or Kirad.--A cultivating caste found in the Narsinghpur,
Hoshangabad, Betul, Seoni, Chhindwara and Nagpur Districts. They
numbered 48,000 persons in 1911. The Kirars claim to be Dhakar
or bastard Rajputs, and in 1891 more than half of them returned
themselves under this designation. About a thousand persons who were
returned as Dhakar Rajputs from Hoshangabad in 1901 are probably
Kirars. The caste say that they immigrated from Gwalior, and this
statement seems to be correct, as about 66,000 of them are found in
that State. They claim to have left Gwalior as early as Samvat 1525
or A.D. 1468, when Alru and Dalru, the leaders of the migration into
the Central Provinces, abandoned their native village, Doderi Kheda in
Gwalior, and settled in Chandon, a village in the Sohagpur tahsil of
Hoshangabad. But according to the story related to Mr. (Sir Charles)
Elliott, the migration took place in A.D. 1650 or at the beginning
of Aurangzeb's reign. [524] He quotes the names of the leaders as
Alrawat and Dalrawat, and says that the migration took place from the
Dholpur country, but this is probably a mistake, as none of the caste
are now found in Dholpur. Elliott stated that he could find no traces
of any cultivating caste having settled in Hoshangabad as far back as
Akbar's time, though Sir W. Sleeman was of opinion that the first great
migration into the Nerbudda valley took place in that reign. The truth
is probably that the valley began to be regularly colonised by Hindus
during the years that Aurangzeb spent at Burhanpur and in the Deccan,
and the immigration of the Kirars may most reasonably be attributed to
this period. The Kirars, Gujars, and Raghuvansis apparently entered
the Central Provinces together, and the fact that they still smoke
from the same huqqa and take water from each other's drinking vessels
may be a reminiscence of this bond of fellowship. All these castes
claim, and probably with truth, to be degraded Rajputs. The Kirars'
version is that they took to widow-marriage and were consequently
degraded. According to another story they were driven from their
native place by a Muhammadan invasion. Mr. J. D. Cunningham says that
the word Kirar in Central India literally means dalesmen or foresters,
but during the lapse of centuries has become the name of a caste. [525]
Another derivation is from Kirar, a corn-chandler, an occupation which
they may originally have followed in combination with agriculture. In
the Punjab the name Kirar appears to be given to all the western
or Punjabi traders as distinct from a Bania of Hindustan, and is so
used even in the Kangra hills, but the Arora, who is the trader par
excellence of the south-west of the Punjab, is the person to whom the
term is most commonly applied. [526] As a curiosity of folk-etymology
it may be stated that some derive the caste-name from the fact that a
holy sage's wife, who was about to be delivered of a child, was being
pursued by a Rakshas or demon, and fell over the steep bank (karar)
of a river and was thereupon delivered. The child was consequently
called Karar and became the ancestor of the Kirar caste. The name
may in fact be derived from the habit which the Kirars have in some
localities of cultivating on the banks of rivers, like the Kirs,
who are probably a branch of the same caste.
2. Marriage.
In the Central Provinces the Kirars have no regular subcastes. In
Chhindwara a subdivision is in course of formation from
the illegitimate offspring of male Kirars, who are known as
Vidur or Saoneria. The Dhakar Kirars do not marry or eat with
Saonerias. The section-names of the Kirars are not eponymous, as
might be anticipated from their claim to Rajput descent, but they
are generally territorial. Instances are Bankhedi, from Bankhedi,
a village in Hoshangabad; Garhya, from Garha, near Jubbulpore; and
Teharia, from Tehri, a State in Bundelkhand. Other section-names are
Chaudharia, from Chaudhari, headman; Khandait or swordsman, and Banda,
or tailless. Some gotras are derived from the names of other castes or
subcastes, or of Rajput septs, as Loharia, from Lohar (blacksmith);
Chauria, a subcaste of Kurmis; Lilorhia, a subcaste of Gujars;
and Solanki and Chauhan, the names of Rajput septs. These names may
probably be taken to indicate the mixed origin of the caste, and record
the admission of families from other castes. A man cannot marry in
his own gotra nor in the families of his grandmother, paternal uncle
or maternal aunt to three degrees of consanguinity. Boys and girls
are usually married between the ages of five and twelve. Marriages
take place so long as the planet Venus or Shukra is visible at
nights, i.e. between the months of Aghan (November) and Asarh
(June). The proposal for marriage proceeds from the boy's father,
who ascertains the wishes of the girl's father through a barber. If
the latter is willing, the Sagai or betrothal ceremony is performed
at the girl's house. The boy's father proceeds there with a rupee,
two pice and a cocoanut-core, which he presents to the girl, taking
her into his lap. The fathers of the boy and girl embrace, and this
seals the compact of betrothal. The date of the marriage is usually
fixed in consultation with a Brahman, who computes an auspicious
day from the ceremonial names of the couple. But if it is desired
to perform the marriage at once, it may take place on Akhatij, or
the third day of the bright fortnight of Baisakh (April-May), which
is always auspicious. The lagan or paper containing the date of the
marriage is drawn up ceremonially by a Brahman of the girl's house,
and he also writes another, giving the names of the relatives who
are selected to officiate at the ceremony. The first ceremony at the
marriage is that of Mangar Mati, or bringing earth for ovens, the
earth being worshipped by a burnt offering of butter and sugar, and
then dug up by the Sawasin or girl's attendant for the marriage, and
carried home by several women in baskets. This is done in the morning,
and in the evening the boy and girl in their respective houses are
anointed with oil and turmeric, a little being first thrown on the
ground for the family gods. This ceremony is repeated every evening
for some three to fifteen days. The mandwa or marriage-shed is then
erected at both houses, under which the ceremony of tel or touching the
feet, knees, shoulders and forehead of the boy and the girl with oil is
performed. Next day the kham or marriage-post is placed in the mandwa,
a little rice, turmeric and two pice being put in the hole in which
it is fixed, and the shed is covered with leaves. The bridegroom,
clad in a blanket and with date-leaves tied on his head, is taken
out for the binaiki or the marriage procession on horseback. Before
mounting, he bows to Mata or Devi, Mahabir, Hardaul Lala, and Patel
Deo, the spirit of the deceased malguzar of the village. He is taken
round to the houses of friends and relatives, who present him with
a few pice. On his return he bathes and puts on the marriage dress,
which consists of a red or yellow jama or gown, a pair of trousers,
a pagri, a maur or marriage crown and a cloth about his waist. A few
women's ornaments are put on his neck, and he is furnished with a katar
or dagger, and in its absence a nutcracker or knife. He then comes
out of the house and the parchhan ceremony is performed, the boy's
mother putting her nipple in his mouth and giving him a little ghi
and sugar to eat as a symbol of the termination of his infancy. The
Barat or marriage procession then sets out for the girl's village,
being met on its outskirts by the bride's father, and the forehead of
the bridegroom is marked with sandalwood paste. The bridegroom touches
the Mandwa with his hand or throws a bamboo fan over it and returns
with his followers to the Janwasa or lodging given to the Barat. Next
morning the ceremony of Chadhao or decorating the bride is performed,
and the bridegroom's party give her the clothes and ornaments which
they have brought for her, these being first offered to an image of
Ganesh made of cowdung. The bride is then mounted on a horse provided
by the bridegroom's party and goes round to the houses of the friends
of the family, accompanied by music and the women of her party, and
receives small presents. The Bhanwar ceremony is performed during the
night, the couple being seated near the marriage-post with their backs
to the house. A ball of kneaded flour is put in the girl's right hand,
which is then placed on the right hand of the bridegroom, and the
bride's brother pours water over their hands. The bride's maternal
uncle and aunt, with the skirts of their clothes tied together, step
forward and wash the feet of the couple and give them presents. The
other relatives follow suit, and this completes the ceremony of Paon
Pakhurai or Daija, that is giving the dowry. The couple then go round
the marriage-post seven times, the girl leading for the first four
rounds and the boy for the last three. This is the Bhanwar ceremony
or binding portion of the marriage, and the polar star is called
on to make it inviolable. The bridegroom's party are then feasted,
the women meantime singing obscene songs. The bride goes back to the
bridegroom's house and stays there for a few days, after which she
returns to her parents' house and does not leave it again until the
gauna ceremony is performed. On this occasion the bridegroom's party
go to the girl's house with a present of sweets and clothes which
they present to her parents, and they then take away the girl. Even
after this she is again sent back to her parents' house, and the
bridegroom comes a second time to fetch her, on which occasion the
parents of the bride have to make a present in return for the sweets
and clothes previously given to them. The marriage expenses are said
to average between Rs. 50 and Rs. 100, but the extravagance of Kirars
is notorious. Sir R. Craddock says [527] that they are much given to
display, the richer members of the caste being heavily weighted with
jewellery, while a well-to-do Kirar will think nothing of spending
Rs. 1000 on his house, or if he is a landowner Rs. 5000. Extravagance
ruins a great many of the Kirar community. This statement, however,
perhaps applies to those of the Nagpur District rather than to their
comrades of the Nerbudda valley and Satpura highlands. The remarriage
of widows is permitted, and the widow may marry either her husband's
younger brother or any other member of the caste at her choice. The
ceremony takes place at night, the woman being brought to her husband's
house by the back door and given a new cloth and bangles. Turmeric
is then applied to her body, and the clothes of the couple are tied
together. When a bachelor marries a widow, he must first be married to
an akau plant (swallow-wort). Divorce may be effected for infidelity
on the part of the wife or for serious disagreement. A divorced woman
may marry again. Polygamy is allowed, and in Chhindwara is said to
be restricted to three wives, all living within the District, but
elsewhere no such limitation is enforced. A man seldom, however,
takes more than one wife, except for the sake of children.
3. Religion.
They worship the ordinary Hindu gods and especially Devi, to whom they
offer female kids. During the months of Baisakh and Jeth (April-June)
those living in Betul and Chhindwara make a pilgrimage to the Nag Deo
or cobra god, who is supposed to have his seat somewhere on the border
of the two Districts. Every third year they also take their cattle
outside the village, and turning their faces in the direction of the
Nag Deo sprinkle a little water and kill goats and fowls. They worship
the Patel Deo or spirit of the deceased malguzar of the village only
on the occasion of marriages. They consider the service of the village
headman to be their traditional occupation besides agriculture, and
they therefore probably pay this special compliment to the spirit of
their employer. They worship their implements of husbandry on some
convenient day, which must be a Wednesday or a Sunday, after they
have sown the spring crops. Those who grow sugarcane offer a goat or
a cocoanut to the crop before it is cut, and a similar offering is
made to the stock of grain after harvest, so that its bulk may not
decrease. They observe the ordinary festivals, and like other Hindus
cease to observe one on which a death has occurred in the family,
until some happy event such as the birth of a child, or even of a
calf, supervenes on the same day. Unmarried children under seven
and persons dying of smallpox, snake-bite or cholera are buried,
and others are either buried or burnt according to the convenience
of the family. Males are placed on the pyre or in the grave on their
faces and females on their backs, with their feet pointing to the
south in each case. In some places the corpse is buried stark naked,
and in others with a piece of cloth wrapped round it, and two pice are
usually placed in the grave to buy the site. When a corpse is burnt
the head is touched with a bamboo before it is laid on the funeral
pyre, by way of breaking it in and allowing the soul to escape if it
has not already done so. For three days the mourners place food, water
and tobacco in cups for the disembodied soul. Mourning is observed for
children for three days and for adults from seven to ten days. During
this period the mourners refrain from luxurious food such as flesh,
turmeric, vegetables, milk and sweets; they do not wear shoes, nor
change their clothes, and males are not shaved until the last day of
mourning. Balls of rice are then offered to the dead, and the caste
people are feasted. Oblations of water are offered to ancestors in
the month of Kunwar (September-October).
4. Social customs.
The caste do not admit outsiders. In the matter of food they eat flesh
and fish, but abstain from liquor and from eating fowls, except in
the Maratha country. They will take pakka food or that cooked without
water from Gujars, Raghuvansis and Lodhis. In the Nagpur country,
where the difference between katcha and pakka food is not usually
observed, they will not take it from any but Maratha Brahmans. Abirs
and Dhimars are said to eat with them, and the northern Brahmans will
take water from them. They have a caste panchayat or committee with
a hereditary president called Sethia, whose business it is to eat
first when admitting a person who has been put out of caste. Killing
a cat or a squirrel, selling a cow to a butcher, growing hemp or
selling shoes are offences which entail temporary excommunication
from caste. A woman who commits adultery with a man of another caste
is permanently excluded. The Kirars are tall in stature and well
and stoutly built. They have regular features and are generally of a
fair colour. They are regarded as quarrelsome and untruthful, and as
tyrannical landlords. As agriculturists they are supposed to be of
encroaching tendencies, and the proverbial prayer attributed to them
is, "O God, give me two bullocks, and I shall plough up the common
way." Another proverb quoted in Mr. Standen's Betul Settlement Report,
in illustration of their avarice, is "If you put a rupee between two
Kirars, they become like mast buffaloes in Kunwar." The men always wear
turbans, while the women may be distinguished in the Maratha country
by their adherence to the dress of the northern Districts. Girls are
tattooed on the back of their hands before they begin to live with
their husbands. A woman may not name her husband's elder brother or
even touch his clothes or the vessels in which he has eaten food. They
are not distinguished for cleanliness.
5. Occupation.
Agriculture and the service of the village headman are the traditional
occupations of Kirars. In Nagpur they are considered to be very good
cultivators, but they have no special reputation in the northern
Districts. About a thousand of them are landowners, and the large
majority are tenants. They grow garden crops and sugarcane, but
abstain from the cultivation of hemp.
Kohli
1. General notice.
Kohli.--A small caste of cultivators found in the Marathi-speaking
tracts of the Wainganga Valley, comprised in the Bhandara and Chanda
Districts. They numbered about 26,000 persons in 1911. The Kohlis are a
notable caste as being the builders of the great irrigation reservoirs
or tanks, for which the Wainganga Valley is celebrated. The water is
used for irrigating rice and sugarcane, the latter being the favourite
crop of the Kohlis. The origin of the caste is somewhat doubtful. The
name closely resembles that of the Koiri caste of market-gardeners
in northern India; and the terms Kohiri and Kohli are used there
as variations of the caste name Koiri. The caste themselves have a
tradition that they were brought to Bhandara from Benares by one of
the Gond kings of Chanda on his return from a visit to that place;
[528] and the Kohlis of Bhandara say that their first settlement in
the Central Provinces was at Lanji, which lies north of Bhandara in
Balaghat. But on the other hand all that is known of their language,
customs, and sept or family names points to a purely Maratha
origin, the caste being in all these respects closely analogous to
the Kunbis. The Settlement Officer of Chanda, Colonel Lucie Smith,
stated that they thought their forefathers came from the south. They
tie their head-cloths in a similar fashion to the Gandlis, who are
oilmen from the Telugu country. If they belonged to the south of
India they might be an offshoot from the well-known Koli tribe of
Bombay, and this hypothesis appears the more probable. As a general
rule castes from northern India settling in the Maratha country have
not completely abandoned their ancestral language and customs even
after a residence of several centuries. In the case of such castes
as the Panwars and Bhoyars their foreign extraction can be detected
at once; and if the Kohlis had come from Hindustan the rule would
probably hold good with them. On the other hand the Kolis have in
some parts of Bombay now taken to cultivation and closely resemble
the Kunbis. In Satara it is said [529] that they associate and
occasionally eat with Kunbis, and their social and religious customs
resemble those of the Kunbi caste. They are quiet, orderly, settled and
hard-working. Besides fishing they work ferries along the Krishna, are
employed in villages as water-carriers, and grow melons in river-beds
with much skill. The Kolis of Bombay are presumably the same tribe
as the Kols of Chota Nagpur, and they probably migrated to Gujarat
along the Vindhyan plateau, where they are found in considerable
numbers, and over the hills of Rajputana and Central India. The Kols
are one of the most adaptive of all the non-Aryan tribes, and when
they reached the sea they may have become fishermen and boatmen, and
practised these callings also in rivers. From plying on rivers they
might take to cultivating melons and garden-crops on the stretches
of silt left uncovered in their beds in the dry season, which is
the common custom of the boating and fishing castes. And from this,
as seen in Satara, some of them attained to regular cultivation and,
modelling themselves on the Kunbis, came to have nearly the same
status. They may thus have migrated to Chanda and Bhandara with the
Kunbis, as their language and customs would indicate, and retaining
their preference for irrigated and garden-crops have become expert
growers of sugarcane. The description which has been received of
the Kohlis of Bhandara would be rather favourable than otherwise
to the hypothesis of their ultimate origin from the Kol tribe,
allowing for their having acquired the Maratha language and customs
from a lengthened residence in Bombay. It has been mentioned above
that the Kohlis have a legend of their ancestors having come from
Benares, but this story appears to be not infrequently devised as a
means of obtaining increased social estimation, Benares being the
principal centre of orthodox Hinduism. Thus the Dangris, a small
caste of vegetable- and melon-growers who are certainly an offshoot
of the Kunbis, and therefore of Maratha extraction, have the same
story. As regards the tradition of the Bhandara Kohlis that their
first settlement was at Lanji, this may well have been the case even
though they came from the south, as Lanji was an important place and a
centre of administration under the Marathas. It is probable, however,
that they first came to Chanda and from here spread north to Lanji,
as, if they had entered Bhandara through Wardha and Nagpur, some of
them would probably have remained in these Districts.
2. Marriage and other customs.
The Kohlis have no subcastes. They are divided into the usual
exogamous groups or septs with the object of preventing marriages
between relations, and these have Marathi names of the territorial or
titular type. Among them may be mentioned Handifode (one who breaks a
cooking vessel), Sahre (from shahar, a town), Nagpure (from Nagpur),
Shende (from shend, cowdung), Parwate (from parwat, mountain), Hatwade
(an obstinate man), Mungus-mare (one who killed a mongoose), Pustode
(one who broke a bullock's tail), and so on. Marriage within the sept
is prohibited. A brother's daughter may be married to his sister's
son, but not vice versa. Girls are usually wedded before arriving
at adolescence, more especially as there is a great demand for
brides. Like other castes engaged in spade cultivation, the Kohlis
marry two or more wives when they can afford it, a wife being a
more willing servant than a hired labourer, apart from the other
advantages. If his wives do not get on together, the Kohli gives
them separate huts in his courtyard, where each lives and cooks her
meals for herself. He will also allot them separate tasks, assigning
to one the care of his household affairs, to another the watching of
his sugarcane plot, and so on. If he does this successfully the wives
are kept well at work and have not time to quarrel. It is said that
whenever a Kohli has a bountiful harvest he looks out for another
wife. This naturally leads to a scarcity of women and the payment of
a substantial bride-price. The recognised amount is Rs. 30, but this
is only formal, and from Rs. 50 to Rs. 150 may be given according
to the attractions of the girl, the largest sum being paid for a
woman of full age who can go and live with her husband at once. As a
consequence of this state of things poor men are sometimes unable to
get wives at all. Though they pay highly for their wives the Kohlis
are averse to extravagant expenditure on weddings, and all marriages
in a village are generally celebrated on the same day once a year,
the number of guests at each being thus necessarily restricted. The
officiating Brahman ascends the roof of a house and, after beating a
brass dish to warn the parties, repeats the marriage texts as the sun
goes down. At this moment all the couples place garlands of flowers
on each other's shoulders, each bridegroom ties the mangal-sutram
or necklace of black beads round his bride's neck, and the weddings
are completed. The bride's brother winds a thread round the marriage
crowns of the couple and is given two rupees for untying it. The
services of a Brahman are not indispensable, and an elder of the
caste may officiate as priest. Next day the barber and washerman
take the bridegroom and bride in their arms and dance, holding them,
to the accompaniment of music, while the women throw red rose-powder
over the couple. At their weddings the Kohlis make models in wood of
a Chamar's rampi or knife and khurpa or scraper, this custom perhaps
indicating some connection with the Chamars; or it may have arisen
simply on account of the important assistance rendered by the Chamar
to the cultivation of sugarcane, in supplying the mot or leather bag
for raising water from the well. After the wedding is over a string
of hemp from a cot is tied round the necks of the pair, and their
maternal uncles then run and offer it at the shrine of Marai Mata,
the goddess of cholera. Widows with any remains of youth or personal
attractions always marry again, the ceremony being held at midnight
according to the customary ritual of the Maratha Districts. [530]
Sometimes the husband does not attend at all, and the widow is united
to a sword or dagger as representing him. Otherwise the widow may
be conducted to her new husband's house by five other widows, and
in this case they halt at a stream by the way and the bangles and
beads are broken from off her neck and wrists. On account, perhaps,
of the utility of their wives, and the social temptations which beset
them from being continually abroad at work, the Kohlis are lenient to
conjugal offences, and a woman going wrong even with an outsider will
be taken back by her husband and only a trifling punishment imposed by
the caste. A Kohli can also keep a woman of any other caste, except
of those regarded as impure, without incurring any censure. Divorce
is very seldom resorted to and involves severe penalties to both
parties. As among the Panwars, a wife retains any property she may
bring to her husband and her wedding gifts at her own disposal,
this separate portion being known as khamora. The caste burn their
dead when they can afford it, placing the head of the corpse to the
north on the pyre. The bodies of those who have died from cholera
or smallpox are buried. Like the Panwars it is the custom of the
Kohlis on bathing after a funeral to have a meal of cakes and sugar
on the river-bank, a practice which is looked down on by orthodox
Hindus. After a month or so the deceased person is considered to be
united to the ancestors, and when he was the head of the family his
successor is inducted to the position by the presentation of a new
head-cloth and a silver bangle. The bereaved family are then formally
escorted to the weekly market and are considered to have resumed
their regular social relations. The Kohlis revere the ordinary Hindu
deities, and on the day of Dasahra they worship their axe, sickle and
ploughshare by washing them and making an offering of rice, flowers
and turmeric. The axe is no doubt included because it serves to cut
the wood for fencing the sugarcane garden.
3. The Kohlis as tank-builders.
The Kohlis were the builders of the great tanks of the Bhandara
District. The most important of these are Nawegaon with an area of
five square miles and a circumference of seventeen, and Seoni, over
seven miles round, while smaller tanks are counted by thousands. Though
the largest are the work of the Kohlis, many of the others have been
constructed by the Panwars of this tract, who have also much aptitude
for irrigation. Built as they were without technical engineering
knowledge, the tanks form an enduring monument to the native ability
and industry of these enterprising cultivators. "Working," Mr. Danks
remarks, [531] "without instruments, unable even to take a level,
finding out their mistakes by the destruction of the works they had
built, ever repairing, reconstructing, altering, they have raised in
every village a testimony to their wisdom, their industry and their
perseverance." Although Nawegaon tank has a water area of seven square
miles, the combined length of the two artificial embankments is only
760 yards, and this demonstrates the great skill with which the site
has been selected. At some of the tanks men are stationed day and
night during the rainy season to see if the embankment is anywhere
weakened by the action of the water, and in that case to give the
alarm to the village by beating a drum. The Nawegaon tank is said to
have been built at the commencement of the eighteenth century by one
Kolu Patel Kohli. As might be expected, Kolu Patel has been deified
as Kolasur Deo, and his shrine is on one of the peaks surrounding the
tank. Seven other peaks are known as the Sat Bahini or 'Seven Sisters,'
and it is said that these deities assisted Kolu in building the tank,
by coming and working on the embankment at night when the labourers had
left. Some whitish-yellow stones on Kolasur's hill are said to be the
baskets of the Seven Sisters in which they carried earth. "The Kohli,"
Mr. Napier states, [532] "sacrifices all to his sugarcane, his one
ambition and his one extravagance being to build a large reservoir
which will contain water for the irrigation of his sugarcane during
the long, hot months." Each rates the other according to the size of
his tank and the strength of its embankment. Under the Gond kings a
man who built a tank received a grant of the fields lying below it
either free of revenue or on a very light assessment. Such grants
were known as Tukm, and were probably a considerable incentive to
tank-building. Unfortunately sugarcane, formerly a most profitable
crop, has been undersold by the canal- and tank-irrigated product of
northern India, and at present scarcely repays cultivation.
4. Agricultural customs.
The Kohli villages are managed on a somewhat patriarchal system,
and the dealings between proprietors and cultivators are regulated
by their own custom without much regard to the rules imposed by
Government. Mr. Napier says of them: [533] "The Kohlis are very good
landlords as a general rule; but in their dealings with their tenants
and their labourers follow their own customs, while the provisions
of the Tenancy Act often remain in abeyance. They admit no tenant
right in land capable of being irrigated for sugarcane, and change
the tenants as they please; and in many villages a large number of
the labourers are practically serfs, being fed, clothed and married
by their employers, for whom they and their children work all their
lives without any fixed wages. These customs are acquiesced in by all
parties, and, so far as I could learn, there was no discontent. They
have a splendid caste discipline, and their quarrels are settled
expeditiously by their panchayats or committees without reference to
courts of law."
5. General characteristics.
In appearance and character the Kohlis cannot be said to show much
trace of distinction. The men wear a short white bandi or coat, and
a small head-cloth only three feet long. This is often scarcely more
than a handkerchief which tightly covers the crown, and terminates
in knots, inelegant and cheap. The women wear glass bangles only on
the left hand and brass or silver ones on the right, no doubt because
glass ornaments would interfere with their work and get broken. Their
cloth is drawn over the left shoulder instead of the right, a custom
which they share with Gonds, Kapewars and Buruds. In appearance the
caste are generally dirty. They are ignorant themselves and do not care
that their children should be educated. Their custom of polygamy leads
to family quarrels and excessive subdivision of property; thus in one
village, Ashti, the proprietary right is divided into 192 shares. On
this account they are seldom well-to-do. Their countenances are of
a somewhat inferior type and generally dark in colour. In character
they are peaceful and amenable, and have the reputation of being
very respectful to Government officials, who as a consequence look
on them with favour. 'Their heart is good,' a tahsildar [534] of
the Bhandara District remarked. If a guest comes to a Kohli, the
host himself offers to wash his feet, and if the guest be a Brahman,
will insist on doing so. They eat flesh and fowls, but abstain from
liquor. In social status they are on a level with the Malis and a
little below the regular cultivating castes.
KOL
[This article is based mainly on Colonel Dalton's classical description
of the Mundas and Hos in the Ethnology of Bengal and on Sir H. Risley's
article on Munda in The Tribes and Castes of Bengal. Extracts have
also been made from Mr. Sarat Chandra Roy's exhaustive account in The
Mundas and their Country (Calcutta, 1912). Information on the Mundas
and Kols of the Central Provinces has been collected by Mr. Hira Lal in
Raigarh and by the author in Mandla, and a monograph has been furnished
by Mr. B. C. Mazumdar, Pleader, Sambalpur. It should be mentioned
that most of the Kols of the Central Provinces have abandoned the
old tribal customs and religion described by Colonel Dalton, and are
rapidly coming to resemble an ordinary low Hindu caste.]
List of Paragraphs
1. General notice. Strength of the Kols in India.
2. Names of the tribe.
3. Origin of the Kolarian tribes.
4. The Kolarians and Dravidians.
5. Date of the Dravidian immigration.
6. Strength of the Kols in the Central Provinces.
7. Legend of origin.
8. Tribal subdivisions.
9. Totemism.
10. Marriage customs.
11. Divorce and widow-marriage.
12. Religion.
13. Witchcraft.
14. Funeral rites.
15. Inheritance.
16. Physical appearance.
17. Dances.
18. Social rules and offences.
19. The caste panchayat.
20. Names.
21. Occupation.
22. Language.
1. General notice. Strength of the Kols in India.
Kol, Munda, Ho.--A great tribe of Chota Nagpur, which has given its
name to the Kolarian family of tribes and languages. A part of the
District of Singhbhum near Chaibasa is named the Kolhan as being
the special home of the Larka Kols, but they are distributed all
over Chota Nagpur, whence they have spread to the United Provinces,
Central Provinces and Central India. It seems probable also that the
Koli tribe of Gujarat may be an offshoot of the Kols, who migrated
there by way of Central India. If the total of the Kols, Mundas and Hos
or Larka Kols be taken together they number about a million persons
in India. The real strength of the tribe is, however, much greater
than this. As shown in the article on that tribe, the Santals are
a branch of the Kols, who have broken off from the parent stock and
been given a separate designation by the Hindus. They numbered two
millions in 1911. The Bhumij (400,000) are also probably a section of
the tribe. Sir H. Risley [535] states that they are closely allied to
if not identical with the Mundas. In some localities they intermarry
with the Mundas and are known as Bhumij Munda. [536] If the Kolis
also be taken as an offshoot of the Kol tribe, a further addition of
nearly three millions is made to the tribes whose parentage can be
traced to this stock. There is little doubt also that other Kolarian
tribes, as the Kharias, Khairwars, Korwas and Korkus, whose tribal
languages closely approximate to Mundari, were originally one with
the Mundas, but have been separated for so long a period that their
direct connection can no longer be proved. The disintegrating causes,
which have split up what was originally one into a number of distinct
tribes, are probably no more than distance and settlement in different
parts of the country, leading to cessation of intermarriage and
social intercourse. The tribes have then obtained some variation in
the original name or been given separate territorial or occupational
designations by the Hindus and their former identity has gradually
been forgotten.
2. Names of the tribe.
"The word Kol is probably the Santali har, a man. This word is
used under various forms, such as har, hara, ho and koro by most
Munda tribes in order to denote themselves. The change of r to l is
familiar and does not give rise to any difficulty." [537] The word
Korku is simply a corruption of Kodaku, young men, and there is every
probability that the Hindus, hearing the Kol tribe call themselves
hor or horo, may have corrupted the name to a form more familiar
to themselves. An alternative derivation from the Sanskrit word
kola, a pig, is improbable. But it is possible, as suggested by Sir
G. Grierson, that after the name had been given, its Sanskrit meaning
of pig may have added zest to its employment by the Hindus. The
word Munda, Sir H. Risley states, is the common term employed by
the Kols for the headman of a village, and has come into general
use as an honorific title, as the Santals call themselves Manjhi,
the Gonds Bhoi, and the Bhangis and other sweepers Mehtar. Munda,
like Mehtar, originally a title, has become a popular alternative
name for the caste. In Chota Nagpur those Kols who have partly
adopted Hinduism and become to some degree civilised are commonly
known as Munda, while the name Ho or Larka Kol is reserved for the
branch of the tribe in Singhbhum who, as stated by Colonel Dalton,
"From their jealous isolation for so many years, their independence,
their long occupation of one territory, and their contempt for all
other classes that come in contact with them, especially the Hindus,
probably furnish the best illustration, not of the Mundaris in their
present state, but of what, if left to themselves and permanently
located, they were likely to become. Even at the present day the
exclusiveness of the old Hos is remarkable. They will not allow aliens
to hold land near their villages; and indeed if it were left to them
no strangers would be permitted to settle in the Kolhan."
It is this branch of the tribe whose members have come several times
into contact with British troops, and on account of their bravery and
warlike disposition they are called the Larka or fighting Kols. The
Mundas on the other hand appear now to be a very mixed group. The
list of their subcastes given [538] by Sir H. Risley includes the
Khangar, Kharia, Mahali, Oraon and Savar Mundas, all of which are the
names of separate tribes, now considered as distinct, though with
the exception of the Oraons they were perhaps originally offshoots
of the Kols or akin to them; while the Bhuinhar or landholders and
Nagvansi or Mundas of the royal house are apparently the aristocracy
of the original tribe. It would appear possible from the list of
sub-tribes already given that the village headmen of other tribes,
having adopted the designation of Munda and intermarried with other
headmen so as to make a superior group, have in some cases been
admitted into the Munda tribe, which may enjoy a higher rank than
other tribes as the Raja of Chota Nagpur belongs to it; but it is
also quite likely that these groups may have simply arisen from the
intermarriages of Mundas with other tribes, alliances of this sort
being common. The Kols of the Central Provinces probably belong to
the Munda tribe of Chota Nagpur, and not to the Hos or Larka Kols,
as the latter would be less likely to emigrate. But quite a separate
set of subcastes is found here, which will be given later.
3. Origin of the Kolarian tribes.
The Munda languages have been shown by Sir G. Grierson to have
originated from the same source as those spoken in the Indo-Pacific
islands and the Malay Peninsula. "The Mundas, the Mon-Khmer,
the wild tribes of the Malay Peninsula and the Nicobarese all use
forms of speech which can be traced back to a common source though
they mutually differ widely from each other." [539] It would appear
therefore that the Mundas, the oldest known inhabitants of India,
perhaps came originally from the south-east, the islands of the Indian
Archipelago and the Malay Peninsula, unless India was their original
home and these countries were colonised from it.
Sir E. Gait states: "Geologists tell us that the Indian Peninsula
was formerly cut off from the north of Asia by sea, while a land
connection existed on the one side with Madagascar and on the other
with the Malay Archipelago; and though there is nothing to show that
India was then inhabited we know that it was so in palaeolithic times,
when communication was probably still easier with the countries to the
north-east and south-west than with those beyond the Himalayas." [540]
In the south of India, however, no traces of Munda languages remain at
present, and it seems therefore necessary to conclude that the Mundas
of the Central Provinces and Chota Nagpur have been separated from the
tribes of Malaysia who speak cognate languages for an indefinitely
long period, or else that they did not come through southern India
to these countries, but by way of Assam and Bengal or by sea through
Orissa. There is good reason to believe from the names of places and
from local tradition that the Munda tribes were once spread over Bihar
and parts of the Ganges valley; and if the Kolis are an offshoot of
the Kols, as is supposed, they also penetrated across Central India to
the sea in Gujarat and the hills of the Western Ghats. It is presumed
that the advance of the Aryans or Hindus drove the Mundas from the
open country to the seclusion of the hills and forests. The Munda
and Dravidian languages are shown by Sir G. Grierson to be distinct
groups without any real connection.
4. The Kolarians and Dravidians.
Though the physical characteristics of the two sets of tribes
display no marked points of difference, it has been generally held
by ethnologists who know them that they represent two distinct waves
of immigration, and the absence of connection between their languages
bears out this view. It has always been supposed that the Mundas were
in the country of Chota Nagpur and the Central Provinces first, and
that the Dravidians, the Gonds, Khonds and Oraons came afterwards. The
grounds for this view are the more advanced culture of the Dravidians;
the fact that where the two sets of tribes are in contact those of the
Munda group have been ousted from the more open and fertile country,
of which according to tradition they were formerly in possession;
and the practice of the Gonds and other Dravidian tribes of employing
the Baigas, Bhuiyas and other Munda tribes for their village priests,
which is an acknowledgment that the latter as the earlier residents
have a more familiar acquaintance with the local deities, and can
solicit their favour and protection with more prospect of success. Such
a belief is the more easily understood when it is remembered that
these deities are not infrequently either the human ancestors of the
earliest residents or the local animals and plants from which they
supposed themselves to be descended.
5. Date of the Dravidian immigration.
The Dravidian languages, Gondi, Kurukh and Khond, are of one family
with Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Canarese, and their home is the
south of India. As stated [541] by Sir E. Gait, there is at present
no evidence to show that the Dravidians came to southern India from
any other part of the world, and for anything that is known to the
contrary the languages may have originated there. The existence of
the small Brahui tribe in Baluchistan, who speak a Dravidian language
but have no physical resemblance to other Dravidian races, cannot
be satisfactorily explained, but as he points out this is no reason
for holding that the whole body of speakers of Dravidian languages
entered India from the north-west, and, with the exception of this
small group of Brahuis, penetrated to the south of India and settled
there without leaving any traces of their passage.
The Dravidian languages occupy a large area in Madras, Mysore and
Hyderabad, and they extend north into the Central Provinces and
Chota Nagpur, where they die out, practically not being found west
and north of this tract. As the languages are more highly developed
and the culture of their speakers is far more advanced in the south,
it is justifiable to suppose, pending evidence to the contrary, that
the south is their home and that they have spread thence as far north
as the Central Provinces. The Gonds and Oraons too have stories to the
effect that they came from the south. It has hitherto been believed,
at least in the Central Provinces, that both the Gonds and Baigas
have been settled in this territory for an indefinite period, that is,
from prior to any Aryan or Hindu immigration. Mr. H. A. Crump, however,
has questioned this assumption. He points out that the Baiga tribe have
entirely lost their own language and speak a dialect of Chhattisgarhi
Hindi in Mandla, while half the Gonds still speak Gondi. If the
Baigas and Gonds were settled here together before the arrival of
any Hindus, how is it that the Baigas do not speak Gondi instead of
Hindi? A comparison of the caste and language tables of the census of
1901 shows that several of the Munda tribes have entirely lost their
own language, among these being the Binjhwar, Baiga, Bhaina, Bhuiya,
Bhumij, Chero and Khairwar, and the Bhils and Kolis if these are held
to be Munda tribes. None of these tribes have adopted a Dravidian
language, but all speak corrupt forms of the current Aryan vernaculars
derived from Sanskrit. The Mundas and Hos themselves with the Kharias,
Santals and Korkus retain Munda languages. On the other hand a half
of the Gonds, nearly all the Oraons and three-fourths of the Khonds
still preserve their own Dravidian speech. It would therefore seem
that the Munda tribes who speak Aryan vernaculars must have been
in close contact with Hindu peoples at the time they lost their own
language and not with Gonds or Oraons. In the Central Provinces it
is known that Rajput dynasties were ruling in Jubbulpore from the
sixth to the twelfth century, in Seoni about the sixth century and
in Bhandak near Chanda from an early period as well as at Ratanpur
in Chhattisgarh. From about the twelfth century these disappear and
there is a blank till the fourteenth century or later, when Gond
kingdoms are found established at Kherla in Betul, at Deogarh in
Chhindwara, at Garha-Mandla [542] including the Jubbulpore country,
and at Chanda fourteen miles from Bhandak. It seems clear then that
the Hindu dynasties were subverted by the Gonds after the Muhammadan
invasions of northern India had weakened or destroyed the central
powers of the Hindus and prevented any assistance being afforded to
the outlying settlements. But it seems prima facie more likely that
the Hindu kingdoms of the Central Provinces should have been destroyed
by an invasion of barbarians from without rather than by successful
risings of their own subjects once thoroughly subdued. The Haihaya
Rajput dynasty of Ratanpur was the only one which survived, all the
others being supplanted by Gond states. If then the Gond incursion
was subsequent to the establishment of the old Hindu kingdoms,
its probable date may be placed from the ninth to the thirteenth
centuries, the subjugation of the greater part of the Province being
no doubt a gradual affair. In favour of this it may be noted that some
recollection still exists of the settlement of the Oraons in Chota
Nagpur being later than that of the Mundas, while if it had taken place
long before this time all tradition of it would probably have been
forgotten. In Chhindwara the legend still remains that the founder of
the Deogarh Gond dynasty, Jatba, slew and supplanted the Gaoli kings
Ransur and Ghansur, who were previously ruling on the plateau. And the
Bastar Raj-Gond Rajas have a story that they came from Warangal in the
south so late as the fourteenth century, accompanied by the ancestors
of some of the existing Bastar tribes. Jadu Rai, the founder of the
Gond-Rajput dynasty of Garha-Mandla, is supposed to have lived near
the Godavari. A large section of the Gonds of the Central Provinces are
known as Rawanvansi or of the race of Rawan, the demon king of Ceylon,
who was conquered by Rama. The Oraons also claim to be descended
from Rawan. [543] This name and story must clearly have been given
to the tribes by the Hindus, and the explanation appears to be that
the Hindus considered the Dravidian Gonds and Oraons to have been the
enemy encountered in the Aryan expedition to southern India and Ceylon,
which is dimly recorded in the legend of Rama. On the other hand the
Bhuiyas, a Munda tribe, call themselves Pawan-ka-put or Children of
the Wind, that is of the race of Hanuman, who was the Son of the Wind;
and this name would appear to show, as suggested by Colonel Dalton,
that the Munda tribes gave assistance to the Aryan expedition and
accompanied it, an alliance which has been preserved in the tale of
the exploits of Hanuman and his army of apes. Similarly the name of
the Ramosi caste of Berar is a corruption of Ramvansi or of the race
of Rama; and the Ramosis appear to be an offshoot of the Bhils or
Kolis, both of whom are not improbably Munda tribes. A Hindu writer
compared the Bhil auxiliaries in the camp of the famous Chalukya
Rajput king Sidhraj of Gujarat to Hanuman and his apes, on account
of their agility. [544] These instances seem to be in favour of the
idea that the Munda tribes assisted the Aryans, and if this were the
case it would appear to be a legitimate inference that at the same
period the Dravidian tribes were still in southern India and not
mixed up with the Munda tribes in the Central Provinces and Chota
Nagpur as at present. Though the evidence is perhaps not very strong,
the hypothesis, as suggested by Mr. Crump, that the settlement of the
Gonds in the Central Provinces is comparatively recent and subsequent
to the early Rajput dynasties, is well worth putting forward.
6. Strength of the Kols in the Central Provinces.
In the Central Provinces the Kols and Mundas numbered 85,000 persons in
1911. The name Kol is in general use except in the Chota Nagpur States,
but it seems probable that the Kols who have immigrated here really
belong to the Munda tribe of Chota Nagpur. About 52,000 Kols, or nearly
a third of the total number, reside in the Jubbulpore District, and the
remainder are scattered over all Districts and States of the Province.
7. Legend of origin.
The Kol legend of origin is that Sing-Bonga or the Sun created a boy
and a girl and put them together in a cave to people the world; but
finding them to be too innocent to give hope of progeny he instructed
them in the art of making rice-beer, which inflames the passions,
and in course of time they had twelve sons and twelve daughters. The
divine origin ascribed by the Kols, in common with other peoples,
to their favourite liquor may be noticed. The children were divided
into pairs, and Sing-Bonga set before them various kinds of food to
choose for their sustenance before starting out into the world; and the
fate of their descendants depended on their choice. Thus the first and
second pairs took the flesh of bullocks and buffaloes, and from them
are descended the Kols and Bhumij; one pair took shell-fish and became
Bhuiyas, two pairs took pigs and were the ancestors of the Santals,
one pair took vegetables only and originated the Brahman and Rajput
castes, and other pairs took goats and fish, from whom the various
Sudra castes are sprung. One pair got nothing, and seeing this the Kol
pair gave them of their superfluity and the descendants of these became
the Ghasias, who are menials in Kol villages and supported by the
cultivators. The Larka Kols attribute their strength and fine physique
to the fact that they eat beef. When they first met English soldiers
in the beginning of the nineteenth century the Kols were quickly
impressed by their wonderful fighting powers, and finding that the
English too ate the flesh of bullocks, paid them the high compliment
of assigning to them the same pair of ancestors as themselves. The
Nagvansi Rajas of Chota Nagpur say that their original ancestor was a
snake-god who assumed human form and married a Brahman's daughter. But,
like Lohengrin, the condition of his remaining a man was that he should
not disclose his origin, and when he was finally brought to satisfy
the incessant curiosity of his wife, he reverted to his first shape,
and she burned herself from remorse. Their child was found by some
wood-cutters lying in the forest beneath a cobra's extended hood,
and was brought up in their family. He subsequently became king,
and his seven elder brothers attended him as banghy-bearers when
he rode abroad. The Mundas are said to be descended from the seven
brothers, and their sign-manual is a kawar or banghy. [545] Hence the
Rajas of Chota Nagpur regard the Mundas as their elder brothers, and
the Ranis veil their faces when they meet a Munda as to a husband's
elder brother. The probable explanation of the story is that the Hos
or Mundas, from whom the kings are sprung, were a separate section of
the tribe who subdued the older Mundas. In memory of their progenitor
the Nagvansi Rajas wear a turban folded to resemble the coils of a
snake with a projection over the brow for its head. [546]
8. Tribal subdivisions.
The subcastes of the Kols in the Central Provinces differ entirely
from those in Chota Nagpur. Of the important subcastes here the Rautia
and Rautele take their name from Rawat, a prince, and appear to be
a military or landholding group. In Chota Nagpur the Rautias are
a separate caste, holding land. The Rautia Kols practise hypergamy
with the Rauteles, taking their daughters in marriage but not giving
daughters. They will eat with Rauteles at wedding feasts only and
not on any other occasion. The Thakuria, from thakur, a lord, are
said to be the progeny of Rajput fathers and Kol mothers; and the
Kagwaria to be named from kagwar, an offering made to ancestors in
the month of Kunwar. The Desaha, from desh, native country, belong
principally to Rewah. In some localities Bharias, Savars and Khairwars
are found who call themselves Kols and appear to be included in the
tribe. The Bharias may be an offshoot of the Bhar tribe of northern
India. It has already been seen that several groups of other tribes
have been amalgamated with the Mundas of Chota Nagpur, probably in a
great measure from intermarriage, and a similar fusion seems to have
occurred in the Central Provinces. Intermarriage between the different
subtribes, though nominally prohibited, not infrequently takes place,
and a girl forming a liaison with a man of another division may be
married to him and received into it. The Rautias, however, say that
they forbid this practice.
9. Totemism.
The Mandla Kols have a number of totemistic septs. The Bargaiyan
are really called after a village Bargaon, but they connect their
name with the bar or banyan tree, and revere it. At their weddings a
branch of this tree is laid on the roof of the marriage-shed, and the
wedding-cakes are cooked in a fire made of the wood of the banyan tree
and served to all the relations of the sept on its leaves. At other
times they will not pluck a leaf or a branch from a banyan tree or
even go beneath its shade. The Kathotia sept is named after kathota,
a bowl, but they revere the tiger. Bagheshwar Deo, the tiger-god,
resides on a little platform in their verandas. They may not join in a
tiger-beat nor sit up for a tiger over a kill. In the latter case they
think that the tiger would not come and would be deprived of his food,
and all the members of their family would get ill. If a tiger takes
one of their cattle, they think there has been some neglect in their
worship of him. They say that if one of them meets a tiger in the
forest he will fold his hands and say, 'Maharaj, let me pass,' and
the tiger will then get out of his way. If a tiger is killed within
the limits of his village a Kathotia Kol will throw away his earthen
pots as in mourning for a relative, have his head shaved and feed a
few men of his sept. The Katharia sept take their name from kathri,
a mattress. A member of this sept must never have a mattress in his
house nor wear clothes sewn in crosspieces as mattresses are sewn. The
word kathri should never be mentioned before him as he thinks some
great misfortune would thereby happen to his family, but this belief
is falling into abeyance. The name of the Mudia or Mudrundia sept
is said to mean shaven head, but they apparently revere the white
kumhra or gourd, perhaps because it has some resemblance to a shaven
head. They give a white gourd to a woman on the third day after she
has borne a child, and her family then do not eat this vegetable
for three years. At the expiration of the period the head of the
family offers a chicken to Dulha Deo, frying it with the feathers
left on the head, and eating the head and feet himself. Women may not
join in this sacrifice. The Kumraya sept revere the brown kumhra or
gourd. They grow this vegetable on the thatch of their house-roof,
and from the time of planting it until the fruits have been plucked
they do not touch it. The Bhuwar sept are named after bhu or bhumi, the
earth. They must always sleep on the earth and not on cots. Other septs
are Nathunia, a nose-ring; Karpatia, a kind of grass; and Binjhwar,
from the tribe of that name. From Raigarh a separate group of septs
is reported, the names of which further demonstrate the mixed nature
of the tribe. Among these are Bandi, a slave; Kawar, Gond, Dhanuhar,
Birjhia, all of which are the names of distinct tribes; Sonwani,
gold-water; Keriari, or bridle; Khunta, a peg; and Kapat, a shutter.
10. Marriage customs.
Marriage within the sept is prohibited, but violations of this
rule are not infrequent. Outside the sept a man may marry any woman
except the sisters of his mother or stepmother. Where, as in some
localities, the septs have been forgotten, marriage is forbidden
between those relatives to whom the sacramental cakes are distributed
at a wedding. Among the Mundas, before a father sets out to seek a
bride for his son, he invites three or four relatives, and at midnight
taking a bottle of liquor pours a little over the household god as a
libation and drinks the rest with them. They go to the girl's village,
and addressing her father say that they have come to hunt. He asks
them in what jungle they wish to hunt, and they name the sarna or
sacred grove in which the bones of his ancestors are buried. If the
girl's father is satisfied with the match, he then agrees to it. A
bride-price of Rs. 10-8 is paid in the Central Provinces. Among the Hos
of Chota Nagpur so large a number of cattle was formerly demanded in
exchange for a bride that many girls were never married. Afterwards it
was reduced to ten head of cattle, and it was decided that one pair of
bullocks, one cow and seven rupees should be equivalent to ten head,
while for poor families Rs. 7 was to be the whole price. [547] Among
the Mundas of Raigarh the price is three or four bullocks, but poor
men may give Rs. 12 or Rs. 18 in substitution. Here weddings may
only be held in the three months of Aghan, Magh and Phagun, [548]
and preferably in Magh. Their marriage ceremony is very simple,
the bridegroom simply smearing vermilion on the bride's forehead,
after which water is poured over the heads of the pair. Two pots of
liquor are placed beside them during the ceremony. It is also a good
marriage if a girl of her own accord goes and lives in a man's house
and he shows his acceptance by dabbing vermilion on her. But her
offspring are of inferior status to those of a regular marriage. The
Kols of Jubbulpore and Mandla have adopted the regular Hindu ceremony.
11. Divorce and widow-marriage.
Divorce and widow-marriage are permitted. In Raigarh the widow is
bound to marry her deceased husband's younger brother, but not
elsewhere. Among these Mundas, if divorce is effected by mutual
consent, the husband must give his wife a pair of loin-cloths and
provisions for six months. Polygamy is seldom practised, as women can
earn their own living, and if a wife is superseded she will often
run away home or set up in a house by herself. In Mandla a divorce
can be obtained by either party, the person in fault having to pay
a fee of Rs. 1-4 to the panchayat; the woman then breaks her bangles
and the divorce is complete.
12. Religion.
At the head of the Munda pantheon, Sir H. Risley states, [549] stands
Sing-Bonga or the sun, a beneficent but ineffective deity who concerns
himself but little with human affairs. But he may be invoked to avert
sickness or calamity, and to this end sacrifices of white goats or
white cocks are offered to him. Next to him comes Marang Buru, the
mountain god, who resides on the summit of the most prominent hill
in the neighbourhood. Animals are sacrificed to him here, and the
heads left and appropriated by the priest. He controls the rainfall,
and is appealed to in time of drought and when epidemic sickness is
abroad. Other deities preside over rivers, tanks, wells and springs,
and it is believed that when offended they cause people who bathe
in the water to be attacked by leprosy and skin diseases. Even the
low swampy rice-fields are haunted by separate spirits. Deswali is
the god of the village, and he lives with his wife in the Sarna or
sacred grove, a patch of the primeval forest left intact to afford
a refuge for the forest gods. Every village has its own Deswali,
who is held responsible for the crops, and receives an offering of a
buffalo at the agricultural festival. The Jubbulpore Kols have entirely
abandoned their tribal gods and now worship Hindu deities. Devi is
their favourite goddess, and they carry her iron tridents about with
them wherever they go. Twice in the year, when the baskets of wheat
or Gardens of Adonis are sown in the name of Devi, she descends on
some of her worshippers, and they become possessed and pierce their
cheeks with the trident, sometimes leaving it in the face for hours,
with one or two men standing beside to support it. When the trident
is taken out a quid of betel is given to the wounded man, and the
part is believed to heal up at once. These Kols also employ Brahmans
for their ceremonies. Before sowing their fields they say--
Thuiya, Bhuiya, [550] Dharti Mata, Thakur Deo, Bhainsa Sur;
khub paida kariye Maharaj;
that is, they invoke Mother Earth, Thakur Deo, the corn-god, and
Bhainsasur, the buffalo demon, to give them good crops; and as they say
this they throw a handful of grain in the air in the name of each god.
13. Witchcraft.
"Among the Hos," Colonel Dalton states, "all disease in men or animals
is attributed to one of two causes--the wrath of some evil spirit
who has to be appeased, or the spell of some witch or sorcerer who
should be destroyed or driven out of the land. In the latter case
a sokha or witch-finder is employed to ascertain who has cast the
spell, and various methods of divination are resorted to. In former
times the person denounced and all his family were put to death
in the belief that witches breed witches and sorcerers. The taint
is in the blood. When, during the Mutiny, Singhbhum District was
left for a short time without officers, a terrible raid was made
against all who had been suspected for years of dealing with the
evil one, and the most atrocious murders were committed. Young men
were told off for the duty by the elders; neither age nor sex were
spared. When order was restored, these crimes were brought to light,
and the actual perpetrators punished; and since then we have not only
had no recurrence of witch murders, but the superstition itself is
dying out in the Kolhan." Mr. H. C. Streatfeild states that among
the Mundas witches used to be hung head downwards from a pipal tree
over a slow fire, the whole village dancing as they were gradually
roasted, but whether this ceremony was purely vindictive or had any
other significance there is nothing to show. [551]
14. Funeral rites.
The Hos of Chota Nagpur were accustomed to place large slabs of stone
as tombstones over their graves, and a collection of these massive
gravestones indelibly marks the site of every Ho or Mundari village,
being still found in parts of the country where there have been no
Kols for ages. In addition to this slab, a megalithic monument is
set up to the deceased in some conspicuous spot outside the village;
the pillars vary in height from five or six to fifteen feet, and
apparently fragments of rock of the most fantastic shape are most
favoured. All the clothes, ornaments and agricultural implements of
the dead man were buried with the body. The funeral rites were of a
somewhat touching character: [552] "When all is ready, a funeral party
collects in front of the deceased's house, three or four men with
very deep-toned drums, and a group of about eight young girls. The
chief mourner comes forth, carrying the bones exposed on a decorated
tray, and behind him the girls form two rows, carrying empty or broken
pitchers or battered brass vessels, while the men with drums bring up
the rear. The procession advances with a ghostly dancing movement,
slow and solemn as a minuet, in time to the beat of the deep-toned
drums, not straight forward, but mysteriously gliding--now right,
now left, now marking time, all in the same mournful cadence. In
this manner the remains are taken to the house of every friend
and relative of the deceased within a circle of a few miles, and
to every house in the village. As the procession approaches each
house in the manner described, the inmates all come out, and the
tray having been placed on the ground at their door, they kneel over
it and mourn. The bones are also thus conveyed to all his favourite
haunts, the fields he cultivated, the grove he planted, the tank he
excavated, the threshing-floor where he worked with his people, the
Akhara or dancing-arena where he made merry with them, and each spot
which is hallowed with reminiscences of the deceased draws forth fresh
tears." In Sambalpur [553] the dead body of a Munda is washed in wine
before interment, and a mark of vermilion is made on the forehead. The
mourners drink wine sitting by the grave. They then bathe, and catch
a small fish and roast it on a fire, smearing their hands with oil
and warming them at the fire. It would appear that this last rite
is a purification of the hands after contact with the dead body, but
whether the fish is meant to represent the deceased and the roasting
of it is a substitute for the rite of cremation is not clear. During
the eight days of mourning the relatives abstain from flesh-meat,
but they eat fish. The Kols of Jubbulpore now bury or burn the dead,
and observe mourning exactly like ordinary Hindus.
15. Inheritance.
Succession among the Mundas passes to sons only. Failing these,
the property goes to the father or brothers if any. At partition the
eldest son as a rule gets a slightly larger share than the other sons,
a piece of land, and in well-to-do families a yoke of plough cattle,
or only a bullock or a goat, and sometimes a bundle of paddy weighing
from 10 to 16 maunds. [554] Partition cannot usually be made till the
youngest son is of age. Daughters get no share in the inheritance,
and are allotted among the sons just like live-stock. Thus if a man
dies leaving three sons and three daughters and thirty head of cattle,
on a division each son would get ten head of cattle and one sister;
but should there be only one sister, they wait till she marries and
divide the bride-price. A father may, however, in his lifetime make
presents of cash or movables to a daughter, though not of land. It
is doubtful whether these rules still obtain among the Hinduised Kols.
16. Physical appearance.
"The Mundas," Colonel Dalton states, "are one of the finest of the
aboriginal tribes. The men average something like 5 feet 6 inches,
and many of them are remarkably well developed and muscular. Their
skin is of the darkest brown, almost black in many cases, and their
features coarse, with broad flat noses, low foreheads and thick lips,
presenting as a rule a by no means prepossessing appearance. The women
are often more pleasing, the coarseness of the features being less
accentuated or less noticeable on account of the extreme good-nature
and happy carelessness that seldom fail to mark their countenance. They
are fond of ornament, and a group of men and girls fully decked out
for a festival makes a fine show. Every ornament in the shape of bead
necklace, silver collar, bracelet, armlet and anklet would seem to have
been brought out for the occasion. The head-dress is the crowning point
of the turn-out. The long black hair is gathered up in a big coil, most
often artificially enlarged, the whole being fastened at the right-hand
side of the back of the head just on a level with and touching the
right ear. In this knot are fastened all sorts of ornaments of brass
and silver, and surmounting it, stuck in every available space, are
gay plumes of feathers that nod and wave bravely with the movements
of the dance. The ears are distorted almost beyond recognition by huge
earrings that pierce the lobe and smaller ones that ornament them all
round." In Mandla women are tattooed with the figure of a man or a
man on horseback, and on the legs behind also with the figure of a
man. They are not tattooed on the face. Men are never tattooed.
17. Dances.
"Dancing is the inevitable accompaniment of every gathering, and they
have a great variety suitable to the special times and seasons. The
motion is slow and graceful, a monotonous sing-song being kept up all
through. The steps are in perfect time and the action wonderfully
even and regular. This is particularly noticeable in some of the
variations of the dances representing the different seasons and
the necessary acts of cultivation that each brings with it. In one
the dancers bending down make a motion with their hands as though
they were sowing the grain, keeping step with their feet all the
time. Then come the reaping of the crop and the binding of the sheaves,
all done in perfect time and rhythm, and making with the continuous
droning of the voices a quaint and picturesque performance." In the
Central Provinces the Kols now dance the Karma dance of the Gonds,
but they dance it in more lively fashion. The step consists simply
in advancing or withdrawing one foot and bringing the other up or
back beside it. The men and women stand opposite each other in two
lines, holding hands, and the musicians alternately face each line
and advance and retreat with them. Then the lines move round in a
circle with the musicians in the centre.
18. Social rules and offences.
Munda boys are allowed to eat food cooked by other castes, except the
very lowest, until they are married, and girls until they let their
hair grow long, which is usually at the age of six or seven. After
this they do not take food as a tribe from any other caste, even a
Brahman, though some subtribes accept it from certain castes as the
Telis (oil-pressers) and Sundis or liquor-vendors. In Jubbulpore
the Kols take food from Kurmis, Dhimars and Ahirs. The Mundas will
eat almost all kinds of flesh, including tigers and pigs, while in
Raigarh they consider monkey as a delicacy, hunting these animals
with dogs. In the Central Provinces they have generally abjured beef,
in deference to Hindu prejudice, and sometimes refuse field-mice,
to which the Khonds and Gonds are very partial. Neither Kols nor
Mundas are, however, considered impure and the barber and washerman
will work for them. In Sambalpur a woman is finally expelled from
caste for a liaison with one of the impure Gandas, Ghasias or Doms,
and a man is expelled for taking food from a woman of these castes,
but adultery with her may be expiated by a big feast. Other offences
are much the same as among the Hindus. A woman who gets her ear torn
through where it is pierced is put out of caste for six months or a
year and has to give two feasts on readmission.
19. The caste panchayat.
In Mandla the head of the panchayat is known as Gaontia, a name for
a village headman, and he is always of the Bargaiya sept, the office
being usually hereditary. When a serious offence is committed the
Gaontia fixes a period of six months to a year for the readmission of
the culprit, or the latter begs for reinstatement when he has obtained
the materials for the penalty feast. A feast for the whole Rautele
subcaste will entail 500 seers or nearly 9 cwt. of kodon, costing
perhaps Rs. 30, and they say there would not be enough left for a cold
breakfast for the offender's family in the morning. When a man has a
petition to make to the Gaontia, he folds his turban round his neck,
leaving the head bare, takes a piece of grass in his mouth, and with
four prominent elders to support him goes to the Gaontia and falls
at his feet. The others stand on one leg behind him and the Gaontia
asks them for their recommendation. Their reverence for the caste
panchayat is shown by their solemn form of oath, 'Sing-Bonga on high
and the Panch on earth.' [555] The Kols of Jubbulpore and Mandla are
now completely conforming to Hindu usage and employ Brahmans for their
ceremonies. They are most anxious to be considered as good Hindus and
ape every high-caste custom they get hold of. On one occasion I was
being carried on a litter by Kol coolies and accompanied by a Rajput
chuprassie and was talking to the Kols, who eagerly proclaimed their
rigid Hindu observances. Finally the chuprassie said that Brahmans
and Rajputs must have three separate brushes of date-palm fibre for
their houses, one to sweep the cook-room which is especially sacred,
one for the rest of the house, and one for the yard. Lying gallantly
the Kols said that they also kept three palm brushes for cleaning
their houses, and when it was pointed out that there were no date-palms
within several miles of their village, they said they sent periodical
expeditions to the adjoining District to bring back fibre for brushes.
20. Names.
Colonel Dalton notes that the Kols, like the Gonds, give names
to their children after officers visiting the village when they
are born. Thus Captain, Major, Doctor are common names in the
Kolhan. Mr. Mazumdar gives an instance of a Kol servant of the Raja
of Bamra who greatly admired some English lamp-chimneys sent for by
the Raja and called his daughter 'Chimney.' They do not address any
relative or caste-man by his name if he is older than themselves,
but use the term of relationship to a relative and to others the
honorific title of Gaontia.
21. Occupation.
The Mundari language has no words for the village trades nor for
the implements of cultivation, and so it may be concluded that prior
to their contact with the Hindus the Mundas lived on the fruits and
roots of the forests and the pursuit of game and fish. Now, however,
they have taken kindly to several kinds of labour. They are much
in request on the Assam tea-gardens owing to their good physique
and muscular power, and they make the best bearers of dhoolies or
palanquins. Kol bearers will carry a dhoolie four miles an hour
as against the best Gond pace of about three, and they shake the
occupant less. They also make excellent masons and navvies, and are
generally more honest workers than the other jungle tribes. A Munda
seldom comes into a criminal court.
22. Language.
The Kols of the Central Provinces have practically abandoned their
own language, Mundari being retained only by about 1000 persons in
1911. The Kols and Mundas now speak the Hindu vernacular current in
the tracts where they reside. Mundari, Santali, Korwa and Bhumij are
practically all forms of one language which Sir G. Grierson designates
as Kherwari. [556]
KOLAM
List of Paragraphs
1. General notice of the tribe.
2. Marriage.
3. Disposal of the dead.
4. Religion and superstitions.
5. Social position.
6. Miscellaneous customs.
1. General notice of the tribe.
Kolam. [557]--A Dravidian tribe residing principally in the Wun taluk
of the Yeotmal District. They number altogether about 25,000 persons,
of whom 23,000 belong to Wun and the remainder to the adjoining
tracts of Wardha and Hyderabad. They are not found elsewhere. The
tribe are generally considered to be akin to the Gonds [558] on the
authority of Mr. Hislop. He wrote of them: "The Kolams extend all
along the Kandi Konda or Pindi Hills on the south of the Wardha river
and along the table-land stretching east and north of Manikgad and
thence south to Dantanpalli, running parallel to the western bank
of the Pranhita. The Kolams and the common Gonds do not intermarry,
but they are present at each other's nuptials and eat from each
other's hand. Their dress is similar, but the Kolam women wear fewer
ornaments, being generally content with a few black beads of glass
round their neck. Among their deities, which are the usual objects of
Gond adoration, Bhimsen is chiefly honoured." Mr. Hislop was, however,
not always of this opinion, because he first excluded the Kolams from
the Gond tribes and afterwards included them. [559] In Wardha they are
usually distinguished from the Gonds. They have a language of their
own, called after them Kolami. Sir G. Grierson [560] describes it as,
"A minor dialect of Berar and the Central Provinces which occupies a
position like that of Gondi between Canarese, Tamil and Telugu. The
so-called Kolami, the Bhili spoken in the Pusad taluk of Basim and
the so-called Naiki of Chanda agree in so many particulars that
they can almost be considered as one and the same dialect. They are
closely related to Gondi. The points in which they differ from that
language are, however, of sufficient importance to make it necessary
to separate them from that form of speech. The Kolami dialect differs
widely from the language of the neighbouring Gonds. In some points
it agrees with Telugu, in other characteristics with Canarese and
connected forms of speech. There are also some interesting points of
analogy with the Toda dialect of the Nilgiris, and the Kolams must,
from a philological point of view, be considered as the remnants of
an old Dravidian tribe who have not been involved in the development
of the principal Dravidian languages, or of a tribe who have not
originally spoken a Dravidian form of speech."
The family names of the tribe also are not Gondi, but resemble those
of Maratha castes. Out of fifty sept names recorded, only one, Tekam,
is found among the Gonds. "All their songs and ballads," Colonel
Mackenzie says, "are borrowed from the Marathas: even their women when
grinding corn sing Marathi songs." In Wun their dress and appearance
resembles that of the Kunbis, but in some respects they retain very
primitive customs. Colonel Mackenzie states that until recently in
Berar they had the practice of capturing husbands for women who would
otherwise have gone unwedded, this being apparently a survival of the
matriarchate. It does not appear that the husbands so captured were
ever unphilosophical enough to rebel under the old regime, though
British enlightenment has taught them otherwise. Widows and widowers
were exempt from capture and debarred from capturing. In view of the
connection mentioned by Sir G. Grierson between the Kolami dialect
and that of the Todas of the Nilgiri hills who are a small remnant of
an ancient tribe and still practise polyandry, Mr. Hira Lal suggests
that the Kolams may be connected with the Kolas, a tribe akin to the
Todas [561] and as low in the scale of civilisation, who regard the
Kolamallai hills as their original home. [562] He further notes that
the name of the era by which the calendar is reckoned on the Malabar
coast is Kolamba. In view of Sir G. Grierson's statement that the
Kolami dialect is the same as that of the Naik Gonds of Chanda it
may be noted that the headman of a Kolam village is known as Naik,
and it is possible that the Kolams may be connected with the so-called
Naik Gonds.
2. Marriage.
The Kolams have no subtribes, but are divided for purposes of marriage
into a number of exogamous groups. The names of these are in the
Marathi form, but the tribe do not know their meaning. Marriage between
members of the same group is forbidden, and a man may not marry two
sisters. Marriage is usually adult, and neither a betrothal nor a
marriage can be concluded in the month of Poush (December), because
in this month ancestors are worshipped. Colonel Mackenzie states that
marriages should be celebrated on Wednesdays and Saturdays at sundown,
and Monday is considered a peculiarly inauspicious day. If a betrothal,
once contracted, is broken, a fine of five or ten rupees must be paid
to the caste-fellows together with a quantity of liquor. Formerly,
as stated above, the tribe sometimes captured husbands, and they still
have a curious method of seizing a wife when the father cannot procure
a mate for his son. The latter attended by his comrades resorts to
the jungle where his wife-elect is working in company with her female
relations and friends. It is a custom of the tribe that the sexes
should, as a rule, work in separate parties. On catching sight of her
the bridegroom pursues her, and unless he touches her hand before she
gets back to her village, his friends will afford him no assistance. If
he can lay hold of the girl a struggle ensues between the two parties
for her possession, the girl being sometimes only protected by women,
while on other occasions her male relatives hear of the fray and come
to her assistance. In the latter case a fight ensues with sticks,
in which, however, no combatant may hit another on the head. If the
girl is captured the marriage is subsequently performed, and even
if she is rescued the matter is often arranged by the payment of a
few rupees to the girl's father. Nowadays the whole affair tends to
degenerate into a pretence and is often arranged beforehand by the
parties. The marriage ceremony resembles that of the Kunbis except
that the bridegroom takes the bride on his lap and their clothes are
tied together in two places. After the ceremony each of the guests
takes a few grains of rice, and after touching the feet, knees and
shoulders of the bridal couple with the rice, throws it over his own
back. The idea may be to remove any contagion of misfortune or evil
spirits who may be hovering about them. A widow can remarry only with
her parents' consent, but if she takes a fancy to a man and chooses
to enter his house with a pot of water on her head he cannot turn her
out. A man cannot marry a widow unless he has been regularly wedded
once to a girl, and once having espoused a widow by what is known
as the pat ceremony, he cannot again go through a proper marriage. A
couple who wish to be divorced must go before the caste panchayat or
committee with a pot of liquor. Over this is laid a dry stick and the
couple each hold an end of it. The husband then addresses his wife as
sister in the presence of the caste-fellows, and the wife her husband
as brother; they break the stick and the divorce is complete.
3. Disposal of the dead.
The tribe bury their dead, and observe mourning for one to five
days in different localities. The spirits of deceased ancestors are
worshipped on any Monday in the month of Poush. The mourner goes and
dips his head into a tank or stream, and afterwards sacrifices a fowl
on the bank, and gives a meal to the caste-fellows. He then has the
hair of his face and head shaved. Sons inherit equally, and if there
are no sons the property devolves on daughters.
4. Religion and superstitions.
The Kolams, Colonel Mackenzie states, recognise no god as a principle
of beneficence in the world; their principal deities are Sita, to
whom the first-fruits of the harvest are offered, and Devi who is the
guardian of the village, and is propitiated with offerings of goats
and fowls to preserve it from harm. She is represented by two stones
set up in the centre of the village when it is founded. They worship
their implements of agriculture on the last day of Chait (April),
applying turmeric and vermilion to them. In May they collect the stumps
of juari from a field, and, burning them to ashes, make an offering
of the same articles. They have a curious ceremony for protecting
the village from disease. All the men go outside the village and on
the boundary at the four points pointing north-east, north-west and
opposite place four stones known as bandi, burying a fowl beneath each
stone. The Naik or headman then sacrifices a goat and other fowls to
Sita, and placing four men by the stones, proceeds to sprinkle salt
all along the boundary line, except across one path on which he lays
his stick. He then calls out to the men that the village is closed
and that they must enter it only by that path. This rule remains in
force throughout the year, and if any stranger enters the village by
any other than the appointed route, they consider that he should pay
the expenses of drawing the boundary circuit again. But the rule is
often applied only to carts, and relaxed in favour of travellers on
foot. The line marked with salt is called bandesh, and it is believed
that wild animals cannot cross it, while they are prevented from
coming into the village along the only open road by the stick of
the Naik. Diseases also cannot cross the line. Women during their
monthly impurity are made to live in a hut in the fields outside
the boundary line. The open road does not lead across the village,
but terminates at the chauri or meeting-house.
5. Social position.
Though the Kolams retain some very primitive customs, those of Yeotmal,
as already stated, are hardly distinguishable from the Kunbis or
Hindu cultivators. Colonel Mackenzie notes that they are held to be
lower than the Gonds, because a Kolam will take food from a Gond,
but the latter will not return the compliment. They will eat the
flesh of rats, tigers, snakes, squirrels and of almost any animals
except dogs, donkeys and jackals. In another respect they are on a
level with the lowest aborigines, as some of them do not use water
to clean their bodies after performing natural functions, but only
leaves. Yet they are not considered as impure by the Hindus, are
permitted to enter Hindu temples, and hold themselves to be defiled
by the touch of a Mahar or a Mang. A Kolam is forbidden to beg by
the rules of the tribe, and he looks down on the Mahars and Mangs,
who are often professional beggars. In Wardha, too, the Kolams will
not collect dead-wood for sale as fuel.
6. Miscellaneous customs.
Here their houses contain only a single room with a small store-house,
and all the family sleep together without privacy. Consequently
there is no opportunity at night for conjugal intimacy, and husband
and wife seek the solitude of the forest in the daytime. Colonel
Mackenzie states: "All Kolams are great smokers, but they are not
allowed to smoke in their own houses, but only at the chauri or
meeting-house, where pipes and fire are kept; and this rule is
enforced so that the Naik or headman can keep an eye on all male
members of the community; if these do not appear at least once a day,
satisfactory reasons are demanded for their absence, and from this
rule only the sick and infirm are exempt. The Kolams have two musical
instruments: the tapate or drum, and the wass or flute, the name of
which is probably derived from the Sanskrit waunsh, meaning bamboo
(of which the instrument is made). In old times all Kolams could read
and write, and it is probably only poverty which prevents them from
having all their children educated now." This last statement must,
however, be accepted with reserve in the absence of intimation of
the evidence on which it is based. At present they are, as a rule,
quite illiterate. The Naik or headman formerly had considerable
powers, being entrusted with the distribution of land among the
cultivators, and exercising civil and criminal jurisdiction with
the assistance of the panchayat. His own land was ploughed for him
by the villagers. Even now they seldom enter a court of justice
and their disputes are settled by the panchayat. A strong feeling
of clannishness exists among them, and the village unites to avenge
an injury done to one of its members. Excommunication from caste is
imposed for the usual offences, and the ceremony of readmission is
as follows: The offender dips his head in a river or stream and the
village barber shaves his head and moustaches. He then sits beside a
lighted pile of wood, being held to be purified by the proximity of the
holy element, and afterwards bathes, and drinks some water into which
the caste-fellows have dipped their toes. A woman has to undergo the
same ceremony and have her head shaved. If an unmarried girl becomes
with child by a member of the caste, she is married to him by the
simple rite used for widow-remarriage. A Kolam must not swear by a
dog or cat, and is expelled from caste for killing either of these
two animals. A Kolam does not visit a friend's house in the evening,
as he would be suspected in such an event of having designs upon his
wife's virtue. The tribe are cultivators and labourers. They have
not a very good reputation for honesty, and are said to be addicted
to stealing the ripe cotton from the bolls. They never wear shoes,
and the soles of their feet become nearly invulnerable and capable
of traversing the most thorny ground without injury. They have an
excellent knowledge of the medicinal and other uses of all trees,
shrubs and herbs.
KOLHATI
[Bibliography: Mr. Kitts' Berar Census Report (1881); Major Gunthorpe's
Criminal Tribes of Bombay, Berar and the Central Provinces (Times
Press, Bombay).]
List of Paragraphs
1. Introductory notice.
2. Internal structure.
3. Marriage.
4. Funeral rites.
5. Other customs.
6. Occupation.
1. Introductory notice.
Kolhati, Dandewala, Bansberia, Kabutari. [563]--The name by which
the Beria caste of Northern and Central India is known in Berar. The
Berias themselves, in Central India at any rate, are a branch of the
Sansias, a vagrant and criminal class, whose traditional occupation
was that of acting as bards and genealogists to the Jat caste. The
main difference between the Sansias and Berias is that the latter
prostitute their women, or those of them who are not married. [564]
The Kolhatis of Berar, who also do this, appear to be a branch of
the Beria caste who have settled in the Deccan and now have customs
differing in several respects from those of the parent caste. It
is therefore desirable to reproduce briefly the main heads of the
information given about them in the works cited above. In 1901 the
Kolhatis numbered 1300 persons in Berar. In the Central Provinces
they were not shown separately, but were included with the Nats. But
in 1891 a total of 250 Kolhatis were returned. The word Kolhati is
said to be derived from the long bamboo poles which they use for
jumping, known as Kolhat. The other names, Dandewala and Bansberia,
meaning those who perform feats with a stick or bamboo, also have
reference to this pole. Kabutari as applied to the women signifies
that their dancing resembles the flight of a pigeon (kabutar). They
say that once on a time a demon had captured some Kunbis and shut
them up in a cavern. But the Kunbis besought Mahadeo to save them,
and he created a man and a woman who danced before the demon and
so pleased him that he promised them whatever they should ask;
and they thus obtained the freedom of the Kunbis. The man and woman
were named Kabutar and Kabutari on account of their skilful dancing,
and were the ancestors of the Kolhatis. The Kolhatis of the Central
Provinces appear to differ in several respects from those of Berar,
with whom the following article is mainly concerned.
2. Internal structure.
The caste has two main divisions in Berar, the Dukar Kolhatis and the
Kham or Pal Kolhatis. The name of the former is derived from dukar,
hog, because they are accustomed to hunt the wild pig with dogs and
spears when these animals become too numerous and damage the crops of
the villagers. They also labour for themselves by cultivating land and
taking service as village watchmen; and they are daring criminals and
commit dacoity, burglary and theft; but they do not steal cattle. The
Kham Kolhatis, on the other hand, are a lazy, good-for-nothing class
of men, who, beyond making a few combs and shuttles of bone, will set
their hands to no kind of labour, but subsist mainly by the immoral
pursuits of their women. At every large fair may be seen some of
the portable huts of this tribe, made of rusa grass, [565] the women
decked in jewels and gaudy attire sitting at each door, while the men
are lounging lazily at the back. The Dukar Kolhati women, Mr. Kitts
states, also resort to the same mode of life, but take up their abode
in villages instead of attending fairs. Among the Dukar Kolhatis the
subdivisions have Rajput names; and just as a Chauhan Rajput may not
marry another Chauhan so also a Chauhan Dukar Kolhati may not marry
a person of his own clan. In Bilaspur they are said to have four
subcastes, the Marethi or those coming from the Maratha country, the
Bansberia or pole-jumpers, the Suarwale or hunters of the wild pig,
and the Muhammadan Kolhatis, none of whom marry or take food with
each other. Each group is further subdivided into the Asal and Kamsal
(Kam-asal), or the pure and mixed Kolhatis, who marry among themselves,
outsiders being admitted to the Kamsal or mixed group.
3. Marriage.
The marriage ceremony in Berar [566] consists simply in a feast at
which the bride and bridegroom, dressed in new clothes, preside. Much
liquor is consumed and the dancing-girls of the tribe dance before
them, and the happy couple are considered duly married according to
Kolhati rites. Married women do not perform in public and are no less
moral and faithful than those of other castes, while those brought
up as dancing-girls do not marry at all. In Bilaspur weddings are
arranged through the headman of the village, who receives a fee for
his services, and the ceremony includes some of the ordinary Hindu
rites. Here a widow is compelled to marry her late husband's younger
brother on pain of exclusion from caste. People of almost any caste may
become Kolhatis. When an outsider is admitted he must have a sponsor
into whose clan he is adopted. A feast is given to the caste, and
the applicant catches the right little finger of his sponsor before
the assembly. Great numbers of Rajputs and Muhammadans join them, and
on the other hand a large proportion of the fair but frail Kolhatis
embrace the Muhammadan faith. [567]
4. Funeral rites.
The bodies of children are buried, and those of the adult dead may
be either buried or cremated. Mr. Kitts states that on the third day,
if they can afford the ceremony, they bring back the skull and placing
it on a bed offer to it powder, dates and betel-leaves; and after a
feast lasting for three days it is again buried. According to Major
Gunthorpe the proceedings are more elaborate: "Each division of the
caste has its own burial-ground in some special spot, to which it is
the heart's desire of every Kolhati to carry, when he can afford it,
the bones of his deceased relatives. After the cremation of an adult
the bones are collected and buried pending such time as they can be
conveyed to the appointed cemetery, if this be at a distance. When the
time comes, that is, when means can be found for the removal, the bones
are disinterred and placed in two saddle-bags on a donkey, the skull
and upper bones in the right bag and the leg and lower bones in the
left. The ass is then led to the deceased's house, where the bags of
bones are placed under a canopy made ready for their reception. High
festival, as for a marriage, is held for three days, and at the end
of this time the bags are replaced on the donkey, and with tom-toms
beating and dancing-girls of the tribe dancing in front, the animal
is led off to the cemetery. On arrival, the bags, with the bones in
them, are laid in a circular hole, and over it a stone is placed to
mark the spot, and covered with oil and vermilion; and the spirit
of the deceased is then considered to be appeased." They believe
that the spirits of dead ancestors enter the bodies of the living
and work evil to them, unless they are appeased with offerings. The
Dukar Kolhatis offer a boar to the spirits of male ancestors and a sow
to females. An offering of a boar is also made to Bhagwan (Vishnu),
who is the principal deity of the caste and is worshipped with great
ceremony every second year. [568]
5. Other customs.
Although of low caste the Kolhatis refrain from eating the flesh of the
cow and other animals of the same tribe. The wild cat, mongoose, wild
and tame pig and jackal are considered as delicacies. The caste have
the same ordeals as are described in the article on the Sansias. As
might be expected in a class which makes a living by immoral practices
the women considerably outnumber the men. No one is permanently
expelled from caste, and temporary exclusion is imposed only for a
few offences, such as an intrigue with or being touched by a member
of an impure caste. The offender gives a feast, and in the case of a
man the moustache is shaved, while a woman has five hairs of her head
cut off. The women have names meant to indicate their attractions,
as Panna emerald, Munga coral, Mehtab dazzling, Gulti a flower, Moti
a pearl, and Kesar saffron. If a girl is detected in an intrigue with
a caste-fellow they are fined seven rupees and must give a feast to
the caste, and are then married. When, however, a girl is suspected
of unchastity and no man will take the responsibility on himself,
she is put to an ordeal. She fasts all night, and next morning is
dressed in a white cloth, and water is poured over her head from a new
earthen pot. A piece of iron is heated red hot between cowdung cakes,
and she must take up this in her hand and walk five steps with it, also
applying it to the tip of her tongue. If she is burnt her unchastity
is considered to be proved, and the idea is therefore apparently that
if she is innocent the deity will intervene to save her.
6. Occupation.
The Dukar Kolhati males, Major Gunthorpe states, are a fine manly
set of fellows. They hunt the wild boar with dogs, the men armed with
spears following on foot. They show much pluck in attacking the boar,
and there is hardly a man of years who does not bear scars received in
fights with these animals. The villagers send long distances for a gang
to come and rid them of the wild pig, which play havoc with the crops,
and pay them in grain for doing so. But they are also much addicted
to crime, and when they have decided on a dacoity or house-breaking
they have a good drinking-bout and start off with their dogs as if
to hunt the boar. And if they are successful they bury the spoil,
and return with the body of a pig or a hare as evidence of what they
have been doing. Stolen property is either buried at some distance
from their homes or made over to the safe keeping of men with whom
the women of the caste may be living. Such men, who become intimate
with the Kolhatis through their women, are often headmen of villages
or hold other respectable positions, and are thus enabled to escape
suspicion. Boys who are to become acrobats are taught to jump from
early youth. The acrobats and dancing-girls go about to fairs and other
gatherings and make a platform on a cart, which serves as a stage for
their performances. The dancing-girl is assisted by her admirers, who
accompany her with music. Some of them are said now to have obtained
European instruments, as harmoniums or gramophones. They do not give
their performances on Thursdays and Mondays, which are considered
to be unlucky days. In Bombay they are said to make a practice of
kidnapping girls, preferably of high caste, whom they sell or bring
up as prostitutes. [569]
KOLI
List of Paragraphs
1. General notice of the caste.
2. Subdivisions.
3. Exogamous divisions.
4. Widow-marriage or divorce.
5. Religion.
6. Disposal of the dead.
7. Social rules.
1. General notice of the caste.
Koli.--A primitive tribe akin to the Bhils, who are residents of the
western Satpura hills. They have the honorific title of Naik. They
numbered 36,000 persons in 1911, nearly all of whom belong to
Berar, with the exception of some 2000 odd, who live in the Nimar
District. These have hitherto been confused with the Kori caste. The
Koris or weavers are also known as Koli, but in Nimar they have the
designation of Khangar Koli to distinguish them from the tribe of
the same name. The Kolis proper are found in the Burhanpur tahsil,
where most villages are said to possess one or two families, and
on the southern Satpura hills adjoining Berar. They are usually
village servants, their duties being to wait on Government officers,
cleaning their cooking-vessels and collecting carts and provisions. The
duties of village watchman or kotwar were formerly divided between
two officials, and while the Koli did the most respectable part of the
work, the Mahar or Balahi carried baggage, sent messages, and made the
prescribed reports to the police. In Berar the Kolis acted for a time
as guardians of the hill passes. A chain of outposts or watch towers
ran along the Satpura hills to the north of Berar, and these were
held by Kolis and Bhils, whose duties were to restrain the predatory
inroads of their own tribesmen, in the same manner as the Khyber
Rifles now guard the passes on the North-West Frontier. And again
along the Ajanta hills to the south of the Berar valley a tribe of
Kolis under their Naiks had charge of the ghats or gates of the ridge,
and acted as a kind of local militia paid by assignments of land in
the villages. [570] In Nimar the Kolis, like the Bhils, made a trade
of plunder and dacoity during the unsettled times of the eighteenth
century, and the phrase 'Nahal, Bhil, Koli' is commonly used in old
Marathi documents to designate the hill-robbers as a class. The priest
of a Muhammadan tomb in Burhanpur still exhibits an imperial Parwana
or intimation from Delhi announcing the dispatch of a force for the
suppression of the Kolis, dated A.D. 1637. In the Bombay Presidency,
so late as 1804, Colonel Walker wrote: "Most Kolis are thieves by
profession, and embrace every opportunity of plundering either public
or private property." [571] The tribe are important in Bombay, where
their numbers amount to more than 1 1/2 million. It is supposed that
the common term 'coolie' is a corruption of Koli, [572] because the
Kolis were usually employed as porters and carriers in western India,
as 'slave' comes from Slav. The tribe have also given their name to
Colaba. [573] Various derivations have been given of the meaning of the
word Koli, [574] and according to one account the Kolis and Mairs were
originally the same tribe and came from Sind, while the Mairs were the
same as the Meyds or Mihiras who entered India in the fifth century
as one of the branches of the great White Hun horde. "Again, since
the settlement of the Mairs in Gujarat," the writer of the Gujarat
Gazetteer continues, "reverses of fortune, especially the depression
of the Rajputs under the yoke of the Muhammadans in the fourteenth
century, did much to draw close the bond between the higher and middle
grades of the warrior class. Then many Rajputs sought shelter among
the Kolis and married with them, leaving descendants who still claim
a Rajput descent and bear the names of Rajput families. Apart from
this, and probably as the result of an original sameness of race,
in some parts of Gujarat and Kathiawar intermarriage goes on between
the daughters of Talabda Kolis and the sons of Rajputs." Thus the
Thakur of Talpuri Mahi Kantha in Bombay calls himself a Pramara Koli,
and explains the term by saying that his ancestor, who was a Pramara
or Panwar Rajput, took water at a Koli's house. [575] As regards
the origin of the Kolis, however, whom the author of the Gujarat
Gazetteer derives from the White Huns, stating them to be immigrants
from Sind, another and perhaps more probable theory is that they are
simply a western outpost of the great Kol or Munda tribe, to which
the Korkus and Nahals and perhaps the Bhils may also belong. Mr. Hira
Lal suggests that it is a common custom in Marathi to add or alter so
as to make names end in i. Thus Halbi for Halba, Koshti for Koshta,
Patwi for Patwa, Wanjari for Banjara, Gowari for Goala; and in the
same manner Koli from Kol. This supposition appears a very reasonable
one, though there is little direct evidence. The Nimar Kolis have no
tradition of their origin beyond the saying--
Siva ki jholi
Us men ka Koli,
or 'The Koli was born from Siva's wallet.'
2. Subdivisions.
In the Central Provinces the tribe have the five subdivisions of
Surajvansi, Malhar, Bhilaophod, Singade, and the Muhammadan Kolis. The
Surajvansi or 'descendants of the sun' claim to be Rajputs. The Malhar
or Panbhari subtribe are named from their deity Malhari Deo, while
the alternative name of Panbhari means water-carrier. The Bhilaophod
extract the oil from bhilwa [576] nuts like the Nahals, and the Singade
(sing, horn, and gadna, to bury) are so called because when their
buffaloes die they bury the horns in their compounds. As with several
other castes in Burhanpur and Berar, a number of Kolis embraced Islam
at the time of the Muhammadan domination and form a separate subcaste.
In Berar the principal group is that of the Mahadeo Kolis, whose name
may be derived from the Mahadeo or Pachmarhi hills. This would tend to
connect them with the Korkus, and through them with the Kols. They are
divided into the Bhas or pure and the Akaramase or impure Kolis. [577]
In Akola most of the Kolis are stated to belong to the Kshatriya group,
while other divisions are the Naiks or soldiers, the begging Kolis,
and the Watandars who are probably hereditary holders of the post of
village watchman. [578]
3. Exogamous divisions.
The tribe have exogamous septs of the usual nature, but they have
forgotten the meaning of the names, and they cannot be explained. In
Bombay their family names are the same as the Maratha surnames, and the
writer of the Ahmadnagar Gazetteer [579] considers that some connection
exists between the two classes. A man must not marry a girl of his
own sept nor the daughter of his maternal uncle. Girls are usually
married at an early age. A Brahman is employed to conduct the marriage
ceremony, which takes place at sunset: a cloth is held between the
couple, and as the sun disappears it is removed and they join hands
amid the clapping of the assembled guests. Afterwards they march seven
times round a stone slab surrounded by four plough-yokes. Among the
Rewa Kantha Kolis the boy's father must not proceed on his journey
to find a bride for his son until on leaving his house he sees
a small bird called devi on his right hand; and consequently he
is sometimes kept waiting for weeks, or even for months. When the
betrothal is arranged the bridegroom and his father are invited to
a feast at the bride's house, and on leaving the father must stumble
over the threshold of the girl's door; without this omen no wedding
can prosper. [580]
4. Widow-marriage or divorce.
The remarriage of widows is permitted, and the ceremony consists
simply in tying a knot in the clothes of the couple; in Ahmadabad all
they need do is to sit on the ground while the bridegroom's father
knocks their heads together. [581] Divorce is allowed for a wife's
misconduct, and if she marries her fellow delinquent he must repay to
the husband the expenses incurred by him on his wedding. Otherwise the
caste committee may inflict a fine of Rs. 100 on him and put him out
of caste for twelve years in default of payment, and order one side
of his moustache to be shaved. In Gujarat a married woman who has an
intrigue with another man is called savasan, and it is said that a
practice exists, or did exist, for her lover to pay her husband a price
for the woman and marry her, though it is held neither respectable nor
safe. [582] In Ahmadabad, if one Koli runs away with another's wife,
leaving his own wife behind him, the caste committee sometimes order
the offender's relatives to supply the bereaved husband with a fresh
wife. They produce one or more women, and he selects one and is quite
content with her. [583]
5. Religion.
The Kolis of Nimar chiefly revere the goddess Bhawani, and almost every
family has a silver image of her. An important shrine of the goddess
is situated in Ichhapur, ten or twelve miles from Burhanpur, and here
members of the tribe were accustomed to perform the hook-swinging
rite in honour of the goddess. Since this has been forbidden they
have an imitation ceremony of swinging a bundle of bamboos covered
with cloth in lieu of a human being.
6. Disposal of the dead.
The Kolis both bury and burn the dead, but the former practice is more
common. They place the body in the grave with head to the south and
face to the north. On the third day after the funeral they perform the
ceremony called Kandhe kanchhna or 'rubbing the shoulder.' The four
bearers of the corpse come to the house of the deceased and stand as
if they were carrying the bier. His widow smears a little ghi (butter)
on each man's shoulder and rubs the place with a small cake which
she afterwards gives to him. The men go to a river or tank and throw
the cakes into it, afterwards bathing in the water. This ceremony is
clearly designed to sever the connection established by the contact
of the bier with their shoulders, which they imagine might otherwise
render them likely to require the use of a bier themselves. On the
eleventh day a Brahman is called in, who seats eleven friends of the
deceased in a row and applies sandal-paste to their foreheads. All
the women whose husbands are alive then have turmeric rubbed on their
foreheads, and a caste feast follows.
7. Social rules.
The Kolis eat flesh, including fowls and pork, and drink liquor. They
will not eat beef, but have no special reverence for the cow. They
will not remove the carcase of a dead cow or a dead horse. The social
status of the tribe is low, but they are not considered as impure,
and Gujars, Kunbis, and even some Rajputs will take water from
them. Children are named on the twelfth day after birth. Their hair
is shaved in the month of Magh following the birth, and on the first
day of the next month, Phagun, a little oil is applied to the child's
ear, after which it may be pierced at any time that is convenient.
Kolta
1. Origin and traditions.
Kolta, [584] Kolita, Kulta.--An agricultural caste of the Sambalpur
District and the adjoining Uriya States. In 1901 the Central Provinces
contained 127,000 Koltas out of 132,000 in India, but since the
transfer of Sambalpur the headquarters of the caste belong to Bihar
and Orissa, and only 36,000 remain in the Central Provinces. In Assam
more than two lakhs of persons were enumerated under the caste name
of Kalita in 1901, but in spite of the resemblance of the name the
Kalitas apparently have no connection with the Uriya country, while
the Koltas know nothing of a section of their caste in Assam. The
Koltas of Sambalpur say that they immigrated from Baud State,
which they regard as their ancestral home, and a member of their
caste formerly held the position of Diwan of the State. According
to one of their legends their first ancestors were born from the
leavings of food of the legendary Raja Janak of Mithila or Tirhut,
whose daughter Sita married King Rama of Ajodhya, the hero of the
Ramayana. Some Koltas went with Sita to Ajodhya and were employed as
water-bearers in the royal household. When Rama was banished they
accompanied him in his wanderings, and were permitted to settle in
the Uriya country at the request of the Raghunathia Brahmans, who
wanted cultivators to till the soil. Another legend is that once upon
a time, when Rama was wandering in the forests of Sambalpur, he met
three brothers and asked them to draw water for him. The first brought
water in a clean brass pot, and was called Sudh (good-mannered). The
second made a cup of leaves and drew water from a well with a rope;
he was called Dumal, from dori-mal, a coil of rope. The third brought
water only in a hollow gourd, and he was named Kolta, from ku-rita,
bad-mannered. This story serves to show that the Koltas, Sudhs and
Dumals acknowledge some connection, and in the Sambalpur District they
will take food together at festivals. But this degree of intimacy
may simply have arisen from their common calling of agriculture,
and may be noticed among the cultivating castes elsewhere, as the
Kirars, Gujars and Raghuvansis in Hoshangabad. The most probable
theory of the origin of the Koltas is that they are an offshoot of
the great Chasa caste, the principal cultivating caste of the Uriya
country, corresponding to the Kurmis and Kunbis in Hindustan and the
Deccan. Several of their family names are identical with those of the
Chasas, and there is actually a subcaste of Kolita Chasas. Mr. Hira
Lal conjectures that the Koltas may be those Chasas who took to
growing kultha (Dolichos uniflorus), a favourite pulse in Sambalpur;
just as the Santora Kurmis are so named from their growing san-hemp,
and the Alia Banias and Kunbis from the al or Indian madder. This
hypothesis derives some support from the fact that the Koltas have no
subcastes, and the formation of the caste may therefore be supposed
to have occurred at a comparatively recent period.
2. Exogamous groups.
The Koltas have both family names or gotras and exogamous sections or
bargas. The gotras are generally named after animals or other objects,
as Dip (lamp), Bachhas (calf), Hasti (elephant), Bharadwaj (blue-jay),
and so on. Members of the Bachhas gotra must not yoke a young bullock
to the plough for the first time, but must get this done by somebody
else. The names of the bargas are generally derived from villages or
from offices or titles. In one or two cases they show the admission of
members of other castes; thus the Rawat barga are the descendants of a
Rawat (herdsman) who was in the service of the Raja of Sambalpur. The
Raja had brought him up from infancy, and, wishing to make him a Kolta,
married him to a Kolta girl, despite the protests of the caste. The
ancestor of the Hinmiya Bhoi barga had a mistress of the Khond tribe,
who left him some property, and is still worshipped in the family. The
number of gotras is smaller than that of the bargas, and some gotras,
as the Nag or cobra, the tortoise and the pipal tree, are common to
many bargas. Marriage is forbidden between members of the same barga,
and between first cousins on the father's side. To have the same
gotra is no bar to marriage.
3. Marriage
Girls should be wedded before maturity, as among most of the Uriya
castes, and if no suitable husband is forthcoming a nominal marriage is
sometimes arranged with an old man, and the girl is afterwards disposed
of as a widow. The boy's father makes the proposal for the marriage,
and if this is accepted the following formal ceremony takes place. He
goes to the girl's village, accompanied by some friends, and taking a
quantity of gur (raw sugar), and staying at some other house, sends
a messenger known as Jalangia to the girl's father, intimating that
he has a request to make. The girl's father pretends not to know what
it is, and replies that if he has anything to say the elders of the
village should be called to hear it. These assemble, and the girl's
father informs them that a stranger from another village has come to
ask something of him, and as he is ignorant of its purport, he has
asked them to do him the favour of being present. The boy's father then
opens a parable, saying that he was carried down a river in flood, and
saved himself by grasping a tree on the bank. The girl's father replies
that the roots of a riverside tree are weak, and he fears that the tree
itself would go down in the flood. The boy's father replies that in
that case he would be content to perish with the tree. Thereupon the
caste priest places a nut and some sacred rice cooked at Jagannath's
temple in the hands of the parties, who stand together facing the
company, and the girl's father says he has no objection to giving
his daughter in marriage, provided that she may not be abandoned
if she should subsequently become disfigured. The nut is broken and
distributed to all present in ratification of the agreement. After
this, other visits and a formal interchange of presents take place
prior to the marriage proper. This is performed with the customary
ceremonial of the Uriya castes. The marriage altar is made of earth
brought from outside the village by seven married women. Branches of
the mahua tree are placed on the altar, and after the conclusion of
the ceremony are thrown into a tank. The women also take a jar of water
to a tank and, emptying it, fill the jar with the tank water. They go
round to seven houses, and at each empty and refill the jar with water
from the house. The water finally brought back is used for bathing
the bride and bridegroom, and is believed to protect them from all
supernatural dangers. An image of the family totem made from powdered
rice is anointed with oil and turmeric, and worshipped daily while
the marriage is in progress. If the boy or girl is the eldest child,
the parents go through a mock marriage ceremony which the child is not
allowed to see. When the couple are brought into the marriage-shed,
they throw seven handfuls of rice mixed with mung [585] and salt
on each other. The priest ties the hands of the couple with thread
spun by virgins, and the relatives then pour water over the knot. The
bride's brother comes up and unties the knot, and gives the bridegroom
a blow on the back. This is meant to show his anger at being deprived
of his sister. He is given a piece of cloth and goes away. Presents
are made to the pair, and the women throw rice on them. They are
then taken inside the house and set to gamble with cowries. If the
bridegroom wins he promises an ornament to the bride. If she wins
she promises to serve him. The boy then asks her to sit with him on
a bench, and she at first refuses, and agrees when he promises her
other presents. Next day the bride's mother singes the cheeks of the
bridegroom with betel-leaves heated over a lamp, and throws cowdung
and rice over the couple to protect them from evil. The party takes
its departure for the bridegroom's village, and on arrival there his
sisters hold a cloth over the door of the house and will not let the
couple in till they are given a present. The bridegroom then shoots
an arrow at an image of a monkey or a deer, made of powdered rice,
which is brought back, cooked and eaten. The bride goes home in a
day or two, and the Bandapana ceremony is performed when she finally
departs to live with her husband on arrival at maturity. The Koltas
allow widow-marriage, but the husband has to pay a sum of about Rs. 100
to the caste-people, the bulk of which is expended in feasting. Divorce
may be effected in the presence of the caste committee.
4. Religion.
The caste worship the goddess Ramchandi, whose principal shrine is
at Sarsara in Baud State. In order to establish a local Ramchandi,
a handful of earth must be brought from her shrine at Sarsara and made
into a representation of the goddess. Some consider that Ramchandi is
the personification of Mother Earth, and the Koltas will not swear by
the earth. They worship the plough in the month of Shrawan, washing
it with water and milk, and applying sandal-paste with offerings
of flowers and food. The Puajiuntia festival is observed in Kunwar
for the well-being of a son. On this occasion barren women try to
ascertain whether they will get a son. A hole is made in the ground
and filled with water, and a living fish is placed in it. The woman
sits by the hole holding her cloth spread out, and if the fish in
struggling jumps into her cloth, it is held to prognosticate the
birth of a son. The caste worship their family gods and totems on the
10th day of Asarh, Bhadon, Kartik and Magh, which are called the pure
months. They employ Brahmans for religious ceremonies. Every man has
a guru who is a Bairagi, and he must be initiated by his guru before
he is allowed to marry. The caste both burn and bury the dead. They
eat flesh and fish, but generally abstain from liquor and the flesh
of unclean animals, though in some places they are known to eat rats
and crocodiles, and also the leavings of Brahmans. Brahmans will take
water from Koltas, and their social standing is equal to that of the
good agricultural castes.
5. Occupation.
The Koltas are skilful cultivators and have the usual characteristics
belonging to the cultivating castes, of frugality, industry, hunger
for land, and readiness to resort to any degree of litigation rather
than relinquish a supposed right to it. They strongly appreciate
the advantages of irrigation and show considerable public spirit in
constructing tanks which will benefit the lands of their tenants as
well as their own. Nevertheless they are not popular, probably because
they are generally more prosperous than their neighbours. The rising
of the Khonds of Kalahandi in 1882 was caused by their discontent at
being ousted from their lands by the Koltas. The Raja of Kalahandi
had imported a number of Kolta cultivators, and these speedily got the
Khond headmen and ryots into their debt, and possessed themselves of
all the best land in the Khond villages. In May 1882 the Khonds rose
and slaughtered more than 80 Koltas, while 300 more were besieged
in the village of Norla, the Khonds appearing with portions of the
scalp and hair of the murdered victims hanging to their bows. On the
arrival of a body of police which had been summoned from Vizagapatam,
they dispersed, and the outbreak was soon afterwards suppressed,
seven of the ringleaders being arrested, tried and hanged by the
Political Officer. A settlement was made of the grievances of the
Khonds and tranquillity was restored.
Komti
Komti, Komati.--The Madras caste of traders corresponding to Banias. In
1911 they numbered 11,000 persons in the Central Provinces, principally
in the Chanda and Yeotmal Districts. The Komtis claim to be of the same
status as Banias and to belong to the Vaishya division of the Aryans,
but this is a very doubtful pretension. Mr. Francis remarks of them:
[586] "Three points which show them to be of Dravidian origin are
their adherence to the custom of obliging a boy to marry his paternal
uncle's daughter, however unattractive she may be, a practice which is
condemned by Manu; their use of the Puranic or lower ritual instead
of the Vedic rites in their ceremonies; and the fact that none of
the 102 gotras into which the caste is divided are those of the
twice-born, while some at any rate seem to be totemistic as they are
the names of trees and plants, and the members of each gotra abstain
from touching or using the plant or tree after which their gotra is
called." They are also of noticeably dark complexion. Komati is said
to be a corruption of Gomati, a tender of cows. [587] The caste have,
however, a great reputation for cunning and astuteness, and hence have
arisen the popular derivations of ko-mati, fox-minded, and go-mati,
cow-minded. The real meaning of the word is obscure. In Mysore the
caste have the title of Setti or Chetty, which is a corruption of
the Sanskrit Sreshtha, good, and in the Central Provinces their names
often terminate with Appa.
The Komtis have the following story about themselves: Long ago,
in the Kaliyuga era, there lived a Rajput king of Rajahmundry, who
on his travels saw a beautiful Vaishya girl and fell in love with
her. Her father refused him, saying that they were of different
castes. But the king persisted and would not be denied. On which
the maiden determined to sacrifice herself to save her honour, and
her clansmen resolved to die with her. So she told the king that she
would marry him if he would agree to the hom sacrifice being performed
at the ceremony. When the fire was kindled the girl threw herself on
it and perished, followed by a hundred and two of her kinsmen. But
the others were cowardly and fled from the fire. Before she died the
girl cursed the king and her caste-fellows who had fled, and they
and their families were cut off from the earth. But from those who
died the hundred and two clans of the Komtis are descended, and they
worship the maiden as Kanika Devi. She is considered to have been an
incarnation of Parvati and is the heroine of the Kanikya Puran. It
is also said that she ordained that henceforth all Komtis should be
black, so that none of their women might come to harm by being desired
for their beauty as she had been. It is said that the caste look out
for a specially dark girl as a bride, and think that she will bring
luck to her husband and cause him to make money. Another explanation
of their dark colour is that they originally lived in Ceylon, and
when the island was set on fire by Rama their faces were blackened
in the smoke. The hundred and two clans have each a particular kind
of flower or tree which they do not grow, eat, touch or burn, and the
explanation they give of this custom is that their ancestors who went
into the fire were transformed into these trees and plants. The names
of the plants revered by each clan in the Central Provinces appear
to be the same as in Mysore. They include the brinjal, the mango,
the cotton-plant, wheat, linseed and others.
The caste have several subcastes, among which are the Yajna, or those
whose ancestors went into the fire; the Patti, who are apparently
thread-sellers; the Jaina, or those who follow the Jain faith; and
the Vidurs, a half-caste section, who are the offspring of a Yajna
father and a mother of some low caste. There is a scarcity of girls,
and a bride-price of Rs. 200 to Rs. 500 is often paid. Perhaps for
the same reason the obligation to give a daughter to a sister's son is
strictly enforced, and a man who refuses to do this is temporarily put
out of caste. The gotras of the mothers of the bride and bridegroom
should not be the same, and there should be no 'Turning back of the
creeper,' as they say, that is, when a girl has married into a family,
the latter cannot give a girl in marriage to that girl's family ever
afterwards. Before the regular betrothal when a girl has been selected,
they appoint a day and the bridegroom's party proceed outside the
village to take the omens. If a bad omen occurs, they give up the
idea of the match and choose another girl. When the bridegroom has
arrived at the bride's village, before the marriage takes place, he
performs the Kashi-Yatra or Going to Benares. He is dressed as for
a journey and carries a small handful of rice and other provisions
tied up in packages in his upper garment. Thus accoutred, he sets
out with a stick and umbrella on a pretended visit to Benares, for
the purpose of devoting his life to study. The parents of the bride
meet him and beg him to give up the journey, promising him their
daughter in marriage. [588] The binding function of the marriage is
the tying of the mangal-sutram or piece of gold strung on a thread
round the bride's neck by the bridegroom. This gold piece is called
pushti and must never be taken off. If a woman loses it, she should
hide herself from everybody until it is replaced. On the way to her
husband's house, the bride should upset with her foot a measure of
rice kept on purpose in the way, perhaps with the idea of showing that
there will be so much grain in her household that she can afford to
waste it. [589] The Komtis did not eat in kitchens in the famines,
but accepted dry rations of food with great reluctance. They wear the
sacred thread and have caste-marks on their foreheads. They usually
rub powdered turmeric on their face and hands, and this lends an
unpleasant greenish tinge to the skin.
Kori
1. Description of the caste.
Kori.--The Hindu weaving caste of northern India, as distinct
from the Julahas or Momins who are Muhammadans. In 1911 the Koris
numbered 35,000 persons, and resided mainly in Jubbulpore, Saugor and
Damoh. Mr. Crooke states that their name has been derived from that
of the Kol caste, of whom they have by some been assumed to be an
offshoot. [590] The Koris themselves trace their origin from Kabir,
the apostle of the weaving castes. He, they say, met a Brahman girl
on the bank of a tank, and, being saluted by her, replied, 'May God
give you a son.' She objected that she was a virgin and unmarried,
but Kabir answered that his word could not fail; and a boy was born
out of her hand, whom she left on the bank of the tank. He was suckled
by a heifer and subsequently adopted by a weaver and was the ancestor
of the Koris. Therefore the caste say of themselves: "He was born of
an undefiled vessel, and free from passion; he lowered his body and
entered the ocean of existence." This legend is a mere perversion of
the story of Kabir himself, designed to give the Koris a distinguished
pedigree. In the Central Provinces the caste appears to be almost
entirely a functional group, made up of members of other castes who
were either expelled from their own community or of their own accord
adopted the profession of weaving. The principal subdivision is the
Ahirwar, taking its name from the old town of Ahar in the Bulandshahr
District. Among the others are Kushta (Koshta), Chadar, Katia, Mehra,
Dhimar and Kotwar, all of which, except the last, are the names of
distinct castes; while the Kotwars represent members of the caste
who became village watchmen, and considering themselves somewhat
superior to the others, have formed a separate subcaste. None of the
subcastes will eat together or intermarry, and this fact is in favour
of the supposition that they are distinct groups amalgamated into a
caste by their common profession of weaving. The caste seem to have
a fairly close connection with Chamars in some localities. A number
of Koris belong to the sect of Rohidas, and some of their family
names are the same, while a Chamar will often call himself a Kori to
conceal his identity. For the purposes of marriage they are divided
into a number of bainks or septs, the names of which are territorial
or totemistic. Among the latter may be mentioned the Kulhariya from
kulhari, an axe, and the Barmaiya from the bar or banyan tree; members
of these septs pay reverence to an axe and a banyan tree respectively
at weddings.
2. Marriages
The marriage of persons belonging to the same sept and also that of
first cousins is prohibited, while a family will not, if they can
help it, marry a daughter into the sept from which a son has taken
a wife. The rule of exogamy is thus rather wide in its action, as
is often found to be the case among the lowest and most primitive
castes. At the betrothal the father of the girl produces a red cloth
folded up, and on this the boy's father lays a rupee. This is passed
round to five members of the caste who cry, 'So-and-so's daughter and
So-and-so's son, Har bolo (In the name of Vishnu).' This completes the
betrothal, the father of the boy giving three rupees for a feast to
the caste-fellows. A girl who is made pregnant by a man of the caste
or any higher caste may be disposed of in marriage as a widow, but if
the man is of a lower caste than the Koris she is finally expelled. The
lagan or paper fixing the date of the marriage is written by a Brahman
and must not be shown to the bridegroom in the interval, lest he should
grow as thin as the paper bearing his name. While he is being anointed
and rubbed with turmeric the bridegroom is wrapped in a black blanket,
and his bridal dress consists of a yellow shirt, pyjamas of red cloth,
and red shoes, while he carries in his hand a dagger, nut-cracker or
knife. As he leaves his house to proceed to the bride's village he
steps on two clay lamp-saucers, crushing them with his foot. When the
party arrives the fathers of the bride and bridegroom sit together with
a pot full of curds between them and give each other to drink from it
as a mark of amity. The binding portion of the marriage consists in
walking round the sacred pole and the other ceremonies customary in
the northern Districts are performed. The bride does not return with
her husband unless she is adult; otherwise the usual gauna ceremony is
held subsequently. When she arrives at her husband's house she makes
prints of her hands smeared with turmeric on the wall before entering
it for the first time. The remarriage of widows is freely permitted;
the second husband takes the widow to his house after sunset, and here
she is washed by the barber's wife and puts on glass bangles again,
and new jewellery and clothes, if any are provided. No married woman
may see her as she enters the house. The husband must give a feast to
the caste-fellows, or at least to the panchayat or committee. Divorce
is freely permitted on payment of a fine to the panchayat. When a man
takes a second wife a sot or silver image of the deceased first wife
is hung round her neck when she enters his house, and is worshipped
on ceremonial occasions.
3. Customs at birth and death.
A child is named on the day after its birth by some woman of the
caste; a Brahman is asked whether the day is auspicious, and he also
chooses the name. If this is the same as that of any living relation
or one recently dead, another name is given for ordinary use. A
daughter-in-law is usually given a new name when she goes to her
husband's house, such as Badi (elder), Manjhli (second son's wife),
Bari (innocent or simple), Jabalpurwali (belonging to Jubbulpore), and
so on. If a woman has borne only female children, the umbilical cord is
sometimes put in a small earthen pot and buried at a place where three
cross-roads meet, and it is supposed that the birth of a male child
will follow. Children whose shaving ceremony has not been performed,
and adults dying from snake-bite, cholera, smallpox or leprosy, are
buried, while others are burnt. Children are carried to the grave in
their parents' arms. On the return of a funeral party, liquor, provided
by the relatives of the family, is drunk at the house of the deceased.
4. Religion.
The Koris worship the ordinary Hindu deities and especially Devi. They
become inspired by this goddess at the Jawara festival and pierce their
cheeks with iron needles and tridents. Every family has a household god
or Kul-Deo to whom a small platform is erected; offerings other than
animal sacrifices are made to him on festivals and on the celebration
of a marriage.
5. Occupation and social status.
Those of the caste who are Kabirpanthis abstain from animal food,
but the others eat the flesh of most animals except tame pig, and
also drink liquor. Their social status is very low, but they are
not usually considered as impure. Their women are tattooed on the
right arm before marriage, and on the left after arrival at their
husband's house. Like several other low castes, they do not wear
nose-rings. The principal occupation of the caste is the weaving
of coarse country cloth, but as the trade of the hand-weaver is
nowadays precarious and unprofitable many of them have forsaken it
and taken to cultivation or daily labour. Mr. Nesfield says of them:
"The material used by the Kori is the thread supplied by the Dhunia
(Bahna); and thus the weaver caste has risen imperceptibly out of
that of the cotton-carder, in the same way as the cobbler caste has
risen out of the tanner. The art of weaving and plaiting threads
is very much the same process as that of plaiting osiers, reeds and
grass, and converting them into baskets and mats. This circumstance
explains the puzzle why the weaver caste in India stands at such
a low social level. He, however, ranks several degrees above the
Chamar or tanner; as, among Hindus, herbs and their products (cotton
being of course included) are invariably considered pure, while the
hides of dead animals are regarded as a pollution." This argument is
part of Mr. Nesfield's theory that the rank of each caste depends on
the period of civilisation at which its occupation came into being,
which is scarcely tenable. The reason why the weavers rank so low may,
perhaps, be that the Aryans when they settled in villages in northern
India despised all handicrafts as derogatory to their dignity. These
were left to the subject tribes, and as a large number of weavers
would be required, the industry would necessarily be embraced by
the bulk of those who formed the lowest stratum of the population,
and has ever since remained in their hands. If cloth was first woven
from the tree-cotton plant growing wild, the business of picking
and weaving it would naturally have fallen to the non-Aryan jungle
tribes, who afterwards became the impure menial and labouring castes
of the villages.
The weaver is the proverbial butt of Hindu ridicule, like the tailor
in England. 'One Gadaria will account for ten weavers'; 'Four weavers
will spoil any business.' The following story also illustrates their
stupidity: Twenty weavers got into a field of kans grass. They thought
it was a tank and began swimming. When they got out they said, "Let
us all count and see how many we are, in case anybody has been left
in the tank." They counted and each left out himself, so that they
all made out nineteen. Just then a Sowar came by, and they cried,
to him, 'Oh, Sir, we were twenty, and one of us has been drowned in
this tank.' The Sowar seeing that there was only a field of grass,
counted them and found there were twenty; so he said, 'What will you
give me if I find the twentieth?' They promised him a piece of cloth,
on which the Sowar, taking his whip, lashed each of the weavers across
the shoulders, counting as he did so. When he had counted twenty he
took the cloth and rode away. Another story is that a weaver bought a
buffalo for twenty rupees. His brother then came to him and wanted a
share in the buffalo. They did not know how he should be given a share
until at last the weaver said, "You go and pay the man who sold me the
buffalo twenty rupees; and then you will have given as much as I have
and will be half-owner of the buffalo." Which was done. The ridicule
attaching to the weaver's occupation is due to its being considered
proper for a woman rather than a man, and similar jests were current
at the tailor's expense in England. In India the weaver probably takes
the tailor's place because woven and not sewn clothes have hitherto
been generally worn, as explained in the article on Darzi.
KORKU
List of Paragraphs
1. Distribution and origin.
2. Tribal legends.
3. Tribal subdivisions.
4. Marriage. Betrothal.
5. The marriage ceremony.
6. Religion.
7. The Bhumka.
8. Magical practices.
9. Funeral rites.
10. Appearance and social customs.
11. Character.
12. Inheritance.
13. Occupation.
14. Language.
1. Distribution and origin.
Korku. [591]--A Munda or a Kolarian tribe akin to the Korwas, with whom
they have been identified in the India Census of 1901. They number
about 150,000 persons in the Central Provinces and Berar, and belong
to the west of the Satpura plateau, residing only in the Hoshangabad,
Nimar, Betul and Chhindwara Districts. About 30,000 Korkus dwell in
the Berar plain adjoining the Satpuras, and a few thousand belong
to Bhopal. The word Korku means simply 'men' or 'tribesmen,' koru
being their term for a man and ku a plural termination. The tribe
have a language of their own, which resembles that of the Kols of
Chota Nagpur. The language of the Korwas, another Munda tribe found
in Chota Nagpur, is also known as Koraku or Korku, and one of their
subcastes has the same name. [592] Some Korkus or Mowasis are found
in Chota Nagpur, and Colonel Dalton considered them a branch of the
Korwas. Another argument may be adduced from the sept names of the
Korkus which are in many cases identical with those of the Kols
and Korwas. There is little reason to doubt then that the Korkus
are the same tribe as the Korwas, and both of these may be taken to
be offshoots of the great Kol or Munda tribe. The Korkus have come
much further west than their kinsmen, and between their residence
on the Mahadeo or western Satpura hills and the Korwas and Kols,
there lies a large expanse mainly peopled by the Gonds and other
Dravidian tribes, though with a considerable sprinkling of Kols in
Mandla, Jubbulpore and Bilaspur. These latter may have immigrated in
comparatively recent times, but the Kolis of Bombay may not improbably
be another offshoot of the Kols, who with the Korkus came west at a
period before the commencement of authentic history. [593] One of the
largest subdivisions of the Korkus is termed Mowasi, and this name
is sometimes applied to the whole tribe, while the tract of country
where they dwell was formerly known as the Mowas. Numerous derivations
of this term have been given, and the one commonly accepted is that
it signifies 'The troubled country,' and was applied to the hills
at the time when bands of Koli or Korku freebooters, often led by
dispossessed Rajput chieftains, harried the rich lowlands of Berar
from their hill forts on the Satpuras, exacting from the Marathas,
with poetical justice, the payments known as 'Tankha Mowasi' for the
ransom of the settled and peaceful villages of the plains. The fact,
however, that the Korkus found in Chota Nagpur are also known as Mowasi
militates against this supposition, for if the name was applied only
to the Korkus of the Satpura plateau it would hardly have travelled
as far east as Chota Nagpur. Mr. Hislop derived it from the mahua
tree. But at any rate Mowasi meant a robber to Maratha ears, and the
forests of Kalibhit and Melghat are known as the Mowas.
2. Tribal legends.
According to their own traditions the Korkus like so many other early
people were born from the soil. They state that Rawan, the demon
king of Ceylon, observed that the Vindhyan and Satpura ranges were
uninhabited and besought Mahadeo [594] to populate them. Mahadeo
despatched his messenger, the crow Kageshwar, to find for him an
ant-hill made of red earth, and the crow discovered such an ant-hill
between the Saoligarh and Bhanwargarh ranges of Betul. Mahadeo went
to the place, and, taking a handful of red earth, made images in the
form of a man and a woman, but immediately two fiery horses sent by
Indra rose from the earth and trampled the images to dust. For two
days Mahadeo persisted in his attempts, but as often as the images
were made they were destroyed in a similar manner. But at length the
god made an image of a dog and breathed into it the breath of life,
and this dog kept off the horses of Indra. Mahadeo then made again
his two images of a man and woman, and giving them human life, called
them Mula and Mulai with the surname of Pothre, and these two became
the ancestors of the Korku tribe. Mahadeo then created various plants
for their use, the mahul [595] from whose strong and fibrous leaves
they could make aprons and head-coverings, the wild plantain whose
leaves would afford other clothing, and the mahua, the chironji, the
sewan and kullu [596] to provide them with food. Time went on and Mula
and Mulai had children, and being dissatisfied with their condition as
compared with that of their neighbours, besought Mahadeo to visit them
once more. When he appeared Mula asked the god to give him grain to eat
such as he had heard of elsewhere on the earth. Mahadeo sent the crow
Kageshwar to look for grain, and he found it stored in the house of
a Mang named Japre who lived at some distance within the hills. Japre
on hearing what was required besought the honour of a visit from the
god himself. Mahadeo went, and Japre laid before him an offering of 12
khandis [597] of grain, 12 goats and 12 buckets of water, and invited
Mahadeo to eat and drink. The god was pleased with the offering and
unwilling to reject it, but considered that he could not eat food
defiled by the touch of the outcaste Mang, so Parvati created the
giant Bhimsen and bade him eat up the food offered to Mahadeo. When
Bhimsen had finished the offering, however, it occurred to him that
he also had been defiled by taking food from a Mang, and in revenge
he destroyed Japre's house and covered the site of it with débris
and dirt. Japre then complained to Mahadeo of this sorry requital of
his offering and prayed to have his house restored to him. Bhimsen
was ordered to do this, and agreed to comply on condition that Mula
should pay to him the same honour and worship as he accorded to Rawan,
the demon king. Mula promised to do so, and Bhimsen then sent the crow
Kageshwar to the tank Daldal, bidding him bring thence the pig Buddu,
who being brought was ordered to eat up all the dirt that covered
Japre's house. Buddu demurred except on condition that he also should
be worshipped by Mula and his descendants for ever. Mula agreed to pay
worship to him every third year, whereupon Buddu ate up all the dirt,
and dying from the effects received the name of Mahabissum, under which
he is worshipped to the present day. Mahadeo then took some seed from
the Mang and planted it for Mula's use, and from it sprang the seven
grains--kodon, kutki, gurgi, mandgi, barai, rala and dhan [598] which
the Korkus principally cultivate. It may be noticed that the story
ingeniously accounts for and sheds as it were an orthodox sanction on
the custom of the Korkus of worshipping the pig and the local demon
Bhimsen, who is placed on a sort of level with Rawan, the opponent
of Rama. After recounting the above story Mr. Crosthwaite remarks:
"This legend given by the Korkus of their creation bears a curious
analogy to our own belief as set forth in the Old Testament. They
even give the tradition of a flood, in which a crow plays the part of
Noah's dove. There is a most curious similarity between their belief
in this respect and that found in such distant and widely separated
parts as Otaheite and Siberia. Remembering our own name 'Adam,' which I
believe means in Hebrew 'made of red earth,' it is curious to observe
the stress that is laid in the legend on the necessity for finding
red earth for the making of man." Another story told by the Korkus
with the object of providing themselves with Rajput ancestry is to
the effect that their forefathers dwelt in the city of Dharanagar,
the modern Dhar. It happened one day that they were out hunting and
followed a sambhar stag, which fled on and on until it finally came
to the Mahadeo or Pachmarhi hills and entered a cave. The hunters
remained at the mouth waiting for the stag to come out, when a hermit
appeared and gave them a handful of rice. This they at once cooked
and ate as they were hungry from their long journey, and they found
to their surprise that the rice sufficed for the whole party to eat
their fill. The hermit then told them that he was the god Mahadeo,
and had assumed the form of a stag in order to lead them to these
hills, where they were to settle and worship him. They obeyed the
command of the god, and a Korku zamindar is still the hereditary
guardian of Mahadeo's shrine at Pachmarhi. This story has of course
no historical value, and the Korkus have simply stolen the city of
Dharanagar for their ancestral home from their neighbours the Bhoyars
and Panwars. These castes relate similar stories, which may in their
case be founded on fact.
3. Tribal subdivisions.
As is usual among the forest tribes the Korkus formerly had a
subdivision called Raj-Korku, who were made up of landowning members of
the caste and were admitted to rank among those from whom a Brahman
would take water, while in some cases a spurious Rajput ancestry
was devised for them, as in the story given above. The remainder of
the tribe were called Potharia, or those to whom a certain dirty
habit is imputed. These main divisions have, however, become more
or less obsolete, and have been supplanted by four subcastes with
territorial names, Mowasi, Bawaria, Ruma and Bondoya. The meaning of
the term Mowasi has already been given, and this subcaste ranks as the
highest, probably owing to the gentlemanly calling of armed robbery
formerly practised by its members. The Bawarias are the dwellers in
the Bhanwargarh tract of Betul, the Rumas those who belong to Basim
and Gangra in the Amraoti District, and the Bondoyas the residents of
the Jitgarh and Pachmarhi tract. These last are also called Bhovadaya
and Bhopa, and this name has been corrupted into Bopchi in the Wardha
District, a few hundred Bondoya Korkus who live there being known
as Bopchi and considered a distinct caste. Except among the Mowasis,
who usually marry in their own subcaste, the rule of endogamy is not
strictly observed. The above description refers to Betul and Nimar,
but in Hoshangabad, Mr. Crosthwaite says: "Four-fifths of the Korkus
have been so affected by the spread of Brahmanical influence as to
have ceased to differ in any marked way from the Hindu element in the
population, and the Korku has become so civilised as to have learnt
to be ashamed of being a Korku." Each subcaste has traditionally 36
exogamous septs, but the numbers have now increased. The sept names
are generally taken from those of plants and animals. These were no
doubt originally totemistic, but the Korkus now say that the names are
derived from trees and other articles in or behind which the ancestors
of each sept took refuge after being defeated in a great battle. Thus
the ancestor of the Atkul sept hid in a gorge, that of the Bhuri Rana
sept behind a dove's nest, that of the Dewda sept behind a rice plant,
that of the Jambu sept behind a jamun tree, [599] that of the Kasada
sept in the bed of a river, that of the Takhar sept behind a cucumber
plant, that of the Sakum sept behind a teak tree, and so on. Other
names are Banku or a forest-dweller; Bhurswa or Bhoyar, perhaps from
the caste of that name; Basam or Baoria, the god of beehives; and
Marskola or Mawasi, which the Korkus take to mean a field flooded by
rain. One sept has the name Killibhasam, and its ancestor is said to
have eaten the flesh of a heifer half-devoured by a tiger and parched
by a forest fire. In Hoshangabad the legend of the battle is not
known, and among the names given by Mr. Crosthwaite are Akandi, the
benighted one; Tandil, a rat; and Chuthar, the flying black-bug. In
a few cases the names of septs are Hindi or Marathi words, these
perhaps affording a trace of the foundation of separate families
by members of other castes. No totemistic usages are followed as a
rule, but one curious instance may be given. One sept has the name
lobo, which means a piece of cloth. But the word lobo also signifies
'to leak.' If a person says a sentence containing the word lobo in
either signification before a member of the sept while he is eating,
he will throw away the food before him as if it were contaminated and
prepare a meal afresh. Ten of the septs [600] consider the regular
marriage of girls to be inauspicious, and the members of these simply
give away their daughters without performing a ceremony.
4. Marriage Betrothal.
Marriage between members of the same sept is prohibited and also the
union of first cousins. The preliminaries to a marriage commence with
the bali-dudna or arrangement of the match. The boy's father having
selected a suitable bride for his son sends two elders of the caste
to propose the match to her father, who as a matter of etiquette
invariably declines it, swearing with great oaths that he will not
allow his daughter to get married or that he will have a son-in-law
who will serve for her. The messengers depart, but return again and
again until the father's obduracy is overcome, which may take from six
months to two years, while from nine to twelve months is considered a
respectable period. When his consent is finally obtained the residents
of the girl's village are called to hear it, and the compact is sealed
with large potations of liquor. A ceremony of betrothal follows at
which the daij or dowry is arranged, this signifying among the Korkus
the compensation to be paid to the girl's father for the loss of her
services. It is computed by a curious system of symbolic higgling. The
women of the girl's party take two plates and place on them two
heaps containing respectively ten and fifty seeds of a sort used for
reckoning. The ten seeds on the first plate represent five rupees
for the panchayat and five cloths for the mother, brother, paternal
aunt and paternal and maternal uncles of the girl. The heap of fifty
seeds indicates that Rs. 50 must be paid to the girl's father. When
the plates are received by the boy's party they take away forty-five
of the seeds from the larger heap and return the plate, to indicate
that they will only pay five rupees to the girl's father. The women
add twenty-five seeds and send back the plate again. The men then take
away fifteen, thus advancing the bride-price to fifteen rupees. The
women again add twenty-five seeds and send back the plate, and the
men again take away twenty, and returning the remaining twenty which
are taken as the sum agreed upon, in addition to the five cloths
and five rupees for the panchayat. The total amount paid averages
about Rs. 60. Wealthy men sometimes refuse this payment or exchange a
bride for a bridegroom. The dowry should be paid before the wedding,
and in default of this the bridegroom's father is made not a little
uncomfortable at that festival. Should a betrothed girl die before
marriage, the dowry does not abate and the parents of the girl have
a right to stop her burial until it is paid. But if a father shows
himself hard to please and refuses eligible offers, or if a daughter
has fallen in love, as sometimes happens, she will leave her home
quietly some morning and betake herself to the house of the man of her
choice. If her young affections have not been engaged, she may select
of her own accord a protector whose circumstances and position make
him attractive, and preferably one whose mother is dead. Occasionally a
girl will install herself in the house of a man who does not want her,
and his position then is truly pitiable. He dare not turn her out as he
would be punished by the caste for his want of gallantry, and his only
course is to vacate his own house and leave her in possession. After
a time his relations represent to her that the man she wants has gone
on a journey and will not be back for a long time, and induce her to
return to the paternal abode. But such a case is very rare.
5. The marriage ceremony.
The marriage ceremony resembles that of the Hindus but has one or two
special features. After the customary cleaning of the house which
should be performed on a Tuesday, the bridegroom is carried to the
heap of stones which represents Mutua Deo, and there the Bhumka or
priest invokes the various sylvan deities, offering to them the blood
of chickens. Again when he is dressed for the wedding the boy is given
a knife or dagger carrying a pierced lemon on the blade, and he and his
parents and relatives proceed to a ber [601] or wild plum tree. The
boy and his parents sit at the foot of the tree and are tied to it
with a thread, while the Bhumka again spills the blood of a fowl on
the roots of the tree and invokes the sun and moon, whom the Korkus
consider to be their ultimate ancestors. The ber fruit may perhaps
be selected as symbolising the red orb of the setting sun. The party
then dance round the tree. When the wedding procession is formed the
following ceremony takes place: A blanket is spread in the yard of
the house and the bridegroom and his elder brother's wife are made
to stand on it and embrace each other seven times. This may probably
be a survival of the modified system of polyandry still practised
by the Khonds, under which the younger brothers are allowed access
to the elder brother's wife until their own marriage. The ceremony
would then typify the cessation of this intercourse at the wedding of
the boy. The procession must reach the bride's village on a Monday, a
Wednesday or a Friday, a breach of this rule entailing a fine of Rs. 8
on the boy's father. On arrival at the bride's village its progress is
barred by a rope stretched across the road by the bride's relatives,
who must be given two pice each before it is removed. The bridegroom
touches the marriage-shed with a bamboo fan. Next day the couple
are seated in the shed and covered with a blanket on to which water
is poured to symbolise the fertilising influence of rain. The groom
ties a necklace of beads to the girl's neck, and the couple are then
lifted up by the relatives and carried three times round the yard of
the house, while they throw yellow-coloured rice at each other. Their
clothes are tied together and they proceed to make an offering to Mutua
Deo. In Hoshangabad, Mr. Crosthwaite states, the marriage ceremony
is presided over by the bridegroom's aunt or other collateral female
relative. The bride is hidden in her father's house. The aunt then
enters carrying the bridegroom and searches for the bride. When the
bride is found the brother-in-law of the bridegroom takes her up, and
bride and bridegroom are then seated under a sheet. The rings worn on
the little finger of the right hand are exchanged under the sheet and
the clothes of the couple are knotted together. Then follow the sapta
padi or seven steps round the post, and the ceremony concludes with
a dance, a feast and an orgy of drunkenness. A priest takes no part
in a Korku marriage ceremony, which is a purely social affair. If
a man has only one daughter, or if he requires an assistant for his
cultivation, he often makes his prospective son-in-law serve for his
wife for a period varying from five to twelve years, the marriage
being then celebrated at the father-in-law's expense. If the boy runs
away with the girl before the end of his service, his parents have to
pay to the girl's father five rupees for each year of the unexpired
term. Marriage is usually adult, girls being wedded between the
ages of ten and sixteen and boys at about twenty. Polygamy is freely
practised by those who are well enough off to afford it, and instances
are known of a man having as many as twelve wives living. A man must
not marry his wife's younger sister if she is the widow of a member of
his own sept nor his elder brother's widow if she is his wife's elder
sister. Widow-marriage is allowed, and divorce may be effected by a
simple proclamation of the fact to the panchayat in a caste assembly.
6. Religion.
The Korkus consider themselves as Hindus, and are held to have a better
claim to a place in the social structure of Hinduism than most of the
other forest tribes, as they worship the sun and moon which are Hindu
deities and also Mahadeo. In truth, however, their religion, like that
of many low Hindu castes, is almost purely animistic. The sun and moon
are their principal deities, the name for these luminaries in their
language being Gomaj, which is also the term for god or a god. The head
of each family offers a white she-goat and a white fowl to the sun
every third year, and the Korkus stand with the face to the sun when
beginning to sow, and perform other ceremonies with the face turned to
the east. The moon has no special observances, but as she is a female
deity she is probably considered to participate in those paid to the
sun. These gods are, however, scarcely expected to interest themselves
in the happenings of a Korku's daily life, and the local godlings who
are believed to regulate these are therefore propitiated with greater
fervour. The three most important village deities are Dongar Deo,
the god of the hills, who resides on the nearest hill outside the
village and is worshipped at Dasahra with offerings of cocoanuts,
limes, dates, vermilion and a goat; Mutua Deo, who is represented by a
heap of stones within the village and receives a pig for a sacrifice,
besides special oblations when disease and sickness are prevalent;
and Mata, the goddess of smallpox, to whom cocoanuts and sweetmeats,
but no animal sacrifices, are offered.
7. The Bhumka.
The priests of the Korkus are of two kinds--Parihars and Bhumkas. The
Parihar may be any man who is visited with the divine afflatus
or selected as a mouthpiece by the deity; that is to say, a man
of hysterical disposition or one subject to epileptic fits. He
is more a prophet than a priest, and is consulted only on special
occasions. Parihars are also rare, but every village has its Bhumka,
who performs the regular sacrifices to the village gods and the
special ones entailed by disease or other calamities. On him devolves
the dangerous duty of keeping tigers out of the boundaries. When
a tiger visits the village the Bhumka repairs to Bagh Deo [602]
and makes an offering to the god, promising to repeat it for so
many years on condition that the tiger does not appear for that
time. The tiger on his part never fails to fulfil the contract thus
silently made, for he is pre-eminently an honourable upright beast,
not faithless and treacherous like the leopard whom no contract can
bind. Some Bhumkas, however, masters of the most powerful spells,
are not obliged to rely on the traditional honour of the tiger, but
compel his attendance before Bagh Deo; and such a Bhumka has been
seen as a very Daniel among tigers muttering his incantations over
two or three at a time as they crouched before him. Of one Bhumka in
Kalibhit it is related that he had a fine large saj tree, into which,
when he uttered his spells, he would drive a nail, and on this the
tiger came and ratified the compact with his enormous paw, with which
he deeply scored the bark. In this way some have lost their lives,
victims of misplaced confidence in their own powers. [603] If a man is
sick and it is desired to ascertain what god or spirit of an ancestor
has sent the malady, a handful of grain is waved over the sick man and
then carried to the Bhumka. He makes a heap of it on the floor, and,
sitting over it, swings a lighted lamp suspended by four strings from
his fingers. He then repeats slowly the name of the village deities and
the sick man's ancestors, pausing between each, and the name at which
the lamp stops swinging is that of the offended one. He then inquires
in a similar manner whether the propitiation shall be a pig, a chicken,
a goat, a cocoanut and so on. The office of Bhumka is usually, but not
necessarily, hereditary, and a new one is frequently chosen by lot,
this being also done when a new village is founded. All the villagers
then sit in a line before the shrine of Mutua Deo, to whom a black and
a white chicken are offered. The Parihar, or, if none be available,
the oldest man present, then sets a pai [604] rolling before the
line of men, and the person before whom it stops is marked out by
this intervention of the deity as the new Bhumka. When a new village
is to be founded a pai measure is filled with grain to a level with
the brim, but with no head (this being known as a mundi or bald pai),
and is placed before Mutua Deo in the evening and watched all night. In
the morning the grain is poured out and again replaced in the measure;
if it now fills this and also leaves enough for a head, and still more
if it brims and runs over, it is a sign that the village will be very
prosperous and that every cultivator's granaries will run over in the
same way. But it is an evil omen if the grain does not fill up to the
level of the rim of the measure. The explanation of the difference
in bulk may be that the grains increase or decrease slightly in size
according as the atmosphere is moist or dry, or perhaps the Bhumka
works the oracle. The Bhumka usually receives contributions in grain
from all the houses in the village; but occasionally each cultivator
gives him a day's ploughing, a day's weeding and a day's wood-cutting
free. The Bhumka is also employed in Hindu villages for the service
of the village gods. But the belief in the powers of these deities
is decaying, and with it the tribute paid to the Bhumka for securing
their favour. Whereas formerly he received substantial contributions
of grain on the same scale as a village menial, the cultivator will
now often put him off with a basketful or even a handful, and say,
'I cannot spare you any more, Bhumka; you must make all the gods
content with that.' In curing diseases the Parihar resorts to swindling
tricks. He will tell the sick man that a sacrifice is necessary, asking
for a goat if the patient can afford one. He will say it must be of a
particular colour, as all black, white or red, so that the sick man's
family may have much trouble in finding one, and they naturally think
the sacrifice is more efficacious in proportion to the difficulty
they experience in arranging for it. If they cannot afford a goat the
Parihar tells them to sacrifice a cock, and requires one whose feathers
curl backwards, as they occasionally do. If the family is very poor
any chicken which has come out of the shell, so long as it has a beak,
will do duty for a cock. If a man has a pain in his body the Parihar
will suck the place and produce small pieces of bone from his mouth,
stained with vermilion to imitate blood, and say that he has extracted
them from the patient's body. Perhaps the idea may be that the bones
have been caused to enter his body and make him ill by the practice
of magic. Formerly the Parihar had to prove his supernatural powers by
whipping himself on the back with a rope into which the ends of nails
were twisted, and to continue this ordeal for a period long enough
to satisfy the villagers that he could not have borne it without some
divine assistance. But this salutary custom has fallen into abeyance.
8. Magical practices.
The Korkus have the same belief in the efficacy of imitative and
sympathetic magic as other primitive peoples. [605] Thus to injure an
enemy, a clay image of him is made and pierced with a knife, in the
belief that the real person will suffer in the same manner. If the
clay can be taken from a place where his foot has made an impression
in walking, or the image wrapped round with his hair, the charm
is more efficacious. Or an image may be made with charcoal on some
stolen portion of his apparel, and similarly wrapped in his hair; it
is then burnt in the belief that the real person will be attacked by
fever. Sometimes the image is buried in a place where it is likely
that the victim will walk over it, when the same result is hoped
for. In order to produce rain, a frog, as the animal delighting in the
element of water, is caught and slung on a stick; the boys and girls
then carry it from house to house and the householders pour water over
it. If it is desired to stop rain a frog is caught and buried alive,
this being done by a naked boy. Another device for producing rain
is to yoke two naked women to a plough, who are then driven across a
field like bullocks and goaded by a third naked woman. This device may
possibly be intended to cause the gods to send rain, by showing how
the natural order of the world is upset and reversed by the continued
drought. In order to stop rain an unmarried youth collects water in
a new earthen pot from the eaves and buries it below the hearth so
that the water may disappear by evaporation and the rain may cease
in the same manner. Another method is to send a man belonging to the
Kasada sept--Kasada meaning slime--to bring a plough from the field
and place it in his house. He also stops bathing or washing for the
period for which a break in the rains is required, and the idea is
perhaps that as the man whose name and nature are mud or slime is
dry so the mud on the earth will dry up; and as the plough is dry,
the ploughed fields which have been in contact with it will also
become dry. In order to produce a quarrel the quills of a porcupine
are smoked with the burnt parings of an enemy's nails and deposited in
the eaves of his house. And as the fretful porcupine raises his quills
when angry with an enemy, these will have the effect of causing strife
among the members of the household. If a person wishes to transfer his
sickness to another, he obtains the latter's cloth and draws on it with
lamp-black two effigies, one upright and the other upside down. As soon
as the owner puts on the cloth, he will fall a victim to the ailment
of the person who drew the effigies. In order to obtain children the
hair of a woman who has borne several is secured by a barren woman
and buried below her bathing-stone, when the quality of fertility
will be transferred to her from the owner of the hair. In order to
facilitate child-birth a twisted thread is untwined before the eyes of
the pregnant woman with the idea that the delivery will thus be made
direct and easy; or she is given water to drink in which her husband's
left leg, a gun-barrel, a pestle, or a thunder-bolt has been washed;
it being supposed that as each of these articles has the quality
of direct and powerful propulsion, this quality will be conveyed
to the woman and enable her to propel the child from her womb. The
Korkus also trust largely to omens. It is inauspicious when starting
out on some business to see a black-faced monkey or a hare passing
either on the left or right, or a snake crossing in front. A person
seeing any of these will usually return and postpone his business
to a more favourable occasion. It is a bad omen for a hen to cackle
or lay eggs at night. One sneeze is a bad omen, but two neutralise
the effect and are favourable. An empty pot is a bad omen and a full
one good. To break a pot when commencing any business is fatal, and
shows that the work will come to naught. Thursdays and Fridays are
favourable days for working, and Mondays and Tuesdays for propitiating
one's ancestors. Odd numbers are lucky. In order to lay to rest the
spirit of a dead person, who it is feared may trouble the living,
five pieces of bamboo are taken as representing the bones of the dead
man, and these with five crab's legs, five grains of rice and other
articles are put into a basket and thrust into a crab's hole under
water. The occasion is made an excuse for much feasting and drinking,
and the son or other representative who lays the spirit works himself
up into a state of drunken excitement before he enters the water to
search for a suitable hole. The fat of a tiger is considered to be an
excellent medicine for rheumatism and sprains, and much store is set by
it. The tiger's tongue is also supposed to be a very powerful tonic or
strengthening medicine for weakly children. It is cooked, pounded up,
and a small quantity administered in milk or water. When a tiger has
been killed the Gonds and Korkus will singe off his whiskers, as they
think this will prevent the tiger's spirit from haunting them. Another
idea is that the whiskers if chopped up and mixed in the food of an
enemy will poison him. They frequently object to touch a man who has
been injured or mauled by a tiger, as they think that to do so would
bring down the tiger's vengeance on them. And in some places any Gond
or Korku who touches a man mauled by a tiger is put temporarily out
of caste and has to be purified and give a feast on readmission.
9. Funeral rites.
The dead are usually buried, two pice being first thrown into the
grave to buy the site. The body is laid on its back, naked and with
the head pointing to the south. The earth is mixed with briars and
thorns while being filled in so as to keep off hyenas, and stones
are placed over the grave. No fixed period of mourning is observed,
but after the lapse of some days, the deceased's family or relatives
go to the burial-place, taking with them a piece of turmeric. This
they cut into strips, and, placing them in a leaf-cup, pour water
over them. As the water falls on the tomb, a god is called to witness
that this day the dead man's spirit has been sent to live with the
ancestors. The pieces of turmeric are then tied in a cloth which,
after receiving an oblation of fowl's blood, is suspended from the
main beam of the house, this being considered the dwelling-place of
the departed. This ceremony, called Pitar Miloni, is the first rite
for the admission of the deceased with the spirits of his ancestors,
and is preliminary to the final ceremony of Sedoli which may be
performed at any time between four months and fifteen years after
the death. But until it is complete the spirit of the deceased has
not been laid finally to rest and has the power of sending aches and
pains to molest the bodies of its living relatives. Each sept has a
place in which the Sedoli rites must be performed, and however far
the Korku may have wandered from the original centre of his tribe,
he must return there to set his father's spirit at rest and enable it
to join the ancestral ghosts. When the Sedoli is to be performed an
unblemished teak or salai [606] tree is selected and wrapped round with
a thread, while seven circuits of it are made and a bottle of liquor
and two pice are offered as purchase money. It is then cut down and
brought home, and from it a smooth stake called munda is fashioned,
24 to 30 inches high, and squared or pointed at the top, often being
arrow-headed. On it are carved representations of the sun and moon,
a spider and a human ear, and below these a figure representing the
principal person in whose honour the stake is erected, on horseback
with weapons in his hand. The proper method is to have one munda for
each ancestor, but poor persons make one do for several and their
figures are then carved below. But care must be taken that the total
number of figures representing the dead does not exceed that of the
members of the family who have died during the period for which the
Sedoli is performed. For in that case another person is likely to die
for each extra figure. The little bags of turmeric representing the
ancestors are then taken from the main beam of the house and carried
with the munda to the burial-place. There a goat is sacrificed and
these articles are besmeared with its blood, after which a feast is
held accompanied by singing and dancing. Next day the party again go
to the burial-place and plant the munda in it, placing two pice in
the hole beneath it. They then proceed to the riverside, and, making a
little ball from the flesh of the sacrificed animal, place it together
with the bags of turmeric on a leaf platter, and throw the whole into
the river saying, 'Ancestors, find your home.' If the ball sinks at
once they consider that the ancestors have been successful, but if
any delay takes place, they attribute it to the difficulty experienced
by the ancestors in the selection of a home and throw in two pice to
assist them. The pith of a bamboo may be substituted for turmeric to
represent the bones. The dead are supposed to inhabit a village of
their own similar to that in which they dwelt on earth and to lead
there a colourless existence devoid alike of pleasure and of pain.
10. Appearance and social customs.
The following description of the Korkus is given by Major Forsyth
in the Nimar Settlement Report of 1868-69, with the addition of
some remarks made by other observers. The Korkus are well built and
muscular. The average Korku has a round face, a nose rather wide but
not flat like a negro's, prominent cheek-bones, a scanty moustache
and his head shaved after the Hindu fashion. They are slightly taller
than the Gond, a shade darker and a good many shades dirtier. In
the wilder parts one may come across some quite too awful Korkus,
from whom an intervening space of fifty yards is an insufficient
protection, though strange to say there are no less than six words
in their language which mean 'to wash'; one to wash the whole body,
one the limbs, one for the face, one for the mouth, one for the hair
and one for the clothes, besides a word for scouring the body with a
stone and another word for bathing in a stream. Their habitations on
the other hand present quite a contrast to their individual want of
cleanliness. They build their villages of a close bamboo wattle-work
and with almost Swisslike neatness, a picturesque site being usually
chosen, and the plan being one long street with a wide open roadway,
or several such parallel with each other. The villages are kept
remarkably clean, in striking contrast to the habitations of other
aboriginal tribes. The average village contains about twenty huts,
and it is the custom to bind these so closely together that forest
fires often sweep through a whole village before a hut can be removed
to check their course. The average hut is about fifteen feet square
with a rather flat roof covered with loose grass over a layer of leaves
and pressed down by outside poles. No nails are required as the posts
are bound firmly together with bamboo or creeper fibre. The inmates
generally sleep on the ground, and a few low stools carved from teak
wood serve them for pillows. Every village has a few pigs and fowls
running about, both of which are eaten after being sacrificed. The
Korku is an adept in the crude process of distillation in which
the only apparatus required consists of two gharas or earthen pots,
a hollow bamboo, some mahua flowers, water and a fire. By this means
the Korku manages to produce liquor upon which he can effectually get
drunk. They are by no means particular about what they eat. Fowls,
pork, fish, crabs and tortoise are all consumed, and beef and rats
are eaten in some localities but not in others. The Ruma and Bondoya
Korkus eat buffaloes, and the latter add monkeys to an already
comprehensive dietary. The lowest caste with whom they are said
to eat are Kolis. They do not eat with Gonds. Gonds, Mangs, Basors
and a few other low castes take food from them and also, it is said,
Bhils. The Korkus will freely admit members of the higher castes into
the community, and a woman incurs no social penalty for a liaison
with a member of any caste from which a Korku can take food. But
if she goes wrong with a low-caste man she is permanently expelled
and a fine of Rs. 40 is exacted from the parents before they are
readmitted to social intercourse. In the case of adultery with a
member of the caste, if the husband does not wish to keep his wife,
the offending parties have a lock of hair cut off and give a dinner,
and are then considered to be married. But if the husband does not
turn his wife away, he, on his wife's account, and the seducer must
give a joint dinner to the caste. They have a tribal council or
panchayat which inflicts the usual penalties for social offences,
while in very serious cases, such as intercourse with a low caste,
it causes the offender to be born again. He is placed inside a large
earthen pot which is sealed up, and when taken out of this he is
said to be born again from his mother's womb. He is then buried in
sand and comes out as a fresh incarnation from the earth, placed in
a grass hut which is fired, and from within which he runs out as
it is burning, immersed in water, and finally has a tuft cut from
his scalp-lock and is fined two and a half rupees. The Korkus as a
race are very poor, and a poor Korku manages to exist with even less
clothing than a poor Gond. A loincloth of the scantiest and a wisp
of turban coiled on the top of the head and leaving the centre of the
skull uncovered form his complete costume for dry weather. Sometimes
a large brass chain is worn in the turban or attached to the waist,
and to it are suspended a flint and steel and a small dry gourd full
of cotton--the implements for obtaining fire. It is also common to
wear a large brass ring in one ear. A special habit of the Korku in
Nimar, Major Forsyth states, is to carry a small bamboo flute behind
the ear like a pen, from which he discourses a not unpleasant strain,
chiefly when drunk or engaged in propitiating Bagh Deo, Devi or any
other dread power whom he reverences. The women as a rule wear only
a dirty white sari and are loaded with cheap ornaments. Necklaces of
beads are worn on the neck, covering the chest, while the arms and
legs are weighed down with brass and iron.
11. Character.
Like most hill tribes the Korkus are remarkably honest and truthful,
slow at calculation and very indignant at being cheated. They are
very improvident and great drunkards, and it is the latter habit
which has aggravated the obstacles to their improvement.
12. Inheritance.
The Korku law of inheritance differs somewhat from that of the
Hindus. Among them a grandson does not inherit the property of his
grandfather unless it is openly and clearly granted to him during
the latter's lifetime. A married son living separately from his
father has no right of succession to the paternal property, but if
he is unmarried, he receives half the share of a son who is living
with his father. A daughter or a daughter's son does not inherit the
father's property unless it is granted to either of them by a deed
of gift. The sons and mother share equally.
13. Occupation.
The Korkus formerly lived principally by hunting, and practised the
shifting cultivation in the forests which is now forbidden. Very few
of them are landowners, but some large zamindari estates in Hoshangabad
and Chhindwara are held by Korku proprietors, who are protected by the
prohibition of alienation. Though too improvident and lazy to be good
cultivators, they are in great request as farmservants and ploughmen,
being too honest to defraud their master of labour or material. A
remarkable change has thus taken place from their former character of
notorious robbers. They cultivate mainly in the hilly tracts and grow
light grains, though some have colonised the waste lands of the upper
Tapti valley in Nimar and raise good crops of wheat. They do not as
a rule keep cattle other than the few oxen required for cultivating
the soil and hauling out timber. Game of all kinds is caught by means
of heavy log traps for the larger varieties such as sambhar, bear
and spotted deer and even leopard; while hares, jungle-fowl and the
smaller sort of game are caught under heavy stones held up by nicely
adjusted strings. Occasionally, when in search of meat, a whole village
will sally out into the forest. The shikari has generally a matchlock
concealed in some hiding-place in the jungle, and once he is posted the
others beat towards him and any animal that turns up is shot at. In
the hot weather the water-hole and the bow and arrow play no small
part in helping to fill the Korku larder. Another method of catching
birds is to spread the pounded fruit of a certain parasitic airplant
on a rock. A thick shining gum exudes which so entangles the feet of
the smaller birds as to prevent their escape. Fish dams are built when
the water subsides after the rains, and a cylindrical basket six or
eight feet in length being adjusted at the outlet, the fish are driven
into this from above. During the hot season the fruit of the ghetu
is thrown into the pools, and this stupefies the fish and causes them
to float on the surface of the water, where they are easily caught.
14. Language.
The Korkus have a language of their own which belongs to the Kolarian
or Munda sub-family. Dr. Grierson says of it: "The Munda, sometimes
called the Kolarian family, is probably the older branch of the
Dravido-Munda languages. It exhibits the characteristics of an
agglutinative language to an extraordinarily complete degree." In
the Central Provinces nearly 90 per cent of Korkus were returned
as speaking their own language in 1911. Mr. Crosthwaite remarks:
"The language is in a state of decay and transition, and Hindi and
Marathi terms have crept into its vocabulary. But very few Gondi words
have been adopted. A grammar of the Korku language by Drake has been
printed at the Baptist Mission Press, Calcutta."
KORWA
List of Paragraphs
1. General notice.
2. Physical appearance.
3. Subdivisions.
4. Marriage customs.
5. Funeral rites.
6. Religion.
7. Social customs.
8. Dancing.
9. Occupation.
10. Dacoity.
11. Folk-tales.
1. General notice.
Korwa. [607]--A Kolarian tribe of the Chota Nagpur plateau. In 1911
about 34,000 Korwas were returned in the Central Provinces, the great
bulk of whom belong to the Sarguja and Jashpur States and a few to the
Bilaspur District. The Korwas are one of the wildest tribes. Colonel
Dalton writes of them: [608] "Mixed up with the Asuras and not greatly
differing from them, except that they are more cultivators of the
soil than smelters, we first meet the Korwas, a few stragglers of the
tribe which under that name take up the dropped links of the Kolarian
chain, and carry it on west, over the Sarguja, Jashpur and Palamau
highlands till it reaches another cognate tribe, the Kurs (Korkus)
or Muasis of Rewah and the Central Provinces, and passes from the
Vindhyan to the Satpura range.
"In the fertile valleys that skirt and wind among the plateaus other
tribes are now found intermixed with the Korwas, but all admit that
the latter were first in the field and were at one time masters of the
whole; and we have good confirmatory proof of their being the first
settlers in the fact that for the propitiation of the local spirits
Korwa Baigas are always selected. There were in existence within the
last twenty years, as highland chiefs and holders of manors, four Korwa
notables, two in Sarguja and two in Jashpur; all four estates were
valuable, as they comprised substantial villages in the fertile plains
held by industrious cultivators, and great tracts of hill country on
which were scattered the hamlets of their more savage followers. The
Sarguja Korwa chiefs were, however, continually at strife with the
Sarguja Raja, and for various acts of rebellion against the Lord
Paramount lost manor after manor till to each but one or two villages
remained. The two Jashpur thanes conducted themselves right loyally at
the crucial period of the Mutiny and they are now prosperous gentlemen
in full enjoyment of their estates, the only Korwa families left that
keep up any appearance of respectability. One of them is the hereditary
Diwan of Jashpur, lord of the mountain tract of Khuria and Maini,
and chief of perhaps two-thirds of the whole tribe of Korwas. The
other holds an estate called Kakia comprising twenty-two villages.
2. Physical appearance.
"The hill Korwas are the most savage-looking of all the Kolarian
tribes. They are frightfully wild and uncouth in their appearance,
and have good-humouredly accepted the following singular tradition to
account for it. They say that the first human beings that settled in
Sarguja, being very much troubled by the depredations of wild beasts on
their crops, put up scarecrows in their fields, figures made of bamboos
dangling in the air, the most hideous caricatures of humanity that they
could devise to frighten the animals. When the great spirit saw the
scarecrow he hit on an expedient to save his votaries the trouble of
reconstructing them. He animated the dangling figures, thus bringing
into existence creatures ugly enough to frighten all the birds and
beasts in creation, and they were the ancestors of the wild Korwas."
This legend is not peculiar to the Korwas but is also told by the
Halbas, Lodhis and other castes, and is a favourite Brahmanical device
for accounting for the existence of the autochthonous tribes.
"The Korwas," Dalton continues, "are short of stature and dark brown in
complexion, strongly built and active, with good muscular development,
but, as appeared to me, disproportionately short-legged. The
average height of twenty Sarguja Korwas that I measured was 5 feet 3
inches and of their women 4 feet 9 inches only. Notwithstanding the
scarecrow tradition the Korwas are, as a rule, better-looking than
the Gonds and Oraons. The males, I noticed, were more hirsute than
the generality of their cognates, many of them cultivating beards or
rather not interfering with their spontaneous growth, for in truth in
their toilets there is nothing like cultivation. They are as utterly
ungroomed as the wildest animals. The neglected back hair grows in
matted tails which fall behind like badly-frayed ropes, or is massed
in a chignon of gigantic proportions, as preposterous as any that the
present tasteless period has produced; sticking out behind sometimes
a foot from the back of the head.
"The women appear ground down by the hard work imposed on them, stunted
in growth, black, ugly, and wretchedly clad, some having only a few
dirty rags tied round their persons, and in other respects untidy
and unclean."
It is noticeable that the Korwas have a subtribe called Koraku,
and like the Korkus of the Satpura range they are called Muasi, a
term having the meaning of raider or robber. Mr. Crooke thinks that
the Korwas and Korkus are probably branches of the same tribe, but
Sir G. Grierson dissents from this opinion. He states that the Korwa
dialect is most closely related to Asuri and resembles Mundari and
Santali. The Korwas have the honorific title of Manjhi, also used by
the Santals. The Korba zamindari in Bilaspur is probably named after
the Korwas.
3. Subdivisions.
The principal subdivisions of the tribe are the Diharia or Kisan
Korwas, those who live in villages (dih) and cultivate, and the
Paharia Korwas of the hills, who are also called Benwaria from their
practising bewar or shifting cultivation. Two minor groups are the
Koraku or young men, from kora, a young man, and the Birjias, who
are probably the descendants of mixed marriages between Korwas and
the tribe of that name, themselves an offshoot of the Baigas. The
tribe is also divided into totemistic exogamous septs.
4. Marriage customs.
Marriage within the sept is forbidden, but this appears to be the only
restriction. In Korba the Paharia Korwas are said to marry their own
sisters on occasion. The ordinary bride-price is Rs. 12. In Bilaspur
there is reported to be no regular marriage feast, but the people dance
together round a big earthen drum, called mandhar, which is played in
the centre. This is bound with strips of leather along the sides and
leather faces at the ends to be played on by the hands. They dance in
a circle taking hands, men and women being placed alternately. Among
the Paharia Korwas of Sarguja, Mr. Kunte states, the consent of
the parents is not required, and boys and girls arrange their own
weddings. Men who can afford the bride-price have a number of wives,
sometimes as many as eight or ten. After she has had a child each
wife lives and cooks her food separately, but gives a part of it to
her husband. The women bring roots and herbs from the forest and feed
their husbands, so that the man with several wives enjoys a larger
share of creature comforts. Among these people adultery is said to be
very rare, but if a woman is detected in adultery she is at once made
over to the partner of her act and becomes his wife. Divorce and the
remarriage of widows are permitted, and a widow usually marries her
late husband's younger brother, though she is not obliged to do so. A
husband divorcing his wife is obliged to feed the caste for five days.
5. Funeral rites.
The tribe bury the dead, placing the corpse in the grave with the head
to the south. A little rice is buried with the corpse. In Bilaspur the
dead are buried in the forest, and the graves of old men are covered
with branches of the sal [609] tree. Then they go to a little distance
and make a fire, and pour ghi and incense on it as an offering to the
ancestors, and when they hear a noise in the forest they take it to
be the voice of the dead man. When a man dies his hut is broken down
and they do not live in it again. The bodies of children under five
are buried either in the house or under the shade of a banyan tree,
probably with the idea that the spirit will come back and be born
again. They say that a banyan tree is chosen because it lives longest
of all trees and is evergreen, and hence it is supposed that the
child's spirit will also live out its proper span instead of being
untimely cut off in its next birth.
6. Religion.
The Korwas worship Dulha Deo, the bridegroom god of the Gonds, and in
Sarguja their principal deity is Khuria Rani, the tutelary goddess of
the Khuria plateau. She is a bloodthirsty goddess and requires animal
sacrifices; formerly at special sacrifices 30 or 40 buffaloes were
slaughtered as well as an unlimited number of goats. [610] Thakur Deo,
who is usually considered a corn-god, dwells in a sacred grove, of
which no tree or branch may be cut or broken. The penalty for breach
of the rules is a goat, but an exception is allowed if an animal has
to be pursued and killed in the grove. Thakur Deo protects the village
from epidemic disease such as cholera and smallpox. The Korwas have
three festivals: the Deothan is observed on the full moon day of Pus
(December), and all their gods are worshipped; the Nawanna or harvest
festival falls in Kunwar (September), when the new grain is eaten;
and the Faguwa or Holi is the common celebration of the spring and
the new vegetation.
7. Social customs.
The Korwas do not admit outsiders into the tribe. They will take food
from a Gond or Kawar, but not from a Brahman. A man is permanently
expelled from caste for a liaison with a woman of the impure Ganda
and Ghasia castes, and a woman for adultery with any person other
than a Korwa. Women are tattooed with patterns of dots on the arms,
breasts and feet, and a girl must have this operation done before
she can be married. Neither men nor women ever cut their hair.
8. Dancing.
Of their appearance at a dance Colonel Dalton states: [611] "Forming
a huge circle, or rather coil, they hooked on to each other and
wildly danced. In their hands they sternly grasped their weapons,
the long stiff bow and arrows with bright, broad, barbed heads and
spirally-feathered reed shafts in the left hand, and the gleaming
battle-axe in the right. Some of the men accompanied the singing on
deep-toned drums and all sang. A few scantily-clad females formed
the inner curl of the coil, but in the centre was the Choragus who
played on a stringed instrument, promoting by his grotesque motions
unbounded hilarity, and keeping up the spirit of the dancers by his
unflagging energy. Their matted back hair was either massed into a
chignon, sticking out from the back of the head like a handle, from
which spare arrows depended hanging by the bands, or was divided
into clusters of long matted tails, each supporting a spare arrow,
which, flinging about as they sprang to the lively movements of
the dance, added greatly to the dramatic effect and the wildness of
their appearance. The women were very diminutive creatures, on the
average a foot shorter than their lords, clothed in scanty rags,
and with no ornaments except a few tufts of cotton dyed red taking
the place of flowers in the hair, a common practice also with the
Santal girls. Both tribes are fond of the flower of the cockscomb
for this purpose, and when that is not procurable, use the red cotton."
They dance the karma dance in the autumn, thinking that it will procure
them good crops, the dance being a kind of ritual or service and
accompanied by songs in praise of the gods. If the rains fail they
dance every night in the belief that the gods will be propitiated
and send rain.
9. Occupation.
Of their occupation Colonel Dalton states: "The Korwas cultivate newly
cleared ground, changing their homesteads every two or three years to
have command of virgin soil. They sow rice that ripens in the summer,
vetches, millets, pumpkins, cucumbers--some of gigantic size--sweet
potatoes, yams and chillies. They also grow and prepare arrowroot and
have a wild kind which they use and sell. They have as keen a knowledge
of what is edible among the spontaneous products of the jungle as have
monkeys, and have often to use this knowledge for self-preservation,
as they are frequently subjected to failure of crops, while even in
favourable seasons some of them do not raise sufficient for the year's
consumption; but the best of this description of food is neither
palatable nor wholesome. They brought to me nine different kinds of
edible roots, and descanted so earnestly on the delicate flavour and
nutritive qualities of some of them, that I was induced to have two
or three varieties cooked under their instructions and served up, but
the result was far from pleasant; my civilised stomach indignantly
repelled the savage food, and was not pacified till it had made me
suffer for some hours from cold sweat, sickness and giddiness." [612]
10. Dacoity.
The Korwas in the Tributary States have other resources than
these. They are expert hunters, and to kill a bird flying or an
animal running is their greatest delight. They do not care to kill
their game without rousing it first. They are also very fond of
dacoity and often proceed on expeditions, their victims being usually
travellers, or the Ahirs who bring large herds of cattle to graze in
the Sarguja forests. These cattle do much damage to the village crops,
and hence the Korwas have a standing feud with the herdsmen. They
think nothing of murder, and when asked why he committed a murder,
a Korwa will reply, 'I did it for my pleasure'; but they despise both
house-breaking and theft as cowardly offences, and are seldom or never
guilty of them. The women are also of an adventurous disposition
and often accompany their husbands on raids. Before starting they
take the omens. They throw some rice before a chicken, and if the
bird picks up large solid grains first they think that a substantial
booty is intended, but if it chooses the thin and withered grains
that the expedition will have poor results. One of their bad omens
is that a child should begin to cry before the expedition starts;
and Mr. Kunte, who has furnished the above account, relates that on
one occasion when a Korwa was about to start on a looting expedition
his two-year-old child began to cry. He was enraged at the omen, and
picking up the child by the feet dashed its brains out against a stone.
11. Folk-tales.
Before going out hunting the Korwas tell each other hunting tales,
and they think that the effect of doing this is to bring them success
in the chase. A specimen of one of these tales is as follows: There
were seven brothers and they went out hunting. The youngest brother's
name was Chilhra. They had a beat, and four of them lay in ambush
with their bows and arrows. A deer came past Chilhra and he shot
an arrow at it, but missed. Then all the brothers were very angry
with Chilhra and they said to him, "We have been wandering about
hungry for the whole day, and you have let our prey escape." Then
the brothers got a lot of mahul [613] fibre and twisted it into rope,
and from the rope they wove a bag. And they forced Chilhra into this
bag, and tied up the mouth and threw it into the river where there
was a whirlpool. Then they went home. Now Chilhra's bag was spinning
round and round in the whirlpool when suddenly a sambhar stag came
out of the forest and walked down to the river to drink opposite the
pool. Chilhra cried out to the sambhar to pull his bag ashore and
save him. The sambhar took pity on him, and seizing the bag in his
teeth pulled it out of the water on to the bank. Chilhra then asked
the sambhar after he had quenched his thirst to free him from the
bag. The sambhar drank and then came and bit through the mahul ropes
till Chilhra could get out. He then proposed to the sambhar to try
and get into the bag to see if it would hold him. The sambhar agreed,
but no sooner had he got inside than Chilhra tied up the bag, threw
it over his shoulder and went home. When the brothers saw him they
were greatly astonished, and asked him how he had got out of the bag
and caught a sambhar, and Chilhra told them. Then they killed and ate
the sambhar. Then all the brothers said to Chilhra that he should tie
them up in bags as he had been tied and throw them into the river,
so that they might each catch and bring home a sambhar. So they made
six bags and went to the river, and Chilhra tied them up securely and
threw them into the river, when they were all quickly drowned. But
Chilhra went home and lived happily ever afterwards.
In this story we observe the low standard of moral feeling noticeable
among many primitive races, in the fact that the ingratitude displayed
by Chilhra in deceiving and killing the sambhar who had saved his life
conveys no shock to the moral sense of the Korwas. If the episode had
been considered discreditable to the hero Chilhra, it would not have
found a place in the tale.
The following is another folk-tale of the characteristic type of
fairy story found all over the world. This as well as the last has
been furnished by Mr. Narbad Dhanu Sao, Assistant Manager, Uprora:
A certain rich man, a banker and moneylender (Sahu), had twelve
sons. He got them all married and they went out on a journey to
trade. There came a holy mendicant to the house of the rich man and
asked for alms. The banker was giving him alms, but the saint said
he would only take them from his son or son's wife. As his sons were
away the rich man called his daughter-in-law, and she began to give
alms to the saint. But he caught her up and carried her off. Then
her father-in-law went to search for her, saying that he would not
return until he had found her. He came to the saint's house upon a
mountain and said to him, 'Why did you carry off my son's wife?' The
saint said to him, 'What can you do?' and turned him into stone by
waving his hand. Then all the other brothers went in turn to search
for her down to the youngest, and all were turned into stone. At last
the youngest brother set out to search but he did not go to the saint,
but travelled across the sea and sat under a tree on the other side. In
that tree was the nest with young of the Raigidan and Jatagidan [614]
birds. A snake was climbing up the tree to eat the nestlings, and the
youngest brother saw the snake and killed it. When the parent birds
returned the young birds said, "We will not eat or drink till you
have rewarded this boy who killed the snake which was climbing the
tree to devour us." Then the parent birds said to the boy, 'Ask of
us whatever you will and we will give it to you.' And the boy said,'
I want only a gold parrot in a gold cage.' Then the parent birds said,
"You have asked nothing of us, ask for something more; but if you
will accept only a gold parrot in a gold cage wait here a little
and we will fly across the sea and get it for you." So they brought
the parrot and cage, and the youngest brother took them and went
home. Immediately the saint came to him and asked him for the gold
parrot and cage because the saint's soul was in that parrot. Then the
youngest brother told him to dance and he would give him the parrot;
and the saint danced, and his legs and arms were broken one after the
other, as often as he asked for the parrot and cage. Then the youngest
brother buried the saint's body and went to his house and passed his
hands before all the stone images and they all came to life again.
KOSHTI
List of Paragraphs
1. General notice.
2. Subdivisions.
3. Marriage.
4. Funeral customs.
5. Religion.
6. Superstitions.
7. Clothes, etc.
8. Social rules and status.
9. Occupation.
1. General notice.
Koshti, Koshta, Salewar. [615]--The Maratha and Telugu caste of
weavers of silk and fine cotton cloth. They belong principally to
the Nagpur and Chhattisgarh Divisions of the Central Provinces, where
they totalled 157,000 persons in 1901, while 1300 were returned from
Berar. Koshti is the Marathi and Salewar the Telugu name. Koshti may
perhaps have something to do with kosa or tasar silk; Salewar is said
to be from the Sanskrit Salika, a weaver, [616] and to be connected
with the common word sari, the name for a woman's cloth; while the
English 'shawl' may be a derivative from the same root. The caste
suppose themselves to be descended from the famous Saint Markandi
Rishi, who, they say, first wove cloth from the fibres of the lotus
flower to clothe the nakedness of the gods. In reward for this he
was married to the daughter of Surya, the sun, and received with
her as dowry a giant named Bhavani and a tiger. But the giant was
disobedient, and so Markandi killed him, and from his bones fashioned
the first weaver's loom. [617] The tiger remained obedient to Markandi,
and the Koshtis think that he still respects them as his descendants;
so that if a Koshti should meet a tiger in the forest and say the name
of Markandi, the tiger will pass by and not molest him; and they say
that no Koshti has ever been killed by a tiger. On their side they
will not kill or injure a tiger, and at their weddings the Bhat or
genealogist brings a picture of a tiger attached to his sacred scroll,
known as Padgia, and the Koshtis worship the picture. A Koshti will
not join in a beat for tiger for the same reason; and other Hindus say
that if he did the tiger would single him out and kill him, presumably
in revenge for his breaking the pact of peace between them. They also
worship the Singhwahini Devi, or Devi riding on a tiger, from which it
may probably be deduced that the tiger itself was formerly the deity,
and has now developed into an anthropomorphic goddess.
2. Subdivisions.
The caste have several subdivisions of different types. The Halbis
appear to be an offshoot of the primitive Halba tribe, who have taken
to weaving; the Lad Koshtis come from Gujarat, the Gadhewal from Garha
or Jubbulpore, the Deshkar and Martha from the Maratha country, while
the Dewangan probably take their name from the old town of that name
on the Wardha river. The Patwis are dyers, and colour the silk thread
which the weavers use to border their cotton cloth. It is usually dyed
red with lac. They also make braid and sew silk thread on ornaments
like the separate Patwa caste. And the Onkule are the offspring
of illegitimate unions. In Berar there is a separate subcaste named
Hatghar, which may be a branch of the Dhangar or shepherd caste. Berar
also has a group known as Jain Koshtis, who may formerly have professed
the Jain religion, but are now strict Sivites. [618] The Salewars are
said to be divided into the Sutsale or thread-weavers, the Padmasale
or those who originally wove the lotus flower and the Sagunsale,
a group of illegitimate descent. The above names show that the caste
is of mixed origin, containing a large Telugu element, while a body
of the primitive Halbas has been incorporated into it. Many of the
Maratha Koshtis are probably Kunbis (cultivators) who have taken up
weaving. The caste has also a number of exogamous divisions of the
usual type which serve to prevent the marriage of near relatives.
3. Marriage.
At a Koshti wedding in Nagpur, the bride and bridegroom with their
parents sit in a circle, and round them a long hempen rope is
drawn seven times; the bride's mother then holds a lamp, while the
bridegroom's mother pours water from a vessel on to the floor. The
Salewars perform the wedding ceremony at the bridegroom's house, to
which the bride is brought at midnight for this purpose. A display of
fireworks is held and the thun or log of wood belonging to the loom
is laid on the ground between the couple and covered with a black
blanket. The bridegroom stands facing the east and places his right
foot on the thun, and the bride stands opposite to him with her left
foot upon it. A Brahman holds a curtain between them and they throw
rice upon each other's heads five times and then sit on the log. The
bride's father washes the feet of the bridegroom and gives him a cloth
and bows down before him. The wedding party then proceed with music
and a display of fireworks to the bridegroom's house and a round of
feasts is given continuously for five days.
The remarriage of widows is freely permitted. In Chanda if the widow
is living with her father he receives Rs. 40 from the second husband,
but if with her father-in-law no price is given. On the day fixed for
the wedding he fills her lap with nuts, cocoanuts, dates and rice,
and applies vermilion to her forehead. During the night she proceeds
to her new husband's house, and, emptying the fruit from her lap into
a dish which he holds, falls at his feet. The wedding is completed
the next day by a feast to the caste-fellows. The procedure appears
to have some symbolical idea of transferring the fruit of her womb to
her new husband. Divorce is allowed, but is very rare, a wife being
too valuable a helper in the Koshti's industry to be put away except
as a last resort. For a Koshti who is in business on his own account
it is essential to have a number of women to assist in sizing the
thread and fixing it on the loom. A wife is really a factory-hand
and a well-to-do Koshti will buy or occasionally steal as many women
as he can. In Bhandara a recent case is known where a man bought
a girl and married her to his son and eight months afterwards sold
her to another family for an increased price. In another case a man
mortgaged his wife as security for a debt and in lieu of interest, and
she lived with his creditor until he paid off the principal. Quarrels
over women not infrequently result in cases of assault and riot.
4. Funeral customs.
Members of the Lingayat and Kabirpanthi sects bury their dead and
the others cremate them. With the Tirmendar Koshtis on the fifth
day the Ayawar priest goes to the cremation-ground accompanied
by the deceased's family and worships the image of Vishnu and the
Tulsi or basil upon the grave; and after this the whole party take
their food at the place. Mourning is observed during five days for
married and three for unmarried persons; and when a woman has lost
her husband she is taken on the fifth day to the bank of some river
or tank and her bangles are broken, her bead necklace is taken off,
the vermilion is rubbed off her forehead, and her foot ornaments
are removed; and these things she must not wear again while she is
a widow. On the fourth day the Panch or caste elders come and place
a new turban on the head of the chief mourner or deceased's heir;
they then take him round the bazar and seat him at his loom, where he
weaves a little. After this he goes and sits with the Panch and they
take food together. This ceremony indicates that the impurity caused
by the death is removed, and the mourners return to common life. The
caste do not perform the shraddh ceremony, but on the Akhatij day
or commencement of the agricultural year a family which has lost a
male member will invite a man from some other family of the caste,
and one which has lost a female member a woman, and will feed the
guest with good food in the name of the dead. In Chhindwara during
the fortnight of Pitripaksh or the worship of ancestors, a Koshti
family will have a feast and invite guests of the caste. Then the
host stands in the doorway with a pestle and as the guest comes he
bars his entrance, saying: 'Are you one of my ancestors; this feast
is for my ancestors?' To which the guest will reply: 'Yes, I am your
great-grandfather; take away the pestle.' By this ingenious device
the resourceful Koshti combines the difficult filial duty of the
feeding of his ancestors with the entertainment of his friends.
5. Religion.
The principal deity of the Koshtis is Gajanand or Ganpati, whom they
revere on the festival of Ganesh Chathurthi or the fourth day of the
month of Bhadon (August). They clean all their weaving implements and
worship them and make an image of Ganpati in cowdung to which they
make offerings of flowers, rice and turmeric. On this day they do not
work and fast till evening, when the image of Ganpati is thrown into
a tank and they return home and eat delicacies. Some of them observe
the Tij or third day of every month as a fast for Ganpati, and when
the moon of the fourth day rises they eat cakes of dough roasted on
a cowdung fire and mixed with butter and sugar, and offer these to
Ganpati. Some of the Salewars are Vaishnavas and others Lingayats: the
former employ Ayawars for their gurus or spiritual preceptors and are
sometimes known as Tirmendar; while the Lingayats, who are also called
Woheda, have Jangams as their priests. In Balaghat and Chhattisgarh
many of the Koshtis belong to the Kabirpanthi sect, and these revere
the special priests of the sect and abstain from the use of flesh and
liquor. They are also known as Ghatibandhia, from the ghat or string
of beads of basil-wool (tulsi) which they tie round their necks. In
Mandla the Kabirpanthi Koshtis eat flesh and will intermarry with
the others, who are known distinctively as Saktaha. The Gurmukhis
are a special sect of the Nagpur country and are the followers of a
saint named Koliba Baba, who lived at Dhapewara near Kalmeshwar. He is
said to have fed five hundred persons with food which was sufficient
for ten and to have raised a Brahman from the dead in Umrer. Some
Brahmans wished to test him and told him to perform a miracle, so he
had a lot of brass pots filled with water and put a cloth over them,
and when he withdrew it the water had changed into curded milk. The
Gurmukhis have a descendant of Koliba Baba for their preceptor,
and each of them keeps a cocoanut in his house, which may represent
Koliba Baba or else the unseen deity. To this he makes offerings of
sandalwood, rice and flowers. The Gurmukhis are forbidden to venerate
any of the ordinary Hindu deities, but they cannot refrain from making
offerings to Mata Mai when smallpox breaks out, and if any person has
the disease in his house they refrain from worshipping the cocoanut
so long as it lasts, because they think that this would be to offer a
slight to the smallpox goddess who is sojourning with them. Another
sect is that of the Matwales who worship Vishnu as Narayan, as well
as Siva and Sakti. They are so called because they drink liquor at
their religious feasts. They have a small platform on which fresh
cowdung is spread every day, and they bow to this before taking their
food. Once in four or five years after a wedding offerings are made
to Narayan Deo on the bank of a tank outside the village; chickens
and goats are killed and the more extreme of them sacrifice a pig,
but the majority will not join with these. Offerings of liquor are
also made and must be drunk by the worshippers. Mehras and other
low castes also belong to this sect, but the Koshtis will not eat
with them. But in Chhindwara it is said that on the day after the
Pola festival in August, when insects are prevalent and the season of
disease begins, the Koshtis and Mangs go out together to look for the
narbod shrub, [619] and here they break a small piece of bread and
eat it together. In Bhandara the Koshtis worship the spirit of one
Kadu, patel or headman of the village of Mohali, who was imprisoned in
the fort of Ambagarh under an accusation of sorcery in Maratha times
and died there. He is known as Ambagarhia Deo, and the people offer
goats and fowls to him in order to be cured of diseases. The above
notice indicates that the caste are somewhat especially inclined
to religious feeling and readily welcome reformers striving against
Hindu polytheism and Brahman supremacy. This is probably due in part
to the social stigma which attaches to the weaving industry among the
Hindus and is resented as an injustice by the Koshtis, and in part
also to the nature of their calling, which leaves the mind free for
thought during long hours while the fingers are playing on the loom;
and with the uneducated serious reflection must almost necessarily be
of a religious character. In this respect the Koshti may be said to
resemble his fellow-weavers of Thrums. In Nagpur District the Koshtis
observe the Muharram festival, and many of them go out begging on the
first day with a green thread tied round their body and a beggar's
wallet. They cook the grain which is given to them on the tenth day
of the festival, giving a little to the Muhammadan priest and eating
the rest. This observance of a Muhammadan rite is no doubt due to
their long association with followers of that religion in Berar.
6. Superstitions.
Before beginning work for the day the Salewar makes obeisance to his
loom and implements, nor may he touch them without having washed
his face and hands. A woman must not approach the loom during her
periodical impurity, and if anybody sneezes as work is about to
be begun, they wait a little time to let the ill luck pass off. In
Nagpur they believe that the posts to which the ends of the loom are
fastened have magical powers, and if any one touches them with his
leg he will get ulcers up to the knee. If a woman steps on the kuchi
or loom-brush she is put out of caste and a feast has to be given to
the community before she is readmitted. To cure inflammation in the
eyes they take a piece of plaited grass and wrap it round with cotton
soaked in oil. Then it is held before the sufferer's eyes and set
on fire and the drops of oil are allowed to fall into water, and as
they get cold and congeal the inflammation is believed to abate. Among
some classes of Koshtis the killing of a cat is a very serious offence,
almost equivalent to killing a cow. Even if a man touches a dead cat he
has to give two feasts and be fully purified. The sanctity of the cat
among Hindus is sometimes explained on the ground that it kills rats,
which attract snakes into the house. But the real reason is probably
that primitive people regard all domestic animals as sacred. The
Koshti also reveres the dog and jackal.
7. Clothes, etc.
The Salewars of the Godavari tract wrap a short rectangular piece
of cloth round their head as a turban. Formerly, Mr. Raghunath Waman
states, the caste had a distinctive form of turban by which it could
be recognised, but under British administration these rules of dress
are falling into abeyance. A few of the Salewars put on the sacred
thread, but it is not generally worn. Salewar women have a device
representing a half-moon tattooed on the forehead between the ends
of the eyebrows; the cheeks are marked with a small dot and the arms
adorned with a representation of the sacred tulsi or basil.
8. Social rules and status.
The caste eat flesh and fish and drink liquor, and in the Maratha
Districts they will eat chickens like most castes of this country. In
Mandla they have recently prohibited the keeping of fowls, under pain
of temporary expulsion. Those who took food in charity-kitchens during
the famine of 1900 were readmitted to the community with the penalty
of shaving the beard and moustaches in the case of a man, and cutting
a few hairs from the head in that of a woman. In Berar the Lad, Jain
and Katghar Koshtis are all strict vegetarians. The Koshtis employ
Brahmans for their ceremonies, but their social status is about on a
level with the village menials, below the cultivating castes. This,
however, is a very good position for weavers, as most of the weaving
castes are stigmatised as impure. But the Koshtis live in towns and not
in villages and weave the finer kinds of cloth for which considerable
skill is required, while in former times their work also yielded a good
remuneration. These facts probably account for their higher status;
similarly the Tantis or weavers of Bengal who produce the fine muslins
of Dacca, so famous in Mughal times, have obtained such a high rank
there that Brahmans will take water from their hands; [620] while
the few Tantis who are found in the Central Provinces are regarded as
impure and are not touched. The caste are of a turbulent disposition,
perhaps on account of their comparatively light work, which does not
tire their bodies like cultivation and other manual labour. One or
two serious riots have been caused by the Koshtis in recent years.
9. Occupation.
The standard occupation of the caste is the weaving of the fine
silk-bordered cloths which are universally worn on the body by Brahmans
and other well-to-do persons of the Maratha country. The cloth is
usually white with borders of red silk. They dye their own thread with
lac or the flowers of the palas tree (Butea frondosa). The price of a
pair of loin-cloths of this kind is Rs. 14, and of a pair of dupattas
or shoulder-cloths Rs. 10, while women's saris also are made. Each
colony of Koshtis in a separate town usually only weave one kind of
cloth of the size for which their looms are made. The silk-bordered
loin-cloths of Umrer and Pauni are well known and are sent all over
India. The export of hand-woven cloth from all towns of the Nagpur
plain has been estimated at Rs. 5 lakhs a year. The rich sometimes
have the cloths made with gold lace borders. The following account
of the caste is given in Sir R. Craddock's Nagpur Settlement Report:
"The Koshti is an inveterate grumbler, and indeed from his point of
view he has a great deal to complain of. On the one hand the price of
raw cotton and the cost of his living have increased very largely;
on the other hand, the product of his loom commands no higher price
than it did before, and he cannot rely on selling it when the market
is slack. He cannot adapt himself to the altered environment and clings
to his loom. He dislikes rough manual labour and alleges, no doubt with
truth, that it deprives him of the delicacy of touch needed in weaving
the finer cloths. If prices rise he is the first to be distressed,
and on relief works he cannot perform the requisite task and has to
be treated with special indulgence. The mills have been established
many years in Nagpur, but very few of the older weavers have sought
employment there. They have begun to send their children, but work
at home themselves, though they really all use machine-spun yarn. The
Koshtis are quarrelsome and addicted to drink, and they have generally
been the chief instigators of grain riots when prices rise. They often
marry several wives and their houses swarm with a proportionate number
of children. But although the poorer members of the community are in
struggling circumstances and are put to great straits when prices of
food rise, those who turn out the fine silk-bordered work are fairly
prosperous in ordinary times."
END OF VOL. III
NOTES
[1] This article is based on information collected by Mr. Hira Lal
in Jubbulpore, and the author in Mandla.
[2] The word Dishai really means direction or cardinal point, but
as the goddess dwells in the sheep-pen it is probable that she was
originally the sheep itself.
[3] The following particulars are taken from the Central Provinces
Monograph on Woollen Industries, by Mr. J. T. Marten.
[4] A Naturalist on the Prowl, 3rd ed., p. 219. In the quotation
the Hindustani word kammal, commonly used in the Central Provinces,
is substituted for the Marathi word kambli.
[5] This article is compiled from an excellent monograph contributed
by Surgeon-Major Mitchell of Bastar State, with extracts from Colonel
Glasfurd's Report on Bastar (Selections from the Records of the
Government of India in the Foreign Department, No. 39 of 1863).
[6] India Census Report (1901), p. 283.
[7] Madras Census Report (1891), p. 253.
[8] Ethnographic Notes in Southern India, p. 22.
[9] Madras Census Report (1891), p. 253.
[10] Report on the Dependency of Bastar, p. 37.
[11] Report on the Dependency of Bastar, p. 37.
[12] Ethnographic Notes in Southern India, p. 270.
[13] Risley, Tribes and Castes of Bengal, art. Pan.
[14] The human sacrifices of the Khonds were suppressed about 1860. See
the article on that tribe.
[15] This article is compiled from papers by Mr. Jhanjhan Rai,
Tahsildar, Sarangarh, and Satyabadi Misra of the Sambalpur Census
office.
[16] Mund-jhulana, to swing the head.
[17] Based on notes taken by Mr. Hira Lal at Chanda and the notices
of the Garpagari in the District Gazetteers.
[18] Village watchman.
[19] Dr. Jevons, Introduction to the History of Religion, p. 171.
[20] The Golden Bough, 2nd ed. vol. i. p. 68, quoting from French
authorities.
[21] This article is based on papers by Mr. Jeorakhan Lal, Deputy
Inspector of Schools, Bilaspur, and Bhagwan Singh, Court of Wards
Clerk, Bilaspur.
[22] The Celestial Physician.
[23] This article is compiled partly from papers by Munshis Pyare
Lal Misra and Kanhya Lal of the Gazetteer Office.
[24] Tribes and Castes of Bengal, art. Ghasi.
[25] Central Provinces Gazetteer (1871), p. 273.
[26] Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal, p. 325.
[27] Ficus glomerata.
[28] Cynodon dactylon.
[29] Tribes and Castes of Bengal, art. Ghasi.
[30] This article is based partly on a paper by Khan Bahadur Imdad Ali,
Pleader, Damoh.
[31] Punjab Census Report (1881), para. 272.
[32] Crooke's Tribes and Castes, art. Ghosi.
[33] From a note by Mr. Hira Lal.
[34] This article is compiled from papers by Kanhya Lal of the
Gazetteer Office, and Madho Rao, Deputy Inspector of Schools, Balaghat.
[35] Balaghat District Gazetteer (C. E. Low), p. 80.
[36] Linguistic Survey of India, vol. iv. Dravidian Language, p. 386.
[37] The country of Gondwana properly included the Satpura plateau
and a section of the Nagpur plain and Nerbudda valley to the south
and west.
[38] Early History of India, 3rd ed. p. 337.
[39] Art. Gondwana.
[40] Linguistic Survey, Munda and Dravidian Languages, iv. p. 285.
[41] Notes, p. 15.
[42] Garha is six miles from Jubbulpore.
[43] See article on Kol.
[44] Mr. Standen's Betul Settlement Report.
[45] The argument in this section will be followed more easily if
read after the legend in the following paragraphs.
[46] Highlands of Central India (Chapman & Hall).
[47] Deo-khulla or threshing-floor of the gods. See section on
Religion.
[48] Passage from Mr. Hislop's version.
[49] Dhupgarh in Pachmarhi might be indicated, which has a steep
summit.
[50] Terminalia arjuna.
[51] This extract is reproduced by permission of the publishers,
Messrs. Chapman & Hall, London.
[52] Tekam the teak tree, Markam the mango tree, and Telengam the
Telugu. These are the names of well-known exogamous septs.
[53] See section on Religion.
[54] See also art. Kahar.
[55] The theory is stated and explained in vol. iv. of Exogamy and
Totemism.
[56] See para. 15.
[57] Boswellia serrata.
[58] Semecarpus anacardium.
[59] Anogeissus latifolia.
[60] Diosypyros tomentosa.
[61] One rupee = 1s. 4d.
[62] From Mr. Langhorne's monograph.
[63] The above rite has some resemblance to the test required of the
suitors of Penelope in the Odyssey of bending the bow of Odysseus
and shooting an arrow through the axes, which they could not perform.
[64] The information on child-birth is obtained from papers by
Mr. Durga Prasad Pande, Extra Assistant Commissioner, and the
Rev. Mr. Franzen of Chhindwara, and from notes taken in Mandla.
[65] See articles on Kunbi, Kurmi, and Mehtar.
[66] Boswellia serrata.
[67] The following examples of names were furnished by the
Rev. Mr. Franzen and Mr. D. P. Pande.
[68] See article on Kurmi.
[69] Boswellia serrata.
[70] Deputy-Commissioner, Chhindwara. The note was contributed to
the Central Provinces Census Report for 1881 (Mr. Drysdale).
[71] Ghora, a horse.
[72] Diospyros tomentosa.
[73] Cassia fistula.
[74] This is incorrect, at present at any rate, as the Karma is
danced during the harvest period. But it is probable that the ritual
observances for communal fishing and hunting have now fallen into
abeyance.
[75] C. P. Gazetteer (1871), Introduction, p. 130.
[76] This section contains some information furnished by R. B. Hira
Lal.
[77] Notes on the Gonds, pp. 15, 16.
[78] Indian Caste, i. p. 325.
[79] See article Birhor.
[80] See article Bhunjia.
[81] Notes, p. 1.
[82] Highlands of Central India, p. 156.
[83] Report on Bastar Dependency, p. 41.
[84] Assessment of revenue for land.
[85] Quoted in C.P. Gazetteer (1871), Introduction, p. 113.
[86] Chhindwara Settlement Report.
[87] Report on Bastar Dependency, p. 43.
[88] Ind. Ant. (1876), p. 359.
[89] See para. 65, Tattooing.
[90] See para. 41, Religion.
[91] Balaghat District Gazetteer, p. 87.
[92] Rawan was the demon king of Ceylon who fought against Rama,
and from whom the Gonds are supposed to be descended. Hence this song
may perhaps refer to a Gond revolt against the Hindus.
[93] The amaltas or Cassia fistula, which has flowers like a
laburnum. The idea is perhaps that its leaves are too small to make
a proper leaf-cup, and she will not take the trouble to get suitable
leaves.
[94] Hislop, Notes, p. 2.
[95] Chhindwara Settlement Report.
[96] This article is based on a paper by Pandit Pyare Lal Misra.
[97] This article is compiled from papers by Mr. Kesho Rao Joshi,
Headmaster, City School, Nagpur, and Pyare Lal Misra, Ethnographic
Clerk.
[98] Page 67.
[99] In the Maratha Districts the term Ganges sometimes signifies
the Wainganga.
[100] Dam apparently here means life or breath.
[101] Gunthorpe, p. 91.
[102] This article contains material from Mr. J. C. Oman's Mystics,
Ascetics and Saints of India, Sir E. Maclagan's Punjab Census Report,
1891, and Dr. J. N. Bhattacharya's Hindu Castes and Sects (Calcutta,
Messrs. Thacker, Spink and Co.).
[103] Elaeocarpus.
[104] Mr. Marten's C.P. Census Report (1911), p. 79.
[105] Orphéus, p. 137.
[106] Oman, Mystics, Ascetics and Saints, p. 269.
[107] Bhattacharya, Hindu Castes and Sects, p. 380.
[108] Bhattacharya, ibidem, and Oman, Mystics, Ascetics and Saints,
pp. 160, 161.
[109] Buchanan, Eastern India, i. pp. 197, 198.
[110] Nesfield, Brief View of the Caste System, p. 86.
[111] J. C. Oman, Cults, Customs and Superstitions of India (London,
T. Fisher Unwin), p. 11.
[112] Mystics, Ascetics and Saints of India, pp. 156, 157.
[113] Sir E. Maclagan, Punjab Census Report (1891), p. 112.
[114] This article is based on notes by Mr. Percival, Assistant
Conservator of Forests, and Rai Bahadur Hira Lal.
[115] For further details see article on Gond Gowari.
[116] See article on Kunbi.
[117] Early History of India, 3rd ed. pp. 409, 411.
[118] Mr. Smith ascribes this discovery to Messrs. A. M. T. Jackson
(Bombay Gazetteer, vol. i. Part I., 1896, p. 467); D. R. Bhandarkar,
Gurjaras (J. Bo. R.A.S. vol. xx.); and Epigraphic Notes (ibidem,
vol. xxi.); and Professor Kielhorn's paper on the Gwalior Inscription
of Mihira Bhoja in a German journal.
[119] Bombay Gazetteer, Hindus of Gujarat, Appendix B, The Gujars.
[120] The Khazars were known to the Chinese as Yetas, the beginning
of Yeta-i-li-to, the name of their ruling family, and the nations of
the west altered this to Hyatilah and Ephthalite. Campbell, ibidem.
[121] See article on Panwar Rajput, para. 1.
[122] Campbell, loc. cit. p. 495.
[123] Tribes and Castes, article Gujar, para. 12. The description
is mainly taken from Elliott's History of India as told by its own
Historians.
[124] Description of the Kangra Gujars by Mr. Barnes. Quoted in
Ibbetson's Punjab Census Report (1881), para. 481.
[125] Census Report, para. 481.
[126] Cf. Krishna's epithet of Murlidhar or the flute-player, and
the general association of the flute with herdsmen and shepherds in
Greek and Roman mythology.
[127] Ibidem.
[128] Hoshangabad Settlement Report, para. 16.
[129] Nimar Settlement Report (1868).
[130] This article is based partly on a paper by Mr. Abdus Subhan Khan,
Tahsildar, Hinganghat, and Mr. Aduram Chaudhri of the Gazetteer Office.
[131] The trifoliate leaf of Aegle Marmelos.
[132] Bombay Gazetteer, vol. xviii. p. 266.
[133] History of the Marathas, vol. i. p. 26, footnote.
[134] Bombay Gazetteer, vol. x. p. 119.
[135] Bombay Ethnographic Survey, Monograph on Gurao.
[136] Sesamum.
[137] Bombay Gazetteer, vol. xix. p. 101.
[138] This article is compiled principally from a monograph by Munshi
Kanhya Lal, Assistant Master, Raipur High School, and formerly of
the Gazetteer Office; and also from papers by Mr. Panda Baijnath,
Superintendent of Bastar State, and Mr. Gokul Prasad, Tahsildar of
Dhamtari. The descriptions of marriage, funeral and birth customs
are taken from Munshi Kanhya Lal's monograph.
[139] By the Rev. G. K. Gilder of the Methodist Episcopal Mission
of Raipur.
[140] Chalki is said to have been a Brahman who gave shelter to the
pregnant fugitive widow of a Raja; and her child was the ancestor of
the Bastar dynasty. But the name may also be taken from the Chalukya
Rajput clan.
[141] The Rawats or Ahirs are graziers, and the Bhatra, Parja and
Muria are primitive tribes allied to the Gonds.
[142] Linguistic Survey, vol. vii. p. 331, and a note kindly furnished
by Sir G. Grierson at the time of the census.
[143] Buchanania latifolia.
[144] Bassia latifolia. Both these trees are valued because the fruit
of the first and the flowers of the second afford food.
[145] A black pulse.
[146] The Hindus number the days of each lunar fortnight separately.
[147] It is simply water in which gold has been dipped.
[148] Crooke, ii. 481.
[149] Brief View, p. 31.
[150] Buchanania latifolia.
[151] Based principally on the account of the Hatkars on p. 200 of
Sir A. Lyall's Berar Gazetteer, with some notes taken by Mr. Hira
Lal in Buldana.
[152] Colonel Meadows Taylor, Tara, p. 404.
[153] Ain-i-Akbari, quoted in Berar Gazetteer, p. 200.
[154] Berar Gazetteer.
[155] Partly based on a paper by Munshi Kanhaya Lal of the Gazetteer
Office.
[156] Muhammadans of Gujarat, by Khan Bahadur Fazalullah Lutfullah
Faridi, pp. 21, 22.
[157] Rasmala, ii. p. 90.
[158] Faridi, ibidem.
[159] See article on Bhat.
[160] Acacia arabica.
[161] The late Mr. A. M. T. Jackson's notes, Ind. Ant., August 1912,
p. 56.
[162] Laws of Manu, xi. p. 175, quoted in The Origin and Development
of the Moral Ideas, ii. p. 476.
[163] Westermarck, The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas,
ii. p. 470.
[164] Ibidem, ii. p. 471.
[165] Ibidem, ii. pp. 481, 482.
[166] Ibidem, ii. pp. 487-489.
[167] This article is compiled from a paper by Mr. Babu Rao, Deputy
Inspector of Schools, Seoni District.
[168] In this year only 33 Holias were returned as against more than
4000 in 1891; but, on the other hand, in 1901 the number of Golars
was double that of the previous census.
[169] Mysore Census Report (1891), p. 254.
[170] Ethnographic Notes in Southern India, p. 258.
[171] This article is principally based on information collected by
Mr. Hira Lal in Bhandara.
[172] A corruption of Uika.
[173] See the articles Mahar and Kunbi.
[174] This article is partly based on a paper by Bihari Lal, Patwari,
of Hoshangabad.
[175] Semaria is a common name of villages, and is of course as such
derived from the semar tree, but the argument is that the Jadams took
the name from the village and not from the tree. Totem is perhaps
rather a strong word for the kind of veneration paid; the vernacular
term used in Bombay is devak.
[176] This article is based on an account of the Jaduas by
Mr. A. Knyvett, Superintendent of Police, Patna, and kindly
communicated by Mr. C. W. C. Plowden, Deputy Inspector-General of
Police, Bengal, through Mr. G. W. Gayer, in charge of the Central
Provinces Criminal Investigation Department.
[177] Sherring, Castes and Tribes, iii. p. 123.
[178] The nut of Eleocarpus lanceolatus.
[179] Aegle marmelos.
[180] Hindu Manners, Customs, and Ceremonies, 1897 ed. p. 118.
[181] This article is partly based on information contributed by
Mr. Debendra Nath Dutt, Pleader, Narsinghpur; Mr. Ganga Singh, Extra
Assistant Commissioner, Hoshangabad; and Mr. Aduram Chaudhri of the
Gazetteer Office. The correct pronunciation of the caste name is Jat,
but in the Central Provinces it is always called Jat.
[182] Punjab Census Report (1881), para. 421.
[183] Early History of India.
[184] Mahabharata, viii. 2026, et seq., translated by Professor
H. H. Wilson, and quoted in vol. i. pp. 260, 262 of Dr. J. Wilson's
Indian Caste.
[185] Ibidem, paras. 422-424.
[186] Kashyap was a Rishi or saint, but he may probably have developed
into an eponymous hero from Kachhap, a tortoise.
[187] Hoshangabad Settlement Report, p. 62.
[188] Aegle marmelos.
[189] Hoshangabad Settlement Report, loc. cit.
[190] This article is entirely based on an account of the caste
furnished by Rai Bahadur Panda Baijnath, Superintendent, Bastar State.
[191] Bassia latifolia.
[192] Boswellia serrata.
[193] This has been fully demonstrated by Sir J. G. Frazer in The
Golden Bough.
[194] Colebrooke's Essays.
[195] Quoting from Dr. George Smith's Life of Dr. Wilson, p. 74.
[196] Ibidem, pp. 13-15.
[197] Weber's Indian Literature, p. 239.
[198] Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chap, lxiii.
[199] Republished in the Theosophist.
[200] Eastern India, ii. p. 756.
[201] Travels in the Mughal Empire, Constable's edition, p. 316.
[202] Rajasthan, ii. p. 19.
[203] Maclagan, l.c. p. 115.
[204] Ibidem, l.c.
[205] Maclagan, l.c.
[206] Crooke's Tribes and Castes, art. Kanphata.
[207] Crooke's Tribes and Castes, art. Jogi.
[208] Sleeman, Report on the Badhaks, pp. 332, 333.
[209] These proverbs are taken from Temple and Fallon's Hindustani
Proverbs.
[210] Bombay Gazetteer, vol. xxi. p. 184.
[211] Phaseolus radiatus.
[212] Newcomb's Astronomy for Everybody, p. 33.
[213] Owing to the precession of the equinoxes, the sidereal year is
not the same as the solar year, being about 20 minutes longer. That
is, the sun passes a particular star a second time in a period of 365
days 6 hours and 9 minutes, while it passes the equatorial point in
365 days 5 hours 48 minutes 49 seconds, this latter period being the
solar year. The difference is due to slight changes in the direction of
the earth's axis, which change the position of the celestial equator
and of the equinoctial point where the sun crosses it. It is not
clear how the Hindus get over this difficulty, but the point does
not affect the general account.
[214] The stars corresponding to the nakshatras and their symbols are
mainly taken from Mr. L. D. Barnett's Antiquities of India, pp. 190,
191, compared with the list in Mr. W. Brennand's Hindu Astronomy,
pp. 40, 42.
[215] Taken from Professor Newcomb's Astronomy for Everybody.
[216] The moon's orbit is really an ellipse like that of the earth
and all the planets.
[217] Barnett, op. cit. p. 190.
[218] The Indian Calendar, by Messrs. Sewell and Dikshit, pp. 11
and 25.
[219] Brennand's Hindu Astronomy, p. 100.
[220] The Indian Calendar, Sewell and Dikshit, p. 28 and Table I.
[221] This seems to have been done by some ancient Indian astronomers.
[222] The Indian Calendar, p. 29.
[223] Taken from Brennand's Hindu Astronomy, p. 39.
[224] Barnett, Antiquities of India, p. 193.
[225] The above particulars regarding the measurement of time by the
gharial are taken from 'An Account of the Hindustani Horometry' in
Asiatic Researches, vol. v. p. 81, by John Gilchrist, Esq. The account
appears to be to some extent controversial, and it is possible that
the arrangement of the gharis may have varied in different localities.
[226] The information contained in this paragraph is taken from Captain
Mackintosh's Report on the Ramosis, chap. iii. (India Office Library
Tracts), in which a large variety of rules are given.
[227] Some of these names and also some of the women's names have
been taken from Colonel Temple's Proper Names of the Punjabis.
[228] Punjab Ethnography, para. 612.
[229] This passage is taken from Sir G. Grierson's Peasant Life in
Bihar, p. 64.
[230] This article is based on a paper by Mr. Pancham Lal,
naib-tahsildar, Murwara, with extracts from the Central Provinces
Monograph on Pottery and Glassware, by Mr. Jowers, and some information
collected by Mr. Hira Lal.
[231] Dhal means a shield, and the ornament is of this shape.
[232] Crooke's Tribes and Castes, article Kachhi.
[233] Partly based on a paper by Munshi Kanhya Lal of the Gazetteer
office.
[234] Irvine, Army of the Mughals, pp. 158, 159.
[235] Boswellia serrata.
[236] Sesamum indicum.
[237] This article is compiled from papers by Mr. Sarat Chandra Sanyal,
Sessions Judge, Nagpur, and Mr. Abdul Samad, Tahsildar, Sohagpur.
[238] Eastern India, ii. 426.
[239] Ibidem, iii. pp. 119, 120.
[240] Moor, Hindu Infanticide, p. 91.
[241] Yule and Burnell's Hobson-Jobson, Crooke's edition, s.v. Boy.
[242] Tribes and Castes of the N.W.P., art. Kahar.
[243] Private Life of an Eastern King, p. 207.
[244] Ibidem, pp. 200, 202.
[245] Stevens, In India, p. 313.
[246] Tribes and Castes of Bengal, art. Kahar.
[247] Tribes and Castes of Bengal, ibidem.
[248] S.v. Boy.
[249] This article is partly compiled from papers by Mr. G. Falconer
Taylor, Forest Divisional Officer, and by Kanhya Lal, Clerk in the
Gazetteer office.
[250] Berar Census Report (1881), p. 141.
[251] Hislop papers. Vocabulary.
[252] North Arcot Manual, p. 247.
[253] 1881, p. 141.
[254] Ibidem.
[255] Bombay Gazetteer (Campbell), vol. xii. p. 120.
[256] Bombay Gazetteer (Campbell), vol. xxi. p. 172.
[257] Berar Census Report (1881), p. 141.
[258] Some information for this article has been supplied by Babu Lal,
Excise Sub-Inspector, Mr. Aduram Chaudhri, Tahsildar, and Sundar Lal
Richaria, Sub-Inspector of Police.
[259] Tribes and Castes of Bengal, art. Kalar.
[260] Bassia latifolia, the tree from whose flowers fermented liquor
is made.
[261] The headquarters of the Sanjari tahsil in Drug District.
[262] Phulbaba, lit. 'flower-father.'
[263] This story is only transplanted, a similar one being related by
Colonel Tod in the Annals of the Bundi State (Rajasthan, ii. p. 441).
[264] Saccharum spontaneum.
[265] Settlement Report, p. 26.
[266] Mr. (Sir E.) Maclagan's Punjab Census Report (1891).
[267] Religions of India, p. 113.
[268] Apparently also called Sarcostemma viminalis.
[269] Bombay Gazetteer, Parsis of Guiarat, by Messrs. Nasarvanji
Girvai and Behramji Patel, p. 228, footnote.
[270] Ibidem.
[271] Hopkins, loc. cit. p. 213.
[272] Rajendra Lal Mitra, Indo-Aryans, ii. p. 419.
[273] Deussen, Outlines of Indian Philosophy, p. 12.
[274] Indo-Aryans, i. p. 393.
[275] Ibidem, p. 396.
[276] Ibidem, p. 402.
[277] Indo-Aryans, i. p. 411.
[278] Garrett's Classical Dictionary, s.v. Varuni and Vishnu.
[279] The Golden Bough, 2nd edition, i. pp. 359, 360.
[280] Indo-Aryans, pp. 408, 409.
[281] Ibidem, pp. 404, 405.
[282] Indo-Aryans, pp. 405, 406.
[283] Bombay Gazetteer, Poona, p. 549.
[284] Cannabis sativa.
[285] A liquor made from the flowers of the hemp plant, commonly
drunk in the hot weather.
[286] See Mr. E. Clodd's Myths and Dreams, under Dreams.
[287] A name of Siva or Mahadeo.
[288] 'Victory to Shankar.'
[289] A preparation of opium for smoking.
[290] T. H. Hendley, Account of the Bhils, J.A.S.B. xliv., 1875,
p. 360.
[291] M. Salomon Reinach in Orphéus, p. 120.
[292] Sir James Frazer in Attis, Adonis, Osiris, ii. p. 241.
[293] Book IV., chap. lxxv., quoted in Lane's Modern Egyptians, p. 347.
[294] Lane, Modern Egyptians, p. 348.
[295] Eastern India, iii. p. 163.
[296] Sir G. Watt's Commercial Products of India, s.v. Nicotiana.
[297] Ind. Ant., January 1911, p. 39.
[298] Tobacco is no doubt a derivative from some American word,
and Platts derives the Hindi tanbaku or tambaku from tobacco. The
fact that tanbaku is also Persian for tobacco militates against the
Sanskrit derivation suggested by Mr. Ganpat Rai and others, and tends
to demonstrate its American importation.
[299] This article is based on papers drawn up by Mr. Hira Lal,
Extra Assistant Commissioner, Pyare Lal Misra, Ethnographic Clerk,
and a very full account of the tribe by Mr. Ganpati Giri, Manager of
Bindranawagarh, which has furnished the greater part of the article,
especially the paragraphs on birth, religion and social customs.
[300] Jungle Life in India, p. 588.
[301] Criminal Tribes, p. 78.
[302] Criminal Classes.
[303] Berar Census Report (1881), p. 140.
[304] Page 139.
[305] See art. Beria, para. 1.
[306] Ibbetson, Punjab Census Report (1881), para. 527.
[307] Ibidem.
[308] Art. Kanjar, para. 3.
[309] Ibbetson.
[310] Crooke, art. Dom, para. 21.
[311] Lectures, p. 59.
[312] Bombay Gazetteer, Muhammadans of Gujarat, p. 83.
[313] Kennedy, Criminal Tribes of Bombay, p. 257.
[314] Criminal Tribes, p. 46.
[315] Berar Census Report (1881), p. 140.
[316] Tribes and Castes of Bengal, art. Dom.
[317] Nesfield, l.c. p. 393.
[318] Ind. Ant. xvi. p. 37.
[319] Ind. Ant. xv. p. 15.
[320] In Sir G. Grierson's account the Bhojpuri version is printed in
the Nagari character; but this cannot be reproduced. It is possible
that one or two mistakes have been made in transliteration.
[321] Quoted in Mr. Crooke's article on Dom.
[322] Gayer, Lectures, p. 59.
[323] Gunthorpe, p. 81. Mr. Kennedy says: "Sansia and Beria women have
a clove (lavang) in the left nostril; the Sansias, but not the Berias,
wear a bullaq or pendant in the fleshy part of the nose."
[324] Gayer, l.c. p. 61.
[325] Crooke, l.c. para. 3.
[326] In a footnote Mr. Nesfield states: "The Kanjar who communicated
these facts said that the child used to open out its neck to the
knife as if it desired to be sacrificed to the deity."
[327] Butea frondosa.
[328] It is not, I think, used for weaving now, but only for stuffing
quilts and cushions.
[329] But elsewhere Mr. Nesfield says that the brushes are made from
the khas-khas grass, and this is, I think, the case in the Central
Provinces.
[330] This article is compiled principally from a note by Mr. Paiku,
Inspector of Police, Chanda.
[331] This article is based principally on a paper by Nand Kishore,
Bohidar, Sambalpur.
[332] Hobson-Jobson, art. Cranny.
[333] Eragrostis cynosuroides.
[334] (London, A. & C. Black.)
[335] This definition of totemism is more or less in accord with that
held by the late Professor Robertson Smith, but is not generally
accepted. The exhaustive collection of totemic beliefs and customs
contained in Sir J. G. Frazer's Totemism and Exogamy affords, however,
substantial evidence in favour of it among tribes still in the hunting
stage in Australia, North America and Africa. The Indian form of
totemism is, in the writer's opinion, a later one, arising when the
totem animal has ceased to be the main source of life, and when the
clan come to think that they are descended from their totem animal and
that the spirits of their ancestors pass into the totem animal. When
this belief arises, they cease eating the totem as a mark of veneration
and respect, and abstain from killing or injuring it. Finally the totem
comes to be little more than a clan-name or family name, which serves
the purpose of preventing marriage between persons related through
males, who believe themselves to be descended from a common ancestor.
[336] Orphéus (Heinemann), p. 197.
[337] Lane, Modern Egyptians, p. 248.
[338] Orphéus, p. 47.
[339] Ibidem, p. 50.
[340] B. G. Parsis of Gujarat, pp. 232, 241.
[341] Orphéus, pp. 101, 102.
[342] Ibidem, p. 204.
[343] Ibidem, p. 144.
[344] Ibidem, p. 169.
[345] D. M. Flinders-Petrie, Egypt and Israel, p. 61.
[346] Gomme, Folk-lore as a Historical Science, p. 161.
[347] Haug's Essays on the Parsis, p. 286.
[348] Golden Bough, ii. pp. 299-301. See article on Kumhar.
[349] Orphéus, p. 139.
[350] Orphéus, pp. 119, 120.
[351] Ibidem, p. 144.
[352] Religions, Ancient and Modern, Ancient Rome, Cyril Bailey, p. 86.
[353] Religions, Ancient and Modern, Ancient Egypt, Professor
Flinders-Petrie, p. 22.
[354] Religions, Ancient and Modern, Ancient Egypt, Professor
Flinders-Petrie, pp. 24, 26.
[355] Vide article on Bania.
[356] Dowson's and Garrett's Classical Dictionaries, art. Kartikeya.
[357] Religion of the Semites, p. 265.
[358] Ibidem, pp. 269, 270.
[359] Religion of the Semites, pp. 270, 271.
[360] Ibidem, pp. 273, 274.
[361] Religion of the Semites, p. 289.
[362] Ibidem, p. 313.
[363] Religion of the Semites, p. 271.
[364] Religion of the Semites, p. 275.
[365] Golden Bough, ii. p. 321.
[366] Vide art. Kumhar.
[367] Religion of the Semites, p. 338.
[368] Ibidem, p. 281.
[369] Dr Jevons, Introduction to the History of Religion, p. 150.
[370] Religion of the Semites, p. 285.
[371] Orphéus, pp. 123, 125.
[372] In following the explanation of the Passover given by Professor
Robertson Smith and M. Reinach, it is necessary with great diffidence
to dissent from the hypothesis of Sir J. G. Frazer that the lamb was
a substitute for the previous sacrifice by the Israelites of their
first-born sons.
[373] Orphéus, p. 272; Religion of the Semites, p. 311.
[374] Religion of the Semites, p. 304.
[375] Ibidem, pp. 305, 306.
[376] Religion of the Semites, pp. 296, 297.
[377] Golden Bough, ii. p. 313.
[378] When the blood of the animal was poured out before the god as
his share.
[379] Religion of the Semites, p. 246.
[380] Vide article on Dhanwar.
[381] Sir G. Robertson, Kafirs of the Hindu Kush, pp. 450, 451.
[382] Ibidem, p. 460.
[383] Dalton, Ethnology of Bengal, p. 176.
[384] Grant-Duff, History of the Marathas, vol. i. p. 27. Mr. Hira
Lal notes that owing to the predominance of Muhammadans in Berar
the practice of slaughtering all animals by the method of halal and
the regular employment of the Mullah to pronounce the sacred text
before slaughter may have grown up for their convenience. And, as in
other instances, the Hindus may have simply imitated the Muhammadans
in regarding this method of slaughter as necessary. This however
scarcely seems to impair the force of the argument if the Hindus
actually refused to eat animals not killed by halal; they must in
that case have attached some religious significance or virtue to the
rite, and the most probable significance is perhaps that stated in
the text. As Mr. Hira Lal points out, the Hindu sacred books provide
an elaborate ritual for the sacrifice of animals, but this may have
fallen into abeyance with the decline in the custom of eating meat.
[385] Vide article on Mochi.
[386] V. A. Smith, Asoka, p. 56.
[387] Ibidem, p. 58.
[388] This article is compiled from papers by Mr. Rajaram Gangadhar,
Tahsildar, Arvi; Mr. Sadasheo Jairam, Sanskrit Professor, Hislop
College; and Mr. Deodatta Namdar, Manager, Court of Wards, Chauri.
[389] Crooke's Tribes and Castes, art. Thathera.
[390] Crooke's art. Thathera.
[391] A part of the information contained in this article is furnished
by Mr. Aduram Chaudhri of the Gazetteer Office.
[392] Madras Census Report (1901), p. 151, quoting from South Indian
Inscriptions, Buchanan's Mysore, Canara and Malabar, and Elliot's
History of India.
[393] Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas, ii. pp. 444, 445.
[394] The Golden Bough, vol. ii. p. 205 et seq.
[395] Garrett's Classical Dictionary of the Hindus, p. 322.
[396] Westermarck, ibidem, quoting Ward's Hindus, p. 134.
[397] Wheeler's History of India, vol. iv. part ii. pp. 324, 325.
[398] Forbes, Rasmala, i. p. 247.
[399] Crooke's Tribes and Castes, art. Tawaif.
[400] Extract from the Dasa Kumara Charita or Adventures of the Ten
Youths, in A Group of Hindu Stories, p. 72.
[401] S. M. Edwardes, By-ways of Bombay, p. 31.
[402] Hindu Manners, Customs and Ceremonies, p. 93.
[403] Eastern India, i. p. 119.
[404] Ibidem, iii. p. 107.
[405] Ibidem, ii. p. 930.
[406] Persian Travels, book iii. chap. xvii.
[407] From a review of A German Staff Officer in India, written by
Sir Evelyn Wood in the Saturday Review, 5th February 1910.
[408] Tribes and Castes of Bengal, art. Vaishnava. The notice, as
stated, refers only to the lowest section of Bairagis.
[409] Memoir of Central India.
[410] Tribes and Castes of the N.-W. P., art. Katwa.
[411] Temple and Fallon's Hindustani Proverbs.
[412] Perhaps a leather strap or belt.
[413] A revolution or circuit.
[414] A thousand.
[415] The third Baisakh (June).
[416] Butea frondosa.
[417] A description of the ceremony is given in the article on Kurmi.
[418] This article is based almost entirely on a monograph contributed
by Mr. Hira Lal.
[419] Ethnology, p. 158.
[420] Fruit of the egg-plant.
[421] Ethnology, pp. 136, 137.
[422] Jungle Life in India, pp. 315, 316.
[423] This article is based partly on papers by Munshi Kanhya Lal of
the Gazetteer office, Mr. Sundar Lal, Extra Assistant Commissioner,
Saugor, and Mr. J. N. Sil, Pleader, Seoni.
[424] Hindus of Gujarat, p. 59, quoting from Ind. Ant. vi. 192-193.
[425] Hindu Castes and Sects, p. 175.
[426] Eastern India, i. p. 162.
[427] Ibidem, ii. p. 466.
[428] Ibidem, ii. p. 736.
[429] Ibidem, ii. p. 122.
[430] Essays, vol. ii. p. 182.
[431] Ethnology of Bengal, pp. 312, 313.
[432] United Provinces Census Report (1901), pp. 222-223.
[433] Lala Jwala Prasad, Extra Assistant Commissioner, in Sir
E. A. Maclagan's Punjab Census Report for 1891.
[434] Memoir of Central India, vol. ii. pp. 165-166.
[435] The Kanungo maintains the statistical registers of land-revenue,
rent, cultivation, cropping, etc., for the District as a whole which
are compiled from those prepared by the patwaris for each village.
[436] Hindus of Gujarat, p. 60.
[437] Ibidem, p. 64.
[438] Ibidem, p. 61.
[439] Bhattacharya, Hindu Castes and Sects, p. 177. It is true
that Dr. Bhattacharya states that the Kayasths were also largely
employed under the Hindu kings of Bengal, but he gives no authority
for this. The Gaur Kayasths also claim that the Sena kings of Bengal
were of their caste, but considering that these kings were looked on
as spiritual heads of the country and one of them laid down rules for
the structure and intermarriage of the Brahman caste, it is practically
impossible that they could have been Kayasths. The Muhammadan conquest
of Bengal took place at an early period, and very little detail is
known about the preceding Hindu dynasties.
[440] Risley, Tribes and Castes of Bengal, art. Bihar Kayasth.
[441] Sherring, Tribes and Castes, vol. iii. pp. 253-254.
[442] Bhattacharya, Hindu Castes and Tribes, p. 177.
[443] Hindus of Gujarat, p. 81.
[444] Ibidem, p. 67.
[445] Ibidem, p. 68, and Mackintosh, Report in the Ramosis, India
Office Tracts, p. 77.
[446] Hobson-Jobson, s.v. Cranny.
[447] Hobson-Jobson, p. 167.
[448] Memoir of Central India, loc. cit.
[449] Hindus of Gujarat, p. 60.
[450] Tribes and Castes of Bengal, art. Bengal Kayasth. The Kayasths
deny the story that the five Kayasths were servants of the five
Brahmans, and say that they were Kshatriyas sent on a mission from
the king of Kanauj to the king of Bengal. This, however, is improbable
in view of the evidence already given as to the historical status of
the Kayasths.
[451] Tribes and Castes, ibidem.
[452] Hindu Castes and Sects, p. 155.
[453] Ibidem, pp. 375, 380.
[454] See articles on Ghasia and Dhobi.
[455] Village Communities, p. 125.
[456] Hindu Castes and Sects, ibidem, p. 177.
[457] Tribes and Castes, art. Kayasth.
[458] Bhattacharya, loc. cit., p. 188.
[459] Hindus of Gujarat, p. 72.
[460] Dasrath and Kaushilya were the father and mother of Rama.
[461] These are the occupations of the Kayasths.
[462] Geography and Astronomy.
[463] Quoted from the Matsapuran in a criticism by Babu Krishna
Nag Verma.
[464] This article is based on papers by Mr. Mahfuz Ali, tahsildar,
Rajnand-gaon, Mr. Jowahir Singh, Settlement Superintendent, Sambalpur,
and Mr. Aduram Chaudhri of the Gazetteer Office.
[465] Tribes and Castes of Bengal, art. Kaibartta.
[466] Tribes and Castes of Bengal, art. Kewat.
[467] Tribes and Castes of Bengal, ibidem.
[468] A curved stick carried across the shoulders, from which are
suspended two panniers.
[469] This article is based on Mr. Crooke's and Colonel Dalton's
accounts, and some notes taken by Mr. Hira Lal at Raigarh.
[470] Ethnology of Bengal, pp. 128, 129.
[471] Ibidem, pp. 209, 210.
[472] Tribes and Castes, art. Kharwar.
[473] Tribes and Castes of Bengal.
[474] From bhuj, an arm, and jangh, a thigh. These are Hindi words,
and the whole story is obviously a Brahmanical legend. Balrai seems
a corruption of Balaram, the brother of Krishna.
[475] Estate held on feudal tenure.
[476] Religion and Folklore of Northern India, vol. ii. p. 170.
[477] Crooke, Tribes and Castes.
[478] Saccharum spontaneum.
[479] Tribes and Castes, art. Birhor.
[480] The above instances are reproduced from Sir J. G. Frazer's
Psyche's Task (London, 1909). These cases are all of homicide, but
it seems likely that the action of the Khairwars may be based on the
same motives, as the fear of ghosts is strong among these tribes.
[481] Risley, loc. cit.
[482] Ethnology of Bengal, pp. 128, 129.
[483] Crooke's Tribes and Castes, art. Khairwa. Quoting from Bombay
Gazetteer, x. 48 and iii. 310.
[484] Loc. cit.
[485] Tribes and Castes of Bengal, art. Khandait. In 1911, after
the transfer of Sambalpur, only 18 Khandaits remained in the Central
Provinces.
[486] The following particulars are from a paper by Mr. Kashinath
Bohidar, Assistant Settlement Superintendent, Sonpur.
[487] Compiled principally from a paper by Kanhya Lal, clerk in the
Gazetteer Office.
[488] Carthamus tinctorius.
[489] In the Ethnographic Appendices to the India Census Report of
1901 a slightly different version of the story is given by Captain
Luard. The Dangis, it must be remembered, are a high caste ranking
just below Rajputs.
[490] This article is mainly based on notes taken by Rai Bahadur
Hira Lal at Raigarh, with extracts from Colonel Dalton's and Sir
H. Risley's accounts of the tribe.
[491] Tribes and Castes of Bengal, art. Kharia.
[492] Saccharum spontaneum. This grass infests cultivated fields and
is very difficult to eradicate.
[493] Melia indica.
[494] Ethnology of Bengal.
[495] Jungle Life in India, p. 89.
[496] Linguistic Survey, vol. iv. Munda and Dravidian Languages, p. 22.
[497] Ibidem, p. 129.
[498] Mr. Crooke's Tribes and Castes, art. Khatik.
[499] Census Report (1881), para. 502.
[500] This statement does not apply to the Chamars of the Central
Provinces.
[501] Tribes and Castes of Bengal, art. Khatik.
[502] Bombay Gazetteer, Hindus of Gujarat, pp. 55, 56.
[503] Tribes and Castes, art. Khatri.
[504] Bombay Gazetteer, Hindus of Gujarat, p. 55.
[505] Bombay Gazetteer, Hindus of Gujarat, p. 189.
[506] Ibidem, pp. 58, 59.
[507] Hindus of Gujarat, pp. 58, 59.
[508] This article consists mainly of extracts from Mr. F. L. Faridi's
full account of the Khojahs in the Bombay Gazetteer, Muhammadans
of Gujarat.
[509] Kandh is the Uriya spelling, and Kond or Khond that of the
Telugus.
[510] Linguistic Survey of India.
[511] Narsingha means a man-lion and is one of Vishnu's incarnations;
this subsept would seem, therefore, to have been formed since the
Khonds adopted Hinduism.
[512] In Orissa, however, relationship through females is a bar to
marriage, as recorded in Sir H. Risley's article.
[513] Report on the Khonds, p. 56.
[514] Report, p. 59.
[515] Sir H. Risley notes that the elephant represented the
earth-goddess herself, who was here conceived in elephant form. In the
hill tracts of Gumsur she was represented in peacock form, and the post
to which the victim was bound bore the effigy of a peacock. Macpherson
also records that when the Khonds attacked the victim they shouted,
'No sin rests on us; we have bought you with a price.'
[516] Golden Bough, 2nd ed. vol. ii. p. 241 sq.
[517] Pages 517-519. Published 1906.
[518] Journal, A. S. of Bengal, 1898.
[519] Sir G. A. Grierson's Linguistic Survey, Munda and Dravidian
Languages.
[520] This article is compiled principally from a paper by Pandit
Sakharam, Revenue Inspector, Hoshangabad District.
[521] Tod's Rajasthan, vol. ii. p. 327.
[522] Elliott's Hoshangabad Settlement Report, p. 60.
[523] Compiled from papers by Mr. Mulchand, Deputy Inspector of
Schools, Betul; Mr. Shams-ul-Husain, Tahsildar, Sohagpur; Mr. Kalyan
Chand, Manager, Court of Wards, Betul; and Kanhya Lal, clerk in the
Gazetteer Office.
[524] Hoshangabad Settlement Report (1867), p. 60.
[525] History of the Sikhs, p. 15, footnote.
[526] Ibbetson's Census Report (1881), p. 297.
[527] Nagpur Settlement Report, p. 24.
[528] Mr. Lawrence's Bhandara Settlement Report (1867), p. 46.
[529] Bombay Gazetteer, Satara, p. 106.
[530] See article on Kunbi.
[531] Bhandara District Gazetteer, para. 90.
[532] Bhandara Settlement Report.
[533] Ibidem.
[534] Subordinate revenue officer.
[535] Tribes and Castes of Bengal, art. Bhumij.
[536] The Mundas and their Country, p. 400.
[537] Linguistic Survey, Munda and Dravidian Languages, vol. vi. p. 7.
[538] Tribes and Castes of Bengal, art. Munda.
[539] Tribes and Castes of Bengal, p. 15.
[540] Introduction to The Mundas and their Country, p. 9.
[541] Introduction to The Mundas and their Country, p. 9.
[542] Garha is six miles from Jubbulpore.
[543] The Mundas and their Country, p. 124.
[544] Rasmala, i. p. 113.
[545] Two baskets slung from a stick across the shoulders.
[546] Dalton, Ethnology of Bengal, p. 166.
[547] Dalton, p. 152.
[548] November, January and February.
[549] Tribes and Castes, art. Munda.
[550] Thuiya, Bhuiya is a mere jingle.
[551] J.A.S.B., No. 1 of 1903, p. 31.
[552] Dalton, ibidem.
[553] Mr. B. C. Mazumdar's Monograph.
[554] Roy, ibidem, p. 428.
[555] The Mundas and their Country, p. 121.
[556] Linguistic Survey, vol. iv., Munda and Dravidian Languages,
p. 27.
[557] This article includes some extracts from notes made by Colonel
Mackenzie when Commissioner of Berar, and subsequently published in
the Pioneer newspaper; and information collected for the District
Gazetteers in Yeotmal and Wardha.
[558] Papers relating to the Aboriginal Tribes of the Central
Provinces, p. 10.
[559] Ibidem, Editor's Note.
[560] Linguistic Survey, vol. iv., Munda and Dravidian Languages,
p. 561.
[561] India Census Report (1901), p. 287.
[562] Hunter's Imperial Gazetteer, art. Kolamallai hills.
[563] Based partly on papers by Mr. Bihari Lal, Naib-Tahsildar,
Bilaspur, and Mr. Aduram Chaudhri of the Gazetteer Office.
[564] For further information the articles on Sansia and Beria may
be consulted.
[565] Andropagon Schoenanthus.
[566] Gunthorpe, loc. cit.
[567] Ibidem, p. 49.
[568] Kitts, loc. cit.
[569] Ind. Ant. iii. p. 185, Satara Gazetteer, p. 119.
[570] Lyall's Berar Gazetteer, pp. 103-5.
[571] Kathiawar Gazetteer, p. 140.
[572] Crooke's edition of Hobson-Jobson, art. Koli.
[573] Bombay City Census Report (1901) (Edwards).
[574] Gujarat Gazetteer, p. 238.
[575] Golden Book of India, s.v.
[576] Semecarpus anacardium, the marking-nut tree.
[577] Kitts, Berar Census Report (1881), p. 131.
[578] Akola Gazetteer (Mr. C. Brown), p. 116.
[579] P. 197.
[580] Hindus of Gujarat, l.c.
[581] Indian Antiquary, vol. iii. p. 236.
[582] Bombay Gazetteer, Hindus of Gujarat, p. 250.
[583] Indian Antiquary, vol. iii. p. 236.
[584] This article is largely compiled from an interesting paper
submitted by Mr. Parmanand Tiwari, Extra Assistant Commissioner and
Assistant Settlement Officer, Sambalpur.
[585] Phaseolus mungo.
[586] Madras Census Report (1901), p. 162.
[587] Mysore Ethnographic Survey, Komati caste (H. V. Nanjundayya).
[588] H. V. Nanjundayya, loc. cit.
[589] H. V. Nanjundayya, loc. cit.
[590] Tribes and Castes of the North-West Provinces, iii. 316.
[591] This article is largely based on a monograph contributed by
Mr. H. R. Crosthwaite, Assistant Commissioner, Hoshangabad, and
contains also extracts from a monograph by Mr. Ganga Prasad Khatri,
Forest Divisional Officer, Betul, and from the description of the
Korkus given by Mr. (Sir Charles) Elliott in the Hoshangabad Settlement
Report (1867), and by Major Forsyth in the Nimar Settlement Report
(1868-69).
[592] Risley's Tribes and Castes of Bengal, Appendix V.: Korwa.
[593] See also art. Kol.
[594] The local term for the god Siva.
[595] Bauhinia Vahlii.
[596] Bassia latifolia, Buchanania latifolia, Gmelina arborea and
Sterculia urens.
[597] Nearly 3 1/2 tons.
[598] Paspalum scrobiculatum, Panicum psilopodium, Coix Lachryma,
Eleusine coracana, Saccharum officianarum, Setaria italica, Oryza
sativa.
[599] Eugenia jambolana.
[600] Makyatotha, Jondhratotha, Dharsiima, Changri, Lobo, Khambi,
Dagde, Kullya, Bursuma and Killibhasam.
[601] Zizyphus jujuba.
[602] The tiger-god.
[603] The above passage is taken from Mr. (Sir Charles) Elliott's
Hoshangabad Settlement Report written in 1867. Since that time the
belief in the magical powers of the Bhumka has somewhat declined.
[604] A small measure for grain.
[605] Most of the information in this paragraph is taken from Mr. Ganga
Prasad Khatri's Report.
[606] Boswellia serrata.
[607] This article is based on Colonel Dalton's account of the tribe
and on notes by Mr. N. T. Kunte, Jailor, Sarguja, and Mr. Narbad
Dhanu Sao, Assistant Manager, Uprora.
[608] Ethnology of Bengal, p. 221.
[609] Shorea robusta.
[610] Dalton, loc. cit. p. 229.
[611] Ethnology of Bengal, p. 228.
[612] Ethnology of Bengal, pp. 228, 229.
[613] Bauhinia Vahlii.
[614] Believed to be some kind of vulture.
[615] This article is based on a good paper by Mr. Raghunath Waman
Vaidya, schoolmaster, Hinganghat, and others by Mr. M. E. Hardas,
Tahsildar, Umrer, and Messrs. Aduram Chaudhri and Pyare Lal Misra of
the Gazetteer Office.
[616] V. Nanjundayya, Monograph on the Sale Caste (Mysore
Ethnographical Survey).
[617] With this may be compared the tradition of the sweeper caste
that winnowing fans and sieves were first made out of bones and sinews.
[618] Kitts, Berar Census Report (1881), p. 127.
[619] Bauhinia Rusa.
[620] Sir H. Risley's Tribes and Castes of Bengal, art. Tanti.
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